If you want to pay for audiobooks, Libro.FM is a DRM free alternative that allows you to easily download your books without any issues that Libation solves for. It also supports local bookstores in your community while not giving more to Amazon. Only a handful of books aren’t available on Libro but it’s been a seamless transition for us. It’s only going to be difficult if you’re one of those folks who returns/refunds audible credits regularly as it’s not easy to do with Libro.
I mean, words could be said about Kyrsten Sinema but I think this is far more appropriate of a summary of her time as a politician…
I read this article earlier in the week about how Biden’s policy on the Israel-Gaza war may hand the election to Trump, and the last sentence has really stuck with me.
The president’s aides have reportedly been “keeping him in a bubble” regarding voters’ unhappiness with his Israel-Gaza policy. If this Michigan result isn’t what bursts it, then they need to step in and do it themselves.
While phrased in the context of this specific policy, it’s this political bubble in Washington DC that needs to pop. I’m astonished at how close this election is. We all know what Trump’s about. We’ve seen this before. Joe Biden cannot seem to get out of the way by either stepping down or pretending to be the communist antifa leader the right will paint him as anyway to securing a victory for anyone NOT Trump. Instead he’s content to let us slide into a second Trump Presidency.
I have believed since 2015/2016 that literally anyone else against Hillary or anyone else against Trump would have won in a landslide. No one really liked the candidates. Trump appealed to voters because he promised to go to Washington and stick a thumb in the eye of the establishment. It wasn’t Russian interference. The populist message has always done so well regardless of political party because we all see how broken the system is and candidates like Obama, Sanders, and even Trump capitalize on that message to win hearts and minds. Whether or not they actually follow through is secondary (sadly). At this point no one buys that Joe Biden is a “man of the people” regardless of how many Amtrak trains he rides.
But then we’re left with even comments here arguing “Trump would be worse” with the implication being “Biden is bad, Trump would be worse”. And I get it. This well and truly sucks that it looks like we’re going to have two of the oldest Presidential candidates fighting it out yet again from the major parties. I’m fortunate enough to live somewhere that won’t ever go for Trump, so I can vote my conscience instead of having to pick the least bad option. Others can’t make that call though.
All that to say it’s all frankly exhausting and terrible. I think everyone has to decide for themselves how existential of a threat Trump is and vote accordingly. I’m open to the argument that Democrats at least have some amount of shame and can bow to pressure. The conflict in Israel-Gaza is going to be a real test of how they pivot and actually meet the voters where they are.
Shitty, because we’re potty training.
Luckily the kiddo is doing better more than not, but we’re having issues with daycare. They said they would “follow our lead” on what we’re doing, how we want to approach this, etc…but the reality is not that. And I get it, they have 15 kids to manage and you can’t have someone pooping their pants and not telling them about it, it’s more just our own frustration that the teachers/admin said one thing and we’re seeing another (and never sat down to map some of this out). A lot of our frustration would have been solved if they said how they do things and we could adjust to their style. This is really the first time we’ve been disappointed in our daycare, it’s been fantastic otherwise ever since we started with them.
Plus the poor kid fell in the toilet at school last week because they were playing too much/not paying attention (not at all shocking to me TBH) and has been terrified of the school toilet ever since. The upside is at home over the last weekend, we’re calling it one and a half accidents in 2 days, with several longer outings/trips in there.
In non-bathroom news, work slogs on, child #2 is shockingly imminent for us, and I’m mad at my wife for introducing me to The Traitors because I’ve had a blast watching it and I’m not usually a reality tv person.
The best part of it too was for Wi-Fi calling, if it was off, couldn’t be turned on since it relied on AT&T’s website/capabilities to approve and authenticate. That was at least my experience as well as my family’s.
So if you hadn’t already enabled it before the outage, you literally couldn’t turn it on.
I thought this article from Vox did a good job laying out how it could fall in Trump’s favor.
