TikTok TikTok

RibbitI feel bad for the folks who made a living on TikTok. I’m hoping they’ll find another job to take the place of being an influencer or whatever they did on TickTok to make a living.

As for the folks who are bummed because they liked watching it. You’ll get over it. I wasn’t happy when Space Karen took over Twitter and shut down the API so I stopped using it, exported my tweets, and deleted my account. I don’t miss it because Mastodon is even better and isn’t controlled by a single company.

I suspect it will be back soon. Hang in there.

Donnie Boy is afraid of a little cold

President-elect Donald Trump said his inauguration on Monday will take place inside the U.S. Capitol rather than outdoors because of severe cold, the first time in 40 years that U.S. presidential inaugural ceremonies will be moved indoors.

The reason is simple. Through all the bluster, Donald Trump is just a big sissy boy. He’s afraid he’s gonna get a little cold sitting outside. A real man would suck it up and enjoy the moment.

Well, there’s that, and he’s terrified his crowd size will, once again, be much, much, smaller than previously. Remember how tiny his crowd was in 2017? Yeah, it was tiny compared to the mass of folks who went for President Obama or President Biden who followed him.

He’s so hated I’d imagine most of the CEO’s he’s somehow gotten to be there would rather be sitting alone in the cold than be seated behind him.

Red sock.I keep expecting to read of another assassination attempt on the Marmalade Messiah.

It will happen. He’s equally adored and hated here in the States. Worldwide I’d imagine there is more hatred for the man.

Dear President Biden

Please release all the Department of Justice Special Counsel reports behind the indictments of President elect Trump.

Uncle SamAs a nation we deserve to know what our future leader allegedly did so we can form our own opinions, given the Supreme Court made it difficult to prosecute a President for crimes committed while in office.

We all know he’s a criminal. We should know about his many crimes.

I’d encourage everyone to make a similar blog post if you have a blog, or post to your favorite social network. We really need this to happen for the good of our country and for future generations to understand what a mistake we made by electing Donald J. Trump to a second term in office.

Orange Man has lost his ever loving mind.

What do you want to do? Invade Canada? I bet half of the US would help our lovely neighbors to the north. 🇨🇦

How long will it take Trump to cross a line Americans cannot stomach?

How long after that does the next Civil War start?

How much cruelty will you put up with before doing something about it? I guess we all may have to answer that question in 2025.

Is Hate better than Woke? 😳

Mediate

‘Democrats Are Realizing Woke Is Broke!’ Morning Joe Crew Reads Entire Maureen Dowd Column Slamming Identity Politics

Woke? Come on! Why not talk about the Orange Dude’s misogyny, racism, and just outright hate? That’s what people in America voted for and want. It’s more about that than the Democratic Party being “woke.”

Yes, Democrats believe in equity, inclusion, and empathy for their fellow man. Why the hell shouldn’t we all want that?

Watch out! It's a blog fly!Are you flat ass saying hate is the way? No thanks. I want nothing to do with that.

I’ll be here to help black and brown people, LQBTQ+ people, and Women.

Wanting everyone to be treated the same and have the same opportunities isn’t a weakness, it’s a strength. Hate is too easy.

Get outta here with that crap.

UPDATE:

If you have a Threads account, or can see this video, go watch. This guy, whoever he is, nails it

On Personal Tragedy, Love, and the Election

John Gruber

Given the circumstances when I went to bed Tuesday night, it was no surprise I was welling up with tears come the morning. But I’d never have expected they’d be tears of joy, with a sense of hope — however diminished — and abiding love in my heart.

This is, without a doubt, the best piece John Gruber has ever written.

Please take the time to read it. John weaves a very personal tragic moment into the tragedy of the election. I cannot get over how great it is. John really is a masterful writer. Wow.

Thank you for sharing such a beautifully written, thoughtful, and personal piece right when we all needed it, John. ✪

The Editorial Board • The New York Times

Donald Trump has described at length the dangerous and disturbing actions he says he will take if he wins the presidency.

