wolfriverjoe

Because Trump still has fairly high approval ratings from the R base. Those 'simple farmers, the people of the land, the common clay of the new west. You know... Morons.' Any R that openly opposes Trump will face serious difficulties in the primaries. I'm hoping that anyone who supports Trump will face difficulties during the mid-terms. There have been indications that will be the case. But that is yet to be seen. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Don't bet on it. They, like their hero, have a very obvious and blatant double standard. When the 'other guy' does anything remotely resembling impropriety, it's "LOCK HER UP!!!" When their guy does it, it's "Fake News", or "you don't understand why he did it" or it just gets ignored. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

I'm not a big Nike fan. I haven't owned a pair of their shoes in a long time, and never owned any of their other branded stuff. Something like half of the cost of any of their merchandise goes to paying for the celebrity endorsements. There's stuff that's just as good for far less that doesn't have the cachet of "The Swoosh". But I agree completely with their support of Kaepernick. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

First off, you can make your own account. There are alternatives, depending. Some DZs will allow those 16 and over to jump. Some places will take even younger on a tandem. There's a lot of debate and discussion about this that I won't go into. You can get tunnel time. None of those are cheap, you may have to travel some to do them. Which brings up another issue: Money. This is not a cheap sport. It burns money very fast. If you don't have a good job (or a really generous benefactor), it becomes a problem. Or you could become a full time packer, live in a tent on the DZ and eat Ramen a lot. Patience is hard and it takes practice. My suggestion would be to get a job and start saving. Practice your patience. You will need it jumping too. I just spent a 3 day holiday weekend on the ground due to weather. Not what I would have chosen, but that's what happens sometimes. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Which veterans? Going to guess it's the POW/MIA crowd. It certainly isn't all, most, or even 'many' of them. That crowd had some good arguments, and it was horribly botched by the government. But for some reason, every 'discoverer' or 'source' of living POWs in Viet Nam turned out to be a con artist. Every legit search came up empty. McCains support of keeping the 'exit interviews' under wraps was perfectly reasonable. But not to those fools. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

His daughter at the memorial today: "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Soooo... Well over a year since it was first broadcast, and now it's an issue? And how in the world does someone 'fudge' an interview like this? I understand 'selective editing' can be a issue, but there's no indication of that. And when was Lester Holt 'caught'? But, of course, the Trumpettes will now repeat that the interview was fake, Trump never admitted that he fired Comey over the Russia investigation and that NBC was actually caught doing something other than telling the truth. Trump definitely knows how to work the fools. Damned good con man. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

And a paragraph below what he posted: So it was litigated, a solution found and denials decreased... Until the Mango Mussolini and his xenophobic policies. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Way too much common sense for this forum. However, I understand your thinking and I agree with your post. The point isn't whether a government agency should or should not be more or less centrally located, or rent or own their building. That's all fine, and government policy for its facilities can be discussed elsewhere. The point is that there's a big conflict of interest if a government employee who owns a hotel across from a major government building, is in any way involved in the process of deciding where that agency will be located in the future. #1 - There was already a plan in place to move FBI HQ out to the suburbs. Trump wants to change that plan. As was noted, he doesn't do this sort of thing without some significant personal interest. #2 - He wants to keep it a secret. Why? Why keep it secret unless he has something to hide? But of course, the Trumpettes see nothing wrong with it. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Well, in the first case, if you use your own copy machine and do all the work yourself, then yes, it's likely legal. Or at least low profile enough not to matter. However, that's pretty similar to burning your own CDs or DVDs. And if you cross an international border with 'homemade' copies of copyrighted material, customs can and will seize it. In the second case, it would be a business, who would be making money copying and selling other people's designs. Flat out piracy & counterfeiting. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

The mental image of 'some sort of uniform' is rather amusing. However, I've been part of a couple club DZs where the long time members had club jackets. Reasonably decent nylon jackets with the DZ name & logo on the back, person's name and club position (president, S & TA, 'Head Troublemaker', ect) on the left chest. Several of those folks had jump & FF time pins right above the name. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

I think Quarmarian and his 'Little Project' are a good example of why we aren't seeing more of this. I really admire his persistence, skill set and effort. But he's been at this for a long, long, long time. One of the things that his thread has clearly demonstrated is that making a canopy is not a 'weekend project.' As a slight sidenote to how complex wingsuits can be, I have seen a wingsuit that was made by Chris from Freefall Suits (remember that debacle?). While the seams & stitching were done well, the suit wasn't. The left & right side weren't even. The suit wasn't even close to symmetrical. I don't think the purchaser ever tried to fly it. I don't think it would have worked well. A friend ended up (finally) getting the suit he ordered. While it appeared to be ok, there was a significant built in turn in freefall. Something was/is off. There's a lot more to building suits, wingsuits and canopies than just cutting out fabric and sewing it together. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Seriously? "printing a copy of it, and you're just paying for their labor" isn't 'selling copies'? I won't disagree that it happens. In fact, on a car forum I'm part of, there's a guy who is getting a file to 3D print a small interior part (window switch blank off plate). It's no longer available from the maker and used ones are scarce. He will likely be making a bunch of them and selling them. There will likely be no consequences from the maker because they don't really care about 50 or so of these pieces being copied. But that doesn't change the fact that he is technically making counterfeit parts. And if the maker decided to go after him, he would be in the wrong. No kidding. It's called 'marketing.' I've heard that something like half the cost of a pair of Nike shoes goes for all the endorsements/advertising/marketing. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering#Legality "In the United States even if an artifact or process is protected by trade secrets, reverse-engineering the artifact or process is often lawful as long as it has been legitimately obtained." I don't think that covers making copies. For example, it would be perfectly legal to buy and take apart something (say a wingsuit) to establish how it is assembled and designed. Making and selling copies of that, however, would not be 'reverse engineering', it would be counterfeiting. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Who does? Lots of people seem to. She has a fair amount of support. It's a bit disturbing when an extortionist porn star has more credibility and support (in certain circles) than a sitting President. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Well, technically it would be extorting money from a presidential candidate. But he didn't see it as extortion, he said it was totally above board on both sides. So what is there for anyone to be upset about? Ha, I was considering saying "Presidential Candidate" but "President" sounded better and besides, I think it kicked in after he was elected so it seems more appropriate to the idea of her biting off more than she could chew that "Candidate" turned into "President". I wish her the best but I think she was foolish to think this would be a quick money grab and splash of free publicity. Well, it came out after the election, but the actual approach, agreement & payoff came about while he was still a candidate (hence the 'campaign finance violation' charges). I'm gonna guess that, just like most of us, she didn't think he was actually going to win. She may well have underestimated how vicious and ruthless he is. The claimed death threats by Trump goons (or maybe Cohen goons, which amounts to the same thing) are a good example of that. And I think that she felt (correctly, IMO) that going public with it wouldn't have mattered a bit. The Trumpettes would have celebrated the fact that he banged a porn star, rather than condemn him for cheating on his wife. So milking it for some cash was likely her best option, or at least seemed that way at the time. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

