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 kuds who think of Litersture as just stories!  Of course they are.  And a movie is just 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 hslf!>

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 pount 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 will buy US-made goods.  Unfortunately, US-made goods are 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 songs 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 summrary of what he needed to know.  

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

To cut a long story short, it 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.

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

Kay

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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' fhem.  BTW, a video with Rowan Atkinson ('Mr. Bean') as Doctor Who 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.  Inclung 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 of 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 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 (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 started 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 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. 

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 whom 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,

Doorbell 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

What to Do?

Dear Friends,

Many of you, like me, are wondering whether you ought to be doing something, engaging in some activity, getting involved in some movement.  I have been thinking about this same problem. 

Honestly, all my political heroes—those that are alive, anyway—are old, Baby Boomers.  I avoid talking politics with them, but at gatherings (not exactly parties, but just informal get-togethers) I listen.  Well, they are out of steam.  Their wells have run dry.   They want to wait and see whether the courts make any headway putting the brakes on Mr. Trump's wild spree of executive orders, and the Congress' wild spree of not doing anything. 

Actually, you know what?  'Wait and see' sounds like a good plan for me, too.  I'm not a high- energy person; you won't catch me starting a major movement all by myself.  But waiting and seeing only makes sense if we've got our ears to the ground.  That's what my plan is: wait and see, but keep close tabs on what's going on.  Any time I hear of somebody outlining some sort of action plan, I study it quickly.  If it looks silly, like something hastily put together by AI, I discard it, and start listening again. 

As we wind up to next year's elections, things will begin to heat up.  Maga will have to decide whether they're going to play by the rules, or invent a rule that only tall people can vote, or something silly like that.

So this is not exactly an action plan.  But as soon as I had made the decision to listen selectively to see what others are doing, I found myself stressing out a lot less.  Stressed-out me is a menace to all.

Kay

Supermajority!

Guess what?

Thereʹs a new group in town.  Itʹs called Supermajority.  Itʹs been created by and for women, who—as they point out—already are a majority, and they want to encourage the Democrat, or the sector of women that oppose Trump, to be an actual political supermajority.

There was a meeting in town today, which I did not attend; I should have paid more attention to some notices (which I thought were the usual hysterical announcements about Saturday protests, but they weren՛t.  I found that leading the meeting were a former Democrat congressman, and Democrat county commissioners from two neighboring counties, and the chairwoman of the town՛s Democrat committee.

I hadn՛t thought about the role that women would play in an election.  But it՚s becoming clear that, very possibly, women are going to be a huge factor in the next election. 

To begin with, pres 47 has gypped ripped off women in the worst possible way.  The Magas seem to believe that the thing to do is to deprive women of all political power.  Keep them at home; don՚t let them vote.  They՚re in deathly fear that if women vote, the magats will lose.  (Of course; what do they expect?  After taking abortion rights away, and other women՚s rights—I՚m not up on the entire list—they'll just have to keep women away from the ballot boxes if they want to win.  Though GOP men pretend to despise Kamala Harris, they're afraid of her. 

One of the objectives of the leadership of the Maga is to turn the world upside down.  This would make the world so unfamiliar, that people will lose all their instincts.  (Hopefully.)  But the younger generation has to become more flexible.  They've got to learn to keep their balance in this stupid magat world they've put together.  But the joke's on them, because the older conservatives, who are such a big majority and the spine of the magat party, are even more off-balance in 47's world. 

Kay

Somewhere

One thing the new pope has done is to kick me firmly back into thinking about Christian values.

I got started thinking about these values, and I got distracted.  I started thinking about An American Tail, (Steven Spielberg's legendary animated feature,) in which Linda Ronstadt sang that lovely song: Somewhere out there, in which this little Russian mouse, coming to live in America, gets separated from his family, and finds himself all alone in New York City, being bullied by gangsters.  And his song expresses that, his family is thinking about him, and praying for him, and hoping to find him again!

I was very young when this movie came out, and my thoughts of what the movie was about are probably based on the song.  The feelings I remember about the movie seemed all about immigrants to America, some of whom helped to keep the little mouse safe, and hopeful, others of which were bent on exploiting him, and making him work for them.  At one time, most kids would have identified with the mouse and his friends; nowadays, there are many who would side with the oppressors, and view the weaker characters as losers, weak, and unworthy of compassion. 

