FLEA

Rumors that SECDEF will announce new guidance prohibiting OCONUS leave travel this week. I want to be outraged but I'm honestly not sure it changes anything. Even if you could manage to find a way to get here right now, everything is closed and hotels won't let you make a reservation unless you can prove you have a business purpose. Some countries I work in have curfews as well. I guess what Im really hoping to see is another extension to the SLA benefit from last year. Last year didn't go far enough to protect leave and as I've been unable to travel all year I'm still accrueing leave.

I would consider part time guard. But AD, definitely not. I've seen enough now to recognize the military in NO WAY has you or your family's welfare, anywhere near their list of top priorities. They will absolutely not hesitate to fuck you or your family in 80 different directions to make the mission happen. Thankfully I've been able to shield mine from that. But I have seen some people who's lives were absolutely crushed over some priorities that were not even close to the threshold of what I could consider operational necessity. All legal and backed by a jag. BTW: Spent 2 years corporate as an intern prior to entering the military. It wasn't nearly that bad.

https://www.militarytimes.com/pay-benefits/2021/02/05/fauci-first-lady-military-leaders-urge-dubious-military-families-to-get-the-facts-on-covid-19-vaccine/ Only about half of military families intend to get vaccine.

I don't really care what they thought or didn't think in the 1930s man, that was like 100 years ago haha. They didn't have cluster munitions or land mines back then either. We also dont have any plans to defend territory in Europe. Our plans are built around regaining territory because the areas Russia is interested in are indefensible by NATO. RAND wrote a pretty good paper on it. I'll see if I can find it.

Turns out I'm right. It's a good read but the jist is, AF wants Joint Force to change some pretty key core doctrine to enable more power to the air force. Still, some really good observations made on a very modern use of airpower in a complex 21st century fight.

These rules have been in place for most of EUCOM since March already. The mask thing doesn't bother me. In fact, in winter I grew to like it because it keeps my face warm. What does bother me is being restricted to a 30km radius of my house and not being able to use restaurants, businesses, bars, etc....it's been a really lonely year. Even in the squadron people cannot gather more than 1-2 and hang out.

I'll be excited to read what the AF wanted it to say! 😁

This is absolutely true. Take for instance the current senate. Republicans know Democrats need 10 votes to pass things. They also know they have several seats of members in vulnerable swing states. It's actually good for republicans to help identify those individuals because they know they will be targets for negotiation. Those 10 senators then get the choice to push their own agenda or advocate the agenda of the Republican party. There is some real game theory to how this all happens but the most important take away is they work together to find something that works for most seats. With out the filibuster you get legislation that's good for 51% of Americans. With the filibuster you get legislation that's good for 60% of Americans. (Making a broad generalization that senate seats are representative of population which we know isn't true but you get the point. We get better legislation this way.)

Because all the term filibuster means is a floor vote to end discussion on an issue is required to end debate. You no longer have to read the cook book. Instead, you just vote not to end debate, and then senate tables the discussion and moves on to the next agenda item. Yes, reading a dictionary does ocassionally, rarely happen. But those efforts only amount to delaying legislation for a day or so. When people want to end the filibuster what they are really discussing is ending the senate house rule on requiring a vote to end discussion before bringing an item to vote. This effectively changes the # of votes required to pass legislation from 60 to 51. What your advocating would effectively limit the strength of moderate caucuses in a 2 party system which would allow either party to just slam through controversial legislation without bipartisan support. All this would do is serve to further divide our country by destroying the moderate middle. It's great while your party is in power, but when it's not, youre utterly boned. https://www.vox.com/2015/5/27/18089312/myths-about-the-filibuster

Ok dude, it's clear you don't really understand what a filibuster is.

Whats surprising to me is the stupid inconsistency in all of this. In North Carolina my brother's kids do remote school work but they still meet to do intramural sports/activities. Like WTF? The later, is definitely not essential and should be the first thing cancelled hands down.

There are a couple of good things about the filibuster I'm not sure you've thought of that generally protect rights. 1.) It forces bipartisan cooperation. A majority congress can't throw a bill before congress that is too left or right wing because they will require between at least 1-10 votes from the other party to make it work. 2.) It protects large minorities. Because even if only 41% of people believe a certain way, that is a LOT of people to just discount and trounce on. 3.) It actually improves government efficiency over a long term period because it prevents either party from putting forward bills that would just be turned over the next time they lost the simple majority. 4.) I'm going to assume you know this, but for anyone that's confused, filibuster rarely refers to reading from a dictionary or text book anymore. Since 1970 its largely a procedural rule that just means you need 60 votes to pass legislation besides budgetary bills, confirmations or certain national security priorities. I mean if you want to argue the threshold of 60 votes is too high, that might be valid, but I would be hesitant to throw it out all together. For one, as soon as the party that throws it out loses the majority again, they are going to get hosed. All bets are off at that point.

