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When it comes to a fear of flying, most of our concerns are related to things that could go wrong in the air. But it turns out that the greatest flight risks may be taking place on the ground. Our air traffic problem is getting out of control. "Controllers last month lost radio and radar at a Philadelphia facility that guides planes to and from New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport, and another outage hit May 9. Regulators slowed the rate of aircraft arrivals at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to help ease the strain on controllers after a deadly collision in late January." All this time we've been focused on Major Tom when the problem is that there aren't enough people to man ground control. Recently, flights into Newark were delayed by as much as 7 hours because of a shortage of controllers. "As few as three people were on duty during the evening shift, short of the target of 14 controllers for most of those hours." And filling the jobs quickly won't be easy. Bloomberg (Gift Article): Newark Flight Chaos Shows the Crisis Rocking Air Traffic Control Jobs. "The pipeline of trainees needs to be robust because long hours, overwhelming stress, a mandatory retirement age of 56 and outdated equipment mean near constant attrition for one of the toughest jobs in America. While pay can easily exceed $200,000 a year for some positions, the starting salary is much more modest and new graduates often have little say over where they’ll be sent. It takes a certain type of person to seek out such an intense job, especially when alternatives such as trade union apprentice programs offer a similar salary path, more control over location and a much lower chance of a mistake ending in a deadly fireball."
+ NYT (Gift Article): Newark’s Air Traffic Control Staffing Crisis Is Dire. It’s Also Not Unique. "Ninety-nine percent of the air traffic control facilities in the United States are operating below recommended staffing levels ... Across the country, controller shortages have become untenable, with no quick fixes in sight. Training to become an air traffic controller is a lengthy, highly specialized process that requires certification specific to each facility and its surrounding airspace, meaning controllers cannot be automatically reassigned to the location where they are most needed."
+ "The situation is, has been and continues to be unsafe. The amount of stress we are under is insurmountable." WSJ (Gift Article): This Air-Traffic Controller Just Averted a Midair Collision. Now He’s Speaking Out. "Frustrated with the current work situation and his own close call, Stewart took stress-related trauma leave, a benefit available for controllers. 'I don’t want to be responsible for killing 400 people.'"
+ Infrastructure Weak: And as David Graham explains in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Mess at Airports Is Part of a Larger Pattern. "Other physical infrastructure, including bridges, dams, power lines, and highways, are in a serious state of decay." (If we don't reverse course when it comes to spending on core infrastructure, we risk turning the whole country into a fly by night outfit.)
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Tougher Than the Rest
It was hard not to think of the line from Badlands as Trump lashed out at Bruce Springsteen: Poor man wanna be rich. Rich man wanna be king. The king ain’t satisfied ‘til he rules everything. "This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country ...Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!" The president attacked and threatened Bruce Springsteen for comments the musician (and national treasure) made about America's dangerous trends. During the first Trump administration, these undignified and ridiculous rants were laughable, but not dangerous. During this version of Trumpism, we've seen so-called enemies being targeted by Trump. Springsteen obviously knew he'd be targeted by the president. He also knows that a lot of his fanbase comes from red states. But he spoke the truth anyway. Other artists need to speak out as well (especially younger ones). Actors, artists, and musicians need to stop carrying on as if everything is normal. There's strength in numbers. Don't leave it to a 75 year-old rocker to be the only one willing to prove it all night. Trump also followed up on his claim that Springsteen is "not a talented guy" to randomly lash out again at Taylor Swift. "Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer ‘HOT?’" Springsteen's not talented. Taylor Swift isn't popular. Next thing you're gonna tell me is Trump isn't corrupt.
+ From yesterday's edition: "The last check on power after the checks and balances have failed, are the people. You and me." In the Bruce Springsteen song Jungleland, the narrator laments that, "the poets down here don't write nothing at all, they just stand back and let it all be." Springsteen is one poet not following that model. "In my home, the America I love, the America I've written about that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration. Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us. Raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring." Bruce Springsteen is one artist not ignoring America's struggle.
