All posts by howiemaui

America Is Getting An Enema and A Lot of Enemies.

Our newly elected President Donald Trump has just banned refugees from seven muslim countries coming into the United States for the next ninety days, these countries are Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, even though these countries have been associated with terrorism, there are many American Muslims who are probably very unhappy with President Trump’s ban on their fellow Muslim brothers and Brothers and Sisters.

Here are some of them”

1 Andres Carson- Congressman from Indiana

2 C. Jackson Ellis-former mayor of Macon, Georgia

3 Keith Ellison- first Muslim congressman from Minnesota

4 Ilhan Omar-Member of the Minnesota  House  of Representatives

5 Zalmay Khalilzad-former US Ambassador to the United Nations,and former US Ambassador to Iraq and AfGhanistan

6 Farah Pandith-Special Representative to Muslim Communities for the US Department of State; official advisor to President Obama

7 Zainab Salbi- co-founder and president for Women for Women International

8 James Yee-former US Army chaplain with a rank of Captain

9 Elias-Director, National Institute  of Health

10 Kareem Rashad Sultan Han-United States Army Soldier killed in Iraq

11 Humayun Khan(soldier)-United States Army killed in Iraq

12 Shirin Neshat- Pakistani American artist and McArthur Fellow

13 Mohamed A. El-Erian- CEO of PIMCO, manager of over one trillion dollars in global assets

14 Fuad El–Hibri- CEO of Emergent BioSolutions

15 Shahid Khan-owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League(NFL), the English Premier League team, Fulham F.C., and automobile parts manufacturer Flex-N-Gate in Urbana, Illinois

16 Farooq Kathwari- CEO of Ethan Allen Global, Inc.

17 Safi Qreshey-Pakastani-American entrepreneur and philanthropist; co-founder, and former CEO of AST Research

18  Dave Chappelle

19 Nabil Abou-Harb- filmmaker, writer,  director of “Arab in America”

20 Shohreh Aghdashloo – Academy award nominated Iranian-born actress

21 Mahershala Ali- actor, featured in “The Hunger Games” film series and the TV series Luke Cage

22 Lewis Arquette – fil actor, writer, and producer

23 Ice Cube- Rapper, actor

24 Ahmad Jamal- Jazz pianist

25 Ahmet Ertgun- Songwriter and founder of Atlantic Records

26 Art Blakey- jazz drummer and band leader

27 Big Daddy Kane-rapper, “5 percent”

28 Casey Kasem-radio personality-“Top Forty”

29 Jermaine Jackson- singer, bass guitarist

30  Dr. Mehmet Oz- TV Doctor host

31 Iman- Supermodel and the wif of the late David Bowie

32 Suhaib Webb-Mus;im lecturer and activist

33 Fazlur Khan- structural engineer(designed the Sears Tower, John Hancock Center-Chicago)

34 Ayub K. Ommaya- neuro surgeon, inventor of the Ommaya reservoir

35 Ahmed Zewail- Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1999 for his work on femotochemistry

36 Muhammad Ali

37 Bernard Hopkins- former Middleweight and Light Heavyweight world champion

38 Eddie Mustafa Muhammad-former Light Heavyweight champion

39 Mike Tyson

40 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

41 Shareef Abdur-Rahim- 2001 NBA All Star

42 Shaquille O’Neal

43 Hakeem Olajuwon

44 Rasheed Wallace

45 Az-Zahir Hakim- wide receiver formally for the St. Louis Rams

46 Ryan Harris- offensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers

47 Ahmad Rashad- former wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings, and award winning sportscaster

48 Michael Wolfe- Journalist

49 Khaled Hosswini- Novelist, physician.

50 Jon Jandali-Biological Father-Steve Jobs(Apple Corporation)

There are thousands of American Muslims who have contributed to the success  of America, it’s a shame that because of the recent terrorist attacks in the last two decades that a religion, race(Mexican, and who knows what else President Trump thinks is a threat to the United States. Sure he is probably appealing to many Americans, as Hitler did with the Jews, however our country was not  built to hate a group of people because of their religion.

I  just hope President Trump does not need a colonoscopy, given by a Muslim Gastroenterologist, shit will be hitting the fan for sure.

