Flip Key, Trip Adviser Slow Paying Clients

Horrible Customer Service, Slow Pay Of Rentals

Flip Key is an online property rental service for people who own vacation homes.  Owners can list their property through Flip Key.  People interested in leasing a resort property can then book.  What makes the entire process appealing is Flip Key's association with the large hotel booking company, Trip Adviser.

For some unknown reason, Flip Key is now slow paying homeowners even after taking full payment from the guest.  The homeowner is then left with a choice, evict the guest who has already paid, or sit tight and see if Flip Key will eventually remit the money.

Of course, you can't call Flip Key personally to bitch about their poor payment service.  Instead, users are forced to refer to a help page where the following question is posed by Flip Key, with the attached answer:

"I still haven't received my payment. When will I get paid?

Over the past month, FlipKey has been working on merging systems to take greater advantage of TripAdvisor's world-class vacation rental expertise. These changes have temporarily impacted the automatic disbursement of funds, and some payments are not arriving to you when you normally expect them. We are aware of this issue and are working to resolve it as quickly as possible.

In the meantime, in order to make sure that we are sending the correct amounts to the right people, we are taking some extra time to make sure that things go smoothly. We are working to get your money sent to you as close to its expected arrival date as possible. However, this short delay might continue for the next few weeks.

We appreciate your patience as we address the issue."



Really, it must be the owner's fault for choosing Flip Key in the first place.  If they had read everything there was to know about Flip Key, they would have found Flip Key's own notice about slow payment.

Usually. slow payment spells one thing: financial trouble.  We don't know if Flip Key and Trip Adviser are having financial rough times, but they sure act like it.

Use Flip Key at your own risk.

"The Interview" A Riot, But Was America Honeypotted?

Sony Pictures "The Interview" is an absolute, though perhaps, risque, riot.  The movie tells the story of a television talk show host who has an opportunity to boost his ratings by interviewing the reclusive leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un.

To every one's surprise, Kim Jon Un appears as an insecure but very personable human being unlike the god-like and unforgiving supreme being the talk show host and his producer have been led to believe they will meet.  Soon after arrival in North Korea, the audience is given the hope there might be a future left for humanity after all, if the two cultures could only understand one another.

The comedy team of Seth Rogen and James Franco pack in the laughs as they poke fun at more than just the "Supreme Leader" of an isolated nation with it's finger on the button which if pushed will result in mutual assured destruction through nuclear holocaust.  The comedy team takes square aim at gays, Jews, women, minorities, the CIA and human sexuality, all with equal abandon.

The film pens a term "honey potting" as a certain sucking up of the fairer sex to get what they want from an often naive male class.  The term is confused with "honey combing" and "honey dicking" for gay males who fall for the same basic tactic.

However, one must wonder, if perhaps it was the American public who got honey-potted.  The cyber attack against Sony Pictures brought defenders out of the woodwork including President Barack Obama and theater goers singing "God Bless America."  Even the F.B.I. got into the act, previewing the movie so they could learn how to manage cyber-criminals.  The movie has been a sellout everywhere it played and the home revenues are not yet tallied.  But no one has pinned the cyber attack which led Sony Pictures to initially cancel the airing of the film on North Korean hackers.  If it turns out the "cyber attack" on Sony Pictures was accomplished as an in-house event for publicity, it will go down as one of the most successful publicity stunts in the history of film.

</center>

The film opened on Christmas day in over 300 theaters, with an in-home release via Google Play, YouTube Movies, Microsoft Xbox Video, with a possible deal with Netflix in the works.

Just in case Kim Jon Un is as crazy as they say, this is a movie all patriotic Americans should see.  If North Korea retaliates against such a scandalous portrayal of their God-like leader, at least a lot of people will have had a laugh at a truly sad situation, a basic lack of understanding between people who poop and pee just like everyone everywhere.  Sometimes the best diplomacy is accomplished through laughter and seeing each other as stuck on one planet where no one is perfect.

Dick Cheney Does Not Care We Tortured Innocent People

Most people would have a problem the U.S. has been involved in torture.  Dick Cheney not only has no problem with torture, he is fine with torturing innocent people.

In Nazi Germany, they didn't care much about their methods because they were sure to win the war.  We know what happened at Nuremberg to many of those Nazi perpetrators after they lost the war.  They were hanged until dead.



Dick Cheney thinks Americans are safer by using tactics that violate human and civil rights.  War crimes are not war crimes when we have an undeclared war.  America is in the right to protect her "homeland", a name penned during the Bush administration which sounds a lot like the "fatherland" of dictatorial regimes of years gone by.

The people who committed the torture should be treated with impunity according to the pro-torture camp.  They don't see how the methods used outside of the country, and even within the country, considering a military base is considered "American territory" while it is under the control of the U.S. military, affect the way Americans will be treated when captured.  Cheney and his supporters have thrown the principles of the Geneva Convention out the window and placed our people at risk of retaliatory treatment.

The way we treat citizens of other nations affects the way America is viewed by other nations.  It is fine for the most powerful country in the world to violate notions of human decency and fair treatment, but countries of lesser power cannot do the same?  On what moral ground can we complain about torture perpetrated upon U.S. citizens when the most powerful people in America support torture?

We have been on a path in which America, as a world leader, sets the pace for how "detainees", prisoners of war, should be treated.  Our own soldiers will no doubt face similar abuses.  When they do, you can be sure Dick Cheney will be first in line to call foul.

