Summary
Trump is firing hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees despite recent fatal air crashes, CNN reports.
The AFL-CIO says terminations were issued Friday, with affected staff possibly locked out of FAA facilities after Monday.
Aviation safety union PASS calls the cuts “dangerous,” especially after four deadly incidents in the past month.
Critics argue these moves risk public safety amid ongoing air traffic controller shortages.
This is a great time for anyone thinking of flying to the U.S. to reconsider.
America is becoming a very dangerous country to visit and travel inside.
Best to find another destination to travel in that’s safe and can ensure you remain safe. American cannot.
What’s wild is how quickly a motivated fascist has been able to dismantle the government…
That’s usually how it goes. It comes tumbling down very quickly. Hitler dismantled democracy in 53 days. We’re 4 weeks–28 days–into
Musk’sTrump’s presidency.You had it right the first time, crossed out the wrong name.
Trump is President, but Musky is the Chancellor.
Breaking shit is easy (and fast and cheap). A dumb bull in a China shop can cause a lot of damage in seconds without even trying.
Building or repairing things takes skill and a lot of time and money.
Part of the reason Pres. Biden’s term seemed so useless to those not paying attention. A lot of it was spent fixing all the damage Orange Combover 1.0 did. Entire departments had data and knowledge loss and had to be rebuilt.
Biden mostly appeared useless because he accepted so much corporate PAC money that he was unable/unwilling to deliver meaningful change to the working class voters who put him in office.
He did come through big time for oil and gas companies (record drilling), and for arms manufacturers (billions stolen from American taxpayers to give to Israel for genocidal bombings in Palestine).
Yep. A whole lot of dipshits were saying Bronzo the Clown and Biden were more or less the same because they were both older white men. Also: Gaza.
And now it seems all of us have to deal with that incredibly stupid take.
Nope. Took Hitler 53 days. Let’s circle back on that statement in a few weeks and see if the government is still here or not.
But Trump has shown time and again that he is completely incompetent compared to Hitler!
But maybe he has better help, so we can’t even rely on his incompetence anymore? 😬Hitler was a fucking idiot too…
Hitler was extremely charismatic, an effective speaker and a clever politician. He was a terrible commander, compounded by his inability to acknowledge and account for that weakness, but in the run-up to the war and in the opening phase, he correctly estimated and effectively capitalised on the other powers’ reluctance to fight another war.
In Musk and Trump, you can observe a similar phenomenon: the ability to hit the right notes with the right people in order to rile them up and seize the moment before their opponents manage to effectively rally and organise a resistance. Whether by blind luck, intuition or cunning calculation, their results aren’t those of fumbling idiots. However idiotic they may seem to us, their success (so far) proves they got something right.
But the story isn’t over yet. If I’m wrong and they do end up fumbling their big chance, I’ll happily rescind those words. But as it stands now, I’d rather not underestimate their cunning.
Born on third base, both of then. Let’s see them get any power without having been born wealthy white men. Their “cunning” is starting with enough money to not be ruined by their failures.
Hitler apart from being an idiot was insane and extremely superstitious.
Like Trump he was ruthless, but the real difference is that Hitler was politically adept and efficient, Trump is not.
But maybe he has better help, so we can’t even rely on his incompetence
What he has this time is no “adults in the room” to act as guardrails. He’s surrounded himself with sycophants and yes-men, so there’s nobody to stop him from flailing randomly and breaking shit.
I wish there was a remind me bot :(
@[email protected] is what you’re looking for.
It’s been in the making for 30 years, this is just the endgame. Fox News started in 1996.
Turning point imho is 1987 with the abolishment of the Fairness Doctrine. This is what created our current media landscape, where all the news is extremely right leaning and doesn’t even need to be true.
Nope, this is a culture war distraction. The fairness doctrine was an affront to free speech so we can go back and forth about its merits and detractions as nauseam. The real problem is the lost class war that allows any single human to be wealthy enough to own an entire media machine in the first place.
