Trump's Magic

For years I've wondered what sort of magic Trump wields.  What his secret attraction is.

In his 'Apprentice' days, he'd stomp into a scene, gather everyone around, and essentially tell one participant that he had been voted off the island, or whatever.  I sort of hated that signature raincoat he wore, and I don't think I was the only one.

I have heard that the whole 'game' was a setup—like many reality shows—and that the producers essentially decided whom to throw out based on what was best for the show.

In any case, lots of viewers liked that show, and they liked the figure that Trump presented.  In reality he wasn't as successful as he made himself out to be (and the producers claimed that he was).  But, without a doubt, he was a highly visible TV personality, with a big following of white people who liked to see a tall white guy kick butt!  Mostly, I think, it was the suits.

It was only once I really understood that MAGA was not a bunch of people who all believed some list of things-to-believe that I began to see that—like the GOP—MAGA was really a biggish tent, with a few major things they all hated:

1. The 'Browning of America': the prevalence of non- white citizens that were becoming visible everywhere. 
2. The Democrats.
3. The support for the poor and the minorities, which meant Social Security, and scholarships for poor, and minority programs to make housing easier and more affordable for minorities and blacks. 
4. College-educated people, and worse: people who had even higher qualifications.  Clever people, generally.
5. Successful women.
6. Rules that made it difficult for businesses to victimize customers.
7. Any language other than English.

One important  group was: businessmen.  They joined the MAGA movement in droves—even though they might not have wasted time at the rallies.  The big thing they wanted is Lower Taxes.  They have stood by Trump through thick and thin.

Another group were the bigots, the prejudiced, the racists, the white supremacists.  ICE enforcers belong to this group.  It was hard for MAGA to put forward one single thing as what everyone hates.  If they said they hate Blacks, there would be some who reply: but so sad!  Blacks are nice!  The same with the other groups.  So they've compromised with: immigrants.   At first, everyone in MAGA agreed that they had to stop the "open borders" attitude that they accused Democrats of wanting.  (Democrats did not want open borders; they just wanted immigrants to be able to support themselves.)

So you have businessmen on one side ("Lower  taxes!"), and people who were uncomfortable with anyone except white Americans.  It's this coalition of bigots (well, actually people uncomfortable around foreigners) and greedy businessmen that formed the backbone of the MAGA.

Hate of the Democrats was a uniting factor.  Any plan to lower taxes, for example would get support from businesspeople.  But the other group could be brought on board because: "The Dems will throw a fit!"

Any plan to frighten immigrants away from our borders: the bigots would be all in.  But the businessmen could be brought on board because: " The Dems would throw a fit!"

Eventually the "Dems would throw a fit" angle was so successful, Trump and his government buddies could justify anything just because the Dems would hate it.   But now it's come to the point where even the MAGA hates it.

In the end, Trump has only helped (1) Business, especially the richest few business families, (2) Those who do him favors, like the government of Qatar; (3) Those who have helped prevent Trump from getting punished for various crimes. 

Caitlin Clark Clickbait

I'm getting inundated (on Facebook) with posts asking: If you're a fan of Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham, and Lexie Hull, like this post!

I do love those three girls.  But why are they singling out these pretty white girls to promote, when there are so many others?  They occasionally include Aliyah Boston in these races.  Occasionally Kelsey Mitchell.  Occasionally one of the other girls.  But two things are clear:

They're all about the white girls. 

They're all about the looks of these girls.

This is about appearance, and it's about racism.  This is almost the perfect way to destroy the team spirit of the Indiana Fever.

And there's a huge fuss over how much these girls are paid.  I don't know much about team sports, and athlete remuneration.  And I don't want to know, honestly.  All this will put an enemy's strain on the players, and has put a strain for years.  It's frustrating for the athletes if they're not attractive. 

Kay

Businessmen Work for the Good of All!

No, they don't; I was just kidding!

Interactions with Reporters and Underlings.  Many of my readers are probably annoyed at how casually Trump talks to reporters, and people in his cabinet.  I certainly am.  But this attitude is not unique to the prez.  This is how chiefs of Big Business behave.  Trump and Musk are eccentric, but most business owners are a little peculiar.  We're all aghast at how the prez lies.  But capitalists lie like that all the time! Think about how people talk about global warming.  Capitalists—owners of big businesses—you'd think they honestly believed that environmental impact of fossil fuels was not 'a thing'.  No.  They have known the truth for decades.  But it's not convenient to admit it. 

Meanwhile, observe how such underlings as Marco Rubio, and Pam Bondi pander to the prez's ego!  Well, the bosses have enormous egos, and a lot of pandering takes place.  So, to make a short story even shorter, what happens in the White House echoes what happens among the capitalist bosses.  "As above, so below."

The Boss's Word is Law.  There's no one to tell the Boss what to do.  (Well, there is a board, but usually the Boss gets his (or her) way.)  Unfortunately, in government, everybody had people over them—checks and balances, you know—so it's not like a business. 

Lesbian Formal Dress

I've complained about a certain issue (is 'issue' the right word?  I don't even know), namely that on the covers of lesbian stories, the couple is often represented with one of them in a dress, and the other in a pant suit.

I'm sure, in the minds of lesbians, the 'One woman Butch, the Other woman Femme' paradigm has been replaced, or just removed.  I admit that I just don't have this matter resolved in my own mind to my own satisfaction.  Is there something more specific than merely being a lesbian that specifies who's going to wear the pants, and who wears the dress?  I have never been openly gay, to have the experience of observing fellow lesbians in a social setting, to be able to say: Oho, that's how it goes.  If anyone thinks that having been openly gay for at least a year should be a pre-requisite for writing lesbian fiction, I'd have to agree with them.  I have watched them to a certain extent, and there were several friends who knew what I was and were perfectly fine with it (and I had small crushes on most of them, but that's beside the point) but we hung out in situations where it was not organized socializing.  Most of the time, all of us wore jeans or shorts; or most of us, anyway.  I was often the exception; I would wear a skirt and sweater, or some sort of knit top.

But after all these years, I'm still sort of oblivious of the little clues that girls use, to signal that they're lesbians.  I have to essentially drop a broad hint (that I prefer the company of women), to elicit a remark from my friend that would indicate which team she played for.  Dress was only a tiny part of this negotiation; as I said, most of them wore jeans or pants. 

Kay

Err ...

I'm seeing "err ..." a lot in my reading (of fiction).  I use "er," myself in my own writing, like, well, "Er, ... Taylor Swift, yeah, that's the ticket!"  It was a signal that the speaker was lying.

Err, in fact, is an actual word.  It means to do something wrong, to make a mistake.  Using 'err' instead of 'er' is just a little distracting.  Google reports that, in the sense of essentially just a non-verbal noise that people make, it is an interjection, indicating hesitation.

If you're an author, and you're writing dialog, it isn't crucial that you try to get the exact sound.  Just write the usual string of letters that has been used to indicate that sound.  In the case of this 'Err' sound, just use 'Er'.

To indicate Hey, slow down, I use Whoa.  Younger authors seem to use "Woe," which looks very wrong.

Another case like this is 'Umm.'  It's been a long time since that word was made respectable; it was spelled just um, but more recently, authors are spelling it umm; the extra letter is not necessary.

If I think of any others, I'll add them in later. 

Kay

P.S.

Wow, means something like That's unexpected!

Things Are Heating Up

Fortunately for me, Politics is not my whole life, though I keep a fairly close eye on political developments.

