What's it all about, Alfie?

This morning they dropped off the sample container for the Water Testing that Naperville is doing once a year. It's completely voluntary, and funded by the Town so that those of us that live in very old homes can be assured that the lead and other toxins in the water supply are will within the EPA limits.

I think it's been happening for about three years now, and I sign up for it each year because all I have to do is to take the sample, and then sit it on my doorstep, and I get a letter in a few weeks with the results of the tests. They have always been far below any threat levels of the EPA, so I'm not concerned, but I'll always accept a free environment test to make sure things are safe in my environment.

I do love this Town. 🙂

This morning I took another water sample, and they are collecting it this morning for analysis. It's part of what Naperville is doing to monitor water quality, and it's always nice to get the reports back and make sure I'm not drinking "bad" water.

The City drops off liter-sized bottles, and picks them up, and sends the results... what could be easier? I'm sure there are folks that think this is annoying, but it's just a really great perk to me. 🙂

I'm looking at the stories this morning about the actions in Washington by the pro-Trump mob that breeched the Capital for the first time since The War of 1812... and I feel certain the outgoing administration doesn't care - we've seen four years of policies, speeches, actions, and inactions, that show all that are paying attention that a day like yesterday was virtually inevitable.

Sure, it could have been 4 years from now... but it was now, and we have seen it. And this morning, it's now clear that those that were objecting to the Electoral College vote count have changed their minds, and have decided that they would object no more. Enough was enough - finally... for them. And we have some sort of closure for this election.

We also have a 50-50 Senate, and I have to smile at the idea that the Founders expected this might happen, so they planned for it, and work will get done, compromises will be made, people will be unhappy, and some will be happy. Life will go on.

I wonder what will come in the days and weeks ahead... will we really have seen enough? Will we really change how we treat the less-well-off among us? I hope so. I really do.

This morning I saw an ad for Google Fi, and it got me to thinking about the relationships between AT&T, Verizon, regulations and tech companies, like Google, and my phone. I'm not saying I like the size of my phone bill - and this includes two kids and my Mom, but I at least understand why it is the size it is, and the way they are profiting from me. When I think about an unregulated tech company being a carrier, it makes the data collection even more invasive.

I'm not saying that the people working at Google have evil in their hearts, but power currupts, and the power some companies are collecting about each of us is really staggering, and I'm in the position to know just enough to be really concerned. The collection and matching of data made Finance really powerful - but that was all about tradable securities and related information. This is about individual people... and the aggregations that can be done now make it possible to really look at the individual within the crowd.

I just wonder if we're a cliche - allowing technology to outpace society - again. I think I'm all for spending a little more, to a regulated company, than pay less to an unregulated one - certainly for utilities that just need to work, and not be tracked.

Well... I woke up this morning, looked at Twitter, and saw that Beto had won in Texas, and that made me very happy. I also saw that several of the younger, more liberal, candidates also won. And in Illinois, it was called a "Big Blue Wave" - which made me very happy.

Sadly, when I got to work, I re-checked on the Texas Senate race, and Beto lost. And that really made me sad. But in the end, the Democrats took the House, and that's hopefully enough to stop the insanity that Trump and the GOP have been doing.

Once again, John Oliver had a story on the family separation, and the cycle of hate that seems to be so easy for some to buy into. Immigrants aren't evil. They are people. The ability for so many to see other people as less than a person is really making me uncomfortable about the country.

This is a phase - like Germany in the 30's and while some will say that's an unfair comparison, but I submit it's all too similar. Nationalism, tariffs, hate... they all come from a very dark place, and we can't give into those feelings.

I have hopes that 2020 will be an amazing Presidential Election. Maybe Beto will run. That would be neat.

Today I did one thing that I missed last year due to the turmoil of the year - Vote. I don't know all the reasons why I love to vote, but I tell you this - I do love to vote. To read all the referendums, all the tax bills, all the choices we have before us on the ballot, and then execute my right to say what I think we should do.

I don't complain a lot about government, because I think we are all flawed - and yet as a whole we have achieved great things. I think it's this bloodless coup that we have every few years that makes this a great nation. It really makes me smile.

I could not be happier with the outcome of the election. I think that most Americans have no idea how lucky they are to have a guy sitting in the Oval Office that cares as much about them as Obama. Even the ones that hate him.

It's amazing.

I'm glad I saw it. I'm glad I was a part of it.

OK, I've got to believe this is Photoshopped, but either way, it's pretty bloody funny:

There have been a very select set of political images that make me laugh, mostly because they all typically make me upset, but this is a rare gem. Really quite funny.

Thanks for the laugh!

UPDATE: it's not Photoshopped! I saw similar pictures from a campaign stop, and it's legit. Now, of course, the girl isn't reacting to The Romney Toot, but it's not faked! Too funny!

I read this and have to wonder if the tide is really beginning to shift on the tethering debate. I'm an AT&T customer - with the (grandfathered) unlimited data plan, and I have always wondered why I wasn't able to transfer bits on my phone to my MacBook Pro? After all, Safari on my laptop vs. Safari on my phone, what's the real difference? Nothing. But that doesn't stop AT&T and Verizon from charging $20/month and forcing me off the unlimited plan. Well… maybe not for much longer.

The story is about the FCC smacking down Verizon for exactly that, and telling them to pony up $1.25 million for the practice. This means a Verizon iPhone will be able to be tethered for free. Sweet. I wonder if AT&T will go along, or if they will wait for the FCC to hit them with a million dollar fine before changing their policy.

I'm thinking it's only a matter of a few months before I can tether my MacBook Pro to my iPhone for no extra cost. That's going to be a sweet deal for the times I'm on the train and want to check mail or commit a change. Very nice indeed.

OK, it's hard to imagine that just a month and a half ago, $2 billion lost due to improper hedging was thought to be a horrible thing… now it's looking like it might go as high as $9 billion. Amazing. I thought I'd heard the last of this horrible sham, but it appears not.

JP Morgan said they had $2 billion to waste, and still make a profit, now they have to pony up an additional $6 billion or more to get out of the horrible positions they got themselves into thinking they were hedging their legit positions. How much money can JP Morgan afford to loose and not be seen as the biggest pirate of the seven seas?

I've been in finance for 16 years now, and I've learned a lot, and been surprised over and over again. This is just the latest in a series of amazing things that have come up in this industry in my time. If I land a job outside this industry, I won't be sorry to leave it. I've met a lot of nice people, and yet this is an industry that's begging to be regulated even more heavily than it already is.