Bernie Sanders Drops Out

Senator Bernie Sanders, who in two presidential campaigns, has inspired a huge following and has brought excitement to the political scene, is dropping out of the 2020 presidential campaign.  Sanders, whose Democratic Socialism, as he termed it, inspired many who have been skeptical of politics.  It was, however, a style not embraced by most party leaders, many afraid the label would be associated with Communism. 

In 2016, Sanders, easily identified by his first name, stayed in the race, even when it was clear that Hilary Clinton would be the nominee.  Many Democrats blame Sanders for Clinton's loss to Donald Trump while many others think that the Vermont senator would have done much better in the general election. 

Sanders is the last to drop out of  what was once a huge Democratic field.  This clears the way for former Vice President Joe Biden. 

Arnold Self Terminates As Apprentice Host

Former California governor/actor Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced he will no longer host the Celebrity Apprentice.  The show, which launched Donald Trump's celebrity, reportedly did not do well in the ratings, as Trump detractors probably wanted nothing to do with the show, while Trump supporters probably could not accept anyone else in the role.  It may also be that the show had run it's course.
It's debatable as to how effective the Governor was, he had a lookalike nephew as one of his advisors and often spun stories of his days as a body builder in Austria.
His catch phrase was "your terminated, now get to the chopper!"

Washington AG Gets Trumps Travel Ban Blocked

A Seattle federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking President Trump's travel ban.  This was a result of the work of Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson. Judge James Robard, a Bush appointee issued the order.
 It is not the first time an attorney general from Washington has challenged a sitting president.  Rob McKenna, a Republican, challenged President Obama's Affordable Care Act.  McKenna was not successful. 

Hilary Wins Washington "Beauty Contest"

Officials are declaring Hilary Clinton the winner of yesterday's Washington Primary.   No delegates are at stake in what the media often calls a "beauty contest".  Bernie Sander commands about three quarters of the Washington delegation to the Democratic National Convention.  What this victory does is give some moral wiggle room to so called super delegates.  Sanders supports have been angry that many of these party officials will vote for Clinton in spite of the results of the caucuses.  Many Sanders supporters will now say a meaningful primary would have a different result.
The overwhelming Republican winner, Donald Trump, did gain delegates in yesterday's primary.

Where Is The Joke? Trump On SNL

Was it a put down or praise? Donald Trump appearence on SNL mostly a miss.

The Donald Tosses His Hat In

After many years of talking about a presidential run, Donald Trump has made it official.  Trump's reality show, The Apprentice, made a catch phrase out of the line, "your fired".   He is well know for flashing his opulence and for self adulation.   Trump has been married three times and has many children. 

The Apprentice Hits Broadway

This episode begins with the men's and women's team chilling in the boardroom. Mahsa has some definite opinions on who should be fired from last week's task. No one at this point knows who was fired from last week. Liza and Stephanie returns and all of a sudden there is a big fight. The women are telling Mahsa to be quiet. We later find out that this will play itself out in this week's boardroom.
This week's task is to create a presentation for a specific Broadway play in order to get corporate backing. Liza steps up to lead the women, but has never actually seen a play nor does she get the concept. The men have to deal with David, after calling him out in last week's boardroom. The big surprise is that David is good when it comes to this work. Apparently his "acting out" masks a very creative streak. Although Steuart (it's actually spelled like that) is PM, he gives David full reign as soon as he sees that it will work in their favor.
The task takes second stage in this episode with the boardroom. Stephanie and Mahsa are in charge of creating a flier to promote the play. It is a miserable effort with no contact information, should an investor be interested in backing the play. Stephanie says that she has a music background and had studied for years in a conservatory. Trump asks her why she did not step up as PM. She said she did not know it was a musical. Trump calls her bluff and suddenly it looks like she may be fired. She retracts her story. Trump is suddenly angry with Mahsa because she cannot give a straight answer to one of his questions. Pretty soon the women are piling on her, it is revealed that on last week's task, Mahsa told the Men's team what her team had made. She says that she did so after the men shared their information. The men's team, who had been watching at the suite are enraged. They come back into the boardroom to protest what they say is a fabricated story. No one in the boardroom will back Mahsa up. She is fired to the relief of everyone, including, it looks like, Trump's receptionist.

The Apprentice Goes To The Dogs

This week's task is to set up a day care and spa for dogs. This was a problem for Mahsa because she is terrified of dogs Judging by the fact that Donald Trump did not come to see either team, my guess is that she was not the only one not comfortable around the furry friends. For the past couple weeks, James (above) has been called out in the boardroom. He is always clueless and shocked when that happens. When he steps up to be PM, you already know the results. The toughest part of running Octane is David. I don't know what is up with him, but he is the wild card. It is clear that he will be fired sometime, just not right away. After a couple of shout out sessions, James tells David to go back to the suite to spend the days watching game shows, soaps and perhaps old reruns of "The Apprentice". It is the first time that I can remember a PM firing a candidate on a task.
The Women of Fortitude have problems of their own. They won a task after throwing Liza under the bus and she cannot let it go. Furthermore, Tyana (the PM) and Mahsa, who got along so well in the first task are now bitter enemies. There is absolutely no cohesion in the women's camp either.
The judge of the competition is Celebrity Dog Trainer Caesar Milan. Why he would want to put his name on this is beyond me. Perhaps he is graduating to training people, because these candidates are a bigger mess then any dog would be.
The women win. The men lose for the second week in a row. James picks David (of course) and Wade to stay in the boardroom. Firing David would be way too easy, it is clear that although James is smart, he could never lead the team and he is fired. David will return to wreak havoc next week.

