Monday Mood [DOT 4/12/23]

So the last three whole weeks I was up in Cleveland, Ohio spending some time with family and friends.
The Airbnb I stayed in was OK. I hadn’t stayed in one in a while and they mostly seem corporate owned nowadays. There were like 4 “owners” on mine, but I’m convinced they were just AI pics and fake names. I had an issue the first night and both the hosts and Airbnb were basically useless. It got resolved the next day, but in the moment they were less than helpful. I was leaning that way, but now I’m joining the firmly anti-Airbnb camp. And they keep sending me notes to write a review. Good luck with that!
Regardless, I’m happy to be home in my own bed!


Updates here:

New strikes hit Gaza as Israel-Hamas fighting resumes
https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-12-3-23


Gift article!

What to know about Donald Trump’s gag orders in D.C. and New York
https://wapo.st/3RoHbHQ


Stonks!

Alaska Airlines to buy Hawaiian Airlines in deal that may attract regulator scrutiny
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/03/1216870386/alaska-airlines-to-buy-hawaiian-airlines


Sprots!

Undefeated Florida State is left out of 4-team College Football Playoff
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/03/1216866882/florida-state-cfp-ncaa-playoff-alabama-seminoles

Commanders’ blowout loss to Dolphins shows it’s ‘too late for growth’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/12/03/commanders-dolphins-loss/


Today in cute (?)


Have a super day!

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13 Comments

  1. I’ve been seeing astonishing numbers of Airbnb horror stories, where people show up to places that are filthy hovels. We’ve used Vrbo with some success in the past, but even then we had a couple of misfires — nothing that rose to the level of trying to have something fixed.

    I feel like the genuine operators who want to deliver a decent product are dropping out and there are more and more scammers listing substandard housing to make a quick buck. I suspect Airbnb is going to need a major reset in their operating model, because consumer confidence is dropping fast.

  2. We’ve had good luck out here with short-term rentals, but we keep hearing or reading about the horror stories. So we go out of our way to establish contact with the owners throughout the process. That seems to have kept us in good shape thus far, but I know it takes only 1 idiot or set of idiots to mess that up.

  3. Dems in Disaray!

    In a move that will no doubt make the faint hopes of Democrats for gains in Florida even fainter, the Chair of Florida’s GOP is openly defying Governor Ron DeSantis’s calls for him to step aside following rape allegations.

    https://apnews.com/article/ron-desantis-florida-2024-election-christian-ziegler-69f481de5230a5d9cd45b8da9503672f

    President Biden apears helpless to mediate the fight between the powerful governor and Christian Ziegler, the GOP chair. Ziegler’s wife, Bridget Ziegler, is a cofounder of Moms For Liberty and “told detectives that the three had engaged in sex once more than a year ago” — a savvy move that no doubt will unify the GOP in the face of demands from government officials.

    Showing the kind of tech savvy that may well strike a chord with younger voters, “Ziegler said the sex was consensual and that he had recorded it. He said he then deleted the video, but after the accusation he recovered it and uploaded it to Google.”

  4. I’m not really happy about the HA/AS merger.  They will now have a monopoly on flights to Hawaii from Seattle & prices are sure to go up.  When I worked at HA it was not run very well but now they are one of the last good airlines that serves food, gives you a free drink before you land & doesn’t usually have over scheduling delays.

    This & their corporate overlords would love to see those tax breaks and chaos…

    https://www.rawstory.com/media-fears-trump-democracy-threats/

    Off to a great start…

    https://www.commondreams.org/news/cop-28-al-jaber-no-science

     

    • The Alaska Airlines/Hawaiian Airlines merger will occasion a new name. “Last Two States to Join the Union Airlines.” “You Cannot Easily Drive to Our Destinations Unless You Have An Amphibious Vehicle That Can Survive a Voyage Across the Pacific or, Alternately, Have a 4X4 and a Valid Passport So You Can Traverse Canada on Your Way to Juneau Airlines.”

      Marketing genius Don Draper I’m not. I would not have come up with the Carousel of Memories like he did for Kodak.

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