I don't want to write about Trump and his administration's incompetency in every blog.  So I was not even going to comment on the government shutdown that is going on.  I was trying to find something upbeat to write about.  But today's news out of Wall Street makes me angry and nervous.  The Dow lost another 650 points today.  I knew that this December was going to end up as one of the worst of all time.  But on Christmas eve, when the market is open for only half a day, a big drop in the Dow was not expected.  For someone like me who has retired and has no pension from a company, the profits I have made over the years in the stock market is what I will have  to live on for the rest of my life.  I am smart enough as an investor to know there will be bear market to suffer through.  But the drops recently, especially today, were all unforced errors on the part of the administration.

A president gets too much credit when the economy is doing well and too much blame when things are bad.  So I don't think Obama's handling of the economy is way better than that of Bush.  But you can't argue that Bush was better than Obama, that is for sure.  It is also a fact that the economy that Obama left for Trump was good and that if Trump doesn't screw it up, I think the economy will be still be good when he runs for reelection in 2020.  But he is screwing it up.  The trade war, the third government shutdown, the blaming of the Fed, the mess in his own cabinets, the numerous lies.  All these have negative effects.

So today, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced that he had discussed with all the major banks and he wants to assure everyone that there is liquidity in the banks to lend to consumers.  This scared the market because nobody thought there was no liquidity in the first place.  It is like telling a woman that you just met that you went to the doctor and you have no STD.  That will really make you attractive to her!  Right after that, Trump tweets that the Fed is to blame for the market crash.  So is he going to fire the chairman?  He said the Feds don't understand the value of the trade war.  Neither do most of us.  China's market is down but that won't win the trade war for us.  When China gets the flu, it will be contagious to us as well.  This is hurting the confidence of season investors like me.   Can you imagine what it does to novices in the market?  All unforced errors.

Trump said in the past that he knew more than the generals.  He then appointed four generals in his inner circle.  So we thought that at least he will get good military advice.  Then he had to get rid of Michael Flynn.  We thought that at least he got rid of a bad guy.  But now the other 3 generals are gone.  McMaster, Kelly and now Mattis.  I guess he still thinks that he knows more than the generals.

Mattis is the last one to resign because Trump abruptly announced pulling troops from Syria.  This was shocking to everyone in the military.  Even a lot of Republicans are shocked.  This will only benefit Russia, ISIS and Iran.  The proof is that Putin came out applauding the move.  You have to ask:  Do Trump and Putin know more about what is good for the U.S. than American generals?  Is Trump working for Russia?

It seems to me Trump and his administration has made a mess of the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Canada.  Huawei is a target for the U.S. because it is believed that it was spying for the communist government of China.  It is also in violation of intellectual property theft according to the U.S.  This is not shocking as many companies in China are probably guilty of these accusations.  But spying is a two way street as Edward Snowden had revealed that the U.S. had spy on China in general and on Huawei in particular.  So why arrest Meng now?

It also curious that Meng was only charged with violation of the U.S. sanction on Iran, not spying.  How is that a crime for a foreign national?  Why would a non U.S. company be subject to a sanction that was unilaterally imposed on Iran.  The U.S. was the only country that withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.  So Huawei was not violating international or Chinese law if it dealt with Iran.  Since Trump withdrew from the Iran treaty, it has made it clear that any company, foreign or domestic, that dealt with Iran will suffer economic consequences.  This economic pressure is legitimate use of American power.  But to arrest someone for violating a sanction that none of the other countries involved agreed to, seems to me is bullying on Trump's part.

The worst is that Trump has now said that Meng could be a chip in the trade war with China.  This legitimizes China's claim that this was all political and that Meng has not committed any real crime.  This also puts Canada in an awkward position as doing the U.S. work against China for U.S. political gain only.  In the short term, China will punish Canada even if it doesn't want to go deeper into a trade war with the U.S.  There maybe Americans and Canadians detained in China in retaliation.  In the long term, China will expedite its tech advances to decrease dependence to the U.S. in such as areas as semi-conductor.  U.S. allies in the future may not want to do the dirty work for the U.S. if they believe that they would be thrown under the bus by Trump as was Canada this time.

This is the time of the year I predict the bowl results of the Big Ten.  But before I get to that fun part of the blog, I want to make a comment of Trump's comment about Rex Tillerson.  Tillerson had some not so good things to say about the President.  As usual, Trump attacked Tillerson via twitter right away.  Trump said that Tillerson is dumb as a rock and lazy as hell.  My question is, Mr. President, why then did you pick him as Secretary of State if he is that dumb and lazy?  Tillerson was a way better businessman than Trump, given that he was head of Exxon.  Of course, people had criticized Trump for nominating a businessman with no diplomatic experience to be our top diplomat.  But Trump never listens.  If he keeps criticizing all those people who left him, what would you say about Trump's judgment of hiring them in the first place.

Okay, on to the fun part.  Here are the Big Ten teams who are going to win this bowl season:
Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State and Penn State.  So I predict that the other 6 teams will lose.  I think it is the first time I predict the Big Ten will have a losing bowl record.  I will take Alabama and Clemson in the finals with Alabama winning.  Really going out on the limb here.

I didn't always agree with George H. W. Bush when he was president.   But I think he was fair minded and he governed with compassion.  I think he was humble and did not brag about himself, like some president I know!  The fact that Clinton and Obama became friends with him and sought his counsel says a lot about him. 

Two decisions that cost Bush politically impressed me about him.  One was ending his membership in the NRA.  He was an avid gun supporter until he realized that the NRA had gone too far.  The other was when he raised taxes after his "read my lips, no new tax" declaration.  He knew that it was going to cost him dearly in the election for raising taxes.  But he did it anyway because he thought it was the right thing to do.  How many politicians today would do that today? 

Rest in peace, Mr. President.

Trump is proposing a government run tv network to counter CNN.  I wonder why he always goes after CNN when MSNBC is much more liberal.   I think it is because independents know that MSNBC is very liberal but that CNN is fairly neutral.  As a result the criticism of Trump from CNN is more believable to independents.  So Trump attacks CNN because he thinks that CNN would cost him independent voters.  Never mind he is losing independent voters on his own!

He claims a state run channel will make the U.S. look great.  I guess it will make the U.S. look great to the rest of the world just like the Russian run state tv and the Chinese run state tv make those countries look great!  There are reasons why those tv channels are not believed by the rest of the world:  they are the mouthpieces of dictators!  So does Trump want to make us a dictatorship?  Actually, I think so.  Some think that FOX News is already Trump's state run tv!

So if there is a state tv now, what would some recent headlines look like?
"Ukraine is threatening Russia"   "Saudi journalist killed by enemies of the Crown Prince"  "There is no such thing as climate change--concluded by administration report"  "The CIA has concluded that North Korea has given up on its nuclear project"  "The meddling of the 2016 election was done by a 400 lb guy sitting in his mother's basement"   "GM is hiring another 14,000 workers" 

It does not appear that Trump will punish Saudi crown prince over the killing of journalist Khashoggi.  This despite the CIA has said that the crown prince ordered the killing himself.  But it is not surprising that Trump goes against his own intelligence agency.  He did the same with Putin in Helsinki where he famously said that Putin had denied allegations of meddling in U.S. elections "strongly and powerfully".  Recently he also expressed disbelief about North Korea increasing its military program despite the intelligence reports. 

I ask this:  what would republicans say if Obama had express belief in Putin, Kim and the Saudi prince over our intelligence agencies?  I am sure they would have claimed that Obama is treasonous in his actions.  They will say that he is a socialist at least, if not communist.  They will say that kissing up to the Saudis proved that he is a Muslim.  They would say that Obama is against American democracy and values.  What are they saying about Trump today?

Is it just me or does Trump looks like a weak, old man after the midterm elections?  Before the elections, Trump was going to 3-4 places everyday drumming up support for his candidates.  Never mind he was only going to places where he had a good chance to win so that he can claim victory afterwards.  He seem very energetic then but not anymore.

He missed couple of ceremonies while in France.  He claimed that the weather and security were problems.  But that didn't stop other world leaders to go to the destinations.  The guy who claims to be tough looked weak among other national leaders.  Back home, he didn't go to Veterans Day ceremony.  This is not just looking weak but also a gut punch to all the veterans who served this county bravely.  He sent Pence to Asia instead going there himself.  This is a concession of soft power to people like Xi of China.  In Asia, "face" is very important.  This is a big loss of face for the U.S.

Trump fired Sessions right after the midterms.  Sessions' firing was expected for months.  But as predicted it was done after the midterms so that it won't look bad before the elections.  Well, it looks bad now, just as it did when he fired Comey.  It looks worse when he appointed Whitaker to be the interim AG.  Whitaker was appointed obviously only because he was a mouthpiece for Trump.  But Trump then claimed that he didn't know Whitaker.  So why did he appointed him if he didn't know him?  Plus there is a tape of Trump saying he knows Whitaker well.  What a liar!

Trump took away CNN journalist's white house credentials and posted a doctored video of the incidence that the white house claim as the reason for doing so.  Even Fox News came out in support of CNN on this.  Is he so weak that he has to take away the freedom of the press?

