Inside Southwest's system breakdown

The MoJo Daily newsletter, Monday through Friday. [View in browser]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter](     December 28, 2022 Southwest Airlines has melted down in the sort of spectacular fashion that makes you realize how tenuous all of the systems upholding modern American life really are. The airline has canceled [more than 10,000 flights]( in the past few days, stranding tens of thousands of passengers, many of whose luggage has already been shipped to another location. There are many reasons for the meltdown. A winter storm coincided with holiday travel. Airlines are facing [staffing shortages]( because workers are getting sick. As other airlines have resumed more or less normal schedules, Southwest's operations have collapsed like a house of cards thanks to its ["point-to-point" model](, which forgoes the use of one or two airline hubs. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has given Southwest a [verbal dressing down](, but it's unclear how his agency will ensure that another travel disaster doesn't happen again. Congress has also vowed to [investigate](. Now, I'm going to say something very obvious. Wouldn't it be nice if there were a way to rapidly traverse the country without getting into a huge, carbon-spewing metal box? Perhaps, say, a high-speed train? [We can dream](. Anyway, do you have any holiday travel horror stories to share? Have you had to rely on alternative forms of transportation to get to your destination? Fill us in [here](. —Abigail Weinberg Advertisement [City of Hope]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [George Santos Keeps Giving Inconsistent Stories About His Mystery Millions]( The public needs to see his receipts. BY DAVID CORN SPONSORED CONTENT BY CITY OF HOPE   The most meaningful gift that any cancer patient needs: Hope Patients and their support systems become family to us, and we work harder every day to provide them with the treatment and care they need to fight. Until 12/31, you can double the support you give, thanks to Scotch Brand, who will match your year-end gift for 2X the impact. [Learn more here.]( [Trending] [Hero of 2022: Dwight Garner, and his perfect evisceration of Jared Kushner's book]( BY MARIANNE SZEGEDY-MASZAK   [Hero of 2022: Iranian women]( BY ISABELA DIAS   [Why US cities are falling out of love with the parking lot]( BY OLIVER MILMAN   [Complaining about air travel is a no-brainer for Democrats]( BY TIM MURPHY Advertisement [City of Hope]( [Special Feature] [Special Feature]( [Hate leader Nick Fuentes is recruiting incels]( The racist troll who dined with Trump is courting a new online following: raging misogynists. BY KRISTEN DOERER [Here are the facts] December is [make-or-break]( for Mother Jones’ fundraising. We have an ambitious $350,000 goal and all online gifts will be matched and go twice as far until we get there. We can’t afford to come up short: Donations big and small make up 74 percent of our budget. If you can right now, this is an important time to support Mother Jones with a year-end gift—it will be doubled thanks to an incredibly generous donor. [Donate]( Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by [forwarding]( it to a friend or sharing it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Donate Monthly]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755