TriGirl

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

Back to the OP -- the gamble is to determine when "midnight" is. Are we talking South Africa time, or the last place on earth to cross over into 2025?

That's a bit of a stretch to come to that conclusion from the data provided. Just because the market share has dropped doesn't mean the number of viewers has stayed the same (and they all just went to another channel). More likely that a lot of us watched a lot of the shows for information from the candidates as the different platforms covered the public appearances. Now that the election is over, I would conclude that the people still watching as much FOX as they did before the election is skewing the percentages, since they're still getting the dopamine hit from the continuous victory laps and hate rhetoric toward the other party, which fuels more desire to keep watching. The rest of us are just decompressing and moving on to the holidays. But that's just my take on the data. I'm not hearing whining on this side, just some self-reflection on the messaging during the campaign and concern over the unqualified nominees to the cabinet. YMMV (obviously).

Kirk was definitely my go-to coach for the numerous times I had to get current. Questionable sense of humor, though not if you asked him! The funnier he found one of his own jokes, the more snorts you'd get out of his laughing (I did hear a three-snort laugh once!). After I learned of his death, he came up in conversation with someone I had only just met. I told her the funny story about how no one ever knows until later that they dated Kirk Knight. She got quiet for a minute, then realized she had dated him as well (she wouldn't have realized it had I not connected the dots for her). Kirk was the reason I was a decent skydiver, am a pretty good judge, and am also an ambassador for the Museum/Hall of Fame -- and I'm just one person. I know there are dozens (if not hundreds) of people who could say the same about how Kirk helped them. He is still missed. Fucci -- thanks for being there for Kirk, especially at the end (whether he wanted it or not). You were both great teammates. --T Bone

I like this one!

Seems like a good place to pose this question: Please post your favorite nicknames for the president elect. We have Mango Mussalini, Sweet Potato Hitler, etc. Mine is Tangerine Palpatine.

My concern about Hegseth's idea is that he says the "choose your own" healthcare provider, funded by the VA, for only service-related injuries/health problems. There is your hidden issue: what gets determined to be "service-related." A friend of mine has what his VA doctor described as "paratrooper knees" after many years jumping round canopies while carrying radio equipment (active duty). However, he has never been able to get his broken-down knees categorized as "service-related" for his disability claim. The doc claims they can't prove it was caused by his airborne time in the service. [smh] It's this kind of nonsense that we'll hear about incessantly if the VA goes to the type of medical care option Hegseth is proposing, and we'll be back to veterans suffering.

Yep, ^^^ this. He actually paid the taxes, with penalties. Yes, they were very late, but they were paid. Also, he didn't use the firearm in commission of a crime. That is really the only time the "illegal acquisition" law is enforced/prosecuted (as I understand it). Hunter was not charged with any crimes for his alleged "selling" of access to his father. However, since the cases filed against him had not been fully adjudicated, there was no sentence to commute. Granting a blanket pardon keeps Hunter safe from any petty misstep the next administration could have tried to exploit to the same level as the tax and gun charges have been -- way over the top for the actions, especially considering the outcomes.

It was really interesting to see the recent spate of news about the opposition making gains in Syria last week. Amazing to hear the news about Assad. It's easy to celebrate these milestones (and we should), but we should still be very concerned about what's next. ISIS could decide to make a power play, the forces in power could totally fail to deliver public services, or someone else could simply step up with his own brand of authoritarianism as just a different kind of "bad" for Syria. I'm not sure we should be a part of the re-building of institutions and democracy, considering our penchant for "getting ahead of our skis" when we start out trying to do the right thing. But I certainly think we should support our allies stepping in to assist in the process. The earlier a new government can get off the ground, the better the whole region will be.

I would entertain more requests for personal emails from many of you. Please PM me before the site shuts down! Tanya ETA -- Thanks, Sangrio. It's been great!

We were spelling out the repercussions to Turkey way back when I was a diplomat there, when Turkey was just considering whether to purchase the S-400s. At the same time they welcomed the U.S. Patriot battery on loan to help guard against attacks from Syria. We tried to warn them, but they had to ... "find out."

And his head of Blue Origin had a meeting with Trump later in the day. Bezos said it was a coincidence, that he didn't know the meeting was scheduled. Really? Is that how you keep up with the business you own, by not having any idea that they're meeting with a former president and presidential candidate? At least that meeting definitely should have been on his radar.

Trump and Vance saying they didn't hear the remarks, yet campaign officials reportedly nixed other jokes from Hinchcliffe's planned set. So, Trump doesn't have anyone telling him (or Vance) about what happens on stage before he is set to go on? Not to mention, this guy's set wasn't the only disgusting, despicable and (yes, I'll say it) deplorable crap that was spewed. Tucker Carlson referred to Harris's "pimps," and another guy actually called her the C-word. I have no more words.

Hey, Jerry, We had a state (or two) recently ratify it, so we have enough. I have heard some argue that there was a time limit on ratification, so we would need to start over getting the states to agree to it. Technically this administration can just declare the win and it gets added to the Constitution (according to legal pundits I have heard on several chat shows/ podcasts). I also am not an expert by any stretch, but I listen to experts. Not sure why the current administration has not done so yet. Tanya

Exactly right. It protects the government from infringing on your rights. Women recently lost some of that protection. The exact reason the first 10 amendments are literally called the Bill of Rights.