Jonathan

[Jonathan @JonathanLow16]

Must've done something right to deserve you. @heatherr_joyy #KappaSigFoundersBanquet

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

The air traffic controller cleared the fire truck onto the runway. Seconds later, the same controller screamed “stop, stop, stop.” The plane was doing 93 to 105 mph.

Both pilots are dead.

Everyone will frame this as controller error. One controller was simultaneously managing a United flight that aborted takeoff after an anti-ice warning, dispatching a fire truck across an active runway, and sequencing an inbound Air Canada landing at highway speed. At 11:40 PM. On a mandatory overtime shift at a facility that has been understaffed for years.

A system that assigns one person that workload will produce exactly this outcome. The only variable is when.

The FAA is short approximately 3,000 controllers. The headcount dropped 13% from 2010 to 2024 while flight volume rose 10%. Over 40% of the FAA’s 290 terminal facilities are understaffed. The New York TRACON, which manages the most congested airspace in America across LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark, has been chronically below target. Newark was operating at 59% of its staffing goal. LaGuardia handles 900 flights a day.

The hiring pipeline is broken at every stage. Only 2% of applicants complete the full process. Training takes up to 6 years. The FAA Academy in Oklahoma City is a bottleneck, with roughly 35% of trainees washing out. Congress blocked legislation to build a second academy. In one recent hiring cycle, the FAA brought on 1,512 candidates and lost 1,300 in the same window. Net gain: around 160 controllers for an entire country.

Three things need to happen and everyone who can make them happen has known for years.

Congress needs to fund and authorize a second FAA training academy. One facility in Oklahoma City cannot produce enough controllers for 900 million annual passengers. Members of Congress from Oklahoma have actively blocked this. That needs to end yesterday.

The FAA needs to cut certification time. Six years from application to fully certified controller is absurd. The agency’s own data shows tower simulators reduce certification time by 27%. They’ve installed them at 95 facilities. That should be every facility, and the simulated hours should count toward more of the certification requirement.

The FAA needs to stop plugging staffing gaps with mandatory overtime. Controllers at understaffed facilities are working six-day weeks rotating between morning, mid, and night shifts. The NTSB has flagged fatigue repeatedly. The controller last night was managing overlapping emergencies during a nighttime operation. Overtime is not a staffing plan. It’s a countdown to the next runway collision.

The controller said “I messed up” to a Frontier pilot who watched the whole thing. The pilot responded “No man, you did the best you could.”

One of them is right. The answer determines whether this happens again.

[Clarence Thomas the Tank Engine @TheRealJChubby]

That is free college for everyone money spent on the dumbest shit imaginable but tell us more about how billionaires are smarter and harder working than the rest of us.

[davey @jerseyh0mo]

Normal people in the US watching other countries hold their corrupt leaders accountable

[☠️ Lilith Lovett ☠️ same @ on 💙☁️🦋 @LilithLovett]

The fact that they would even try to pass such a bill should tell you everything about how much they hate you.

[The New York Times @nytimes]

Breaking News: The EPA will stop considering lives saved when setting pollution limits and instead calculate only the cost to businesses. https://t.co/uYom4BthnT

[Seattle Seahawks @Seahawks]

DRAKE THOMAS ‼️ PLAY. MAKER.

[conner @winterweather]

wow i can’t believe a republican president did what the last 3 republican presidents did and launched us into a recession and a useless war for oil.

[jack🌹🇪🇺 @thedialogist]

We are so back.

[emily north @north0fnorth]

as a white american i simply could not imagine giving a single shit about this. america isn’t an ethnostate and we’re not native to this land regardless. if you can’t grow up and learn to be in community with people who look a little different from you that’s frankly embarrassing

[Jonathan @JonathanLow16]

Losing Polo blows but that’s expensive, so I get it.

[Jeff Passan @JeffPassan]

Infielder Jorge Polanco and the New York Mets are in agreement on a two-year, $40 million contract, sources tell ESPN. He is expected to play first base and DH.

[Neil Stone @DrNeilStone]

The idea vaccines cause autism was invented by Andrew Wakefield in 1998 and was so thoroughly debunked he lost his license for gross malpractice

And here we are 27 years later RFK Jr dredging up the same nonsense

Such a tiresome waste of time

[Mike Drucker @MikeDrucker]

REPUBLICANS: “How dare you call us Nazis?!”

ALSO REPUBLICANS: “The swastika needs to make a comeback.”

[Jonathan @JonathanLow16]

CHRISTMAS IN NOVEMBER

[MLB @MLB]

Mariners, 1B Josh Naylor finalizing five-year deal per multiple reports, including MLB's @Feinsand.

[clo 🕷️ @clovescence]

everybody is 12 years old

[Barbie 🎀 Agitprop @BarbieAgitprop]

Ben Shapiro will say with a straight face that Israel has a claim to Palestinian land based on some shit from 3000 years ago and then tell people they aren't entitled to live in the city they were born in

[Tom Colicchio @tomcolicchio]

thank god

[Jack Cocchiarella @JDCocchiarella]

This is the fuck you energy Democrats need right now

[wolfgang fuckface @mustachetoilet]

No prior generation had to give up all other joys in life to buy a home.

They had phones. They watched tv and movies. They ate at restaurants. They traveled. They drove new cars. They went to bars with friends. They drank and smoked constantly.

To pretend otherwise is absurd.

[WarMonitor @TheWarMonitor]

We went from a $10,000 bonus to a 30% pay cut overnight.

[Noah Garfinkel @NoahGarfinkel]

EXPIRED MILK SAYS MOLDY BREAD IS OKAY, SHOULD BE EATEN