On the Prowl : Personal Thoughts On the #USElections re: @HillaryClinton, @realDonaldTrump & @POTUS....

I had the pleasure to once again serve as an Elections Coordinator for Orange County.  It was fun to be witness to Democracy in Action.   The spirit of volunteerism that I saw left me yet ever so hopeful as we in the United States begin the election season.

On the political front,  It has been quite a week in the United States as Hillary Clinton has secured for all intent and purpose the Democratic Nomination For President.   She spoke about this Tuesday night:

This came out to supporters as she geared up to take on Trump and she gears up for her search for a running mate: 


As the General Elections Campaign is taking shape, this from Priorities USA started hitting the airwaves:

& this came out from the New York Times:





As I was working away,  I saw Senator Sanders speaking after a meeting at the White House with the President.      He said that he would everything in his power to make sure Donald Trump is not elected President of the United States and looked forward to working closely with Secretary Clinton.   This is as the Conservative Establishment has been busy trying to make sure that Trump is "Tamed":

Crooked Hillary Clinton will be a disaster on jobs, the economy, trade, healthcare, the military, guns and just about all else. Obama plus!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2016

     

With the power of the President and the Vice President, the expected support of Bernie Sanders and his movement he represents, Hillary Clinton will have the wind at his back as he looks to the General Election.   The people over at Fox continue to believe that Trump will be "formidable" as he adopts a more Presidential tone.      The Vox' Matthew Ygelasis was very perceptive in how Clinton will win.   This just hit the airwaves--and to me this is clear--not withstanding any unforeseen calamity, Hillary Clinton will be the next President of the United States: 

 

On The Eve of A New Week: On @LagunaNiguelCty, #Service & #Hope....

It has been quite a week in Laguna Niguel.     The week began with Memorial Day at the Sea Country Center as the City honored the fallen on Memorial Day 2016:

I had the pleasure to be witness to  this afternoon of service joining members of Troop 772 that I have the privilege to serve as a Committee Member and edit the Website.     Members of the City Council joined by our local State Senator, former Supervisor and State Assembly Member Pat Bates joined in this day of service that featured honoring former Mayor McClosky who passed away.    The week  culminated in a day of service as our Troop held a day of training for the Scouts on their way to reach their Eagle Scout Status.   I worked on capturing a Visual Essay of the day:

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How all the Scouters (who we in the Scouting movement refer to as adult leaders) came together was absolutely beautiful to be witness to.     The culmination of this amazing day for me was to have joined  the City of Laguna Niguel's Annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner where the City's 2015 citizen of the year was selected:  Betty Paquette.   She has been a resident of Laguna Niguel for over 40 years and as the list of her contributions was shared, I was in awe!!   I had the privilege to shake her hand to simply say thanks--it is all that can be done for such selfless souls.  

Being witness to such that rekindles my faith daily about a future that is bright beyond our wildest dreams.     

On the Greatest of All: Muhammad Ali - Impossible Is Nothing

Mohammad Ali passed away late last night.     The tributes have been coming in fast and furious.    What has stayed with me is his simple admonition that 'Impossible is Nothing...".    This is as I saw this beautiful tribute to the Champ from Professor Dabashi of Columbia that gave an eloquent voice to what many of us truly believe:

 

This is also ever so critical for us all to embrace:




Rest in Peace Champ--You made a difference.

On an Interesting Week: On @elonmusk, #India, @NBA & Other thoughts...

It has been a   challenging few days around our World  as we were witness to a tragic shooting at UCLA,  the inferno in Syria seemed to have no end in sight and Iraq continues to be on the brink.  I did find it laughable as Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton was at it again in regards to the Iran Deal after his discredited move over the infamous letter that was ridiculed by of all people, The Foreign Minister of Iran.   

As I am working away on these thoughts, I am listening to live feed from NDTV on riots in one of the largest states in India, Uttar Pradesh.  I also found it   distressing as two senior Police Officers lost their lives--It is always tragic when law enforcement officers give their life no matter where they live.    I am also seeing reports from Paris about the River Seine swelling to levels not seen since the 1930's which has forced the Louvre to close and for priceless art to be moved to higher ground.  

It is not easy to be positive. The alternative is simply not acceptable.    It is in this spirit that I supported the #Outsiders team as the latest Thought For the Week was published and the Friday Musical Interlude was also released.   ut, I wanted to make sure a sense of positive momentum continued as #outsiders 2.x featured the latest edition of Thought For the Week and the Friday Musical Interlude.