Politeness.
A hallmark of the Trump Presidency is how the MAGA people are impolite and confrontational to all but themselves.  And now they've got the Democrats— a word I use in the sense of Non-MAGA—doing it too.  It's going to take a decade before public discourse is conducted politely, if it ever is again.  47's lack of politeness reflects the entire "Tea Party's" frustration with what they call The Rule of The Elites.  By which they mean: crooked lawyers in politics.  But the poster boy for that sort of person is Rudy Giuliani—who appears to have lost a screw, and been pushed out of the club!

Quiet, Piggy.
This could easily turn into a slogan for Anti-MAGA.  All us Dems have different issues with 47 and MAGA.  But this slogan could energize us.

PBS.  NPR.  Kennedy Center.
There was a post today on Facebook that describes the enormous self-dealing that the MAGA-Led Administration has been indulging in.  That's intended to both entertain MAGA ("We're owning the Libs!") as well as make a lot of money for the Trump family.  It's going to take a lot of time and effort to de-politicize Public Media, if it ever is again.

Kay

A New Story I've Been Reading

The story—first book in a multi-volume series—by J. T. Lawrence, has some interesting characters, including this goblin, Salty.

I laughed myself silly!  The illustration is so perfect!  Actually, the character in the story is a little less in your face than the illustration would suggest, but, really, not a lot less.  And I can't think where the rollerskates come from.

The book is: The HighFire Crown, by J. T. Lawrence.

Am I a Democrat?

To make things absolutely clear:

As long as Trump and MAGA continue to hold their present beliefs, and as long as the Democrats continue to be the best, most viable opposition to Trump and MAGA, I will continue to remain with the Democrat camp, simply to oppose Trump/MAGA.

But there are some aspects of the Democrat party, and some members of it, that have been revealed as painfully unhelpful, and opposed to things that anti-MAGA people in general—and I with them—are working to do.

The "They're socialists!"  "They're communists!"  "They're terrorists!" rhetoric has been discovered by MAGA to be highly effective, and as a result, they trot that out every chance they get, to smear some (new) candidate.  This is the easiest knee-jerk response by FOX News, and it seems that they all take their cue from FOX.

Anyway, it appears that the Dems have won this off-year election fairly convincingly!  We have now around a third of our States being governed by women (and of course the news has to compile all the exciting statistics: the youngest ... yakkitty yak, the oldest ... yakkitty yak, the tallest, shortest, cutest, and so on).  Talking about women, META/Mark Somebody has discovered that I 'like' posts about women who have not been acknowledged as the inventors of various procedures or gadgets, and now my Wall is crowded with neglected women.  One invention in point is the pedal-operated trash can.  (Bless her, the gal who came up with that.  She and her husband established the field of 'Time and Motion Studies' which is now a pillar of business and industrial efficiency studies.)

But next year's election still needs to be won.  The entire House of Representatives will be on the ballot, as they always are, in even years, and several Senators.  The GOP believes that their cheerleaders stayed home for this election because it was an off-year election, so that the Dems won by default.  (And also, Trump wasn't on the ballot, like he says.  In 2026, if a majority of Democrats are elected, then they certainly could impeach the president, so in effect, he is on the ballot.  Hah.)

In 2028, we have the first election opportunity to vote Trump out of office.

Kay

More Compound Words

Bloodthirsty.  I don't even think 'blood thirsty' means anything.

Anyhow.  'Any how' is not a common phrase, but of course 'any old how' is (a common phrase).

Lifeguard.  I suppose you could say 'life guard' but that looks weird.

I'll add more if I remember.

Kay

A Democrat Landslide — November 2025

At this time, it looks as though it's a clean sweep for Democrats; and women, too!  But who knows?  They might unexpectedly turn up a million GOP ballots under some bushel, in some election room!

But as long as there are elections, the Democrats have the chance to bounce back.

Kay

Louisa May Alcott

I'm just going over to the Helen Blog to post about LMA.

English for the New Age

 "Lexie Hull been enjoying off-season with Friends and love ones. 💜"

I would have written: Lexie Hull has been enjoying the off-season with friends and loved ones.  Why do these sports-related posts have to be written as though Trump has written them?  (Or wrote them back when he could write?)  I keep wondering whether everything has to be written in this sort of broken English to make sense to kids.

I was reading a post on Fb about a pioneer woman, who had to unexpectedly take the reins of their wagon, when bandits attacked them.  Here's an excerpt from the passage:

Now, 'refused to die quiet' has the flavor of the words from an old western legend.  But we need an adverb here, and quietly is the only word that works.  Sure, we could make an exception here, to preserve the punch of the sentence as the AI wrote it.  It must have been an AI, because it shows all the signs of having learned its craft from digesting a ton of non-grammatical text.  But every exception makes the language rules more complicated.

Kay

AI Art: A Ripoff

As many of you readers know, DeviantArt is a website I joined, which initially was a place where artists showed off their creations.  I was hoping to get artwork for the covers of my stories. 

Recently, though, the members of DA have got on the AI Art bandwagon wholesale; in fact DA have created their own piece of AI art software, free for anyone to use.  (I think.)  I think it's fair to say that almost 80% of the art put up on DA now is AI generated.  (AI - generated = created by software, according to explicit instructions.  The instructions are called 'programming', and the programmer is regarded as the Artist.)

Honestly, the parameters of the image can be set almost any way the artist likes: any color of hair, any color of eyes, any build, any costume, any lighting ... It must sound as though I've actually tried this, but I haven't.  I know a little computer programming, and the way these AI programs would go is easy to guess. 

In conventional art, what we—or art critics—appreciate and admire in a work of art are a lot more than simply the choice of hair color and eye color and costume, and so on.

On top of all that, the programmer—or, anyway, the one who is using the AI art software—can supply a base image, from which the AI takes features that are wanted in the finished image.  So if the finished image looks like Taylor Swift, or Emma Watson, or Emilia Clarke, it's not really an accident.

I would expect that the number of people uploading this sort of artwork is rising, but the number of people admiring the artwork is probably plummeting.

Kay

What would she wear?

There's a major confusion in the way young guys (including older guys, I'm sure) approach figurative art (art with people), and how I approach it.

Let's use an extreme example: Joan of Arc.

Guys love to draw Joan of Arc (or Jean D'Arc), especially because of the romance of depicting a woman in armorplate.  Right away we must think: does it make sense to show a lot of decolletage?  Did she wear the armor for show, or to protect herself from arrows?  Won't an expanse of exposed bosom be a powerful target for arrows?

The same principle works for all female heroes: what would she wear, rather than what would I like to see her in?

Long Names

My pen name (Nom de Plume) is Kay Hemlock Brown.  I'm comfortable with it, because, well, basically both Kay and Brown are short, single-syllable names.

Of course, the whole thing is a fiction, which you ought to know.  When I was ready to self- publish the first story (the second part of Jane,) I decided to use a pen-name, just so I wouldn't be identified by my students.  (Luckily, they don't read anything, let alone sapphic romance, so I'm safe.  They didn't even read the syllabus, or even the questions on their exams!!)

Well, I'm noticing that authors of fantasy fiction are increasingly giving their heroines long, multiple names.  I don't get out much; I actually never did, so I don't have my ear to the ground.  It must mean something that they're doing this; it can't be a coincidence that an entire generation of authors—especially female ones—are giving their original characters (OC's, as they're called) long, fancy names.  The most recent one is Isabella Gabriella Angelina Aurora Renata Anastasia Fielding-Horne.

Her initials would be IGAARA F-H.  That's 26 syllables.  (Am I pronouncing the names correctly?)  In really big families, the mothers gave the infant names from many relatives, to make sure that the various namesake aunts would be favorably disposed towards the new family member.  Long names were selected to impress.  And hyphenated family names (like Fielding-Horne) to please two branches of the family; possibly the two parental lines.

