Junkets R Us

A breezy, lighthearted headline in today's LA Times reads "L.A. delegation off to Rio"

The delegates - Mayor Eric Garcetti plus three other dignitaries and a staff of 22 left Sunday for Rio ostensibly to "hear what the Olympic' priorities are for future events."  IN 2024.  The deadline for final proposals is February, 2017, for a final vote in September.

Garcetti said, "I am looking forward to meeting members of the Olympic family, athletes ...and sharing in this wonderful Olympic atmosphere."

Garcetti returns to Los Angeles August 10th; all of the other delegates and support staff will return August 21 and the end of the Olympics. 

It could be a wry god laughing when you consider that Rio is less than sanitary; water sports competitors have been warned not to open their mouths during competitions therein to avoid fecal matter and dead animals in the water.  But the committee members will no doubt be shooting selfies and playing water sports with the beautiful, scanticlad cariocas with jovial abandon. 

And when they return with various versions of the bubonic plague, why whoopee!  We, the taxpayers, get to pay for their medical costs, too! 

God forbid the august staff would Skype or hire someone on-scene to make a disc of everything there and send it here for scrutiny.  And do themselves out of an all-expense trip to Rio?  (Or anywhere else.) God forbid!