Melanie Trump is calling for the firing of a national security officer.  This is highly unusual for the first lady to publicly call for a firing.  Is Trump going to follow his wife's wish or is he going to placate John Bolton who had brought in this protege of his?  Is Trump so weak that he can't  control  his own wife's message?

Look for more firing in the days ahead.  Also look for more blame of Democrats, the Federal Bank etc. if the stocks go down.  Oh, he had already done so.  It appears now Trump is only energetic when he is trying to deflect blame from himself!

So the midterm elections are over.   There are still some close races that have not been decided yet so the final tally is not available.  Let's go over what we know as of now.

The Democrats won back the House as expected.  I had said in the previous blog given the circumstances they should not only get the 23 seats they needed to gain majority, but they need to gain at least 30 to say they have done OK.  Right now they are at 28 plus and still there are more than a dozen seats in play.  So reaching 30 is a lock but to say they had a good night for the House, they need to get to 35 plus.  They are 50-50 for that so they all right for the House races.  They won a lot of the suburban seats that were either red or toss ups in the past so that is good sign. 

I had said that the GOP would not only hold the Senate but was likely to gain 2 seats.  Looks like they flipped four and the Democrats flipped one for a net gain of 3 for the GOP.  So it was a good night for the GOP and shows that it is still difficult to win in the red states like Texas for the Democrats.  The one big disappointment for the Democrats was the loss in Florida.  That is a battleground state with a Democratic incumbent.  They should have been able to hold that one.  The delight for the Democrats is the win in Nevada, beating an incumbent in a battleground state.

I wasn't sure how many governor seats the Democrats were expected to flip.  They flipped 7 which in retrospect was pretty good.  The disappointment again was in Florida.  But the flip in Nevada and particularly in Kansas were good for the Democrats.  The reason they won in Kansas was partly due to the tax cuts that the previous GOP governor instituted which gutted the programs.  The tax cuts did not increase business and jobs.  This is a reminder that tax cuts do not always create jobs and improve the economy as the GOP claim.

So where do we go from here?  Nothing will get done as the Congress will be split.  The Democrats will increase the investigation of Trump.  They will demand to see his tax returns.  But the Democrats need to get of Pelosi as their leader as Trump will attack the House and Pelosi relentlessly in the next two years.

Game on in two days!  The Democrats have been eyeing this day since the election of 2016 was over.  They have been more pumped since due to the actions and words of Trump.  They have been trying to get out the vote and been pouring in an historic amount of money into this midterm.  If they don't at least win back the House, they will be bitterly disappointed.  So what will be considered a successful election for the Democrats?

The Senate is probably out of reach for the Democrats this year.  Given they had to defend a lot more seats than the GOP and many of those seats are in red states, there was little chance they could have flipped the Senate this year.  I think the bet is that they will lose two seats to make it 53-47 GOP.  They will lose North Dakota for sure.  But if they lose only that one and flip Arizona and Nevada, they can make it 50-50.  This is their best scenario and they will still lose in a tie vote because Pence will break the tie.  But that will still be a resounding victory given the uphill battle.   And it will make it more promising in 2020 when the GOP will have to defend way more seats than the Democrats.

As I said, not flipping the House will be a major defeat for the Democrats even if they gained seats.  Given Trump's unpopularity, the usual midterm losses for the party in power, and the unusual donation advantage enjoyed by the Democrats this year, I would expect the Democrats should flip at least 30 seats.  A 23 flip would win control.  But to say they won, I think Democrats will have to flip at least 30 seats.

At least as important is the governors' races and state legislatures races.  I think Democrats losses in these races in the last decade or so have led to the national defeats in 2016.  If Democrats can win the legislatures and governor's office in battleground states such as Michigan they will be able to redistrict more to their liking starting 2020.  Gerrymandering by the GOP controlled state houses have had an effect on keeping the GOP control of Congress.  So these elections are very important.  I don't know exactly how many of these elections the Democrats need to or can flip.  But how they do in battleground states in the Midwest will be clues to how they do for the whole country.

Regardless of what happens Tuesday, one thing is sure.  Trump will claim credit for GOP victories and blame others for the defeats.  He is campaigning hard in close races for the Senate but is conceding a lot of the House races.  This is due to the fact that the GOP will likely retain control of the Senate, so he can claim victory there.  If they lose the House, he will say see how without his support, those candidates lost on their own.  He will never admit that his unpopularity contributed to the defeats of candidates from his party.  The buck never stops with him.

It has been a crazy last few days with the shooting at a Kroger store in Kentucky, multiple bombs sent to various people associated with the Democratic cause and CNN, and the tragic shooting in a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh.  Unbelievably, there were Trump supporters who had claimed that it was liberals who had sent the bombs to make Trump look bad!  Even now with the perpetrators of these crimes arrested, I am sure that there are still people who think these were all set up and that there was no chance that any of these bombs were going to go off. 

Once again Trump does not take responsibility for his words that might have incited violence.  I did not expect him to do so but I can't believe that he actually blames the media for inciting violence for their attacks on him.  He said that the media is the real enemy of the people.  This is the exact type of rhetoric that is spewed by dictators.  They are the ones who cannot take criticism and attack the free press.  The liberal media never said that the refugees on the caravan are coming to attack the U.S.  The killer who shot up the synagogue heard those false words from Trump and he used those words to justify his killings because the synagogue was part of a group that helped refugees.

Even if Trump is not directly responsible for the violence, at least he can do is pay attention to it.  He tweeted about the Dodgers losing the game Saturday night because Dave Roberts took our Rich Hill.  Leaves it up to Hill to  say that maybe the POTUS have more important things to think about in light of the synagogue tragedy than result of a World Series game.  Hill is absolutely right.  Baseball is not life or death, what happened in Pittsburgh was.

I was going to mention a congressional race in Orange county, CA in this blog but not the one that LBOAYM mentioned in the last blog.  That race involved a Korean American woman who is a Republican.  She would normally win in conservative OC with a sizable Asian population.  But the Democrats are painting her as a Trump puppet.  She, of course, denies this.  I don't know enough about her or her opponent to have an opinion on the race.  But it is one of those races that may tip the balance of power in the House and gives an indication of what the Trump effect has on the GOP.

The race in the OC that I was going to mentioned involve an obvious Trump supporter name Dana  Rohrabacher.  He is a very conservative Republican who had voted multiple times to repeal Obamacare.  But now with the midterm coming up, he has released a commercial where he said his daughter was diagnosed with leukemia at age of 8.  So he is now saying he wants to keep rules on preexisting conditions from the ACA.  There are other GOP candidates in various parts of the country who are running similar ads.  Of course, nobody should believe any of this.  Rohrabacher and others like him, have voted numerous times against the ACA.  Now that the ACA is more popular and its election time, they have changed their tunes.  Not only that, they shamelessly put family members in ads to show they are sincere.  Rohrabacher's daughter looks way older than 8 now, so he did not know the importance of the ACA rules all these years?  Mitch McConnelll has said that if the GOP retains the senate, he will try to repeal the ACA again.  So nobody should believe anything these GOP candidates are saying.

I have a friend who was recently diagnosed with lung cancer.  He said that without the ACA, he would not be getting the treatments he is receiving now.  His family were all conservatives who had railed against the ACA.  Now they are completely silent because they can see first hand how it has affected one of their love one.  For the majority of people who are lucky to be healthy, the ACA is a government intrusion.  But for the minority who became ill and couldn't afford insurance otherwise, the ACA is life saving.  So it is easy to complain about something, but those who are complaining, including the majority of GOP lawmakers, they have no better solutions.

I see where the POTUS had called Stormy Daniels horse face!  I am no fan of Stormy Daniels.  She said Trump was gross and had a small penis.  But when someone asked why she slept with him, she could not give an answer.  Now the POTUS responds, very undignified for his office, that she is horse face.  Does this make Trump look good?  You go to bed with someone who has a horse face, and pays for her $132000?  Does that make you look smart?  What kind of face do you have if you had to pay someone with a horse face to sleep with you?  You both deserve each other but I think Stormy came out on top since she got the money and Trump paid!

It looks like the Democrats have a good chance to flip the House but the GOP will keep the senate.  What is just as important are the state elections.  If a state like Michigan goes from the GOP to Democrats in the governor's office and legislatures, it will make a big difference in the election of 2020.  Michigan will probably lose a seat in Congress and electoral college.  Thus it will have to redistrict.  If the Democrats can win the legislature and governorship in two weeks, they will be in charge of redistricting.  There are a few other states that will need redistricting for 2020.  So this midterm election is more important than usual in these states.

The affirmative action case involving Asian Americans against Harvard goes on trial this week.  I would like to make couple of points here.  Asian Americans are the only group that has decreased its support for affirmative action in recent years.  For many this is a zero sum game where if a black or Latino student is admitted due to affirmative action, it is one less spot for an Asian with a higher score and grade.  But this implies that if the spot is lost, you will suffer greatly.  This is not the case.  The advantage of the U.S. higher education system is that there are many great universities where one can earn a great degree which lead to a great career.  Anyone not admitted to an Ivy League school but would have qualified for one, can go to a great school and do well.  Too much is emphasized on the name of the school rather than what you accomplished there.

