Here’s a bit of truth. Suppose you’re exhausted, depressed, sad, bored, even hopeless after a year of hunkering down. And then on top of all that, a close friend or relative dies from the disease. That’s a whole other level of hurt. And by now, it’s not all that uncommon. #

Today's song: Sweet Child O' Mine.#

The pandemic came closer to me yesterday, I heard from a friend whose sister died of Covid. I feel lucky to have been vaccinated, but am confused about where we are now, and the future is still hard to have a feel for, or to even have a theory of. At least we have solid management on a national level, and that will help everyone, everywhere. The US never forgot how to be the US, even though we had an insane clown-like president for four years. The vaccine is here now, and more are on the way. And I know enough math to understand that the benefit of the vaccine starts as soon as one person is vaccinated. The more people who are immune, the slower the spread of the virus, complicated by its mutations which give it new power to evade. We're running a race now. At least we're in the race now. That's something. But think of all the unnecessary suffering and death we're leaving behind. Today, it has a more substantial meaning to me than it did just a couple of days ago. #

BTW, when you get vaccinated you are told to sign on to a CDC website and create an account. I did that. I want everyone to know it looks very well done. They're going to use a government network to track progress of the vaccine. First smart thing I've seen from the government, with my own two eyes, since the pandemic started. #

I lost one of my AirPods. I can replace it for $89, or try something new, which is what I'll do. I'll let you know. In the meantime, I solved the problem with the crappy UI for the LG screen I bought last month. I bought the top-of-the-line Roku device, plugged it in, and it gives the same great picture, and lets me control everything from the much more elegant Roku remote. I loaded on all the apps I need, including Fubo, which is not available for the LG, and after a few hours I realized why the Roku remote is so superior. There are so few buttons, and they're big enough, that I don't have to look at the remote to operate the UI. This is important for a TV where you use it in a dark room, ideally. Roku is the best. People say it's dated, I think it's really that it works, and that's what I want. ;-)#

I think some people think if you can develop software that you can't have interesting ideas in, or deep knowledge of, other topics. We're a mystery to them. People have no idea how the bits do their dance to make the things happen on the screen. So if we talk about politics or media, well there can't be much there. They won't look into that box. Interestingly, it seems our supposed ignorance also extends to how the computers work. They always have to get an expert who if they ever wrote software hasn't done so for 20 years. If this theory is true, can you imagine how much damage this ignore-ance is doing?#

Now you can get a blue checkmark for your home. Brilliant idea, and probably will be a hit. But I can't imagine putting one on my house. Come the revolution they'll round up people with the blue checkmarks. Let's not make it too easy for them.#

What if they had blue checkmarks for people who pass a basic math literacy test. #

A newly elected congressperson says Jews shoot lasers from space to start fires on earth. Lots of news stories spell her distinctive name carefully. I swear I will try to not remember her name. Too late. I remember her name. Thanks journalism. Who’s killing democracy again?#

I read in a NY Times op-ed that we have to tax the rich to pay for pandemic relief. Not an income tax, which most would support, but an asset tax. So if your house has increased in value, you have to give the government money. Even if you didn��t sell it. There is no rule that you have to pay for the relief btw. The government prints money. There is no inflation, kind of the opposite pressure on the economy, we’re in a depression. Part of the reason for relief is to stimulate the economy. So a wealth tax could cause a stock market crash, I’m sure economic advisers would warn the president. All those rich people selling stock to pay the trillions in tax. Maybe we should tax people who write stupid op-ed in the NY Times instead. 🤪#

Biden sought unity, but he should not have connected it to bipartisanship. Unity means solving problems for the whole country, not just states that voted for him. That was Trump's CrazyTown USA. A total loser for Repubs. But the Repubs are the party built around one race supreme, über alles. They left a wide open field for the Dems. The Repub politicians, every one of them, are vestigial, members of a party with nowhere to go. Lost souls. You don't get bipartisan with dead people. We're in a loop here. Whites, if you insist on ruling, you lose. The "others" are even stronger in 2021 than they were in 1865.#

It's so cold that my fingers and toes become numb when I go for a 40-minute walk. #

I'm writing too much today.#

A rite of passage. A few months ago I bought some $250 headphones from Apple. They were great. Today one of them fell out of my ear when I was taking off my mask, and disappeared into my jacket or the ether or whatever, but it's gone now. Oh well.#

When I was in high school a bunch of us asked to be excused from class at the same time. We went to the bathroom and flushed all the toilets at once. We figured the plumbing system hadn't been designed for that. The moral of the story is our whole system is designed that way. The stock market, the political system, the police, health care, the national guard. With 300 million people in the US, we could overload and destroy any system on any day, by coordinated action. That we don't do it is a key feature of civilization. #

I read on twitter earlier that women have feelings and men have opinions. I didn't respond because I would have gotten excoriated. This is the kind of bullshit you read on twitter all the time. I'd like to see this, gender hate, be made illegal. It kind of becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when every time a male child shows emotion they're punished for it. And who is doing this regulating, creating such unhealthy beasts? A lot of times it's women, our mothers, aunts, friends, etc. Men are people, full people, with all the human features. When you present us as horrible inhuman beings you are doing the greatest harm.#

Today's song: Good Day Sunshine. #

Everyone relax. The Repubs are a fascist party. You don’t have to pretend you’re just discovering this. You’ve actually known it for quite some time. But it was worse. Previously they were the fascist party that ran the country with no checks. Now they're the minority party. And if the Democrats have the guts to nuke the filibuster they can add a couple of new states that are likely to vote Democratic, adding four members to the Senate. That should help a bit. And they can fund the recovery through reconciliation even if they aren't willing or able to get rid of the filibuster. #

I'd like to say it's not a big deal, but nothing ever is not a big deal. #

John Lennon was the cool Beatle when I was a kid, the poet. A person with deep thoughts. Moody songs. Norweigian Wood, In My Life, Strawberry Fields. He's had an actor's face, a poet too. A prankster. Paul McCartney was just the commercial guy. Penny Lane, Yesterday, Eleanor Rigby, Rocky Racoon, Mother Nature's Son, The Fool on the Hill. All the ones you love to sing along with. Let It Be and Hey Jude. As I've gotten older, I still listen to the Beatles, it's been a life-long constant, and I've come to appreciate McCartney more and more. As he sings, there's nothing at all wrong with silly love songs.#

Today's song: Yankee Doodle Dandy.#

Here's a picture of a plate of sushi waiting to be eaten. The best sushi I have ever had. If you have this sushi in front of you waiting to be eaten, you are the richest you can possibly be. It does not matter how much money you have in the bank. Or how long you will live. Or who likes you. You are about to eat the best meal possible. You can't be richer than that.We hear a lot about the damage Facebook is doing to our political system, but why are we so complacent and accepting of the damage Fox does? We could bring political and economic power to bear. They may have a right to speak, but we should be able to get news, pay for news, without paying for Fox. I don't accept that we can't do anything about it which seems to be the consensus. #