It are, and it's picking up again now that more people are bailing out of Facebook mh . Yeah, the censoring on Facebook has gotten ridiculous from what I've heard. They're going off the deep end. Censoring and shadowbanning have been happening on Twitter as well. However, the social media app GetonGab.ai has been growing by 10K members a day, and they tout themselves as a free speech site. I'm on Twitter, but will be checking Gab out soon. What 'censoring' is that? I always see posts that show some sort of 'patriotic' picture, claiming FB is removing them, but they stay up. I know they are removing a lot of the 'fake news' (really fake shit), but I am unaware of them removing anything that isn't really false or racist/hate based. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Pro-Track in my helmet, mechanical analog on my wrist, two eyeballs in my head. Pro-Track is nice, although my hearing is going to the point that I don't always hear the beep. I use it more for the data logging than anything else. Its nice to be able to see approximations of speeds, mainly high and low. I prefer an analog to look at. I wear an analog watch too. I prefer mechanical, because batteries usually follow Murphy's protocols. But most of all, I use my eyes. I know how 'big' the ground and stuff on it looks at various altitudes. I can't call it to less than a hundred feet, but within 300 or 400 is not difficult. I can't see my wrist when I'm tracking, so I use a combination of time and sight picture and audible to figure out when to flare up out of my track and pull. Also, both the audible and the wrist alti can fail (Haven't yet, but Murphy is always along for the jump). Knowing what breakoff and pull altitudes look like is a good thing in that sort of case. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Simple. The length of the line is the single easiest way to identify a line group. A's being the shortest to D's being the longest. Colours are irrelevant. ^This. If you want to do something more obvious for a class, or for practice packing, threads or yarn tied around the attachment points would work. If it was me, I'd only do one side. Have them flake the 'tagged' side, then go over and flake the 'untagged' side. Do that a few times and they should be able to see the groups without needing the tags. But I will agree that tagging each line group isn't needed. Just have them look at the knots. Presuming a 9 cell, there should be 4 groups of 4 knots at different heights. Those are your line groups. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Apparently, I was wrong about this. The first one is not on the BOD any more. The second one I thought was a Lodi regular was not. Sorry about that. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

I'm not sure I'm reading this correctly. On the one hand, you are saying that USPA should have been watching the revoked I/E more closely, and scrutinizing the new TI applications that came from the revoked I/E's home DZ. OTOH, you seem to be also saying that Bill shouldn't have any responsibility for allowing a revoked I/E to hold classes at his DZ, and for hiring (at least) one of those TIs, who held no USPA licenses or ratings, nor did he hold a manufacturer's rating. Really? As a slight aside, I find it rather 'interesting' that there are at least 2 USPA exec board members who call Lodi their home DZ, yet the revoked I/E was able to train something like 140 TIs there. I'm just an 'every other weekend fun jumper', yet I know when courses are being held and who the I/E is for coach, AFFI & TI classes at my DZ. Did they not know the classes were being held? Did they not hear the name of the I/E? Or was it something they just didn't worry about? "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

An elderly man goes into his doctors office for an annual physical. After a while, the doctor comes out and says, "I'm sorry Bill, but we have discovered you have a condition which only allows you another 6 weeks to live." "But Doctor," Bill replied, "I feel great. I haven't felt better in years. This just can't be true. Isn't there anything I can do?" After a moment the doctor said, "Well, you might start going down the street to that new health spa and take a mud bath every day." Excitedly Bill asked, "And that will cure me?" "No," replied the doctor, "but it will get you used to the dirt." "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

It's a lot more than a 'gimmick.' It's a damned clever idea and a good way to hold the folded canopy in place. I saw one for the first time back at SDC Summerfest. I watched a very experienced woman pack a brand new canopy with next to no difficulty. It may well be a 'crutch' for new jumpers to pack 'not brand new' canopies, but it does no harm and if it helps them learn, I'm all for it. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Oh, man. That is awesome!!!! I don't need or want one, but I would think that every TI with both a sense of humor and a sense of the absurd would. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

They want to 'conserve' their way of life. They aren't willing to change, regardless of how much damage they will do to 'the future'. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo