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Destroying Meritocracy Is Deadly
American Greatness ^ | 14 Feb, 2023 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 02/16/2023 4:34:42 AM PST by MtnClimber

Our government is playing with our lives as it prefers diversity, equity, and inclusion over ensuring the best qualified employees are hired.

A recent epidemic of airline near misses deserves both attention and reflection.

In mid-December, a San Francisco-bound United Airlines Boeing 777-200 airliner, just a little over a minute after taking off from Maui, Hawaii, suddenly dived. It lost more than half its altitude and came within 800 feet of crashing into the Pacific Ocean before pulling up.

About a month later, an American Airlines jet crossed the runway at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport just as a Delta Air Lines plane was accelerating for takeoff. The two aircraft nearly collided.

Then in February, a FedEx cargo jet at the Austin, Texas airport just missed crashing into a Southwest Airlines airliner by a mere 100 feet.

The same month an American Airlines Airbus A321 was being towed out of the gate at Los Angeles International airport, and smashed into a bus carrying passengers between terminals, injuring five.

These near and actual accidents come amid a general landscape of aviation chaos.

After Christmas, Southwest Airlines simply canceled 71 percent of its flights. It blamed staff shortages due to storms. The airline seemed incapable of ensuring enough of their pilots, attendants, crews, and airport staff could get to work.

The Federal Aviation Administration in January canceled all flight departures from the United States for two hours due a computer safety system collapse. Thousands of additional flights were canceled, many for over 24 hours.

Something has gone terribly wrong.

Either the Department of Transportation and its Secretary Pete Buttigieg, or the head of the FAA, or the quality of either ground crews, pilots, or air traffic controllers—or all combined—are putting American travelers at mortal risk.

If not corrected...

(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Education; Society
KEYWORDS: die; labor; merit; vdh; victordavishanson
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1 posted on 02/16/2023 4:34:42 AM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

Reality happens even when you are living in a false reality.


2 posted on 02/16/2023 4:34:53 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: texas booster

VDH ping


3 posted on 02/16/2023 4:35:26 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber
"Destroying Meritocracy Is Deadly"

Voting to replace meritocracy with a kakistocracy gives aid and comfort to the domestic and foreign enemies of the United States.

4 posted on 02/16/2023 4:40:51 AM PST by Carl Vehse (A proud member of the LGBFJB community)
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To: Carl Vehse

Our enemies are behind the push to demolish meritocracy.


5 posted on 02/16/2023 4:53:17 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (Once you get people to believe that a plural pronoun is singular, they'll believe anything - nicollo)
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To: MtnClimber
Either the Department of Transportation and its Secretary Pete Buttigieg, or the head of the FAA, or the quality of either ground crews, pilots, or air traffic controllers—or all combined

For this level of effery to occur requires a system approach top to bottom.

6 posted on 02/16/2023 5:02:17 AM PST by AndyJackson (.)
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To: MtnClimber

7 posted on 02/16/2023 5:02:47 AM PST by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: MtnClimber

“There’s a thin veneer of hyper-competent professionals who keep the lights on and the water drinkable. Replace them with the incompetent and the water turns brown and the lights go out.”


8 posted on 02/16/2023 5:23:18 AM PST by Chad C. Mulligan (eleutheromaniac)
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To: MtnClimber

Approaching third world status at the speed of sound…


9 posted on 02/16/2023 5:23:41 AM PST by gov_bean_ counter (Eccl 10:2 - The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.)
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To: MtnClimber

The Larger the bureaucracy, the less it is concerned with the needs of individuals.


10 posted on 02/16/2023 5:28:12 AM PST by MMusson
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To: MtnClimber

My instructor friend who is in with the faa always asks if they have a number of acceptable deaths as a result of some of these policies, crickets


11 posted on 02/16/2023 5:50:53 AM PST by eyeamok (founded in cynicism, wrapped in sarcasm)
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To: MtnClimber

when suffering from inequality, the coveted need is to end the importance of merit in your betters

The reason for inequality is inequality


12 posted on 02/16/2023 5:56:29 AM PST by bert ( (KWE. NP. N.C. +12) Juneteenth is inequality day )
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To: Travis McGee

aw jeez...i can actually hear that conversation....


