Showing posts with label Taylor Swift. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Taylor Swift. Show all posts

Thursday 12 September 2024

Taylor Swift signs off "Childless Cat Lady" on Instagram post supporting Kamala Harris

Taylor Swift is the world's most musically talented and influential 'cat lady' even if she adopted the wrong cat - a Scottish Fold 😎😒. It seems that the almost the whole of the USA is following her on Instagram. The US population is 336 million at present and she has 284 million followers. She has the power to make a difference in this election.

Taylor Swift and Benjamin Button a Ragdoll cat. Photo Taylor Swift.

Taylor Swift has said that she supports Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the presidential election. She signs off her post as a "Childless Cat Lady" in taking the Mickey out of J.D. Vance who as you may remember criticised childless cat ladies as people who were unhappy because they did not have a family. He both denigrated independent-minded women and the domestic cat at the same time. His comment attracted an avalanche of criticism which damaged Trump's presidential campaign. He tried unsuccessfully to backtrack.

And Taylor Swift said, as you can see in the post below, that she has to be transparent about who she wants to support because AI is a danger to the Internet (and of course it can be a great benefit - it depends how you use it). She says that an AI bot appears to have adopted her persona and made a post on her Instagram site saying that she endorsed Donald Trump; clearly very false and damaging information.

So in the vein of being transparent and open, she has clearly stated that she "will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election".

She is voting for Kamala Harris, like many other people, because she champions the right sort of causes. She is a balanced individual. She's smart and decent and I say that she has a good face by which I mean that she has integrity which you can see in her general demeanour and her facial expressions.

And I've also stated that she is an animal champion. She champions animal welfare. This is the behaviour of a tender-hearted person in a world needs that kind of person.

Taylor Swift agrees with me that if Donald Trump becomes president there will be a certain amount of chaos. I have argue that if we have Putin plus Trump plus Xi Jinping in power at the same time we going to have chaos. We need someone to moderate things and focus on cooperation and compromise in order to stabilise the world. And I believe that Kamala Harris is that person.

And Taylor Swift says that she is very heartened by Walz's support of LGBTQ+ rights and IVF and "a woman's right to her own body". That's a reference I believe to abortion. The right to an abortion has been curtailed as I remember in certain states thanks to Trump's time as president.

Taylor Swift has done her research she says and she asks her followers to do theirs. She wants her followers to vote for Kamala Harris.


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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Saturday 22 June 2024

Taylor Swift's bad decision to purchase Scottish Folds

There is currently some criticism (indirectly and directly) of Taylor Swift for adopting (purchasing) a couple of Scottish Fold purebred cats. The woman is worshipped by billions of people and she's become a huge influencer. I've gently argued that she adopted Scottish Fold cats because they look cute and because they enhance her image. Although, that said, she seems to be a genuine cat lover but a vet argues that she can't be because she purchased a cat with osteochondrodysplasia. Click the link below to read that article.


But she made a big mistake in purchasing the Scottish Fold as far as I am concerned. This cat is arguably permanently in some discomfort because of a genetic mutation which makes the cartilage throughout the cat unable to perform its function. The mutation damages the cartilage. This is a cat which is inherently defective. And in Germany it is banned under their torture breeding policy. It is that bad.

Taylor Swift's bad decision to purchase Scottish Folds
Cute by inherently very unhealthy. Image in the public domain.

Brits love the Scottish Fold


It can't be denied that this cat should not really exist but according to Wales Online the British have named the Scottish Fold as their top cat according to a Burns Pet Nutrition study. Sad new for me as I am mainly concerned with animal welfare.

This clearly indicates the enormous influence that Taylor Swift has over the British public and in other countries. She is the world's biggest and most powerful influencer. She must get paid millions of dollars to promote items on her Instagram pages. Wealth breeds wealth and she is a good example.

According to this poll, the British believe that the Scottish Fold is the most intelligent and the most affectionate and the easiest to train cat breed.

