The Congressman is back yo

[SFG]

6 hours ago, Bender said:

Oh, and forget an increased bonus...

The AF is not going to end their shortage by 2023 like they are planning.

Watched the 12 March hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Military Personnel, and Congress ate up the testimony of the guy that said bigger bonuses won’t help (Mr. Todd Harrison, CSIS). He said that he thinks paying military members more would cheapen their service. The subcommittee loved it. One congresswoman even piggy-backed to say that in her 20 years in the service she never heard any of her peers complain about pay. Mr. Harrison also cherry-picked some stats to argue that increasing the bonus had zero affect on retention. Congress ooh’ed and ah’ed. “Wow! That’s eye-opening!”

His recommendation? More or less, “We shouldn’t do anything until we do more surveys to find out why troops are really leaving and mine that data.”

To the credit of the representative from RAND, she vigorously argued that the data we already have showed bonuses do work, but it is simply not high enough to have the desired effect. She was largely dismissed.

Edited March 13, 2019 by Klepto

[pawnman]

8 hours ago, Klepto said:

The AF is not going to end their shortage by 2023 like they are planning.

Watched the 12 March hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Military Personnel, and Congress ate up the testimony of the guy that said bigger bonuses won’t help (Mr. Todd Harrison, CSIS). He said that he thinks paying military members more would cheapen their service. The subcommittee loved it. One congresswoman even piggy-backed to say that in her 20 years in the service she never heard any of her peers complain about pay. Mr. Harrison also cherry-picked some stats to argue that increasing the bonus had zero affect on retention. Congress ooh’ed and ah’ed. “Wow! That’s eye-opening!”

His recommendation? More or less, “We shouldn’t do anything until we do more surveys to find out why troops are really leaving and mine that data.”

To the credit of the representative from RAND, she vigorously argued that the data we already have showed bonuses do work, but it is simply not high enough to have the desired effect. She was largely dismissed.

Well, if they do more surveys, now is the chance to say that bonuses do in fact work.  Because some of this was self-inflicted when so many aviators said "it isn't about the money" as they left for an airline gig in order to make more money.

[Lord Ratner]

Well, if they do more surveys, now is the chance to say that bonuses do in fact work.  Because some of this was self-inflicted when so many aviators said "it isn't about the money" as they left for an airline gig in order to make more money.

To be fair, I didn't want to leave for the money. Life is just much better. Since the AF can't really match that aspect, money is all they have left.

[gearhog]

 

[MCO]

2 hours ago, torqued said:

 

He has been one of the more vocal republicans the last few days. I thought about him on our board. Glad he is speaking up.

[NUKE]

That clip was refreshing. Bravo

[Bergman]

“Quit hating people you disagree with”.  So damned true.  The last 30 seconds were the best part.

Edited January 11, 2021 by Bergman

[SurelySerious]

Congressman’s family sends certified letter stating he must be possessed by devil for voting for impeachment

 

Seems logical. Hope things don’t escalate further. Solid efforts, though

Kinzinger starts PAC to move party away from Trump

 

Edited February 2, 2021 by SurelySerious

[slackline]

Problem is now people like Greene and Gaetz.  They truly do not care they're destroying any vestige of what was the GOP. You watch, they will burn this mf'r down not realizing the damage they will do to the country. 
 

Romney, Cheney, Kinzinger, et al are eating poo sandwiches because people are still pandering to the whipped up base of ignorant voters Trump duped. 

[HAWDINGL]

Problem is now people like Greene and Gaetz.  They truly do not care they're destroying any vestige of what was the GOP. You watch, they will burn this mf'r down not realizing the damage they will do to the country. 
 
Romney, Cheney, Kinzinger, et al are eating poo sandwiches because people are still pandering to the whipped up base of ignorant voters Trump duped. 

Where in the 75 Million do we draw the line on who is ignorant, and who is not? 40/35? 70/5? 65/10? just curious... I’d also like to see the same analysis done on the “more educated” Liberal voters. There are ignorant people on both sides of the aisle (reference any of the numerous man on the street quizzes).

The Republican Party needs to figure it out though, because the numbers no matter what coalition they come up with: Trump/NeverTrump/Moderate etc might still not be enough to win a national election unless there is a severe decline in voter participation and 2020 was an anomaly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[slackline]

5 minutes ago, HAWDINGL said:

Where in the 75 Million do we draw the line on who is ignorant, and who is not? 40/35? 70/5? 65/10? just curious... I’d also like to see the same analysis done on the “more educated” Liberal voters. There are ignorant people on both sides of the aisle (reference any of the numerous man on the street quizzes).

The Republican Party needs to figure it out though, because the numbers no matter what coalition they come up with: Trump/NeverTrump/Moderate etc might still not be enough to win a national election unless there is a severe decline in voter participation and 2020 was an anomaly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Obviously not all 75m are ignorant. That goes without saying.

