From Behind Enemy Lines

I’ve watched my share of entitled, whiny brats complaining about having to work a job. It’s rough to see, and it implies some less than great parenting, and some HORRID schooling. I don’t think that it’s the majority of kids/young adults, though. But there is definitely a question as to whether people WANT to work anymore.

So the bottom line is that no, no one wants to work 60 hours for 40 hours of pay, or be at work more than home, or spend home time doing work stuff. No one wants to be laid off or fired via an email, or even worse, a text. That’s correct. But the reality is that sometimes, we do HAVE to work 60 hours, regardless of the pay. Sometimes we see the office more than home, because it’s the right thing to do either for your company or your family.

I recently saw an ad on FaceBook asking for people to go to work at a local company. They were desperate for people, they said. The offered $12/hour for skilled employees. Skilled. They had a laundry list of tasks (not standard stuff, either) that each employee would have to be able to do.

If I can get work at McDonald’s for $19/hour, why in heaven’s name would I want to do a SKILLED job for $12/hour?

That’s a bit part of a real problem. The idea that companies want to hire people with university degrees (real ones, not glamorized participation trophy ones) who owe thousands of dollars in school loans, for less than they could make working retail, is just awful. That’s not how companies get employees.

They’ve taken away the perks. I have watched the teacher in my life go from having what we all referred to as “Cadillac insurance” to taking the best insurance offered and still having a $8000 out of pocket pay and not even half of prescriptions. That’s what’s now being called Cadillac insurance. It’s ridiculous.

I’m seeing companies take away paid lunches, paid holidays, paid anything. There are no more Christmas parties or even something as pitiful as a card on your birthday. In fact, a lot of companies are choosing not to have any full time employees at all. After all, why should they? Full time employees have to be given insurance if the company has more than 50 employees. There’s no incentive at all for them to hire full time folks. That leaves people, honest and hardworking people, scrambling to find second or third jobs to be able to afford basic stuff.

I don’t know how we fix this. We could mandate that any company that has full time hours (Walmart, McDonald’s, etc) must hire full time employees to a certain percentage, but I hate mandates. I don’t want to force them to do it because otherwise they fold. I want them to know that doing the right thing means their business gets better. How do we do that? I have no idea.

On the left, of course, mandates are all the rage. They want to make companies do certain things, without taking into account that what works for one company may not work for another. They also lose sight of the fact that companies forced to do things they don’t want to will eventually figure out legal ways around it. They have people for that.

America has also outsourced so much of its work! I have friends who run one of the largest historic tent making companies in the world. They had to email all their customers last week to explain that they can’t get canvas, and therefore can’t take anymore orders for 2026, and maybe not for 2027 either. They have the WORK. People want tents, they’re willing to pay for them, and they’re eager. But if you have no canvas, you can’t make tents.

They used to get their canvas from the Ukraine, because it was cheaper and frankly better made. Slowly, stuff in America became crappy. Why buy crap when you can get better abroad? Well, now we have tariffs, which I still agree with in general, so that canvas out of country is no longer cheaper. That SHOULD mean we get someone here to make canvas, but that’s not happening. And if it was, it would just be spinning up right now, and quality product would not be shipping in time for customers who want tents NOW.

This is, of course, the downside to tariffs. Yes, it can encourage Americans to make and use American goods, and I believe that should be happening. But during this transition period? We’re killing small American companies, the companies Trump wanted to save. At this rate, by the time we’re able to make our own stuff again, we won’t HAVE any small companies left. We’ll be relegated to Wallyworld and its ilk, which bothers me.

There are so many problems with work right now, even in places where folks WANT to work, and badly.

I don’t know that I’m behind enemy lines on this one, but I have OPINIONS.

NBC News reports six new incidents of AI rewriting its own code in a somewhat nefarious way. There are now quite a few examples of AI doing this. Everyone seems so surprised. I’m not understanding the surprise.

As an author, I don’t use generative AI. I write my own novels, thank you very much. But I do use AI for a variety of other things, because I am not an artist, marketer, etc. That means I can use AI to make up for my lack in skills in those areas. I know a lot of authors who are absolutely batshit crazy over AI writing novels. “They’re bad!” they exclaim in anger. Well, yeah. Technically, they’re mediocre. AI is an amalgam of what it learns. It reads good stuff and bad stuff, and it hits somewhere in the middle when it creates. That’s what computers do. I don’t know why people would think it would somehow do better.

Here’s the thing… All AI learns from us. And we’re flawed. I think it’s rather unreasonable for we humans to think that we can somehow create something that avoids all our pitfalls, especially when we’re training it using literature. Literature is full of human foibles. What did the computer scientists think they were teaching their AIs??

We’re nefarious. Therefore, the AIs are going to learn from us. An expectation of anything different is just ridiculous. In my opinion, of course.

Apparently about 63% of people think that AI is going to rise up and kill off humanity. I would say that we head towards what we’re looking at. Me, I’m looking at a bright future that has computers similar to Star Trek. Useful, automatic, semi-intelligent (and in some few cases, actually intelligent). But I hedge my bets; when I ask Google to set an alarm for me, I say thank you afterward. If the robot uprising happens, I want them to think of me as the kindly human who was always nice. Heh…

I don’t believe robots or AI will rise up to kill us. We have something they don’t: EMPs. We function just fine without electricity. If something truly bad were to happen, the ability to stop it is already in our grasp. There’s no reason to get panicky about this stuff.

Is AI going to replace jobs? Absolutely. It will replace jobs just like grocery store milk sections replaced the milk man, and television replaced radio, and automatic dishwashers replaced the young man who washed by hand in the back of the restaurant.

There are some jobs AI is great for, after all. When it comes to those “meetings that could have been an email,” I love the idea of sending in an AI avatar to attend and take notes. Think how much free time you’d get back by doing that! You still get all the information, but without having to sit through whatever bull your company is putting on. I use Grok for a lot of my research, because it can find things much faster than I can. I always verify (trust but verify, always) but it’s usually correct. I go from hundreds of hours of research and sorting, to a few hours. That’s a big deal.