Having said that, I find Harvard and other elite schools' defense of their admission policy lacking.  They always say that diversity is of utmost importance.  But then they admit that legacy students have an advantage.  Something like one eighth of the student at Harvard had at least one parent who went there.  To me that is affirmative action for rich white people.  So how is admitting children of alumni help diversity? I would argue that is the opposite of diversity. 

The schools also say that they use an holistic approach to admission so that traits such as leadership and good personalities are parts of the evaluation.  But if Asians are not admitted in the percentage that is expected based on grades and scores, then it must be concluded that the schools decided that on the average Asians are not as good leaders or as good people as other groups.  In that case, I would think that there is racist undertone there.

So for those students with great credential who didn't get in their first choice school, I say it is not the end of the world.  Go to your school and prove what great leaders and people you are.  I do think this suit will force the schools to look at themselves in the mirror and realize that they are not as progressive as they think they are.

The truth is, most schools are more interested to look good statistically than to really have a great impact on minorities.  Take the case of Elizabeth Warren.  Harvard listed her as minority professor because she claimed to have Native American blood.  This turns out to be true as proven by her DNA test.  (By the way, President Trump, please fork over the million you promised to charity if Warren does do an DNA test.  I am confident the president will keep his word.  NOT!)  But Harvard took Warren's word before any proof because having a Native American woman on staff makes their stats look better.  Of course Warren would be hired regardless of her race or ethnicity because of her great credentials.  But if there is a choice between a rich student that is say one sixteenth black vs an Asian, who do you think Harvard would choose?

While hurricane Michael was devastating Florida, Trump was hosting Kanye West in the oval office!  Can you imagine if Obama was hosting a black musician in the oval office during a natural disaster, what would the Republicans say about that?  Remember when West grabbed the microphone from Taylor Swift when she was accepting an award?  Obama was asked about that and he called West an unprintable name.   I am sure Trump and his supporters thought or said the same or worse thing about West at that time.  But now that West is ranting about how great Trump is and that slavery was a choice, Trump and his supporters love him!

Also going on was the report that a Saudi journalist may have been killed by the Saudi government in Turkey.  Trump had little to say about it other than he doesn't like it.  Wow!  Not only that, he doesn't think that he will stop the sale of billions of military hardware to Saudi Arabia.  I guess making money is important than justice for criminal acts.  Also the Saudis have been saying great things about Trump, something that leaders of other countries are not.

These two events show that Trump loves it when people kiss his butt.  He doesn't care if those people have mental issues or are not really friends of the country.  But people who kiss your butt can also come back and bite your butt!  Something he should have learned from Omarosa and Michael Cohen.

Kavanaugh was confirmed as expected.   But I think the FBI report should have been made public.  The GOP, including Collins, say that the investigation was thorough.  I think the whole country, not just the senators, should be the judge of that. 

Three people I used to have respect for in the past, tick me off in this sad affairs.  Feinstein, who had been a long serving Democrat, looked weak and indecisive as the ranking member of t he Judicial committee.  By her delayed action, she gave the GOP a target to deflect attention from Kavanaugh.  I think it is time for her and Pelosi to exit the Democratic leadership roles. 

Lindsay Graham acted as a bulldog for Kavanaugh which means he was essentially a bulldog for Trump.  This comes from a man who called Trump all kinds of names in the past.  Now he is practically subservient to Trump.  Remember Graham was also one of McCain's best friend.  McCain must be rolling over in his grave seeing what Graham is doing.

I used to think Jeff Flake would be a good candidate for president from the GOP.  I thought he had a good grasp of foreign issues.  While he is a conservative, he was open to progressive ideas.  He had been attacking Trump.  Of course, he knew Trump supporters were out to get him, so he retired instead of running for reelection.  But he admitted that he would not had the gut to insist on FBI investigation if he was running for reelection.  Turns out he did not vote with his conscience because he had said that Kavanaugh would be disqualified if he lied.  It is obvious he lied about his drinking and about some of his actions.  But Flake voted for him anyway.  I guess Flake does not like to burn bridges, in case he returns to politics later.

While the result is disappointing to the Democrats, they should understand there was no good outcome to begin with.  I don't think there was any way the FBI could have come up with something in one week.  This was a fig leaf to let the GOP claim that they did a thorough job of vetting him.  Even if something came up and Kavanaugh had to be dropped, it would not help the Democrats.  Trump would then appoint a conservative WOMAN, which would still stack the court.  So there was no win for the liberals in this case.

The only way for the liberals to win is to win the midterm this year and the election in 2020.  Without power, all the protests do no good.  In fact, this whole process has energized a somber GOP and make it more difficult for the Democrats to win the midterm.  Now that GOP won this battle, maybe their energy will be slightly less than if Kavanaugh had to be dropped.  All the talk about impeaching Kavanaugh is detrimental to the cause.  It is going to energize the GOP even more.  Even if the Democrats win the House, impeachment is not going anywhere without a super majority in the senate.  So why bother wasting all the energy while energizing the other side?  Put the focus on ballots!

While we are waiting for the result of the FBI investigation and what happens to Kavanaugh after that, I will give my take on the trade pact that Trump has made with Mexico and Canada.

Surprise!  I give Trump credit for getting it done.  I know that Trump doesn't really understand trade and doesn't understand the detail of the agreement.  But he did make the demand for changes in NAFTA.  Sometimes a president gets lucky and things work out and sometimes despite great intentions, things fall apart.  Like I give Obama credit for making the call to get bin Laden.  He didn't know how to find him nor how to get the SEALS in position to get him.  But he was at the helm at the right time, so he gets credit.  So does Trump here.

Having said that, most experts don't think the new agreement will help the economy much.  It may help dairy farmers.  It will force car makers to pay Mexican workers more to avoid tariffs.  But I am not sure that it will bring back auto jobs back to the U.S.  Due to the power of the U.S. economy, Canada and Mexico had to make some concessions.  But only time will tell if this worked out for the better.  Ironically, before Trump, the biggest foes of NAFTA were the unions.  So will see how this works out for Trump and his strange bedfellows, the unions.  By the way, economists also see similarity between this agreement and the TPP which Trump had withdrawn the U.S. from.  So this would be like Obama trashing Romney care and then creating Obamacare!

The Judiciary committee has voted to pass the Kavanaugh nomination to the full senate.  That was expected given that the GOP has no desire to do a full investigation on the allegations.  I didn't think yesterday's hearing was going to change anything.  I think most people believe that Ford was truthful.  But given no investigation, no other witness called, there was no way to prove Kavanaugh was guilty.  I will admit that in a criminal trial, there is reasonable doubt and so the verdict would be not guilty.  But I think in most people's mind there is reasonable doubt about Kavanaugh's innocence.  I mean, if I see these allegations against him, I would never hire him.

Besides the allegations, I also have a less opinion of Kavanaugh after the hearing yesterday.  I can understand him being angry and feel that he must fight back strongly to keep his nomination going.  After all, it worked for Thomas.  As a white guy, Kavanaugh cannot call this a lynching.  But his opening statement could have been written by Trump.  Basically he was Trump light yesterday.  If nothing else he was playing to Trump and Trump's base.  But for me, he was unnecessary belligerent.  Like when he answered questions about his drinking, he attacked the senator by asking if she drinks and if she gets drunk.  To me, it shows he was losing his composure.  And even if can prove the senator drinks heavily, it does not absolve him of his own heavy drinking.  He kept referring to his accomplishments in academics and athletics.  Again, this just shows arrogance and does not prove anything.  People with great accomplishments have, after all, being proven to be sexual predators.

While being Trump light yesterday, it also shows that the Democrats are right in opposing him with the utmost vigor.  By saying this was all planned by Democrats as revenge for the Clintons and the 2016 election, he becomes another mouthpiece for Trump.  Do you think now there is anyway that a case involving Democrats will get a fair hearing from him on the Supreme Court?  It is one thing to believe that he is an extreme right winger, but his remarks yesterday removed all doubt.

I spoke too soon about Trump not attacking the alleged victim.  He just could not help himself despite everyone around him telling him to cool it so as not give the Democrats more ammunition with the midterms coming up.  So it looks like Ford will testify on Thursday.  But the odds are still in Kavanaugh's favor despite a second accuser has come forward.  That accuser is not asked to testify, nor will any other witness be called.  The GOP is also using a female attorney to question Ford so as to not look like a bunch of old white men are bullying her.  I can understand the GOP accusing the Democrats of delay tactics.  But the Republicans are hypocrites.   They delayed and refused to vote on Obama's nominee even though there were several months to election.  So they are now accusing the Democrats trying to delay past midterm election in 6 weeks?  It is just like they said that the Mueller investigation has gone on too long.  But the Mueller investigation is way shorter so far than the GOP led investigation of Benghazi and Whitewater. 

Trump gave a speech in the UN today where he said that his administration has accomplished more in two years than any other American administration.  Yes, he said it with a straight face.  There was laughter from the audience full of world leaders.  Ironically, Trump has said in the past that other countries were laughing at America during the Obama era.  He promised that they will not be laughing at us when he is president.  Well, Donald, they are not laughing at us anymore like you promised.  They are laughing at YOU!

