Tuesday, June 03, 2025

"A challenging orange sunflower above the green lawn" at least four times, hmmm.

"She read Een Zomerzotheid by Cissy van Marxveldt no less than four times. While in hiding, Johannes Kleiman took his daughter's books for her."

https://research.annefrank.org/en/onderwerpen/58b5fe11-0b39-46e0-809e-1e1a5eccb1e7/

EEN ZOMERZOTHEID - Hoofdstuk I.

A SUMMER FOLLY by Cissy van Marxveldt

Chapter I.

‘Weet jij misschien wanner Pit komt?’ 

‘Do you know when Pit is coming?’

vroeg Lenie Marees, en ze schoof haar stoel wat Dichter onder de tuinparasol, 

asked Lenie Marees, and she moved her chair a little closer under the garden parasol,

die als een uitdagende oranje zonnebloem boven het groene grasperk stond.

which stood like a challenging orange sunflower above the green lawn.

🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

‘Geen idee,’ zei Dot, die, buiten de schaduw van de parasol gezeten haar zigeunergezicht onbekommerd aan de zon blootstelde.

“I have no idea,” said Dot, who, sitting outside the shade of the parasol, exposed her gypsy face to the sun without a care in the world.

‘Pit komt altijd, als je haar het minst verwacht,’ vond Mia van Langen. Ze legde haar kleine blanke handjes achter haar hoofd, strekte haar beenen ‘Kinderen, zalig is het hier.’

‘Pit always comes when you least expect her,’ Mia van Langen thought. She put her small white hands behind her head, stretched her legs. ‘Children, it’s wonderful here.’

‘Ja, stel je nu voor de stad en de dampende grachten,’ zei Lenie.

“Yes, now imagine the city and the steaming canals,” said Lenie.

Dot grinnikte. “t Lijken wel paarden. Die vergelijkingen van jou altijd..’

Dot chuckled. “They look like horses. Those comparisons of yours all the time...”

Lenie glimlachte. ‘Och,’ zei ze vaag. ‘Jullie snapt me wel.’

Lenie smiled. “Oh,” she said vaguely. “You understand me.”

Wonder if they have a lot of renters, too, like Germany has?

"Dutch person teaching an American how to be emotionless"

@let'sdoubledutch

https://youtube.com/shorts/Jet_DRQpioA?si=Uepa4eSqxomsVlYD

This has been a pleasant afternoon!

"Dutch guy gives a speech to the shareholders 🫠"

@letsdoubledutch

https://youtube.com/shorts/Apizcvy8FMY?si=YdrocZZCoaO5kbXE

Dat is goed nieuws!

https://www.heardutchhere.net/shortGuide.html#welcome

New favorite language learning resource:

"Short General Guide to the Hear Dutch Here Website"

https://www.heardutchhere.net/shortGuide.html#welcome

Yawn more.

 


Oh, to be more like the cat!

She has a nice life, and she doesn't let the world's prejudicial attitudes get her down at all!

How can it still be so? It's not easy to understand.

It's really hurtful to know that some people will still go along with repeating old, discriminatory, harmful patterns just because they have such low expectations that repeating the old patterns is what feels safest to them.

Ego!

"New Federal Employees Must Now Write Essays Praising Trump's Policies"

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-administration-federal-employees-merit-hiring-plan-2080139

How pathetic is this?

"In January NASA was ordered to remove mentions of 'anything specifically targeting women (women in leadership, etc)' from its website. The Pentagon has deleted online many mentions of female military members who made history. Even a dead woman is still a threat: the Arlington Cemetery website has erased pages on female veterans."

~ Anna Funder

Trump’s Orwellian Erasure of Women | TIME

https://time.com/7284644/trumps-erasure-of-women/

Desperation! What will happen If there's real change?

Don't be so desperate to fit in with the racist, sexist, shallow, materialistic people in exchange for a false sense of security. There's all kinds of people in the world who are really truly desperate. 

Who feeds your dad and your mom?

How many people get to be the pampered and sheltered supporters of greedy white men this time around?

I'm definitely not turning myself into a greedy white man or the supporter of the cult of the greedy white man just because that's what the very unwell patriarchy wants me to do. 

Just because your dad and your mom were trained by their cult to extract benefits by acting like the greedy selfish white men and the supporters of greedy selfish white men are more important than everyone else on the planet doesn't mean that we can all behave that way.

So Orwellian! "It's how the patriarchy creates itself."

