Some More News - Some More News: Is It Safe To Fly Right Now?

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

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Oh, hello, welcome to our news show, or guy at desk hour, or whatever. Look at all this, we have lights and a backdrop and everything. And here's some more news. Mankind has mastered the power of flight! Wow. Flying machines, can you believe it? I know we've all been dreaming of reaching the clouds ever since going on the Delta Dream Flight ride at Disney, but I mean, gee whiz, we did it!

We're flying! On January 29th at Reagan National Airport, an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines regional jet over the Potomac River, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft. The wing of an American Airlines plane struck another plane on the taxiway this afternoon.

Big delays at Newark Liberty International Airport continued today after another radar outage. Our plane crashed. It's upside down. Images of the aftermath show the plane on its top on the tarmac, its wings and tail ripped off, and landing gear pointed towards the sky. Sort of, sorry.

We're flying sort of. Boy, there sure have been a lot of plane accidents lately. Is that good? Do people like that? The problem seems primarily, but not exclusively, related to air traffic control. Even as we were writing this, we got news about Newark Airport

losing their radar at least four times, which I'm pretty sure is terrifying. That airport appears to be the number one destination for air travel anxiety right now. In fact, according to one poll, 65% of Americans were more nervous about flying due to these recent crashes and issues. Unfortunately, people sort of kind of need to fly. Some of you are watching this at the airport right now, or not, probably not. But in case you are, for some reason,

watching this in the airport right now, let's answer a very basic and pressing question for you. Is it safe to fly right now? Is it safe to fly right now? Is it safe to fly right now? Well the National Transportation Safety Board has recorded over 1,100 aviation accidents each year over the last decade, and very few of them involved commercial aircraft. Considering that there are over 45,000 flights that the Federal Aviation Administration's Air Traffic Organization monitors each day, it's downright amazing how few crashes there

are in general. A Bureau of Transportation Statistics report said that between 2013 and 2022, there had only been 12 total fatalities recorded from U.S. passenger airlines. By comparison, throughout that same timeframe, there were about 5,000 deaths by choking per year. So this means statistically, it's safer to ride in the plane than it is to eat the airline food.

Am I right, folks? Oh gosh. Rimshot, we hate all food. If we were to expand the stats globally, it's even more encouraging. A 2024 safety report from the International Air Transport Association calculated one airplane accident for every 880,000 flights.

So that's seven fatal accidents out of 40.6 million flights last year, or nearly twice as safe as it was a decade ago. As a comparison, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that over 39,000 people died in traffic accidents in the same year. Not that life should be seen as a statistic. We're all aiming to get those deaths down to zero.

But frankly, it seems like the dangers of commercial airline travel have been a bit overblown and oversold. It's the Chris Pratt of fears. Like we don't have the exact data, but more people die in the airport than on the plane, meaning that you, sitting in the airport watching this, are more likely to have your throat slashed in 3, 2, 1. Two. One. Anyway, no, it is not more unsafe to fly now. If you're at the airport or going to fly soon, you can now shut off this video.

Go on, it's okay. Okay, now that those people are gone or dead, let's do the actual episode. Okay, now that those people are gone or dead, let's do the actual episode. Brace for impact. Is it safe to fly right now? But like, for real? Can you believe those idiots shut off the episode? It should be noted that even the doomiest exploration of air travel is greatly exacerbated by our media landscape,

which more than ever is fundamentally designed for sensationalism. I can't even imagine the AI slop images of flaming plane crashes being whipped up on X. Maybe Grok is more level-headed when it's not doubting the Holocaust. I don't know. This is all to say that plane safety

is on everyone's minds right now. And so naturally the media is going to glom onto that fear. They are going to overreport or run ambiguous headlines like this one about a midair collision in Arizona. That headline fails to mention that the crash was between two small planes, one of which was from a flight school. But with all that said,

it's not like people have zero reason to be scared to fly right now. After all, the year kicked off with our new old president promising to gut regulations and agencies, followed by the DC Potomac crash that killed 67 passengers. That crash was the first major commercial airplane crash in the United States in 16 years. And while Trump wasn't really to blame for that crash, there was an opportunity for this new old president to use this tragedy as an opportunity to lead the country and comfort Americans by showing an understanding of the problem and presenting immediate solutions. However... I do want to point out that various articles

that appeared prior to my entering office, and here's one, the FAA's diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. That is amazing. Ah, yes, who can forget Bush's historic speech after 9-11?

