News and notes from around the interweb:
- In a win for Morpho Trust, the only private company currently allowed to do PreCheck signups (that has been suing to prevent other companies from being awarded contracts), the TSA has said it will stop trying to expand its private signup program.
- Delta’s President sold 28% of his DAL stock for $4.6 million.
- Best Western is status matching pretty much everyone but then of course you’re using that status at Best Western.
- A China Southern Airbus A380 got into a fight with a tug at LAX. I’d be tempted to say that the tug won, since the Guangzhou flight was cancelled, but the tug driver did apparently receive minor injuries. (HT: @pir8z40)
- Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson’s Open Letter to Donald Trump. He thinks Trump should pardon Hillary Clinton, and has thoughts on many other issues as well.
If you’re serious about bringing us together, consider simply letting Secretary Clinton ride off into the sunset with thanks for her public service, perhaps even with a pardon. By itself, this would be a unifying step, one that would set you up well to be the kind of leader that we need – focused entirely on the future, instead of the past.
- British Airways flight attendants will start voting this coming week on whether to strike.
Don’t you have to be convicted before you can be pardoned?
Gary, as always, I enjoy reading your posts, when you deal with travel issues……Marriott CEO Arne Sorensons, would likely be better served running his growing hotel empire.
I’ve been a Lifetime Platinum with Marriott Rewards for many years and I still see many areas which need attention and can stand improvement in Sorensons’ operations.
Just an opinion.
@Ghina, no. Ford pardoned Nixon without a conviction. Then again, FBI said there was nothing to be pardoned for, no?
FWIW, Ford pardoned Nixon without any indictment, much less conviction.
pardon is just euphemism for not to be prosecuted.
clinton did some serious sh*t and anyone else would be in jail by now. just because she is the wife of an ex-president she was let off very leniently.
her lawyers destroyed evidence before sending the clean emails to FBI. but the main problem is: she had a private server that broke the law. it doesnt matter if the content was not sensitive (and it is sensitive.. the sentitive emails were destroyed by the lawyers…because well.. only clinton herself and the person she sent to had access to what she emailed..so no one will find what she emailed…thats whats so great about a private server). it matters that she bypassed national security.. this is the issue at hand.
if i purposely shot someone but i didnt kill him, it is not murder. but i get convicted of attempted murder.
if i had a gun illegally but i dont use it, i will still get prosecuted for illegal possesion.
if i had herion on me but dont use it, i am still procsecuted for possesion.
if i transfer company funds to my account but dont use it, i still get prosecuted for embezzlement.
if i circumvent national security by having a private server…. well…… i get pardoned.
Regarding HRC: She was careless, negligent regarding the handling of important and classified government information … and then subsequently lied about it so as to protect her political aspirations. One never got the sense that she really recognized that what she did was flat out wrong and that there was subsequent sincere remorse.
I believe that she and her associates should be held accountable – legally, not politically. Others have been imprisoned and/or fined for less egregious offenses regarding the compromise or potential compromise of national security.
Real reform in this country must include the respect for the law and equal justice under the law. If found guilty, at that point, I would have no problem agreeing to a pardon so as to help the country move on.
I think I’m with Ron. Let her admit her crimes, then pardon her. When she comes completely clean, a pardon is fine. While she remains cynical, however, no deal.
And no pardon over the nefarious conduct with her foundation.
Ok so someone started on Clinton, what would have happened if it had been an impartial panel, no there’s something there. Having said that I agree that Clinton needs to be allowed to ride off into the sunset and enjoy some of that Clinton Foundation money, never to return, The country is moving on from the Clintons and the Bush’s, period.
Arne needs to either run his hotels or go into politics. Just think how secure the Silicone Valley CEO”S are now ! One even said he would support a group to secede from the Union, Really?
WE all as a nation needs to move on.
Wy does she need a pardon if she hasn’t done anything illegal? Won’t that taint her legacy?
Nope. Nope. Nope.
Let it be clear. Trump never intended to be 10% of what he promised. Let it be clearly seen by his inaction.
Pardoning would make him look magnanimous while he is in no position to be doing any favors. If she broke the law she should be in jail, if she did nothing wrong trump and rednecks should eat crow.
There is no one country any more.
Actually coming out with an official pardon for Clinton and her known crimes just after he takes office seems like a smart move for various reasons. It would look good and be helpful to reach across the way to sore losers. It would also help him in the future if she decided to run against him in 2020. Many people have said she would be too old by then but I don’t think that is the case.
