Every few days, it seems like there is another food recall. If you feel like food is getting weird lately, you are not alone.

In just the past few weeks, we have seen recalls involving frozen berries, alfalfa sprouts, guacamole, salsa and pico de gallo, granola, lettuce, eggs and even canned dog food.

In the last eight years, there have been around 750 food recalls. More than half have happened during this administration’s current term, and 145 happened this year alone.

That is not a coincidence, and there is a reason this keeps happening.

The FDA was already falling behind.

In January 2025, the Government Accountability Office warned that the FDA needed to strengthen its food-inspection program. The agency had missed its domestic inspection targets every year since 2018.

The report showed that only about 11% of American food facilities were being inspected each year, and that foreign inspections amounted to only about 5% of the annual target set by law.

The agency responsible for protecting approximately 80% of the American food supply was already stretched dangerously thin.

Then came the cuts.

Instead of trying to fix the problem, this administration decided to make it worse.

They cut 20,000 jobs (nearly one-quarter of the workforce across the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the FDA) and cut billions of dollars in funding to state and local health agencies.

Those state and local agencies are the people who collect reports from sick patients, investigate clusters, inspect facilities and help connect illnesses across state lines. When you cut the people doing that work, you make it harder to find contaminated food before more families bring it into their homes.

A crucial rule was delayed.

The FDA was working on a way to try and fix this issue. A “Food Traceability Rule” was created to help investigators follow certain high-risk foods through the supply chain. In plain English: when people get sick, better records can help officials identify where the contaminated food came from, which products are affected and where they were sold.

Businesses were originally expected to comply by January 20, 2026. The FDA proposed moving the compliance date to July 20, 2028, and Congress subsequently directed the agency not to enforce the rule before that date.

In other words, food suppliers do not have to worry about fully complying with this crucial traceability rule until 2028.

That is some very convenient timing.

This is more than a minor inconvenience. This summer alone, foodborne outbreaks have been connected to nearly 11,000 reported illnesses, more than 450 hospitalizations, and two deaths.

This was part of the Project 2025 plan.

This was all part of the corporate-greed handbook known as Project 2025.

Project 2025 treats food-safety protections, including inspections involving beef, poultry and even baby formula, as regulatory barriers. It calls for removing domestic government barriers “absent a compelling need” and focusing government intervention on “concrete public health and safety threats.”

In other words: don’t worry about preventing people from getting sick. Wait until a demonstrable threat has emerged. Let the tainted food reach our homes and deal with it after it has become a problem.

This is another reason why the Midterms matter.

We have to stop electing people to government who campaign on breaking the government, and then acting surprised when the systems we rely on begin to break.

Congress decides how much money agencies receive. Congress should be conducting oversight. Congress can strengthen food-safety laws, protect public-health staffing, and demand answers when agencies fail to meet inspection goals.

Make a plan to vote in the Midterm elections. The people we elect will decide whether food safety is treated as a public responsibility or merely another “regulatory barrier.”

Our safety depends on that choice.

Check your food: official recall and outbreak resources

• FDA recalls, market withdrawals and safety alerts

• FDA major product recalls

• FDA animal-food recalls and withdrawals

• USDA FSIS meat, poultry and egg-product recalls

• CDC: alfalfa-sprout outbreak involving E. coli and Salmonella

• I can know very little about your sport.

• I will still yell passionately at the referees while watching it.

Two things can be true:

• America is a beautiful country full of beautiful people.

• America’s current government is a blight on the planet and our treatment of immigrants, in particular, made it a travesty that we were allowed to host this international game.

Two things can be true:

• There are countries whose own governments should cause us to boo and shame them as their flag nears any field of play.

• The people of these countries, many of their players, their traditions, customs, and cheers made us fall in love with them and, as Jesus Jiménez wrote recently, “In the United States, every World Cup team is a home team.”

I will admit that I was not a soccer - or fútbol - fan prior to these games. I could blame this on my Texas upbringing, where I often sat perched on one of my uncles’ knees listening to tales of the great Houston Oilers with precise breakdowns of each play, as a love of American football was deeply instilled in me. But my lack of soccer interest is likely tied to later memories: as a suburban mom who spent too many hours on the side of a hot, muggy field watching active children run cluelessly back and forth until a merciful whistle ended our collective misery.

