It's near-white out conditions in Chicago as the snow comes down, and tonight's anti-ICE/CBP rally is wrapping up in front of city hall. But not before the crowd bounces and chants, "I believe that we will win!"

Trump threatens ‘decertifying’ all Canadian-made aircraft theaircurrent.com/feed/dispatc... (via @willguisbond.com & @jonostrower.com) #staycurrent

Looks like Randy Feenstra doesn’t believe in the Second amendment

Orange-fascist-mentally-ill-wanna-be dictator headed to DSM right now; Iowa NG Lakota up over Clive for overwatch. Motorcade will prob go west along the Hwy 5 Bypass and north along I-35, so expecting additional airborne assets along that route.

For any elected official who needs to hear this, I impart a lesson learned from the NFL: When the other team is tired and on the back foot, you don’t call a timeout so they can catch their breath. You grind their fucking face into the dirt until the final whistle blows and you’ve won the game.

Not sure how you can “violently resist” when you are on your knees and your head is also down at the ground and you’re surrounded by 10 dudes in tactical vests screaming at you and pistol whipping you

They fucking murdered him

Only sad about the Bears game in the sense that I don’t get to watch them anymore this year. Most fun season in forever and a ton of amazing memories. Pumped to see what they do next year.

Here is the video message of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell regarding the Justice Department’s criminal investigation related to the Fed’s building renovations. Watch it. youtu.be/KckGHaBLSn4

I feel like "attention hacking" is most of politics now. The Minnesota aid fraud story is becoming a perfect example. Recap: In 2022, the Biden DOJ filed the first charges against dozens of fraudsters, many of them Somali-American, who'd fleeced a state food aid program. (1/x)

Lfg

Fun map and data from United! It’s the most booked international destination of 2025 from every US state. Middle America sure does love Cancun, huh.

For the last few months, I've been working on a story about January's crash near Washington, D.C. What I learned was that it was simply an accident waiting to happen. Special Report: The night everything at DCA finally went wrong (via @theaircurrent.com) theaircurrent.com/aviation-saf...

Wow, big and exciting undertaking for what is a fairly large commercial airport. Complex project to pull off but will be the first big central Iowa air show since 1991 apparently www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2...

Yesterday, the New Hampton, Iowa-based Croell Concrete Cessna Citation brought Iowa State's new coach from Pullman to Ames. At an operating cost of ~$1,700, the flights to/from Pullman cost around $10k to operate, and Croell can likely deduct slightly more than half (crew wages and fuel burned).

This story really gets at the nitty gritty of why Iowa is overflowing with Confined Animal Feeding Operations: the regs just require pieces of paper to be filed, there is no monitoring and the fines if an operator is ever caught are ludicrous, all things that could be fixed easily (charging CAFOs).

"I don't think Hegseth would be foolish enough to..." I'm gonna stop you right there pal because you clearly don't understand the fact that Hegseth is one of the dumbest motherfuckers on the face of the planet who is also basically always intoxicated.

DSM has been closed since late Sat night after an Endeavor Air CR9 slid off the rwy 31/taxiway D6 intersection. Am expecting the airport to open soon but it’s interesting to compare how much info each major daily service airline provides on its flight status updates—United is the clear leader

Sarah Beckstrom's ex-boyfriend told NBC News she dreamed of becoming an FBI special agent. She didn't want to deploy to D.C. "She hated it. She cried about it." But she started visiting monuments and museums and started enjoying it. May she rest in peace. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

The B-52H out of Minot AFB currently flexing US foreign policy (for better or worse) a few miles off the Venezuelan Coast right now flew over the entire state of Iowa this morning on its way down to the Caribbean.

I swore an oath to the Constitution in 1986. I've upheld it through 25 years of service and every day since I retired. If Trump's trying to intimidate me, it won’t work. I’ve given too much to our country to be silenced by bullies who care more about power than the Constitution.

it is happening again theonion.com/this-war-wil...