[Negatory]

45 minutes ago, HAWDINGL said:

Where in the 75 Million do we draw the line on who is ignorant, and who is not? 40/35? 70/5? 65/10? just curious... I’d also like to see the same analysis done on the “more educated” Liberal voters. There are ignorant people on both sides of the aisle (reference any of the numerous man on the street quizzes).

The Republican Party needs to figure it out though, because the numbers no matter what coalition they come up with: Trump/NeverTrump/Moderate etc might still not be enough to win a national election unless there is a severe decline in voter participation and 2020 was an anomaly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh, this ones easy. I think you draw the line somewhere between the 16% of Americans that think “A group of Satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media” and the 12% that think “Several mass shoutings in recent years were staged hoaxes.”

So you can choose between 39-53 million people. I mean, I get why the Republican Party has a hard time disavowing these people, it’s a lot of idiots!

[jrizzell]

19 minutes ago, Negatory said:

Oh, this ones easy. I think you draw the line somewhere between the 16% of Americans that think “A group of Satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media” and the 12% that think “Several mass shoutings in recent years were staged hoaxes.”

So you can choose between 39-53 million people. I mean, I get why the Republican Party has a hard time disavowing these people, it’s a lot of idiots!

What is the source of this fancy graph; I was never given a chance to participate.  And you just casually throw out that 16% of Americans, or up to 53 million people, belief the "Satan worshipping" line. I'm thinking we're identifying part of the problem with political discourse in our country...

[ThreeHoler]

I think the best thing about QAnon is millions of people have awakened to the face that Stuart Mackenzie was right all those years ago!


Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

[Negatory]

8 hours ago, jrizzell said:

What is the source of this fancy graph; I was never given a chance to participate.  And you just casually throw out that 16% of Americans, or up to 53 million people, belief the "Satan worshipping" line. I'm thinking we're identifying part of the problem with political discourse in our country...

https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/npr-misinformation-123020

https://www.wbur.org/npr/951095644/even-if-its-bonkers-poll-finds-many-believe-qanon-and-other-conspiracy-theories

And that’s called statistics of a representative sample size, brother. It’s not casual and I’m not happy about it, but it is what it is. Legitimately, that many people, plus or minus a few %, are there in their belief system, whether you like it or not.

Maybe THAT’s what’s wrong with political discourse in this country.

[slackline]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/02/02/josh-hawley-has-voted-against-all-biden-cabinet-nominees-so-far-heres-what-that-means/?sh=640e5b6c5bfb

Josh Hawley is such a tool.  Does he fancy himself more knowledgeable than every other GOP elected officials?  It's simple obstructionist behavior for zero reason. I can easily see objecting to some, but all?  Tool...

[MCO]

2 hours ago, Negatory said:

https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/npr-misinformation-123020

https://www.wbur.org/npr/951095644/even-if-its-bonkers-poll-finds-many-believe-qanon-and-other-conspiracy-theories

And that’s called statistics of a representative sample size, brother. It’s not casual and I’m not happy about it, but it is what it is. Legitimately, that many people, plus or minus a few %, are there in their belief system, whether you like it or not.

Maybe THAT’s what’s wrong with political discourse in this country.

There is a reason why it can still be an unknown going into an election the polls are calling one way. Just because it’s theoretically a representative sample size doesn’t mean it is actually representative, even if you do everything right. Too many unknowns in an actual population. Based on my Facebook feed though some of those numbers wouldn’t surprise me even if my gut tells me they are high.

I agree that conspiracy theories and peoples unbelievable ability to believe in them though is for the most part not good for anyone. Present real facts to a conspiracy theory and it’s chalked up to being part of the conspiracy. People have way to much faith in other people’s ability to keep a secret.

[slackline]

2 minutes ago, MCO said:

There is a reason why it can still be an unknown going into an election the polls are calling one way. Just because it’s theoretically a representative sample size doesn’t mean it is actually representative, even if you do everything right. Too many unknowns in an actual population. Based on my Facebook feed though some of those numbers wouldn’t surprise me even if my gut tells me they are high.

I agree that conspiracy theories and peoples unbelievable ability to believe in them though is for the most part not good for anyone. Present real facts to a conspiracy theory and it’s chalked up to being part of the conspiracy. People have way to much faith in other people’s ability to keep a secret.

Can you reword that please?  I'm not sure which side, if any, you're trying to defend/attack.

[Bender]

Can you reword that please?  I'm not sure which side, if any, you're trying to defend/attack.

The disconnect here arises from the notion that a statement/post must either defend or attack a position. Sometimes it’s just a fact, sometimes an opinion, which by nature doesn’t need to always advance or retreat to have value.

The fact that a seemingly large majority of people believe that it does, is part of the problem with political discourse.

We were, in my opinion, a little sideways before...now, oh my, we’re riding down the track backwards. Exciting anyways...

~Bendy


Sent from my iPad using Baseops Network mobile app

[slackline]

11 minutes ago, Bender said:

 

The disconnect here arises from the notion that a statement/post must either defend or attack a position. Sometimes it’s just a fact, sometimes an opinion, which by nature doesn’t need to always advance or retreat to have value.