At least The NY Times had the intestinal fortitude to do this.

Uncle SamDone and done! I’ve done my part and voted to keep the United States of America a democracy!

Vote Harris - Walz, Save Democracy

I am all in on Kamala Harris being the next President of the United States. She is fully qualified and will bring an excellent staff on board to keep this country running.

We’re at a critical time in our Nation. Fascism has been knocking on the door for sometime now and it’s time we squash it, forever. Trump cannot win. He will never leave office and will destroy the United States of America. I fully believe that.

Trump is a petty, vindictive, narcissistic, asshole. He fits right into the mold of a psychopath – it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s killed someone – and Trump is 100% fascist.

Save Democracy in America. Vote Harris - Walz.

Harris - Walz 2024: Save Democracy

@Lana@beige.party

Uncle Sam

Uh, and by Christian I mean specifically evangelical Christian, obviously. You better not have any heretical ideas about God like this crap about loving thy neighbor and feeding the hungry and clothing the homeless. That’s the sort of idea that’ll get you in trouble in Trump’s America. But as long as you’re a white, straight, cisgender, evangelical Christian man, you’ll be fine.

Sure, everything will be fine.

Vote Harris-Walz if you want a free America.

Trump will never leave office

Michael Gold • The New York Times

In the closing minutes of his speech to a gathering of religious conservatives on Friday night, former President Donald J. Trump told Christians that if they voted him into office in November, they would never need to vote again.

“Christians, get out and vote. Just this time,” he said at The Believers’ Summit, an event hosted by the conservative advocacy group Turning Point Action, in West Palm Beach, Fla. “You won’t have to do it anymore, you know what? Four more years, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”

The Cheeto finally did it! He said the quiet part out loud for all Americans to hear. He doesn’t plan on leaving office at the end of his four year term if he wins in 2024. Unbelievable.

If that doesn’t stop you from voting for Trump nothing will and our beautiful Republic will be lost forever.

Folks have been saying he’s a threat to democracy for quite a while and he just said it himself. Believe him. Vote for Kamala Harris.

We also need to be extra vigilant just before, during, and after the election, especially if he loses.

Rest assured there will be another coup attempt if he loses.

Kathleen Culliton • Raw Story

“Democrats fearful that President Joe Biden will cost them control of Congress are mulling calling on him to withdraw from the race against convicted felon former President…”

All y’all are cowards!

Biden is our only choice. Get out there and rally the troops. There’s more to lose than your seat in the House or Senate.

Stop and Think

Uncle SamI didn’t watch the debate last night and I’m glad I skipped it. Apparently President Biden didn’t do so well. That’s ok, I’m still voting for him and I’m sure most Democrats will.

Question is how do we get Independents to vote for him or true Republicans who don’t agree with the draconian MAGA movement? The movement that’ll set us back decades.

I’m still voting for Joe Biden, I don’t care if he’s not as sharp as he once was. He has amazing people all around him and I’m certain he can still do the job.

If you’re an Independent or Republican the question is: Do you want Democracy or Fascism?

The choice is so easy for most of us, we want Democracy.

I couldn’t resist posting this here. 🤣

An a-frame sign in front of a sandwich shop that reads: Trump sandwich, white bread, full of baloney, with Russian dressing, and a small pickle.

New York Times 🎁🔗

Donald J. Trump, the former president and presumptive 2024 Republican nominee, was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a case stemming from a payment that silenced a porn star.

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer fellow.

Donald J. Trump, convicted felon. Has a really nice ring to it.

Why do you stay in Texas?

Texas doesn’t care about women. To Texas they exist to incubate and pop out babies, cook your meals, and clean your house.

If you have a woman in your life why are you still there?

Are you trying to make Texas a better place by getting Republicans out of office?

Is it where you grew up?

Do you want to get out of there but are trapped because you can’t afford the cost of moving?

Is your job too good to leave?

Maybe you don’t care because it’s someone else’s problem?

What about it is keeping you there?

Will Democracy Survive?