At this point, the pope reminds us that Jesus urged us to side with the underdog.  What will the Christian establishment make of this call of the pope's, as opposed to what many preachers are teaching?

Kay

Everyday

The word 'everyday' is hardly ever used correctly.  Some of the few people who do use it in the appropriate way, are those who wear special clothes for particular purposes.

When I was growing up, my mom would insist that I wear 'Church clothes' to church, 'school clothes' to school, etc.  There were Play clothes to play in, party clothes, shopping clothes, and so on.  So now, if you visited a friend, and discovered that their mother was celebrating a special birthday, you're in a fix.   You did wear visiting clothes, but not special party clothes.  "I'm sorry; I just have everyday clothes on!  I didn't know it was a celebration!"

Here everyday means non-special.  Everyday clothes are those you wear every day, so non-special.  You wouldn't wear those to a party, or celebration.  Of course, your friend's mother would take you by the arm, and say: "Oh, you look perfectly fine.  This isn't a serious party, Kay, it was just an impromptu thing the kids decided to do."

In this instance, you just can't use every day for everyday; the meanings of the two expressions have grown apart for too long.  Nor can you use everyday for every day.  If you want to describe the coffee you drink every single day, it had to be every day.

There are other words like that, which started off being phrases:

Hereafter. 

Anymore.  Anyway.  Anyhow.

Undergone, underdone, undertone.  Underweight.

Overwrought.  Overeat.  Overweight.  Overcome.  Overdo. Overheard.  Overhead.

Pickup.  Dropout.

Pocketbook.

Look them up in a dictionary.  They're difficult to explain!

Kay

P.S. Hey, what's with using apostrophes to denote plural's?  Just stop it, ok?  :)

Alternation

There are two words that are easily confused.  One is alternatively, and the other is alternately.

If you have an arrangement where you meet in one location one week, a different location the next week, and back again to the first location the next week, and so on, you would describe it as meeting in those two locations alternately.  That's a clumsy example, but I guess it works. 

On the other hand, if you choose to do something one way, but have a different idea of how to do it, that's an alternative.  To do something alternatively is to do it in a different way.

Both words involve two ways of doing things, or more.  But—it seems to me, anyway—if you say alternately, it implies doing something repeatedly; one time one way, the next time, the other way.  This is called strict alternation.  The use of the word alternative simply indicates different available choices.

Kay

Racism Still Rules Us

A sad conclusion from the events of last year is that one of the most major factors in deciding presidential races is racism.

During campaign season, I look at each candidate, and I ask myself the question:  can I visualize this candidate as the president?  I think that that determination, more than other, more important determinations such as

• Is this the best choice for the country and the world?
• Is this person the one who will work the hardest for economic prosperity?

are secondary.  So I must conclude that, for other voters as well, in fact, for the majority of voters, this is the major factor.

If they can only visualize a powerful orator in the Oval Office, that's the only sort of candidate they're going to vote for.

If they can't visualize a short person as president, only a tall person will get their vote.

If they can't imagine a woman as president, a woman isn't going to be elected president.

Most of all, if it is repugnant to them to imagine a non-anglo president—in particular, a black president—in the White House, they will not cast their vote for a non-white candidate.

Some of the best candidates for the last few decades have been women; it's becoming clear that none of them stood a chance.  This is perhaps the reason why neither 'major party' wants to risk fielding a woman.  In contrast, I am convinced that the present woman president of Mexico will do better for that country than any current male candidate. 

It is a great shame that president Obama is likely to be the last black US president for a long time; in fact, all presidential hopefuls are likely to be crooked men.  Crooked white men!

Kay

April 19th

Today was supposed to be a huge demonstration across the nation.   Everyone was expected to go to some place in their town, and show the administration about how widespread the dissatisfaction is, and how angry the people are.   Motorbike gangs of oath takers and proud boys were supposed to be intending to disrupt the gatherings!

Well, I did go down with friends.  It was a good time; I read all the placards; they were insightful and wonderful.  One little kid, about 10 years old, had come along with her older sister, who was probably 12.  The little one's sign read: Please Save My Library!

These are not the signs, and these are not the sorts of rallies that will impress or frighten the extreme Republicans who control the government.  Essentially decent people have made the government decent and gentle for decades.  But the stern face that some people have wanted the US to show the world has been conspicuously absent.  The same with our demonstration. 

