Hello, this is too loud, okay. So hi everyone, thank you for joining the multi-site session, we're going to talk about tricycle today. If you see me going into palpitation on the stage, don't worry, I have stage fright. So today with me is supposed to be my friend Pino, thank you, there he is, the CTO of Midakura, and what we're going to cover today is a deep dive into tricycle. So yeah, no, I'm trying to move the, there we go, okay. So before I dive into the technical details, first of all, some motivation, why do we care about multi-site, why do we want to manage multiple open-stack clouds at all? So first thing that pops into mind is geo-redundancy, right, you all just thought about geo-redundancy, no I'm kidding, it's just a fancy way of saying disaster recovery. So normally when we're talking about multiple clouds, that's the first thing that pops into mind. Second thing is service locality, so we want to be able to run virtual machines close to where they're needed for low latency or sometimes for legal reasons, we want to keep our data on a certain region and not migrate it to places where they do not comply with the law. Of course cost optimization, it can cost less to run in certain times on one site rather than the other. We get use cases in from the opnv workgroup, this is basically about how to manage virtual network functions, I will not cover that at all. You've got the classic cloud bursting scenario, right, when I have, my resources are dwindling on one site and I want to start spreading out to other sites and this really becomes even more interesting in the hybrid cloud scenario where I have my local OpenStack and I want to burst out into Amazon, but what we really want is to do this using OpenStack APIs, so we actually, this is not just theoretical, we have a project about this as well and my colleague, Geshe-Galore will be giving a session today in this room at 530 about that. Okay, so you understand what the use cases are, what are the requirements? So we want to be able to have a global resource management, all right, I want to provision virtual machines across sites. We want single resource utilization dashboard, basically I want to see the statistics of my sites in a single place, I don't want to go jumping around between dashboards. Perhaps more interesting is cross site virtual networks, I want the usual L3 peering scenario management and perhaps in some use cases I also want cross site stretched layer 2 networks. Now this does not mean that we want to start propagating broadcasts across the WAN, but it does mean that if I have the ability of taking a virtual machine from one site copying it to the other and I don't have to start modifying it internally changing the IP, the MAC addresses, that could be really nice. To provide this, of course, prerequisite is identity management, right, single identity management be it using a federated keystone or a single stretched keystone, either way this is required. More technically we want to use the OpenStack APIs. Two years ago maybe everyone was talking about the AWS APIs, today we're actually want to use OpenStack API to manage all clouds. We want to manage this as an aggregated resource pool, right, a single resource pool from which I can carve out resources regardless of their physical location. We need to minimize traffic over the WAN, cost reduction, better performance, things like that. Of course our global management system cannot be a single point of failure so service continuity and we want the user experience to be comparable with single site management. So to solve all these things we've introduced tricycle. So what is tricycle? Tricycle is a project meant to do the management and orchestration for multiple sites. As you can see we have OpenStack APIs at the top, you can't see it, never mind. The users interact with a single OpenStack API, single dashboard. It goes to a top site or a top management layer which then distributes the requests down to the separate sites. Now down below you can see we have disparate resources in the sites as well as cross site resources like what you see in purple which is a single network cross sites. From the user perspective the experience should be pretty much the same. The only difference is the fact that when you're launching an instance you have the data center drop down and you can see that here launch instance has data center which is new. Other than that everything should be the same. If we take a look at all our instances you see under availability zone you also have the name of the site in which that availability zone is located. Okay, take a deep breath, we're going to dive into the technical details. So we've been running this project for nearly two years now. This today is running in production in Huawei web services, the Huawei public cloud. It's running in production in other areas and we've really learned a lot in these two years. So what we did is we started with the concept saying we want to take OpenStack itself in order to manage OpenStacks. This is a nifty idea. It's not revolutionary, it's similar to the way Nova used to manage vSphere as a single compute node. So we have a single site aggregated and abstracted away using a single compute node. This works but this is what we've learned. OpenStack is really single minded. It was built, designed and implemented to manage a single site. So introducing multi site concepts into a piece of code that was designed and developed for a single site requires a lot of creativity. You need to take care of things like consistency and atomicity. Your bottom sites are not homogeneous, right? I can have OpenStack, even different versions of OpenStack while I'm doing upgrades, right? So one version here, one version there. Or I can use the reference implementation for neutron in one site and ODL in another. Let's say I have size considerations, etc. So all these things really require some kind of a leap. So what we've been doing in the past few months is we've been working on an experimental architecture. Now, what we want to do is to learn how to improve the current solution we have to be even better, right? It's already running in production but we want it better. So what we said was, okay, if we had a clean slate, what would our architecture look like? And then how do we evolve our solution to be this architecture? So of course, we're still providing OpenStack APIs. So we've got unmodified API management layer at the top. But from there on, instead of reusing Novine, the different components, and intercepting the requests down at the compute node, we've actually immediately intercepted the requests here in the adapter layer, which I will explain now. So what does this layer do? Well, what it does is it intercepts the requests and it abstracts away. It's a stateless layer that abstracts away what I present to the user or to the administrator and the way I manage it at the bottom. So today, if you go to the dashboard, you can see you have multiple compute nodes, right? And they represent, in the existing architecture, each compute node represents an entire site. Now, we may not want that. We may want to manage at the top availability zones or even drill down to the level of a single compute node on each site. This flexibility is important because this also determines the granularity of our dashboard reports, right? So really what the adapter is, is an abstraction layer from what we're presenting to the administrator or the user and how we're managing it underneath. So then the next part is the Workload Distributor, this piece here. So once we intercept the request, we rebuild all the information that we need. We add the site information, etc. We pass it to the Workload Distributor. This is not a full-blown service. All this does is distribute the requests or push the requests into different queues. The way we build the queues is again a deployment issue, not a design issue. Why is this important? Because this determines how many top services we have. So basically, in a very simple implementation, we don't want to come and install 10 nodes just to manage a single or two sites. So we can start with a single global queue, a single top service, and that top service manages all the bottom sites. Some nomenclature, right? We call the top service top and the bottom sites bottoms. We thought it's pretty simple to understand this way. I could just as simply go back to the view that we have today, write a single service managing a single site. But because this is deployment, I can split my requests across tenant queues and scale in this way. Now, this layer really gives us flexibility in how many top services, how we scale the top services, okay? So this becomes a deployment question. So what does the top service do? Basically, something that I have not told you up until now, when we run create network at the top, we usually don't pass it down to the bottom, right? I don't want to create a lot of resources down at the bottom until I really need them. So when the user comes to run a virtual machine in a certain site, that site may not have the networks, the virtual router, lots of things that are required in order to fulfill this request. So a simple create VM command becomes now a transaction that needs to be managed. So the first thing we need to do is build the dependency list, right? To understand what the list of operations are that we need to run. So that's the dependency builder. Then the job builder takes all these operations, builds a job description, right? And passes it down to the bottom side to be executed as an entire transaction. We don't want over the wan to start passing create network, wait, create virtual router, create port, etc, right? We want to pass once a bunch of operations to run, manage the execution locally, failure is less likely because there's no wan in the way. And then just let me know the final result. Did it succeed? Did it not? If I'm really interested, I can pull in the middle for status updates. I will not go, due to lack of time, I will not go into detail about the consistency monitor and the data access layer, but they're there as well. So that leads us to the bottom service. Once it got our request, right? It needs to be executed. Now, we did not want to reinvent the wheel and start managing transactions and job execution, etc. So we introduced a pluggable workflow engine. This can be Mistral or Taskflow or NLEE workflow engine of your liking. We don't care. We pass it the job to be executed. It manages the execution, really. If you think about it, most of the load resides here, right? So in this architecture, most of the onus of the or the burden of the work is here. And once it's finished, it can notify us of the result. Another thing that the bottom service does is monitor changes on the local site. So we don't want to go polling across the land for changes. So we've got this local service, which is standalone on the side of OpenStack, and checks to see over the land what changes have happened since the last time, creates a diff and then only sends changes across the land up to the