My pen-name, in the nature of pen-names, wasn't chosen to please anybody.  In fact, Brown was chosen because of its very dullness, and Kay because you couldn't deduce anything from it.  (Did you know why Max Eastman chose to name his photographic process Kodak?  It was because he liked the letter k!! No better reason, in my book.)

Jane was chosen also for its simplicity or dullness, Maia was an abbreviation of Mayaserana, which was supposed to be the name of a princess.  So was Helen borrowed from the name of a princess.  Many girl- children were given names from princesses; we can assume that numerous little girls born in the fifties decade were given the name  Elizabeth, because people the world over loved Princess Elizabeth, and later, Queen Elizabeth.

Well, off I go to continue reading my story.

K

John Lennon's Birthday

John Lennon's birthday was October 9, 1940.

All four of the Beatles were talented musicians—I don't know enough about the matter to tell you about their musicianship in greater detail—but I think Paul might have been the greater performer, and John might have been the more gifted from a literary point of view. 

Once John meet Yoko Ono (whom he married), she introduced him to so much thinking, there wasn't room in his head for much more that Feminism, Liberalism, Pacifism, social commentary, and Social engagement, generally.  Of course, the popular media lumped all that together into Socialist Politics, and blamed Yoko for putting all that in his head. 

But now, many of us think like John Lennon; and MAGA hates it, and labels us Woke, but it just means that we're very aware of how Big Business and conservative politicians manipulate everything to get money out of the hands of ordinary people, and into their (businessmen's) own pockets.  And in the past, men have made sure that they controlled the family money.  That's still the way it is among conservatives.  The women are kept busy being responsible for the kids (and shooting dogs), while the guys handle the money. 

John Lennon was shot on December 8, 1980; the shooter is still alive, but in prison.  But I'm glad John Lennon was alive, even for 40 short years.  He greatly influenced how I view society.  He was ahead of his time; we have to thank Yoko Ono.

Kay Hemlock Brown

It's A Boy!

Today my friend and I took a walk around the block, and Lo!  There was a handsome Dalmatian watching us with considerable interest, from behind a fence!  It was roughly the right longitude from where I saw the Dalmatian gambolling in its yard. 

Well, I was wrong; it was a male!

But I think I'm right, it was a very young dog. 

He extended several woofs in recognition of our curiosity, after which—out of politeness—we continued our way!

Kay

I Love this Artwork!

 This popped up in my Fb feed:

Miscellany

Phone Charging

I'm reading that charging your phone to 100% is bad for the phone!  So stop at about 80%.  The newest phones stop anyway (it's annoying, but in our best interests), so don't be upset. 

WNBA Playoffs

Well!  The Indiana High Temperatures have won three games, so they're still in the playoffs.  Go, girls!!

Well, that's all I've got for the moment.  Over the course of the day, I'll add on to the post as ideas come to me.

Added 9-23:  Jimmy Kimmel is gonna be back tonight.  As  Bob Dylan says, it's not just about Jimmy.  He's still furious at the media companies for playing games with the First Amendment.

Meanwhile, the Sinclair media company is still not allowing Jimmy on the air over their TV stations, for saying something about Kirk.  They say that if Jimmy makes a huge contribution to some charity, all will be forgiven!  That's not the way forgiveness works, kids.

All sorts of amusing CDC declarations are being made.  The population of MAGA people is going to be severely depleted due to preventable childhood deseases over the next decade or so.  (But the survivors will be stronger, due to Darwin.)

Trump spoke at the UNO.  (Some people were not happy.)  Hopefully, by this time international diplomats know that Trump does not speak for all of us.

Kay

Truth and Policy

What is most disturbing about current affairs is: what is reported in the media. 

Not just news; the so-called facts about anything are now up for dispute.  Matters about the character of various people in the news is a open to interpretation or judgment as they have always been.  But now, what things are healthy to eat; what vaccines are good to get; whether it is good to get into college; whether what someone said falls under the First Amendment protection; whether the President can fire a given government official: all of these matters are decided on by the White House.

I think that many of the decisions of the administration to change existing ways of doing things are decided based on whether they will annoy the 'Elites'.  I just don't express an opinion about the value of anything simply because there's a small chance that someone in the Government might happen to read it, and assume that other 'Elites' may have the same values.  Not that I'm an Elite in the conventional sense; I'm just a nobody.  But I get mad about spelling errors, and that could be taken as an indicator. 

Kay

Moon Goddess!

Katie Moon won the pole vault championship in Tokyo.  (Was it this summer?  I don't know.)

She is so happy in these pictures!

KATIE MOON, my goddess!

Escalating Violence

The assasination of Charlie Kirk was a sad moment this week.  The Prez made matters worse by threatening to investigate anyone in the USA on a visa who happens to comment on the murder.

Comment isn't really needed.  What is needed is gun control.

Kay

For Sale in Australia!

Guess what.

I just Googled myself, on a whim, and I turned up a website in Australia where my books are for sale!  I never knew!

I had gotten used to thinking of myself as a sort of niche author without a huge following, and had never thought to Google myself.  But evidently they're buying my stories down under.   There must be at least one reader down there!

G'day, upside-down people!!

Kay

The White Cat Needs More Better Grey Cells

Today, I was visiting the friend again, and the little white cat discovered me.  Oh no; she immediately climbed onto my chair, and began to purr at me, and to ask for a petting.

This happened several times throughout the visit.  Finally, I looked right into her eyes, and said: what you need, little cat, is a brain transplant.

She looked a bit hurt, but what to do?  Sometimes the truth bites!

Kay

Two New Posts today

I put up two new blogposts today.

One was on the Helen Blog, about a story I had read (Redeemer), and stories with lots of characters, causing confusion. 

The other was an an addition to the end of the blogpost in which I write about portmanteau words, like evermore, versus ever more.  The word I was focusing on was hangout, versus hang out.  I'm having trouble inserting links, but I'll probably do it someday. 

Kay

Training a Cat

This is going to be awkward, because readers of our blog don't comment on it very often.  The last comment was a year ago, and at this rate, I'm going to forget how to read and respond to comments!

Anyhow, my problem is that, when I visit my friend in town, my favorite cat comes over to visit, she climbs on my lap, and then she gets higher up, and sticks her claws in my clothing in the process of getting up to my face!  If I'm not dressed with many layers, this means that her claws actually pierce my skin, very painfully. 

I immediately yell out: "Ouch, ouch, ouch, that hurts!  Get down!"

Sometimes she gets off my chest, and just stays to chat.  That's perfect.  Other times, she gets right off the chair, and looks at me a little resentfully.

So, what to do?  I must come up with some kind of reaction to her claws, so that she knows that I find it painful when she has her claws out. 

Kay

Wondered, Wandered

Another pair of words often confused with each other.

To wonder is to think about something uncertainly.  I wonder whether it will rain today?  It also means: to be filled with the possibilities of something; that's the branch of meanings that lead to wonderful. 

To wander is to move around with no definite destination.  Frank has been wandering around Florida for ten years.

I wish I knew the etymology of these two words; they may have common origins for all I know.  In these times there's no excuse for remaining ignorant; I leave it to you to look up the origins of each of these words.  If this was a regular podcast, I could give you a week, and then supply the etymologies next week!

A New Story I Just Read

I have just finished reading the first installment of a series of several books.  It's really one long adventure, but there are advantages of breaking up the story into installments.  For one thing, if you split the story into, say, three chunks, and the same 20 readers read all three books, at least you can claim that you sold sixty books!

Anyway, the story is about a dragon, that can shape-shift into a girl.  It's complicated; when she's in girl form, she can change just one arm into dragon limb form, and so on. 