Meanwhile, Trump has been showing a tough face to China.  But not being consistent, many are not taking it seriously.  This will prompt Trump to do various knee-jerk, poorly thought out, extreme retaliations.  His Fox News friends will admire him, thinking: ah, that's subtle.

The time of subtlety has passed; today, actors who want to be noticed make big, bold, crude moves.  We're in sort of a crude age.  Clever, and high-tech, but crude.

Kay

Getting Meaning From This Cat

OK, I'm back in the house with the animals!  Not babysitting, this time, just hanging out. 

The cat was so happy to reconnect with me!

Communicating with animals—inter-species communication—is an incredibly fascinating thing.  With some sorts of animals, it can be done exactly; you've probably read about the gorilla who learned sign language, and could actually talk to humans.  There are dogs that actually know words, about a hundred or more, and they often know what you want to say before you finish saying something!

Some dogs, I have read, listen intently, their heads tilted to a side—you know, in that listening attitude—and then respond intelligently!

The cat tries to communicate, by blinking ("Hi!"), jumping up on my lap ("I want something!  You have to guess!")  Purring, miaowing, standing in a special place, etc.  The only thing is, she doesn't try very hard.  Dogs won't quit, but the cat quits fairly soon.  It's amazing that it tries at all.

In their own home, the cat is allowed to go out.  If she stands near the door, it means "I want to go out."  If she's doing that, but I don't see it, she just walks off, and does something else.  No wasted effort. 

There's a cat I know, who keeps howling until someone responds.  That's annoying; but that's a very young cat.  This cat (I'm tempted to call her my cat, but she isn't, though) sometimes jumps into my lap.  I say "What do you want?  Go outside?" And she jumps off, and walks to the door.  Then I know: she's wanted to go out, but I wasn't noticing her, so she jumped on my lap, to get my attention!  She hardly ever cries, so she gets my attention by jumping on me, or jumping on the arm of the chair I usually sit on. 

Kay

Plurals

Most of the time, you just add an 's' at the end.  That's all!  One cashier, two cashiers!

With certain names, you have the option of doing something extra:  'The Joneses have invited us over!'  That's because, the name Jones ends with an 's' anyway, so people have done plurals this way for a long time; and you pronounce it that way, too. 

'Count all the 3s, and ...'   Well, today it's not considered too strange to write 'Count all the 3's, and ...'  Did you notice the apostrophe?  It's not required, but it makes the sentence look a tiny bit less strange.  Same rule applies to sentences about decades.  You are allowed to write 'The 1970's were an ...' whatever. 

Kay

New Pair of Words to Not Confuse Under ANY Circumstances

I recently read a really sweet story about a newborn calf that had disappeared from a pasture.  The title said that its mother cow had been 'balling' furiously for hours, or days, or whatever.  (The little guy had fallen through a sinkhole, and was later rescued.)

As it happens,'Balling' is a word that means screwing, having sex!

Clearly, this poor mother cow was not enjoying herself; the intended word has to have been 'Bawling,' crying for the missing calf.  Mothers are usually like that.  Also, as it happens, she was trying to show the farmer exactly where the calf had disappeared. 

I'm guessing that the confusion arose from a combination of Voice-To-Text software, and an AI routine that was obviously trying its best.  If you use V-T-T, check your text carefully. 

Checking In

Well, I haven't written about the Deviant Art site for quite a while.  I have sort of concluded that, well, I had expected whoever managed the site to be a human, but it seems it's just a robot, or, as they are called, AI.  My incoming stream is pure clickbait.  AIs are good at generating clickbait; in fact any idiot can generate clickbait; all you need is a record of what sort of things member x has 'liked', for each member of the site.  Then, they show you only that sort of stuff.

All the sites do it; I was just slow on the uptake.  You guys must have been chuckling to yourselves.

In fact, I was frustrated because all the girls were looking similar to each other.  Well, duh.  The site itself probably has a fake AI 'member' who simply generates images based on the girls each member 'likes', using AI, of course, and does this for (with) every member.  It's quite possible that there are more of these AI members than real members.

And now, members use AI almost totally.  It's so easy, especially for kids who like to look at girls, more than create pretty girls from scratch.

I'm not dissing on (real) members who have complex ideas to make images, and use an AI to realize (that is, make them come true) what's in their minds.  That's what art should be, especially fantasy art.  But some Real Members then proceed to dump a million versions of their idea on the website, which cheapens the whole thing. 