"Trump’s Orwellian Erasure of Women" | TIME

https://time.com/7284644/trumps-erasure-of-women/

"In 'Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life,' I explore just how a woman so crucial to a man’s life and work can be erased from the story while she is alive, and then, after she dies, from history. 

And I also ask, why is it so important in our culture to disappear women from the story? Turns out, it’s how patriarchy creates itself. Erasing women makes men into the main characters in life and in history, and women into supporting cast, or caste."

~ Anna Funder

Surely, since we can, we'll get better!

A lot of disgusting things have been happening.

"But this is much bigger than me. This is about whether we will allow the President—any president, of any political party—to criminalize criticism."

~ Miles Taylor

"I Criticized President Trump. He is Accusing Me of Treason"

https://time.com/7290536/miles-taylor-president-trump-treason/

Will things get less disgusting soon? Maybe so! It could happen!

Barely being better than this is such a low bar.

"'We love Hitler. We love Trump.' As Trump rallied in Grand Rapids, white supremacists chanted in Howell"

https://www.livingstondaily.com/story/news/local/community/howell/2024/07/20/as-trump-rallied-in-grand-rapids-demonstrators-chanted-heil-hitler-in-howell/74485823007/

People are really suffering. It's a real hurtful feeling to experience.

The selfishness and insecurity and low self-esteem that the unwell patriarchal culture has wanted to instill in people is really very hurtful for humanity.

That's why it's harder for women to hold on to houses...

The unwell patriarchy wants women to think that holding on to a house is more important than caring about human rights.

And maybe that's why some still seem to think that acting like houses are more important than humans / or more important than human rights is their best option?

The unwell patriarchy is a master of joyless homeownership.

...is very imbalanced one, and it is also deeply insecure.

"a culture that prizes and supports maleness and whiteness above all else"

~ Corynne Cirilli

"Women, You’re Not The Problem — Our Sexist Workplace Culture Is"

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sexism-in-the-workplace_n_5a4d556ae4b06d1621bcf9ed

Humans of all backgrounds can be very compassionate, right?

"Sen. Joni Ernst defends her 'we all are going to die' comment: 'I'm very compassionate'"

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sen-joni-ernst-we-all-are-going-to-die-im-very-compassionate/?intcid=CNR-02-0623&ftag=CNM-00-10aab4i

Things are not okay.

'The cruelty of the Trump administration, frankly, makes all of us less safe.”

~ State Sen. Becca Rausch according to  Norman Miller

"ICE defends Milford High student's arrest, touts Operation Patriot"

https://www.milforddailynews.com/story/news/crime/2025/06/02/immigration-officials-defend-milford-ma-high-school-student-arrest-tout-operation-patriot/83992688007/

Nothing is forever. That's a good thing, huh?

Some people have lost themselves and lost their way. But maybe it's only temporary. There will be more shifts and changes. It's impossible for things to just stay one way forever. It won't ever be exactly the same in the future as it was right now.

Do you have values? How do you show you have humanity?

How can it be that your desire for physical possessions or your need to guard yourself can convince you to become colder or to cut yourself off from other human beings? 

It really feels like some people are not well to me.

I honestly feel horrified because sometimes it feels as if believing that a capacity for coldness is their best or perhaps only survival strategy is what's really coming to the surface for some people right now.

It feels like the coldness is very brutal. It's this feeling that's making me look at other periods of History when people became cold and brutal towards others. 

Because coldness has happened before as a survival strategy, and it's what made people indifferent when others were being oppressed.

This has been a terrible time to be disappointed by humans.

Monday, June 02, 2025

What an apt time to know that people really do deserve better.

Sometimes I think the very best thing people can do right now is to take care of themselves as best as they can and I guess that's really the truth.

Charming! Charmant!

"In 1943, the Dutch Royal Family fled to Ottowa, Canada, to escape the war in Europe. During their stay, Princess Margriet was born in a local hospital maternity ward that was temporarily declared international territory to allow the baby to inherit her mother’s Dutch citizenship—essential to maintain her right as heir to the Dutch throne. After the war, the Royal Family sent 100,000 tulip bulbs as a sign of gratitude for the temporary extraterritorial declaration. Since then, the Netherlands continues to send a gift of 20,000 bulbs each year, and in 1953, the Canadian Tulip Festival was born."

By Sandra Wilson, USAG Benelux Public Affairs   

"Bits of the Benelux: Dutch tulips emerge with colorful history"

https://www.army.mil/article/264616/bits_of_the_benelux_dutch_tulips_emerge_with_colorful_history

Maybe these unhelpful interruptions to the flow of information won't be there in the future?