Watched the favorite show of LBOAYM last night.  Didn't find anyone interesting enough for me to root for.  I was surprised to see that the model Ren was really good.  Models have been terrible in the past.  As usual a football player emerged as one of the favorites.  But I think the Argentinian actor potentially is the best but I don't think he can win since I don't think many people know him.  The bachelor guy was one of the worst in recent seasons.  I don't think he was trying.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing is temporarily derailed as the Senate committee has scheduled a hearing on Monday.  That means the vote, which was expected in a couple of days, will not take place for now.  The GOP is going to try to make it a "he said, she said" situation that if there is no third party collaboration, the confirmation will take place.  The end result will be similar to the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill saga.  I do think that instead of a 99% chance of confirmation before this accusation came out, the chance of confirmation is now 75%.  There is a more chance that the two GOP women moderates will vote no if the accuser is credible on the witness stand.  So Kavanaugh will have to sweat more in the coming weeks.

I understand Kavanaugh, as a conservative, will not want to answer about Roe v Wade during the confirmation hearings.  But what is disappointing is that when asked, he refused to answer whether the Supreme Court made the right decision in not overturning the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.  The constitutionality of the act was upheld by the Supreme Court in Chae Chan Ping v United States (1889).  I don't think that it is controversial to say that the Chinese were discriminated against by the act.  Of course, to say the right thing would have meant that Kavanaugh is disagreeing with Trump that a race or a religion can be discriminated against.  I think this puts Kavanaugh's impartiality into question.

Went to see "Crazy Rich Asians" today.  Maybe the last Asian American to have watched the movie?  I am not a big fan of romantic comedies usually.  But I really enjoyed the movie.  I can see why it is given a 93 by Rotten Tomatoes.  I guess that the all Asian cast was a plus.  Although I wonder how come the father of the main guy was not featured in the movie?  They can't find a 60 plus years old Asian man to be in the movie?  I could certainly have filled the role of an old curmudgeon! 

Trump used to like Bob Woodward.  Or at least he said nice things about him.  Not any more!  I don't think Woodward's book nor the op-ed in the NYT make much difference in this time of polarization in the country.  But it must seem appropriate that Woodward, who helped bring down Nixon, is at it again here!

Naomi Osaka's victory brings to forefront the notion of Japanese identity.  As in many Asian nations, biracial kids are discriminated against in Japan.  Changes have been coming but slowly.  With Osaka's humility and calmness in victory (some Japanese call it the Japanese way), it may make changes in Japan and elsewhere come quicker.

The Justice department is coming down on the side of Asian Americans who are suing Harvard for racial discrimination.  Of course, Jeff Sessions and others in the Trump administration do not really care if Asian Americans are discriminated against in elite colleges.  It is just that this issue is splitting Asian Americans into two camps:  one on the side of those against affirmative action and the other for affirmative action.  It is obvious which side Sessions and Trump are on.

I believe that connecting race with affirmative action is not a good idea.  I think if you say affirmative action is aimed for the benefit of disadvantaged students regardless of color, it would be more acceptable and fair.  A child of a black doctor who went to a private school should not get extra points over a white child who went to a poor school.  If you use socio-economic status as a yard stick, you would get more underrepresented minorities accepted without using the word race.  In California, since affirmative action was banned at the ballot box, underrepresented minorities actually have increased at UCLA and UC San Diego, two of the top schools in the system.  There has been a more concerted effort to recruit and retain disadvantaged students without specifying race.  And that has worked for those two schools.

I think where Harvard gets into trouble is that it gives extra weigh to alumni kids who are mostly white and athletes who are also mostly white.  There is no question that they discriminate against Asian Americans if you look at SAT scores and grades.  So they use subjective factors such as "personality", or "kindness".  I am sure that Asians score lower in those categories because that is the stereotype even in Ivy League schools.  I don't believe that Asians have worse personalities than other races, so I think these subjective factors are more biased than standardized testing.

So what I like to see happen is that schools like Harvard get rid of the legacy factor, no extra points for athletics (unless you are going to play div, 1A football like Stanford), and get rid of subjective personality factors unless you can demonstrate that the applicant does have at least a borderline personality disorder.  Do more recruiting with poor students as oppose to trying to get a black doctor's kid so that he/she will be paying full price.  I don't think any of these will be adopted unless Harvard lose the lawsuit.

The Maverick has died.  With the death of John McCain, the nation has lost a true patriot and one of the last few in Congress who is willing to reach across the aisle for the good of the country.  I supported Obama but I always said that if McCain had won in 2008, I would not be devastated as I was in 2016.  McCain was an honorable man who stood on whatever side he thought was best for the country.  While I do not agree with many of his beliefs and ideas, I can see that he was always reasonable. 

As his final act of defiance, McCain has made it known that Trump is not welcome at his funeral.  At the same time he would like his old foes, Bush and Obama, to give eulogies.  Thank you Senator McCain for your service to the country.  May you rest in peace.

It is one thing to rile up the base to support you, it is another thing causing danger to a whole group of people.  This is what happens when Trump says that the press is the enemy of the people.  This is obviously not true.  For without a free press, there is no democracy.  It is usually dictators who want to control what the press say.  Trump's words have caused many of supporters to act angry toward journalists.  Jim Acosta of CNN was verbally abused by Trump supporters the other day.  Yet the White House refused to walk back the enemy of the people narrative.  Even Ivanka Trump said that the press is not the enemy of the people.  I have a son who had worked as a journalist till recently.  I would hate to have him attacked.  I think it is a matter of time before a journalist will be physically attacked.  Even if not, intimidation of the press is not a sign of democracy.

It seems that Trump attacks CNN more than the far more liberal MSNBC.  I think that is because only liberals watch MSNBC and Trump cannot reach those people anyway.  But CNN, while on the liberal side, is moderate and a lot of independents watch it.  It is those people that Trump want to steer away.  I don't think he will be successful.  I don't think that anyone who watches CNN thinks that Don Lemon is the dumbest person on television.  Trump just comes across as a racist when he says things like that.

Michael Jordan, who is usually completely silent on politics, comes out in support of LeBron.  But what is more amazing is that Melania Trump appears to support LeBron.  At least until, the White House makes her take it back a little.  Hey LeBron, invite Melania to the school ASAP.  If she declines, it would make her statement insincere or that the White House is forcing her to decline.  If she accepts, that would be a black eye to Trump!

Have not been able to get on the internet last few days so not been able to write.  I think I have pointed out before that we live in an area that is served by one internet provider.  So I don't think they care about the service.  Even when the internet is working, it is very slow.  My nephew pointed out that our speed is 1.5 whereas another uncle of his in SF has internet speed of 400.  I don't know what these numbers mean but it seems like a big difference.  I also can see the difference between here and Hong Kong where I was recently.  By the way, our provider is Frontier.  It makes me feel like we are living in the frontier that I heard of in American history.

Having gone through above rant, I don't feel like any more rants.  But  "collusion is not a crime" defense?  Just add to the "president cannot obstruct justice" defense.  Add to "sitting president cannot be compelled to testify" defense.  Add to "my justice department is biased against me" defense.  Giuliani is doing a great job of confusing and muddying.  But I think any one of these defenses would be sufficed for Trump's base.  I don't think adding all of them together will make any difference to other people. 

Trump threatens to shut down the government if he doesn't get his wall.  Again, why doesn't he ask the Mexican to pay for it?

My wife knew a Buddhist monk from Japan who was running a meditation retreat in a near by city.  She wanted me to meet him so we took him out to lunch.  While at lunch I had an interesting exchange with the monk.  This is the short version of the exchange.

Me:  you seem so serene, do you ever get angry?

Monk:  Yes, I do

Me:  What makes you angry?

Monk:  Drum.

Me: Drum?

Monk:  Yes, drum.

Me:  Too loud?

Monk:  Yes, too loud.

Me:  So you hate drum?

Monk:  No, I don't hate anyone.  Drum is a gift.

Me:  A gift?  Somebody gave you a drum and you are angry?

Monk:  I don't understand.  How does one give you drum?

Me:  Are we talking about the instrument drum?

Monk:  No, president.

Me:  Oh, I got it. You mean Trump?

Monk:   Yes, drum.

Me: How is Trump a gift. 

Monk:  Drum is a gift to me and all parents and teachers so that we can tell our students or kids how not to act  and what not to say!

Me:  I can conclude that I can never be a monk and that I can be a gift to all the world!

We will take a break from all the bad news, particularly from the political front, to talk about soccer today.

The best news recently has been the rescue of the 12 Thai soccer boys and their coach last week.  It is a great human story marred only by the death of one of the rescuers.  This rescue effort shows what can happen when countries come together to help each other. 

The soccer boys are from a poor area of Thailand on the Myanmar border.  Some of them are stateless, meaning they have no Thai or Burmese citizenship.  The head coach (not the one in the cave) was at one time studying to be a Buddhist monk.  He formed this team to give opportunity for boys who are turned away from school teams.  They had always lost till winning a tournament in May.  Basically they are like unwanted immigrants or refugees.  I think the hardship they had experienced help them to survive this crisis.  Also helpful was the meditation they had learned from the former monk student.

