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.