budbromley

At a time when the travel industry, airlines, hotels, credit cards, and travel agencies should be benefiting from the extra leisure time and disposable cash from the demographically huge ‘baby boom’ generation, the travel industry seems to have lost or fired their marketing people. The revenues and profits of the entire industry should be huge and unprecedented. But, instead, today everything about travel and the credit card industry is upside down.

Let’s start for example with the labyrinthine policies for flight changes or cancellations. They have totally forgotten about customer satisfaction. It’s all about the airline, the credit card and their respective lawyers. They have forgotten their customer, except perhaps for Southwest where changes or cancellations are very simple and they seem happy to accommodate.   On other airlines, passengers are penalized for almost any change or cancellation, unless you buy trip insurance or pay a higher penalty fare for fully refundable tickets.  Reading the fine print in travel insurance is torture.  What’s wrong with making travel simple? If you want customer loyalty, then make your product efficient, simple, easy to use and reasonably priced. Such an airline, credit card, hotel or car rental agency or travel agency website would not need a “customer loyalty program.”

Almost all airlines and credit cards today are about the fine print terms and conditions. They use negative incentives, penalties and higher prices to attempt to get passengers to upgrade. Then they use loyalty programs to trap customers into repeat business, because passengers are so dissatisfied that they are constantly changing from one carrier or card to another. This is really stupid from the point of view of customer satisfaction. Better product results in customer satisfaction and loyalty. All passengers can see that airline and credit card services have been downgraded over the years. The only place lower they can go now is to require travellers to clean plane, clean the toilets and carry out the garbage.

Now imagine if you actually got a comfortable seat when you booked a regular coach ticket. Do you remember economy seats where you could open your laptop on the fold down tray and get some work done. When the passenger in front of you could recline their seat while you were sitting up in yours to work, without you have to become intimate with their hair products and scalp issues.

Do you remember being able to walk on and off a plane almost immediately, instead of standing in the aisles while 200+ people load or unload their baggage from the overhead compartment? This is classic upside down airline thinking. Instead of charging passengers extra to bring their main baggage or extra baggage into the cabin, the airlines charge you to check your baggage. Which means almost everyone tries to get everything into their hand carry baggage and then cram all their baggage in the overhead compartments and under their seats. The result of this misguided, mistaken marketing effort to generate more revenue is customer dissatisfaction. The cabin is crowded. There are long delays in boarding and de-planing. Departures are delayed. On the other hand, when customers had incentive or at least no extra charge (i.e. penalty) for checking their bags, boarding and de-planing was swift, planes ran on schedule. Cabins were not as crowded. If airline must charge extra, it should be for those things that delay and inconvenience other customers and potentially delay the flights, such as carry on. On the other hand, when passengers arrive at the terminal, we generally have plenty of time to check bags because they know there will be usually be security delays and airlines want you at the gate 30 minutes prior to boarding, also there is plenty of room in the terminal and usually multiple counters to check bags. In addition, the airline has plenty of time to check the bags in with no rush, and their customers are not waiting while the conveyor belts and baggage handlers load the bags in the belly of the plane. Basically, they are doing it upside down and backwards with regard to customer satisfaction.

Instead of penalizing passengers in normal economy seats in an devious attempt to get passengers to upgrade to premium economy, business class or first class, airline should be providing comfortable seats and more room in regular economy. Business class would then be distinguished by more services such as WiFi, more room where it is important to work or rest, better food, meals and drinks included. First class is then further extended by full recline sleeper seats, first class meals on china with silverware, drinks, services, arrival and departure lounges, concierge greeting at the airport, with concierge-assisted accelerated, guided security clearance and baggage checking.

Bottom line, in an industry like travel, customer satisfaction should be the supplier’s most important goal and consideration. Today, it is mendacious rhetoric covering up fine print. Yes, it’s a sign of the times.

Why do airlines, credit cards and most of the travel industry require a law degree to travel, to understand the terms and conditions? Don’t get me started. That’s a discussion for another time after several libations.