Check out these articles I printed from the web. So of course, Trump and other right-wing ghouls used this tragedy to make unfounded claims against DEI, like they've been doing for years now. Instead of having anything serious to say, they looked a terrified country in the eye and just blamed minorities, the people they just happened to be blaming for everything, and everyone knew they were going to do this. Like, of course they were going

to do this. Specifically, the charge is that Joe Biden and Obama had specific DEI air traffic quotas that booted other qualified candidates. But, hey, but, but, it's not about race. And this isn't about black people. A lot of people hear DEI, Hig Black. No, he is trying to set quotas for people who are deaf to get jobs, people who are dwarves to get jobs, people with transgender issues to get jobs. See? It's a totally different kind of bigotry. They're not a one-hit wonder, they can hate

other things. Also, in case you are wondering, 78% of air traffic controllers are men, and 71% identify as white. Those Obama-era hiring changes were to provide a broader opportunity for diverse groups and ultimately had mixed results and were reversed back in 2016, meaning that they have nothing to do with the current situation. This is all to say that no, DEI doesn't factor into this.

And so it's hard to feel safe when the people in charge of protecting us seem to have no idea what the problem is, and are in fact blaming a completely unrelated thing. It's like if your doctor blamed headaches on the Babadook, you would not feel confident that your headaches would be solved. Or you'd feel way more scared of the Babadook, I guess. So that's actually good, you should be. So what is actually the problem, or what are the risks with air flight right now? We could ask the FAA's Safety Review Board, which in 2023 stated that our current level of safety

is compromised and unsustainable due to outdated technology, inconsistent funding, and short-staffed air traffic control towers. Coincidentally, or rather not at all coincidentally, the air traffic control tower on the day of the Potomac crash was understaffed. But don't worry, or rather worry, because it's not just that one airport. Understaffing is an American problem, like hoagie sweats. The New York Times reported that virtually every single air traffic control tower is understaffed and has outdated faulty equipment like that original restaurant in the bear.

This caused the skeleton crews of air traffic controllers to suffer mental duress, stress, and overwork long hours to do the jobs of multiple people at once, like in the bear, with many of them turning to drugs or alcohol to cope, like in the bear, with many of them turning to drugs or alcohol to cope like in the bear. One Texas air traffic controller said that there was so little attention and funding that he had to bring light bulbs from home

to replace broken ones at work. And working lights, well, those seem important. To help prevent even more potential crashes, a new ground-based system was invented in 2017 to help alert air traffic controllers about imminent collisions on or near the runway. Which sounds neat, except notice the word invented and not implemented. That second word would cost money, you see. And so as of 2023, only 43 out of 500 airports in the nation had such systems.

Jesus Christ on a jet pack. That is just not enough airports, folks. Maybe we can get one of those jet packs that Jesus is hogging. Selfish Jesus. Let's get him. Anyway, you get it. Air traffic control is kinda what we need to not have plane crashes, and we haven't

been properly funding them and therefore not updating or maintaining their equipment or staff. To the point that the US Transportation Secretary said this the other week. We do try to buy replacement parts on eBay for this really old equipment. Sometimes we can't even find it on eBay. So we're trying to use 3D printing. Is that the guy from real world Boston? Man, Camilo must be pissed.

Those two never got along. So yeah, no money, outdated equipment. Can't even afford a real secretary of transportation. Had to get some TV guy on the cheap. This problem has been a long time coming, spanning multiple administrations, and is now coming to a climax during the worst one. Newark Airport, as I mentioned, has been plagued with delays and blackouts as they struggle

to fix the issue. We're getting stories of air traffic employees just sitting there and hoping that the radios will come back on, lest two planes collide into each other. Really can't stress enough how little we want this to be happening. And not just we, the regular folk, a lot of politicians also fly commercial. Not all, but a lot of them.

Some of them fly first class, our treat. So you'd think they would be very concerned considering how often they have to travel around for rallies and Cancun and Second White House down in Florida. So why is this so broken? The answer won't surprise you and can best be explained by a recent disaster.

Because it turns out that while flying is safe, it is actually less safe specifically at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, the location of that deadly mid-air collision that shocked the country. While everything we've already said applies to every airport, there are safety issues that are specifically troublesome and unique only to that airport, the Ronald Reagan Airport. Such a perfect name. Can't believe that's the name.