 

“”””””””FANTASTIC”””””””

 

Maybe President Trump Needs A New Deck of Cards.

I just finished listening to Pope Francis’s audio book(audio.com) “The Name of God Is Mercy”. It was very motivating to hear the Holy Father’s soothing words that the first salvation is our necessity of trying very hard to forgive. To many it’s an almost impossible task to forgive the likes of Adolph Hitler or a child rapist. I believe what Pope Francis is trying to emphasize that we as a people must discover what the meaning of life is. I like many have been struggling with so many why this, and why me. For this seventy year old blogger, me, I want to stop asking and joy my remaining years and try to focus on the good things that the world has to offer.

A good start was to congratulate our newly elected president, Donald J. Trump. He won a hard election, and by many pulled off an unbelievable win. I can only hope that he can make America a Better place to live again. However, I don’t like his “Dislikes” to say the least, while I am trying to find something good on our planet Earth, I am hearing so much animosity from President Trump. It makes me want to make my own playing deck of cards, fifty-two different cards, one each representing something or someone our President has made reference to. I know that there are many people who will say you probably can make at least five decks of cards(260) that should of been used in one of Trump’s defunct casinos.

I am reading from the July 2015, online edition of The Washington Post  “25 people,places and things Donald Trump has denounced” by Amber Phillips.  Twenty people and places  is almost a half of deck, so here goes.

  1. John McCain is not a War Hero.
  2. “Conservative pundits, Your Next President, Donald Trump, basically tweets like a 12-year old girl.”
  3. The Washington Post
  4. Arianna Huffington
  5. NBC
  6. All Media
  7. “Most undocumented immigrants fro Mexico”
  8. Hilary Clinton
  9. Barack Obama
  10. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry
  11. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal
  12. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum’s electoral record.
  13. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s former Fox News Show:
  14. Mitt Romney
  15. Pollsters
  16. Presidential Debates
  17. Richard Nixon
  18. Drugs(marijuana)
  19. Wisconsin
  20. Mexico
  21. American diplomats
  22. Black bankers
  23. Vaccinations
  24. Communion
  25. God, himself, a little bit.
  26. former Miss Universe Alicia Machado (“The Daily Beast”)
  27. Susana Martinez (Governor of Mexico)                “
  28. Gold Star Mother Ghazala Khan                               “
  29. Judge Gonzalo Curiel                                        “The Huff Post”
  30. John Lewis                                                               “New York Times”
  31. Meryl Streep                                                                          “
  32. Arnold Schwarzenegger                                                  “
  33. John O. Brennan                                                                  “
  34. Obamacare                                                                             “
  35. Saturday Night Live                                                           “
  36. Bernie Sanders                                                                     “
  37. Jeb Bush                                                                                    “
  38. Chris Christie                                                                         “
  39. Ted Cruz                                                                                    “
  40. Carly Fiorina                                                                           “
  41. Lindsey Graham                                                                    “
  42. George Pataki                                                                        “
  43. Marco Rubio                                                                           “
  44. Scott Walker                                                                           “
  45. Joseph R. Biden Jr.                                                              “
  46. Cory Booker                                                                            “
  47. Ben Cardin                                                                               “
  48. Tim Kaine                                                                                  “
  49. Anthony D. Weiner                                                             “
  50. The cast of “Hamilton”                                                      “
  51. Ruth Bader Ginsburg                                                         “
  52. Rossie O’Donnell

I need to thank the New York Times for their online article, updated January 20,2017, “The 305 People, Places and Things Donald Trump Has Insulted on Twitter: A Complete List” I know they will have to update this article on a weekly basis, for me I just want enjoy all the wonderful and maybe not so many people that are not nice, and pray  that President Trump can get out of the bad playing card business and see the goodness and the grace of God with the challenges that lie ahead of him.

Amen!

Instead of Building A Wall Around Mexico, Lets Put Them to Work.

I can understand President Trumps disgust of seeing so many illegal Mexican aliens trying to enter the United States. We are certainly the land of opportunity, we waste billions of dollars of food, and it seems that most Americans are always trying to get a free lunch.

