Gitmo in Trump’s future?

I don’t know what Biden will do, or better yet, his attorney general, in pursuing Trump for the host of Federal charges he should be indicted for, like his interference into the fact-finding investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller to determine if Russia attempted to subvert our electoral system, not to mention a host of old and potential future claims that might lend him in jail. 

Biden seems too intent on reconciliation. His extended hand shouldn’t be strictly limited in time, and if the GOP doesn’t embrace it, then his administration should go as hard it possibly can after Donald J. Trump. 

As for the place if jail time is offered to our 45th president, I only have one constructive proposal to make: 

Send him to Guantanamo Naval Base. 

The tropical weather should be to his liking and it’s never too late for him to learn Arabic!

Trump's security deposit

 Let’s start by establishing a few, hard facts. Donald Trump is just a tenant of the White House. This iconic home is also the undivided property of all tax-paying, citizens of the United States of America. So, if you are an American, you and I are Trump’s landlords.

When a property owner rents a house or an apartment, after checking the renter’s references, it’s customary to ask for a security deposit. In that case, we failed to, because our tenant said he was worth $10 billion. Reality would prove later that he might have been one-fifth that rich, if at all. 

So we’re now stuck with a misbehaving, broke, bad tenant whose lease is about to expire and I’m worried about that. As a landlord, I’m right to fear that he won’t leave, not the just the physical property, but also the moral property of America in much worse shape than what it was when he found it. 

Sure there are the lawyers, the Sheriff too, that can throw the bum out. I also realize now, “Where in hell is our security deposit?” Since we didn’t for one, we have no financial recourse. 

Perhaps the only solution would be to ask the 74 million smart Americans who wanted Trump’s lease renewed to pay for all the damages he created, present and future, which by my estimation amount to about $5 trillion; thus to contribute a hefty $68 million by elector. 

Good luck on that one...

11-28 Half a country of “deplorable”

I’m no fan of Hillary Clinton, but I must confess that her choice of the term “deplorable” to qualify Trump supporters in 2016 was right on the money. 

That cost her some votes, because Trump knew how to turn the expression against her, but it remains clear that “deplorable” meant what it said: 

• Causing or being a subject for grief or regret; lamentable. 
• Also causing or being a subject for censure, reproach, or disapproval; wretched; very bad. 

The bad news is that if 80 million Americans voted for Joe Biden, almost 74 millions “deplorable” fellows voted for Trump. 

This means that Democrats may have won, but American is split in half with a considerable half made of either idiot, gullible, malevolent individuals or a combination of these three flaws.

What’s wrong with Macron?

This past Tuesday, we watched Macron deliver his televised speech about re-opening France and while one might agree or disagree with his proposed measures, we still think there’s something about his style that is not quite working.

His overly perfect command of the French language as well as his flawless diction, not to even mention his aseptically clean desk from which he addressed his countrymen, makes him look like a perfectionist robot. 

Even though, he’s trying, he’s failing to level with his constituents and that gap isn’t helping him in any way. He would gain tremendously at being more relaxed, at appearing more “normal”, but that runs against his nature and is fodder for his forty-two percent low approval rating. 

This sure will cost him big, sixteen month from now, when comes re-election time...

Dear Deer

In Ridgeview, the first neighborhood we moved to when we arrived in Park City, more than 35 years ago, there’s a house that recently errected a chain-link fence around its yard. 

We noticed it when we walked there, earlier this week, and I told my wife that such fencing was illegal within our City limits. 

Then our attention went to a two-page notice that explained why such a “diversion” had been built. I leave you with the story as it was told on the signs… 

Dear Deer, 

The buffet line is closed. Your bedroom and bathroom privileges are revoked. Enough is enough! For over 30 years we have shared this space. It was great to have one or two of you stop by every few weeks for a surprise visit. But times have changed. It is no longer a surprise. 

Now you are a herd, often numbering over a dozen, and in the winter you are here everyday. The annual cost of repairing your damage to the yard now exceeds our summer water bills. In the winter our driveway is covered in your excrement. In the spring , hundred of pounds of your waste must be racked from the yard before we can use it. 

You have eaten our Mugos to nubs, damaged more of the juniper and broken the lower branches of the spruce. It took 30 year to grow these plants. You destroyed decades of growth in days last winter. We suspect your numbers swelled when a few neighbors put out food to encourage you to visit their yards. 