Huffington Post

Former President Donald Trump’s attorney on Thursday argued that a president could order the assassination of his political rival and stage a military coup without being prosecuted for it.

How have we arrived here? One man is single handedly doing his damnedest to unravel American Democracy to placate his narcissism and for some reason nobody wants to tell him he can’t do it.

I just don’t get it.

For 240+ years we’ve managed to exist as a nation without having a President use the Office as his own corrupt money making scheme.

Now, here we are, at the Supreme Court waiting for a tiny group of people to make a decision that could destroy everything we have, all for one man.

There is an upside to this, I suppose? If the Supreme Court decides the President has full immunity and President Biden is willing Trump could be stopped.

I’ll leave it there. Let your mind wander on what that solution might be.

If Trump isn’t stopped now he’ll use that unchecked power in unimaginable ways. Political rivals will mysteriously fall from high rise buildings, die of poisoning, or be thrown in prison.

He’ll rule until he’s hauled out of the White House in a body bag and pass the reins to Bevis or Butthead or some other crony.

Uncle Sam

Vote for Democracy. Vote Joe Biden 2024.

UPDATE: Apparently Craig Hockenberry is thinking along the same lines as I am. Yeah, the Supreme Court needs to be very careful.

They really should just say “The law applies to everyone."

MAGA’s are all liars

ANKUSH KHARDORI • Politico

Nearly a third of Republican caucusgoers told pollsters that Trump would not be “fit” for the presidency if he is convicted of a crime — a sizable defection that, if it held, would likely doom Trump’s general election chances

Look, the GOP is full of lying white supremacist nationalists. They’d vote for the lying-rapist-insurrectionist no matter what that orange sack of crap says.

I don’t believe it, nor should you. Vote. That’s all we can do because even if his orangeness is convicted of one or more crimes he’ll be allowed to campaign and possibly win. If he wins his federal convictions will be overturned. I have no idea what happens in Georgia? Perhaps he has a few political rivals knocked off, or just ignores court orders to report to jail and lets the Secret Service and his cult followers to protect him.

I fully expect Civil War of some kind to break out after the election no matter who wins. That is the saddest thing of all and I hope I’m so wrong and everyone calls me an idiot for saying it.

Red sock.How about some moderate Republicans approach Hakeem Jeffries and the Democrats and make a deal to make Jeffries Speaker of the House?

At least Democrats can govern and get stuff done.

We have stuff at home to take care of and wars on two fronts. Get to work y’all!

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

Espresso ShotAnother week in the books. It’s my favorite time of the year. Trees are changing color and dropping leaves. Temperatures are beginning to drop. We have Halloween and Thanksgiving coming up. What a wonderful season!🍁🎃🦃

Robert D. McFadden • New York Times

Dianne Feinstein, 90, Dies; Oldest Sitting Senator and Fixture of California Politics

A friend of mine worked for Dianne Feinstein when he was in college. He was a registered Republican but that didn’t matter to her. She still hired him.

RIP 🪦

Moira Warburton and David Morgan • Reuters

WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Hardline Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday rejected a bill proposed by their leader to temporarily fund the government, making it all but certain that federal agencies will partially shut down beginning on Sunday.

And, here we go. All these knuckleheads want to do is tear down democracy. They don’t legislate and pass laws. You’re there to do the work of the people you represent back home.

Anyway, the modern GOP is full of idiots like Gaetz, Boebert, and Green. Why Republicans are so angry and hateful is beyond me. 🤬

Jacob Kastrenakes • The Verge

“Did he say we were moving to it specifically or is thinking about it?” Yaccarino asked.

That was Linda Yaccarino’s reply when asked if Twitter was going to start charging a fee for all users, a claim Space Karen made. She was caught off guard, she didn’t know that was the plan. She’s not the CEO of the company. She’s probably there just so Space Karen can say he lived up to his stupid poll.

I’m sure Linda Yaccarino is a more than competent executive but she’s made a deal with the devil. She should be nervous. Especially once he’s fired her. I originally said she be gone in six months. I’m sticking by that. She’s 100 days into her new role and already out of the loop.