"We have deliberately taken some of our webpages offline in order to comply with Executive Orders and OSD Policy. The intent is to preserve our history, and we are working to re-publish content as soon as possible."

"Bits of the Benelux: Dutch tulips emerge with colorful history"

By Sandra Wilson, USAG Benelux Public AffairsMarch 8, 2023

https://www.army.mil/article/264616/bits_of_the_benelux_dutch_tulips_emerge_with_colorful_history

It's too bad about all the human suffering.

A lot of chauvinism and sexism is the result of both women and men feeling unsupported and disempowered enough to go along with some really unhealthy ways of getting along in life.

Anyways, back to looking at the past again.

Whether or not she actually did it, it's pretty sad that she was probably shallow enough to have done it.

"Why I think my aunt betrayed Anne Frank's family"

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/why-i-think-my-aunt-betrayed-anne-franks-family/news-story/f366224e4a5cf3ddc8d888cd9ada8adb

She was susceptible and gullible enough to go along with their ideology in exchange for some short-term gains.

Internalized prejudices and biases are really something, huh?

I wonder if my relaxed, happy cat could help me find some people who seem more trustworthy?

Prejudice is not empowering, and neither is prejudicial self-absorption.

"Immigration arrests in courthouses have become the new deportation tool, stripping migrants of a legal process

Those who have been handcuffed and taken away were attending proceedings long afforded to immigrants and spelled out for immigration judges in court practice manuals"

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/immigrations-arrests-ice-deportations-courthouse-legal-process-ice-rcna209671

How hard is it to expect better?

Some people seem to be very uncaring and self-absorbed and materialistic and selfish and also gullible in ways that are very punitive for other people and it's just difficult right now sometimes to f****** process everything.

All their ancestors were immigrants

"California ICE Agents Surrounded by Protesters Chanting 'Shame'"

https://www.newsweek.com/california-ice-agents-raid-restaurants-san-diego-2079799

Things are better over there now, maybe?

"The reason there are still Dutch royals 👑"

@letsdoubledutch

https://youtube.com/shorts/t-WQZVfS8F8?si=v7VIEqtbqGkB_JML

You get a feeling for how some people would have acted in another time.

"Over 1,500 Arrested in ICE Sweep Across Massachusetts"

https://www.newsweek.com/ice-arrests-1500-criminal-noncitizens-massachusetts-operation-patriot-2079894

That's just an older and more unhealthy attitude that seeped in somehow.

You don't actually need to discriminate against others to take better care of yourself.

"Pedals for Pencils"

"'Grace Miller started the school year at her Tennessee high school with 150 students -- all immigrants. By the end, she had 107.

“A lot of them are going to work. Some of them are facing battles with immigration, some of them are just moving for family issues, and some of them are too scared to come to school,” Miller said.

Miller, a native of Newport, Vermont, didn’t want to lose more students to immigration enforcement. So, when Tennessee legislators introduced two bills to ban undocumented students from public schools or charge them tuition, she couldn’t stand still. 'Watching that all go on, and standing kind of helplessly in the back, felt awful to put it lightly. Pedals for Pencils was our attempt to kind of take action and do something in a small way,' she said."

~ Sophia Thomas 

"Teachers launch biking fundraiser to support immigrant students"

https://www.wcax.com/2025/06/02/teachers-launch-biking-fundraiser-support-immigrant-students/

Delicious weather! 🏖️

This is fun! Glad I found it.

"Habla del clima en holandés 😁 #holandes #dutch"

@aprenderholandesconsarith

https://youtube.com/shorts/ihzq2-MVGXQ?si=LCZlKh_3jGX52gNf

Peru! Later, Texas.

Pretty picture!

"Houston family shares familial connection to Anne Frank"

https://jhvonline.com/houston-family-shares-familial-connection-to-anne-frank-p11918-96.htm

I feel glad they had a cat and tea.

"Nine o’clock Sunday evening. The teapot stands on the table. Dussel is next to the radio on the left, Mr. Van Daan in front of it, with Peter beside him. Mummy next to Mr. Van Daan, and Mrs. Van Daan behind him, and Pim at the table, with Margot and me beside him. The gentlemen puff away at their pipes, Peter’s eyes are popping out of his head with the strain of listening, Mummy wearing a long dark negligee, and Mrs. Van Daan trembling because of the planes, which take no notice of the speech but fly blithely on towards Essen, Daddy sipping tea, Margot and I united in sisterly fashion by the sleeping Boche [the cat] who is monopolizing the knees of both of us. It all looks so intimate, cosy, peaceful, but I await the consequences with horror. They can hardly wait till the end of the speech. Brr, brr, brr—they egg each other on until the arguments wind up in discord and quarrels."