This is certainly not the case any more. Donald Trump’s Americans have one problem that perhaps Mexico can help is Health Care. With the cost of health care in the United States reaching  three trillion dollars a year,($10,000.00) per each America), I think that President Trump should think twice about his plans to build a thousand mile long wall, forty feet high, and give his Mexican neighbors what they need, are jobs, medical jobs. there has been so much talk about keeping jobs in America,  but we really need in the United States is affordable health care.

There is no reason in hell that a nursing home in this country needs to charge over $5000.00 a month. Lets take the twenty billion dollars to build the Trump Wall, and use the money to build a cheaper alternative to the high cost of both hospital and nursing care that we have. In essence, if we can provide good and honorable employment for the so call illegal aliens who want to come into the United States for a better life, why can’t we have them help us fix our  health care disaster.

I don’t know about you, but I think I would feel a lot better that I can spend my final days in an affordable nursing home, and when I die, there might be some money left for my family.

 

Charles Dow, Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser Must Be Applauding Donald Trump.

With all the criticism that we have given to our newly elected president, Donald J. Trump, perhaps today is a date in history that we might remember most about “The Donald”. History was made on Wall Street today, The Dow Jones Average closed above 20,000, 20,068.51 to be exact, up 155.80 points, with a volume of 88,952,240 shares traded, with a market value of 5.7 trillion dollars.

This was a far cry when three men, Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser(silent partner) originated Dow Jones Average. Unlike working in a garage like Steve Jobs, and Steve Wozniak on the Apple1, they started Dow, Jones and Company in November, 1882, headquartered in the basement of a candy store. A year later the company started putting out an afternoon two page summary of the day’s financial news called the”Customer’s Afternoon Letter”. This eventually  grew in 1889 as what we so churchly read a “The Wall Street Journal”, just two cents an issue or five dollars for a yearly subscription.

From it’s first two page edition which it listed just just twelve American corporations, the American Cotton Oil Company, the American Sugar Company, American Tobacco Company, Chicago Gas Company, Distilling and Cattle Feeding Company, General Electric, Laclede Gas Company, National Lead Company, North American Company, Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, U.S. Leather Company, and United States Rubber Company.

The original twelve Dow Jones Average companies were replaced and expanded many times to what we have in today’s record performance , the thirty components of theDow Jones Average: 3M, American Express, Apple, Boeing, Caterpillar, Chevron, Cisco Systems, Coca-Cola, DuPont, Exon-Mobil, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, The Home Depot, IBM, Intel, Johnson&Johnson, JPMorgan Chase, McDonalds’s, Merck,Microsoft, Nike, Pfizer, Procter&Gamble, Travelers, United Health Group, United Technologies, Verizon, Visa, Wal-Mart, and Walt Disney.

Certainly these crown jewels which comprise The Dow Jones Average might be the first positive thing that our King Donald has impressed me so far, I can only pray and hope there are much more achievements, that he can do as our previous presidents have done, is to listen and make their country proud. Unlike most Kings, he has just some four years to prove that he can take his place with his other forty four presidents.

Good Luck.

 

$165,000,000,000.00 of Food IS Wasted Each Year By All of Us.

Yesterday I was experiencing my epicurean delight at a wonderful Hibachi in Indiana. I certainly did not know where to begin, they had hundreds of food selections, and I tried very hard to realize that my eyers were bigger than my stomach, however at the table next to mine I saw a mound of unfinished fruits, some salad and a couple of half filled glasses of soda. I am sure that I could walk around this restaurant see enough wasted food that would feed at least a hundred homeless people. I been to some buffets in the Philippines, where they will charge you more if you don’t finish most of your food on your plate. It’s very sad, and disrespectful to all those people around the world who’s daily diet is a cup of rice in salt water. We Americans take our food choices for granted and yet we become so ungrateful, and think that the government is not doing enough. However we are unaware that most of our thrown away food goes into our massive landfills, thus releases methane gas into our atmosphere.

I wish our local governments as well as both the state and federal governments could help us to dispose our undated food. Just think how many people around the world could be fed. In ten years it could translate in to a trillion dollars of food. There should be tax incentives for food producers, restaurants, and even us Americans. Just like we can recycle an aluminum can, maybe (in powder form), a Big Mac, French Fries and a Coke to a family who not only have the daily problem of putting food to eat on their table, but most likely do not have a table.