You see, along with commercial flights, Reagan Airport conducts military and government operations, and has three intersecting runways that make the surrounding airspace trickier to navigate than most other airports. While the Potomac crash is understandably the most reported incident at that airport, between 2021 and 2024, the Ronnie Regs reported over 15,000 near-miss events. Here's one. The FAA now looking into yet another close call, this time at Reagan National Airport in DC.

An Orlando-bound Southwest flight and a Boston-bound JetBlue flight nearly collided Thursday. We were cleared to cross runway four. The confusion after the JetBlue flight was cleared for takeoff, but moments before, another air traffic controller cleared a southwest plane to cross the same runway. That news report was from less than a year before the Potomac crash, so it seems like, considering how uniquely unsafe this airport is,

they would be extra careful there, right? And don't get me wrong, we should be safe on a plane no matter where it's landing. But according to my middle school civics teacher, not everyone's apparently, God, but according to mine, Washington DC is where many of our state representatives and federal government officials meet up to do law stuff.

And you know, unlaw stuff. And as I pointed out, they often fly commercial. And so not only is flying becoming less safe, but flying at the airport they specifically use, is anyone concerned? Yes, actually, people were concerned. Here's one. But I rise to address the one piece of it where I am not supportive. concerned. Here's one. congested airports in the United States, Reagan National Airport, otherwise known as DCA.

But it just stands to reason that if it's already the busiest runway in the United States, and it's already one of the most delayed airports in the U.S., and it's already near the lead in cancellations and needs of flights to loop around, it is a problem rating to happen. That's Senator Tim Kaine, less than a year before that big crash,

citing that specific near miss from the news report we showed. He's speaking out against a provision in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, which would specifically add 10 new flights to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. That's right, they wanted to add new flights to the already dangerous airport.

You would think they would realize how stupid that is, and yet that provision would remain. The bill would be passed, and Biden would sign it into law. Why? Why would these politicians add more flights to their airport, thus making it more dangerous? Less than a year before people like Tim Kaine would be proven right. Because those new flights would make it easier for them to travel without any stopovers. Really, the Senate added a provision

specifically creating new flights to cities where they specifically needed to go. They didn't even hide this fact. Here's the least surprising supporter of this provision stating his case. Senator Ted Cruz pushing for direct flights from San Antonio to the Ronald Reagan National Airport. On the merits, this should be an easy decision. San Antonio deserves a direct flight to Washington Reagan.

San Antonio is the seventh largest city in America. Every day there's between 150 and 200 flights already from San Antonio to DC Reagan, but now they have to connect through other cities. Oh, Ted, it was always you, my favorite Ted. I love how he's trying to frame it like he's pushing this on merit for the city and then just starts complaining

about connecting flights at the end because he's just clearly sick of having to lay over in Charlotte. Just do a layover, Ted. Not worth dying over, you know, Ted. It should be noted that it wasn't just Tim Kaine and some other senators warning about this. The airport didn't want more flights. The The airport didn't want more flights.

The FAA didn't want more flights. You know who did want the flights? Delta Airlines, who happened to be donating to one of the top sponsors of the provision. Wah wah. Everyone else warned them not to do this and they did it anyway and then people died because of that darn DEI.

Okay, look, are the House of Representatives and the Senate responsible for the tragic deaths of the 67 people in that collision? Well, who can say? Not me, for legal reasons among others, but I will make an unrelated Y shape with my fingers, maybe even this, but did will make an unrelated Y shape with my fingers, maybe even this. But did they, at the very least,

increase the odds of it happening because they were either bribed or didn't want to be bothered with layovers and decided that their convenience outweighed our safety? Again, who can say? You tell me. Actually, don't. Don't at me.

I get enough earnest blue sky replies to rhetorical questions as it is. Also, yes, they did that. And again, as I keep saying, these people also use that airport. Even if they fly private, one imagines this affects them. They are risking everyone's lives for this really short-term benefit,

despite everyone warning them not to. What a broken way of thinking. This is dog logic, except dogs are lovable. This is also a microcosm of everything our government does concerning air traffic safety. So after the break, we're gonna talk about just that. But for now, feel free to unbuckle and move around the cabin and enjoy these ads.

