Category: Uncategorized

Where are all the “Don’t tread on me” Americans?

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From Chris Truax:

So is getting immigrant criminals off the street a justification for ICE’s behavior? Constitution says no. Of course, some immigrants are criminals who shouldn’t be on the streets. Some Americans are criminals who shouldn’t be on the streets either. Nonetheless, we have a Constitution that prevents police from roving those streets and demanding that people present their papers, or from breaking into someone’s house without probable cause and a warrant signed by a judge. Those rights don’t exist to protect criminals. They exist to protect innocent people. And it is innocent people who suffer when those rights are ignored, whether the government is hunting criminals or immigrants.

Concise, well written breakdown of what’s at stake here. No notes.

Dot: The Menu Bar Calendar That’s Become My Main Calendar

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From John Vorhees at MacStories:

So if you use a calendar app that doesn’t have a great menu bar app or live in your menu bar calendar more than your main calendar app like I do, give Dot a try. There’s a 14-day free trial, and at the moment, the app is just $9.99 during its launch window when you use the code LAUNCH, with an eventual planned price of $14.99.

I’ve used Dato for a while and am generally happy with it, but I really like the little UX wins Dot offers along with the insane amount of customization. I love apps like Fantastical but can’t see myself subscribing to a calendar app given my needs. Paying one-time for this type of thing is more my speed.

Resist and Unsubscribe

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From Resist and Unsubscribe:

First, we must recognize that the president is unfazed by citizen outrage, the courts, or the media. He responds to one thing: the market. The most potent weapon to resist the administration is a targeted, month-long national economic strike — a coordinated campaign that attacks tech companies and firms enabling ICE — to inflict maximum damage with minimal impact on consumers. In sum, the shortest path to change without hurting consumers is an economic strike targeted at the companies driving the markets and enabling our president.

I don’t think every person can or will drop every single thing in this list, but look at this list and try to decouple yourself from the companies that are facilitating the harm being done to our country and fight the oligarchy.

Every little bit can make a difference.

How to Leave the U.S.A.

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From The New Yorker:

Nevertheless, “The Family of Migrants” was a reminder that Americans’ growing appetite for expatriation is a historical anomaly. For centuries, tens of millions of impoverished immigrants have settled in the U.S. seeking safety, prosperity, and happiness, transforming the country in indelible, wonderful ways. I came to the U.S. from Switzerland as a student in 2004, and ran the gantlet of visa and green-card applications before naturalizing, in 2022, but I’m not so sure I’d be welcome now. I’m not even sure I’d move here at all.

For no particular reason, I’ve been thinking a lot about the DAFT visa and other potential ways out. This is a great article about what it’s actually like to leave it all behind.

The Fallen Apple

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From Matt Gemmell:

Whatever the nuance, Apple’s old and hard-won reputation just doesn’t ring true now. The company feels like a performance of itself, diverging farther and farther from the original, shuddering with escalating dysfunction, and held together by the sheer, grotesque extent of its indentured income.

Brutal, but fair takedown of what it is like to be an Apple “fan” right now. The hardware is great, the software is generally getting worse, the “services” are getting more entrenched in the ecosystem, and the general cozying up to the government is a huge turn off.

For me, the following things need to happen to help rebuild my hope that I don’t need to reboot my “should I ditch Apple stuff?” blog subgenre:

  • Show small but meaningful progress towards design that is usable. Bring back some whimsy into your brand identity.
  • Find a way to make the developer community happy by making changes that are EU regulator-friendly & dev friendly. This could be commission simplification and reduction, opening up key parts of their OSes, and allowing categories of apps that are currently impossible to build on their platforms.
  • Finding a way to humanize the company better. I know it sounds silly to say “live keynotes will fix everything” but the Apple leadership slinking away to their ivory tower over the past few years has been unfortunate timing.
  • Don’t make it so easy to identify yourself as part of the Oligarchy. I don’t expect a public break from the Trump admin but maybe don’t go to the Meliana movie premiere on the same night that ICE murders someone. Find ways to tactfully distance yourself while still doing right by your shareholders. I get that it’s tough, but what’s happening right now is sleazy.

I want to be optimistic about Apple and feel confident that my investment of time, money, and attention is still worthwhile. But the trend line isn’t encouraging.

Zohran Mamdani’s 5 Lessons for the Democrats

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From Waleed Shahid At Jacobin:

Mamdani’s appeal has little to do with just his youthful vibe. It lies in his answer to two questions the party keeps ducking. Can a Democrat hold attention without turning into a caricature? And once attention is captured, can it be used to make politics legible as a system that changes what people pay and how they live? His method blends traditions that rarely coexist: Bernie Sanders’s moral clarity, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s digital and movement cadence, the “abundance” instinct to build and unblock, the grounded competence of effective executives, and the narrative craft of cultural workers who know how to reach an audience. The point is not style for its own sake. It is persuasion as craft — showing that Democrats can hold the stage on the economy again, speak plainly about power, and still mean what they say.

Great article, but I’ll save you a click:

  1. Start with substance. Frame the problem, then propose how to solve it.
  2. With attention through conflict. Redirect towards your values without shying away from the fight.
  3. Let style serve substance. Be earnest, try to win people over.
  4. Meet Culture With Competence and Conviction. Use politics to show moral clarity without being sucked into the culture wars.
  5. Keep the Loop Small Enough to Echo. Stay on message.

A DSA candidate can’t win everywhere, but his strategy can. I hope Dems pick up the right lessons here.