Category: Politics, Religion & Money

This is a comment I made to something that was posted by a Facebook friend:

For me, the turning point was Newt Gingrich’s reckless tenure as Speaker of the House, and Ken Starr transforming the Whitewater panel into Monicagate. Until then I was a registered voter with no party affiliation. Clinton gave the GOP Nafta and welfare reform, and they still kept attacking him. When they brought the Monica affair to light, I realized there had been a fundamental shift in the party.

Republicans were no longer interested in the two-party system. They would take everything they could get, offer nothing in return, and that was when I finally registered as a Democrat. Even after Clinton survived the beating of impeachment, he agreed to scuttling the Glass-Steagall Act, which was strongly favored by Republicans, and was the single biggest mistake of his administration. Clinton left office with a budget surplus, and of course Bush turned it into a huge tax windfall that mostly benefited the ultra-rich, putting the lie to the Republican assertion they are concerned about the federal deficit.

With all of that said, I voted for Masachusetts governor Charlie Baker. But he’s one of those “Massachusetts Republicans,” like former governors Mitt Romney and Bill Weld. To the rest of the GOP, they are RINO — Republicans in Name Only. Meaning they’re sane and reasonable (ignoring Weld’s recent turn as a Libertarian running mate). It was a shame to see how Romney had to fall in line with the hardcore Republican base in 2012 and denounce Obamacare, which was based largely upon his own Romneycare.

Listen to this tone-deaf former CEO of Continental Airlines, commenting on a passenger — claiming to be a doctor — being forcibly dragged off of a United Airlines plane. The customer’s crime? Refusing to take $800 to voluntarily give up his paid-for seat on an overbooked flight. Apparently, when there aren’t enough takers on these offers, a computer program determines who the best candidates are to be bumped, in order to accommodate customers with more expensive tickets. Follow-up: it’s been reported that four seats were needed for employees of United Airlines.

The condescending tone is unbelievable. He actually says the passenger acted, “like a child that didn’t want to leave.” Then he praises the CEO of United Airlines for being a nice man, and “a really human fellow.” This sort of an attitude is not only infuriating to customers, it is counterproductive to companies. Obviously, United is not nice or human, otherwise they would have a more flexible policy to deal with these situations.

United should have offered more money until somebody said yes. Would this lead in the future to passengers staying put to bid up the price before agreeing to deplane? Sure, which was undoubtedly why the ceiling was set by management at only $800. But now, between the bad publicity and the lawsuit that will undoubtedly be forthcoming, United stands to lose much more than what it otherwise would have cost the airline.