Tag Archives: Trump

Resist Meetup

Resist Meetup

For my photographic workshops I’ve been using a service called MeetUp.com.  Today I launch a campaign to resist MeetUp.  This all comes from one of their announcements late yesterday.

The way MeetUp works is an organizer can pay $15/month, and others can search for activities at no cost.  For example, if I want to organize bicycle rides, I could pay $15/month to advertise my rides, and others, looking for someone to ride with, could search, find my rides, RSVP, etc.  The organizer pays the fees.

MeetUp last night announced that they are creating free groups for those who want to protest against the government immigration laws, and more specifically, against President Trump’s policies.  In other words, free MeetUp sites to subversives.

Against Subversion

In a republic, like the United States, subversion typically leads to unrest.  Unrest leads to riots.  Riots lead to civil war.  It’s my opinion that the peaceful solution when you don’t like what is happening in your republic is to mount a grassroots campaign to petition your representative.

We don’t live in a mobocracy… I mean, democracy.  If we did, same-sex marriage in California would be illegal, Hillary Clinton might be our president, and you’d see ballot initiatives going back and forth as both sides fight over various laws.  That’s the problem with a democracy.  The other problem is, it is mob rule.  It feeds the bullies.

We live in a republic guided by a constitution.  Subversion has no place in a republic if peace is to be maintained.  Those who typically take to the streets in a republic are those who have too much time on their hands, and/or lack the understand of how our constitutional republic works.

#resistmeetup

That’s why I’m resisting MeetUp.  They are encouraging subversion.  There is also another reason for resisting them.

If John Doe wanted to start a group on MeetUp and pay the $15/month I’d be okay with it being a subversive group.  However, when Jim Smith has to pay $15/month for his art group while MeetUp gives John Doe a free site, I have a problem with that.

It would be like Target saying, “Free shopping spree to anyone who wears a “Down with Trump” t-shirt today.”  (Remember… I’m not a huge Trump fan, but I’m not a subversive either.)

I’d stop shopping at Target.

Terminated

I terminated my membership on MeetUp.  Two of the groups I belonged to on MeetUp – both of them terminated their paid membership and the groups.

Sad, but that’s they way the ball bounces when you tick of your customers.

Make Sense

Make Sense

I am trying to make sense of this.  The tiny piece of calcium that is making my heel hurt is on the back of the heel, above it.  I know exactly where it is because if I push on it, it hurts.

Here’s what doesn’t make sense.  If I stand on my foot, the entire bottom of my foot hurts as though it were bruised.  If I press on those areas with my thumb — no pain.  Nothing.  It feels just fine.  In fact, the only place that hurts when I push (hard) on it is that tiny dime sized area on the back of my heel.  Why when I stand does it hurt like the dickens all over the bottom of my foot?  It doesn’t make sense.

This has got to be the most mysterious “injury” I’ve ever dealt with.  I keep looking at my foot expecting to see it has turned all purple and black.  Nope.  It looks fine.  It just doesn’t feel that way.  Strange.

Trump’s Fault?

I don’t understand some people.  A friend says one of their friends was sitting at a bar.  He’s talking to someone and mentions he voted for Donald Trump.  Another man walks up and asks, “Did I hear you say you voted for Trump?”

He confirmed that he did, and then the guy sucker-punches him in the face.

What is up with that?

Now, I’ve had Trump supports tell me to my face I was stupid for voting for Evan McMullin, which to me, that’s way off base too because TRUMP WON!   However, I haven’t been physically assaulted for having admitted this.

Scary, isn’t it.  I did say this would happen and if Trump was elected we’d see mass unrest.  I don’t attribute any great insight on my behalf for having predicted this.  All one has to do is look at how people of reacted with various trial outcomes over the last few years.  There is an element that can’t accept reality and so they have to attempt to force their way upon others.

Change

Obama’s theme was change.  Well, in 8 years we haven’t seen much change for the better in government.  Now it is the Republicans’ turn to see if they can repair the damage and promote their type of change.

I have to admit.  When I first heard about Barack Obama (probably back around 2006, or early 2007, I was impressed at what I heard.  Being a wait-and-see kind of guy, and also being one who loves using search engines, the more I waited, and the more I went digging, the less impressed I became.

Once elected, I told myself, “Well, let’s wait and see.”  I waited 4 years and I was ready to be gone with him.  I was very disappointed when he was re-elected. and his last 4 years have shown a dismal performance in all political fronts.

So, here I am again saying, let’s wait and see.  Since Wednesday morning, much of what I’ve seen come from Trump’s camp has been good.  A lot of the pundit rhetoric is proving to be just that… rhetoric, as well as inflammatory.  While I was impressed with Trump as a businessman for many years, I’ve always thought him to come across as smug and egotistical.  However, I’ve seen a side of Mr. Trump in the last 5 days I’ve never seen before.  Perhaps it is because he has surrounded himself with people like Mike Pence and Ben Carson and they’ve convinced him to tone it done.  That said, I will wait and see.