Some RMs—as I've written before—are a little weak in the head.  They are so eager to upload their fantasy creation, that they forget details such as: anachronism (clothes or accessories that are the wrong style for a period image; such as a metal sword for a stone - age character).  Or blowsy hair for girl engaged in a fight.  If anyone of you are women, getting ready to fight, tie your hair back.  You don't want your hair getting in your eyes while fighting.  Trust me: you don't fight to look cute; you fight to win, assuming you're fighting seriously. 

BTW, the little cat that figures in my posts sometime, has taken quite a proprietary attitude towards me!  She gets irritated when I don't pet her long enough, and taps me with her paw, sometimes with the claws out.  You can just imagine my attitude to that. 

Kay.

Cruelty or Tough Love?

I think I've figured out the rationale for some of the things that the administration is doing, that seem incomprehensible to ordinary folks. 

A lot of what the government does is: cover up for the carelessness, or absent - mindedness, or obliviousness of people.  For instance—and I'm not sure whether this particular offense is one that they have targeted: lots of people forget to do something by a deadline.  Pay your taxes, get your car inspected, etc.

A kinder, gentler bureaucracy often softens the blow of a harsh penalty by either giving warnings, or making the punishment proportional to the lateness.  Though the people are grateful for these (old time) leniencies, they don't realize that it is expensive.  There is often additional staff to handle the processing, and checking the conditions for the leniency.  They need to be paid.  They need to be supervised.  And people have to deal with the paychecks and benefits of that extra staff, which—knowing how bureaucracy operates—requires yet more staff.  

Musk probably thinks that 90% of the Washington bureaucracy is for the purpose of determining who the shysters are.  Instead, Musk probably thinks, let's slap the fines on anyone who appears to be out of compliance, and let the person assessed for the fine, deal with convincing us about deserving leniency, instead of us proactively being lenient.  This is a sort of 'Kill them all, and let the gods decide the innocent' approach.

This attitude is sure to be seen as harsh by practically everyone.  We can all sympathize, having been in the position of forgetting to do something, or do it on time.  (Caused by the multitude of stupid things that everyone has to do, which makes it impossible to remember all of them.  Register to vote.  Fight the crowds at the polls.  Remember who to vote for, because not every candidate is marked so that we can tell whom to vote for, etc etc.  To make it worse, a lot of judges are on both the Democrat and the GOP ticket.)

So as time goes by, the bureaucracy gets bigger and bigger, as the government makes it easier and easier for people to do their duty.  "In the old xxx days," Musk must have said, "we just beheaded people for not having gotten the safety inspection on their chariots.  In this society, we let them off easy, and give them a lollipop if they pay their fees on time!  We treat adults like babies."

And of course, similar hostility towards education.  What about the poor deserving souls, who can't do their homework because of their heel spurs?  Well, off with their heads.  (And we impound their Mustangs.)

Of course, all this has to be explained to the representatives of the MAGA crowd in the House and the Senate, who are (of course) pea brains, who possibly bribed their way through law school (though some Democrats probably did that too, like this Menendez guy, who took bribes from Egypt).  So it's all stated in terms that are common in MAGA circles, in terms of huge lies that people tell, and Social Security checks being paid for dead people, etc etc.

Meanwhile, there is a huge amount of waste in the armed forces and the Pentagon.  It remains to be seen whether Musk's horde of hackers have the guts to walk in there, and demand to inspect their receipts.  Their budget—unaudited for absolutely decades—is unbelievably enormous; so one estimates that the waste is, proportionally, enormous.

My savings are invested in stocks, because the pitiful interest that banks pay for savings can't keep up with inflation.  So I'm not at all happy with how things are going.  I don't support Hamas, but I support Netanyahu still less, so that's pretty bad anyway you look at it. 

Kay.

This Crazy Affectionate Cat!

I did another—brief—stint as a cat sitter. 

Honestly, this kitten loves me far too much!  I was seated in a nice comfy chair with my glasses on.  She hopped up on my lap, gazed into my eyes, purred, and proceeded to lick my lenses!  My glasses weren't too clean after that. 

K

Setting Teslas on Fire? Why?

