What an airline pilot says about Trump

[mainer]

From a good friend's Facebook page. He flew for Southwest Airlines and is a native Texan.

When I was working as an airline pilot, often we’d get a little person visiting the cockpit (or, if you must, the politically correct “flight deck”) between flights. They were almost always the most bedazzled by the seemingly endless array of dials and gauges and switches and controls and meters and such. I remember one small fry who stared for a good three minutes and then waved his arms at all the stuff, and solemnly asked, “Do you actually know what each of these does?”

I thought about it for a few seconds, and realized that, yes, I did. Know what every single switch did, and what each gauge said, and what information was being conveyed by each of the hundreds of warning lights, bells and buzzers. I said, “Well, yes I do.” The little guy looked at me with something akin to awe and said, “You must be really, really smart.” I told him, no, but that I had worked very hard to learn my lessons in school.

After he was herded out by his apologetic Mom, I looked around my workplace, amazed again at this wondrous device that I was entrusted to operate. Thought about the thousands of hours spent studying and practicing and pondering and learning and devotion to my craft that it took to get here and sit in this chair, and assume the awesome responsibility of keeping all those people in the back-- including my new little friend-- safe.

One thing is certain. I didn’t just walk in after a lifetime of intellectual laziness, never having had any inclination to even try to understand the essential principals of how an airplane worked and flew, never having the dedication and discipline to begin to understand the big picture, much less the minutia, but instead just sitting my incompetent butt in the chair and shouting, “It’s gonna be so great. You won’t believe how great and how safe it will be! I will be the best pilot ever, this I can tell you! I’m the only guy who can fly this plane. Trust me. That I can tell you!”

And what would have been truly astonishing? If they took a vote among the passengers in the back, and they voted to make me the Captain!

https://www.facebook.com/bo.barber1?fref=ts

[guillaumeb]

1. And most people would not make such a claim. Unfortunately a minority has voted for

just such a businessman with a long record of incompetence.

Fasten your seatbelts.

[longship]

10. "Fasten your seatbelts"

From the incredible Bette Davis:

All About Eve

We could almost recast this and film it again, placing it in a political framework. Of course, it would be titled It's All About Donald. The ending would be terrifying.

[narnian60]

21. That clip never fails to make me smile.

[66 dmhlt]

25. AND you can enjoy an abbreviated version as a GIF ...

[shraby]

2. K&R

[madaboutharry]

3. This is great!

[iluvtennis]

4. Thanks for sharing this...the analogy is so apropos...

...how can one claim that the assertions of "Believe me", "Things are gonna be great", etc. are qualifications to be president. There were many many polls where by 60% + the electorate thought Hillary to be the most qualified. But yet and still the electorate voted in the unqualified/unfit one. It really boggles my mind how they could logically vote that way. But then I step outside of logic and look at it and just have to conclude that they voted against a woman and they also voted to say black/brown people...you may be the growing majority in this country, BUT you ain't there yet and we are gonna show you who is in control by voting for Trump even though we know he is unfit to be POTUS. My heart is still aching that my American people voted this way.

[Bohunk68]

22. "You may be the growing majority, but you ain't there yet"

Yes, I have heard this expressed. First time here, however. Inherent racism. I wonder just how much of a role this played? I saw the returns at my local rural precinct as the machine read out the totals, and was shocked. The margin was YUGE. I had seen few signs in yards and along the highways. I have had a lot of people tell me, if Bernie had been on the ticket, they would have voted for him. There is a visceral hatred for Hillary. Well, it is what it is. We now have to contend for the next 4 years with the Cowardly Lying Orange Cokehead Caligula. Can I call it that?

[iluvtennis]

40. sure you can call it that...I second ur monicker - Cowardly Lying Orange Cokehead Caligula

[lonestarnot]

5. At least he would have been a live person in a suit, some voted for an empty suit.

[Martin Eden]

6. Spot-On!

Our ship of state is full of crazy passengers.

[DemonGoddess]

7. K&R!

[montana_hazeleyes]

8. K&R for sure!

[world wide wally]

9. It is strictly, absolutely, totally, completely, undeniably, 100% the fault of every last person

that voted for him. And when the plane crashes, I wish it would only crash on them.
Unfortunately, the rest of us are going to be collateral damage.

[renate]

41. I have mixed feelings about wishing ill on the people who voted for him

On one hand: THIS IS ALL THEIR DAMN FAULT.

On the other: The 49.999% of the population who is, by definition, of below-average intelligence cannot help being of below-average intelligence. I'm absolutely not being snotty or disdainful: it's not their fault, in any way, and they will suffer the most. And I hate for them to suffer for something that is not their fault. They're precisely the ones who will suffer most from the safety net being taken away, although they are not alone.

I also hate for everyone else to suffer because of the people in flyover states' sincerely meant yet misguided actions in the voting booth. So. Mixed feelings. Citizens have a right to vote, but I think it's only fair to think that this should be in a context of real information, which they did not get from their damn Fox News.

I'm not disagreeing with you. It really sucks that we will all go down with this ship.

[world wide wally]

42. They only need to be smart enough to switch off Fox News...

and my dog needs to be smart enough not to run out in front of a truck.
This is not math and spelling doesn't count.

[triron]

11. Excellent metaphor

[Red Oak]

12. An excellent post from the pilot. They only way they would have EVER voted YES...

...was if the passengers really, really needed to get to wherever the orange idiot "pilot" said he was going to take the plane and if the passengers felt the chance they may die was not that much of a loss given their current circumstances.

In other words, only if the situation was dire.

[hippywife]

26. So...

are you saying that the situation under Obama is dire?

