Okay, so, tell the truth. Don’t you find it ironic that Trump’s plane crash happened at Reagan National Airport? The tower at Reagan National was understaffed by Air Traffic Controllers that night. Reagan was the one who attacked Air Traffic Controllers in the first place. It was an ideological position. (He wanted to bust their union and didn’t give two figs about safety.) Control towers in the US have been undermanned ever since and air travel in the US has NEVER been the same.
After the crash, The First Felon blamed, well, everyone but himself. He pointed the finger at most every Democrat and delusion currently in play in MAGA ethos. Obama? That one might have been a mistake. We’ve had two Presidents since Obama, Donny. One of them was YOU. If Obama had a bad policy and you didn’t change it, it was your policy, too.
He also blamed current MAGA boogie man, “DEI.” (I don’t think he meant ‘Don, Jr, Eric, and Ivanka, the unqualified nepo-hires of his first mess.) He said he knows it could have been DEI because he has common sense. I think he meant NONsense. He said the last administration put so many DEI hires in place, like dwarfs – he blamed dwarfs – as to set up this very dangerous situation. He blamed dwarfs!
Then, when he was asked if it was safe to fly, he reassured everyone that indeed, it is. I don’t mean to put too fine of a point on this but if the DEI hires are so prevalent as to make flying dangerous, then it can’t be safe to fly, too. Which is it, Donny?
What Trump won’t tell MAGA is that he allowed the director of the FAA, Michael Whitaker, to resign the day The Felon was sworn in, leaving the department without a leader. Whitaker was effectively pushed out by co-president Musk because Whitaker wanted to impose some $600,000 in fines against SpaceX. Oh, he also disbanded the Aviation Security Advisory Committee.
So far, one of the few things people agree on is that the control towers at airports are dangerously understaffed. One element of this crash being investigated was that ONE person was managing both incoming fixed wing craft and helicopters, even though those jobs are normally separated. So, naturally, the day before the crash, according to ABC News, the maladministration sent buyout offers to Air Traffic Controllers. Leave your job with eight months pay! Excellence in action, I guess. Then the crash happened.
So on Friday, the maladministration “clarified” that Air Traffic Controllers weren’t subject to the hiring freeze nor eligible for the buyout. They were just sent the offer, um, randomly, for no real reason. MAGA is a defect of morality. Republican ideology is dangerous and the world has a body count to prove it…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I guess one could make this up, but we’re stuck with Trump so we don’t have to. He sued ABC for saying he’s a rapist. The judge in the case said he’s a rapist. Legal experts said ABC would have won their case. They buckled anyway.
He sued CBS for interviewing Kamala but not him. They invited him. He turned it down. So then, when he saw the Kamala interview, he randomly decided they had carefully edited the interview to make her seem better than she is. Get THIS: In his suit, he accused CBS of, “malicious, deceptive and substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, deceive and mislead the public.”
Every accusation is an admission with this guy. Every one. Nearly every word this guy vomits is a malicious, deceptive and substantial distortion calculated to confuse, deceive and mislead the public. Still, CBS is considering settling. They want to merge with another company and The Felon has control over the FCC. They anticipate he’ll make life tougher for them if they don’t bend the knee, so it looks like they might do it.
47 controls the FCC and the stations need broadcast licenses to do their job. You’d better get used to British accents when you’re getting your news because very, very soon, all we’ll get from the American networks is “truthiness.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Speaking of fictions standing in for facts, I’m seriously considering giving the Stupid Bowl a pass this year. I can’t say, for sure, I won’t watch. I’m a huge football fan and there is some aspect of FOMO, ‘Fear Of Missing Out.’ I have personal identity tied up with being a football fan and that makes it harder to turn away. But it’s possible. Right now, I don’t WANT to watch.
I made a mistake, once. (I’ve made LOTS of mistakes but this one specifically applies.) I took the average time of a football play and multiplied it by the number of plays in a game. When you sit down to watch a football game, you’re committing three and a half hours of your life to the viewing experience. My calculation showed me I was getting right around eleven minutes of actual action for my three and a half hour investment. (That’s when I took to recording the game, then coming in late and skipping all the crap. If you time it just right, you can even catch the live ending of the game.)
The Stupid Bowl won’t be asking for three and a half hours. No, it will be FOUR and a half hours of your life – for the SAME eleven minutes of football. My reward for that time investment? I get to watch a team I don’t much care for, the Eagles, win the game, or a team I REALLY don’t like, the Chiefs, win the game. (Both teams are very good. I’m just not a fan.)
Okay, so there IS the halftime show and the commercials have a reputation. It turns out, when I sit down to watch football, I don’t WANT to see a concert. I want to watch football. So, for the last several years, I actively avoid the halftime show. Also, the commercials have become seriously over-rated. There were, like, two Stupor Bowls with really good commercials. The rest has been hype – and if there IS a good one, you can probably catch it in “previews” these days. And not one word of that has anything to do with the Chiefs getting the “boosts” they’ve received to get there in the first place.
See, the Chiefs went into this season with a chance to do something no team has ever done and only two teams in the history of Super Bowels have ever even had a CHANCE to do, win three in a row. The league knows the possibility of a “three-peat” is a great ticket seller. So, throughout this season, the officials have given the Chiefs the occasional…boost, just a little help, here and there. The Chiefs are a very good team so they didn’t need a LOT of help, just that little boost, here and there.
I should add, the NFL strongly objects to the charge they’ve been helping the Chiefs. It hurts their product if people realize it isn’t on the up-and-up. Chiefs fans deny it, too. But everyone else? If you’re a football fan and know the game, I have only to mention the First Down that wasn’t and the catch that bounced and you KNOW exactly which plays I’m referring to with no further explanation needed. And, yes, those things are debatable. That’s part of the fun of being a sports fan.
But tell the truth. As they broke away to commercial while the officials “reviewed the play,” you KNEW in your heart of hearts, how those calls were going to go, right? Benefit, Chiefs. “Bad calls happen.” That’s the official explanation – AFTER the Chiefs have been named the winner and are on their way to the big game. It’s true, too. That’s what makes it a plausible explanation. But “plausible” doesn’t make it “true.” When the so-called “bad call” advances the NFL’s goal – selling more tickets – was it a “bad call?”
I can’t say if the NFL will continue to help the Chiefs. It seems the goal of just getting them there for the possibility would sell all the tickets they need. They can let the game play out properly and not really care about the outcome. In fact, if the Chiefs lose, the NFL would be in a good position to use that tactic again, down the road.
Bear in mind, at some point, the NFL redefined itself as an “Entertainment League,” not a “sports league.” Just like Big Time Wrestling…