There is no scientific evidence to support those assertions. It's as simple as that. The number of Scottish Fold cat sold in the UK soared to 110,000 in 2021. That is thanks to Taylor Swift as mentioned.

She has done a terrible disservice to the well-being of domestic cats. And I don't want to criticise her. I like her. I like what she does and I think she's a good person; a decent person with a good mind and a good business sense but she made a mistake.

She could have done some good


Being a massive influencer she had the great opportunity to encourage people to adopt rescue cats. She could have led the way here. Think of those poor rescue cats in rescue centres languishing in cages waiting to be adopted while the British purchase Scottish Fold cats which leads to one more rescue cat not being adopted. And this can lead to the euthanasia of that unadopted cat. It's all so very wrong from a logical point of view.

I don't want to harp on and be negative but I want to be realistic and fair and decent. Why don't the British listen to this sort of argument?

I recently wrote an article about a scientific study which concluded that the inherited disease suffered by the Scottish Fold causes pain and discomfort even when the breeder is careful in breeding this cat. They cannot breed Scottish Fold with Scottish Fold because that produces an unviable cat. They have to breed a non-Scottish Fold with a Scottish Fold which results in half the litter being Scottish Straights. These are Scottish Fold cats without the folded ears. They are in essence moggies. But sometimes people adopt them but there's no real point because you are paying for a purebred cat that has no distinguishable and distinct features.

The only reason why the Scottish Fold is so popular is because of their cute appearance and that comes about because of their flat ears which is due to weak cartilage as mentioned.


I've always said that the biggest influence on humans is the appearance of something. That is because vision is the dominant sense of humans (click link above for more on this). We rely on vision far more than example cats do. For cats vision and smell and sound work together but for humans we rely far more dominantly on our sight which leads to the appearance of objects both inanimate and animate being very important to us. We tend to conveniently ignore some very important aspects of what we are purchasing namely the health of the animal.


That problem has occurred with domestic dogs as well during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many people purchased at a high inflated cost the French bulldog. This is the world's most unhealthy dog and the dog that they bought were probably bred in puppy mills in Eastern Europe (click link above for more on this). They didn't mind. The British simply dived in and bought the French bulldog because it's an interesting looking animal. The should realise that the flat muzzle causes breathing problems.

The same goes for the classic British bulldog. In hot weather you see them wheezing and coughing and spluttering trying to breathe. Health is more important than appearance, I say, but the British public disagree with me very strongly.

It's a great shame that Taylor Swift made this mistake. She would disagree with me but it is a big mistake and there's no ignoring it. She must use her power to influence millions of people more wisely. I'd like to see her talk about this.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Friday 29 December 2023

Each of Taylor Swift's cats worth £80 million each? True or false?

The Mirror newspaper tell us that Taylor Swift's cats which comprise one Ragdoll and two Scottish Fold cats are each worth £80 million in terms of their ability to earn revenue. The valuation comes from a website AllAboutCat.com. It's pure speculation actually. 

The valuations must be based upon their individual social media accounts and how much revenue they earn. They will certainly be good earners because they are associated with Taylor Swift who is the top social media star on the planet as far as I know.

Each of Taylor Swift's cats worth £80 million each? True or false?
A lot of cats don't like cameras and in Meredith's case it won't help her earnings potential! Image: Instagram (believed).

Taylor Swift is approaching a personal valuation of US$1 billion. It's no surprise that her cats have a good value as well in terms of their ability to earn money but it's simply a spin off from her. Her Ragdoll cat Benjamin Button would just be another Ragdoll cat in another home with no value other than their purchase price but for the fact that Taylor Swift looks after him, lives with him and promotes him on her social media webpages.

The conclusion is that we don't know for sure how much Swift's three cats are worth individually or jointly.

Anybody valuing them would do so subjectively because it's too difficult to quantify objectively. In case you aren't aware, Taylor Swift's three cats are Olivia Benson, Meredith Grey and as mentioned Benjamin button.