Soccer may not have been my game before, but I certainly see the beauty of it now.

For many of the early days of the World Cup, I wrestled to decide which answer was the correct one. Is this a game resembling dramatic theater, where players were rewarded based on how convincingly they could writhe on the field after barely being touched? Or is this a game of raw toughness, where players have to run and play and battle for over ninety minutes without helmets or shoulder pads or TV timeouts to shield them?

Should I be rooting for these games who brought people from around the world into our back yards and celebrate this diversity? Or should I shun these games that, by all accounts, are run by a corrupt and self-dealing FIFA organization?

Should I bask in the courageous spirit our American team displayed, overcoming being a man down and persevering for a win against the odds? Or should I be embarrassed that our own President used his influence to get us a hall pass from the full consequences of that game’s penalty by calling in a political favor?

It’s human nature to shun things we don’t understand and that don’t make us feel comfortable, but I still watched and waited and processed my emotions during this deceptively simple game.

It was a cab ride that provided the answer.

Our driver was an American from Pakistan originally. His team did not qualify to be a part of the tournament, but at stoplights he shared cell phone photos of himself at a local place in Queens that was showing the games. There he was: in a blue and white jersey and holding a plastic version of the trophy, smiling broadly. Apparently, some Argentinian fans invited him to join them one day, so he stopped by after work and cheered and booed with them as their team played.

Fast forward and he is now an Argentina fan. He giggled with excitement at “our” comeback in an earlier round as if he had been born and raised in Buenos Aires.

There is a special paradox, a sort of magic, to feeling welcomed by people who are in our own country. Who are inviting us to be accepted and to feel comfortable in our own land.

The World Cup being in North America was full of contradictions and conflicts, just like our own nation is. But the fans of this game did not allow bad vibes to sour the good memories they were determined to create. We may have felt hardened and isolated from others around the globe before this tournament, but we certainly felt seen and welcomed by the fans while this beautiful game was happening.

Think about it: all we heard about for MONTHS was how these visitors needed to lay low and stay quiet to be safe in our borders. Our primary worry was, of course, about their capture. But there was a healthy bit of worry about being further humiliated about what is happening in our country right now. Sort of like if you have people come over to your house and it’s filthy…and has a bunch of concentration camps out back.

From far and wide, visitors heard from us that they could come here, but they should be scared and timid when they arrive. Instead they made a few counter offers of their own:

“What if, instead of blending in, we wear big bright orange and lead a 10,000 person walk in the middle of deep South Texas instead?” said the Dutch.

“What if, instead of slinking through your cities hoping ICE doesn’t notice us, we row and chant on the escalators??” the Norwegians asked.

“What if we aren’t intimidated by all of your pomp and circumstance, and instead put traffic cones on the heads of your precious statues?” Scotland responded.

“What if we’re not scared by the anti-immigrant rhetoric of your President, and instead just called him a pedophile to his face?” mused the Australians.

Whether it was joy, or community, or rowdy fun, or outright mockery, the world came into our home and showed us the path out of our current nightmare: the open hearts and beer-soaked handshakes that will be waiting for us when we are ready to receive them on the other side.

To paraphrase my friend Alex, the World Cup proved that our countries get along just fine. It is just the governments who have problems with each other.

I think America needed that reminder of where we fit alongside everyone else. I think we needed to see that we are not going to be ostracized from the rest of the planet forever. That we will soon be invited to their games and their bars and to learn their chants as soon as we are ready.

Thank you to the World Cup fans, teams, and players for coming to America and reminding us of what it could feel like to play with others on the world stage again. Here’s hoping that it won’t take four more years before we are cheering alongside you again.

Thousands of dollars? Millions of dollars?

To pretend that the Everglades detention center is business as usual for American incarceration is to ignore the moral line that we have crossed as a country. We can debate immigration procedures and paths to citizenship, but to accept that all immigrants somehow deserve to be tortured if they happen to fall in the sights of masked vigilante bounty hunters is something different entirely.

There are no guarantees that a judge will discern criminals from law-abiding asylum seekers. There is no universal system tracking where everyone is being sent or for how long. There is no oversight to prevent beatings, sexual assaults, kidnappings, or worse.

The abuses happening in each of these locations is well documented and recounted now by hundreds of men and women, family members and attorneys.

