Mr. Toy's Mental Notes

CBS News posted this brief news item on Facebook: "World War II codebreaker Julia Parsons died last month at 104 years old. She was part of an all-woman team unscrambling messages to and from German submarines." When I was a kid, a common topic of adult conversation involved things that happened "during the war." Mostly they talked about everyday things that happened on the home front, like where they lived, who they knew, how they used gas ration cards, that sort of thing, as if it happened yesterday. I was fascinated by those stories, and it prompted me to learn everything could about WWII. Today there's almost nobody left to tell those tales.  The last civil war soldier died in 1956, at age 106, just three years before I was born. We think about the civil war as ancient 19th century history, but many people who were there lived through the first half of the 20th century.  Lately I've encountered several young people who are very interested in 1960s cu...

During the past week I've read several posts and comments on Facebook praising Elon Musk for uncovering and eliminating waste and fraud in the federal government. They range from simple expressions of gratitude to positively giddy but unsubstantiated pronouncements that Elon has found huge savings, or exposed massive fraud. Slow down. Musk's so-called "Department Of Government Efficiency" has only been operating for a few weeks. Its staff of around 100 people with little or no government experience hasn't had time to really get to know their way around the massive federal bureaucracy and learn what these agencies actually do, much less determine what is meat and what is fat. Yet from day 1, they've been firing government employees right and left and proudly telling everyone they've already saved us billions of dollars. I see no evidence that DOGE has uncovered any waste or fraud as they claim, though it is possible they may have stumbled on some by acci...

  I'm starting to see a common thread among Trump/Musk ("Trusk") supporters who are letting an unelected billionaire from South Africa dismantle government agencies without going through Congress. They justify this because they are all convinced that Congress has been so thoroughly corrupted that it can't do anything in the public interest anymore. There is a nugget of truth at the core of that perception. Congresscritters, particularly the Republican variety, have for the most part become so dependent on campaign donations from giant corporations and billionaires that they are indebted to them for winning their seat and keeping it. Bernie Sanders built a substantial following by pointing this out and he attempted to correct it. Bernie was somewhat successful.  Democrats are now less dependent on big money donations thanks to the grassroots organization Act Blue which makes it easy for Democrats to receive large numbers of small donations from individual citizens. ...

Sing to the tune of My Boyfriend's Back . It might help if you have a backup singer, even if she's only in your head. If you don't know the tune click here . ___________________________ He went away yet he hung around And he lied to us every day Insisting he had really won And did things that weren’t very nice The Donald’s back and he’s out for retribution He lied, they lied, the Donald’s back He’s so pissed off he’s gonna change the constitution He lied, they lied, the Donald’s back He’s been spouting words that were not true He lied, they lied, the Donald’s back His minions now are comin’ after you He lied, they lied, the Donald’s back Hey, he thinks the deep state’s real And that Putin’s the real deal He was out for four short years He lied, they lied, the Donald’s back Now he’s back and stoking people’s fears He lied, they lied, the Donald’s back You’re gonna be sorry that you gave him your vote He lied, they lied, the Donald’s back ...

I have a question for Trump voters. What did you vote for? I'm assuming most of you are fine upstanding citizens who want what is best for our country. You believe in the United States Constitution, and you want to uphold its principles. But from where I sit it looks like you voted, perhaps unwittingly, for something very different. To me it looks like you voted for... A con man,  A narcissist,  A bad businessman, A fascist, A crook, A puppet of Vladimir Putin, A liar, A vulgar man, A sex offender, A convicted white-collar criminal. A bully, I could go on. At the same time you're probably wondering why I voted for Kamala Harris. It's because I saw her as... A strong woman,  An intelligent woman, A competent woman, An honest woman, A woman who can stand up to bullies, both foreign and domestic, like Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump, A compassionate woman, A woman who has a good sense of humor, A woman who knows when to be tough and when to be gentle, A woman who embodies ...

So another Car Week has come to and gone from the Monterey Peninsula. And as usual the community is divided into two camps. On one side we have people who are frustrated with the traffic, crowds, and noise. The other side is telling these folks to stop whining because "it's good for the economy." The second group has no sympathy for the first, and often goes as far as telling them to move away if they don't like special events and the tourists that come along with them. How did this come about? Car week evolved slowly over several decades. The core event is known as the Concours d'Elegance (which is pronounced properly by maybe half of the local population). The Concours began in 1950 as a single Sunday display of classic automobiles. I remember going there as a kid once, after Sunday School. I watched my dad run his hand over a smoothly polished fender, so I did the same. Suddenly a very cranky man came up behind me saying "NO, NO! FINGERPRINTS!" as...