ChiGoose

Sweet Biden-Harris Administration Announces Final Rule Requiring Automatic Refunds of Airline Tickets and Ancillary Service Fees WASHINGTON – The Biden-Harris Administration today announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued a final rule that requires airlines to promptly provide passengers with automatic cash refunds when owed. The new rule makes it easy for passengers to obtain refunds when airlines cancel or significantly change their flights, significantly delay their checked bags, or fail to provide the extra services they purchased. “Passengers deserve to get their money back when an airline owes them - without headaches or haggling,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “Our new rule sets a new standard to require airlines to promptly provide cash refunds to their passengers.” **** Under the rule, passengers are entitled to a refund for: Canceled or significantly changed flights: Passengers will be entitled to a refund if their flight is canceled or significantly changed, and they do not accept alternative transportation or travel credits offered. For the first time, the rule defines “significant change.” Significant changes to a flight include departure or arrival times that are more than 3 hours domestically and 6 hours internationally; departures or arrivals from a different airport; increases in the number of connections; instances where passengers are downgraded to a lower class of service; or connections at different airports or flights on different planes that are less accessible or accommodating to a person with a disability. Significantly delayed baggage return: Passengers who file a mishandled baggage report will be entitled to a refund of their checked bag fee if it is not delivered within 12 hours of their domestic flight arriving at the gate, or 15-30 hours of their international flight arriving at the gate, depending on the length of the flight. Extra services not provided: Passengers will be entitled to a refund for the fee they paid for an extra service — such as Wi-Fi, seat selection, or inflight entertainment — if an airline fails to provide this service. **** The final rule improves the passenger experience by requiring refunds to be: Automatic: Airlines must automatically issue refunds without passengers having to explicitly request them or jump through hoops. Prompt: Airlines and ticket agents must issue refunds within seven business days of refunds becoming due for credit card purchases and 20 calendar days for other payment methods. Cash or original form of payment: Airlines and ticket agents must provide refunds in cash or whatever original payment method the individual used to make the purchase, such as credit card or airline miles. Airlines may not substitute vouchers, travel credits, or other forms of compensation unless the passenger affirmatively chooses to accept alternative compensation. Full amount: Airlines and ticket agents must provide full refunds of the ticket purchase price, minus the value of any portion of transportation already used. The refunds must include all government-imposed taxes and fees and airline-imposed fees, regardless of whether the taxes or fees are refundable to airlines.

Trump is a co-conspirator in Michigan's 2020 false electors plot, state investigator says "Michigan prosecutors consider former President Donald Trump and some of his top aides co-conspirators in the plot to submit a certificate falsely claiming he won Michigan's 2020 election, an investigator for Attorney General Dana Nessel's office testified Wednesday in court. Howard Shock, a special agent for Nessel, said Trump; Mark Meadows, who was Trump's chief of staff; and Rudy Giuliani, who was his personal lawyer, are "unindicted co-conspirators" in Michigan's false elector case. In total, over the last two days, Shock has identified 11 conspirators who haven't been charged. That means prosecutors believe they participated, to some extent, in an alleged scheme to commit forgery by creating a false document asserting Trump had won Michigan's 16 electoral votes when Democrat Joe Biden had won them. Shock's testimony came on the sixth day of preliminary examinations in Ingham County District Court as Nessel's office pursues felony charges against a group of Republican activists who signed the certificate of votes claiming Trump won." On a side note, was there some memo that went out on the right telling everyone to use the word "lawfare?" It's like the "collusion" BS all over again.

You still seem to be confusing what you think the law should be with what the law actually is. As I previously stated, all Trump needed to do was pay the money out of the Trump Campaign. If he did, he would be facing an FEC fine at worst, but most likely no penalty.

If that was true, he’d already be behind bars.

You seem to be conflating your view on the impacts of their actions with the actual violations of law. The Clinton Campaign violated federal election law and was fined for it by the FEC. Trump violated NY criminal law and was indicted for it. Ironically, his actions almost certainly also violated federal election law but for some reason, the FEC has done nothing about it. Also, on what grounds do you believe any conviction of Trump in the Manhattan case will be overturned on appeal?

Because Hillary paid it from the campaign, not through a NY business. Different laws, different jurisdictions. Had Trump done the same thing through the Trump campaign, he'd have been in the same boat as Hillary.

Each of those individuals was charged with falsification of records in connection to the election crimes. If Trump wanted to keep the stories out of the news, he could have just paid it out of the campaign fund. That would require disclosure to the FEC. He could have been honest about what the payments were for, but that information is available to the public so it could be discovered before the election, undermining the whole point of the payments. He could have paid out of the campaign and lied about what it was for. Think about the Clinton campaign and the Steele Dossier. They tried to cover it up by paying through an attorney. The FEC fined them for it, but that's just a slap on the wrist because the FEC is a toothless joke of an organization. Trump could have gone that route and probably gotten away with it the same way. But by having the funds come through a NY business, falsifying business records to keep it from going public as a way to benefit a political campaign, he opened himself up to criminal liability in NY.

