Wondering on Wednesday 3/20/24

Ready... Set... Wonder!

Huh... A billionaire can't pay his bond, and can't find people to help him; I wonder how that happens? And I wonder whether at least some of the companies that won't help aren't helping because they simply don't want to be involved with him, rather than because they really can't help him? I'm also wondering, a bit, why the family doesn't tap their Russian connections, where they used to get 'all the money they need' for the business, or why Jared doesn't message his BFF, the Saudi Crown Prince, for help?

Speaking of help, the GoFundMe to raise money towards the penalty has crossed the $1.5M threshold, with over 26,000 donors contributing to the cause. I really wonder who contributes to something like this - it takes a special kind of person to want to donate money to help a billionaire meet his legal responsibilities, I think.

Dartmouth men's basketball players voted to unionize earlier this month after they were deemed to be employees of the school by a regional National Labor Relations Board office. Needless to say, that prompted a whole lot of discussion on what this means more broadly for the NCAA: how will athletes be paid, how much, and would it be only for their season, or for the entire year, what about NIL, and so on. 

Me? I can't help wondering what the $3.6B in scholarships given to 180,000 DI and DII student-athletes is for, if it's not payment for their services?  

And since we're talking about the NCAA, I also wonder why it insists on opening Pandora's Portal of Program Doom before the seasons are officially over? It happens with football, and now basketball. What on earth is the point of encouraging players to end their season before their season ends?  

Finally, I wonder whether NCAA executives have considered changing careers?  They would make, um, "perfect" additions to pretty much any political office, right? They have all the critical experience: they know how to grab as much money as possible from sponsors and donors, make ridiculous rules that even they don't understand, ignore how those rules impact their constituents, and wait for someone else to fix the mess for them, like they're doing with NIL. If that's not a perfect fit, I don't know what is. 

Back to the billionaire. Donald 'Orange Jesus' Trump, a man alleged to have shared our national secrets with members of his residence/private club, is now eligible to receive national security updates as the presumptive Republican nominee. Given his propensity for blurting out whatever the hell crosses his mind, creating alternative facts at the drop of a hat, and his um, alleged inability to differentiate what's his and what's government property, I'm wondering if we should limit what's shared to only weather forecasts with national implications.

Think about it: the forecasts are specific as to locations, risks, potential damage, and populations impacted. Depending on the situation, forecasts even include global modeling. Surely, they should count as 'national security,' right? I wonder - only a little bit, though - what else a narcissist like the OJ would need. Shouldn't knowing how many of his followers, how many "real Americans," are in the path of a storm, or at least within the Cone of Uncertainty sponsored by Sharpie, be enough? 

Trump is suing George Stephanopoulos (and ABC News) for defamation because Stephanopoulos called him a rapist during his incredibly embarrassing interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC). In the interview, Stephanopoulos repeatedly said that Trump was "found liable for rape" by a jury, which is untrue; the jury in the first E. Jean Carroll case found that he did not commit rape under the definition in NYS law at that time. It was Judge Lewis Kaplan who determined that Trump committed rape 'as commonly understood.' 

I wonder if George has considered that he could lose this case? After all, his interview was dripping with malice, towards Trump and Mace. I also wonder if he has second thoughts about inviting a Congresswoman on his show, specifically because she publicly talked about her own rape, specifically to shame her about her political decisions? And the one I wonder the most about: did his wife welcome him home with open arms after that grotesque interview?  I sure as hell hope not.

One last little bit of wondering on this one, now that NY has changed the definition of rape to match what Judge Kaplan said people understand 'rape' to mean, is someone responsible for updating the myriad references to sexual assault in the NYS criminal code before this change goes into effect in September? Are sentencing guidelines being updated? Are DAs receiving training on how to present cases to grand juries? 

What's on your wondering mind tonight?

Wondering on Wednesday 3/17/21

Today, we're playing a fill-in-the-blank version of our wondering game. You're free to complete the answers any way you want. 