France defeated Croatia to win the World cup today.  Of the 23 French players, 16 are from recent immigrant families.  Belgium and England also had many immigrants on the their teams.  Many of the Croatia players experienced the civil war from 1991 to 1995 that gained Croatia independence from the former Yugoslavia.  As a result of the war, many of the players were refugees at one time.  So again even in the biggest stage of soccer, the contributions of immigrants and refugees are obvious among the strongest countries.  Even our own U.S. team is full of players from immigrant families.

I think the pattern is clear.  Success in soccer, as in many aspect of life, is accomplished frequently by those who had gone through hardship.  Immigrants and refugees are among those who face the most hardships.  So as we celebrate the rescue of the Thai boys and one of the best World Cup in history, we should remember that the game of soccer showcases those who are often shunned by people in the country they represent.  I believe that we should embrace rather than shun more of these immigrants and refugees.

As expected Trump nominated one of the 4 finalists to be the next Supreme court justice.  Brett Kavanaugh will be pushed through the confirmation process by the GOP majority in the senate.  The Democrats will be trying to delay the process till after the November midterm election.  I don't think they will be successful.  Unlike Obama's last nomination, the GOP will get Kavanaugh a vote.  The chance of the Democrats stopping the confirmation is low.  There are only two GOP senators who are on the fence:  Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine.   With John McCain not available to vote, if one of the two vote no and all the democrats vote no, then Kavanaugh loses 50-49. But there are three Democrats in red states who are vulnerable in November so it is not sure the Democrats can hold rank.  If two of the three vote yes, then it is impossible to stop Kavanaugh.  So I think he will ultimately be confirmed.

Trump claims that he would not ask the nominee of his views on overturning Roe vs Wade.  But since all the finalists were given to him by the Federalist Society, it can be sure that Kavanaugh, just like the other finalists, are abortion foes.  It is like if the NAACP does the vetting for Obama, I don't think you will get someone against affirmative action.  Kavanaugh is not going to be the next David Souter, who was nominated by George H.W. Bush but turned out to be a liberal.  So Trump does not have to ask Kavanaugh about abortion.  But I think he might have asked him about things that are more important to Trump personally.  Like what is his view of a special counsel forcing a sitting president to testify.  Or if a sitting president can be charged and prosecuted.  Or can a president pardon himself.  Those are the questions that I think Trump might have asked Kavanaugh.

Seeing the peaceful protests all over the country yesterday about Trump's immigration policies, I am thinking that things are not as bad as compare to say 50 plus years ago.  During the civil rights protests in the 60s, the marchers were often attacked by the police.  It was basically happening in the south, not many people in other parts of the country were marching then compared with today.  Eventually the marchers of the 60s won the sympathy of the majority of the nation, but the sympathy of the majority of the nation toward the plight of the refugees and the children is immediate today.  Going further back, nobody marched to stop the Chinese Exclusion Act.  Hardly anyone marched against the Japanese American internment camps.  So despite the action of the Trump government today, I think the country as a whole is more civilized.  That doesn't make the pain of those separated from the family any better, but gives hope that the country is still evolving for the better.

The same thing can be said about white Americans who complain that things were better in the good old days.  If you were Italian, Irish or Jewish back in the "good old days", you were considered inferior.  If you are Catholic, you may remember that when Kennedy was running to be the first Catholic president, there were many who still thought that Catholics were not good Americans because they would be loyal to the pope rather than the U.S.  There were drills in schools for atom bomb threats from the USSR.  Many thousands of men were dying in Vietnam, a war we would lose. There were riots in the streets of Watts, Detroit and others that made white people feel unsafe.  So I think there should be some reality check when you think about the "good old days".

The backers of Trump are rejoicing today as the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Trump's travel ban.  But while they are happy that Trump is tough on Muslims, they should be wondering why he is soft on Muslim dictators.  I have mentioned how he said great things about the dictators in Saudi Arabia, the country where most of the 9/11 terrorists came from.  He has also been admiring Erdogen, the president of Turkey who just won reelection this week.  Just last week, Trump decided to sell the most sophisticated fight jets to Turkey.  I think most people missed that news as the inhumane border trouble was going on.  Erdogen has turned Turkey, which is a NATO member that was becoming a strong democracy, into a dictatorship.  It is also turning more toward Russia.  Most people do not think Turkey is a reliable ally any longer.  Yet Trump goes ahead with the sale of the fighter jets.  The news of that sale, while not important in the news cycle here, would be important in Turkey on the eve of the election.  For now, this sale helps legitimize Erdogen.  In the future, these jets may be used against American and Israel interests.

So after several days saying that he can't stop the separation of parents from the kids at the border, Trump signs order stopping the process.  So when he and his spokespersons say he couldn't do anything and that it was the Democrats' doing, it was all lies.   Of course, the separation may start again in 20 days and the ones already separated may not be united any time soon.  But it is a start of hopefully the stopping of this cruelty.  Trump is still, of course, trying to use leverage to get funding for his wall.  Hey Mr. President, I thought you promised to solve the immigration problem by building the wall with Mexican money?  Does not look like you are keeping the promise by using children as leverage to get Congress to cough up the money!

Twitter is not a problem just for Trump.  Peter Fonda tweeted that Barron Trump should be put in a cage.  This is not only stupid but also heartless.  You should never attack a child for the sins of the parents.  Otherwise you are the same as the people you are supposedly against:  those who want to punish children for the actions of their parents.

There is an old joke about political parties:  The Democrats are young people with big hearts but no brains while the GOP are old people with brains but no heart.  I am wondering with 90% approval rating for Trump among Republicans, do they have even brains?  Trump had excused Putin's killings by saying the U.S. killed also.  He also excused Kim's killing as necessary to hold power.  If Obama had said those things, conservatives would say that is un American.  I would agree that would be less patriotic than kneeling during the national anthem.  But the speaker here was Trump, not Obama.  The GOP have fallen in line behind Trump like they have no brains.  Just Tuesday, Trump candidates that won include an obvious racist and a pimp.  Those who said bad things about Trump such as Mark Sanford lost Republican primaries.  So they are going to follow someone who likes dictators and wants to be a dictator.

U.S. border authorities are now prosecuting illegal immigrants under the zero tolerance edict issued by the Trump administration.  Instead of just being deported, illegal immigrants are now prosecuted as criminals and can get months in jail.  Due to lack of court time and judges, they are using group hearings with multiple cases handled in matter of hours, from arraignment to sentencing.  Even conservatives agree that these people don't belong in jail with drug dealers and murderers.  But they claim jail time will deter others from coming.  I doubt that this is true but in any case these prosecutions are taking away resources that maybe used for other crimes.  For example, in San Diego court times and judges are taken away from white collar crimes such as bank and medicare fraud.  If taking away legal rights really deter crimes, then let's streamline white collar crimes prosecutions and make arraignment to sentencing quickly.  If this deters white collar crimes, we will save billions dollars more than prosecuting illegal immigrants.

Unless you are Fox News, there are two ways you can look at the Trump/Kim summit:  Nothing came out of it or Kim slaughtered Trump.  If you are Fox News, of course, you would say Trump did a historic thing and should get the Nobel peace prize.  Of course, you would be the same people who went crazy at candidate Obama for saying that he would meet the dictator of North Korea.   You would also be the ones who said that you can't make deals with the human rights abusers of Cuba and Iran.  So I guess Trump deserves the Nobel for making concessions to the enemy of Obama right after trashing Obama's friend Justin Trudeau.  Also great that Trump want to bring Russia back to the G7 and that he refused to sign the G7 communique!

The so called agreement signed by Trump and Kim basically says nothing.  The so called denuclearization was already agreed to by Kim to president Moon of South Korea in April.  It was also agreed to by his father many years ago.  It can be broken with a snap of the finger.  Nothing about verifiable or irreversible that Pompeo had demanded.  There was nothing about biologic or chemical weapons nor about missiles that North Korea is amassing.  There was nothing about human rights or the Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea.  So basically we got nothing from this meeting.  OK, you may say this is a beginning and that it is great to open dialogue with your enemy.  But then why did the GOP and Fox excoriated Obama for saying he would meet with the leader of North Korea without preconditions?  In this case, there was no precondition before the summit and no condition during the summit as well.

What is worse that afterwards, Trump said that we will stop join military exercises with South Korea, calling them war games.  This is precisely what North Korea and China wanted.  Does this mean the beginning of the end of the alliance with South Korea?  Did Trump consult his ally South Korea before making the announcement?  I doubt it.  In fact, I don't think he consulted with his security advisors before making the announcement.  You think John Bolton or Pompeo would have gone for that?  There is nothing in return for this.  A total unforced error.

The winners are obvious.  Kim gets his spotlight on the global stage, in equal footing with the U.S. president.  Instead of being viewed as a murderous dictator, he was a rock star in Singapore.  He is going to get an invite to the White House.  He gave up nothing.  He gets a weakening of the South Korea/U.S. alliance.  While sanctions from the U.S. is not ending yet, China and Russia will sure get rid of their sanctions, reasoning that North Korea has reached an agreement with the U.S.  China is an obvious winner.  Kim met with Xi in advance of the summit.  They must have put their minds together to what they want.  Kim even came to Singapore on a Chinese jet.  China will be thrilled if the U.S. decrease their military presence in the Korean peninsula.  It would help China control the western Pacific if that is the case.