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have anything to say about it. Those clowns. Who are those clowns? What are clowns? Are they supposed to be mutants or something? Like I get that it's makeup, but makeup of what? Before the break, we were talking about how a lot of politicians seem to have a very self-serving

and short-term brain when it comes to ensuring the very basic things we need for a lot of stuff, but very clearly when it comes to air travel. Our government's relationship with the FAA really speaks to a core problem that's existed for decades, which is America's constant and degrading battle with itself like a man whose hand is possessed, and not just any man, Briscoe County Jr. So, for example, we keep mentioning the very pressing issue of staffing shortages. And to their credit, that FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, along with helping Ted Cruz get home, added funds to hire 3,000 more air traffic controllers to meet demand. Unfortunately,

for America, an election happened after that. I'm not going to get into it. Have Grok Bing it for you if you're interested. But the point is that Trump and Elon almost immediately did the opposite of hiring new FAA workers, otherwise known as firing them, almost exactly the same time as that Potomac crash. For the record, we're not talking about air traffic controllers themselves, but their support staff. This includes people who evaluate and prepare flight paths, folks who maintain data and support logistics, employees who ensure everything follows environmental laws and regulations,

and workers who sweep up and ensure that you don't need to go grab light bulbs for work. And that's remarkable for a lot of reasons, actually. Because it's not just that it's extremely stupid and unsafe, which it is, but it's also really inefficient. See, as you can imagine, training new air traffic controllers is very intensive, time-consuming, and expensive. It takes up to five years of training, and only 60% of trainees get certified. After all, they are being trusted with the lives of millions of civilians each day. And now imagine that you cut all of their support staff

and presumably make all these heavily trained best of the best pick up the slack while feeling extremely demoralized in the process. That doesn't boost efficiency, does it? Seems like the opposite of that. Almost like they don't actually care about government efficiency for some reason. This is also part of a larger issue

that I'm gonna call the yo-yoing of America. It seems like every four to eight years, we suddenly change our minds about stuff. It's weird. One of those things being the FAA. This seemingly began back when Ronald Reagan broke the Air Traffic Controller's union by just firing them all.

We covered that in a previous episode, along with the movie Plane. Remember Plane? There's a sequel called Ship that's coming up, so we'll get into that in a future episode maybe. But for this episode, Reagan started the issue and since then the FAA has been bunted between the two parties like a hot potato,

becoming more and more understaffed as the years went by due to new austerity measures, government spending bills, government shutdowns and the COVID-19 pandemic. It's like how Sesame Street keeps getting passed around streaming services. Their fate is constantly ambiguous, which can't possibly be good for morale. Why do you think Elmo's on so many Benzos? So yeah, for years, the FAA was dealing with a constant barrage of start-stopping, including

three government shutdowns in the last decade. Of course, they are struggling to hire and maintain staff. And then this thing came along. The chainsaw for bureaucracy, chainsaw! We love him. Wait, sorry. Nobody loves him. So during Doge's great purge of federal layoffs

for no good reason, hundreds of FAA support staff positions were chainsawed at the exact same time we were learning about their lack of funding and staffing. And this really shows the disconnect between the broad talking points of conservatives and the practical application of them. Like the party is all about small government

right until they realize they need FEMA to help their state. Sean Duffy, the Duffers, has been telling anyone who listens that the FAA is old and outdated and needs funding and staff. And yet back in 2019, he himself voted against FAA spending during his congressional term. Bad move, Sean. You've been voted off the island.

Is that what they did on road rules? I... Sashay away, Duffy. Point is, it's money. The FAA needs money. Give... Sean Duffy... Money, I guess.

But this cycle of yes money, no money has created a mobius landing strip of turds that continues to create a culture of overworked, tired and drunk air traffic controllers, simply trying to maintain while their job crumbles around them. And while our politicians keep changing their minds every four to eight years about this and everything else.

Again, it's America's constant and degrading battle with itself. And the FAA is just one example of a really important institution or policy that we should just support regardless of party. Just like how we should support our allies in the world so that we can be trusted. It would be weird to suddenly turn against,

I don't know, Canada, just because a new guy's in charge, right? And yet America has become Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when it comes to nearly everything. And nobody wants to hang out with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, let alone live inside of them. Now Frankenstein, that's the monster I'd get inside. Wear him like a mech suit.