Taking Trump out of the equation for a moment, I do find resonance with the argument that a state shouldn’t be able to disqualify someone from a national election and that a decision like that should sit at the federal level. I’ll also echo circularfish in that I don’t trust Republican states to fairly apply this standard. It seems like something Democrat-controlled states might do because they believe in rules/institutions so they’ll only do it when pressured, if even then. Republican-controlled states will do to score points on Fox/OAN against anyone from Joe Manchin and leftwards on the political spectrum.
100%. And going down that path you can start to enter into the whole “OK, so all companies are bad or do bad things, but I also need to be a functioning member of society.”
I can hate what Shell/Marathon/BP are doing to the environment but I also need to make sure my car gets me to work. Google or Apple can enact terrible policies I disagree with but generally speaking I have to deal with them to have a cell phone. Easier when we’re discussing a piece of artwork (not a core need in life) but it’s where my comment about a system that incentivizes “bad people” really came from.
So I think my moral philosophy is actually closest to show The Good Place now that I see it written out!
First off, the kagi news is a bummer. I’ve really liked it and picked up a subscription mostly because of some buzz I saw around here, but seeing this news is really a bummer and setting up some red flags in my mind.
But to answer your question, I think I personally have a couple ways I approach this…
If the evidence someone is transphobic, racist, etc…is from a long time ago (eg someone is digging up ancient tweets to prove someone is some sort of “-ist” today), I tend to give them more grace because people should be allowed to change. I know I didn’t have great views on some of this stuff when I was younger and it’s easy to forget these celebrities/people in power are fallible human beings. I’ll take their response to unearthing these views as a sign of whether or not they’re worth supporting going forward. If they’re regretful and seem like they’re trying to do better, I’m good. The kagi creator seems to not pass this standard for me.
If it’s something I want to use/consume and it could impact more than just the individual. JK Rowling is a good example of this. I’d struggle to want to buy any of her books again because I see a clearer line of sight from my purchase to her pocket. But something like Hogwarts Legacy, which I knew I would enjoy and my wife would love, and is made by many people with a passion for her world, I’m OK with it. The line to Rowling is a lot blurrier and impacts people who don’t have a say in what project(s) they work on.
It’s also easier to ignore or skip smaller scale things like an indie game from a deplorable developer vs. the next Marvel/HP/insert your beloved franchise game from someone equally deplorable. None of this is ever perfect and time and attention are finite resources for all of us. If Harry Potter is how you need to unwind because it’s your favorite thing, more power to you. It’s not my job nor anyone else’s to police the things you like or make you feel bad for liking them.
We should all do our best to try and support good people in a system that incentivizes bad people and give ourselves some grace when we (seemingly inevitably these days) find out those people were actually scum.
We’re deep into second kiddo territory (6 weeks) and I think I’m just feeling a bit burned out. The jump from zero to one child is HUGE and there was a lot of mourning the loss of our freedom/life for both my wife and I. We’re feeling the same dip now that we’re back into dealing with a newborn ~2 years later and while not as severe, I can tell for myself it’s there and bothering me. I’ve also been back to work the last three weeks so my schedule is basically go to work (from home) all day, take the baby most of the evening while we chase a 2 year old around, get the 2 year old to bed, then hand off the new kiddo around 8:30 - 9 so I can go to bed and I get them back somewhere around 10-11 depending on the last bottle for the rest of the night. Both kids have been good sleepers (thank god) but I’m still getting woken up somewhere around 3am for that middle of the night bottle.
No time for really much else. I know intuitively it will get better because I saw it happen before, it’s just rough right now. No time for the mrs, hobbies, friends, etc…and I think we were figuring it out with number one really well. Just all hitting me the last few days.
Luckily both kids are freaking adorable and the older one is overflowing with personality as they’re learning, saying, repeating more and more from daycare. It’s been awesome to see them just explode in their development. I also understand now why some parents would have leashes for their toddlers.