United Pilot Tells Passengers To Stop Talking About Politics

Not sure what lucky meant, but he doesn't seem to have used the word "grandstanding" correctly. The pilot was merely making an announcement to the passengers on his plane. It was recorded by a passenger, not the pilot, and presumably the pilot didn't have any reason to know his announcement would end up on YouTube. So I don't see any basis for accusing the pilot of playing to an outside audience or trying to attract media attention.

The pilot of that flight had every right to make that announcement. He is in command of the aircraft and responsible for all on board. I applaud what what he stated to his passengers. He has enough to do in that cockpit to get them to their destination in one piece without worrying if their will be a political brawl at 30,000 feet. Why to go Captain!

Augias won that debate.

@Robert Hanson: last point: The Nazi party has always been considered to be right-wing in Germany and elsewhere and I suspect that you are insisting that they are on the left in order to make some political point. But you do have to look at them in the context of German culture and the German language in order to gain a fuller understanding (The Neonazis in Germany are referred to as "Rechtsradikale" by the way - radical right). It would be interesting to hash all this out sometime but I just remembered that this is a blog about flying ;-) So we must have at least one thing in common, that we travel a lot or enjoy traveling! And I'm sure that we both want what's best for the country. Let's not forget that. Have a good night!

@C Morgan: Trump is also currently accused of defrauding students with his fake university, he discriminated against black tenants in his buildings, and we don't know the extent of his debt and business dealings with countries who are not friendly to the USA (such as Russia). The misogyny (not womanizing) is the cherry on top of the cake. And you think he will be more competent at handling classified information? We will see I guess. I share your reservations about Clinton. She did however have extremely detailed policy proposals, so you know what you're going to get. There's something to be said for that. I think everybody who voted made a choice which one for them was better, or less bad. @Robert Hanson: as I said, I am German. I know what Nazi stands for (Nazionalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei), thank you very much. I think you are hung up on the term "socialist" in the name. They wanted to make clear that they were a populist party for the common man, that is why they chose this term. The Nazis persecuted and murdered countless communists and socialists (and started those persecutions straight away in 1933). During that election, they rose to power by exploiting fears of the communists, which according to them were controlled by Jewish bankers. The pact with the Soviet Union was purely strategic. (and then they broke it) None of their policies were socialist in nature (usually that would have entailed some redistribution of property, nationalization of industry, internationalism). Instead they fought communism within Germany, started militarizing, fostered an extreme patriotism and nurtured fears and hate of other countries, and were supportive of capitalism - all traits generally considered right-wing. They were the party supported by the military, and by the aristocracy (another trait that in Europe at the time put them on the right-wing side of politics) The role model for the Nazis were of course the Italian Fascists. Mussolini, it is true, was a socialist at the beginning of his political career, and and then his views evolved and he became ultra-nationalist. (and, by definition, right-wing, "destra"). He never tired of railing against Communists thereafter. He may be the politician who has contradicted himself the most in all of history. You are unlikely to find anything he said, that he did not at another time contradict completely. None of this has much relevance in this election. As Tiffany said, these distinctions often get fuzzy - once a system devolves into a totalitarian dictatorship, whether they started on the extreme left or the extreme right doesn't make much difference anymore. A dictator at that point is often just a dictator. Good point! Interestingly, many of Trumps points (particularly being against free trade, and his more isolationist stances in terms of foreign policy) used to be left-wing positions. So that explains why some people are switching parties. If you hate free trade and want more protectionist policies, then Clinton (or any mainstream Republican for that matter) is not for you, but Trump or Sanders might be.