The countdown is on

On one channel it's the Cartoon Network, and there's a countdown to the new gumball cartoon series. A couple of channels away, on msnbc, there's a countdown to the government shutdown.

So is it safe to assume that the government shutdown has become a cartoon? Certainly all the character involved are cartoonish, so there's that...

Sometimes ya just gotta wonder...

Are trump and his peeps ignorant? Or are they playing semantics games?

Years ago, I attended a hearing for professional engineer license infractions. There was an older gentleman who was accused of "rubber stamping" documents that a junior person had reviewed and sent to him.

A little context: engineers assume some liability when working for the public trust. They create plans and designs for things, and are legally and ethically bound to review them themselves before affixing their stamp to them.

It's okay to have someone help do prep work and create some of the documents, but it's incumbent on the person whose seal appears on those documents to review everything.

So the guy is accused of not reviewing the junior persons work, and simply affixing his seal on that work. As he is questioned, it becomes less clear whether he understands what he has done. And whether he is essentially incompetent, or whether he is playing a bit of a semantics game.

He trusts the younger guy to do the work, and only marginally reviews the documents. But he doesn't own a physical rubber stamp, so it's impossible for him to rubber stamp them. And so it goes for a while.

The infraction committee has several lawyers on it, and it's clear that no matter how it came to pass, they have him cornered. He is in violation of the rules and will surely face a suspension of his license - or perhaps worse.

At one point he stops and says "I think I will say no more until I consult with my attorney," to which the chair says to him "that's the first reasonable thing you've said, and we will accept that."

The proceeding stops, and they set a new date to continue.

I later heard that his license was revoked (I think it was voluntary meaning he agreed to give it up) due to his negligence.

It's a smaller scale lesson that ignorance to the law is no excuse; whether you play semantics or whether you don't understand, you're guilty just the same of the crime.

So we look at the jackass in the Oval Office. He tells us there was no collusion with Russia. Could be that he doesn't own a literal stamp - or it could be that he doesn't know what collusion means.

We'll see where this leads.

But there's also a piece about money laundering that's been largely overlooked for 18 months or so. Until now. Money, property, and services were exchanged in violation of the law. It's messy, and is still being untangled. There's always the chance that trump will pardon himself and those he's closest to, in order to avoid punishment....

...and enter the state of New York. Apparently, they are running a similar parallel investigation that's at least loosely coordinated with the federal investigation. Because trump was living and working in New York while committing these (alleged) crimes, they have jurisdiction. And he can not pardon himself or others for state crimes.

He (and his idiot cronies) haven't commented on the money laundering, probably because they are using the old magicians trick of showing you the collusion thing in one hand while scrambling like mad to hide the laundering in the other hand behind the back.

But at some point, they will surely tell us they don't own a rubber stamp here either.

Just a couple of zeros between a million and a billion

People really don't understand money. I mean really don't understand it. You've got these inane discussions where people try to talk about "millionaires vs billionaires" as though they are kind of the same thing.

They talk about athletes needing to make a living, and getting a "fair" or "reasonable" contract that is in the millions; of course at $50,000 it would take 20 years to make just one million....there is no understanding of the value.

People can't balance a checkbook, or understand interest (much less compound vs simple), or manage to actually save for retirement.

And yet, along the way, they accepted comments from the Donald about his being wealthy and using debt service to finance his business, and blah, blah, blah. As though they understood it.

It just irritates me when people just accept large numbers and oversimplified explanations for financials. Please, learn and understand such concepts before you speak...

That's my pet peeve for today.

That fusion gps testimony

There's some wisdom that suggests when you're on an airplane and you experience turbulence, look to the flight attendants. If they are still smiling and serving drinks, there's nothing to worry about. If they return to their seats and look worried, then you should too. 

And so it goes with our government. When things go awry, look to them for clam stewardship. We absolutely had interference in our election from a foreign power. And the petulant child took office. 

The gop didn't bat an eye and doesn't care. The resistance was formed by everyday individuals, who shout from rooftops. That is, mostly activists, and not necessarily government officials. 

And in the meantime most of the dems - the people you might look to for that smile and service of drinks - do sound the alarm; but with the caveat that they do so when asking for a donation. So it's hard to know if they are serious. 

So you look for Obama or Biden to say something...and they rarely do. Those are the two people who might know best, and they are silent. Still smiling to the seated passengers. 

So have to cut through the crap a bit. A lot of noise from both sides. But mostly bluster - and pleas for money. 

Sens Warren and Harris have been a little more vocal and they have put away the drink cart. But they haven't taken their seat yet. 

So we watch.

And then Sen Feinstein releases the transcript of the fusion gps testimony. It's page turning stuff, though it's long. 

A couple of my takeaways: it corroborates what we know about Russian influence. It undermines trumps authority and credibility. It shows how deceitful and perhaps treasonous he likely is. It underscores that he is factually incorrect on many topics, and has lied under oath at times. 

And larger than that, it suggests that many in the gop are complicit in all of this because they accepted money from

Foreign powers as well. 

It's is worth a read. And now that we see the proverbial warning shot, we need (all of us!) to stand up. 

The flight attendants have taken their seats, but for now don't look worried. But that will change once we hit turbulence. 

https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/3/9/3974a291-ddbe-4525-9ed1-22bab43c05ae/934A3562824CACA7BB4D915E97709D2F.simpson-transcript-redacted.pdf

That’s not a man, that’s a zombie

Why copywriters matter.

Adage in media feuds

I think this is highly amusing. What a dotard.

From the land of stupid is as stupid does #GOPTaxScam

So the gop managed to mash through their law and was trying to hold it off until next year so the more unpopular parts wouldn't go into effect until after mid-terms.

But the dotard signed it anyway.

I guess in the scheme of things this was amusing and shows a bit of hubris on their part.

Its not much, but seeing as how our congress will not listen to the constituents (by the people, for the people, and of the people indeed!), at least we can see them choking on their own shit. And laugh at their ineptitude.