Christian Tietze

SwiftUI.View is actually a view model – a model of the view. It’s a blueprint for what to display, but doesn’t contain any actual pixel drawing.

This is an interesting take and I think Christian is right. Once you think about it for a bit it starts to make sense. At least it did for me.

Now, I’ve done a bit of work on one of my apps — Arrgly — that has a few view models and they fit right into the new SwiftUI I’m writing. So, view models work as well, but is it an unneeded level of indirection? Maybe. 🤔

Jenny Gross • The New York Times

A 16-year-old boy was arrested Thursday on suspicion of criminal damage after one of Britain’s most famous trees, a sycamore that stood in a dip in Hadrian’s Wall, was cut down overnight in what the authorities described as “an act of vandalism.”

This is one of those head scratchers. Why in the world would someone just cut a down a random tree?

Hopefully we find out.

Craig Hockenberry

The only explanation I can find for the Timer’s design regressions is an unfamiliarity with some use cases. In the following critique, I’ll focus on how the watch is used in the kitchen and how older customers struggle with the new layout. Suggestions will be kept to a minimum: the effort here is to be descriptive, not prescriptive.

Wow! Craig does a deep dive into the Apple Watch Timer. I also used the built in timers when I’d grill.

Umar Shakir • The Verge

Google is offering its employees a new incentive to come into its Mountain View, California office: discounted hotel stays. The company is promoting $99 per night rates for its on-campus hotel to help remote employees transition into a hybrid working schedule, according to a report from CNBC.

Yeah, that’s not what I’d call good marketing. 🤣 you pay us $99 a night so you don’t have to commute to work! Brilliant! How ‘bout you just let folks work from home? 🧠

Gabriela Galindo • WIRED

The Fruit Union Suisse is 111 years old. For most of its history, it has had as its symbol a red apple with a white cross—the Swiss national flag superimposed on one of its most common fruits. But the group, the oldest and largest fruit farmer’s organization in Switzerland, worries it might have to change its logo, because Apple, the tech giant, is trying to gain intellectual property rights over depictions of apples, the fruit.

If Apple goes after a company over 100 years old because the have a logo with an apple on it they’re pathetic. 🤬

Believe it or not it’s part of what motivated me to change my little company’s name from Apple Core Labs to Hayseed.

Scott Jenson

Android and iOS share a common problem: they copied desktop text editing conventions, but without a menu bar or mouse. This forced them to overload the tap gesture with a wide range of actions: placing the cursor, moving it, selecting text, and invoking a pop-up menu. This results in an overly complicated and ambiguous mess-o-taps, leading to a variety of user errors.

I’ve mentioned I compose all my blog posts on my iPhone. I do it largely out of laziness. 😁

I’ve used Tot for a number of years and it has the best editing experience of any iPhone apps I’ve used.

Once I’m happy with my post I copy it to Micro.Blog and post it to my blog. Easy peasy.

Jeff Seldin • Voice of America

White supremacists appear to have settled on a new strategy to grow their numbers and ready capable fighting forces across the United States, Canada and Europe while avoiding the scrutiny of law enforcement.

I’ve been waiting for a war to break out in our country. At the least a bunch of very targeted attacks. If these wannabe soldiers can actually get their act together folks may have to start worrying. If they’re as disorganized and dumbass as they were on January 6, we’ll be fine. Yes, people will die, and that’s a terrible price to pay for stupidity.

Rogers Cadenhead

I publish this blog and seven other sites with Wordzilla, a CMS I wrote for myself and have never released. I began it 20 years ago and the PHP codebase is best examined in small doses because to look upon its full extent would bring a descent into madness worthy of Yog-Shoggoth.

I’ve read Rogers blog for years and years and I had no idea it was a home rolled solution. Good for you, Rogers! I’ve always wanted to create my own publishing system but I don’t have the gumption any longer to do it. 🎩

Ross Dellenger • Yahoo Sports

About 20 minutes after the conclusion of, let’s call it, the Autzen Stadium Massacre — Oregon 42, Colorado 6 — Prime Time himself nicely summed up the sordid affair.