'Liberals', and those opposing Musk—which is almost everyone I know—are naturally eager to ruin the Tesla brand, which they hope will be detrimental to Musk.  I hope so, too; I used to suspect that there was a lot of unnecessary bureaucracy in Washington D.C. that kept track of whether various tiny laws were being respected.  But the high-handed way Musk has been shutting down agencies such as USAid has got a lot of people angry, including—let's be honest—me.  If there were a Tesla dealership in our town, I would picket against it (if picket is the right word).

But some of these anti-Maga jokers are shooting at Teslas, and setting fire to them!  What's the idea?

If you picket the dealership, and carry anti-Tesla signs, that makes sense; Musk has been demonstrably against the common people, particularly poor people.  But attacking Tesla cars, owned by ordinary people, is a blow against people who have very little to do with Tesla.  They've already paid their money, and now destroying their cars does not hurt Musk at all!  It certainly conveys their rage.  But it looks a lot more like just giving these people—the shooters—the thrill of using their guns, and their gasoline!

No; focus on the Tesla dealerships, and supporting the Federal agency heads who are suing DOGE and Tesla in court.

Kay.

Envy and Jealousy: Not the Same

Many folks use the word 'jealous' to sometimes mean 'envious.'  There is a general trend among language authorities towards always loosening the rules; we can imagine that, in a few years, it might be accepted that the two words mean the same.  That would be a sad mistake. 

Envy is the emotion of desiring what someone else has.  Oh man, I wish I had a car like that!  Or, that woman is too good for that man.  Or: I wish I could sing like X, whoever that is!  That's all envy, and by now you must be thinking: wait, I call that feeling jealousy!!  Well, it's not too late to change your evil ways!

Jealousy is significantly different.  It's the attitude that you don't want to share what you have.  You're jealous of your privileges; you don't want others to have them.  You're jealous of your wife; you don't want others to look at her!  As you can see, it's completely different from envy.  Envy is a common emotion.  Jealousy is a far more petty emotion.  (Except in the case of wanting to completely control your spouse, which is to some extent supported by society, though the spouse in question might not appreciate this attitude.)

Even the writers for the New York Times, it seems, confuse Envy with Jealousy.  This writer would be jealous if she did play this game, but hated anyone else to pick it up!

In my opinion, the words mean such different things that using them as interchangeable gives up far too much. 

Kay

Funding the Government

Congress (the Senate, anyway) seems to have dug their feet in, and refused to pass the budget put forward by Speaker Johnson.  There might be a government shut down. 

I'm wondering whether shutting the government down will help Musk/Trump, or hinder them.  So far, it appears that they like chaos, so shutting the government down will probably play into their hands. 

Kay

P.S. An update: A spending bill was passed since this post was written. 

Homonyms from another source

This comes from Easy English:

Another photo from Facebook:

I'm totally in love with the photo of this dancer, WW2 era.  What an expressive face!

Kay

Corruption in Washington, D.C.

Senator Chris Murphy describes what the white house and 'DOGE' are doing.  Actually doing. 

This is so embarrassing, because Democrats have done it, too.  But Trump has raised the art to new heights.

Soon, I hope, ordinary folk will get angry at these actions.  And stay angry.

Kay

Trump-Ukraine Talks Not Going Anywhere

Trump lectured Mr. Zelenskyy about the lack of gratitude for US military aid.  Vance lectured him about his (Zelenkyy's) lack of respect for Trump!

It became a sort of brawl, and a bad scene, generally.  Trump's job was easy: figure how to refuse them any military aid.  He probably succeeded within minutes.  But many of the European governments said they would try to rise to the occasion and provide as much military support for Ukraine as they could. 

Of course, Trump has complained for years that the Europeans had left the defence of Ukraine mostly to us Americans, so this is a welcome change of direction on the part of the Eurozone, to coin a phrase.  Well, even if this wasn't what Trump wanted, he'll pretend that it is. 

Meanwhile, Musk is destroying the Veteran's Administration and Social Security.  This doesn't really immediately scare us younger people, but it does mean that we're going to have to take savings a lot more seriously.  I know all about that; I saved 15% of my earnings for all the while I was working, and lived very frugally.   But that lifestyle isn't for everybody. 

But, worst of all is how the Trump Administration encourages parents of infants to skip vaccination.  This has resulted in outbreaks of Measles in, I believe, Texas.  RFK has conceded that we can expect Measles outbreaks at least twice a year henceforth.   This is terrible news.  