This first volume was really fun to read, but I had felt that it should take place in medieval times, wherever it is set, and (in my mind) it doesn't make sense for the people to say things like: "Okay."  In any case, this first volume 'The Dragon's Squire' is fun to read.  Modern English is nothing like medieval English; the dialog of Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, for instance—which would have been very satisfying to read in Dragon's Squire—would be actually fake, scholastically.

It is so disconcerting to find that my expectations of dialog in fiction are in fact anachronistic.  So I would be sad if the author (Jada Fisher) hated me for what looks like a big fat black mark against their book, and they would be justified.  But read it; it is a well-written book.  Lots of clichés, but that makes it easier to read. 

Confession: I have written period fantasy stories, too.  The dialog I wrote was a little stilted; it only avoided modern contractions,  like 'won't', instead of 'would not' (or will not). 

I'm also reading another story: Starchild, by J Washburn.  It's too much action for me; most of you guys would like it. 

Kay

Hi, Y'all!!

For some reason, I'm getting lots of clips in my Fb feed of people talking with southern drawls!  One of them is by a woman called Shae Haesics—I'm not sure whether the name is a joke or for real—and another was by a tiny little girl saying something about "Vaycayshn Bahbul Skewl".  They're both too cute for words, so I haven't made a fuss about them, but I have to wonder: what makes the algorithm think that I'm a good prospect for a long-term commercial relationship?  I mean, I don't buy anything!

Anyhoo, the MAGA movement (I mean the  former MAGA movement; it's difficult to know what each splinter of it thinks these days) was based on opposition to various things, most importantly, Federal Bureaucracy.

When MAGA got rich backers, though, Maga had to fine-tune their agenda so that it appealed to those business interests.  So, of course MAGA is opposed to environmental legislation; they support gasoline-powered machinery.  They probably get a lot of financial support from the petroleum industry. 

But they need votes, and they need moral support.  Fox News has supported them for years; and the MAGA philosophy generally attracts

• Bikers, motorcycle gangs, people who own enormous muscle cars.  Those sorts of people see anyone driving hybrid cars, cyclists, and Nerds, generally, as their natural enemies. 
• Guys, thugs, and abusers of women.  This is not because trump goes out of his way to be mean to women, (though we know that in his old teen pageant days, he used to ogle young women, and was in the fringes—or even in the thick—of the teen grooming business); but nowadays he probably doesn't have a lot of testosterone to waste.  So these kinds of guys are recruited into ICE, and directed towards bullying immigrants. 
• Anyone who finds it difficult to follow long, complicated arguments.  The arguments for Global Warming, and the argument for the Greenhouse Effect are of this kind; they're multiple effects chained one after the other.  Of course, the most convenient thing for MAGA types is to go on the warpath against Nerds, generally.  My computer friends tell me that Nerds are different from Geeks.  Geeks are specialists in any field that requires study.  So Musk, who made his money by wrangling geeks, was punching a little over his head by getting into the game of US electoral politics, and actually getting his hands dirty with destroying the government databases for the social service administrations.  It didn't go according to plan, as far as I can see, so he did a quick fade as soon as he could, leaving the president and his geniuses—like Hegseth—to pick up the pieces. 

Trump really dislikes trans people, which is not a surprise, because I'm a little suspicious of them, too.  But for the rest of the LGBTQ rainbow, it's a little baffling to us post-boomer generations as to why these people are so up in arms against them.

But now Gavin Newsom has gleefully flung the gauntlet at the prez, and has resorted to tweeting the same sort of unhinged tweets that used to be Trump's exclusive province!  I would have thought trump is delighted to read them, and he probably is, but for the sake of the Bros, he's gotta pretend he hates them. 

TikTok-ization of Teen Culture

First of all, I have to confess that, as far as Fb is concerned, I’m a teenager.  Or maybe a twenty- something.  I strongly believe that my posts are very adult —in the sense of grown-up, and nothing in my Fb transcript would indicate a tendency toward teeny-ness.

But the random crap that they throw at me in my ‘feed’ is very teen-oriented!

Of course, they put these so-called ‘reels’ in my feed.  Somehow, they know I’m more into seeing random girls than random boys.  But all the girls behave as though some boyfriend is videotaping them for YouTube.  They all preen the same way, they flip their hair the same way, when they’re done, they signal to their photographer the same way!  And they’re all delicate and feminine the same way—except for the ones who’re shuffle-dancing, or doing gymnastics, who’re usually muscular.

I’m sad to see that the vast majority of girls are determinedly girly.  Even the ones with nice muscles, and a solid set of six-pack abs, are girly.  So sad.

But I saw an awesome painting, though. 

Kay

Earning off Popular Media

Nobody is surprised that those whom we call "influencers" earn money from the various Meta websites, e.g. Facebook and Instagram.  (The owners—Meta—probably makes more.)

I get a lot of posts from a 'Sophie Cunningham' site.  I love Sophie C to bits, but the content on the site has somewhat questionable grammar, so I'm fairly sure that Sophie does not really own the site; if she does, she has outsourced the maintaining of it to someone else.  Probably someone she has only met on the Internet.  They may give Sophie some of the money they make off the Fb posts; they actually may not; maybe Sophie has a media manager who handles all that. 

Some celebrity accounts sound suspiciously like they're from abroad.  You 'like' one of their posts about some athlete you admire, and they immediately shoot back: "Send me a direct mail, dear. <3  I will answer, for sure."

Regardless of the provenance (the genuine-ness) of the Fb accounts of star athletes, I really find it difficult to deal with sports fans.  Some of them are OK; they make reasonable comments about the players, about specific games, about the statistics.  But the vast majority of fans commenting on posts about celebrity players are, well, really hard to stomach.  Abusive.  Illogical.  Racist.  Ignorant.  Uncalled for.

Maybe, in about 10 years from now, once I get to understand the game—maybe with the help of my little basketball-playing cousin!—I might be able to tolerate these ignorant comments.  But, my goodness; they're on a par with the off-the-wall comments from MAGA types.  Incidentally, there are highly racist comments made against Caitlin Clark, denigrating all aspects of her game, many of which I cannot understand, being as much of a basketball atheist as I am.  But there are numerous comments insulting black athletes!  Of course, they could be posted by foreign trouble makers inciting racist feelings.  

A Pic from Fb

 

The caption was:  This looks like a gang I don’t mind joining!!

Complexity, and The GOP

There are two things that people dislike: Complication, and Complexity.

Make it simple!

This is the plea of those of my students who don't like to think too hard!  I understand; these are the kids who think of Literature as just stories!  Of course they are.  And a movie is just a videoclip.

Complication:  These are the things that students—and people, generally—believe that have been needlessly thrown in, just to make life difficult for them. 

Like: divorce.   OK, it's not working out; it's splitsville.  Does the couple share a bank account?  <Ohh, why did you have to bring that up?>  Are there children?  <So what; cut them in half!>  Does the woman have the ability to support herself?  < Oh.> Is there a house?  A car?  How to divide those up?

Complexity.  This is when all the processes that make something work are themselves complex.  In the end, there really isn't a huge difference—from the point of view of a student who hates complication.  From my point of view, complexity is when there are wheels within wheels.  A complication is just an extra wheel!

Simplifying Government

Maga—and the Tea Party—have historically (that is, for a long time) held the view that government is needlessly complicated.  They have never liked all the complications of *Federal Income Tax returns; * Food and Drug regulations; * The Legal System; * Elections, including the much-hated Electoral College; *Higher Education; and so on.  So the GOP has promised to simplify government. 

Half of them don't care how it works.   The other half doesn't know,  and doesn't want to know.  This means that, if they take a chainsaw to, say, Welfare, they don't know what is going to result.

