Donald Trump = Cher Horowitz = Clueless and Sunday Stuff
It is true that Donald Trump's wife Melania is a "total Betty." But that isn't the reason for the comparison between the #LiarInChief and one of the most clueless characters in film history. The reason for articulating that Mr. Trump is utterly clueless because of the White House's response to criticism of its decision to continue with Monday's schedule summit between Mr. Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin; in spite of the indictment of 12 Russian intelligence operatives on July 13, 2018. The operatives are alleged to have been involved in hacking the Democratic National Committee servers and releasing the stolen information; possibly to Wikileaks. The 12 people indicted may never face justice in the U.S.
The White House response to the indictments made three points.
"There is no allegation in this indictment that Americans knew that they were corresponding with Russians."
"There is no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime."
"There is no allegation that the conspiracy changed the vote count of affected the election result."
All true. And all irrelevant to the fact that in spite of his denials, Vladimir Putin was involved in attempting to prevent Hillary Clinton from being elected president. Irrelevant to the fact that Russia did in fact meddle in the 2016 presidential election.
Donald Trump likes to point out that the U.S. has meddled in the elections of other nations. That is also true. And also irrelevant. That we have done it does not make it right. I'm sure that if the Japanese public were to have learned about U.S. meddling in their elections in the 1950s and 1960s, they would be outraged. That the U.S. was doing it in the battle against communism does not excuse it, but it does put it in context. We didn't meddle in an election in Honduras in 2009 but Hillary Clinton has admitted that the U.S. did work to keep Manuel Zelaya from returning to Honduras after he was ousted in a coup. Her comments on that series of events was omitted from the paperback version of her memoir, Hard Choices.
The fact that the U.S. (and Russia) have meddled in roughly 1 in 9 competitive elections between the end of World War II and the year 2000 does not excuse Russia meddling in our 2016 presidential elections.
The fact that the U.S. (and Russia) have meddled in roughly 1 in 9 competitive elections between the end of World War II and the year 2000 does not excuse Russia meddling in our 2016 presidential elections.
Mr. Trump should not be meeting with Mr. Putin on Monday. He should especially not be meeting with him in secret.
* * *
One morning this past week I had to go out earlier than usual to run an errand. I was taken aback a bit by the number of people out running at that hour. As I drove I thought back to my days as a runner. Not that fateful day when I ran for hours to lose enough weight to be allowed to depart Los Angeles for Air Force basic training. The days when I got up early and went to the gym to run on a treadmill before work. When I got up early on weekend mornings to run road races. Funny how I'd do almost all of my training runs indoors but loved running outdoor road races. I knew I'd never win any awards and I didn't care. For me, the victory was getting from the starting line to the finish line.
I obviously can't take up running. I suppose I could, but running half a block and having to walk back gasping for air in spite of the oxygen tank strapped to me doesn't seem like a productive activity. Maybe I can find a stationary bike to ride. When they had me take a fitness test on a stationary bike at the VA some time ago, I could have ridden all day. I was amused at the reaction of the doctor overseeing the test. She expected my blood pressure to be going up. It went lower. I guess that riding so many thousands of miles over the 1990s and early 2000s had something to do with that.
I'm working three days a week for the moment in what the company calls the "pre-season." I guess it makes sense to call it that, since once tax season ends, the following period is the time before the next tax season. I preferred it when they called it the "off-season."
The work schedule will change next month though. I start teaching the second weekend of August. The teaching load will get heavier in September but unlike prior years, it will lighten up considerably by the end of September. The company is focusing on delivering more of the required continuing education in the virtual classroom and by using web-based self-study courses. In the past, the state-level courses were offered in both web-based and instructor-led classes in a physical classroom. This year they are only being offered in the web-based environment.
I think that the optimal educational experience for continuing education for tax professionals is in the physical classroom. It allows the instructor to interact with the students while they are using the software to actually prepare case-study returns. This can't be done in the virtual environment. A virtual instructor can't "over-the-shoulder" observe what a student is doing. In the virtual environment, a student can't ask questions of the instructor while doing case-studies.
But the reality is that it costs less to deliver training online.
I did get out the door on Sunday morning. Went and saw two movies. Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Skyscraper.
* * *
California's senior senator Dianne Feinstein is running for a fifth term. She won a special election to the U.S. Senate in 1992. She was elected to her first full term in 1994. She defeated her only serious challenger in the Democratic party in the recent primary, Kevin de Leon, by a vote of 44% to 11%. Hell, he couldn't even win the race in his own district.
Which makes it very interesting that this weekend, the state Democratic Party chose to endorse Kevin de Leon rather than Dianne Feinstein. The L.A. Times suggests that this is due to Bernie Sanders supporters and younger, more liberal party members who have taken over the party's executive leadership. It is also suggested that Mr. de Leon does better with the party leadership because he spends the bulk of his time in and around them in Northern California.
That may be the case. But it also illustrates the schism between the liberal and moderate factions within the party. A schism that threatens the party's ability to unite behind any candidate facing off against Donald Trump in the 2020 general election.
