Welcome to the Roundtable for March 33, 2017!

Yes, today is the 33rd of March. I have complete absolution for being late in delivering the monthly Roundtable Starter, as my mother always used to say, "Jon, you're just not responsible." See? Free pass.

But seriously (Ha! See what I did there?) Welcome to the official April page. Today we are only going to talk about


[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClnQCgFa9lCBL-KXZMOoO9Q/live[/video] Well, really, not just that April.

As many of you may know, April traditionally begins with foolishness. For example, I heard a really awesome gag that Donald Trump had been elected President! I've been waiting in vain (again, a joke) for someone to jump out and yell, "April Fool!" - but I know it is not the month that makes the man...

Back to Aprils. Here's one of my favorites: Aprilia is "one who rules the world."

According to Wikipedia: The Romans gave this month the Latin name Aprilis[1] but the derivation of this name is uncertain. The traditional etymology is from the verb aperire, "to open", in allusion to its being the season when trees and flowers begin to "open", which is supported by comparison with the modern Greek use of άνοιξη (ánixi) (opening) for spring. Since some of the Roman months were named in honor of divinities, and as April was sacred to the goddess Venus, her Veneralia being held on the first day, it has been suggested that Aprilis was originally her month Aphrilis, from her equivalent Greek goddess name Aphrodite (Aphros), or from the Etruscan name Apru. Jacob Grimm suggests the name of a hypothetical god or hero, Aper or Aprus.[2]

So, I guess an "April Opener" is really a redundancy...

Other Aprils of note:
Celebrities with first name: April and, of course, Canadiennes: Avril

Let's get to it, Ranters!

Happy Big "40" to me.

(40,000 Reader Rant posts)

Congratulations! Doing grrreat so far, but how long will you...


Tat

Paying off the mortgage tomorrow. We transferred the money into our checking account and got a payoff statement by going into the credit union. I thought they would take the money on the payoff date, but I have been checking the account online and the money is still there. I guess you have to actually write them a check!

Decent ROI: The interest rate is 4.125% so we get that return with absolutely zero risk.

Congratulations on paying off your mortgage!!!!

No wonder RR had to invent a "Carpal Tunnel" badge! (LOL)

Congratulations on burning the note!

If this little poem doesn't leave your brain in Tatters, I don't know what will:

The English Lesson

by Richard Krogh
Published in the 1800s
We'll begin with box, and the plural is boxes;
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a whole lot of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
When couldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But the plural of vow is vows, not vine.
And I speak of a foot, and you show me your feet,
But I give a boot - would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?
If the singular is this and plural is these,
Why shouldn't the plural of kiss be nicknamed kese?
Then one may be that, and three may be those,
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose;

We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim!
So our English, I think you will all agree,
Is the trickiest language you ever did see.

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
On hiccough, thorough, slough, and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead; it's said like bed, not bead;
For goodness sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
(they rhyme with suite and straight and debt)

A moth is not a moth in mother.
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there.
And dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there's dose and rose and lose --
Just look them up -- and goose and choose.

And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I've hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Why, man alive,
I'd learned to talk it when I was five,

And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn't learned it at fifty-five!

“Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone.” ~Emerson
Invite friends & family

A Word a Day

Re: mortgage payoff. Congrats! We, too, paid off our mortgage, and are happily relieved of the 7 3/8% interest! Fun story, too - we took a cashier's check to the local Wells Fargo to branch, but they wouldn't take it. I had to go to a "mortgage branch". Imagine a financial institution refusing to accept money!

Very similar experience - our contract from selling the previous house was paid off about a month ago, and my wife went to pay off the Wells Fargo mortgage on this house - from a Wells Fargo account - and they wouldn't take the whole payoff at once.

I am assuming that has something to do with the insane complexity they have created with all the bizarre "financial products" in existence, that covertly encumber even simple transactions.

They (credit union) actually gave us a payoff statement with a scheduled payoff date of the 30th. We thought it was strange when the money remained in the account after Thursday. So we went in today and asked if we needed to write them a check or something. The teller showed us to paper we signed to do the transfer on the 30th. Then she called up the real estate loan department and asked: "What is going on?"

They made some sort of lame excuse, which boils down to: "We forgot."

So they backdated the payoff to the 30th, and did an internal account transfer this afternoon. We did not have to pay four more days of interest.

Which brings us to why they don't want to take your check when you just walk in. The check will take a few days to clear and they don't want to eat those interest per diem charges. If you have the funds in an account of the bank holding the mortgage, and the full amount is available, they can generally transfer it the same day. Otherwise they want a wire transfer for $30. (Although ACH takes overnight between banks.)