Kay

Feng Shui

That's a fake title for today's post; I've signed on to today's economic girlcott (just kidding; I didn't want the google AI figuring out exactly what I'm saying), I'm staying home and not spending any money.  Unfortunately, I'm a total loss as far as contributing to the Economy is concerned; my economic footprint is smaller than that of an ant. 

Tomorrow (or even this afternoon) you can expect businesses—Amazon, Walmart, Big Oil, and so on, to begin sneering that this boycott did less than nothing to damage Trump or his enablers!  But it's more for us than for them; our generation hasn't got into political activism in a big way at all, so this is a gentle way to ease us in.  Very Feng shui. 

Kay

It's Quiet Without the Cat

I forgot to report that the kitty has been successfully repatriated, and now I'm all alone (sob, sob)!  She really was a lovely presence in my little house!

If she thought I was bored, or lonely, she'd come over and climb into my lap, usually purring like mad!  Most of the time, though, she would be pacing about, making sure that she knows where everything is.  After she had been here a day or two, I think she was more making sure that nothing had been moved. 

She had come with a bag of food she ate, and she just ate a bit of that, out of her little bowl.  When she saw me eating, she wanted to check out what exactly it was; she wasn't really wanting any of it.  But she was curious. 

Now that she's back home, she quickly checked out how her buddy, the dog was doing.  That dog is not very worth keeping tags on; it's the most boring dog ever.  But if he wants to go out in the backyard (where he does his business; nobody knew where she did hers), at least half the time, she'd want to go out too, to keep an eye on him!

Now that I know so much about her, if I ever write another story, I would really like to have a cat in it!

Kay

Our Companion Blog

The Helen Blog—there's a link to it on the Web version of this—has many recent posts I have put up.  I tend to post things there if they directly bear on the Helen story, but also if they have more 'adult' material that casual readers might not like. 

This is the older blog; I started this one a while before starting the Helen blog, because I had decided that the Helen story contained more adult elements.  (It doesn't; I cleaned it up.)  As a result, this blog contains more general- interest material, like politics, and grammar and spelling. 

Unnecessary Vilification?

I just re-read a blog post from a few months back, in which I write that the constant vilification of Donald Trump was excessive and unnecessary. 

Well, I think he's grown into it.  Or is it a case of 'give a dog a bad name'?  Difficult to say. 

I think one thing that could be happening is that Trump has set Musk to do a lot of high-profile damage, and once the consequences start to hurt his electorate, Trump could step in and rein in his hound.  That could earn him a lot of gratitude, for curbing the disasters that Trump himself created in the first place.  Meanwhile, Musk is destroying a lot of the evidence the Biden administration had against Musk: workplace danger, environmental problems, etc, etc.

The damage done to the Washington bureaucracy is really considerable.  The records are like gold for the officials who need to enforce laws.  They've destroyed evidence against banks for their wrongdoings against credit-card customers.  How are charges to be brought against credit-card issuers (banks)?  Elizabeth Warren had worked hard to get this watch dog agency in place.  Banks hate her like the very devil; now credit card companies will worship Musk.  Sad.

A little unnecessary vilification would be quite all right, as I see it now. 

K

Trump Gets Going

I haven't talked very much about politics, mainly because I don't know what to say. 

Some of the things Trump has been ordering (the so-called executive orders) have been countered by the courts.  Trying to take away birthright citizenship was particularly silly.  But these are calculated risks; he figures, well, the rural poor whites are not likely to know anyone who became a citizen because of being born here; taking that away was sort of a no-brainer.  But no, that's a right granted in the constitution.  Trump seems not to know the constitution at all. 

Elon M and a team of his employees have been working on looking at the computer databases of social security and the Treasury, and apparently they know all about the bank accounts of citizens.  I'm concerned, not because I have a huge bank account, but because I'm not employed, and I live on my savings. 

There was an attempt to deport illegal aliens who had been charged with crimes.  Even being charged was enough; they were not brought before a judge.   But these immigrants are the most vulnerable among us, and Trump has a reputation of being a bully.  They were deported, though their home governments protested.  And now Musk is doing it, too. 

You would probably have heard about the tariffs, being charged against Canada, Mexico, and China.  Those countries retaliated with their own tariffs against the US.  It'll take a little time to see how that works out; probably badly for us, in which case it will be stopped, I'm guessing. 

