Oh the times! Oh the customs!

"I've always been a little skeptical of people who say they don't hate other people they pity them, it's kind of self righteous like see I am above hate, and really it's a way of putting the person down even further like they are not even worthy of your hate, and the pity seems kind of hypocritical you never see the pitier slipping a fiver into the pitied's hat."

That's quite a stretch, Uncle Ken.  The word hate has been bandied about quite a bit, like the way some folks hate sports or hate fringed jackets, so I had to go and look it up to make sure my understanding of the word is sound and I found this on Wikipedia:

Hatred or hate is a deep and extreme emotional dislike. It can be directed against individuals, groups, entities, objects, behaviors, or ideas. Hatred is often associated with feelings of anger, disgust and a disposition towards hostility.

If I lack a deep and extreme emotional dislike of certain people, so what?   Hatred is such a strong emotion that I don't like taking it lightly but prefer its judicious use.  And I don't see how pity implies condescension, but then again I am often thick headed and don't understand the nuances of Uncle Ken's words, however plainly stated.  If I pity Trump for his lack of many human virtues I don't see what slipping a fiver in his hat would accomplish except leave my wallet five bucks lighter.

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The wisecracking wiseacre may have connected the dots and concluded that Trump doesn't/didn't read his executive orders before signing.  According to the NY Times, Trump was very unhappy that he wasn't properly briefed about those orders.  I must ask, if you read (or wrote) those orders, why would you need to be briefed on their contents?

Maybe the words were too big and the sentences too long.  Trump's literacy has become a trending topic and there are indicators that he is barely literate, a poor characteristic for our chief executive.  I know, more fake news but it's something that could be easily verified to put the matter to rest.  His ghost writer for The Art of the Deal suspects he hasn't read a book, cover to cover, in his adult life.  That's a scary thought, isn't it?

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Speaking of literacy, I found a curious site that analyzes your writing and finds an author match.  As a lark, I plugged in the most recent posts from each of us and this is what I found:

    Uncle Ken: Kurt Vonnegut
    Mr. Beagles: Cory Doctorow
    Old Dog: Arthur C. Clarke

I've read (and like) them all but the curious thing is that they all have a tendency towards science fiction, something I've read all my life although I listen to podcasts more often nowadays.

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Demonstrations may not accomplish much, but don't tell the Romanians.  They've been doing it for at least six days, involving hundreds of thousands of people, with little or no violence.  I don't think we could ever be that well behaved here in the US of A.