The losers are South Korea and Japan.  Both had very little say in this summit despite it was the work of Moon.  There was nothing about human rights and the kidnapped people from these countries.  They are still vulnerable to North Korea missiles.  They must be wondering if the U.S. can be a trusted ally.  While Trump enjoyed his spot in the limelight and must felt good about the ratings, his lack of preparation shows.  He will boast that he made history but unless Pompeo is the greatest negotiator of all time, Trump will be harshly criticized in history.

While traveling thru Hong Kong and Guangzhou I talked to quite a few people about politics.  The age ranged from 30 year old taxi driver to 80 year old friends of my in laws.  Their politics range from conservative to liberal, democratic ideals to socialist leanings.  Interestingly nobody, even in China, was afraid to speak their mind.  In fact nobody I spoke to endorsed communism.  Conservatives believe that Hong Kong's youth are wrong to protest about lack of freedom.  They point out that life is so much better now and the youths never went thru the hard times under British rule.  The conservatives don't endorse communism but believe that HK has more freedom now than under colonial rule and that protests are just bad for the capitalistic economy.  Ironically, I heard old people in China say that despite the improvement in the economy of the country, they do not forget how the cultural revolution caused great pain and suffering in the past and that young people tend to forget that!

But regardless whatever political beliefs they have, everyone I spoke to think that Trump is bad for the U.S. and the world.  Some of the words, among others, they use to describe him are incompetent, immature, stupid, and immoral.  Young or old, they all shake their heads when I mentioned Trump.  Given what happened at the G7 summit this weekend, I think the HK and China's take on Trump will be universal.  His only friends will be Saudi Arabia, Russia and some other dictators.

Most people I talked to still admire the U.S. despite Trump.  Most still believe that the U.S. lead the world in innovations and that HK and China still need to learn from the U.S.  There were a few that ask me if everyone in America carries a gun.  They don't understand the gun violence in the country. They don't understand how such an advanced country can be so uncivilized.  I can't defend the U.S. in this except to say that not everyone in America has guns and that there are many who are against how easy it is to obtain guns. 

Today I will talk about the trouble Hong Kong has with non Chinese people living there.  Hong Kong's population has double since I was there in the 60's to 7.8 million today.  About 600,000 are non Chinese or about 8% of the population.  Half of these are domestic workers, mostly women from Philippines or Indonesia.  About 10% are white and the rest mostly from South Asia with some from the Middle East and Africa.  The 10% white people generally live well in Hong Kong.  They don't have the white privilege when HK was a British colony but they are treated better than other non Chinese.  For example, almost all whites who have lived several years in HK and are employed will be able to get citizenship.  There are actually quite a few who choose to take HK passport and get rid of the passports from North America, Britain or Australia.  HK passports are well accepted throughout the world and certainly makes for easier in and out China for business. 

The domestic workers are not able to get citizenship.  They live a hard life.  They are in their employer's house for 24 hours a day, 6 days a week.  On Sundays you can see many of them congregate in parks or even subway stations for picnic and see their fellow workers.  There are some people in HK who want to put in law prohibiting such congregation.  Where are they supposed to go?  There are some liberals who want to build clubs for them to use. But with land so expensive, it is doubtful that HK government will shell out the money.  There are also reports of abuse by their employers.  Fortunately there is a lot of coverage for these abuses on tv and newspapers recently.  Of course, there are employer claims of stealing.  So not sure how it shakes out in the future.  But obviously HK need these workers just like the U.S. needs workers from south of the border.

For the other non white, non Chinese people, there are two categories.  Legal immigrants who have been in the city for a long time and refugees.  For legal immigrants who are not white, path to citizenship is harder than whites but is successful about 70% of  the time.  Why not 100%?  Not sure but discrimination is probably a factor.  There are refugees from South Asia, Middle East and Africa. If you can find your way to HK, they won't deport you unless you commit a crime.  But you can't officially work and get citizenship.  Some came with the hope of getting to a western country.  Unlike some places where you are stuck in a squalid camp, HK does provide you some monetary assistance for food and housing.  This costs HK about $450 million a year.  But you are in limbo unless you get accepted by a country.

Anthony Bourdain had a segment on refugees in HK on his program of traveling to HK last Sunday.
He visited the Chungking Mansion which is not really a mansion but an apartment complex with stores and eateries on the first two floors.  It is situated in Tsim Sha Tsui district of Kowloon which is like Time Square in NY.  We happened to wander into the Mansion one night looking for a restaurant.  It all run by refugees so it was confusing to us to go into this complex which does not look out of place on the outside but completely different than not only Tsim Sha Tsui but rest of the city inside.  I don't know how it is possible in this area where the land is so expensive but the refugees live in this Mansion.  Supposedly the rent is cheap although the apartments are super small.

Like rich nations, the immigrant situation is difficult for HK to solve.  It is already the 4th most crowded area in the world.  It has no natural resources so it is hard to take in more people.  But given the history of HK people migrating to other parts of the world and faced discrimination, it is important that they treat those who come to HK with respect and dignity.  Domestic workers allow women to go into the workforce full time and thus boost the economy of the city.  If HK allow refugees to go to school and work, perhaps they will contribute to the economy as immigrants in the western countries have done.  Hopefully HK will find humane and fair solutions.

Guangzhou is one of the most advanced cities in China.  It is still about 10 years behind HK.  There are more poor areas that I came across in Guangzhou than in HK.  The quality of food is below that of HK and LA and is more expensive than LA and about same price as HK.  The hotel is a great deal though.   We stayed at a Holiday Inn for about $70 a night.  It is better than any Holiday Inn I have ever seen in the U.S.  Plus this included a great breakfast buffet.  The taxi service is a lot better than 10 years ago and we avoided the disaster where I was stranded at the wrong train station by a poor taxi driver the last time we were here.

The bureaucracy of China is much more difficult to negotiate than in HK.  We had business there that require adherence to Chinese laws and working with banks.  It was difficult but then I guess working with American banks is not that easy now as well.  I would say that HK is way ahead of Guangzhou in finance and banking.  I know that China eventually want the financial center to be Shanghai.  But by talking on the phone with banker in Shanghai, it does not appear that they are up to par with Hk yet.  But maybe they will catch up in the next 10 years.

We did have a free day so we went to my wife's mother and my own ancestral villages in Taishan.  Taishan itself is modernized and so there is a nice highway going from Guangzhou to Taishan.  It took about 2 hours on the highway with a stop at a nice, large rest stop along the way.  So that part of travel was painless.  Once you get to Taishan, the task to find the right village gets more difficult.  Even with GPS, a good driver and stopping to ask people, it was difficult.  There are no accurate addresses and English and Chinese translations of names often don't match.  Seems like all the villages look the same with a huge entrance and a huge courtyard.  Both villages had a courtyard with a basketball court.  I believe that those, along with a narrow road leading from the main road to the village entrance, are built with money donated by oversea Chinese.  My mother in law said that years ago all those areas along with the road would just be dirt and mud.

The houses in both villages are old and not in good shape.  Except the house that my father built in the 1980s to replace our original ancestral home.  That was by far, the newest house in both villages.  In both villages we were greeted by only a few people.  Most of the villages are empty because young adults have moved to the cities for work.  The few old people are taking care of few young kids in the villages.  The fields, which look better than expected, were leased to northerners who migrated to Taishan villages.  So Taishan people, who used to be one of the poorest people in China, are now landlords!  But obviously, even though the draw to move to other countries or HK isn't as big now, the population of the villages are declining as opportunities in the cities are greater.

The old theory of parents "eating bitterness" to improve the prospects of children is long ingrained in Chinese people.  That is one reason why people move out of the country and away from the family.  The next generation of these immigrants seemed to have done well in the past.  But recent studies in China and Hk seem to say that people leaving the villages to work in the cities leaving children behind to be taken care of by grandparents, have not seen success with their children.  Such children left behind, partly because they couldn't go to schools in the cities due to crazy residency laws, have been found to have high drop out rates and depression.  They ended up just as poor as their parents were when the parents were young despite the rise of Chinese economy.  So if the government change rules and allow people to bring the kids with them to the cities, it would mean more over population of the cities and demise of the villages!

Just returned from a trip to Hong Kong and Guangzhou.   Record high temperatures while I was there so it was quite miserable walking around both cities.  I am impressed by the progress each city has made every time I go there.  I will talk about the experience I had in Hong Kong today.

While our infrastructure is crumbling, Hong Kong continues to improve everything.  We never waited for more than couple of minutes for a subway train.  The stations and the trains are clean with great air conditioning.  They are very crowded but the riders all behave in good manner.  All the buses are new and no foul smell smoke coming out of the exhausts.  Internet connections are free everywhere.  Museums are free for all Hong Kong citizens.  We were waved thru despite being foreigners (I guess we still look like Chinese).

There are drawbacks living in Hong Kong, of course.  It is under China control despite being a special administrated area.  The people are not afraid to speak their mind, however.  In the crowded Central District we came across a man standing there singing.  We thought he was a street performer trying to get money.  Turned out he was Ng Siu Hong of the Democratic party running for a legislative seat.  He was not afraid to sing and give a speech about freedom in the middle of the busiest part of the city.  Despite without any natural resources, despite not having total freedom under both Britain and China, Hong Kong people have prospered.  Trump would have described Hong Kong as a shithole fifty years ago.  But if I were to start a country, I would take the people of Hong Kong over the people who backed Trump any time!