@wowwee, If Clinton or her lawyers destroyed emails that might be evidence of criminal activity, then they were very sloppy because they missed the very emails that are now being claimed to be evidence of criminal activity. If you are going to destroy evidence, destroy all of it. Also there was no law against private servers although the Federal Records Act was amended in 2014 to require that personal emails be transferred to government servers within 20 days.
@ghostrider, Funds given to the Clinton Foundation are not available for the personal use of anyone. I’m aware if no substantiated allegations that the Clintons ever used foundation funds for anything other than charitable purposes.
If I were she, I’d refuse any pardon and tell the repubs to go ahead and waste their time and money witch hunting.
Trump should save his pardons for himself, if that were possible. Unless the statutes of limitations have expired and cannot be extended, Trump could be criminally and civilly prosecuted for sexual assault. Lock him up? I’d bet dollars to donuts there will be other serious legal issues Trump will face during his term for actions taken before or independently of the Presidency.
You can’t pardon someone who did nothing illegal.
I agree that Trump should pardon Clinton, but Obama should pardon Trump first before he leaves office.
Trump’s administration should investigate and then decide if there is an offense that requires a pardon. Let’s think this through. Anytime law enforcement and prosecutorial staff investigate whether a crime has been committed, they are in fact dwelling on the past. So let’s not ever do that because its retaliatory? Nonsense. Perhaps we should just give blanket pardons for anyone that runs for the presidency? Ridiculous. Here’s a crazy notion, don’t commit criminal offenses, and then we won’t be compelled to “dwell” on your past?
To John or Andrew, since she did nothing illegal, a full investigation is in her interest. So let the investigation continue, perhaps under an independent prosecutor.
John, what a bunch of nonsense. Let’s think this through. If her staff was engaged in a cover-up, but were not 100% successful, there could be no cover-up? Actually, that is the problem with cover-ups, they usually do not survive close scrutiny and even lead to more illegal acts. And you trot out beside-the-point argument that there was no explicit law about servers. But there is a whole host of laws governing requirements to maintain the security of confidential information. Been that way for years. A home-grown server is not secure for a wide range of reasons, so right away having confidential information on it is a problem. And I really don’t want to hear that others were less than careful, that does not mean that Hillary was in fact careful. More apologist nonsense. As for the Clinton Foundation, well we have not fully investigated that yet, now have we? So since she is so lilly-white, taking payments from so many foreign officials she met with and all, she will come out looking just fine in the upcoming investigation.
The Marriott CEO is a bloated Elite, taking many,many millions in dollars in annual salary out of shareholder coffers< who should keep to the business of running his hotel empire.
He has no business preaching to Donald Trump who has, I am sure,not offered any advice on how to run Marriott International. Marriott International is becoming farther and farther at odds with its original "founding fathers" conservatism-both JW Marriott (who would be spinning in his grave if he knew of what the hot liberal mess his family run business has become) and Bill Marriott (JW Junior, who has been "put out to pasture" due to old age and frailty)
The candidate of Wall Street lost and one wonders if there would be an open letter to Hillary had she won.
As an aside, Best Western isn’t really a chain like Marriott. My company has a very good discount with Best Western. I find that in Europe, many small hotels participate, as Best Western is just their overseas booking service. Sometimes I just need 1 night in a city for some task, and rather than pay $300 US for that, I spend $100. I received Platinum thru the status match years ago. In Italy and France, every hotel upgraded us. Always to an Exec. type room or a suite. For this status, I paid nothing. What’s wrong with that?
I like the Best Western hotels in Paris. They are small and quaint, very well located. If they don’t fill, the price goes down every month until arrival. Then I call Best Western and have them rebook at the lower price, if I can’t do it on-line. When point collectors are paying $300-400 US, and I’m spending $100. Spending all that extra money seems….pointless.
I don’t like/follow politics. Instead of spending his precious time writing this bizarre “open letter” to Trump to pardon someone who could be guilty, I’d prefer to see an open letter to announce free breakfast to all guests (even just for the holiday season)… What say you Mr Marriott CEO?
Ignorance must truly be bliss @wowwee. Glad to see you are up-to-date on your conspiracy theories. Have you spotted any UFOs lately?
Very nice to forget that Bush/Cheney destroyed millions of e-mails and they started a war with Iraq, a country with no relation whatsoever to 9/11, that ended up destabilizing the middle east and resulted in the death of 100,000s of people and the displacement of millions. All based on complete lies. No outrage there?
As mentioned previously, there is no need for Marriott’s CEO to be spouting off about politics. He can start by making it possible to get through to somebody at their call center without going through 10 minutes of questions. Start with problems that can be easily fixed rather than venturing off on tangents.
@Andrew why not?