How to bridge that gap is the big question.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Hulk Hogan is back in the WWE Hall of Fame. He keeps insisting that his racist rant doesn't represent who he is as a person. Why is it that people say things that don't represent who they are?
Former NHL goalie Ray Emery died at the age of 35, apparently from drowning. Very sad.
July 29th on Comedy Central. Bruce Willis is roasted on Comedy Central. Tune in to see his ex-wife, Demi Moore draw a comparison to his film The Sixth Sense and their marriage.
Conor McGregor had a big weekend. His girlfriend is pregnant again and he attended the World Cup final as the personal guest of Vladimir Putin.
One of the movies I saw today was Skyscraper, which draws comparisons to Die Hard, which is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its release. Jeb Stuart, screenwriter of the film has settled one long-standing point of contention about Die Hard. He says it is definitely a Christmas movie.
Josh Ostrovsky, better known as "The Fat Jew" felt bad that Kylie Jenner is $100 million short of actually becoming a billionaire as reported by Forbes. So he set up a Go Fund Me page to raise $100 million to push her over the top. At this hour, people have donated a grand total of $1,843 toward that goal. A lot of the $5 donations are from companies using the drive as a marketing tool. $500 came from someone who was pimping his interview with Kim Kardashian West that you can watch on YouTube.
Is the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), the governing body of high school sports in California; going to sanction "e-sports" as a sport?
I obviously can't take up running. I suppose I could, but running half a block and having to walk back gasping for air in spite of the oxygen tank strapped to me doesn't seem like a productive activity. Maybe I can find a stationary bike to ride. When they had me take a fitness test on a stationary bike at the VA some time ago, I could have ridden all day. I was amused at the reaction of the doctor overseeing the test. She expected my blood pressure to be going up. It went lower. I guess that riding so many thousands of miles over the 1990s and early 2000s had something to do with that.
I'm working three days a week for the moment in what the company calls the "pre-season." I guess it makes sense to call it that, since once tax season ends, the following period is the time before the next tax season. I preferred it when they called it the "off-season."
The work schedule will change next month though. I start teaching the second weekend of August. The teaching load will get heavier in September but unlike prior years, it will lighten up considerably by the end of September. The company is focusing on delivering more of the required continuing education in the virtual classroom and by using web-based self-study courses. In the past, the state-level courses were offered in both web-based and instructor-led classes in a physical classroom. This year they are only being offered in the web-based environment.
I think that the optimal educational experience for continuing education for tax professionals is in the physical classroom. It allows the instructor to interact with the students while they are using the software to actually prepare case-study returns. This can't be done in the virtual environment. A virtual instructor can't "over-the-shoulder" observe what a student is doing. In the virtual environment, a student can't ask questions of the instructor while doing case-studies.
But the reality is that it costs less to deliver training online.
I did get out the door on Sunday morning. Went and saw two movies. Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Skyscraper.
* * *
California's senior senator Dianne Feinstein is running for a fifth term. She won a special election to the U.S. Senate in 1992. She was elected to her first full term in 1994. She defeated her only serious challenger in the Democratic party in the recent primary, Kevin de Leon, by a vote of 44% to 11%. Hell, he couldn't even win the race in his own district.
Which makes it very interesting that this weekend, the state Democratic Party chose to endorse Kevin de Leon rather than Dianne Feinstein. The L.A. Times suggests that this is due to Bernie Sanders supporters and younger, more liberal party members who have taken over the party's executive leadership. It is also suggested that Mr. de Leon does better with the party leadership because he spends the bulk of his time in and around them in Northern California.
That may be the case. But it also illustrates the schism between the liberal and moderate factions within the party. A schism that threatens the party's ability to unite behind any candidate facing off against Donald Trump in the 2020 general election.
How to bridge that gap is the big question.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Hulk Hogan is back in the WWE Hall of Fame. He keeps insisting that his racist rant doesn't represent who he is as a person. Why is it that people say things that don't represent who they are?
Former NHL goalie Ray Emery died at the age of 35, apparently from drowning. Very sad.
July 29th on Comedy Central. Bruce Willis is roasted on Comedy Central. Tune in to see his ex-wife, Demi Moore draw a comparison to his film The Sixth Sense and their marriage.
Conor McGregor had a big weekend. His girlfriend is pregnant again and he attended the World Cup final as the personal guest of Vladimir Putin.
One of the movies I saw today was Skyscraper, which draws comparisons to Die Hard, which is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its release. Jeb Stuart, screenwriter of the film has settled one long-standing point of contention about Die Hard. He says it is definitely a Christmas movie.
Josh Ostrovsky, better known as "The Fat Jew" felt bad that Kylie Jenner is $100 million short of actually becoming a billionaire as reported by Forbes. So he set up a Go Fund Me page to raise $100 million to push her over the top. At this hour, people have donated a grand total of $1,843 toward that goal. A lot of the $5 donations are from companies using the drive as a marketing tool. $500 came from someone who was pimping his interview with Kim Kardashian West that you can watch on YouTube.
Is the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), the governing body of high school sports in California; going to sanction "e-sports" as a sport?
posted by me at 6:30 AM
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