Yeah, fairness doctrine is shit. I would prefer a law where when a media source deliberately spreads misinformation, the must provide equal time and visibility for an approved retraction.
So when fox had all those assholes come on and talk about how migrants were eating all the cats and dogs, based on one the Twitter post recounting the story of a friends daughter’s friend’s temporarily missing cat, they should have had to run equal time segments on the same channels and local stations admitting that they failed a basic journalistic test to question the validity of that info, and that after further investigation it appears to be blatantly false.
I was told that Kamala (or Biden) would have been just as bad, because bothsides.
It’s not new. This has been part of “The Game” forever. There are no real rules to life and the people playing the game have been trying forever to get what they want.
There never was authentic protection or security. They just corralled the population into a lifestyle of consumerism while they did whatever they want. Each side entices the people, markets them, uses them as a product, and plays them out. It’s all game.
I like immortal techniques line; “I laugh at America’s fears of a new world order controlling the hemisphere, because my people have been living that for the past 500 years.”
Same game different storyline. Some us didn’t have life before trump so what’s happening now is just the same old war on humanity. That’s not downplaying the advancement.
We shouldn’t have settled for what was, and we shouldn’t settled for what’s becoming.
A great documentary about manipulation of society is The Century of Self, and The Trap series by Adam Curtis. If you’re interested you can see them on YT.
Basically western life has been a series of false hope used to persuade people to being tools for what more wealthy people want. The street works the same way. Looks at gangs, mafia, cartels… Scale that same ideology up and you have governments. Military paid for by tax, mafia hits paid for by dues. Nationalism and pride used for numbers of power, loyalty used in gangs for numbers of power. …so if the problem which group is doing it? Or is the problem all groups that are doing it? They are powered by the same essence. People with an existential crisis trying to make the world for their perception but it never will. Ever.
Despite everything, the odds of being in an airplane accident are still extremely low. But they are always even lower if you don’t fly.
Despite everything, the odds of being in an airplane accident are still extremely low.
That’s largely because of the safety systems in place. Remove those and safety (along with aircraft) plummets.
What a coincidence that those exact systems are the ones they’re torching…
It’s worth noting that during President Obama’s eight year administration, there were no fatal accidents involving major commercial airlines in the U.S. And under a month of Trump we’ve had how many? Lost count.
As an aviator with a degree in aviation I can honestly say this. It’s a miracle it’s taken this long for something this bad to happen. No administration, from Regan onwards, has done anything about the ATC shortage (nothing effective anyway). I’m friends with controllers, I’ve been to several ATC facilities, what they do everyday is a fucking miracle. While it’s easy to point at the DC crash and the other subsequent crashes and say “see, Trump did it” the truth is far more nuanced and systemic than that. Also, in my opinion, the DC crash is 100% on the helicopter pilots.
Is what Trump doing now going to help the situation? Fuck no. We need more controllers. Better pay, better benefits, and more slots at the ATC academy.
I don’t think ignoring a systematic issue can be put on the same level as actively enabling it. sure, previous presidents haven’t helped much, which is asking for a tragedy to happen, but trump has been pretty much forcing them to happen with these cuts.
True. It’s going to be bad. But it’s hard to pin the blame on trumpmfor the past incidents. The firings just happened
As if the shitty Boeings they are allowed make aren’t enough to cause crashes.
I propose having no covfefe available to neither pilots nor controllers. Also, all airplane flight alarms should call the pilot derogatory names.
That would help things tremendously. We are looking for ways to improve chaos right?
Wait, so it isn’t trumps fault but we had 4 crashes since he’s taken office? Bro it’s his fault what the hell are you talking about? One of those is directly his fault.
Yes. There are thousands of aviation incidents and accidents every year in the US. None of those have been scheduled carriers. General aviation, crop dustets, flight training, etc… The DC crash was notable because it’s the first fatalities due to mishap on a US SCHEDULED air carrier (called part 121 in the industry) since 2009. Emphasis on scheduled. Because of the notability Since then there has been increased scrutiny on aviation which is why you’ve heard about 2 of the other 3 at all. So 4 since trump took office isn’t remarkable. In fact, I’d wager there’s been a lot more.