All of a sudden Twitter doesn't work in Safari on my iPad. Neither does GMail. Everything else works fine. I thought it had to do with the East Coast outage a lot of services had the other day, but this problem persists. I much prefer to use them in the browser, there are all kinds of unnecessary barriers in their iPad apps (they try to keep you in the apps, I prefer to work in the web). Here's a screen shot of what I see on Twitter in Safari. And this is what GMail looks like in Safari on the iPad. #

Two Daily podcasts in the last two days, totally worth the time. One an interview with Donald McNeil, the NYT expert on the virus, and an interview with Fauci on his relationship with Trump. #

There's a report of a problem with the RT feature on Scripting News. I was not able to reproduce. Help much appreciated. #

If you live in the US and subscribe to cable TV it's almost certain that you are finanically supporting Fox News which is primarily responsible for the rise of Trump and downfall of democracy in the US. If I were you (and I am) I would want to do something about this, like demand that your cable company stop giving your money to Fox. How can I get your attention, and get you to tell other people. This is really important, simple, and something we can do to make things better. #

So if impeachment were taken off the table for Trump, every time an incumbent president was not re-elected, they would automatically attempt to overthrow and assassinate Congress. Why not? It might work, and there’s no penalty for trying.#

A browser feature I did not know about. In Chrome, you can make, for example, Scripting News a web app in its own window. In the ... menu in the upper right corner of the menubar, choose More Tools and then Create Shortcut. Click the checkbox that says "Open as window." Click OK and there it is in its own window and no toolbar, and a reminder that it's NOT SECURE (thanks Google!). More important it opens a Finder window that's a sub-folder of your Applications folder, with your new app in it. Presumably you can move that where ever you like, and my blog is like an app. You could use it for LO2 or Radio3, or any other single-page web app. Presumably these "apps" are still sandboxed and can't access your local files, so there's still a use for Electron apps. #

Today's song: Georgia on my Mind. In the mess of January 6, we didn't get enough time to savor the wonder of Georgia. Two Repubs gone, two Dems take their place. This can be replicated all over the country, where ever there are Repubs in charge of states with large African-American populations. The power of the ballot. It's something, as long as democracy rules. And I suspect it wasn't a coincidence that the white racists got violent the day after Georgia. #

It took 20 years, but the Grateful Dead have acknowledged that their music played a vital role in the bootstrap of podcasting. I needed MP3 files to test the publishing and podcasting system I had built. I remembered that the Dead, uniquely, let their fans do whatever they wanted with their music. In the days just after Napster, this meant a lot to me. So the very first podcast feed ever was casting old Grateful Dead tunes like Truckin and The US Blues. #

Instead of buying an email newsletter company I wish Twitter would allow long form enclosures that are text, not just images and video. Twitter is a better delivery system potentially than email. Email is what it is, but because Twitter is controlled by one company, it can still move. They have a good API, it performs well, and it covers a lot of the functionality. #

Today I am in agreement with NYC mayoral candidate Andrew Yang about the Knicks and Jeremy Lin. He says: "When the Knicks dumped Jeremy Lin that was the last straw for me. This is the franchise that gave Jerome James $30 million. You let the most beloved Knicks figure in years who lit the Garden and City up walk over money? Come on." Amen. Under his note are a mix of comments including the usual that Lin wasn't that good, but who knows. If the Knicks had loved him maybe he would have continued to be an inspiration to the team and to New Yorkers. Instead, the Knicks stuck with Melo, who clearly was jealous of the attention Lin was getting. Lin might have done great if they had kept coach Mike D'Antoni, but they let him go too. Who knows. But nothing was known at the moment the Knicks said goodbye to Linsanity. And for all the Asian-Americans who live in the city, a cause of celebration disappeared. I think I may have loved the whole thing mostly because of the way it made them light up in civic pride. And I couldn't help but feel that the NBA was being a bit racist in their treatment of Lin. My suggestion to the mayoral candidate, Mr Yang, is that he campaign on giving James Dolan the boot. Find a new owner for the Knicks. I also agree with commenters who said you can't decide to leave a team. Once a Knick fan, sadly, always a Knicks fan. #

Every day I start this blog with an empty slate. Maybe I won't find anything to write about today? Somehow it never seems to happen. This is a rare condition, it seems. #

Today's song: Who's Yellen Now?#

Followup on my question about why neo-Nazi instead of plain old Nazi and there is an answer. The original Nazis came with a lot of stuff the new ones don't. They had uniforms, a symbol, flag, a leader and his manifesto. The new Nazis don't have any of that. In Germany the paraphernalia of the old Nazis are illegal. In the US that would be too offensive. There is still a memory of WW II, we remember who the enemy was then. If they walked around with swastika armbands people would know for sure they're the enemy. Maybe at some point they will decloak, but that hasn't happened yet. I thought of putting a swastika in the right margin, but felt that would be too shocking. That's the point. So there is a difference. I got emails from several readers. Thanks!#

I also have a definitive answer on what the difference is between rain and showers, a question that has come up here before. When they call for rain in the forecast, they mean water is going to be coming out of the sky uniformly, both in terms of geography and time. If you go out when it's raining, you will get wet. However if they call for showers that means it will rain on and off, and it might be raining in one town and not in the other. It's more intermittent. You can risk it, you might not get wet if you don't bring an umbrella. #

I was looking for a picture of my first digital camera, but the link to the image was broken. I fixed it, and found a bigger picture of the camera I had before it, a Nikon Coolpix 950. Taken March 5, 2003. It's a selfie, from the rear view mirror of my Lexus SUV, also long-gone. #

While we're at it, my first real car (not counting a Renault junker I bought hoping it would magically work, it just barely made it home) was a Datsun B210. I think I paid $3300 new. Those were the days. It was a very reliable little car. I called it the Lawn Mower because that's about how powerful the engine was (slight exaggeration). Back in those days, the mid-70s, the Interstate Highway System wasn't finished, and I drove it all around the country, and a lot of it was on two-lane highways with heavy truck traffic. My poor little lawn mower (with me inside!) would get blown around a lot. But it was very reliable. Only broke down once, and that was due to operator error. I ended up trading it in for a hippie van, a high mileage 1974 Plymouth Voyager, which I also drove all over the country. The van ended up dead in a ditch in Chemaketa Park, California, a little community I lived in off Highway 17 between Los Gatos and Santa Cruz. Those were the days. I even remember the name of the road I lived on -- Comanche Trail. Long time ago. A really beautiful spot. It's where I did the first version of ThinkTank that had expand and collapse, for the Apple II.#

