Category Archives: Commentary

Trump Is Unfit to Serve as President of the United States – It’s Time to Act

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It is not unreasonable, I suggest, to expect, indeed to demand, certain minimum norms of behavior from the political leader of the country. This is true even with respect to someone elected on a “drain the swamp” and “end political correctness” platform. The rhetoric of campaigns is often excessive and fierce but once campaigns end, politicians generally show remarkable, indeed Herculean, capacities to forgive and forget. Witness the parade of Trump’s defeated candidates at Trump Tower after the election to make peace, beg forgiveness and ask for a job in the new administration. Mere mortals can only guess what is said in those conversations but at the end everyone is all smiles as if the personal and professional vilification that characterized the campaigns had never occurred.

The general expectation has also been that the electorate will “get over” the electoral combat, accept the outcome with good grace and “move on.” The theme is that the president is now the president of all the people and of the whole country and so everyone should respect and accept that.

This time, however, these expectations have not been fulfilled. The elected president has generally behaved throughout the transition and since the inauguration as if he were still campaigning. Worse yet, he has continued to lie about matters of both minor and very major import, continued to lash out at every critic, attacked the independent press (“enemies of the people”), demeaned the judiciary (“the so-called judge”) and behaved like someone who has no understanding of the job of president. His single respectable performance, conceded by most critics, was his speech to Congress. The warm glow lasted a whole day.

Trump stunned the country, indeed the whole civilized world, when a few weeks ago, at 6:35 in the morning, he tweeted that he had “just found out” that former President Obama had “wire tapped” Trump Tower during the campaign. He produced no evidence of his claim that his predecessor had committed a serious felony, choosing instead to say that it was up to Congress to investigate the claim. The Republican Congress, to its everlasting shame, snapped to attention and, happily I suggest, diverted attention from the ongoing investigation of Trump’s connection to Russia to look into the allegations. Now the leading members of the relevant committees, Republican and Democrat alike, have stated that no evidence has turned up to support Trump’s claims.

Instead of admitting that the allegations were a sham to draw media and public attention away from the Russia investigation, Trump continued to insist that the allegations were true. His Press Secretary Sean “Whatever You Say, Sir” Spicer, took as his charge the all-out defense of his chief, asserting, first, that “wire tapping” didn’t mean “wire tapping” but referred to broader forms of surveillance and then, when that position was widely mocked because of the continuing lack of evidence, claiming there were reliable media reports that Obama used the British secret service to carry out his illegal clandestine operation at Trump Tower. The rightfully offended British government rejected that claim immediately and forcefully.

What then did the White House do? When asked about the incident specifically in a joint press conference with Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, Trump first suggested that Obama had spied on both Merkel and him and then said this:

“And just to finish your question, we said nothing. All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television. I didn’t make an opinion on it. That was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on Fox. And so you shouldn’t be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox.”

Listen to this for yourself at http://mm4a.org/2mEskIo.

That Trump statement is a bald-faced lie. Here are Trump’s tweets:

“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!

Is it legal for a sitting President to be “wire tapping” a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!

How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”

Once again the President of the United States has lied to the people about his conduct, trying to pass responsibility to someone else. His staff, apparently willing to go to any lengths to defend him (remind you of Nixon’s staff?), insulted a major ally, then “walked back” (translation: admitted the President lied) the allegation of British involvement in the non-existent wire tapping scheme.

Not only has this collection of lies, deflections and insults drawn the attention of the media like a piece of rotting meat attracts maggots, but it has wasted time of the congressional staff, congressional committee members the FBI and the Department of Justice, chasing after a ghost, a knowingly false invention by the President of the United States. You are likely aware that this is not the first time. We have lost count.

I say, enough is enough. Donald Trump is not competent to be President of the United States. He is detached from reality and believes that dishonesty is acceptable to get what he wants. His behavior is endangering the United States. Other world leaders are watching every move he makes. How will they ever trust anything he says or believe any promises he makes? The famous parable of the Boy Who Cried Wolf applies here. Trump has squandered whatever small reserve of respectability and trustworthiness he had and should be made to face the consequences before the country faces them in a dangerous situation.

This is not about policy differences. All politicians will exaggerate and sometimes misstate facts and outright lie to escape responsibility for things they have said or done. It usually doesn’t work, at least not indefinitely.­­­­­ ­­­This is about competency to carry out the responsibilities of the office of President. Trump is a man of no integrity who cannot be trusted. The evidence of this is overwhelming. He has jeopardized the United States and undermined the office of the presidency.

