I'm not your "bro." It wasn't a story. I'm intimately familiar with Connie's story, thanks. I never mentioned Southern, nor was it part of anything I said. I put "dera" on the ignore list a long time ago, couldn't care less what she has to say.

So far as Connie goes, he has a long history of buying low and selling high, and building up, not falling down, so really, the opposite of Neff, but thats' the point. Private, sole owners who micromanage, both in the air freight ACMI business, one whom builds success, the other of whom drains and siphons the blood out of his operation until it's time to go away. WGA was to be his redemption, but his is a study opposite of Kalitta, of what not to do, of how to destroy and rob blind. The point, as you clearly missed it, is that it needn't be that way. The drain-circling, spiraling slow death of his operation is his own doing that could be reversed; it's always been possible. All that remains now is to watch it die, or to see him decide to do it right and recover. The point? Recovery IS still possible.

Did all the millions he's siphoned away simply vanish? Will the seventy-seven million go the same way? If it didn't exist, he could have fielded it anyway and salvaged. The decision to fly with so many deferred items, to so badly maintaina ircraft that they're grounded for so long, so frequently, and still carry so many deferrals when they fly, isn't one borne of economy and efficiency, but cheapness and a drive to pocket what should have been used to keep the lights on. Losing one contract after another, bailing on contracts for temporary UPS and FedEx golden geese, and establishing a reputation for failure to pay bills and unreliability, have hurt the brand. Very unnecessary, all fixable, but will he?

Not when he's got employees paying for things with the untrustworthy promise of reimbursement. This isn't new, either; the older hands there will know of times when they've had to pull out a card to put fuel in the airplane, and there are one or two who will recall using their own card. Tires on the company van, we'll reimburse you right away...to turn into months of nothing? Not a recent invention in Neffworld. Not necessary. Pay for that hotel room, we'll pay you back, should be simply, use your company card and turn in the receipt, if they can't manage to properly book the room. Personally, I've seen that show before as the final agonal breath passed the company's dying lips; unnecessary deaths, but for failure of senior micromanagement and the internal siphoning away of the finances and lifeblood of the operation.

Neff isn't the spitting image of Connie Kalitta, but the other side of the coin; he's the reverse. There's an unspoken contract between employer and employee: you do your part to make the company go, and I'll do mine. The employees have upheld their part of the bargain. Neff? You break it, I'll fix it. You go there, I'll bring you back. Trust me. I'll gladly give you two hamburgers tomorrow...just float me today. Check's in the mail. Dog ate my homework, and the sixty five million in covid relief funds, but if you can see yourself clear to stomach me for another year, I'll reward you then, after taking away your longevity bonuses to give you a mythical promised bonus a few more years down the line....

Promises, promises, unkept.