1. Someone suggested Meghan Markle might run for president in 2024. I wonder, will this really make Former Guy more likely to _______?
2. I wonder how many people have learned a new skill, such as _________ ,since the pandemic was declared a year ago this week?
3. A crossword puzzle clue asked 'where politicians like to play.' The answer was Peoria;  I wonder, wouldn't they rather play in ________?
4. Just days after the American Rescue Plan passed, stimulus checks are arriving. I wonder if people will ______ the money, or will they _____?
5. The Washington Post issued a lengthy correction for an article about _______between a politician and a woman. Was the politician ______? And was the woman ________, I wonder?
6. There are all kinds of weather warnings - historic warnings, I've heard - for parts of  Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee beginning today. If a Sharpie was needed to update the weather maps, I wonder if ______ would be best suited to handle the task.
7. At a COVID briefing today, I had to wonder when I heard my Sonofa Gov Andrew Cuomo say  _______.
8. The NY Assembly and Senate are working on the budget, and might make mobile sports betting, legal pot, and more casinos a reality. I wonder, will they legalize ______ next?
9. Every now and then, I wonder how much longer we'll __________.
10. _______ and ______ are worth a wonder or two - do you agree? 

I'd love to see your answers - chime in! And I'd love to know what you're wondering about.

Wondering on Wednesday (v162)

I'm wondering, here in our winter wonderland, whether weather forecasters have more fun during times like this, when the polar vortex is bearing down on tens of millions of us, the windchill is literally leaving them breathless, their green screens are lit up like the sky over Sydney on New Year's Eve, than they do in the summer when the skies are blue and everything's just ducky?

And I'm also wondering how it must feel if you get this one wrong. For example, a friend lives up in NY's Tug Hill Plateau area, home to monumental amounts of lake effect snow thanks to wind blowing across Lake Ontario. She posted a screenshot yesterday of a local TV station's weather map showing her area of the Tug should be getting maybe 4 inches of snow before midnight -- and yet, she said they had gotten 18" in four hours before her post.

What else is going on?

Well, the president is sticking our nose into the mess in Venezuela, declaring opposition leader Juan Guaido the real president and election winner Nicolas Maduro basically persona non grata. Maduro responded by kicking all US diplomats out, and SecState Mike Pompeo responded by saying, basically, hell no we won't go. And now we're fighting back against Russia and anyone else that supports Maduro...

And that brings me to wonder two things: first, Trump has long maintained that America doesn't need to be sticking her nose in everyone else's business and it's always America First and everyone else somewhere on down the line. So, I wonder, why this, why now? Isn't this sort of the opposite of his mantra?

And, (knowing that this is not the same situation), I can't help wondering what would have happened if another country decided that Trump, having lost the popular vote by roughly the population of Jamaica, was not legitimately the American president, and then that country decided to rally the troops and bring others along in thinking that he was not elected fairly, and started calling Hillary Clinton the legitimate president, propper her up, imposed sanctions,  and so on?  Just wondering...

TGIF 3/2/18

If you're in the danger zone for Winter Storm Riley, or the California storms, or any of the other major weather events happening tonight, please stay safe.

If you're Jared Kushner, you're probably wishing you were in the middle of the danger zone for the storm - somewhere on Cape Cod, for example - instead of in the middle of the media storm that's swirling around you.

There are the reports of the fruitful meetings Kushner had at the White House, which somehow ended up with hundreds of millions of dollars being loaned to his company, on top of the loss of his coveted interim security clearance which gave him access to our country's most secret secrets.  And now, there's news about an SEC inquiry into one of those "meet with us and we'll loan you hundreds of millions" companies; the inquiry was dropped just weeks after the loan was made.

Now, there is no proof (yet) of a quid pro quo (yet) and Kushner, the Kushner Companies (run by his family, which tried to sell visas for half-million investments in the company), Apollo Global Management, who loaned the $184M, and their founder Joshua Harris, have all vigorously denied there being anything nefarious here.

And there's likely nothing to be concerned about, either, that Apollo Global receives backing from the Qatar Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund of the Qatari government. Because in the world of high finance and skyscrapers and almost broke real estate companies, what's to be concerned about when a White House staffer and family member of the president has his company's fanny saved by a loan from a foreign government?

If you're the president, and your world is falling apart and you're fighting with your own appointees and your staff is leaving and people are unhappy with you for pretty much everything, including lying to school children about gun control (or else lying to the NRA about gun control), you go and launch a trade war (but it's not official, yet, so maybe you won't really do it).

And that's not all. If you're the president, you attack Alec Baldwin on Twitter, proving again how much you're going to miss Hope Hicks.

