Distraction on a Huge Scale. Huuuge

The US administration has taken some big steps, and is debating bigger steps, which will increase hardship to the weakest and the most vulnerable components of US society: immigrants, women, children, the elderly, the sick, those who need medical support, and so on.  Opposition to President 47 is mounting.

Meanwhile, the president seems inclined to appease US Jews who are belligerent towards the Islamic neighbors of Israel.  So this attack in support of Netanyahu was not unexpected.  The president pretended that it was a huge surprise; there is no way to verify how much of a surprise it is.

This strike will start a war against Iran, which will be joined by several other states, and provide a lovely distraction from various major missteps in national governance.  Opposition to the president will continue to grow, support for him will continue to wane.  Civil liberties will continue to be withdrawn, and civic unrest will become more widespread.

Gasoline and eggs will be more expensive.

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Father's Day is Different

Mother's Day was invented by a little old lady (Ann Jarvis, and her daughter Anna Jarvis, the holiday was later repudiated by the younger Jarvis*), and later co-opted by Hallmark as (as far as I know) the first Designer holiday, for the purpose of selling cards.  If you didn't know I was a cynic, now you know. 

But at least, everyone knows who their mother is; there are usually witnesses.  Of course, a person could have been switched at birth, and then you wouldn't know anything. But even in the best of all possible situations, it's possible that the identity of the father of somebody could be in doubt.

I think that, given that the relationships between a person and his or her mother, and his or her father are not symmetric, the two 'feasts', if you would, are not symmetric either. 

A mother usually has a strong influence on a person's upbringing for various reasons; the more conservative or traditional the childhood of the person, the bigger the influence. 

The influence of a father on a child varies far more greatly from one family to the next; some fathers are heavily involved with child-raising, while other fathers are determinedly hands-off.

In the past, fathers were more interested with the upbringing of their sons than of their daughters; they would supervise the boy doing all sorts of 'guy things,' while the mothers would model various 'girl things' for their daughters, again, in a traditional home. 

But in the sixties and later, public schools took over the obligation of training all kids in both arts considered appropriate to women and to men.  For instance, my own daughter learned woodworking and metalworking, in addition to needlework and cooking.  Unfortunately, I think some conservative families were apparently unhappy with this, and I'm not sure that this plan has been continued.  The school even taught all the children—regardless of gender—to operate a motor vehicle, and I believe that's standard across the country.  Otherwise,  it would fall to a parent to pass on this skill.  (I don't know why I brought up that fact.)

So when we celebrate fatherhood and motherhood, we could be celebrating very different things.  But it is not uncommon for fathers to feel that Fathers' Day is rather a consolation prize!

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* P.S. The story of the founding of Mothers' Day is a long, and ultimately unsatisfying story you can look up.

Initially, Ann Jarvis began to work for what she called A Day of Peace for Mothers, as a response to the American Civil War that was just winding down.  She felt that a large international congregation of women—mothers, specifically—might succeed in preventing violence, where men had failed.

Julia Ward Howe (a well-known poet and hymnodist) took up this effort, and briefly succeeded in establishing a Mothers' Day in June. 

The movement to establish Mothers' Day in the present form, to remember and recognize the mother's of individuals, was taken up by Ann Jarvis, the daughter of Anna.  Over the years, the feast was enjoyed more by florists and greeting card manufacturers than by mothers, a situation recognized by Anna Jarvis with increasing anger, and she set out to call for the abolition of the feast of Mothers' Day, with no success.  She is said to have died penniless, and it is reported that she was buried with financial support from the florists and / or card manufacturers.  So the popularity of Mothers' Day never let up, despite all Anna Jarvis' efforts to destroy it. 

 

John Lennon—a Lot to Unpack

 

I've always been an admirer of John Lennon (and the Beatles, as a group).  

The Beatles I admired because of their music.  It is extremely difficult to explain or describe why The Beatles were so awesome; it's a sort of IYKYK* thing; if you got them, they were awesome.  Some people find their music very ordinary, just like I find Elvis's music.  (I think Elvis was amazing; don't get me wrong.)  I got on the Rolling Stones's wavelength late in life, so the Beatles were higher in my hierarchy than either of Elvis, or the Stones.

At first, when Yoko Ono and John got together, I was a little resentful; I thought John was being a drama queen, etc, etc.

After John was killed, I got to hear the John Lennon interviews for the first time.  Only then did I understand the ideological transformation of him that Yoko had achieved.

First, she had to teach him to look past the rhetoric that people were laying on him.  It's not that people were lying to him all the time; people were telling him exactly what they felt would make him think in a way useful to them.  John was doing the same thing, so he had to learn to stop being manipulative, too.  This was huge information; it gave him a platform on which he could build all his interactions. 

Second, she described the gender model that John had taken on from his social environment.  Like other guys around him, John felt he had to dominate the women in his life; if he didn't, he expected to be controlled by his womenfolk by their constant criticism and nagging.  Yoko got him to really listen, to Yoko, and to Cynthia, and to Julia, and Mimi; to understand the information, and discard the rhetoric.  (Like most guys, he assumed that it was all rhetoric.)

