MaxRedline

Long Overdue!

SEATTLE (KOMO) — Alaska Airlines announced Tuesday it will no longer accept emotional support animals in the passenger cabin on its flights.

It's about time that sanity finally bites these babies in their collective behinds!

Beginning Jan. 11, 2021, Alaska will only allow service dogs, which are specially trained to perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified individual with a disability. Airlines argued that passengers abused the situation to bring a menagerie of animals on board including cats, turtles, pot-bellied pigs and, in one case, a peacock.

Those animals were never trained to do anything useful; they were simply pets - and often problematic ones at that.

 

Joe Goes Off The Rails Again

Not only doesn't answer a CBS News reporter's question regarding his son's shady dealings, he lambasts the reporter for daring to ask.

Democrat presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden lashed out at a reporter who asked him about the New York Post reports about his son Hunter Biden’s alleged emails that reportedly detail corrupt foreign business dealings by Hunter that implicate Biden while he was vice president. According to a pool report, Biden said, ““I knew you’d ask it. I have no response. Another smear campaign. Right up your alley.”

Next thing you know, he'll be calling them Fake News.

And of course, the law enforcement expert is one again calling for cops to shoot armed perps in the leg. You've gotta love it when a guy who's never worked a day in his life is nonetheless perfectly fine with telling people who do train and work how they should do their jobs.

It never ceases to amaze that some actually favor the guy.

 

This Just In

Golly, I wonder if this is a scam...actually, I don't wonder at all.

Your Amazon account where placed on hold and all pending order.
We took this action the billing information you provided did not match the information on file with the card issuer.

To resolve this issue, please verify now with the billing name, address, and telephone number registered to your payment card. If you recently moved, you may need to update this information with the card issuer.

Great language skills, no?

 

Yet Another Reason To Avoid Google Whenever Possible

Rather than create entirely on its own all the parts of the mobile operating system that has now come to be known as Android, Google elected to use more than 11,000 lines of coding from Oracle’s Java to make it run.

They didn't bother with stuff like licensing; they just lifted it. In executing this theft, they willfully violated a number of laws - not the least among which was federal copyright law, which covers computer code in addition to most other works.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Google v. Oracle on Oct. 7. The case involves several legal issues, all of which boil down to one principal question: Did Google cheat and steal its way to the top? 

While a decision on the case isn’t expected for a few months, the justices’ pointed questioning at the Big Tech giant points to the answer being a clear and resounding yes.

Personally, I don't use Google; I use DuckDuckGo for searches. Google tracks everything you do on the internet, DDG doesn't. While I don't do anything nefarious, I prefer privacy to snoops, so DDG is my default engine. I also use a virtual private network that tells anyone snooping that I'm in Seattle.

It's been ten years of legal wrangling between Google 's parent company and Sun Microsystems (which did the original Java coding before disbanding and turning the code over to Oracle), but it seems that the ducks have finally come home to roost at SCOTUS. It couldn't happen to a more deserving company.

 

The AARP Scam

AARP finances its operations by overcharging members for health care policies and through its billion-dollar relationship with UnitedHealth Group, according to a new public policy report.

“AARP works against its members in many respects,” Chris Jacobs, founder of consulting and analytics firm Juniper Research Group and author of the report, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. He continued: “They’ve built a marketing empire that they use for compensation for their executives and their staff.”

They keep sending me stuff urging me to join. I haven't, and won't. Their mailings go straight into the recycle bin.

AARP doesn’t just use its profits for large executive payouts, but for lobbying many “liberal causes.”

AARP is able to spend 35% of its income from such policies on administrative costs like executive salaries and marketing.

Unfortunately, These Aren't Exactly "Good Times"

Mom-and-pop landlords across the United States are coming under increasing pressure as a patchwork of regulations and eviction moratoriums passed by the federal government, states, counties, and municipalities in the wake of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus crisis have strongly curtailed their ability to enforce their property rights. Some landlords’ associations have resorted to legal action (pdf) to challenge the moratoriums, as many are currently unable to evict tenants breaking the terms of their lease agreement, such as those causing a nuisance to their neighbors—unless those tenants pose a danger to public health.

“With the moratorium in place, property owners have no ability to enforce anything in their leases,” Garvey claimed. “If tenants are causing a nightmare for other residents, or neighbors, there is nothing the owner can do about it. If they are tearing up the place, same thing.”

“In good times, approximately 9¢ of each dollar in rent is available as income to the owner of a well operated property,” Garvey says.

These are bad times to be a landlord in many places, as tenants are sometimes gaming the system to the financial detriment of landlords.

 

Mobile App? No Thanks.

The bank periodically rags you about downloading their mobile app, touting the many benefits you'll get (it's also easier for them, but that part's left unsaid). Being somewhat tech-oriented, I always decline - and so should you. It's not really a benefit to further open yourself to the black-hats.

The FBI on Wednesday warned that malicious cyber actors were targeting mobile banking apps in an attempt to steal money as more Americans have moved to online banking during the coronavirus pandemic. The FBI specifically pointed to threat of banking trojans, which involve a malicious virus hiding on a user’s mobile device until a legitimate banking app is downloaded. Once the real app is on the device, the banking trojan then overlays the app, tricking the user into clicking on it and inputting their banking login credentials.

Fake banking apps were also cited as a threat, with users in danger of being tricked into downloading malicious apps that also steal sensitive banking information. 

How to clean out your accounts in one easy misstep.

 

SeaWorld Scam

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — SeaWorld Entertainment is seeking a loan from a federal program meant to help businesses retain workers during pandemic-related shutdowns, but labor group says the theme park company is undeserving because it furloughed 95% of its employees.

They don't exactly have a stellar track record.

A killer whale has attacked and killed a trainer at Sea World in Florida, as the audience watched in horror. As Kelly Cobiella reports, the 12,000-pound whale has allegedly killed others in the past.

Keep it shut down.

PETA Again

STANISLAUS COUNTY (CBS13) — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says they will be putting up a billboard in remembrance of the thousands of chickens who died in a barn fire last week and to shame meat-eaters.

As for me, I've no problem with prefried chicken. But then, I'm a long-time member of PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals).

The other one will do anything for attention - and more donations from the addled.

 

 

Cornavirus Panic Isn't All Bad

A new study from AllAreaCodes.com found that spam phone calls have declined 58 percent nationally. The company said it analyzed one million consumer complaints to the Federal Trade Commission since the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic on March 8. 

Since that time, Ohio saw a 51 percent decrease, Kentucky saw a 54 percent decrease and Indiana saw a 58 percent decrease, AllAreaCodes.com said. 

"Nationally, the number of complaints has steadily decreased every week.  March 8 saw a 15% decline, March 22 a 23% decline, and the most recent figures for the week of April 5 jumped to a 58% decline," the group said.

I've not noticed much of a change, but then, I've used nomorobo for years.