Same old s[tuff]

You know, it’s been another of Those Weeks, primarily thanks to the Kleptocrat and his cabal. They’re all in it, but at the time of writing I’m thinking primarily of the latest revelations about the extent of EPA Slimebeast Pruitt’s venal attempts to get a Chick-fil-A franchise for his wife, sending his staff out to buy a used mattress from the local Hotel Klepto (ewww) and spending nearly $1600 for 2 pens (that's $1600 of our money); and the general mouth-flapping of Rudy Giuliani assuring us that the Kleptocrat is above the law.

(This would be risible if both houses of Congress weren’t under the control of GOPig sycophants, who do not possess a spine between them. But as it is indeed a Repugnant Congress, it’s fucking terrifying.)

And it’s capped off by Li’l Donnie Two-Scoops himself whining about having to go to Canada for the G-7 Summit today; he knows it’s not going to be any fun because—having pissed off every single one of our historic allies—it’s just possible that no one there’s going to give him the adulation he requires. Moreover, he’s got ants in his pants in anticipation of the big meeting with Kim Jong-Un next week, which he’s convinced will earn him the Nobel Prize. (Also, the Québec trip cuts into his golf time.) Although he doesn't think he has to prepare for the Two-Scoops/Rocket Man meet. Because: attitude.

Gawd.

And—as if that’s not whackadoodle enough—at what was meant to be a meeting between Commander Bone Spurs and his Stepford-wife VP Pence and FEMA to discuss planning for hurricane season, he unsurprisingly was unable to stay on topic for longer than 23 seconds, and blathered quasi-incoherently about his favorite-most subject, himself.

That almost wasn’t the weirdest thing about that meeting. And I’m not referring to Melania being there in a kind of proof-of-life presence. No—it’s this water bottle schtick:

By Grabthar’s Hammer, you cannot make this shit up.

(I'm not even going to talk about the buffoon the administration sent as ambassador to Germany. Gawd.)

But, speaking of shit, I have now arrived at the point of today’s post: the mysterious person known as the #poojogger, who has been crapping for more than a year in a Brisbane, Australia, neighborhood has been caught in the act. On camera.

(How long before New Balance distances itself from this customer in the manner of Sanofi decrying Roseanne’s Ambien-blaming?)

Turns out he was a q-qu-quality assurance manager for a company that runs retirement homes. Quality assurance—bwahahahaha! Exec by day, sociopath by night.

Well, actually—sociopath 24x7.

As you might imagine, as with #BBQBecky, the iconic photo of Andrew Macintosh is now featured in all manner of memes, and Twitter is having a laff riot with it. (The one about the second pooper on the grassy knoll is cherce, although the account @poojogger is starting out strong on his own.) He’s been sacked from his job, which is at least somewhat satisfying.

As we wait for the same to happen to the Kleptocrat and his Klan, we’ll have to make do with this story.

Fake friends

As you know, Facebook has been in the spotlight lately for selling influence to whoever’ll pay for it, which—in addition to crappy ads cluttering up your feed—includes allowing bad actors like Cambridge Analytica, the GOP and Vladimir Putin to screw with our political system.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has gone on a slap-on-the-sincere-face-instead-of-a-smirk-and-suit-instead-of-a-white-tee-shirt apology tour of both the US Congress and the EU’s Parliament. He’s told us he doesn’t understand how this happened, and assured us that it won’t ever happen again.

I’m not entirely reassured, however.

Nonetheless, I thought this was an interesting ad placement in their disinformation campaign.

I mean, I just wonder how many Metro riders are convinced by this sort of thing?

Know what also isn't your friend? Facebook.

Talking business

As with all business, the tech industry basically would wither and die without a steady infusion of trends and their concomitant trendy jargon.

The one I’m thinking about today is “digital”. Everything’s gotta be digital. And everyone’s gotta have a digital strategy, no matter what line of business you’re in. Hospitals, publishers, food trucks…you gotta talk about the digital component of your business model.

What I find interesting is that if you start asking all these people what digital means in context of their business, their eyes slew off to the side, they clear their throats and the conversation kind of drifts into nothingness. Because no one really knows what the hell it means in general, much less how it’s going to affect them. They just know they have to have it.

So when I came across this on the digital Internet, I snagged it for you.

You’re welcome.

Fungus among us

Still in Great Falls park—given the kind of rain we’ve had here, I’m surprised this was the only manifestation of fungi I saw.

Closer views:

No, I did not pick any.

Gratitude Monday: a walk in the park

It’s been a while since I got out in Nature, which is actually kind of odd, when you consider how much Nature there is in Northern Virginia. Mostly of the sort that crawls and bites or sucks blood.

However, on Saturday I went to Great Falls National Park, right on the Potomac River, and spent a couple of hours walking around.

(The last time I was at the park, it was for a photo class. When people had cameras that used film.)

It’s been raining a lot in the area, so the trails were soupy.

(Also—although I sprayed myself liberally with repellant, I still ended up with mosquito bites.)

But this made for some spectacular viewing of the falls. I mean—we’re not talking Multnomah, but still:

Further down the trail, here’s a little feeder fall:

There were quite a lot of people out—dog walkers, runners (a couple of them scared me, going at a good clip even on the slippery trail and even-even on the trails where I had to pick my way through protruding rocks), family groups, even…I guess, rock climbers.

I have to say that signage is kind of sparse and ambiguous in the park. I did wonder what happened here:

Also—not manmade, but I also wondered about the story behind this:

The park also has a few remnants of canal locks, from the pre-railroad days when the Potomac was a highway between Washington and the West, and shippers needed a way to get their goods around the falls. If you didn’t know what to look for, you might not even notice these:

By the time I left, I felt better able to deal with the world, and I’m grateful for the treasure that national parks are, and for having one so close. I’m also grateful that I went on Saturday, because it pretty much rained the whole live-long day Sunday. I’m expecting to see a large boat with a lot of pairs of animals aboard floating up the Dulles Access Road any day now.