So the next time you go to a restaurant particularly a buffet, look around and see how much food that is wasted.

 

The Good, Bad, Ugly: Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, and Ray Kroc.

I just recently s the movie “Founder”, the store of the struggle of a tenacious milk shake salesman Ray Kroc, through his desire to capitalize on two brothers who last names were McDonald. He saw the opportunity of revolutionizing the fast food restaurant business, and literally made a hamburger a household name, which became as we know it today, The McDonalds Corporation, a market value of 100.7 billion dollars

Like other great thinkers and doers, helices of Thomas Edison, invented of the phonograph, motion picture projector and the light bulb,  hired other inventors and pocketed over one-thousand patents, his greatest company had a spokesman named President Ronald Regan, The General Electric Company, has a market value of almost 257 billion dollars.

Steve Jobs with the help with a fellow high school friend Steve Wozniak, that with the determination of an engineer and a salesman, that yo can turn a circuit board(Apple1), however Steve Jobs at first did not share his success with those who helped him The Apple Computer Company, as we know  into what is today The Apple Computer Corporation, a market value 640 billion dollars.

Three major US corporations, MCD-GE-AAPL that have combine value close to one trillion dollars, who started out as Good Men, and what most people perceived as Bad greedy people, and the way they became Ugly tyrants, that let nothing stand in their way for success. To day into the first week of Donald Trump’s presidency, we have already have a million women march for the rights of what I call “WomanKind”, ManKind. Lets see if history will repeat itself?

Maybe and I hope not that we will have a new global Stock Exchange, with The United States falling their other Stock Exchange members Russia, and China!

Not a real difference, no more trading PUTS, just PUTINS.

At 70 of Age, More Pills, and Higher Bills.

Being  the same age as President Trump, however a  few billion dollars poorer, I wish he would focus on making the lives of his fellow seniors. For most of all, we barely have enough savings to pay our monthly expenses, yet alone to anticipate what financial surprises to come,

What a nice to hear from my financial advisor that in a couple of months I will have to declare 3.75%  a year of my investments as income. Crap, right when I thought I was doing good, the government is telling me that it is payback time. President Trump. fellow “Oldie But A Goodie”,, can you inform them that in the last two years my social security has gone up a whopping $3.00 dollars a month.

Here is wht I suggest, a great compromise, and if our new president can institute this, I might even have a good reason to get a Trump Tattoo.

  1. No Federaal Taxes on Social Security.
  2. No long term declaration of income(3.75%) at at 70 1/2.
  3. A one time exemption of long term capital gains of any property, regardless if it’s residential or investment.
  4. ??????????

Starting To Think That Early Death Might Be Our Obama Care Replacement!

A I listened to Donald Trump’s inaugural address, I thought he was going to launch a football pass that would light up the faces of ten’s of millions of American faces, his replacement for our much needed affordable health care. Instead it was his old campaign speech all over again. Same-o-same-o more jobs, more factories returning to the United States, “Buy America, “Made in America” This sounds great, most people don’t or can’t work in a factory, and cannot afford to buy American products, has Donald Trump ever visit a dollar store, how many products that you see in these stores have items that were made in the United States.

I would like President Trump focus on keeping his fellow “Americans’   HEALTHY, and out of the “PoorHouse”.  While we have millions of women protesting on what is happing to not on their rights, but the rights of others in our world, Gun Violence and Climax Change. President Trump stated yesterday that he is giving the United States back to it’s people. You would think he would meet the Women of his great country today, and join them< no he went to the National Prayer Breakfast.

I am not getting much sleep lately, I depend on my social security payments, Maybe an early Death just be answer to lower the  health care costs for our younger Americans, for our first day in the office, president, Donald Trump, it was just a Break-Fast.

Sorry President Donald J. Trump, America Is Great, and Will Always Be Great.

First of all President Trump, I want to congratulate you on your miraculous win as our forty fifth president of The United States America, you were certainly the people’s choice, and surely emphasized that the country needs change, our Great Country, and this is how you and I differ, our country needs to be a Better Country.

