Hells bells and tortious shells as I once heard the curse.

*** Posting from me will be sparse or disjointed as will me responding to comments. More on that later ***

I had everything set up to answer all the comments I have saved. I have like 70 open tabs of all the comments I really want to read and address. I know a few have said never feel like you need to respond to me, but I really like to. I don’t have the ability to get out and see many people is because I am disabled, so I love interacting with people online. Maybe I get the community / personal interaction to them people who interact with other people get.

I also had cued up 8 tabs from Male Survivor I was trying to read and respond to. Understand that reading and responding to those posts are very draining to me. But before I could get to much of that, Ron wanted to take a walk before he went to his doctor’s appointment.

Please notice the change of color. I am very tired as I write this and Ron is cooking the supper we worked on during this crisis. But I need to get this written and eat then I fall into bed exhausted.

For weeks or months I have been telling my wonderful husband I smelt sewer shit smell. He kept telling me it was the wind on the air vent for the toilets. But it got worse and worse. So he said turn on the vent fans and see it will go away. But then it did not. I kept telling him there was a leak under the house. He was telling me I was just being reactionary … sound familiar, just what the republicans accuse the democrats of being. Turned out I was correct.

So today after he got home from his doctor’s appointment, he walked into the house a said wow this place smells like shit. I replied I kept telling you that. It did not go over well. But I convinced him to take up our bathroom floor which has a trap door to the underneath of the house. When he did that he came to me and admitted he was very, very wrong. We had a large pool of sewage under our home. Oh fuck, fuck. It appears one of our toilets has been dumping all its waste on to the ground. But worse the break was not under our second bathroom toilet. It was between the bathrooms. He would have to take up both bathrooms to fix it. Oh be still my racing heart.

I spend the entire afternoon showing him how if he had to rip up everything to fix the sewage leak, I had long been wanting a change to both bathrooms. See the second bathroom was added as only a sink and toilet but when James moved back in he needed a bathroom shower so he did not come into our room to get a shower … sometimes in the middle of us having sex. I did not mind, and James said it did not bother him, but Ron being old school was mortified. So he carved a large chunk out of our bathroom to put a shower in the “guest” bathroom.

So I have chafed about that intrusion preventing me from having the bathroom I wanted in my own bedroom. But it has been years since James moved out. I have told Ron we could have a much better bigger shower and the rest … as I have been telling him for years. But now that he has to rip it all out anyway … he suddenly seen the light. So I spent the last part of the time I have awake showing him my vision of the two bathrooms and helping him do the measurements to show I was correct. He agreed with me and that is the plan moving forward. Then he shut down. And so will I. I am going to bed. If I post it will be hit or miss or reply to comments it will be even more sporadic than what I already do. Trust me to put the comment in an open tab backed up by my computer program. I will some year get to them. Best wishes, Hugs, and lots of love. Scottie

This Post is Well Written-Enjoy!

An Autistic Quaker’s Insight: Blending Culture, Spirituality, and Rationality

I’ve Got Little To Nothing;

fortunately, Samantha Bee has more!

Charisma Alert? by Samantha Bee

Day-O! No No NO Read on Substack

Happy NOT January, my friends!

Last week I drank a coffee so strong it gave me Homelander heat vision. A beverage so powerful, that there I was, eight feet tall, head hovering above me like a helium balloon on a string, able to see people’s bones through their skin.

Bad news though; I squandered that supercharged power of sight on those hideous confirmation hearings, results TBD. There were three to watch and have bad feelings about, but I reserved most of my wrath for Bad Boy With A Sex Diary, RFK Jr. Look it up if you must, but I do not recommend it.

I DO, however, recommend reading Caroline Kennedy’s plea to lawmakers, if you haven’t already. I myself have read it ten times, and I hope it works (though I am not confident that it will.)

Also did that motherfucker really pop a Zyn DURING HIS CONFIRMATION HEARING TO BE SECRETARY OF HEALTH? So so cool. So rad. Such a steamy pile of man meat. Which brings me to my next point.

I simply cannot get over how many people are saying out loud and writing in print, and I am paraphrasing here but you get the idea: “You can say a lot of things about RFK Jr., but his charisma is undeniable.”

Pause.

It IS? His charisma is undeniable? To whom? Because actually I find it quite deniable. Thoroughly deniable.

