The founding Fathers likely couldn’t imagine a Congress that wouldn’t impeach a Supreme Court Justice for such flagrant self-enrichment. But they were thinking about Congress as a more ideological body rather than a political entity. They couldn’t imagine Justices being aligned with political bodies; that was part of the idea of a lifetime appointment. Put someone in a job for life and they should be immune from partisan political bullshit from the outside.
They couldn’t envision justices who would trade everything for a lifetime appointment to support their preferred political flavor.
IMO, the solution is to let every President nominate a new SC justice, and retire the oldest one every election.
The ruling class of the United States has always been like this. This is a country founded by and for slaveowners that gladly governed in their own favor.
Or, they could focus on making their flights as comfortable and stress free as possible, make flying a pleasure again, and fewer loonies will lose it. Imagine if we all had a good experience flying?
It sure feels like this happens a hell of a lot more often now than when I was a kid back in the 80s or even a teen and young adult in the 90s. If that turns out to be statistically the case (it may just be that it’s reported on more often), it doesn’t seem like enough is being done to mitigate it.
Way way more people fly now than back then. Like 4xs as much. Things like this will also be reported basically right away and go viral. I’m sure they had unruly passengers in the past, but the increase in people flying has increased the number of shitty adults flying as well.
There’s no demand for that. All evidence shows that people will sacrifice pretty much everything to get a cheaper flight. I think we as a society have simply accepted that flying is a miserable experience that we put up with to get where we’re going. A few hours of suffering for an amazing week in paradise (every vacationer’s dream).
With all due respect, what the hell are you talking about? Flying has never been “a pleasure”. Back in the 70’s it was basically low altitude turbulence all the way from point A to point B, in a tube full of cigarette smoke.
Planes have only gotten more comfortable over time. Higher altitudes mean smoother and faster trips. Better cabin pressurization has made physical side effects of flying, like gastric issues, headaches, and fatigue far less of a problem. Better rules and processes have been introduced to make the flight nicer and safer. Seat size and leg space can be pretty limited, but I’ve never encountered anything completely unacceptable in my many times flying.
I think it’s obvious what the problem is: Americans. We fucking suck. Planes are the same all over the world, and yet America has the lion’s share of the nightmare passenger stories, because we have an attitude problem.
This was a 2h40m flight from Dallas to Charlotte. I don’t think you can blame the plane for this passenger’s downright animalistic attitude towards airline staff during a short flight.
You’re right but wrong about how comfortable flying used to be.
Flying used to be heavily regulated and was heavily subsidized by air mail contracts. Aircraft were roomier and much more comfortable. After some trust and monopoly busting, and deregulation, the loss of air mail contracts, then share holders took more control.
Then over the years prices have declined, leg room has declined, comfort has declined, passengers are now treated like sardines, being flight crew used to be a glamorous, sought-after job. We still romanticize PanAm. Now AA attendants are looking to strike because they’re making poverty wages.
You can find stories of nightmare passengers and crews from all over the world if you look, but Americans are going to hear American news. I studied aeronautics and aviation in college. Hard to explain more from my phone while I’m pooping, but yes, flying used to be a MUCH better experience for all involved.
being flight crew used to be a glamorous, sought-after job.
lmao, yeah, do some research on how flight attendants were treated by the industry through the 90’s and tell me things are worse for flight crew today with a straight face.
Seat size and leg space can be pretty limited, but I’ve never encountered anything completely unacceptable in my many times flying.
Tell me you’re under six feet tall without telling me you’re under six feet tall.
The headrests don’t hit my head, my knees are jammed into the seat in front of me, the tray table sits directly on my thighs, and if I get a leg cramp I just have to sit there in pain because I can’t straighten my legs or stand up straight in the cabin. But the good news is I can see everything everyone in front of me is doing on their screens.
Honestly I’d be happier in a coffin in the cargo hold.
Yeah, I hear you. The worst is those damn non-adjustable headrests digging into your back. Cant put the tray table down flat because my knees are there and can’t move my knees because there’s no place else for my legs to go
Were you there? Maybe I’m looking back with rose colored glasses and with my parents taking care of all the details, but yes, flying cut rate People’s Express was a much more luxurious flight than pretty much all the “normal” airlines now. There was elbow and leg room (yes, I was almost fully grown), window passengers could see out the windows, plenty of overhead bin space and included checked bags, not overcrowded as hell, a family could get seats together without paying tons extra, much easier process dealing with security and paperwork, flight attendants that could smile and even give you the full can of soda if you were thirsty, you didn’t have to get to the airport so far ahead, you could bring your own toiletries and didn’t have to take off shoes or belts. Yes, flying even the cheapest carrier then was much better than full priced now. There’s reasons we didn’t have as many loonies
Americans. We fucking suck. Planes are the same all over the world, and yet America has the lion’s share of the nightmare passenger stories, because we have an attitude problem.
