James Lankford

[tulsabug]

Great pics! Also nice Gen 2 Miata

[heironymouspasparagus]

In 2013 I stopped at the entrance to Edwards AFB to see "Balls 8" registration #0008, the B-52 that carried a lot of the Xtype aircraft.

For scale, my Miata is about 30 feet from the B-52.

We went on vacation to NM and CO and on the way through the OK panhandle, had a flight of 7 B-52's fly over doing very low level runs of some sort, all in a single line.  Probably between 500 - 1,000 ft up.  Could see rivets!  Sounds amazing!   (I like loud noises and bright flashes!)

[Red Arrow]

We went on vacation to NM and CO and on the way through the OK panhandle, had a flight of 7 B-52's fly over doing very low level runs of some sort, all in a single line.  Probably between 500 - 1,000 ft up.  Could see rivets!  Sounds amazing!   (I like loud noises and bright flashes!)

Recently?

In the early 80s, I was driving in southern CA or northern AZ (I forget exactly where) and had a few F4 Phantoms fly over really low.  A friend who was a F4 pilot told me a usual low level run was 360 ft AGL and 360 Knots.  Pretty awesome in person.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Recently?

In the early 80s, I was driving in southern CA or northern AZ (I forget exactly where) and had a few F4 Phantoms fly over really low.  A friend who was a F4 pilot told me a usual low level run was 360 ft AGL and 360 Knots.  Pretty awesome in person.

No.  About 1990-ish.

[dbacksfan 2.0]

It's not uncommon to get buzzed by low flying USAF fighters on the stretch between Tonopah AZ (just west of Phoenix) and Indio CA. The area between the Colorado River on the west and Arizona 85 on the east and I-10 on the north and I-8 on the south is largely the Goldwater Bombing Range, and also a Marine testing facility for the Marine base in Yuma. It's not uncommon to se F-16's, 18's, 22's and 35's out there on training exercises. They also conduct mock dogfights with those, T-38's and French made Dassault Mirage's.

I was out near Ford Dry Lake in CA and thought I saw some strange windmills until I realized they were V-22 Ospreys doing low level flights. They also do a lot of training flights around the Salton Sea area.

Someone has been doing a lot of flying of a Airbus Zephyr (https://www.airbus.com/defence/uav/zephyr.html) over the area of the Kofa Wildlife Refuge. I found it on Flight Radar 24 website with the tail numbers N467TN and N469TN.

[Red Arrow]

Someone has been doing a lot of flying of a Airbus Zephyr (https://www.airbus.com/defence/uav/zephyr.html) over the area of the Kofa Wildlife Refuge. I found it on Flight Radar 24 website with the tail numbers N467TN and N469TN.

The FAA lists the registered owner as: BANK OF UTAH TRUSTEE

[dbacksfan 2.0]

The FAA lists the registered owner as: BANK OF UTAH TRUSTEE

Bank of Utah holds thousands of aircraft in trust as owner trustee and has hundreds of active security trustee accounts. Globally, the FAA is a preferred aircraft registry for many reasons, but primarily because the FAA maintenance standards allow for ease in appraising the aircraft for future resale.

https://www.nafa.aero/companies/bank-of-utah-corporate-trust-services

Something else I 've noticed is that a lot of the medivac helicopters in the southwest are all registered in Greenwood Colorado.

[Red Arrow]

Something else I 've noticed is that a lot of the medivac helicopters in the southwest are all registered in Greenwood Colorado.

A lot of "corporate" aircraft are registered to corporations based in Delaware.  There is a tax thing there somewhere.

[dbacksfan 2.0]

A lot of "corporate" aircraft are registered to corporations based in Delaware.  There is a tax thing there somewhere.

Delaware, where businesses go so they don't have to pay corporate income tax.

Delaware as a domestic tax haven. At present, the state of Delaware is home to approximately 1,000,000 businesses and more than 67.8 % of Fortune 500 companies. Additionally, in 2019, 89.9% of U.S.-based businesses with initial public offerings chose Delaware to be their corporate home.

https://www.millionacres.com/taxes/articles/why-is-delaware-considered-a-domestic-tax-haven/

NOTHING about 1209 North Orange Street hints at the secrets inside. It's a humdrum office building, a low-slung affair with a faded awning and a view of a parking garage. Hardly worth a second glance. If a first one.

But behind its doors is one of the most remarkable corporate collections in the world: 1209 North Orange, you see, is the legal address of no fewer than 285,000 separate businesses.

