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January 31, 2025 21 mins

Can increased diversity, equity, and inclusion policies compromise public safety? We dive into this complex and controversial issue by examining the impact of DEI guidelines on hiring practices in critical sectors like aviation and firefighting. With a focus on a tragic incident involving American Airlines and a Black Hawk helicopter near Washington, we question whether the FAA's commitment to inclusivity, including hiring individuals with disabilities, might compromise safety. Through a personal recounting of the demanding physical tests required for aspiring firefighters, we highlight potential risks that may arise if standards are lowered in the name of diversity. Our discussion also touches on media biases and political shifts, scrutinizing how national security concerns are addressed by different administrations, and reflecting on former President Trump's remarks about DEI.

Explore with us as we tackle the pressures faced by air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, questioning if the FAA’s diversity-focused hiring practices are setting us up for failure in high-stress environments. We also consider parallels with initiatives from New York City's fire department, contemplating whether such policies truly prioritize competence. The episode navigates through the political landscape, contrasting past and present leadership while emphasizing the importance of truth and transparency in media narratives. We aim to foster a candid dialogue on these critical issues, ensuring that the safety and effectiveness of vital public services are never compromised.

#DEI #Flight5342 #News

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
What you just said is one of the most insanely
idiotic things I have ever heard.
At no point in your rambling,incoherent response were you
even close to anything thatcould be considered a rational
thought.
Everyone in this room is nowdumber for having listened to.

(00:22):
It is now dumber for havinglistened to it.
You don't know what that oughtis, mr Trash, I'd show you, but
I'm too old, I'm too tired, I'mtoo fucking blind.
If I were the man I was fiveyears ago.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
I'd take a flamethrower to this place.
Do you understand the wordsthat are coming out of my mouth?
You want answers.
I think I'm entitled.
You want answers.
I want the truth.
You can't handle the truth.
Sometimes the truth is a veryinconvenient thing, but, as

(01:03):
always, the truth can always befree.
This is Tim.
It's going to find law.
In the background, we need totalk about that tragedy over
Washington.
Over Ronald Reagan WashingtonNational Airport, an American
Airlines flight 53-43, collidingwith the Black Hawk helicopter.
President Trump got in troublea little bit or raised the ire

(01:25):
of the left because of the factthat he pontificated the fact
that maybe DEI had something todo with this crash.
And if you take a look at theentirety of the situation, and I
do think one thing needs to beclear.
And I do think I think onething needs to be clear when,
when, when, people hear DEI, thefirst thing they think about is

(01:46):
the fact that when Trump speaksabout, that is the fact that
he's talking about race, he'stalking about gender, but it's
so much more.
And the FAA literally wentthrough a spectrum of of hiring
or potential hirings to fill, tofill DEI policies.
But it wasn't just about raceand gender.
It was about hiring people withdisabilities, hiring people

(02:09):
with drug issues, hiring peoplethat are handicapped.
They were even potentiallyhiring people that were
paralyzed, and this was allpontificated by the director of
the FAA former director of theFAA in one of his training
videos or one of his recruitmentvideos.
So it wasn't just about goingout and finding, you know, the

(02:30):
best candidate available,because finding the best
candidate available usually isthe best way to hire.
And it's one of those thingsthat I go back to what happened
years ago in New York City.
New York City had a DEI policyput into place where they needed

(02:52):
to hire more female minorityfirefighters and there was a big
push for this.
But the problem was thecandidates that they had
in-house could not pass thephysical exam to actually become
a firefighter.
They physically could not dothe job.

(03:14):
A friend of mine is a formerfire chief in New Jersey.
I'm not going to say for whatstation, but he was a former
fire chief in New Jersey and heworked his way up through the
ranks.
And when I was in my mid-20s hestarted as a volunteer.
And he was a former fire chiefin New Jersey and he worked his
way up through the ranks andwhen I was in my mid twenties,
um, he started as a volunteerand he was like, well, do you
want to volunteer to become afirefighter?
You know, you do this, you gothrough training, you do this,
you do that, you do theseexercises, you do this, then you

(03:34):
pass it, you pass this test andthen you become a volunteer
fireman.
So I was like, all right, youknow, uh, I was like maybe two
or three years removed fromplaying college athletics,
playing college football.
So I was like, of course Icould do this.
And they had a training facility.
It used to be in Trenton, newJersey I don't know if it's
there anymore where it'sbasically a three-story.
It's a replica of a three-storybuilding which they put on fire

