The Air Traffic Controllers who are calling in sick because the “lack of pay is causing them additional stress in an already stressful job making them unable to work” have NOT YET MISSED A PAYCHECK.

They are scheduled to get a partial paycheck on the 14th…a week from now…and only after THAT will they have missed a paycheck.  

I am not sure what the reason is for the ATC “Sick Out”, especially tower controllers, but it isn’t, at this time, because of no paycheck. Not yet, anyway. But the Media, especially TV, is playing it up big time. One might think that it is a conspiracy, if one were cynical…..

Games.

I think it is a concerted effort to inconvenience the public they serve planned and coordinated with the DNC and the Media…., like last time there was a major budget battle….where the Federal Park Rangers coned off and other wise barricaded federally owned scenic overlooks along roads and beach access points that they had no reason to, because they never served them before the shutdown, just to inconvenience visitors in order to make the budget issues more real and personal for the general public.

The difference here is that at some point someone might get hurt without controllers.

“Actions speak louder than words but not nearly often enough”

“Anger is an acid that will do more to the vessel in which it is stored than the object it is poured out upon”

“When you clear your mind completely, you become the most dangerous person”

“A decent man makes amends, a weasel makes excuses”

“Don’t wait, the time will never be “just right”…”

“Sometimes the best option is to just walk away…no anger, no heat, just walk”

“Courage is the mastery of fear, not the absence of fear”

“You cannot reach what is in front of you until you let go of what is behind you”

any folks required to work (essential personnel) should get paid for their work.

Note that Air Traffic controllers are “calling in SIck” in protest….but they have not yet missed a paycheck, as their pay cycle is such that they have not yet missed  a payment….. 

All the rest, those employed of the Federal Government who have been “temporarily furloughed” and who are not working, should NOT receive any compensation for the time they are not working…(In fact, it is my belief that if they are not needed enough that they can be furloughed during the budget battle they are likely not needed enough to be employed at all).

If you ain’t working, you shouldn’t get paid.

Enough of this shit.

So a friend needed to go to Olney, Illinois….I flew him there.

The view of the farm fields changed drastically as we went south:

From mostly green and unharvested up north:

to fully harvested soybean and wheat and corn fields shorn as bare as a porn starlet’s privates. 

14.500 feet VFR with Flight Following (not really worth it to go higher). For once, Chicago approach was nice, polite, and helpful when I called them for flight following. Almost too nice. Strange for them. They handed us off to Champaign approach and then Hulman approach who took us to Olney.

The flight was smooth and we stopped on the way back in Champaign, IL to get a crew-car and some really good chinese food .

2.4 hours total. I did the RNAV 11 at KOLY and the RNAV 04 into KCMI as practice approaches just for fun, but the entire flight was VFR as it could be  Severe Clear and all that.

Got flight following on the way back from the clearance people at KCMI, who watched us until we got to Chicago, wo were back to their usual irascible personalities.

So 2.4 and 3 day landings. Landings were good, but not perfect. I gotta work on those some.  Lately they have been….firm.

Since the stalled Federal Budget talks have resulted in a “Government Shutdown”, such that many national parks are closed and the ATC system is experiencing difficulties….

Is there still security at the Capital and the White House?  How about all the other government offices?

Is the Senate office building still secure? How about security services for our senators? How about pay for them and their staffers?

Methinks it is time for the legislators to feel the same pain the we are starting to feel.

And IMO, if the services of a government office are deemed “Non-Essential” then we really have to ask ourselves (and our government) if they are needed at all.

I mean, now that there is a government shutdown, the provocative and leading comments in nearly all blogs have nearly stopped.

Interesting coincidence.

How a Democratic process like the budget of the Federal Government is derailed by a bunch of people who insist on Socialized Medicine being funded?

THey would hold up a government meant for everyone to take money from all to pay for a bunch of people who can’t (and, in many cases. won’t) pay for themselves.  Especially insisting on funding to pay for those who have invaded our country illegally.

(or it could just be that they are using this as a method of halting the budget just so they can show their constituents that they are being tough in their negotiations, I dunno).

Bizzy today, maybe no posting, maybe some later, I dunno

if it weren’t so sad…

All the people cheering the harm being done to the folks that are Anti-ICE demonstrators..

These folks were the first in line to decry the treatment of the Jan 6th protesters. Think about that, each and every one of you.

Not realizing that the only difference is that they approve of one set of protesters and disapprove of the other……that one person’s rebel is another person’s freedom fighter…It’s all in the point of view, innit?

They cheer the treatment today that they abhorred then, when it was done to their side.

You’d think they’d be smart enough to see the irony.

But apparently that is expecting too much.