Notations On Our World (Special W-End Edition): #FamiliesBelongTogetherMarch

Communities throughout the United States marched to protest the family separation policy.  In our Community of Orange County, marches were held in a number of communities including Laguna Beach  and Irvine.   Our team produced this from the Irvine March at Portola High School in the City of Irvine:

Notations On Our World (Special Friday Edition): Out & About in Our World.....

In the aftermath of the decision by the US Supreme Court on the Travel Ban, our team thought this discourse during the Civil Rights Struggle was worth revisiting--a very powerful 29 minutes as we also saw that The US Department of State has been only approving 2% of the waivers per this courtesy of US Senator Chris Van Hollen:

Notations On Our World (Special Thursday Edition): Out & About in The United States

Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy of the US Supreme Court announced his retirement from the United States Supreme Court Yesterday.    Although there has been reporting on how he was the "Swing" vote, he has in fact been solidly conservative--and he himself noted at one time:  The Cases Swing, I don't!!!   It will give President Trump another shot at an appointment and the US Senate Majority Leader has promised a confirmation by the Fall--although he himself blocked a nomination as it was an election year.   As such, it will be an interesting political discourse to be witness though over the course of the Summer.

The New York Times' Deal Book put together this brief snapshot this morning that underscores how the Court will continue to act as it did, for instance, with Unions and Arbitration during this past term:

Justice Anthony Kennedy  Eric Thayer/Getty Images North America Corporate America is getting the Supreme Court it wants Justice Anthony Kennedy announced yesterday that he’s retiring this summer, setting off a political war over the future of the Supreme Court. As a result, companies can probably expect business-related cases to go their way for at least a generation. Many of the court’s biggest cases in recent years were decided by a 5-4 majority. Justice Kennedy often provided the deciding vote. Whoever President Trump picks to replace him — here’s a list of candidates — will almost certainly push the court to the right. For a taste of what may come, consider yesterday’s 5-4 ruling on labor unions. The majority found that government workers who don’t join a union can’t be required to pay for collective bargaining. Groups tied to Republican billionaires have already pledged to capitalize with anti-union campaigns. The bottom line: Expect the business community to enjoy more wins in cases involving antitrust, privacy and more.

Notations From the Grid (Weekly Edition): #RandomThoughts On Our World

As the debate over Immigrants continued, some very interesting insights were picked up by our Team over Twitter over the past 48 hours.   This is as our team also was assessing the latest out of the Middle East as President Trump's Envoys were touring Arab Capitals to entice Arab Governments to be on board on the proposed Peace Plan--and as we will keep an eye on Mexico as it gets ready to go to the Polls--and across the World, Turkey just gave Erdogran a new mandate.

This is as the team from the Economist released its' daily dispatch in the aftermath of the Supreme Court Decision Yesterday--as the President continued attacks on Democrats and BMW (even though BMW has its' largest plant in South Carolina): 

 

After months of legal wrangling over Donald Trump’s trio of executive orders banning travel from a number of Muslim-majority countries, the Supreme Court today voted 5-4 in favour of upholding the ban. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that it was promulgated “to protect national security and public safety”, and fits within the president’s powers. Though lower courts can take up the case again,the decision in effect ends the battle

China-US relationsTrading peace for war   As the risk of a serious Sino-American trade war grows, attention is mostly focused on the prospect of dearer iPhones and unhappy soyabean farmers. Yet the stakes are much higher. However warily American and Chinese leaders eye each other, economic self-interest keeps their most hawkish impulses in check. An end to the mutual entanglement of their economies would remove those constraints, writes our Free Exchange columnist

Tropical diseasesWinning the fight   Sierra Leone is doing a better job of tackling neglected tropical diseases—which affect 1.5 billion people worldwide—than almost any other country in Africa, despite having only 400 doctors for its 7m people. Half the population used to have river blindness in 2003, but now it affects only 2% of people. The country has pulled off this feat through a national control plan, by tackling several diseases at once and by fighting the stigma around them

Public transportNo use   In much of the the rich world, urban public transport is becoming emptier, even as populations continue to grow. City transport chiefs blame under-investment, roadworks, terrorists and high ticket costs. But the real change is in the way people travel. Developments such as video-conferencing and online shopping reduce the need for public transport, and the ubiquity of Uber and the like gives urbanitesmore options for getting around

