It's a smart allocation of resources for us to be spending billions of dollars to data-mine millions of cat photos. Because we really don't need the money for anything else:
The Forest Service fleet, which drops retardant to give firefighters on the ground crucial time to put out raging wildfires, is too old, industry and government officials say. Because there are so few planes, critics contend, the fleet is no longer capable of doing all it should to contain fires. Over the last decade, the service reduced its fleet from 47 to just 12, all operated by businesses under federal contract.Critics also say the planes are dangerous. Since 2001, tanker crashes have killed 22 aviators. Six died last year [...]
Maintenance is a challenge. Engine parts are scrounged from warehouses. In one instance, a propeller was pulled from storage at a museum. If parts can't be found, technicians machine their own from blueprints drawn up around 1950.
At the air attack base near Yosemite in August, the challenges the Forest Service faces were apparent. After one of the tankers rumbled in for a landing, mechanics scurried to replace a blown engine.
It happens so often that the crew hauls a trailer full of spare parts from fire to fire.
If there's a government shutdown this week, in one way it barely matters. Because whole agencies of our government have already been inoperative for years. This didn't happen by accident, people!
---Baron V
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