Today's song: Time After Time.#

One of the really nice things about Facebook is that every morning after breakfast they show me my posts from the past. So right now I'm re-living the incredible Women's March after the Trump inauguration. And this makes me wonder -- why aren't we in the streets marching now? In 2017 it was mostly symbolic, a cry of pain that we all heard, ourselves, but it didn't help make the government better. Today if we were all in the streets the Repubs might not be so bold in Congress. They all saw what happened in Georgia. Show them it could happen in Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, North Carolina and Florida too. Make sure they know what we demand. They're scared and confused now. It's a good time to apply pressure. And to the Democrats, why aren't you organizing us! What are you waiting for? How many more chances to save American democracy do you think we're going to get?#

Yes I know these rants don't accomplish anything. At some point it has to stop. When I ran a startup in the 80s I remember trying to visualize the last day there, but I couldn't. Then one day I realized I had left, and I didn't even remember the last day. Like the last time I saw my mother, or an old girlfriend -- I don't remember most of those days either. But I do remember the day Trump took office. And I remember marching, and wondering if it would do any good. Like the rants I write today. Anyway one thing is for sure, we won't get many more chances to fix the country. I believe I know the answer -- look to the left and right not up or down. We don't have to unite with the miscreant Republicans in Congress. Most of them work for Moscow. We have to connect with other Americans who vote against democracy. This is not optional. So it's important to remember that and think of things we can do to shake ourselves out of our ruts and get out in the streets, figuratively and literally. #

Gandhi: “We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” #

Rosental Alves wrote to tell me about a CDC site that tracks people who have been vaccinated. "V-safe is a smartphone-based tool that checks in on you after your COVID-19 vaccination. Your participation helps keep COVID-19 vaccines safe — for you and for everyone." This answers the question I asked yesterday, why aren't they staying in touch with vaccinated people. There is a system in place, apparently, I just didn't know about it. Now I do, and so do you. 💥 #

Raines Cohen, on Facebook: "Five years ago a 400-mile day trip for a family baby-naming ceremony was routine. What will be 'normal' five years from now?" I commented: It's a good thing we stopped doing that. I only took one plane trip myself in the couple of years leading up to 2020. it was shocking, after being away for so long, how much carbon was burned for so little reason. we have to stop having this "carbon party" -- and the virus gave us a new perspective for that. It's a total silver lining. BTW I was already living in the country when I took the trip. I was going to Austin, and flew through Albany NY, which is a very small airport compared to the bay area or NY. But I had to make a connection in O'Hare, and that's when it hit me how ridiculous this was. I was going to a conference that could just as easily have been held online. It will be held online from now on, I expect (and hope). I guess what this means is that where you park your ass makes a much bigger difference now than it used to. The people you have personal contact with will be the ones who live where you do. Everyone else will be virtual. Long distance travel will be a luxury.#

Today's song: On the Road to Freedom.#

As you may know, I got vaccinated on the 20th. Only side-effect: a shoulder-ache at the injection site. I wonder why there isn't a database I'm registered in, so data can be gathered on the effectiveness of the vaccine over time and geography, so it can be added to other data to learn more about the virus. I registered for the Kinsa groupware thermometer for that purpose. Millions of people have been vaccinated all over America, but as with everything it's fairly disorganized. I do have an official-looking CDC identification card, but no corresponding web registration.#

Wouldn't it be great if, on Monday, everyone in the Senate, Republican and Democrat, dressed up like Bernie, including the mittens. I would be so impressed. A country that can laugh at itself is the most powerful, respectful country in the world.#

Follow-up on the Rijksmuseum download. It's huge, 1.72GB uncompressed. But it's a JSON file. Not sure what I'd use it for. I wanted the images. Oy. Also it took a couple of days to download. #

"America first" is a dog whistle for "White people first." Even that's a lie. It really means "Let's watch the world burn."#

I read in the comments of a story on Facebook how particular people in Vermont are about people who come from other places. The places I like best are where people don’t have any weird ideas about how they’re better than people who were born elsewhere. I’m a first gen American, child of people who ran for their lives, and were welcomed to this great country. They had no other place to go. What if America hadn't welcomed us? I've been to places where they hate outsiders, and many more places where they welcome them. I had a warm feeling walking around a small city in Italy, where I didn't speak the language and almost no one spoke English, but people were patient and smiled a lot and were gentle with the tourist from America. I got lost on the train, hundreds of miles out of my way, and the workers on the train spoiled me, passing me off to the next one to get me to my destination. Maybe they laughed, but I never saw it. The note they gave me explained my predicament in Italian, very respectfully (it was translated for me by my host when I arrived in Trieste). So I try to go out of my way to welcome visitors. Because it's a generous thing to do, but also because I know that I have benefited from this kind of generosity myself. And I always try to remember that I'm no better than anyone else, even if they were born in Vermont. 💥#

On Facebook, a friend, a doctor who cares for very sick people, says he loves his job. I said: I understand. A little over ten years ago, my father had an accident and it put him into a coma that lasted a month. He was intubated, and put in a ward where they parked people who were in various stages of vegetativeness. I spent a lot of time there, reading to him, watching out for him, and I got to know various people on staff in the hospital. I had thought these were some of the worst jobs in the world, but I got an impression that it was quite the opposite, so I checked it out, and they all said they loved their jobs. I had plenty of time to think, and I realized that in many jobs, esp the ones I have done, the way you help people can be kind of abstract, hard to visualize. But people who care for others as their job, see the result of their work every day, all the time.#

It's important that Biden fired a bunch of Trump loyalists on day one. Throw an elbow at the beginning. Probably have to throw a bunch more, setting the Repubs off screaming, and just let em do it. We've had a lot of practice w Trump. #

The Getting Shit Done Party: When you win the election and are inaugurated, that's when the fight really starts. And that's when the Democrats disengage with the electorate. Their big advantage, us, is neutralized just when they need us most. Like right now.#

A bunch of museums have made digital scans of their art available for re-use, but they always seem to make you download one image at a time. Sigh. This makes it very labor intensive to create applications that offer new ways to browse art collections. I want to make a nice screen saver, and display it on the big screen in my living room, for me and my guests (when we start having guests again). The latest to do this is the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. So I asked on Twitter if anyone had downloaded a large number of the paintings, and it turns out someone has! Thank goodness. Will report. #

I'm now unfollowing everyone who RTs a fascist post. I don't care if we've been friends for life. You're at best an idiot for doing this. At worst, you want to see the world burn.#

With hard disks so cheap, it's ridiculous that more and more, the storage for my phone has to come in via Google's or Apple's servers. This is not an accident. It gives them too much control, and it's quiet, you don't hear people ranting about them the way they do about Facebook. #

A NYC doctor I saw three years ago wants $40 and won't say what it's for. This isn't the first time they've done this. Luckily this was just for some foot pain, and I know exactly what was done. No tests, nothing. #