center. Now, locally, it can do polling very frequently or publish subscribe model where it gets notified of events and then passes them, caches them and passes them on to the top. So if I now have network failure, I can then later send the changes to the top. So basically that covers my part. Again, as I mentioned before, at 5.30 today in this room by chance, my friend Eshed Galore will be presenting the hybrid cloud solution, which is based on this solution. I actually, when I'm nervous, I speak quickly. So I'm actually a bit ahead of time. So any questions about this part before I pass the mic to Pino? Perfect, yes. Okay, so now you're diving into the hybrid cloud solution. You will recall, however, that we want to manage everything like OpenStack. So we want something at the bottom that speaks OpenStack APIs. We've got adapters, Eshed will cover this today at 5.30. Other questions? Yes, I can't see there, okay, you? Okay, so this is a very good question. Consider this, I want to provision a network on one site and the same network on another site. The network ID given here is not the same as it is given here. So I need, first of all, mapping information at the top, right? Second thing I need, basically, I need a global ID saying, this is the network ID here and this is the network ID here, right? And then if I want to do L3 or L2 peering, then my border gateways, which Pino will touch a little about, need to know, what's the global ID to map to, right? I get something on tunnel X, change it to tunnel Y, then the other sides get that and changes it to the local tunnel ID. Another use for a state, so IPAM, right, IP address management. I have, in the L3 use case, I have two subnets and I need to make sure that I do not have the same subnets in different clouds. Same goes for IP addresses, if I have a stretched layer two network, then I need to make sure not to allocate the same IP cross clouds, right? So there is some state, we're trying to minimize that as much as possible because state is evil. Other questions? Yes, there. So I cannot give you numbers about network delay, but what we're doing for network failures is very similar to what OpenStack does today. First of all, no, no, I don't mean we ignore them. Okay, maybe that, that was a wrong example. Okay, so what we do is we persist, first of all persist the operation that wants to happen, that is about to happen in the top database. We are actually reusing the OpenStack API data model, right? So we are letting Nova and the other API services update the database by themselves. We are reusing the code in this way. So we know that an operation needs to happen, but in cases of failure, we need a healing mechanism, right? So we need something at the bottom, I don't have it here in the slide, basically we're monitoring and because we're performing complete transactions here at the bottom, we can roll back or roll forward to a consistent state here. And then notify of the change to the top and let it synchronize what the new state is. Other questions? Yes, fantastic question. Okay, so the question was how do I manage cells, regions, things like that? So first of all, regions is an unimplemented feature in OpenStack. We need to populate region information in Keystone, that's part of the requirements. With regards to cells, so cells were really built with different assumptions than multi-site. Cells assumptions are I'm in the land and I'm completely sharded, right? I don't have cross-cell resources, they are different networks. They're different network topologies, right? Because I have two neutrons, things like that. So really cells took some simplistic assumptions there, which is good for them and then they can just run as separate things. For us, a cell could be an availability zone or anything you want. You remember that from the top, we can present it however we want. So instead of sites, compute nodes and availability zones, you could have cells there if you'd like. Other questions? So Pino is actually the expert on all things networking, so I will let him reply on that later after he goes through his part. Let me pass the mic and then if you have more questions later, I'll be happy to answer them. Thank you. I actually don't touch on Layer2Gateways in this talk, but let's talk about them when we've gone through this. So it's great to be here, thanks everyone for coming. So I want to talk about networking from the point of view of the applications. And then we'll touch a little bit on implementation in Tricircle, but right now I really want to take the point of view of the application and ask, what do we do with a cross-site network or what does it mean to have a cross-site network? So the ideal situation would be that network objects would be cross-site by default and that means that starting with your Layer2 network, it's extended. It's a stretch Layer2 network across two sites. So I'm just showing here that we have subnet 1, 2, 1, 6, 8, 10 and we have a VM on the left, some VMs on the right. And you can see right away, and this was mentioned before, that you're going to need IPAM here because you don't want to allocate the same IP address as on the left as on the right and IP address management is single site. Although the orchestration, we can pull that into the orchestration layer. And then you have IPAM anyway. So that's the first thing. Secondly, if you send a packet across just by having a stretch Layer2, you hit the port level firewall, the neutron security group. Now, are the rules in that security group configured the same way as the rules in the VMs on Site2? Only if you have cross-site security groups. So right off the bat, if you want to do cross-site application deployment, we need to have these features in the cross-site implementation. So IPAM and security groups. Now, before I go on, I just want to point out that why do you want cross-site L2? Because people sometimes say, I want cross-site L2. And other people say, I can live without cross-site L2. Cross-site L2 gives you, perhaps, VM migration. And you might or might not want to use that. It depends on your bandwidth. And then you want to have symmetry in your deployments. You want to use the same IP addresses on the left and on the right, the same configuration, the same heat templates, and so on. And especially if you already have a whole bunch of orchestration and you just want to use it in both sides, that kind of symmetry that L2, stretched L2 gives you is very nice. And then, of course, someone mentioned partitions. So in the data plane, absolutely you have to be aware that it's not single site. We have partitions in the data center as well. But you especially have to be aware of them in multi-site. So if you design for multi-site, even though you have stretched L2, you're still going to be aware of what you run where. And you're going to make sure you're somewhat symmetric and you're not using the WAN as much. Of course, if we're talking about a multi-site deployment in the same data center where, for example, you have a kilo deployment and a Juno deployment and you want to somehow have them talking to each other, then you might have easier requirements to meet on WAN utilization. But you still have gateways usually between the clouds, depending on the implementation. And so throughput and latency still aren't as good as within a single site. Now, if you're doing cross-site, stretched L2, the next question that comes out is, OK, well, should all my networks be cross-site? And the answer is yes, because you want that kind of symmetry in deploying your applications. You don't want to manage different configurations on each side. That's the whole premise of doing stretched L2. So how do you do routing across two subnet, two stretched layer twos? You put a router somewhere. So here I put the router in site one. But if I put the router in site one, VMs in site two that I want to talk to, the other subnet, end up having to do a traffic trombone. That's obviously not desired. And so what we'll end up doing is using a second router in the other site. Problem solved. Traffic trombone is gone. But now we ask the question, how do you implement this router? So consider that the routes have to be the same in the two routers. What about the IP addresses? If we use different IP addresses, then when VMs migrate, the default route of the VM must change. So what do you do properly? Maybe you wait for the DHCP information to expire and you can or you proactively install a new route in the VM. So the IP addresses have to be the same. What about the MAC addresses? The MAC addresses also have to be the same, because otherwise we have to wait for the ARP table entry to expire when a VM migrates. So for all these reasons, you start to see that the cross-site router, meaning a router that is mirrored on both sides and where the VMs don't have to be aware of which site they're in, the cross-site router now becomes a requirement of deploying your applications across sites. So what about load balancers and firewalls? So firewalls a little bit easier. Of course, you want the same rules on each site and the classic use case we're talking about is you're doing DNS load balancing across the two sites and then you've got a multi-tier application in each site, for example. But you can manage your file as a service with heat templates. So it's easier. You can manage it even by hand. You don't change these things a lot. Load balancers are more complicated, because now what we're doing here with the load balancer is we've got to decide what the policy is for going across the WAN. So you may have a policy where you can use the WAN quite a bit, or you can only use it during upgrades, or during maintenance, or during VM migration. So this is why load balancers end up more complicated. And it's not even really a cross-site load balancer, because many people don't want that. You may not want that your load balancer on site one knows about all the back ends in site two, otherwise we'd be crossing the WAN a lot. So I'll stop here in terms of developing this story, but the message I'm trying to give is that if we do cross-site L2, even if we use the network sparingly, the model itself forces us to offer, from the very start, a very complete solution. So that already means that we don't have a very nice, easy path to getting to cross-site deployment of applications. So what's the alternative? Router peering is what I'm calling VPC peering, what AWS coined as VPC peering. It's the idea that you just peer two routers. Okay, and we can extend this concept to peering end routers on a stretch cell two segment. So the key point here is you have a choice between what you put on your stretch cell two. You can put VMs directly on your stretch cell two segment, or you can put routers on your stretch cell two segment. And I'm going to argue that this is the first step, it's an easier step to take, and it has some advantages. So, now, I want to point out that in this diagram here, you have different subnets, different subnet addresses. So you're doing some subnet management and the orchestration layer can help you with