The Diary of Anne Frank-II:First Love—and Finis –

https://www.commentary.org/articles/anne-frank/the-diary-of-anne-frank-iifirst-love-and-finis/

Why do some humans feel the need to abandon others? Just so they can feel better?

Maybe it's because they weren't actually feeling very good about themselves to begin with.

Yeah, this has Persecution Vibes all over it.

"Trump Is Building a Global Gulag for Immigrants Captured by ICE"

https://theintercept.com/2025/05/15/trump-ice-immigrants-deport-prisons-cecot-libya/

So much depends upon food and the production of it and the picking of it and the growing of it.

How would you even have enough energy or calories in you without the labor of others, who for some reason seem to be a lot more in danger due to racism and deportations now?

And therefore...

Of course you don't need to be greedy and racist and sexist just to fit in with whatever the patriarch-he wants you to do for the Unwell, Racist, Sexist Patriarchal Society.

Communicated.

Patriarchy wants you to think your house is more important than other people's humanity.

Sunday, June 01, 2025

Just a little over 81 years ago...

The sisters had a cat for company.

"Nine o’clock Sunday evening. The teapot stands on the table. Dussel is next to the radio on the left, Mr. Van Daan in front of it, with Peter beside him. Mummy next to Mr. Van Daan, and Mrs. Van Daan behind him, and Pim at the table, with Margot and me beside him. The gentlemen puff away at their pipes, Peter’s eyes are popping out of his head with the strain of listening, Mummy wearing a long dark negligee, and Mrs. Van Daan trembling because of the planes, which take no notice of the speech but fly blithely on towards Essen, Daddy sipping tea, Margot and I united in sisterly fashion by the sleeping Boche [the cat] who is monopolizing the knees of both of us. It all looks so intimate, cosy, peaceful, but I await the consequences with horror. They can hardly wait till the end of the speech. Brr, brr, brr—they egg each other on until the arguments wind up in discord and quarrels."

The Diary of Anne Frank-II:First Love—and Finis –

https://www.commentary.org/articles/anne-frank/the-diary-of-anne-frank-iifirst-love-and-finis/

Sigh.

It's scary, but it is true that when people make excuses for demeaning behaviors just to fit in with others, and are smaller then they needed  to be, or less honest than they could be, and they seem to think they have to act that way in order to supposedly have a good life, it feels quite wrong; it feels like it's not the path that I should be choosing to follow in this lifetime.

Wow, that's pretty good.

I know: I'll get accepting and I'll get restful and I'll get curious.

I would like to accept this situation now.

I'm helping myself. I'm getting better at it all the time. I'm getting better. I can do it. Do it. I know. I know. I know I'm getting better. All the time I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. I think I can. I think I can. I think I got. I think I can.

I have to face the facts of my situation.

I'm very tired. I'm learning how to take care of my health. I'm learning and learning and learning and learning and learning and learning and learning and learning and learning.


What's happening in Memphis?

"We speak with two brothers who are fighting Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI over its massive data center in Memphis, Tennessee, used to run its chatbot Grok. The facility is next to historically Black neighborhoods and is powered by 35 pollution-spewing methane gas turbines the company is using without legal permits. Musk says he wants to continue expanding the project.

'What’s happening in Memphis is a human rights violation,' says KeShaun Pearson, executive director of the environmental justice organization Memphis Community Against Pollution. 'Elon Musk and xAI are violating our human right to clean air and a clean, healthy environment.' His brother Justin J. Pearson, a Tennessee state representative for Memphis, says Musk is 'perpetuating environmental racism' by ignoring the wishes of local residents: 'They are abusing our community, and they’re exploiting us.'”

“'Musk Is Scamming the City of Memphis': Meet Two Brothers Fighting Colossus, Musk’s xAI Data Center"

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/25/elon_musk_xai_memphis_tennessee

Persecution, hmmm?

"She Got an Abortion. So A Texas Cop Used 83,000 Cameras to Track Her Down"

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/05/she-got-abortion-so-texas-cop-used-83000-cameras-track-her-down

Two golfballs for Christmas.

