Present company excluded, of course-

They missed about 33% in the weed-out process. From the line though, it's tough to find a yes voter.

Unsure. Either way he's personally sold on the "importance" of it. I know for a fact base CP, S.D. does not have one.

Don't know about that, but I do know he was once blackballed out of IP training because he wasn't "Christian" enough. Just another example of the internal/external nepotism rampant at AS.

And to reinforce Moose's observation...for the 2nd month in a row AS is offering to buy vacations in all bases and all seats. They'll have no shortage of takers. Of course, that reduces the number of pilots they need to hire.

They've cut summer vacations to the bare minimum and buy back vacations in spring and fall. Have to keep down the number of FTEs (Full Time Employees for those of you who aren't fluent in Management speak) don'tcha know.

QX has a couple future AS legacy hires on the property, right now. They make it clear they are only slumming until they get AS mins.
On the upside, I never thought I'd get to see an FO secretly texting as I taxied an airplane, so I got that goin' for me...

Question. As a Captain, how much authority do you have "nip stupidity in the bud" to put it mildly.

When a I was HAC (Helicopter Aircraft Commander) and CAPC (Carrier AEW Plane Commander), my authority on a plane I signed for, internal to the plane and external as far as safety of flight, destination/divert/etc was more or less absolute. If I had a H2P or 2P (think FO) who was doing stupid stuff, or anyone in the back getting out of line, what I said more or less was law. Granted, I only had to lay down the hammer a handful of times in 13 years, but even when I was a LTJG (O-2) HAC flying with a LCDR(O-4, who was a Boat Driver to pilot transition) H2P, what I said, went.

As far as making the FO "cut that out" what realistic authority do you have without getting in trouble as a Captain, regardless of what the FARs say about the subject?

Same authority the FO has in backhanding or ***** slapping a retarded Captain... Who says or does stupid crap because he thinks he's god of the skies. No matter what ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ-60 Omaha, Omaha, set hike...airplane he flew.....

Yeah, that much authority

Yeah right that used to be me just wait Until I get the Alaska Mins, they will definitely want me, five letters recommendation local degree local address lots of volunteer time Multiple type ratings 12 years 121 experience more than exceed the mins. Ha ha no dice baby. After five years of AS only finally realized I was screwing myself over. Job fairs meetings with the chief pilot anything and everything I could do and think up and was told .(All while watching Horizon FO's with family members that work there get hired with minimum experience barely making the qualifications) Finally applied at the other majors one resume hired! Things have been going great sense. Don't make Alaska the only entrée on the menu.
Don't make me out to be the bitter guy That couldn't get an interview. After I first Hand learned that a Skywest kid son of a AS Employee got interviewed twice in eight months while stacks and stacks of us fully qualified but not genetically connected. Never even got an interview. I finally gave in. It is what it is and I have moved on.

So if the FO is being an idiot, or doing something he's not supposed to, like texting during ground ops, are you saying the Captain can't do jack?

The only times I had to lay down the hammer was when one moron kept on turning the pressurization on and off to screw with the people on the back, at which point I sent him to the back to sit with the CO and brought a NFO up to be a copilot, and when I was flying helicopters, we had this one dude who liked to flip random switches, valves and levers to "see if it does what NATOPS says will happen", without briefing it, at the worst possible times.

The rest was minor stuff like we're 30 seconds from landing, put the damn soda down and get a visual on your gear.

The captain has all the authority he/she needs to deal with things like that, certainly. I could absolutely have returned to the gate and had him replaced without fear of retribution, at least not from MY company. YMMV...