2/18/22: Let freedom ring! A group of Republican senators, including Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, has voiced “strong opposition” to placing airline passengers convicted of unruly behavior on a “no-fly” list.
____________________
“This puts everyone at risk and disrupts the safety of flight.”
Sara Nelson, president of the Association
of Flight Attendants-CWA
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This would be terrible and treat them like “terrorists,” and they would be sad, and tears would drip down their cheeks and wet their masks – if they were wearing any. Instead, the idea Cruz and Rubio and six others are floating is to let the airlines create their own lists. In 2021, the airlines had 5,981 reports of unruly passengers, 4,290 of which involved individuals who thought wearing a mask was reason to punch someone nearby, such as a an unlucky flight attendant or another masked passenger, or maybe try to kick in the door to the cockpit.
See also: Sen. Ted Cruz and the hero trucker protesters. So, if you would like to kick a flight attendant on your next flight, don’t worry. You now have a “constitutional right to engage in interstate commerce.”
Hint to Republicans: If you want to drive a
wagon across the USA and exercise your constitutional right, have at it. Or
bicycle coast-to-coast like this blogger has done. If you want to fly, quit
being a dick.
 |
Don't want to wear a mask on a plane? Exercise your constitutional rights to travel by bike. |
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of
Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents 50,000 members, flying on 20
different airlines, responded:
We’ve been
punched, kicked, spit on, and sexually assaulted. This puts everyone at risk
and disrupts the safety of flight, which is never acceptable and every single
one of the senators who signed this letter knows full well what is at stake if
we leave a gap in aviation safety and security. It is irresponsible and
political brinkmanship that will put our economic security at risk right along
with our lives.
This wasn’t just about masks, Nelson added – although
for Republican lawmakers anxious not to anger the already fired-up anti-mask,
anti-vax, pro-spreading-disease base that’s all it was about. “You’re either for protecting crew and passengers
from these attacks or you’re against. We need clear and consistent rules with
strict consequences for those who cannot respect our collective efforts to keep
everyone safe,” she added, “in the air and on the ground.”
Captain Joe LePete, speaking as president of the
ALPA, which represents 62,000 pilots, backed Nelson up. “There
should be zero tolerance for airline passengers who threaten the
safety of others.” He called on the Justice Department “to prosecute these
perpetrators to the law's fullest extent,” and for the Department of Homeland
Security “to create a no-fly list for unruly passengers” and for the Federal
Aviation Administration “to issue the final secondary barrier rule.”
*
IN OTHER
NEWS, U.S. District Judge Amit Metha ruled that three lawsuits filed against former President
Trump by individuals seeking damages for injuries suffered during the Jan. 6,
2021 attack can go forward.
[Mehta] wrote
that “it is reasonable to infer that the President knew” that “militia groups”
like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers were in D.C. on January 6, and that
“they were prepared to partake in violence for him.” Moreover, Mehta noted, the
idea that there was “a tacit agreement” between Trump and those doing violence
on his behalf “is made all the more plausible by his response to the violence
that erupted at the Capitol building.”
That is:
There was no response from the President for three bloody hours.
Nor was that Trump’s
only court defeat on Thursday. A second judge ruled that Mr. Trump and two of
his adult children, Don Jr. and Ivanka, will have to answer questions under oath, in regard to an investigation into the
business practices of the Trump family and the Trump Organization. (See
also: 2/14/22.)
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