And if you're me, on the back side of the nor'easter and pretty much done with this nonsense, which included 7 hours of power outages (in two separate stints) and more than a foot of snow, today you're happy that this week is over.

TGIF.

TGIF 12/29/17

And so we come to the last TGIF of the year -- incredible, isn't it?

I was going to do one of those Year in Review things, but tonight doesn't feel like the right time to do it.

I mean, it's Friday, for Pete's sake!  We should be celebrating!

So, let's do that - let's celebrate the week that was, using presidential tweets.

Saturday, December 23: Perhaps more has been accomplished by the Trump Administration than by any other president.

Or, perhaps not.

Sunday, December 24: the massive drilling in the ANWR which is opposed by a majority of US voters, according to Trump's favorite polling company? Yeah, that's a n indicator of an incredible year right there.

Monday, December 25: Say it -- I dare you, just say it!

Um, OK, sure - 'our' cherished and beautiful phrase? If you say so.

Tuesday, December 26: Where are the people shouting warnings from the rooftops that the crazy growth in the stock market is unsustainable? What ever happened to good old irrational exuberance?

Wednesday, December 27. This one, I give him. I've seen nothing to dispute that His Generals have done an excellent job on this front.

Thursday, December 28: All I can say is, now is not the time to be talking about global warming and climate change. Remember? Now is the time to be talking about taxes.

Friday, December 29: Let's end the year by bashing one of America's companies, because its founder happens to own a major national media outlet. 

Completely ignoring the real reason why the USPS is losing money, and missing an opportunity to get rid of a regulation that would make a huge difference. 

Yep - another week in the books.

TGIF.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v22)

In no particular order, here's the stuff that has me wondering, on Wednesday. Would any of these have made your list?

On a scale of one to 100, what are the chances that people will be as unhappy with the weather this spring/summer/fall as they have been about it this winter? Can't you hear it already?  Too much rain, too much mud, too cold, (March and April); too much rain, too much mud, too much wind, too cloudy (May and June); too hot, too humid (July and August); too much rain, too hot, too cold, too cloudy (September and October) and then before you know it we'll be right back into winter and starting all over again.

I'm wondering what would happen if, every time someone mentioned that it was cold outside, I asked "How cold is it?"

Speaking of 'too much', for the past several weeks, it seems, NBC Nightly News has done at least some kind of story every day on Chris Kyle, he of American Sniper book and movie fame. They've talked about the movie, and they've replayed the interviews that Lester Holt did with Kyle before he was tragically shot and killed by another veteran at a shooting range in Texas, and they've been covering the trial of Kyle's killer as well. 

All along I had assumed that they were spending so much time on the story because the movie was produced by NBC Universal.  Turns out that's not the case; the movie is from Warner Brothers.  So I'm wondering, why are they devoting so much time to this? And why aren't they devoting as much time and attention to Chad Littlefield?  You may not recognize that name, because it's so rarely mentioned in the media reports, but he's the other man killed by the same gunman at the same Texas shooting range in the same incident. Doesn't his life, and death matter? Don't All Lives Matter? 

A little over a year ago, I did a post encouraging Republicans - begging them, truth be told -- to stop talking about rape, to just shut up about it, to stop making themselves look like complete idiots. It would appear, sadly, that my pleas fell on deaf ears.  

Meet Brian Greene, Republican from Utah. Greene chimed in on a bill under discussion that would "clarify the definition of consent" to make it clear that a person who was unconscious could not consent to a sexual encounter.  Greene offered up this inexplicable stream-of-consciousness babble:

It looks to me now like sex with an unconscious person is, by definition, rape. I hope this wouldn't happen, but this opens the door to it: an individual has sex with their wife while she is unconscious - or he, the only other way around, if that possible, I don't know. But a prosecutor could then charge that spouse with rape.  I'm not at all trying to justify sexual activity with an unconscious person - it's abhorrent to me, but do we as a legislative body want to make that rape in every instance?  

I'm wondering.... heck, I don't even know what I'm wondering on this one. 

Wondering, on Wednesday (v20)

Be honest -- how many of you really thought that 60 million people would be 'devastated' by the "Blizzard of 2015" also known as Winter Storm Juno, or as I've heard if referred to, the Fizzle of  '15?  I get that there are lots of cities in the path of these storms, but I personally am getting tired of all of the hype.  The news readers, the 'official' weather reporters and the photogenic people who read the weather ad nauseum during all of the new shows, shouting from the rooftops about the potential carnage aiming straight for New York City, and then? Nothing.

