A dinner conversation that's still bothering me.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

17. Yes. It was with Ronald Reagan that things to a sharp turn to the worse.

One of the very first things he did was to fire the air traffic controllers who were among the most overworked people on the planet.

I went to work at National Airport in Washington, DC in early 1969. I soon got to know the air traffic controllers who worked at that airport. Nice guys, every single one of them. But within three years I noticed how rapidly they were aging. It was possibly the most stressful job on the planet. But they stuck with it, because they really loved what they did.

Not all was good in paradise, however. There was the slowdown in 1968, then the strike in 1981 which resulted in Reagan firing the PATCO employees, which disrupted air traffic in this country for more than a year, although that has been largely hidden. And that was the real start of the end of unions in this country. Unions, which brought us the 40 hour work week, paid vacations, and sick time. Notice how those things have been eroded in recent years.

And it did start with Ronald Reagan and his firing of the air traffic controllers.

I am so sick of the "St Ronnie" bullshit out there, the glorification of the third worst president in this country. He's third after George W Bush and Donald Trump, but being third doesn't make him at all benign.