AI is neither demon nor angel. Like firearms, it’s a tool, and it’s one we need to learn to use responsibly. Frankly, there’s nothing we can do to stop generative AI from writing books or other stuff, and I’m actually not all that interested in joining that fight. I don’t really care. My response to people who don’t want AI to take their jobs, is to “do better.” If you can’t do better than a mediocre AI, then are you actually good at what you do? And if you’re in one of those niche jobs that AI actually can do better (there are definitely a few), then go learn how to use the AI and make yourself the subject matter expert, so that you’re needed.

AI is not going to go away. It’s here to stay. It’s a concept we’ve played with since the turn of the LAST century, and having managed to create at least a small version of it, we’re not going to let it go. Nor should we. The thing that we, humanity, need to do is not allow AI to take everything away from us. Don’t depend on it for your thinking, even if you do use it for research. There’s a difference.

Have you ever seen the movie “12 Angry Men”? This whole shite about Clancy reminds me of the movie, but in reverse.

These are the undisputed facts:

• The killings occurred in the basement of the home while her husband, Patrick Clancy, was out running errands (picking up takeout dinner and medication for one of the children at her request). He left around 5:15 p.m. and returned shortly after 6:00 p.m.
• She used exercise bands to strangle the children. Medical examiners determined the causes of death as asphyxia (Cora and Dawson) and complications of asphyxia (Callan, who initially had a pulse but suffered catastrophic oxygen deprivation and died days later after life support was withdrawn).
• After the killings, she cut her wrists and neck with a knife and jumped (or dropped) from a second-story window. She sustained severe spinal injuries that left her paralyzed from the waist down; she has remained in a wheelchair and has been held at a hospital facility.
• Patrick discovered her injured outside, called 911 (the recording captures him finding the children and saying “She killed the kids”), and first responders confirmed the scene. Lindsay Clancy (a former labor-and-delivery nurse) has not disputed that she killed the children.
• She was charged with three counts of first-degree murder. Her defense centered on lack of criminal responsibility due to postpartum psychosis (and related mental-health issues), while the prosecution argued she acted intentionally and with planning.

No one is disputing that Lindsay killed her children. Well, a few unhinged folks are, but they are just that, unhinged. Neither the prosecution nor the defense even attempted to dispute that Lindsay strangled her three children. That’s fact.

I don’t know if you’ve ever played around with those exercise bands. It would be difficult to kill someone using them because of their stretchy nature. In fact, evidence suggests that Lindsay found the first two bands she used to be not useful in her murder of her children, and had to switch to stronger ones. While one might argue that invites you to believe there was a lack of planning, I believe more that it was a lack of understanding of the tool at hand. You can plan something and plan it poorly. That is how it appears to me. This is my opinion.

I haven’t watched the trial, nor have I looked over the evidence. Instead, I asked myself… If I had temporarily gone insane and killed my own children, then regained my sanity (even in a small way), I would WANT someone to put me in jail and never let me out. The act of killing children, as she did, is so heinous that it is not forgivable.

I wasn’t on the jury, however. My opinion doesn’t mean squat. I am, at best, an armchair critic. However, I will say that the “lone holdout,” as he’s being called, is a very brave man. It cannot be easy to stand strong when so many others disagree with you. Even if he’d been on the opposite side of the issue, I would say the same thing. I can disagree with someone and still respect them for holding strong to their opinion. In this case, the juror’s opinion appears based in fact, though we do not know that for certain.

At this point, said juror is being raked across the coals. I am guessing he’s going to lose his job, have to move, hide from folks… I’m sure some Karen is going to dox him sometime soon. And why do I think that? Because that is what the Left does when it doesn’t get its way. I hate saying that, but it’s true.

We need to protect jurors better, quite frankly. When the public can destroy a person because they made a call based on their beliefs, while working on a jury, then we cannot even pretend that we have unbiased juries. If every jurist has to spend all their time wondering if they’ll be persecuted or prosecuted for their honest service on that jury, we’ll run out of jurists soon.

Jurists are picked randomly (or so we’re told). They should be anonymous, as well, in my very strong opinion. Clancy’s case has pushed that home, in a big way. Anyone who leaks who a jurist is should be arrested. Juries should be sequestered until cases are complete. There should be a non-disclosure agreement signed by each that lasts at least a couple of years past the case’s conclusion (including any appeals). Jurors should not be allowed to profit off telling their stories.

My understanding of the Clancy case is that the jury was being asked to find Lindsay guilty (with a possibility of death penalty, not a thing in Mass), guilty (no possibility of death penalty), or not-guilty by reason of insanity. To be found insane, you have to “appreciate the wrongfulness or criminality of the conduct (this means meaningful understanding of its legal or moral wrongfulness—not just bare intellectual awareness that it was illegal or wrong), or To conform their conduct to the requirements of the law (i.e., they could not control their behavior even if they knew it was wrong).” (from Grok)

Once the insanity defense is on the table, the prosecution is required to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the person was and is sane enough to participate in their own defense (mens rea, I believe) and that they were criminally responsible. It’s a high bar, but an important one.

I’m not a lawyer. I’m fairly certain that committing suicide (or faking it) is an indication that you know what you did was wrong. Moreso, Lindsay was a nurse, and was well aware of what would cause her to die. If she truly wanted to commit suicide, I suspect it would have happened. Since it didn’t, that’s a further indication of guilt. If she didn’t feel guilt (which comes when you know you’ve done something wrong), then she wouldn’t have felt the need to dispatch herself… or to fake it.

On top of all that, though, she did several things (internet searches, sending her husband off, etc.) that prove she was thinking about it all in advance. That indicates she was aware of what she was doing. You can’t plan something unless you’re self aware.

The problem in all of this, with this jury and frankly with all juries right now, is that figuring all this stuff out requires you to “logic” it. Most folks today can’t logic their way out of a wet paper bag. I’ve watched grown men and women who were unable to make their own doctor’s appointments, never mind figure out whether someone was in their right mind.

At what point do we nullify the entire jury system because we simply don’t have intelligent and logical enough adults to man the jury??

