Water polo stars, talk of a civil war, and Weisselberg's enabler

Thoughts for the day

With a nod to the hot, sultry “dog days of summer” — and my trip today to Seattle to meet my first grandchild — I hope you'll find these August thoughts of interest.

Laguna's water polo duo Beginning when I was eight, when I watched my oldest brother and Laguna's Peter Ueberroth play water polo at San Jose State, I always have loved the game.  So much so, I played polo in high school and at USC.  

To this day, I still have memories of guarding a young Mark Spitz back in 1965.  For those who don't know or remember, Spitz went on to win seven gold medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.

Which brings me to today's water polo news.  Congratulations to Laguna's Ava Knepper and Genoa Rossi.  Under the watchful eye of former Laguna Beach High School coach Ethan Damato, they just helped their teammates win the FINA Youth World Championship in Serbia.

It's been 65 years since I first watched my brother and Pete play water polo.  My hope is Ava and Genoa remember this summer decades from now.  Let's hope there will be many more gold medals in their future.

Is the U.S. on the brink of civil war?  Clearly, we live in uncivil times; but no, I do not think we are on the brink of a civil war.  Take for example the mere hours it took for GOP lawmakers in Washington, without a shred of evidence mind you, to denounce the FBI's search for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.  

When you couple the hyper-partisan comments from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Sen. Rick Scott, with the incendiary bombshells posted online like, "Assassinate Merrck Garland" and "The raid on Donald Trump's home was worse than any Nazi Gestapo action in Germany,” is it any wonder hard working Americans are worried?  

The fabric of our country is being streched to its limits now, but I predict calmer heads will prevail.  While no election is perfect, if we can get through the mid-terms in November with a minor number of challenges to the results, then I think we will be on our way towards healing this nation's wounds. 

Trump firm exec guilty of tax crimes I don't know why the story line is Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization's long time chief financial officer who has pleaded guilty to 15 years of financial wrong-doing, insists on keeping the name of his co-conspirator a secret.  If you ask me, Donald J. Trump is only person who could have authorized (and subsidized) Weisselberg's illegal activities that long.  Now, was that so hard to say?

-DF