These are, by design, not immigration centers. They are torture camps.

And the camps are not appearing out of thin air. They are being planned, built, managed, and sustained by American companies who have decided that they either agree with the torture, or that they can at least accept it as the irreversible cost of them doing this administration’s filthy business.

How You Can Help

Aren’t you tired of pleading with MAGA Elected Officials who pretend not to know or to understand what is happening? Would you like to do something else with your outrage instead of plead with legislative assistants to pass along your message to stop enabling evil?

Here’s a way to take action against people who might actually change their behavior: the contracted companies raking in millions from their Alligator Alcatraz contracts. They won’t react because of a sudden bout of ethics or a conscience, but because we need to ensure that being involved with torture camps is bad for business.

As I outline these companies, here are some actions you may want to consider based on the type of business it is and the information that is readily available:

1. Reach out (respectfully) to their board members and executive team via social media, linked in, even voice mail message if you can find a phone line. Express your displeasure at their decision to profit off of inflicting misery on others.

2. Locate additional clients doing business with these firms. Ask them why they are choosing to fund the companies involved in torturing immigrants. (Bonus points if you follow up the next week and see if they have reconsidered their professional relationship.)

3. If you have access to your local, county, or state contract database, research and see if any of these companies appear as approved vendors. Then contact whichever elected officials, committee members, or community leaders you can find to discourage them from doing business with firms who value profit over human rights.

4. Don’t forget to share your work! Post things on your own social accounts, track your progress in articles, collaborate with others on research. Visibility is definitely one of the goals here.

The Morally-Questionable Contractors

To be clear, these companies do not want you to know who they are. When the Miami Herald reported on the contracts awarded in Florida, those documents were then suddenly taken down from the state website. (So much for public transparency and accountability!)

So let’s build on the work of journalist Churchill Ndonwie and make sure we shine a spotlight on these profiteers of pain. In no particular order:

Gothams LLC - Austin, TX

Disaster Response Company - $21 million contract

Gothams will be providing IT infrastructure including wristbands to identify and track the detainees. (Like a next generation wrist tattoo of sorts?)

Here is their website which conveniently has their leadership team and a list of some of their other clients. https://www.gothams.com/

Longview Technology Solutions - Herndon, VA

Civil Engineering Firm - $11 million contract

Providing the roadways and the fencing to transport and imprison the immigrants. As these people pray for freedom, it will be Longview Technology Solutions plotting to ensure they are successfully detained indefinitely.

Their corporate phone number is listed on their website found here: https://lts.com/.

Garner Environmental Services - Houston, TX

Emergency Response Company - $19.8 million

It’s unclear just what “ongoing maintenance” Garner will be doing to ensure optimal performance of the Everglades torture camp since these are essentially tents with cages, but they will be making nearly $20 million just the same.

Their phone number is conveniently published on their home page. Their website is: https://garner-es.com/

Want to climb the ladder of these cage capitalists? Garner is owned by the K-Solv Group. (Website HERE.) Their leadership team is on the About page and they also have a phone number if you’d like to discuss their business ethics.

SLSCO LTD - Texas

Construction Firm - $19.8 million

SLSCO will help to build out and maintain the camp, which has a singular purpose of trapping and then and tormenting people. This is apparently what SLSCO means when they say that they provide “health and humanitarian services”.

There’s not much information about SLS / SLSCO on their website. However, it looks like they do a fair amount of business in New York so perhaps that’s a municipality worth researching for government contracts. Website: https://www.slsco.com/

CDR Companies - Miami, FL

Construction and Medical Firms - $18 million plus $418,500 per day

If you’re looking for a sure bet as a bottom feeder, CDR has things all figured out. First they have a contract to staff the security guards for the facility. Then they are entrusted to provide the medical services on site. This is particularly handy for those guards who may bruise their knuckles or sprain their wrists while “supervising” those in their custody, and it’s only costing tax payers $418,000 per day!

Their website claims proudly that CDR delivers comprehensive solutions, which is a truly creative description of what they have signed on to do here. CDR has multiple office locations and phone numbers listed, a set of subsidiary websites for you to explore, and they are even on social media. Website: https://cdr-companies.com/

Doodie Calls Inc. - St. Petersburg, FL

Facility Sanitation - $22 million

Doodie Calls has built up a nice business in the past seven years, servicing construction sites, events, and even weddings. Not only are now and forever known as the ones dealing with the crap at a torture camp, apparently they’re not even good at it. Imagine how gross this situation could be and then settle your stomach and read more here if you are so inclined.

