[magentabluesky]

Yes, Bob, I stand up for people’s rights, everyone’s right, the right to free speech and the right to freely publish.

The Difference Between Rights and Privileges

It is way past time that you, Bob Kuczewski, apologized to Frank Colver.

[wingspan33]

.

. . . It is way past time that you, Jack Axaopoulos, apologized to Joe Faust and reinstated him.

.

.

.

[Bob Kuczewski]

It is way past time that you, Bob Kuczewski, apologized to Frank Colver.

Michael,

Frank has his own voice here on the U.S. Hawks.
He doesn't need you to speak up for him here.
And yet you speak up for him here.

Joe Faust does not have his own voice on hanggliding.org.
He does need you to speak up for him there.
And yet you are silent there.

. . . It is way past time that you, Jack Axaopoulos, apologized to Joe Faust and reinstated him.

Scott has shown you the way out Michael. Take it. Five years from now it won't matter that we disagreed for a few months. What will matter is who eventually spoke up against Jack's abuses and who didn't. I would like to see you on the right side of that argument.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Tom "Red" Howard continues to promote his own web site on hanggliding.org while Joe Faust's USHGRS can't even be mentioned:

Red_promotes_Red.png (28.35 KiB) Viewed 7268 times

Shameful.

[Bob Kuczewski]

When I was urging Joe's "friends" to speak up for him, I was often told that they didn't want to lose their own voices on hanggliding.org because they needed the platform for their important work in the sport.

So for most of a year now, I've been waiting patiently to see the great things they would do that have justified (in their own minds) abandoning their supposed "friend". Well, are you ready? Here it is:

20190803_145718.png (141.89 KiB) Viewed 6643 times

Yes campers, this great idea (building a dirt hill) will truly revolutionize the sport of hang gliding from coast to coast. It was well worth it for Michael, Tom ("Red") and Frank to have abandoned Joe so that they could post this brilliant idea to "The World's Largest Hang Gliding Community" and thus share it with the world.

Never mind that Otto Lilienthal had that same idea over a century ago:

In 1894, Lilienthal built an artificial conical hill near his home in Lichterfelde, called Fliegeberg (lit. "Fly Hill"). It allowed him to launch his gliders into the wind no matter which direction it was coming from. The hill was 15 metres (49 ft) high. There was a regular crowd of people that were interested in seeing his gliding experiments.
    - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Lilienthal

Never mind that Otto not only talked about it, but actually did it!

And also never mind that Bill Bennett had already built a similar hill right at Torrey Pines:

08Nov28cm.jpg (35.46 KiB) Viewed 6642 times

And never mind that Bennett's hill was recently bulldozed after USHPA ignored years of requests to support it:

file-6.jpg (43.65 KiB) Viewed 6640 times

So never mind any of that and please go to the "Field of Dreams" topic on hanggliding.org to read the great words of Michael, Tom ("Red"), and Frank. You'll surely be convinced that their contributions were well worth throwing Joe Faust under the bus.

[Bob Kuczewski]

This is my first post to this topic in about two and a half years.

This topic was quite hot at one point, and a lot was said in a short amount of time. Under those circumstances, we don't always have the time to carefully read and reflect on what one person or another might say.

I was searching for a quote from Rick on another active matter when I found this quote from Warren. I think it has aged well over these years, so I am quoting it to draw attention to his wisdom from December 5th, 2018:

How great that everyone here gets to share their opinion.
How many of you are allowed to do that at Jack's coffee shop, living room or whatever he wants to call it today? Not me.
He's moved the goalpost from declared promotion of hang gliding to the profit of adverti$ing hits as true motivation.

Joe's selfless work of a pilot's registry is a true benefit to the sport and Jack's bigoted censorship of that effort is an attack on thousands of pilots like myself who may find value to the service that Joe Faust is doing in our behalf.

History is never recorded by truth never told. If a tree falls and no one sees it, hears it or makes note that it happened, is it really a historical fact that someone down the road can acknowledge? What if the only report was there was never a tree to begin with?

If Jack writes lies, such that Frank and Joe are merely shills for Bob and Rick, the lies become history if not confronted or corrected.
History does not take care of itself, Rick. Walking away from a lie only condones the lie.

My simple idea/strategy is to confront lies. To not let them stand as historical markers.
But its not popular to call out someone's lies and especially so when they wield some political clout.

That's been the problem, from day one, as Bob has put his own popularity on the line by calling out the inequities of the corporate Borg that assimilated and transmogrified the pilot's organization that Joe, Frank and others originally founded.
Now he calls out a developing inequity of historical significance to thousands of pilots.
Damn that guy! Stepping on toes. Naming names.
Why doesn't he color within the lines like we say he's supposed to do?

Gee, I dunno. It's what I like about him.

I don't think anything was lost by pushing back in this topic.
If Jack wants to rewrite history to make himself look better, he still can.
I would salute him myself if he could see his way to reinstate Joe Faust and allow the pilot registry fair access to the 'largest hg community in the world'. If that moniker is true it would make the forum a public square. There is a 1949 Supreme Court ruling that even if a public square is privately owned you can't censor speech for political purpose.
Put Joe back and that would be enough for me. I can walk away.
I would argue for Bob to disappear this thread to save Jack's embarrassment and exposure.