Thirdly, she described the rhetoric coming out of the US government about the Vietnam War, and placed it in the context of all wars, and especially US resistance to 'Communism.'

These were all difficult subjects, and honestly, most Americans did not have a clear view of the political issues, not to mention the sociological ones.  It is amazing how Yoko persuaded John to take a rational (i.e., logical) view about all these issues.  John resisted many of her ideas (at first), actually because of his intelligence.  The bigger they come, the harder they fall!

I recently recalled John's song Cold Turkey.  (It's in the Shaved Fish album, which is a sort of Greatest Hits, but not exactly.)  The song ostensibly describes the agony of Heroin withdrawal.  But it's also a parody, and utterly funny, IMO.

Only a very intelligent person could deliver a song of that kind.  The story of how hard it was for Lennon to strip himself of all (well, many of) the illusions in his life is very, very long.  He was a man of many fractured parts, and finally Ono was able to forge him into an integral person.  Chapman's murder of him is all the more tragic. 

Over years, Lennon tried to convey to the world (in songs, in writing, in interviews) all his revised thinking, and his political epiphanies, but not everyone was prepared to accept it.  In his last few years of life, he focused on being a family with Yoko, and their baby Sean.  That was a much easier task!  [Edited for clarity: 4-June-2025.]

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* 'If You Know, You Know.' 

Nurses

I recently read an article that confirmed my belief that nurses are among the most well- intentioned, hardworking people in any profession.  (Teachers, too, are well-intentioned; so are social workers, and those in lots of jobs that are service-oriented.  But burnout can happen to anyone, and a large part of management of these jobs is burnout prevention.)

One of my aunts was a nurse, and so was my step-daughter.  These two were among the brightest people I have known.  Nurses, I have found, are generally intelligent, and perhaps that is a factor in their choice of occupation.  One of the first things nurses have to do is to learn how to suffer fools patiently and diplomatically.  Most of them succeed at this task.

Birthright Citizenship

This issue: Should birthright citizenship be removed from the Constitution?  is a difficult one.

I think I should recuse myself, because (1) it does not apply to me, and (2) it looks as though the  proposed change in the constitution has not been made sufficiently clear for the public to have a clear opinion on it.

My understanding of the statement as it is in the constitution is that any child born on US soil is a US citizen.

What the administration wants to clarify is whether the mother is in the USA legally.  (Up to now, any woman giving birth in the US gives birth to a citizen—though one wonders how it can be proved that the birth took place in the US at all.)  In fact, they want both parents to have been present in the US legally.

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A New Style of President

In the US, in the 20th Century and after, the presidents have been focused on getting re-elected, and improving the country, and the lives of the people.

Trump has a different view of the presidency.  It is something he can do with essentially no training, no preparation at all, with just what people are accustomed to calling Bullshit.  It's just spouting, based on prejudice, and the inexperienced advice of business friends and other opportunists. 

Unfortunately, in the upper echelons—I mean financial echelons—of the US population, there are plenty of people who are adept at BS; that's what usually gets thrown around in corporate boardrooms, I believe.  Now that it appears that the people, however poor, still seem to revere corporate managers (Pritzker is one of them, but he has chosen the anti-Trump camp, as anyone should), we're going to get rich businessmen running for President from now on, and the usual scandals that follow presidents are going to be 10 times worse; and now that Trump has stretched the limits of how far presidents can take what is lawlessness to our minds, they're going to go even further.  That's the disgusting thing about Trump's presidency. 

Lame duck presidents can go as far down the self-serving road as their party will allow them, because they aren't going to run again.  This explains Trump's feeble attempts at pretending that he's going to run for a third term.  No, he's a lame duck, looking to squeeze every miserable dollar out of the presidency.  Now that the honor of the presidency has been trashed, only crooks and scoundrels will aspire to be president.  Accepting a plane from Qatar.  Sheesh.  We don't have to imagine George Washington turning in his grave; I'm rolling in mine, and I'm not even dead yet.

Understanding / Better Things

Two—quite different, and unrelated—things inspired this post.

The first is that the people who provide the good things in life: the city volunteer brass bands, the choral societies, the auditorium, for instance, are struggling.  I play with an amateur band, with whom I found myself quite by accident.  My wife and I were getting on each other's nerves at home, but, more importantly, she thought I should learn an instrument, and join this band for seniors.  So I rented—what turns out to be one of the easiest instruments to play—a Baritone horn (how did they guess that it would suit me perfectly?), they gave me lessons, and I was off and, well, walking.  All of them, to my suspicious eyes, seemed to be professionals; hardly ever played a wrong note; wrangled the sheaf of sheet music they were given like pros.

Many of them belong to a semi-professional band in town, an almost symphonic band, and they handed out advertisements to their major performances at our rehearsals.  So my wife—whom I shall refer to as Katie, for short—and I put on our glad rags, and went.

It was a spectacular performance.  (I almost called it a show) by any measure.  For various reasons, it was not as huge a turnout as they had hoped for, but still very substantial.  But the band, and the large city choral society, were clearly hurting for cash.  Katie and I placed all the ready money we had with us into a collection tray, but they were not going to clear a huge amount for their coffers.  These are tough times for the Arts, and the government has stopped a lot of funding for the Arts, so there's virtually no trickle down for community band concerts.  In fact, the band members—even us, in our tiny Seniors band—have to pay something, for the band expenses: rehearsal room, instrument rental, instruction, sheet music, insurance, etc, etc.  It is the same for each of the musical groups: the bands, the choral society, etc.

But, consider: most of the band members took time off, all through their school years, to go to music lessons, and instrument lessons (I took piano, which explains why I had to have baritone lessons at this advanced age), and put in their time playing in school bands, etc.  So it's a long hard road, just for the privilege of being able to entertain people.

Half the people are probably thinking: jeeze, that does sound like a lot of work.  The other half are thinking: why do these people put themselves through this drudgery?  The answer, of course, is that it was fun, and honestly, still is!

The second is something a lot of us are struggling with.  Let's not focus on pres 47, because he isn't typical.  He's just a TV personality, like the other media figures who have been picked to run the Administration.  I have been puzzling over what ideas are driving the typical MAGA sheep?

One thing is: charisma. (Sp?)  They're easily swayed by big personalities.

Next, just when they're beginning to think that, perhaps there might be something to say for those losers, the Democrats / Liberals / Communists, the basic Hate that their leaders have drilled into them, with a lot of mythology built on racism and nativism—words that most of us can look up later, because they aren't super useful, except for understanding hate—their leadership slaps them back into the fold, reminding them of all the comfortable hate, and puts their intelligence to sleep. 

The mag leadership, where do they come from?  Frustrated racism, many of them.  In their early youth, they probably bought into the idea, probably pushed by at least one of their parents, that they're superior, just because their parents looked so handsome.  They probably eventually realized that good hair and a sharp tongue wasn't enough to compete against intelligence, information, skills and aptitude, just about the same time that they were put together—after years of being only among other wealthy whites—with other ethnicities: Italians, Eastern Europeans, Asians, Latin Americans, and African Americans; and naturally conflate these factors.  It was these non-anglos, they must have concluded, who were showing up the chinks in their armor of superiority!!  It takes disciplined thinking to reject an obvious wrong conclusion, especially if the wrong conclusion was comfortable, and the correct one was uncomfortable. 

Another major source of anger is government corruption.  The government itself is not actually corrupt—except for things like voting themselves huge raises, and superior health insurance for life, etc.—but there definitely are crooked Congressmen in all parties, who become poster boys for cheaters.  People see their taxes disappear into government coffers, but they don't see the benefits of it.  They think that school music programs, the IRS itself, neighborhood schools attended by immigrants and poor blacks, social security, and those no-account Veterans, are eating up all of it.  (Sorry about that crack, Vets; we know that you guys are fine people.)

So ignorance and careless thinking results in a lot of hate.  But that's not all.  The GOP dance is now being led by people with very complicated axes to grind.  They give their followers one reason for destroying the government machinery, but they have different actual motives, which do not help the Man in the Street.  Now, of course, they have raised not helping the man in the street into a great virtue.  That was the contribution of must.  Empathy is a fault.  It results in programs for 'useless' (read: foreign, non-white, or unemployed) people.  "It's better we keep our tax dollars."

There's a lot of diversity among the Maga, for all they hate diversity on principle.  Different groups respond to different things, e.g. inflation, religion, abortion, women, Islam, war, peace, Israel, Iran, the Brits, the EU, and so on.

Hey, this is becoming a diatribe, so I must stop here!!  But support the Arts, though I haven't made a clear case for it.  Drudgery is good!  I'm a math teacher, so naturally I think that way!

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What We Believe

For decades, I didn't have to tell anyone about my beliefs.  I just said I was an atheist, and that took care of it. 

But now, because of how evangelical Christianity has gotten involved in conservative politics, I believe that, once the dust settles down—or maybe it won't; who knows?—people who thought that they once had a home in these peculiar Megachurches, people who are 'menu-driven', whose instinct is to just select a belief system from among those offered, will need a new system, in place of the 'faiths' offered by the jet-set preachers.

Simply surviving these few years with our reasoning skills intact will involve being exposed to a lot of hate from the informal (social) media; hate of Trump and his unscrupulous circle of advisors; hate of the ultra- conservatives, the violently anti-immigrant; the greedy opportunist rip-off artists, etc.  The sly people who try to sneak a buck are easy to forgive.  It is the people who want to make it easy for the robber barons to pick over what little the poor have left: those are the ones who're easiest to hate.  There are plenty of those; they insist on the right of businesses to make extortionary profits.

It will take time to formulate a moral code that people will find reasonable. 

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Trump's Daily Blackmail

I just read that Trump had been complaining about his treatment by '60 Minutes,' the CBS news show, and managed to apply sufficient pressure on its parent company to get its managing producer (or someone with a similar title) to be forced to resign. This is typical of Trump.  For centuries, we've had governments with few or no complaints about undue pressure from the White House.  That record stops with Trump.

Of course, during a war, the President (the Administration) by-passes Congressional approval to influence the course of the war; we're accustomed to that.  Nixon, to some extent, used unscrupulous actions to influence public opinion.  So Trump isn't the first, really, to do this.

