Ducking (responsibility), goosing (geese).

I didn’t have a terrible week, but much of it went like this:

The battery in my computer has been in failure mode for a while, with “a while” = “a year.” Finally took it to the Genius Bar and the genius told me sure, they could replace it, but it would have to be shipped elsewhere, because they don’t do that in-house, and with shipping/repair time, I could expect it back in 10 days.

“That’s out of the question,” I said flatly. I use my computer for hours, every day that I work and for an hour or two every day that I don’t work. With no two-week vacations coming up, sorry, a non-starter. A battery replacement ought to be simple; you can’t do it while I wait? Even with an appointment? Nope, sorry, the genius said. “But Micro Center might,” he added, proving his bona fides as a genius. “Try them.”

So I called Micro Center, described my problem, and they said sure, they kept those batteries in stock, and if I showed up very first thing when they opened, they’d do it while I wait. Excellent.

So a few more weeks go by, and there’s a day on my schedule when no dogs are barking for my ass, so I get up and head across town to Micro Center — because of course it’s across town, because nothing I need is on the east side — and am there, as instructed, bright and early at 10 a.m.

I’m first in line at the repair counter. You know what’s coming next, right?

“We can’t do that,” I’m told. “Apple won’t let us work on anything newer than a 2011 model.”

“They literally told me to come here,” I said, using that word correctly in a sentence. “They looked at it, diagnosed the problem” — that’s another Genius Bar rant, how you come in knowing exactly what the problem is, and tell them so, and they run all their diagnostics and tell you to your face, without a hint of irony, what you just told them, in your exact words — “and told me to come here. What’s more, the person who answered your phone when I called said you could do it while I waited, if I came first thing in the morning.”

I didn’t add a second “literally,” but probably could have. The guy was just a serf. He didn’t deserve it.

“Well, that person was wrong,” he said. “We can’t fix it.”

Plan C: Alan and his fearlessness in the face of complex repair problems, as long as there are YouTube tutorials (there are) and Amazon carries the parts (they do). He is my all-purpose Genius Bar.

Also, I hate — and by “hate” I mean with the white-hot fury of 10 million suns — dealing with any Silicon Valley- or tech-based company. I know I’m going to have a ram-butting-heads thing with Hulu next week when “The Handmaids Tale” starts, and it’s going to be ugly.

I took the long way back to the office Friday morning, and took some pictures of Detroit blight for our photo bank. Here’s one:

Also rolled through a squatters’ community that appears well-established in this neighborhood. As you can see: Lots of fixer-uppers.

The lovely weather helped my mood immensely, and it turned out to be an OK Friday. Got some good news about a friend, and even this situation ended about as well as could be expected:

This little goose family was on the sidewalk, attempting to cross Woodward Avenue. They’re blocks from any sort of sustaining habitat, but there was no way I or anyone else could herd them down to the river without a hell of a lot of backup.

But I figured I could save them from getting hit by the light rail if I got them into Campus Martius Park, where maybe they could chill until a quieter hour. So I and a couple other animal lovers made a team and got them into the park and beyond the border hedge.

After which I went to work. Good times.

Do note that blue scooter in the photo. This is the latest entry in the scooter market in Detroit, the fourth company to make these grab-and-go conveyances available. I shudder to think what a bunch of half-in-the-bag bros can do on a few of these. I just hope I’m not there to see it.

No links today, except for this one. Mostly for the picture. Sigh.

Have a good week, all.

Posted at 12:51 pm in Detroit life, Same ol' same ol' |
 

59 responses to “Ducking (responsibility), goosing (geese).”

  1. tajalli said on June 2, 2019 at 1:27 pm

    iFixit.com has complete instructions/graphic breakdowns, videos, repair kits, and some components (to pay their way, I guess) for all manner of devices for people forced or inclined to do-it-themselves. Of course, Apple will complain that you repaired it yourself.

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  2. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 2, 2019 at 3:44 pm

    Somehow, “you will void your warranty” just doesn’t strike fear into my heart when I’m working on a five year old laptop. Okay then.