Your inaugural speech stated “We the citizens of America are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and to restore its promise for all out people..” Over the course of history, the founding fathers haven given us the freedoms that many countries around the world do not have.

1) “Prohibits Congress from making any law respecting an establishment of religion, prevent the free exercise of the religion, to abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.”

2) “Protects  the right to keep and bear arms.”

3) “Places restrictions on the quartering of soldiers in private homes without the owner’s consent, prohibiting it during peace time.”

4) “Prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and sets out requirements search warrants based on probable cause as determined by a judge or magistrate.”

5) “Set out rules for indictment by grand jury and eminent domain, protects the right to due process, and prohibits self-incrimination and double jeopardy.”

6) “Protects the right to a fair and speedy public trial by jury, including the rights to be notified of the accusations, to confront the accuser, to obtain witnesses and to retain counsel.”

7) “Provides for the right to trial by jury in certain civil cases, according to civil law.”

8) “Prohibits excessive fines and excessive bail, as well as cruel and unusual punishment.”

9) “Protects rights not enumerated in the Constitution.”

10) “Reinforces the principle of federalism by stating that the federal government possesses only those  powers delegated delegated to it by the states or the people through the Constitution.”

11) “Make states immune from the suits from out-of-state citizens and foreigners not living within the state borders; lays the foundation for sovereign immunity.”

12) “Revises presidential election procedures.”

13)  “Abolishes slavery, and involuntary servitude, except as punishment fora crime.”

14) “Defines citizenship, contains the Privileges or Immunities Clause, the Due Process  Clause, the Equal Protection Clause, the Equal Protection  Clause and Deals with post-Civil War issues.”

15) “Prohibits the denial of the right too vote bases on race, color, or previous condition of servitude”

16) “Permits Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states or basing on the United Stats Census.”

17) “Establishes the direct election of United States Senators by popular vote.”

18) “Prohibited the manufacturing of sale of alcohol within in the United States. (repealed December, 1933)

19) “Prohibits the denial of the right to vote based on sex.”

20) ” Changes the date on which the terms of the President and Vice President(January 20) and Senators and Representatives(January 3) end and begin.”

21) “Repeals the 18th Amendment and makes it a federal offense to transport or import intoxicating liquors in to the US states and territories where such transport or importation is prohibited by the laws of those states and territories.”

22) ” Limit the number of times that a person can be elected president: a person cannot be elected more than twice, and a person who has served more than to which someone else was elected cannot not be elected more than once.”

23) “Grants the District of Columbia electors (the number of electors being equal to the least populous state) in the Electoral College.”

24) “Prohibits the revocation voting rights due to the non-payment of a poll tax o any other tax.”

25) “Addresses succession to the Presidency and establishes procedures both fill a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, as well as responding to Presidential disabilities.”

26) “Prohibits the denial of rights of US citizens, eighteen years of age or older, to vote on account of age.”

27) “Delays laws affecting Congressional salary from taking effect until after the next election of representatives.”

Mister President, the are the ratified amendments of our Constitution, they are Our Greatness of not only The United States of America, but also the Hope of The Free World.

 

 

A Big Thanks To The Obamas.

On your last night in the White House, the last of eight years, I want to thank you for making my retirement, my financial foundation, one that, and mindset that will help me in my final journey. After  the attacks of September 11, 2001, I never thought our country could ever recover. Fortunately we were able to show the world our tenacity and commitment for a better world. You inherit a United State that was in a financial shambles, high interest rates, falling economy, and millions of Americans losing their homes and jobs.

her stockYou President Obama, did the impossible, kill Bin Laden, lowered interest rates, get more people working, brought back a higher stock market, did not touch our precious social security, and mostly, make health care available. Unbelievable, when you had a Republican party who wanted you to be just a one term president. You proved them wrong.

What I will remember most, is that you kept your cool, Your family were a great First Family. Michelle, set a wonderful example, stressing the importance of both education, and eating the proper foods to stay healthy.

If there was ever a president to serve his third term, IT WAS TOU.

Tomorrow, will bring in our next POTUS, Donald J. Trump, hopefully he will learn from your eight years.