They may have started modestly, but one neighbor tells me his efforts grow until he was putting out a hundred ponds of food a day for you. As the food supply grew, so did your numbers. As the food through appeared bottomless you stopped roaming and took up permanent residence. 

If the neighbors who feed you want a herd of deer in their yards, and accept the accompanying damage, that is their choice. We no longer accept the costs their actions have imposed upon us. This diversion is to help you break your habits and protect our vegetation. 

When you need to sleep, defecate, wrestle, or just want to taste a real plant again instead of food from a bag, go down the street and indulge yourself in someone else’s yard. 

P.S. We had a similar challenge with ducks a few years ago and put up a diversion from them. The ducks learned very quickly. Within a few weeks, they stopped coming through our yard. You deer have much bigger brains than ducks. You figure this out. Show us how fast you can learn! 

P.P.S. We would rather not have this diversion, but it has become necessary to protect the vegetation from ravenous, artiodactyl ungulates. The low junipers were eaten to nubs two years ago. Extensive watering brought some of them back, but is expensive and laborious. The Mugo pine you see was stripped to a height of over seven feet. It is never going to recover. Another Mugo ten feet to the east was completely denuded and had to be cut down. We replaced the Mugos with Arborvitae this spring as supposedly deer do not like to eat Arborvitae. Well they did not eat them, but the deer destroyed several of them two weeks ago rubbing the velvet of their antlers. We have had enough. We are protecting the vegetation. 

P.P.P.S. We have spoken to our neighbors about their compulsion to feed wildlife. Several people tell us they have called the DWR. After a few weeks or months, the neighbors seem to start putting out food again. This diversion seemed both more polite and more expeditious that filing another report with the DWR.

First (real) day on skis

After finally making a successful reservation at Park City Mountain, I went skiing for an hour or so on Tuesday. 

I only skied three runs, the snow was okay, the crowd pretty thin and social distancing with three others fellow passengers, on a six-person chair, went perfectly well. I made one turn for each one of the guys dear to me that passed away this summer: 

Gaston, my big brother, Jean-Pierre the friend who was like a sibling to me and my dear buddy François from Neuchâtel. 

The turns weren’t the greatest, but they were as round as I could make them. Hopefully, there will be more good skiing soon…

Vail Resorts flawed reservations system

To cope with Covid-19, Vail Resorts (VR) decided to opt for a reservations system in order to limit the number of users on the mountain during each single day, based on its available uphill capacity, greatly reduced (from 75% to 30%, in most cases) through social distancing in the lines and on the lifts. 

This idea wasn’t selected by most other resorts and for some pretty obvious reasons that you’ll discover as you read. This reservations idea was the typical good idea that was not thought through at all, and as well all know, the devil always loves to hide inside the details! 

Back in August, I tried to understand the rules behind VR’s reservations program, but couldn’t make any sense of it. I emailed VR, asking them for clarification, and copied Mike Goar, the VP and General Manager of Park City Mountain (PCM). I never got any response from either party. Mid September, I watched a video in which Rob Katz VR’s CEO was supposed to explain his resorts confusing reservation system. This was fruitless, as he failed to explain anything. 

The day before PCM opened I tried to figure that system out and saw that I couldn’t make a reservation for the reminder of the month including, Friday November 20, the next day. The grid didn't allow reservations through December 7. So, I assumed that reservations were required for the core season only. Then I began booking reservations for 7 days from December 8 through December 13. 

So, on Friday, I showed up at PCM around 12:15 pm and was turned back as I was scanned in the line and told I had no reservation, so I went home, licked my wounds, tried to call Vail Resorts and was told by its voice mail message that there was too long a waiting line and got automatically disconnected. Great customer service! 

Not one to give up easily, I tried the Chat service and after waiting a good while was told that I would get a response in 233 minutes (translation: almost 4 hour!) I then sent an incendiary email to PCM's General Manager, in which I explained my experience for the day. He clarified some of the things I never understood in Vail Resorts’ res system, apologized for my frustration with the system. 

He told me that “PCM experienced a very high volume, which coupled with reduced capacity due to limited terrain makes it challenging to secure reservations this week. All of the safety protocols came on top of that, leading to these difficulties.” He also conveniently ignored my comments about Vail Resorts’ terrible customer service (phone and chat).