I do hope he can implement many of the things he says he plans to do in his first 100 days.  Most of them will require the approval of Congress.  I hope, however, this doesn’t turn in to a fiasco like Obama Care.  However, if the House and the Senate can stay on point, and avoid multi-subject bills, I think they can do it.  (I’m cheering for Mia Love’s bill that restricts bills to a single item.  And, I like Trump’s idea of eliminating 2 regulations for every new one.)

Grace

With all of the mud flinging during the campaign, I will say I’m impressed with the grace Trump has shown.  He has spoken kindly of Hillary Clinton and President Obama in spite of all the pre-election fighting.  This is a point for the new president-elect.   I hope he continues in this path for the next 4 years.  It will be good for everyone if there were no contention between the two major political parties moving forward.

Didn’t See That Coming

Didn’t See That Coming

I didn’t see that coming.  I tracked the election results via my Kindle Fire last night.  Whenever I’d wake for a moment, I’d grab my tablet, do a refresh, and look at the results, and then go back to sleep.  What I didn’t see coming was how quickly Trump too the lead and held on to it.

At one point, around 1am, Trump had a strong lead and with the projected states, had more than enough to win.  The stupid MSNBC site was showing that, yet they were predicting Hillary would win with a near 90% certainty.  Some of the major websites weren’t making predictions, but were way off on their electoral totals.

While I hate watching TV news for this sort of stuff, at an early point I turned on the TV.  The channel was already set to some major network (I can’t remember which one), and they were saying that the Trump camp started off cheering, but they weren’t cheering any more and it was an air of doom and gloom.    I changed the TV over the my Amazon Prime account.

Concession

I was greatly impressed with both Donald Trump’s acceptance and thank you speech as well as Hillary’s concession speech..  While I didn’t vote for either one of them, I found both speeches refreshing.  I watched them both, live streaming, so I wouldn’t have the media’s spin and editing.

Some right-wing pundits were predicting Hillary would not concede.  Some left-wing pundits were demanding Hillary not concede.  Thank goodness she conceded.

Other Results

While I didn’t vote for either, I do see the overall results hopeful.  I said it before, I don’t trust Trump, however, I do trust Mike Pence.  Trump has surrounded himself with some very good people and perhaps they will keep him on the straight and narrow.  Time will tell.

GOP

Trump surprised the GOP in general.  While Trump doesn’t embody the GOP as we used to know it, at least he isn’t a career politician.  Perhaps we can bring the GOP back to it’s roots.  It would be nice to see the party restored to moral, family oriented traditions.  I think the GOP needed a shake up.

RINOs

I hope the R.I.N.O.s are shaking in their boots this morning.  I don’t think Trump is going to go for purchasing expensive equipment for foreign governments and other forms of foreign aid.  While Congress controls spending, the president wields a veto pen.

Calcaneus

Calcaneus is the heel bone and mine hurt so much last night that I went to see the doctor today.  He said I have this tiny bit of calcification at the base of my Achilles tendon.  That tiny little hard spot is causing a LOT of pain and inflammation.

They fitted me with a boot (which feels very comfortable, but it is HUGE), gave me a prescription for the inflammation and sent me home for rest and relaxation.   (Darn, I forgot to ask for a DVD of the x-rays.  It would be cool to see my foot bones.)

I was thinking it might be Haglund’s bump.  The doctor drew a picture showing this is on the back side of the tendon, and not between the tendon and bone.  He said it is kind of like a tiny little bone spur where the tendon ends.

Well, if it is as tiny as he describes, it sure hurts.

Evan McMullin

Evan McMullin

My interest shifted away from Chris Keniston to Evan McMullin for President.  Even is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, worked for the C.I.A. and a BYU graduate.  He is running as an independent.

Evan is Johnny-come-lately, but his popularity is rapidly gaining.

What I Like

What I like is he is a true conservative (in the political sense).  Trump, Clinton and Johnson are as liberal as they come politically.  Johnson and Trump have a few fiscally conservative ideas, however I can’t trust them.  Clinton is liberal both fiscally and politically.

Trump carries baggage  from the past.  It makes you wonder if those past behaviors are because of character flaws.  Johnson is morally bankrupt – drug use and living-in-sin (as we used to say).  Clinton is off the deep-end when it comes to scandals.  I’ve never in my life seen a candidate so scandal ridden.

Right now, McMullin seems to be the only candidate beyond reproach.

