1. The Addison, Texas Plane Crash. If you didn't know, there was a plane crash in Addison Texas yesterday where 10 people died, 8 passengers, 2 pilots. The 8 people were a prominent family here in Dallas. They haven't released the names, but I will update with names when they do. They released the names of Ornella and Brian Ellard. The crash included the children of that family. The plane crashed during takeoff of a flight from Addison to St. Petersburg, Florida. They have a beach house right off St. Pete's beach. My wife and I met them at a school charity auction and won the bid for their beach house where we are scheduled to stay on the 28th of this month (pretty sure that's out the window, but a small meaningless issue in the grandeur scheme). It's a tragic situation, the whole family has perished (not the grandma, but her kids and grandkids). It just sucks. Now, those who know me, know that I am not really that emotional and more for comedic approach and I don't show much emotion and am known to make jokes Too Soon when stuff like this happens. So of course I made some light jokes with a core groups of friends. The ladies were not pleased when they heard. This was before I heard the kids were on the plane, at first we were told it was just adults. I didn't make jokes in front of anyone who knew them. I did it with some dads whom I am friends with and was drinking beer with them. What are your thoughts on jokes, depends on the situation, it's never appropriate, or you are just concerned about my beach house plans now?
2. Trump's Asian tour: Trump took a pause with China. The market reacts positively, etc. I don't really understand the market's move. With this pause, there isn't an end in sight. Secondly, with the market move up, the rate cut by the fed looks less likely. Further, Trump loses negotiating leverage the closer we get to re-election. Then Trump went and met Kim Jong Un at JSA in the DMZ (lots of abbreviations there, look it up). Trump took a step into North Korea. Now, as expected, both political sides are responding accordingly. The hypocrisy drives me nuts. My thoughts are, this is good. The situation in North Korea doesn't get better and people continue to suffer and starve as long as Kim Jong Un keeps this up and sanctions are in place. Refusing to meet or negotiate with him because that legitimizes him does no good for anyone (as we can tell from the past 50 years). I always thought Ron Paul had a great approach on diplomacy through trade. You give people something, they are more likely to act appropriately if they can lose that thing. I don't think Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize though and I don't think he would unless he gets some sort of deal. Obama didn't deserve his peace prize when he got it, but probably did when he secured Iran Nuclear Deal. All in all, Trump had a pretty good week abroad for the country and the world. But ofcourse, Dems pounce. They are right that GOP would criticize Obama for doing the same thing. But then show your self to be the bigger person and don't be like the GOP, oh wait, you can't.
3. Antifa protests, attacks in Portland. What a cluster? This past weekend, there was a march where a conservative journalist was brutally attacked by Antifa group while he was covering march. Sorry about using a conservative citation here, but couldn't find article on CNN, ABCNews, etc. Now, I will have Jake Tapper and Brian Stelter for at least addressing this and calling it what it is, ridiculous. For the record, Ngo wasn't the only person assaulted who wasn't causing problems. Also, the whole mob wasn't bad, there were heroes. You can see in a couple of the assault videos that there are people who try to protect Ngo after the assaults start. Now I believe that people have a right to protest, peacefully. Violence is a problem. I expect this to end with gun shots at some point, because when you are faced against a mob, your fists cannot protect you. I don't know what the gun laws are in portland, but sooner or later, the violence will escalate.
4. Independence Day Military Parade. WTF. Trump does really want to be a dictator. I agree with supporting your troops, but showing off Tanks doesn't really do that. This is a complete waste of time and money.
5. 2020 update: Post Debate edition. Kamala rises, Biden falters, Pete raises the money ($24M in Q2). Bernie is softening, Liz is stealing his thunder, Yang gets not mic time.
In all honesty, I think if HRC was running, she would be in the lead. Which is crazy.
2. Trump's Asian tour: Trump took a pause with China. The market reacts positively, etc. I don't really understand the market's move. With this pause, there isn't an end in sight. Secondly, with the market move up, the rate cut by the fed looks less likely. Further, Trump loses negotiating leverage the closer we get to re-election. Then Trump went and met Kim Jong Un at JSA in the DMZ (lots of abbreviations there, look it up). Trump took a step into North Korea. Now, as expected, both political sides are responding accordingly. The hypocrisy drives me nuts. My thoughts are, this is good. The situation in North Korea doesn't get better and people continue to suffer and starve as long as Kim Jong Un keeps this up and sanctions are in place. Refusing to meet or negotiate with him because that legitimizes him does no good for anyone (as we can tell from the past 50 years). I always thought Ron Paul had a great approach on diplomacy through trade. You give people something, they are more likely to act appropriately if they can lose that thing. I don't think Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize though and I don't think he would unless he gets some sort of deal. Obama didn't deserve his peace prize when he got it, but probably did when he secured Iran Nuclear Deal. All in all, Trump had a pretty good week abroad for the country and the world. But ofcourse, Dems pounce. They are right that GOP would criticize Obama for doing the same thing. But then show your self to be the bigger person and don't be like the GOP, oh wait, you can't.
3. Antifa protests, attacks in Portland. What a cluster? This past weekend, there was a march where a conservative journalist was brutally attacked by Antifa group while he was covering march. Sorry about using a conservative citation here, but couldn't find article on CNN, ABCNews, etc. Now, I will have Jake Tapper and Brian Stelter for at least addressing this and calling it what it is, ridiculous. For the record, Ngo wasn't the only person assaulted who wasn't causing problems. Also, the whole mob wasn't bad, there were heroes. You can see in a couple of the assault videos that there are people who try to protect Ngo after the assaults start. Now I believe that people have a right to protest, peacefully. Violence is a problem. I expect this to end with gun shots at some point, because when you are faced against a mob, your fists cannot protect you. I don't know what the gun laws are in portland, but sooner or later, the violence will escalate.
4. Independence Day Military Parade. WTF. Trump does really want to be a dictator. I agree with supporting your troops, but showing off Tanks doesn't really do that. This is a complete waste of time and money.
5. 2020 update: Post Debate edition. Kamala rises, Biden falters, Pete raises the money ($24M in Q2). Bernie is softening, Liz is stealing his thunder, Yang gets not mic time.
- On Kamala, I thought her attack on Joe was fake, pre-planned, and ruthless, however, she had to do it. Her candidacy was treading water and about to drown. She need to make a big move and she did. Biden didn't respond well. He made it worse by conceding to time at the end. In the end, I am interested to see what happens to Kamala here. Did she help herself or did she just ruin Biden? I f you recall, I think Christi went after Rubio and basically knocked themselves both out of the race in the end. Kamala was treading water. It is hard to believe that this launches her candidacy. Maybe though, it gives her enough to survive long enough to slowly build momentum. We are a long ways from Iowa and Kamala aint winning Iowa.
- Biden really needed to do better and now I think he is turning into more of Jeb Bush primary candidate. He needs to get back to challenging Trump to a fight.
- On Warren, she really had every opportunity to shine and she did. She has a great campaign fight trademark #shepersisted, but doesn't use it enough.
- Bernie needs something now or he will just sit at his 18% or so. He is losing momentum.
- Mayor Pete does a nice reset. He seemed like a somewhat reasonable person up there. He raised a ton of money.
In all honesty, I think if HRC was running, she would be in the lead. Which is crazy.
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