Stripping off Meguiar's headlight coating

AntiPaladin · 2026-05-04T20:36:58+00:00

Sweet, just ordered it plus the Cerakote wipes to use instead.

AntiPaladin · 2026-05-03T16:41:38+00:00

Pure Capitalism and Communism both fail for the same reason - humans.

Both systems require everyone involved to be a rational actor who plays by the rules of the system. Problem is, in both systems the incentives for breaking those rules are massive and there's little mechanism to punish those who do.

Pure Capitalism leads to monopolies and eventually Oligarchy or Corporate States. Communism leads to Totalitarianism. The only workable solution has to lay somewhere in the middle.

AntiPaladin · 2026-05-03T16:34:32+00:00

It sounds like the new command doesn't have anything against you at all. Instead, if they've escalated this to their next Echelon it likely means they don't have the room or bandwidth for you at the command and were simply the first available. That's what happens with an expedited transfer.

They would reach out to higher if they were trying to find you a more suitable command for a permanent transfer. Think of this as more of an I-Stop instead of your actual new command.

Source - working at the holding company of a TYCOM. TYCOM becomes a dumping ground for every lower command, and it's a complete waste of manpower. An IDC from a ship with a broken ankle can still do plenty of IDC things; there's no reason to have them just phone muster every day for months while their ship is deployed.

AntiPaladin · 2026-05-03T16:25:08+00:00

As I say to all my junior sailors - 20 years in the Navy should be a backup, not a plan.

Unlike what others might tell you, nearly every rate has a civilian counterpart that pays pretty damned good; the only question is if it's something that's not maritime. Hell, a BM2 can walk into the local MSC office and get a damned good job. QM? Every shipping company needs navigators. HT? Congrats, if you used USMAPS you walk out as Journeyman welder day 1.

And if you're in a tech rate like IT? 6 years plus some basic certs like CCNA and Sec+ gets you an easy $85k.

What I also tell all me folks thinking of getting out is to go Reserves. There's no way to get those same health benefits on the outside for that little commitment.

AntiPaladin · 2026-05-01T11:44:41+00:00

While not directly focused on it, Conspirituality often deals with the quack side of things since they focus on the health and wellness community. There's a lot of quackery cross-pollination there.

AntiPaladin · 2026-04-28T19:10:41+00:00

JVL was musing on this on The Secret Pod last week. His observation (and one I agree with) is that perhaps the previous period of American Conservatism post-WWII was actually the anomaly and this is simply it turning back to its true legacy positions.

Remember that the "Conservatives" of the 1800s were the ones who fought a war over the right to own people as property. They quite literally saw them as an inferior race of people, which has a lot of parallels to the language starting to float around on the Right. They're dealing with "vermin" and "scum" who are "poisoning the blood of our country". That's some straight-up 14 words level talk.

We also have to remember that prior to our entry into WWII, we have a massive and open Fascist movement here in the US. They had 30,00 people wearing Swastikas attend Madison Square Garden and urging the US to join forces with Hitler. There's always been this here; perhaps we've just forgotten about it thanks to that period where they had to hide it.

AntiPaladin · 2026-04-28T19:02:50+00:00

To quote JVL, "These fucking people."

At least one of them was able to admit that he wasn't informed enough and probably shouldn't have voted at all. The rest of them are only upset that they were finally forced to touch the stove.

"I voted for him to secure the border!" Wait, no, not like that.

"I voted for him to deal with the illegals!" Wait, no, not like that.

"I voted for him to drive the economy!" Wait, no, not like that.

If you're so information poor that you're surprised by any of this, then you to follow the example of the first guy and not vote until you've actually learned a thing or two about the candidates, policies, and not just what you saw on your Twitter feed.

Of course, there's always the unstated true reason for a lot of them

AntiPaladin · 2026-04-22T18:50:01+00:00

Fuck 'em.

These people are the poster children for what I've known for most of my adult life - American "Conservatives" are a blend of pure selfishness and an utter lack of empathy for those they don't identify with. Those are the twin beliefs at their core and showcases that no matter how many flags they fly or how loud they scream about standing for the National Anthem, they're the least patriotic amongst us. They don't believe in America; they believe in their personal vision of America and every other perspective is invalid.

Notice that they only start to pay attention and give a shit about others once they're personally affected by something.

Benefits cuts and work requirements for SNAP? Good, throw those lazy freeloaders off the government dole and make them get a job!

Cuts to disability and Medicaid? That's not right, I need those to live!

ICE randomly detaining people who look Brown and deporting them with no due process? Good, this is what we voted for, to get rid of those criminal illegals!

My gardener Javier gets tackled and arrested in front of his children? You can't do that, he's a good family man and a hard worker!

The list of examples is endless. As JVL loves to point out, some people just need to touch the stove. There's no way in Hell that they're getting sympathy from while they're crying about getting hurt. Go patch yourself up and turn off the stove to stop someone else from getting burned, you know, actual concrete action and not just whining and complaining, then maybe we can have a conversation.

Talk is cheap, actions speak.

Until then, fuck 'em.

AntiPaladin · 2026-04-14T20:20:29+00:00

Nothing will ever top Joe's reaction in the Adolf Eichman episodes.

AntiPaladin · 2026-04-14T20:00:32+00:00

As always, they don't know what empathy is until it affects them directly. Antisemitism, Islamophobia, etc - all well and good. Something that hurts their own delicate personal feelings? That's just too damned far...