The Doodie Calls website has contact information, clients they are working with, and a lot of other helpful information. Website: https://doodie-calls.com/

If you’ve stuck with me this far, I’ve got a fun link for you as a reward. Doodie Calls would like to hear what you think of their business in the form of Google Reviews! Here’s a shortcut if you are so inclined: https://g.co/kgs/pDWRnam

Plus, Doodie Calls is happy to share that they are an official partner of the Miami Dolphins. I wonder what their staff and players think about their multi-billion dollar brand being associated with Alligator Alcatraz? Here’s the Dolphins’ contact info if you would like to find out: https://www.miamidolphins.com/news/contact-us

Granny’s Alliance Holdings - Pass Christian, Mississippi

It’s difficult to imagine that President Susan Heisey would care what any of us have to say since she’s currently sitting with a 1.9 Google Rating from her existing customers. However, it still may be worth making a call and spreading the word about the vendor who is allegedly serving worms in food to detainees. (Article HERE.)

The good news is that Granny’s Alliance makes it simple for you to express your opinion if you think it might help. Their information is found on their website and it looks like Susan is doing business in Rhode Island and other states worth contacting. Website: https://grannysalliance.com/

Why This Works

It should go without saying, but don’t do anything violent, angry, or disrespectful. It hurts the cause way more than it helps it. That being said, we have to start socially shaming and ostracizing the people who are enabling these terrors. Pretend like each of them just got caught on camera at a Cold Play concert and make sure everyone knows who they are and what they are up to.

If being in the business of human suffering causes them to lose money, professional status, or the respect of those around them then that’s an outcome worth fighting for.

Shawna Presley Vercher, the Political Fixer, is a a nationally recognized strategist, speaker, and movement-builder fighting to turn outrage into action. She leads efforts to mobilize voters, expose injustice, and help people create real change in their communities. Follow her for fearless commentary, behind-the-scenes insight, and the tools to fix what’s broken.

Wired Magazine broke the story that, contrary to what the public was originally told, the access to our sensitive data - like ALL of our social security numbers, our tax returns, and Veteran’s pay - has been breached at an administrative level. You can read the full article here: https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-associate-bfs-federal-payment-system/

So many of us have called our Congress Person that the D.C. phone systems are starting to overload. However, there’s still so many ways that we can inform, engage, and build allies to stop this Treasury Takeover.

Here are twenty ways you can help from you own home or phone and they range from the defensive (literally trying to defend your financial information) to more assertive on offense…which is where I as a brazen Texan tend to gravitate.

Please share this article if you find it helpful and let me know if there are others I should add.

DEFEND YOUR OWN INFORMATION

#1 - Add a PIN to your tax return.

• Here is the IRS web page to add your own PIN.

#2 - Put a freeze on people running your credit

• You’ll need to contact all three credit bureaus

• Here is a link to an article by Experian detailing the information.

EDUCATE YOUR COMMUNITIES

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#3 - Share information that is reliable and helpful

• The Wire Article which broke the story

• Our YouTube Political Fixer Channel with this broadcast

#4 - Create content

• Explain what is happening

• Show people why they should care

• Share some (or all) of these action steps

#5 - Create an email or text chain

• Most people are NOT aware this is happening.

• Keep it calm and remove opinion or hyperbole

• Link to several reputable articles

• Encourage them to look into things themselves

CONTACT ELECTEDS 2025 VERSION

Support our content with caffeine :) Buy me and the Political Fixer team a cup of coffee.

#6 - Call Congressional Leaders at their HOME Offices

• DC Phone system completed overloaded

• Stop by the office if you have time and if it would be a friendly visit

• Ask them to launch a Congressional inquiry into what is happening, what data and funds have been accessed, and how secure our information and our payments are now

#7 - Contact your Governor & State Attorney

• This impacts their citizens

• Possible that there were crimes committed by the people illegally accessing our information in their state

• Ask them to order a state-level investigation through the Attorney General.