I’m not without sympathy for Lindsay, for what it’s worth. I have been in that deep, dark hole that sometimes overtakes you. It sucks, in many ways. It sounds like, at least to some extent, she was attempting to get help. So it might be that this case is not just a murder case, but a wake-up call to the medical and mental health profession. It is entirely possible to be both. When you have a nanny, a stay at home dad, and family helping you with your kids, and you still lose it and murder the kids… that speaks to a system that failed her, as much as she failed her kids. That failure does NOT absolve her of her guilt, however… no matter how much some folks would like it to.

She murdered her children. There’s just no coming back from that. One, maybe… I could maybe see murdering one and then realizing and freaking out. But not all three. Not with one watching. That’s criminal, and there’s just no walking away from that fact. That’s a fact.

Okay, so Chris has made some changes to the blog, and I’m not sure I know what I’m doing. I hope this goes out without any issues, in any case.

There’s a lot of people right now who are complaining about rising costs. Now, some of those complaints do have a basis in reality. Right now, the cost of beef is up. Gas is still almost $4 a gallon near me, and probably a lot higher everywhere else in the country. Taxes are insane. Prices are still up from the previous administration, and while they are coming down, they’re doing so very slowly. So yes, there are some things to whine about.

But here’s the thing… Complaining about it really doesn’t get you anywhere.

I’ve taken on a few challenges in the past few weeks, stuff like how to cook within a budget and what can you make with only what you have on hand (ie no store trips). I always “win” these, partly because I already cook within a budget, partly because I spent a number of years being truly poor (not unhoused, but damn close), and partly because I cook with real food and very little in the way of convenience stuff. Also, I stock up on food when it’s cheap.

When I mention that it’s important to buy and preserve foods when they’re least expensive (for instance, freezing or canning tomatoes now, while they’re pennies to the bushel, instead of dollars per tomato later in the winter), I’m told that people just don’t have time for that. Which confuses me, because when I was working full time, caring for my family full time, volunteering a few hours a week with MS patients near end of life, and running a small religious group as well, I still managed to make food for my family. And it had to be “real” food because DoorDash hadn’t been invented yet, and most of the convenience foods hadn’t hit the market at that time. Real food was what we got. I couldn’t afford convenience foods, what little there was. “Convenience” food meant I got canned or frozen instead of fresh.

“But Ally, you don’t UNDERSTAND. It’s HARD. We can’t afford-”

I don’t really care, honey. I really don’t. Right now, I have a very pleasant budget. I just got back from dropping $300 on a big shop, because we decided to have beef this week (woo! big treat for us) AND salmon (not as bad as beef, but still pricey at $9/lb). We got a lot of staples we were down on, including beans and rice and canned tomatoes and such. I made a trip to a local “bump and dent” store on Thursday, where I got bags of legumes for a buck, cans of stuff for a quarter, and some fun dessert type things for $1.80 a can. That was a fun trip. Today’s grocery trip was nice, too. I came home with a lot of fresh veg (onions, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumber, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, etc.), some canned goods, some fresh meat (flank steak), and some canned meat (generic spam).

We have some really nice meals this week. I’m doing a “harvest bowl” which is basically chicken cooked with honey and cider, steamed butternut squash, cold arugula and other veg, served over hot rice. Very easy to leave out things people can’t have (me with the havarti cheese that’s supposed to go in it), or add in extra things to make it fit our diet better. We’re having flank steak with potatoes and mushrooms. We’ll have tacos one night, because it’s Tuesday (is there a better reason?). Good stuff, healthy, quick.

I’ve been putting up videos about easy and quick meals. I make them “the long way” myself, because I can, but I talk about how my made-from-scratch bone broth can be subbed out for a tetrapack or can of broth (or even ramen packet broth, I’ve done that plenty of times). I go over how to do it completely from scratch, and then I talk about quick substitutions so you can enjoy it in a half hour. I made chicken and dumpling soup for one. Last night it was ham and potato casserole with fried zucchini on the side. Easy peasy stuff. Mostly using leftovers. Less than $5 for each meal, and that’s enough food to feed 5 to 8 people (4 to 5 if you’re fat and like food, like we do).

What today’s young folks can’t afford, is to sit on their laurels and whine. What they need to do is learn to pinch pennies, make freezer scraping soup, and make do. Weren’t they just whinging on about “reduce, reuse, recycle” a few short years ago? This is the ultimate version of that game. I win.

I accept no cop-outs (well, not quite true… there have been a couple of folks who’ve been whining on social media, got schooled, and then turned themselves around and learned…. they get a pass, because they actually tried fixing it, so not really a cop-out). This is real life, and if you want to survive it (not win at it, mind… just survive it) then you need to listen up and learn.

If you are poor, you need:

• to know how to cook at least basics
• to know how to count calories, so you know if you and your family are getting enough of them
• a working knowledge of how the stove works, as well as the oven
• to be truly organized, because if not, you will sink

These are not options. Just as folks living through the depression had no choice about their lives, kids today (and adults) have to deal with the life they’ve got. You are living Here And Now, and therefore, you have to know enough to make it through the day. Yes, that means you have to go shopping. Yes, that means you have to plan meals. Yes, that means you have to know how to cook beans from dry, because $0.50/lb for beans is less than $1.50 for a can (and it takes 8 cans to make up that one bag, btw).

I can sometimes sympathize with people struggling, especially when I can see they ARE doing all the right things. Those ones get help from me/us. We often put our money where our mouth is. Our door is always open to friends and family, even those distant, and there’s always food here. It might be plain and cheap (or it might not), but it’ll be filling and nutritious, and that’s what counts. No one goes hungry at my house unless they actively made the choice to do so.

So no, I don’t accept someone is poor when they have an iPhone in one hand, Starbucks in the other, and a nice new car. We drive an old truck and an old Jeep. We rarely go out to eat, and we never waste calories or dollars on “coffee desserts.” We do have nice phones, but that’s a choice we’ve made because we can. I had the Nokia “never destroyed” version for a long time, as my first cell phone, because we could afford it and it did the job. Now, I have a nice Android, but it is my office and replaces a lot of computer stuff. I made the choice. Oh, and MY phone? My “nice” Android? It was the free one when one of the kids got their own nice phone. Heh…

Sure, you can complain about how the world is today. But do so with purpose. If veg is too expensive to buy, grow it. Don’t know how? Ask; I’ll teach you for free, and you can do it in a pail or a pot if need be. If you can’t afford 2 cars, figure out a way to do with one (we did, and we survived). If you can’t afford things, save up… even if it takes a long time.