I was tempted to use the credit union's Bill Pay web page. We used it for the mortgage payment every month but we could just pay extra if we wanted. So what happens if you Bill Pay the principle balance?

The New Yorker sure got Trump's fat ass right.

An arts-based AIDS advocacy group called, Visual Aids, received a horrific, hate-filled, homophobic note via facsimile.

Click to read the fax

No Liberal would ever write, let alone send a fax like this; CONservatives see a Trump presidency as license to pull stunts like this.

,

An email address! Cool!

Let me just warm up my bot-net. I've got a few million goatse pics to send.

I wondered where I had left my drill, pesky tool turns up in Seattle!

I always chuckle when I run across the "Hard to Find Tools" catalog, as it seems most of my tools meet this criterion! Eventually most tools turn up in an unusual place where they were last used. But loosing big tools shouldn't be that hard to find unless they got buried by a badger or something, it happens!

Tat

All this time it's been buried in the dirt.

it is now illegal in Russia to characterize Vladamir Putin as a gay clown. So in the spirit of anti-conformity, I present this illegal piccy if I were to post it in Russia:

The drums of war are being beaten on MSNBC and others. It is sounding like an attack on Syria is imminent. It comes at a very convenient time for a Tail Wagging of the Dog mega-distraction! Will he tweet Syria to tip them off when it is near? Nice gesture to activate it during dinner with the Chinese.

Tat

Some decades ago in San Diego, a mobile crane operator drove into a mud pit in Mission Valley. Couldn't get out. By the time the giant tow truck arrived the ENTIRE crane had sunk into the mud. Not just the cab, the whole vertical mast and all. It was gone.

Several years later as they were digging the foundation for Qualcomm Stadium they found it. More then two miles west. There is still a massive underground river in Mission Valley. Back in the 40's it flooded wall-to-wall. Hardly any San Diego river visible now. But it's still there underground.

I have not been as pessimistic as I am now over my entire life. I think we are about to go downhill very fast on many fronts. I am thankful I do not have as many years to live as some of you younger people.

I, like many here, have done what I thought I could to give us a more positive direction, but I have failed. I am not looking forward to the next few months and years.

An evil idiot at the helm and selfish cretins running the economy.

Good luck world.

Actually you didn't fail. More Americans voted for HClinton and the continuation of Obama's policies than for Trump. With the signing of the recent Republican Internet Bill, whereby Internet providers can sell your browsing history, Trump just lost the millennial vote which helped him get into Office. The millennials think of the Internet as their domain and they're very protective of it.

I just hope that The Dems nominate a really good person in 2020, and we retake both the House and Senate in 2018 - I'm not familiar with all of the particulars at the moment, so I'm not sure there are enough terms that are up where that is even possible like it would be in 2020.

Don't fret, Rick. If things really get that bad, there will be a lot more seats than people think up for grabs in Congress. Congressmen voted to make sure crazy people can buy guns, after all. Now all they need to do is get rid of that nasty Medicaid coverage that keeps on paying for the crazies drugs.

What could go wrong?

There is an UPSIDE to the Senate "going nuclear", you know...

The upside is that THIRD PARTIES will now have MUCH better chances of influencing ALL Senate decisions IF they can GET ASSES IN SEATS in 2018. If a third party gets ENOUGH asses in Senate SEATS, then BOTH parties will lack sufficient majority to control diddly squat and will be forced to negotiate and cooperate, not only WITH the third party but with each other.
It would only take maybe 15 wins to do the trick.

They haven't gone nuclear on legislation yet and that might even be a bridge too far for even McConnell.
If things do go downhill as rapidly as Phil suspects then 2018 will see the Senate flip, but I wouldn't count on seeing much in the way of third party victories then or...ever really.

We cannot have it be a LIBERAL third party OR a CONSERVATIVE third party. This third party must be guided by ONE principle only...the benefit of the MIDDLE CLASS, and the absolute and permanent DESTRUCTION of the TWO PARTY system, period.

Don't fool yourself.
Now that Mitch McConnell has tasted blood, nothing will stop him.

The only goal of the third party needs to be the permanent destruction of a majority in EITHER of the TWO major parties, thus forcing BOTH parties to actually LEAD and do things which benefit the Middle Class.

The sheer brilliance of such a tactic might get through to enough voters IF enough oomph is put behind it.

