Yeah - fuck her. Sorry I ordered the film now.
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No doubt some of Trump’s “very fine people.”
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The most recent data from the Federal Aviation Administration shows that across all airport towers and terminal approach facilities nationwide, only about 70% of staffing targets were filled by fully certified controllers as of September 2023. When controllers in training are included, that rose to about 79%.
Some traffic control towers at major airports around the country – including Philadelphia, Orlando, Austin, Albuquerque and Milwaukee – had less than 60% of their staffing targets filled with certified controllers. Reagan Airport had about 63%.
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That does sound like it’s largely a Biden-era problem, if not necessarily his fault (though Tromp LLC will likely worsen it). I wonder what attempts if any his administration made to alleviate it.
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I don’t think that I said who’s responsible.
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Here in dry, flammable California, just a drone/robot dog with fireworks alone is a scary thought. That’s a weapon of mass destruction…
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This shite popped up in my youtube feed…
Fucking bigots.
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And I didn’t say that you did. I just responded as we often do, with thoughts of my own. 
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It’s not that new. It does sound like something his administration could’ve done something to address. If only they had come up with some plan to invest in the FAA, air traffic control, and airports. Oh, of course they did.
2022: The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has started investing the first $1 billion of $5 billion into the country’s air traffic control system. The funding — made possible through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — will sustain, repair or replace hundreds of buildings and pieces of equipment that make flying in the United States the safest in the world. – https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-begins-investing-1b-bipartisan-infrastructure-law-funding-air-traffic-control-system
2024: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is awarding $970 million from President Biden’s Bipartisan Investing in America agenda to 114 airports across the country, spanning 44 states and three territories. This announcement, which Secretary Buttigieg will make as part of the Administration’s Investing in America tour, delivers on President Biden’s commitment to rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure
[…]
Nine grants will address the needs of aging air traffic control towers.
[…]
Today’s funding is from the Airport Terminal Program, one of three aviation programs created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and comes on the heels of more than $240 million in funding for Airport Infrastructure Grants. The law provides $1 billion annually for five years for Airport Terminal Program grants. In total, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provided a historic $25 billion to modernize our country’s airport infrastructure. – https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/biden-harris-administration-announces-nearly-1-billion-grants-bipartisan-infrastructure
2024: For a fourth year, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced $20 million being awarded to 20 airport-owned airport traffic control towers across the country, spanning 15 states. This funding will be used to upgrade existing or build new control towers across the country, delivering on President Biden’s vision to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure through his Investing in America agenda.
[…]
“Today’s announcement demonstrates the FAA’s ongoing commitment to airports of all sizes. These upgrades will help ensure traveler safety for decades by providing our controllers better work environments that are also more accessible, secure, and sustainable,” – https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/investing-america-biden-harris-administration-announces-20-million-bipartisan
But still, here we are:
2025: Just a day before a deadly midair collision at Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C., employees at the Federal Aviation Administration were sent an offer to resign with eight months’ pay.
[…]
Though the Trump administration talks about the need to shed federal workers, the government has been desperate to hire air traffic controllers for nearly a decade. The FAA has struggled to keep up with the rapidly increasing number of commercial flights (-- Air traffic controllers were initially offered buyouts and told to consider leaving government)
Wonder what other news headlines might include ‘Reagan’ and ‘Firing Air Traffic Controllers’? Oh. Right.
August 5th, 1981: On August 5, an angry President Reagan carried out his threat, and the federal government began firing the 11,359 [out of 13,000] air-traffic controllers who had not returned to work. In addition, he declared a lifetime ban on the rehiring of the strikers by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). (-- Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 air‑traffic controllers | August 5, 1981 | HISTORY)
Isn’t it weird how, seems like anytime there’s bad news of a systemic nature, you can almost always find a precedent or at least rhyming news that echoes from back then?
Edit: The infrastructure spending press releases I saw did not specifically refer to hiring more controllers. So that could be a detail that they didn’t include in the $1 billion/year plan. But they were trying something to help at least.
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Not necessarily. How many resigned or retired early after the election? T**** instituted a hiring freeze immediately, right when the government is doing the most hiring. I’ll look it up, but Buttigieg had stated earlier this week that the Biden admin had FAA and ATC at full or near-full staffing.
ETA: I can’t find the specific statement, but in mid-2023, Buttigieg had stated that nationwide, ATC was 3000 controllers short. In 2024, he stated the goal of hiring 1800 new controllers. By mid-2024, they had exceeded that goal. I’m not sure what that translates to in target staffing percentages, but it sounds like the Biden admin was at least moving things in the right direction, vs. firing the FAA director and telling ATCs to resign…
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And that’s going to come back and bite them in the ass in 3,2,1…
I didn’t fire him because he was gay - he was just too femme.
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Yep… fucking quislings believe that throwing trans folks to the fascists will save them… They should read a fucking book on the holocaust to see how that worked out the last time.
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Why can it never be, “First they came for the Fascists, and I did nothing… Result!”
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