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  3. Suzanne said on June 2, 2019 at 4:45 pm

    This is getting more press than the shooting in Virginia Beach
    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/01/navy-we-were-asked-hide-uss-john-mccain-from-trumps-view-in-japan/1313053001/

    Just another day with people cowering before the Supreme Leader

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  4. Deborah said on June 2, 2019 at 5:30 pm

    So I’m back in Abiquiu again, my husband came back yesterday from business in Chicago, NYC and DC. Today was an experimental gardening day. We have designed the garden but aren’t really sure what will actually grow on our land with crappy soil, limited water and crazy wind. We have only so far planted Russian sage (last year) and it didn’t die. Today I planted silver lace and yarrow, both very drought resistant. Silver lace is a fast growing vine that we’ve planted lots of in Santa Fe and it has grown fabulously. It’s windier and dryer in Abiquiu so we shall see. Since it’s a vine I had to come up with some trellises. I found some cool ones that expand like an iris (in the eye) only vertically. They were cheap and hopefully sturdy, they’re made of willow. I secured them with tent stakes and fabric weed barrier staples. Hopefully the ferocious winds won’t make them collapse, they seem stable so far. I got the plants at the farmers market in Santa Fe where I’ve had good luck with the quality and hardiness of their stuff.

    I don’t know who has initiated this but I think it’s a great idea: make June 14 (flag day) a Trump free day. Don’t mention his name and try not to think about him. Whoever started this is asking the media to participate too. Wouldn’t that be excellent?

    I’m ready for an impeachment inquiry but my husband agrees with Nancy Pelosi. What do you all think?

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  5. basset said on June 2, 2019 at 5:39 pm

    No use trying unless the Senate will vote for it too, otherwise it’s just another chance for 45 to claim a win.

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  6. Sherri said on June 2, 2019 at 5:52 pm

    People who will talk about the good old days when we didn’t have to lock our doors will in the next breath talk about the necessity of guns and hardening buildings and treating mental health. It’s crazy.

    On Facebook, Nancy recommended the podcast Running From Cops, which also was featured in a recent This American Life. I drove to Tacoma and around this weekend and listened to most it of, and OMG. Highly recommended.

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  7. David C. said on June 2, 2019 at 6:00 pm

    If you liked on-demand scooters, you’ll love on-demand pogo sticks. I know that’s what I want to share my sidewalk with. Maybe it’s not all bad, one slight “accidental” bump will bring the tech bro on the pogo stick down. https://abc7news.com/business/startup-wants-to-offer-on-demand-pogo-sticks-in-sf/5325071/

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  8. annie said on June 2, 2019 at 9:56 pm

    I’m not in favor of starting impeachment process because it won’t pass & will only make him more of a martyr/victim of the dems, liberals, socialists, feminazis & whoever else his base blames all his troubles on.

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  9. brian stouder said on June 2, 2019 at 11:51 pm

    My fine young son and I are back in the Fort – and we were both struck by how beautiful Detroit is. When we were in the area on Nance’s map (at Cobo – thence on a shuttle bus to Belle Isle) I was struck by how well the new (buildings and light rail and so on) and the old (especially the gorgeous homes and older buildings and structures) meshed.

    We did see a structure or two like the one in Nance’s photo (over-grown and forgotten) – but many more historic structures that have been taken care of or refurbished or re-purposed. And I was taken aback by how huge the Wayne State college campus appears to be!

    ‘Course, the weather was perfect. Saturday’s rain – which only halted things for a little bit, because of lightening, compelled us to shelter at a massive, beautiful old building on Belle Isle referred to as a casino (https://www.yelp.com/biz/belle-isle-casino-detroit) and made the racing all the better; and Sunday’s sunshine was all the prettier)….and the racing at Belle Isle was superb!

    Saw geese (et al) here and there and everywhere – plus a woman’s top popped off as she jogged for the shuttle bus (which stopped for her!) – so there’s that (or those).

    Definitely on the “To Do, Again” list!