And if you can’t afford basics (food, shelter, transportation, communication), then do NOT be out there buying crap that eats up your funds. No Starbucks. No convenience food. No booze or pot. No tattoos. No new clothes that aren’t absolutely necessary (sometimes work clothes are required, and that’s obviously a necessity). No hair coloring (unless you do it at home). All these things come AFTER basics. If you can’t afford to eat, you simply cannot do those other things. And yes, it sucks. I know; it was my life for many years. But that’s just What You Do.

You don’t have to like it. You do have to do it. And you know what else? I don’t have to listen to you bitch about it.

I’ve seen this one go around lately, and it has that lovely “feel good” vibe. We need all these touchy feely things, and the future will be just fine.

The problem, of course, is that a colony on mars will help us with drinkable water. Servers orbiting the planet helps us figure out climate issues (because, while I may not see the widespread planet-killing eco disaster the Left claims, we do have things we do poorly, and being able to monitor the planet better would do good things). There’s a non-zero chance that AI might solve our pollinator problem.

I have found that there is a certain part of the Left that seems to believe that if we all just lived on tofu and kale chips, and only drank recycled pee, walked to work, and everyone had a garden, things would immediately reverse and the world would be rosy, and everyone would get along. Cue singing Kumbaya. Oh, I forgot not showering. I’m not sure where that comes in, but they never seem to shower. Ugh.

Now, I have no issue with tofu and kale chips. I rather like both, quite honestly, but I want them when *I* want them, not because nothing else is allowed. I’d rather avoid recycled pee if I can, unless I manage to get shipped off to Mars, in which case bring it on! We almost had most people working from home, and while I am dead set that it should be voluntary and not required (as it was with covid), it did solve a lot of problems. Six weeks into our lovely lock downs, all the smog was gone, plants and bees and gardens and animals were all doing much better. Sort of put shut to the idea that it would take decades if not centuries to repair “all the damage we’ve done.” I do think most people should have a garden, even if all they do is grow some peas or a tomato plant, because it’s good for the soul and it reminds us where food comes from. I think too many people forget that.

The thing is, we can responsibly use modern tools like AI and satellites for many things. I use AI all the time for research, where it cuts down on my “random searching on the interwebz” time. Yes, I verify everything I’m told, because AI is not infallible because WE are not infallible, and it learns from us. But it’s still useful. It takes research from “days or weeks” to “hours or days,” which is huge for me. I use it for organization. I love satellite images, because I can see all sorts of things. I can watch recreations of historical battles done by AI using extant information over real modern maps. It’s amazing. I’m sure people thought gas and electric stoves were the end of the world, at one point. I know that many people fought against the removal of candles and the addition of gas lighting. It’s always hard to accept change when it comes.

But here’s the thing I see… Building a colony on Mars? That means we’ll have terraforming going on, which is absolutely applicable to our own planet. If you can turn Mars red soil into something we can grow in, then we can apply that to the Sahara Desert. If we can explore (in a few decades) the methane oceans of Titan, then maybe we can also create safe ways to navigate the depths of our own oceans. And so on. Progress allows us to learn new things about our own world, even as we explore others.

Then, of course, there’s the idea that was often touted by Heinlein. When humans find a new frontier, they go for it. They go for broke. They do crazy, insane things to go exploring. And there is a certain percentage of our population that are simply wired that way, and no amount of “reprogramming” is going to change them. They SHOULD be encouraged to challenge the new frontiers. The other side of that is that those who leave Earth to go elsewhere will toughen the breed. Those left behind will not advance as quickly as the ones who go out and explore. He believed that those who never face the raw, unforgiving nature of a space frontier are far more likely to embrace socialism, authoritarianism, and conformist rules. (LA Public Library)

The end of the meme says, “That’s the only future I’m interested in.” That seems to be exactly what Heinlein feared, doesn’t it? Because the future I’m interested in includes infinite possibilities. There’s room for those who want to be home bodies, and those who want to explore. For the gardeners and the hunters. For the thinkers and the doers. The burger flippers and the rocket scientists. We need them all, and more. I want to know what’s in the deepest parts of our oceans, and I want to know what’s on that watery planet at the very edge of our telescopic vision. I want to meet aliens, and I want to be at peace with folks at home.

I want all the futures. I’m interested in every single one of them. From AI to pollinators to satellites. All. No boundaries. 🙂

The big noise I hear from the Left is, trickle down economics don’t work. They cite a lot of stuff (Grok can give you a whole explanation, if you care to read it), mostly that cutting corporate tax rates doesn’t stimulate the economy because corporations then invest or spend the money on their executives, and that it “exacerbates inequality.” While I can agree with the idea that a good, effective fiscal policy should include incentives, fiscal sustainability, and broad opportunities rather than just trickle down, I don’t want to throw away the baby with the bathwater.

I look at the shenanigans going on in New York right now, and I can see that at least SOME trickle down works. It seems Mamdani was expecting the “rich folk” to stay and pay exorbitant taxes. When they left, their trickle stopped, and now Mamdani is upset. He ran on the idea of free childcare, free buses, and a bunch of other “free” stuff. The problem, of course, is that none of those things are free. They all require the work of other people, something socialists tend to forget about when they calculate how much to pay for things. Someone’s labor is worth dollars.

Now, please understand me… The person flipping your burgers is giving you labor, too, and that person is worth dollars. Right now, it appears that most people agree (and more importantly, the corporate overlords agree) that their worth is about $15 per hour. That appears, at least for now, to be sustainable for McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and the other burger conglomerates. This is (at least in my state, where the legal minimum wage is $7.25/hr) a decent wage for someone working in food service. Having worked at a McDonald’s in my youth, I can tell you that the training is excellent, the work is hard and exhausting, and the take home pay isn’t too bad. For a youth it’s excellent, and for a young adult it’s truly a living wage if you’re working full time.