Former CIA officer Clare Lopez accused the U.S. government of allowing $500 million in arms to flow to al-Qaeda militants who opposed Gaddafi in 2011. The Obama administration is accused of ‘switching sides in the war on terror.’ As a result, Ambassador Stevens and at least 3 other Americans were killed in Benghazi, Gaddafi was killed along with other Libyans.

 “‘Gaddafi actually offered to abdicate’ shortly after the beginning of a 2011 rebellion.” … “Gaddafi wanted only two conditions to step down: permission to keep fighting al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and the lifting of sanctions against him, his family, and those loyal to him.” Lopez “blamed the Obama administration for failing to stop half of a $1 billion United Arab Emirates arms shipment from reaching al-Qaeda-linked militants.”

‘Remember, these weapons that came into Benghazi were permitted to enter by our armed forces who were blockading the approaches from air and sea,’ Lopez claimed. ‘They were permitted to come in. … [They] knew these weapons were coming in, and that was allowed..’The intelligence community was part of that, the Department of State was part of that, and certainly that means that the top leadership of the United States, our national security leadership, and potentially Congress – if they were briefed on this – also knew about this.’ ‘The White House and senior Congressional members, deliberately and knowingly pursued a policy that provided material support to terrorist organizations in order to topple a ruler [Gaddafi] who had been working closely with the West actively to suppress al-Qaeda.’ ‘Some look at it as treason,’ said Wayne Simmons, a former CIA officer who participated in the commission’s research.”

“Retired Rear Admiral Chuck Kubic, another commission member, told reporters Tuesday that those weapons are now ‘all in Syria.'”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2610598/Group-US-switched-sides-War-Terror-facilitating-500-MILLION-weapons-deliveries-Libyan-al-Qaeda-militias-leading-Benghazi-attack.html

They continue to lie and give away your money.  Recently the UN IPCC published more scary statements about the increasing CO2 trend and predicted future global warming that they say will result.  Their predictions included dire warnings about damage to the food supply in the near future.  President Obama, his science advisor John Holdren, the EPA, the Department of Interior, SOS John Kerry and many others have echoed the UN warnings and they have spent hundreds of billions in US dollars under the banner of reducing CO2, and they have caused mines and power plants to shut down.  But none of these people provide real world data to validate their claimed climate crisis, the money is being spread around to cronies and many of these crony companies are going bankrupt.  

What if CO2 continues rising and the planet begins warming again and precipitation declines as the UN IPCC predicts?  How might this warmer, drier, CO2-enriched future world affect global wheat production? According to the authors of this 2014 study, which is a meta-analysis of 90 scientific papers, the outlook for the future of wheat production is positive thanks to the projected concurrent rise in atmospheric CO2.  “…the effects of high CO2 concentrations (>640 ppm) outweighed the effects of increasing temperature (up to +2°C) and moderate declines in precipitation (up to -20%), leading to increasing yields.”  In concluding their study, Wilcox and Makowski say their results “provide an overall positive outlook for the future of wheat production.”  http://www.co2science.org/articles/V17/N16/B2.php

Think and act decisively on this important information in the 2014 and 2016 elections. In almost all cases, you will want to replace your U.S. Representative and U.S. Senators in these important elections. There are very few who should remain in office. My U.S. representative and my U.S. Senators and President Obama knew this travesty was occurring. For example, Ed Markey, one of my new Senators was previously a U.S. Representative who for many years headed a House committee which had oversight responsibility for intelligence operations. No excuses for Markey. He’s up for re-election. He must be defeated. It’s time for us to elect new public service representatives in Washington, D.C. If you are not sure where they stand, ask them.