Now does firing 100s of controllers make the ATC system more safe? No. That’s gonna be a disaster.
Is it actually his fault? Not likely. None of his policies had really affected the ATC, at least for the first couple incidents.
But it’s something we can point to as a nice little factoid. And as president, the buck stops with him. Wether or not he directly influenced events is besides the point.
The DC crash is interesting. Have you seen this video? https://youtube.com/watch?v=1IUJpRwzHZU
Seems like there were several factors. But we’ll need the black box analysis to know more.
The Helicopter pilot was certainly in the wrong place, but from their point of view, it’s understandable why they were in the wrong place.
The question is, did the controller give clear guidance?
And would a second pair of eyes on the situation have helped?
The Helo pilot said the words “traffic in sight…” In the world of aviation that is you saying “I am taking responsibility for traffic separation”. The controller isn’t in the cockpit, the controller has no choice but to take the pilot at their word. The pilot then followed that up with “…request visual separation.” Which is an even more assertive way of saying “I know what I’m doing, I am responsible for separation”. He said it twice. The ATC system is built on multual trust in eachother and professionalism.
The question “did the controller give clear guidance” is moot. The pilot took responsibility for traffic separation. At that point ATC is not responsible for traffic separation. If I want ATC to take responsibility for my safety I say “(Plane call sign) is looking for traffic” then ATC tells me desend, turn, speed up, slow down, etc…
Of course, but the AmeriKan attitude is do more with less.
…The Capitalist attitude… FTFY. This isn’t an exclusively American problem.
He did change the rules for trains tho allowing much longer trains. That required electronic braking systems. He didn’t make that mandatory and gave the companies 14 years to install them. He allowed the companies to force their employees to work longer hours. He was certainly responsible for the Palestine disaster. (the chemical accident not thre genocide)
The Norfolk Southern crews nicknamed 32N as “32 Nasty.” They knew a derailment was inevitable.
Tbf, I think it was just the 1 in DC. There was a military one and a small aircraft as well, but only one involving commercial airlines to my knowledge. Still, the number is embarrassingly high.
Also, the one in DC really sounds like a fuckup by the helicopter crew. The ATC warned the helicopter crew about the incoming plane twice and the helicopter crew indicated both times they saw the plane and were maintaining visual separation (watching the plane and keeping their distance).
Don’t be that person, the one who oversimplifies an accident into a single issue instead of a chain of events - the circling maneuver, the NVG training, the other plane on approach further out, the discrepancy in altimeter readings between PiC/PM in the Blackhawk, stepped-on comms, the list of things that could easily contribute is already an arm’s length long.
Edit: you know what would be great? If the FAA had the resources necessary to implement NTSB’s recommendation backlog. Do you feel firing lots of FAA staff helps us or hurts us on that front?
I’m not saying Trump or what he’s doing aren’t terrible.
But he had zero impact on the DC crash, and every time we blame something on him that isn’t his fault the Republicans will grasp onto that and say we’d blame him for water being wet.
Just so we are good, I was being rhetorical in my questions, not targeting them at you.
But also I think I am coming around to the GOP approach: who cares if it’s perfectly true when it is essentially true?
Because the honest truth is there’s a double-standard. When they lie it’s no big deal. When we get out of line even the smallest amount the right-wing media machines will run with it for YEARS.
Was the military exercise being done in DC when the helicopter crashed being done as part of a normal schedule, or at the request of the Trump administration? From what I understand it was an excercise for having to potentially evac the white house
There were none under Biden either if I remember correctly.
True. Even under Bush there was only this one incident in 2001.
Or three, depending on how you count it.
Oops, I guess I forgot to never forget.
You give trump too much credit.
