Archive for Travel – Page 20

Presidential Advisor is a Fraud…

Take a good look at this face. Remember it. Tell me if you think his history and bio would withstand the extreme vetting called for by the Trump White House.

His name is Sebastian Gorka. Born in London of Hungarian refugee parents, he was educated in London and Budapest. In Budapest he began cultivating a reputation as a counter-terrorism expert though his only military service was a three-year stint in a British Territorial Army reserve unit.

Mr. Gorka moved to Hungary in 1992 and remained there until 2007. While there he aligned himself with Viktor Orbán, the current president, who has been widely criticized for his autocratic removal of democratic checks and balances in the supervision of elections, the judiciary, and the media. While in Hungary, Mr. Gorka married Katherine Cornell, an American steel heiress known for her conservative views. During this 16 year-long tenure in Hungary he was a member of or associated with several anti-Semitic organizations (including Vitez Rend, named for the WWII Nazi-allied leader). In 2007 he was awarded a PhD. from Corvinus University in Budapest (known primarily for its agricultural curriculum and ranked 701 by topuniversities.com.) read more

We’ll Never Get Over Slavery…

This is Stephan Blanford – Ph.D., elected member of the Seattle School Board, father, husband, co-worker, athlete, and friend. I met Stephan 11 years ago when we were working at Seattle’s Alliance for Education, a non-profit supporting Seattle Public Schools.

At the time, this handsome, dark-skinned, black male, sported thick stylish dreadlocks, a statement about who he was – a strong, independent, black man who had earned the right to be himself. My wife thought the “dreads” were beautiful but provocative and worried that they would stand in the way of his success professionally. My question to her was always would she say the same if a white friend had the same dreads? read more

Is DJT our Great Gatsby?

Like most Americans I’ve been mesmerized by the story of Donald J. Trump aka The Donald. Real estate developer, entertainer, university founder, shirt and tie maker, birther-mythologist, pussy- grabber, casino failure, bankruptcy expert, and now the 45th President of the United States.

It’s been quite a journey for DJT. At the moment it’s the best TV viewing since The Sopranos. I don’t want to miss an episode – the media coverage, tweets, rants, gaffes, alternative facts and walk-backs that dominate the news cycle. Since election night 2016, I haven’t been able to tear myself away from the TV, radio, print, and social networks. read more

Changing Times…

This morning I saw a Facebook post from my friend Pete. He was writing from a swim meet in Brunei. Now how exotic is that? A middle school swim meet in Brunei? I used to think it was a stretch to drive my son to West Yellowstone for a XC camp.

The genie is really out of the bottle; live globally, play locally. Pete lives in Bangkok. He’s married to a lovely Thai woman and they have a 12-year-old daughter who swims. Brunei? It’s not Spokane, Pocatello, or West Yellowstone but there was a team competition there last weekend that drew 7 teams, including hers. read more

A Bipartisan Friendship…

This is a story about friendship. My buddy, Dennis, and I have known each other for 50 years. We flew Marine fighters, Pan Am airliners, and saw the inside of a lot of bars together. He’s something of a legend among his friends, but to understand our friendship I need to tell my favorite Dennis story. He calls it the “Checkpoint Panzer” incident. I think of it as “Dennis’s Escape from Freedom Run.”

One night after work, before the Berlin Wall came down, our flight crew gathered at the Columbia Club, one of several US military clubs where Pan Am pilots had privileges. On this particular night, there was some drinking involved, a borrowed car, a dark night, and no adult supervision. read more