Try that carrot in your negotiations Frank.
Its better than more stick.

It's interesting to look back on a topic like this one, and that's why I am glad that we preserve our history here on the U.S. Hawks. Thanks to everyone who has helped keep this site alive with your posts.  

[Bob Kuczewski]

Joe Faust was banned by Jack Axaopoulos on September 13th, 2018 at 4:31pm:

USHGRS.ORG
By sg - Thu Sep 13, 2018 4:31 pm #405004

sg wrote:
Ive had enough. More than enough agitating people here.

Thread locked. Joe, you refused to take me off your list, so im taking you off of the orgs.

Today (February 12, 2022) Doug Marley said "it's been more than two years since that day" when he crashed as described in this post:

Sat Feb 12, 2022 12:46 pm

While catching a bullet-thermal just after turning parallel with (and below) the ridge after launching, my wing found a vertical sheer and was thrown towards the ridge and rolled over 100 degrees from horizontal. The only way to extricate myself from this situation was to dive. I had perhaps 100 ft to the tree tops. As I dove for the trees, I couldn't feel any wind on my face. I told myself I wouldn't push out until I felt at least something.

Closer, closer, closer, finally! After feeling a rush of wind on my face I pushed out as hard as I could, but didn't quite make it over the top of the tree canopy. The GPS recorded a ground-speed of 50-55 mph as I entered the tops of the trees. I remember hitting the trees just as I attained level flight, going through the top leaves and small branches and being thrown through the control frame, then regaining my memory on the ground, on my back, looking up at the trees. The video from the tail of the glider shows much of the action of the alternative style of flight, and the video from a friend on launch shows a glider completely rolled over, then diving, then the most horrendous tree-crashing sounds almost akin to felling a large tree in the woods.

I 'landed' on a slightly-sloped part of the mountain, with boulders and jagged stumps all around me, on my back with my right arm up a large tree-trunk and my left arm pinned beneath my back, after a 70 ft fall smashing through thick deciduous limbs. Must be a lot of energy from a 225-lb guy traveling at 55 mph through the trees. After I had come to rest on the ground, I noticed quite a few sizable tree limbs landing all around me.

Well, I found (or someone guided me to) the only tiny soft spot on the mountain without granite boulders and stumps it would seem. 

While my friend was helping me pack up the remains of the glider (I just stood there watching in a sore, stupefied daze), we noticed major down-blast cycles in the tree canopy over our heads. Not a good place to be below ridge-level.

Three acetaminophens later and I was good to go. Home. 

So it's been more than two years since that day. Many, many trips to the muscle therapist to loosen me up again and get my left rotator cuff ironed out as much as can be without surgery, and lots of resistance training and mountain-running to get back to my lean, mean, he-man self. I believe if I hadn't been so involved in physical fitness for many years before the accident, I wouldn't have fared as well as I did, nor would recovery have been as reasonably easy for the amount of damage sustained.

       - http://forum.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=37145

So sometime within a year or so of hounding Joe Faust off of hanggliding.org, Doug Marley suffered a horrendous crash. Maybe Doug Marley should have spent more time learning to fly safely and less time bashing and harassing Joe Faust.

[Bob Kuczewski]

We are beginning to see a global response to Putin's recent invasion of Ukraine. We are seeing nations like Germany, Canada, and the United States imposing sanctions against Russia for its aggression. Even the historically neutral country of Switzerland has stepped up this time.

Each of these nations will pay a price for standing up to this aggression, but they are willing to do so to make the world a better and safer place for all of us. I salute them all.  

Many of those countries are militarily weaker than Russia, but they have found strength in their union against an international bully.

That's what I had hoped would happen with Jack's aggression against Joe Faust. I hoped that the community of pilots would stand up like the community of nations and impose their own sanctions and boycotts on Jack Axaopoulos and hanggliding.org.

Sadly, that has not happened, and Jack Axaopoulos has been further emboldened by the lack of meaningful response. Let's hope that the community of nations has more backbone than the cowardly community of hang glider pilots living like sheep under Jack's dictatorship.

[Bob Kuczewski]

UN Assembly votes to demand that Russia stop war in Ukraine

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/a** ... e-83207066

Article from ABC News:

The U.N. General Assembly has voted to demand that Russia stop its offensive in Ukraine and withdraw all troops, with nations from world powers to tiny island states condemning Moscow’s actions

By EDITH M. LEDERER and JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press
March 2, 2022, 10:06 AM

UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. General Assembly voted at an emergency special session Wednesday to demand an immediate halt to Moscow’s offensive against Ukraine and withdrawal of all Russian troops, with very strong support from the world organization’s 193 member nations that sparked sustained applause.

The vote on the resolution, entitled “Aggression against Ukraine,” was 141-5 with 35 abstentions.