Man, I swear flying is statistically safe though. Remember when I said it was safe? That's still true. For now. Oh, also remember that Boeing stuff? Well, problems continue to mount for US aerospace company Boeing after another string of international safety incidents. So sorry, we should talk about that too. It might not seem directly related to the FAA problems, but it kind of is. Because safety issues aren't just outside of the plane, sometimes problems burst in, or in some cases blow out. In October 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 crash-landed in Indonesia, killing 189 people. And then an Ethiopian airline flight crashed,

killing 157 people five months later. Both flights were on a Boeing 737 MAX. So what caused this? Could it be a commonly overlooked screw, a bolt, a design flaw the size of a womp rat back home? Did a Scottish man forget to input the numbers in time? Was it Gremlins? Were Boeing 737s just blue chew for Gremlins?

Did they serve a Gremlin a biscoff cookie after midnight midair between time zones? Well, if they were to pinpoint a specific problem, it would be that the crashed 737s had a new flight system that relied on a single sensor, but had no backup if it failed. It was a computer issue. After that first crash, an analysis from the FAA found that if there wasn't a software

update to the 737 MAX, then a crash would happen once every two years. And yet, these planes would only be grounded in spring of the following year, after that second crash, which finally prompted an investigation by the U.S. House Transportation Committee in May of 2019. That's right, the first plane crashed, and they figured out the problem but didn't do anything until another crash. Meanwhile, Indonesian officials found that the crashes were ultimately caused by a combination of faulty assumptions of Boeing engineers, lack of transparency from Boeing's management,

and the FAA not sufficiently overseeing Boeing's operations. To sum it up, it was laziness. The worst of all gremlins, aside from that vegetable one. Disgusting. After this discovery, Boeing crossed their hearts and Pinky promised to do better by tossing out the CEO, but not before giving him a $62 million golden parachute because,

well, it's Boeing. You're gonna need a parachute. Eventually, the 737 MAX planes were updated and got FAA approval to return to flight in 2020. Meanwhile, the company battled lawsuit after lawsuit for lying to investors, safety regulators, and others in the first place. Seems like they got off light

considering they kinda killed people there. But after some settlements, payouts, and pending charges by the DOJ, it seemed like Boeing's PR troubles took off and shut the door behind them until it was forcibly reopened in 2024 when that door blew off during an Alaskan Airlines flight. This lack of quality control refueled the fire

against Boeing as well as, you guessed it, causing right-wing pundits to freak out about DEI. As we speak, the Justice Department is going to court to demand that the DEI, the DEI is used in the selection process to appoint an independent monitor to oversee Boeing, the aircraft manufacturer. The job of this independent monitor is to make sure that Boeing stops making planes that fall apart

in the sky or just completely fall out of the sky. In other words, the Biden-Harris-Mitt DOJ is fighting to ensure that the second largest commercial jet manufacturer in the world is supervised by a DEI hire. This might take some unpacking, but what the Daily Wire and Matt Walsh are complaining about is that the DOJ had some diversity policies

when choosing the people to oversee Boeing, and were defending themselves in court to keep those policies. The Daily Wire is specifically framing this with the headline, Planes are falling from the sky and the DOJ's priority is DEI. But if you read the actual fucking story that the Daily Wire links to, you'll find that for one, those DEI policies were placed during woke Trump's first woke term. And two, the DOJ isn't the one making a stink of this. It was a Federalist Society judge named Reed O'Connor

who found this language and is challenging it as a way to inject the DEI culture war garbage into something that has nothing to do with it. But to hear Matt Walsh say it. So it's not injecting a culture war when Boeing and the federal government both decide to, you know, begin with this DEI insanity in the first place, but it is a culture war when a judge asks if we're hiring the most qualified people to make sure that more planes don't crash themselves into the ocean. Yes, Matt. Yes, it is injecting culture war when a judge butts into some four-year-old DOJ order and digs out DEI wording because that's the current right-wing fad.

Yes, yes, it's you, Matt, who's injecting race and culture war into everything. You are correct. Like, holy fucking shit. What does DEI have to do with the problems at Boeing? The four missing bolts that secured the emergency doors were made of metal, not members of the Burger King Kids Club. Do you remember wheels?

They called him wheels? Because I guess his entire identity was his wheelchair? Very inclusive. Anyway, no, again, can't stress enough how unserious it is to blame plane crashes on fucking diversity. In a sane world, you'd be laughed out of any room you said that in. I shouldn't even need to address or explain this.