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  10. Sherri said on June 3, 2019 at 1:54 am

    The biggest trump mystery to me is why the man who wants gold-plated toilets and over the top conspicuous displays of wealth and is so vain about his appearance that he does the weird hair thing and orange skin appears in public in clothes that look so cheap and badly fitting? ‘Tis a puzzlement.

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  11. Deborah said on June 3, 2019 at 3:10 am

    I just read on Twitter that audible is offering The Mueller report for free. 19 hours long, read by 3 actors with beautiful voices. I’d include a link but I’m in Abiquiu. When I get back to Santa Fe Tuesday I’m going to download it. They say even if you only listen to the summaries it will blow you away.

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  12. ROGirl said on June 3, 2019 at 3:34 am

    Geese are everywhere in the suburban business park/development where I work. The buildings are low and there are lawns and trees. They nest on the roof of our building (and others) and the adorable, fluffy ducklings turn into huge poop machines that waddle across the roads en masse. I walk at lunchtime and have to be careful where I step to avoid the massive quantities of goose poop.

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  13. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 3, 2019 at 7:13 am

    I’m with Deborah’s husband, per: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/05/should-dems-save-impeachment-for-possible-second-trump-term.html

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  14. Suzanne said on June 3, 2019 at 9:14 am

    That is an interesting thought, Jeff(tmmo). I have mixed feelings about it due to a fear that the Dems will lose seats in 2020 in both the House & Senate. If the GOP again has any kind of majority, there never will be impeachment and there will likely be a change of laws to ensure the GOP stays in power for a very long time.

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  15. basset said on June 3, 2019 at 9:20 am

    Mrs. B and I went to a fundraiser for the local basset hound rescue over the weekend… their page might be of interest:

    https://bellyrubs.org

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  16. Bitter Scribe said on June 3, 2019 at 10:25 am

    I gave up on Macs after the third one in a row blew up after about five years. And by “blew up,” I mean the hard drive just erased itself, for no reason at all. No one can tell me that that wasn’t planned obsolescence.

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  17. Sherri said on June 3, 2019 at 10:57 am

    Most of the arguments against impeachment seem to be tactical ones, which I don’t find very satisfying when we’re in an existential crisis.

    We have a president who was put into office with the aid of an unfriendly foreign power and who flouts the law to enrich himself and out his own interests ahead of those of the country. A significant fraction of the country is unable and unwilling to see that, which is probably par for the course. A political party is taking advantage of that to cling to power despite representing a minority of the country and implementing policies that harm even its own constituency. Instead of talking about this, the media talks about who’s going to win in 2020.

    So, here’s what I’d like to see from those counseling patience: what’s the triggering event? What is it that is going to change that makes impeachment more feasible or necessary than now?

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  18. Mark P said on June 3, 2019 at 10:59 am

    It seems like computer makes, especially Apple, should be required to follow the same rules that automakers do with respect to parts and service. I have used Apple products for more than 20 years, and I like them. I had a logic board problem on a laptop that was out of warranty, but Apple did the repair for free.

    I can’t resist saying something about Trump. He has accomplished what Nixon and Bush couldn’t — I no longer believe anything that any part of the executive branch says. I don’t believe the White House, the State Department, DoD, Justice, FBI, I don’t even believe anything from the CDC. If the government says Iran is doing something, I’ll believe the German defense minister before I believe our government. Hell, I’ll probably believe the Chinese before I believe anything the Trump administration says.

    I understand the fear that the Senate will refuse to convict, and that it will give Trump a boost in popularity among his minions, but I am coming to believe that the House must act anyway. This situation is simply too serious to do nothing. I have some small hope that Nancy Pelosi has a strategy that does involve impeachment at some point. But I think that not to act out of fear of failure is not sufficient reason not to act.

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  19. LAMary said on June 3, 2019 at 11:03 am

    Sherri, I don’t think Trump knows what good quality, well tailored clothing looks like. He thinks gold toilets are classy and that his stupid hair color and style are attractive. Who the hell knows what’s up with that orange face makeup.
    Prince Charles, who always looks well dressed, looked very unhappy to be stuck standing near Trump this morning.

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  20. Sherri said on June 3, 2019 at 12:08 pm

    I’m more in line with Eugene Robinson.