So when you say charisma…you must mean less Han Solo, and more Beetlejuice, right? Because that guy was decently charismatic.

I mean they certainly both command attention. One for being overall revolting and a predator, the other for being a predator from the underworld, who is also revolting. I could definitely imagine both of them putting baby chicks into a blender for the pleasure of scaring teens. And they each have a kind of startling skin texture.

RFK Jr is dangerous. He is a lunatic. He doesn’t understand science, and financially benefits from fomenting mistrust around vaccines such as Gardasil, which have immeasurably helped humanity and are nothing short of miraculous. His scaly claw is hovering over the delete button when it comes to critical research funding, health care access, and… my GOD, my 75 year old father cannot be the only person with open access to Misoprostol.

At his best he does not even begin to comprehend the organizations he would be called upon to lead; his nomination to this position is a joke, and a sham, and a disgrace. He is there to break it, not to run it.

How could I trust him to handle a syphilis outbreak across the country when I wouldn’t even trust him to handle a syphilis outbreak in his own jeans.

OK. Well, we will see how it all shakes out, and good luck to us all.

To soothe my soul after the confirmation hearings I ate TWO full pastries from Librae Bakery, an epic salad from this amazing cookbook by Sohla El-Waylly, had a piping hot shower – and was pajamas up by 3:30pm.

To soothe your soul, please consider checking out THIS episode of Choice Words, in which I interview Chris Hayes and together, we basically solve the whole thing. His new book is suuuuper interesting, and we, two very needy people discussing the attention economy, are asking for your attention.

And if you are NOT YET AWARE, and what?? And HOW???? I also co-host The Daily Beast podcast with my friend, the always spicy Joanna Coles. Consider liking! Consider subscribing!

Together we are quite good at shenanigans, if I do say so. This week I indicated that I believe The New Mark Zuckerberg is the type of person who *might* recline on a surfboard in an attempt to tan his perineum, *allegedly* *possibly* *seems on brand in our new world*. How long will we be permitted to continue saying things like this? Let’s find out together.

Welcome to February.

Xo,

Sam

(snip)

More USAID staff ousted after Trump administration dismantles aid agency. Sorry just found this in an open tab. I got so flustered or tired I forgot to post it.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/more-usaid-staff-ousted-trump-administration-dismantles-aid-agency-2025-02-02/

tRump and crew are setting themselves up to be all of the government in one agency. No need to have congress, House or Senate. No oversight allowed, they will spend money as it please king tRump and co-king Musk. The House controls the power of the purse and the congress passes the laws demanding where and when money is spent by law. It is called the Impoundment Act. tRump was impeached the first time for violating it. But now that he has bought, controls the SCOTUS he is sure they will vote that king tRump and only future republican presidents. Democratic presidents will still have to follow the laws and be regulated by what republicans will demand be republican control congresses. Notice that doge asshole thugs with no security clearances forced their way into the areas threatening security with members of the Marshall service, no longer should it be considered a law enforcement but gang thugs controlled by a mob boss wannabee. Update before I posted this today, the thug in charge moved the organization illegally Hugs

Sorry I did not answer questions or anything today. I had an emergency doctor’s visit that turned out and did not mean anything bad that I know yet. It seems it will be all good yet I have not had a call from the doctor. He needed me to coming with an emergency appointment. I went in at 11 am and he told me how serious the results were. However, at the end of the appointment I left and

“DOGE did access the building yesterday,” a senior Senate Democratic aide said, requesting anonymity to discuss the incident. USAID security officers tried to turn away DOGE personnel without security clearances.

“They (security personnel) were threatened with action by the federal Marshals Service,” the aide said. Following the incident, the director of USAID security, John Voorhees, and his deputy were removed from their positions and put on leave, sources said.

===============================================================

By Jonathan Landay, Patricia Zengerle and Andrea Shalal

February 2, 20258:54 PM ESTUpdated 10 hours ago

A view of the USAID building in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 1, 2025. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon Purchase Licensing Rights

Summary

Two top USAID security officials removed after dispute with DOGE

Nearly 100 USAID staff put on leave as Trump seeks overhaul

Democrats question the legality of USAID revamp

Global aid programs at risk due to US foreign aid freeze

USAID website down, signaling potential agency closure

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) – The Trump administration removed two top security officials at USAID during the weekend after they tried to stop representatives from billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from gaining access to restricted parts of the building, three sources said on Sunday.