(03:56):
all the time and they havethese metal steps.
And what they make you do atone point in time to pass the
physical test is you put on allthe gear which weighs anywhere
between 70 and a hundred pounds,and then you carry a hose and
then you're supposed to run upthese steps in full gear, full
mass, carrying the hose, withina certain period of time I can't

(04:19):
remember the collection.
This was 25, 30 years ago.
You have to run up these stairsand reach the top within an
allotted time, and if you cannotdo this, you don't pass the
part of the physical exam.
Now, at that point in time, Iwas pretty much in shape, I
thought it was going to be nobig deal and I strapped on the

(04:41):
gear, I grabbed the hose.
They said go and I, I mean Itook the fuck up off the
building and I ran up the stepsand I'll tell you this, I got to
the.
I got to maybe the third step,going up to the third level, and
I was out of gas.
I mean I was, I was freakingwinded and I did make it up and

(05:02):
I barely made it under therequirements to be pat to pass
that portion of the physicaltest.
And I remember coming back downwith the gear and coming to
drop and everything.
And I remember at that point intime the chief uh, the fire,
the fire chief for thatdepartment saying to me it's not
as easy as it looks.
I said no, it's not Now.
He says now, imagine doing thiswhile you're running into a

(05:25):
building that is on fire tryingto save lives.
You need to have theunderstanding of what you, of
the having the physicality to dothese certain things just to
become a firefighter.
So a few years back, like I said, they had these women uh,
minority women that New Yorkcity that they wanted to hire

(05:46):
but they couldn't pass thephysical examination.
They couldn't pass the physicaltesting.
So what they did is theylowered the standards for the
physical testing.
They still couldn't pass.
So what does New York do?
In their infinite wisdom, theydecide well, you know what we're
going to do anyways, we're justgoing to pass them.
That's not a way to save lives.

(06:10):
That's not a way to do, youknow, because some jobs are just
not meant for some people.
It shouldn't be about the colorof your skin, it shouldn't be
about your gender, it shouldn'tbe about your race, it shouldn't
be about anything.
It should only be about can youphysically do the job or are
you mentally able to do the job?

(06:30):
Now, airline traffic controllersis considered probably one of
the most stressful jobs there isbecause you have lives,
thousands of people's lives, inyour hands every moment of every
day.
One critical mistake couldcause a crash.
So you need to have the bestpeople humanly possible in these

(06:58):
roles.
Now, we had a two-year gap oftraining of air traffic
controllers because of COVID,which I still don't understand,
why we had that two-year gap oftraining of air traffic
controllers because of COVID,which I still don't understand,
why we had that two-year gap.
But they did not train underthe Biden administration.
They did not train any airtraffic controllers for a
two-year period of time and thentheir hiring practices were

(07:21):
then laid out to hire females,minorities, people with
handicaps.
Oh, I love it.
One of the other portions of thememo was we were hiring dwarves
.
Why does it matter if you're adwarf?
I don't care if you're a dwarf.
If you are physically, mentallyable and capable of doing the
job, you should be hired.
But you should not specificallylower standards because of the

(07:42):
fact that you want to hirepeople with handicaps.
Lower standards because of thefact that you want to hire
people with handicaps, peoplethat are paralyzed, people with
drug addictions, dwarves.
I mean this is the seriousnessof the lunacy that we had under
the Biden administration forfour years.
It was for them.
It's never on merit.
It was just because of the factthat you, you are a different

(08:02):
race, you are a woman, you, youthink you're, you think you're a
unicorn, so you're beingdiscriminated against.
You need to get this jobbecause you are being
discriminated against.
Maybe you're just not capableof doing the job.
Maybe you're just not capableof doing the job.
And I know that's insane.
I know that's insane to thinkthat, and I'm not sitting there,

(08:29):
I'm not.
You know, like I said, peopleblasted Trump because Trump was
saying well, you know, this wasthe reason.
I don't know if it was thereason.
I don't know if it wasmechanical failure, I don't know
.
I doubt it was mechanicalfailure because you was a
mistake by, I believe, airtraffic controllers, because if

(08:49):
you actually listen to theminute-by-minute breakdown of
the crash, you take a listen tothe instructions by the air
traffic controller.
There was I mean, literallythere was no instructions given,
and I think that's kind ofwhere we're at.