• See if they are willing to appoint special prosecutors and look into corruption

#8 - Contact Congressional Representatives Who Are In A Close District

District - Winner - Margin of Victory

• Iowa 1 - Mariannette Miller-Meeks - 0.19%

• Pennsylvania 10 - Scott Perry - 1.26%

• Nebraska 2 - Don Bacon - 1.85%

• Arizona 6 - Juan Ciscomani - 2.51%

• Colorado 3 - Lauren Boebert - 4.98%

#9 - Call local stations and newspapers

• Ask them to cover this story

• Tell them you are concerned

• If possible, tell them how this could impact you or someone you love

  • Scared to file your tax return

  • Worried about identity theft

  • Worried you or a loved one won’t get your social security check

  • Upset about how this might impact our Veterans and their families

EXTEND YOUR CALL REACH

#10 - Do you have a retirement plan or pension fund? Call your broker, your banker, or your administrator.

• Tell them your concerns about your security and the safety of your money.

• Specifically ask them to have someone in their office contact the Federal Trade Commission - the FTC - and look into the possible fraudulent access of our data and our money

• Goal is to educate, to expand the impact, and to create new allies who want this to end

#11 - Whether it’s local or national (like an H&R Block), for personal or for business, call your accounting firm.

• Tell them you are hesitant to file your tax return unless they can assure your data will be secure

• Ask them to look into what happened at the Treasury

• Ask THEM to call the IRS

  • Many of them have a special phone number where they can reach a human!

  • Bigger firms and some associations also have lobbyists who can relay the concerns to Elected Officials.

#12 - Are you a dues paying union member? Call your Union Representative.

• Call your union leader and ask if the data breach places your employment or financial info at risk.

• Ask them if your union is filing or joining any of the class action lawsuits to stop unelected and non-secure private citizens from breaching our data or impacting our social security payments.

• Ask them to alert the members of the data breach and to take protective action such as sharing the IRS PIN information or the Freeze your Credit guidance.

#13 - Are you on Medicare or someone who is concerned about your medical privacy? Call your doctor’s office and express your concern.

• If you are on Medicare, ask them to call the Federal office and report your fraud concern.

• Ask them to ask your insurance carrier or their medical association what steps are being taken to secure your medical data.

• Ask them to call the State Medicare Fraud Control Unit. Here’s a list of all of the offices:

  • https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/medicaid-fraud-control-units-mfcu/files/contact-directors.pdf

• You can also feel free to contact your State MFCU. You may want to SAVE that list in the link. Data is disappearing fast around here.

#14 - Are you a Veteran? (Or is someone in your family a Veteran?)

• Veteran’s pay flows through this system that was specifically breached.

• Notify your Veterans groups about the issue and ask them to use their contacts to demand that data be protected.

• See who in your organization has access to a Congressional leader or a federal government agency who can elevate this issue.

• See if there is someone who can notify others in the group about what is happening and steps they can do to try and protect their data.

#15 - Is your child in college and did you apply for scholarships or financial aid?

• Call the Finance Office and ask them what steps they are taking to protect FAFSA information in light of the data breach.

• Make sure you provide them links to the information if needed. Many of them may not have heard about it.

• Do not push too much here (we don’t want you embarrassing your child!), but they should receive enough phone calls collectively to cause them to look into it, which creates more allies with influence.

HOLD THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BREACH PERSONALLY ACCOUNTABLE

Important: It is critical that this remain civil and appropriate. To that end, no personal information or contact information will be provided here about any of the individuals. The only information shared has been pulled from a widely circulated set of articles mentioning the college attendance and location of three of the individuals who are reportedly in our government systems.

#16 - Call their Universities

• Edward Coristine attends Northeastern University in Boston

• Ethan Shaotran is a student at Harvard

• I will be calling Student Affairs and asking them if they have read the article about this situation.

• I will also be asking them what action they plan to take IF they learn that crimes have been committed.

#17 - Call the Congressional Representative of the Gentlemen who (allegedly) accessed the U.S. Treasury Data

• The Gentleman with Administrative access was reported as Marko Elez

• Based on records, it is believed that his Congresswoman is Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democrat from New Jersey

• I will be calling her office and asking her if she will launch a Congressional Inquiry to find out what specifically has happened and whether or not any laws were broken

• Here is her Contact Page and her phone number is listed as (609) 883-0026

#18 - Call the Federal Trade Commission and ask to file a grievance

• Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

  1-877-438-4338

  1-866-653-4261 (TTY)

• In order to file as a possible victim, you will need to provide your own information so they can log the complaint and get back to you.