Further out, regarding the 2016 election, keep in mind that Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State, most certainly knew NSA’s capabilities. Incredibly, she is said to be considering General David Petraeus as her running mate. After his notable military career, Petraeus headed the CIA. The level of her arrogance and hubris is incredible. Both Petraeus and Clinton were involved in the Benghazi catastrophe and neo-con regime change conspiracies in the middle east. No doubt, Clinton, Petraeus and Clinton’s campaign finance manager George Soros believe that you will forget about Benghazi and the NSA by 2016.

Read this: “Thanks to the courageous acts of Edward Snowden, the enormous scope of the unconstitutional and illegal acts by the U.S. National Security Agency has been revealed to the world. He gave indisputable proof of the massive surveillance about which I have been writing for 10 years.

By now you know the 30-year-old Snowden, a former Central Intelligence Agency employee and National Security Agency contractor, made shocking disclosures of classified NSA documents to the news media.

Thanks to Snowden, no one can dispute that the NSA routinely performed a mass collection of phone and Internet data on each and every supposedly free American. The NSA violated U.S. privacy laws millions upon millions of times according to their own internal auditor. The NSA has broken into the communications links of major data centers worldwide, allowing it to spy on hundreds of millions of user accounts as well as foreign leaders. They have systematically undermined the basic encryption systems of the Internet, calling into question the privacy of sensitive data and, perhaps more damaging, destroying trust.

Snowden’s revelations also proved that James Clapper Jr., the director of National Intelligence, criminally lied to Congress when he testified that the NSA was not collecting data on millions of Americans.

Biased defenders of the NSA, especially in the U.S. Congress, have called Snowden a traitor. To a person, these politicians are recipients of major campaign contributions from what I would call the “national security industrial complex.”

Treason always has been defined as one of the most serious crimes. It is no less than a citizen helping foreign governments to overthrow, make war against or seriously injure their nation. Indeed, history is littered with those guilty of such treachery — Judas Iscariot, Benedict Arnold, Marcus Junius Brutus to name but a few. Snowden is not guilty of treason. His actions have helped, not injured, America. Like Paul Revere, he alerted us to a very real threat to our lives as a free people.

I think Snowden’s action can be compared to the daring 1944 attempts by a small group of German officers who tried to assassinate Hitler. In his own way, Snowden was not content to “just follow orders.” He knew his bosses, complicit in the NSA crimes, would never listen to his valid complaints. Instead, Snowden turned over documents to a few brave and honest reporters who fully exposed the treachery of the NSA against Americans and allies and enemies alike.

The most discouraging result of what this young man did has been the mass apathy of Americans who don’t seem to care that their liberties have been defiled, their privacy destroyed.

This historic crisis of trust must not stand. The American government should never be allied against her citizens in this fashion. We can ill afford to compound the lack of trust many citizens feel since the financial and housing crises.

There is a way out of this historic crisis. We must replace those in the U.S. Congress who supported this massive surveillance and those who still try to cover it with lies and claims of “state secrets.” There should also be massive pressure brought to bear on the president to adopt his own commission’s recommendations. That is, dismantle much of what we now know the NSA does.

Echoing Virginia’s Patrick Henry, the official motto of the U.S. state of New Hampshire is “Live free or die!” America, thanks to Edward Snowden, is at an historic crossroads.” – Bob Bauman, Sovereign Society, former U.S. Congressman.

Here’s some Carlos Santana to celebrate Earth Day. Turn your audio WAY UP.   

http://vimeo.com/27316481

The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression awards the top 3 Jefferson Muzzles for 2014 to the Obama Administration:
(1) The U.S. Department of Justice
(2) The White House Press Office
(3) The National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security

http://tjcenter.org/muzzles/2014-jefferson-muzzles/#item01

“…the Obama years are a benchmark for a new level of secrecy and control. It’s created quite a challenging atmosphere for The New York Times, and for some of the best reporters in my newsroom who cover national security issues in Washington. There have been seven of them [i.e prosecutions], and one of them right now threatens my colleague James Risen who has been subpoenaed in one of these cases. Collectively, they have really put a chill on reporting about national security issues in Washington.” ~ Jill Abramson, Executive Editor of the liberal-leaning New York Times

“Sources who want to come forward with important stories that they feel the public needs to know are just scared to death that they’re going to be prosecuted,” she says. “Reporters fear that they will find themselves subpoenaed in this atmosphere.”

