The number of voters who got mail-in ballots and either came to polls to try to drop off those ballots (we cannot accept your mail in ballot at the polling place on election day! Post office is down the street) or just came to vote without returning the mail ballot surprised me this time. I think a lot of people signed up for permanent mail ballot status and forgot all about it - now they get a mail ballot for every election whether they want it or not.
*For those worried about double voting - sending the mail ballot AND voting in person - the in-person vote means the county will not count the mail ballot (if received). Every mail ballot is checked in before ever opening the envelope, just like we check in the voter on our iPads at the polls. If the voter voted in person on election day, the mail ballot is discarded without opening. That's part of the reason mail-in ballots cannot be counted until after election day.
I signed up for the permanent mail ballot but did not receive it. No problem with walking over to vote. I agree with EZ, as I did when mail ballots began, that the post mark should be a week before the election in order to complete voting on election day. Still need the same validation process, but no more waiting for mail delivery.
Great edition of the PS today loaded with many interesting articles! I would like to share a few of my reactions.
The "near enemy" is always more despised and feared than the far one. To some sects generally aligned with the Democratic Party, Biden is the near enemy and Trump is the far one. Many of these people will absolutely not turn out to vote in November, or vote for a protest candidate. This is nothing new. Some time ago Republicans Bill Weld and Mitt Romney were elected governor of Massachusetts, because Democrats were so divided.
I thought Chick-fil-a had gotten past the issue with supporting anti-trans and anti-gay lobbyists about 10 years ago. They once donated company money to them, but quietly ended that. While there are some owners who still make such contribution that is qualitatively different from the business itself. If you were to apply that standard to determine boycotts broadly, then there would be a large number of companies you would not patronize. Certainly 100% of public companies would make the boycott list. My thoughts on this subject are largely informed by Adam Ragusea (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS1A4dIDIQM)
I am not a fan of Patrick "Pat" Quinn, but I agree that a referendum on sports team subsidies is a good idea. Whenever I hear reports citing economists on public money for sports venues or hosting of Olympic events, they say it is not worth it. A counter argument is that Economists ignore effects that are valuable but are difficult to measure. It seems to me like this is what makes it a good topic for a referendum. The issue is understood well enough by the pubic, it is not a proxy for some other issue (like sanctuary city status is), and leaving the decision to elected officials is highly susceptible to corruption.
Steve Chapman is great. I have never read an article by him that was not intriguing to me.
I always knew, when the election people kept saying there were a hundred thousand ballots not returned, that number was a joke & the current results have proven that.
But there's no excuse for them to allow mailed ballots to be accepted more than the Friday after the election.
The idiots & outright anti-Semites trying to shut down the DNC are showing their true colors, they just hate Jews!
I'm with Pat Quinn, we don't want to pay for their stadiums. The Bears are worth at least $6 billion & could borrow all the money to build one, either on the Michael Reese property or Arlington Park. But are the banks that stupid to lend money for those money pits? University of Chicago economist Allan Sanderson has shown over & over, they're never worth the money.
Plus why should we build these billionaire thieves a second set of stadiums, when we did that for them 30 years ago & are nowhere near paying those money pits off!
I think the state Supreme Court took up that creep Smollett's case so they can put a finality to it & finally send him back to the prison sentence he so rightfully deserves. He's a total moron & according to IMDb, he hasn't worked as an actor since 2019, all due to his lies about the attack. No sane producer wants to work with him.
NBC's astoundingly moronic hiring of McDaniel isn't a new thing. Don't forget, they also hired wing-nut Megyn Kelly from Fox [alleged] News, several years ago, she turned out to be a total flop that actually angered the women they thought would watch her show & then had to pay her $35 million to go away, because they gave stupidly her a five year iron clad contract, actually thinking they were in a competition with other outlets for her. Except that turned out to be a lie, no one else wanted her! Now she writes fake articles about herself & her useless opinions for Murdoch's NY Post, under the pen name of Ariel Zilber, she obviously must pay to have the paper run them, as she certainly has NBC's cash to pay for that.
"I always knew, when the election people kept saying there were a hundred thousand ballots not returned, that number was a joke & the current results have proven that."
