Is it too late to ask President Trump for a birthday present given that tomorrow marks the nation’s 250th? It might be if I was hoping for a gift I can unwrap. But I don’t want anything material. Instead, my request is for an intangible present—behavioral changes in the form of things the president could stop doing.
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I signed up on the Let’s Go Washington website as a volunteer to help IP26-645 (see screen capture) get on the ballot in November. IP26-645 is an initiative to the people that would repeal the 9.9 percent tax that was passed by the legislature in March and is to be levied on incomes above $1 million starting in 2028. Although the sample of people I talked while collecting signatures is unscientific, that doesn’t keep me from having some observations about the process.
Continue readingPosted in Current Events, Government, Mud Bay & Rocky Point, Treasure Island
Tagged "Millionaires" tax, IP26-645
Last week I watched about a half-dozen college commencement keynote addresses on CSPAN. The speeches were entertaining, inspirational, and, for the most part, mercifully short. I don’t remember the keynote speech at my own college graduation some 54 years ago this weekend, but from what I have read about it online, it wasn’t like the ones I watched recently.
Continue readingCongratulations to the crew of the Artemis II moon mission for surpassing the distance record humans have flown from earth. Given this achievement, it’s fitting to revisit Apollo 8. The Apollo 8 astronauts (Frank Borman, Bill Anders, and Jim Lovell) were the first to orbit the moon. On Christmas Eve 1968 as the lunar sunrise approached, they sent a brief, televised message back to earth that was seen by almost one billion people worldwide.
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The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to replicate human intelligence is growing rapidly. New applications for AI keep being found, and current AI technology keeps being improved. I have a suggestion for online newspaper publishers: work with computer scientists to develop AI algorithms that can be more widely used to screen reader comments (see flow diagram).
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I didn’t set out to post anything about Melania (see screen capture of the top portion of its film poster) because the less said about the Trumps’ personal and business lives the better. But when I read online about how poorly Melania is doing at the box office, I turned to a website I trust—IMDb.com—for more information. As of today, the film’s rating there is the lowest I have ever seen.
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Greenland (see screen capture) is a gigantic island in the Arctic Ocean situated between Canada and Northern Europe (not the U.S. and Northern Europe as President Trump might have said). Its name has been around for centuries and stands as one of the largest con jobs ever tried in the real estate sector. It makes me smile every time I hear it. Greenland doesn’t need a new name.
Continue readingDIY Exercise: Use your favorite graphics program to design a USPS-style Forever stamp depicting President Trump. Whether you save the file is optional.
Continue readingDIY task: Please supply your own color photo of President Trump.
This morning, while watching his Rose Garden speech about the “deal” to end the government shutdown, I wondered, again, if it would be appropriate to recycle former Major League Baseball player Rusty Staub’s nickname when referring to President Trump. With his carrot-top hairdo and tanning-salon-hued skin, the president clearly fits the bill for the third word of the wondrous French phrase Le Grand Orange. He falls short, though, when you consider the true meaning of the second word.
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Posted in Current Events, Government, Sports
Return to sender.
Last week, in a senior moment, I mailed in my final 2018 quarterly tax payment with one big omission. Yep, I forgot to stick on a Forever stamp (currently $.50 in postage), thus denying the letter a smooth flight to the IRS office in San Francisco. And now forever is due (see photo).
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Posted in Current Events, Government
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