Russia got support for its appeal to vote against the resolution only from Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea, a powerful indication of the international isolation that Russian President Vladimir Putin faces for invading his country's smaller neighbor. Emphasizing that isolation was a major goal of the resolution’s supporters.

Unlike Security Council resolutions, General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, but they do have clout in reflecting international opinion. Under special emergency session rules, a resolution needs approval of two-thirds of those countries voting, and abstentions don’t count.

After Russia vetoed a similar resolution in the Security Council on Feb. 25, Ukraine and its supporters won approval for an emergency special session -- the first since 1997 -- to try to spotlight opposition to Russia’s invasion.

The resolution states that Russia’s military operations in Ukraine “are on a scale that the international community has not seen in Europe in decades and that urgent action is needed to save this generation from the scourge of war.” It “urges the immediate peaceful resolution of the conflict” and reaffirms the assembly’s commitment “to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.”

Before the vote, Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said of Russian forces: “They have come to the Ukrainian soil, not only to kill some of us ... they have come to deprive Ukraine of the very right to exist,” adding that “the crimes are so barbaric that it is difficult to comprehend.”

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia then urged U.N. members to vote against the resolution, alleging that Western nations exerted “unprecedented pressure” with “open and cynical threats” to get support for the measure.

“This document will not allow us to end military activities. On the contrary, it could embolden Kyiv radicals and nationalists to continue to determine the policy of their country at any price,” Nebenzia warned.

“Your refusal to support today’s draft resolution is a vote for a peaceful Ukraine” that would not “be managed from the outside,” he said. “This was the aim of our special military operation, which the sponsors of this resolution tried to present as aggression.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters immediately after the vote: “The message of the General Assembly is loud and clear: End hostilities in Ukraine — now. Silence the guns — now. Open the door to dialogue and diplomacy — now.”

“We don’t have a moment to lose,” he said. “The brutal effects of the conflict are plain to see … It threatens to get much, much worse.”

The assembly resolution, co-sponsored by 96 countries, deplored Russia’s “aggression” against Ukraine “in the strongest terms” and demanded an immediate halt to Moscow’s use of force and the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of all Russian forces from Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders.

The measure also called on Russia to reverse a decision to recognize two separatist parts of eastern Ukraine as independent.

During more than two days of meetings preceding the vote, there were speeches from about 120 countries.

From a tiny Pacific island nation to Europe’s economic powerhouse, country after country lashed out at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and urged support for the U.N. resolution..

Russian President Vladimir Putin did have a few supporters, including North Korea. And there were countries that took no position on the draft resolution, such as Suriname and South Africa, which urged compromise and diplomacy to find a lasting resolution to the crisis.

The resolution's co-sponsors included Afghanistan, where the Taliban ousted the elected government last August, and Myanmar, where the military overthrew the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, 2021. But neither the Taliban nor Myanmar's military government have gained U.N. recognition so that support came from representatives of their previous governments.

In speaking in favor of the resolution Tuesday, Palau’s U.N. ambassador, Ilana Seid, told the assembly that Ukraine and Palau have little in common: “One is a large post-Soviet state in eastern Europe and the other is a small, blue ocean state.”

Yet, she said, Palau feels some connection because both became independent in the early 1990s. “And so, it hasn’t escaped us, that if the turns of fate had one of our former colonizers act with the aggression of Russia towards us, citing the justification of historical unity, it would have been our people who would be suffering the atrocities of war we are seeing in Ukraine today.”

Seid said the claim of "historical unity” was the justification Hitler made in absorbing Czechoslovakia, setting events in motion that brought on World War II. “Thus, history has shown us that we simply cannot make concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict,” she said.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, whose country is Europe's largest economic power, said what is at stake in Russia’s war in Ukraine is “the life or death of the Ukrainian people,” European security, and the Charter of the United Nations which calls for peaceful settlement of conflicts and maintaining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all U.N. member nations.

Baerbock, who flew to New York to address the assembly’s first emergency special session in decades, lashed out at Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, saying he was guilty of telling “blatant lies” to the U.N. Human Rights Council earlier Tuesday by arguing that Russia is acting in self-defense to protect Russian speakers in Ukraine and has sent its troops as “peacekeepers.”

In fact, she said, the world watched Russia build up troops over months to prepare for its attack and is watching as its forces “are bombing the homes of Russian-speaking Ukrainians in Kharkiv,” the country’s second-largest city.

“Mr. Lavrov, you can deceive yourself, but you won’t deceive your own people,” Baerbock said.

It is important to note that resolutions of the U.N. General Assembly are non-binding. But those countries did speak up and they did go on the record today. Their united voices are now triggering substantial and effective responses from companies like General Motors, Sony, Exxon, Harley Davidson, Apple, British Petrolium and dozens of others.

[Bill Cummings]

What is binding is the agreement they signed with Europe and the West to remove the nuclear weapons from Ukraine and keep them in Russia. For this they agreed that Ukraine is independent and Russia would not aggress.

https://youtu.be/Ys2zTL-b3eE