That number is likely accurate as to the number of mail ballots sent to voters and not returned completed. Many of those voters won't mail back the ballot (choose not to vote, just as many registered voters decline to vote at every election) and many choose to vote in person on election day or at early voting instead. Election workers do not know immediately how many were voted and mailed at the last minute since they can be postmarked by midnight on election day and be valid. Election workers don't know a mail-ballot recipient chose to vote in person unless and until they receive a mailed ballot in that person's name and log it into the system and see that the voter already voted in person. So the "we don't know what we don't know" answer about possible mail-in ballots still out there is not ridiculous.
"allowing abortions up to 15 weeks of gestation." I use to naively believe that the people writing these laws didn't understand pregnancy, and didn't realize most women might not realize they are pregnant -- earlier than 15 weeks but not as early as some opponents want the restriction to kick in.
then I realized they absolutely know and just want to punish women and pander to their ignorant, uneducated base.
"crackpot theory that “chemtrails” from airplanes are part of government experiments to disperse chemicals into the atmosphere."
Given some of the sh*t our government has done since Its inception, I wouldn't call this outlandish. Except for the fact that there are likely more efficient, cheaper and more clandestine ways to dispose of chemical waste.
didn't realize there was discrimination between iPhone users and non-iPhone users to that level but then of course there is because fucking humans always gotta look at differences.
For a while i had a android and and iPad but couldn't get my text messages on the iPad (even though you can use your phone number for FaceTime) and it was inconvenient. i got back into the apple ecosystem for that reason.
Regarding gov't regulation of text bubble colors, the feds should leave Apple alone. They are not public utility and they are catering to a demand for vanity. While that might not be noble, I do not think it is an appropriate role of regulation to stop it. If it were then they would ban all products from LVMH, Hermes, and many other fashion brands.
I think the whole DOJ antitrust thing on the iphone is unnecessary. Iphone's are 20% of the global phone market and 35% of the domestic market. Their 2023 US sales share is claimed to be over 60% based on dollars, but the average iphone unit price was $1000 vs the average Android unit price of $250. Hardly seems a worthy use of DOJ time.
right on, MM. why shd the govt substitute its inadequate tech judgment capabilities over the market's capabilties? and over the bubbles/functionality of texts?!?
deomocrats/liberals don't trust markets. they believe govt bureaucrats have superior knowledge to markets - which they don't - and shd substitute their 'knowledge'/will for the judgments consumers make in the market.
i'm not advocating 'anarcho-caapitalism' - prudent, limited regulation is appropriate.
i've been an android user since i bought my first google pixel 5-6 yrs ago. i would never transfer to iphone now, regardless of bubble color and text functionality. like many android phone users i've been sneered at by iphone owners for my supposed/alleged inferior choice.
but then i ask the iphone user: what GPS application dod you use? what email app? what search engine?
oh, all google.
and you think google is selling the best version of these apps to apple? or maybe keeping the best version for its google pixel.
and oh, BTW, the smart tech people i know all have google pixels.
the market has spoken. iphone users, enjoy your apple smart phone. ignorance is bliss.
You therefore (albeit, anecdotally) have shown the merit of the DOJ's case. In the early 1990s, attorneys in law firms all used WordPerfect s the word processing application of choice - even though Microsoft's Word was a competitor - because it was the far better application. (The "Show codes" formatting tool was the best!) But, as large (then smaller) companies jumped onto the Microsoft Office bandwagon, it became more difficult for law firms to interact with their clients who were all using Word (because Microsoft - like Apple today - intentionally made it more difficult to interact with non-Word [WordPerfect] documents). (When I worked in the Motorola Law Department, the Law Department stuck with WordPerfect for a couple of years after the rest of the company had migrated to Word.) Eventually, Word won the word processing application war, even though WordPerfect was the far superior application. This was because Microsoft leveraged its market power in operating/office suite systems to shut out non-Microsoft products. Today Apple does the same with its iPhone.
Because Apple intentionally makes the iOS ecosystem hostile to competing (Android) platform devices. (Michael M's iPad couldn't receive Android text messages on his iPad, - but could receive them from an Apple iPhone. As a result, Michael M switched from his Android phone to an iPhone.) Apple engineered this non-compatibility intentionally, to keep users of its iOS platform "all in" when it comes to mobile devices. By contrast, Android devices can receive Apple's iOS-based messages/files fine.