> @schatz.bsky.social

News flash for Iowans: The Aurora Borealis (northern lights) visible, at least as far south as central Iowa. Look to the north. These are not photoshopped—my phone camera did a longer exposure of a few seconds, which makes the colors look brighter than they do with the naked eye.

Tonight and all of November we mourn and we drink to the good ship and crew 🍺

Initial DSM impacts from the 10% mandatory air traffic reduction; no cancellations for CID yet. OMA and MLI both have a few each too.

Now on Cranky: Feds Announce Massive, Haphazard Cuts in Air Service Starting Tomorrow, and We Should All Be Angry crankyflier.com/2025/11/06/f...

If Kamala had stayed true to herself like the first few weeks of her campaign she would have won too. While last night’s performance for Ds was great the biggest takeaway in American politics over the past few years is authenticity will win, and how obvious this has been since 2016. And yet …

2026 Primary Woke Wave

The Speaker of the House is getting paid not to work while the NTSB team heading to the crash site in Kentucky is not. Mike Johnson needs to call the House back in session or get his ass down there and shift some wreckage. He needs to experience what dedicated federal employees do for a living.

Oh hi Iowa city.

Sometimes the best sunrise views are actually looking away from the sun. Good morning Iowa City.

Two dudes talking behind me on my flight, one owns a concrete/ready mix company talking about how concrete has gone from $35/ yard to $200 /yard in 30-40 years.

If Iowans can vote for Trump a second time, they can give millions of dollars to Marty Tirrell a second time--both are convicted felons but Marty actually served time for his crime ... and yet, Iowans gave him money for the same schemes (the US definition of scheme, not the British one)

It probably doesn’t matter but I would be flooding the zone with images of the White House destruction right now.

With Ames + Des Moines, IA having a high of 67°F today, my kids forced me to compute the climate sites with the highest frequency of a six seven high temp. The overall "winner" within my database is Hawaii National Park, HI (~1200m) at 25 days per year with a number of CA sites not far behind. #sigh

> @reuters.com www.reuters.com/world/china/...

Trump was obviously robbed of the Nobel Peace Prize

Good on DSM www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/l...

It took the dumbest president in the history of the United States three and a half years to learn what any sane rationale person realized in a few weeks (at most)

Despite the very real threat posed by the inflatable frog costumed protestors and other ANTIFA creatures in Portland, Oregon--Allegiant Airlines continues to choose to willingly fly the good people of the Heartland into a war zone.

NATO is actively discussing a more assertive response to Russia’s increasingly provocative actions. Measures under consideration include deploying armed drones along the border and loosening engagement restrictions to permit pilots to open fire on Russian aircraft if necessary.

"We’re being told to work without compensation, under the threat of TERMINATION, while managing life-or-death decisions. It’s one of the cruelest contradictions in public service." (reddit)/r/ATC/ #airtrafficcontrol #atc #shutdown #governmentshutdown

Interesting thought experiment--what if Trump prioritized ATC for hubs in red states? I suppose that would mean ORD, SFO, LAX, JFK, LGA, EWR, MSP, and IAD would all get reduced services? What about PHL, DTW, or ATL (all in states that voted for him but that have one or both D senators)?

Part of the transition from conservatism to authoritarianism is the shift from lies with some veneer of plausibility (wink wink) to lies that are demonstrably, obviously lies, such that accepting them involves an almost total subjugation of individual discernment or judgment.

Air traffic controllers ended the last government shutdown and they're sure as shit leading that charge again in 2025. There are staffing triggers today (so far!) from Dallas to the oceanic routes across the Atlantic. Flying anywhere is going to get increasingly bad.

Hy Vee jet doing what I assume is a post-maintenance test flight?

Sounds like a huge liability for a Republican controlled administration and Congress

This footnote to Illinois and Chicago's lawsuit against Trump is an important reminder: * There is no Department of War or Secretary of War, which are make-believe names for the actual agencies created by Congress. Doc storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...