(09:11):
Let's listen to, let's see.
I have I think I believe I havethe audio here.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
Let's pull up the audio for this incident.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Okay, that is the helicopter seeing an aircraft
requesting separation.
That is the helicopter itself.
And that long pause that youheard was not me having a

(09:57):
problem with the video that wasbetween the helicopter looking
for visual separation from theaircraft till when the accident
happened.
The problem is, when the pilotof the Black Hawk asked for
visual separation, thecontroller never mentioned what

(10:18):
flight, what direction, whataircraft, nothing.
So you have to remember RonaldReagan Airport is a very busy
airport.
So at this point in time, youprobably you have lights
everywhere, you have planescoming in everywhere.
Now you have a Blackhawk whichis traveling south on a training
flight and then, like I said,you have the airliner coming in

(10:41):
approximately about 400 feet,going on to runway 33.
And at that point in time, whenhe asked for visual separation,
the, the, the helicopter pilot,there is no indication from the
tower.
Okay, you need to, you need toseparate from this, you need to
separate from that.
You, you, you have flight, you,you.
No one say you have flight five, four, flight 543 or whatever,

(11:03):
or I would rephrase that, whichwould be you have flight CRJ 700
, you know, 400 feet descendingto your left.
Visual separation correctionvis-a-vis this.
No, he asks for it, he gets it,but at no point in time is the
tower itself instructing himwhere to go, where the flight is

(11:27):
coming from or even whichaircraft is visible.
That's kind of an issue Becausenormally, like I said, if you
are an air traffic controllerand I actually talked to my
friend who used to be one hewill tell you that you need to
give some type of direction.
You need to tell him where theaircraft is coming.

(11:51):
You will tell the aircraftwhere the aircraft is coming
from, what is the altitude, youwill say something like I mean,
he was telling me you'll saysomething like American Flight
543 at such and such height andaltitude of 400 feet, you know,
and then give you the directionof where you're supposed to go.
No, there was no direction fromthe tower I love.

(12:12):
The New York Post called it agrave lapse in miscommunications
in one of the most crowded andcomplex patches of the sky that
the US has.
That's what they have.
That's what they were saying,and they were saying, and they
were saying the air trafficcontrollers on duty that day, or
the air traffic controller onduty that day was doing the job
of two staff members at the timeof the crash, because we are so

(12:35):
woefully understaffed at theFAA, even with their DEI
guidelines about hiring everyone, that these guys are burning
out.
There's staffing shortages,they're burning out and, like I
said, this is one of the mosthighly stressful jobs that you

(12:58):
can have.
Now some experts believe thatthe helicopter pilots basically
maneuvered to avoid the wrongplane, but that's the thing.
If you are the air trafficcontroller and you tell them
that flight such and such is on,you know, flight CJ 700 is on
flight path blank at 400 feetand descending, please turn to

(13:20):
whatever, whatever the gridcoordinate is, then you're fine,
okay, then you can avoid it.
But when you give zerodirection and you are relying on
the pilot's visuals at night,there's a big pause for concern.

(13:42):
Now, there were three crewmembers on the Black Hawk.
The military is basicallysaying that the Black Hawk may
have been flying too high at 400feet when it collided with the
airliner, but it's one of thosethings that what people don't
want to address and people don'twant to talk about was the

(14:03):
night before there was anotheralmost near collision at the
same airport.
Almost near collision at thesame airport.
Now listen, if you know DC, theRonald Reagan airport is
literally right in the middle ofDC.

(14:23):
Ronald Reagan, washingtonNational Airport has for years
they've talked about closing itdown because of the flight
patterns over the city, becauseof the congestion, because
everything you got coming out ofDulles, because of everything
else.
But there's always, there wasalways that talk into
consideration to getting rid ofit or or just closing the
airport, you know, entirely,just just for safe, just for

(14:46):
safety reasons.
But this was an accident, likeI said, that was on.
This accident was on a I meanwas I don't want to, you don't
want to say collision coursebecause of what happened, but
this accident was I don't thinkif you talk to some of the
people in the FAA and I know ifyou don't talk, if you talk to
some people over in RonaldReagan Airport this was an

(15:08):
accident in the making Becauseof the fact that you are so
woefully understaffed.
You have an air trafficcontroller that night doing the
job of two people which ismanning the entire sky.
There was a movie calledPushing Tin with Billy Bob
Thornton and John Cusack and Ithink Angelina Jolie was in that