I knew they’d lose eventually. It’s just going to happen, especially with a program in rebuild mode. They’ve already doubled last years win total so I’d say this year has already been a success. I also suspect they’ll win quite a few games this season. More than they lose. 🏈

X Out Hate

We are a group of rabbis, leaders of Jewish organizations, artists, activists, and academics. We have diverse ideologies and beliefs, but we have come together to address the danger Elon Musk and X represent to Jews and others.

Space Karen strikes again. He’s a racist and antisemite and has no place running a social media sit with so much power. X has become a home for the worst of the worst and it all his fault.

Hopefully we get some regulation around trust and safety issues that force social media companies to police their platforms better. 🤞🏼

It’s beyond time to leave Twitter. You now have much better choices; Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky. Very selfishly I’d recommend Mastodon. It’s not controlled by a corporate entity who’s interest is using your data as the product. It’s a rag tag, loosely federated, collection of misfits and absolutely beautiful people carrying on the best conversations. It’s a place to build your community with a site controlled by your community. You don’t answer to anyone but yourself.

Aaron Brooks • MakeUseOf

A critical vulnerability in the WebP Codec has been discovered, forcing major browsers to fast-track security updates. However, widespread use of the same WebP rendering code means countless apps are also affected, until they release security patches.

Yikes! Make sure you patch your browser ASAP.

Evan Low • The Mercury News

Contrary to how some have misrepresented the letter my colleagues and I sent to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, we are not asking to “unilaterally strike (Donald) Trump’s name” from the ballot.

I’d love to see Trumps name stricken from as many states as possible. Especially those where he encouraged election fraud.

As a nation we need to do everything legally possible to keep this dangerous man out of office.

David Jays • The Guardian

A star with incredible presence, Gambon – who has died at the age of 82 – brought heft and delicacy, mischief and feeling, to the stage and screen

Most folks will remember him as Dumbledore. I remember him best for his roles in Sleepy Hollow and Mary Reilly. He played a real nasty piece of work in Mary Reilly and that stuck with me. 🪦

Tiny Apple Core

INMATE NO. P01135809

Mediaite

I assume, therefore, that she thought I was a “flight” risk – I’d fly far away, maybe to Russia, Russia, Russia, share a gold domed suite with Vladimir, never to be seen or heard from again.

Oh, please, Mr. Orange, please fly away to Russia and hang out with your buddy Vlad. I’d love that so much. It would be the biggest gift you could ever give the great United States of America.

It’s nice to see him come right out and say how much he adores Putin. It also surprised me how much the Republican Party embraces authoritarians like Putin.

Disqualify Him

CNN

Washington (CNN) — Prominent conservative legal scholars are increasingly raising a constitutional argument that 2024 Republican candidate Donald Trump should be barred from the presidency because of his actions to overturn the previous presidential election result.

DUH! Right? I mean, the guy has been indicted of several apparent crimes, egged on a coup attempt and is just a vile, corrupt, human being.

So, the big question in my mind is, who is going to stop him if these legal scholars agree he’s not eligible? Do it go to a vote in Congress? Good luck there. The GOP say they believe this is a political witch hunt — they don’t really believe that — and the voters should choose. The voters DID choose. They chose to oust him in 2020 but he did his best to remain President.

If this man becomes President he’ll go full authoritarian, punish his enemies, drag the nation down, outlaw gay marriage, make being gay or trans punishable (or at least turn his back to oviolence), and never leave the White House.

Hell, I wouldn’t put it past him to shoot someone in the middle of the road on television.

We do need to face one reality. This man will not go to prison even if he’s convicted of a crime. Our justice system is not equal. The rich and powerful have a different set of rules. Rules that put them above us commoners and for some reason the President of the United States has a special set of rules above and beyond that. That is insane. The President is a temp job at best. The President is supposed to be a public servant, not a king or god.