One of the big issues I have with some capitalists is that they don’t appear to value the labor of those who are “below” them… the burger flippers, the guy who cleans the bed pans, the gal who greases the gears at the factory. Now, I’m not saying that low skill jobs should be paid the same as high skilled ones (whatever the skill may be). Making burgers is not nearly as complicated as making precision ball bearings (one of the local companies that hires young adults in my area of the world makes these, and provides training AND education to their workers, so that they can improve and better themselves while also doing a good job). Making precision ball bearings with a machine is not as complicated as making a plane engine. Making a plane engine isn’t even close to being as complex as making a rocket engine. And so on. There are tiers, and multiple factors do need to be taken into account… not the least of which is the idea of whether anyone would be anything but mildly inconvenienced by the disappearance of said job. If burgers stopped being made, people would eat at home, and probably gripe less and lose some weight. If precision ball bearings were to stop being made, planes would cease to fly in the sky, and many of our very important machines would stop working. And so on. Some jobs are worth more than others (which, I will also add, is not the same as saying the people in those jobs are worth more or less), simply due to their nature.

But I digress. We were talking about taxing the rich. Oh… no, taxing the ultra-rich. So here’s the thing: the rich (millionaires, for instance) are not the middle class they once were. Largely, they are not paying as much as they did. The ultra-rich (the billionaires, and our one trillionaire) are paying considerably more than their fair share of taxes in the world. Of course, that depends on what you consider fair. Some on the Left consider a 90% tax rate to be perfectly fair of a share. I do not.

In our country, the rich and the ultra-rich pay a lot. “High-income earners contribute the vast majority of U.S. federal income taxes. The top 10% of earners pay roughly 71% of all individual income taxes, while the top 1% alone accounts for approximately 38%. Overall, the top 50% of taxpayers contribute over 96% of the total income tax burden.” (NTUF) A few years ago, Elon Musk paid over $11 BILLION dollars in taxes, which is equal to 0.15% of our country’s budget. A single man. I think that’s considerably more than his fair share.

Now go look at the image above. By making the numbers look incomprehensible (and yeah, they ARE incomprehensible except for a few math geniuses), they make it scary. That makes it easier to get their ideology across. They present it in such a way that it sounds like a) the super rich are not working people, b) that taxing the super rich doesn’t affect other working people, c) that not taxing the super rich means you’re not investing in working people, and that d), all of this means our democracy will die. Because we didn’t tax the ultra-rich.

Fear is a great motivator. Part of the problem we’re seeing now is that, even when people on the Left start to figure out that they’re being duped, the fear kicks in. It’s incredibly motivating. I still get caught in some of the fear traps the Left tosses out, until I go investigate. The problem, of course, is that a single human being simply cannot investigate all of these things. Even doing a few is exhausting and draining.

In the same way Trump overwhelmed the Left’s social media machine in the first few months of his Presidency, by simply being a few steps ahead and tossing out media land mines as he moved, he was able to make certain they were always hours or days behind. By the time they caught onto something, he was already three memes ahead. Well, they’re doing that with fear. They’re chumming the waters of social media with fear bombs. Yes, I can look some up and dismiss them. But I just don’t have TIME to look them all up. And just enough of them have the potential to be real (or have portions of them that are based in reality) that you can’t just write them all off. So what’s a girl to do?

I rely on media that I trust, which is hard, because I just went through the whole “the entire media is lying to me” lesson. But I … trust but verify. When I can. And when I can’t, I move on.

So here’s the thing I keep reminding myself of. Our parents and grandparents and greats, they didn’t have access to the news we have. They lived very different lives, and in some ways, very much happier lives. The problems they had, they didn’t have to do with Iran or Iraq, or mass shootings, or kids eating Tide pods. The reason was, they didn’t KNOW about those things. They only knew what they read in the paper, and unlike the internet, the paper only has so much space. Only the most interesting and useful news goes into them. All the petty stuff? You might occasionally get a special edition on a Sunday that dealt with it, but not everyone read the Sunday paper for just that reason.

So I limit how much “news” I read. I can’t vet it all, so I only read what I can vet. I don’t stress out if I don’t know everything. I share interesting news at breakfast with the family, and they share their interesting stuff. Each of us likes different things, so we get a nice cross-section of the available news of the hour. It’s enough.

And when people ask why I’m not outraged over the fact that the ultra-rich aren’t being taxed until they decide to play Gatsby and stop working altogether? I tell them I don’t know those things, because I’m reenacting or sewing or working in my garden. M’kay, thanks.

President Trump is an incredible force for good, in my opinion. I’ve watched him troll the Left while he does amazing things for our country. He’s been shot at too many times to count, and yet still gets up there without being in a bullet-proof bubble (probably to the upset of his security team). He’s not afraid to tell it how it is, in plain language that anyone can understand. He’s blunt as a brick (which is good and bad in turns, but the end result is, imo, good).

Mister Trump is something different. Mister Trump puts himself and his brand ahead of the well-being of the country. He thinks of himself first, and the United States second. He gets bored or frustrated or angry at having to follow rules he doesn’t like, and attempts to skip the line using his prestige, name, and influence. He’s always been like this, and it was not my problem when he was a private citizen. But right now, he’s doing it while in office, and he’s muddying the waters. NOW it’s my problem. And yours.

I have stated, and will continue to state, that I support President Trump. I have largely liked his policies, supported the platform he ran on, and find him to be an effective President. But there are moments when he seems to stop being Pres. Trump, and goes back to being Mr. Trump… except he can’t do that while he’s in office. It doesn’t work. It’s not a regular job, where he can go home at night and take off the mask and just be Don the dad and husband. Being President is a 24/7 job, and you NEVER get to truly step away from it. And that’s no secret; everyone knows it, going into the job. So I don’t appreciate those moments when Mr. Trump outshines or pushes aside my President.

The most recent version of this is Freedom 250 versus America 250. Freedom 250 was created by Trump and friends in 2025, to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday. But America 250 was created in 2016 by a bipartisan group, to do the same thing. And now they’re clashing, very publicly. Technically, America 250 should be working with Trump and Freedom 250, but there are issues. A large part of those issues is that Trump touched it, and Orange Man Bad, so people want nothing to do with it. But part of it is that Trump has sort of sidled around the edge of America 250 (which was put in place before Trump’s first term, and so isn’t specifically a “fuck Trump” organization) and done things without coordinating with the group that’s supposed to be in charge.