Nothing that really helps ordinary people has been done yet; only the satisfaction of damaging the government is being shown the ordinary Trumpees. 

What's Going On in Indiana?

Well, first off all, they retired Caitlin's number 22 jersey in the University of Iowa.  (They do this sort of thing if the person who wore it really did it proud, I guess.)  A whole lot of sports celebs turned up for the celebrations, and the jersey was ceremoniously hoisted up to the rafters.

Then, the Indiana Fever re-hired Kelsey Mitchell.  I'm not sure why they didn't just keep her on.  Being almost a total outsider to team sports, which appears to be an unfortunate blend of basketball skill and big business ambition, I don't know what to expect from these people, and still less, what reaction to expect from Caitlin herself.  As time goes on, Caitlin will get better at expressing her feelings about all this shuffling around; right now she's just a (what's the word?)  a first- season player, and—if I know Caitlin—she'll diplomatically keep her mouth shut.  Won't be easy with all these microphones thrust in her face. 

Many other new players have been hired; only five of them will be on the court at the beginning of each game, though, the so - called starters.  This means that a whole lot of players will be on the bench (how do you like that for sexy basketball jargon?)  As far as I know, there's Lexie Hull, Aliyah Boston, and a couple more well- known players who've been traded for. 

I'm really uncomfortable about this trading business; it's better to look the other way while all that is going on, and then pay attention once the season starts. 

K.

[Added later]

I'm a Cat Mom!

My friend is going to be away for a while, so I'm getting to look after my little feline friend until she comes back!

Right now, I'm furiously kitty-proofing my house; it seems fairly kitty-proof as it is, but I'm not taking any chances.  My friend will check it out before she lets the cat out of the sort of crate thing.  If I don't write for a while, please excuse me. 

K

[Added Later]  Well, I was watching a YouTube video of a wren—a tiny bird—with the sound on, and it was singing away, carrying on about various things that were on its little wren mind.   Then, the cat appeared!  She was super interested; where is that bird?  She jumped up on my lap, inspected my phone, and even looked behind it!!  I had thought, well, cats would do this sort of thing.  But it was startling to see it actually happen!  Wish I had a photo to show you!

Kay

Friday, Jan 30: She came over to talk to me, and there was a teeny drop of moisture on the end of her nose!  She has a cold!  I got a tissue and wiped it off (after a small struggle).  Now she's sitting on my lap ('sat on my lap,' as our Brit friends would say), purring. 

Cats

I have noticed that, at least on video clips, guys do a lot of teasing of cats, to make the cats do something interesting!  Well, they certainly succeed; and there seems to be no resentment on the part of the cats concerned.  They happily dive into whatever mischief these guys lead them into!  I've seen cats on skateboards, swinging from chandeliers, doing all sorts of crazy things.  I don't doubt that the cats do most of these antics willingly. 

[Added later]

Have you seen those sickeningly cute videos of kittens 'singing' the Bruno Mars / Rosé song A.P.T. ?  The first time I saw one of those, I was totally captivated, but it's getting to be a little same old, same old!  But the first time it appeared on my Fb feed ...

Lexie Hull / A Homeless Family

Lexie Hull, the player in last year's Indiana Fever basketball team with Caitlin Clark, is a really pretty woman!  (Many players on that team are really cute, but I like Caitlin and Lexie, and Aliyah Boston the best.)

Lexie appears to be an very 'What you see is what you get' sort of girl—a married woman, really.  Most of these full-face photos show her with makeup on (the same goes for Caitlin Clark, and all these basketball women, and even on the court, most of the time), but most girls do that automatically.  I look fine with practically no makeup, so it looks weird to me, though I grew up surrounded by girls wearing a dash of makeup from about sixth grade on.  (These days

they wear a lot less than in the past, but it varies from place to place.)

Well, that's all I really have to say.  The little cat spent the night in her carrier, and she's just emerged, to check the place out.  It's cool in my house, so I'm pretty sure she'll soon be settling down for a nap. 

Kay.

[Added Later:]

I was reading a Fb post about Caitlin Clark, that said that she noticed a woman and her baby, who seemed to be living in a car, and she found out what was going on.  (Apparently medical expenses had resulted in their losing their home, so they were driven to homelessness.)  Caitlin helped them get a room in a hotel, connected them up with non-profits that helped people in their positions, bought the mother a pre-paid cell phone, and generally extended a helping hand. 