    So I don’t think the political calculus is at all clear. The moral calculus is a different story.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/if-trump-doesnt-warrant-impeachment-who-does/2019/05/30/0ae3ee8a-8311-11e9-bce7-40b4105f7ca0_story.html?utm_term=.c1e6485622b5

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  21. jcburns said on June 3, 2019 at 12:25 pm

    Scribe, I am here to tell you that “the hard drive just erased itself” is not planned obsolescence.
    It’s also probably not at all what happened.
    Sadly, this stuff is complex enough that information gets passed around in the realm of conspiracy theories. The drive, a spinning disk? They fail. Dust particles get in. If a particle is on the track that holds the (internal to the drive) directory? Poof, gone.
    That is not “just erased itself” as if a piece of code existed that ran a timer and said “okay, time to take this drive to the junkyard.” It’s instead more like driving over a nail on the freeway.
    If that drive was in a Windows or Linux machine, in a server in the cloud or in an ATM at your bank? It would fail. And they do.
    The (spinning disk) drives in Macs? Made by WD, Seagate, and the others that sell them for servers, Linux, Windows machines. They’re a commodity. They fail. They spend a lot of their lives spinning at more than 5400 rpm. They fail.
    How do big server farms and people that use a lot of storage hedge against that? They buy lots of them and keep data redundantly in many places. But failure? Yeah, could still happen. Apple’s not doing it to you.

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  22. 4dbirds said on June 3, 2019 at 12:35 pm

    I lost track of when The Handmaid’s Tale was coming back. Now I can look forward to being triggered. Probably a good thing, since it will get me off my butt and working for a campaign.

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  23. jcburns said on June 3, 2019 at 12:46 pm

    By the way Nancy, I think Alan has (more than) all the credentials and all the skills for a laptop battery replacement. Interesting that an Apple Store doesn’t replace in-house though. (There are some rumors that Apple Retail is being restructured—their VP retail departed a couple of months ago—for reasons just like this one.)

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  24. Bitter Scribe said on June 3, 2019 at 12:46 pm

    jcburns: Yeah, well, I’d believe you if it happened to any of the other machines I’ve owned and worked on. The fact that it only seems to happen to Macs tells me they’re doing something wrong, intentionally or not.

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  25. Suzanne said on June 3, 2019 at 12:49 pm

    I think if the Dems go forward with impeachment, they’re better off doing it apart from the Mueller Report but on the grounds of gross incompetence and glaring corruption. The lack of keeping notes & transcripts of meetings as required by law, the refusal to turn over documents when asked by Congress, security clearance issues, that sort of thing.

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  26. jcburns said on June 3, 2019 at 1:03 pm

    Your data set is..um..impaired? “My Chevy and my Toyota have Michelin tires. They always blow on the Toyota.”

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  27. Julie Robinson said on June 3, 2019 at 1:08 pm

    It does seem ridiculous that you can’t just order a battery, pop it open
    and replace it yourself, as I do with my PC. Hard to think the whole send it away for two weeks, etc. isn’t just a way to get you to make you think you have to buy a new machine.

    Reminds me of the Roomba my Mom bought, which never worked all that well and was probably only used 10 or so times. She decided to try it again and it didn’t work at all. Very long story short, the battery was dead, and the unhelpful customer service person told me that’s what they do after two years. We could mail it back in, yada, yada. $400. Luckily Costco refunded the purchase, agreeing it was a defective product. She has a cleaning service now anyway.

    After eating some popcorn I realized I’d cracked off part of a crown, the part that looks like a tooth, not the metal part underneath. So I called the dentist, figuring they’d have to replace the whole thing and went in to see him this morning. Turns out that part is cosmetic and the metal part is what’s doing the job, and mine was okay. I could replace it at a cost of $1124 (really? Why not make it $1125?), or I could leave it be.

    Hard choice, right? Our insurance would cover half of it, but I can still think of better ways to spend the money. I’m going to live with it for awhile; however we only have two years of coverage left before retirement so maybe I should get it taken care of.