Four years ago today we marched. Peacefully. We didn't kill anyone. We didn't occupy the Capitol. We behaved like respectful Americans. #

When someone says you are difficult, I think that means they wanted something from you and you said no.#

My opinion of President Biden? Yes! I like him. Good move America. We elected a good president. Thank you very much.#

What's "neo" about neo-Nazis? Why not just call them Nazis? I've asked this question a bunch of times, over many years, never heard a satisfactory answer.#

I spend an awful lot of money on video entertainment and receive very little in return. There were many months I paid for HBO but didn't watch a single thing on it. I paid for Showtime, but I think there were whole years that I never watched anything there. I'd love to re-watch an HBO show that I recommended to a friend (and am hereby recommend to you) but I'd have to re-sub to watch it legally. Couldn't I just use one of those months in the past where I watched nothing but paid anyway? Okay so they need so much money for the lavish productions of new stuff. Maybe they could price their archives separately? How about that. Anything more than 10 years old say, you can have for $1 a month, and do a bundling deal where I can get everything that's 10 years or older from any of the majors for $10 a month. Problem is they'd find they have a glut of good stuff. We don't really need that much more. The whole thing is grossly out of whack. BTW, I did sign up for Fubo, only to find out they don't have an app for my LG TV, which is a whole other rant, why exactly do there have to be special apps for every TV. (Yes I know the answer, but I'm asking at a deeper level. Thank you.) I thought I might watch the Knicks, but there was an inauguration, and I had my Covid vaccine, and it made me tired, I think, so instead I just went to bed. #

I got my Covid vaccine today. I was really lucky, I had signed up to be notified from a local pharmacy, and I got their email last night a few minutes after they sent it. Signed up right away and at 3PM today I got my first dose of the Moderna vaccine. So far no side-effects. Two life-changing events in one day. Not bad! 💥#

Happy Inauguration Day. Looks like we’ll survive Trump. Knock wood, fingers crossed, praise Murphy. Remembering the last inauguration, a dark day, this one in comparison is filled with hope.#

Trump is like wearing glasses with a covid mask and having them always fogged up so you can't see shit. Fox News et al are going to keep pumping fog at their viewers.#

How about a 2-hour trial for Trump on a Saturday in April. #

Trump is now officially off-topic. #

Countdown to the end of the Trump madness. #

Inauguration fire. Hope you like it!#

Highly recommend today's Daily podcast. They interview Trump voters about the Capitol invasion/insurrection. Lots to think about. Here's what I'd like to tell people who support Trump and feel like invading the Capitol and killing people was kind of okay. We didn't like Trump. We protested. But no one invaded the Capitol and no one killed anyone because we didn't like the result of the election. Also, we do a really good job with elections in the US. The best in the world by some accounts. So if you say our election was bad, you'd better have some facts to back you up, or seriously shut the fuck up. What I've heard so far is totally lame. And if you think you're the good guys, well, it doesn't seem to me you are. It seems you're bullies. You think what the rest of us, the majority of us, think doesn't matter. You get your way even if you're the minority. That is un-American as hell.#

Yesterday I wrote about a "total turnkey home TV guest computer." I got an email from Guy Kawasaki who says you can do it for $1200, not including a computer. #

On this last full day of Trump's presidency, I am grappling with an inconsequential decision. CNN vs the Knicks. I can have one of them, but if I want both it'll cost me an extra $65 per month. If I felt strongly about either, or both, the decision would be easy. It's difficult only because I'm somewhat ambivalent about each. CNN is for mindless relaxation. I like watching Wolf Blitzer because he's so pompous. "This just in to the Situation Room," he likes to say, but of course it's a studio not a room, and nothing is "in" there. It's the most old and stuffy place. It's totally out. I find it relaxing the same way I used to find it relaxing to watch my grandmother knit, or my cat lick herself. I like watching Erin Burnett because (I know this is weird) I think she's hot. Esp when she's angry, and these days, she is very angry, a lot (at the same things we all are angry about btw). I also like CNN because they have better guests. But I could live without them. For 20+ years I never watched CNN. Then there are the Knicks. I've been a Knicks fan, on and off, for most of my life. I came back strong for Linsanity, and hated them for screwing that up, and then they fired Melo and Porzingas, well I kind of gave up for a while. The pandemic and the bubble made it seem illegit. But with a new coach this year, they're looking interestings, and they're competitive, and sometimes they win! I'd like a chance to watch, not sure I would actually watch. The sports news service Fubo doesn't have CNN, and YouTube TV has CNN but no Knicks. So I did a poll to find out what people thought. As I write this the consensus is to leave CNN and go with the Knicks. I think it's time for a more à la carte menu. Most of what's on either Fubo or YouTube TV doesn't interest me. Too many good choices on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, and podcasts are great these days too. #

A handy web page tells when Trump leaves office. #

if you want to help the country start to heal.. Move one of the news networks to the middle of the country. CNN, MSNBC, or something new. Instead of reporting from NY and DC, do it from Chicago or Dallas. Same news, same people, just put the host in the middle of the country. When and why did CNN move from Atlanta?#

When the virus is under control will the networks revert to having in-studio guests? If not, one of the tech companies should make a total turnkey home TV guest computer, with everything you need to sound and look great when your Maddow moment comes. This sounds like a project for Microsoft. Or one of the smart speaker companies? A lot of interviewees use Skype. One thing to start, teach people how to make ther room sound good. Lots of pillows to start with. You can handle a poor picture better than awful audio.#

I think the people who invaded the Capitol are telling the truth when they say Trump told them to do it. But that's not all. Trump made them feel special. They were one of a few thousand people that he trusted to set this right. It may not be logical, but the people in the videos seemed drunk. From the recognition from god. The ProPublic videos show that, at the demonstration. They actually called him god. Trump. The scene in the Senate from the New Yorker video, sounded like what I think a hospital for the insane would. Where was their sense of self. DId they think they would get away with it? Why would they think that? Hard to imagine someone could be so far from reality.#

Another motto that has yet to make it online. "People think I'm creative but I'm just hard of hearing."#

Here's why you need super lightweight easy to deploy networking interfaces. So you can quickly create connections between apps when the idea occurs to you, when you have the need. Then you can use it, and then you have experience using the 1-in-10 idea that's so good to want to further develop, when you develop it for real. That's why your second version of something is so much better than the first, and the third version is good enough for other people to use (even though we make them use the first two versions anyway). The idea we had, for connecting apps on a single machine, back in the mid-80s was right. It has been a big part of the evolution of every layer since. (And probably before, I just wasn't around during those evolutions.) I mention this because in less than 10 minutes I whipped up a connection between two worlds I'm working on, and watched the newer app update based on a ping from my older app. Ping! It "just worked" and if you're a programmer you know how satisfying that can be. #