that to keep your subnet prefixes different on each side. And then I've designed this so that I'm using different slash 16s on each side. This lets my routing be pretty simple. And this is just, this is what AWS does. It doesn't, AWS doesn't allow peering between two sites that have overlap in their sort of, what is it, an address scope. So, but I don't have a pretty animation for this, but you're still going to need security group synchronization across the two sites. So across site concept of security groups because these two blue networks are blue on purpose. I'm trying to represent that we've split a tier, an application tier, into two different subnets, but it's still the same application tier. And they sometimes may want to talk to each other because you can still have, you know, for certain purposes, a load balancer on the right could talk to a VM on the left under certain conditions or you might want to deploy your migrating on MySQL or you have some storage layer or database layer synchronization or caching layer synchronization across the sites. So security groups are still a requirement. But with router peering, and I'm arguing that router peering is easier to implement and security groups, we can start. Now, you're going to have to redesign your deployment templates, your orchestration, right? Because now you have to deal with tiers that have different prefixes. However, the advantage of this model is that if we start to talk about compatibility with hybrid, in the hybrid cloud use case or direct connect, we might have advantages there. So, direct connect is another term, AWS term, it's express route in Azure. And it's the idea that at the peering facility, the customer has a hardware router. And they want that hardware router to have direct access to their virtual data center. Okay, so there's a layer three model. And I'm not showing you here that there's a physical piece of equipment in the peering facility that allows this layer two connection between the routers. But that doesn't matter because we're interested now in the application layer virtual network. So, what I'm trying to show here is that what I expect the public clouds to do is to offer this model. And that it's unlikely, I claim, it's unlikely that they're going to support a stretch layer two model. You can implement it using L2 VPNs, that's fine. But I think the vendors, the cloud providers won't do that because it is more complex. Instead here, they're basically opening up a tunnel and then they offer BGP or dynamic routing over the tunnel. And it's pretty simple from their end. And they can even give you the configuration to install on your customer router. Then very similar use case would be that if you are dealing with three public clouds, then you peer them all. Now I'm showing here that every pair is peered. Okay, so it's a mesh. We would strive for and so we've built a prototype of this where the three routers are on a single VXLAN segment to really drive home that point that you can put routers on a stretch till two segment. But the point is that you can build this today with public clouds and your own open stack. This is the private cloud on the left. And again, I claim, and I'd like to hear opinions if they differ that we're going to be able to do this in the industry on layer three, but we will not be able to stretch till two into public clouds and conversation points. Okay, now, do we have to choose? So I believe the Neutron community should build these APIs so that we can support both models. After all, we're just stretching layer two. We're using some tunneling, the excellent to start off maybe and then the components are very similar in terms of implementation. What I think will change is that the implementations, the vendor implementations will target, will sort of zone zero in on one or the other. So for example, we're very focused on layer three. We're not going to look for scale for now on stretch layer twos where you put VMs on, right? So every vendor will have a point of view on that. And my question is, what's your use case? What do you need? Do you need stretch layer two and why? So let's talk about it in a minute. Now let's spend a minute on a few minutes on implementation. How am I doing on time? You left me a ton, so. Yeah, I mean, good. Okay, well maybe pause a little bit. Oh, five minutes, okay. Okay, so our colleagues at Huawei have come up with a great design where the goal was to be as flexible as possible in terms of where, of how you can get cross-site connectivity across clouds. So they started off with a goal, try to support any kind of open stack that existed in the past, okay? And they had to compromise on that a little bit. But the goal today is if this site, site A, if the site support, maybe I think probably ML two and they have some sort of tunneling, with those two requirements alone, we can drop in a border gateway on each side that can connect the tunnels on the left to the tunnels on the right. And so we can implement either, we can implement stretch layer two, okay? So that's great. Now, what is this border gateway? So I don't want to go into so much the implementation of the border gateway, but the interfaces of the border gateway which allow anyone to create a border gateway. We at MiDokura will be developing in MiDonet a border gateway. And other vendors will have their own. A neutron implementation may have it natively. But if it doesn't, you can always drop one in. And so you need an interface here between the border gateway and the rest of the cloud. And the interfaces, we hope, the layer two gateway API. Okay, it's not exactly suited for this today, but with a few tweaks, we believe that this is possible. So we'll be trying to discuss this with the community over this week. What other interfaces? So on the north side, we want that the orchestration layer can talk to both border gateways. And we don't want the border gateways to have to be the same implementation or the same vendor. So we need a standard API on top of the border gateway. That's today that could just be OVSTB on its own. So OVSTB to manage tunnels and with some modifications to OVSTB, some minor tweaks, yes, but that could be OVSTB. And then between the two border gateways, we have already have tunneling protocols which are standardized, so that's already taken care of. So does that sum it up? All right, great. So questions, and we could start with this gentleman's question about layer two gateways or as you wish, is it an appropriate time? It's partly answered. Partly answered, yeah, okay. And the question there will be, but there is some control doing the magic? This depends a little bit on the vendor and the implementation. So maybe this is what Ayyal was answering before. Do you want to take the mic? And maybe, I mean, it goes back to Ashed's talk, which is again, at what time? 5.30 today, right in this room. Well, perfect, just get some coffee and stay here. Okay, so back to your original question. So do we have a control protocol between the border gateways? And the simple answer is we do not want to mandate that because once we mandate a control protocol, both sides need to support the same standard or the same protocol. And that kills the opportunity of having different vendor boxes, right? So I need a, if I have a Cisco box or a Huawei box on the left and I'm going to my public cloud, I need the same implementation or a virtual implementation on the right. What we did was we went to the L2 Gateway community and we're trying to push these concepts and the deltas into the community so that this will actually be standalone. You don't have to use tricycle to use this. And what we need is the ability to create tunnels and you don't need a control protocol for that and you need L2 population locally. So we're defining these APIs on both sides and then as long as you're using the same tunneling protocol, you don't need to run back and forth any control messages between the border gateways. Does this make sense? That makes sense, but the question was more specific to the previous use case where they're migrating from one cloud, one site to another site with L2 extension. In that case, they're using the same subject on both. How will the route, because you're actually routing the same cycle. So what you need to do with the orchestration layer needs to remove that MAC from one border gateway, go to the other border gateway and populate it. So there are two options. Either you come from outside and manage this with an external management layer like tricycle or your border gateways can negotiate between them and pass this information, right? Gratuitous ARP or any other way. So if I'm migrating a virtual machine, this is not something that happens automatically. The orchestration layer knows that it's moving the virtual machine from one side to another. It's a very simple matter of removing an L2 entry or an ARP entry on one side, introducing it in the other and problem solved. You're asking about North-South from outside the cloud? Yep, yep, okay. Actually, we don't want to stop those applications from running. We want the ability to run local operations, right? And have the top synchronized later. This is a short talk and I have not been able to cover everything, but really we want as much independence as we can give. If we're talking about IPAM, then we want some individual abilities in the bottom so we'll maybe split up the subnet into sites, allocate according to demand and then the top just needs to do IP management when one site is running low on IP addresses. So then you can start running local applications and have the top learn once connectivity comes back. Maybe I'll chime in for a second. So our colleagues at Hawaii have thought through a lot of this, I've been working on it for a long time. But of course, and the attitude you'll get from them because they're bringing in and they're inviting people into the project very openly and they have a great way to work together. But it's a conversation. And my answer to your question is that it's a matter of policy. What do you want your site to do when it's partitioned away from the others? And I hope it will develop over time is alternative policies where a site should just stop doing stuff because it's no longer consistent with the majority, the quorum. And another policy where it continues to work because you want high availability over consistency. Other questions? How are we on time? Yeah, we still have two more minutes. Last question, maybe? Yeah? EVPN solves pretty much all of them. Sorry? EVPN solves. Have we solved them? No, no, the claim is EVPN solves all these issues. So EVPN is a standard technology. We're talking about here deploying different technologies, different vendors, different clouds, right? It's not just about the connectivity. Does that make sense? I mean, yes, yes, we could all agree to deploy EVPN. I actually am not, I don't know much about EVPN, okay? So maybe we should talk. But I think the problem is more complex because there's the integration of, there's a layer two gateways here between the border gateways, right? So, and then there are the models that you want to use. And if you do this, I'm arguing that you don't want to have every single tenant and every single network do its own VPN. That's not efficient, okay? So, yeah. Okay, so thank you very much.