    All this cost me $50, coincidentally the amount of my deductible. Now I wish I’d waited until my next checkup in a couple of months.

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  28. Jakash said on June 3, 2019 at 1:47 pm

    There are a lot of things wrong with Illinois. To combat them, I’m personally not really sold on a casino in Chicago, nor legalized sports betting, which are evidently on their way. I won’t be thrilled to begin paying 19 cents more per gallon for gas. But the legislature just passed those and several other key measures which will be signed into law by our new-ish Democratic governor. “The Republicans warn (and some Democrats privately fret) that his economic agenda of a $15 an hour minimum wage, a progressive income tax, higher taxes for infrastructure construction and a blizzard of pro-union laws will make the state uncompetitive with its neighbors.” We shall see, I suppose, though I support those things. The Reproductive Health Act and legalizing marijuana seem to be clearly beneficial. Mainly, reading about what’s going on in other states around the country and with the Dolt 45 regime, it’s really refreshing to see such progress in “Gov. Pritzker’s effort to make Illinois a progressive Midwestern oasis.”

    https://capitolfax.com/2019/06/03/pritzkers-wins/

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  29. Jeff Borden said on June 3, 2019 at 1:47 pm

    Apparently, the Orange King stopped by services for the latest mass shooting victims in Virginia Beach following an afternoon of golf. He wore ill-fitting khakis, a blazer a blue golf shirt and. . .golf spikes. His silly hairdo was all matted down, too, probably by his ball cap. Yessir, our fearless leader is allll class.

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  30. Sherri said on June 3, 2019 at 1:54 pm

    As laptops have gotten thinner and lighter, not all batteries even on PCs are customer replaceable. It takes space and weight to make batteries easily replaceable.

    JC, while I agree Apple doesn’t build in planned obsolescence into its hardware, they also do tend to do some unique things that can make their products behave differently than other manufacturers, for both good and bad. And they can be remarkably stubborn about clinging to a bad design, like their butterfly keyboard.

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  31. jcburns said on June 3, 2019 at 2:18 pm

    Yes, their products do things differently. They use a different (usually better) operating system! That’s kinda why they exist and have had the success they had. But that does not extend to mythical secret crappy hard drive destruction code. When we’re confronted with the black box of modern technology, it’s so easy to embed motives that just aren’t there.

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  32. Deborah said on June 3, 2019 at 4:02 pm

    I think over the years Trump has acquired an inability to see his real body image. I wonder if it is a mental illness, a change in brain chemistry or cellular configuration (he also doesn’t have the ability to listen to himself). So he wears ill fitting suits and khakis, and those silly ties. His hairdo and his orange tan with white around his eyes are ridiculous obviously.

    It reminds me of anorexic young girls that I see around sometimes, inside their minds they think they look better when in reality they’re sadly emaciated. I have no idea what is really going on in the brain with anorexia, it’s probably very complex but the inability to see oneself aspect is similar to Trump’s inability to see himself.
    It seems

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  33. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 3, 2019 at 4:07 pm

    Not sure “doesn’t have the votes” is a tactical issue, per se. If mustering a run at impeachment is clearly not going to win in this Congress, and might give Trump’s flagging base a second wind, it seems pretty strategic to me. And I’m more optimistic than (Suzanne?) is about D numbers going up in the next cycle. I infer Pelosi isn’t moving on impeachment on something other than innate caution, but practical realities of the politics of it. If putting testimony/evidence forward would flip R’s to vote for tossing the tool, they’d have done it by now. Porn stars, Russian agents in Trump Tower, top aides at sentencing hearings . . . I’m not seeing a Barry Goldwater anywhere in this crowd going to the White House, having a gin and tonic with Tricky Dick, and saying after a long silent pause “Mr. President, I think it’s time.”

    A 50/50 Senate, even with Pence in the chair, I could see that voting to affirm. Even a 51R/49D Senate. But 53R/47D (well, 45, plus 2 independents caucusing with the Dems) doesn’t look likely to me.

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  34. Sherri said on June 3, 2019 at 4:30 pm

    Name the Republican Senator who’s going to be willing to vote to remove trump from office. Where’s that vote going to come from, and what will cause that Senator to change his position from what it is now?

