It only took me 8 years but I finally found people around here who are like me. Today, we were at the local hot air balloon festival with some people, two of whom were women of my age who didn’t drive at all or not until recently. I felt very unremarkable, which is very restful. 

We have a large stone in the midst of the campus quad, and there’s a tradition of students and student organizations decorating it in all kinds of inventive ways with the hope that their decor will stay on the stone the longest. It’s a great tradition, and I like to bring Klara to the quad each week (it’s right next to her music lesson) to look at the stone. She already knows the words art, artist, painting, and poetry, and these visits help her practice the words. Plus, there’s shade, which is hard to find in our town. 

So then last week some individual who hasn’t been visited by the light of reason drew a Confederate flag on the stone. Of course, the drawing was removed by the school authorities immediately. Events were conducted to educate people on why they shouldn’t do this kind of thing.

Then yesterday somebody from the opposing camp used the stone to write “Fuck white supremacy!” Which is obviously not allowed to appear on campus since it’s profanity. I don’t think there will be any specific events because one doesn’t want to sound totally crazy with, “Kiddies, these are bad words. You can’t use such bad words. Now let’s sing itsy-bitsy spider and hold hands.”

I hope poutiness goes out of vogue and we can go back to our beautiful tradition.

I took Klara for a walk on campus today, and it’s pretty deserted except for a guy who was talking on Skype in Catalan. I couldn’t avoid hearing because Klara saw some squirrels right next to him and refused to budge. 

“No, mom, nobody is talking about Catalonia here,” he was saying. “No, nobody cares about the referendum. What’s on the news if not Catalonia? Trump’s problems with North Korea. No, really, nobody cares at all”

By the way, Catalonian independentists have outdone themselves in sheer, unadulterated idiocy this time. It’s a circus. And still, nobody cares. 

Special counsel Robert Mueller has sought phone records concerning the statement written aboard Air Force One defending a meeting between Trump campaign officials and Russians at Trump Tower last year that was set up by Donald Trump Jr., according to two people familiar with the investigation. Mueller has also asked the White House for documents and emails connected to a May 3 press briefing where Sean Spicer said the president had confidence in James Comey as FBI director, these people said.

In other words, he’s got nothing. 

Can we all move on now?

From FB:

I got 16 but I’m notoriously lousy with numbers. 

Blavatnik is the closest buddy and partner of Vekselberg. And Vekselberg is Putin’s most faithful, obedient puppy. 

And, of course, Blavatnik is paying for Trump’s legal team in the Russia probe. 

Yes, it’s very hard to look at all of this and say nothing. But here’s the thing. If they wanted to hide this, it would have been so easy. But they clearly want to make it as obvious as possible.

Oligarchic regimes with no freedom of speech are very profitable for Zuckerberg. Once Putin destroyed the Russian blogosphere, all of the talented authors who used to post content on their blogs (and make money from that) were forced to go to Facebook and work for Zuckerberg for free. So why would Zuckerberg not be in favor of such a setup?

What’s curious is that even in view of the recent revelations as to FB’s complicity in subverting the recent elections, there are no calls to resist Facebook, or at least give a little bit less of free labor to a billionaire who did so much to saddle us with Trump. 

Zuckerberg is playing dumb on TV, pretending he didn’t know whose interests he was promoting during the last election. As if his tech support services didn’t ban every anti-Putin dissident in Russia under the flimsiest of excuses. As if whenever a Russian troll insulted and threatened a Ukrainian FB user, Facebook’s tech support didn’t immediately ban the Ukrainian.

Here, for instance, is an old post of mine about Zuckerberg siding with the Russian trolls. This is just one tiny example. I read Ukrainian and Russian Facebook, and this is a daily occurrence. 

If Democrats really care about Dreamers, they need to close with Trump on it fast. This is the only thing that will make his base turn away from him, and he’s going to realize it pretty soon. 

The only anti-Trump argument that will work in the next election will have the word “immigration” in it. Whoever finds a way to talk to people freaked out by fluidity in a way that reaches them without shaming and condemning will win. 

There are definite benefits to age. Aside from the obvious negatives, of course. For instance, being at a more advanced stage of your career, which gives a lot of freedom. 

To give an example, Klara is unwell today. She started throwing up last night, plus she’s been listless and uninterested in food. Obviously, there’s no chance of me taking her to daycare in this state. So I just stayed home with her. I had meetings and obligations at work today, but I cancelled, delegates, moved things around, etc because I’m at a stage in my career where I get to decide how to organize my work. And that’s great.