A note on this blog

I started it in 2011, because I needed a place to express myself, where eyes weren't being rolled, or people weren't shifting uncomfortably, every time I said I was upset or hurt.

Its a place I created, so I can scream, or laugh, and just be myself.

To me, its way off in the country somewhere, down a long dirt road.  There's basically no way you can find it unless you are looking for me.

I wanted it that way, so I wouldn't be afraid to say what I really felt.

And I still want it that way.

I still need it.  To express myself.  To make sense of things.  And yes, to defend myself, in a world which can be very cruel and insensitive, especially to older women, or anyone who is different, or disempowered in anyway.

Wah, wah, nobody likes a baby.  But it's true.

So, in conclusion of today's post, I say, if you are here because you are looking for reasons to hate me, or you're looking for reasons to hurt me, you are emphatically, and I mean emphatically, not welcome.

Get your own blog.  Sing your own song.  Nobody's stopping you.

And if you are afraid I am going to hate on you on these pages, may I say, watch what you say about people, watch how you treat people, watch how you treat me, watch what you say about me.  You might over look me as this quiet, non-threatening ridiculous woman who has nothing to say and no ability to defend herself or others, but that is your mistake.

:)  Peace out.

fka twigs

The Art of Dismissiveness

"Pocohantas"

"Nervous Nancy"

"Quid Pro Joe"




"Wacky" "Nut Job"  "Failed"  "Crazy"

"Miss Piggy"

"Fake"  "Very Fake"  "Animals"

Homeless Population Counts in Los Angeles County
All Los Angeles County & City of Los Angeles

Year	City of Los Angeles			All Los Angeles County
	Total	Unsheltered	Sheltered	Total	Unsheltered	Sheltered
2019	36,600	27,221	9,079	58,936	44,214	14,722
2018	31,285	22,887	8,398	52,765	39,396	13,369
2017	34,189	25,237	8,952	57,794	42,828	14,966
2015	25,686	17,687	7,999	44,359	31,018	13,341
2013	22,993	14,968	8,025	39,463	25,136	14,327
2011	-	-	-	39,135	20,517	19,176
2009	-	-	-	38,602	21,073	16,745
2007	-	-	-	52,956	39,168	13,788
2005

laalmanac.com

I was really mind blown to read this morning, that on any given night there are 36,000 homeless people in the city of Los Angeles.

How can that be?  We have a billionaire, and his amazing family, running this country...?

It's interesting to note the homeless statistics in LA County, and who was running the country at the time.

But, I know, it's not Trump's fault.  Or the Republicans.  The homeless people are shitheads who brought it on themselves. (I bet they smoke pot!)  Go Ivanka!!!  Love your work.

❤

the loudest voice - a television review (showtime)

First of all, I could watch Russell Crowe in just about anything.  When I was watching "The Loudest Voice" I was reminded that here was The Gladiator.  Enough said.  "The Loudest Voice" builds slowly.  In the first couple episodes, it was only Russell Crowe, for some unnameable reason, who kept me watching.

But everyone in this mini-series is excellent.

It is the story of Roger Ailes, CEO of Fox news and chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group. (roughly from 1996-2016)

This show is for people like me, who over the last twenty years have been confounded by seeing their co-workers, family members and others fixated on Fox News.   When Obama was president, these Fox Watchers I'll call them were always very frothy and upset.  At the time I was completely perplexed about their vehement anger, their fixation on "the left," "the Clintons," and "welfare scammers."  Even then they seemed totally out of their minds to me, and like they were projecting personal frustrations and sadness about life onto "the left," "the Clintons," "people who hate America."

"The Loudest Voice" is the missing piece.  

It tells you what Fox was doing, and why they were doing it.

Again, its probably not for anybody who has ever enjoyed Fox News.  (Sorry, you are most likely way too far gone.)

But its for people like me who've just been wide eyed and confused.

This show won't surprise you.  But you just might feel sane again. :)

Peace out, Rusell Crowe.  Naomi Watts, too, nails it.  They're all good.

Special shout out to Gretchen Carlson.  You're a bad ass and I thank you for it!

Odds and Ends

Sometimes I go to figure drawing groups, we pay a model, and draw for a couple of hours, in 1 to 25 minute timed segments.  The results vary depending on the night.  But it's always fun to do, and the rough drawings, have an imperfection, which is sometimes awesome.