I'm so tired, I'm the tired gremlin. So Boeing, we're talking about Boeing. What happened to Boeing? After all, there was a long time where Boeing was the top tier when it came to aviation. One of the big reasons there was a long time where Boeing was the top tier when it came to aviation. One of the big reasons there was a lack of competition. Any costs for new amenities and refined safety features added to the plane would just be added

to ticket prices without worry. Thank you, monopolies. But as soon as airline regulation relaxed and competition grew, that's when trouble started to emerge. Boeing needed to cut costs and outsource work in order to stay competitive. You know, instead of trying. The downfall came when it purchased airplane manufacturer McDonnell Douglas to consolidate their market share. Even though Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas, executives of McDonnell Douglas had larger

shares and thus became the new leaders of Boeing. And these new board members decided to change the company culture when new CEO Harry Stonecipher, an actual person and not a supervillain of archeology, somehow, reportedly told Boeing workers to, "...quit behaving like a family and become more like a team. If you don't perform, you don't stay on the team. You get it?

It's a Zazlav sitch. This combination football coach meets Ebenezer Scrooge not only killed morale, but had the company redirect its focus from creating better planes to creating cheaper ones. Instead of retiring old designs, they would simply recycle them and try to squeeze in more passengers,

just readjusting old models instead of making new innovations, until it ultimately led to the MAX. No, really, a plane called MAX. What is it with these guys and the word MAX? And just like HBO Max, aka Max, aka HBO Max again, innovation completely stagnated. As did any quality control, leading to those insufficiencies of the MCAS sensor systems that caused the crashes in 2018 and 2019. And of course, they also treated their own people like shit and risked their lives too. For example, by forcing employees to fly faulty, unsafe planes from South Carolina to their other plant in Washington to save money on repairs and avoid the mechanics union.

This incredibly dick move understandably led to several whistleblowers emerging to blow their whistles hard, loud, and full of spittle about Boeing's greedy negligence and garbage management. One of these whistleblowers was John Barnett, who worked at Boeing for 32 years. Prior to retirement, Barnett was the quality control engineer for the 787 Dreamliner plane in South Carolina, and raised concerns over the plane's oxygen bottles

not working, and the fact that the planes were being made with substandard scrap parts. He then took Boeing to court when they allegedly retaliated against him. Then… this happened. John Barnett walked into my office and told me about what was going on. And I asked him, I said, do you have documents? And he said, actually I do. He said, I've got thousands of documents. And he said, actually I do. He said, I've got thousands of documents.

Turquoise says Barnett had more than 3,000 internal documents, emails, and photos from Boeing to support his whistleblower claim. John Barnett was scheduled to complete his final day of depositions on March 9th of this year. And I tried calling John to see if he needed a ride and let him know I could pick him up at the hotel. And I got no answer. And when I got to the deposition at about 10 o'clock, he didn't show up.

He drove to John Barnett's hotel and learned the 62 year old was dead inside his truck with what police said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Now, I don't wanna make light of this man's death. I don't want to be a conspiracy guy. I don't want to exploit fears. But everyone was thinking it, so let's do a segment called, Hey, Did Boeing Kill That Guy?

So yeah, it seems pretty convenient for a man in the middle of passionately testifying against a large corporation to just up and kill himself before his final court showdown. But Barnett's family did say that he suffered from PTSD, panic attacks, anxiety, and depression due to Boeing's treatment of him. So they do hold Boeing responsible for his death indirectly. And if Boeing did indeed kill Barnett in order to encourage other whistleblowers to keep quiet, that backfired tenfold and inspired more whistleblowers to step forward. So did Boeing kill that guy?

Well, according to his family, yeah, kinda. Just not in the way we were all thinking, where they hired Stanley Tucci to take him out. So officially, no. But you know, kinda. Please out. So officially, no. But you know, kinda. Please don't kill me, Boeing. This has been our segment,

Hey, Did Boeing Kill That Guy? Anywho, flying, still safe. It should be noted that in spite of all of the valid safety concerns, there have been thousands of flights by 737 MAX planes happening daily without incident. It's safe. Don't worry, it's safe for now

because there's still episode left. You might notice that both Boeing and our federal government had the same problem, cost cutting. And so after the break, we will finally marry corporate neglect and government neglect to bring you the exciting future of flight.