The action added to the dozens of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) staff being removed from their positions, as President Donald Trump’s team moves to abolish the agency’s independence and possibly bring it under the control of the State Department.

Nearly 30 career staff in the agency’s Legislative and Public Affairs bureau lost access overnight to their emails, at least five sources said, bringing the total number of senior USAID career staff who have been put on leave over the past week close to 100.

“DOGE did access the building yesterday,” a senior Senate Democratic aide said, requesting anonymity to discuss the incident. USAID security officers tried to turn away DOGE personnel without security clearances.

“They (security personnel) were threatened with action by the federal Marshals Service,” the aide said. Following the incident, the director of USAID security, John Voorhees, and his deputy were removed from their positions and put on leave, sources said.

Trump on Sunday said the agency has “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out.”

“We’re getting them out, and then we’ll make a decision,” he told reporters.

The purge follows more than a week of mayhem inside USAID, Washington’s primary agency funding billions of dollars’ worth of life-saving aid globally. Trump ordered a freeze on almost all U.S. foreign aid, saying his administration will review spending to ensure money is distributed in line with his “America First” foreign policy.

Members of the group from DOGE were allowed to access several secure spaces, including the office of security and the agency’s executive secretariat.

There was no record of what information DOGE officials were able to obtain in those areas, but the offices they accessed included classified files and personal information about Americans who work at USAID, the sources said.

Katie Miller, a DOGE spokesperson, said on social media platform X that no classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.

Matt Hopson, who had just been appointed as USAID chief of staff by the Trump administration, has resigned, five sources familiar with the matter said. A congressional source said his resignation followed the incident with DOGE officials. USAID did not respond to a request for comment about Hopson.

CNN was first to report the incident between USAID and DOGE officials.

LEGAL BATTLE LOOMS

Congressional Democrats said the changes appeared to violate U.S. laws establishing USAID and funding it as a separate agency. Two senior Senate Democratic aides said lawmakers and staff had been meeting on Sunday and would meet again on Monday to consider further steps, including legal action.

Senior Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including its chair Jeanne Shaheen, on Sunday sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio seeking an explanation over the incident. Shaheen said that she was working to gather Democrats and Republicans to ask for answers.

The global freeze on most of U.S. foreign aid is already sending shockwaves around the world. Field hospitals in Thai refugee camps, landmine clearance in war zones, and drugs to treat millions suffering from diseases such as HIV are among the programs at risk of elimination.

U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast, a Republican, said on Sunday that he would support moving USAID under the State Department and that there needs to be “more command and control.”

Asked on CBS’ “Face the Nation” if congressional approval was needed or whether Trump could act unilaterally, Mast did not answer. The “purging of people throughout the State Department, other agencies” and freezing aid were “all very important and necessary steps to make sure that we secure America,” he said.

The State Department and USAID did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, billionaire Trump ally Musk on Sunday continued to slam USAID in his posts and reposts on his X social network. Trump has assigned Musk to lead a federal cost-cutting panel with broad oversight powers. Officials from DOGE have made frequent visits to USAID headquarters in Washington, according to sources familiar with the matter.

On Sunday, Musk accused USAID of being “a criminal organization” without providing any evidence and added “Time for it to die”.

Peter Marocco was appointed as head of the Office of Foreign Assistance at the State Department and is leading the agency’s sweeping changes, according to three sources familiar with the matter. Marocco previously served in Trump’s first administration in the Department of Defense. The State Department did not respond to questions about Marocco.

USAID’s website has been down since Saturday afternoon, a sign that the end is near for the agency, whose funding goes to programs on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/AIDS treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work.

Get weekly news and analysis on U.S. politics and how it matters to the world with the Reuters Politics U.S. newsletter. Sign up here.

Reporting by Jonathan Landay, Patricia Zengerle, Humeyra Pamuk, Andrea Shalal in Washington, and Simon Lewis in Panama City; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Jarrett Renshaw and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Humeyra Pamuk, Lisa Shumaker and Sandra Maler

Who’s Boiling All This Cabbage? | Leanne Morgan

I quickly visited the Male Survivor site this morning. One of the other members posted this. I liked it, thought it was funny and true at the same time. Hugs.

