Trump has once again gone against his intelligence team. He said they were naive after Dan Coats said everything opposite of Trump regarding North Korea, Iran, ISIS and the southern border. Is there anyone out there who believes that Trump is right and the intelligence community is wrong on all of these situations? I thought Bush was out of his mind when he went into Iraq instead of finishing the job in Afghanistan. Now Trump thinks that people coming into the country to take jobs that Americans don't want is more dangerous than ISIS and North Korea?
Thirteen year old Alysa Liu won the U.S. women figure skating championship this past week. Problem is, she can't represent the U.S. in the world championships because she is under the minimum age of 15.
I had complained about these type of arbitrary age requirements before. In the Beijing Olympics it was widely believed that some of the Chinese women gymnasts were under age. I believed that they did skirt the rules. But those rules are stupid and I believe they are racist. Asians tend to mature at a younger age, reaching their full height earlier on average than Westerners. I believe that this is the reason for the age requirement since western nations, particularly Europeans, dominate the federations of figure skating and gymnastics.
It is not about protecting kids, as the sports governing bodies say. If that is the case, then they should not have junior championships where they do the same moves. In most cases, the older athletes are able to do difficult moves better than young ones. But they are doing the same flip, jumps etc. The younger ones are not being injured more than the older ones.If someone younger can do better, then she should be the world champion regardless of age. Generally it is not an advantage to be younger. For example, Shawn Johnson was not better at 14 than 16.
The U.S. had gone along with the Europeans in the past in setting the age requirement. But Alysa Liu is not the first American affected by this rule. In 2008, Mirai Nagasu won the U.S. championship but was not allowed to compete in the World championships. She was never as good as she was in 2008 even though she competed at the Olympics last year. I think the U.S., with more Asian ethnic athletes than other Western nations, should try to get the rule changed.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
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ReplyDeleteI never realized there was an age limit until last week when Liu won. In any case, you would think that the best in the world should compete in the Worlds and Olympics. Maybe this forces countries to not exploit children into competition too early (though I doubt that since we see really young kids already competing). Though maybe there is some kind of discrimination going on. This would force the Chinese and other countries that force kids into competition early on to not be as competitive, if they were to send their best. Though when I would look at those Chinese gymnasts, they looked super young compared to other teams. So maybe they were cheating.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to hear all these experts talking about the global threats yesterday in contrast to what POTUS has been trying to sell. The ISIS proclamation a few weeks ago was something that had me scratching my head. Now that he's declared ISIS gone, that just made ISIS step up its attacks.
What are your opinions on this Roger Stone thing? He seems pretty confident in his defense. Is it maybe he thinks POTUS will pardon him? I will be surprised if he gets much if any jail time. Rich guys like this get away with a lot of stuff and have the best lawyers.
-LBOAYM
Trump just hit his top intelligence officers, telling them they are naive and need to go back to school! The funny (or sad) thing is: Dan Coats and the woman who heads the CIA are both his own appointees! So he appointed the people who need to go back to school to the most important intelligence jobs in the country? Again he believes Putin and Kim more than the people who are trying to keep this country safe. Maybe using the T word is justified.
ReplyDeleteStone is a liar and a clown. The way he holds his hands out with the V sign on both hands reminds me of Nixon. I think he knows he has no defense and is counting on a pardon because that is the only hope he has. I don't know how much jail time he will get. He will probably get less than Manafort. So far nobody is going away for a long time. But Manafort should get a substantial sentence.
Well, Stone's hero is Nixon, which is interesting in itself. Have you seen the tattoo of Nixon on his back?
ReplyDeleteI just don't understand how someone like POTUS could live in a bubble where other opinions do not matter. He must think he is an expert in everything. At least the Starbucks guy said that he would surround himself with experts and listen to them.
-LBOAYM
Thanks for reminding me of the tattoo! I did see it before but was trying to block the image out of my mind!
ReplyDeleteWell, Trump also said that he would surround himself with the smartest people and listen to them. But then right after he got elected, he said he was smarter than the generals. Almost all those "smart" people he hired are now gone. He had no good things to say about most of them. So I would be skeptical of another business man with no political experience who claims that he would hire experts and listen to them. I think someone asked the Starbucks guy what he thought the corporate tax rate should be. I think he did not come up with an answer. I would think as a corporate executive, he would not need an expert to tell him the answer to that question! He should be the expert on the subject and knock this softball question out of the park.
On the other hand, we have Kamala Harris who said that she is for Medicare for all. When pressed, she said that private insurance will be eliminating. I think this is a politician talking to her base and not something the country will adopt in the next few years, no matter who is the president.