Soon the populations of the countries that are the major sources of unwelcome immigrants are going to realize that the USA is not a desirable destination. 

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Expressing Dissatisfaction with the Donald

We know that the prez does not respond to the sentiments of the people at large.  In fact, he gets a kick out of ignoring them, and going off on a little holiday!  Unless, of course, some of the big big businessmen, of whom he is sort of in awe, are involved.  Most of them are more successful at what they do than the prez, so he does listen, without appearing to do so.  The whole tarriff adventure will take a while to settle to the point where we can assess its level of success, because what he does depends on his digestion, which means ït doesn't take a steady course.  (Seriously, he needs to stick to a steady diet, at his age, simply to stay in business.)

Most of those unhappy with the administration need to protest, to demonstrate, just to preserve our sanity, and to dispel the image that everything is fine.  Everything is not fine; the effects of the Trade War are not all still visible; when they are, everyone will want to do something, even those who worship the stairs prez walks on.  In our town, we had planned to gather at Market and Fourth every day at 2:00 P, and then it was decided that the big demonstrations would be on Saturdays.  Last I heard, there's going to be a big one on April 19th.  

I had thought that AOC would be furious at the state of affairs, especially Marge Taylor Green's insider trading!  But AOC and Bernie Sanders look merely calm and amused; as if they expected everything to happen exactly as it did.

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Things Are Not Better

The Stock Exchange was briefly up, but I don't think the economy has been stabilized.  Trump's sister has written an opinion piece about him, and she doesn't think he has the smarts to manage the economy, nor the smarts to get some help.  We're sort of screwed. 

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Opposition to Trump

Some Senators are coming out against the Trump administration.  The most recent is Rand Paul; he said that no one wants to live under martial law.  It's a bit late to complain about that, but better late than never. 

Senator Elizabeth Warren has expressed opposition to many actions by DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), for essentially dismantling the most useful departments: social security, Medicaid, education, postal service, veterans affairs, disease control, FDA, etc.

Bernie Sanders has joined forces with AOC (Alexandria O. Cortes) to tour the South and the West, pointing out the irresponsible actions of the administration in every direction. 

Both senators for Virginia: Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, have given lengthy critiques of the Trump administration.

New Jersey senator Cory Booker made a detailed, 25-hour-long speech condemning the actions of the administration, and the president. 

The senator for Connecticut, Chris Murphy, has been particularly outspoken in his anger at Trump and his actions.  Mark Kelly, senator for Arizona, has spoken expressing opposition to Trump.  So have Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota) and others.

Clearly, discontent with the president is mounting among the senators in both parties. 

I doubt that congressional disapproval will persuade the president to change course.  If the armed forces leadership were to indicate strong disapproval of Trump, he may consider reversing his erratic course.  Imposing austerity on the sector of the population with the least resources is not appropriate for any administration. 

Now you know the extent to which Congress sides with the Pres.

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Politics in the USA

When I first got to grad school in the US, I was amazed at the diversity.  Men and women from all over the US: Georgia, Alabama, West Virginia, California, Illinois, Ohio; people from abroad: Canada, Mexico, Sierra Leone, Suriname, Colombia, Venezuela, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Italy, Germany, mainland China, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, the Philippines, Bangla Desh.  There were people studying many subjects; undergraduates and grad students; blacks, certainly whites, Latinos; singles of both sexes, and married students, with and without children. 

I also met junior faculty, who had just been hired; and secretarial staff, clerical staff, bookstore staff; athletes, cheerleaders, coaches, and spouses. 

It was an election year, and when November rolled round, I saw electioneering on TV.

Back then I learned to recognize a$$#oles, in real life, and on the screen.   Soon I came to realize that Reagan was one of these AH's, albeit a very stylish one. 

I decided, at that time, that this was American politics, about which I didn't know a lot; if they wanted to elect an AH, that was their business.  I watched all the fallout from US politics, and groaned inside, but affected a nonchalance, mainly to feel better about the chaos. 

Soon I got a job, and found that my colleagues-to-be were incredibly welcoming people, who appreciated the various things I could do, and quickly arranged for me to get immigration.  It involved a great deal of effort on their part, for which I am truly grateful. 

Many years later, I was returning from a visit home, and going through immigration; it was an African-American officer at the turnstile, and he was studying my visa, and my passport, which was still issued by the land of my birth. 

"Mr. X?"  He used my real name. ('Archimedes' is just a Net Name I invented when my students and I first began interacting with the Internet.)

"Yes?"

"Man, you've been an immigrant longer than I've been alive!"  I looked suitably embarrassed.  "What are you waiting for?  Most people would have applied for citizenship long ago!"

Well, needless to say, I didn't apply for citizenship as soon as I got home to Williamsport, because the foolishness of the Republican administration was easier to tolerate when I was outwardly an immigrant.

Then Trump became president, and I decided: enough with the games.  Various other incidents helped push me over the line, and I applied to be a citizen. 

One day, I found myself being sworn in as a citizen.  I got to vote that November, and, as luck would have it, helped Joe Biden to be elected president. 