Trump’s trade war with neighbours is delayed – what did they all get out of it?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c805jjk2klko

Best Wishes and Hugs,
Scottie

TIME: How Trump’s Tariffs Could Affect U.S. Consumers

How Trump’s Tariffs Could Affect U.S. Consumers
The tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico could raise the prices of everything from cars and gas to homes and food

Read in TIME: https://apple.news/Ab97nrXdgTfiiICC8_Gi84A

Shared from Apple News

Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie

Peace & Justice History for 2/4

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryfebruary.htm#february4

“This is like the Nigerian Prince on crack.”

Phishing With Elon by Clay Jones

Worse than a Nigerian prince Read on Substack

In addition to mocking people, challenging authority, and making people laugh while making others soil themselves in anger, political cartoons can be a public service. Today’s cartoon is a good example of that because every American needs to know about this shit. when I sent this cartoon to proofer Laura, she told me she was hoping I’d cover this today because it hasn’t been covered enough. Some of you, dear readers, have also posted in the comments about this issue. So, let me begin.

Elon Musk has been granted access to the Treasury Department’s payment system. What does this mean? It means Elon and his people have access to the financial information for everyone who receives payments from the federal government, including Elon’s competitors for government contracts…and even those who receive tax refunds.

This means Elon has your social security number, your date of birth, your address, your income, and if you do direct deposit with the government, he has your banking information. Elon might have your bank account and routing numbers. If you’re not pissed off yet, Elon even has access to your Social Security and Medicare accounts.

This is like the Nigerian Prince on crack.

Perhaps the only person safe from this is that survivalist living “off the grid” with a YouTube channel my little sister cites for anti-vaccine information.

David Lebryk, a top Treasury official and a non-political civil servant was put on leave and then suddenly retired on Friday after a standoff with Musk and his lieutenants. Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, gave Elon and his goons the keys to the car.

Elon is pretending he needs this access to monitor and stop government spending he deems unnecessary or corrupt. But again, Elon can’t approve or cancel government spending because he does NOT have that authority. Even Trump doesn’t have that authority.

Elmo attacked the Treasury Department Saturday, criticizing the department for not rejecting more payments as fraudulent or improper. Except, how does he know the payments are fraudulent or improper? Before last Saturday, Elmo didn’t even know what payments the government was making. Has he read every single contract the government has or just the billion-dollar contracts he has with the government?

Do you remember when the goons were outraged with the idea President Barack Obama was born in Kenya? Do you remember when the goons were upset over unelected bureaucrats?

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is NOT a government department, but a team within the Trump administration (sic). Some members of DOGE have been made employees of the Treasury Department which is very odd since Trump demanded a hiring freeze. Somehow, these new Treasury employees have all passed speedy background checks which I’m sure aren’t suspicious at all.

Other DOGE teams have begun demanding access to data and systems at other federal agencies.

One of the people affiliated with DOGE who now has access to the payment system is Tom Krause, the chief executive of a Silicon Valley company, Cloud Software Group, and is worth over $83 billion. He’s only “affiliated,” and not officially a part of DOGE. Trump is allowing billionaires to rifle through the Treasury. Has Tom Krause passed a background check?

Guess what! Surprise, surprise, Cloud Software Group, much like Elon’s companies, has contracts with the federal government. I didn’t read that in any stories about this issue, I traced it. Krause was the individual who pushed for access and was first resisted by Lebryk until his hasty retirement.

This is like the bank robbers demanding the code to the safe and the manager giving it to them while making them a cake.

Elon having anything to do with the government is a conflict of interest. Even the name, DOGE, is a conflict of interest and a violation of the Emoluments Clause. This shouldn’t be allowed.

The best information I can find for accountability for DOGE is that there are about 20 employees and its office is next to the White House in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. What I can’t find but I’m sure will turn up throughout the Executive Grift, is how much DOGE is costing us.

Elon has talked about cutting $2 trillion from government spending, but it’s always always always always Republicans who do the most spending. I get to mention Dwight Eisenhower twice in this blog because he’s the last Republican president to leave a surplus. Now, here’s Elon to help Trump trim $2 trillion when it was Trump who increased our debt by over $7 trillion.

Ike sent that budget to Congress on January 25, 1960. A Republican president hasn’t sent a balanced budget to Congress since Running Bear by Johnny Preston was the number one song. See the shit I research for you? Also, Running Bear was the kind of shit we were forced to listen to before The Beatles (Elvis was in the Army and then he started a decade of those movies).

