POTUS 2016 Issues

I have three issues that I am concerned about this election:

1) Jobs:  Unemployment for young people under the current administration has remained stubbornly high. Many things have contributed to that but the biggest is the ACA. Underemployment or unemployment has been very slow to improve after the recession. It is hard for young people 18-24 to find fulltime employment. Higher minimum wage will not make things better. The divide between rich and poor has gotten larger over the past eight years.

2) Foreign Policy: The world is not safer today than 8 years ago. We snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq and abandoned the area before the job was complete. Now we have allowed the Islamic State to take root and cause havoc.

3) The Supreme Court: The next president will get 2 picks to the court. Those picks will affect us a lot longer than a presidential term.

Lord of Apes

It has been quiet here. My eyesight seems to have changed some so I went in to see Rob Mitchell at Oro Valley Eye care to have my eyes checked.

This time was cheaper than last because I brought an old pair of frames to have them upgrade the lenses.

We watched a couple of movies this week that I would recommend. First is The Cokeville Miracle. Cokeville is just East of Bear Lake, not far from Fossil Butte National Monument. It tells a faithful story of the bombing of the elementary school in 1986 where, of the 100+ hostages in the classroom when the bomb detonated, not a single victims life was lost. The people the movie focused on al view this event as a spiritual experience. I was inspired by the film (Amazon Prime).

The second movie we enjoyed was a Hollywood creation with some actual historical people depicted in it, principally this one:

Of course, Hollywood could not be content with telling actual history and paired Williams with Lord Greystoke.

The result was entertaining, even if they twisted Belgian King Leopold II's exploitation and enslavement of the people of Congo to be about diamonds instead of

rubber.

As for our family this week; Haley got lost trying to find a camp out...

...Eric and Krystal went to the Temple with Sam...

....And Gordon and Alison took John to the Donut Man...

..in the Donut Car.

July 4th 2016 in CA

Felicia and I arrived July 1. Haley came to the airport that night as well. Traffic at LAX was terrible but we managed.

The next day, Saturday, we went to Santa Monica Pier.

Here is a few from the parking lot at the pier

Gordon, Felicia, and Haley at the pier

We walked down the ramp to the pier.

We stopped at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co. Haley points out the "Stupid Is as Stupid Does" shirt.

Santa Monica Pier is at the end of the famous Route 66.

The pier had a wide variety of people; some preaching over loud speaker, some yelling crude statements, some talented singers entertaining for what people were willing to give.

We saw a man catch a fish.

This looked fun...some day.

We had Fish and Chips at Albright's at the Pier. .

I left my phone at the restaurant and while I was retrieving it, a man saw Gordon's NASA shirt and started telling him about a space-time portal between the Santa Monica Pier and Newport Beach.

Sunday we went to church and then in the afternoon Gordon and I took Johnny for a walk to the playground up the street.

Monday morning was the Ward 4th of July breakfast at church. Gordon was in charge of getting the scouts to raise the flag.

The breakfast was great.

The scouts did well with the flag ceremony.

Later that day, after John's nap, we traveled to Knotts Berry Farm.

John enjoyed meeting Woodstock.

He wasn't so sure about Peppermint Patty.

Next we went on rides.

Sidewinder

Snoopy Bus

Montezuma's Revenge

Merry-Go-Round

We had a Chicken Dinner at the Knotts Berry Farm Restaurant...

...then saw the fireworks and finished the pie leftover from the dinner

Dog catches fish

Charlie catches fish

Dancing berry farmers

We went to a movie on Tuesday, then Haley had to leave.

Haley used Uber to get to the airport. It worked well even though she ordered up a pool driver.

The next day I took Johnny hiking at the Arcadia Wilderness Park. He had misplaced his rocket shoes so I had to put his crocks on him. He had a great time and never complained. He wanted to climb every set of stairs twice.

We did not expect to encounter sprinklers in the wilderness park but we did

A single lane bridge leads in and out of the park

Johnny never complained but when we got home and took off the crocks, he had blisters on his ankle where the heal strap attached.

During all of this, Alison was interviewing for a job and secured an offer from Bonita High School. Yay!

We took Johnny to Newport Beach.

This 2.5 yr old has unlimited energy

On Friday we went to the Getty Museum. Entrance is free but you have to pay parking.

There is a tram from the parking lot to the top of the large hill where the museum is.

The grounds were beautiful

This Wheatstack by Monet is pretty famous

But not as famous as this Van Gogh called "Irises". He painted this in the insane asylum garden about a year before his death.

We drove through Beverly Hills on the way home and saw some houses of stars from yester years (Milton Berle and Walter Matthau)
We had a wonderful time. Thanks to Gordon and Alison for hosting us.