A few days ago Trump greeted the three Korean Americans released by North Korea as their plane landed.  It made for a great photo and tv op for Trump.  He even said that is the all time high rating for 3 a.m.  He maybe right about that.  At least one of the man required an interpreter when answering questions from the media and talking with Trump.  I think Trump is thinking:  I thought the prisoners were Americans!  It didn't matter, he will take any victory at this point.

This shows that Kim, like most dictators, are rational and cunning.  He did not change from a man who killed his uncle and brother and many of his countryman to a man who releases prisoners because he is compassionate.  He knows that Trump likes to be praised and get big ratings, so he gave him those.  Noticed the support Trump gave Saudi Arabia after he was lavished with praise when visiting there.  Kim, rightly believes, that he will get a better deal if he makes Trump look good.   He will promise to get rid of the nuclear program in exchange for rid of sanctions and get economic help.  But he will never really give up his nukes.

Kim won't give up his nukes because it is his only assurance for survival.  No country has ever given nuclear weapons after it has fully developed them.  After Trump backed out of the Iran deal, Kim will never trust the U.S. on any deal.  He will try to get as much as possible and may stop the nuclear program for awhile, but he will never give it up.  There maybe a deal between the U.S. and North Korea after Trump and Kim meet.  But the deal will not be as good as the Iran deal.  But Trump will claim victory no matter what.

An U.S. trade delegation led by Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin just returned from China.  There was apparently no agreement which was expected given the American side made demands as if China was a small nation under the American thumb.  For example, the U.S. demand that China unilaterally cut the trade surplus with the U.S. by $200 billion which is more than half of the surplus.  There was demand that China stopped its support of Xi Jinping's Made in China 2025 industry policy.  The U.S. also demanded that China cannot retaliate or sue the U.S. for slapping tariffs or investment restrictions on China.  Those are all absurd demands that no nation would kowtow to.  Given the history of Chinese humiliation at the hands of western nations with unequal treaties and the rise of China to big power status now, China would consider these demands to be insults if not something to be laughed at. 

I think this is just typical of Trump playing to his base.  Just like saying Mexico will pay for the wall when no nation would do that.  But is his base calling him out on that?  He also promised to label China a currency manipulator as soon as he took office.  But he did not and his base did not call him out on it.  So these demands will not be met by China and the base will not call him out on it.  The risk here is that we will go to a trade war with China.  I think Trump will pull back from the blink, at least his advisors will tell him to.  But if he doesn't, and a trade war happens, his base will call him out on THAT because they will be hurt in the pocket for sure.

The attendees at the NRA convention speech by Trump were not allowed to carry guns into the hall.  I thought Trump and the NRA believe that the more people carry guns, the safer it is?  The NRA respond to this irony by saying that it is the Secret Service who made the rules of no guns.  You mean Trump could not tell the Secret Service to allow guns?  You mean the Secret Service believe it is safer that everyone do not carry guns, contrary to Trump and the NRA?   Doesn't the NRA always rail against government interference on their Second Amendment rights?  How come there is no massive protests against the Secret Service at the convention?

Watched the documentary "Abacus" on Netflix last night.  I am surprised that I didn't learn about it sooner, given that it was nominated for an Oscar.  It is the real story of a small Chinese owned bank in Chinatown New York being the only bank charged with fraud in connection to the mortgage collapse of 2008.  It was a well made movie and I would recommend it strongly.

Without spoiling the movie for anyone who wishes to see it, I will just make a few points of interest.  First, given all the banks that are much larger and obviously committed fraud during the mortgage crisis, I am amazed that the government chose to prosecute a small bank which was thriving and had one of the lowest loan default rate in the country!  The DA had claimed that Abacus bank had defraud Fannie Mae with false applications,  When it was pointed out that Fannie Mae actually made tons of money from Abacus loans, the DA said that if you took $5 from me and then gave it back later, you still committed larceny.  Well, it you took $5 and gave back $5 plus interest later, that is the definition of a good loan, not larceny in my book!

I was shocked that the government had arrested all the executives of the bank at the same time, even the ones that already turned themselves in earlier.  They were all handcuffed in a chain gang formation to parade through the court house!  I don't remember any Wall Street or large bank executives even got arrested, never mind being chain ganged. Well, first of all none of them, despite causing great harm to the financial system, was ever charged.  But even if they were charged, they would have just turned themselves in without being chain ganged.  Are all these Chinese people a threat to the arresting officers?

There are some lessons to be learned here.  One is that  the way Chinese communities, for that matter any immigrant community, do business may cause trouble for them in dealing with mainstream Americans.  What is considered fraud by mainstream America and the government, is not considered fraud by immigrant communities.  These "frauds" had no detrimental effect on loans.  It is not fraud when compared to the real crimes committed by mainstream banks.  Those are the banks that caused the financial crisis, not Abacus or other immigrant run banks.

So is this a racist prosecution?   I believe it is.  While the DA was not necessary out to get a Chinese bank, I believe that his office believed that a Chinese bank is a way easier target than a mainstream bank.  I believe that the DA probably wanted to make a name for himself for being the first one to get a conviction from a bank during the mortgage crisis.  I think the DA believes that a Chinese bank would be too intimidated by the government and would plea a deal.  An easy victory, he assumed.

Turns out Abacus did not cave.  They spent millions to defend their honor.  I am glad they did.  It took courage and signal to the country that Chinese immigrants may not be the pushovers that are portrayed frequently.

Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong just bought the Los Angeles Times.  Soon-Shiong was born in South Africa of Taishanese descent.  To be more precise, his family belongs to the Hakka group.  Hakka literally means "guest family".   They are Han people as is the overwhelming majority of Chinese.  But unlike other Han people, it is not sure what region of the country Hakka people were originally from.  But they have migrated over the centuries to many parts of the country, particularly Guangdong province.  So many of them are recognized as Taishanese even though they are not from there originally.  Confused?  So am I.

In any case, as many Hakka or Taishanese people, Soon Shiong's family left the country and ended up in South Africa.  The good doctor became a surgeon in South Africa and eventually migrated to Canada and then the U.S.  He made his fortunes by developing a cancer drug and founding couple of pharmaceutical companies.  In LA he has been a philanthropist, most notably helping to save an inner city hospital when he, using a phrase from his old country, said that it is time to stop medical apartheid.

So now the doctor is trying to save an industry, or at least one major paper, from life support.  He even talked about ambitious plans of expanding the Times and be in competition with the New York Times and the Washington Post.  He said that great print journalism is a public service in a private sector and is need more than ever.  Given his charity work among the poor, there is hope that he will do what he says.  But he had met with Trump couple of times before the inauguration and we don't know what they talked about.  He says he is politically independent.  He did complain about fake news on the internet.  I hope that is his way for saying great newspaper are more important than ever, not that he is agreeing with Trump!

Paul Ryan announces that he will not seek reelection.  This means there will be a battle for the leadership of the GOP in the House.  It is hard to blame Ryan, who was reluctant to take the Speaker's job in the first place.  Having to deal with the Tea Party and Trump is too much for anyone.  If the GOP loses centrists like Ryan, McCain, Graham and Kasich, it will cease to exit as a major party.  At this rate others will follow Ryan's lead to not run for reelection and signal to the GOP to put their resources to defending the senate.

The Democrats can make sure they win the House by getting rid of Pelosi as leader.  The only strong point for a GOP candidate in a battle district is to ask:  Do you want Pelosi to be Speaker again?  Pelosi has been around too long and it is time to bring fresh blood to the leadership.

I think it is good for Ryan that he gets out now.  He is still young and has chances to run for president later.  But if he stays as speaker, he will be tied to the inability to control the Tea Party and to the toxic presidency of Trump.  Couple more years of that, it would have ended Ryan's political career anyway.  So spend time with the kids and if the tax cut turned out ok, run on that legislative achievement in 7 years.  But he may have to run as a third party candidate then as the GOP as we know it may not exist then.

More tragedy out of Syria as Assad has launched another chemical attack on civilians.  Trump responded by blaming Iran, Russia (Putin by name), and Obama.  I am pleased that he is calling out Putin after having nice things to say about him or nothing at all.  So even if he doesn't blame Putin for meddling in our election, he is at least acknowledging his support of Assad in using chemical weapons.  But did Trump also emboldened Assad by  saying that the U.S. will be pulling out of Syria soon?  Didn't he criticized Obama for letting the enemy know that we will be gone soon?

As I said before, Obama's handling of Assad's chemical weapon usage was a big blunder.  You don't draw a line in the sand if you are not prepared to act once that line is crossed.  My question was:  how far are we willing to go to back up the line.  Trump bombed Syria last year.  Did that do much?  I don't think so.  Even before this chemical attack, Assad had been tough on civilians who are not on his side or just happen to be in the way.  So big time bombing did basically nothing.  What is Trump going to do now? Are we willing to put more troops on the ground, a complete turn around from what Trump just said?  Are we prepared to confront the Russians in the sky if we impose a no fly zone?