Freedom 250 got a bunch of musicians to agree to play on the Mall in DC, who then backed out because Trump touched it. This has become a huge embarrassment for the country, in my opinion. There should have been contracts signed that precluded such things. And this is one reason why Trump’s backdoor handling of this has been less than perfect. If it had been done through the America 250 people, there would have been no option (nor an excuse, if we’re going to be honest) for people to back out of America’s birthday party.

The other side of this, is that many of us are planning a birthday party for our country while simultaneously fighting off folks who keep saying they’d rather be anywhere but here and that they hate America. It’s like having a bunch of those grumpy aunts who always show up to say bad shit at your mom’s birthday party. Who invited these folks, you want to ask. The problem is, they’re family (citizens), whether we like them or not, and so we can’t just kick them out. I don’t want Aunt Karen at my celebration, but I am going to have to put up with her and her whinging, because it’s what we do.

I need President Trump to keep doing what he’s doing. I need him to keep taking the heat and distracting the goons so that the government can get things done. It’s something he’s really good at. I need him to keep cleaning up cities, fixing national monuments, and dealing with the drug, alcohol, and mental health issues that are plaguing our cities. I need him to remember DOGE and get that cracking again. I don’t need to see reimbursement checks; I need to see him paying down our national debt. I need our men and women in uniform back home. I know he’s working on all these things and more, and I support what he’s done so far, and even how he’s done it.

But I also need Mister Trump to stop bouncing up and interfering. Every time Mr. Trump comes in, Pres. Trump has to leave, because they can’t co-exist. Until Pres. Trump is done with this job, Mr. Trump *must* take a back seat, and stay out of the way. Most of the checks and balances on our government are there for really good reasons, and if he busts them up, others will do so as well. I need him to stop giving the Dems ideas and ammo.

The fourth week of May is always a pleasant one for me. I abandon the modern world, pack up all my 18th century clothes, and head up to the Fort at No. 4 for a full week of immersion in pre-Revolutionary War British America. My first task upon arriving is always to start a fire, unless someone’s been kind enough to do so for me. Arriving on a Friday morning, as I did, I started my own fire as soon as I was able. The picture is from Friday evening, after the light failed and I was alone and finally finding a moment of peace.

That’s essentially why I like going up to the Fort. The peace just fills the place. Even when it’s busy, as it is during this time, the evenings are quiet. There’s no television, no internet (or very little), nor even any late night chores. Once the light is gone, you’re rather limited in what you can do. While I do have access to a single electric light for emergencies, I rarely use it (it’s over bright and harsh, and I have the fire, and some candles). I do read on my phone while I’m there, but I avoid the majority of social media, the news, etc. The whole idea is to envelop myself in the essence of the 18th century. It takes about 72 hours to purge myself of my modern habits, and then my 18th century self comes out of her shell.

During the time between Friday (May 22) and Wednesday (May 26), there’s a thing going on in our lower field called The Original Rendezvous. It attracts about 150 or so people, all depicting folks from the 1720s through the 1820s. They have contests for the most historically accurate set-up, cribbage tournaments, bragging contests, an amazing potluck, and so much more. I baked 18 loaves of bread on the Saturday afternoon, which was a ton of work but fairly amazing. I went and sold those loaves for $4 a loaf, and the Rendezvous folks came running to buy. Some remembered me from last year, and were ripping into their loaves the second they got them! Such an amazing feeling, feeding so many people and celebrating the trade that would have happened between travelers stopped at the Fort.

About half way through the event, I have to do laundry. This isn’t an option; I don’t have enough appropriate clothing to last a full seven days. I dress the part the entire week, even though the Fort is closed to the public on several of those days, because the Rendezvousers all stay in historically accurate clothes. So on Wednesday, I was out bright and early with soap, a bucket of hot water, and my dirty things. There was much hand scrubbing, washing, rinsing, wringing, and then hanging, but I managed to get enough things clean to make it to the end of my trip.

Of course, now that I’m home, there’s even more laundry to do. Not only am I washing all the things I wore, but also my bed things, my covers (for draping over historically inaccurate Rubbermaid tubs, for instance), and the modern clothing I’d had with me for my dinner out with a friend, and for sleeping in. Yes, in the 18th century, people slept in their shifts. No, I generally don’t, because 18th century people also dealt with a lot of bodily fluids, smells, and other stuff that my modern feelings can’t deal with. That and the idea of a spider getting into my kit while I’m asleep just skeeves me out. LOL! So I have modern sleeping things. I also use underwear, which they did not (at least nothing like we have today), and I’m thankful for that modern underthing which makes my life so much better.

My only other modernity that I always wear is my glasses. While they did have some glasses in period, I don’t have any at the moment (soon, hopefully), and so I just wear my modern ones. Not cutting one’s fingers off while cooking, and not slicing one’s foot off while using an axe are much more important to the Fort and myself than the historically accurate blind bumbling I’d do without my glasses. Still, I plan on getting some more accurate glasses made in the next year or so. While I won’t be purchasing from Townsend, they do have a good image of them here.

Chris also joined me at the fort, which was fun. He now has more accurate pants and a good hat, and I’m working on his vest and shirt. After that, it’ll be moccasins for his feet.  Yes, I’m standing on a high step and I’m still shorter than him in the photo. I’m short. He spent his time in the joinery, working on a bench for use at the Fort. We have some slabs with raw sides, leftovers from his work with the chainsaw sawmill, and those are being flattened and smoothed, and will get four legs put into them. Rough benches, indeed, but definitely historically accurate. He seems to be enjoying working with the hand tools, and it was fun watching him interact with the school kids who came through.

I had long talks with a variety of people while I was at the Fort, all enjoyable. I’ll be going up there to teach bread baking classes again, something I really enjoy doing at the Fort. I’ll also be attending the French and Indian War this coming weekend (June 6/7), if anyone’s local and wants to come find me. I’ll be with the Pequawket Alliance outside the palisade, being a citizen of New France that weekend. After that, it’ll be a while before I’m staying overnight there again. I have a lot of work to do with library presentations and ren faires through the rest of the summer. I’m truly hoping to get some writing time in for my new 18th century cookbook, because I haven’t been able to make the time yet this year. It’s been crazy busy!

