According to the second part of the Mueller Report, James Comey's account of his interaction with the President is accurate. This is in spite of the many denials from the President about the matter. After Comey's account of the President's request to "let[] Flynn go" became public, the President publicly disputed several aspects of the story. The President told the New York Times that he did not "shoo other people out of the room" when he talked to Comey and that he did not remember having a one-on-one...

Measles are extremely contagious. So much so, they have a hitting average a major league batter would kill for. What makes measles so contagious is their ability to hide from our body's immune system initial defenses. In fact, they hi-jack them to help it spread across the whole body. When the measles virus enters our system, our white-blood cells are tricked into thinking the virus is not a threat. The measles virus then uses the white-blood cells as free transportation to the immune-system-central-station (lymph node). Once in our...

As a European emigrant, one of the most odd things that we experienced when we moved to Europe was their concept of BYOB (Bring your own bulbs). It is common practice in California, that when you rent a house or apartment, it will come equipped with light fixtures and bulbs. That is in addition, in most cases, to basic appliances like a fridge and stove. That was not so in Spain. Moving to Spain was quite a shock, there were too many things that were new to us....

The veiled threats the President often volleys across to his opponents, or people who simply do not agree with him, have been so normalized that we often rationalize them as "his public persona", or "that's just twitter", or "he's go people writing that for him", or anything that helps us better understand why a person with so much power could be so vindictive and petty. Yet, as the report shows, the Trump on twitter is not his "public persona", but Trump himself through the twitter megaphone. Right after...

There are speeding laws in the US, just as there are speeding laws in Europe, so there is no real difference there. The major difference is in how those laws are enforced. In the US we are used to having police officers patrol the streets and highways. In Europe they patrol through cameras and radar. You can travel from one country to another and count on one hand the number of police cars you see on the side of the road (if any). But it is the sophistication...

The job of a President is something only 45 people in the history of the U.S. have ever experienced. So to say that it's a tremendously difficult taks is an understatement. This means that in order to even attempt to do this job, you need to have people you trust around you. People that will say and do what you ask them to do. I'm not talking about "talking heads" that repeat the mantra of the day or week. That's easy. I'm taking about the real work of...

In Volume 1, the special counsel investigated the potential coordination between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. In that volume, the Special Counsel concluded there was not enough evidence to reach a conclusion of coordination (aka collusion). Volume 2 of the report focuses on obstruction of justice by the President of the United States. And this volume of the report is more discreet in its conclusion. In fact, it is so discreet as to state: ... if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts...

Next to the wings, the engine(s) is one of the most critical components of an aircraft. Without an engine, an aircraft is no longer so. There are several critical aspects to an engine; performance, longevity, fuel efficiency, maintainability, etc. However, if you run an airline, chief amongst those characteristics is probably fuel efficiency. After all, profit is one of the drivers in business and if you can carry the same amount of people or load from point A to point B at a reduced cost it will directly...

That old saying "Ignorance of the law is no excuse" only applies to certain people and/or crimes. According to the Mueller Report, though the investigation was able to prove the Trump Tower meeting that Trump Jr., Manfort and Kushner attended to obtain "information of value" would have constituted a prosecutable violation of campaign-finance laws, the Special Counsel did not feel confident they could prove beyond a reasonable doubt Trump Jr., Manfort or Kushner knew its illegality. There are reasonable arguments that the offered information would constitute a "thing...

What does astronomical mean? That word is part of our vernacular yet I feel we don't give it the due it deserves. If you look at the definition from the Oxford dictionary you will find: 1. Relating to astronomy. ‘astronomical observations’ 2. informal (of an amount) extremely large. ‘he wanted an astronomical fee’ But what is extremely large? Really, really large 🙂 Just kidding of course, but I think these terms do not illustrate the proper meaning of the word. To provide context of how astronomical our known...