The Vice President and the Cabinet should therefore exercise their responsibility under section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the founding document that the Republican Party is so fond of citing in support of its agenda, by initiating removal proceedings against Trump on grounds that he is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” It is past time.

Update: Speaker Ryan Doesn’t Know, Doesn’t Care

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Last night I posted a piece that argued the Republicans were blindly adhering to a political philosophy at the expense of depriving some of America’s most vulnerable people of their health insurance now provided through the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). I woke today to learn that the Republican Speaker of the House, when asked yesterday how many people may lose coverage under the Republican plan, responded with “I can’t answer that question. It’s up to people…. People are going to do what they want to do with their lives because we believe in individual freedom in this country.” http://wapo.st/2nwDKOA See that and other similar quotes from key Republicans, some of whom apparently believe in magic and argue that the Republican replacement legislation, ridiculously call the American Health Care Act, will result in more people being covered than under Obamacare and for lower costs, just like Trump promised during the campaign and subsequently.

Ryan’s “I don’t know and it doesn’t matter as long as people have freedom to choose” comment confirms my earlier point that the replacement legislation is about a point of political philosophy and its proponents could care less who is hurt.

We will know shortly, as the Congressional Budget Office is due to release its analysis of the Republican bill today or tomorrow. Of course, anticipating the worst, the Republicans are ready. They say “you can’t believe what those people say; they’re wrong all the time; health care is very complicated.” No doubt Trump would agree, having already intoned that “nobody knew” how complicated it was. Ryan is saying, in effect, “take some medicine; it’s good for you because you get to choose it and, trust us, it will cost less, though we can’t say what it will actually do for you. But at least you were free; no one forced you to take it and that’s what’s most important.”

We are in a scenario now where sitting on the sidelines will result in fundamental changes in the American way of life. It is very hard to see who will benefit. Trump promised to help coal miners, steelworkers and automobile workers but there is no evidence so far that he has any concept of how to deliver on those promises. I urge all who believe what I am saying to look closely at the websites for PeoplePower.org, MoveOn.org and ACLU.org to see ways you can take action, lawfully and peacefully, to resist the Republican plan to move America backward.

Speed Kills – The Republican Rush to Eviscerate the Affordable Care Act

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Republicans in Congress are rushing to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. No hearings have been held to receive public inputs. Why not? The Republican managers have now declared that the Congressional Budget Office “scoring” of the replacement bill is unnecessary because the CBO always “gets it wrong so who cares what it says?” That is a total reversal of previous positions taken by Republicans when objecting to federal spending under Democratic administrations. Why?

Republicans claim to care about the welfare of the people and of the country as a whole but after seven years of complaining about the ACA, they now are desperate to prevent public input into the legislation they cobbled together. Why is it always party before country with these people? Why the secrecy and the resistance to thorough and thoughtful analysis and examination of the elements of their alternative? What are they afraid of? Do they not hear the cries across the country from even their political base that =the replacement for the ACA is going to deprive millions of people of their health insurance in exchange for what …  a tax credit? If the replacement bill is so good for everyone and consistent with Trump’s campaign promises, as he routinely claims, why are Republicans afraid to give the legislation full exposure to expert analysis?

It’s not that the Republican bill is completely without redeeming elements. Trump’s desire to allow create a single national marketplace for competition among insurance companies may be sound or at least worth an in-depth examination. If so, why not let that and other elements of the legislation be fully examined on the public record? Is there a gift to the insurance companies hiding in the complex economics of this legislation?

The almost certain answer to all these questions is that the Republicans want this legislation at all costs, regardless of the very high probability, if not certainty, that it will destroy so much of the health care on which many millions rely. Taken as a whole, which is what the Republicans are insisting on, the “replace” legislation is an outrageous attack against many of our most vulnerable citizens while conferring a huge tax break for the very well off. The Republicans claim it’s all about giving people more choice and avoiding government mandates. In other words, the real-world impacts don’t matter as long as the Republican philosophy of “individual choice” is the centerpiece of the new system.