I don’t really believe this is true. I mean we Americans do suck for other reasons, but I think the reason we have more bad plane stories is because we have to fly more. You can take trains across most of Europe, but passenger trains suck in the US, and it doesn’t seem like either side of the political isle is really interested in fixing it.
From the stories online, EU has similar race to the bottom) airlines, like Ryan Air, but maybe the difference is having a national carrier that you can take pride in. In the US, pretty much all airlines are “race to the bottom” cattle cars, and the only question is whether you want a bad carrier or a worse one. Can I have British Air or Iceland Air, or Emirates Air, please?
Ticket prices originally used to be fixed by the goverment, which made airlines try to offer the best experince as a way to attract customers. But then lobbyists chanted “deregulation” enough times and airlines could set their own prices. Which of course started a race to the bottom where the way to attract customers was now to slash costs. It’s a big reason how back in the 50s being a commercial airline pilots or flight attendent was prestigious profession, became today where most of a flight crew, pilot included, qualify for SNAP.
I’m not exactly a deregulation fan, but this race to the bottom also democratized access to air travel. When the prices were fixed, they weren’t exactly fixed at anything near the cheap prices we have now (when adjusted for inflation).
Yeah exactly, people talk about how flying used to be so glamorous like it’s somehow not the same as international first class is today. I walked through the first class section on a transatlantic flight once and they had fully reclining lazy boy style seats with blankets and nice food/booze. All the seats were staggered so they could fully recline and had privacy screens you could draw shut. But those tickets are thousands of dollars, like $1000-$1500/hour of flight time at minimum, if you want to spend 20k USD you can basically cross the ocean in a flying hotel.
That option still exists, and the cost for such a luxury exists too. But you don’t fly First Class, do you? Or do you like so many other people look at the price first and pick the flight the one that costs $20 less than the next cheapest?
Relax, I do it too.
Consumers are a lot more sensitive to price than they are quality. We don’t book the $800 flight when there’s another one for $300, and then we complain about how we’re crammed into narrow seats with our knees packed against the seat in front of us. The airline that can turn a profit on a cheaper seat will fill those seats.
When I was concerned about lowest possible price, I also figured I was stuck with what I paid for.
Now I’m willing to pay a little extra. My last flight I paid for reserved seats, premium economy, and to a direct flight
But airlines have seriously raised prices here, much more than the basic seats, partly by charging for each item individually. Why do reserved seats, non-painful leg room and direct flight add $100 to my ticket? At least two of those, maybe all three, used to be basic service.
Even just charging for checked baggage is a serious issue in people’s level of frustration. I know the goal is to make more money by carrying more freight, and I don’t usually check baggage so why am I paying for other people’s baggage. However the reality is the fiasco with overhead bin space is directly related to charging for checked baggage. There are always people carrying on more than there’s space. There’s always people taking the first overhead bin since they can’t count on one near their seat. And of course half the passengers don’t seem to understand their baggage still fits if they turn it 90°. Sure people are self-centered idiots, but airlines are doing their share of making this yet one more frustrating part of air travel, by making everyone avoid checking baggage
That hideous alien creature on the wing during a storm? Me. That’s me. I saved 19 bucks on my ticket and got TWO bags of peanuts on standby! The peanuts blew away one by one somewhere over Iowa but I had beef jerky backup, as all responsible travelers do.
That guy stuffed into a 1970’s Samsonite in the unpressurized baggage hold? Also me.
One time I mailed myself through USPS. If it fits it ships flat rate!! It hurt when I got drop-kicked onto a porch though. More emotionally than anything else.
Around 30 years ago, American Airlines realized that by removing a single olive from every passenger’s salad, they would save what amounts today to about $100,000 annually due to reduced weight. They did that.
Do you think they’re going to remove seats and install a brig, or are they just going to make sure every flight has a half a roll of duct tape?
If you roll an average of 2.37 Cavendish bananas length of duct tape between your index and middle finger, you can make a sticky booger ball that tastes like an olive (or maybe boogers, depending on your pH and relative gastrointestinal ‘transit time’). As a limited time offer it also removes warts!
Pro tip: When the airline supplies that, you can add your own boogers for a more authentic taste and you can bring as many as you can, they don’t count towards your cabin luggage weight limit. The one trick airlines DON’T want you to know.
"When you can rig an election, then weaponize the government and the courts against a former President, what other alternative is there? I’m almost 70 and would rather die than live in tyranny."