Open FutureMusa Kart and Turkey’s illiberal slide   Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, has been embroiled in a 15-year dispute with Musa Kart, a cartoonist. It all began with a benign depiction of Mr Erdogan as a cat entangled in a ball of wool. Since then Mr Kart has faced constant persecution. In 2016 he was sentenced to nearly four years in jail for drawing cartoons. His ordeal has become emblematic of the unravelling of democratic norms in Turkey

Notations On Our World (@POTUS Edition): @SethMeyers reflects Upon a @realDonaldTrump W-End

Notations On Our World (Special W-End Edition): Hotspots-On the frontline - Nigeria, San Salvador, Syria

We have the pleasure to feature SkyNews as one of our Live Broadcast Pods.    This latest episode produced by Skynews Featuring some of the leading Foreign Correspondents of the World about Nigeria, El Salvador and  Syria.    We found the whole 44 Minutes to be extremely tough to watch--As we hope whomever ends up with SkyNews is able to sustain the great work being done.

Notations On Our World (Weekly Edition): Out & About In the United States This Week

New Yorker Magazine:  July 2, 2018 

LA Times 

The debate over Immigration has ensued exemplified by this cover of the New Yorker and what the LA Times depicted about the continued reality.   As the debate over Family separation  continued, Congress has been trying to come up with a solution as President Trump doubled down on it--and it has stalled in the House with the Speaker of the House being scolded by the Chair of the House Freedom Caucus.  This is as he blamed the Democrats and Barack Obama.   

Our team selected the takes from Seth Meyers and Trevor Noah on it as President Trump's eldest Son, Donald Trump Jr., pulled out of a fundraiser for George P Bush citing the Bush Family's criticism of the Immigration policy epitomized by the statement by Former First Lady Laura Bush: 

The First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump, flew down to Texas to visit a shelter and wore a Zara Jacket that had a curious message as Trevor Noah noted--even though the First Lady's Office pushed back hard which was then countered by a Tweet from President Trump with another attack on the Media.  In the meantime, a California couple that began with a modest goal of 2,000 was able to raise over 17,000,000 Million Dollars on Facebook as over 400,000 People had contributed to it--all proceeds will be sent forth to the RAICES, A Texas Non Profit.     The Defense Department, in the meantime, approved 22 Military Lawyers (referred to as JAG's) to be sent to Texas to help prosecute violators as questions still continue to linger about the Executive Order and its' implemenatin--including the reunification of an estimated 2,300 Children.  This is also as one of the commentators on Fox News, though, referred to the detention facilities as Summer Camp.   This is as the Justice Department has initiated action to modify a key decision governing child interments based on what was reported by Lawrence O'Donnel of MSNBC.    

As we continue to assess the on-going debate, we continue to hope that reason prevails for the sake of the Children.   In the meantime, some profound developments occurred--the House just passed a Farm Bill with drastic cuts to the most needy: 




As if this was not enough, The Trump Administration just unveiled its' agenda to drastically reshape the Federal Government to shrink the size of Government in line conservative orthodox Thinking--including merging the Departments of  Education and Labor. .   This is also as Trade Tensions continued with no apparent end in sight with this scolding from China on this throughout the week: 

Another profound challenging week in Washington...

Notations From the Grid (Weekly Edition): On #Iran

Over the weekend, a Sufi Preacher in Iran was executed despite pleas from his lawyer.   The true realities were discussed at a program sponsored by Iran Farda and as there was a 20 Minute Conversation with the Son of the Late Shah of Iran as the opposition to the Islamic Republic gathers further steam--The conversations are in Farsi however it underscores the profound level of discontent and lies by the current Government in charge in Iran and the true realities:
: 

Notations On Our World (Weekly Edition): Four Billion Years in Six Minutes

As a new week is before us, our team chose this courtesy of the team at TED to provide an interesting and different perspective on our World-a very powerful Six Minutes: 

On This Fathers' Day 2018 Here in the United States

We salute all the Fathers as we hope all the Tributes we have released in all our properties is a reflection of our respect as we say Happy Fathers' Day and Best Wishes to all the Fathers:

Notations On Our World (Week-End Edition): "Random Thoughts On @POTUS Watch w #KimJungUn

It has been a whirlwind of a week as President Trump said Manaford had nothing to do with the Campaign, praised Kim Jung Un, attacked the Press, mis-characterized the Inspector General Report , blamed the Democrats for the zero-tolerance policy, said that War Games cost a lot of money--and blamed President Obama for Ukraine losing Crimea as He said, "...President Obama Gave up Crimea".  

