geek tragedy

geek tragedy's Journal

April 12, 2017

Important re: United fiasco--UAL is the biggest funder of airport cops

The thugs who roughed up Dr. Dao do not work for the Chicago PD. They work for the Chicago Department of Aviation, which manages the airports in Chicago.

The Chicago Department of Aviation isn't funded by the taxpayers. It's funded by the airlines and other on-site vendors, e.g. restaurants.

https://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/obm/supp_info/2016Budget/BudgetHearingStatements/2016_Aviation_Statement_merge.pdf

By far the biggest funder of the Department is ... United Airlines, which uses Chicago as its national and international hub--roughly 48% of all gates at O'Hare are United's. (another 40% belong to American)

The thugs who roughed up Dr. Dao at United's behest are effectively on United's payroll.

April 12, 2017

Ultra rich white male in first class threatened with arrest by United

http://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-united-low-priority-passenger-20170412-story.html

Fearns needed to return early so he paid about $1,000 for a full-fare, first-class ticket to Los Angeles. He boarded the aircraft at Lihue Airport on the island of Kauai, took his seat and enjoyed a complimentary glass of orange juice while awaiting takeoff.

Then, as Fearns tells it, a United employee rushed onto the aircraft and informed him that he had to get off the plane.

“I asked why,” he told me. “They said the flight was overfull.”

Fearns, like the doctor at the center of that viral video from Sunday night, held his ground. He was already on the plane, already seated. He shouldn’t have to disembark.

“That’s when they told me they needed the seat for somebody more important who came at the last minute,” Fearns said. “They said they have a priority list and this other person was higher on the list than me.”

But at least they showed an ultra rich frequent flyer some respect, right?

“I understand you might bump people because a flight is full,” Fearns said. “But they didn’t say anything at the gate. I was already in the seat. And now they were telling me I had no choice. They said they’d put me in cuffs if they had to.”

You couldn’t make this up if you tried.

It shouldn’t make any difference where a passenger is seated or how much he or she paid for their ticket. But you have to admire the sheer chutzpah of United putting the arm on a full-fare, first-class traveler. If there’s anybody whose business you want to safeguard and cultivate, it’s that person.

But at least they tried to make his flight as enjoyable as possible despite the downgrade, right?

So how could United possibly make things worse? Not to worry. This is the airline that knows how to add insult to injury.

A United employee, responding to Fearns’ complaint that he shouldn’t have to miss the flight, compromised by downgrading him to economy class and placing him in the middle seat between a married couple who were in the midst of a nasty fight and refused to be seated next to each other.

Never have I heard of an airline so aggressively contemptuous towards its customers. At least Spirit doesn't pretend to be anything it isn't.

Not racist or classist, just evil in an amazingly stupid way.

April 11, 2017

United CEO letter to employees: we did nothing wrong!

http://mashable.com/2017/04/10/united-airlines-ceo-staff-memo/#Khl4vou3agqB

"Our employees followed established procedures for dealing with situations like this," he wrote. "While I deeply regret this situation arose, I also emphatically stand behind all of you, and I want to commend you for continuing to go above and beyond to ensure we fly right."

This isn't an airline that cares about its customers, and can barely be bothered to pretend to care.

Avoid at all costs.

April 6, 2017

Steve Bannon Calls Jared Kushner a 'Cuck' and 'Globalist' Behind His Back

Source: The Daily Beast

Donald Trump’s chief strategist Stephen Bannon has called the president’s senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner a “cuck” and a “globalist” during a time of high tension between the two top aides, several Trump administration officials told The Daily Beast.

The fighting between Kushner and Bannon has been “nonstop” in recent weeks, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. It’s been an “open secret” that Bannon and Kushner often clash “face-to-face,” according to senior officials.

...

"Steve thinks Jared is worse than a Democrat, basically," another official close to Bannon said. "[Steve] has a very specific vision for what he believes, and what he shares [ideologically] with Trump. And he has for a long time now seen [Jared] as a major obstacle to achieving that."

...

The Times also reported that “Bannon’s Svengali-style reputation has chafed on a president who sees himself as the West Wing’s only leading man,” and that “several associates said the president had quietly expressed annoyance over the credit Mr. Bannon had received for setting the agenda—and Mr. Trump was not pleased by the ‘President Bannon’ puppet-master theme promoted by magazines, late-night talk shows and Twitter.”

Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/04/06/steve-bannon-calls-jared-kushner-a-cuck-and-globalist-behind-his-back.html

We're still in the honeymoon phase of Trump's presidency.

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