Its occupants, on paper, include giants like American Airlines, Apple, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway, Cargill, Coca-Cola, Ford, General Electric, Google, JPMorgan Chase, and Wal-Mart. These companies do business across the nation and around the world. Here at 1209 North Orange, they simply have a dropbox.

What attracts these marquee names to 1209 North Orange and to other Delaware addresses also attracts less-upstanding corporate citizens. For instance, 1209 North Orange was, until recently, a business address of Timothy S. Durham, known as "the Midwest Madoff." On June 20, Mr. Durham was found guilty of bilking 5,000 mostly middle-class and elderly investors out of $207 million. It was also an address of Stanko Subotic, a Serbian businessman and convicted smuggler — just one of many Eastern Europeans drawn to the state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/business/how-delaware-thrives-as-a-corporate-tax-haven.html

[dbacksfan 2.0]

Great pics! Also nice Gen 2 Miata

I do a bit of my own flying in my Miata

https://youtu.be/0UZHpH3Wr1Y

[Red Arrow]

I do a bit of my own flying in my Miata
https://youtu.be/0UZHpH3Wr1Y

Looks like fun. The car sticks pretty good in the corners per the G meter.  Where is the track, what's the track length?

[dbacksfan 2.0]

Looks like fun. The car sticks pretty good in the corners per the G meter.  Where is the track, what's the track length?

Inde Motorsports Ranch in Wilcox AZ. We were running what they call the Main Circuit which is 2.75 miles with 21 turns. There is a group of us that go to four or five events a year. Twice to Inde, and once each to Arizona Motorsports Park, Chuckwalla Valley in Desert Center CA, and a track that's a combination of two tracks at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park.

The organization that puts on the events is called Pro AutoSports also just secured dates at a new track south of Phoenix called Apex Motor Club.

I'm planning to next year over Labor Day run an event at Hallett called Miata's at Hallett so I can run where it all started for me back in highschool back in 1980.

The events are ~$200.00 per day and membership is is $40.00 per year.

https://proautosports.com/   

https://indemotorsports.com/the-ranch/track/

https://apexmotorclub.com/

https://racewildhorse.com/location-map/

https://arizonamotorsportspark.com/

https://chuckwalla.com/

[Red Arrow]

I'm planning to next year over Labor Day run an event at Hallett called Miata's at Hallett so I can run where it all started for me back in highschool back in 1980.

I worked some corners at Hallett with the TU Sports Car Club in the late 70s.  Great track.

Would you drive the Miata to OK or trailer it?

One of my college friends calls this place his second home: https://summitpoint-raceway.com/track-information/summit-point-circuit/
He owns/drives a Boss 302 Mustang and frequently does pace laps in for SCCA races in a Lotus Esprit.

[patric]

A classified briefing Tuesday on Ukraine devolved into a shouting match about border security as senators described a tense meeting that did little to break the Senate's stalemate over whether to include tighter immigration policies in the aid package.

The meeting came as Republican senators have warned they are prepared to vote against advancing a more than $100 billion supplemental national security package unless it includes major border policy changes, casting doubt on whether the aid will pass this year.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer gave his description of what unfolded and said the fight over the border erupted when Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, asked GOP Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma to present on the border instead of asking a question about Ukraine to the briefers.

"It was immediately hijacked by Leader McConnell. The first question instead of asking our panelists, he called on Lankford to give a five-minute talk about the negotiations on border," Schumer said. "Then when I brought up the fact that they could do an amendment and have the ability to get something done on border, they got stuck ... they didn't like it."

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/05/politics/senate-classified-briefing-devolves/index.html

Maybe he will sell T-shirts of his screwup like Mullen did?

[patric]

WASHINGTON (AP) — A deal to provide further U.S. assistance to Ukraine by year-end appears to be increasingly out of reach for President Joe Biden. The impasse is deepening in Congress despite dire warnings from the White House about the consequences of inaction as Republicans insist on pairing the aid with changes to America's immigration and border policies.

After the Democratic president said this past week he was willing to "make significant compromises on the border," Republicans quickly revived demands that they had earlier set aside, hardening their positions and attempting to shift the negotiations to the right, according to a person familiar with the talks who was not authorized to publicly discuss them and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The latest proposal, from the lead GOP negotiator, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., came during a meeting with a core group of senators before they left Washington on Thursday afternoon. It could force the White House to consider ideas that many Democrats will seriously oppose, throwing new obstacles in the difficult negotiations.
https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-immigration-ukraine-6bdcc5dde4dadb48b43ace75b5a55242

In a nutshell, the lives of countless Ukrainians and Gaza civilians are being used to force the U.S. to toe the Trump line.