Welcome back to my channel and welcome if you're new here. My name is Jen I'm a certified weight loss and nutrition coach, and I'm on the WWW blue plan Welcome to vlogmas 2020. I am doing vlogmas this year I will be uploading a video every day from December 1st through December 23rd So I have tons coming your way when it comes to regular content such as weigh-in grocery hauls What I eat in a day in meal prep, and then I'm sprinkling in some Christmas fun the other days of the week Starting with today's video with the pandemic. I know for me. I'm doing a lot of my shopping online I'm trying to support small business I'm taking advantage of Amazon Their prices and having everything delivered right to my doorstep that I thought it would be great to share with you some items That I've purchased off of Amazon this last year that would make great gift ideas I'm going to be sharing with you gift ideas for adults and also some gift idea for kids now I haven't purchased these kids items, but I found them and I think that they would be great for kids of all ages So if you're looking for Christmas to be delivered to your doorstep at an affordable price Then you've come to the right video So before we jump into today's Amazon gift ideas give this video a thumbs up if you're excited about it It lets me know that you enjoy these gift giving types of videos Also, if you're new to my channel or not yet subscribe Subscribe hit the little bell next to it so you don't miss a single vlogmas video for sure Also, make sure you're checking out the description box down below I will link all of these items down there for you You'll also find my nutrition coaching website where I offer personalized macro and calorie Calculation as well as 30 minute and 60 minute one-on-one coaching sessions so I can help you reach your goals Hey, it's almost 2021. Let's set some awesome goals for the new year Also, you'll find links and discount codes to my other favorite things and the link to join us on Facebook We'd love to have you join that community as well I have lots of good stuff coming your way on Facebook for this year and tons of exciting things in the works for 2021 so head on over and join us on Facebook. So let's jump in to these Amazon gift ideas Good ideas for the ladies in your life the men in your life some home gift ideas And of course all the little ones running around your home this holiday season So I'm going to just jump around and share a variety of items with you But I'll make sure to include something for everyone in your family. So let's start with a little something for self care We all know that 2020 has been crazy and we've all needed a little extra self care And who doesn't love a good sheet mask so this pack of sheet masks on Amazon is Incredible it is under $10 the sheet mask pack is from a company called glam up and it includes 12 sheet masks everything from Revitalizing refreshing moisturizing and I oxidant and they're awesome I've been using them for a while and I'm loving them They would make a great gift and you can't beat the price 12 masks for less than $10 I also find that rugs on Amazon are really affordable now I know you can find them at places like home goods CJ mags Marshalls, but I find the quality and price to be a little bit better on Amazon So this particular rug we just purchased for our living room. It's amazing. The quality is exceptional We picked up a five foot by eight feet for less than $50 Again, the quality is absolutely amazing And I would highly recommend taking a look at these types of rugs on Amazon because I find them to be again More affordable and better quality for the chef in your life Amazon has great cutting board options I absolutely love the fact that you can get a cutting board in your state So I actually bought this for a real estate client for a closing gift and she loved it You can pick up pretty much every state shape in an beautiful cutting board for under $30 So if you're looking for a nice cutting board as a gift these shape state ones are pretty incredible When trying I stayed at an Airbnb this summer they had hand soap that we felt in love with we love the smell We love the way that it made our hands feel so when I got home I immediately hopped on to Amazon and found them these hand soaps are Incredible they make your hands feel nice and soft. They're not dried out like a lot of the other hand soaps They're made from natural pure ingredients. They're in a beautiful container that looks nice in your kitchen or your bathroom We love them. We will definitely be buying these on a regular basis We just made sure that we used up all of our old hand soap so that we can transition to these and again When you're buying things like this on Amazon, you're also supporting the small business that creates this item I also purchased my post workout on Amazon because I find it to be affordable And there are a lot of different options available and this is the Beyond Raw BCAAs I've talked about these a lot. So once I finished my workout I take them as they help promote joint recovery Help your muscles rebuild and retain a little bit less fluid. It tastes really really good I've been using this for years. So this would be a great gift for the fitness enthusiast in your life This three tiered hanging wall shelf is so cute. You can literally hang this anywhere in your home You can put artificial plants on that pictures candles you name it and it's so cute The boards are tied together with rope. So it's a little bit of that rustic farmhouse modern and it's under $30 on Amazon I love it. It's absolutely adorable. It's sturdy. It's good quality and you can't beat the price I love my house smelling good and I use a lot of wax melt burners And I use a lot of the plug-in wax burners And I've been looking for one that gives me that kind of modern farmhouse but also that industrial look and Amazon has some great plug-in wall wax melts for a really good price less expensive Then you're going to be able to find it stores like Target or Walmart and they have a huge selection So this one is absolutely adorable. I have it currently in my spare bedroom It puts a nice light so you get a little bit of night light But it's not too overwhelming if you want to leave it on while you're sleeping and again You can't beat the price and there are tons and tons of aesthetic options on Amazon I'm also a sucker for cute glasses and mugs and I've always wanted glass coffee mugs and they're expensive I've looked at them at Macy's and Walmart and Target and they're $40 or $50 a set And I found this super cute four-piece Libby glass set on Amazon for less than $20. I love them They're great for adult beverages. They're great to drink orange juice out of or if you're just like me and you like pretty glasses They're great to add to your collection. We have a dishwasher But sometimes I like to hand wash my dishes especially my knives and my pots and pans I don't put those in the dishwasher But I wanted something pretty to put out on my kitchen counter to put my dishes in and this bamboo dish drying rack is So cute it folds up. So it's easily storeable. It's a great price. It's pretty and it's very very functional So I don't mind keeping it out on my counter while my pots and pans and my dishes dry for the man in your life See covers are always a great gift. I purchased my husband these neoprene seat covers. They are so nice They fit perfectly in his vehicle. There's no sagginess or extra material Which you find a lot in cheaper seat covers These were extremely affordable and like I said, they fit like a glove. They have them for all makes and models of cars So again, it's a great gift for someone who needs a little upgrade in the seat covers again for fitness I picked up these resistance bands on Amazon. I love these There's tons and tons of different resistant weights They come with clips if you want to hook them onto equipment You can hold on to them very easily with the handles that are also included We use these a lot at Jazzercise and since COVID we've had to supply our own weights and resistance bands So I picked these up on Amazon and I absolutely Love them. I just keep them in the bag that they come in in my car And whenever I need a little resistant band in my life, I have them right on hand I love headbands for those days that I just don't want to really do my hair And they're cute when you pull your hair up to add a little bit of accent And I like the material ones with kind of the knot on them and they're expensive I see them at stores for eight to ten dollars a piece I found this pack on Amazon ten headbands in different colors and patterns for eleven dollars That's a dollar a headband. They're great quality I've been using them now for quite a while and I absolutely love them You can't beat ten headbands for eleven dollars My husband is particular about his vehicles and he's constantly cleaning them and washing them and vacuuming them And he uses our big shop back for our house So I decided to get him a mini shop back for Christmas That way he has something small and portable that he can either take with him to the car wash or keep nearby his car That just makes it a little bit easier to vacuum it out Super affordable it works like a charm comes with all the attachments You can even get down in between your seats and under your seats getting all the crumbs and dirt and dust out perfectly And this vacuum it works really really well And I'm super excited to give it to him because that way he's not lugging around the big home shop bag A food scale is an excellent gift It's really important to weigh and measure your food and it's much more accurate done on a food scale But I don't know about you, but I don't want to spend 30 50 dollars on a food scale This one on Amazon is beautiful. It's bamboo It has all of the different measurements milliliters pounds ounces grams, and it's less than 20 dollars It works really really well since I purchased this months ago I'd be yet to change the batteries and that was one thing I noticed in my old food scale is it would go through batteries like crazy and This one months later are still on the same batteries. It's the holidays So we're thinking about baking and sometimes a traditional size baking sheet Just too big for what I'm wanting to make it may just be a breast or two of chicken or maybe a half of a batch of cookies So I picked up these quarter sheet pans from Nordicware. These are great They're a small version of a sheet pan you get two of them in the pack They're commercial and aluminum in about twenty three dollars, so you can't beat it I use these all the time again when I'm just wanting to cook or bake a smaller portion of something I find that I need to replace my spatulas and spoons and whisks pretty regularly They just get icky from all of the cooking and I wanted some that were white and wood to go a little bit better in My kitchen and I found this pack on Amazon for such a great price You can pay two to five dollars per utensil at the store this seven piece set on Amazon was less than twenty five dollars They're great quality. They don't stain which is something I was worried about with white, but I've used them in spaghetti sauce I've used them in soups and stews, and they don't stain they come nice and clean in the dishwasher They're pretty with the wood handle in the white accent also for working out I pull my hair back and I like to put in a headband to keep the hair out of my face While I'm working out and I found this three pack of these material headbands and these work so well They're very pretty.  