 After that needless torture, I began to understand how flawed VR’s reservations system was. What began as an original idea was terribly designed, poorly explained, not discussed thoroughly and obviously not tested either! The way the system is designed, folks can preempt most of the available space without using it (the system promotes tons of "no-shows"). 

Further, its “one-day unit” is senseless; Many locals ski for 1, 2 hours, half-day mostly, and yet, their reservation counts for a full day! Still, VR RFID system would allow for fractional time and optimize the number of users on the slopes. 

What I’d propose to fix would be both doable and simple: With 7 ski-hours in a day (9 am – 4 pm). It would be possible to reserve 2, 3 or 4 hours per day. 7 hours reserved would count for a day. Reservations should be canceled 24 hours in advance or else, they would be deemed no show if the skier doesn’t use them. 

The penalty for no-show could be one less day of floating reservation through the rest of the season. This said, I’m still very concerned that Vail Resorts and Park City Mountain are cheating people who have paid a lot of money for the passes by giving them only a fraction of the product promised. 

Refunds anyone?

Perfect idealism, imperfect reality

We all would love to live a perfect life with perfect people, inside a perfect world, but let’s face it, reality reminds us that’s not quite what we’re getting on a daily basis. We seem doomed to live in a world of imperfection, and if we want to thrive, yet alone survive in it, we better accept to live with an abundance of less than ideal circumstances.

In fact, imperfection is like a vaccine, if we take it in stride, it makes us more stronger and much more resilient! That doesn’t mean that our goals and objective can be mediocre; far from it! 

To get something imperfect but good enough, it helps a great deal if our guiding elements are as perfect as we can imagine them. If they’re less than perfect we’re just cheating ourselves and missing out on what life has to offer. 

Anyway, that’s how I’ve always looked at things: Dream big and if the results are a bit eroded from the original vision, we should cherish them anyway. 

You might ask what’s the point to aim for the absolute and hardly ever getting a full return for it? Well, it’s all about, closing that gap, living and getting better as well as keeping a fighting spirit going, so forget about the friction that drags along the way!

First day on skis !

Friday November 20 was ski opening day at Park City Mountain (PCM). Boy, was I excited! When I got to the resort, there was a long line at First Time, the chair that gets skiers to the base of the mountain.

o I decided to hike there instead. I got to the based of Payday, the only big chairlift open where there was a pretty sizable line, spaced out as per Covid rules, and when it came my turn to be scanned, I was rejected because I had not made a reservation! 

I thought that such thing was only necessary during what PCM or Vail Resorts call the “core” or high season. Well, I turned back, skied down to the parking lot and went home. 

These few precious first turns were, as you might have guessed… priceless, and I was mightily pissed at Vail Resorts and their stupid reservations system that is fraught with problems and simply doesn't work...

What’s inside Trump’s head?

Some think Donald Trump is dumb, other say he’s smart and many believe he’s nuts. This therefore beg the question what’s really inside his head. He doesn’t read but watches a lot of TV instead and rambles a lot. This won’t help in making him the intellectual person of the year! 

Yet, the man also appears to be cunning and generally mean and cruel. Just like smiles don’t belong to his face, there’s no good words coming out of his mouth, yet some of his tactics have worked perfectly to his advantage. 

Of course, he’s got Steve Bannon and Steve Miller in the background, engineering most of Trump’s nefarious moves and populating him like a Trojan horse. This said, Trump got elected on the basis he was a fantastic businessman and to back it up, one worth a whopping 10 billion dollars! 

This of course was another lie. He’s got very little business acumen, if at all, and his net worth was at best one quarter of what he was boasting. He was lucky to ride the Obama’s economic recovery, fueled by a corporate tax-cut that boosted Wall Street to record levels and made sure Steve Munchin would keep that balloon inflated through this last election. 

Yet, when Covid-19 reared its ugly head, he was just smart enough to understand that this would torpedo the economy and sink Wall Street. So, as a result, Trump chose to ignore the pandemic, killing 100,000 people more than a country like America should have lost, leaving himself with plenty of blood splattered over his hands. 

Then, there’s been the systematic lying, a Trump trademark, that no one found objectionable, and now there is his denial of the election results that sometime makes me think that the man might truly believe in his own B.S. if he isn’t totally demented. 