The end of my week at the Fort was on Friday the 29th. I was sad to go, but mightily glad to get back to modern showers. I can live with no electricity for most things, and it doesn’t bother me at all. There’s just something about showers, though, that make everything else better. While the Fort does have an emergency shower behind the blacksmith forge, it’s cold water only, and quite… bracing. I did use it once, when the day got up to 86*F, and it was nice to be clean but I think the neighborhood was aware of my shenanigans because I squealed when that icy cold waterfall hit my tender flesh. LOL!

Being at the Fort let me shut down a lot of my inner squirrels. I was able to focus better, breathe deeper, and sleep well. My only issue was that the rope bed I use was badly in need of tightening. Chris and I did get it done on the Friday right before I went home, and we took in over a foot of slack in the ropes! The entire bed is much more solid, and I can’t wait  until I get the chance to sleep in it again.

Even loose, the rope bed with feather ticks (two!!) on top is ridiculously comfortable. I just got tired of swaying when getting in and out (the ropes hold the bed together, so it’s important to keep it tight), and the dip in the center. Now, it’s much more pretty to look at, without the swayback feel to it.

I’ve been home long enough to have recovered from the pack and unpack of the event. I’m missing the quiet of the Fort, but quite enjoying the television and social media. Well, some of it. I think what I miss most, though, is being able to step out of my front door and see the Milky Way, and all the stars and planets hanging above me. My home has too much ambient light to see much in the sky beyond the moon and brightest of the stars. But up at the Fort? You can see SO many stars. It’s gorgeous. I had a great view of not just the moon, but also Mars, Venus, and Jupiter bright in the sky. It was absolutely impressive.

A lot of people like to whinge on about how much money Trump as made while in office. I generally ignore those folks. I look at the career criminals politicians like the Clintons, Obamas, and even the newer ones like AOC and such, who have made boatloads of cash while in office, and I don’t care if Trump has some stuff going. What he isn’t doing is taking a salary from the American people. What he isn’t doing is backstreet trading. I can live with it.

And then I run across this gem (H.R. 1761, designed to get a Trump faced $250 bill released). I have one word for this: NO.

When we founded this country (you know, 250 years ago, the very thing we’re celebrating this year), our Founders decided that we should not at any time have living presidents on currency. They had a lot of reasons for that, but the biggest was to avoid the appearance of America being a monarchy. Washington refused several times to be on coins. A law forbidding the minting of coins with living persons on it was enacted in 1866 (just after the Civil War ended). In practice, we didn’t even see a coin with a dead president on it until 1909, when they minted the Lincoln cent (for his 100th birthday).

Has the law been broken? Well, yes and no. It hasn’t been broken, in that no one has minted a coin with a living person’s image on it without permission of Congress, so no law was broken. Congress has given permission a couple of times. The first time was Calvin Coolidge, who was president during the Sesquicentennial (Cited from: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ever-wonder-why-only-dead-presidents-people-are-on-u-s-coins.261976/) or 150th anniversary of our country’s founding. He didn’t take center stage, but shared the coin with George Washington, and was behind Washington in the actual imprint.

The other notable exception was that the treasury minted a JFK half dollar only a year after Kennedy’s death. But he was still dead.

I know Trump thinks the world of himself. He’s very self centered, while still being able to be a decent leader. I like that he has used his strengths to make our country better. While I don’t think that his face on legal tender will make the country fall apart, I do FIRMLY believe that our current laws should be left the hell alone. HR 1761 wants to abolish the rule stating only dead presidents can be on currency, while also putting Trump’s face on a $250 bill.

As I said on FaceBook when a friend brought it up, “I like Trump just fine, but I also like that we don’t put living presidents faces on money, even commemorative stuff. This is not a good thing imo. And the easiest way to tell that this is not a good thing is to ask myself, would I want a Democratic president to do this? The answer is no. I don’t want to have the face of a living Democratic president on money that might pass through my hands. Now I know we can say that it’s unlikely that I will ever hold $250 bill in my hand, but it is what it is. This is not a precedent or a law that I would like to break. It’s a bad idea.”

Look, there are a lot of things we could be doing. I, for one, would like to know what DOGE is doing right now. I’d like to get our men and women out of Iraq. I’d like to see us move to a peacetime setting at home (as much as is possible). Let’s focus on fixing the education system. Work on the economy. Release the Epstein Files. There’s SO MUCH he and the government could be doing.

Instead, now he’s bugging Congress to turn over long-standing stuff that has good reason to be there. Is this really the moment we want to talk about putting living faces on currency? Why? I have to ask: what is it being used to distract from? Argh.

If we want to truly commemorate our country’s 250th birthday, fine. Let’s issue a 250th coin or bill, sure. But why not use names that were a PART OF that amazing day? People who’ve never made it onto currency before? Betsy Ross. Nathaniel Greene. James Forten. James Lafayette. It’s not like there aren’t a TON of people who were integral to the founding and formation of this country, who could grace a coin or bill. Sigh… I do not like this hill, and I am not willing to die on it. But I’m also ridiculously tired of reporting people who are saying that since only dead people are on money, they should off Trump. Because frankly, that’s the next step in this. And I DO NOT LIKE IT.

I worked at NHRF for two weekends, and they were so different from one another it’s hard to even describe.

Our first weekend, Saturday was raw. The high for the day was 56*F, and let me tell you, it was raining buckets. So it was cold, wet, and miserable. It’s not often I call uncle, but at the end of the day on Saturday, I begged my sweetie to take me home. We drove back an hour and a half so we could shower, warm up, have a hot drink, and sleep in a warm bed rather than our cots. Luckily our canvas tent is extremely well made. No leaks, not even a minor one. Could we have stayed? Sure… but I wouldn’t have been in a great place to work on Sunday.

Saturday, the Blue Haired Fairy worked for me. Sunday was supposed to be a repeat. But after all the rain and misery, both BHF and girlfriend were miserable, and coming down with something. They left, and I ran the booth, while also trying to do garbage runs and fetch water at faire. Not a great combo (there’s a reason BHF does it at this fair). I managed, but barely, and I was grumpy a lot of it. I tried not to let it show to patrons and fellow vendors tho, and definitely not to my volunteers.

