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.