So back to the original question: “What inside Trump’s head?” the answer might be “Unadulterated crap.”

Ready to fly the Boeing 737 Max?

On Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that the embattled Boeing’s 737 Max could fly again, some 20 months after it was grounded for two bad crashes. 

So the next question I’m asking myself is “Can I trust liars like Boeing and the FAA this time around”. That’s indeed the big problem with lying, a dubious practice that leaves irremovable stains, even though that style of communication been widely legalized by Trump over the past four years. 

In an attempt to break the public’s skepticism, Stephen Dickson, the FAA big boss declared, as he was officially lifting the grounding: “I am 100 percent comfortable with my family flying on it.” The question that immediately came to my mind was: “Does this man really love his family?” 

We have all been there with software upgrades that weren’t what they were billed for, from Android, to Apple or Microsoft. From what I’ve been able to learn, this modified plane can’t fly with a complex software crutch. In my view, it should be discontinued and sent to the scrapyard. 

Why would Boeing and the FAA deserve our unfettered truth after what they’ve been telling us in recent years? Well for one thing, Boeing's CEO, David Calhoun, is expected to get a $7 million bonus if he can to get the 737 Max to fly again and I’m certain that Boeing will wine and dine other air safety agencies the world over to ease into the end of the ban.

As for me, I think I’ll wait a couple more years after the plane has been put back in service, without any problem, to venture myself inside that bird!

How Republicans lost control over Trump

It all begun during the 2015 Primaries when Donald Trump began misbehaving on stage and no called him out, including his 16 peers on stage and the media that found the whole exercise entertaining instead of downright appalling.

From “Low energy Jeb” to “Lying Ted” or “Little Rubio”, no one had the practical understanding of the maneuver and gut to say something, or better yet organize the group into demanding a “cease-and-desist” from the offender. 

Had he kept on misbehaving, the group would have kicked him out of the debate and Trump would have never penetrated the political arena. They were so shell-shocked by the man that they forgot to think clearly and by so doing, protect themselves from the deadly intruder. 

By choosing to do nothing, the group began the process of enabling the monster and creating normality in his behavior as seen by the American public. By the end of the primary, Trump was established in his role of name-caller and iconoclast and a substantial segment of the population warmed up to him in the process as they gladly drank his snake-oil medicine. 

It then continued with the Democratic Party Primary and later with Hillary Clinton and the die was cast. Something to remember next time a would-by-tyrant rear his ugly nose.

Pretty… precarious!

Christmas lights seem to be a very big deal in Park City, which shows the trivial and superficial priorities of our affluent community. 

Not only are people highlighting the silhouettes of their roofs and homes, but they are turning their trees into spectacular light-shows as well. 

Some leave the LED bulbs in place year-round, a move that can’t be too good for the tree, but worst than that, the safety of the workers who hang them up all around town, doesn’t appear to be a major priority. 

At least, that’s what we were able to observe at dusk, as we were walking around our neighborhood, and saw what appeared to be four Latino workers precariously standing on top of huge ladders resting on a very tall, frail and bare aspen tree. 

My wife asked me if they could grab a branch to hold on to, should they lose their footing, and I told her that this kind of tree limbs are extremely brittle and would snap instantly. 

An irresponsible business owner and a terrible way for these men to earn a few dollars!

What have I learned from Covid-19?

We are beginning our ninth month under the Covid menace and what have we done with all that precious time that should have yielded a host of opportunities to learn, grow as a person, even recreate and adding something meaningful to our lives? 

In many cases, a lot of folks were caught like a deer in the headlights, just frozen in place. I tried to ask myself that question and had not much to show for it in terms of tangible realizations. I started meditating seriously, but that began sometime in January, before I had even heard the word “pandemic”. 

We also did some improvement around the house, but those would have happened virus or not. That’s when it downed on me, how fast and spontaneously we very quickly learned to accept and adapt to the new situation. 

If someone had asked me last December, if the entire humanity, could turn on a dime and adapt so fast, I would have said “Absolutely no way!”, but here we are. Except for a few fanatic and boneheads, everyone followed the rules and ADAPTED to the new situation without much resistance, like I did. 

A powerful rebuke to “You can’t teach old dogs new tricks!” We can see that the human being is highly adaptable. Fear of dying must be a great motivator indeed!

