The Long Road Out

There’s a snow removal company in Truckee, California that has a monopoly. Elements it’s called. We’ve had 5+ feet of snow here in three days and it’s still snowing.    For two 26 hour periods in there, we've been snowed in--it's very comfortable in our house, and we have lots of food, and Netflix, and all the rest.  And, we're trying to quarantine in the belief that somehow we're helping hold back the worst of Coronavirus. Who needs self-regulation when you're actually help prisoner in your house (not entirely true--we've climbed out on snowshoes and cross country skis).  Having snow up to the top of your garage door actually has a calming effect--your choices are eliminated.  So, you get the picture: a service provider with terribly low standards of customer care, failing again during this current storm. Elements sent out a message yesterday that should be a reminder to all of us about how to care for your neighbors in times of anxiety, troubl...

I've now got about 10 flights on United since their new 2020 Mileage Plus program. Eight of those have been purchased business class tickets. Here's the shock--under the new scoring system, I'm less than a tenth of the way toward 1K status (I've been 1K or Platinum for the last eight years. I'm might not make gold this year). There are about a million posts complaining about the new system which rewards nothing except dollars spent. Google to experience the anger. You'll also see a lot of "winners vs losers" analyses which try to game whether you should add a connection to a Singapore flight on a partner airline. United has now added an hour to your flight booking time...for each leg. For a 1K traveler, that's 54 hours of your life, every year, sucked away from you. Please be careful.  Mileage Plus may cost you a spouse or a friend or the ability to have conversations with other humans while you click away on your calculator. Here's the o...

Bright-shiny-object of the second: Guiliani says truth is not truth.   Every since Rudy reemerged from the dustbins of celebrity, he's been short a few brain cells.  But, since he's a celebrity, he can't stop sharing his impairment. Recall that his first effort to ride on Trump's celebrity machine was his insipid and manic assertion that he represented Don in the Stormy Daniels' non-disclosure fee.  It's hard to know.   Trump had corrected Guiliani three times by tweet in the first 24 hours of Rudy's cool new client engagement (has the White House actually written any checks to Rudy?   Wow, that's pretty low value for taxpayer dollars.   He's senile!).  I've never loved the Guiliani brand.   Most people forget about his admirable U.S. Attorney career where he really did get some bad guys (remember the Pizza Connection RICO trial?   No one outside Guiliani's office ever used RICO as effectively since, as the Galahad's sword it was i...

There are so many despicable companies and brands in the world.   So it's hard to chose the absolute numero uno  when this much-coveted prize is awarded annually.  But the judges (me) have decided.  My choice is Monsanto--protected by the government, actively poisoning the food chain, guilty of predatory customer behavior, and literally violent to non-customers. Monsanto is still first in the "Worst Corporation of the Decade" ranking, which, surely, this year's victory will help.   They're kind of like the Chicago Bulls in their heyday. It's nice to feel so certain that Monsanto is the absolutely worst company on the planet.   Knowing this makes the judges (me) feel clearheaded and thoughtful, since it would be easy to be confused by the many categories and brands in the runner-up spots: All the defense contractors--whether General Electric or General Dynamics, these guys make money exporting death to bad people, and go out of their way to make sure...