The GOP Is What It Says On The Tin

Autocracy. Fascism. Threats of violence. Lies. Xenophobia. Homophobia. Transphobia. Physical violence.

It is all on the tin. The GOP is what they say they are.

This nation is doomed, partly because liberals and progressives like me sit and say nothing when the GOP explicitly tells us what it wants to do: abolish queer people, strip rights from women, inflict more suffering on the poor, drain the public wealth (like cutting public school budgets and diverting local tax revenue to charter schools), and use outrage and violence to win votes.

The GOP relies on manufactured outrage, instability and conspiracy fanatics to stay alive. That includes QAnon, sovereign citizens, the people who will never get over the short pandemic lockdowns, and right wing militias (Boogaloo Boys, Three Percenters, Proud Boys, Oathkeepers).

And there are the abhorrent policies. Just last week, over 20 South Carolina legislators co-signed a bill to put women to death if they terminate their pregnancies. That’s one-sixth of their state legislature, putting forward something that the Taliban or Saudi Arabia would enforce. And I’m just supposed to fucking sit there silently, and listen to Michelle Obama’s new podcast? In 2016 and 2020, she told us to “go high,” but what she really meant is avoid confrontation. She might as well have told us to just sit there and take fascism and oppression from the red states.

Fuck that. I am fighting. Is anyone with me?

Anyone?

It's The 2020s: Time For Progressives To Go On The Offensive

This is part two of a quick two-part post. It’s about the short term political future of the US in the turbulent, depressing 2020s.

I’m going to keep this brief, as books have been written about how the left should fight back against states pulling right. The solution is to go left. Pull back left. Do not ever surrender.

Okay, but how? While never easy, the strategy is to cut off Democrats that are furthest to the right. If progressives had their way. Democrats like Richie Torres, Henry Cuellar, Adriano Espaillat and Ed Case would be upset by progressives. The needle for the Democratic caucus would edge left, in-step with the culture. The Democratic policymakers who don’t care about women’s rights, or the environmental catastrophe or freedom-destroying red states would be purged from the party.

Locally, progressives need to pull left. Codify abortion rights. Get those marijuana decriminalization laws passed. Raise the state minimum wage. Tax the rich a little more. Make your good state better.

Run for office. Policies will not write themselves. We need progressives to win seats, no matter how minor. Get that school board chair. Get on the city council. Oust that cranky old mayor. Quit your job and run for office. You job sucks anyway and you can probably go back to the private workforce if you have a decent political career.

Policies will beat back the Right. Pointing out their hypocrisy does not work. Shaming them does not work. They don’t give a shit about your feelings, your opinions or your tweets. Get into office and get to work on policy.

Outsmart them. And out-policy them in the halls of government.

They are the minority party. We are the majority party. Let’s act like it.

It's The 2020s: It's Time To Prepare For Authoritarianism

This is part one of a quick two-part post. It’s about the short term political future of the US in the turbulent, depressing 2020s.

In the years ahead, I will always ask questions about why the Republicans chose to burn this republic down. I get their objective since 1980, which was to make this nation comfortable for the rich and miserable for everyone else. But why the autocracy? Why make it miserable for even the affluent?

What did we affluent, college educated liberals do to deserve a crushing autocracy? We went to a gay wedding a few times? We voted for Obama? We said repeatedly that minorities should be treated with respect? Holy shit we're being given the death sentence, here. What was the infraction? If the infraction can't be explained, then the GOP is more evil and destructive than even I ever imagined.

The GOP has long been the party of the rich. Their mission is still to make the rich richer. But now it is intertwined with winning votes over a fierce and angry backlash to a changing culture. No political party in any democracy can change culture. Human culture is always changing. As Professor Sut Jhally frequently lectures, “culture is always up for grabs.” Once something becomes commonplace in culture, it cannot be forcibly removed from a society.

There is one extreme way to suppress culture, however, and that is to suppress the society. A nation can transform from a democracy to an authoritarian state. An autocracy closes itself off from the rest of the world, while forcing propaganda and ideology onto the people in an effort to tame them and reduce dissent. We see it in North Korea, Belarus, Russia, China and Burma.

Now transforming the US into an autocracy would be a steep hill to climb. The GOP would have difficulty selling authoritarianism at the national level. Some people in this country are intelligent, and would not stand for it. But thanks to the multi-layered setup of our republic, the GOP is having much success taking away freedoms at the local level. States are pushing the boundaries of the 14th Amendment, to see how far they can restrict personal liberties in the name of “protecting children.” Leading a backlash against cultural change is also a tactic to motivate Republicans to vote. And they sure are furious, vocal and motivated.

Laws have been passed banning reproductive health clinics within a certain distance of schools. Tennessee will enact a law this July banning any public performance that includes a performer in drag that is vaguely close to children, which is technically everywhere. The next logical step would be for states or localities to ban public Pride events, because they always include men in drag and well as transgender people. This angle of attack -to force queer people out of public life under the boilerplate justification of preventing children from seeing them- is catching on like wildfire, and will eventually be brought before the Federal courts, which are packed with right-wing judges.

The US has been in a measurable state of decline since 1973. The empire is in decline. The prestige of the US is ruined. But most important is what’s happening at the granular, individual level. Liberty and freedom are now under attack by the minority political party. The GOP has decided that it would rather burn down what’s left of the republic than share it with everyone equally in a society that is based on freedom and respect.

The 14th Amendment is under attack. That means that authoritarianism is coming. How will you live with it in the coming decades? Will you fight back? Will you go underground? What is the plan?

Iranian Women Care About Their Futures

Iranian women give a damn about freedom and liberty. I can only conclude that the vast majority American women do not.

GOP: To Hell With The Children

I am an old Gen-Xer. I remember when the GOP was all about The Children ⟨™⟩. It was a winning stroke of GOP marketing. They were the party that was all about prosecuting bad guys and keeping children safe. Whitney Houston unwittingly gave them an anthem at the peak of the Reagan era. The political worship of children had reached a peak.

Well, now the GOP is all about terrorizing children. Just look to Donald Trump for an example. He wants gory, televised Federal executions, which he thinks will frighten children enough to prevent them for committing crimes.

The GOP has not cared about the actual welfare of children for over a century. So childhood poverty, malnutrition and the slow destruction of public schools is not their concern. Well actually, bleeding public schools dry and replacing them with for-profit charter schools is one of their goals. Children are valuable to the GOP if there’s money to be made.

More recently, the GOP has declared war on transgender children and transgender healthcare. They have gone after student athletes, student restrooms, course and curriculum content and the teachers and their unions.

JFK Airport Is One Giant Economic Stimulus Machine

New York State has officially started to construct a new Terminal 6 at JFK airport.

Over $4 Billion for a small International terminal with just 10 gates? That terminal had better include an AirTrain station!

And I'm sorry, 'final phase'? JFK is always being demolished or built. The governor said so. Nothing in NYC is a final phase.

The USA Has Locked-In Its Madness

Here is a question for all the leftists and real liberals out there: Who wants to quit their day job and run for a school board, city/town/county council, community board or some other small local government seat?

Anyone?

Well, thanks a fucking lot, you lazy bums, because very disturbed people with lots of time on their hands are taking those seats, right now.

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I have seen some mighty conspiracy theories in my time in the USA, which spans everything since Nixon. But it is becoming increasingly clear that QAnon is the most significant since 1973. It encompasses so many former conspiracies like ZOG, the UN, black helicopters and the New World Order. QAnon is massive. It has gone global. It’s so big, it’s a political movement fueled by its own bundle of conspiracy theories, all twisting to and from each other.

It is the Q faithful who are running for local seats. In red states. In blue states. In colonies. Everywhere in the USA, and especially in school board elections. It is locking in the madness. In the choice between normal and crazy, the US has chosen the latter. The US has always lost its mind. But it seems to be so far gone now. We’re being radicalized whether we know it or not.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ State of the Union response had more than a few subtle references to QAnon. And while we now have students who can accurately say they have attended both a high school and a university where a high-profile mass shooting has taken place, the QAnon fanatics are on a mission to make sure that students are not taught history nor enjoy the freedom to be themselves. Shootings? Screw that. They want the children to be taught that white people are nothing but good, and that Democrats and Jews are demonic killers of children.

The madness is locked-in. There’s no getting out. Unless, you, good Liberal reader, want to run for your local school board. But you value your life, bank account, sanity and your time. The people now taking those seats do not.

Use Kyrie Irving At Your Own Risk, Dallas

All Kyrie Irving has ever done in ruin NBA teams. The Mavericks seem to know this, because they only have Irving through June 2023. So currently, he’s really being rented by the Mavs. The price the Mavs had to pay was Dorian Finney-Smith, and perhaps a lot more.

But let’s suppose the Mavericks give him a 2 or 4 year contract this summer? Well, that would blow the team up.

Mark Cuban would no longer be a repected owner. If he’s still respected.

Luka Doncic’s days in Dallas would become numbered, with Los Angeles the monied team that would likely make a move for him once LeBron James is retired.

Buckle up, fellow Mavs supporters. All Irving does is destroy clubs, on and off the bench. When we watch the Celtics make it to the finals this June, just remember they couldn't have done that with Irving on the payroll.

Dallas might have the sixth largest queer population in the US behind New York, L.A., Chicago, Miami and Houston. Hiring a bigot like Irving is an insult to respectful residents anywhere. Throw in his flirtations with flat earth theory and his blatant promotion of antisemitism, anti-science viewpoints and conspiracy theories, and the Mavericks have community relations problem on their hands. Mark Cuban is willing to damage his city to make it to the playoffs this season.

We’ll see how many weeks Irving can go before he causes serious problems for the Mavericks.

Pro Travel Tips For Idiots

Pro tips for Americans traveling abroad:

1. Don't go to authoritarian regimes (Belarus, Russia, North Korea, Hungary, Egypt, etc.)

2. If you must go to an authoritarian regime, respect the local laws. That means if there's a zero-tolerance narcotics policy, you don't have any THC or cannabis on your person or bags. This also applies to free nations with zero-tolerance narcotics policies, like Japan. Yeah. 420 + Japan = prison!

3. As a general rule, you should know and respect the laws of wherever you are. This includes US states that aren't yours or nations that aren't yours.

4. If you are a guest worker in a nation that is about to go to war, check the US State Department guidelines on whether it's safe for you to keep guest working in that country. Remember, being an American makes you liked in some countries, and hated in others (more the latter). Check to see if being a US citizen makes you a target for political imprisonment and an unbalanced prisoner swap.

5. Related to # 4 - A note about American privilege. Being a US citizen is a birthright privilege. It is not a card that gets you out of trouble abroad. If a nation beats people to death who take down propaganda posters, that rule applies to Americans as much as anyone else. Perhaps even more so. Just ask Otto. Oh, Otto! Can you comment? Otto is not available to comment.

Thoughts On My Music Festival Travels In 2022

July 2022 was a fun and exhausting month for me. I left NYC and came back knowing new recording artists and being more tanned. I was almond colored. I successfully attended two major summer music festivals: the one-day Palomino country and folk festival at the Rose Bowl golf course, and the Newport Folk Festival in Newport Rhode Island.

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2022 Palomino Festival

The inaugural Palomino festival was a one-day country, folk and blues music festival on Saturday July 9, organized by Goldenvoice, the same people behind the much larger Coachella and Stagecoach festivals in the desert of Indio, California. I decided to go to Palomino because the 2022 edition of the Newport Folk Festival was not securing any fun, big name acts (in the end, Newport got a few, which I will explain later). Palomino would be my opportunity to see party boy Paul Cauthen, Saskatchewan cowboy crooner Orville Peck, and folk greats Old Crow Medicine Show and Jason Isbell.

Here are some of the artists I enjoyed.

Country does not need another fat dude singing about cocaine and champagne. But Paul Cauthen of east Texas brings it. And he has a good voice.

Zach Bryan was a late addition to the festival, and I didn’t appreciate him at the show as much as I love him now. This young son of Navy parents served in the Navy himself for most of his 20s and is now cranking out well written songs like Something In The Orange, and this instant classic, Godspeed.

Orville Peck is like Roy Orbison. He has a strong, memorable voice. He's not taken too seriously. He prefers to be anonymous. But people who follow him know he has one of the best voices in country music.

I finally saw a Willie Nelson set. Willie at age 89 can still play guitar very well and sing at about 70% of his 1970s prime voice. He was flanked by his sons Lukas (who we have seen many times in Newport and New York) and Micah (who we saw open for Midland in September 2019.). I liked Willie so much, I saw him do another set at Central Park Summerstage in Septeber. I know now every Willie Nelson set starts with Whiskey River.

Jason Isbell knows how to write a great song. If We Were Vampires is probably the saddest English language love song this century.

The festival itself was not the best organized. It wasn't clear where to park. The food truck lines were long. They ran out of craft beer before I could try Ride On IPA by Golden Road brewing. But the music setup was perfect. A band would play one stage, and the second they ended, the next band would start playing at the stage next door, about 400 feet away. And they perfectly alternated and remained on-time.

As we drove back to our guest house in San Gabriel Valley, we turned onto our street and saw a really cute coyote trotting across. Our route home from the Rose Bowl to San Gabriel Valley included historic downtown Pasadena.

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2022 Newport Folk Festival

The marathon, three day Newport Folk Festival didn't have as much star power in 2022. I theorize that newer festivals like Palomino offered artists more money. Add the fact that just about every artist and band is touring this year and competing for venues, and you have quite a minefield of conflicts and missed connections.

My partner was trying to enjoy the Newport festival and prepare for a professional certification exam that Monday (the day after the festival wrapped) so it was difficult to see many acts nor enjoy the show very much. But we saw 40-50 minute sets by the following artists.

On Friday we caught Arooj Aftab, Bela Fleck, Taj Mahal, and Cortney Barnett.

On Saturday we saw Lucy Dacus, Clairo, Langhorne Slim, and Lucius.

On Sunday, we saw the excellent Hermanos Gutiérrez, Valerie June, Sylvan Esso, The Roots and the finale, Brandi Carlile and friends with Joni Mitchell.

Two sets really stood out in the final hours: Sylvan Esso and The Roots. Sylvan Esso is an electronic husband and wife duo from Durham who somehow make dance music that is folk-adjacent, thanks in large part to the dense lyrics. We liked them so much, we caught their show at Forest Hills Stadium in August.

The Roots, let by drummer Questlove, were on fire. They brought a big fun set that filled the fort with beats and a lot of energy. “Do you want more!,” shouted out Black Thought. I wish they had played another 20 minutes.

After the Roots played, a cold, dirty fog rolled in. While it put a stop to the super hot sun, it was an unwelcome change as we were not dressed for such a drop in temperature and rise in dirtiness. A wet film covered us. It was gross.

And that final set was uncomfortable. Let me explain.

It felt like I was seeing a contrived, forced event. It also felt mildly exploitative.

It started out well. Brandi Carlile -who has become the captain of the festival in recent years- played her own short set, and it was great. She then told the crowd to hold tight for the set to follow.

About 20 minutes later, Carlile returned to the stage, in front of a living room set of chairs, sofas and tables. She explained that since 2018, she's been invited to Joni Mitchell’s house in Laurel Canyon to perform songs with other artists while Joni holds court. It was a nervous affair for all the invitees and until 2022, it was sort of a secret society. Brandi and the festival decided it was a good idea to fly Joni out to Newport to recreate what happens in the Hollywood Hills.

Well, I don't think that was a good idea.

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But I admit, the first half of the set was a small miracle. Joni didn't sing all the songs. The artists surrounding her were singing more to Joni than to the audience. But we can say accurately that this was Joni's longest set since June 2000. With an unknown amount of rehearsal, the ensemble plus Joni delivered Carey, Come In Form The Cold, Help Me, A Case Of You, Big Yellow Taxi, and Just Like This Train, complete with a surprising guitar instrumental by Joni herself that showed off her unorthodox strumming style (a result of suffering from polio as a child).

The second half of the set, punctuated by what I consider to be black American standards, lost of lot of momentum and energy, became awkward, and began to feel like a memorial service. It didn't help that Wynona Judd sort of hung there over everything. She sat in the back, probably still grieving over her mother. Judd was supposed to sing with Joni on the final song, The Circle Game, but I noticed that Judd seemed to change her mind and go back to her seat. Everyone was afraid of stepping on Joni's lines.

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Which reminds me, in the first half of the set, when Joni started to sing in the middle of one of the early songs, Brandi Carlile exclaimed, "She's on, guys!" Does that mean there was a chance that Joni wouldn't be on? I cringed.

The cold fog had already rolled in after the red hot set by The Roots. But by 7pm, everyone was clammy, dirty and cold. As it wound down, the set we were treated to felt like Joni's funeral. The magic happened in the first half of the set. During the second half, I regretted choosing Brandi Carlile and Joni Mitchell over Japanese Breakfast (who were playing inside the fort quadrangle).

This is terrible, but as the set wrapped, I had this thought that Joni might not live to see California again. I felt she was fading before our eyes.

I think the 2023 Newport Folk Festival can only be better given how that ended.

Can Anyone Stop The Boston Bruins?

I’ve been writing here for over 15 years, and somehow this is only my second-ever post about the NHL. Okay then!

There’s no way the Boston Bruins can’t be seen as Stanley Cup contenders for 2023.

The Bruins had a problem to solve going into this 2022-23 season. In order to challenge for a title, they had to score more goals. They have a great defense, but their offense was average to mid-range at best. In order to score more goals, they would need their veteran players -several of whom are slowly on their way out- to produce numbers closer to players in their prime. At the same time, the Bruins needed their younger players to follow the lead of the veterans and produce more. It was a huge ask but it was the only way this team could go for a Cup. Otherwise, this season would surely set the stage for a rebuilding year in 2023 as their senior players, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, retire.

Oh, and they hired a new head coach. So this would take time to figure out, right? Wrong. Everyone who wisely predicted that the Bruins would have a slow start this season while they waited for injured stars to return was mistaken.

What we have right now is a team with a roster that reads like an all star list. They have the best winger in the league in David Pastrňák. And they have one of the best defenders in the league in Charlie McAvoy. Their roster is just full of top guys. And with the exception of two games against the teams from Ottawa, the Bruins have steamrolled just about every opponent. They find ways to score goals, and therefore they find ways to win.

Here they are beating the very good Dallas Stars.

Here they are winning a thriller at Madison Square Garden.

They went to Buffalo this past weekend and got the job done. This was quite a performance. Kincaid made 30 saves. And check out Patrice Burgeron’s kick and juggle of the puck at 07:42.

And then they went back home to beat a younger Vancouver team the next evening.

When they score first they win.

If they fall behind, they usually tie the game, and then usually win.

They are unbeaten at the the TD Garden.

The Boston Bruins are a juggernaut until they stop being one. And simply for that, they are favorites to win the Stanley Cup.

Let Kylie Play...Overseas

“Let Kyrie play,” screamed the internet. “Let Kyrie play,” screamed Ted Cruz. Wait, what?

I doubt Irving will complete the rehabilitation regimen that the Nets have laid out for him. We'll see.

I think Kylie Irving is too stupid to sit through training, volunteer, meet with some flesh and blood American Jews, and then answer questions about what he learned in an oral quiz. He’s dumb.

He thinks he’s having an intellectiual conversatrion here. He isn’t. He’s confrontational and he’s dumb!

For all those who are defending Irving on the grounds that we give thousands of antisemitic, powerful white people a pass, you are partially correct. We let a lot slide, starting with Phil Knight, a man who has worked to burn the republic down and make life miserable for minorities, regardless of what religion he might have been born into.

We have given passes to living and dead antisemites like Donald Trump, Sebastian Gorka, Ted Nugent, Eric Clapton, Mel Gibson, Roald Dahl, Henry Ford, John Galliano, and so many others. But the argument that we must fully punish white antisemities before we silence Irving is not a great one. We need to silence hate speech whenever possible. And when a sports star does something this egregious, after being given pass after pass for his refusal to be a good citizen and get a damn vaccine, he needs to be silenced as soon as possible. He needs to be removed from this league. Let him play in Russia.

I'm Done With Baseball

Buck Showalter and Mets fans looked really terrible this month as their playoff dreams collapsed. So much so, I have handed in my Mets fan card. It was nice living in New York City for 27 years and have a local team to support not called the Yankees. But supporting the Mets presents its own set of awful problems and awful people. I used to describe Mets fans as friendly, knowledgeable baseball fans. More chill than Yankee psychos. Now I wonder if they are all just Yankee fans in disguise and I’ve been too kind to them for 23 times. I'm done with them after last night's stunt. And now that I’ve given it some thought, I am done with baseball.

I just have to call it. I have already seen the greatest things to ever happen in the sport. Carlton Fisk’s homer. The 1986 and 1988 Mets. The 1988 Dodgers. The 1991 Twins. The greatest Red Sox shortstop. The greatest pitcher of my lifetime. His striking out 17 Yankees. His striking out 5 of the first 6 batters in the 1999 All Star Game. The Yankees losing the fascist, militarized 2001 championship series to an expansion team in Phoenix and their two durable pitchers. The greatest hitter of my lifetime. The 2017 Dodgers. The Red Sox in 1986, 1990, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2013, and 2018. Those 2018 Red Sox capped it all. They were dominant, fearless, and executed perfectly. They went toe to toe with the Houston Astros, a team that was and still is a pennant contender in the American league, and beat them in 5 thrilling games.

So the Mets had Joe Musgrove’s ears checked for a dark sticky substance. They did it because they couldn’t accept that he was spinning the ball perfectly that night. In the aftermath, I took that as my cue to quit following this sport. I can now focus on global football and auto racing. Sure, I could make time to follow more sports. But when something ridiculous like this takes place, that’s the perfect moment to show myself out.

Senator Warnock Is Too Passive

We see what Reverend Raphael Warnock is doing. He’s trying to “go high.” But that isn’t going be enough to block Herschel Walker from the US Senate. Would it be too much to ask Warnock to attack Walker a little bit? Have a snarkier writer manage the Twitter account. A little more John Fetterman, and a little less Barack Obama, please. Warnock shouldn’t be tied with Walker given the fact that Biden won Georgia in 2020 and we have seen Trump and his followers become even more toxic since. The race should not be this close.

Throw some punches, Democrats! Enough with this polite “can you chip in?” You got the cash advantage. Now attack!

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 Review: U Got The Look

Looks over function and practicality. Here are my thoughts 18 months after buying one.

I was going to write a lengthy review of the second Chromebook I have owned, the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 from the spring of 2021. But there’s no need. I intend to own it until support ends. And overall, I like it. But there are some things I don’t like, and that’s what this review will focus on. I don’t recommend this Chromebook. If you need a Chromebook you can take anywhere, has top specs, leading build quality, and has an ideal, business class keyboard, I recommend Chromebooks by Lenovo and HP. The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 isn’t bad. But it really isn’t good on the road. It’s more like a Chrome desktop (Chromebox) with a great display, that you should keep at home, as I do.

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Let’s start with what’s good.

• The Galaxy Chromebook 2 has a fine processor, enough RAM for 99% of users, and a fantastic display. The base specs are outstanding. There’s a good Chromebook inside that red shell.

• The processor is an Intel Core i3 10110u “Comet Lake.” The storage is a generous 128GB with a micro SD slot for up to another 128GB. It has 8GB of RAM as every laptop should have at the minimum these days.

• The highlight of this device is the 16:9 QLED display. It’s a bright 13.3” touch panel with a resolution of 1920x1080. That’s perfect for me. It’s so good, I want Samsung to make an ultrawide desktop QLED monitor. It’s a fantastic low-cost alternative to a 4K OLED.

• Also good is the color of the device. The metallic red is matched on the upper and lower halves of the clamshell, despite being different materials (aluminum and plastic, respectfully).

• There’s a fan inside, but that’s a good thing, and it is quiet when it turns on.

• At 2.7 LBS, it’s light.

• And did I mention it looks great on any desk?

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And now for what’s not so good.

• The price when this was released was $699. I paid that, plus New York state and city sales tax in March 2021. Ouch. Now, I knew going in that once I had this chromebook in my hands, I had to own it until it is no longer supported. That will be the fall of 2028. So cost per year is low, in my case.

• Still, it took a while for the price to come down. 18 months after launch, it finally became a good buy.

• The keyboard is okay. It’s super low profile with what I think are butterfly switches, so it is very similar to the MacBook pro. That’s not what I prefer. For me, the gold standard in factory notebook keyboards is the Lenovo ThinkPad. I prefer keys with some travel and a springy feel.

• The trackpad is not glass. At this price point, it really should be. It’s still good. It works fine. But as you can see in the photos, it has picked up a lot of gloss from my oily fingers. I must admit, once you have a glass trackpad, there’s really no going back, until the next best material is developed.

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• I should also mention, when one buys the Galaxy Chromebook 2, there is a giant sticker affixed to the left of the trackpad. The only way to remove it is with water and some Goo Gone. It’s awful that Samsung made consumers have to remove that giant sticker from such a great looking device. They should have just included the sticker info on a postcard. I forget what was on the sticker. Nothing important.

• The aluminum hinges are fine, but they highlight something that bugs me: the upper and lower halves of the clamshell are different case materials with different weights. The display is wrapped in beautifully engineered red aluminum. The lower half of the device is the same red color, but in slightly flexible plastic. That doesn’t bother me when this device is connected to an external mechanical keyboard. In that mode, this Chromebook is essentially a second monitor or a docked Chromebox. But on my lap, it feels so unbalanced. The heavier, cold metal display half is held up over a warmer, lighter keyboard and motherboard half. In terms of feel, it doesn’t work when sitting in your lap. It feels like two different devices joined together. That makes it a desk machine only in my mind.

• Which brings me to my next point. It’s such a desk machine, that I don’t take it outside. I don’t travel with it. It’s not good at what notebook computers are supposed to excel at - portability. This is my Chromebook for home use only. For many, many others, particularly students, this is a deal breaker. Students need a device that can travel well outside with some confidence. This just looks too nice to go outside. And the weight imbalance between the upper and lower halves of the clamshell is something I can’t ignore.

• Samsung made sure the speakers of this Chromebook were mentioned in its press releases and marketing. I don’t know why. They are poor, and are under the keyboard. Users should plug in headphones or pair their Bluetooth headphones with this Chromebook. BYOH - bring your own headphones!

• And finally (and worst of all) is the built-in camera. It is beyond awful. It shocks me that this device shipped with such a poor camera at $699 in 2021. It’s so bad, the only way I can do a video meeting with this device is to connect an HDMI to USB C capture card and run my Canon M50 in video mode (which by the way, is a fantastic setup that’s superior to any built-in camera by any notebook computer manufacturer). It’s not the resolution that’s bad, it’s the image quality. 720p resolution is fine for web meetings. But the image is cloudy and dark. It would have been a lot better if this Chromebook didn’t have a camera at all. BYOC - bring your own camera!

Here are some photos of the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 next to a Chromebook I highly recommend, the Lenovo Flex 5i.

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So to summarize, the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 is a good choice if you can adhere / agree to a couple of key points. First, you have to own it to the end of life (July 2028) for maximum value for the dollar Second, you have to acknowledge that there are Chromebooks with the same specs for less (like the Lenovo Flex 5i). so if you get this, you are partially getting it for the great looks and the much better than average display.

Want to stick with Samsung? Then check out the newer Galaxy Chromebook 3, er the Galaxy Chromebook 2 360. It doesn’t have an backlit keyboard, but it has a USB A port the Galaxy Chromebook 2 doesn’t. And while the display isn’t quite as sharp, it has a more comfortable shape (it’s taller to show more lines of text). It also has a more comfortable keyboard and consistent plastic feel inside and out. It’s clearly marketed at high school and college students. It also has a slower Celeron processor, half the RAM and not much storage. And yet, I think it’s the better Chromebook overall. It should have been called the Galaxy Chromebook 3. But I suspect that Chromebook is coming two years from now.

Roe Is Dead. And So Is The United States.

The mess that the overturn of Roe has caused will last decades. I'm reading opinions that states that ban abortion might sue New York and California for luring thier women to commit "criminal acts" (which we good people call accessing medicine). How can a nation function if medicine in one state is "homicide" in another (Louisiana)?

Texas is going to assemble a challenge to Plyer v. Doe (1982) which could end the requirement for states to provide free education to all children regardless of nationality in grades 1-12, effectively closing all public schools in some states.

States will challenge Loving, Griswold and Obergefell. And soon states will pass laws banning all sex reassignment medicine and procedures.

And then there's the misoprostol pills, the next abortion front. Will states try to ban medications? Will they try to create their own DEA-like agencies? Will they sue drug makers to stop making pills they want to ban? Will they sue the US Postal Service, UPS, FedEx and DHL for allowing banned medications to be sent into their state from outside states or overseas?

What other drugs will more than 20 states want to ban? Hormones? HIV treatments? How about vaccines?

This wouldn't happen, but what would stop this Roberts court from allowing a state to ban alcohol sales? It's a fair analogy because the Court just let states ban a major category of medical care. This isn't a mild difference in laws so some states allow gambling, fireworks and open alcohol containers. This is an extreme legal divide in which legitimate medicine obtained in New York is categorized as a felony by one or more states.

The civil suits will be endless. Lawyers are about to get decades of guaranteed extra cases that shouldn't exist in a functioning nation. We're a failed state. Any one of us could be entangled in a criminal or civil case involving us directly or indirectly. Plus, we're all going to fund our state's lawsuits and defenses. This nation is finished. Will 0.5% of our GDP be simply interstate civil suits clogging up our courts and our lives?

For the average American, the overturn of Roe should be a bigger story than Russia's invasion of Ukraine or even the investigation into Trump’s failed coup in late 2020 and early 2021. And given that Democrats would rather talk about fighting Russia in a proxy war than the looming loss of freedoms at home, it's quite telling how absolutely screwed we all are.

In fact, I think the overturn of Roe is the biggest development in the US since our invasion of Iraq. Easily, I think. One could even argue that the Dobbs decision is the most consequential bad Supreme Court decision since Ferguson (1896).

Red states are assembling agencies to spy on their citizens and to keep tabs on abortion providers in other states. Red states are putting together wish lists of what types of medicine they want to see banned. What's coming is horrifying. And no matter where you live, in any of our 50 states and 5 colonies, your life is going to become more difficult thanks to the overturn of Roe.

My argument is not an easy one to make, I admit. And I can't diminish other major US events in this century. We’ve had two stolen presidential elections (if we count George W. Bush’s 2001 inauguration as a completion of a steal that occurred at the end of the year 2000), a ruling that corporations have rights like people, and a US president who chose a violent transfer of power over a peaceful one. But one could make the case that the overturn of Roe and the failed Trump coup are directly linked. The tyranny of GOP minority rule is evident in both. The attempt to keep Trump in power failed, but the full assault of the 14th Amendment is now on. We're about to live in a nation in which legitimate medicine administered in one state is a felony homicide in another. A nation with that kind of split simply cannot stand. We're a failed state.

The GOP signaled, way back in 1994, that they were going to govern by dismantling our society and removing all liberties and protections for the poor. They were going to inflict pain and suffering for the sake of it. Reagan started it, but didn't say it out loud. Newt said it out loud. By the time we got to Ted Cruz and Trump, they weren't just saying it out loud, but they were using macho and violent marketing to motivate their voters to vote for the destruction of the US.

The GOP project to overturn Roe has been mainly a patient, focused 29 year project, starting with Bush 41’s appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Court in 1991, over objections that he was under-qualified and a serial abuser of power in the workplace. Then his son, Bush 43, appointed John Roberts in 2005 and Samuel Alito in 2006. It is notable that Alito’s confirmation vote was the closest and most controversial since Thomas. The late, great Robert Byrd was one of only two Democrat's to vote in favor of Alito, who went on to be the most bitter and mean spirited Justice in Supreme Court history. Then Donald Trump traded a solid right-wing justice, the late Anton Scalia, with three Justices selected by the Heritage Foundation. The Supreme Court transitioned from a 5-4 center-left majority in 1990 (White, Marshall, Blackmun, Stevens, Kennedy) to a 6-3 right wing supermajority (Thomas, Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett) by 2020. This took incredible effort, hundreds of millions of dollars, and some good fortune as both Bush 43 and Trump failed to win the popular vote in their first presidential elections.

When a minority party is aggressively attacking the majority, and taking their rights away, the majority needs to aggressively to fight back. And in my book, some violence is now justified.

I'm not saying that I am going to conspire to kill Republicans. But if say, an armed left-wing mob stormed the Texas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota, or Nebraska State House and killed every Republican lawmaker they could find, that would be justified at this point, because a small number of Republicans are threatening the lives of millions.

Too violent? Okay, how about long occupations of those statehouses, so legislative business could not be conducted? How about a national strike in which every labor union walked out for 14 days? The damage to the economy would be swift. Hit the old men in charge where it hurts - the markets and the GDP.

In my view, only a violent revolution can save the USA. And since that is not coming, I am casually preparing to flee the USA later in life. I don't want to die in an authoritarian or autocratic regime.

Uncle Tim contributed to this post.

The Anker 726 and 735 GaN Chargers Take Device Charging To The Next Level

I am not paid to promote anything. This is not sponsored content. I just wanted to share because one thing has really simplified my life for gadget charging. I have a laptop (Chromebook), a tablet and a phone. And the one charger I need is a GaN charger.

I still have this weird one from Brasus, the GaN2 Pro, and it's perfectly fine, if just a couple of centimeters too long to stay stuck in every AC outlet around. For example, in my home, in my office, in a hotel room or on Amtrak, it stays plugged in. In a plane outlet, in between seats, too close to my leg or knee, it does not. It’s just a little too rear-heavy.

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But the Anker 726. Damn. Charges an iPhone in about 20 minutes, or 2% per minute. If you are viewing this post on a laptop or desktop, it is about life-sized in the photo below. And with 65 Watt output, it can keep a Chromebook, Windows laptop or MacBook charged, plus a tablet or phone.

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Need a USB-A port with those two USB-C ports? Check out the Anker 735. This is the new road warrior.

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Here’s the Anker 735 next to the Baseus GaN2 Pro. Both run cool. Both deliver quick, 65 Watt charging. The Anker is just a little shorter, for better balance in outlets.

And for my cables, the next level is pastel silicone, also from Anker. It can quickly charge iOS devices, Android phones, plus MacBooks, Chromebooks and Windows laptops. Even flashlights now have USB-C charging ports. These cables will not tangle, and each includes a silicone wrapping strap. They're available as a USB-C to USB-C, or a USB-C to Apple Lightning cable, in 3 and 6 foot lengths, and in 7 colors.

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Newcastle United Emerge From The Ashes Of The Mike Ashley Era

I think last Monday night (May 16) was incredible, given that NUFC were up against a younger squad that had something important to play for. I will argue to my dying day that what we saw was more significant than what we saw in 2011 when Pardew's squad drew Arsenal 4-4. That match was far more entertaining, and unforgettable. But this match was a glimpse of what NUFC will do when they are a good club. Were they good in 2011? I don't think so.

Monday night was a heavyweight bout, and Newcastle bruised and battered Arsenal. They bruised Martinelli. They sprained Tomiyasu. They cut Lacazette. And our Callum Wilson nearly lost a front tooth. It was a game of pain, and Newcastle outlasted Arsenal in the ring.

Know what's amazing? Monday night wasn't even the best match of the season. I think that honor goes to the 2-1 comeback win against Leicester. No, wait, the comeback win against Everton on February 8! Ryan Frasier with the winner in that one. Trippier scored the final goal on a free kick, and he would do it again against Villa the following week (and fracture his foot).

The goals against Arsenal were not pretty, but they were earned. And man, had that Wilson lob gone in, people would have been having flashbacks to 1996 and 2002 Alan Shearer. I think everyone can agree that the score could have been 4-0 Newcastle. They bossed the Gunners. I am seriously going to miss Newcastle football this summer. 75 days without seeing this squad. At least we could see 4 new signings. And soon!

A big thank you to Wor Flags. St. James' Park is looking like the best stadium in European football these days. The display and planning is impressive. Keep those flags waving.

LOL

I don’t need to break through the Washington Post’s paywall to know just how incorrect and foolish this editorial is from the papers resident spook, David Ignatius.

The American empire is in decline. Has been for decades now. And sometime during the Trump administration, the other industrialized nations of the world finally behaved as if they knew it. Because they now know it.

Russia is down? Sure. They have made a devastating choice. But the US is not up. That is laughable.

This is an old man reaching back to the times that made him a trusted journalist for the CIA and a well-paid pundit on MSNBC (which he still is).

The Washington Post is good for two things: solid investigations of the White House, and it’s a journal of how the American Empire sees itself and the world. It is the official news outlet of the empire. Which is why this editorial also just dropped today, which argues that banning abortion would weaken the response capabilities of the US armed forces.

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My Mask Strategy Is Not Changing

I will have a mask supply for life.

There are a lot of reasons we let this pandemic win. But one of the big reasons is we let a minority of crybabies frame mask wearing as some sort of punishment. Masks have saved lives. Masks are cool. Mask wearing reduces the number of common colds we get. Mask wearing prevents the transmission of influenza and exotic animal diseases like, oh, SARS, a virus family that has now killed millions of people. Masks allow us to go to shops, and go out and live life a little during a pandemic. Most of all, masks work. They were the only tool we had during the 1918-1920 influenza pandemic. They were all we had before we had the mRNA vaccines in late 2020. The fact that people cheered when a judge killed the mask mandates on domestic flights demonstrates how we shifted our thinking in two years. We’re no better than the thugs who stormed the Capitol. We’re part of the decline of this nation.

Study after study shows that wearing a mask cuts the wearer’s infection risk by at least 50%. I think it is greater than that. And a lot of the early air travel studies didn’t take into account that transmission is more likely at the gate and during the boarding process than in the cabin itself (which itself is not as low risk as the industry says - remember how many times you caught a cold after a flight?).

The WHO and Pfizer seem to have a consensus. We are in the second half of a 4-year pandemic. This seems correct to me. We need to get through a winter without a big wave. Pfizer estimates that the pandemic will become an endemic in early 2024. People deny that COVID-19 is a serious disease. People think that this was all a plot by Pfizer to make billions. But I believe Pfizer. They have not yet been proven incorrect on this virus. And COIVD-19 is still an exotic bat disease you do not want to catch.