I’m sure this will be endlessly delayed by every kind of legal maneuver possible, and I personally don’t expect the sentence to include prison time, but I don’t care. The motherfucker has been found GUILTY ON ALL 34 COUNTS. That’s good enough for me.
reason #838 not to work on a US government secret project, right next to “trump will leak all that shit to a foreign government and you will be killed”
He’s president of US and has circumvented Congress over 100 times to send 10s of billions worth of bombs to be dropped on Palestinian children’s heads.
We’re not asking that Biden rule over Israel, simply that he acknowledge the genocide and stop spending our taxpayer dollars to fund it. Why is this considered unreasonable?
Where exactly do you think the funding for Israel came from if not from Congress? And since you apparently haven’t been paying attention, Biden did stop the delivery of offensive weapons to Israel. In return, Republicans have been pushing a bill that will force delivery.
I swear you tankies are just as intellectually dishonest as the fascists.
Now explain the same administration moving forward other weapon sales even after the “delay of weapons”, stopping the UN from condemning or doing anything about Israel through vetoing resolutions against them, and him and his secretary of state (appointed by him) threatening the ICC, and the world, for wanting to arrest Netanyahu.
In response to the recent escalation, the Biden administration apparently has doubled down on support to the coalition, announcing the sale of additional fighter aircraft to the UAE. Biden said the administration is considering redesignating the Houthis a “Foreign Terrorist Organization.” Biden had reversed this designation, imposed in the waning days of the Trump administration and opposed by humanitarian and human rights groups on the grounds that it threatens humanitarian aid on which millions of Yemenis rely to survive.
In addition to potentially violating U.S. law, continuing arms sales to the coalition puts the U.S. at risk of complicity in possible war crimes. The sales also fly in the face of justice and accountability for previous violations given the coalition’s dreadfully flawed investigations of its own strikes.
No, but if the USA doesn’t supply weapons there’s nothing the citizens of the US can do about it. This is an issue they can actually affect by pressuring the US President.
Also, good point on Yemen. Hopefully this is helping people realize how many places around the world the US is causing pain and suffering for.
In response to the recent escalation, the Biden administration apparently has doubled down on support to the coalition, announcing the sale of additional fighter aircraft to the UAE. Biden said the administration is considering redesignating the Houthis a “Foreign Terrorist Organization.” Biden had reversed this designation, imposed in the waning days of the Trump administration and opposed by humanitarian and human rights groups on the grounds that it threatens humanitarian aid on which millions of Yemenis rely to survive.
In addition to potentially violating U.S. law, continuing arms sales to the coalition puts the U.S. at risk of complicity in possible war crimes. The sales also fly in the face of justice and accountability for previous violations given the coalition’s dreadfully flawed investigations of its own strikes.
I honestly care about high income inequality and campaign finance reform. Can we talk about those instead of what you care about?
No, this is actually a really effective way of communicating with other people and convincing them what I have to say is worth listening to. This absolutely does not alienate people or make me come off as an insensitive bot that doesn’t know hot treat people like humans before I unload my personal interests on them
I think we could benefit from some off-topic comment enforcement by the mods. Or just downvoting and not rising to the bait, but we all know that’s not going to happen. The Palestine conversation is completely unrelated to debt cancellation. The “both sides” is itself also just trolling for an off-topic fight.
Weird, this doesn’t sound like a thread you should be in then.
All major political parties and private organizations seem to be solidly on the side of supporting israel despite the atrocity. Only students and activitists outside the halls of power are very vocal about it. Normal people seem to think the gaza strip invasion is horrible but we have no more say on what the politicians and wealthy do than a foreigner does.
Since you’re a foreigner i’ll assume you are ignorant about this, but the US President effectively has no say on aid or penalties for foreign parties. Only the members of senate and congress can vote on bills funding the war effort… or removing said funding.
Last year Governor Jim Pillen, whose family owns one of America’s largest pork companies, was widely criticized for calling a Chinese-born journalist at Flatwater Free Press a “communist” after she exposed serious water quality violations at his hog farms. Earlier this month, the Nebraska supreme court ruled that the state environmental agency could charge the same investigative news outlet tens of thousands of dollars for a public records request about nitrates.
Everywhere I look there’s a huge problem affecting all of us, and a republican doing everything in their power to make it worse.
calling a Chinese-born journalist at Flatwater Free Press a “communist” after she exposed serious water quality violations
This tactic works. “Chinese Disinformation! Don’t trust it!” Americans eat this kind of dismissal up with a spoon, because its easier to believe in a sinister outside force that’s trying (and failing) to threaten you than it is to realize the killer is in your own backyard and there’s nothing you can do to stop his cleaver from claiming another victim.
Earlier this month, the Nebraska supreme court ruled that the state environmental agency could charge the same investigative news outlet tens of thousands of dollars for a public records request about nitrates.
The only thing amazing about the TikTok ban is that it didn’t happen much sooner.
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