🇺🇸 Republicans aren’t afraid of socialism. They’re afraid of democracy.

☠️ When it comes to gun violence, we have let our children down to the point they are now sacrificing themselves in order to save others. Kendrick Castillo should not have had to do what he did to save others. We adults should have and we all let him down. We’ve let so many down. We’ll continue to let others down too.

Every single day children don’t turn on adults is a day adults should count themselves lucky.

📺 I gulped down the Netflix series Dead to Me. I enjoyed it very much.

The series starred two actors who, in my opinion, could never get enough screen time: Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini. They are both excellent and way under used.

🧒 We sure do love our children. I’ll say this until things change: Everyday I’m thankful the children don’t turn again us. However, I’m a little disappointed too.

🚗 Flying cars will not save us from climate change. Unless, I guess, they fall out of the sky in such great numbers they reduce the population of humans.

I worry a lot of people are banking on the idea that autonomous vehicles (think Tesla, etc) will save us. Not only is the tech not there (on ANY level), the capacity won’t be there. There is simply no way autonomous vehicles like cars and small planes will be able to move the amount of people. Improve the trains and busses for everyone and we’ll start getting somewhere. Literally.

☠️ This used to be a big deal. Now you (and I) can’t recall the one before the most recent one.

🛠 The right to repair is so obvious it’s hard to believe we have to even discuss it. Apple is absolutely on the wrong side of this fight.

Products will get used longer if they can be repaired. When a product gets used longer, it means less waste. And if Apple is going to push Lisa Jackson up on stage to have her claim Apple cares about the environment, then the right to repair should be part of this. Perhaps redesigning their products to be more easily repaired can help Apple’s reputation here, but I wouldn’t take a bet on that.

Until Apple’s policy on this changes, I say shame on Apple.

📰 I mentioned recently that I went to school for journalism but didn’t pursue it as a career. The reason wasn’t because newspaper people, on average, are paid poorly. Or receive intense scrutiny. Or work long hours. Or sometimes get killed doing their job. The reason was: I never felt I was remotely good enough to do that kind of work. It’s far more important than the skills I possessed or thought I could ever gain.

But, I guess I could have done it. “False Claim” Inaccurate refrain?! What horseshit that is. We have a word for this. It’s called a lie. Use that word. It’s unambiguous and everyone knows what the hell it means.

There’s a reason the right doesn’t subscribe to The New York Times: They don’t believe it. But there’s also a reason the left doesn’t subscribe: They’re incredibly disappointed.

📽 I watched movie Obit. While it’s maybe not your typical Saturday night movie, it was engaging and brought back a lot of memories.

I went to college for journalism, but never pursued it as a career. I don’t regret not going into that field, but I do miss the energy of a newsroom. While in college, my journalism teacher (there was only one, literally, and his name was Dr. Robert Cole) had us write obituaries. Now, I don’t remember the ones I wrote, but I do remember one that he read to us. It was the first time I understood how obits were more than something sad. That obit was written by Edna Buchanan. That lede!

I have to admit that, even before the movie was over, I started writing my obit in my head. Once you watch the movie, I bet you’ll write yours, too.

🚀 I worry about getting older. Not scary health things (though I’ve had at least one I remember and I guess they do worry me), but I’m more worried about the everyday. You know, walking, hearing, etc. I’ve been fortunate that I can still walk wherever I want in any condition I’ve ever been able to walk in, but one thing that is bothering me is hearing.

I swear I can hear things drips and weird mechanical issues and that gives me the impression my hearing isn’t gone gone. But, boy, watching new TV shows… I can’t hear. I crank the volume, I rewind and, still, nothing. Thank goodness for closed captions (aka, subtitles).

I’m watching the original Star Trek series and I can hear everything just fine. What’s changed?

Postscript. My son and I visited the National Air and Space Museum and got to see the Enterprise. THE model used on the TV show. It was great.

🏫 The GOP is not working towards a better America. The GOP is working towards a dumber, more ignorant, more at-risk America. An America where they can continue to take advantage of the less educated (and, really, all of us).

📻 The splintering of podcasting is here and it’s disheartening.

👳🏽‍♀️ The president’s attack against Ilhan Omar is awful, yet predictable. Still, it’s gross, reprehensible, and only aimed at riling up people to harm her. If I was from Minnesota I would be proud she’s my representative. Since I’m not, I’m proud she is an honest member of Congress who is fighting to fix the wrongs she sees. She’s smart and strong and we need that in our government more than ever.

🛠 Now that Lisa Jackson has gone on the record saying Apple wants its products to last longer (iOS 12 kicked serious ass on that front), it’s time to address the areas that often need repairing: screens, batteries, ports, and cameras. Don’t get me started on the whole notebook keyboard mess Apple’s gotten itself into.

Apple needs to get ahead of this so that replacing the battery in an iPhone or iPad doesn’t involve heating pads and suction cups.

It’s only a matter of time before the Right to Repair movement takes hold and lots of consumers find their products very difficult to repair. To the point where folks begin to consider what to buy with the idea of repair in mind.

🤭 I finally decided, after years, that Instagram doesn’t make me happy. At least when I follow people I know. So I unfollowed people and now follow accounts of non people (mostly).

What’s weird is I still like these people. I guess I don’t like the world they present? I feel bad about it, but it it’s how I feel.

My mom and I didn’t get much time together as adults. Well, as two adults. So I never got a lot of wisdom that I was able to take with me into my adulthood. I do remember two things she said to me in regards to politics (and it wasn’t a ‘sit-down’ kinda talk, just matter-of-factly as she went about her life… these were not said at the same time): The Kennedys were no good (since they didn’t follow the laws the rest of us followed) and Jimmy Carter was a good man and good president.

Fast forward to today. Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter live a simple life decades after being in the White House. This shouldn’t be astonishing.

But then I read this…

The Democratic former president decided not to join corporate boards or give speeches for big money because, he says, he didn’t want to “capitalize financially on being in the White House.”

… And I’m astonished. Jimmy Carter stands for everything this country, currently, is not. But it used to and still can again.

🗽 If voting is to be meaningful, here’s what America would do in regards to voting:

These things scare the hell out of politicians and I can’t imagine any of these happening in the next 20 years (let alone all of these things happening). I guess we can check back for 2040.

📰 I sure do like all the new doodads Apple has been releasing lately, but I think this is likely to have a bigger and better long-term impact.

🤮 I remain completely confident that Facebook will go down as a net negative on the world. Twitter too. It’s not that social media is bad, it’s that these companies are bad.

🖥 When there’s a big acquisition like Amazon buying Eero (sigh), there’s always talk about FAANG buying up small companies and ruining them.

But when I look through Apple’s acquisitions, I can’t find one that remotely caused outrage or concern like the Eero purchase. Did I miss it?

Why does Apple get lumped into this group when they don’t behave in the same way?