United in Opposition
For years United Airlines was my first choice when flying. Two of my brothers had long careers as Captains with the airline, which gave me an up-close look at the extreme care that was taken to make sure public safety was the top priority. It was very reassuring. Today, I avoid flying United whenever possible. United has become a metaphor for the infestation of political ideology into private enterprise, and is a real threat to public safety as a result.
The 2018 hiring of Josh Earnest, Executive Vice President of Communications and Advertising, who serves as the company’s chief spokesman was an early clue that the company was far from politically neutral. Earnest was the White House Press Secretary in the Obama Administration from 2014-2017 and was hired by United soon after he left that position.
United operationalized “woke” ideology when it put transgender pilots in its cockpits and removed longstanding grooming requirements to “modernize gender inclusive policy” and allow for greater “freedom of expression.” Flight attendants were encouraged to wear “official” Black Lives Matter pins, distributed with the company’s blessing, and make up and nail polish could now be worn by men as well as women employed as flight attendants.
United’s protections of freedom have been limited, however, to only those who embrace liberal ideology. During the COVID pandemic, United was the first and only major airline to implement strict vaccine mandates without being required to do so, and fired pilots and other employees who refused to comply. American, Delta, Southwest, and others did not implement vaccine mandates until later when the Biden Administration implemented a Federal contractor mandate.
Scott Kirby has been the CEO of United Airlines since 2020. In 2025 he was paid more than $32 million. In 2021, Kirby shunned his primary obligation to keep the flying public safe when he publicly announced that 50% of the training classes at United Aviate Academy, United’s flight school, would be women or people of color by 2030. He quantified the goal saying that 5,000 new pilots would be hired and half of them would be from “underrepresented groups.” We cannot tolerate industries, that literally have people’s lives in their hands, utilizing any considerations other than rigorous, objective “most highly qualified” criteria when selecting who will be entrusted with human lives. United has failed to meet this standard with its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) obsession.
On September 30, a hijacked Flydubai airliner, on its way from Dubai to Israel with 174 people aboard, narrowly avoided disaster. A radicalized Islamic co-pilot stabbed the plane’s Captain and tried to commandeer the plane for a terrorist attack. The heroic intervention of off-duty pilots onboard resulted in a safe landing and arrest of the terrorist.
This event blew the lid off of a United cover-up that had been kept under wraps for nearly three years. A United Captain, Ibrahim R. Mossallam, was suspended with pay in November 2023. Following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, in which 1,200 were murdered, 3,400 injured, and 251 taken hostage, Mossallam described the attacks as “brave” and “not unprovoked” in social media posts that sparked outrage among fellow United employees. United considered firing him, but the pilots’ union blocked the termination, and he was quietly returned to duty 6 months later. He has been flying as a Captain ever since, until the controversy flared again after the Flydubai hijacking.
The hijacking reignited safety concerns among crew members and other employees at United; they complained, and once again, United removed Mossallam from service pending further review of his continued social media posts. Now that the situation has been made public, we have also learned that dead-heading United pilots (off duty pilots hitching a ride to their next assignment) have been known to give up the comfort of first-class seats to sit in the jump seats in the cockpit when Massallam was flying in order to monitor him.
If this is the first you are learning of Captain Massallam’s overt support of terrorism, and United’s attempt to suppress it while failing to address it, it should not surprise you. It only came to light through reporting from foreign media and aviation news sites. Even after the recent near miss of a terrorist disaster in the Middle East, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and the New York Times have failed to report on United’s dealings with Massallam and, here in Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Wisconsin State Journal, and Capital Times have all remained silent on the matter. This only reinforces what we already know - the corrupt media decides what is newsworthy through a lens of extreme political bias.
United in Opposition
Public opinion firms such as Gallup have repeatedly asked Americans whether businesses and corporations should stay out of political and social issues and found that the majority want corporate neutrality. The Biden Administration pushed hard on “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” mandates that applied to the Federal Workforce and to corporations that had contracts with the Federal government. Their broad “equity agenda” pressured corporations and institutions to conform to a “DEI framework” and many were willing to comply.
The United pilot who has been allowed to fly while expressing support for Islamic terrorism is an extreme manifestation of DEI ideology and a disaster waiting to happen. The American people have been subjected to DEI coercion in our schools, medical establishments, and countless other corporate entities, all stemming from the liberal extremism that has overtaken the Democratic Party. The 2026 midterms are right around the corner. It is time for Wisconsin voters to demonstrate they are united in opposition with massive turnout, and a resounding defeat the Democrats up and down the ballot on November 3.