My point for this blogpost is: US diversity has not lessened; it has increased.  There are stunning variations in attitude among the Republicans, as well as the Democrats.  The Republicans have such a great diversity of attitudes that it's mind boggling.

Not all of them hate the Left - leaning ideas of some of the Dem leadership, but most of them do. 

Not all of them are believing Christians, but some of them are. 

Not all of them want to prevent women from getting abortions on demand, but lots of them do. 

Many of them want to get rid of government waste.  But so do a huge number of Dems!  We're not stupid; we know a lot of the Washington bureaucracy is the legacy of ancient pork-barrel deals that have outlived their usefulness. 

Not all the Republicans support Trump, but they're convinced that the Trump/Musk team has a better chance to 'clean up' Washington than any others.  But not all of them are persuaded that it's being conducted the best way. 

What about Social Welfare programs?  I suspect that a lot of Republicans know, privately, that they're necessary, and depended upon.  But they can't admit it, for fear of getting into trouble with the GOP secret police. 

What about women, minorities, immigrants, and children?  Generally speaking, they care a lot less about these demographics, and won't go anywhere near expressing support for them, for fear of being labeled 'Woke'.  They have to show each other that they're the meanest, nastiest, controlling-est, testosterone- infused monsters, to establish their cred with the boys.  They sneer at their compatriots who have cars with mufflers that actually work. 

Biden appealed to the most moderate guys in the GOP, and women.  But Trump skillfully whined about being bullied by the courts, and they sympathized.  The GOP has sympathy for Trump—I just can't see why; he's obviously a fake—unlike the Dems, who're likely to shoot him on sight.  Someday I might understand the pleasure the MAGA crowd takes in Trump, but that day is not today.  More than likely, many of them can't stand him either, and they definitely can't stand Must!

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Golf, while in the White House

Trump declared a national emergency, which gave him extra powers.  It's those powers that he invoked to put immigrants in jail, shut down departments, etc.  Some he's out somewhere in the South, playing golf (badly).

He'd better finish all his nonsense before his term expires, because we're going to have to make very carefull legislation to make sure that future presidents will not be able to do all the extra-legal things that Trump did.  Future presidents will be put in a straight jacket.  At least the Republican ones.

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One Big Problem with NonReaders

People are declaring that the US system of education is broken.  All right, people; you get a star sticker.  And You get a Star, and You get a star!  (Just kidding!)

These days I worry about how to sequence my thoughts, to take into account reader fatigue.  Can you believe this?  But a diatribe on US Exceptionalism was not what I wanted to draw your attention to. 

One thing that I thought was good was the idea of referendums.  You put these questions on ballots, and people get to express their opinions on the matter.  But the questions, depending on how subtle they are, need to be phrased carefully.  But it's my belief that citizens are gradually losing the ability to understand tricky language.  Think about that. 

Those who formulate questions for referendums are going to increasingly be able to phrase them in such ways as to confuse voters into voting exactly the way they do not feel.  Some young people are only comfortable communicating in emojis.  I mean, consider that they feel the need to have even secret meetings in a meeting app.

But seriously, though in certain quarters, reading at a high level is taken for granted, in other quarters, reading too much gets a child condemned by its peers as elitist, and blackballed by the parents of kids who are "emoji learners," to coin a phrase, and many school boards aren't happy about making demands of their darling children!

I think Henry Ford is indirectly to blame for the failure of US education.  It works fine in the Third World, where kids can be brow-beaten into learning tough material in their large classes.  In the US, though, education doesn't lend itself to economies of scale.  US kids know their rights.

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The Chat Group

By now, most people watching the Trump Administration closely would have heard about the chat group set up by the Hegseth Defense Department, which accidentally included a journalist. That really doesn't look like carelessness to me; it was intentional, possibly sabotage.  Or one of them wants to claim sabotage on a future date. 

AOC and Bernie Sanders were in Arizona, at a rally in Tucson.  This is heartening news.  The important thing for young people to remember—those who are too young to remember the Vietnam War (pushed misguidedly and deceitfully by various members of the government), and the enormous efforts it took to get out of Vietnam, and the Civil Rights movement, and what it took to get equitable laws passed, will be amazed at how much determination and patience it takes to oppose a stubborn enemy, such as the Maga movement.  States will have to take over the safeguards that the federal government was responsible for before Trump/Musk.  Some states might pass laws for this purpose, but the so- called Red States won't, and they'll be great fodder for opportunists. 

At least a few of the consequences of the 'cost savings' that Musk has instituted will affect the poorer citizens who voted for Trump, but perhaps there aren't very many such people.  A lot of rich maga business owners will be happy.  I don't know about farmers.  (Trump's people will claim that it was Biden's quick response to the Avian Flu threat that ruined the poultry business.)

I'm angry about the destruction of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) which the Administration gleefully destroyed.  It was a promising way of fighting against unfair business practices.  For that alone, I think Musk should be beheaded. 

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Sex, Gender, and Dis-Something

There is a word to describe the condition of being uncomfortable with the gender assigned at birth: dysphoria? something like that; and I just realized that trans women—that's former guys who have undergone some sort of gender conversion to become women—and who get sent to prison for some law they have broken, are put in women's prison.  This seems uncomfortable for the natural women in those prisons, who may be required to do things alongside Trans women at certain times of the day. 