The blizzard was so bad in Manhattan, the street sweepers were out.

And did you see that there was a $200M negative impact from governmental and weather forecaster intervention  - closed roads, travel bans, company closings, many of which turned out to be for naught? Not sure about you, but to me it seems 'weather reporting' is getting way out of hand.

What's also getting out of hand is the hype about Super Bowl commercials - and the fact that they don't even wait to put them on TV during the game any more.  Over $4M per 30-second spot, and some of them have already aired on You Tube or news shows or TV shows.

Today we had the almost certainly fake 'controversy' about a Go Daddy ad where a woman makes a website and sells a puppy online.  Animal rights activists got involved, some 40,000 signatures were added to a petition and the Big Daddy of Go Daddy has had a change of heart and says they're not going to show the ad... except on the national news, and the entertainment shows, and who knows where else. I don't think they ever necessarily planned on running the ad; and, not for nothing, it seems a little odd that they're going to be ready in really only hours with a new $4M replacement. You tell me: real issue, or pure PR stunt?

And speaking of pure PR stunts, I offer this:

You can absolutely say that I'm seriously interested. 

Those were the words of Sarah Palin, she of the 'servant's heart' who was recently photographed with a sign telling Michael Moore exactly how she felt about him.  Although it wasn't her sign, she apparently doesn't know that f-bombing someone is not really 'presidential'.  Those were the words of the one who, over the weekend, rambled her way almost unintelligibly through a speech in Iowa, offering up stuff like this:

And GOP leaders, by the way, ya know the man can only ride you when your back is bent. So strengthen it then the man can’t ride ya and America won’t be taken for a ride because so much is at stake and we can’t afford politicians playing games like nothing more is at stake than maybe the next standing of theirs in the next election.

Even conservatives were confused; even the Republicans must have some other woman who can run in 2016?

And there's also this:

A lot of people think I have fun with (talking about running for president) and I enjoy the process, but the country is in very serious trouble so I am considering it seriously. 

Those were the words of His Hairness, Donald Trump. Who has threatened us many times before that he was going to run for office. And has, of course, bailed, leaving his poor fans starved for more.  Which, of course, he'll give us the next time he pretends to run, when he'll remind us that, had he really put up a fight, he would have won.

I'm wondering, this Wednesday, if the Republicans will ever stop humoring these two?

Forecasting the Weather in the Business World

Some of us were talking the other day about the occasional glaring inaccuracy of weather reports, and the lack of consequences resulting from them.  I think what prompted us was the ad for one of our local television stations that they are 'the most accurate' in our market, and we all chuckled at that.  

First, let me say this:  there are lots of meteorologists and weather readers that are good and who forecast accurately, and who do a good job making us smarter and set reasonable weather expectations and meet them most of the time.  

With weather front and center on the local and national news -- we now hear about how many millions of people are 'in the path of' some weather event or other on a fairly regular basis on at least one nightly news broadcasts - there's an awful lot of opportunity for these folks to put themselves out there with a forecast, and for that forecast to miss the mark. And when it happens, those of us who work in different professions, where our name and face and 'work product' aren't front and center for all to see, well, I admit we can be a little brutal to those who are out there front and center.  

My favorite part about the forecasts are the models - as in, one model shows this is going to happen, and another model shows something else is going to happen.  I thought it would be fun to apply that to my position and to anticipate my boss's reaction if I tried that at work. Here's a possible scenario of me forecasting my ability to get work done:

Hi -- got a sec? The auditors have asked us to provide ten years worth of records related to the Doomaflatchey case, and they've given us five business days to provide the information.  I've reviewed the most reliable model on this and my forecast is that we don't have a snowball's chance in hell of producing the information in that time frame.  

I get a strange look from my boss, but boldly continue with my forecast:

I did review a different model, and there may be some good news: it appears that we won't be in hell this week, it's going to be colder than normal for the next few days, and so we might actually be able to provide the information they need, but not within the time frame they've specified...

She sort of presses herself into the back of her chair, hands beginning to form a death grip on the arms.