• Please do NOT place any of your personal or financial information in an email or contact form online.

And we are ending on a more uplifting note…

ENCOURAGE THE BEHAVIOR YOU WANT TO SEE

#19 - Support the people covering this and other important stories.

• Local and specialized journalists and advocates are CONTINUING to do the heavy lifting, even now. Please celebrate them by sharing their work, calling their sponsors and thanking them, or subscribing when you can.

• This entire piece was created thanks to information I read - and trusted! - from Wired Magazine. You can find one of the articles HERE.

• Here is a link for a special rate where you can get a year of online coverage from Wired for only five dollars for the year! I don’t get a commission on this. I’m just trying to support people out here doing the work.

#20 - Please create and build community wherever you can.

• I hope that you continue to share important information with me, as well as stories about what you are working on, and things happening in your communities.

• Please connect with me online or visit my website at ANY time to reach out and let me know how things are going. Those emails and messages mean a lot to me and my team. It’s how we know that we are doing matters to you :)

Remember that hopelessness is a weapon used against us. Things are tough right now, but we are not helpless and we are NOT alone. Be safe, keep doing what you can, and I appreciate all of the things you are doing for this country every day.

Want to dive into topics like this even deeper? Catch the NEW Political Fixer Podcast on platforms around the world.

Here’s what we know about the incident so far: I was on the air when the news broke that a military Blackhawk helicopter crashed into a small commercial flight operated by PSA Airlines for American Airlines. The flight was traveling from Wichita, Kansas to Washington, D.C. and the crash happened over the Potomac River near the Reagan Airport. At this point we do not anticipate there being any survivors.

The first series of questions we all have regarding one of the deadliest air disasters since September 11th, 2001* is how? HOW could this happen?

(* The only deadlier incident happened in November, 2001 when American Airlines Flight 587 experienced an issue during takeoff and crashed into a Queens, New York neighborhood killing all on board and five on the ground.)

If there was no evidence of terrorism, and if there is no report of technical issues, how did a military helicopter and a commercial airplane just crash into each other? Let’s take that question to the top and work our way down to try and find some answers.

The White House

We’ll start with the guy in the White House. He called a press conference to express that the culprit responsible for the loss of 60 passengers, 4 crew members, and 3 members of our U.S. Military is DEI.

Yes, that man stood in front of God and everybody and said that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is to blame for a mass casualty event.

There’s just one small problem with that notion. It’s impossible. How do I know? I guess I’d have to check with Mr. 47 himself.

He posted a notice - or more accurately a ‘Fact Sheet’ - on WhiteHouse.gov and declared that he had, “...ended DEI Madness and Restored Excellence and Safety within the Federal Aviation Administration as of January 22, 2025”.

He ended DEI at the FAA (whatever that means), so as asinine as it is that we have to have this conversation, the simple truth - the “FACT” that he himself published - stated that DEI ended on January 22nd and therefore: No. Women, Black people, members of the queer community, employees with disabilities, and all of the so-called “others” who work in the American government are not collectively somehow to blame for planes falling out of the sky.

The U.S. Transportation Secretary

Since the Ringleader won’t give us any real answers, let’s continue our examination of the other performers and see if anyone can be useful during this catastrophe.

Months ago, when the cargo ship Dali lost power and struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, the bridge collapsed. Six workers lost their lives and we looked for answers. The U.S. Transportation Secretary at the time - Pete Buttigieg (or “Mayor Pete” as he is sometimes affectionately known) - took to the airwaves and explained what happened, pledged to work with all crews and local officials, and led an effort to re-open The Port of Baltimore just 11 weeks after the collapse.

So who is the U.S. Transportation Secretary now? Who is the new Mayor Pete? That would be Sean Duffy.

If you’re a Gen X’er and Sean Duffy looks vaguely familiar to you, it’s because his most notable claim to fame is that he was on MTV’s Real World. Duffy has zero aviation, transportation, construction, or infrastructure experience. But don’t worry. He DID briefly serve in Congress and he made it all the way to the top as a winner in the Real World/Road Rules Challenge so I’m sure everything will be fine.