The Apprentice--I Scream, You Scream, One Fake Firing

This episode probably should have been the first task. The teams were sent out to the streets to sell ice cream. This is the "back to basics" task that kicked off the very first Apprentice episode and has been used quite often. Both teams headed first to Union Square, with very without much luck so they both tried several locations. Each team also came up with an idea for uniforms, women in pink tank tops, and men with striped shirts. By the way, I forgot to mention David, the loose cannon with eyes and hair going in 6 different directions,was project manager for the men. Poppy, was project manager for the women.
When the teams were back in the board room, Trump asked the women if they thought that they had won. Of course they say yes. Trump asked who the weakest player was, and Poppy said it was Liza, he asks other team member and they agree and Trump fires her. Oh wait, he smiles and says "Kidding". I've never seen him screw around quite like that. Liza, of course is angry at her team. There is discourse, Trump asked Mahsa if she thought her team won. Mahsa said she "knew" they won. Trump jumped on her saying there is no way she could "know". There never is a "right" answer in the board room.
Trump then goes to the men, where David singled out James and Alex. James is too laid back and Alex lacks energy. David, Alex, and James come stay in the board room. Trump figures that Alex is the weakest, although a nice guy (nice guys finish last in the world of Trump) and fires him.

The Apprentice 10--Hey Buddy, Could You Spare A Job?

The Apprentice franchise was recently brought back from the dead by using celebrities. Now the show has returned with unknowns again seeking a job with the Trump Organization. The twist though is that all of the candidates are unemployed or underemployed because of the Recession.
The candidates meet in the boardroom, as they usually do in the first show and Mr. Trump divides them, men vs women, as he usually does. The first task is to go into an empty suite and design a modern office space.
The men come up with the name "Octane", the women are Fortitude, as he usually does, Trump gives tepid approval to the names.
No one volunteers themselves to be Project Manager for Octane, but someone volunteers Gene. A well bow-tied unemployed Financial Advisor with military experience. Nicole, a former Miss California contestant, steps up to be Project Manager for Fortitude.
Last night's show was two hours, it could have easily been fit into one. As the show were on, it appeared that the recession may not be the only reason that these people may be unemployed as there was fighting on both sides. In particular, a former telecom salesman named Dave was unmanagable. Unfortunately, A-type insubordinates like him tend to stay around for a few weeks because it makes good water cooler discussion for the viewers. Neither PM can really seem to get the respect of his or her team and the results show, Trump did not like either design.
Fortitude decides to throw PM Nicole "under the bus", perhaps unfairly. Tayana has experience in office design and probably should have been fired, however she found an ally in former New York DA Mahsa, who points a direct finger at Nicole. Since the team unites against her, Nicole is fired.

Celebrity Apprentice Begins

Celebrity Apprentice began Sunday with something new...celebrities! Where in the past, the show attracted D-list personalities whom most of us have not heard of, this season or this year since I think it's only running once a year--the celebrities are C plus or something like that--I have heard of most of them one way or another. The list of participants is here
The teams were split with men on one team and women on the other. The Women took the name Tenacity--The men took the name Rock Solid.
The first task was to run a designated diner in New York City--whoever brought in the most money would win the task. The men, with the benefit of a celebrity chef (Curtis Stone) and a relatively competent project manager (Poison's Brett Michaels) won the task.
Tenacity's project manager, Cyndi Lauper was terrible and garnered little respect. She should have been fired, after all she brought up her friendship with Rosie O'Donnell in the boardroom in front of an angry Trump (Trump has been feuding with Rosie for years), however Trump realized that keeping Cindy around for a couple more weeks would be good for the show. Instead, he fired Carol Leifer.

Former Apprentice Candidate James Sun

Seattle area resident James Sun looked up until the very end, like the winner of Apprentice 6. Especially with talk that Donald Trump would be building in the region. However, Sun was not picked and nothing has been heard, since on Trump developing here. I got this piece from the Seattle Times.

Joan Rivers Named Celebrity Apprentice

It's really no surprise, since Trump can make the rules to fit the situation, it was not only how much money you could raise, but several other criteria. As tradition dictates, fired candidates came back to help with the final task which was to put on a silent auction with Kodak for their respective charity. As was expected, Poker player Annie Duke raised the most money, however she did a rotten job of incorporating the corporate brand into her theme.
Joan Rivers raised only a quarter of the money that Annie did, but had a very creative presentation with celebrity inpersonators and what not.
As Trump occasionally does, he fired Annie before naming Rivers the Celebrity Apprentice. Rivers, 70 something, is undoubtably, the oldest apprentice that Trump has named.