I sell some of these drawings, for a small price, online at my Etsy store LaBelleForet.

If anybody wanted to pose, to gift either themselves or someone else a drawing of themselves, I'll do this for $50 and you can have all the drawings I do in a two hour period.  

Contact me either through Etsy or my website gretchentrees.com.  Thx!

I did not have sexual intercourse with that woman

Rep. Tim Murphy announced Thursday that he was resigning, a day after he said he would not run for re-election.The Republican congressman from the 18th District faced a storm of criticism after reports that he urged the woman with whom he was having an extra-marital relationship to get an abortion.

Mr. Murphy, 65, has long been staunchly pro-life.

By Chris Potter / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (October 5, 2017)

Good Day by Nappy Roots (lyrics)

Know today, I woke up this morning, and I said

You know, instead of waitin' on a good day
Waitin' around, through ups and downs, waitin' on somethin' to happen
I just said...

We're gonna have
We're gonna have
We're gonna have a good day
And all my homies gonna ride today
And all these mommies look fly today
And all we wanna do is get by today
Heyyy
We're gonna have a good day
And ain't nobody gotta cry today
Cause ain't nobody gonna die today
You save that drama for another day
Heyyy
We're gonna have a good day

(Originally posted on 10.5.17)

Intuit

I felt really ripped off at the end of tax season.

Although I am grateful for the ability to do my taxes online, and to be guided through them, I was horrified when I got my total from TurboTax.

I signed on to TurboTax this year intending to use their free file program, but as I went through it step by step, the TurboTax program aggressively urged me to upgrade, in order to proceed correctly.

When I submitted my return, I left a comment for TurboTax abt how disappointed I was. It felt like greed, all over it.

Time went on, I forgot about it...but I was still pissed.

A month later, it has become a national news item that TurboTax did indeed purposely make difficult the finding of their free filing program. Evidently, they coded something in a way to make the free filing very difficult if not impossible to find.

Further, TurboTax evidently has a contract with the IRS to provide a free program to people under a certain income. It is said that the IRS was going to create a program themselves called free file that people could use. But that TurboTax lobbied them requesting to provide the program themselves, so the IRS wouldn't. Then, Turbo Tax provided it, but made it very difficult for people to find it and or use it.

I am one of the low income people that was ripped off by TurboTax.

Brad Smith their CEO made $21,071,738 in 2018.  Sasan Goodarzi, Executive VP. made $12,644,810 in that same one year.

I called their offices today calmly, and said I've been reading all this stuff, I felt it when I filed, and I am requesting my refund.

I spoke to one of the rudest people I've ever encountered on Earth, named Rebecca.

Brad Smith is making his millions ripping off the poor.

Sasan K. Goodazzi is making his millions ripping off the poor.

We have a president that lives like a Pharaoh, doesn't pay taxes, and brags about it.

They're ripping off the poor.

#FREE BRITNEY

Is it just me? Or is it always the ladies, the women, the aunts, the girlfriends, the wives, the grandmother's, that are getting locked up, against their will, in these psych facilities.

How many times have I heard, oh my aunt was crazy... Oh my great grandmother she was crazy... She was up somewhere.....

But it's never the women/ the girls/the ladies who shoot people up... in the streets, in the schools, in the synagogues, in the mosques, in the churches.

Never.  Never.  Not once.

No, we just make people uncomfortable...right?

I hope Britney Spears is okay. Her conservatorship with her father pushes all my buttons.

Again, why is it always the women... Who are locked up... In these psych places.

F*** these f******...

#FREEBRITNEY

Figure Drawing

Please do not share or reprint without attributing the work to me (Gretchen Trees, Charleston, SC, USA).

All my work is copywritten.  Any use resulting in sales or profit, the payment is all mine.

This applies to any drawing, painting, word, paragraph, piece of art or song I have created since 1965. 

Thank you!!

Workshop / Figure Drawing

 

Do not share or reprint without attributing the work to me.  (Gretchen Trees, Charleston, SC, USA)

All my work is copywritten.  If use results in sales or profit, the payment is all mine.

This applies to any drawing, painting, paragraph, word, piece of art or song I have written and/or created since 1965.

 Thank you!  :)