The debate last night had only one purpose, to provide entertainment value who think it funny to watch old men act worse than little children, fuel the rage of those already enraged, and turn off those who might still remain undecided. It’s not the right way to elect a President.
To those who are undecided and turned off by what you saw, I say, not voting for Biden insures what you saw will continue for another four years, not to mention increasing the probability of doubling if not tripling the number of COVID-19 deaths.
I am surprised that the power brokers of the United States have not told Trump in clear terms to knock off his comments about the election, and more importantly to clearly say he will concede if he loses. The fact that Trump continues to cause these people to lose millions with his comments supports that idea his real benefactors are foreign and are using him to diminish if not destroy the United States.
I’ve am using Pocket for reading web content and some time in the last few days the Chrome extension changed so that the option to save links via rick-click was removed as was getting the my Pocket list by right-clicking the extension icon on the toolbar. I miss both items and wonder why Pocket would make the user experience worse.
Last year I speculated that David Ross would be hired to manage the Cubs and wondered how well he would do. I think he has done a good job, but the issues about the Cub’s lineup persists. A team of Home Run hitters can be easily stopped by good pitching. Fortunately, this season was short enough so that their early lead held, but I don’t think they win their division if they played a full schedule.
Trump’s election as POTUS says less about him and much more about how we elect Presidents. Elections have become popularity contests in which sound bites are pitted against sound bites and not enough about competency. Political parties, particularly Republicans, seem to see only those who align to their ideology as their constituents rather than all Americans.
I am beginning to think that Apple’s decision to split iPadOS from iOS is a bad decision. While it makes total sense why Scribble is only in iPadOS, it makes absolutely no sense why one cannot place widgets on a iPadOS home screen, nor does it have the App Library. Their exclusion seems arbitrary as if Apple feels obligated to keep features out so that the OSes are different. The net result, however, is a worse user experience.
Two years ago we were talking about another Supreme Court nomination.
In a society that is growing radically more secular every day, I’d say we have more to fear from political dogmatism than religious dogmatism. We have more to fear from those who let their politics determine their faith practices and who turn their religious communities into political armies. We have more to fear from people who look to politics as a substitute for faith.
Religion is that to which we bind ourselves to and I think it more human nature than we realize to bind ourselves to our tribes, whether they be churches, political parties, ideologies, football teams, and NASCAR racers. The problem is that we confuse faith with religion, they are related but different.
Here is a question that all Americans, particularly Republicans, should ask themselves. When Al Gore conceded the 2000 election, was he being a patriot by putting country over his personal ambitions or was he being weak?
And if you are Republican, honestly ask yourself if your answer would be different if Gore were a Republican.
As we head in to this Presidential election your answer to this question might be the most consequential one of your lifetime. A test of patriotism happens only when you put something bigger like your country above your own self interests like your tribe.
Joe Cieplinski has a plausible theory about the Apple Solo loops watch bands.
The Chicago Cubs appear to be rounding in to their 2019 form.
I am not surprised that Republican Senators who otherwise seem to oppose Trump, like Romney, are all in on getting their Supreme Court Justice approved. The whole reason why they have been tolerating Trump is to get those Justices and there is no way they are not going to claim that prize. Further, I think they see it it likely Trump will lose and it is possible they could lose the Senate, so that have to do it now or never. Republicans are long past the point where fairness matters, and their constituency is only their tribe and not Americans in general. From their point of view, given Supremes are for life, SCOTUS is their last chance to secure their way of life for the next decade.
Looks like McConnell is going to use a government shutdown as leverage to get a conservative Supreme Court Justice.
Today is the first day of autumn and I find myself in a bit of disbelief because it feels like the summer flew by. I can only imagine a primary reason I feel this way is because I have not done any traveling this year due to COVID19. Normally by now I would have taken a few trips.
“Certainty and confidence are actually feelings. As your spouse can attest, just because you feel certain doesn’t mean you’re right. So then, essentially, even in those times when we feel the most right, we can be dead wrong.”
— Love Matters More: How Fighting to Be Right Keeps Us from Loving Like Jesus by Jared Byas
Is your freedom dependent in the incarceration of others?
Dark mode has been all the rage for the last couple of years and occasionally I’ve run in to web sites that have white on black text that I find difficult to read. Now I know why, it’s because of my astigmatism. I use dark mode on my phone but don’t use it on my PC.
I am interested to see how Microsoft sticks with Surface Duo. They must have a long term plan because I can’t imagine there are high sales expectations given the price and COVID. So, there must be planned iterations that improve performance and get the price down to a point where it is more affordable to more people. The other thing to watch is, whether the Surface Neo sees the light of day. You might recall it as the larger “booklet” Surface that Panay showed last year, but it would run Windows 10x. My understanding is that the Surface Pro X, which is the ARM Surface, is not exactly flying out of stores. Microsoft should have an event in October where we might learrn more.
I still have not found a simple way to track when I go to bed and when I get up in the morning. It’s frustrating because this is something I should be able to do with Google Assistant. Right now I use a routine at night to shut out the lights and set the alarm, so because it would know when I got to bed, when the routine is run, and when I get up, which is when the alarm goes off.