MAGA Families and Children

Not all MAGA family members cheer for MAGA.  MAGA dads, I suspect, keep very tight control of what the family can, and cannot do.

Throughout the decades, it has become unAmerican for the so-called patriarchs to keep an iron grip on what everyone is allowed to do.  This is a large part of making America 'great again': let's go back to those long ago times when dads called all the shots.  But those were not good times; things were often settled with a good gunfight, but the heroes often did not win. This testosterone-infused style of storytelling, though Trump and MAGA see it through rose-tinted glasses, does not represent the truth of history. 

MAGA dads frequently do not understand the contributions of blacks, and women, and foreigners and immigrants, to the amazing developments in American science and art and education.  All of you who grew up with non-MAGA dads must be grateful. 

Recently, it appears that MAGA believe that the only way to win is through cheating.  It's as though they're saying: "Winning is important.  If we have to cheat, then that's what we must do.  If we cheat, it's not really cheating."

No, it is; it's cheating.  We're keeping count of it.

Kay

Wise and Wonderful Cats

I have been studying my friend's little white cat for a while now, and I'm puzzled. 

You know how, in fairy tales and children's literature, cats are so intelligent and wise, and always cautious when going into any reckless adventure, and a source of great wisdom, to offset the headlong enthusiasm of the dog, and the young boys in the party?  They're depicted as the Gandalfs, in those tales. 

But from all I've observed of actual cats, they do hardly any actual thinking at all.  In fact, this cat—whom I know the best—does everything purely on impulse.  You can almost see some idea suddenly arrive in it's head, and completely displace what it was doing, only to be displaced by yet another impulse!

They don't seem to be bothered by thinking and planning of any sort.  Just decide, in the spur of the moment, and go ahead.  The very opposite of a sage.

I think it's their great stillness that gives the impression of profound thought; they're not thinking, as such; they're simply observing.   They're comparing the layout that they're seeing now, with how it had been laid out before, and making changes to their mental map of how it was.  That's all.  It's not drawing any conclusions; just noting. 

I have to say that, in modern children's literature, cats are depicted quite differently.  They're presented as enigmatic creatures with whom it's impossible to communicate.  That's certainly true; information flows to the cat in a very unreliable stream, if at all. 

Kay

Trump and Stolen Elections

Because Trump is throwing so much of his weight to show that elections are being stolen, I'm suspicious that this is only a pretext to make it harder for the people to vote. 

But I have a fabulous idea. 

Why do passports have to be $165 each?  That's the sort of price you put on something if they're only intended for Elites.  If everyone needs them, they should be priced so that even people on food stamps can afford them.  This suggests a very reasonable project for Liberals / non MAGA to get behind: make acceptable voting ID as cheap as $10 each, and have teams of volunteers going house to house, helping people get their forms filled out, and their documentation ready.  Of course, if the âdministration learns that such a project is underway, they'll insist that only a gold- plated passport manufactured by a company headed by Donald, Jr, costing $500 each, is acceptable.  But then it becomes clear that it is clearly a poll tax. 

Kay

Red Cards and Peace Prizes

Everyone knows, by now, about how Trump requested a review of a referee's call.  It looks as though the president of FIFA, who had allowed Trump's request to go forward, will now have to step down.

Trump has no instincts to handle these sorts of diplomatic decisions.  Maybe he thinks that how so many of us think of the settling of international disputes are 'the old-fashioned ways' of doing things.  Yes, they have settled into this pattern because it has smoothed international relations for so long   The new ways that Trump, Musk, Boris Johnson, and other bullies want to do things will probably not work.  The dignity and the pride of peoples and governments must be preserved, and the 'strongest' nations cannot run roughshod over the others.  This is the foundation of the UN (though too many traditions really give the biggest nations a little extra procedural power), and we must decide whether we allow the bullies to do what they want. 

Kay