I've been working, in slow mode, on a new feature for my outliners, tagging. I saw a similar idea in action with Roam Research's outliner, and thought it was a really nice idea. I always want to save references to my notes in a cumulative index, like the index in the back of a book. This has always been a good companion to the fluid hierarchy, the outline structure which is more like the table of contents in front of a book. Only when you're working electronically, there isn't really a middle. Everything is in both places, at the same time. It's ideas like this that make programmers' eyes glaze over. They start using words like orthogonal, or loosely connected, and of course the always welcome "distributed." Really having fun programming the last week or so. As the world is falling apart. Why not? It's not like any of us are getting out of this alive. 🚀#

White supremacy is the crisis in the US. There was confusion after 9/11 if we were at war, and now it's even more confusing. What's not confusing is that both events were Acts of War. If I were white, and I am, I'd want to have a way to clearly say I am not with them. #

It's nice to see more people using thread.center.#

Seth Meyers' closer look at Trump's failed Insurrection. #

Vaccinating all Americans in short order is the kind of thing we're good at. While I was growing up, we went to space. I remember the Mercury and Gemini missions, and I was 14 years old when we landed on the moon. When there are catastrophes elsewhere in the world, America helps them dig out. We can do this. It will be a great thing to be reminded of our capabilities. We've spent the last four years losing. We need a win. This one is a slam dunk. #

I needed a script to loop over a calendar-structured folder to generate a list of the most recent updates to a set of projects that are backed up in these folders. I used Frontier. Here's the script source. This is the kind of thing that's much quicker in a scripting system than it would be in Node or some another system language. #

Why does GitHub make people log in to see an example script? #

People are obsessed with what others should do, but here's something you can do. 1. Unfollow and block trolls. 2. Unfollow and block friends who RT trolls. If we all did this, and were open about it, we could beat trolls. Trolls don't change, but you can.#

You know why you need programmers around? We're always looking for ways things can go wrong.#

The Departed is on Netflix. What an incredible movie. I've watched it so many times. Never fails to grab my full attention.#

There are 20K troops in DC. Who do they take orders from? Do they think Biden won, or it was stolen from Trump. How many of them believe in the peaceful transfer of power. The question really is, who is the individual cop or soldier loyal to. Since the Civil War, as far as I know, this has not been in question. #

Every so often the Daily podcast hits it out of the park, as with today's interview with Republican congressperson Peter Meijer, who voted to impeach Trump, after voting to certify Biden's win. #

I was looking at the home page on Memeorandum this morning, wondering how journalism would adjust to not having a daily Trump story (or more) to obsess over. How will everyone else deal with that. What will Maddow talk about every night? The fear factor should diminish, one would hope. Former presidents have much less power than sitting presidents. Trump could be the exception. They will have plenty to write about. First the impeachment. The trials of the January 6 insurrectionists. Trump's trials, bankruptcy. Trump going to jail? One can hope. Will this be good for Biden? For us? I don't know. The Democrats need to get a great online organizing machine rolling, for more than raising money and getting out votes. We need to have healthy forms of political action, to balance out the evil kind, which we're seeing so much of. Say what you will about Trump, he did organize an active base. The Democrats could too, but they don't seem to know it. Same as it always was. #

Come to think about it, Maddow will have plenty to talk about as details of how Trump and his associates hollowed out and looted the US government while they were in office. We'll be finding smoking holes in the ground for decades to come. Things that used to work that no longer exist. So if you need a nightly story of American carnage, you will be well taken care of. #

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's thread from the Wednesday about the "significant ramifications" of banning Trump from Twitter. In the thread he talks about Twitter funding an open decentralized standard for social networks called Blue Sky. I remember when they announced this in 2019, I think I offered to help then, and I offered again today. Creating an open distributed system at Twitter's scale is an ambitious undertaking.#

There are, as far as I know, two places to get a Covid vaccine in Ulster County, the county itself in Kingston and the Village Apothecary in Woodstock. Neither are making appointments now, but you can register to be notified when they are. If you know of others, send me a link and I'll try to post it here or in the linkblog. #

Last Wednesday was a horrible day for white Americans.#

White people should wear a MLK button. Here's what it says: "I am not a white supremacist. I believe in an America that loves and respects all its people. No one is allowed to interfere with or limit another person's right to vote. Government of the people, by the people and for the people."#

I wouldn't listen to anyone who spouts hate about white men any more than I would one who hates on black men. I'm so fed up with people who spew hate. They're all evil, sick, selfish people. There is no acceptable form of hate. #

The Nets traded for James Harden, one of the top stars in the NBA. They gave up most of their draft picks, so their future looks pretty grim. And they now have two of the most worst-attitude players in the NBA in Kyrie Irving and Harden. Not sure about Durant. But I wonder how many games Kyrie is going to play this year, when ball-hog Harden is on the court. Maybe he can lead the second team. Somehow the power has to gravitate away from the stars, and back to the teams. In the meantime, it's kind of a blessing for the Knicks that none of the superstars want to play there. That way every victory feels earned. The team has a spirit. Of course they have egos, but none so dominant as the ones who now play for Brooklyn. Now I just wish I could watch the Knicks for less than $65 a month, which is a ripoff that I refuse to pay. #

Why banking interfaces suck. Confusion makes them money with overdraft fees, etc. Hadn't thought of that.#

So many people like to be stimulated by their own rage, they look for triggers. They may say they're tired of it, but if they really were, they could block the trolls.#

Suppose for the sake of argument that the election was rigged, a conspiracy between state governments, including Republican state governments, and journalism. Do you think their coverup could be so complete we'd never have hard proof of this conspiracy? Hard to imagine intelligent people believing that it could. And BTW, don't think they're not intelligent. There were a lot of very educated and successful people who attacked the Capitol last week. What's going on inside these people? Not asking a question of people who read this blog, just expressing bewilderment. At what point will their deep gullibility lose out to their experience and bullshit detection?#

What's wrong with the Repubs. Trump ordered an attack on them. They came pretty close to killing all of them. Maybe they're robots.#

Yes, the Trumps are being cancelled, and I don't care how you feel. #

Repubs are objecting to being scanned for weapons going onto the House floor. Should we conclude that they have been bringing weapons onto the floor? Why else would the Capitol police want to put a scanner there? Are they afraid of a hostage situation where the perp is a member of Congress? So many questions. If in the opinion of some reps, they are entitled to bring weapons onto the floor, is there a limit? Can they bring automatic weapons? Grenades? An automatic grenade launcher? How about a tank, could they bring a tank onto the floor of the House. I suppose that could come in handy. #

Poll: Will Trump be president on January 21? #

Reality check: Trump attacked the United States.#

I wish I had that video of the Iraqi parliament, locked in by Saddam, being taken out one by one to be shot. The doors locked. Giving speeches saying how much they love Saddam, arms waving, crying. He had them shot anyway. I think the Congressional Repubs should see it. And Mike Pence. He already knows what it feels like. #