    If the point is to keep your powder dry for a trump re-election, then how is a trump re-election not going to make it even harder for a Republican Senator to go against him?

    So, if we need to flip the Senate, what’s the best way to do that? No matter what you do, trump is going to play the victim, because that’s what he does.

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  35. Sherri said on June 3, 2019 at 4:32 pm

    This is a very powerful coming out piece: https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/6/3/18647615/coming-out-transgender-handmaids-tale-emily-todd-vanderwerff

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  36. Scout said on June 3, 2019 at 4:33 pm

    Someone on Twitter who is much smarter than me remarked recently that instead of impeachment proceedings the House should hold criminal misconduct proceedings. It should be easily provable to highlight much of the criminal and negligent activity of this idiot’s campaign and time in office. Maybe start with enforcing the emoluments clause.

    The Queen gave Babyhands a book. Hilarious. That’s like giving a Rubik’s Cube to a dog. He won’t have the first idea what to do with it.

    The Brits do the protest thing brilliantly.
    https://news.yahoo.com/trump-faces-giant-uss-john-150400714.html?ncid=facebook_yahoonewsf_akfmevaatca

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  37. JodiP said on June 3, 2019 at 4:58 pm

    I had to look up which book Trump received: a first edition of Churchill’s book on WWII. Jesus wept! I hope someone gets their hands on it to preserve it. Loved your characterization, Scout, and the link about the protests.

    Ben Rhoades has a very funny story about the Queen and how he kept pounding on a bathroom door while she was inside. The look he got! It’s near the end of the May 9th Pod Save the World podcast.

    I think by not moving forward with impeachment, it seems as if the Dems are tacitly accepting the situation. I know that’s not true, but really, what’s it gonna take? I love the cartoonist, Tom Tomorrow’s take on it: https://thenib.com/tomorrow-s-news-today?id=tom-tomorrow&t=author

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  38. Bitter Scribe said on June 3, 2019 at 5:24 pm

    jcburns @26: What’s impaired is your analogy. A tire is an interchangeable component that can be made by any manufacturer and will work on any car as long as it’s the right size. A hard drive is an integral part of a computer that’s unique to that brand, especially with Apple, whose whole shtick is the integration of software with hardware.

    If Apple doesn’t intentionally build obsolescence into its computers and other equipment, it might as well, based on how they perform. And I don’t see that its OS is even that superior anymore, compared with Windows 10 at least. It’s a mystery to me how that company continues to exist.

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  39. David C. said on June 3, 2019 at 5:33 pm

    Terabyte external hard drives are cheap AF. My current PC has puked two hard drives but I only lost a couple of days of data, which for me isn’t much, because I backup once a week. It wasn’t planned obsolescence, just bad luck.

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  40. alex said on June 3, 2019 at 6:30 pm

    Deborah, I think Trump’s sartorial cluelessness is entirely in keeping with his lack of self-awareness in all other regards. As we know, he’s not one to take advice from anyone, and those closest to him are the most fearful of offering it. Or hate him, or both, which explains how he boarded Air Force One with a toilet paper streamer on his heel.

    I suspect the only reason he’s not sporting a face like Jocelyn Wildenstein’s is that he can’t stand to be out of the spotlight long enough to undergo a procedure.

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  41. David C. said on June 3, 2019 at 7:04 pm

    Did everyone see the standing O President Obama got in Toronto last night. He should go to every country in the world except Russia, Israel, and Saudi Arabia for repeat performances.

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  42. beb said on June 3, 2019 at 7:12 pm

    I was hoping to see the photo of the well established squatter community. As more houses on our street become abandoned I’ve become quite happy to someone — anyone — move into them as long as they maintain them.

    Canada geese are a blight on the face of humanity.

    Micro Center is what Radio Shack should become. It’s your one-stop shop for anything computer related. As for Apple, they do seem to go out of their way to make repairing an iphone difficult. I’m not sure about Macs but I do believe in the right-to-repair. Even if it means using more screws and less glue.