As I have been assessing our World, I was quite amazed by a bit of a reaffirmation on the need for true "soft skills" necessary for our World as outlined by Geoff Colvin of Fortune with this advice to College Graduates: 

Daily insights on leaders and leadership By Geoff Colvin

June 2, 2016

To all the brand new college graduates who majored in a liberal arts field, I have a message: If you want to be a leader, you did the right thing. This is a controversial message at a time when every village and town seems to be offering coding classes for kindergarteners and America’s dearth of STEM majors is conventionally viewed as a serious problem. None of that is wrong. Coding is becoming the literacy of the modern economy, and everyone should be conversant with it. Companies in energy, IT, and other fields want to hire more good STEM majors than they can find; of course they want a larger supply. Along the way, liberal arts have become desperately uncool except among a band of earnest evangelists who argue that it’s a solid foundation for whatever else a young person may want to do. The thing is, the evangelists are right, especially with regard to leadership. “Look, the Army for a long time, many of the services have been looking for some very technical-type majors coming out of schools to deal with the technically advanced army that we have,” Lt. Col. Peter Godfrin, who heads Harvard’s Army ROTC program, told the Harvard Gazette recently. “But just from the conflicts that we’ve seen in recent years, the technological advances only get us so far. We need to be able to communicate and negotiate with folks; we need folks at the highest levels who can think through complex problems because … unfortunately, warfare is a human endeavor.” Colin Dickinson, a Navy officer who majored in economics, told the Gazette, “I can honestly say that I have drawn upon my learning in everything from marine biology to the tales of Homer in my attempt to best serve my sailors and lead them to success.” What’s true for the military is true more broadly. David Kalt, an entrepreneur whose latest venture is an online musical instruments exchange called Reverb.com, wrote yesterday in the Wall Street Journal that “our chief operating officer is a brilliant, self­-taught engineer with a degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago. His determination and critical-thinking skills empower him to leverage the power of technology without getting bogged down by it. His background gives him the soft skills – the people skills – that make him stand out as someone who understands our customers and knows how to bring the staff along.” Kalt spent years urging students to major in computer science and engineering rather than liberal arts. But his recent article is called “Why I Was Wrong About Liberal-Arts Majors.” Advice on choosing a major obviously isn’t useful for new graduates, so here’s a message for students about to enter college: College isn’t trade school. Whether you major in a liberal arts field or STEM or anything else, you emerge not with the skills that will make you successful at a specific company but rather with a foundation for more learning. As advancing technology takes over more of the world’s left-brain work, the skills of deep human interaction, of leadership, are increasingly in demand. What a liberal arts education gives you – critical thinking, clear communication, the lessons of Homer – is growing more valuable, not less.

As I was trying to think through these thoughts, I got hit with this from the Code Conference on what Elon Musk said.     Elon Musk is one of those guys I always listen to as he outlined his vision of the future during this one hour with the co-founders of Re/Code:

Recode interview with @karaswisher and @waltmossberg https://t.co/BDqQ7RreV2 via @YouTube

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 2, 2016

It is also the NBA Finals.    The team at Pandora sent this out to all the subscribers and I thought this might be cool for all to enjoy as the fight between The Warriors and the Cavaliers ensues as I wish all a fabulous weekend:  

Partying for the NBA finals? These stations are a swish for any gameday event.

Dub Nation All In 216

Rap & Hip Hop Pre-Game GameDay Country

Working Away w/some mid-week thoughts on @realDonaldTrump; #California & #mistakes......

June has begun.  I can't help but wonder where the year has gone.    As we were witness to the horrific events in Houston with the shootings, today was no different--this was also as I saw reports of some 60 people being shot in Chicago over the Memorial Day Week-End.

 As I was working away this morning, I saw that UCLA was on lockdown after reports of a shooting.   I fired off a quick email to my cousin who serves as  Counselor there to make sure she was OK--thankfully she was as she noted that she had moved to a secure building until things were secure.    I fired off a quick personal tweet tagging the twitter handle of the Republican Party and the office of the House Speaker with the simple question:  How much is enough.   This is as Trump  his unqualified support for the 2nd Amendment as he seems to not have much patience for other elements of the Bill of Rights.    I was horrified when I saw his tirade against the Press yesterday for questioning him about his claims on monies raised for Veterans as he also went after a Federal District Judge--something that his spokesperson reiterated on appearances last week.   He put the press on notice:  It will like this when he makes it the White House. If that does not give people pause, I don't know what will.