Trump promised his supporters a cheaper health insurance system that would cover all the same people as the ACA, with more choices and at lower costs. This turns out to be just another lie. In fact, the Republican alternative will not cover millions who were covered under the ACA, it will not provide meaningful choices for millions whose new Republican-approved choice will only be “no insurance” and the costs will ultimately be infinite for those with no insurance and thus no access to essential health care services.

Along the way, the Republican alternative will defund Planned Parenthood. Republicans hate PP primarily because they believe it pays for abortions. So they want to take a financial meat ax to it … again in the name of Republican philosophy. Curiously, to put it mildly, it seems not to have occurred to the congressional Republicans that their core philosophy of avoiding government intervention in the lives of Americans is being used to justify telling women what they can and can’t do with their bodies, while Republican-dominated science-denying legislatures around the country obsess over which bathrooms transgender individuals use.

It is a fair conclusion that the Republican approach to health insurance is going to result in denial of critical health care to large numbers of Americans and deaths will result … deaths that could have been avoided. Yes, the Republicans are moving very fast to get rid of Obamacare and in the process are signing death warrants for many vulnerable Americans.

Trump Administration Climate Science Deniers Are Risking Crimes Against Humanity

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As the affronts to science, human dignity, and the very viability of the planet continue to multiply, through climate change denial and evisceration of the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget, the question naturally arises: when and how will those responsible be held accountable for the damage they are doing, or facilitating, to the Earth? For surely the day of reckoning is coming and possibly sooner than many people think. When rising sea levels, crop failures, unprecedentedly destructive storms and other natural disasters begin to impair the water supply and food supply of the “comfortable countries,” like the United States and much of Western Europe, against whom will the public turn? And what punishment will they demand as they face the realization that the science deniers have fooled them into believing a false idea that has led to the destruction of their world? Will it even matter at that point?

A few things seem somewhat clear. While it is within reason to interpret “climate change denial” policy actions as a “crime against humanity” under existing usages of that term (specifically, the “extermination” of an entire population), the United States has never ratified the Rome Statute of The International Criminal Court and thus there is no international body with plausible jurisdiction to punish the leaders of the United States for what they are inflicting on the rest of the world by, for example, denying that carbon dioxide is a meaningful contributor to global warming. http://wapo.st/2mRiia3.

Given the Trump administration’s determined effort to gut the EPA, it will remain to the American people to punish those who, by willful ignorance or worse, have traded away the health and well-being of future generations for a few pieces of silver. Of all the crimes likely being committed by the Trump administration, including blatant conflicts of interest to interfering with the reasoned development of regulations that, properly understood, are “protections” for the people, the undermining of work to manage climate change is the most serious. The consequences of unchecked climate change will at some point become irreversible. That outcome will be directly traceable to the decisions of this administration to unleash the forces of pollution and environmental degradation without meaningful restraint or even requirements to report on what the industries are doing that negatively affects the environment.

If any of my readers doubt the certainty of what I am saying, I can only urge you to read some of the respected works on the subject that are readily available. The Sixth Extinction is a good example. There is no more important issue because the very existence of life on the planet depends on it. The actions being taken by the Trump administration are occurring without the benefit of public hearings or other meaningful input. Trump and his ideologues already know everything they want to know, no matter how inadequate.

The March for Science is on Earth Day, April 22. The Peoples’ Climate Movement March is April 29. If you care about this issue, you should add your body and those of your family to this mass demonstration in support of science and in support of the air you breath and the water you drink. Take to the streets with the masses of others who will be there to protest, peacefully but loudly, against the Trump administration’s crimes against humanity.

I Am an Immigrant – And So Are You

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I attended a rally a few days ago at the White House in response to Not-My-President Trump’s Travel/Muslim Ban 2.0. There were a few hundred people there; not bad considering the last-minute callout from MoveOn.org. I have a few observations about this experience.

The rally group was forced by uniformed officers to move from the side of Lafayette Park closest to the White House to a spot furthest removed from the White House even though we were separated from the WH fence by two sidewalks and the wide pedestrian-only stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue between them. I say “forced” because the threat was “move away or be arrested.” The organizers asked the crowd to comply and it did.

I later asked a DC police officer who was “guarding” us on the opposite side of the Park about the reason for the forced move. He politely explained that he didn’t know the answer because the order came from the Secret Service and Park Police citing “unspecified security issues.” No one apparently had explained the “security issues” to the DC Police who were also on the scene. I believe this was the work of the Trump White House. Congress should investigate.