[Red Oak]

27. Yes, or they would not have voted for Trump

It is a lesson that we must learn and deal with before the next election.

[hippywife]

28. Interesting...

that while growth has been slower than many would like, it didn't develop into a full blown depression. The last quarter projections indicate that wages have risen poverty is down, and GDP rose to nearly 3%.

At least 85% of Trump's sales job at his rallies was based on hate, the other 15% empty blathering e.g he cannot bring back manufacturing jobs lost ever. Being one of those direly affected for the past six years, living in a very red state out here in the middle, and yet I wasn't motivated to/didn't take the opportunity to vote for hate.

[Red Oak]

32. Excellent! However, obviously many of your neighbors held their nose and voted for Trump.

I think you are saying that the economy is recovering so no one should have voted for Trump. For many, many Americans, that is not the case. They are hurting badly, held their nose and voted for an orange idiot that made promises the he can most likely cannot keep.

There are many unemployed, wages are stagnant to down for years, there are many more underemployed. To say things are getting better in the last quarter, even the last year, is a bit too little, too late after eight years of a Democrat holding the Presidency. It is a natural cycle in the US for that spot to swing back and forth between parties anyway, for us to hold the office in the face of a prolonged recession was a more difficult that usual task.

I suggest we really concentrate on help the 99%.

Manage trade to bring jobs back to the USA, provide universal health care, enable low cost educational opportunities to invest in our future, rebuild our infrastructure. In short, a policy of helping the American people rather than the business owners, CEOs and Wall Street.

We will win elections.

[hippywife]

34. I'm not saying that at all.

What I am saying is there was no need to resort to hatred of the other as a choice, which was Trump's main offering.

Consistent growth from near depression conditions with major obstruction from congress isn't a terrible legacy, either.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PAYEMS#0

[Red Oak]

39. I think it is more ths chart...

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/labor-force-participation-rate

Millions are hurting and are under-employed.

They are fed up with Washington BS.

<iframe src='http://cdn.tradingeconomics.com/embed/?s=unitedstalabforparra&v=201611211359r&d1=19160101&d2=20161231&h=300&w=600' height='300' width='600' frameborder='0' scrolling='no'></iframe><br />source: <a href='http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/labor-force-participation-rate'>tradingeconomics.com</a>

[keepapart]

13. Captain Drumpf!

This is Captain Cheeto Bandito aka Captain Drumpf - run! Quick - get off the plane. We are in trouble - I have never seen a car like this!

[politicaljunkie41910]

14. Thank your friend for me for having such good common sense. He and I would get along fine.

Your friend has been saying what I've been screaming at the TV set about for the past year and a half. Trump seems to have no intellectual curiosity about what he doesn't know about the government and running it and what he needs to know prior to taking its reigns. He has done nothing in the time since he announced to prepare himself or to attempt to learn what he doesn't know. Instead he spent the past 18 months name calling and bragging about himself. Trump likes to brag about how much money and buildings he has but what he is in short supply of and needs the most is to buy a CLUE. He has no humility and neither do his children; otherwise they wouldn't be so self absorbed as to believe they are qualified to be their father's presidential advisers while running the Trump family empire. Either there is no family business empire to run or they are as clueless as their father to think that being the leader of the free world is Drumpf change.

I realize that President Obama made the Presidency look easy and that now every white man in America thinks he can do it, because, you know, if a black man can do it, it must be easy because after all, I'm white, and gifted with great powers and intellect simply by having been born 'white'. Trump has had about as many failures if not more, as he has had successes. Others who make a living at following and being knowledgeable about his net worth have said that if he just took the money he inherited from his father and invested in CDs, at a marginal rate of return that he would have as much wealth, if not more, as he has now. Running Trump enterprises, whatever that is, is not the equivalent of running the entire US Government and being the leader of the free world.

I recall when the reporters visited Trump Towers several months after Trump announced, they all said the same thing. "there is no evidence of a presidential campaign there, only a handful of Trump employees, literally just a handful, and a lot of empty rooms." There was not even any evidence of an active Trump enterprises workforce. Trump and his kids all have large offices, but Trump hasn't really been building anything of his own lately. Instead choosing to license his "Brand" to other actual builders. His two most recent projects being converting the old post office in Wash D.C. into a hotel, and building a golf course in Scotland. Being President is much harder than building a golf course.

[raging moderate]

24. Or maybe "running the Trump empire" isn't really much.

Maybe it is actually their subordinates who do the real work of their "empire," with the additional burden of having to think up ways to flatter the titular chiefs by inventing summaries they have to have read to them and papers they have to sign.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. ...

[Coyotl]

19. Winner

[2naSalit]

30. ...

[kebob]

16. And Keep in Mind...

the pilot who wrote this didn't have nuclear bombs on his plane!

[Oldtimeralso]

17. I can fly the plane...

after all I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night!

[Coyotl]

18. More amazing still, if you'd come in second place and then they made you Captain.

[gademocrat7]

20. K&R!

[Fast Walker 52]

23. but but but Hillary had a private server!!!!

[mainer]

29. This guy is now being attacked on Facebook by the Alt-right

for writing this perfectly reasoned and intelligent observation.

[2naSalit]

31. No surprise there.....nt

[tclambert]

33. This is essentially what Plato said about democracy, though he used a ship instead of an airplane

for his analogy. Plato's main objection to democracy, paraphrased, is: "Whoa, dude! You gonna let stupid people vote? What if they elect an idiot?"

[Angry Dragon]

38. 1

[Initech]

35. Make Southwest great again!

[Paladin]

36. K&R.

[3catwoman3]

37. I showed this to my now-retired...

...pilot husband, and he replied, "Yup - pretty much."