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Sounds Safe

I do not think you can run LAGUARDIA with one ATC guy.

The unidentified air traffic controller was in charge of both air and ground traffic at the time of the crash. While that's not necessarily out of the ordinary — especially for late-night hours — it should be. It meant that he was in charge of telling both planes in the air, planes on the ground and vehicles on the ground where they needed to go. While ATC Specialists are undoubtedly highly trained, it can certainly become too much for anybody, particularly at really busy airports like LaGuardia.

And How Will They Do That Then

I don't know what Trump believes ICE will be doing at airports, but I think reporters should not headline this obviously unrealistic purpose.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were deployed to airports on Monday to help ease security lines.

The Play Inside The Play

We all (often deservedly) mock "security theater" and some of the more ridiculous rituals of the airport experience, but I don't doubt that there is some purpose to airport security.  The prevention of hijackings and plane bombings seems to be an important goal, whether or not the way we go about it is precisely the right approach.

Throwing a bunch of untrained dickheads whose core function is harassment and violent kidnapping does not seem likely to improve the speed and efficiency of that!

Gravitas

Repeating myself, but for all that was wrong with the journalism/commentary leading up to and during the Iraq war, there was some sense, or at least pretense, that war was a big deal, that civilian deaths were a big deal.

Now we just see whether the line is going up or down in response to various things.

Peace Through Strength

The problem is that Iran started a war with us 47 years ago because Sleepy Joe Biden gave all the weapons to Ukraine. Now that Donald Trump made the military strong again, we no longer have a war with Iran.

Apparently peace talks (denied by Iran) have happened and the stock market is soaring, baby!

And they say:

Iranian state TV claims "Trump withdrew his 48-hour ultimatum out of fear of Iran's response"

 

Iran's official state television network IRIB said on its official Telegram social media channel Monday that President Trump had postponed his deadline for the Islamic Republic to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to international maritime traffic "out of fear of Iran's response."

Morning

Monstrous Monday.

Sunday Evening

I think the war is over, again.

Mr. Trump, Sir,

It was that nasty Netanyahu, little Marco, Pete Hegseth and... umm... Samuel Alito who got you into this mess.

What Could Go Wrong?

Many things, actually.

Homan told CNN’s “State of the Union” he was currently working on a plan for the deployment with the leaders of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Transportation Security Administration. He said he believed it would begin at large airports that have seen longest wait times and that agents would cover security points but wouldn’t provide help with baggage screening

Afternoon

Enjoy

4 Times The Size Of California

I am sure strikes on power plants can do a lot of damage, and I am not going to pretend to be an instant expert on Iran's power grid, but even immense damage does not lead to inevitable "surrender."

 

President Donald Trump threatened Saturday to “hit and obliterate” Iranian power plants if Tehran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.

I am also not going to pretend to be a war expert, but we do have a recent, and ongoing, example of the futility of certain approaches in Eastern Europe.

Morning

Sunday funday

Saturday Night

Rock on.

Saturday Afternoon

Busy weekending.

Will Someone Please Come Unshit The Bed For Me

Most of Trump's life, somebody did.

Free Was Nice

A common reaction to this is, "What, they didn't charge before?"

Iran is planning to enshrine a “new status” for the Strait of Hormuz to require every passing ship to pay fees to Tehran for the privilege, Expediency Council member Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to the supreme leader on economic affairs, told the country’s Mehr news agency. “Iran will turn its position from a sanctioned country to an enhanced power in the region and the world,” he said. “We will sanction those domination-seeking arrogant powers.”

Musk Lies

Wow who knew?

Elon Musk was misleading in his public statements during a crucial period of his 2022 Twitter takeover, a jury has found.

After two days of deliberations, a jury in San Francisco federal court decided in a unanimous verdict against the tech titan, who was sued by a group of Twitter investors arguing they had relied on his statements.

I don't get everything right, but I was very early with "Musk is a lying piece of shit."

Morning

Slacker Saturday

Happy Hour

Get happy.