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Not Allowed to Die
"A pregnant woman in Georgia who was declared brain dead after a medical emergency has been on life support for three months to let the fetus grow enough to be delivered, a move her family says a hospital told them was required under the state’s strict anti-abortion law. With her due date still more than three months away, it could be one of the longest such pregnancies." Hospital tells family brain-dead Georgia woman must carry fetus to birth because of abortion ban.
+ "After an unsuccessful surgery, she was declared brain-dead. Those events already constitute almost any definition of tragedy; in addition to the baby she was planning to welcome with her boyfriend, she already had another young son who will now be left without a mother. But what happened next turned the situation from a tragedy into an absolute horror show. Despite the fact that Smith was legally dead, the hospital informed her family that she was not allowed to actually die." Monica Hesse in WaPo(Gift Article): Is this Gilead? Nope, just Georgia.
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Weekend Whats
What to Read: With all the air traffic controller stories in the news these days, it's a good to time to recall one the most amazing ground control stories in history; when the call "Uh, Houston, we’ve had a problem" was resolved, in part, with duct tape. NYT (Gift Article): Ed Smylie, Who Saved the Apollo 13 Crew With Duct Tape, Dies at 95. "If you’re a Southern boy, if it moves and it’s not supposed to, you use duct tape."
+ What to Watch: "One afternoon in 1971, Rubens Paiva, a former congressman and outspoken critic of Brazil's newly instituted military dictatorship, was taken from his home in Rio de Janeiro by government officials, told nothing more than that he must give a 'deposition' to authorities, and disappeared." In I'm Still Here (coming to Netflix this weekend) we follow "Rubens's wife, Eunice (played by Fernanda Torres), whose indefatigable search for the truth about her husband would stretch out for decades."
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Extra, Extra
Heil Back in Style: Today in Nazism: The guy who heiled Hitler is platforming a song called Heil Hitler. The New Yorker: Kanye Gave Twitter an Exclusive Hit Single. Kanye West’s ‘Heil Hitler’ song turns hate into a hook. And hate is hooking a lot of people these days.
+ 86 This Discussion: "An anti-Trump protest online featuring the numbers '8647' is now at the heart of a federal investigationafter former FBI director James Comey shared it in a social media post." Two things to know about this controversy. One, 86 usually just means to nix or get rid of something. It was obviously not a threat and the attack on Comey by the administration is more about going after their enemies. But two, Comey is a fool for sharing a post that could be so easily misconstrued, even if that's being done on purpose.
+ Good Government: "The U.S. is slashing funding for scientific research, after decades of deep investment. Here’s some of what those taxpayer dollars created." NYT (Gift Article): 9 Federally Funded Scientific Breakthroughs That Changed Everything.
+ Buyer Be Wary: Consumer sentiment hits second-lowest reading on record.
+ Suspension Breaks: "They come for asylum, insisting they face persecution for their religion, or sexuality or for supporting the wrong politicians. For generations, they had been given the chance to make their case to U.S. authorities. Not anymore." Trump suspends asylum system, leaving immigrants to face an uncertain future.
+ The Tortoise and the Heir: "What is a sperm race, anyway? Well, it’s all in the name, really. Round up a couple of guys, get a sample of their semen, and examine it under a microscope to see whose sperm swims faster. Contrary to what you may be thinking, the race doesn’t actually start until an hour or so after the sample is produced." Vanity Fair: Inside LA’s Young, Testosterone-Fueled Sperm Race. (I've been looking for a new sport. It's down to this or pickleball.)
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Feel Good Friday
"The technique used on a 9½-month-old boy with a rare condition has the potential to help people with thousands of other uncommon genetic diseases." NYT (Gift Article): Baby Is Healed With World’s First Personalized Gene-Editing Treatment.
+ "Talking to your loved ones about your problems can be uncomfortable. Talking to your therapist can be expensive. Paul Jenkinson, h