The same with Tariffs.  These are expensive customs rates tagged on to anything that's imported.  Most of what we buy—at Walmart, or on Amazon—are imported.  This is obviously going to make life more expensive for everybody who shops at those places.  So why did Trump do it?

His theory was that once imported things got too expensive, people would buy US-made goods.  Unfortunately, US-made goods are also expensive.  Our workers make $7.50 an hour, while Chinese and Indian workers make much less. 

By now, most of my readers have probably gotten bored to tears!  This boring subject describes some of the most complex processes in trade and government: it's called Economics.  I don't know much about it; but Trump has got someone to give him a summary of what he needed to know.  

But Trump is easily bored, so I bet it was a super, super, soooper simplified course in Economics.

To cut a long story short, it (the Tariff adventure) didn't go as expected.  The US made a lot of enemies; we wriggled out of a lot of obligations; and we've arranged (supposedly) to depend on Coal and Gasoline for our energy needs.  And now, we wait.

Trump is a Big Picture kind of guy.  Other fellows must now step in, and make these dreams happen.  (If trump decides to do it himself, it could be very messy.)  But unfortunately, guys who know the finer points of energy production, etc, are unlikely to want to work for trump. 

Kay

;

A New Karen

Guess what?  I discovered an actress that lots of younger citizens are familiar with: Karen Gillan!  I was watching a couple of YouTube videos that served essentially to familiarize viewers with this actress—who's about my age, it so happens—and I was really taken with her!  She's Scottish, but she says she can talk American pretty well.

She comes across as painfully unspoilt, and all through the shows I watched, she kept giggling!  Oh gosh, she is cute.  And she has dimples!  And she's tall.  And she talks fast; too fast for me to follow sometimes.  She reminds me so much of Brit girls I used to know, and I miss them horribly.

She's was recently in one of those Guardians of the Galaxy movies, as a sort of junior villain.  Her first breakthrough role was as Amy Pond, in Doctor Who.  I wish I had more patience with those shows, and their low-budget effects; they were intended to be campy, but I had been too young to 'get' them.  BTW, there was also a video with Rowan Atkinson ('Mr. Bean') as Doctor Who, which was very, very funny!  Also, Blackadder.

I don't want to include Karen G in my list of beautiful women just because it isn't her looks that grab me, but her humor, and her seamless craziness, and unassuming manner.  In her earlier interviews, she really seemed to almost squirm, but now she breezes through them like a pro, spewing those rapid-fire offhand remarks that are so funny.

Some of her photographs show her looking weird.  Including the one I've put up; they look as though she's under a curse or something; as if she's waiting for the haggis to hit the fan!  (Karen, if you're reading this, it wasn't intended in a bad way.)

Kay

Mystery Actress

I've often seen a certain actress in older movies, thought to myself: I must find out who that is, and forgotten to follow up!  Today I found out her name; it was Elisabeth Shue.

This was taken when she was very young, but her basic features have stayed the same.  Love her; a beautifully understated actress. 

Kay

Romeo, Romeo ...

Well, I had thus far regarded the little dog that belongs to my friend as just a noisy nuisance.  But recently, when I was visiting, I noticed—several compounds away—an interesting-looking dog.  Our dog—you know who I mean; he belonging to my friend, who owns the cat—I had seen on a previous occasion, when we were ready to head out, barking at a dog at some distance away.  I never paid much attention to this behavior; all we wanted was to get him indoors and head out.  But I did notice that he was barking at a dog, and the dog was a Dalmatian.  This most recent dog I had seen was definitely a Dalmatian; not that I could see the individual spots, but I could see a general spottiness.

Now that I had been alerted to a one time general doggie presence out õver there, now, every time I looked in that direction, I've been seeing a Dalmatian pacing up and, down in their yard.  A couple of days later, I had concluded that it was a female, and a young one, too.  And I had never heard her bark, not even once. 

Our man, in contrast, barks his head off at the least opportunity: people walking along the alley, cars, bicycles; squirrels of course, our neighbors, and certainly Dalmatians.

The Dalmatians, a very distinctive breed, because of the spots, were used to guard carriages, in the 1600's and 1700's, and especially the carriages of fire companies (with hoses and pumps on board).  I read somewhere that they were troublesome to train, because they were exceedingly food oriented.  (Well, I thought to myself, show me a dog that isn't.)  OK, I'm going to check out that prejudice right now ...

Well.  There isn't any mention of food!  However, apparently they're more intelligent than average, and so training them has challenges.  They also need a lot of exercise (I.e, they’re not apartment dogs) and supervision.  Honestly, all dogs are food oriented; Dalmatians being clever, probably find many ways of getting food (from the kitchen) which results in the reputation for stealing food, and being food oriented.

Well, I was back again, visiting with my friend, and went out in the yard, and there was the Dalmatian, about 100 yards away!  I stared at it, and it stared back, and proceeded to sit and regard me closely, to see what I would do. 

I grinned at it, and waved.  It considered that as unwarranted familiarity, and warned me with a bark.  Then 'our' dog ran up and barked back, eliciting no response from the Dalmatian.  I got bored, and went inside. 

I so want a Dalmatian to play with!  They're moderately large dogs (they were bred by crossing Pointers with Great Danes), and have a lifespan of around 13 years, in case my readers are interested.  In any case, getting a dog is a lifetime commitment.  If you get one, and later give up (it's not a Good Fit, etc,) the dog will be miserable.  Any dog is a lifetime commitment.  If you don't have time, don't get a dog. 

Kay

Margaret Alton: A Wonderful Heroine

I wrote the series about Helen over many years, from when I was a teenager, to when I was in my thirties.

That's a long time!  Obviously, I was a very different person when I first invented Helen, from when I wrote about Helen becoming a mother.

I was a senior in college when I was writing On the Run, which is where her little boy is born.  But Helen was a mother starting earlier, when the two little girls, Gena and Alison join her, and I was still improvising a personality for Helen, based on myself, really.  Shortly afterward, when I might have been getting ready to write the books that continue the Helen story past On the Run, I was busy teaching, writing lots of stories unrelated to Helen, and reading, especially the Darkover books.

The Darkover series is complicated.  The author, Marion Zimmer Bradley, who also wrote The Mists of Avalon, and several other books—one of which, Firebrand, is a favorite of mine—wrote the Darkover books over more than a decade, and I'm willing to bet that not only did her concept of Darkover morph over the years, but she also probably forgot some of the facets of her early concepts of the planet.  But then, she wrote several books—mainly three—centered around Margaret Alton.

Margaret ('Marguerida') Alton is an interesting character.  We first meet her as a little kid who is put in an orphanage, while her parents are engaged in an epic, superhuman battle.  That, right there, would have been enough to guarantee that the kid would be psychologically damaged.  In addition, her (Marguerida's) mother had huge problems, and was extremely neurotic, to put it mildly.  Her father rescues her, and leaves the planet—Darkover—with the child and his new wife (much more sane than little Margaret's birth mother),  and they try to make a life (on Earth, incidentally).  Some 20 years later, Margaret is a scholar of ethno-musicology, and is sent to Darkover with an elderly colleague, to study the folk music of Darkover.  (That's what ethno-musicologists do: they study folk music.)

In case you didn't know—and you probably don't—what makes Darkover interesting is that a large number of people of Darkover are gifted psychics.  They can read minds, they can send mental messages, they can cause pain, and so on.  It turns out that Margaret is, in fact, a generational psychic talent.

Now, obviously, apart from the fact that Margaret (or Marja, as her father calls her) can sing, and she is an able musician, there's not a lot that I could have borrowed from her character for the character of Helen.  But in fact, I appear to have borrowed quite a great deal!  Marja marries, and has children, and for some of the character of Helen as a mother, I modeled her on Margaret Alton.