Biden isn't going to pick off Florida. It is almost assuredly going to Trump. But Biden has about a 2:1 cash advantage and is outspending the Trump campaign 8:1. Florida is a very expensive media market, so my guess is that Biden is trying to put Trump in a position to spend some of his limited resources there, which will create bigger advantages for Biden in the actual swing states.

I don't think there's a single reason why firearm deaths are increasing. It's probably a confluence of multiple factors. However, we do know ways to reduce them: Child-access prevention laws reduce total firearm self-injuries (including suicides) among young people Child-access prevention laws reduce firearm homicides or firearm assault injuries among young people Child-access prevention laws reduce unintentional firearm injuries and deaths among children Stand Your Ground laws *increase* total homicide rates, including firearm homicide rates Shall-issue concealed carry laws increase firearm homicides Dealer background checks and universal background checks reduce homicides Minimum age of purchase laws reduce firearm suicides Waiting periods reduce rates of firearm suicide and total homicide Gun possession prohibitions associated with domestic violence may reduce intimate partner homicides If you want to go micro, you might learn that rural countries have a 37% higher rate of firearm deaths than most urban counties.

Keeping in mind that the reason the Australian stabbing made international news is because of how rare mass killings are there, here's just some examples of how it goes when someone tries a mass killing in Texas: 2017: 26 year old Air Force vet opened fire at a church, killing 26 people 2017: 32 year old man opens fire at a football watch party, killing 8 2018: 17 year old killed 10 people at a high school near Huston 2019: 36 year old started randomly shooting people between Midland and Odessa, killing 7 2019: 21 year old opened fire at a Walmart, killing 22 2022: 18 year old kills 21 at Uvalde Elementary School 2023: Gunman kills 8 in mall shooting Also, keep in mind that even in a country with so many guns: self-defense gun use occurs in only 1% of shootings. More guns equals more gun homicides: for every 1% increase in gun ownership, the firearm homicide rate increased by 0.9% States with higher rates of gun ownership have disproportionately large numbers of firearm related homicides So yeah, if someone wanted to kill a bunch of people in Texas, they'd just get a gun and mow people down.

Specific to the Manhattan case (the SOX issue is a different case) multiple people have been charged with felony falsification of business records in connection with an election campaign (what Trump is facing): Clarence Norman was convicted of felony falsification of business records in connection with campaign finance violations. Richard Brega was charged with, and plead guilty to, felony falsification of business records to conceal election law violations Richard Luthmann was charged with, and plead guilty to, felony falsification of business records in furtherance of election law violations. John Dote was charged with, and plead guilty to, felony falsification of business records in connection to election law violations.

This is just incorrect based on the law and previous cases. Multiple politicians have been found guilty for similar acts under this law. Those convictions were not overturned on appeal. Once again, if the goal was a grand conspiracy by everyone to stop Trump, he’d already be behind bars for violating terms of his bail.

Agreed. It’d be a hell of a lot more.

It’s almost as if Obama wasn’t a big LGBTQ ally at first. Ironically, Biden was the one who pushed him towards the right idea on this.

By breaking the law in an attempt to influence the outcome. He should have just paid out of the campaign fund and gotten a slap on the wrist by the FEC (if even that).

Trump violates his gag orders so frequently and routinely that if it were literally anyone else, they’d almost certainly have been locked up for contempt. If this really was some vast organized conspiracy to stop Trump, he’d already be behind bars.

You literally said I was trying to whip up war. You don’t believe that whipping up war is pro-war?

Russia invades Chechnya: surely they won’t do anything like this again Russia invades Chechnya again: surely they won’t do anything like this again Russia invades Georgia: surely they won’t do anything like this again Russia invades Ukraine: surely they won’t do anything like this again Russia invades Ukraine again: surely they won’t do anything like this again Russian leaders say that Latvia is like Ukraine because it doesn’t exist and that other former USSR countries in Europe were actually part of Russia while Russian separatists control land in Moldova: surely they don’t mean it

I guess not wanting broader war is being pro-war now. Advocating to allow a revanchist country to run roughshod over any country they want is anti-war now. Weird world you all live in.

How do you think this ends if we don’t aid Ukraine? What do you think happens if Russia takes over Ukraine?

Josh Allen will never win a Super Bowl. I know this because he hasn’t. Same logic.

That’s it? That’s all you’ve got? Putin wouldn’t have invaded because he didn’t invade before?

Why do you think Putin wouldn’t have invaded under Trump?

Majority of Americans support sending aid to Ukraine, poll says “A majority of Americans (53%) support sending weapons and military aid to Ukraine, according to a new CBS News poll conducted with the market research firm, YouGov.” More Americans Say U.S. Is Not Helping Ukraine Enough “This is the first time that less than 30% of Americans say the U.S. is doing the right amount to support Ukraine, which was the most common view as recently as June, when 43% held this opinion.”

What do you think happens when Russia takes over Ukraine? They just pack up their bags and head back to Moscow and we all live happily ever after? You think you’re making a point but you’re really not. I never supported or voted for Obama. His misplaying of Russia was probably his biggest failure as president.