TriGirl

I'm more concerned about her DHS access badge. And why did she need to carry around her passport?

islands

I tried to tell my father why I did not appreciate working for DoD under this secretary (he was surprised when I didn't gleefully agree with him that Hegseth was a great SecDef). I told him Hegseth was woefully unqualified for the position. Looks like Secretary Kegstand is proving me right time and again.

Hey, Wendy, On my mother's side I qualify to join Daughters of the American Revolution. On my father's side, I'm second generation born in the U.S. My father's parents may not have been U.S. citizens at all, though they moved down from Canada and my grandfather worked for the auto industry for most of his adult life once he came to the U.S. (started out in Ukraine, then Austria then Canada). Funny enough, my mother's side is quite liberal, while my father's siblings and the cousins on that side are following the current version of the GOP (whether or not MAGA, at least supporting it).

I volunteer to serve as foreign affairs. :)

IRL

Hey, Nigel, I have been a fan of Buttigieg since I first heard him speak when he was seeking the nomination for president. He never disappoints. He can get his talking points across while having an ACTUAL, on-the-fly conversation. He can back up his stance and can respond to follow-up questions -- all because he KNOWS what he's talking about. I really wanted to see a Harris-Buttigieg ticket on the D side in 2016. Of course, too many voters in my country are still too backward to vote for a woman of color AND an openly gay guy (Buttigieg needed some federal-level experience before jumping to the top of a ticket, IMHO). I would like to see him as Secretary of State in a future administration. I can't wait to see what else he does. Tanya

Literature

For example, the color line that is terminating every female or non-white person from senior levels of command in the US military, and replacing them with white males. Let's compare the resumes of General CQ Brown and Lt Gen Cain. dogyks, please do so, and let me know which one seems more qualified to be CJCS. Or even why Brown does not meet the mark if Cain is qualified.

Curious: If we're trying to shrink the budget/debt so much, why did the Republican congress pass a draft budget with a $5 TRILLION increase in the debt ceiling?

A few thoughts: 1 -- So, these plans, as they are being executed, are not classified. But commercial flights that have already been completed ARE classified? Yeah, that makes sense. [/s] 2 -- One of the guys on the chat was IN RUSSIA at the time. Signal may be end-to-end encrypted, but your personal phone is not. Anything you send/receive/read on your device has been intercepted when on another country's network (which is what is used when in said other country). 3 -- Mike Waltz tried to claim the journalist hacked into the conversation. So, basically, he just admitted that the chat is not secure, even within the U.S.? Kind of confirms item 2 above, no? 4 -- Israel is PISSED that one of their human sources was compromised in this careless manner. Good luck getting that person to cooperate with Israel again!

Jackie Robinson's profile page has had "DEI" added to its address on the DoD historical website. Incredibly disrespectful.

I saw the heat graph on Bluesky that shows the incidents of measles over time, in about 30 states. The drop-off after kids started getting vaccinated was like turning off a water hose -- an initial decline and then a near immediate stoppage across the board. That dramatic of a drop is not a correlation it's causation. I haven't yet seen the story, but I heard on my way in to work this morning that Kennedy has had a change of messaging and is going to be encouraging vaccines now -- at least for measles. Looking forward to reading more reporting on it.

Nigel shot me an email letting me know where it moved. Happy to be back!!

I'll never forget chatting with you at Eloy one year, Bill. I was there judging a competition -- can't recall if it was Nationals or Collegiates. Met Mark at a civilian demo my teammates were jumping, then met Andrea with him at Fitz. They were kind enough to put me up for a night another time when I was taking the LSAT at Stetson. Super awesome people. Robert (TheOnlySki) hooked me up with VPNs before they were easily available commercially for my times living abroad. Big thanks to David (Kasch) coming out to Turkey with his spirit of adventure. We did some great scuba diving and I gained some great ideas for where to take my family when they eventually came out as well. If not for COVID, I believe Kasch would have found a way also to explore Papua New Guinea during my last post. Though no longer jumping, I am still judging (and much more available for that since I retired from the Marine Corps), so competitors should keep an eye on the CF judge lists internationally, and both CF and FS/VFS (indoor and outdoor) judge lists within the US. I would love to continue connecting. Also, I plan to get my account going on Bluesky within the month. My profile name likely will be different, but I still connect my actual name to my accounts. Thanks everyone for the political (domestic and international) discourse and for giving me a way to stay even more connected to skydiving when I had to stop. Tanya Murnock