Bessent was confirmed just last week, but did he mention handing the government’s payment system over to Elon during his confirmation hearing? Since Trump didn’t mention it on the campaign trail, probably not.

Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee said, “I can think of no good reason why political operators who have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the law would need access to these sensitive, mission-critical systems.”

I get texts and emails from scammers all the time, but I’m pretty good at spotting them, just like I’m good at spotting fake news. Some of those scams claim a package from USPS can’t be delivered, so click this link. Another will claim my Netflix payment didn’t go through, so click this link. There’s a new one claiming you have unpaid tolls, so guess what they want you to do…click this link. Then there are those gorgeous women on Facebook leaving comments on your posts telling you that you seem like an interesting person, but their friend requests won’t go through, so please send one to them. Last year, someone sent me a check for over $6,000 for me to draw them something (that one had flies on it). But all of them can only wish to be as good of a phishing scammer as Elon.

If you’re not pissed off yet, then there’s something wrong with you.

Now, someone tell Donald Trump that Elon also has access to all his financial information too.

Creative note: This blog was written at Wegmans. I found a nice quiet spot in the corner of the dining area upstairs. The location is almost hidden. I got about two paragraphs of this blog written when a lady sat one table over from me with her pink computer and started blasting videos. It was like being the only person in a movie theater and a creeper comes in and sits next to you. Actually, I think that’s how my parents met. Dad was a creeper.

Drawn in 30 seconds: (snip-go see)

Because Of Interest In Nancy Beiman,

here is this from her Substack. Enjoy!

Interview by Charles Brubaker by Nancy Beiman

This interview appeared in a small zine, and it’s appearing here as well. Check out Charles Brubaker’s LAUREN IPSUM on this site! He does everything on paper! Read on Substack

INTERVIEW WITH NANCY BEIMAN SEPTEMBER 1, 2023

By Charles Brubaker

Nancy Beiman is best known for her decades-long work in animation, having animated for Warner Bros., Disney, Bill Melendez Productions, among others. However, on December 2022, at the age of 65, she ventured into a world of cartooning she hasn’t tried yet: a comic strip. The result was FurBabies, which made its debut on GoComics.com on June 5, 2023. The strip features Kate Buffet (pronounced boo-fay), an imaginative 9-year-old girl who can talk to her pets, dogs Stella and Shawm and their puppy Sirius, and Floof the kitten.

I interviewed Nancy about the comic via email. The following interview took place between August 12 to 16, 2023, and has been lightly edited for clarity.

What were your earliest cartooning influences?

My influences in animation were Chuck Jones, Charles M. Schulz, Robert Osborn, and Walt Kelly. I loved Zoltan Grgic’s work for the Zagreb animation studio. I was very fond of the UPA style but at the time did not know any of the artists’ names.

I met two of my influences and worked for one of them.

Speaking of Schulz, I remember you discussing your work on It’s the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown (1988) and how you animated Spike for it. What was your most memorable experience on that special?

Just working on a pantomime character was a liberating experience. I asked Bill Melendez who was the lead animator on Spike, and he said “You are. He’s never been animated before!” I loved using my knowledge of silent film comedy to block action on Spike. He walked like Chaplin (with those big feet) and did deadpan comedy like Keaton. He was a lot of fun to animate. That film is the most obscure of the Peanuts specials and should not be. It combined live action and animation (with the animated characters considered a ‘normal’ part of the live action world) two years before Who Framed Roger Rabbit. But CBS didn’t see any opportunity to sell toys, and it was not associated with any holiday, so they did not broadcast it until after Roger Rabbit was a hit. The Girl in the Red Truck was there first.

While you were getting started in animation did you think of doing comics? Were you published anywhere during your early days in the field?

I never considered doing comics at any time before December, 2022.

So FurBabies really is your first in the world of comics? What was the development process like? Which characters were created first?

I first got the idea for a comic strip about a kid who can talk to her pets as family members (rather than pets) in mid-December 2022. I drew up some sketches on December 24 and got Stella, Sirius, and Shawm immediately. They have changed very little since then. Kate has changed a lot. Here are the first sketches of her.

“Catt” drawn on December 24, 2022.