(15:29):
movie as well and it wasbasically about air traffic
controllers and everything thatthey had to do and they said
that it was a pretty fairrepresentation.
I believe it was in the mid-90s.
They said it was a pretty fairrepresentation of what air
traffic controllers go throughwithin the building, within the
tower not the extracurricularactivities because it was a
movie, but they said it was apretty fair assessment and how

(15:49):
this was.
This is one of the mostdifficult and demanding careers
in the world because of the factthat it's so high stress and
when you sit there and when youeliminate your best candidates
because of your DEI policy,because of the fact that you

(16:09):
need to hire lesbians, you needto hire dwarves, you need to
hire people with handicaps,people with drug problems.
These are things that came.
I'm not saying this to be funny.
This is the shit that came fromthe FAA, the leader of the FAA.
This is from them.
This isn't from me making thisshit up and for people to blast

(16:30):
the president because of thefact that he wants to hire the
best people capable for theirroles and not hire based on your
physical appearance, yoursexual orientation, if you're a
dwarf, if you're a former drugaddict, if you are someone that
has a handicap, if you'reparalyzed.
These are roles that you needto put the best person available

(16:52):
.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
So when Trump says something like this my
administration will set thehighest possible bar for
aviation safety.
We have to have our smartestpeople.
It doesn't matter what theylook like, how they speak, who
they are.
It matters intellect, talent,the word talent.
I do want to point out thatvarious articles that appeared

(17:15):
prior to my entering office andhere's one the FAA's diversity
push includes focus on hiringpeople with severe intellectual
and psychiatric disabilities.

Speaker 2 (17:27):
That's the people that I want working in the tower
.
I want people with severeintellect and psychiatric
disabilities, because that's thebest money can buy.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
That is amazing.
And then it says FAA sayspeople with severe disabilities
are most underrepresented.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
So they are one of the most underrepresented people
in the FAA workforce, that's,people with severe disabilities.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
Underrepresented segment of the workforce and
they want them in and they wantthem.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
They can be air traffic controllers.
So people with severedisabilities.
Now, like I said, we're notjust talking whatever.
Like I said, people hear dei,they automatically think race
and gender.
No, there's a lot moreencompassing.
So, if you have psychiatricissues, if you have severe
disabilities, if you say theywant, they want you, you, the
FAA wants you, and I believe, Ithink it's crap that people are

(18:41):
blasting the president for thiswhere, honestly, he's just
speaking the truth.
He's just bringing up the factthat, listen, he's just bringing
up the fact that, listen, thisis what, this is what I've, this
is what I've come into.
I love the one reporter with um,with JD Vance, j and all of a
sudden, you know JD Vance doesan interview and and the

(19:02):
reporter is like uh, well, youknow, you said you're going to
lower prices.
I could be having loweredprices yet and I love it,
because JD Vance is like we'vebeen here for a fucking week.
We literally been here for aweek.
Let's get.
I have some of that interview.
I'm going to play a little bitof that every year.
Hold on, let me see.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
You're going to love this bed.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Are you going to love the bed?
Hold on, let me find.
Let me find this interview.
I know I know I have theinterview, but it just kills me
that you didn't ask Biden any ofthese questions.
But you know what they're like.
Well, you know what.
You've been here a week.
How come the price of, how comethe price of eggs are down.
Wait, let's see if I have somewho are not properly vetted.
And because I don't want it formy kids, I'm not going to force

(19:45):
any other American citizens,kids, to do that either.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
No, and that was a very particular case.
It wasn't clear if he wasradicalized when he got here or
while he was living here.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
I don't really care, margaret.
I don't want that person in mycountry, and I think most
Americans agree with me.
I love that when he goes afterpeople.
You know.
I mean, the left is just intotal fucking meltdown.
They are literally in totalfucking meltdown and there's
literally nothing they can doabout it, and all they do is go

(20:15):
after JD Vance and Donald Trump.
But the problem is the adultsare back in the room.
The adults are.
The adults have finallyreturned and he's not wearing a
diaper.
It's time for a return tosanity, and if you don't like
truth and you don't like honesty, you're going to hate this
administration, because for thelast week in change, that's what

(20:37):
you've gotten.
So you know what left.
If you want to meltdown,meltdown, but fucking deal with
it.
Oh, we're going to keep doingsome episodes at least two a
week here and, as always, thetruth will always set you free.
This is Tim, this is Cut Off myLawn, the Mad Ramblings of a

(20:57):
Gen Xer, and I'm out of here.
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