Temple

Tonight’s temple shift was enjoyable.  Some of the missionaries have already left, and others are about to leave.  Going to the temple is a refreshing break from the political scandals and bad stuff going on in the world.

That’s another thing…

I like a candidate whom I know goes to the temple.  While people can lie to their bishop and stake president to get a recommend, most do not.  Most are good, honorable, honest people.  I know Romney is such a man, but he isn’t running, and I believe McMullin to be such a man.

 

Missionary Teams

Missionary Teams

They are going to be forming missionary teams for our photography mission.  I won’t say a whole lot more about it except it is exciting it has grown to the extent that responsibilities need to be spread out.  More to come.

I posted a meme that was attributed to Ezra Taft Benson without checking things out.  (That’s a big faux pas for me.)  While he may not have made the statement, it was in keeping with the teachings in Alma chapter 10. It is also inline with things President Benson said.

It is really disturbing when people say, “If you vote for so-and-so, you’re just wasting your vote.”  Such comments fall in to the category of following the crowd.  The only time a vote is wasted is when you don’t vote, or invalidate your ballot by not following instructions.  Heck, by that logic, you might as well see who is at the top of the polls and vote for them.

Reuters shows Clinton leading with about a 10% lead.  That’s HUGE.  While, I really don’t want Hillary Clinton in the White House, with that kind of lead Trump doesn’t stand a chance.  That’s completely scary.  Yet there are those on both sides who say one or the other is the lesser than two evils.  I wonder if all of those folks were to vote 3rd party, would it make a big difference?  I bet it would, but they are too chicken to vote 3rd party because they have convinced themselves they will be throwing their vote away.

Then, some of the polls only provide options for Clinton, Sanders and Trump — they totally neglect to add the other party candidates.  With that type of polling, it has one goal and it is to discourage people from voting outside the two-party system.  What if Gary Johnson was thrown in to that same poll?  Would that skew the numbers?  We don’t know because they aren’t asking.

Temple

We had a nice evening at the temple.  This time of year things are busy.  While it wasn’t super busy, we had a good number of guests tonight.

Pageant 2016

Hill Cumorah Pageant 2016 is around the corner.  Sign-up lists are out for volunteer help for parking and security.  They are also scheduling shifts for the temple’s pageant schedule.

 

Primary Election 2016

Primary Election 2016

Today is the Primary Election 2016.  The ballot choices are very disconcerting:

Democrats:
Hillary Clinton
Bernie Sanders
Republicans:
Donald Trump
Ted Cruz
John Kasich
Ben Carson

Wait?  Ben Carson?  He’s on the ballot but he has officially withdrawn from the nomination?

Disregarding Ben Carson, you have a bunch of career politicians and Donald Trump.  Hmmm…

But, I did my patriotic duty.  I cast my vote and can only hope for the best for this country.

My missionary meeting went well today.  We reviewed several photos.  I volunteered to teach about Photoshop masking.

Of course, this being Tuesday we were off to the temple for the evening.  The temple work went well and it was nice to see several guests attending.

We got home from the temple and saw that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were winning by landslides.  Oh, my.  I cannot imagine what it would be like for those two to be our only choices for president.

My wife asks, “What will you do if it comes down to Trump or Hillary for president?”

Jokingly I responded, “Move.”

Actually, I don’t think I’d leave the U.S.A.  After all, I survived 8 years of Barack Obama.  And, it isn’t just the presidency that’s the issue.  It’s Congress and the Senate and everyone who keeps electing career politicians who don’t have our best interests in mind.

 

Group Shoot

Group Shoot

For some, a group shoot might be going out with some buddies to the target range.  For me, a group shoot is taking a picture of a large group.  Group shoots can be fun, but for me, they are serious business.

I had one such shoot this morning.  The deal was, the space is small and the group is large and I have to make it work.  While I prefer to get things right in the camera, there are times when I have to say to myself, “You’re going to have to fix this post-production.”

After the job, I got a text from my wife asking me to stop and pick up yogurt.  While picking up yogurt, I got a call from a friend asking for some help.  After unloading the groceries, I was off helping the friend.

Finally some time to myself to get some office work done.  No sooner as I started it was time to go to another appointment, and after getting home from that, another call to go help someone.

It was nice to come home and just nuke some leftovers, eat and then call it a day.

Politics

I was more than disappointed in Ben Carson’s announcement.  While I would have been disappointed had he sported Rubio or Cruz because they are career politicians, I was more disappointed that he’s backing Donald Trump.  That said, I see where he’s coming from.  I’m very anti-career-politicians, and Trump is the only one that is not a career politician.

Let’s hope this turns out to be a good move.  There are a few things about Trump that disturb me.  That said, there are a lot of things about Rubio that disturb me, and a few things about Cruz that disturb me too.