Do you remember the beginning of this century, when greedy corporate interests crashed the economy through corruption and fraud but managed to blame field workers? One of the results of that crime was a new agency in government, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal watchdog that helps protect consumers from predatory financial practices. Keywords? “…helps protect consumers from predatory financial practices.”

So, naturally, that’s one of the areas Elon sees as the place to cut. He wants to just “delete” the CFPB. It turns out, predatory lenders don’t LIKE an agency that protects consumers from predatory financial practices. Go figure. Fortunately, they have totally-in-touch-with-the-common-man, extremely weird Elon Musk in their corner to help protect them from the dangers the victims pose to the predators.

I suspect this will be the most successful and repeated pattern of the incoming chaos; harm to the most vulnerable…

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Speaking of which, Mike Rounds (R – of course) has introduced a bill to eliminate the Department of Education. The thing is, he introduced it to the current congress, not the GOP fevered congress coming in January. I wonder why he did that. Cons don’t even have a majority in this congress. Why not wait until the next?

Either way, apparently, he needs a super-majority in congress to get that bill through, whether this congress or the next. He says he thinks he can do it through reconciliation, meaning he would only need 51 votes but others say he can’t do it that way. We’ll all find out together.

The Department of Education is just one of the departments Trump has attacked. Shortly after taking this “election,” he said the education department was staffed by many people who “in many cases, hate our children.” He’ll have a briefing, soon, explaining to him what the Department of Education does. Then he said, “we want states to run the education of our children, because they’ll do a much better job of it.”

Some of them will, sure. Some won’t. Kids in Massachusetts will do just fine. Kids from West Virginia? Well, thay stil wont no howe to spel. But, in fairness, they don’t now. Still, just in case he can’t eliminate the DOE that way, Trump is all set to attack on another front: he put Linda McMahon in charge of the department.
“Who?”
“You know. That super-qualified wife of the guy who ran big-time wrestling. She doesn’t like the DOE because it makes ‘some people think they’re so smart.'” Much of what the DOE does can be shuffled to other departments but some of it will fall through the cracks.

In my opinion, one of the more important functions of the Department of Education is ensuring and enforcing fair access to education for disable students. That part will likely disappear. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that one of the first groups the cons have chosen to attack is disabled kids. Who, after all, is more vulnerable than that?

I’m not sure WHY this next bit suddenly popped into my head. Do you think there’s some sort of message, here?

“For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

⁴⁴ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

⁴⁵ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’” (Matthew 25:42)

I’ll tell you this: you’d think the “let’s put the Bible everywhere” crowd would have SOME idea of what’s in the book they pretend to love so much…

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The lowly Raiders were in a good position to knock off the top-seeded Kansas City Chiefs with a field goal. On a critical third down to position the ball for the kick, the Raiders center snapped the ball early. The QB wasn’t ready for it. The ball fell, uncontrolled, to the ground and a Chiefs player fell on it. Bummer for the Raider fans. But, no. An official had blown a whistle, ending the play. He ran onto the field indicating a false start. A false start is an automatic penalty. The opposing team doesn’t get to accept or decline. In effect, the play just “didn’t count.” The ball just gets moved and the team gets the attempt again.

We all saw the indicator from the official. It was clearly a false start signal. But a false start call would have meant the fumble never happened and would have left the ball in the hands of the Raiders. A false start call would have allowed the Raiders to attempt the game-winning field goal, after all, and, perhaps, hand the Chiefs their second loss of the season. A false start, in this case, would certainly have messed up the betting by having a deep underdog unexpectedly defeat the super-favorite.

That’s no problem for the NFL. They just had the officials huddle up and “discuss” the penalty. The zebras came up with an effective workaround: they called an illegal shift. That little “adjustment” allowed the Chiefs to decide if the penalty was accepted or not. They declined the penalty (meaning the play counted) because one of their players had fallen on the ball. In short, the NFL just…took the ball from the Raiders and gave it to the Chiefs, sealing the Chiefs “victory.”

People are STILL waiting for some explanation from the NFL. I suspect no explanation will be forthcoming. How do they “explain” controlling the outcome of games in order to maximize gains from their ‘Fanduel’ partnership?

I’ll tell you this: It’s not “betting” when the outcome is a foregone conclusion…