The impetus for the rally was the signing of Travel/Muslim Ban 2.0. The language of the Executive Order comprising 2.0 reflects the same hateful and unfounded animus against immigrants that was the essence of Travel Ban 1.0 found constitutionally and otherwise deficient by, among others, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Each EO manifests a desire to keep Muslims out of the United States, as Trump repeatedly promised during his campaign. There is no reason to doubt now that these Executive Orders are the direct implementation of those promises, no matter how dressed up the language in 2.0.

I am an immigrant in every relevant sense. My maternal grandparents came to the United States from Russia in 1906. My father’s parents, it is believed, hailed from the Netherlands. I am therefore only a second generation American. In point of fact, almost everyone in the United States is a descendant of immigrants. According to Quora.com, “The White American average genetic makeup is 98.6% European, 0.19% African, and 0.18% Native American.” http://bit.ly/2mpHEvh. According to the U.S. Census, American Indians and Alaska Natives comprised about 2 percent of the total population in 2014. http://bit.ly/2mjNoEy.

Thus, every anti-immigrant action taken by the xenophobic Trump administration is, at least indirectly, an attack on virtually everyone. It is but a short step from where Trump is now to “show me your bloodlines.” This is truly a situation where if anyone is unsafe, all are unsafe.

One feature of Travel Ban 2.0 not focused on elsewhere to my knowledge is that the time periods for suspension of entry under the two EOs are the same, even though 2.0 was announced more than a month after 1.0 and will not be effective until March 16. The changes made in 2.0 could, it would seem, have been made by one or two competent attorneys in a week’s time or less, even allowing for inter-agency consultation and coordination. That they were not must reflect that 2.0 is a political timing event and that the Trump administration has been sitting on its hands about the “emergency” of “uncontrolled entry” and “unvetted immigrants” while it dawdled with the language and Trump gave his speech to Congress. Thus, 2.0 reflects that no significant progress appears to have been made in the actual review of immigration procedures that are the centerpiece of the supposed rationale for the emergency “temporary” entry restrictions. The administration has certainly not announced any such progress. The procedures and the results of them are surely well known within the government. How can periods of 90 and 120 days be justified for “reviewing procedures?”

Consider also that in the interim between 1.0 and 2.0, Trump proposed to Congress the creation of a new government body inside Homeland Security: Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement, or VOICE. It is, as usual, unclear what this entity will do, or how much it will cost taxpayers, but the President has shown no similar solicitude for the victims of “non-immigrant crime” who vastly outnumber those affected by criminal behavior of immigrants. Perhaps Trump will eventually demand that immigrants mark themselves with an “I” so everyone can identify them on sight. Sound familiar? Right out of the Nazi playbook.

The President of the United States Lied … Again

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President Donald J. Trump has distinguished himself in the pantheon of American presidents by his remorseless lying about dozens of important issues. His White House support team has become famous by asserting “alternative facts” and arguing that actual facts are irrelevant now – the only thing that matters is what you choose to believe. (The lies have been listed in a multitude of places so I won’t repeat all of them here.)

Thus, it comes as no particular surprise that a few days ago, Trump awoke early, thought about the fact, yes, the fact, that his administration is embroiled in a serious crisis related to lying and/or dissembling about the relationship between his election campaign and the Russian government. This is an existential crisis for the President because if the truth emerges that his campaign people, with his knowledge, worked with the Russian government to tilt the 2016 election his way, his status as President will be in the gravest jeopardy.

So, at 6:35 am on March 4, 2017, Trump tweeted that he “just found out” that “Obama had my “wires tapped” [Trump’s quotes], citing no evidence because, of course, there is none. If there were, Trump would have published it. Instead, he has demanded that Congress investigate what he already “found out.” Press Secretary Sean Spicer responded to media calls for release of confirming evidence by saying the administration will have nothing further to say until Congress ferrets out the truth about the President’s allegations. It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for him, but he has chosen the bed he lies in so, no, no sympathy. And the Republican-dominated committees with jurisdiction appear to be complying by adding this issue to the Trump-Russia connection that they are, with extreme reluctance already allegedly “investigating.” They resist calls for an independent counsel to conduct the investigation because, of course, they want to investigate themselves and, surprise, “we found no evidence….”