I have generally considered that, well, who really cares what happens in jail?  Those inmates deserve what happens to them.  But these days, all sorts of people I consider innocent are often sent to prison, and it could be months or years before they're released. 

Why this issue has come up is because Trump has issued an order saying that trans women sent to prison should be put in a men's prison.  Many people are apparently against this. 

Actually, I can see how many people could be against putting these former guys in women's prison, too.  Getting a gender transition causes so much trouble, that I think—and I'm no legal expert, so my attitude towards this issue could be considered based on prejudice, but nevertheless a strongly held opinion—I think these 'women' should be given 20 lashes, and then sent home.  It's a bit much that they can disrupt the prison system, ɓy first getting gender transition, and then breaking the law.  Their punishment should be twice as severe as it would normally be. 

I really wonder how many of these women exist; trans jailbirds.

This is one of the few 'edicts' from Trumpie that I'm in favor of. 

Well.  Just on Saturday, my wife and I participated in a protest against the Tesla dealership in the town where I was visiting family in Arizona.  Along with many others, we rejoice when Musk loses money in the stock market, the more money the better, because we do, too, and unlike him, being retired, we depend on our stocks for our income.  (He uses his stocks to acquire more companies, such as Twitter.  Which he then mismanages.)

However, though we are happy to apply pressure on the Tesla dealerships, we're not hostile to Tesla owners.  They must have acquired their cars with the most enlightened motives (while the rest of us made do with buying hybrids), and we can't fault them.  There are dealerships in Britain, whose employees have displayed placards reading 'WE HATE HIM TOO!'  The highly excitable Wall Street types might see the protests taking place at the dealerships, and sell their Tesla stocks.  That would be fabulous.  Meanwhile, the Dow is on a downward plunge, not because of anything we do, but because of the Musk-Trump foolishness.  One set of Trumpadvisers want to sabotage government, generally.  Another set of them want the stock market to do well, as an endorsement of Trump's (mythical) financial ability.  Well, they can't have both.  Wall Street wants stability.  The Stable Genius only knows to generate instability. 

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Permanent Damage

Some things that Musk and Trump are doing can be reversed: Laws; Social Security; Education Department, and so on.  Immunization rules, trade deals.

But some damage is permanent: selling off National Parks to lumber companies; preservation of monuments; it's too demoralizing to list the possible damage.

Democrats and Liberals are non-violent people; like Quakers, Mennonites, people of strong principles, they prefer to make peaceful, non-violent protests; sit-ins, occupations.  Burning in effigy.

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Glued to their Phones

Something I have said often:  one benefit of going to college is to learn ways of keeping yourself amused in your free time. 

Why do kids these days have their faces glued to their phones?  They're bored.  Their interests are few.  Some have no interests, and just need to check in with their classmates. 

I didn't have a cellphone when I was 12, and my parents were around 40 at that time, and probably would not have given me one (even if available).  I just went home after school, and read the book I was in the middle of reading: Hardy Boys, probably.  They were really too short!

Kids are difficult to keep amused.  But adults, too, are all too easily bored.  The smartest people are less likely to get bored.  On the other hand, smart 'kids' get bored, too.  The important thing is to have a ton of ideas in your head, so that any idea that happens to cross your mind connects up with related ideas that are already there, waiting for it. 

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Fresh Viewpoint: Guest Post

I was thinking it's time for a guest blogger, when what to my wondering eye should appear but a suitable essay!

 

Well, now we know that Trump isn't very smart. Understatement is the way to go here, because ranting just turns people off. But I want to bring up some interesting coincidences I have noticed.

Remember how fixated Trump was about the size of Arnold Palmer's junk? and how he kept saying that Hilary Clinton "got shlonged"? He knew very well that "shlong" is penis in Yiddish, he's not that dumb (really). I think that in a way, Trump and Putin are exact opposites, because Putin is a small man with a big dick, and Trump is a big man with a small - well, Marco Rubio said it first, whatever he meant.  See how this works?  All very dick sensitive.

Okay, we're going to have to do something drastic here. Invoke the 25^th amendment because the

T is clearly off his rocker, or the 2^nd because we could get people to aim at his other ear or (if they

are really accurate) whatever he has in his crotch. It would be great if someone could hack into the

Justice Department system (which should be quite easy now because all the systems are blown wide open by Nylon's little boys) and get a pardon for the joker who trimmed DJT's ear.

The Democrats really, really need a kick up their ass. They're still crawling about moaning about the

last election. I watched Hakeem Jefferies talk dithering bullshit to avoid having to admit that the

Old Guard are the lead weights sinking the ship. The leaders of the next generation are already here, but they are getting zero dollars from the party coffers. 

 

I'm ambivalent about John Fetterman, although Bill Maher seems to think that he's the future of the party. Just think, if the dems could recruit a Hollywood star like Dwayne Johnson (awesome talent in dozens of disciplines) or a basketball star like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (genius IQ, has written novels) or Lady Gaga (staggeringly

competent and a genius)? I'd vote for a ticket with Gavin Newsome and Pete Buttigieg; Newsome for the great smile, and Buttigieg for the great brain.