What I found interesting this morning was how the trials of Donald Trump made the front page of the New York Times--yet the Wall Street Journal took a soft approach.   To the Wall Street Journal's credit, though, it was yet again tough on him on the Editorial Page Today especially on his attack on the Federal District Judge.          The Wall Street Journal was supportive of his speech on Energy Policy in North Dakota--although his speech was basically dismissed by analysts as underscored by this from the New York Times: 

Experts on @realDonaldTrump's energy plan: "I don't think he has any knowledge of global energy markets." https://t.co/ZQI5qSGzy6

— Coral Davenport (@CoralMDavenport) May 28, 2016

What I found even more laughable was Trump's comments that there was no drought in California.   As someone who was witness to it all, it was needless to say disappointing.   The New Yorker's Andy Borowitz though said this on his Facebook wall that made me fall out of my chair in laughter:



The rather feeble attempts by Bill Kristol to mount a 3rd Party Challenger is at best will make one or two news cycles--the interesting story though is what the libertarian ticket of Gary Johnson and William Weld will do.

As I finish off these thoughts and support the on-going development of #outsiders, I ran across this which I took comfort in as I remind myself of what the Great Diane Nyad always says-Onward:

“Some people cannot accept mistakes.
Everything has to be perfect from the start.
They think others will look down on them
if they appear to be flawed.
These people are frequently stressed.
The happiest and most successful people
focus on improvement.
They love mistakes and flaws,
because they see them as opportunities to grow.
Learn from these people.
Have lofty goals,
but have realistic standards.
Don’t judge yourself based on the results of your action.
See them as feedback,
and seek improvement from there.”
~ Blon Lee

Working Away On the Eve of the New Week: On the 99th Birthday of President Kennedy.....

I ran across this from +Jonathan Huie that blew me away in terms of the reality and the rhetoric before us in the midst of the campaign season.   President Kennedy's  admonition on avoiding military solutions was  poignant.  I always wonder what may have been had he lived on this Memorial Day 2016:

 

Do not pray for easy lives.

Pray to be stronger men.

- John F. Kennedy

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.

- John F. Kennedy

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie,

deliberate, contrived and dishonest,

but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.

- John F. Kennedy

 The basic problems facing the world today

are not susceptible to a military solution.

- John F. Kennedy

There are risks and costs to action.

But they are far less than the long range

risks of comfortable inaction.

- John F. Kennedy

On the Prowl On this Memorial W-End 2016 w/this from @POTUS & An Admonition from Victor Frankl

I decided to break my sabbatical briefly to catch up on the grid and to facilitate some updates in support of #outsiders.     This was posted by a Facebook Friend as the President visited Hiroshima:

It is quite poignant especially as we in America remember the fallen on this Memorial Day 2016.    I could not help but wonder if the President's Vision will ever be realized as Victor Frankl reminded us in A Man's Search for Meaning to ".......  be alert in a two-fold sense: Since Aushchiwtiz we know what man is capable of, Since Hiroshima We know what is at stake..."...

Thought For the Week: Steve Case on the Future of Innovation

Earlier this week, I had a chance to catch Steve as he spoke about the "Third Wave".   It is a book worth checking out as I hope all enjoy this on this memorial weekend: Steve Case on the Future of Innovation

On the Eve of Memorial Day WeekEnd 2016: Brief Thoughts & Some Pandora Music 2 Enjoy....

It is Memorial Weekend.    Although it is a working weekend for me, #Outsiders will be dark with the exception of periodic updates over the Twitter Channel.    It is also an exciting June as I will be serving in the Elections as an Elections Officer--my 10th Election!!!

Despite a rather challenging week, I wanted to begin the weekend on a high note as I got this from Pandora (and the team has decided to also pick it up) as I wish all a great Memorial weekend:

Roll down the windows and enjoy the perfect soundtrack for your Summer road trip.

Summer Hits 2016 Road Trip Country Road Trip

Hip-Hop Road Trip Family Road Trip

Lip Sync Road Trip Latin Hits Road Trip

Mid-Week Notations: On An Interesting Week.....

It is the eve of Wednesday.    It was nice as I picked up this from +Jonathan Huie that has been featured periodically on #Outsiders.    This is as an old movie, The American President, is playing in the background--I can't help but be blown away by the similarities.      Richard Dreyfuss' Character reminds me of Donald Trump.

Onward...

 

There's no reality except the one contained within us.

That's why so many people live an unreal life.

They take images outside them for reality and never

allow the world within them to assert itself.

- Hermann Hesse 

To raise new questions, new possibilities,

to regard old problems from a new angle,

requires creative imagination.

- Albert Einstein

I am the owner of my choices.

I am the source for the perspectives I choose to hold...

regardless of how aware I am of why or how I come to possess that

particular perspective.

It takes courage to look into the mirror of our souls, absent excuses.

I will look into that mirror little bits at a time.

SEE and ACT. SEE what I can bear to see and ACT upon what I am able.

This is the heart of a gentle invitation to personal responsibility.

- Mary Anne Radmacher