If the Mission Impossible people were still around, they'd figure out a way to get the MAGAs to turn on Trump. #

Seeming unlikely things keep happening, yet this doesn't affect people's inability to imagine weird freaky things happening. They snap back to "normal" whatever that is. Normal never actually existed. A more accurate way to describe that feeling is this: "asleep."#

Over the years Trump was on Twitter, I had him blocked. I urged people I follow not to RT him. That's the first and only rule of trolls, don't feed them. That's what they need. His fans love that he pisses off the libtards (that's you btw). How much more effective it would have been if instead of waiting for Twitter to ban him, we all did it, by blocking him. Pay no attention. That would have been incredible. But people need to learn. Okay now it's time not to RT the Repubs as they desperately try to reboot their reality distortion field. Let Trump's base take care of them. Don't RT them. Let them fail. When you feed their attempts at controversy you are, perhaps ironically, saving them.#

As things get worse for Trump, and they are getting worse, the odds he’ll blow a nuke go up. Will we look back on this, after the fact, and realize there was something we could’ve done to prevent it. Will history forgive us if it happens and we didn’t do anything.#

Today's song: Get Together. #

Trump doesn't need Twitter, he could just use a blog. If he did, there would be pathways for people to find out he updated, and software that would let his followers read his latest messages, in reverse chronological order. There would be no Twitter to shut him down. Now, I'm not sure where he could go to get the blog hosted. I wonder if Blogger and Wordpress et al have considered what they'd do if he started a blog in either of those places. Thing to know is RSS is a lot easier to deploy than a Twitter-like system, and it could be distributed. We looked at lots of those things in the heyday of Napster to route around the music industry. I hate that I'm helping Trump be the monster he is, but I feel obligated to share this with my followers, who probably want to think about real-world applications of distributed internet technology. #

Here's something positive. Re this profile of the GuyOnPorch and WomanInCar meme that became viral. Let me set the stage. The guy on the porch is an older white man. He's screaming obscenities at MAGAs (off-camera) telling them to get the fuck out of DC. Then the camera swings to a black woman in her car, and she's kind of astonished to see the white man saying what she was thinking. And she said so. I cried watching it. Later in the profile they said something that grabbed me. “Humphries was stunned that it was this 60-year-old White man speaking her truth. Their truth.” I wanted to give them both a big hug. We need to get our shit together. It's not just her truth and his truth, it's the truth of America. We love this country. And that means we love each other. For real. #

I had a post here entitled Morning Depression Notes. I deleted it. I don't need to make your day worse. But I do want to say Monday January 11, 2021 is one of the worst days ever. I somehow made it through 2020 without getting depressed. But 2021, it's a real challenge. Maybe I just want to say one thing. Let's remove all the Republican senators, except Mitt Romney. Send them all home. They had a chance to stop this, the Dems tee'd it up for them, all they had to do was vote to convict. Sure they might have lost their jobs. They're going to lose them anyway. But they might have had a tiny little bit of residual honor, and we all could have stood up for them, when the MAGA mob comes for them. Now, let em go -- out the airlock. Good riddance. #

When we throw the Repubs out the airlock, I nominate Lee Zeldin to lead the parade, for this tweet. #

As it settles in, what Trump and his family did, what Giuliani did, there is no penalty harsh enough to fit the crime. That they still have their freedom says there’s something missing in the Constitution. That Trump still have has freedom says there’s something missing in the Constitution.#

They need a new rule in Congress. Don't bother electing anyone who tried to overthrow the US government. We will not let them sit down.#

I decided to give Fubo a try, because I'd like to watch Knicks games. Well, there's a deal stopper, no CNN. The Knicks are not worth $65 a month, even if they are good this year.#

2015: "If we could get neutral places on the Internet, with no business models attached to them and no ownership we could create some important new stuff. What? We won't know until we have it."#

Via Dan Conover on Facebook: "It's only a coup if it's from the Coup d'état region of France. Otherwise, it's just sparkling White Supremacist insurrection."#

I'm getting stir crazy. I'm just starting to notice it, but I think it's been happening for some time. Let's try to remember that everyone else is dealing with the same fucked up situation.#

Your access to all of the internet depends on the permission of a lot of big companies. Any one of them could break your illusion of independence. So when you get all righteous about how they have the right to shut you down, remember, you aren't them, and they control you.#

It seems to me what happened with Congress on Wednesday was like that scene in The Godfather, when Michael realizes his father, in the hospital, is not being guarded.#

A long time ago I wanted to try Google Cloud Platform. I had to give them a credit card. I quickly decided I didn't want the service, so I turned off my test project. Now the card has expired and they're sending me emails saying that I have to register a new credit card. But my bill is $0, has been forever. I don't owe them any money and I don't want the service. I have written them feedback using their support mechanism. Yet I still get the warning emails. The easy thing to do would be to give them a new credit card. This is the power of huge faceless corporations. Even small ones can threaten your credit rating. A foot doctor sends me bills for $40 every few months. Can't talk to the doctor, they won't permit it. Or Experian had a bug that caused my credit to be hurt. It has hurt a lot of other people, I hear. This is the background to the idea of Amazon shutting off an annoying customer because people, including their employees, are hassling them about it. You better stay popular with the people Amazon cares about or you'll be out on the street. I'm not going to give Google a new credit card. Let's see what happens.#

Today's song: The Beat Goes On. #

Late on Saturday evening: Amazon gave Parler 24 hours to get off AWS. Lots to say about this. In the meantime watch my Twitter thread. #

We'll look back on this week as the moment everything changed.#

Assume Trump's devs are scrambling to get up a new social net. I'm sure they'll find something. I heard it said they won't get thru the App Store and Google Play. This is true. So guess what -- they'll have to use the open web. Politics and tech make strange bedfellows. ;-)#

A friend writes on Facebook: "Apple, Google, AT&T and Verizon know who was inside the Capitol. The FBI has names and warrants already." #

I would love to see Al Franken get a role in the new administration.#

The arguments about how you don't have free speech on private platforms don't reflect the reality of Twitter and Facebook, which have monopolistic power in the worlds they define. Those worlds are huge, powerful, growing, and most important here -- exclusive. We call them silos in tech, but they behave like monopolies in other contexts. They don't imho have the rights of truly private companies because they wield government-like power that can have the effect of restricting speech. Because they are silos, there's no way to route around them. This is dangerous stuff. Suppose for example the Republican Party owned Twitter. You can see how that would damage free discourse in our political system. And it's not impossible for a political entity to take control of Twitter, they're not very highly valued in the stock market. That's why the government must be involved in decisions that cut off political leaders. What made this situation so difficult is that it was the president who needed to be silenced, before he could do more damage. A tough call, and a very difficult precedent. BTW, I do advocate for political parties becoming social networks. I think they already are that. #