Or should I say, ex-flight? Stay tuned. Or should I say, ex-tuned? I shouldn't have said that. ["Dinner Time"] Mm-mm. It is almost dinner time. And if it's not, just think about how it is dinner time

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at whatever time you feel is appropriate. Except like 6 a.m. that would be weird. Honestly, maybe not that weird. I don't know, steak and eggs, people eat that. You know, I think it was Ben Franklin who said, "'Only a fool rolls in the muck if his home isn't stocked with soap.'" He must've been talking about lye

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That equates to over 40% off your starter pack when you use code more news at shopmando.com. Walk, don't longer walk to sh-h-o-p-m-a-n-d-o.com. Code more news. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. And that is that. It is almost summertime in the mountains, which means three things, bright sunshine, delightful birdsong, and those pesky children of the forest

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So the Meisters say, I don't know. I don't know what to believe, except in Simply Safe. That is simply safe.com slash more news because there is no safe like Simply Safe. Hello again. Remember me? We were talking about airline safety and how the Republicans love to cut money to the FAA

despite them desperately needing money and how that is exactly the same thinking behind Boeing's downfall as well. And in both cases, that led to a sad and dwindling workforce and numerous crashes and problems. And yet no lesson was learned. In both cases, the GOP blamed DEI and everyone in charge continued to push budget cuts

because conservatives are a hammer that sees every problem as a nail and then shits on the nail and then eats the nail and then shits out the nail. And it makes you wonder, what exactly is the GOP solution to these problems? They are after all in charge. So after years of complaining about DEI,

what are they actually planning to do? Well, for starters, Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, wants to fast track new recruits by lowering the steps to getting hired from eight down to five and increasing recruitment pay for air traffic control workers from $17 to nearly $23 an hour. In terms of the radar issues, as we noted, he has pointed to a lot of outdated technology

and is now asking for a butt ton of money upfront in order to fix that and build a new air traffic control system by 2028. Why does he want all that money upfront? Let's ask him. So to do it in three or four years, we need all of the money upfront, right? One of the problems with the past is when you give

small tranches of money year over year, politics change, leadership changes, presidents change, interest changes, and it never gets built. Oh my God! Sean Duffy is right. I don't God. What's happening?

Did I die? Is Sean Duffy the hero of this story? No, no, no, that's too far. That can't be true. I don't want to live in that world. I hate that world. So, okay, Sean Duffy, who was right the one time, wants to pay for something.

But will he get to? That's certainly a good question, because Duff's isn't the only cool guy proposing solutions for air travel. There is, of course, Elon Musk, who wants his Starlink technology to be utilized by the FAA, claiming that the FAA's technology is unsafe. I mean, Elon is an expert on unsafe things,

so that checks out. So obvious conflicts of interest aside, would Starlink fix the problems at the FAA? Seems like no, but let's ask Duffy. Elon Musk has hinted that Starlink is the solution. Is that in? It's not. It's not.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. What? Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!

No! Would you stop doing that, Duffy? Gosh, my body can't handle all this agreeing with you. Can we get like a palate cleanser of Sean Duffy being as wrong as anyone could possibly be? Maybe you can throw another one. I mean, look at Gabby Giffords. You can.

Look at Gabby Giffords, the Marxist, the Marxist who took her life, a leftist guy. Shooter wasn't a Marxist, Giffords didn't die. Great job, thank you. I really needed that. Man, I just can't believe this is where we've landed. Plane pun, great, we are back on track. All right, anyway, I guess this all scans.

Only Elon Musk can make Sean Duffy seem like the good guy. And despite Duffer's terse rejection, Musk is worming his way into the FAA whether or not they want it, having his SpaceX flunkies install Starlink in various airports. It should be noted that the FAA actually awarded Verizon a contract to do that,

not Starlink. And so Elon Musk is literally just intruding on them, much like he's intruded on all of us. After all, the FAA has been a real grimes to Musk in the past over multiple violations of license agreements. So while Duffy hopes to fast track the hiring of FAA employees, it's actually been Musk who is injecting his own people in there instead.

Not in the interest of safety, of course, but just to enrich and help himself. And in fact, this has reportedly caused blowups between Musk and Duffy during cabinet meetings. Duffy so seems to be going rogue on this that during one of these blowups, Trump told him that he needs to hire air traffic controllers from MIT,

and they all need to be geniuses. But shortly after that, Duffy released a recruitment poster for air traffic controllers reading, "'No college degree required.'" These spats, especially with Musk, are understandable, considering that Duffy is the guy actually in charge, and Musk is just the dude who bankrolled the president. My God, how am I on Sean Duffy's side here?

