A much quieter Sundance Film Festival

Not so long ago, we used to see a dozen or more film at our famous local festival, but waiting for hours on end, inside a cold tent and fighting some challenging transit logistics in hopping from one film to the next, has finally taken its toll.

This year, we limited our cinematic splurge to only four films that had all won in their respective, categories so we wouldn't be too disappointed in discovering them.

Among these flicks we loved “Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower” the story of a 14 year-old Joshua Wong who decides to fight for Hong Kong and challenge the Chinese Communist Party. What an example in leadership!

Trump's wall on insanity

Intuitively, I've always thought that Trump's wall idea was as idiotic as it was naive. For one thing, we should first enforce our immigration laws and go after the illegals that are in the country now.

At that point we could either deport them or make them pay a hefty fine, or why not, offer them to stay, with a green card against a hefty payment that could either be in full or staggered over a long period of time like student loans are.

Going back to the wall idea, we are told that it might cost $15 billions, but expect it to cost up to $30 or $50 billion when all is said and done, not to mention maintenance and plugging up tunnels that “El Chapo” type Mexicans will dig under the fence.

Then, with the wall built, illegal can still enter from the sea, either on the entire Atlantic or Pacific coasts. The most fortunate or astute who get to Canada, would then have a wall-free border to cross. Better yet, why not simply board a plane in Mexico City like up to 40% illegal immigrant do, clear the U.S. Customs perfectly legally and simply overstay their visitor's visa.

There's also a well established “circular flow” of immigrants that come to work in the United States and then cross back to Mexico to their homes and family. A wall would trap all these folks inside the U.S. and the number of illegal would soar.

Finally, since Mexico said to Trump that he could stick his wall in his rear end, we, we the U.S. Taxpayers would have to pay for that monstrosity. Another unintended consequence. As anyone with brain can understand, building a wall between us and Mexico is simply a demented idea.

The unpredictability of downhill

In recent years and for both Slalom and GS events, ski competition has always been reasonably predictable, as to which racers would end up standing on the podium.

The same can't be said of Downhill and to a lesser extent, perhaps, of Super G. Speed events are in fact quite unpredictable and while the top racers win most, the definition of “top racers” goes up from 3 to 5 down in technical events to 10 to 20 in speed races.

Downhill has too many variables to be accurately forecast and between equipment, base structure, choice of wax, speed in some critical areas, best possible line, visibility and of course, snow conditions. The result is that the potential for variation scatters the event predictability.

This is perhaps why last Friday's winner of the Garmish downhill ended up 12th the next day...

Behind the “knee replacement industry”

If you live in a ski town, you know scores of people that have had their knee repaired, replaced, or are scheduled to go under the knife. This for sure wasn't the case 25 or even 15 years ago and begs the question, why?

For one thing, today's skiers have hit the slopes more than their fair share with the advent of high-speed lifts in the mid 80's. In addition, better, shorter skis, good instruction that let most of them access bumps, steep terrain and considerably more mileage and vertical that amplified all kinds of bodily impact.

Add to this the popular practice of an array of other sports that weren't always gentle on joints and you get a recipe for destruction. In the same time, prosthesis technology and surgical techniques have improved by leaps and bounds and have allowed for replacing almost any joint.

Today, after enjoying too much of a good thing, these skiers' “original equipment” is showing signs of wear and tear and needs to be replaced. As all of the above keeps on accelerating, expect joint replacements to become routine and part and parcel of a skier's life.

This said, I still won't go skiing today and nurse my natural, ailing knee a little bit longer...

How I resist Trump

I'm not good enough to climb up a crane and hang a “Resist” banner in plain view of the White House, but this week, I have initiated a simple routine that I hope will make a huge difference, especially if others do the same.

I have decided to call my Representative and my two Senators each and every day of the week I am against a GOP proposal, a Tweet or any bad idea emanating from President Trump. My phone speed-dial has been programmed and I've just began my daily calls.

I've made them clear, logical, simple and to the point. Soon, I'll record a video that I'll put on Facebook showing in detail how I got organized to make it happen, so more can follow that single daily step and together, we'll soon make a huge difference!

Forays into politics

A few nights ago, my wife and I attended a local Democratic Party meeting aimed at listening to their constituency.

Even though we are registered Independents, we were welcome to it and were stunned by the “business as usual” atmosphere that prevailed; instead, we were expecting a most alarmed and defensive atmosphere.

At any rate, I had a chance to vent all of my frustration about Hillary's loss to Trump and underscored a few points that are dear to me:

1. Trump (more like Sanders) was an iconoclast that got the people's attention, took all of his opponents by surprise and won because of his trademark rudeness, bullying and lies. No one had the backbone to go against it.

2. Hillary was a terrible candidate coming into the battle with some terrible baggage, not to mention sabotaging Bernie Sanders' campaign and a bruising loss against Obama in 2008. From the get-go, she wasn't presidential material.

3. Unlike what Michelle Obama admonished “'When they go low, we go high”, the only way to fight Trump is to hit him 10 times as hard with the same mean rhetoric every time he crosses the line.

They were a few interesting comments from the light attendance, comprised of too few young people and too many old guys like us. Ideas like going after the latino electorate, getting money from the Recreation Industry, etc. but, by and large, a lot of quiet resolutions that would never suffice to make in-roads in Utah under the present circumstances.

In the process we learned that the Democratic Party was dubbed as the “Abortion Party” here in Utah (because of the Mormon Church) and that Democratic is a dirty word that Utah Dems don't have the guts to use. Yet, Mr. Trump has shown that an unshakable self-confidence combined with an iconoclastic approach were a winning combination.

I'll pass these comments on to the State Party big wigs...

Trump's 27 Percent

While we often remember that Trump suffered a significant loss against Clinton in terms of the popular vote with a stunning 2,865,080 votes, we forget that only twenty seven percent of the illegible Americans voted for the current president.

It means that almost three-quarter of the electorate didn't care for the billionaire turned politician. Sure, we shouldn't forget that about 45% of Americans didn't bother to vote, but with a large number for Trump voters casting their ballot against Clinton, but not necessarily for Trump.

This might leave us with, at the most, some 35 millions (or 15% of the electorate) that were hard-core Trump supporters. Unless, the new president delivers on his promises and some, he might soon have 85% of the populace turning against him much sooner than he might expect...