It was rumor this morning but they've confirmed that the flights are being canceled because a "worker shortage". Employees are using up their sick time and such ahead of the cutoff date in November, when people who haven't taken the vaccine will be laid off, and so the airline can't conduct business.
The thing is, a lot of businesses out there seem to think that they can get along just fine without, you know, the people who actually do the work, which is why they're all gung ho about this "vaccine mandate" crap.
In the movie version of The Right Stuff, there's a scene where John Glenn tells his wife that she doesn't have to talk to the press. The NASA PR guy tries to threaten him: "We might just reconsider the order of flight assignments!"
And the other astronauts surround him and Alan Shepard says dangerously, "Yeah? Who are you gonna get?"
You can't go to the local temp agency for pilots. I'm not even sure you can get flight attendants that way, but I know you can't get pilots that way. Air transport pilots are people with a highly specific skill set, one that can be earned only through literal thousands of hours of flying, and you can't just replace one like you can the guy that runs the fry machine at McDonald's. I mean, I suppose you could, but the FAA would very likely take a dim view of that kind of thing, if the replacement didn't have all his certifications and ratings up to par. (And if he did, why is he unemployed?)
The fact is, it's just not possible. Not just with pilots; but nurses, too, and doctors. And a lot of other kinds of workers. Okay, you're not going to replace the journeyman pipefitter who does all your chemical plant's plumbing work with a guy from Mexico, who you only need to pay minimum wage--I mean, again, you can do that, certainly, but you won't get the kind of quality work you got from the guy he replaced.
If the people with the skills don't show up for work, the work doesn't get done, and you're a fool if you think you can pay someone fifty bucks a day to take up the slack.
Reportedly, Amtrak employees are doing the same.
Same vein: Left wing moron thinks that Mountain Dew is made by democrats. If the shit hits the fan, if the Boogaloo starts up--pick your metaphor--it is not going to be red areas that suffer the most. Take another look at the electoral map and try to figure out how much food, energy, and other supplies pass through the vast red areas, between the tiny islands of blue that are the major cities.
Meanwhile, Seattle looks to lose about forty percent of its cops. Forty percent of a thousand-man force is four hundred. How are the streets of Seattle going to look when they lose more than a third of their police?
Bayou Renaissance Man has a great post about this, too. And he says this:
Another friend who's a long-haul trucker (an owner/operator) told me over the weekend that "thousands" of drivers are now refusing to schedule loads to states that are imposing, or will soon impose, COVID vaccination mandates on transport workers (including some of the biggest states in the country, like New York and California). He says he's personally been "begged" by several customers who are "desperate" for drivers. He claims they've even offered him significant sums of money to get the jab so he can drive their cargoes; but he's having none of it, thanks to the widely-reported incidence of problems with the vaccines (well over 500,000 so far in the USA alone). He says it helps that the backlog of freight is so great that he can pick and choose which loads he carries, and which he rejects.Trains carry a lot of freight, but trucks carry that freight to and from the train tracks. If you don't have people driving the trucks, NOTHING MOVES. Okay? NOTHING.
He also told me that many drivers for the big trucking companies are getting more and more adamant with their bosses that if they insist on vaccination, they're going to walk out, and go to work for companies in states that have greater respect for their right to choose. Given the current shortage of drivers (about a 60,000 shortfall since 2019 and rapidly getting worse, particularly in the light of current supply chain problems), he doesn't think they'll have much trouble finding work. Meanwhile, states that have imposed mandates for truck drivers to be vaccinated are said to be already finding incoming truck traffic dropping off significantly - to the distress of businesses there, which can't get their orders in on time or in sufficient quantity.
Over at Bustednuckles we are asked, "Can You Sense The Panic Yet?" Oh yeah. I sure can. He says what I just said:
Make no mistake, this Airline stuff is Very. Serious. Business.A lot more pithy, but it's the same sentiment.
The Airlines themselves will go bankrupt toot sweet if they can't keep their planes in the air and you don't just run down to the local Home Depot parking lot and hire a crew of illegals for a day job to replace a bunch of fucking Airline Pilots.
The military is apparently not on board, either.
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Mitch McConnell is hauling out the "Well, even if we did undo the election, it would be a disaster for the country" bullshit. Oh, it'll destabilize the nation, so it's imperative that we just let the democrats get away with stealing elections. What fatuous nonsense! The only thing McConnell is afraid of is that he might end up in jail.
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The Chinese bond market is coming apart at the seams. It's starting in real estate but it's not going to be limited to real estate, no matter how hard the leftists wish it will.
The chinese government can't emit "stimulus" to fix anything because the price of energy in China is already driving immense inflation; you dump "helicopter money" on top of that and the yuan will hyperinflate faster than you can say "Mao's Little Book of Toilet Paper".
The housing market coming apart, on top of their energy crisis and the global trade slowdown--I don't know if anyone is thinking about this, but if the stuff doesn't get shipped from China, it doesn't get them any money, and there is a lot of merchandise sitting in containers in chinese ports waiting for a ship to carry them overseas.
...and the Chinese are making noises like they're going to try to take Taiwan. It's fine if they piss off America, but if they piss off Japan and Australia and Korea and-and-and...?
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Yes, this is the ultimate way to remove rust and I'd sure like one, myself.
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The "Bond. Woke Bond" movie is a flop. As expected.
In similar news, Superman is now bisexual and is going to have a gay fling with a male reporter. What's his name, Louis Lane?
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HAHAHAHAHA "Louis Lane" that's HILARIOUS--