A comment from someone said that it was all lies, that Caitlin was a completely self- centered ... you get the drift. 

Well, I can see where this comment is coming from, especially if CC was rude to this person's favorite basketball player, or something like that.  There's hate everywhere, and people without discretionary funds find it impossible to believe that people could go out of their way to help strangers. 

Honestly, if I was in that situation (in Caitlin Clark's financial position,) I would help in exactly the same ways that Caitlin helped.  I know people who are involved in public assistance, and I'm impressed that CC managed to hook this woman up with the best agencies that were designed to help those sorts of people.  I couldn't have afforded to put her up in a hotel room, so I couldn't have done that part, but the rest of it made perfect sense. 

I guess some people are embarrassed by the lengths to which people go to help others.  They lash out with insults for some reason; I guess you need to be a psychologist to know why. 

The point is that CC can afford it.  She made a lot of money last year; the interesting thing is that she chose to spend it this way.  If you don't have the money, or the energy, to do this kind of Good Samaritan thing, you don't have to do it, but why spew venom on someone who does?

K. 

P.S. If anyone among my readers happen to not be too keen on some celebrity, who's trying to be generous to some person in dire straits, I would ask you not to discourage them.  I know our society is designed for the government to look after people without money or other resources.  (I should say it used to be that way, but now because of people whining about taxes, and conservatives cutting down on welfare services, there's a lot less of that available.)  When some celebrity helps someone out, he or she is doing that on behalf of all of us.

K.

LindyFest

I saw a really cute photo from Lindyfest on Facebook:

I can't believe what dazzling smiles these girls have; I could barely smile at all, throughout my childhood, and only started practicing my smile once I started teaching. 

I can't dance, either, except for the Waltz.  I can just barely do it, until I can escape the ballroom!  You people who can dance are so, so lucky.  At least, for the Lindy Hop, the girls seem to wear just reasonable medium heels.  For Latin dances, they wear 8 inch heels, which look elegant, I grant you, but are so ridiculous. 

Kay

What To Do?

I have to concede that, at one time, Hate came easy to me.  I didn't have a lot to hate about—though the little I had, I pulled out of the freezer several times a day, when I was just about 20—until I broke up with the person I was going with back then.  (Quite honestly, my frustration with my life might have had something to do with it; but I never actually hated that person.  That's something to look out for.  An unhappy relationship could get one spewing hate at completely unrelated things.  That's so pathetic; I only realized what was going on once we broke up, and I stopped being hateful!  I was incredibly embarrassed.)

Right now, honestly, I could hate the new administration if I tried.  I could hate the frigid weather we're having in Pennsylvania if I tried, and the scorching weather over in California.  I could hate the ignorant things some of the most immature members of the Trump administration simply toss out, just for no good reason at all; perhaps to enhance their coolness.  But it gives me more satisfaction to hold back, grit my teeth, and give Trump and his team a chance to Make America Great, if not 'again', perhaps for the first time. 

Well, I want to pause what I was saying!  Imagine my surprise to read on the Internet, that the president attended a prayer meeting at the Washington Cathedral, and Bishop Marion Edgar Budde said these words:

“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you, and as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. 

"There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives. The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals; they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurdwara, and temples.

"I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away; and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love, and walk humbly with each other and our God, for the good of all people, in this nation, and the world. Amen.” 

When asked about her words in an interview following the sermon, Bishop Budde said that she was moved to address the president directly because she was concerned about “the level of license to be really quite cruel” that some people feel [able to use] now, and due to "the fear that I have seen and experienced among our people -- people that I know and love, both within the immigrant community and within the LGBTQ community, and how terrified so many are.” She reflected that, "I was trying to say, ‘The country has been entrusted to you.' And one of the qualities of a leader is mercy, right? Mercy. And to be mindful of the people who are scared.”

This Bishop has expressed so well what I should have tried to say!

Kay

P.S.  [Added later]:

Tea Party and maga citizens seem unable to draw lessons from the current president's actions.  He has withdrawn the security details from several of his former secretaries of state (?) like Mike Pompeo, who are still in danger of threats from Iraq.  Trump supporters are probably under the impression that Trump would never be harsh with them, though he's harsh with so many others.  Sad.