Now, if Tiny Dick stops the arms shipments to Ukraine (which will seriously piss off the arms manufacturers who pay big bucks to senators), then Ukraine doesn't have to worry about keeping to the limits originally placed on them. Like, they could take all their HIMARS guns, put on Russian uniforms (good thing most Ukrainians speak Russian) and merrily drive right up to the Kremlin and blast it at short range. That would really annoy the cleaning staff. And the KGB/GRU/whatever guys probably won't have a clue. The Ukrainians could even draft North Koreans to help them, since those guys are just waiting for orders and don't know who's supposed to give them.

Somebody, do something.

Some Things Wrong With Life in the USA

I know: everybody knows some things. 

I don't have simple solutions (In the face of this Trump-type disaster, all these things pale into insignificance.   But it's still useful to keep an eye on these smallish problems, on the off chance that we can surmount this Maga disaster).

I was just reading a post about a programme in the Netherlands, where they show kids how to repair broken toys.  An adult volunteer fixes their toy equipment while they watch.   Someone had made a comment: It will never work in the US; they'll have to first pry their phones out of their hands!

At first I was sadly agreeing with that attitude; a large proportion of the families we know find it easier to succumb to the kids demand for phones, than to resist them.  Honestly, I don't know how to deal with that problem; cell phones weren't invented when my daughter was a kid. 

Then I thought: the diversity of family cultures in the US is really vast.  We see little kids with their eyes glued to their cellphones all around us, and we assume that it's a universal thing, but I'm willing to bet that in some homes, giving kids cellphones is not a thing taken for granted.  

Part of the problem—at least in families where both parents work—is that both parents are really exhausted when they come home after work.  I'm convinced this is an American thing; in some countries, workplaces do not extract every bit of productivity from every worker, so that parents can come home with some energy left over to give their kids. 

There is, evidently, a place in Tucson, AZ, where kids can repair their toys or equipment in a sort of workshop environment.

Unfortunately, we're only too quick to speak out on behalf our employers, that the slave labor conditions at work are right and proper, and ordained by God. 

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Some Immigrants are More Equal than Others

Everybody seems agreed that we should put the brakes on the volume of illegal immigrants coming across the southern border.   I don't want to imply that all illegal immigrants come across the southern border, but—the public generally wants to slow down their numbers, or stop them entirely. 

Then, many voters don't want the total volume of immigrants to remain this high.  There was a feeling that recent administrations were lax about immigrants in general. 

A third class of immigrants is skilled immigrants, who present their special qualifications or training as part of their case for being granted immigrant status. 

Well, a lot Trump's helpers in the administration seem to be of this description, and chief among them is, of course, Musk.  As Musk stretches the limits of the tolerance for skilled immigrants among the population, might xenophobic Republicans begin to view all women and minorities in the Trump camp with disfavor and dislike?  Tulsa Gabbard, Vivek Kumaraswamy, Kash Patel are all among Trump Administration members who might be viewed as targets of the recent conservative hostility: women, birthright citizenship, skilled immigrants, etc. 

One group that has escaped particular notice is the group that shows large capital resources, which qualified them to be citizens because of their capital resources.  Musk seems to be one of those. 

But of course, Trump has prided himself on being inconsistent.  'Keep 'em guessing,' has been his motto.  But his supporters are far more consistent, at least on some matters.  This might spell problems for the Republicans in future elections. 

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Post-game Excitement

So, some excited Eagles fans have indulged in vandalism in Philly.  I hope they're satisfied.  They probably played up to impress their women, but it's quite possible those women are quite unimpressed. 

Some guys like to pretend that, after a couple of beers they lose control.  Probably just pretense; they're probably fine. 

I wonder whether the police report any incidents of DUI after the game. 

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Tariffs, Lions and Tigers (Oh My)

Well, our dear brand-new President sort of won this most recent election by promising to stir up the international trade pot with, of course, tariffs, the favorite word of certain people.

Well, so far there has been so much push back against tariffs that he's yet to find tarrifs that he can use, for fun and profit. 

Musk, meanwhile, is muscleing-in into high security areas, such as the Treasury, and IRS databases, and this will cause no end of trouble for the anti-maga crowd, because of the potential for retaliatory actions.  Unfortunately, the sensible people in Congress are too old, and too tired, to put up much resistance.  The younger elements of the Democrats have been strongly discredited as 'ultra left', etc, (sometimes by the moderate Dems themselves,) and aren't really knowledgeable enough to fight the technological battles that will soon be taking place. 

Unless people in the Trump camp keep a leash on Musk and his teams, there might be nothing left in the US treasury for Trump to pillage after the genie gets his hands on it.  (And if all the gold is converted into Bitcoin, we won't know what to do with it, anyway!)

It's possible, because of how dangerous Trump's cronies are, magaboy might be headed—ultimately—to the poorhouse.  But it's sad that he'll take a lot of the vulnerable rural, uneducated, unvaccinated poor with him. 