...because I'm forecasting difficulty in gathering the information based on the patterns of the past several days. The models show we may have maxed out our ability to produce anything else this week, unless we work into the overnight when the models predict it'll be quiet. The drawback is we'll be working at reduced capacity due to the overcast sleepiness that will occur.  It's all right here in the hour by hour forecast, see? I'm going to stick with my original prediction that we won't make the deadline.

Now beginning to rise up out of the chair, my boss clearly has a cloudy outlook on my forecast, and comes back with her own:

Well, I've been reviewing the data myself, and I'm predicting a significant change in the atmospheric pressure in this office. I do believe there's a storm brewing and you'll be smack dab in the middle of it according to the models I've seen. I've also reviewed historical data and I believe that if you work at your record high pace for this week, you should have no problem gathering the data, getting it into the cumulus format, and turning it over on time.  Your weekend will be a washout of course, but I see brighter days ahead.

Unless, of course, my forecast is wrong.

Hmm. How about that? Seems a cold, rainy weekend is just what I'll need to get the work done on the Doomaflatchey case. I sure hope the models are right.

We're Talking Porn This Morning. Fair Warning.

I'm one of the bazillion Americans in the past of Winter Storm Hercules (yes, apparently winter storms get names just like tropical storms and hurricanes), and for the past few days we've been hearing about the cold, the wind, the snow, the cold, the wind, the snow, the cold, the wind, the snow...

We haven't had all that much snow, really - I'd guess two or three inches yesterday morning, another three or four during the day, and another two or three over night.  It's just enough that you want to clean it up before more falls, if that makes sense. I mean, I'd rather shovel less snow more often, then waiting and having to do it all at once. Besides, it was awfully pretty out there.

Dried monarda in my garden

That being said, I shoveled for about 45 minutes yesterday morning, a little over an hour yesterday afternoon, and about 45 minutes this morning, with most of the heavy lifting needed to clear the plow snow out of the driveway and the sidewalk.  The Syracuse DPW does an awesome job on our street, which makes it a little harder for me, but I'd rather have a little extra work to do than the alternative.

Before going out this morning, I checked my wireless weather station thingy (a scientific term, honest) for the temp, to find it was four degrees below zero.  I put on an extra layer top and bottom, and out I went, My Sweet Baboo not far behind me.  I figured I would need the extra layers, since it was a lot colder than yesterday - about an 18 degree swing.

We made pretty quick work of things, including our 'adopted sidewalk' -- our next-door neighbors moved out around Christmas. Not sure what happened there, we weren't close, but with a school three houses down from us, I can't leave a stretch of the sidewalk unshoveled.  And other than a couple of fingers that got exposed yesterday when I was out taking pictures, I wasn't all that cold. The worst thing about being out there, truth be told, was my resemblance to the guy in Jethro Tull's Aqualung (you know what I mean).

And then I got back inside. And turned on the TV. And saw the weather porn.

Pulsing numbers. Menage-a-trois radars. Huge fronts (size does matter), with their leading edges nipping at my county, snow bands and temperature bands rolling across my screen, and lurking on the side, a man in a suit, talking dirty to me: wind chills...snowfalls... temperatures... Bare skin, and exposure, and the need to take frequent breaks from strenuous activity Videos... Live action shots... Pretty people in cute little outfits...It almost took my breath away.

One of my garden wreaths

And instead of feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, I was cold. Colder than I was outside. Because there was no wind when I was out shoveling, it was a still, beautiful morning. Because it wasn't -12 where I was, it was much warmer than that. But the more they talked about how horrible it was out there, in Syracuse where I live, the colder I got, even though I had been outside for 45 minutes. But by the time the weather segment was over, I was freezing, wrapped in a blanket, wearing a hat and scarf... well, OK, not quite that bad.

It's Syracuse, folks. A little colder than usual, but nothing we can't handle. Take normal weather precautions, don't be stupid. Drive carefully, roads will be slippery. Check on your neighbors (the ones that haven't moved out), especially the elderly. Clear your sidewalks. If you live near a fire hydrant, make sure it's not buried in snow. Dress appropriately. Don't let your pets outside. If you must, pick up some bread and milk. You know, the normal stuff we do.

Oh - one more thing. Just once, I'd love to see us devote as much attention, facts and figures to actual news stories as we do to the weather -- that would be porn worth watching.