Okay. So what laws does that break? Proprietary standards for compatibility show up in many contexts, and it appears that manufactures create them to lock people in. This is the first time I have heard of the DOJ coming down on it. I am of the opinion that wide use of open standards is what is best for us collectively, I have always believed that people had a right to choose proprietary standards. What is it about Apple that makes them different from car makers with proprietary parts, for example?
It's based on antitrust - violating Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, alleging that Apple is using anticompetitive practices to maintain its monopoly in the smartphone market. Historically, when a business gets to the 70% share (or higher) in a defined market - antitrust regulators have been able to show that those businesses use their market power to drive competitors from the landscape - hence, my example of Word pushing the (much superior) WordPerfect software into irrelevance. Consumers are hurt because a better product is no longer available (for all intents and purposes). I haven't read the DOJ filing, but I presume that their case is that the "market" here is the higher-end smartphone market among those in a particular age group - say, 15-30.
As for your car parts analogy, automakers "do" allow third parties to make copies of their parts - that's why you can find non-automaker-branded car parts at auto parts stores. However, you've now touched a nerve with me - the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998) DMCA. It was passed by Congress for all sorts of good reasons - including to fight digital/electronic pirating. However, the big business lobbyists got to it and were able to include revisions to the Act that make consumers' lives much harder and more expensive - 2 examples: HP Printer Cartridges and Keurig Coffee Makers. By adding computer-readable codes to the ink cartridges and coffee pods respectively, HP and Keurig were able to leverage the technical language of the DCMA to make it illegal for consumers to refill (or at least very difficult) to use 3rd party cartridges in their printers/coffee makers. As HP built its entire printer business model on the razor-razorblade model (cheap printer, expensive ink), it has extracted rentier-level rents for decades from ordinary consumers who should have the right to buy much more cheaply produced 3rd-party cartridges for a commodity product (ink) (or be able to refill them themselves). The same – to a lesser extent – applies(d) to Keurig. Their 2nd generation (I think) coffee makers leveraged the DCMA language to make their machines incompatible with coffee pods which did not sport the Keurig-approved machine-readable codes. Keurig’s attempt to use the DCMA to REQUIRE its customers to use only Keurig’s overpriced coffee pods backfired (coffee, is, after all, a “commodity). Consumer backlash came for Keurig, in a big way, and Keurig stopped the practice.
You’ll see that state legislatures are starting to revolt against the DCMA, drafting legislation that seeks to impose a “right to repair” on manufacturers of products costing more than $X – requiring companies to allow consumers to repair their own products and forcing companies to prove things like computer code to 3rd parties to make this possible. (Look up the Wikipedia entry for he DCMA for more info.)
If using standards for commercial advantage is a crime, then a much better target, IMO, would be to go after Google for what they are doing with the Chrome browser. They are setting standards specifically to put firefox at a disadvantage. Have more than one web browser is extremely important. If one company dominates the browser market then they could control what you get to see on the web. Also, it they would definitely make private browsing impossible.
I MISS WordPerfect! In my early days as an attorney it was a delight to use. I've hated every moment since having to switch to Word. Only good thing is now I do much of my work in Excel and it does play nicely with Word.
Wow, and I thought I didn't like country music! I've been meaning to look for Beyonce's country hit and glad to have it dropped in my lap this morning.
Great quote shows up, and now I'm gonna watch Bob talking to Johnny about country music while I eat lunch. “I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down'.”
I like EZ's ideas about changes to mail in voting. I would also like to media to stop pronouncing winners before the votes are counted. I don't care how statistically accurate their methods may be, because I believe that it undermines the confidence in the result. I think it was in the 2020 presidential election that the 'winner' in Arizona was announced with 0% of the vote counted. Reporting tallies is fine, but there is zero reason to report the AP prediction of winners.
while i've been delighted to participate in each level of Tweet Madness ‘24, incl'g today's Elite 8, i was shocked & dismayed that the Magic Johnson tweet failed to make the final 8. IMNSHO, a nat'l-champion worthy tweet.
that said, almost all of the E8 are excellent too.
I still can't fathom why the "judging someone in person" is still in there. It's a bit humorous, but it has beaten better (IMHO) tweets the last 2 rounds.
There is certainly ample room for reasoned debate about the Israeli war with Hamas, but it is sickening to see the blatant anti-Semitism that is on display in our streets and college campuses.