It is tempting to say, as I and many others have said before, that Trump’s claim is another unhinged example of his erratic behavior that makes him unfit to hold office. It is that certainly, but it is also the latest example of Trump’s deflection skills. He is treating the country like a school yard where he the biggest bully. Then, just as someone is about to stand up to him, he yells “look, there’s XX, he stole the money, get him!” And the kids all chase after XX. The bully laughs and counts out the money.

Consider this. Suppose Trump had not “found out” about the wiretap but instead “found out” once again that President Obama was born in Kenya to non-U.S. parents and thus arguably all his actions as President would be null and void. Would the Congress then add that issue to the Russia-Trump investigation? Maybe they would. They likely appreciate that their “hold” on the government turns on Trump not being held accountable for lying to the American people. So they continue to do his bidding.

But that doesn’t make the lies anything but lies. Trump’s strategy earned him the presidency so he likely will continue to play the lying hand until it fails to work. If you read his infatuants’ tweets (I beg you to not expose your mind to them), you can understand how difficult it will be to deal with a president for whom the truth is simply whatever he chooses to make up.

The question for the majority of Americans is: how long will this continue before they rise up against Trump’s official supporters in Congress? Continuous, unrelenting pressure through calls, letters, postcards, demands for answers at town halls for those legislators with the courage to face their constituents, marches, demonstrations, public humiliations are essential elements of the process of making these people uncomfortable with what the President, and they, are doing. Give money to ACLU, Planned Parenthood and every other organization that has shown it will stand up against the tyranny of the Trump administration. Attend the rallies and demonstrations whose numbers are increasing almost daily.

This national disgrace and nightmare will not end until the people make it end. Go to https://www.resistancecalendar.org/ where you will find the amazing array of actions being planned. Take action.

 

Trump Completes New Secret Wall: the Great Stonewall

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The news has leaked out that President Trump has secretly built a new, not previously announced, wall that was finished in the dark of night while the nation slept. It stretches from coast to coast and from Canada to Mexico.

It’s called the Great Stonewall. It’s a replica of a stonewall we’ve seen before:  Watergate. It comes with the bilious stench of “cover-up” that just won’t go away.

The Great Stonewall was built by a select team of Trump insiders and Republican supplicants on Capitol Hill: Trump himself, Bannon, Conway, Spicer, Miller, the Republican majority on the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and others. The Great Stonewall has the same characteristics as all of its predecessors: dissembling (well, that meeting was in my “other capacity” so the fact that I didn’t mention it when asked under oath is of no consequence), misdirection and just plain lies.

The cost of the Great Stonewall is considerable: among them, the further loss of credibility of many leading players in the Trump ensemble, including the President himself, untold damage to the democratic process and, if the worst fears are true, serious potential harm to the security of the country. The problem is made worse, of course, by the fact that the President and members of his entourage have lied about so many things, so consistently, throughout the campaign and since the election, that it is difficult to credit anything they say when the truth could be so damaging to their situation.

The solution seems obvious: If there is nothing to hide, appoint an independent “prosecutor” (call him/her what you like: “investigator” would be fine) to dig out the documents, transcripts and other relevant material, take testimony under oath and eventually to get to the bottom of the “Russia Connection” and make a full public report of findings. If there is nothing to hide, Trump and his gang will come out way ahead … if there is nothing to hide. If there is something to hide, then heads, perhaps many of them, will roll, as well they should.

I, of course, don’t know whether there is anything to hide; no one does. But I do know one thing that I believe is irrefutable: it is not acceptable to expect the American people to believe in an investigation of the potentially guilty parties conducted by of themselves or by their political allies in Congress.  There must be an independent investigation. If not, this issue will haunt this administration for the rest of its days. The Great Stonewall must come down.

 

 

 

 

“Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.”

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Statement by the President of the United States, February 27, 2017. http://nyti.ms/2ltf0pN.

Nobody?

We knew.

The law known as the Affordable Care Act was signed in March, 2010. The Republican Party hated it. Still does. The RP has had seven years to comprehend how “complicated” health care is. Now the President is shocked to learn that it is complicated. What more is there to say?

Perhaps someone – Kellyanne Conway? – will now explain that “nobody” doesn’t really mean nobody, at least when Trump uses the term. It’s just an adjective, like “military” in relation to deportation activities. That must be it: the “alternative fact” is that “nobody” doesn’t mean “no” body; it means, as Humpty Dumpty famously said, “”just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”

It’s all so … complicated.