They're coated dumbbells, so they have a nice grip to them So they're easy to hold on to even when your hands are sweaty They have all the different sizes and they were super affordable I paid less than five dollars for both of my handweights Air fryer is an instant pots are also excellent excellent gifts So depending on the size of your family your need for the size of air fryer may vary So as you know, I have the copper chef air fryer I use it all the time when I'm cooking just for myself or if I'm air frying just a small amount of food It's a pretty small air fryer But it works great if you just have a breast of chicken or some chicken nuggets or a potato To air fry now if you're a family and you're looking for a little more air fryer bang for your buck The Omo oven style air fryer is exceptional. I have shown this several times on my channel It's also a rotisserie chicken cooker and a food dehydrator all rolled into one and instant pot wise I wouldn't recommend less than about a six quart even if you have a smaller large family So I'll make sure that I leak both air fires and the instant pot that I have in love down below for you I also try not to use disposable straws. So I had to buy some metal straws and some glass straws I use the glass straws for things like smoothies or thicker beverages and the metal straws I use those every single morning in my coffee or to drink pop or water or juice So I'll link both of these down below for you I found them to be really affordable on Amazon and they both come with the cleaner brushes to clean out the inside of this Draw as well cutting boards are another item. I feel like I just can't have enough of so I found this Marble white and gray cutting board. I love it. It sits off of the counter on feet It's great to not only cut on but also to use as a meat cheese and cracker board or a charcuterie board It isn't huge by any means But it's beautiful and again because it sits off the counter It's easy to remove from the counter when you're done cutting or to place on this dinner table with your meats cheeses and crackers And it's less than $20. I have a lot of jewelry and I needed a place to store my jewelry But I also wanted a full-length mirror so I found this full-length mirror slash jewelry Organizer this thing is so awesome. The mirror actually is on a hinge door You open it up and inside is where you can store all of your jewelry You close it and that's your full-length mirror all wrapped into one less than a hundred and twenty dollars The mirror also rotates and pivot so you can adjust it to the look that you want. I love it It's the perfect size it sits in the corner of my bedroom It holds all of my jewelry and then some and it really truly is the best of both worlds a full-length mirror and place to store Your jewelry cookbooks are another great gift idea and great to find on Amazon I will link my two favorite cookbooks that I bought off Amazon below for you One of them is the instant lost cookbook Which is an instant pot and the other one is true roots by Kristen Cavalieri It has amazing amazing easy delicious recipes So if you have someone that is on a healthy lifestyle journey or someone that enjoys cooking and trying new recipes These two cookbooks are excellent choices not to mention. They look pretty sitting on your kitchen counter I get questions a lot about the knives that I use when I do my meal prep I use the pioneer woman knives now the pioneer woman is generally sold at Walmart But it's really hard to get your hands on a lot of the products So I found my two-pack knife set on Amazon for a great price less than $20 for both knives So if you struggle to find it at your local Walmart or maybe again, you don't want to go to the store You just want to deliver to your doorstep $10 a knife is a great price and they are the pioneer woman brand I also buy my Fitbit bands on Amazon. They're much more affordable than the store I really like this particular band because it is a rubber material So it's easy to clean after a sweaty workout. It comes in lots of different colors I also like that it has the holes in the band because it helps with airflow They also have these for Apple watches So I'll link this down below as well as a fitness watch dupe from a company called vermi That is a dupe to the Fitbit in the amp and the Apple watch for a much more affordable price less than $50 So I'll link that to I have that watch. I love it whenever my Fitbit dies and I need a Substitution watch I will use that or if you don't have a Fitbit an Apple watch It's a great dupe. It has just as many functions It's actually very very pretty and it works great My husband loves football and he loves the Seattle Seahawks since we're in the state of washington There are a lot of great football or sports gear on amazon for really really good prices So i'm going to link a few of my favorites for the man in your life But also I want to share another item that I picked up for my husband this year on amazon That i'm pretty darn excited to give him this is from the brand thoughtfully gifts and it is a Seasoning set for the grill now I don't know about you but my husband loves to grill and he likes to experiment with different seasonings on steak and chicken So this set actually contains 20 different seasonings all in this cute packaging So your man in your life can season up as much as he wants on the grill try out these different seasonings It was about $50 for the set which is not bad when you can pay upwards of $5 per seasoning My husband has a phone a watch keys Sunglasses you name it. He's got a lot of things toting around in his pockets It's a wood docking station that also holds keys a watch his Fitbit or his activity Tracker if he wears one all the loose chains and the things that he finds in his pocket all in one area It's very very nice looking. It's excellent quality and it's right around $50. So you can't beat it Did I mention it also charges your cell phone? So that's really cool There's not an extra charger lying around you can use this storage docking stations to also charge your cell phone And the last gift idea for the man in your life is a hair trimming set I really like this cordless set with all of the different attachments I know that my husband likes to not only trim his hair But his beard his mustache his goatee and this set has everything that you need in it. It is extremely high quality It's less than $30. It's waterproof and even comes with a usb charger, which I love now Let's talk about a few kid gift ideas. Let's talk about all those little girls So what little girl doesn't love baths and what little girl doesn't want to be like her mom and use a bath bomb So this bath bomb set is so cute Includes six bath bombs with essential oils and it comes in a five different sense Lemon orange rose lavender and peppermint. So a little bit of something for everyone So let the little girl take a bath with a luxurious bath bomb It's important to give kids crafts and things to do to keep their little hands busy and this string art kit is so cute It's going to take a while to string up all of these designs And it's something that they can keep and put in their room or give as a gift to their friends at school or their teacher There's an owl kit a tropical kit and a wall art kit all for less than $30 And lastly for little girls is this super cute unicorn bathrobe It comes in about 10 different patterns and colors And what little girl doesn't love unicorns soft plush cozy bathrobe. It's just a great gift It's something that your daughter will use over and over again You could even purchase this for your son because they have some of these bath robes that come in boy colors You know blues and greens and yellows But it's so cute and it's a great way for them to be nice and cozy after their bath in this day and age It's important to encourage activity in our kids, especially boys boys have tons of excess energy So this boxing kit is so cute It comes with little punching bags and gloves a base and an adjustable stand based on your child's height So this is a great way for them to burn off a little extra energy And also it's a great way to get in some added activity It's about $33 which is a great deal and it's great for kids ages three to eight years old Another way for those boys to burn off some energy is how about playing some laser tag? This laser tag set is awesome It's a four-piece set that comes with the laser tag guns as well as the best It also includes the belt and runs on batteries So when the batteries die, you can easily replace and reactivate the laser system with fresh battery So it's a great gift for boys. It's a great gift for any children in your life It's actually something that you can play right alongside with your kids And lastly is a 4000 led mini drone. How fun is that? Give your kids the remote and the drone and they have hours of entertainment outside or inside if you'll let them This little drone is less than 35 dollars, which is an incredible price It comes with the controller and the actual drone. So those are my amazon gift ideas Now I could have went on and on and on this video could have been an hour with all of the great gift ideas That you can find on amazon But we are going to have some other parts to this gift giving series I also want to do gifts for your pets And gifts for beauty. So there'll be a couple other videos coming out all things You can get on amazon that can be delivered to your doorstep to make it easy And that you don't have to go out in the crowds or in the middle of a global pandemic So take advantage of checking out all of these things down in the description box Get these gifts for your husband your wife your kids friends family Everybody is sure to love the gift ideas shared in today's video So if you enjoyed it, please give it a big huge thumbs up It really helps out my channel and again lets me know that you want to see other gift giving videos Also, if you're new or not yet subscribed, please take a moment and do so Help me reach my goal of 30 000 subscribers by the end of the year. I'm right there just a few hundred subscribers away Make sure again, you're checking out the description box where I have linked all of these items for you As well as some of my other favorite things and the link to head over and join me on facebook And of course my nutrition coaching website. So thank you guys again so much for hanging out with me Merry christmas. Happy vlogmas, and i'll see you tomorrow