Our good friend Judith Raanan, who with her daughter Natalie were captured and taken hostage by Hamas on October 7th from the Nahal Oz kibbutz and who were also the first hostages released by Hamas have told us a great deal about their experiences, and Judith is also speaking publicly about this. Upon being taken hostage they were marched on foot across the border and then loaded on to vehicles and taken to the Hamas command center, And then down into the tunnels. The command center was located inside a large hospital, and when the Hamas terrorists paraded them and their fellow captives inside, the nurses and other staff gathered around and were trilling in celebration.
A poll that was taken inside Gaza in Oct-Nov last year prior to the start of the Israeli offensive by the Arab World for Research and Development (largely funded by the EU) reflected that 75% of respondents supported the October 7th terrorist attack, and 80% opposed a peace with Israel involving a two-state solution. This is the fanatical mindset that Israel has right at its border.
President Biden is increasingly bowing to the Democratic hard left who is demanding that Israel cease its offensive in Gaza. But the IDF cannot stop until the Hamas terror organization has been totally demolished inside Gaza. The US and our allies tragically killed a million or more German civilians in the bombing and invasion of that country in World War II, yet there was absolutely no thought given to a ceasefire until the Nazis had been thoroughly defeated. Hamas has always had the ability to stop the Israeli offensive immediately upon release of all the hostages, laying down their arms and leaving Gaza. But they refuse to do so, and Israel must continue to finish the job for their own self-preservation. 🇮🇱🙏
EZ - In your description of Edwin Eisendrath, you failed to mention that he was a former Chicago Alderman. (He was the Alder of my ward, back in the day - one of the Lakefront "Goo-Goos" (good government City Councilors), as the old-time Dem Ward pols called them back then. (See what I did there?)
Loved your non-call-out call-out of John Kass ("idiots", "addled conspiracy theorists"), but call a spade, a spade, I say.
Word around the Cook County courthouses is that a large majority of the judges supported O'Neill-Burke, rather than Harris - not because she used to be one of them, but because they are unenthused about the additional influence of Toni Preckwinkle (and her agenda) on the Cook County justice system.
As a lover of language, I love the word "dubiety", as I, too, had never come across it before.
The plastics industry's scam on the world regarding its cynical "recyclability of plastics" claims (knowing full well how plastics' complexity makes recycling a virtual no-go, ranks right up there with the fossil fuel industry's campaign against global warming/climate change. The Koch brothers' influence (especially) through their PACs' spending over the past 3 (4?) decades has helped drive climate denialism in this country to an extent that far outstrips any other western nation. The Republican Party is the only major political party in the Western World that denies anthropogenic climate change. However, I do believe that we will eventually get to a place where the sorting of plastic materials - the Achilles heel of plastics recycling - will get to a point where, applying technology, it is economically viable to recycle plastics.
That plastics almost never get recycled has been getting coverage lately, but it is not new news. In fact, most of what goes into recycling bins ends up in the same landfills as regular trash. Recycling is a scam.
I use a recycling bin at my house, but there is a damn good reason. My wife wants to do it.
Democratic Socialists are not Democrats. They do not see a significant difference between the GOP and Democrats. They are fine with chaos and disruption, as they believe it will create opportunity for them. They believe that Biden and the party has failed progressives and will never be sufficiently socialist. They also know that the $3 billion in annual military aid to Israel and the $14 billion in supplemental aid package request will not change under either.
The Pope expressd major dubiety
Especially when not in sobriety
What worried him most
Was the Holy Ghost
Who really rattled his world-famous piety.
The number of voters who got mail-in ballots and either came to polls to try to drop off those ballots (we cannot accept your mail in ballot at the polling place on election day! Post office is down the street) or just came to vote without returning the mail ballot surprised me this time. I think a lot of people signed up for permanent mail ballot status and forgot all about it - now they get a mail ballot for every election whether they want it or not.
*For those worried about double voting - sending the mail ballot AND voting in person - the in-person vote means the county will not count the mail ballot (if received). Every mail ballot is checked in before ever opening the envelope, just like we check in the voter on our iPads at the polls. If the voter voted in person on election day, the mail ballot is discarded without opening. That's part of the reason mail-in ballots cannot be counted until after election day.
I signed up for the permanent mail ballot but did not receive it. No problem with walking over to vote. I agree with EZ, as I did when mail ballots began, that the post mark should be a week before the election in order to complete voting on election day. Still need the same validation process, but no more waiting for mail delivery.
Great edition of the PS today loaded with many interesting articles! I would like to share a few of my reactions.
The "near enemy" is always more despised and feared than the far one. To some sects generally aligned with the Democratic Party, Biden is the near enemy and Trump is the far one. Many of these people will absolutely not turn out to vote in November, or vote for a protest candidate. This is nothing new. Some time ago Republicans Bill Weld and Mitt Romney were elected governor of Massachusetts, because Democrats were so divided.
I thought Chick-fil-a had gotten past the issue with supporting anti-trans and anti-gay lobbyists about 10 years ago. They once donated company money to them, but quietly ended that. While there are some owners who still make such contribution that is qualitatively different from the business itself. If you were to apply that standard to determine boycotts broadly, then there would be a large number of companies you would not patronize. Certainly 100% of public companies would make the boycott list. My thoughts on this subject are largely informed by Adam Ragusea (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS1A4dIDIQM)
I am not a fan of Patrick "Pat" Quinn, but I agree that a referendum on sports team subsidies is a good idea. Whenever I hear reports citing economists on public money for sports venues or hosting of Olympic events, they say it is not worth it. A counter argument is that Economists ignore effects that are valuable but are difficult to measure. It seems to me like this is what makes it a good topic for a referendum. The issue is understood well enough by the pubic, it is not a proxy for some other issue (like sanctuary city status is), and leaving the decision to elected officials is highly susceptible to corruption.
Steve Chapman is great. I have never read an article by him that was not intriguing to me.
Trump, a threat to society,
Is a source of major anxiety.
Now he's hawking the Good Book,
A terrible look
Amid dubiety about his piety.
I always knew, when the election people kept saying there were a hundred thousand ballots not returned, that number was a joke & the current results have proven that.
But there's no excuse for them to allow mailed ballots to be accepted more than the Friday after the election.
The idiots & outright anti-Semites trying to shut down the DNC are showing their true colors, they just hate Jews!
I'm with Pat Quinn, we don't want to pay for their stadiums. The Bears are worth at least $6 billion & could borrow all the money to build one, either on the Michael Reese property or Arlington Park. But are the banks that stupid to lend money for those money pits? University of Chicago economist Allan Sanderson has shown over & over, they're never worth the money.
Plus why should we build these billionaire thieves a second set of stadiums, when we did that for them 30 years ago & are nowhere near paying those money pits off!
I think the state Supreme Court took up that creep Smollett's case so they can put a finality to it & finally send him back to the prison sentence he so rightfully deserves. He's a total moron & according to IMDb, he hasn't worked as an actor since 2019, all due to his lies about the attack. No sane producer wants to work with him.
NBC's astoundingly moronic hiring of McDaniel isn't a new thing. Don't forget, they also hired wing-nut Megyn Kelly from Fox [alleged] News, several years ago, she turned out to be a total flop that actually angered the women they thought would watch her show & then had to pay her $35 million to go away, because they gave stupidly her a five year iron clad contract, actually thinking they were in a competition with other outlets for her. Except that turned out to be a lie, no one else wanted her! Now she writes fake articles about herself & her useless opinions for Murdoch's NY Post, under the pen name of Ariel Zilber, she obviously must pay to have the paper run them, as she certainly has NBC's cash to pay for that.
"But there's no excuse for them to allow mailed ballots to be accepted more than the Friday after the election."
The "election people" are following the law. Your beef is with the General Assembly.
I know that, it's appalling the Legislature allows such a long period after the election for ballots to be counted.
"I always knew, when the election people kept saying there were a hundred thousand ballots not returned, that number was a joke & the current results have proven that."
That number is likely accurate as to the number of mail ballots sent to voters and not returned completed. Many of those voters won't mail back the ballot (choose not to vote, just as many registered voters decline to vote at every election) and many choose to vote in person on election day or at early voting instead. Election workers do not know immediately how many were voted and mailed at the last minute since they can be postmarked by midnight on election day and be valid. Election workers don't know a mail-ballot recipient chose to vote in person unless and until they receive a mailed ballot in that person's name and log it into the system and see that the voter already voted in person. So the "we don't know what we don't know" answer about possible mail-in ballots still out there is not ridiculous.
I must admit that I have teased the Green Bubblians.
"allowing abortions up to 15 weeks of gestation." I use to naively believe that the people writing these laws didn't understand pregnancy, and didn't realize most women might not realize they are pregnant -- earlier than 15 weeks but not as early as some opponents want the restriction to kick in.
then I realized they absolutely know and just want to punish women and pander to their ignorant, uneducated base.
"crackpot theory that “chemtrails” from airplanes are part of government experiments to disperse chemicals into the atmosphere."
Given some of the sh*t our government has done since Its inception, I wouldn't call this outlandish. Except for the fact that there are likely more efficient, cheaper and more clandestine ways to dispose of chemical waste.
didn't realize there was discrimination between iPhone users and non-iPhone users to that level but then of course there is because fucking humans always gotta look at differences.
For a while i had a android and and iPad but couldn't get my text messages on the iPad (even though you can use your phone number for FaceTime) and it was inconvenient. i got back into the apple ecosystem for that reason.
Regarding gov't regulation of text bubble colors, the feds should leave Apple alone. They are not public utility and they are catering to a demand for vanity. While that might not be noble, I do not think it is an appropriate role of regulation to stop it. If it were then they would ban all products from LVMH, Hermes, and many other fashion brands.
I think the whole DOJ antitrust thing on the iphone is unnecessary. Iphone's are 20% of the global phone market and 35% of the domestic market. Their 2023 US sales share is claimed to be over 60% based on dollars, but the average iphone unit price was $1000 vs the average Android unit price of $250. Hardly seems a worthy use of DOJ time.
right on, MM. why shd the govt substitute its inadequate tech judgment capabilities over the market's capabilties? and over the bubbles/functionality of texts?!?
deomocrats/liberals don't trust markets. they believe govt bureaucrats have superior knowledge to markets - which they don't - and shd substitute their 'knowledge'/will for the judgments consumers make in the market.
i'm not advocating 'anarcho-caapitalism' - prudent, limited regulation is appropriate.
i've been an android user since i bought my first google pixel 5-6 yrs ago. i would never transfer to iphone now, regardless of bubble color and text functionality. like many android phone users i've been sneered at by iphone owners for my supposed/alleged inferior choice.
but then i ask the iphone user: what GPS application dod you use? what email app? what search engine?
oh, all google.
and you think google is selling the best version of these apps to apple? or maybe keeping the best version for its google pixel.
and oh, BTW, the smart tech people i know all have google pixels.
the market has spoken. iphone users, enjoy your apple smart phone. ignorance is bliss.
You therefore (albeit, anecdotally) have shown the merit of the DOJ's case. In the early 1990s, attorneys in law firms all used WordPerfect s the word processing application of choice - even though Microsoft's Word was a competitor - because it was the far better application. (The "Show codes" formatting tool was the best!) But, as large (then smaller) companies jumped onto the Microsoft Office bandwagon, it became more difficult for law firms to interact with their clients who were all using Word (because Microsoft - like Apple today - intentionally made it more difficult to interact with non-Word [WordPerfect] documents). (When I worked in the Motorola Law Department, the Law Department stuck with WordPerfect for a couple of years after the rest of the company had migrated to Word.) Eventually, Word won the word processing application war, even though WordPerfect was the far superior application. This was because Microsoft leveraged its market power in operating/office suite systems to shut out non-Microsoft products. Today Apple does the same with its iPhone.
My dad stuck with WordPerfect until the day he died. My kids tell me I am a dinosaur because I still use Word and not the Google Docs.
I used workdperfect when I started working. Everyone I knew agreed that it was better than MS Word. Google Docs? I don't know what to say.
Now I use markdown and LaTeX.
@JayG. I don't understand the merit of the DOJ's case, or how any comments in this thread have shown it. Can you please elaborate?
Because Apple intentionally makes the iOS ecosystem hostile to competing (Android) platform devices. (Michael M's iPad couldn't receive Android text messages on his iPad, - but could receive them from an Apple iPhone. As a result, Michael M switched from his Android phone to an iPhone.) Apple engineered this non-compatibility intentionally, to keep users of its iOS platform "all in" when it comes to mobile devices. By contrast, Android devices can receive Apple's iOS-based messages/files fine.
Okay. So what laws does that break? Proprietary standards for compatibility show up in many contexts, and it appears that manufactures create them to lock people in. This is the first time I have heard of the DOJ coming down on it. I am of the opinion that wide use of open standards is what is best for us collectively, I have always believed that people had a right to choose proprietary standards. What is it about Apple that makes them different from car makers with proprietary parts, for example?
Antitrust laws.
It's based on antitrust - violating Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, alleging that Apple is using anticompetitive practices to maintain its monopoly in the smartphone market. Historically, when a business gets to the 70% share (or higher) in a defined market - antitrust regulators have been able to show that those businesses use their market power to drive competitors from the landscape - hence, my example of Word pushing the (much superior) WordPerfect software into irrelevance. Consumers are hurt because a better product is no longer available (for all intents and purposes). I haven't read the DOJ filing, but I presume that their case is that the "market" here is the higher-end smartphone market among those in a particular age group - say, 15-30.
As for your car parts analogy, automakers "do" allow third parties to make copies of their parts - that's why you can find non-automaker-branded car parts at auto parts stores. However, you've now touched a nerve with me - the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998) DMCA. It was passed by Congress for all sorts of good reasons - including to fight digital/electronic pirating. However, the big business lobbyists got to it and were able to include revisions to the Act that make consumers' lives much harder and more expensive - 2 examples: HP Printer Cartridges and Keurig Coffee Makers. By adding computer-readable codes to the ink cartridges and coffee pods respectively, HP and Keurig were able to leverage the technical language of the DCMA to make it illegal for consumers to refill (or at least very difficult) to use 3rd party cartridges in their printers/coffee makers. As HP built its entire printer business model on the razor-razorblade model (cheap printer, expensive ink), it has extracted rentier-level rents for decades from ordinary consumers who should have the right to buy much more cheaply produced 3rd-party cartridges for a commodity product (ink) (or be able to refill them themselves). The same – to a lesser extent – applies(d) to Keurig. Their 2nd generation (I think) coffee makers leveraged the DCMA language to make their machines incompatible with coffee pods which did not sport the Keurig-approved machine-readable codes. Keurig’s attempt to use the DCMA to REQUIRE its customers to use only Keurig’s overpriced coffee pods backfired (coffee, is, after all, a “commodity). Consumer backlash came for Keurig, in a big way, and Keurig stopped the practice.
You’ll see that state legislatures are starting to revolt against the DCMA, drafting legislation that seeks to impose a “right to repair” on manufacturers of products costing more than $X – requiring companies to allow consumers to repair their own products and forcing companies to prove things like computer code to 3rd parties to make this possible. (Look up the Wikipedia entry for he DCMA for more info.)
If using standards for commercial advantage is a crime, then a much better target, IMO, would be to go after Google for what they are doing with the Chrome browser. They are setting standards specifically to put firefox at a disadvantage. Have more than one web browser is extremely important. If one company dominates the browser market then they could control what you get to see on the web. Also, it they would definitely make private browsing impossible.
I MISS WordPerfect! In my early days as an attorney it was a delight to use. I've hated every moment since having to switch to Word. Only good thing is now I do much of my work in Excel and it does play nicely with Word.
WordPerfect has all sorts of built in document formats that make doing things like invoices easier, fax cover sheets & much much more.
Same thing happened to me at my first law job -- started on WordPerfect but the firm soon buckled, adopting WordOkayWhaddyaGonnaDo.
Wow, and I thought I didn't like country music! I've been meaning to look for Beyonce's country hit and glad to have it dropped in my lap this morning.
I just listened thru the link and liked it (for country music)
For a good joke, Google Bob Newhart Country Music
That sounds incredible.
Great quote shows up, and now I'm gonna watch Bob talking to Johnny about country music while I eat lunch. “I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down'.”
― Bob Newhart
I hate all country music & always have!
I like EZ's ideas about changes to mail in voting. I would also like to media to stop pronouncing winners before the votes are counted. I don't care how statistically accurate their methods may be, because I believe that it undermines the confidence in the result. I think it was in the 2020 presidential election that the 'winner' in Arizona was announced with 0% of the vote counted. Reporting tallies is fine, but there is zero reason to report the AP prediction of winners.
You make a very good point about media outlets calling elections. The counter-point is that it is fun. It is especially fun when they get it wrong.
while i've been delighted to participate in each level of Tweet Madness ‘24, incl'g today's Elite 8, i was shocked & dismayed that the Magic Johnson tweet failed to make the final 8. IMNSHO, a nat'l-champion worthy tweet.
that said, almost all of the E8 are excellent too.
I still can't fathom why the "judging someone in person" is still in there. It's a bit humorous, but it has beaten better (IMHO) tweets the last 2 rounds.
There is certainly ample room for reasoned debate about the Israeli war with Hamas, but it is sickening to see the blatant anti-Semitism that is on display in our streets and college campuses.
Our good friend Judith Raanan, who with her daughter Natalie were captured and taken hostage by Hamas on October 7th from the Nahal Oz kibbutz and who were also the first hostages released by Hamas have told us a great deal about their experiences, and Judith is also speaking publicly about this. Upon being taken hostage they were marched on foot across the border and then loaded on to vehicles and taken to the Hamas command center, And then down into the tunnels. The command center was located inside a large hospital, and when the Hamas terrorists paraded them and their fellow captives inside, the nurses and other staff gathered around and were trilling in celebration.
A poll that was taken inside Gaza in Oct-Nov last year prior to the start of the Israeli offensive by the Arab World for Research and Development (largely funded by the EU) reflected that 75% of respondents supported the October 7th terrorist attack, and 80% opposed a peace with Israel involving a two-state solution. This is the fanatical mindset that Israel has right at its border.
President Biden is increasingly bowing to the Democratic hard left who is demanding that Israel cease its offensive in Gaza. But the IDF cannot stop until the Hamas terror organization has been totally demolished inside Gaza. The US and our allies tragically killed a million or more German civilians in the bombing and invasion of that country in World War II, yet there was absolutely no thought given to a ceasefire until the Nazis had been thoroughly defeated. Hamas has always had the ability to stop the Israeli offensive immediately upon release of all the hostages, laying down their arms and leaving Gaza. But they refuse to do so, and Israel must continue to finish the job for their own self-preservation. 🇮🇱🙏
you know by clicking the three dots at the bottom of your post on the right side you can edit the post.
No my friend, I was not aware. Thank you - everyone who knows me recognizes that I am very low tech in all things! Have a great day!
Speaking of iPhones, editing doesn’t work if you use the SubStack app on an iPhone.
I could go on a long rant about apple. but i won't.
Anyway Luke Smith is a much better ranter than me. Here is funny rant on Apple https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB6UWGeNePk
EZ - In your description of Edwin Eisendrath, you failed to mention that he was a former Chicago Alderman. (He was the Alder of my ward, back in the day - one of the Lakefront "Goo-Goos" (good government City Councilors), as the old-time Dem Ward pols called them back then. (See what I did there?)
Loved your non-call-out call-out of John Kass ("idiots", "addled conspiracy theorists"), but call a spade, a spade, I say.
Word around the Cook County courthouses is that a large majority of the judges supported O'Neill-Burke, rather than Harris - not because she used to be one of them, but because they are unenthused about the additional influence of Toni Preckwinkle (and her agenda) on the Cook County justice system.
As a lover of language, I love the word "dubiety", as I, too, had never come across it before.
The plastics industry's scam on the world regarding its cynical "recyclability of plastics" claims (knowing full well how plastics' complexity makes recycling a virtual no-go, ranks right up there with the fossil fuel industry's campaign against global warming/climate change. The Koch brothers' influence (especially) through their PACs' spending over the past 3 (4?) decades has helped drive climate denialism in this country to an extent that far outstrips any other western nation. The Republican Party is the only major political party in the Western World that denies anthropogenic climate change. However, I do believe that we will eventually get to a place where the sorting of plastic materials - the Achilles heel of plastics recycling - will get to a point where, applying technology, it is economically viable to recycle plastics.
That plastics almost never get recycled has been getting coverage lately, but it is not new news. In fact, most of what goes into recycling bins ends up in the same landfills as regular trash. Recycling is a scam.
I use a recycling bin at my house, but there is a damn good reason. My wife wants to do it.
Recycling plastic is a scam, metals and glass DO get recycled fairly efficiently.
Yes. Thank you. I overstated my point.
Democratic Socialists are not Democrats. They do not see a significant difference between the GOP and Democrats. They are fine with chaos and disruption, as they believe it will create opportunity for them. They believe that Biden and the party has failed progressives and will never be sufficiently socialist. They also know that the $3 billion in annual military aid to Israel and the $14 billion in supplemental aid package request will not change under either.
There once was a priest of great piety
Whose habits inspired dubiety
On Tuesdays he snuck
To Sally’s to ****
Well, priests need a little variety!