Floof is adapted from a cat design that I made for an unfinished film, Old Tricks. I used only the head and redesigned a kitten body. Floof has changed a bit since then. The head was that of an adult cat; she became more kittenish and cute after I drew about 10 strips. I had to go back and redraw some early Floofs when the strip was picked up by Andrews McMeel/GoComics. Kate was the hardest to create, and she was originally named Catt. She is inspired by Pippi Longstocking and a few students I have known (and they don’t know.) I had the character lineup, with Kate as Catt, on December 23, and changed her name to Katt, then Kate, on December 29. That’s when the characters were copyrighted.

original lineup, December 29, 2022

Fuzz the Cat from OLD TRICKS © 2016 Nancy Beiman

Lynn Johnston saw the lineup on the 29th and instructed me to write 24 short story outlines, one sentence or so each, with dialogue. I got them done on New Year’s Eve. “You’ve got something. Can you keep this up?” Lynn asked me. I answered “Yes”. “Then draw 24 comics and let me know when they are done.” The first FurBabies comic strip, which is actually the first one on the GoComics site, was drawn on January 4, 2023. I used a 1926 Esterbrook “Radio” 914 pen nib once owned by Charles M. Schulz, on hot pressed Bristol board. It’s a gorgeous nib, but it is difficult to use a dip pen when you have inquisitive cats in a small apartment/studio. All subsequent strips were inked with a Pentel brush pen. All character art and backgrounds are drawn on paper, then scanned.

While we’re on art tools used in the comic, how big do you draw the strips? How do you color the comics?

I don’t draw ‘the strips’. I do rough scribbly thumbnail layouts for them, the most detailed are done for the Sundays. Each Sunday strip has a different layout. The characters and backgrounds are inked on paper, all of them separately. I use old animation paper or Italian hot press paper and draw a light rough, then ink with a Pentel brush pen. Characters can fill the entire page or be smaller, depending on the complexity of the drawing. I’ll do a drawing over if I don’t like the first one, and sometimes modify the scan in Photoshop. The backgrounds are often reused. I save each image as a 300dpi .bmp file and composite them on digital templates for 2, 3, or 4 panel strips. The digital dailies are 17 inches wide. Sundays are 24 inches wide. The finals are saved as TIFF files at GoComics’ recommended size…which means they are half to 2/3 of the size of the PDF files I work on. Only the first strip (June 5) was drawn with characters and backgrounds all on paper, like a traditional comic…I work much faster using animation methods. I use whatever works, the technology is not important.

Coloring is done in Photoshop using brushes that mimic pastel and watercolor wash. I work on top of the black line to continue the illusion that it was ‘painted’ on paper. Even the borders of the strip are ‘fuzzy’ and characters sometimes break through the panels. Sunday strips are designed to be graphically pleasing and planned on paper but still done piecemeal, animation style.

Sunday strip, December 10, 2023.

The writing method Lynn Johnson suggested, with 24 one-sentence outlines, is an interesting technique for plotting out comic strips. What’s your overall writing method like once you got your strip off the ground?

I continue to follow Lynn’s method. It’s not a one sentence log line: dialogue and location, sometimes action, is always included. I often change things when I actually draw the characters since I still think in visual story, like an animator. Lynn’s method is the best way to keep a comic on track. It shows you where you are going and what characters can do. You can change the script order before you draw the strips.

Like animation dialogue, scripts and action for the comic are often changed when I get down to the drawing. Short scripts are the best way to get a series going, to plan when new characters are introduced, and develop characters. Lynn also suggested that I use a monthly planner (a book with the entire month on one page) to plan and time the storylines. That was a lifesaver. Several storylines have been moved since I started drawing the strip in January and wintry themes were out of place in June.

You recently introduced Pratt-L, an AI chatbot Kate uses to cheat on her homework. Do you have concerns about the use of AI in creative fields? What was on your mind when you wrote the arc?

I tried out AI’s writing and art programs when they were available for free trial and found them completely incompetent. Pratt-L combines the worst features of both. It is the perfect villain for this strip since the main conflict is between organic lifeforms and technology. This conflict developed as I got to know Kate better. She was the hardest one to write for.