Feliz Dia de Gracia

Border Communities Urge Obama Use Restraint With Border Patrol

From Resist the tyranny.com

In using the President's executive power to help immigrants, border communities ask the President to use restraint, in not linking immigrants with increased militarization of the border, says the Southern Border Communities Coalition, with member organizations in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

In a letter addressed to the President, the communities said, "CBP urgently needs a surge in accountability and oversight, not increased Border Patrol personnel or war equipment".

The border communities say it is unwise to add resources to the Border Patrol without adding accountability in the use of force.  The organization says the Border Patrol has experienced unprecedented growth, now being the largest law enforcement agency in America.  The growth was too fast, and some agents lack accountability and oversight.

"Irrational, unsupervised growth made CBP the nation’s largest police force without
building up its integrity and professionalism to match"

Sources say President will announce the administrative deferral of some immigrants who meet stringent conditions, including a minimum of 5 continuous years in the U.S., no criminal record and other high standards.  The process will come at a price, the money added to the U.S. treasury.

The President is also expected to announce tougher measures on the border.  It is this announcement, tied to the decision to grant administrative relief, that border communities object to.  

43 Students "Disappeared" In Mexico, How Can You Help?

VIGIL IN SOLIDARITY

Contact:

Homero Ocon 303-437-7805

Vigil in Solidarity with the 43 disappeared students in Ayotzinapa, Mexico

To Demand Consulate to take a position calling on the Mexican government find the students and investigate their disappearance.

November 14, 2014, Denver -- Citizens from diverse countries, including the US and Mexico, demand the Mexican consulate call for a full investigation into the students’ disappearance and the return of the students alive. Today marks eight weeks since 43 students from Ayotzinapa, Mexico went missing.

Homero Ocon explains “We act today to draw Colorado and the world’s attention to the human rights violations happening in Mexico and a burgeoning people’s movement that’s occurring in response. We invite the people of Colorado to join us in demanding the safe return of 43 students. 43 students whose families have no information, no news or communication from their own government about the whereabouts of their children. We need the international community to pressure the Mexican government to meet the demands of the families”.

The families of the students are demanding:

1. Justice for the students

2. A meeting with the President

3. Peace and justice in Mexico



WHAT: Signs, banners and candles in front of the Mexican Consulate

WHO: Community members and students from the Metro area

WHERE: Mexican Consulate, 5350 Leetsdale Dr, Denver, CO 80246

WHEN: Friday November 14 4:00pm-7:00pm

E-Verify Making Positive Gains, House Republicans Set Immigrants Back

Photo from fillyourplate.com

E-Verify, an electronic system to verify the legal status of an employee, is making positive gains with many employers, according to a survey.  E-Verify assists employers to determine the employee has legal status to work in the U.S.

The survey found:

E-Verify is easy to use and customers are overwhelmingly positive when describing their experience with the program. 

Almost all E-Verify employers believe that E-Verify is effective (92 percent) and perceive it to be highly accurate (89 percent).

Overall, 97 percent of E-Verify employers agree that the system is user friendly. 

Almost all E-Verify employers agree that the mandatory tutorial adequately prepared them to use E-Verify (93 percent). 

Almost all E-Verify employers (97 percent) reported using the program for all new hires.

E-Verify

E-Verify is not a program undocumented workers like much, because the program provides rapid verification of worker status.  Some employers also oppose the service because they want a source of cheap labor and they want to avoid federal employment taxes.  

Substantial work is done by undocumented people.  This includes on farms and ranches, in construction, landscaping and other low paying jobs.  Some work is done in the technical field to make computers and dot.com companies able to offer inexpensive Internet and technical services.  There is also a large demand for unskilled workers in the health care industry, which helps reduce the costs of citizen health care.

The United Farm Workers Union put out a national invitation on a national talk show in which undocumented immigrants offered to give up their jobs in the fields for any citizen who is willing to do the hard work.  Four people applied for the program, at least one being a celebrity trying to make hay out of the event.  The only serious candidate quit before the first day was over, because the working conditions were to harsh for him.

E-Verify is probably a good idea even for undocumented people.  With comprehensive immigration reform, undocumented workers could come onto the radar and employers would be forced to pay reasonable wages and collect and pay employment taxes.  Consumers benefit as well because some ranchers are unable to obtain necessary workers and their produce rots in the ground, driving up the costs of fruits and vegetables to the consumer.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform was passed in the United States Senate, thanks to effort on the part of Senator Bennet from Colorado.  Bennet forged a hard hitting immigration bill that would have helped roughly 60% of the immigrants in the country.  Bennet was able to enlist the cooperation of conservative Republicans and together they worked out a deal that secures the border and keeps families united.  The program left out people who need to be identified the most, people with criminal records.  

From both a liberal and conservative approach, giving immigrants with criminal records one last chance in exchange for registration protects the nation by registering all people within America's borders, and allows people who traditionally have limited access to legal protection one last chance to get it right.

However, in the U.S. House of Representatives, the House leadership, under John Boehnner, is saying no to all immigrants.  Republicans hope the lobby supporting immigration reform will rebel against Democratic leaders in the next election because reform has been stalled by Republicans in the House.  Republicans have not figured out that the primarily Latino voting base knows that Republicans are manipulating their family members for political gain.

The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, USCIS, is doing it's part to help secure the nation and to insure employers are treating workers fairly, and employers pay taxes through the E-Verify program.  The U.S. House of Representatives under conservative leadership has failed to do it's part and is playing politics with America's food and labor supply, with no regard for people who break their backs to insure produce arrives at the tables of citizens.