“The amount of friction and confrontation involved in just going about what I see as perfectly normal coverage, that in the past wouldn’t have even provoked a discussion, becomes a protracted and somewhat exhausting process,” she says. 

http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/new-level-secrecy-and-control-nytimes-chief-jill-abramson-obama-white-house/

“In the 21st century Washington has established as its hallmarks every manifestation of tyranny: illegal and unconstitutional execution of citizens without due process of law, illegal and unconstitutional indefinite detention of citizens without due process of law, illegal and unconstitutional torture, illegal and unconstitutional rendition, illegal and unconstitutional surveillance, and illegal and unconstitutional wars. The executive branch has established that it is unaccountable to law or to the Constitution. An unaccountable government is a tyranny. ”

The Senate Intelligence Committee took four years to investigate of the CIA’s torture programs. “The Committee found, unequivocally, that the CIA lied about the extent of the torture and kidnappings, that detainees did not undergo some mild form of “enhanced interrogation” but were subjected to brutal and inhumane torture, that the CIA, contrary to its claims, did not get even one piece of useful information from its grave crimes against humanity…During the entirety of the investigation, the CIA illegally spied on the Senate staff conducting the investigation.”

“Is the public ever to see this report beyond the parts that have been leaked? Not if the CIA and Obama can prevent it. President “change” Obama has decided that it is up to the CIA to decide how much of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation will be made public. In other words, unless someone leaks the entire report, the American public will never know.”

~ Paul Craig Roberts, American economist and a columnist for Creators Syndicate. He served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration and was noted as a co-founder of Reaganomics. (Wikipedia)
Born: April 3, 1939 (age 75), Atlanta, GA
Education: Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Virginia

PaulCraigRoberts.org

Here’s what really matters in the dispute between the Bundy’s of Nevada and the Bureau of Land Management.

Excellent.

Repost of excerpts from Matt Ridley’s blog post “Adapting to climate change,”  April 6, 2014 (link below)

“The received wisdom on global warming, published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was updated this week. The newspapers were, as always, full of stories about scientists being even more certain of environmental Armageddon. But the document itself revealed a far more striking story: it emphasised, again and again, the need to adapt to climate change. Even in the main text of the press release that accompanied the report, the word ‘adaptation’ occurred ten times, the word ‘mitigation’ not at all.”

“The distinction is crucial.”

…”For instance, references to ‘hundreds of millions’ of people being affected by rising sea levels were removed from the summary, as were statements about the impact of warmer temperatures on crops. The report bravely admits that invasive alien species are a far greater threat to species extinction than climate change itself. Even coral reefs, the report admits, are threatened mostly by pollution and overfishing, which might be exacerbated at the margin by climate change.”

….”the report firmly states that the impact of climate change will be small relative to other things that happen during this century: ‘For most economic sectors … changes in population, age structure, income, technology, relative prices, lifestyle, regulation and governance will be large relative to the impacts of climate change.’ ”      

“But the one truly bonkers thing to do would be to go unilaterally into a policy of subsidising the rich to install technologies that drive up the cost of energy, desecrate the countryside, kill golden eagles, clear-cut swamp forests in North Carolina, turn grain into motor fuel, so driving up the price of food and killing people, and prevent poor people in Africa getting loans to build coal-fired, cheap power stations instead of inhaling smoke from wood fires cut from virgin forests.”

“All this we are doing in this country, with almost no prospect of cutting carbon emissions enough to affect the climate. That’s the very opposite of adaptation — preventing the economic growth that would enable us to adapt while failing to prevent any climate change.”                                                                                                                                                              http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/adapting-to-climate-change.aspx