Who needs another ski brand?

Recently a friend sent me a podcast about a 2006 French athlete who happens to be starting his own new ski brand from scratch. His name is Antoine Dénériaz, who won the 2006 Olympic Downhill in Sestriere, Italy. 

The reason why he’s embarking on this challenging business development is summarized in his company philosophy, that focuses on the skier genuine Alpine origins, his appreciation for excellent, carefully crafted equipment and objects of beauty. 

These qualities are typical of most luxury products. It’s all in the ether and not necessarily in the realm of tangible product features and user’s benefits. Luxury products are at the whims of what’s fashionable today and can vanish much more easily than they come to market. 

Need some examples? Lacroix or Volant skis. Moreover, skis fall into a tough product category. They’re a real commodity as they are to skiing what tires are to automobile driving. Aside from lightweight and stability, two opposite qualities that have yet to be blended into one single product, there doesn’t seem to be much room for innovation. 

The same can’t be said about ski boots or ski bindings that are both plagued with some very vexing shortcomings, like weight, ease of entry and exit, warmth, walk-ability for boots, or greater convenience and enhanced protection for bindings. 

These could be seen as unsolvable goals to attain, yet I’m confident that someday, someone smart will resolve them markedly. Product innovation is what makes a start-up viable and lasting. Simply creating a faddish product may get a brand going, but won’t sustain it for long. 

At least, that is my humble “two-cents”. In the meantime, I wish Antoine a lasting patience, continued creativity and very deep pockets!

How did Park City vote?

As it does all the time for Democrats, Park City voted massively for Biden. Sure, we don’t have stats for our town alone, as those are lumped into our county. That’s right, Summit County has a total population of 42,145 people, including 27,850 who live in the western part of its territory and have a Park City mailing address. 

This means that about two-third of the county’s population lives in the greater Park City area. Park City Municipal, where we live only accounts for 8,488 inhabitants, which means that the 19,362 other “Parkites” live in the unincorporated part of the Park City School District. 

Back to the election, out of 28,785 eligible Summit County voters, 25,790 of them cast a ballot (a whopping 89.6% participation!), with 14,497 or 56.21% voting for Biden and 9,928 or 38.5% for Trump. We need to remember that, outside of Park City, the remaining third of the county is in vast majority Mormon, therefore these folks are for the most part Trump supporters. 

This would lead me to estimate that in the Greater Park City, voters picked Biden 3 to 1 over Trump! This applies to ski towns in other red states like Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. 

Our state of Utah and its 3.2 million population, which in fact is a theocracy like Iran and Israel, has supported Trump, 58% to 37.8% for Biden. 

Only two other counties, Salt Lake and Moab voted for Biden! We still have to work hard in order to make a Democratic dent in that ultra-conservative states!

Covid-proof?

It’s exciting to have an early snowy November and even nicer to look forward to skiing next Friday when Park City Mountain opens its slopes for the season. Of course, Covid-19 is bringing a huge number of issues and questions that are likely to make that season’s opening like no others before. 

To prepare for that, I went on a 5 mile walk today, and tested a newly purchased balaclava, that I worn with some goggles to see if I could stand one and a half hour of exercise with a face covering that people normally use to rob banks. 

I found that it did work for me and I’m encouraged that this new germ-stopper is not only likely to protect me against the early winter cold, but also should filter out some of the nasty Novel Coronavirus that is said to make some people very sick or even kill them. 

Just look for a comprehensive on snow test-drive in an upcoming blog!

Politics: Program vs. Ideology

During this past electoral campaign, ma wife often asked: “Why are more Trump supporters unhappy about his style and his way of running the country? What has he done for them?” 

Frankly, I understood exactly what she meant, but couldn’t find the words or the argument, to answer her questions to her heart content. Then, came the 2020 vote. At this point of time, Biden is credited with 77 million votes, Trump with 72. 

The difference is far from negligible, yet, more than 70 million folks stuck with Trump in spite of his lies, his racism, his cruelty and his lack of managerial acumen. Such a loyalty is both illogical and hard to understand or even explain.

Yet, the answer finally came to me last night as I was ruminating about this despicable creature that Donald Trump is. My thinking went like this: In regular politics there’s always a blend between a given program or platform, and a certain ideology. 

