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 in 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 in 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]