I hate this. And it seems like, at least at the moment, Elon is winning. Due to an unimaginable glitch, the billionaire that owns a space company is now running the show at the agency that's supposed to regulate him. And Duffy, bless his stupid heart,

had clearly been told to play ball. I want to make sure that we have some of the brightest minds in the country come and look at the systems that the FAA uses to make sure we upgrade and upgrade to the right technology and upgrade at the right speed. So SpaceX, of course we're going to have SpaceX engineers come and look at the FAA.

Duffy, no, we loved you! So fun detail, in that Fox News interview, Duff also goes off on the California high-speed rail project, the thing that Musk reportedly derailed on purpose and is now trying to kill for good. Derail, train punt. Anyway, fucking wild that a guy who owns a car company is allowed to defund a train project.

Seems like he should go to forever jail. Point is, when it comes to fixing our airlines, there are two trains of thought. On one side, you have people like Duffy saying that we need to fund the FAA and pay air traffic controllers a living wage. And on the other side, you have people like Elon Musk, who thinks the answer is to cut jobs and funding,

gut regulations, and then replace everything with a company that he happens to own that also has an extremely bad track record with safety because he doesn't actually care about people or safety, and is just a sociopath who wants money. Now, both sides have merit. But if you look closely, you might notice that one is a little bit better than the other.

Unfortunately, it seems like Elon's method is being favored, probably because it requires zero effort from the government. The GOP loves it when they can just privatize something after all. And there Elon is reaching his hand out. Do we have a clip of Elon Musk reaching his hand out?

There it is. Nevermind that the cars he makes literally fall apart and have the highest fatal accident rate. He's there and he's easy. He's like that ex lover that you keep going back to, even when you know you shouldn't. The GOP knows somewhere deep inside that they simply have to pay for something.

But geez, there's Elon. Maybe they can just get Elon to do it. Look at him over there with his little Nazi salute. So asking one more time, is it safe to fly? Yeah, right now it's still safe to fly. It's also fun, especially when you're drunk. But if we continue to prioritize billionaires over safety, it won't be.

And what makes this whole conversation so frustrating is that we all need to fly, or rather a lot of us need to. For business or to visit family or for our amateur wrestling careers, no matter how dangerous planes get, some of us will still have to step onto them, including the lawmakers who have the power to regulate and fund them and yet still fail

to. It really shows you how strong this sickness is when politicians literally vote against their own safety to save a buck, make a buck, or back party lines. Because while we need it, we technically don't need need it. You see, that puts it in this capitalist gray area where so many other things exist. That magical realm where private companies are allowed to provide a service that will never go out of business

because it's actually a necessity. And so those companies are allowed to lobby and conspire and extort us for whatever they want. The one bit of safety we have is the FAA. So perhaps we shouldn't also privatize that, you know? Perhaps we just have to fund it. That's it. We all need it.

It's like our highways or water pipes or all those other things we definitely fund adequately. So let's fund it. Sean Duffy for president. That's the conclusion to this, for sure, right? Emperor Duffy. And we did it. It's safe to say that we, some more news,

are the only comedy show to notably tackle airline safety. Don't look that up. It is just us, just Cody. Good, I think that worked. That was good? Okay, so all right, I think that worked. That was good, okay. So, all right, done with the rehearsal. So let's do it for real.

Oh, hello, welcome to our news show or guy at news desk hour or whatever. Look at all this. We have lights and a backdrop and everything. And here's some more news. And I mastered the power of flight. Wow, flying machines, can you believe it? I know the power of a dream, reaching the clouds

ever since going on the Southern Dream Flight ride at Disney, but I mean, gee whiz, we did it, we're flying! And then we do a clip, and then we're gonna come back to it. I don't want to. Can we just use the rehearsal? Oh no, we have to do the whole thing. I wasn't rolling.

It was good though. It was good, but it was a good rehearsal. Well, we'll use, can we use the secret camera that I installed? That was always filming. So we, yeah. Secret camera. Woo! Open up.

Here comes the news. Oh, I missed. Oh no! Oh, you're covered in news. Sorry. You know what? I don't know what that was, but I do know that I'm thanking you right now for watching

and asking you to please like the video and please subscribe to the channel. That really helps us out. And we've got a podcast you can check out with your ears and your eyes or one or the other, or both at the podcast place. We've also got those podcasts on YouTube that you can watch on the channel.

Just look it up. We've got this show as a podcast, if you'd like to listen to it instead. We've got a patreon.com slash some more news. We've also got merch. You can check that out. Look at all the stuff. Ah, things on other things.

Can you even imagine? So like, subscribe, leave a comment and see you.