Other direction would be my guess.
As someone who was married for 30 years to someone with spinal damage, and who had a cousin who married a quad but was long accused of cheating on her husband to produce their children, it’s kind of a hot button topic in my family. I know you meant no harm, but it’s a long-standing problem with disabled adults being de-sexualized in the eyes of others.
But I’ll just further note that Ken Paxton does NOT have a spinal injury, that guy is Greg Abbott, and I think folks got confused about which Texan misogynist we were talking about.
Nah, they will do like at my store and just steal them.
Both are behaviors you don’t really want to encourage in young people.
Or, maybe they will find some sort of, IDK, loophole.
I’m not entirely sure what to make of this one, but a North Dakota man pretended to be an ICE officer in order to break another man out of jail, and a judge has now dismissed the charges against him.
The stupid war on women and minorities continues.
DEI MY ASS.
Do those butt heads think you can “DEI” your way in the Thunderbirds? or into command of a squadron?
Why doesn’t the military push back? “That’s not DEI, so we didn’t take it down.” Make the trump regime specifically say why. (preemptively: not everyone in the military is a mindless MAGAturd. There are liberals in there.)
JD Vance says the Iraq war happened because Europe didn’t do enough to talk us out of it, which nearly made me choke on my Freedom Fries.
Sean Duffy says we can solve the shortage of air traffic controllers by (checks notes) not letting them retire.
Shouting that your fellow Republicans are “corrupt” because they’re maybe working with Democrats by snooping into a possibly stinky controversy seems like the best way to get more headlines and piss people off.
https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/desantis-holds-news-conference-in-pensacola/
I really hate being put into a position to defend these assholes,
but no one is suggesting “not letting them retire”.
ATC’s have a really early mandatory retirement age —56.
This not only means controllers that are able and willing to work are forced out, but it hurts recruitment because anyone that starts after 31 isn’t going to hit the minimum number of years for retirement benefits, so that limits the recruitment pool.
56 isn’t that old and considering upping it by a few years, if it can be done safely, isn’t really stupid.
But no one is suggesting blocking anyone that wants to retire from leaving.
Isn’t the “if it can be done safely” part kind of a really big deal when you’re dealing with a job that requires rapid thinking and attention to detail and has major consequences in the event of an error? It’s my understanding that pilots have a mandatory retirement age for the same reason - some old-timers might still be sharp as a tack, but it’s not a risk you want to be taking.
There must be a way of accomplishing this (such as the use of periodic competency tests) that don’t involve an arbitrary mandatory retirement age, especially one as low as 56. You could also require mandatory physical exams, as with pilots.
But one huge difference between a pilot and an air traffic controller is that a pilot in the air is not easily replaced if they become incapacitated (due to a cardiac event, stroke, etc.). A controller in such a situation is more easily replaced.
Give them the rigorous “person, woman, man, camera, tv” test. You pass that, you are more than competent. That is stable genius territory.
IIRC, felon47 said he’s not adding tariffs on Russia because Russia is negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine. Of course he still added tariffs on Ukraine.
He forgot to run that by his cabinet and the real president. They’ve been saying the fed workers who were fired deserved it because they’re poor performers. Who wants to hire a poor performer? (Look, I know. But electing someone isn’t technically hiring them.)
Not to mention what’s with this grant nonsense? You want a college education, then you had better pay for it yourself!
I have my doubts that’s just an insult. I’m thinking they very well may be. And I’m not just talking about the insecure bit.
[Freud]
Do you remember when I said “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”? That was way back when even crazy people had normal craziness. Craziness even you could understand. Craziness that came in one-person containers.[Welles]
What do you mean? Don’t you remember when people freaked out over an obviously fictional story? Now that was some decent mass panic. Mass panic which spread all across the country. Mass panic which, let’s be fair, wasn’t al that massive. Now this stuff you guys in 2025 have.
It occurs to me that we could get a large portion of the population to “take care” of the problem of that portion being so stupid and crazy by simply replaying War of the Worlds in its original format.
Aren’t those loons using the guns as essentially replacement phalluses? That makes them dildos!
You should’ve probably put a NSFW spoiler on that.
That was my bad. It was so cartoonish and I wasn’t thinking it was a big deal in the Pit but that was a clear mistake on my part.
Don’t worry about it. We’ve all been there. Some of us with that equipment…or so I’m told!
The “if it can be done safely” is the hitch here.
Much as we are all loathe to admit it certain abilities really do diminish with age. Among them vision and reaction time. Corrective lenses can mitigate some vision changes, and experience can compensate for the initial stages of less reaction time, but those only work up to a point.
I do think the rules should be re-evaluated from time to time. However, I don’t think the public understands that in some ways the physical requirements for air traffic controller exceed those required of pilots. I am a licensed pilot. However, I could never pass the vision tests for being ATC.
There may be ATC who are willing to work past 56, but that does not mean they are able to do so, or at least not to the minimum standards required of the profession.
As I said, the rules should be looked at… but I am not convinced this administration will do it in a manner that puts safety first.
ATC also has mandatory, regular physical exams just like pilots do. They have to pass an annual examination, and if certain health conditions occur before their next exam they will have to recover and get another exam before returning to duty.
Not a good assumption. Although major hubs do have multiple controllers in their facilities they are not idly sitting by, they are already carrying a full workload. There isn’t a “spare” hanging around to take over immediately, not to mention I don’t think we want a situation where ATC’s are busy at the downed guy’s station while he expires on the floor under their feet. Sure, they can call someone to come in but that will take at least a bit of time for the replacement to get there and meanwhile it’s not like you can tell the jets to pull over next to a cloud and park until the new ATC arrives.
Commercial jets carry TWO pilots because of that very scenario you describe - airplanes really do carry a “spare pilot” in the sense that one pilot can land a plane solo even if that’s not an ideal situation (hence they declare an emergency which grants them right-of-way and gets them extra assistance from ATC).
It’s not at all uncommon for airport towers at less busy airports to have just one ATC on duty. If something happens to that person not only are they not being replaced immediately, their lack could go on for hours. This has, actually, happened on occasion. Fortunately, there are standard procedures learned by all pilots on how to handle a situation where an airport ATC tower is not responding. These procedures have prevented tragedies. Nonetheless, they are not as safe as fully functioning ATC.
So… you had that a bit backward. Big jets carry “spare” pilots (actually, for some flights they carry two complete crews). ATCs are not always quickly replaceable.
Agreed.
What I was a responding to was a post that said the new administration’s response to the air traffic control shortage was to “not allow air traffic controllers to retire”, which was factually incorrect, and pointing out what they were actually suggesting.
Maybe it’s is dangerous to let an ATC work until, say 58….but I don’t think considering allowing it with rigorous testing qualifies as a Stupid Republican Idea.