We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. The consent of the governed, the willingness of a people to accept the authority of a government, that is one of the foundations of our society. The American people must be able to trust their government and federal employees. The men and women who represent that government are responsible for protecting that trust. Our nation has grown and prospered for more than 200 years. In today's diverse and complex society, the government and its many activities affects the lives of all Americans more than at any time in the past. That is why it is so important to listen to the people and to act. Our whole system of government, which came up through the spoil system, causes us not to trust public people as much as we should. But I think it has to be, I think government workers have to, in general, including myself, have to start believing that it matters. I have no confidence in the bureaucracy. Well, I would just like for them to do their jobs as best they can and try and be as honest as they can. Oh, I have a great deal of trust in the government, yeah. Trust really is when you trust the other fellow instead of yourself. But the way things aren't today, you cannot trust actually anyone. Oh, they have to. I mean, we have to have trust in the systems that we've created. Either we have to break down the system and begin a new one or we've got to trust and reform them when we have. The policies of the government only become real in the daily individual actions of you, federal employees. Your personal integrity and high standards of conduct are essential for the government to function effectively. Federal employees must work for all of the people with fairness and impartiality that is beyond all appearance of impropriety. The tradition of public trust, as old as our nation, is a high honor which begins anew as each federal employee assumes his or her public responsibilities. Can I take this obligation freely? Without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion? How about it? I can't, Tim. I'm too busy. It's the end of the fiscal year. Tim, these shirts really worked out well today. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Listen, I'll try and get a better size next time.  Oh, by the way, I wanted to tell you, I really appreciated using your cottage last weekend. Debbie really loved it, and I got to take my son fishing for the first time. It was really great. Hey, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Look, feel free to use it any time. Thank you. Hey, that is really sharp. What is that, another new suit? Ed is about to be caught in a difficult position between his responsibility as a federal employee and his desire to help a friend in a jam. Hey, you got a couple minutes now. Maybe I could talk to you. It's kind of important. Gee, Tim, I don't know. I'm in a hell of a bind today. You don't know all the juggling that I had to do just to come to play basketball. Just, you know, a couple minutes, round two. Well, like I said, I'm really busy, but for you, Tim, I'll try. Hey, great. Come on, let's go. Hi, Tim. Hi, Sally. Come on, you sure look great today. That's a great outfit. Thank you. I just came by to see Ed for a few minutes. Oh, he's in having lunch. Let me bust him. Hey, don't bother. I'll just go in. He's expecting it. Okay, fine. Yeah. Hi, Tim. Come on in. Have a seat. Thanks. Oh, got enough of these? Are you kidding? Look at this. I'm just trying to take care of my people, you know. Thanks. Okay, what was so important that you just had to see me today? Well, this... Tim works for Superbow, a large contractor. He has a proposition for his old friend Ed, who is a government program officer. He knows that the fiscal year is drawing to a close and remembers from working with Ed and the government that new ideas always sell better at the end of the year. Listen, I'm coming to you as a friend. I need your help this time. I know this morning when we talked, it looked like things were going great for me. But let me tell you, things are slipping. My contracts are not coming in. My charts are on the downswing. And if I don't get your help, that's why I came to you as a friend. You know, I know you got the money, and if anybody's got it, you got the power to do something about it. Come on, Tim. Don't put me on the spot. You know I don't have that kind of power. But this is Tim. You know me. You know I'll deliver a quality product. Look, here's the way we can do it. You submit a sole source contract. All right. We'll come in really low. Then we can make our real money later on on the contract modifications. Look, Tim, you're really putting me on the spot. Look, I'll see what I can do, but I really can't promise you anything. Hi, this is Ed. Is that requisition I sent to you ready yet? It's been about a week, hasn't it? Oh, he is. Thank you. Oh, Bernie, come on in. Have a seat. Thanks. What's up, Bernie? Ed, I just wanted to come tell you personally before the memo got to you. I'm not going to be able to approve your requisition. Why not? Ed, I've given it every possible benefit of a doubt. But this requisition's a real turkey. How did you ever expect it to go to Super Bowl anyway? They've done great work on the big contracts they've had, but now they want to shift into something they haven't even done before. But Bernie, it'll give them a chance to expand their market. Not through Uncle Sam. Not if I have anything to do about it. I just don't understand it, Ed. It's a waste of money. Besides, it wasn't even in your budget for this year. Why the change? Look, Bernie, when I put this budget together, I didn't happen to have a crystal ball. Okay. Let's try it next year. But, Ed, their proposal just doesn't make sense. At least, if we wait till next year, we can get more specific information from them and other contractors, too. Look, Bernie, I've made a decision and I'm sticking with it. What do you have against Super Bowl anyway? Why the vendetta against them? There's no vendetta, Ed. I just don't have enough information. And, frankly, the information I do see is fishy. Like what? Few aspects of government service place more demands on the federal employee in relation to the standards of conduct than contracting. Every employee who is involved in this process from the inception of an idea to the closing of the file will have difficult decisions to make. Buck stops here. I'm sorry. Look, Bernie, we are not getting anywhere. This is one case where I think I'm going to have to go over your head. Honest belief in a company can easily lead to partiality. Personal relationships with a contractor may make the impartial judgment of a competitor more difficult. The examples are as varied as the contracts themselves and present many gray areas where the most careful individual judgment must be applied if fairness and the interests of the public are to be served. The personal integrity each individual brings to the demands of all phases of contracting is the most important element in living up to the standards of conduct. How is your integrity tested in the work you do every day? There you are. Hi, Sam. Thanks for picking me up. My old boss shouldn't have to bother with looking for a cab. Oh, thank you. Oh, by the way, did the model arrive okay? Perfect. It's up in my office. It's just fine. Oh, great. Sam, the Springfield proposal is the most exciting project I've worked on. I'm really counting on you to make sure it doesn't fall through the cracks. Listen, if the finished product is as good as the outline you showed me, it'll stand on its own merits. As good? It's not only as good. It's better, bigger, but a little more expensive. That could be a problem. I told you about the budget limitations last month. Well, you know how those things are, but wait until you see the plans. Okay. So, how are you really, Sam? How's life in the big city? Well, pretty much the same. Job is great, learning a lot. Springfield is still home. You know this project will generate a lot of important jobs for well-qualified people. Incidentally, there's a line in next year's budget for a planning coordinator that could have your name on it. Come on, Bob. That seems a little unlikely, doesn't it? I'm serious. You've paid your dues here, and the city can use your experience. It'd be nice to go home again. Okay. We can talk more about this when we get to the office. Well, let me show you. Ah, yes. Now, here it is. Sam, this is you. This is the new planning and development office, right in the harder Springfield. You know, the one that you're going to help rebuild? Wait a minute. I only make recommendations. The director makes the final funding decisions. Now, Sam, you and I both know that your recommendation can tilt the decision one way or the other. It's a good plan. Problem is, it is so expensive that if we fund this one, somebody doesn't get a dime. We have got so many good ones that we could spend the budget five times over. And tell me the truth. Don't you think you've got some frills in here? Well, maybe, Sam. There may be a few things you might call frills. But, Sam, let's face it. These are the things that make the project go smoother. Okay, Sam, but please think about it. I will think about it. I've got to go. Thank you, Sam. Bye-bye. Sam, did the final Springfield proposal get here? This is it. Oh, good, good. Look, Sam, I know this is going to be a hardship for you, but I have to have your recommendations first thing in the morning. You'd have to know how many projects we can fund this year. Okay. Okay, thanks, Sam. Congratulations, Sam. You've got the whole package for us. I did my best. Let's walk up and see where your new office is going to be. Fantastic. Come on. Yes, Mr. Mayor. Yes, that's correct. We did fund Springfield, and I know it's expensive, but it was a very good project. And I'm sorry we didn't have enough money left over for you. Now, when we get the appropriation for next year... Next year? There are a lot of disappointed people out here, Sam. We were really counting on you to get that grant for us. And one more thing, Sam. It looks like there won't be any new jobs in Springfield after all. Good morning, Sam. Oh, good morning, Mr. Miller. How are you? I'm fine, thank you. Have you had a chance to finish reviewing the Springfield proposal yet? Oh, yes. I went over it last night from top to bottom. Well, what's the verdict? Well, it wasn't easy, but I'll tell you what I think we ought to do. See, in this afternoon... Samantha is in a difficult position. What do you think she should have recommended? I've worked for a couple hours on that. I've got about two or three more hours of editing to do on this documentary movie that we're putting together. I really don't like working at night, but I don't have any choice. You know, the guy, my boss wants to get it done, and I guess we've got to go in and do it, so... Thanks for the ride, Karen. Okay. Hey, why are you going out with this guy anyway? I know you don't like him. Don't you have work you have to do?  