The Little Words Mean the Most

Amy challenge haiku: Spring

 

I'd love to say sad

This tho my flab day ever

SEE crocus blooms mad!

 

Memo to a client, re: their high-performing PRINT donor newsletter, written in-house

 

Client asked: Can you review this by April 5, 2022?

 

Answered: YES!

"Starting to look at it -- with pleasure -- now

">>> by the way, [fill in miraculous fundraiser's first name here], thank you for supplying me with data especially, on how past issues have done: in one sense, that's what matters most: i.e., Did this print newsletter that you invested in and took a chance on ... did it in fact do its job(s)?

"You're rare, [miraculous fundraiser's first name here] ... because so many charities I encounter do NOT track results carefully and thus really have no idea what's working and what's not ... hence, in truth, down the road, for years, leaving loads of EASY money on the table ..."

PS: bless the marine mammals

 

Emotionally timid fundraising raises fewer $$$ for mission

 

just saying

 

over and over > starting with Sim One

 

for decades

 

with continents of proof

 

 

 

Today in the news: I have my unreal world, my ideal world, my small real world

 

In reverse order...

My small real world:

I do the best I can with what my precious Sim One taught me to do over 37 years > try to help any worthwhile NGO ASAP if they ask (and are progressive).

My ideal (prayer), today?

That in today's awakening America, current Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, doesn't get mauled on day 2 by the worst, slavering pigs of the Republican Senate. Let's prepare: these shameless, hanging-by-their-last-mongrel-threads, definition-of-aresholes are well-disciplined ... and flaming would-be goose-steppers.

I can only hope they drop on her shoulders nothing worse than a craving later ... family and friends ... for good food and a long hot soak.

Unreal:

One man on earth has killed thousands of non-combatants in a couple of weeks.

In 2022 > not, say, 1916 > nor 1939, 1941, 1942.

And this one man will without remorse kill many more in the days to come, guaranteed. Same guy has displaced millions of Ukrainians already for personal reasons.

And yet ... right now ... there seems to be no bold answer to this one man?

We hear that military and political and diplomatic "experts" war-game all the time. So ... ummm?

Are you sure you're putting ALL your braided shoulders to the wheel right now ... before WW3 becomes a necessary evil? You know > that whole "think outside the box" thing good leaders are generally supposed to worship?

Dear experts: love you ... trust you ... kinda wondering though ... one GUY???

Sooner than later? Extraterrestrial invasion of Moscow? 5% idea?

 

Zelensky: 'Moral defeat' awaits West if it doesn't send more aid (CNN, Mar 18, 2022)

 

Zelensky is SO right

 

(history doesn't repeat... but it tends to rhyme: Mark Twain)

 

Here's the long-running ethical debate, intelligently argued in Forbes (try Googling):

Why It's Unethical To Go Back In Time And Kill Baby Hitler

...

Then there's this morning's shatteringly-awful news re: Baby Putin ~

Initial response, as I fumble my first weapon: "Tell me again: Which one's the safety and which one's the trigger? And where do I plug in these Putin-erasing projectiles?"

...

Is this Russia's top production export? World-class murdering monsters and genocide? "Have to ask, to match my yacht: Do they come in plaid (rhymes with Vlad)?"

...

For those of us just tuning into the planet's present political despair ... if you have Netflix, please watch (re-watch) the film "Munich: The Edge of War."

Putin (this latest Hitler wannabe; we've seen so many) is not a "reasonable fellow." Sociopath, psychopath, just fucked up beyond understanding? He's a true evil without values or limits or decency or morals, who stalks our world without a worry ... because the West is trying to fence him in with soft power, pretzels and phrasing; sad smiles, diplomacy and sanctions.

...

Fair question to "our world leaders who got safe C's in world history":

When do we set the clocks back to "No mercy, asswipe. Here's comes a bomb down the tallest chimney at Putin's Palace. Eat the world's contempt, Frat Boy." You're treating him like an adult. He's a lost child.

WW3 will NOT have to happen if we learn from WW2 ... and THAT particularly miserable planet-wide slippery slope.

It led to the deaths of an expert-estimated 70-85 million people (try to imagine the skulls alone) ... directly caused by an unnecessary, failed war and indirectly by starvation (at a time when the world's human population was half its 2022's scale; i.e., a lot more will die this time).

Long story short: accommodation did not work.

This is what it seems like to me butt whadda i know:

1. The first goal of Western politicians seems to be to ignore as much as possible ... while sounding attentive; to keep voters calm. (Just-add-water solution? Send WAY more arms. There are plenty of itchy trigger fingers in Ukraine NOW ... but they'll be whittled down if the West doesn't hurry.)
2. The second goal is to keep various Western national economies in decent shape. Ditto, the calm voters. (Just-add-water solution? Send WAY more arms. There are plenty of itchy trigger fingers in Ukraine NOW ... but they'll be whittled down if the West doesn't hurry.)
3. The third goal (fingers crossed on this one) is to pay attention. Never again. How many exclamation points do you need?!?!? THIS is AGAIN!!! (Just-add-water solution? Send WAY more arms. There are plenty of itchy trigger fingers in Ukraine NOW ... but they'll be whittled down if the West doesn't hurry.)