At least some of what I have written above I've written before, I'm sure.  Well, that's only to be expected; this is an instance where one author simply acknowledges her debt to another author.

Kay

Indiana Fever

I have never been interested in the game of Basketball.  I knew it involved people running up and down this court, and attempting to toss a soccer-ball sized ball into one of the baskets at the two ends of the court.

When I realized that guys would leap up, pull themselves up on the rim of the baskets and stuff the ball in, I lost what little interest I had in the game; I felt that any style and grace there was in the game had been taken away!

Then, when I was visiting some cousins some years ago, one of my littlest cousins showed me that there was a Basketball hoop buried behind some conifers in their backyard, and pestered me to help her clear up the space around the hoop, and finally to play Basketball with her!  She was a cute, funny, bright little thing, so I couldn't resist. 

The way she played it—she was about 10—it was all about getting the ball in the basket from different spots on the court.  (We had bought a new net for the hoop.)  This was actually a lot of fun, and once I had returned home, my aunt would send me regular reports about how the kid was getting seriously into the sport, hoping to entice me to visit again!  There was no physicality in the game as she and I played it, just hand-eye coordination.

That's where matters stood until last year, when Caitlin Clark became famous in the media. 

I was immediately drawn to this girl.  At first, I was still clueless about every aspect of the game except getting the ball in the baskets. 

After I had watched a few highlights reels, I realized how much fun it was to watch the passing game.  And CC was really great at passing.

I also began to admire how generous and civic-minded she was.  (She probably realizes that no matter how much she gives away, we would expect yet more from her.  I don't think she's resentful of that expectation.)

Then, I began to take an interest in some of the other players in her Indiana Fever team: Aliyah Boston, Lexie Hull, Kelsey Mitchell, and then, later this year, Sophie Cunningham, DeWanna Bonner, and others whose names I haven't learned. 

I hesitate to write about my feelings about these women, in case they're taken amiss, but they're so wonderful in many ways that I can't help myself!  I have commented about Caitlin at length so I don't need to, any more.  Her niceness as a girl is partially balanced by her determined attitude as an athlete, and a member of her team. 

Aliyah Boston strikes me as a very kindhearted girl; the opposite of mean.  Whenever she speaks to the Press, there's a strong element of idealism that is present.  That's a very endearing quality. 

Kelsey Mitchell comes across as a player who has just been fired up, and is determined to push the team to greatness. 

Lexie Hull is a cross between a tough, physical player, and an ultra girly girl.  Many of the members of the team—not all—are surprisingly into makeup and fashion; that makes some of the jocks in the team cringe, and I laugh to myself.  But Lexie does little mini-podcasts that appear on YouTube, and they make me crack up!

Sophie Cunningham is very interesting.  She is fearless about what she feels is unfair targeting of Caitlin and maybe others, for unnecessary roughness from other teams.  She seems comfortable with physical conflict as well as tough talking; she doesn't hold back when Caitlin has been roughed up.  To balance all this, Sophie is bubbly and cheerful in front of the cameras, and determined not to come across as a dragon.  I love her sunny disposition, and I hope neither the WNBA nor the Fever management act against Sophie.  I don't know about such things, being a determined outsider, but it would ruin the team. 

I just love this face to bits!!  I want to pinch her cheeks!

Kay

Fear of Intelligence

I think Donald Trump is afraid of perceived intelligence in people.

If he meets someone who talks at length (or really fast) about some abstruse topic, designed to put their audience on the defensive, the president must have been intimidated, when he was younger.  Of course, over 79 years of being wrong-footed by 'intellectuals' gave him a lot of practice in dealing with them!  Unfortunately,  he probably borrowed some of those techniques to make himself sound smarter (than he really is).

But when he got into politics (having been taken in by his own tricks, and persuaded that he was handsomer, more intelligent, and more admired and popular than he really was) he began to speak in sentence fragments, both to disguise his declining acuity (sharpness), as well as to connect better with people who he thought were less educated than he was.  He also took to heart the principle that people of low intelligence always bragged about how smart they were.  So to dispel the people's distrust of intellectuals, he boasts about how smart he is, hoping that they will see behind his joking reference to how sharp he is.  It gets a little tiring to keep unraveling these little deceptions, especially as it all gets clearer as we go along. 

I was suspicious about intelligent people when I was in college.  Everybody was trying hard to display their super intelligence, and so you got accustomed to it after a while.  Yes, there were some people smarter than me.  But each one was smarter than me in only particular ways, some of them in some ways, some of them in others.  I began to realize that their intelligence was less important than their motives.  I got better at discerning their motives as time went on, and I just disregarded the ones whose motives I wasn't sympathetic to (always leaving room for them to have a change of heart).  By this time, I wasn't suspicious of them too much. 

With people who want a lot of power, there seems to be a lot of pretense, a lot of play-acting.  So Trump pretends to admire certain people—Putin, Musk, Netanyahu, etc.—hoping to get something from them.

It's all very sad.  A lot of his helpers in his cabinet are also pretending.  Once he discovers this, he'll pretend that he knew all along!  It would be comic, if it wasn't so sad. 

Kay

It's 249 Years and One Day!

Oops; I made a mistake: it's only 249 years.

I don't think the maga people have much of a plan for 2026, except to create confusion.  We have one tiny year in which to set things right!!

Meanwhile, in completely unrelated matters, the young artists of DA (a website for young artists—DA stands for Deviant Art) are confused about this new fashion of gray hair color.  Artificially coloring the hair of women gray is, I believe, a 21st Century thing.  But Asian artists just love that style.  So when they're depicting say, the Goddess Aphrodite, they give her grey hair!  Makes no sense. 

Kay

It's Independence Day!

I have been thinking: do I want to celebrate Independence Day this year?  Or ever again?

But you know what?  I'm glad to think that nobody owns Independence Day.  The celebration is about a single thing: the Rule of Law.  In an Election Year, we select someone to oversee the law, and whether, and how, the law is obeyed.

These last few years, a large portion of our fellow-citizens—not a majority, in my belief, but I could be wrong; it's a matter of knowing what people are thinking—have come to think that the laws are not working out, and that something desperate has to be done about it.  It's just that they have put their faith in a weak person.  Who has to, every once in a while, make a show of how strong he wants to appear.

Freeloaders.  A large portion of the Conservatives* believe that too many people are enjoying the national wealth, specifically those who have little or no income.  We have those who believe that these poor folks are mostly immigrants, and are in the situation they're in due to self- inflicted reasons. 

But it's important to examine just how much of the National wealth is being siphoned away by these so-called freeloaders.  Very little indeed.

Big Businesses.  The biggest businesses have used their influence—allowed by congress who mistakenly thought that these business will use their lower taxes to benefit the people—to negotiate extremely low taxes, and to get congressmen friendly to these businesses elected.  Their low rates, lower than the rates of citizens, are an enormous loss of revenue.  And what's more, they keep influencing elections, resulting in low tax rates for them, forever, until someday, Congressmen realize that the low rates of the biggest businesses push everybody else's rates higher!

So there certainly are freeloaders.   But they're very rich freeloaders, and they don't fit everyone's image of a freeloader.

Birthright Citizenship

Current Events: The Supreme Court has decided that it would limit the ability of judges to limit presidential executive orders.

This is a major development.  I was confident that Federal courts would prevail, and prevent the prez from wielding this power.

To clarify: the way the law (a right enshrined in the US constitution as an Amendment, I believe) has been understood for all these years—at least since the Civil War—was that anyone born on US soil was eligible for citizenship.  But the present administration takes the view that only infants born to parents—to mothers, anyway—who are in the US legally have that right.