    Rental pogo-sticks? The advantage of electric scooters was that aside from balancing on them, the scooter did all the work. A pogo-stick requires you to jump all the time. Also it’s a lot easier to fall off a pogo-stick than a scooter. I think Emergency Rooms across a city would band together to outlaw pogo-sticks.

    As much as we need to impeach Trump, we need to impeach McConnel first! We can’t get anything done while he’s still around. The argument that formal impeachment hearings will make it harder for Trump to stonewall data requests makes a lot of sense. If he continues to withhold data that becomes another article of impeachment. It’s hard to say whether a year of impeachment hearings will move Trump voters or depress Dem voters but I think a year of waiting for court orders which Trump will just ignore will be very demoralizing. Of course Trump will survive the Senate and claim to be exonerated but he’s doing that already so. Impeaching Trump won’t change how he behaves but it might gives a chance to be heard about the right-wing mainstream media (NYT, WaPo, CNN, CBS. ABC, NBC, etc)

    Back in the day of Mayor-for-life Coleman A. Young, one thing was always true — he was one sharp dresser. 3

    Jeff(TMMO) Impeachment requires 2/3 to convict. So the Dem would need 20 Rs to crossover. I can believe in Jesus walking on water before I’ll believe 20 Republicans would vote against der Fuhrer.

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  43. Deborah said on June 3, 2019 at 8:45 pm

    My husband thinks that if the house calls for impeachment proceedings Trump and everybody in his camp will refuse to testify or cooperate in any way, no matter the laws, just as they are now refusing to comply with subpoenas. He thinks it won’t do anything but show how helpless the Dems will be with no cooperation with testimony and no follow through in the senate anyway. I don’t agree, I think it will make Trump and his cronies look even more corrupt. I keep hoping that there are some republicans both political types and citizens that will finally at the end of day realize they’ve got a few moral bone in their bodies and no one is above the law. Naive thinking on my part probably. I don’t expect Republican voters to reject Trump in the voting booth. Our only hope is to get every single Democrat out to vote blue because they are energized as hell to do so.

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  44. Suzanne said on June 3, 2019 at 9:40 pm

    Deborah, to Trump supporters, his non-cooperation in impeachment hearings will not, in any way,shape, or form, make him seem more corrupt. The supporters will admire him for not participating in the witch hunt. Nor will it likely do much to convince people who don’t pay attention to politics much. It will seem like the Dems are picking on him and people will say the Dems need to just get over losing the 2016 election. I live in Trump country, remember, and understand how these people think pretty well.
    That said, if the tide turns against him, I predict it will be quick and ugly.

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  45. Deborah said on June 3, 2019 at 10:22 pm

    Suzanne, I don’t expect the Trump supporters to find Trump more corrupt, but there are some Republicans who don’t support Trump, that may go along with impeachment, however they will still vote for Trump in 2020 should he avoid impeachment because god forbid a Democrat would be elected. In the meantime they’d have President Pence (shudder). I’m just guessing and going on what I’ve read, I barely know any Trump supporters, and those people I think might be Trump supporters may not really be, it’s hard for me to tell.

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  46. jcburns said on June 3, 2019 at 10:59 pm

    Scribe, what I was trying to assert is that your statement: “A hard drive is an integral part of a computer that’s unique to that brand” is NOT true.

    Even SSD drives have standardized connectors and suppliers.

    The first Mac 3.5 floppy drive: made by Sony.

    Crack open most computers and the hard drive WILL say WD or Seagate or maybe Hitachi or Toshiba if it’s a spinning platter. If it’s an SSD chances are the flash components are from Samsung. So yeah, tires, exactly.

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  47. Sherri said on June 4, 2019 at 1:42 am

    trump somehow managed to even make a cutaway tux look bad, and I didn’t think that was possible. His was so badly fitted that I can only assume that his tailor wants him to look that bad.

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  48. Suzanne said on June 4, 2019 at 6:33 am

    Funny thing about Trump’s poorly fitting clothes. A relative of mine a few years ago told me she talked to someone who had met Trump briefly when he came into the office she was working in. The main thing the woman mentioned about Him was that she was surprised that his suit fit so poorly, baggy and rumpled, since she assumed he could afford better. It must be a thing with him.

