Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Summary of the 2016 US First Presidential Debate on Monday, September 26, 2016

Jobs/Achieving Prosperity/The Economy -

Hillary: Wants to increase taxes on wealthy and fuel the middle class to rise up. Wants to support particular industries for more jobs - infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, innovation, technology, clean renewable energy, and small businesses. Wants to raise national minimum wage, get equal pay for women, and have more profit sharing. More work/life balance, paid family leave, earned sick days, affordable childcare, and debt-free college. Wants a tax system that rewards work, not just financial transactions. Her standard for deals: Does it create jobs, raise incomes, and is it good for national security? Wants to have a special prosecutor to hold people accountable. Wants broad-based, inclusive growth. Says some things that are good for business may not be good for govenment (like the Great Depression, no?)

Trump: Wants to prevent our companies from leaving for cheaper labor elsewhere. Wants to reduce taxes for small and big business - 35 to 15% so they can expand and grow. Wants better trade deals. Trickle down economics. Wants to cut regulation, get rid of Carried Interest Provision. Thinks we are in a bubble. He is a businessman and thinks America needs someone with experience in money. Thinks we spent too much in the Middle East. Wasted money that could have been spent on building US infrastructure.

Race: How do we heal the divide? -

Hillary: Restore trust in neighborhoods and have training for police officers. Criminal justice reform. Fix gun epidemic/violence. Address systemic racism. Deal with mandatory minimum sentences. Second chance programs. Get rid of private prisons. Gun safety measures - too many military weapons. Pass prohibition on people who are on terrorist watch list or no fly list to prevent them from buying guns. Communities need to come together and learn what has been effective and what hasn't. We need to stop jumping to conclusions about each other. Ask questions. Mental health issues need to be addressed and more police training regarding those issues.

Trump: Law and order. Thinks "Stop and Frisk" worked in NY. We need to take guns away from bad people. Thinks we need more police and better community relations (agreed with Clinton). He also agreed about no fly/watch list. Thinks Africian Americans have been used for their votes. They are upset about what politicians have said and not done. He had no real comment, but he said they (Trump and African Americans) have recently "made terms with each other".

Cybersecurity/Terrorism/National Security -

Hillary: Thinks Russia hacked the DNC. Maybe China or Iran. Thinks we have a greater capacity and we won't stand by. We will defend our country. Need to improve tech companies. Intensify airstrikes against ISIS and defeat them at home and abroad by cornering them. We need an intelligence surge. We need to work more closely with our allies. We need to turn our attention to terrorism. We need to cooperate with the muslim communities. We need to reduce the proliferation of nuclear weapons (#1 threat). Need coalition building. Words matter. We have mutual defense treaties. We need to look at global problems and stand up to bullies.

Trump: We don't know who hacked us. It could have been China, not Russia. We need to do cybersecurity better. We should have taken the oil. Says NATO needs to focus on terror. We should have left some of our troops. Says we defend countries, but they don't pay us for our services. We need to keep up with other countries and prepare. China should go into North Korea. Believes Iran Deal was one of the worst deals. We shouldn't disclose our plan openly for ISIS. We should help our allies, but only if they pay us. We cannot police the world and go more into debt doing it.

Other tidbits:
Hillary has a fact checker.
Trump said he'll release his tax documents after audit. What is he hiding?
Hillary apologized for emails and took responsibility for them. What is she hiding?
Trump thinks it was a great achievement that he got Obama to release his birth certificate.
Hillary used Trump's past sound bites against him. But so did he against her.
Trump doesn't think Hillary has the stamina/look to be President.
Hillary put out lots of commercials bashing Trump's image, but he claims he isn't wasting money on doing the same to her.
Trump says Hillary has experience, but it's bad experience.
Hillary thinks Trump painted a bad image of black communities.
Trump is opening the old Post Office on PA Avenue.
Hillary says experts say Trump's economic plan will lose jobs, while hers will create lots of jobs.
Trump got a $14 million loan from his father and thinks it was a "very small" loan.
Hillary wrote a book. It'll be in airports soon.
Trump didn't pay a few workers for poor quality work on his properties - says he takes advantage of the law.
Hillary says Trump is living in his own reality.
Trump's business went bankrupt 6 times, says Hillary.
Hillary says she has a good amount of experience in trade deals.
Trump thinks NAFTA was a bad trade deal.
Hillary laughs about how she might be blamed for everything by the end of the debate.
Trump created a club he's proud of that's inviting for all races.
Hillary was preparing for the debate while Trump was traveling.
Trump thinks he has better judgment and temperament, and that he knows how to win.

Are they both willing to accept if the other wins? Yes.

Friday, September 16, 2016

The power of stories on places, Floridian vs Colorado Weather, environment, Geophysics, diversity, Quantum computers, Q, self-driving car problems, energy, Music of the Week, Rothfuss, Game of Thrones and Metaphors, and MORE!

The power of stories to make a place special. I've visited quite a few places influenced by books/movies. Savannah - Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil; Triple Falls and Dupont State Forest - Hunger Games; New Orleans (several places) - American Horror Story; Kings Cross station - Harry Potter; Universal/Disney - Duh!

I am the Florida-born human wearing a coat and scarf in 80 degree weather... #HeyItWas50ThisMorning

When you spend the better part of a year not looking to the right, because you were worrying about turning left, and you finally look right and your entire perception of the environment changes.

Are we just manifestations of our environment? What's real - us or the environment? 

Is nature just nurture over time?

Geophysics and wave theory.

Where does diversity stem from?

Leash laws and the impact on dog freedoms.

Quantum physics and how robins travel by magnetic fields.

Quantum computers - how they reduce the amount of calculations necessary to arrive at an answer to a complex problem, but they aren't faster for everything.

Interpreting the needs of creatures who don't speak "human" is an interesting task.

Remember, never be taken for granted.

I don't understand why explainers of Photosynthesis call light..."light"...when everything else is broken down scientifically.

When Q in Skyfall made it badass to drink Earl Grey tea in the morning.

When 2pm feels like 6 o'clock in the shade.

When you get hot coffee in 90 degree weather or ice cream in 30 degree weather. #WhatWasIThinking?

In the event of a car accident should a self-driving car try to save you first because if you were in charge of the vehicle that's what you would end up doing? I think the answer to that question will be very important if we ever truly implement the technology on a mass scale.

Photons - Allow for energy exchange. Facilitators of quantum jumps.

Einstein's Photoelectric Effect

Pay attention to your energy. How is your behavior influencing others? Check yourself. Often.

Music:

"Words have to find a man's mind before they can touch his heart, and some men's minds are woeful small targets. Music touches their hearts directly no matter how small or stubborn the mind of the man who listens." - from The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

How to visually represent all five senses!

Daenerys Targaryen: Lannister, Targaryen, Baratheon, Stark, Tyrell they're all just spokes on a wheel. This ones on top, then that ones on top and on and on it spins crushing those on the ground.

Tyrion Lannister: It's a beautiful dream, stopping the wheel. You're not the first person who's ever dreamt it.

Daenerys Targaryen: I'm not going to stop the wheel, I'm going to break the wheel.

The Seven Kingdoms are spokes on a wheel. - Metaphor. How you look at the metaphor determines how you treat the Seven Kingdoms.

A ruler cannot rule if they cannot survive the environment in which the people live. True or false?

I miss studying languages and music. I'll return to them soon.

Don't forget to breathe.

Cheers dears.

:-)