It is a fine point, but difficult to oppose, in my view.  Conservatives have been frustrated for a century at the ability for illegal visitors to this country to have babies that are automatically given citizenship.  Those who have felt, since the Civil War, at least, that US citizenship should not be rationed out stingily and sparingly, but granted to any infant as reasonably possible, held to the generous interpretation of the law.  But those who disliked the consequence of that law, that the birth rate among non-whites was a lot higher than among the children of whites, were pleased at this interpretation of the current administration. 

The prez is not a student of the law; he truly is nothing but a real-estate developer.  I am not versed in the law, either.  But there are lawyers advising him, and they appear to have thought this through.  The right way to do this is to get the law clarified by Congress, and ratified by the States.  It would be difficult to get it through two-thirds of the states (34 states?) with state representatives swayed by emotional appeals.

As much as I hate to agree with the prez, if there were some evidence to believe that a majority of citizens supported this amendment, I would support it too.

Kay

Well, just a minute!  Apparently the decision by the Supreme Court meant that some infants born in one state may be qualified as a citizen, but an infant born in another state may not!  I'm too peeved to read the whole article.  Here it is:

Political Musings

One thing I have wondered about for a long time, at least as far back as 2016, is (1) why do political commentators write in such high-flown language.  In contrast, (2) why does the prez speak in such disjointed language?  I'm reading comments about the performance of women basketball players, and some of the remarks are so poorly written as to be utterly unintelligible.  I obviously can't connect the ramblings of a deranged sports fan with those of a ill-spoken president, but it's awfully tempting to do so. 

Is it the case that everyone, young and old, is sick and tired of careful writing and speech, and are drawn to those who talk—and write—like toddlers?  I have even seen newspaper reporting with egregious mistakes in grammar and syntax (there I go again with my big words; any readers here who are also sports fans will be sticking pins in Kay Hemlock dolls), which must mean that either those articles were written in an awful hurry, or they've had to hire summer interns who are not up to the job. 

If Democrats want to be taken seriously, they may have to practice baby talk.  

Kay

This Blog

This blog is where I go when I want to comment on current events.  But I often think about the various stories I wrote, and that sort of reflection really belongs here, too.  I have two solutions I can think of. 

Move all writing-related blogposts to 'Helen' Blog.  Some of my readers are primarily interested in lesfic, and my comments about my own stories; they could simply head over to the Helen Blog, and only visit this one if there has been some really startling political development.  Language issues, such as punctuation, vocabulary, etc, could all be left on Helen.  Actually, I'll have to rethink that; it would be sad if only the president's foolishness ever got discussed on this side.  On the other side, I would put any posts about matters such as references to pets, for instance, in any of the stories. 

Compartmentalize the Blog.  I mean, leave the blogs as they are, but have departments in each one; a Current Events department, and LGBTQ department, a Fine Arts department, and Language department, and so on.

I really don't need to fuss so much about it; but adopting one plan or the other would make it easier to do the actual blogging.  The readership of the Blog is about 25 readers per post, and it isn't clear that every visitor reads the whole post!

I'm going to try a sort of hybrid approach for a while.

Kay Hemlock Bonaventura Brown

Apparently Turnout was NOT the Problem

In the last 10 years or so, a new generation of Politics Amateurs—people like me, who like politics, but weren't trained in it—have been trying to make sense of the political scene.  What happens when the Economy is like this, what happens when there is a big scandal in the White House, etc, etc.  The older generation had a handle on this, but (a) we don't trust their instincts, and (b) these are different people, and they don't behave the same way. 

First, let me out up a screen capture, so that my list of posts won't show just a uppercase 'A':

Well, I don't trust this Nate Cohn person completely, but it's an interesting idea that all the young people are drifting towards MAGA, and, of course, Trump.  I think people who first got to know Trump because of TV, are accustomed to hearing lies from him, and knew that he would change his mind several times a week.  As a TV personality, that would not have bothered them.  But some of the slower-witted ones let that lower expectation carry over to the presidential election.

A president who changes his mind several times a week is a problem to Congress, to government departments, to the Senate, to everyone.  We have now learned to live with various branches of government that regard this constant vacillation as a feature, not a bug.  It prevents the 'Liberals' from formulating a policy about anything.  But it also prevents the Administration from formulating much of any sort of policy either.  To think that the voters—essentially Generation X—are able to tolerate this policy-free state of existence, is very scary.

Kay

Record Temperatures

It was going to be hot, but it's 98 degrees Fahrenheit, which is extreme!

I don't have much to say, except that our two-faced president promised peace, and made fun of his predecessors for getting into foreign wars, and declared himself The Peace Candidate.

But he crowed to Truth Social: Fordow is gone!  Sad, pathetic little man.  He said it was the most awesome bomb that had ever been dropped in the history of the Universe.

Kay

Rose Garden

I'm not sure that this is happening, but there's a report that the Rose Garden at the White House is being paved over!

This isn't irreversible damage, but it must make those who were around during the sixties angry.  I  think the point is to generate a host of irritations so that Trump's weaknesses in International diplomacy are not observed. 

Mr Netanyahu of Israel is a shady character, and just as inconsistent as Trump, if not more.  What he will do next is going to be unpredictable, because it depends on his calculations about how to remain in power, and not any constant philosophy.  Meanwhile, Trump is doing the same thing.  And, from what I can see, Iran is also doing the same thing.  And meanwhile, the civilians in Gaza and Iran are watching helplessly.  They can't expect help from Trump, because what he wants is to build a hotel on the Gaza Strip.

Putting a businessman in the White House is stupid. 

Kay.

Not a Commercial

This girl was on Fb:

She's really beautiful.   But she looks very 'submissive' (a word I dislike intensely; it stereotypes people; I could imagine her becoming quite assertive, if she felt strongly enough about something).

Another girl I find interesting is Sophie Cunningham, who plays for the Indiana Fever, the women's basketball team (with Caitlin Clark, and all those delightful women).  She loves to wear super revealing clothes, and I'm generally unhappy about people who dress in super revealing clothes.  (I try not to say anything about modesty, generally, because if I were built like that, who knows?  I might have dressed in revealing clothes.  Kinda hypocritical to assume that we—commentators—have the last word in modesty of celebrities.)

kay

The Kitten that has Adopted Me

Well, I guess I'm well and truly adopted!

I'm visiting my friend, and she's got out her CD player, and she's playing all her golden oldies.

The cat doesn't mind the quieter songs.  But I was seated in a corner, going through my Facebook feed, when a noisy song came on.  Pretty soon, the kitten climbed up on my lap, and looked in my eyes.  Please, make it stop, was what she was telling me!!

The next song was a lot quieter, so she perked up and looked about, and seemed to say: That's much better, and she strolled off.  She obviously thinks of me as her personal volume control.

My friend had been taking things out of the coat closet—where she keeps the winter coats.   The cat had been outside, and came in, and after the little incident of the music, she noticed the closet door standing open. 

She studied it carefully; she obviously hadn't seen it open in a long time.   She walked over, and carefully studied the inside of the closet, and then went closer, and studied it some more.  There's not any sort of sense she can make of it; she's probably thinking: Wow, that's a lot of stuff.  She makes a mental note of it, and then moseys off to do more cat things.

She keeps a careful eye on where I am, so that she can come and get me when I'm needed!

My Fb feed is now full of cats in Florida and Arizona, who have either been lost, or stray cats—in those same states—that have been picked up.  Cat owners in those states seem awfully careless about their pets.  Or, they let their cats out, and they (the cats) go exploring, and then get lost.

For all our silliness, Pennsylvania cat parents appear to be pretty good at keeping track of where the cats are.  In the deep South, though, they're apparently too busy to keep an eye on them.