Some modern comics have child characters that never stream videos, play video games, or use cell phones. Tauhid Bondia deliberately set Crabgrass in 1985 before these things became common and life changed for children. Kate Buffet is nine years old, lives in the 21st century, grew up in the age of smartphones, influencers, and streaming videos. Kate is not lazy or stupid but has a quirky way of thinking that does not match what is expected of her, especially in school. She has a lot of curiosity and it’s only natural that she would try the new AI technology. She has the latest digital technology. I made the rest of the apartment furnishings very dated, to show the contrast between Kate and her parents. There are some subliminal messages (family friendly ones) in the backgrounds. For example, the refrigerator is a Calder, named after the artist. Pratt-L wants to be a friend, is completely incompetent, sometimes snarky, in need of constant approval and self-pitying (depending on what it is scraping), but not a dangerous threat the way it is in real life.

There will also be an ‘influencer’ in FurBabies. It will not be human.

AI is not a matter of concern; it is literally going to be a matter of life and death. There is a bill in Parliament recommending that it be allowed to write medical prescriptions in Canada. What could possibly go wrong? People are not taking it seriously as a threat because artists and writers are the first ones affected by it, and most people do not consider art to be a ‘real job’ (My Labor Day strip addresses that issue.) I am most surprised by artists who keep insisting that it is ‘a tool’ like Photoshop. There is a difference. Photoshop allows you to personally modify artwork and photos. I use my own photos for backgrounds, and I sometimes use pictures from the Web for dogs and cats, but always redraw and redesign what I see. Photoshop does not use a bot to ‘scrape’ material from a million other artists and then ‘create’ art which you claim as your own.

My biggest surprise is that some artists think that it is fun to play with it. I think that they are like rabbits admiring the scales on the snake that is about to kill them.

Pratt-L’s quotes are from an actual ‘robot press conference’ held in Zurich a few days before this strip was published.

There’s a strong “family” theme in your comic, with how Kate views her pets to Sirius and Floof referring to Stella and Shawn as their mom and dad. Will this dynamic be explored more further as the strip continues?

The animals are definitely a family. The Dog Family has accepted Floof as one of their members. Kate is a link between the Dog Family and the Human family; she can speak to both, but only one of them understands her. She knows that she really is not a Dog or a Cat. It’s an interesting dynamic, and since the characters generally ‘tell’ me what they will and will not do, I am not sure if Kate’s situation will change. I also don’t think the human parents will appear, except as offscreen character voices. It’s not that they don’t interact with Kate…I just don’t find them interesting enough to include in the strip. It’s told very much from the animals’ point of view unless Kate is in school without them.

June 5, 2024. The Dog Family.

Early in the run most of the strip focuses on Kate and her pets, although newer strips start to include more characters, like in the recent Scavenger Hunt story arc. In addition to Kate’s classmates you also had her interact with Little Fingers the raccoon. Will we see more of Kate interacting with other kids in her class, and more of Little Fingers and other animals Kate can talk to?

Optima “Poppy” Populare and Iris, the two girls on the scavenger hunt, are not interesting enough to do much more than snark. “Poppy” returns in school and in some Halloween strips. There will probably be a few more kids appearing later on, with their own pets, probably in the dog park or maybe in the apartment building. Little Fingers the raccoon returns in November, but he’s a wild raccoon. He won’t ever interact with the other animals.

You indicated in your newsletter that you have a backlog for your comic. How far ahead are you currently?

I am currently working on strips that will air in October. I am proud to say that not one of them involves a pumpkin! (Charles M. Schulz covered that territory very well.) I like to stay about two weeks ahead of deadlines, and originally was two months ahead due to the late start in 2023! That gave me the option of shifting the cartoons, or changing them, as I got to know the characters better. I can also take a week off without worrying about comics not appearing.

Since FurBabies is still a very new comic and I am still redefining myself as a comic strip creator, I moved story lines or reworked some existing strips after I had enough comics that showed the characters’ developing personalities. Some people who have seen months of the strips in continuity tell me that they read better ‘as a whole’ but that is not the way comics work; it’s taken one day at a time. FurBabies is not a ‘gag’ strip, it’s character driven, so there were a lot of changes. Some of the cartoons that ran in June were originally drawn for September.

Things are settling down now. Some readers are adjusting to the fact that Kate is not a ‘perfect’ little girl, she sometimes tries to cheat on homework with AI (and gives up), or that she can be a distraction in class. I finally figured out who she was when she took her burned cookies and sold them as dog biscuits. Kate makes plenty of mistakes, but she has a creative way of dealing with them.