Four deadly crashes so far
And it’s only been a month.
And I’ve barely heard about the other three. It took us barely any time to treat plane crashes as we treat mass shootings.
It’s not that uncommon for smaller or private planes to crash, I think partially due to private pilots not having as much training and experience as commercial pilots, and the fact that smaller planes probably aren’t as stable in turbulent weather. Pretty sure the one in Alaska had more to do with the weather than traffic controllers. We tend to only hear about the small crashes when they have famous people on board.
And that month is February
I have heard of the Plane and Helicopter over Washington DC, killing some 70 or so people and another one with a small plane, killing 6 or so. Which other two have i been missing?
The move comes less than three weeks after a U.S. Army helicopter collided with a passenger jet that was about to land in Washington, D.C., killing 67, and an air ambulance crashed in Philadelphia, killing seven. Ten people died when a regional flight in Alaska went missing and was found crashed, earlier this month. Days later one person died in Scottsdale, Arizona, when a plane veered off the runway and collided with a parked aircraft.
How many are there usually?
Commercial crashes? 0 is the normal number. But generally aviation crashes are much less rare, sadly. They happen.
Yup, kinda like train derailments. Most of them aren’t huge, so you don’t hear about them, but they happen a lot.
Yeah, okay. I was unsure if it’s just that it’s not reported as much usually and being focused on because of the faa thing.
Insane corruption, with Musks well documented hate for the FAA. He bought an election and I’d wager a large part of it was for this reason alone.
Damn, it’s all falling apart. They are creating a problem that they can then solve by privatizing it. f_ckers.
Well good to know ahead of time to not fly for the next eight years.
Damn. Didnt think Trump would be the president to curb airline emissions but he just might.
The Gang Fixes the Climate Crisis
It will take more than 8 years to repair the damage done so far.
Confirmed - American aviation is now unsafe. American trains are now unregulated and their safety compromised. I guess it is time to find pleasure in the little things in my home city again.
Back to the all time American classic, the automobile. It’s both what made America great and awful all in one useful machine.
With Teslas autonomously crashing into everything?
Can’t even make the trains run on time.
That’s what the hyperloop is gonna solve, obviously
How to artificially impose a curfew by making people too afraid to fly. Is this what happens when you get King Musk mad about getting his flights publicly tracked? Gonna bet so, the guy is bitter and corrupt enough the he would want to replace the entire aviation system with one that won’t track him regardless of how many deaths it would mean.
You think “the government is intentionally crashing planes” is more likely than “the slow but inevitable collapse of a system pushed past capacity since Reagan fired the workers pushing for better pay and reasonable hours?”
Yes, nothing exceptional about Trump, all “slow but inevitable”. It’s all the government’s fault, don’t look at the rich oligarch that owns a personality cult creating social network behind the curtains…
Four deadly crashes and it hasn’t even been a fucking month yet.
They tested the drones (NJ, UK)… They promoted flight crashes to ease into projecting a new fear… Now they will replace ATC with AI and utilize their drones on a mass scale.
For surveillance?
And yet another plane incident today…
Basically, it would be safer to fly over Ukraine and fucking Russia. An over worked and stressed ATC is higher risk than a bunch of drunk Russian bastards manning a SAM battery.
🤡
LOL US planes are even crashing in Canada now. I think the invasion attack just started. Defend yourself!
Time to stop putting our faith in flying.
I already decided I’m never going on another dangerous amusement park ride because I don’t trust the businesses to maintain them properly.
Gonna be living like native americans before long!
Fry bread is the perfect “I am desperately inhumanly broke” food. You can get a lot of calories out of a bottle of oil/tub of lard and a bag of flour.
Beadwork lets you make something gorgeous out of stuff you can get at the dollar tree.
Do you have levels for your amusement park trust? Like would you go to Disney world but not a traveling carnival? Are they all out? Lol
They are all out.
It’s not worth putting my life in their hands.
I’m down for a powwow! Or *looks around*… twenty.