Also, having the employees of Twitter and Facebook influening the censorship decisions the companies make is not good ethically. The employees should do their jobs, they should not personally have any say in who gets to use the network. We need ethical rules for professionals in tech. Here's an example from the medical profession. If you were a doctor in a hospital, and they wheeled in someone whose political opinions you abhor, you have to treat them no matter what. We insist that bakeries in Indiana bake cakes for gay couples as they would for heterosexual couples. It's easy to see when people you disagree with overstep professional ethical boundaries, much harder to see it when you do it yourself. #

These kinds of decisions have a lot of impact. For example, I was blacklisted from speaking at a few tech conferences probably because their sponsors didn't like the affect my work was having on their closed networks. As a result, I'm perceived to having left tech, when in fact, a couple of powerful and/or rich people pressured conference promoters to not allow me a public presence. When I complained about it on my blog, or in person to friends, they shrugged it off, kind of the way Repubs shrug off ethical failures in their work. There are consequences to this kind of back-room deal-making. By this time very few people have any sympathy for Trump, but this act sets a precedent. You may not like it when someone you support is cut off this way. #

I would love to see the rioters deported to some country where they really don't have political freedom. Let them try to bust down the doors to the Kremlin, for example, see what happens. #

Good morning sports fans. #

Trump is leading the Keystone Cops version of a military coup. Yesterday's speech was clearly a KK version of a coverup. All the tracks lead back to him, as usual he didn't even try to hide them. God help us if he were even slightly more competent and slightly less narcissistic. #

My big objection with the way journalists talk about Facebook is that it's so naive. The questions are much much much more complicated. Shutting off Facebook, which seems to be what journalism wants, would be as stupidly disruptive as turning off Wikipedia, or even the phone network -- or for that matter, all the daily newspapers. Facebook is that important for information flow in our society. It's not a joke. John Naughton wrote an excellent rant yesterday about how reporters had no idea how to cover something like the riot in DC on Wednesday. Well they don't know how to cover Facebook either. Yes it is used for some awful purposes, so is everything. We have a much bigger job to do today. One thing journalists could do to help is being more outgoing, inquisitive, and respond to direct statements like this one. We need to work together. #

Sidebars to JN: 1. I wish your blog had permalinks so I could point to individual items. 2. I like strong language. The people who run these platforms are not elected, it's true. Neither are the other gatekeepers, and it would suck, imho, if they were. When someone screams fire in a crowded movie theater, as Trump is doing, it's up to the management to do something about it. Nothing wrong with that. I like the title "creeps" -- it fits, because like the management of Exxon, the people who run Facebook spoil the resource they monetize, in this case the open web. #

Tommy Lasorda is gone. 93 years old. A good run. He was manager of the Dodgers back before I hated them. But I can't say I ever loved them. I had an experience at the World Series vs the Oakland A's where we scalped tickets that turned out to be in the Dodger's wives section. They tried to have us removed, because we were very vocally advocating for the A's. Of course, this was at the Oakland Coliseum. They argued with the cops that we would have been ejected at Dodgers Stadium. You see that's the problem with baseball these days. Decorum. It was never meant to be a respectful sport, imho. Anyway, I digress. Lasorda was a famous manager of a winning team "back in the day." Sigh. We're all getting old and soon we'll be dead. That's what it all means. Oh la. #

Another problem I have with the Dodgers is that my parents were Dodgers fans, back when they were in Brooklyn, and known as Da Bums. The name turns out to have fit, because one day they up and left Brooklyn. I understand the problem wasn't of their making, they were targeted by Robert Moses to be the team for his new stadium which turned out to be the stadium the Mets played in. And our family, before I was really aware of these things, switched allegiance to the Mets, who were called The Amazins, which was of course sarcastic. Which is fine, because as I said -- baseball is not a respectful sport. Even when it comes to your home team. 💥#

Zuck disconnects Trump's Facebook. Good move. Thanks. #

Twitter should also disconnect Trump. This is hard for me to advocate, as one of the first bloggers and podcasters, I believe, at my core, in direct communication. But this has gone far enough. Someone said the Constitution is not a suicide pact. Neither is blogging. #

Don't be a useful idiot. Don't RT the fascists. That's why they stay on Twitter, to outrage you and your followers. If you weren't helping them, they'd stay on their own private social net. What's ironic is that some of the worst offenders are reporters whose pubs blame Facebook for the garbage news. Their own reporters are distributing the same stuff on Twitter. #

Is this true? The House isn't coming back into session until after the inauguration, and the Senate is adjourned until January 19. When was this decided? On the other hand, hard to blame them. They were locked down, trapped in the Capitol with who-knows-what kind of monsters with what weapons roaming around, and some nice officers with pistols pointed at the doors. I'd want to get out of town too, in their shoes.#

David Frum wrote a rationale and plan for removing Trump last night, which of course did not happen. Must-read.#

Some men just want to watch the world burn.#

You want the truth?#

Today's song: Happy Days Are Here Again. #

I don't get why the DOJ is supposed to be demoralized. If I had stuck it out through Trump, and Barr and the other jerks, I would be pretty jazzed to see Merrick Garland show up to rebuild. Organizations rebound pretty quickly, I've found.#

2010: "An amazing scene in a Frontline episode in the Iraqi parliament while Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq. It was time for a purge. Saddam had decided to execute the whole legislature. The doors were locked and they started taking out people one by one and shooting them. Saddam, sadist that he was, videotaped it. So you could see what these guys were doing as they figured out, one by one, what was happening. So what did the condemned legislators do while waiting to be shot? They gave speeches, denouncing each other as the real enemy of the state, and proclaiming their love for Saddam, the best friend he ever had. Didn't work, they were all killed." They used to have video on the PBS site, but it was a victim of the deprecation of Flash. If you know of another copy, please send me a pointer. #

I changed the header image on my blog to a beautiful shot of the US Capitol. Amazing how quickly the political action moved from Georgia to DC. But all this Trump michegas is masking the big story -- the pandemic is digging in with increased virality all over the world, but especially in the US. With power as it's currently configured, we finally have a chance to help ourselves. But only barely. #

I went to sleep around 10PM Eastern last night, woke up a little after 2AM, dreading the moment, and there’s good news! Goodbye Loeffler. Buh bye Perdue. Fuck off #moscowmitch. Better leave town now lame duck Trump. We must be doing something right. And of coruse the "we" who's doing right, is.. #

Stacey Abrams does it right: She finds out what the people need. That's a pretty good basic method for politics. And she says, I think correctly, that as the Dems get better at that, the Repubs will have to too. #

Let's see how much guts and vision Biden has. How big a role does he give Abrams, short-term, in forming the future of the Democratic Party. She's a big deal, for the long term. Let's see how beholden Biden is to her competitors within the party. #