What did Mr. Real World Secretary have to say after the crash? In his first press conference after the event he conveyed a few distinct points:

1. It was a clear night in Washington, D.C. Therefore weather wasn’t the problem.

2. The military helicopter was flying in a standard pattern. There’s no indication that it was any sort of sabotage or terrorism-related event.

3. The commercial plane was landing in a standard pattern. There’s no indication that it was the airplane or dangerous actions by the pilot.

As for any actual answers, what we received from Duffy was a pledge that he “won’t rest until he has answers”.

Good. Let’s hold him to that. Moving on…

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The FAA

Let’s look at the Federal Aviation Authority (the FAA) directly. What if we demanded answers about a plane crash from the people in charge of aviation?

Yet again, we run into problems.

Right now, there’s technically no one in charge of the FAA. Let me explain.

Traditionally the head of the FAA, the Administrator, is appointed to the position and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. This position is supposed to be a term of five years. This is partially for consistency in the important role and also to try to prevent the position from becoming politicized.

Mike Whitaker was the head of the FAA. He was appointed in 2023 and confirmed in a bipartisan, unanimous vote of the Senate. (Process that in our current political climate.)

Unfortunately Billionaire Lost Boy, Elon Musk, did not care for Mike Whitaker. In fact he publicly called on Whitaker to resign. Not because Musk has any actual authority, duly-elected position, or experience in government roles which gives him actual intelligence relating to these critical decisions.

Musk hated Whitaker because the FAA fined SpaceX over $600,000 for regulatory violations. These fines were not for missing paperwork or late filings. These fines related to things like not following a readiness procedure before launching, failing to comply with licensed safety standards, and using an unapproved rocket propellant farm.

I’m not a scientist but it seems like launch protocols, safety regulations, and overseeing highly flammable items like rocket fuel are things we should take seriously and, yes, regulate if a company is going to hurl large objects into space close to residential communities.

Musk disagrees. The moment he had his chance for petty spite, he took it. He called for Whitaker to step down as the head of the FAA. The Deputy Administrator, Katie Thomson, also stepped down after the Musk saber-rattling.

The White House named an interim placeholder for the FAA the day AFTER the crash (not exactly helpful), and 47 has yet to actually nominate a permanent replacement to lead the Federal Aviation Authority.

The TSA

Things continue to look bleak in related aviation departments of our government.

The head of the Transportation Security Administration, David Pekoske, was fired. That may seem odd once you realize that he was first appointed by the guy who fired him, but things start to make a bit more sense when you look at the cardinal sin of disloyalty that Mr. Pekoske committed.

Apparently former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard was placed on a TSA watch list called “Quiet Skies”, which requires extra screening and monitoring. Gabbard was flagged after she had some unusual travel patterns. Namely, she skirted official channels and secretly traveled to Syria to meet with then-President Bashar al-Assad.

This sparked outrage in certain circles and calls for a Republican-led investigation into Mr. Pekoske. For who among us has NOT traveled quietly to meet with a dictator who runs a country that’s considered an enemy to the United States?

Looking at the official website for the TSA has nothing but shadowy boxes. The TSA Administrator position is vacant. The Deputy Administrator is vacant. The entire membership of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee has been eliminated. We could ask the TSA Chief of Staff to fill those positions, but the Chief of Staff position is also vacant.

To be clear: all leadership at the Transportation Security Administration - the department that is literally authorized to make sure transportation is secure - does not currently exist.

Air Traffic Control

On top of ALL of that, a hiring freeze has been issued which impacts every government agency, including the TSA, from top to bottom. This chaos tornado makes it impossible to solve the problems we already knew existed with our Air Traffic Controllers.

As of last year, Air Traffic Control was understaffed in airports across the country. 77% of our facilities lack enough men and women white straight Christian able-bodied men (did I un-DEI right??) to fill the shifts needed to help flights take off and land safely. An example of the impact of this was felt by anyone using the Newark airport for holiday travel. In November of 2023 in just that airport over half a million travelers were delayed due to the shortage of air traffic controllers.

There are a few reasons why this happened. The pandemic made it difficult to train more people safely and that put hiring behind. Airports continue to expand to offer more flights and that increases the need.