Please Enjoy these Digital "Random Thoughts" concluding with President Trump's Press "gaggle" yesterday: 

Notations From the Grid (Weekly Speciall Edition): G7; @realDonaldTrump & Other Thoughts

The G7 Concludes:  One View 

As we went to Press, President Trump continued its' attacks on the Prime Minister of Canada and concluded his Summit with the North Korean Leader in Singapore.   The Summit Just concluded with a Statement and the World has been debating it ever since epitomized by the following our team complied from the reaction over the Social Grid: 

The Economist of London released this that underscores the Worldwide sentiments on policies pursued by the Trump Administration:

Our cover this week looks at America’s foreign policy under President Donald Trump. He may chalk up a success at next week’s summit with North Korea and his tough tactics on trade could well yield concessions. Yet, in the longer term, his bullying, transactional approach to allies and enemies will not serve America or the world well    Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief

This is also as we captured some of the sentiments in the aftermath of the debacle that was the G7 while the SCOSummit 2018 presided over by China produced some very interesting results with a sampling of the commentary and coverage in US and World Media--while the challenges of the Middle East continue including the upheavel in Israel and the continued Gaza Return March: 

Al Jazeera English 

China Daily 

The Economist of London by @Kaltoons

Politco/Haaretz 

It is bound to be another very interesting Week in our World as we close out with this On the Gaza Return March & Israel courtesy of Haaretz:

What is clear is that President Trump has disrupted--epitomized by his declaration that he wants to bring US Troops Home--but the Monday June 11 headlines in the Washington Post was telling:

Notations On Our World (Special Editon): Kim Jong-Un Arrives in Singapore

As we went to press, SkyNews is featuring live coverage of the Top North Korean Leader as he landed in Singapore on an Air China Plane and as his convoy drove away through the streets Singapore as the Summit is slated to begin Tuesday--Donald Trump is also slated to arrive in Singapore later on today as well.    Our team found it quite interesting how China lent the North Korean Leader a 747 to make it "on par" with the President of the United States.

Notations On Our World (Special Community Edition): Out & About in the Aftermath of #CaliforniaPrimary2018 Here in Orange County

Our team was out throughout South Orange County during the Elections that concluded on Tuesday.  

This is the latest courtesy of the Registrar of Voters here in Orange County as the team there will be working through it continuing the counting process: 

Making Progress on Ballot Counting We had record volume of ballots dropped off at polling places on Election Day. In fact, when compared with 2014, we had a 217% increase in ballots left after Election Day (dropped off, provisionals, etc.). We will continue counting through the weekend. Neal Kelley Registrar of Voters

Public Notice of Random Draw for Statewide Primary Election

Read more

Ballot Processing Per Day We are working to process 20,000+ ballots per day. This process has multiple steps to ensure every ballot has been examined correctly and is prepared for scanning. Here is a good primer on the process of counting ballots and how long it takes.

Sorting Provisional BallotsWe had about 45,000 provisional ballots cast on Election Day (most for voters who did not bring their vote-by-mail ballot with them). You can see in this photo that we are sorting provisional ballots by the city in which they were cast - this helps us to prioritize contests to focus on.

Quality Control Process for BallotsWe have a very stringent process for the quality control in the ballot scanning process. This includes ensuring that no ballot was scanned twice - we do not begin the tally process on ballots that have been scanned until they clear this quality control check.

Risk-Limiting Audit to Begin MondayWe will be conducting a pilot Risk-Limiting Audit, which will begin on Monday. This audit is not required under state law (and will be in addition to our required 1% manual hand tally). Full details on this audit can be found in our press release.

Current Voter Registration
1,481,576 

Notations From the Grid (W-End Edition): "Random Thoughts"

Please enjoy these Random Thoughts From our Archives: