2024-11-14 21:14:16
A moving article about using ingenuity and software, with an e-ink display, to vastly improve a parents quality of life.
2024-11-14 08:00:56
The greatest gift my parents gave me was a love of reading. I read every day. Most of the time I am reading several books at once. Here’s a list of what I’m currently in the middle of, and what is in the “to be read” pile.
Note: In my book (ha!) an audiobook counts as reading the book. You hear every word, no skipping around. A well read audiobook is a delight.
2024-11-07 20:43:10
In my email inbox this morning I found this email.
Hi, Mark
How is it possible to have so much hate against one person who show how it works much better, than all Biden Harris bullshit ever can do? You are exact this what you are describe over and over on your website… you can see that in your friendship description very well.., Trump will fight for you too. to make your current shit hole country great again or you and we will end in a dystopi made by peoples like you and your most corrupt and cheating democrats…
hope as we in Germany say " Es möge dir ein Licht aufgehen" Mark
may be you leave the states too. like all the stupid democrats promised 2016, but never done
here another German saying for you
" Schuster bleib bei deinen Leisten "
as nerd and It enthusiast you are welcome
m. bortolon
Here is my public response.
Herr Bortolon,
I don’t hate the current President-Elect, he’s not worth that much emotional investment on my part. I do find him odious, and I am staggered by the seemingly limitless bounds to his stupidity.
The America you call a “current shit hole” only exists in the President-Elect’s mind. Wages are up, inflation is down (and without creating a recession), crime is way down, investment in American industries and American jobs is up, unemployment is way down. By any factual statistical measure, America is demonstrably better off today than it was 4 years ago.
The “distopi” you speak of may very well come in the chaos that will result from the President-Elect’s intended actions. Europe already has the largest land war since World War II on-going in Ukraine. Do you honestly think that the Russian dictator will stop there? A weakened or broken NATO could well have grave consequences for Western Europe.
I don’t expect any of what I’ve said to sway your opinion, based on comments like “Biden Harris bullshit”, “current shit hole country”, “most corrupt and cheating democrats”, and “stupid democrats”, it appears to me that your information source(s) are clouded by extreme right-wing rhetoric.
As Maya Angelou said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” We’ve seen who the President-Elect is, and a legitimate majority of the voters want that again. If I hate anything about this, it is that so many people will be harmed as a result of one man’s ego and vanity. And not only the people who didn’t vote for him, but the people who did vote for him.
2024-11-07 05:21:53
Many of the points Ken White brings up here resonate strongly with me. The whole “Fuck Civility” section in particular.
2024-11-06 20:24:03
America died on November 5, 2024. The undercurrent of hate and vitriol that was exposed in 2016, has grown into a malignancy that has metastasized throughout this country.
The ideas of equality, and fairness, and democracy are gone. They’ve been replaced by fascism, misogyny, xenophobia, and hatred. That there are so many people in America who want this, is truly disheartening.
In the 1930s the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy resulted in people immigrating to the United States. In the 1940s, America, along with rest of the allied countries, defeated fascism. Now, less than 100 years later, America is the epicenter of a new fascist power.
This is not the dawning of a new day, this is the sun setting on 248 years of a democratic republic, and the beginning of a night of terror.
I am grieving for my country, for the place where I grew up, and the place I was proud to call home. I am grieving for the millions and millions of people whose lives will be damaged or destroyed by this new regime. I am heartbroken.