I would suggest than in the case of Biden it could be 60% program versus 40% ideology. Trump, on the other hand, has no program, therefore it’s fair to assume that his entire presidency is made of ideology created out of thin-air. 

Not much different from Jim Jones, this American cult leader that staged a mass-suicide of himself and his followers in the Guyana jungle, at Jonestown, in 1978. 

For the most part, Trump’s followers like simple – I should say crude and infantile – solutions, like institutionalized lying and cheating, good old fashion racism, self-sufficiency, religiosity and white supremacy, to name just a few. 

No reasoning can get through ideology and it remains to be seen how American society can best annihilate this scourge outside of good old education and common sense, but that medication isn’t easily administered!

Beware of a wounded lion!

Early this month, I predicted that Trump would lose, but also that he would be a piece of work between the election and the time he must be forcibly removed from office, on January 20, 2021. 

He clearly is a wounded lion, a predator in great pain, already posing a do or die defense, a desperate fight to harm its enemy. 

Since Donald Trump only cares about himself, he’s ready to adopt a scorched earth policy to find a semblance of solace, regardless of the fact that what he does might hurt his faithful followers as equally as his opponents. 

Expect much damage from that wild and cruel beast, some of it, irreparable!

A visit to the Salomon factory

About fifty years ago this week, I was invited – as a ski instructor – to visit the Salomon ski binding factory. No boots amd no skis yet in 1970! The main models they made were the S505 and the S404, but the company was already getting close to becoming the number one contender on the world market. 

My girlfriend, at the time, picked me up in Cluses, where I worked at the time, and we drove together in her Citroën Dyane to Annecy, at the original Salomon factory, rue de la prairie prolongée. I can’t remember how many ski instructors showed up for the visit, neither do I recall who met us there, it must have been some marketing guy. 

What I remember was the production area and its impressive array of noisy presses that were punching and bending the steel used in the production of their heel-pieces. We saw the assembly line but I can’t recollect if someone gave us a speech on how great Salomon bindings were. 

They were in fact quite mediocre in terms of skier’s safety, but were much more convenient than their competition, quality the presenters should have stressed at length to an audience of ski instructors. I can’t recall either Salomon offering us something to drink or eat, any cheap sticker, or better a yet, a free pair of ski bindings. 

They just wanted to make an forceful impression on us with their impressive line-up of presses (pardon the pun!) A missed opportunity for them and overall, an unimpressive visit to a company that would become my direct and formidable competitor three and a half years later...

Calling a friend and getting scolded

French people are not very good with telephones and, with a handful of exceptions, hardly ever call us. This is why, most of the time, we do the calling. I have a good friend in the Arve Valley, downstream from Chamonix, that I call quite often. 

I like him and appreciate his good nature filled with some refreshing common sense. Yesterday, I called him and his wife picked up and I must say that I don’t know her too much. 

She started badgering me, wondering why in the world, we would elect someone as old as Joe Biden. I responded “Because he was the only good option we had, against a fascist, a liar and an incompetent like Trump.” Relentless, she continued “But Biden is too old!” 

I attempted to add: “That was all we had. You French are lucky to have Macron who is both young and smart…” She cut me off said “No, he’s terrible!”. We went back and forth like this for about five minutes and I had to finally declare that I had not called to engage into a shouting match, but to say hello to her husband. 

I got on the line and I told him how upset I was to be attacked in such a way when I just wanted to say hi and inquire about his welfare in these days of pandemic. We had a shortened conversation and when I hung up the phone, I wondered if it were worth my while to call this friend again. 

After thinking about, I still think I’ll continue.

Reborn!

Just four years ago, I was awaking to the Trump nightmare and it’s been suffering and frustration ever since. I can fully appreciate the pain felt by the 70 millions who voted this time for him, even though I can’t justify why they would vote for him.

This ugly demagogue never was my president! The only positive was that we got 48 months that felt like twelve years, which is remarkable when we know how fast time goes by! 

Today, 75 million of us have finally fired this toxic creature. He will stick around like a sore loser until January 20, but then will be free to defend himself before the courts of law and hopefully try his dubious skills elsewhere. 

I suggested used-car salesman, but this is a huge planet, why not have him begin anew in Brazil, North Korea, the Philippines or even Russia? 

Today, I feel totally reborn, can’t wait to live again but I need a long rest from this political drama. I suffer from election fatigue...

