Obama

Over/Under

~ Lee Swanson ~ 2 Comments

Here’s something curious.

On Tuesday, the President of the United States took credit for there not having been any commercial aircraft deaths in his first year in office, give or take 18 days. Specifically he said – well, no he didn’t say, he tweeted, so let me back up – Specifically he thumbed “Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news – it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!”

That’s interesting on several fronts. One is that “commercial aviation” is not a proper noun. Nor is “zero,” except in the case of Mostel.

Another way this is interesting is that the President of the United States, no president, has anything to do with airline safety. No pilots check in with him to get their flight plans. No airline gets its schedules from the president. Although apparently most people in the administration have to pledge their loyalty and fealty to the president, airline pilots do not, and therefore they and their auto-pilots are not beholden to his demands that they exercise caution while flying.

A third way that the president-who-shall-remain-nameless taking credit for airline safety is interesting, is that there has not been an accidental death on a domestic commercial airline in the United States since February 2009. That means that, with the exception of the first 22 days of the Obama administration, there has not been an accidental death on a U.S. airline on his watch. Not that it’s relevant to the actions of either one of them.

Give him his due. The airlines operating during the first eleven months and sixteen days during the administration of the president-who-shall-remain-nameless have a better airline safety record than the administration of the foreign-born, non-Christian president who preceded him and who he detests and with whom he is, apparently, locked in fierce competition.

But wait.

There’s another, even more interesting way that this claim by the president-who-shall-remain-nameless is worth noting.

That is that 2017 set another record. It not only had the same number of commercial airline accidental deaths of every year since 2009, but it also had the most coal mining deaths. There were a record low of eight coal mining deaths in 2016 when the foreign-born, non-Christian president was in office. But, 15 coal miners died in the first year of the administration of the president-who-shall-remain-nameless.

As with airline safety, this is not to the credit or blame of any president, except that the president-who-shall-remain-nameless has championed the coal industry and promised to put coal miners back to work.

In March this year, for instance, surrounded by unemployed, but alive, coal miners at the Environmental Protection Agency, the president-who-shall-remain-nameless signed an executive order vowing to roll back climate change policies of the foreign-born, non-Christian president, including the Clean Power Plan limiting carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants. “C’mon fellas, you know what this says?” the president-who-shall-remain-nameless asked. “You’re going back to work!”

He did not mention that, although they haven’t yet gone back to work, those who are working in coal mines have died at a rate 15 times higher than people on commercial airlines.

The conclusion seems obvious. It is safer to be in an airplane with which the president-who-shall-remain-nameless has no control than in a coal mine that he has promised to save.

Obama Executive Order Has GOP Fuming

~ Lee Swanson ~ 1 Comment

(Washington, DC) – Reaction to President Barack Obama’s latest executive order has been swift and angry. On Friday, the president issued an order declaring government offices will be closed on Friday December 26, 2014. Republicans are vowing to stop the order from taking effect.

“This sort of scorched earth approach to governing has got to be stopped,” House Speaker John Boehner told a hastily called news conference. “The American people expect their government to be working for them,” he said from the clubhouse foyer at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda before the House leadership adjourned to the golf course.

“It is the purview of the Congress to shut down the government,” Boehner added. “It cannot be done by executive order. As the president said himself, he is not an emperor.”

The Speaker brushed aside criticism that the House will be in session a total of only 17 days from October through December. “This is about a president who ignores his oath to uphold the Constitution. If we have to, we will file a lawsuit to stop him,” Boehner said angrily, his face turning from its usual bright orange to deep red.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a presumed presidential contender, declared the president’s action a “fiscal disaster waiting to happen.” He claimed the one day closure will cost the government billions in lost productivity and demanded that funds be found to make up for the loss. “Before we go around closing offices, we need to cut programs to be sure the taxpayers aren’t left holding the bag,” Cruz told reporters. “And I think we start with Obamacare and immigration reform.”

“This is the sort of thing you would expect from a socialist Muslim,” former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said on Fox News. “He’s trying to move the most important holiday on the Christian calendar, which is to say the only calendar there is in this Christian nation and around the world, super-specially at this time of year, so he can have another day to face Mecca. He needs to be reminded the White House is the people’s house, Sean. It has an East Room, but it doesn’t have a Mideast Room.” Palin was speaking on the Fox News hastily arranged special program “Escalating the War on Christmas.”

When asked for his view of the executive order and reaction to it, soon to be Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said, “It is not only illegal, it is immoral and repulsive. And frankly it is totally unnecessary. I’ve been in the Senate since 1985 and have never worked a single Friday.”