Celebrity Apprentice: Black Out

As this season begins to wrap up, the word is out that the show is being renewed. Yes 2010 will bring us another season of Celebrity Apprentice.
This week's show begins with the candidates being summoned to Trump's office where, all of a sudden Joan Rivers arrives in dark sunglasses. Joan wants to get back into the game and get revenge on the girls who she believes, railroaded her daughter.
The task this week is to come up with a radio spot for "Chicken Of The Sea" Tuna. Athena gets discouraged because neither of it's 2 members Brande and Annie are musically inclined. KOTU, on the other hand has Clint Black has been a control freak, alienating most of his team. He is a Grammy Awards winner though and this is his biggest strength. Both sides work hard and Annie is motivated, in the end, Athena pulls off an upset. This does not bode well for Clint and he is fired. There is no time for the candidates to relax. They have to interview with last year's winner Piers Morgan. He decides that Brande is not that bright (she is sweet though) and Jesse lacks the passion to be the next Celebrity Apprentice. Trump fires both of them, leaving Joan Rivers and Annie Duke to fight for the "crown".

Celebrity Apprentice: Trump Dams The Rivers

When Joan and Melissa Rivers were picked to be contestants on Celebrity Apprentice, viewers knew the potential hazards that existed because of the necessity that one of them would have to be fired before the other and that dynamic came to fruition last night. Melissa, it seems had a miserable time in high school, at least that is what is indicated by her persistant rants through the evening. When Trump passed a note in the middle of the boardroom, it brought the memory smack right to her and when Trump fired her, she went to pieces.
This is not to say that she deserved to be fired, Annie Duke, who was super in many tasks, did an unbelievably miserable job in a project that she practically took over from start to finish. Brande Roderick, came across as an inarticulate marshmallow. Perhaps, it should have been a triple firing, because no one in the show left with their hands clean.
The project was to create a four page advertisement for "Right Guard" the venerable men's deodorant. The subject in the advertisement was rising NBA star David Lee, who is not by any means the most popular guy with "David Lee" in his name.
Trump asked Jesse James to rejoin the KOTU team, Jesse, who had been the quiet soft spoken classy guy in the competition, seemed to turn into a sulking, bickering troublemaker. He couldn't get along with Clint. He refused to respect Clint as this task's project manager. His team won however and was spared anymore embarrassment, other than Joan's outburst after her daughter was fired.

Another Season Of Celebrity Apprentice

Celebrity Apprentice starts tonight,and although I liked the idea of unknown contestants fighting for a job with the Trump Organization, the celebrity version where they compete for personal charities has become more popular than the origninal version.

Celebrity Apprentice Sucks--Trump Should Be Fired

What really hurts is telling the world that I watched this cockamanie thing. Ouch! Apprentice LA was a masterpiece compared to this. If anything, it highlighted what made the original show great. Omarosa, the lightning rod of controversy in the first show has returned, assuming anyone but a fan like me can remember her. She is so tame, she is almost likable.
The contestants are not out to get a job. They already are doing quite well, they compete to raise money for their charity. Who cares?

Around The Blogosphere: The Apprentice Returns

In her excellent blog "No Deep Thoughts, my friend from Texas, PJ, announces the return of "The Apprentice" What was in it's initial run, a pretty slick show, has gradually degenerated into just another show that hung around a little too long. If you were disgusted by the gimmickry in the LA version of the show, you haven't seen nothing yet .

Donald Trump Quits The Apprentice

It comes as no surprise but The Apprentice is officially no more. Sources say the Donald Trump, who turned "your fired" into probably pop culture's favorite phrase, announced Friday that he will not do another Apprentice. The show, originated by Survivor's Mark Burnett, took off in it's first season, due in part with good looking, intelligent, but somewhat dysfunctional candidates, and what seemed like hard headed but fair Trump exec's like Caroline and George. Candidate Omarosa, who seemed to have the ability to create a fight from nothing and the tough love of "The Donald" seemed to rocket the show in the ratings. Successive seasons showed a real ratings decrease, along with the revelations of possible financial problems in the Trump Organization.
It has indeed been a pleasure for me to blog the last three seasons of the Apprentice. No doubt, new material on the Apprentice and candidates will continue.

Trump Eyes Seattle Properties

Look out Seattle, the king of build now, ask questions later, Donald Trump is looking toward building high rise condo's in the area. In a story in this week's Puget Sound Business Journal, Trump's Real Estate company is attracted by the "lucrative market" here. The thought of Trump building in Seattle has got to send shivers to the City Council, already weary from dealing with Oklahoma City based Seattle Super Sonic owner Clay Bennett.

The Seattle Times ran a story this morning, where they spoke to Trump's daughter Ivanka.