Air Traffic Controllers

Ten Days Away, Coming Back To New Controversies Surrounding Donald Trump! :(

Ronald 19 Comments

This author and blogger took a vacation, visiting my old “haunts” in New York City, where he lived until 1989.

While it was great getting back to “my origins”, for only the third time in the past 36 years, new controversies erupted around Donald Trump and his administration while I was away.

At least ten areas of crisis grew while this author and blogger was away on vacation.

The earlier decision of CBS to cancel Stephen Colbert, occurring days before this author and blogger took a break, just to gain the ability to merge with new ownership accepted by Donald Trump, was just the beginning. And Trump celebrating Colbert’s show ending next May was a moment of total disgust!

Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because she revealed a report of weak employment growth in July, and massive revision downward of May and June figures, numbers she had no control over adjusting.

Trump’s tariffs, which will raise the cost of living dramatically in future months, are due to take place on August 7, with some nations being “punished” more than others, including Canada and Brazil, and all Americans paying the price for this insanity, as tariffs cause economic collapses historically!

Ghislane Maxwell, in prison for 20 years for sexual abuse of young girls, connected with the Jeffrey Epstein Scandal, was moved to a minimum security prison, after being interviewed by Trump’s Deputy Attorney General. This is seen as an attempt to move to pardon her, and avoid revelations of whether Donald Trump was involved in the sexual abuse, another sign of a coverup to protect Trump.

Texas is attempting to use the abuses of gerrymandering to insure possibly five more House seats to go to the Republican Party, an effort to insure Republican control of the House of Representatives, with the support of Donald Trump. Democrats have left the state, to try to avoid such abuses from occurring.

The National Museum of American History, connected with the Smithsonian Institution, temporarly removed an exhibit showing Trump’s two impeachments, although it now claims it will be restored in the future.

The number of ICE arrests is multiplying, including at immigration hearings, when people show up at their required appointments, gain a new court date, but then are grabbed by multiple ICE agents wearing masks, acting like the Nazi Gestapo!

The number of government workers are being decimated, which makes a future set of shortcomings that will affect Americans in many areas of government involvement, most notably the National Weather Serivce and the upcoming hurricane season, as well as air traffic control, which delayed this author and blogger’s flight to New York City by a TEN hour delay! 🙁

Trump has moved nuclear submarines closer to Russia, as relations between Trump and Vladimir Putin worsen, and as the Russian war against Ukraine continues unabated.

The mass starvation of Gaza residents by Israel continues, and Trump’s inability or lack of concern about what is seen by many as a growing Holocaust.

So trying to “escape” from the news really is not truly possible, as the nightmare of Donald Trump continues! 🙁

Scott Walker’s War On Labor: Returning To The 1920s And Gilded Age!

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Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, for now the leader in some polls for the Republican Presidential nomination, has declared war on labor unions and worker rights in Wisconsin, ramming legislation through the Wisconsin legislature, allowing employers to refuse to deal with labor unions representing private workers, just as he did the same earlier with public employee labor unions.

By warring against labor unions and labor rights, Walker is denying the many benefits that unions brought to Americans workers, beginning in the era of the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is precisely the cause of the rise of the middle class over the next fifty years, followed by a rapid decline in labor union strength beginning with the administration of Ronald Reagan, and his war on the air traffic controllers, which endangered public safety along with encouraging more so called “right to work” laws that undermine worker rights, benefits, and working conditions.

Walker is promoting the idea that we should return to the 1920s and the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, when workers had no rights, and unions were met with National Guard intervention and strike breakers and high levels of violence and bloodshed!

Walker is showing us what a bully he is, and how dangerous his candidacy really is, and he must be bitterly opposed by all who care about the future of working people in this nation!

Reverting nearly a century and more back in time is NOT an option in the 21st century!

The Immoral, Cynical Sequester: Backing Off On Air Travel, But Not On Seniors, Children, The Sick, Unemployed!

Ronald 1 Comment

The $85 billion dollar sequester forced on the nation by the House Republicans has been a tragedy for the helpless, the vulnerable, but once it affects businessmen and air travelers, the Congress is quick to react, but only for that special interest group which tends to have a larger voice politically!

Yes, even this author travels, and will a number of times this summer, and was not thrilled about airline delays caused by furloughs forced on air traffic controllers.

But what about the indigent seniors who will not be fed by the Meals on Wheels program?