But what do I know?

I'm just an old guy in rural America who can't see straight because of Ukraine ... and while I admire what the Biden White House has done so far (and I despise the GOP for their wobbly limp-spaghetti ankles, cling-to-power-ways,  hypocrisy [oh, why bother to even point it out anymore; the GOP is the party of the past, not any reasonable future ... and A. Lincoln would be ashamed of the flagrant, self-serving Quislings they've generally become] .... ummm ... and, oh yeah, P.S. >>> the GOP's sheer blatant treachery to a young nation's flawed but aspirational founding principles and progress) ... I also believe Americas could NOW [like TONIGHT!] do EVEN more, per, e.g., the Berlin Airlift ... that was a no-fly zone of sorts, right?

Repeat:

... do EVEN more, per,

e.g., the Berlin Airlift ...

that was a triumphant

no-fly zone

of sorts, right?

 

 

New word: SPOOKEN

 

To have spoken with the deceased

 

 

Ashley advice: Today, in diary life

 

Each day:

 

2 things you're powerless over

5 things you're grateful for

2 things you did well

 

 

Manchin/Putin 2024: Better for America!

 

banner seen today on GOP headquarters

 

My 401(k) would like to say something sincerely to Prez Putin, Invader Monster::::

 

60 million hardworking, responsible US citizens

have firm, personal reasons now to despise you and your shocking recklessness in Ukraine; SO congratulations of a weird sort

 

I know: Your opponents don't vote for you.

Nor does any other honest number-cruncher. They can't know the REAL truth ... since you've murderously rigged the ballot box for a long time. In your clammy world, I'll bet that rigging elections makes you feel smart, even wise; in the shrunken empire on which you quietly fart daily, into cushions.

In fact, you're probably less smart than you'd prefer to be. Me, too. Trying to be helpful....

Yet, Vlad, you definitely ARE "next czar" material.

Question? In truth: a form of denial.

It's a form of quaking. It's a form of anxiety attack.

I'm on the field, with my high-school cheerleader pompoms lofted (thank you, Andy Card), SHOUTING at the top of my lungs from my obscure corner of the Internet: Putin is POO and TIN = nothing more than SHIT and a soft metal.

So I wrote the current president of all that's left of shrunken Russia...

Instead of a birthday gift, Vlad, I'm sending you wishes for a massive heart attack or stroke; your choice.

Tonight? Please be thoughtful ... before you kill any more pregnant Ukrainians or their newborns?

Here's my well-informed promise to you: you'll become a freak of history soon. Predictably. A bizarre not-quite-human person others can stare at and avoid.

No statues for you, Puttie. Planet Earth (for those desperate to save it) is a global enterprise now. Your border tantrum smells really bad ... for the future.

Grow ears for once.

Realize that even at their peaks Russian czars were small-timers globally. "Peter the Great" was really just "Peter, Better Than Many Other Second-Stringers ... and Yet Most of the World Never Noticed...." Same for the admirable Catherine.

------

So THAT was your nefarious plan, Vlad Pee?!?!?! To become some temp "leader" on whom massive millions of disgusted humans internationally can now happily urinate?

Wow. That's your business model?

What a goal.

What a sloppy, unplanned, I dunno, could-go-anywhere goal. A goal that effective leaders across the millennia and across continents would avoid.

Admired, effective leaders don't win (or survive long) by dropping bombs on innocents. Bomb-droppers might look like they're winning for a few weeks. BUT...

Maybe you're smarter than all of human history, Vlad Pee!!!

Still, someone neutral and analytical needs to check your military's adult diapers: the graveyard of history is full of idiots. (PS: Mr. President Vlad Pee has been nominated to the International Hall of Shame.)

China abstained, craving some temporary economic/political advantage. China waits and sees. Or maybe China and its leaders have grown too big to think straight.

Dear Vlad: Did you write about this originally in some 6th grade-essay labeled: "What do I want to be when I grow up?"

Young Putin's answer, I imagine:

"I hope to be boss of Russia one day [so stop picking on me, bullies, because I'm not THAT tall; and I promise I will destroy you years from now ... with pleasure (it's the Russian way). I'll also destroy your entire miserable family (again, the Russian way). And I want everyone living beyond my propaganda machine to hate my marrow, because they can't vote....]

"'Cause that will make my beloved Russia great again."

If you noticed a disconnect in "young Putin's" answer? Congratulations. Putin lies about everything, including his eye color.

Repulsed and despairingly yrs,

>>> tom

 

Alene is a master curator of sly online wisdom

 

Every 10 days or so, Alene V. sends her friends (incl. me) a "pity package" of daubs from the Internet. Alene (former Catholic nun, now wise Buddhist) has a uniquely discerning eye ... and shares some amazingly LOL, inspiring, relieving, thoughtful stuff, such as:

 

 

I wish you could subscribe to Alene's feeds ... but for now there is not ...