Most presidents would age years thinking about all these poor options.  Trump usually just wings it.  Now he has John Bolton starting as national security advisor on Monday.  Bolton is one of the worst hawks in the history of this country.  He called for attacking North Korea and Iran.  He still thinks the Iraq war was a good thing!  By the way, national security advisor does not need Senate confirmation.  Which is too bad because I don't think Bolton would have been confirmed.  Now that he starts work tomorrow, when are we going to see mass attacks on Syria?

I find it absurd that the media spend so much time on Trump's extramarital affairs.  The porn star and the Playboy playmate are being interviewed all over.  Unlike victims of sexual abuse, who should be given time, these two had consensual sex with Trump.  By having sex with a married man, they are not moral people themselves.  So they shouldn't be given so much time.  If having extramarital affairs disqualify someone from political office, then we probably need to replace over half of our politicians.  (Which maybe not be so bad!)  Trump voters have already made it known that they don't care if he is a moral man, so why are we wasting our time?

There was at least sometime given over the weekend in the news about the march against guns.  Maybe when all these young people can vote, we can defeat the NRA and have real effective gun laws.  In the meanwhile, we have to listen to stupid people like Rick Santorum who said that instead of marching, the young people should learn to do CPR!  Does he know what the success rate of CPR is if someone had been shot and the heart is not beating.  Less than 10%.  The young people are asking the politician to help them.  But Santorum thinks that people should help themselves.  It is like saying doctors should not develop vaccine but patients should learn how to treat themselves after getting the infection.  What kind of nonsense is that?

While the news is all about sex:  See 60 Minutes tonight.  We have greater problems that the media is spending way too little time.  The trade war has started and the stock market is tanking.  Trump has appointed John Bolton to be the national security advisor.  Bolton helped Bush lied about the WMD that let to the Iraq war.  He has been the advocate of regime change in Iran and North Korea.  By having him working with Trump, chances of an unnecessary war has increased several folds.  Basically, Trump has created a financial crisis with his tariffs and a military crisis by bringing in Bolton.  These are the things about Trump we should be focused on, not extramarital affairs.

Facebook lost 7% of stock value today because of revelation about user's data was used illegally after being sold by Facebook.  Supposedly data collected by a Russian professor at Cambridge was not supposed to be sold to a third party.  But it was sold to Cambridge Analytica which in turn was paid by the Trump campaign.  It is all very complicated.  It is not clear to me that Facebook could have prevented all this.  But if this prevents or restricts Facebook or other media companies from selling data, it will have a chilling effect on tech companies.  I think selling data is a very significant source of revenue for Facebook and losing it would be devastating.

It is amazing to me that we worry about our privacy when it comes to government snooping around but we let private companies look into our everyday life and even our thoughts.  Every time we go online, we are monitored by companies.  Yet we seldom complain.  I guess there is no way to keep ourselves private unless we don't ever use computers, smart phones, subscribe to Netflix etc.  But at least in this case, I did not help Trump since I am not on Facebook!  In fact I am not on any social media.  As Betty White once said when she found out what social media were:  "I think it is a big waste of time!."

I was flying to Vancouver last weekend and was elated that my boarding pass said that I have fast TSA check in.  This means I get to go through a faster line at security and do not have to take off my shoes and belt.  This shaves at least 10 minutes and rid of lot of hassle at a crazy airport like LAX.  The security line was as smooth as promised.  I put my bags on the conveyor belt and waked thru the metal check with my shoes on expecting I will be done in another 10 seconds or so.

The conveyor belt stopped!  The young lady TSA agent checking the x-rays of the bags picked up one of my bag and shouted to the young guy standing behind me: "Is this your bag, sir?"  The young man looked puzzled and said no.  I raised my hand and said this is my bag.  The agent looks at me with a relief look and asked:  "Oh, do you have an old style phone?"  I said yes, I do.  She took my flip phone out of the bag and the short line and all the TSA agents broke out in hearty laughter.  I said to the young agent and the young man:  "Yeah, my kids laugh at me all the time."  He then asked if I can text on that phone since he is not familiar with it.  Again laughter all around.

Besides the mild humiliation, I found it interesting that a flip phone would look suspiciously like some kind of dangerous device.  I guess young people don't even know what a flip phone is!  Also, if the agent look at the order of the people in line and the order of the bags, it would be most likely that the bag belonged to me.  Yet, she barked at the young man behind me in the line.  Well, not surprisingly, he is brown skin with a beard.  So there was obvious profiling here.  Once she realized that the bag belonged to me, the tension was gone, the young man was relieved, and everybody had a good laugh.  I am glad that I, as an old Asian man, am not of the demographic that is deemed dangerous.  But what of the young brown men? 

Trump is trying to act tough by slapping tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum.  The fact that he did this against his economic advisors and right before a Chinese trade representative was coming to the U.S., seems to make this a stance against Chinese imports.  The only thing is, China is not a big exporter to the U.S. of steel and aluminum.  The biggest exporter of these goods to the U.S.?  Canada.  So are we risking a trade war with Canada or China?  Either way, it is probably not a good idea.

I think China will not react strongly to this.  But if there is a trade war, Trump and whoever agrees with him in Congress will not win.  Xi Jinping is in way more firm control of China than Trump is of the U.S.  There is talk of changing the Chinese constitution so that Xi can be president for life.  So he can go through a downturn in the economy as a result of a trade war.  But that would not be the case with Trump and the GOP.  So if a trade war occurs, the U.S. will blink first.

Speaking of Xi becoming so powerful, this will set China back.  Since Deng Xiaoping, each subsequent Chinese leader has had a decrease in power compare with his predecessor.  Jiang Zemin was less powerful than Deng, Hu Jintao wielded less power behind the scene than Jiang did after his ten year term was over.  Xi, though, has greater ambition for China and himself.  He already sees China as the world's premier power in the future and he wants to have more than 10 years to navigate China into that position.  This will mean less freedom in China and more confrontation with other countries.  Xi is a capable leader.  But the way he is going about to achieve his goals will not be good in the long run for China and the world.

The Democratic memo in response to the Republican memo has finally gone public.  This after two week delay to redact somethings that the FBI and Justice department deem risk to national security.  The two week delay means that very few people care about the response anymore.  This is what Trump wanted.  But I don't think it changed anybody's mind.  I can't tell who is telling the truth based on the excerpts from both sides.  But I think it says something when Trump allowed the GOP memo to be published right away despite the warnings from the FBI and the Justice department but he delayed the Democrat memo for the same reason. 

I had given all hope for any change in gun laws.  But I see a light of hope provided by the high school students after the Florida shooting.  Their outrage and dedication to the cause of gun control is impressive.  Interestingly, some businesses are now backing away from working with the NRA.  I think the new generations, X, Y, and Z are going to be more proactive on this issue.  They are going to outnumber us baby boomers soon, if not already.  They are also the demographic that businesses go after.  So maybe politicians our age are beholden to the NRA, but the younger people will force businesses to back away from the NRA.  Money do talk.  These young people will be tomorrow's voters and politicians.  So there is hope, even if results may not be immediate.

The winter Olympics are finally over.  I thought it was boring.  I think women's gold medal hockey game was the only thing that kept me glue to the set.  They seem to be adding more and more sports each winter Olympics but I find them uninteresting.  I guess most of the new sports are put in to attract young viewers.  But I think even then NBC was running out of things to show.  Yesterday they showed a segment honoring the great diver Sammy Lee.  That is great except that diving is in the summer, not winter, Olympics!  Maybe they need to change basketball and volleyball to the winter games.  Well, not beach (outdoor) volleyball!

It was pointed out by senator Durbin that Chloe Kim's parents would not have been allowed to immigrate to the U.S. under Trump's immigration rules.  While this is politicizing a great moment in U.S. Olympic history, Durbin is right.  In fact, my family would not have been able to come to the U.S. under Trump's rules.  He wants to get rid of family sponsorship.  My family came due to my aunt and uncle sponsoring us.  He wants immigrants who are educated and speak English.  My parents did not meet these requirements.  Obviously we are not from Norway.  But like the Kims, our parents have made a good life in the U.S. and I think my siblings and I have been useful citizens for this country.  Like the Kims, we have lived the American dream which would not be possible if Trump had his way.

Another school shooting today.  I have run out of words to say except for praying for the victims and their families.  The GOP will say again that it is not the time to discuss guns.  They are right.   The time for the discussion should have taken place many years ago.

Happy lunar new year, everybody.  May it be a peaceful and prosperous year.

My take on the memo is that it is much to do about nothing.  It doesn't prove FBI bias against Trump as the GOP claims.  There was also nothing in it that support Democrat claims that it would divulge sensitive national security info.  It is all a political game. I think moderate Republicans see thru what Trump supporters are doing.  John McCain does.  Hopefully it will not have any effect on the Mueller investigation.  I don't think it will.

The weird thing about the GOP memo is that it complains of government abuse of civil liberties and use of the FISA warrants.  This is the type of complaints by liberals or libertarians, not conservatives.  The conservatives usually say that if you are not guilty, you have nothing to worry about.  Well, it looks like Trump is worried.

Great Super Bowl game today.  I guess Brady is not god after all.  I don't root for him anymore, but I still think he is GOAT!