November 13, 2026

Salon.com, the San Francisco-based politics and culture magazine, shut down last week after 31 years of operation.

I mention this because without Salon.com there would be no Ask the Pilot. If not for the good graces of an editor there named Andrew Leonard, this enterprise wouldn’t exist and you’d never have heard of me.

It was the autumn of 2001, shortly after the terror attacks, and I’d just been laid off from my job. I was equal parts in need of spending money and frustrated by the security chaos at airports. I decided to give freelance writing a try. I put a piece together complaining about the irrationality of our emerging security protocols — a topic I’d return to many times in the years that followed. I shopped it around, cold-calling editors and emailing drafts.

I had no formal training in writing or journalism, though it had always been something of a minor hobby. In the 80s I self-published a punk rock fanzine. Later I wrote a handful of short music reviews for the Boston Globe, and one or two travel-related pieces for the Utne Reader, where a friend of mine was an editor. None of it was especially good.

Nonetheless, Leonard liked the story, and, if I remember right, offered me the princely sum of $150 to run it.

Foot in the door, as they say. That first article became a second, then a third, and so on. In June of 2002, Leonard invited me to contribute a regular column, which he dubbed “Ask the Pilot.” I always hated the name, but the column got traction and it stuck.

Over the ensuing decade, Salon would publish more than four-hundred of my articles. Considering the setting — a magazine specializing in lefty politics, arts and culture — such success was remarkable. I guess what gave me an edge, at least at the beginning, was my unique perspective and a willingness to shoot my mouth off. Here was a commercial pilot, of all people, sharing provocative, no-bullshit opinions about air travel at a time when everyone was thinking about it.

More importantly, as things went on, my aim was to humanize flying. Rather than bog down in technical discussions, I’d speak to the fuller drama of air travel, exploring the ways in which it intersects with culture, history, or even art. This, more than anything, is why Ask the Pilot found a home at Salon (or so I like to think).

At first the column appeared weekly, usually on Fridays. When my day job obligations made managing a deadline too onerous, we changed to a semi-weekly format. Somewhere in there, Leonard handed me off to an editor named Ruth Henrich, under whose guidance I wrote until 2012, when the feature was finally retired.

Two books, including Cockpit Confidential (2013), which briefly became a New York Times bestseller, were compiled and adapted from the Salon archives.

The decision to kill Ask the Pilot was Salon’s, but I was neither surprised nor disappointed when the end came. It had run its course, and I no longer had the time, or the discipline, to keep the gig going.

As I’m sure Leonard or Henrich will remind you, my relationship with their editorial staff could be strained. Whether from laziness or inexperience, I was notorious for last-minute changes and post-publication revisions. I’m not sure I ever apologized for that.

One afternoon, while the column was still running, I was was on a layover in San Francisco. Salon’s offices were just a short distance from my hotel. I’d never visited. So I walked over, thinking I’d go inside and say hello. But when I got there, I couldn’t do it. I stood outside for a minute, then turned around and walked back to the Hyatt. I’m not sure why.

Ask the Pilot lives on, of course, having migrated to the site on which you’re reading this post. The vibe here is looser and more casual than it was at Salon. And for now I still enjoy it.

(My only gripe is that I don’t make a dime. Salon, at least, paid me grocery money. Here I earn nothing. Google banned me from its advertising platforms for reasons they wouldn’t disclose, and installing a paywall would likely spell disaster. So, while it lasts, it’s a labor of love. I hate making a charity pitch, but you’re free to click that “Buy Me a Coffee” link over on the left side of the page.)

If you’re a reader from the old days, thanks for sticking with me.

The post R.I.P. Salon appeared first on AskThePilot.com.

Summary

Policies & Commentary

Back in the day when I was at uni, an election was held for our Student Representative Council. The usual mix were there – Labor, Liberal, Socialist Alternative, a few unaffiliated candidates – and one party with the enticing name of “Free Beer”. It claimed to be vaguely left-leaning, and laid on the alcohol at its events. The problem was, “Free Beer” was a shill for the Liberal Party, the name deliberately chosen to deceive student voters and capture their votes.

It worked. A majority Liberal SRC was elected – and our university went through a miserable year of cuts to certain student clubs, as well as the abolition of recycling programs, counselling for women who’d suffered sexual harassment or assault, and the queer collective. That SRC responded to criticism from me in an article by threatening to sue.¹

So, when I found out that two known far-right conspiracy theorists, Monica Smit and Avi Yemini, were setting in motion a co-ordinated plan to register parties with deceptively progressive names and then funnel their votes to One Nation using Victoria’s Group Ticket Voting procedures, it was deja vu all over again.

The Free Palestine Party (hereafter referred to as FPP) is the brainchild of Avi Yemini, a serial pest who refers to himself as a “journalist” (it would be more accurate to call him an agitator) and who, in a video praising UK racist Tommy Robinson, described himself as “Australia’s proudest Jewish Nazi”.

Yemini is well-known for trying to pick fights with protesters who support trans rights, reproductive rights, and think public health is something to be protected. There are dozens of videos out there showing how he goads people to anger and then edits the encounter to show himself in the best possible light. This is the work of – to put it bluntly – a shit-stirrer, not a journalist. His sudden pivot to politics is no different.

Here he is, in his own words, describing how he intends to deceive what he calls useful idiots to harvest votes from people who are pro-Palestinian and anti-genocide.

There are a handful of “policies” listed on the FPP page, but I’m not going to waste your time by analysing them – because they are a smokescreen. Yemini, who has boasted of killing Palestinians while fighting for the IDF, is not in any way interested in supporting a people undergoing a genocide. He has not maintained any social media presence for this party apart from mentioning it from time to time on his personal X account or laughing about it in his videos.

Now that Victoria has abolished Group Vote Ticketing, FPP’s ostensible reason for existing has vanished. Nonetheless, it allegedly has five candidates running in this election – not that they found it necessary to mention this on their website. They are listed on the VEC website only.

I’ve spent probably more time on this than it deserves, but it is important that voters know exactly what FFP is. It’s a sham political party created with the sole purpose of deceiving people who care about the lives of those who are being slaughtered. It’s run by a self-described “Jewish Nazi” who has demonstrated nothing but contempt for voters.

Your vote is too important to waste on it.

UPDATE: Yemini was arrested on the afternoon of November 12, 2026, while confronting a young people’s protest against Pauline Hanson’s immigration policies. He was released a short distance away, then re-arrested when he attempted to return to the protest.  He reported on his live stream that he will be charged on summons, but the nature of those charges are unclear, as he suggested it could be any or all of a breach of the peace, hindering police, or resisting arrest.

Hi folks, it’s that time again.

Maz and I are going to spend the next two weeks plus reviewing every candidate and party we can find, and you’re all invited. Good to have you here.

The first commentary will follow this post immediately.