Trump, Biden and a cardinal sales rule

The dual between Trump and Biden is reminding us of a key sales strategy which simply revolves about knowing when to shut up. 

It's a fact that star salespeople never forget that they have two ears and one mouth and, as a result, use them in that ratio! 

This of course, was placed front and center during the recent presidential campaign and most particularly during the two debates. Obviously, it lingers on now, as Trump has grown desperate to hang on to a White House that is now eluding him. 

Trump can’t help but blabber, lie and scream. Just like the proverbial story of the obliging frog that gives a ride to a scorpion across a river and get bitten half-way through, because harming is in the venomous animal’s “nature”, Donald Trump’s nature is to talk and what comes out of his mouth is mostly foul, false and nonsensical.

Biden, on the other hand had carried with him the reputation of often “putting his foot in his mouth” when he gets carried away while talking, so he got coached and learned how to apply the “two ears – one mouth ratio” during his entire campaign, and came out looking like a saint and like the decent leader America needs today. 

As for Trump, I wonder if he wouldn’t benefit from an internship on some used car lot. He might still be learning a few things about sales!

The Associated Press and the US election

There is no national election commission in the United States that can tell us who won on Election Day, so that’s how the Associated Press (AP) steps in and help us decipher the results. An American non-profit news agency, the AP was founded in 1846. Its members are US newspapers and broadcasters.

Interestingly, the AP has counted the vote in US elections since 1848, including national, state and local races, along with key ballot measures. Practically, the AP collects and verifies returns in every county, parish, city and town across the US, and declares the winners in over 7,000 races. 

The AP uses a 50-state network of some 4,000 local “stringers”, that are press freelancers, and that have built trusted relationships with county clerks and other local officials, over years of election night reporting. 

Those arrive at county election offices before the poles close. On voting night, more than 800 entry clerks (working remotely this year because of the pandemic), answer those calls, write down the numbers and enter them into AP’s election database. 

As that process goes on, automated checks look for discrepancies or inconsistencies with a county’s previous voting history or other data. Then, state-based analysts and editors at AP’s headquarters use that information to “call races,” or declare the winners, without making projections or speculating in any way. 

For instance, the AP didn’t call the 2000 Bush-Gore race, standing by its judgment that the margin in Florida was too close to call. 

Pretty amazing to see a news agency playing such a leading role in informing Americans about what’s going on at their elections!

How reliable and relevant are Ski magazine rankings?

A few days ago I received the SKI magazine’s annual resort guide, that ranks the best 50 resorts across North America based on its 2020 reader survey. The results are split among 30 resorts in the West and 20 in the East. 

This time, Sun Valley, Idaho, grabbed the West’s top spot, while Smugglers’ Notch, Vermont, was number one in the East. My hometown of Park City, Utah, which is one ski town that is proud to have two ski companies operating on its land, got 2nd place for Deer Valley Resort and 11th place for Park City Mountain. 

Both benefit of course of the ease of access, the excellent infrastructure and the old town charm of Park City. Remove this and Deer Valley has much less to offer, but a rather thin entertainment and shopping infrastructure, no place next door for its snowboarder visitors to ride. 

Likewise Park City Mountain, our town’s namesake, also get synergy from having Deer Valley as an added option to its visitors. This is simply to make a point that Park City is the destination and its three resorts (if we include the new Woodward center at Gorgoza) are part of its amenities. 

This is in fact how resorts that have a core town (i.e. Aspen) should be ranked. Vail and Beaver Creek are more clearly delineated by the mountain ranges separating them and Tahoe would be too spread out to qualify. 

Under these criteria, a Park City destination should be number one with more than 9,000 square acre of skiable terrain. This of course doesn’t answer two very important questions I have about these rankings. 

The first one is what methodology has been used by SKI in compiling its survey, and can it be audited or be made public? It’s also pretty obvious that resorts that advertised in that issue got a pretty good rankings which says a lot about the credibility of that survey! 

The second has to do with the circulation of the magazine, its paid vs. free circulation, and who is the typical reader of that publication? Magazines like this one are a dying breed, as exemplified by the soon-to-be extinct Powder, and their relevance has become highly questionable. 

So, with this in mind, I won’t lose much sleep over Park City 11th and Vail 14th spots!