Compromise on Trump’s Tax Returns? — No!

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A thoughtful article appeared in the Washington Post yesterday (http://wapo.st/2kV9os6), penned by two law professors proposing a plan to “compromise” with President Trump to secure at least a quasi-public view of his tax returns. I would normally defer to this type of approach to solving a high-conflict problem, but in this case, I must, with respect to the authors, reject the idea for multiple reasons.

The concept involves engaging the staff of the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, now dominated by Republicans, to privately review Trump’s returns and prepare a “public summary report redacted of any proprietary business information.” The result would be two reports, one “large confidential” and one “redacted public,” based on some “bipartisan process” negotiated in advance with a “summary explanation of any compliance issues raised by the review.”

The problems with this well-intentioned proposal are many and, in my judgment, insuperable. First is the fact that Trump lied repeatedly about his intention to release his tax returns. This proposal gives him the benefit of those lies and that seems fundamentally wrong on multiple levels. Second, the complicated process does not result in full transparency and will almost certainly lead to continued complaints that critical details have been sanitized, whether intentionally or not. Third, there is no reason to trust the Republican majority to play this straight, as they have shown time and again an unwillingness to challenge the President’s remorseless lying, attacks on the independence of the press and many other examples too numerous to detail here but well-known to everyone paying attention. Finally, Trump’s dishonesty suggests he cannot be depended upon to live up to any arrangement if he suddenly decides he doesn’t like it. The latest reported efforts of the White House to suborn the FBI regarding the “Russia connection” are only one of many examples of the lengths Trump will go to delegitimize criticism.

It is true, of course, that full disclosure of Trump’s returns might reveal some confidential business information. That is a problem of his own making. If he had properly divested himself of his business interests, rather than the charade he perpetrated with the infamous stacks of legal documents display, these concerns would perhaps carry some weight. As it is, there is no reason to let Trump off the petard on which he has hoisted himself. If he persists with the fantasy, often repeated by his chief counselor, Kellyanne Conway, that since he won the election, no one cares about his tax returns, he and those who support him will suffer the political consequences. As Abraham Lincoln allegedly said: “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Time will tell. Let’s not make it easy for the foolers.

American Airlines Customer Service – Updated, Over & Out

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To bring closure to this sordid episode in airline hubris, we tried multiple times at Washington National and again at Tampa to get someone from American to address the problem it had created. The responses were to keep pushing us off to a later step in the process where, we were told, the now empty Row 13 would be available for assignment to us at the airport. Needless to say, that did not happen. The last person I spoke with in Tampa did not even bother to read the boarding passes and kept insisting that I was someone named Hammond, then said she was only working the Dallas flight and we should await the arrival of another gate agent. That’s when we gave up.

We traveled in separate rows, not the end of the world, being adults and all. But as a matter of principle, this is a classic case of corporate irresponsibility toward customers. At no time was a notation made in the record to do anything to resolve the problem American unilaterally created by breaching our seat purchase contract.

The last message from American to my wife, who made the initial seat arrangements, reads in relevant part:

“A systemwide reservations system migration which went into effect after you made your seat reservation but before your departure date created a problem with your reserved seats. While it may seem like a small matter, changes can play havoc with seat assignments. In such cases several passengers may have to be reaccommodated in a limited amount of space, reducing our ability to satisfy everyone’s first choice of seat location. Moreover, during the small window of time in between the modification to our schedule and the reassignment of reserved seats, it is possible for another customer to request and receive a seat previously held by someone else.” [Emphasis added]

Reading that, you would think some independent force brought all this about without American being aware it was coming and helpless to do anything to mitigate its effects. At no point is there an explanation of why our seats had to be reassigned. There was no evidence of an aircraft change or seating configuration change on the plane. This seems like just so much corporate double-speak, the sound of “you’re dismissed.”

And the final kicker: “while reserved seats aren’t guaranteed, the next time you fly with us and settle into your seat, we’ll do our best to provide you with the one you reserved.”  We understood that seat assignments aren’t guaranteed when they are made without charge, but foolish me, after so many years in the industry, I actually thought there was still some semblance of bilateral contractual responsibility involved when I paid for something and the other side signified acceptance. Be aware.

Time to move on to something more important.