Amazing how many people are just like "you can just take leave at home where you work all day remote if youre not flying you know?" Like mother fucker really? Go fuck yourself.

Surprising because I heard Everheart speak about the same time and didn't get that vibe at all.

https://www.dawn.com/news/amp/1604695 Fucking called it. Hope everyone is ready for another round of deployments. It's the gift that keeps giving. “Conditions have not been met,” he said, on condition of anonymity, because of the sensitivity of the matter. “And with the new US administration, there will be tweaks in the policy, the sense of hasty withdrawal which was prevalent will be addressed and we could see a much more calculated exit strategy.”

Well if you guys are going out for the reason I think youre going its not the best exposure, especially with COVID. However, hopefully you took some leave so you can see some sights etc... It really was one of my favorite assignments. If I were going to stay in, I would volunteer to go back in a heartbeat.

W-T-F.... Good on the PJs shirt though for calling her out.

You nailed it man. I'm all about serving my country. But when you communicate to me that you do not value me, I don't believe I'm actually contributing any service, because I am not providing any value. Hence, I will leave, and go find a position that either pays better or offers higher quality service. When the AF tells us they don't value us, you are doing exactly what noone wants you to do, you are sticking around for the money (which isn't great). And thats a problem.

https://www.econlib.org/is-there-politics-after-polarization/ Very short read but I think it captures the current predicament well. The quote captured it well.

And to further that comment, you will find the leadership at Osan gives very few fucks about shit like correct uniform match ups. They are very focused on the problem only 50km north. One of the reasons its was the best assignment I ever had.

Some more of his exposition. He was responding to these two questions: Back to my prior post though, a key theme in his responses is this is not a negotiation. You are either going to take the commitment, or you or not. The AF is going to truck on with or without you, but he personally will be sorry to see you go.

I think leaders want to be genuine but the fact is they would round up your children and murder them if it guaranteed air dominance in the 21st century. Sounds wild, I know, but the truth is, the AF (as an organization) gives 0 fucks about your family. They don't care if they are happy, sad, accompanied, non-accompanied, working, not working, alive, dead, etc... Here's the thing, they've written hundreds of books on negotiation, and found out they didnt work well for government employees working with international partners/etc.... The reason why was because the fundamentals of government negotiation are different than business. In business, you can walk away. In government, you often work in a "no-fail" environment where walking away isn't an option. The USAF can't just pack up our junk and leave Korea because the Koreans won't give us more airspace to train in. Etc... The same thought process works with the compensation/pilot bonus/morale/retention/etc... the Air Force believes they have a "no-fail" mission. They will literally throw lines of people into cockpits to crash planes just to guarantee the mission. They have 0 fucks. Maj Craig Wells as a person may care about you and your family, but as an AF officer, he gives 0 fucks and he will not hesitate to fuck you six ways from Sunday to guarantee mission success, even if it drags your spouse and child under too. In this case, I'm sure they'd give you more money to stay if they could. But I think he is hinting that congress isn't going to bite in an environment where they are passing laws to keep airlines afloat. So they're going to give you what they can, and if you choose the door, your choice. In the mean time, they will fuck whoever they need to that stays to make sure the mission still happens. Once you realize this, you can really make the decision whether you want to stay or not.

I dont know what charts you're talking about but I live in Europe and weather you have the shot or not, life here is going to suck. Lockdown is extremely strict here, and has been for several months. The only reason I'm contemplating the shot is because they are starting to talk vaccine passports now and I could potentially be on board with that. But I would be concerned that you can only get the passport if dose is administered as prescribed. Ill just wait the 10 weeks and then I can get both doses as I'm supposed to.

Anyone have any science on what the maximum time between doses is to get a decent result? I was offered the vaccine but will have to wait at least 10 weeks to get dose #2. Seems hokey to me.

In any case, I think its a pretty fair warning that the bonus is going to be significantly lower than expected, or the options will be very limited. I was already 95% set on getting out, so really this doesn't effect me much.