We know all of this information because a guy went on NPR and talked about the shortage and his plan to recruit and train nearly three thousand new air traffic controllers. That guy was Mike Whitaker, the one Elon forced out because he didn’t like having to follow the rules when he flew his tiny rockets.

The Military Helicopter

It’s important to consider the possible failings on the military side as well. Why was a helicopter in the landing path of a commercial airplane and what could have been done on that side to prevent this from happening?

To seek answers about the military we actually do have a human in the position of Defense Secretary. That individual is recently Senate-confirmed Pete Hegseth.

If you’re unfamiliar with Mr. Hegseth, he is a former host at Fox and Friends, an alleged alcoholic, and supposedly such a pervasive abuser of women that his own mother wrote to him saying, “You are an abuser of women - that is the ugly truth.”

For those reasons, plus the inconvenient truth that Mr. Hegseth has never run any large organization or any division of the military and is therefore woefully unqualified for the role, his Senate confirmation vote was tied. The tie-breaking vote was cast by the new Vice President. (It may take you a second to remember who that is. It is not, in fact, Elon Musk.)

It’s tempting to grant Mr. Hegseth a bit of grace to respond to this disaster. After all, he did just accept this position days ago where he is clearly in over his skis. You would soon find that empathy misplaced after learning that Hegseth has already been hard at work.

For example, Hegseth has already found time to remove the security detail for and launch an investigation into U.S. General Mark Milley to see if he should be demoted in rank. Why? Because General Milley publicly spoke out months earlier saying that the man currently in the Oval Office is a dangerous person who is putting our entire democracy at risk. As a result Milley is being harassed and punished by this administration.

So much for the idea of free speech.

And HOURS before the crash, Hegseth could be found in his old stomping grounds. He appeared on Fox News touting the idea of a Concentration Camp for immigrants in Guantanamo. He said that Guantanamo is “the perfect place” to forcefully detain up to 30,000 human beings without due process or trial.

In a press conference about the crash, Hegseth stated that “a mistake was made.” He says they will “get to the bottom of this” with “no excuses”.

Aside from vague platitudes and the pro forma condolences, no facts or details were provided. Our quest for answers and accountability continues.

The Big Question about Politicizing this Tragedy

There is a playbook for events such as these.

STEP 1 - Offer thoughts and prayers and assure everyone that answers will be found.

STEP 2 - While attempting to wait out the public attention and the press cycle, continue to issue hollow reassurances and launch a “full investigation”, likely involving multiple committees.

STEP 3 - As unfavorable information comes to light, push back on questions and accountability by saying that those seeking answers are “politicizing the issue”.

An important fact could disrupt that tired playbook if the press, the public, or (I’m just spit-balling here) elected Democratic leadership were inclined to do so.

The man currently in charge is in his second term as President. Unless something in our Constitutional framework dramatically changes, there is no scenario where he can ever hold this office a third time. He will never be engaged as a candidate in a political campaign ever again. The moment he was inaugurated (or crowned or whatever) was the moment that his POLITICAL career ended. He is now a government employee who took an oath to do a job. Period.

It is now technically impossible to “politicize” holding the President accountable to the American people. His political days are over and he has run out of rope. It’s at long last time for our legislative branch and our fourth estate to FINALLY focus on his policies and their impact.

We the people need to demand answers to how, precisely, this crash occurred and we deserve a complete list of any and every thing - large and small - that could have contributed to this historical casualty.

But that’s just the start. The ultimate question is bigger and much scarier.

Someone in that circus of an administration needs to explain to us - in detail and with verifiable evidence - how firing experienced personnel, issuing hiring freezes, and bringing in a Fox News host, a moody mogul, and the guy from Real World is going to keep us safe in the skies.

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Shawna Presley Vercher is an award-winning political media strategist and social justice advocate. She is the host of the upcoming television series “The Political Fixer” and her audience reach for her video, social, and podcast content has surpassed 40 million worldwide.

A native Texan, Shawna is currently leveraging her fighting spirit to train millions on how to survive trauma and continue our strides to create meaningful change for ourselves & each other. Her current initiative - Equal Rights Now - is a fifty-state movement to finally secure rights for women in the United States Constitution.

Connect with her by visiting www.PoliticalFixer.com or @PoliticalFixer on the socials.