There have been an astounding number of proven contacts between Trumps minions and his fellow grifters with Russian IC, oligarchs, mobsters, and their puppets. That's public knowledge, the FBI and IC obviously know much more (so do the read in congress critters).

I can and do respect those who serve in law enforcement, because I recognize that theirs is an often lonely, difficult, stressful and thankless job that can sometimes leave them subject to public abuse and worse. But that doesn't mean I'm going to kiss their a$$es, or look the other way and / or make excuses for their behavior when they're obviously in the wrong.

Law enforcement officers chose that particular line of work. If they can't handle the pressure, then they need to seek another profession. And let's face it, not everybody's well suited for it.

Where law enforcement so often fails us as a society is in its members' own inability to police themselves in a consistently forthright and ethical manner. Rather than root out their bad apples, more often than not they conflate loyalty with honor and rally around them. When reform does occur, it's often attained by court order and federal consent decree.

i dont see a legal penalty for the crime of being too generous in that DOT regulation.

(2) Compensation shall be 200% of the fare to the passenger's destination or first stopover, with a maximum of $675, if the carrier offers alternate transportation that, at the time the arrangement is made, is planned to arrive at the airport of the passenger's first stopover, or if not, the airport of the passenger's final destination more than one hour but less than four hours after the planned arrival time of the passenger's original flight; and

(3) Compensation shall be 400% of the fare to the passenger's destination or first stopover, with a maximum of $1,350, if the carrier does not offer alternate transportation that, at the time the arrangement is made, is planned to arrive at the airport of the passenger's first stopover, or if not, the airport of the passenger's final destination less than four hours after the planned arrival time of the passenger's original flight.

Real consumer protection would have required the airline to offer enough so that enough voluntary bumps came forth.

Here is some education for you.

(2) Compensation shall be 200% of the fare to the passenger's destination or first stopover, with a maximum of $675, if the carrier offers alternate transportation that, at the time the arrangement is made, is planned to arrive at the airport of the passenger's first stopover, or if not, the airport of the passenger's final destination more than one hour but less than four hours after the planned arrival time of the passenger's original flight; and

(3) Compensation shall be 400% of the fare to the passenger's destination or first stopover, with a maximum of $1,350, if the carrier does not offer alternate transportation that, at the time the arrangement is made, is planned to arrive at the airport of the passenger's first stopover, or if not, the airport of the passenger's final destination less than four hours after the planned arrival time of the passenger's original flight.

i suppose it's on cable? maybe i could buy a few months of hulu and watch it?

my nexflix recommendations:
a series of unfortunate events
broadchurch (uk version)

"You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good. Joan Crawford is dead. Good."

But there is also this final quote from Bette about Joan, in which she defended her late Baby Jane co-star in the wake of Christina Crawford's damning memoir, "Mommie Dearest":

"I was not Miss Crawford's biggest fan, but, wisecracks to the contrary, I did and still do respect her talent. What she did not deserve was that detestable book written by her daughter. I've forgotten her name. Horrible.

"I looked at that book, but I did not need to read it. I wouldn't read trash like that, and I think it was a terrible, terrible thing for a daughter to do. An abomination! To do something like that to someone who saved you from the orphanage, foster homes, who knows what. If she didn't like the person who chose to be her mother, she was grown up and could choose her own life.

"I felt very sorry for Joan Crawford, but I knew she wouldn't appreciate my pity, because that's the last thing she would have wanted, anyone being sorry for her, especially me.

"I can understand how hurt Miss Crawford had to be. Well, no I can't. It's like trying to imagine how I would feel if my own beloved, wonderful daughter, B.D., were to write a bad book about me. Unimaginable. I am grateful for my children and for knowing they would never do to me anything like what Miss Crawford's daughter did to her."

But of course, daughter B.D. Hyman eventually did exactly that to Bette, with the publication of her own scathing 1985 memoir, "My Mother's Keeper."

At the time, B.D. had recently become a born-again evangelical Christian, and had further tried unsuccessfully to get her mother to convert as well. When the book was released, Bette disowned her and apparently never spoke to her again. So did her brother Michael and her adoptive father Gary Merrill, who further went public to vehemently defend his former wife against her daughter's allegations, bluntly stating that B.D. was motivated solely by cruelty and greed.

Today, B.D. Hyman is an evangelical pastor an author living in Charlottesville, VA. She remains married to Jeremy Hyman, whom she met and married in 1963 at age 16, and they have two sons.

But nobody's laughing at her now, given last week's "breaking news" about the FBI obtaining a FISA warrant DOES with regard to the Trump campaign, specifically the activities of Carter Page.

Ms. Mensch first disclosed the existence of an FBI FISA warrant for the Trump campaign on the British tabloid site HeatStreet.com last Nov. 7 -- which, of course, was five months ago.

The damnedest thing here is Mensch is not some flamethrowing liberal, but a former Conservative member of Parliament. Admittedly, some of her claims have been way over the top, such as her contention that Andrew Breitbart was killed by Putin's FSB.

But her reporting on Cambridge Analytica dovetails with what I've read in a Jan. 28, 2017 article in Motherboard magazine about that firm's data analysis activities, which I first wrote about here last Feb. 7. If nothing else, it's nice to see that I wasn't the only one noticing this stuff.

Either that, or we buy tinfoil from the same store.