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Renaissance People

This category of persons were called 'Rennaisance Men', but it seems going against modern sensibilities to use that term.  It means people who are interested and involved in everything, and can, ideally, speak knowledgeably on every area of human interest and activity.  Benjamin Franklin, a national treasure, was such a person; he was interested in history, politics, and science, we know, as well as literature and journalism.  But I think I remember that he was widely read, and wrote about a variety of subjects.  Thomas Jefferson was another founding father who was revered for how wide his interests were, and his knowledge was.

It's important to be a Renaissance person.  There seem to be people who are slightly acquainted with every subject, but whose opinion can't be relied on on any matter.  There are also people who have focused on just one thing, to the exclusion of everything else, and their opinion, too, is distorted by being too close to that one subject.  This is why I urge everyone to keep an interest in a variety of things.

Oh well; that covers what I wanted to say. 

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Great Explainers

I thought I'd write a post about these well-known personalities who have taken on the responsibility of speaking to the public on behalf of their colleagues or their avocation.

Leonard Bernstein.  This post was triggered by my feeling that Bernstein did so much to explain some really useful approaches to appreciating music; and I wondered whether there were other disciplines that had their own spokesperson.

Carl Sagan, Arthur C. Clarke.  Of course, Albert Einstein did his part, by speaking to the Press about advances in science.  But Sagan and Clarke were greatly influential by addressing laymen.

Richard Feynman, Neil de Grasse Tyson.  Everybody knows who Neil deGrasse Tyson is—his name is just a little too short for true fame—but few people today would have heard of Richard Feynman.  Physics students even today, however, revere Feynman for making Quantum Mechanics a little more understandable. 

David Attenborough should be recognized for bringing us the sights and sounds of some of the hidden worlds of nature.

Richard Leakey was probably one of the most visible—and audible—members of the Leakey family, many of whom were deeply involved with physical anthropology, and the origin of man.  There were many others, including Donald Johansson, who is associated with the discovery of the fossil Lucy, and related fossils.

Noam Chomsky.  This man is well known among those who have an interest in politics, as well as culture and morals.  He has generally been critical of Republicans, but often not as critical as others tend to be; and he is also critical of Democrats.  A very insightful commentator. 

In the realm of mathematics, physics andastronomy, a fabulous explainer is Roger Penrose.  He and Ezra (Ted) Newman were mainly responsible for the complexification of spacetime, a crazy plan that uses complex variables to solve Einstein's equations for General Relativity, which gives unexpected insight into some of the things we've been getting from the JWST telescope.  Also, my doctorate research focused on—an essentially trivial—result that fell out of this project.

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MBAs Looking for Work

I don't have a lot of sympathy for MBA- holders, at the best of times.  Their training is all about maximizing profits for businesses at the cost of quality for consumers.  So many of our complaints about modern life can be laid at the feet (can be blamed, that is, in case you were wondering what laying at the feet meant) on some MBA: "Shrinkflation", the proliferation of commercials on pay-TV, the pestilence of junk-mail—and direct- mail advertising, the weird billing practices of supposedly not-for-profit organizations; MBAs are the engines driving all of these.

Musk may as well be an MBA; I don't think he has any applicable knowledge of any commodity, except investment.  The Real Estate driven market crash of 2007-2008  was a result of MBAs gambling on mortgage insurance. 

The rash of corporate takeovers, sophisticated cheating on taxes; in fact any screwy business practices are all blameable on MBAs.  It's my belief that what MBAs learn in MBA School is nothing but screwy business practices. 

Why the business world has stopped hiring MBAs is difficult to see, but an obvious reason could be that they've priced themselves out of being hireable.  They've been well known for commanding huge salaries; now business executives are leery of making that kind of ongoing salary commitment, when a $15 an hour minimum wage is impending.  At least the minimum wage folks are flipping essential burgers, while the MBAs would look like parasites most of the time, even if they're brilliant at ripping off senior citizens online!

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Basic Knowledge

I'm just responding to a question that is puzzling people: can Robert Kennedy III (or whatever) handle the Department of Health (or whatever)?  

Why would anyone refuse to accept vaccinations as a helpful prophylactic (disease preventative), and give credence to stories about the dangers of vaccine—for instance—and advocate not using them?  The eradication (disappearing) of Polio, and Malaria, and Smallpox, and the careful control of childhood diseases (Chickenpox, Whooping Cough, Measles, etc.) are evidence of the success of vaccinations, but the suspicions persist. 

Autism.  Belief that the Moon Landing was staged.  The Earth is flat, etc, etc.  Some things are obviously taken at face value, e.g. smart phones. 

One componentof this deep-rooted suspicion is, I believe, the belief—or the desireto believe, or the desire to show support for those who believe—that the Government is not to be trusted.  This is clearly expected and reasonable for those in opposition to the present government; the rejection of vaccination is theatre, as the Republicans have so often accused the Democrats of.

But after  decades of theatre, old Bob probably can't distinguish between his beliefs, and the rôle that he's playing.  He needs to know the basics of microbiology, and public health, and pharmacology, just in order to understand how the FDA works.

There's a famous quote that there are none so blind as those who will not see, so that it is far easier to convince ordinary people who don't believe in the efficacy of vaccinations, than it is to explain to someone like Robert Kennedy, whose disbelief was initially pretended for demogogical reasons.