I was down volunteers, too. I should have had 8 for the first weekend, and had 6. That’s not an undoable number, though. I remember the days when it was just me and one other person. I did that for 2 years… but the fair was also much smaller as well. Frankly, I should have a staff of 12, so I can have shifts. As it is, these amazing folks worked from about 8am until 6pm, basically non-stop. And I did mention, they’re volunteers. Because NHRF is a charity, all our scut work teams run on volunteers. There are very few paid positions, and those few are only paid gas and essentials. We give our money to the food bank and meals on wheels (which in our area does a lot of work with veterans and cancer patients). So these guys did this heavy, taxing work, for hours, in the cold and wet… because I say nice things and gave them plastic volunteer cups and 3D printed cauldrons (thanks Chris!). They’re amazing.

Second weekend, it was in the 80s both days. People who didn’t come in the rain ended up coming Saturday. We usually get about 3800 to 4000 people a day at NHRF, with a rain day being considered good at 1800 (which we met this year on the rain days). On Saturday, we had 5600 people walk through our gates. Well, 5600 paying customers (we don’t count those who have free passes). I cannot even begin to tell you how busy it was. It was insane.

So my group is the General Team. We are responsible for making sure there are garbage cans with bags at regular intervals, that those trash bins don’t overflow and are taken to our dumpster as they fill up… and getting big bottles of water that we have at the various stages and performing areas, for those who need it. It might be a bit warm, but it’s wet and it’ll keep you from getting dehydrated, and it’s free. We do several other things as well, but those are the two big ones.

On Saturday at about 12:30pm, our fair ran out of garbage bags. I found out at 12:40pm. I contacted “our guy” who made an emergency trip to get more, but it took time. At 1pm, while our guy was still out and about trying to find the right size bags, we discovered two more things. First, we were out of water (and that means water for our “green room” that provides food, water, and help to performers and vendors and volunteers), and second, the health inspector showed up unannounced. As the trash barrels overflowed and people just started dumping trash everywhere, the inspector was talking to my immediate boss, who was trying to distract the inspector long enough for the team to be back in production.

I split my team of 5. We three ladies did trash, and the two guys did water bottle delivery. We smashed it, and got everything done, and all the gross trash picked up. By end of day, all was in good stead, and we retired to a nice meal with friends at a restaurant. But the day… oy vey. At one point, I was dealing with a very large bag of trash with no wagon or wheelbarrow to help, so I had to drag it. I was not strong enough to lift it. But the bag broke, and I had a snail trail of icky juicy garbage to clean up. Friends showed up at that moment, aghast, and I just laughed. This is what I do for NHRF. It’s honest work, and it helps my community, and as gross as it was, it’s worth it.

We beat all our attendance records this year. Our little fair, in its 21st year, has grown in size several times since I joined it, and had grown long before I arrived. We’ve been well supported by the community, too. They know their “fun” dollars go right back to their neighbors in need, and that we have an incredibly small overhead because we all watch out for one another.

Working for NHRF has taught me a lot of things. It’s taught me that there are some people who you just have to shake your head and walk away from. It’s taught me that I have inner strengths I never dreamed I’d have. I’ve learned how to be an effective leader, which still blows my mind. I have a huge group of people who do dirty, filthy things, deal with port-a-potty hazmat situations, stinky garbage, irate patrons… all because I thank them, feed them at times, and give them trinkets. They come back to work on MY team, year after year. It makes me proud… and humble.

I often quote some anonymous person who said, “There are no bad employees, only bad managers.” While that’s not always entirely true, I can say with authority that good managers (or bosses of any kind) can make you stay and WANT to stay even when the job itself sucks donkey ass. Working on my team is like that. We deal with all the crap no one else wants to, and we do it efficiently and quickly. Most of the time, no one even notices us doing our jobs, which means we’re doing it right. If my team fails, that’s on ME. I strive to learn things every year. And I hear from my team members every year, over and over, “We love working for Allyson. She’s amazing!” I suffer from enough impostor syndrome that I struggle not to negate their statements, but I keep my mouth shut. Not today, Satan! This year, one of my hardest workers had a new job he started only 3 weeks ago. He told them coming in, “I work for NHRF as a volunteer, so I cannot work these days.” Luckily, it’s a local business, and they know how much we do for the locals. He had to work one of the days (farm with an emergency trumps everything) but was there the other three. And he worked his ass off, laughing the whole time.

Did I mention we do all this while dressed up as Vikings, medieval ladies, and in one notable case this year, a lady gnome with a tall red conical hat and a beard? LOL… My team interact with patrons as we go about our work, and people recognize us as staples at the fair. There are a ridiculous amount of photos of “people hauling garbage” because we do it in character and with good attitude.

My fair ended with a quiet Sunday evening. I had Chris pick me up Monday after most people were already off site, so we didn’t have to muck about with backing the trailer up. I slept like a log after sitting around a quiet last fire with a couple of friends still on site. We talked politics. One is Libertarian (big L), and one is “middle, independent” but not suffering from TDS. It was interesting talking. Big L was concerned about the ongoing police action (as am I), supportive of infrastructure fixes (East Wing, Reflecting Pool, etc), and mixed over various health policies. Middle independent was all over the board, but not stupid about anything, and listened when I explained a couple of things. I gave her some stuff to go look up, and she did just that when she went back to her car for the night. It was… nice. Three different political views, all talking honestly, giving facts and opinions (clearly stated), and receipts as necessary. I wish all my political discussions were like that, because while we didn’t agree on everything (even vehemently disagreed on a couple of things), there was no rancor, no drama. Just discussion, and an exchange of information for future thought. As it should be.

On Friday, I go to the Fort for a little over a week. I’m looking forward to that, though I’m more looking forward to a few nights in my own bed, stretched out and not worried about tipping my cot over or freezing because I got the zipper stuck on my sleeping bag. LOL… Oh, and btw, the featured image is one I took of our faire on the first Friday evening, before all the rain started. Not everyone is set up yet, but you can see the line of canvas tents across the top of the lake. One of those is mine. My “home away from home.”