I'm just watching out for you. Well, it's only for dinner. I'll call you, okay? Okay, have a nice dinner. Okay, see you later. Bye-bye. Is this the best you have? Yes, it is, sir. Then it'll be fine. Thank you. Ron, I hope I'm not late. No, not at all, Diane. Please sit down. Enjoy your dinner. Thank you. Well, it's a nice scene. Would you like a drink? I love one. So how have you been, Diane? I just fine. How about yourself? Oh, very busy, very busy. How about you? Busy, too. Oh, good. Champagne, what's the occasion? Well, Diane Simmons finally said yes to a date. Ron is a bright young attorney for a government agency working on an important and confidential criminal investigation. He is also, as you may have noticed, trying to make points with Diane. In trying to impress Diane, he talks more about his work than he should and ignores the rules of confidentiality. Job-related information often seems commonplace to us because we have contact with it every day. But it may be very useful information to someone else. I just can't believe it. Well, it is hard to believe, but important heads are going to roll in this town in a few weeks. Enough business talk, Diane.  Like where? Cool, Mr. Allen. Thank you. Hello. Yeah, yeah. Well, what's happening? Sure, just a second. Yeah, go ahead. I'm ready. She said, what? Well, that's incredible. That's great. Yeah? You know, right. Hey, listen, I'll get on it right now. Great. And I'll see you soon. Okay. Right. Bye. Diane, I hate to do this, but I'm going to leave. Something big has happened on that case I've been telling you about. Okay, I'm sorry. I really wish we could have had dinner together, but the champagne was wonderful, then. Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Listen, I'll call you. Can I get you a cab before I leave? Oh, no, I'm fine. Thank you. Okay. Good night. Oh, may I use the phone, please? Of course, ma'am. Thank you. Carrie, hi, this is Diane. Can I drop by to see you for a few minutes? Mm-hmm. Be serious. Don't ask questions. Just stay right where you are. Mm-hmm. Okay. Have I got a scoop for you? Wow, there's more here than what I really thought. Good morning. This is Carrie Simmons at the district courthouse with the TV 27 News Exclusive. We have learned today that Commissioner John Williams has possibly been involved in a bribery scandal involved... Hello, Karen, just a second. ...in the University of Pavement Company and County Bridge and Steel. Chairman Williams, who is now in the Smith term on the commission, was once a member of the board of directors at the University of Pavement Company. Commissioner Johnson... Oh, you're kidding. ...never won a lottery in a hard-fought campaign. Commissioner Franklin's left... Ron, we've got a big problem. It is important to remember that the disclosure of confidential information isn't always linked to financial gain. It can be the result of carelessness, the very human desire to impress family or friends, or the age-old motive we have just seen here. Are any of you entrusted with information that seems routine to you, but could be of special interest to someone else? Think about it. All I'm saying is, we have got to take action now. If we wait any longer, we're going to be in big trouble. We can't stop production. Once this contract is finished, then we'll make the necessary modifications. John, look at this. The facts speak for themselves. Unless we make those pollution control adjustments now, you know what's going to happen? They're going to shut us down. The feds are on my back day and night as it is now. Then it's up to you, isn't it? You know my position. It's your turn now. Your production bonus may depend on this. I've always done you a good job. You know it. I know what you're saying. And I'm saying it's up to you to take care of it. That's all. Just take care. Let's talk about productivity. Okay, but make it brief. This equipment that was supposed to be here hasn't arrived. I don't know what's wrong with it. I don't know. Yes, daddy. That's that fed. I've got to go. I'm going to leave by the side door. You take care of it. Glad to see you. How are you? Come on in. Come on in. Please have a seat. John couldn't be with us and please sit down. I just came from the river. And I took these readings. I think you better look at them. You can see they're a little high again. A little. A little. I was here last month and I told you about this problem. A little. Oh, I know. I know. You know they have to be corrected.  I promised you that. You know that. Well, it's going to be corrected now. Sure. And it will be. Yeah. No, you don't understand. I'm taking these readings back to my office where a report will be prepared and sent here. And as soon as that report arrives, this plant will be shut down. I need a little time. A little extension. We have worked to these things. I thought I gave you the time last month. Yeah, you did. And I appreciate it. It was kind of you. It was really nice of you. Things right now are tough. I'm sorry. But I've got to think about what your company is doing to the river out there. I warned you the last time. The pollution content was reaching a dangerously high level. It is understandable for business to want to meet production schedules. A lot of people could be put out of work or otherwise injured economically if they don't. But the Congress has voted to clean up our rivers. Now it is up to Mr. Conway to get it done. And that's not always easy. No, wait. I don't think you understand the bind I'm under. I'm under a lot of pressure right now. As soon as that contract's over, I can't cut. I know all of them. Can't cut productivity until then. Aren't there any options? I know about your contract, but I have a job to do. I know that. I know that. I really got to go. Please, wait. Wait. Paul, let's talk. Please, sit down. Sit down. You know the resources of this company. It's a going concept. Sure, sure. Is there any way, is there anything I can do to buy a month? That's all I need, one month. Buy? Think about it. If you could have anything in the whole wide world, what would you want?  Well, I got a surprise for you. Yeah, I know it's going to be something you're going to love. It's something we both want. No? Just wait. You'll see. You'll see? Hey, I got to go. Okay? All right. Hey, thanks, Leslie. Oh, no. Yes, Leslie. That figures. What do you think? I don't know what to tell you. Think about it. Think about it. I'll get back to you. Please. Please. Sure. I'll get back to you. Sure. Please do. I'll be talking to you. Good to see you. Yeah. Take care. Yes, I'd like to speak to an investigator, please. Hi. My name is Conway. I'm an inspector. And I think I've just been offered a bribe.  It is a serious crime. A crime punishable by a fine or a prison term, which, if proven, will destroy the reputation of the individuals involved. No matter how small the amount, accepting a bribe will surely do some damage. Remember, bribes are only offered when someone wants to undermine the public interest. Federal employees working in regulatory positions are prime targets for people who do not want the rules applied to them. Therefore, they are often faced with the greatest temptation to take a bribe and either commit a violation or to just look the other way. But think what that means. If a meat inspector takes a bribe, we will eat contaminated meat. If a federal aviation inspector takes a bribe, we will fly in dangerous airplanes. If Inspector Conway had accepted the bribe, the health of people using the river or drinking its water would be endangered.  Could anyone try to tempt you to betray the public trust? Why don't you discuss it with your fellow workers right now? Be reasonable. We're researchers, not bricklayers. We can't predict exactly when we're going to get results on a biomass research project. You ought to know that.  Look, Jim, it's because of all the time I've spent in the lab that I know that this progress report is not satisfactory. Look, this is first-class work, and you can't say it isn't. It is as far as it goes. But at this rate, you'll overrun the contract by six months. Only 24 hours in a day. Well, look, you could easily have three, maybe four more people work on this with no duplication of effort. At that rate, the university could go broke, too. Look, you know Murphy's law, everything takes a little bit longer. Jim, I don't work for Murphy. I work for the government, and that means the taxpayers. Look, don't give me the patriotic appeals. My rats can't take it. I need more time. Can't have it. No matter how much or how persuasively Jim argues, Barry has no choice. Representatives of both the university and the government understood the specifications, terms, and delivery schedule when the contract was signed. By insisting on adherence to the contract, Barry is not being unreasonable or difficult. He is simply doing his job fairly and impartially. Two months later, when Jim delivers an excellent final report on time, Barry can take satisfaction in knowing that the terms of the contract were met and the government received exactly what the taxpayer paid for. Look, Barry, we really needed that extension of time I was trying to get out of you. But anyway, we got it done. And you know what's had a terrific spin-off within the university? Oh, really? Yeah, the Biomass Research Association wants to put on a week-long seminar on this stuff in the spring. I'm recommending you. Me? Yeah. Would you be interested? Pace 2,500.  Yeah, I'm serious. Look, Barry, you may be a pain, but you know this field better than anybody I know. Think it over. No hard feelings? No hard feelings. Boy, Sue, I was really surprised. I mean, I had to lean on him for a long time to get that contract done. And he wasn't angry at all. In fact, he offered me a seminar. He's clever, isn't he, Barry? Clever? What do you mean by clever? Well, what are you going to do about next year's deadline? Once you've worked for him, it's going to be kind of hard to lean on him. Well, he doesn't have that in mind. He recognizes me as an expert in the field of Biomass Research. And he wants me to do that seminar. Barry, I know he respects your ability. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it. I just think you should check with somebody to see if there's a conflict of interest. Why not start with personnel? Personnel? I don't think that's really necessary. Thank you very much. Thank you. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes this year's seminar on the state of Biomass Research. I want to thank you all for coming. Thank you very much. Great job. Thank you very much. Hello. I'm concerned about the research project with the university. It's falling behind schedule. I'll check on it, Mrs. Fletcher. Jim's our project manager on that. He had it in last year on time. Hello. Listen, I hate to ask you for an extension, but we need more time. No. We can't do that. We certainly can do it. After the papers I've done for you, you want to help me now? No. Yes, yes, I understand. Stop changing your mind. Is it yes or no? Oh, it's got to be no. We can't do that. We can't. You know, Sue, maybe you have a point. Maybe I should check with personnel. Miss James? Yes. I'm buried at Davenport. I called you this morning. Yes, how do you do? Please have a seat. Thank you. Well, as I described on the telephone this morning, the reason I've asked to come in and see you is the problem has developed in my office, which a co-worker has pointed out to me, which could be also a possible conflict of interest. It is easier to generate suspicion than to dispel it. Conflicts of interest can be subtle. They might be just an appearance of conflict, but that makes them no less damaging, and the appearance is still a violation of the standards of conduct. The best course for the responsible federal employee is to never let even an appearance begin. Yes, Mr. Davenport. It looks very much like a real conflict. If it isn't, it could certainly appear to be. You are right in bringing the problem to personnel. We can usually answer a number of questions, but in this particular case, the matter should be handled by our agency's designated ethics officer. Let me give you his name and number. And if you wish, I can contact him myself and explain your situation before you speak with him. Barry was right to seek official advice before accepting the outside employment which was offered to him. A course of action may now be developed which will ensure that both Barry's and the government's interests are protected. When in doubt, there are a number of places you can go for advice, such as the Office of the Inspector General, Office of the General Counsel, the Designated Agency Ethics Official, the Office of Government Ethics, the Personnel Office, or your supervisor. Don't wait until it is too late. Mrs. Randolph, I didn't hear you coming in. How are you today? Hi, Marion. Is John in? Yes, but he's unavailable at the moment. Could I leave word for you? Would you please remind him that this is the fourth time I've tried to get his approval on the audit report this week? Okay, Mrs. Randolph, I'll remind him. Okay, Marion, keep trying. Yeah, that's right, Mr. Shibley. I can confirm our Wednesday appointment. No, it's not a problem. I'll just simply change my travel orders and that way we'll have plenty of time to discuss your income tax. No, it'll be easy. I'll fly out and meet with my headquarters people tomorrow and I'll swing up to New York on Wednesday. Uh-huh. Yeah, ten o'clock sounds fine. Okay, good. See you then. Bye-bye. Mr. Taylor. Hi, Marion. Mrs. Randolph came by. She needs to talk to you right away on those audit reports. Oh, yeah, I know. She didn't see what you were typing out there, did she? No, I don't think she did. Okay, good. Listen, I've just finished these time and attendance reports and since I'm not going to be here this week, I'd like you to hand them in for me, okay? Sure. Thanks. Oh, I thought you were coming back on Thursday. Well, everyone thinks I'm coming back and I'm really not, so we'll just let them keep thinking that. Okay. And one other thing, Mr. Parks is coming to meet me at one o'clock. Um, when he gets here, I probably won't be here because I'm going to lunch now and I won't be back till around three. When he gets here, just stall him. I don't care what you tell him, just keep him happy till I get back. Sure will. Thanks. Marion, will you have those reports typed and copied for me by the time I come back? Well, I'm just about finished. Oh, I need the money for the postage. Okay. I'll tell you what, don't worry about the money. Just put them in government envelopes and send them out. Put Mr. Taylor on all of these. Don't worry about it. No one will ever know the difference. See you later. Fine. And there he goes again for another four-hour lunch. And one of these days, we're going to get caught on these time sheets. Hi, Marion. When do you want to go to lunch? How about right now? Seems like everyone else is doing it. Huh? Are you okay? No, um, I'm really sorry. Can we still make it at noon today? That'd be fine. See you then. Okay. I'm just out of it today. So, John will be doing this time. You're working on his private business or on his wife's community project again. Well, you know, I really don't mind helping out a little bit. It doesn't take much time. I enjoy it. Besides, it's usually for charity. Marion, it's still on government time. Well, I guess you're right. I wouldn't mind if it were just a piece of paper, but it's running a business. The bottom line is that you and I are taxpayers and we are paying for jerks like him to run a business. I'm not very hungry, Pam. Are you about ready to go? Sure. I've got to get back anyway. Oh, there's Walter Parks.  I have a message for you. Okay. Bye-bye. Hi there, Mr. Parks. Hi, Marion. How are you? I'm fine. I have a message for you from Mr. Taylor. He knows about that one o'clock meeting that you have today, but he's going to be outside of the office till about three o'clock. Oh, no. Every time I have a meeting with that man, he cancels on me. I have to get his submission for the budget. How's next Monday look on his schedule? Well, he won't be back until Thursday. But he'll be there at three? Yes. I'm going to cancel my other meeting this afternoon and I will be there at three. And I'll put that on the schedule, sir. Thank you very much. Okay, good bye. Bye-bye. See you. What's the matter? Walter, what a pain. You know, the budget I've been trying to get out for the last three weeks. What happened there? Well, her boss, they're going to kind of make a meeting with that man. He cancels it. He constantly making him break with his wife and son. When a public office is used for private gain, it is obviously wrong. Furthermore, it may put other employees in an embarrassing or illegal position. But how completely can a person's private life be separated from their job? Sooner or later, this is a question each and every federal employee will have to answer. Tom's going to be driving this morning. He should be here any moment now. How are you today? I'm still tired. I hardly got any sleep last night. You know, Pam, this thing on the job is just getting to me. I feel as though I'm working for a private firm now instead of the government. Everybody that's calling is calling for his business. And he never has any more time for his own people. Marion, this cannot go on like this. You've got to do something about it. But I just cannot say anything. I'm not a tattle-tale. Besides, I just can't be bothered with that hassle. If you don't, Marion, someone else will and then you'll have questions to answer too. But why? I'm not as accomplice. Come on, Marion. You spend half your day typing his papers. You're continually making up excuses for him and use every machine in the office to conduct his business. But, Pam, everybody else does that. Don't you do that for your boss? Are you kidding? If my boss asked me to do that, I'd turn him in so fast his head would spin. Oh, come on. Here's Tom now. Let's go. No, traffic wasn't too bad. Here. What is this? It's a hotline number, just in case you change your mind. You don't have to tell him your name, and you can remain completely anonymous. Oh, Pam.  How about Lashita? That'd be great. Okay, about Tom? Okay. See you later. Good morning, Mr. Taylor's office. Marion, this is John. Oh, hi. How was New York? New York. Oh, boy. Mr. Parks was here trying to see you again. You've already missed two appointments with him already, and he really needs to talk to you about that budget report. But, Mr. Taylor, he's only trying to do his job. And you can remain completely anonymous. Anonymous. Anonymous. Yes. Mr. Davis? Yes. Hi, I'm Pam Roberts. Oh, hi, Pam. I'm glad you could come down. Why don't you just have a seat right over here? Thank you. Mr. Davis, I'm not even sure that I should be here, because, you see, I'm not directly involved with this problem. I can understand your apprehension. Many people feel the same way. But as long as you have information about it and abuse, you should report it. Good. Actually, Mr. Davis, I was even worried that you would think this problem was too trivial for you. Any violation is important to us. We check out everything. Well, if I tell you everything I know about the problem, are you going to have to use my name? I doubt it. We can almost always establish the case without using a person's name. Normally other people know what's happening too, so the tip could have come from a lot of people. Besides, there are many methods we can use to proceed. For instance, we can schedule a routine audit or inspection. And in this case, it should be even easier to keep your name out of it. We've already had a phone call about this very subject, and we are discussing the direction we are going to take. Really? Who called? We were just talking about that. I can't tell you, Pam. That's right. Of course you can't. I'm sorry. I have a list of questions that I'd like to go over with you, Pam, to bring out more details of what you're reporting. Okay. Let's go over the questions. Complaining about another person is an action which in many ways seems to oppose our traditional respect for individual privacy. That's why there are so many negative words to describe it in our culture. But when you work for the public, you have a special obligation. Good morning. Is Mr. Taylor in? My name is Steve Maloney. Yes, he is, but he's not seeing anyone today. Is he taking another job? No, not exactly. Is there someone else I can speak with? Well, we are having a new director come in on tomorrow. It is not dishonorable for you to complain about a fellow employee's questionable ethics. In fact, it is your responsibility to the American public. When you believe that another employee may be violating the standards of conduct, you can obtain advice and assistance from the Office of the Inspector General, the designated agency ethics official, the Office of the General Counsel, your supervisor, or often from your fellow employees. Government service, public service, occurs on a worldwide basis. No matter where you work or travel, or what your job level, as federal employees, you represent and define the concept of public trust, and your actions reflect on all other federal employees. The government is so big, it would be easy to rationalize that you don't make any difference, but of course you do. Often your actions will make a difference. Sometimes part of the responsibility may be not what you do, but what you don't do, like not talking carelessly about privileged government information, like not using your public office and the government's assets for private gain, or sometimes you just do the best you can in difficult situations, like not trying to bend the rules when an old friend asks you for a favor. The American people have a right to have confidence in their government. This program has been produced to remind you the men and women who make up the government must act in such a way that the citizens who have entrusted you with the public duty will once again feel confidence in your stewardship. Don't compromise. It is in your hands alone.