I don't know what to do about being inundated with cat stories.  I'm just going to enjoy them a little longer. 

Kay

Trump Wants to Invade California

There was a little unrest in California, as ICE searched some homes suspected to contain illegal immigrants.  People reacted predictably, protesting against the bullying typically indulged by ICE agents. 

Trump responded by sending in the Marines against Los Angeles.  Neither the Governor of California, Gavin Newsome, nor the Mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, had requested the Armed Forces assistance.

Everyone (except for pro-Trump Republicans, now a shrinking population) is furious.  No one is sure how this will play out.

As long as the armed forces and ICE remain loyal to Trump, he can do what he pleases.  Sooner or later, though, the Pentagon will be too embarrassed to toe Trump's line.

Kay

My Favorite Things!

I can never remember this first line:

Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens, 

Bright copper kettles, and warm woolen mittens, 

Brown paper packages tied up with string,

These are a few of my favorite things;

Cream-colored ponies and crisp apple strudel,

Doorbells and sleighbells, and schnitzel with noodles,

Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings,

These are a few of my favorite things!

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes,

Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes,

Silver white winters that melt into springs,

These are a few of my favorite things, ...

I was once again reminded of this song, when I was visiting the home of my friend who has the cat and the dog.  The cat sat on my lap, and asked for pets; and I saw her whiskers, and I realized that I'm getting to the age where I do like these wacky things: I could do without raindrops, but the rest of the stuff come pretty close to my favorite things!

 

 

Whoa!

What is this baby thinking?

I stole this from a reel.  (The parents want us to keep watching until the clip ends.  They couldn't be upset that I'm sharing it, but one never knows ...)

Kid:  Whoa; I'm seeing a lot of stuff!  Some of this is totally new; they keep changing it around.  They keep pushing that square thing with an eye on it at me ... It goes Click!  I love when it does that!

Which Side Are We On?

During, and a little after the Civil War, the conflict looked like—from where we stood—the South versus the Yankees.

Then it began to look like Slave-Owners, vs. the Anti-Slavery North.

Then it looked like the Agricultural South, vs. the Industrial North.

Then the US got pulled into the European wars, and after that, there seemed to be a lot of us who saw everything in terms of Communism vs. The Free World.

But pretty soon it was clear that Communism wasn't as big a problem as the Civil Rights of Black People.  That was such a big problem that many people were assassinated over that issue: President Kennedy; Martin Luther King; Robert Kennedy; Malcolm X.

Then, Women's Rights was raised as an issue.  The National Organization of Women was created around passing an amendment to the constitution—the Equal Rights Amendment—which had to be approved ('ratified') by a large number of state legislatures.  To date, it has not been passed, to my knowledge.  All the guys point ther fingers at other guys who're supposedly dragging their feet.  It's my belief that without a woman president, it will never be passed.

Soon, though, it was getting to be clear that many of these conflicts were really about Rich versus Poor.  Since colonial times, every conflict could be viewed in this 'frame': the rich industrialists of the Northeast vs. the poor farmers of the South, who would be faltering without slave labor.  All the way, up to the rich white business owners, and the poor black families that lived in bad conditions.

In more recent times, other problems have come into the public attention: foreign wars; immigration; abortion; gun control; drugs; underachievement in education, and so on.  The Democrats have always allied themselves with who they perceive as the underdogs, namely the Have-Nots.

But David Brooks writes an article in the New York Times, that the body of the MAGA movement now views the Democrats as the Haves.  They're college-educated (check), well-employed (check, I suppose), in positions of power, in control of schools, colleges and universities.  Each of you should read this for yourself.  Search for 'The Democrats' problems are bigger than you think.'

Shape

Jeeze.  I've been keeping my weight down by cutting down on my calories (I swore to myself I would never open up this subject on this blog but) but, my shape has gone to h*&^!@^#.  So now I have to exercise. 

I used to run (notice how Helen runs?), but now, because of the way I eat, I just don't have the energy to run!  But I can walk; that's what I used to do before this latest round of medical advice.  I would really prefer to play tennis!

When I used to play tennis regularly, I played all morning on Saturday, and all morning Sunday—starting after my friends got back from Church—and broke for a substantial lunch.  Then a game on Wednesday afternoon, and that was all for the week.  In between, I would walk.  Around here it's all hilly, so it takes a lot more effort to walk any significant distance. 

I've got to think about this problem.  More after I've thunk a bit. 

Kay

The Pets

At one time, I described my relationship to these two guys, my friend's little pets.  I really loved the little kitten, and I only sort of tolerated the dog, and his crazy antics.  He basically didn't care what anybody said or thought; his head was simply buzzing with his own thoughts. 

But, over the year or two, he's grown on me!  I still don't love him or anything.  We're just getting to know each other a little better.  These days, if I say quietly: Hey, stop barking, he turns and looks at me.  It's as if he realizes, oops, I am barking  aren't I.  Why?  I don't remember.   I have a feeling that little dogs don't remember the reasons for half the things they do. 

Big dogs are different.  They have reasons, and even if you ask them to stop, they may stop, but they're still not happy.  I don't have any insight into dog psychology; this is all guesswork—and a little observation. 

The cutest thing about this pair of animals is that, most of the time, if the dog asks to go out, the cat suddenly decides to go out, too!  Occasionally, the cat follows the dog, and then crouches down and just watches his antics.  Other times she goes in a completely different direction, sometimes jumping over the fence (which the dog cannot do), and disappearing.  And then, half an hour later, they're both at the door, saying they want to come in!

Kay

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Sorry for using a Dad joke as my title.

But I'm being driven distracted by all the girls on the Internet fussing with their $^&$^*$@ hair!!

Don't get me wrong; I love hair, especially long,  long hair.  I loved it, and I used to wear mine pretty long when I had decent hair.  (The 'Rents loved long hair.)  But preening, fussing with the hair, doing something stupid with the hair for every occasion, and with any excuse: that drives me batty!

Obviously, young guys like long hair, esp. foreign, arty guys, some of whom are girl wannabes!  (Sorry; that's kinda harsh.)  So obviously they would draw girls with ultra-long hair.  Ok, sometimes they get it right, and the girl actually looks nice.  Most of the time, though, the hair just looks fussy and out of control.  Even goddesses with long hair have it teased so intensely, you wonder: can't they just do some magic so that their own hair looks nice?

Now, they're creating even guy images with long hair.  Please.  I don't lust after guys of any description, but these long-haired guys just look pouty and pathetic. 

And you know what?

Some of these people have ambitions of being writers.  But what they want to write about is: a guy who takes a fellow boyfriend, and gives him some medication that turns him into a girl!  Some people are just crazy with stories with this basis.  Sometimes the victim is really unhappy; sometimes the victim sees himself (herself) in a mirror, and is super pleased. 

I wonder whether these are wish-fulfillment fantasies of guys who are borderline gay.  This storyline is so common that there is a name for it—which I forget—and also an abbreviation, like HEA.

Kay

Too Much Going On

I used to report here a sort of summary of all the stupid nonsense that took place every couple of days, but no longer.   There's too much lying and rhetoric coming out of the government for me to distill it for your consumption.

The big story is that they pushed a bill through congress to (1) reduce funding for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, and FEMA; (2) they are making a fuss about Biden not revealing how sick he was before the elections.  (3) They're deporting immigrants to countries those immigrants aren't even from.  And, of course, (4) they accepted as immigrants a score of white South Africans, fleeing what they declare is a black South African government bent on 'genocide', that is, that those governments want to exterminate the small remaining white minority. 

Some of pres 47's supporters are sure to support any government action that helps whites in any way.  In the past, our INS (immigration service) has viewed applicants who have potential to be helpful here.

Get what you can out of this small report!

Kay