"Betting on the misogyny of MAGA, the president pushes a far-right fantasy that tariffs will restore male dominance"

~ Amanda Marcotte

"'Two dolls' for Christmas: Trump resorts to sexism"

https://www.salon.com/2025/05/07/two-dolls-for-christmas-suggestion-swipes-sexism-to-sell-tariffs/

What if?

What if essentialism and social dominance orientation and black and white thinking aren't the high forms of self-love and self-care and self-nurturing that some people seem to think they are?

"How Essentialism Affects Anti-Immigrant Prejudice"

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/us-and-them/202504/how-essentialism-affects-anti-immigrant-prejudice

Who needs a "social dominance orientation" and why do they think they need that?

 "Recall what I mentioned in my previous post with regard to social dominance orientation. Those high in SDO think the natural order of the world is to have people ordered hierarchically into “haves and have-nots”. Research shows that essentialism promotes prejudice by affirming a social hierarchy (Mandalaywala, Amodio, & Rhodes, 2018). Interestingly, some evidence shows that people can be made to reverse their essentialist beliefs (e.g. by leading the person to question the biological basis of category membership) (Landry, Ihm, Protzko, & Schooler, 2022). When this occurs, people are less likely to dehumanize outside others."

~ Abigail Fagan

"How Essentialism Affects Anti-Immigrant Prejudice"

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/us-and-them/202504/how-essentialism-affects-anti-immigrant-prejudice

What's all this prejudiced behavior about? Essentialism?

 "They are the embodiment of the intolerant phrase, 'my way or the highway.'"

~ Abigail Fagan

"How Essentialism Affects Anti-Immigrant Prejudice"

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/us-and-them/202504/how-essentialism-affects-anti-immigrant-prejudice

"People who are prejudiced are more likely to be motivated to seek cognitive closure (Kruglanski, 1990) and they have a lower “need for cognition” (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982). What this means is that prejudiced people dislike thinking extensively, and considering the 'grey areas' and nuances, and the 'it depends' parts of social life. To them, something is either right or wrong. Black or white. Psychologists refer to this as 'categorical thinking' (Nelson & Olson, 2024). They are the embodiment of the intolerant phrase, 'my way or the highway.'”

~ A. Fagan

What else could be better? Less prejudiced? Less horrible for other people who are on this planet?

Disappointed in the prejudiced ways of some people

"Prejudice against other groups is as old as humanity."

~ Abigail Fagan

"What Accounts for Anti-Immigrant Prejudice?"

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/us-and-them/202504/what-accounts-for-anti-immigrant-prejudice

Disappointment in discriminatory behaviors is still a burden.

There are some humans who got too addicted to relying on certain coping mechanisms who are still acting so unwell, and they are most definitely not the sort that you can find to be the very trustworthy kinds of people now 

And yet, they still are capable of so much better. They might become so much better before they die? They might become so much better before their next incarnation.

I am in recovery now.

I had to lie down and get very quiet.

I suddenly have so much more compassion for people who get overwhelmed by life and stress and health care issues.

Basic decency.

I feel grateful that I have met some people who were in charge of things and still knew how to respect other human beings.

Kind of like with toxic workplace situations...

Groups of people that have to act like the most selfish, self-absorbed men and women are more important than anyone else are really not healthy.

Online menu experience.

Yesterday, I thought about buying a vegan sandwich (not because I am strictly vegan) and I noticed it was literally half the price two years ago, and I did not buy the sandwich.

Decades ago and now...?

"Greengrocer Henk van Hoeve is arrested | Knowledge"

https://research.annefrank.org/en/gebeurtenissen/c86a4f1d-572c-4d3e-9cd6-5cb7d169e5f8/

“Those who were in the camps are always looking for signs that something has  changed… that the great Indifference has ended.

Sorry lad, I feel anger rising again. 

But I cannot stand the twaddle of people that just don’t care. 

Twaddle that only serves their pretence of being noble, and their egos.

There are two kinds of people. Good people and indifferent people.”

-Hendrik Van Hoeve, 'the greengrocer to the Annex’, helper, hiding provider, fighter, survivor

Quote from:

"Less a mystery solved than a scam well played" by Natasha Gerson

https://jonet.nl/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Less-a-mystery-solved-factcheck-betrayal-anne-frank-DEF-15.8.22.pdf

It's amazing how people can still get access to life's necessities

"Trump has no plan for who will grow US food: ‘There is just flat out nobody to work’

Farms rely on seasonal workers and undocumented immigrants, but the Republican’s plans to fill the gap would ‘legalize oppression’, advocates say"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/28/farmworkers-h-2a-trump-agriculture