A crushing disappointment

Like many, I was expecting a Democratic landslide and instead got plenty of uncertainty. 

I thought that Americans were tired of Trump and wanted some change, but that wasn’t counting on his electorate made of gullible, idiots and rotten individuals, with a clear predominance in that last category, populated by a combination of racists, fascists, religious zealots and hypocrites. 

America has a long way to go in growing up into the modern ages, and it’s clear that Biden wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, nor did he go out of his way to work hard during his campaign. 

The man was not qualified to start with and is far too old for this job. Just like me, Biden must have been trusting the polls, and these very polls failed us badly and can no longer be trusted. 

A great opportunity for those eager to fix that failing gauge that the opinion polls are, and a Democratic Party in dire need of new energies and capable leaders as well as candidates!

What would you do in Prince Charles’ shoes?

As I just finished reading “Prince Charles”, by Sally Bedell Smith, and learn a lot in the process, I happened to learn that Queen Elizabeth II could "step down" as early as next year and hand her royal power to Prince Charles, thus retiring from official duties during the rest of her lifetime. 

This would open the possibility for her son to rule as Prince Regent. While I’m not suggesting that a new minted Prince Regent might change everything, should his Mom pass away before him, as she ought to, he’d then become King and could call all the shots he want. 

He’s already showed the world that he was a very patient kid. After taking some pretty remarkable position in architecture, organic architecture and over climate change, I would expect to stay on his revolutionary path and finally do the right thing. 

What would that be? 

Simple, abolish Royalty. That would be big, that would be bold and so much Charles!

Trump’s negativity kills him

Donald Trump isn’t someone positive or forward oriented. 

He certainly is one of the most negative creature I’ve ever had a chance to see. 

To accentuate that horrible trait, he can’t let go of the past. According to him and four years later, all is Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s fault. 

The future, yet the present, have no room in his limited intellect. It’s all about the past, like “Make America Great Again” and transporting a whole nation back into the 1950s. 

That’s right, Trump is Mr. Rear-View Mirror, or better yet, Mr. Reverse. 

I think it’s about time that we stopped going backward and set the gear lever to “Drive!”

My best days ever

A few days ago, I was conducting a quick review of my lifetime, as I do regularly. 

When I was done, I tried to pick a period of my fairly long life that stood out and could be the one I appreciated the most. 

Sure, all my years have had pluses and minuses, but when I was done with the survey and had tried to judge which time had been the best, I had to agree that today, was standing out of all the other moments of my interesting time on earth.

My appreciation of others, my overall satisfaction, my health, my mental peace and everything I could still do and enjoy amounted to the fact that there’s never been a better time for me than now. 

I only hope this will last for a long while!

Halloween “lite”

Unlike all other year, we didn’t have an active candy distribution during the evening of Halloween, courtesy of Covid-19. 

Just a sign on the front door inviting visitors to help themselves with candies, a basket with supplies below and that was it. 

We only heard one group of kids coming to our door. We hope for a much improved attendance, next year!

My presidential forecast

I know, I hate to have to do this, but I will. Like most Americans, I’m too afraid that it will jinx the outcome of an election that has yet to be finalized, but again, nothing ventured, nothing gained! 

So far, I’ve indicated my preference for Biden over Trump which, if you know me, should come as no surprise to my readers. 

Now, before November 10 or 15, when we’ll know the results for sure, I’d like to give you my take on who is going to win the presidency of the United States. 

At this point, Joe Biden will win by a large margin. Why? 

Mostly for reasons that are Trump’s own narcissistic fault, like his 25,000 lies, his contempt for Covid-19 and the devastating impact of his mismanagement on the country and its population, his laser-thin focus on his base only, his low popularity ratings and his total lack of civility. 

Of course, there’s also the fact that Trump’s running out of cash, his rallies are churning the same old based and get multi-attendance by groupies, just like the Grateful Dead concerts used to. 

Further, polls are confirming all of this, but I predict that Biden’s victory will be much greater than what the public intentions of vote are predicted to be thanks to widespread citizen-fatigue from Don and from an extraordinary turn-out. 

Of course, the fun will begin in November when Donald will show that he’s a sore loser and claim he was robbed of his re-election. 

Expect this kind of dog-and-pony show to linger well into the morning of January 20, 2021, when Trump might have to be removed “manu militari” from the presidential oval office.