The thing to look out for now -- senators switching parties. With a 50-50 split and things in motion in red-vs-blue states, there should be some opportunities for that. and right now is the time of max leverage.#

There's a continuous heartbeat connecting back in time, through your mother, and her mother, and so on back to the first mother with a heart that beats. #

If the Repubs are going to split in two, maybe the Dems can pick up a few. Couldn't hurt.#

Audible just gave me a status upgrade to "nibbler.' I don't know who designs these things, but did they think that I, a sentient human being of 65 years and many accomplishments would appreciate being labeled as such by a fucking algorithm? This is right up there with Heroku telling me (again via algorithm) that I am a "hobbyist" developer. Excuse me. I have a MS in Computer Science from a fine school. I have won awards for my software, and invented many things, probably as many as anyone at your fine company, so please keep your opinion of my programming ability to your robot self. Sincerely, Dave Winer, a master of science. #

I crack myself up sometimes. 🚀#

Highly recommend the Maddow interview with Stacey Abrams last night, esp her evaluation of Kemp and Raffensperger. It's almost accidental that they ended up on the right side of Trump's attempt to steal the election, the same way a broken clock is right twice a day.#

Dan MacTough: "My eyes (and head) been killing me this morning. Had the idea to change the 'picture mode' on my external monitor (warmer color, less bright) and instantly felt me entire face relax. Like I had been squinting to keep the sun out of my eyes or something."#

Subscribe to the Andrew Cuomo podcast. #

I had a conversation with a friend yesterday about why I go for connecting big things to other big things. It's not for money or fame, it's about power -- for the users of the open web. Which is what got me back into software development with a passion in the early 90s. I had already lived through a couple of generations of wide open "blue sky" that was later foreclosed on by the bankers. I felt that the technology of the web, as with the personal computer before it, could be used to enhance communication, and that could be used to solve problems, the ones we're still grappling with today. That's why it's not enough to make cool software, though I admit I love doing that -- it's for the power it gives to people to solve our problems. I still believe in that, as I did when I first got into software development in the 1970s. #

Every year Mark Zuckerberg takes on a personal challenge, running 365 miles, reading 25 books. In 2018 he focused on "fixing important issues." I suggested one. "Stop killing the open web. Never mind fancy tech, support the features the web has had since inception. Linking, first and foremost, then simple styling, titles for posts and podcasting. Then take a vacation and kick back. We don't need boy genius heroics, just trust the decentralization you say you believe in." This is still on his todo list as far as I'm concerned. Be kind to the web that created your opportunity to create Facebook. #

For sure Trump is calling generals, trying to prep a backup plan, calling for martial law, occupying DC, making sure when Biden shows up at the White House, he is met with troops. The calls hopefully sound something like his call with Raffensperger. #

The first fifteen minutes of this podcast, from the Daily, about Stacey Abrams, is totally worth a listen. They put a little fluff up front, not sure why -- but it's not too much imho. #

This just in from Occam's News. The president broke the law in the conversation he had with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday. "The people of Georgia are very angry," he said. According to our legal analysts that was a threat to physically injure Mr. Raffensperger or members of his family.#

We were introduced to Georgia governor Kemp and Secy of State Raffensperger in the, at the time, clearly corrupt gubernatorial election against Stacey Abrams. I still think they were the most corrupt of the corrupt. But these two, among other Repub state officials in swing states, turn out to be perfectly incorruptible and nothing less than stalwart saviors of Our American Democracy. Bravo!#

Poll: The hottest woman character in The Expanse.#

It shouldn't matter where a good idea comes from.#

I'm glad we have the audio of Trump trying to bully the Georgia secretary of state. As this is going on the country is botching the administration of the vaccine. And the states and cities are running out of money. And his "supporters" think this situation is fine. 🔥#

I wish the Washington Post would open source the audio. Upload it somewhere. The full conversation, not excerpts. This should be on the record, for all to hear, not behind a paywall. I'm not saying they should or have to, but this is history. We should get it all, right now. Everyone should hear it.#

Update: They put four minutes of the audio on YouTube. #

The president gets one vote, like everyone else.#

I said something in yesterday's post about podcasting that caused some understandable confusion. Here's what I said. "There are rules about this medium." I think that's true, not one rule for everyone at all times, but genres and practices, conventions. Any art has them, and then every artist breaks them. That's part of the art. Also only steal from the best -- another rule. Every artist steals. If there are rules for standards-makers, there must also be rules for podcasters, no? I don't claim that what I say are the rules. But there is one rule imho that art must follow, it must respect the observer, as a participant. If your art doesn't do that, I'm probably not going to like it. Doesn't mean I won't come back. Art is weird. If it isn't, it isn't art, imho. #

The Repubs backing Trump should be careful not to break the law. Trump won’t care, and won’t have the power to pardon, anyway. I bet he’d enjoy seeing Ted Cruz go to jail. I bet a lot of people would. Seriously, they would be easy scapegoats, everyone could agree they deserve to be punished. #

If Ted Cruz and his crew are true freedom fighters, if they are rebuffed by the corrupt deep state, and forced to choose between an illegitimate regime, or resigning in protest, they should must resign. It's the honorable thing to do, and we know they are people of principle.#

If the press didn't pay so much attention to the Repubs stunts, they would have less power. #

I heard today from a friend in the Bay Area that the homeless camps in San Francisco are shocking. Has anyone written a story about it, with pictures, or video? #

Larry Yudelson, a longtime reader of this blog, recommends The Story of Human Language audiobook, by John McWhorter. #

I hate sites that make you give them your email address before you find out what they do.#

Congratulations. You survived 2020. So did I. We did it. #

Facebook is useful. Journalism is evil. This contrarian view is brought to you by open media. You will never hear these simple ideas on closed corporate media.#

The best podcasts are the ones with experts who simply share their expertise. So many podcasts begin with a long discussion about how everyone feels, with lots of chuckling and self-praise and inside jokes. No. One. Cares. The first time I noticed this was a podcast about The Americans, a great show that I loved, with cast members. That's cool. Talk about the characters you play. But I really don't care where you, the actor, grew up. Exceptions are obvious. If you're a Beatle, go ahead and talk about yourself. If you're Jack Nicholson or Meryl Streep, yes please. I would like to know what makes Joni Ernst tick. But most experts aren't interesting as people. Your audience is looking to learn something, so teach us. #

As was pointed out by Brian Dear on Twitter, it's now January 1, 2021, and I still haven't received a letter or email from the US government telling me how and when I'm going to get my Covid vaccine. As a user of Medicare, I am surprised they haven't yet sent me an email about this. This is actually the kind of thing they do at Medicare. #

The monthly ritual is done, and another year of the OPML archive is complete. The copyright notice at the bottom of each page now says 2021. #