What about the children who are in Head Start, and will now have no summer program, and will force their mothers who have work to quit work that barely keeps the family out of poverty?

How about the sick in nursing homes who will not get government services, and will have medications and nursing care dramatically cut?

How about the unemployed, who will have a cut in coverage which allows them to keep a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs?

How about the victims, the people at the bottom of the social scale, who are told that life is to be protected, but only enough to be born, but not any guarantees beyond that?

And this is all so because corporations must get government welfare who should not get it, such as oil companies!

And this is so because those at the top of the economic pyramid cannot be expected to pay more, when they have had the massive tax cuts of the past decade!

And this is because the Republican Party is willing to cater to special interest groups that support their campaigns, including so called “religious” groups who are out to promote their agenda, despite the concept of separation of church and state!

Who gives a damn for the powerless, over the powerful? Certainly NOT the GOP!

And the sequester which they forced through is now being blamed on Barack Obama, rather than where it belongs–with John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and the rest of their despicable excuse for a political party!

Labor Day: Its Meaning

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Tomorrow is Labor Day, a moment to commemorate the role of America’s working people, and to mourn the rapid decline of American labor unions, under constant attack by corporations and the Republican Party.

If it were not for labor unions, the kinds of benefits that America’s workers have had—including minimum wage, maximum hours, holidays, sick leave, vacations, occupational safety and health, the end of child labor, promotion of equal pay for women—and others, would not have existed.

But it has become much more difficult for labor unions to overcome the ignorance and hate that has emerged since Ronald Reagan fired the air traffic control controllers who went on strike in 1981, and has continued to face attack by Republican Governors, including Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Chris Christie of New Jersey, and others, who have managed to propagandize that public labor unions are an evil that must be destroyed. It is extremely ironic that the only President to be the head of a labor union—The Screen Actors Guild—-was the one who started the rapid decline of labor organizations in America!

Despite all this, this is a time to reflect on and remember and honor the labor movement, which has had such an impact on America, and to understand that the labor movement is in trouble, but not ready to give up the struggle for America’s workforce over the coming years!

The Symbolic Decline Of Labor: Thirty Years Ago Today, Ronald Reagan Fired The Air Traffic Controllers For Going On Strike

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On this day in 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired the air traffic controllers for going on strike, and this marked the symbolic decline of labor unions in America ever since, with Republican governors now having declared war on public workers in labor unions in 2011!

Ironic that a former labor leader as head of the Screen Actors Guild became the image of an anti labor President, and even more ironic that tens of thousands of workers working for the Federal Aviation Administration are now out of work over a funding dispute between the Republicans in the House and the Democrats in the Senate. There is absolutely no concern by the Republicans over workers not getting paid, losing their homes, and disrupting the economy, as long as they win the point that only big business matters, as under Calvin Coolidge in the 1920s.

The coming to power of Calvin Coolidge to the Presidency on this day, a leader who thought big business corporations were not “special interests”, but that labor and farmer and small business were such, and did not deserve any government favoritism, demonstrates that the Republican Party has not changed its image despite it being nearly a century later!

The Rise Of Mediocrity And Dishonesty In America’s Work Force

Ronald 1 Comment

America faces a myriad of problems, but one that is not often discussed is the growing epidemic of mediocrity and dishonesty in the work force.

Whether it is the alarming deterioration of the air traffic controllers performance in doing their job, or the alarming number of errors made by various medical personnel  in hospitals, or the poor performance of many teachers who just do the minimum in teaching their students, or the lack of knowledge and common sense by many politicians who show an amazing ability to be stupid and ignorant in alarming numbers, this country is in a major crisis!

Too many Americans in all occupational fields are satisfied to cut corners, cheat, steal, do just the minimum, avoid responsibility for their behavior, and put their own personal needs ahead of wishing to excel in job performance!

This is also evident more and more among students at all levels from elementary school through college, who wish to just go along with the minimum, have no desire to explore and inquire about knowledge beyond the amount needed to pass tests, and seem to have no common sense or general knowledge base, and are seemingly happy being clueless and ignorant, as if ignorance is bliss!

Ignorance, mediocrity and dishonesty are not a state of bliss!

Instead, it is a warning of a rapid decline in America over the next two generations, if this attitude of malaise and lack of concern about performance and excellence is not reversed, and pronto!