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  49. David C. said on June 4, 2019 at 6:38 am

    I think tRump dresses like a rich person thinks a poor person thinks a rich person dresses like. It’s part of his everyman rich person BS that the rubes gobble up. Either that or some mobster that he took a shine to told him he looked good in a suit that fit him like that.

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  50. Julie Robinson said on June 4, 2019 at 7:35 am

    As bad as he looks in his suits, have you seen him without the jacket? There’s a very good reason he doesn’t go around in rolled up shirtsleeves like so many pols.

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  51. Sherri said on June 4, 2019 at 10:01 am

    Here’s my theory for why his clothes fit so badly. He lies about his measurements and he’s stiffed so many tailors that no one wants to work with him. His pants are always comically too long. His cutaway was way too high. There are really basic things to do even with cheap suits to fit them better that just don’t seem to happen with him.

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  52. Sherri said on June 4, 2019 at 11:03 am

    From a purely tactical perspective, even though you don’t have the votes in the Senate today, impeachment still looks like the best option. Dems can talk about health care and the economy and policy all day, and the media will ignore them. Start an impeachment inquiry, and that becomes the story, and starts to consume all the oxygen.

    The media needs content, and they will reliably get it from trump. Give them a juicy alternative, and they’ll follow that instead.

    For their part, House Democrats have argued that by foregoing impeachment they can shift the conversation to topics their consultants tell them are safer ground, like health care. That’s not going to happen. Reporters cover news, and only events that drive news can shift the message.

    https://www.gq.com/story/democrats-impeaching-trump

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  53. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 4, 2019 at 11:47 am

    Hey, I’m not opposed to impeachment in the least. And viscerally feel that the action has value in and of itself. But I have enough confidence in Nancy Pelosi to presume that, if she is concerned that trying and failing during the next year could a) help him rally his base, and b) could lose her a few toss-up districts, that she knows what she’s doing. I can’t imagine she wouldn’t love, personally, to preside over impeaching Trump, so she has to have a good basis for not doing so.

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  54. Sherri said on June 4, 2019 at 11:53 am

    I suspect Pelosi’s problem is too many chicken-shit members of her own caucus.

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  55. Sherri said on June 4, 2019 at 12:18 pm

    Compare these two photos of trump in tails, one pre-election:

    https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/1135788255981506565

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  56. Icarus said on June 4, 2019 at 12:45 pm

    maybe the plan is to remove Trump via 2020 election and failing that, flip enough seats in the Senate to ensure impeachment. Heck, I’d wager that is when some Republicans will decide Trump has outlived his usefulness and throw in their votes to put Pence in charge, perhaps with an agreement that he won’t run in 2024.

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  57. Connie said on June 4, 2019 at 2:25 pm

    So Jeff(tmmo) your local library has made the national library news. Drag Queen story time has been cancelled due to threats from a state legislator. Many are suggesting donations to the library, most particularly “in honor of Larry Householder and his closet.”

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  58. Deborah said on June 4, 2019 at 6:05 pm

    Weather has gone wild in Santa Fe. I’m back after the requisite 3 night stay in Abiquiu, time for showers, laundry, grocery shopping, which are all done now right before a thunderstorm is happening with hail. A couple days ago they had quarter and golf ball sized hail here and a funnel cloud that didn’t touch down thank goodness. Some of our plants got shredded but not as many as I expected. So aggravating after we’ve worked so hard to grow things. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to have your home destroyed by tornado, floods or wildfires, but there will be more and more of that on the planet unless we wake up. We still have snow on the mountain tops around here which hasn’t happened in June for a decade, probably way longer ago.

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  59. Dave said on June 4, 2019 at 6:08 pm

    Some of the Republicans are threatening to rise up against Trump over the tariffs. Does anyone here think they really will?

    I was thinking I read a story that said that libraries in Delaware County, OH, had also cancelled Drag events. I know my extreme right second cousin who lives in Newark is applauding this, I saw postings from both her and her sister.

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