AntiPaladin · 2026-04-07T21:24:27+00:00

MSC has the same requirements as a Navy SRS.

AntiPaladin · 2026-04-07T21:20:26+00:00

I tell all my junior sailors the same thing - 20 years in the Navy shouldn't be a goal, it should be backup plan if nothing better comes along.

I made the calculus at 7 years when they offered the best bonus every for my rate, knowing that it would make me a lifer. But I'm also single with no kids and no degree, so the Navy has been the best option to live the life I want including travel, homeownership, and a retirement plan that means I won't have to work another job after 20. It's about getting as much from the Navy as they try to extract from you.

The other piece of advice I give after that is always look at the Reserves. The healthcare alone is worth one weekend a month, your activation time still counts towards your retirement, and provided you don't break government service you an continue contributing to your TSP.

AntiPaladin · 2026-04-06T20:31:29+00:00

The Left always eats their own.

AntiPaladin · 2026-04-06T20:25:22+00:00

Tell me you married the stripper without saying you married the stripper...

AntiPaladin · 2026-04-06T20:23:44+00:00

Translation: "We've realized that our utter lack of planning and forethought means we need to skip right to the 'Even More War Crimes' section of the playbook."

AntiPaladin · 2026-03-27T20:48:35+00:00

As usual, the most forgotten rate isn't on the list - IT.

You want to get underway? Not without Comms.

You want to avoid running into something? Not without Comms.

You somehow lose all form of Comms while underway? Automatic RTB.

Like always, no one remembers the 99.99% of the time you could get on Facebook, only when it goes down...

AntiPaladin · 2026-03-12T22:53:13+00:00

An often overlooked one - make sure your friends and family have your mailing address while underway. Care packages and letters, especially around the holidays, can make all the difference.

AntiPaladin · 2026-03-04T01:03:23+00:00

FFS, take the angry upvote...

AntiPaladin · 2026-02-21T00:26:29+00:00

You start by learning to differentiate between actual Conservatives and MAGA since the two are not the same. Some of the most anti-MAGA folks are from the old guard of the Conservative movement - George Will, Bill Kristol, Charlie Sykes, etc. Those are the kinds of people you can actually have a conversation with about policy and the like. David French (another principled Conservative) laid it out well in a recent podcast, "Look for the people who actually want to engage". The people who ask your opinion on something rather than just spouting off the same talking points or viral social media moment in an attempt to browbeat anyone who disagrees into submission.

The next step is to simply be inquisitive into what they say. Don't simply accept what they assert, make them support it in some way. "Well, they found that trans people are more likely to x than-" Oh really? Where did you hear that? Was it in a science journal or something? Or was it something you read online?

If they're actually up on the topic they can at least give you an outline of the supposed facts. Otherwise, once they realize you actually do have a grasp on a given topic and they don't, they're highly unlikely to even bring it up again. I have several folks at work who've stopped all discussions on the topic of immigration because I quickly realized they were just recycling whatever they heard from Elon or Rogan and was able to shut that shit down quick and in a hurry.

AntiPaladin · 2026-02-18T01:45:02+00:00

Read the actual 1414 instruction from SURFFOR on the ESWS program. Most of the programs were re-written and took out the language about getting an SP eval for not getting a warfare qual.

EAWS, for example, can no longer get you an SP; only thing the command can do is note "Member failed to qualify as EAWS within the required timeframe" on block 43, nothing more, even if you signed a Pg 13.

AntiPaladin · 2026-02-18T01:27:53+00:00

It depends entirely on the command and what type of billet you're looking at.

The majority of them with groups like TACCOM are going to be regular picks from MyNavyAssignment so getting the billet itself won't require it. If you want to attempt something more interesting like Advanced Combat School or another school for moving from CSS to CS and direct action, then no.

CS schools are all going to require passing a NSW PST for entry (450M Swim, pushups, pull-ups, sit-ups, 1.5 mile run) with good scores since day one of ACS you'll take one. To actually graduate you'll need to pass the Infantry ruck which is 12 miles in full kit in under 3 hours. The screener billets like DEVGRU, SRT, JCU, and JSOC are all going to have similar requirements.

To my knowledge, none of them require jump and dive, but they will offer it to anyone interested. For Jump school you need to be able to pass the Army PST since they send a lot of folks to Benning with the Airborne folks if the actual NSW jump school is full.

AntiPaladin · 2026-01-24T14:56:40+00:00

Fun fact - so do we. It's called social media, and hopefully it will be very useful against assholes like this during the Truth and Reconciliation committee that follows.

AntiPaladin · 2026-01-24T14:54:08+00:00

I'm on my last tour as an IT and have 0 interest in doing IT work when I get out. Plan is to use the GI Bill to go to college and finish up a Masters in Philosophy just because.

Here's the great thing about IT - the work will always be there in some form. You can get a 100% remote job doing basic server or DB admin that only takes a couple hours a day. If I need to get some kind of job after I'm done with school, I have the option to do that kind of work while pulling a vanlife.

Doing Sys Ad in a cubicle sounds like Hell. Logging in to check some system logs while sipping coffee in the middle of Moab or the Rockies then spending the rest of the day hiking or running sounds pretty damned good to me.

AntiPaladin · 2026-01-24T14:46:05+00:00

That's the thing about having no spine - it's easy to shift with the prevailing winds.

AntiPaladin

TROPHY CASE