13 posted on 02/16/2023 5:58:24 AM PST by DCBryan1 (Delete FB, TWTR, GOOGL, AMZN, YHOO, Gmail/chrome. Use Gab, Brave + DDG, VPN, Freerepublic )
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To: Alberta's Child; Alouette; Aria; BatGuano; beaversmom; bigfootbob; Brian Griffin; Cathi; cgk; ...
Ping! Out to the Victor Davis Hanson list

Similar problems are plaguing the U.S. military.

On July 21, 2021 the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley assured the country that “The Afghan security forces have the capacity and capabilities needed to fight and defend their country.”

Those forces utterly collapsed in a matter of hours less than a month later.

On the eve of the war in Ukraine, the Pentagon wrongly warned Congress that Kyiv could fall within 72 hours of a general Russian invasion.

Keep it up, and there are going to be a lot more Afghanistan-style surrenders, Chinese surveillance craft in our skies, and airline nightmares.

And and to quote the wise MMusson from post 10:

The Larger the bureaucracy, the less it is concerned with the needs of individuals.

FR Index of his articles: Victor Davis Hanson on FR

Town Hall: Victor Davis Hanson on Town Hall

American Greatness: Victor Davis Hanson on American Greatness

His website: Victor Davis Hanson

Please let me know if you want on or off this new VDH ping list.

As a reminder, Professor Hanson has asked that we do not post the full article of his writings. Thank you for following the link to finish his article.

Content created by the Center for American Greatness, Inc. is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a significant audience.

14 posted on 02/16/2023 6:01:45 AM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: MtnClimber

My Brigade Commander wrote a book which encompassed much of my 5 month deployment to Somalia in 1993.

He discusses some “accidental discharges” that happened during the deployment from US and coalition forces and how there is no such thing as an accidental discharge.
He said that with very few exceptions, every incident he saw in his career was either the result of
poor training,
poor discipline,
poor leadership,
poor SOP’s
and usually a combination of the four.

I’m sure most ocean ship captains know by now to avoid US NAVY vessels due to their keen ability to crash into random vessels.

so yeah, you start putting lives in the hands of incompetence, then lives will be taken.

Tough times make strong men, strong men make easy times, easy times make weak men, weak men make tough times......

we are in the weak men make tough times phase of the human life cycle right now. We are entering a leaderless generation......and the price will be paid soon enough........


15 posted on 02/16/2023 6:17:02 AM PST by Jaysin (Trump can’t be beat, unless the democrats cheat)
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To: Jaysin

Did not a Navy ship hit another because of a tiff between two female officers on deck at the same time a few years back? It was because they would not talk to each other I gather, I can’t remember the details anyone else remember?


16 posted on 02/16/2023 6:39:29 AM PST by ABN 505 (Right is right if nobody is right, and wrong is wrong if everybody is wrong. ~Archbishop Fulton John)
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To: ABN 505

very possibly.

I do recall something about a female commander on a ship, but who knows. I dont remember any details

I’m sure if what you’re saying actually happened, then I’m sure the truth has been buried—we can’t let life get in the way of diversity can we?


17 posted on 02/16/2023 6:44:23 AM PST by Jaysin (Trump can’t be beat, unless the democrats cheat)
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To: Chad C. Mulligan

The former first world nation of South Africa should be warning to us all.


18 posted on 02/16/2023 7:00:09 AM PST by Right Brigade (It was better before they voted for whats his name,this must be the New World)
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To: MtnClimber

The state of transportation is now a metaphor for how well the homosexual lifestyle “works out”. In reality, its a plane crash. Or trainwreck. Or pile-up.


19 posted on 02/16/2023 7:08:46 AM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Right Brigade

Got that right.
In an article about “load shedding” (rotating blackouts) in South Africa, I was surprised to read the comments of a black union leader who said essentially, “say what you will about the apartheid days, at least they kept the lights on.”

Not that apartheid was a wonderful thing, but at least the country’s management didn’t put relatives, friends and political supporters into positions they were totally unqualified to fill.


20 posted on 02/16/2023 7:29:55 AM PST by Max in Utah (A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.)
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