Flags, fireworks, and barbeques are in order.
Category: Happiness
Five Days in Canada
Yes it is very cold in most of Canada in the winter. The exception is Vancouver, British Columbia on the Pacific coast where it rains in buckets. So weather is not Canada’s best feature. However, the people are super friendly, helpful, and caring. Over 20% of the population are immigrants and while the population is majority White the country has open to immigrants from everywhere. Just half of Vancouver’s population is European White.
Toronto Raptors are 2019 NBA Champions
A Real Life Action Movie
This real story could be made into a movie.
In 2013, Vanessa Rodel, a Filipina woman escaped violence and human trafficking in the Philippines and traveled to Hong Kong with her baby daughter. She had hoped to gain asylum there. With limited funds she lived in Hong Kong’s slums. Her lawyer, Robert Tibbo, asked her if she would take in Eric Snowden for a short time.
Edward Snowden is an American fugitive, a former Central Intelligence Agency employee, and former contractor for the United States government who copied and leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency in 2013.
Rodel became part of a group known as Edward Snowden’s “Guardian Angels.” They helped the fugitive while he was in Hong Kong. Snowden was there for two weeks before being granted asylum in Moscow.
Subsequently Rodel’s application for asylum in Hong Kong was denied in 2017. News sites do not explain where she and her daughter lived after being denied her petition.
Lawyer Tibbo, from Montreal contacted lawyer friends in Canada to help a process appeal for asylum in Canada. It was granted and she and her daughter arrived in Toronto on Monday March 26, 2019. Money has been raised privately for her to live in Montreal, learn French, and start a new life.
Vanessa Rodel and her daughter at her seven-year-old daughter Keana at Toronto airport
Those Damned Lefties are to Blame!
Those radical leftists have harmed our nation irretrievably. They, through the Democratic Party, passed laws that have given those poor stupid working class Americans benefits that have clearly harmed America in ways that cannot be appreciated. With the exception of President George W. Bush’s Medicare Modernization Act all those wild eyed commies are to blame for those legislative acts that have obviously destroyed this great country.
I did the research to learn of the laws they passed.
Under President Franklin Roosevelt.
- Social Security Administration. That is the law that created
-Old age insurance for retirees 65 or older and their spouses
-Unemployment compensation funded by a tax on employers
-Aid to families with dependent children and the disabled
- The Fair Labor Standards Act. That is the law that established a minimum hourly wage and maximum number of hours on a work week and set rules for the employment of those under the age of 18.
- Established the National Labor Relations Board to hear testimony about unfair practices.
- Created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)to provide insured loans for home buyers
- Created the Securities and Exchange Commission to supervise the stock market.
- Created the Food Drug and Cosmetics Act (FDC) that requires manufacturers to provide the ingredients of their products.
- Created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) which protects bank deposits.
Under President Harry Truman segregation in armed forces was banned. Truman was the first president to propose that all Americans have health insurance.
Under President Lyndon Johnson three law were passed.
- Civil Rights Act of 1964
- 1965 Voting Rights Act
- Medicare and Medicaid amended to the Social Security Act on July 30, 1965.
In December 2003, President George W. Bush signed into law the Medicare Modernization Act, which added outpatient prescription drug benefits to Medicare.
Under President Barack Obama.
- The Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act (EPA) prohibits sex-based wage discrimination between men and women in the same establishment who perform jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort, and responsibility under similar working conditions
- The Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) providing health care for most American at affordable prices.
What do you suppose those lefties will do next? Are they likely to provide low cost college educations? Or even worse they might provide real re-training programs for those who have lost their jobs as the result of automation?
Damn those lefties. They keep trying to help their neighbors.
Resolutions for 2019
Some ideas on making everyone happier in 2019
Happy Thanksgiving
More than a day of turkey, stuffing, and apple pie; this is the day that all Americans can all come together to be thankful that we live in a country that is bountiful in every way imaginable. We have energy resources, fabulous farm lands, and some of the most creative people in the world. To top that off we have a freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom to pursue our goals.
A Change of Seasons and Perhaps a New Purpose
It has been a long hot summer in southern California. Maybe I am getting older but the humidity dripping off my face is something I do not remember in any past summer. I cut the dogs’ walk to just going to the corner and back. Freddy seemed to understand when we arrived at the far corner and would cross the street for a return down the block. Princess, a ten pound malti-poo, wants to take the regular two block walk no matter how hot it is.
To my surprise my daughter turned on the heater this morning. I understood Fall is here. Now at least the petunias and marigolds won’t wilt if they are watered every two or three days.
The never ending political soap opera has become boring as the reporters and commentators repeat the same information over and over.
It’s time for me to focus more time on my photography.
Praying Mantis on the window
“America was always great.”
Meghan McCain said during her father’s memorial service that “America was always great.” She also said. “The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great.”
I would have added the words “and is still great today.” These have been my words from the beginning of the Trump candidacy for president. I just don’t have the same following as Meghan McCain.
Looking at some facts supports the contention that the United States continues to be the greatest country the world has ever known.
Our country’s GDP is over $19.3 trillion dollars. In second place is China at $12 trillion. Japan is 3rd at $4.5 trillion. Then Germany at $3.6 trillion
Note: This list is based IMF’s World Economic Outlook Database, April 2018.
Military strength? Global Firepower’s 2017 Military Strength Ranking uses more than 50 factors to assign a Power Index score to 133 countries.
The finalized Global Firepower ranking relies on over 55 individual factors to determine a given nation’s PowerIndex (‘PwrIndx’) score. Ranked number 1 is the United States. Number 2 is Russia and number three is China.
The country with the most billionaires? It is estimated there are 680 in the United States worth $3.2 billion. Second place is China with a wealth of $1.1 trillion.
The American dollar is recognized as the reserve currency of the world. Many countries use the US dollar exclusively: Ecuador, East Timor, El Salvador, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Turks and Caicos, British Virgin Islands, Zimbabwe. Many countries employ it as an accepted alternative to their own currency.
We have the universities people want to attend. The number of international students in the U.S. reached an all-time high – 1,078,822 students – during the 2016-2017 school year.
The American constitution and our capitalist enterprise system has made the United States the envy of the world. Our constitution guarantees freedom of religion, a free press, and a judicial system that protects the innocent. Immigrants migrate to the United States because they know that this is a country that rewards hard working people and helps the downtrodden.
We are great and we have always been great!
Rolls-Royce’s Yacht-Inspired Phantom Convertible
There it was parked on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills, California. A Rolls-Royce Convertible with the top down. It was parked like any other car. I could see the entire car in the morning sun.
I was taking Freddy, my terrier, into the groomer for a trim and bath. After I parallel parked I realized that there was a Rolls-Royce in front of me. When you go to the car show they have these cars on display but you really can’t see the interior easily. This car could be seen by everyone walking or driving by. No one was around and I ran my hand over the wood not certain that it was really wood. No license plate on the back told me it was very new. The owner was definitely showing off.
Check out the luxurious teak wood decking on the Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe Convertible. “The optional teak decking was inspired by classic racing yachts – hand-made from 30 separate pieces and cut from the same tree for consistent grain,” explained on the hogring.com web site. The teak wood decking is optional and comes at a hefty price of $9,875. Anyone willing to spend nearly $500,000 on the base model would not baulk at paying an extra $10K for such a gorgeous feature.
Here are the pictures all taken by me.
Coast Contact 