Yes, but it won't be and you know it. Good candidates are hard to find and campaign funding even harder for third parties. The Green Party has run the same candidate(Jill Stein, in case you'd forgotten) for 24 consecutive presidential elections and has failed to exceed single digits. TEA Partiers only succeed by running as Republicans in primary elections. Our two party system, like it or not, is under no threat.
I'm going to operate under the assumption that Trump will continue to be unpopular and that Paul Ryan's draconian, granny starving policies will also further damage the Republican brand. Historically that means 2018 will be a good year for Democrats. It won't take much to flip the senate and, who knows, we may even see significant gains in the house.

At this point, I think that only ol' handsome Joe Biden can save us from that Orange menace.

It went so well in Japan and Germany, too! What did we do wrong? Not kill enough of the Iraqi military when we were fighting them? Not employ enough of them during the occupation?

We supported the elected Shite government but that left the Sunnis out in the cold, to form IS. Should we have partitioned Iraq into Sunni, Shite, and Kurdish nations and then occupied the three areas independently? Each could have formed their own alliances with Saudi Arabia, Iran, and nobody respectively. No IS, but three more little gulf states with a lot of oil.

Sounds about right.

Ditto

Fresh beef?

Does that mean the beef is still warm and wriggling? That the beef will be its natural color and not dyed?

I seem to remember being told/taught that if properly wrapped and frozen even beef frozen for a year was still considered fresh and safe. I have no problems with "fresh" or frozen they both cook up tasty and juicy

Per USDA guidelines, "fresh" is 26.0 °F and above; If at anytime the product was at 25.9 °F or below, it has been frozen.

Considering that freezing kills tapeworms, maybe frozen beef is not such a bad idea?

POTUS and FLOTUS fly in separate planes to SoFlo this weekend:



Rather than, say, try to plan the impending Easter Egg Roll, Melania Trump decided to join her husband for a long holiday weekend at Mar-a-Lago.

The first lady arrived in West Palm Beach yesterday evening on a military version of a Boeing 757. Minutes later, her husband touched down in Air Force One.

That’s right, they took “his and hers” planes to their private beach club. Because, hey, why not? They already live in separate homes, sleep in separate beds, and keep separate bathrooms. Why not fly in separate planes, as well?

The cost of Melania taking her own plane to the same location as her husband? $15,846 taxpayer dollars per hour. Which came out to be around $100,000.

Eating a lot of "beautiful chocolate cake" these days, Mr. President? Asking for a friend:

How soon will it become illegal to depict our "Dear Leader" as a gold-plated chicken?
Trump’s Legacy So Far Is a Big Orange and White Chicken.

1st woman to officially run Boston Marathon does it again, 50 years later.

It looks like Fox is flushing Oreilly. Who would have suspected that Fox has standards??! Oh, yeah, I forgot the Dollar standard!

We're not in Kansas anymore Toado!
Tat
happy-bill-oreilly-loofah-day

Remember the origanal foreshadowing falafel fap?

This is how we do it out West
First 420 day that is legal

BO'Rexit.

Melania tries to escape The Donald:

Really, you have to feel sorry for her. She thought he would be dead by now and she would have all those billions of dollars. Instead he has transferred all his money to his kids, is broke, and getting creepier every day.

I wonder if she will pull a Jackie O number, and go marry a Greek shipping tycoon after Donald is gone.

A little something for the Trumpanzees...

Ujest Shurly
I found this image accidentally while researching protest sign design and construction for climate march this weekend in DC. I have mixed feelings about tens of thousands of folks driving cars to a climate protest.
Anyway Shurly this sign's for you!
Tat

A happy and blessed Walpurgisnacht to all!

My people call it Beltane....

One of Robin Trower's most dark evocative guitar solos ever! Not to mention excellent organ and piano performances.
Happy happy joy joy!
Tat

hey-im-president-can-you-believe-it

Submitted without comment, which is a little unusual for me not to have a comment on such an abomination that is becoming way too frequent, on the day on which America became a theocracy, and lost all perception of ethical and moral standards, but I digress...
Tat

[video:google]http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-hey-im-president-can-you-believe-it[/video]

Yesterday was a King Lear/MacBeth day all around. "It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing." All we really know for certain is, everyone dies in the end.

First female usher in WH history no longer in post - CNN.

This is typical Trump administration. The three strikes: She's black (that alone could be two - female AND Black); was appointed by Obama; and previously worked for Ritz, not Trump (She probably objected to Trump wanting to gild everything). Moreover, the Trumps probably didn't realize it wasn't THAT Usher.

Then, Trump's new FCC Chairman wants to interject the FCC into conservative politics: FCC to Investigate Stephen Colbert Over Controversial Donald Trump Joke - Variety. This smacks of authoritarian instincts - attack critics with the power of the State. Suppress dissent, especially when it is effective.