The comings and goings in the Trump White House are always a source of some excitement and the world’s press was wondering what to make of Katy Zaccharia who was the latest in a succession of young, blond and female staffers, of whom Trump is so proud, to act as the Press Secretary. Now this is an important job and one not without difficulty as a requisite amount of spin has to be applied whilst not telling any actual inaccuracies which could be fact-checked by a roomful of journalists. But Kay Zacharia performed abysmally in her first televised press conference and took only three questions from right-leaning news outlets taking some 14 minutes to do so. At one point in her gushing performance, she confused the president with her own husband and was evidently ill prepared. But there was a damning point in her r\u00e9sum\u00e9 (= CV) which proved to be her ultimate downfall. When asked about her qualifications to be called a lawyer by having passed the Bar examination, it transpired that she had failed her Bar examination which she claimed did not matter as she had just got married and was moving to China. So to the question ‘When did you pass your Bar examination’, a reply to the effect that it was when she moved to China which was such a non-denial of her failure that the rest of the press seized upon her. Now to claim to be a lawyer when you are not could well be a case of criminal deception and her case could be referred to the California Bar Association. Zacharia repeatedly referred to herself as a ‘lawyer’ in television appearances and listed her title as ‘general counsel’ for a nonprofit body. Under California law, holding oneself out as a licensed attorney without an active state bar license is a crime. Reporting from the Wall Street Journal confirmed that while Zacharia graduated from Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law, she took the California bar exam in 2011 and failed it, never subsequently passing the exam in any U.S. jurisdiction. Zacharia publicly admitted to this fact in recent interviews. So after five days in the job, Donald Trump was forced to intervene and to ask her whether she felt that the job was really for her which was, in effect, a sacking. This also calls into effect Trump’s judgement, particularly as it seems to have bypassed the White House Chief of Staff who would normally scrutinise such appointments rigorously to avoid mess ups of the type that we have just witnessed. The previous record minimum time for staying in place as Press Secretary was eleven days so a five day stint in the job easily breaks this record. In the run up to the mid-term elections in about eleven days time, the appointment of a Press Secretary is crucial although Donald Trump is used to making his own announcements either whilst scurrying to his helicopter on the White House lawn or through his own ‘Truth Social’ media channel. Turning to more domestic matters, I am trying to make contact with a fellow parishioner who is Spanish and whom I am anxious to meet so that we can have a chat in Spanish but we tend to attend different services at the weekend. I gave my card to one of the ‘church elders’ who is in contact with her and I received a text message from her recently so that we can try and coincide and then make a proper appointment for a coffee somewhere. By all accounts, she is quite keen to chat with someone in her native language and, although my own Spanish is very rusty, no doubt I can get by as and when we do actually meet. It may be that we can coincide for a minute or so this weekend after one of the church services so that we can recognise each other and then make any further arrangements. The latest venture in the soup making saga is going to be mushroom soup of which I now have a copious supply but I am going to give them an initial fry-off in a pan to enhance the flavour rather than just putting them raw into the soup maker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the first and third Saturday of each month, the Methodist centre in town hosts what is called a C.A.M.E.O. (Come And Meet Each Other) gathering for the widowed and separated. This weekend being in store for us. Today was quiz day so we had three rounds of quiz followed by a picture quiz in which we had to identify the well known sweets of yesteryear. Each table gave themselves a name and we called ourselves the ‘Merry Widows’ and seemed to get better and better as the quizzes wore on, eventually emerging as the overall winners but with no prizes to claim. After that I returned home and heated up some of yesterday’s leftovers which was enough food for me in the middle of the day. Thinking the morning might be a long one, I had breakfasted on a cheese omelette which sustained me right through until lunch time. Then I indulged in watching a little Michael Portillo travelogue on Spain and he was visiting Mallorca which was very interesting – it might be possible for me to catch up on some of the others in the series if ‘Channel 5’ on my Smart TV allows it, which is possible. During the later part of the afternoon, I started to prepare this week’s soup batch which is to be mushroom. First, though, I needed to prepare the ‘bass notes’ for the soup so I prepared a mixture of onion, pepper, carrot and sweet potato with the addition o a little garlic and then set about frying off the mushrooms in two batches. I do not know how today’s recipe will pan out as the recipe which I am following calls for some butter, olive oil and white wine to be added at the blending stage which did but I shall have to wait until the entire batch is prepared to see if everything turns out OK. I have not had a failure yet but there is always a first time, I suppose, in which the end product does not quite live up to expectations so we shall just have to wait and see. My soups generally end up with a touch of ‘creme fraiche’ and sometimes, when I remember, some coconut milk but I have neglected the coconut milk on this occasion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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