The fact that a seemingly large majority of people believe that it does, is part of the problem with political discourse.

We were, in my opinion, a little sideways before...now, oh my, we’re riding down the track backwards. Exciting anyways...

~Bendy


Sent from my iPad using Baseops Network mobile app

 

Pretty sure his response was not simply stating a "fact". But YMMV.

[jazzdude]

https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/npr-misinformation-123020
https://www.wbur.org/npr/951095644/even-if-its-bonkers-poll-finds-many-believe-qanon-and-other-conspiracy-theories

And that’s called statistics of a representative sample size, brother. It’s not casual and I’m not happy about it, but it is what it is. Legitimately, that many people, plus or minus a few %, are there in their belief system, whether you like it or not.
Maybe THAT’s what’s wrong with political discourse in this country.

Interesting study. Sample size seems to be reasonable (though the testers are at the mercy of people willing to do the survey, I'm sure a lot of us take the time to do all those AF and DoD surveys when they make their round in email).

My beef with this study is that some of the questions seem pretty biased-they could've done a better job at designing the questions. So that's my concern with their methodology.

For example, "Republican efforts to change the results of the election are damaging the country" probably would have been better as "Undermining the legitimacy of elections damages our country."

The original question biases the respondents into defending their tribe over responding to the underlying question, and creates a barrier to answering the question from a rational/reasoned point of view. Might as well have asked "Are Republicans always better than Democrats?" instead as you'd probably see a pretty similar response breakout.

Though they did bait Democrats with "President Trump worked with Russia to win the 2016 Presidential election" (which the pollsters were looking for false as the correct answer). Interestingly, that last question was dropped from NPR's infographic despite being on the pollsters infographic.

NPR's article also implies QAnon beliefs is an issue for Republicans, where as the pollsters article points to it being a problem across the board, with Republicans being more likely to believe. For example: T/F regarding Satan worshipping elites running the world, only R-14% D-46% I-33% said this was false (correct answer). So yes, it's a big problem for Republicans, but it's also a big problem for Democrats and independents alike. Unfortunately, the to NPR article only states the first half (Republican problem) while leaving out the rest of the story.

[Sua Sponte]

4 hours ago, slackline said:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/02/02/josh-hawley-has-voted-against-all-biden-cabinet-nominees-so-far-heres-what-that-means/?sh=640e5b6c5bfb

Josh Hawley is such a tool.  Does he fancy himself more knowledgeable than every other GOP elected officials?  It's simple obstructionist behavior for zero reason. I can easily see objecting to some, but all?  Tool...

The scary part is him and Tom Cotton were on the short list from Trump to replace RBG on the SCOTUS. Hawley declined, which is one of the reasons he went with Coney Barrett.

[jrizzell]

https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/npr-misinformation-123020
https://www.wbur.org/npr/951095644/even-if-its-bonkers-poll-finds-many-believe-qanon-and-other-conspiracy-theories

And that’s called statistics of a representative sample size, brother. It’s not casual and I’m not happy about it, but it is what it is. Legitimately, that many people, plus or minus a few %, are there in their belief system, whether you like it or not.
Maybe THAT’s what’s wrong with political discourse in this country.

That poll used 1,115 people. If your comfortable saying that they truly represent 330 million Americans, cool post away. We’ve become so fractured in our discourse, that we are looking for the piece of data that will let us dunk on few citizens, so we can prove we’re right. I trying to wrap my head around how we move forward as a United States. Although I didn’t vote for Biden, I had a glimmer of hope that he would try and play a “unifier”. Unfortunately it looks like that ship has sailed.

[nsplayr]

12 hours ago, jazzdude said:

For example: T/F regarding Satan worshipping elites running the world, only R-14% D-46% I-33% said this was false (correct answer). So yes, it's a big problem for Republicans, but it's also a big problem for Democrats and independents alike. Unfortunately, the to NPR article only states the first half (Republican problem) while leaving out the rest of the story.

Q conspiracies are not a problem for the Democratic Party even if some number of Dems respond “Don’t Know” rather than “False.” It’s pretty solidly an R problem in terms of people saying that what Q alleges is true. There are just a lot of politically disengaged people in all parties that don’t know much of anything when asked.

Now chemtrails, Area 51/aliens, who killed JFK, etc., those conspiracy theories cut much more broadly across political lines and mis- and disinformation is a problem everyone has to deal with and try to tamp down wherever they can.

My diagnosis is that for the entirety of human history we went from not having enough access to information and now some rich nations like ours have the opposite problem - you can google your way into having “evidence” for literally anything no matter how crazy.

Edited February 3, 2021 by nsplayr

[nsplayr]

1 hour ago, jrizzell said:

That poll used 1,115 people. If your comfortable saying that they truly represent 330 million Americans, cool post away....(more words)

I’m sorry man but there are more efficient ways to just say, “I don’t understand or believe in statistics.”

You’re right though that selective dunking doesn’t help move the country forward in a positive way, but in this instance I have to beg forgiveness 🍻

Edited February 3, 2021 by nsplayr