The photos of the "crowds" at the tank parade remind me of when Bill Hicks would come on stage in an almost-empty club, scan the room slowly, and announce "I've had more people in bed than this" ...
When the president sends a cabinet member on TV to announce "We are using the military to liberate an American city from its elected leaders," where do you go from there. What is left to say. The idea of that being anything short of a near-universal "Wait, what the fuck is going on" moment proves how far we've backslid.
This is from 2022 but it was absolutely right. The practiced buffoonery of Trump 1, all the "just kiddings" and "seriously but not literallys" absolutely succeeded in desensitizing people who are hardly paying any attention to the harder stuff they always intended to do next. ...
The basic fallacy in chasing votes by being "tough on immigration" is that the modal American's position on the issue is "Deport the Bad ones and keep the Good ones," and they alone know who is which, and that simply does not translate into workable policy. So this kind of gestapo stuff horrifies some of the same people who cheered when Trump promised to do it. There are true sociopaths who love this, but "No, I meant only the BAD immigrants! Not my coworker/friend/neighbor!" is as likely a reaction as enthusiasm. You cannot do immigration policy that satisfies these people because what they want is nonsensical.
So by the time center-left parties fully commit to chasing the far right by "getting tough" on immigration, the backlash has already begun to build and they walk right into it. "I thought you people wanted this!" No, they want something impossible and convinced themselves they'd could have it - the "eat whatever you want AND lose weight!" of immigration policies.
It is hard to grasp but large masses of Americans are both racist/xenophobic AND not racist/xenophobic enough to applaud what Trump is doing. It's goldilocks shit, they want a level of racism/xenophobia calibrated exactly to their personal preferences, and you just can't make that policy. Don't try. ...
AP: Trump extends olive branch, invites Musk to White House cellar to taste some brand new amontillado ...
jazzbumpa says:
Ha. You think that's bad, try DRIVING in Atlanta. Sheer terror — and I'm from freakin' DeTriot!
ben says:
cruisin' in the ATL? Huh. I've heard only good things…
Nan says:
Wimps. The airport isn't that bad — most people make it from the gate to baggage claim in under 48 hours — and driving's easy once you figure out the secret to survival is to never ever get on to I-285.
Samantha says:
what?! having grown up with hartsfield as my example of what an airport is, i am baffled by the half-assery with which nearly all other US airports i've been to seem to have been thrown together (i haven't been to o'hare). yes, hartsfield is humongous, but i think it's well laid-out, directionally well marked, and incredibly efficient with the security check points. plus, we have giant ants crawling on the steel trusses above our baggage claim area. you just have to remember to allow extra time and pack snacks and reading material. sorry about your sherpa.
Virginia S. Wood, Psy.D. says:
Why I don't fly.
Daniel says:
If anyone has been to the new Indianapolis International, that's how you build an airport. It takes about 5 min to get from your landed plane to baggage claim. Of course Atlanta is a bigger city with more complications, hence the hassle. Here's another tip. The Newark Airport is an impenetrable fortress where an outgoing flight has never left on time, nor has an incoming flight ever landed in time. If you like browsing magazine kiosks, you'll have the time of your life in Newark. If you have a layover in Newark be braced to miss your connecting flight.
Ed says:
ATL is obviously just one of those 1950s/1960s airports that are now handling traffic levels far, far in excess of any of the planners imagined. It's just like a highway with bumper-to-bumper traffic – there's nothing wrong with the road except for the volume of traffic fighting to use limited space.
That said, the distances between and among the key user-end parts of Hartsfield are ridiculous. While they may be laid out logically, it is by no means a shining example to which other airports should aspire.
Indy is amazing, but it has the advantage of being designed for modern airport needs. Many of the famously cluster-fucked airports (JFK, Dulles, LGA, O'Hare, etc) are fundamentally flawed by their age. They were designed for different planes, fewer of them, and different passenger needs.
OliverWendelHolmslice says:
"This may smell bad kid, but at least you'll be warm…and I thought they smelled bad on the outside."
Michael says:
Be happy you weren't in terminal D.
D.N. Nation says:
I can understand feeling this way if you're going from the international terminal to baggage, but dude…you felt like A-to-baggage was some Herculean effort? Really?
D.N. Nation says:
"That said, the distances between and among the key user-end parts of Hartsfield are ridiculous."
Sure, but they're 1) highly logical and 2) L-A-B-E-L-E-D (Logan, I'm looking in your direction). Show me an airport of Atlanta's scope- that is to say, one of the world's most important- that's easier to figure out than Hartsfield.
Getting from entrance to gate (I take MARTA, so parking's not an issue) may take a little while, but I never feel flustered/confused/homicidal. That's really the hangup on air travel for me, not the time it takes going from point A to B in an airport.
"ATL is obviously just one of those 1950s/1960s airports that are now handling traffic levels far, far in excess of any of the planners imagined."
Think about what Hartsfield is really for, though: Connections. Most people who fly through the ATL never go to baggage claim.
Erik Moore says:
The terminals are laid out like this:
Baggage Claim – T – A – B – C – D – E
If you took the train from terminal A to Baggage Claim, it should have taken you 3-5 minutes……if you took the train…if you walked, maybe 20 minutes?
I have been through Chicago, Philly, NYC, LAX, New Orleans, Miami, Buffalo, Detroit, Boston, Charlotte, Puerto Rico, Aruba, St. Thomas & Heathrow's airports…….the ATL is the easiest to figure out….by far
Comrade PhysioProf says:
I like ATL, because I get to do my daily cardio workout getting from my gate to the motherfucking baggage claim.