My research indicates that it's unlikely that they generate a huge amount of income on their own to justify these valuations. Their value, as mentioned, mainly lies in the fact that they are cat companions to Taylor Swift.

Their earnings probably come from merchandise promotions using their image or appearances in media projects.

Their worth would be based on licensing agreement values, the amount they earn through endorsements and customer demand for products or media promotions featuring the cats.

Taylor Swift's enormous wealth is based on her talent as a musician and songwriter. Not on the presence or value of her cats. Although they probably polish up her image nicely. Did she adopt them for that purpose?

Separately, I don't think it's all a bed of roses for Taylor Swift and her cats. She tends to treat them as babies and I think that is incorrect - best to respect the cat. And she promotes the Scottish Fold which is a breed which should not be promoted because they are inherently unhealthy. In fact, it's a breed which should not exist if you are really concerned about animal welfare.


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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Thursday 5 January 2023

Olivia Benson, a cat worth millions with big earning potential

Everything that Taylor Swift touches turns to gold metaphorically speaking. For example, Taylor Swift, herself, is officially the most followed person on Instagram with a mind-blowing 239 million followers. We know she loves cats and we know that one of her cats as Olivia Benson, a Scottish Fold.

Olivia Benson
Olivia Benson. Image: Instagram (modified by MikeB)

And because of that connection and for no other reason in my opinion the news media are saying that Olivia Benson has the potential to earn millions and therefore is worth millions herself.

Taylor Swift has given Olivia her own Instagram account. From that account she has the potential to earn big. She is described as a moneymaking machine with an estimated value of US$97 million.

How does it happen? Why can't I have a cat worth millions of dollars!? Hundreds of millions of people would love that too. But you've got to be Taylor Swift. Olivia Benson living with John Doe in a suburb of New York would not make a penny even if they had their own Instagram account.

The idea that Olivia Benson is worth pots of money comes from a website called All About Cats in which they state that Olivia "has found success outside the world of Instagram influencing. The Scottish Fold earned her fortune starring alongside her owner in several music videos, has crafted her own merchandise line, and has had cameos in many big-budget ads."

That's the story! I don't have much more. I have to touch on a couple of moral issues which I know are boring and there's no glitter or celebrity discussing moral issues but I have to do it.

Note: these embedded social media posts sometimes fail. It might not work. If so, sorry.

Benson's followers

Well, I have discovered that Olivia is not doing great on her own Instagram page with a measly 581 followers. Perhaps this story is all hype, smoke and mirrors?!

Moral Issues?

The first issue is that Olivia Benson is a Scottish Fold as mentioned. A lot of people think that this is a cat breed that should not exist. The reason why the ears fold flat is because the ear flaps, made of cartilage, are defective. The cartilage isn't stiff enough to keep the ear flaps erect and that is due to a genetic mutation which has been handed down to offspring through selective breeding over many years. 

The Scottish Fold is a breed of domestic cat with a natural dominant-gene mutation that affects cartilage throughout the body, causing the ears to "fold," bending forward and downward towards the front of the head, which gives the breed its distinctive appearance. Scottish Folds are known for their sweet and affectionate personalities, and they are a popular choice as pets. 

The genetic mutation that causes the folded ears is dominant, which means that if a Scottish Fold is bred with a cat that does not have the mutation, approximately half of the offspring will have folded ears. However, there are some potential health concerns associated with the Scottish Fold breed, including an increased risk of developing certain orthopedic problems due to the genetic mutation.

So, Olivia Benson is perpetuating something which is not that great to be honest. And secondly, I'm not sure it's a good idea to have a domestic cat earning money for you. My mind immediately turns to that great organisation PETA which has that wonderful motto on their website about animals that are not ours to be used for our entertainment or any other purpose.

Certainly, when cats are used to make money, they break that PETA mantra big time. I'm not suggesting that Olivia Benson doesn't like performing for the camera and making some dosh for her owner but she would probably be happier at home snoozing above a warm radiator or soaking up the sun by a window.

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