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paullandry

Professional software engineer; amateur photographer; (Apple)/Mac/iOS guy; partially omniscient, witty, tech geek; hooligan; skeptic; and raconteur.
by Paul on June 29, 2018 at 6:35am | Permalink
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by Paul on January 1, 2018 at 1:01am | Permalink
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Trump’s Latest Loss in Pennsylvania

Republican Judge Matthew W. Brann of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania takes the Trump campaign to task in a scathing opinion issued yesterday:

In this action, the Trump Campaign and the Individual Plaintiffs (collectively, the “Plaintiffs”) seek to discard millions of votes legally cast by Pennsylvanians from all corners – from Greene County to Pike County, and everywhere in between. In other words, Plaintiffs ask this Court to disenfranchise almost seven million voters. This Court has been unable to find any case in which a plaintiff has sought such a drastic remedy in the contest of an election, in terms of the sheer volume of votes asked to be invalidated. One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption, such that this Court would have no option but to regrettably grant the proposed injunctive relief despite the impact it would have on such a large group of citizens.

That has not happened. Instead, this Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported by evidence. In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state. Our people, laws, and institutions demand more. At bottom, Plaintiffs have failed to meet their burden to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. Therefore, I grant Defendants’ motions and dismiss Plaintiffs’ action with prejudice. (emphasis added)

Trump and the Trump campaign talk a good game in the press, but when it comes to actually presenting actual evidence in a court of law in order to rectify their claimed vast, rampant voter fraud, they can’t produce the first shred of evidence that actually passes the laugh test.

Fucking fakers.

by Paul on November 22, 2020 at 9:32am | Permalink
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The Best and Worst of Us

Donald Trump1 is clearly the worst of us — just the worst of humanity. Dolly Parton, of course, is the best of us.

If aliens ever visit the Earth, we can tell them almost everything they need to know about our species by simply pointing to these two individuals, the worst and best of us.

yeah, in a minute…
1 or, Comrade Trumpski as he is better known, or President Loser, as he’s been known for the last couple weeks…
by Paul on November 20, 2020 at 8:32am | Permalink
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Bitching much about face masks?

They’ll likely never admit it, but the people bitching endlessly today about wearing a fucking face mask, and staying home if you don’t need to go out, and keeping your distance, and not gathering in large groups, etc., are the same type of people who would have bitched endlessly about rationing during WWII. And the first is every bit as fucking UN-AMERICAN as the second.

Sometimes in America — not often, but sometimes — we’re just called upon to think of the greater good rather than our own self-interest.

by Paul on November 19, 2020 at 8:15am | Permalink
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Being Non-Racist vs Begin Anti-Racist

Emmanuel Acho in his truly wonderful YouTube series, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man:

Being non-racist is still tolerating racism, but not volunteering yourself as a racist. Being anti-racist is speaking out against racism whenever you see it.
— Emmanuel Acho, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man, E10 with Chelsea Handler @ 10:16.

by Paul on November 18, 2020 at 7:49am | Permalink
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Fitting Bookends for a President Who Often Seems to Live in a Parallel Universe

Jacob Sullum, writing at Reason.com:

Donald Trump began his presidency by asserting, based on “alternative facts,” that he had attracted “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration.” He is ending his presidency by averring that Saturday’s pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C., attracted more than 1 million people. And just as he claimed that he would have won the popular vote in 2016 if it weren’t for “the millions of people who voted illegally,” he is now insisting that the Democrats stole this year’s presidential election by altering “millions of ballots.”

These are fitting bookends for a president who often seems to live in a parallel universe shaped by his ego’s demands. While Trump’s fantasies about massive election fraud may be more consequential than his fictitious crowd numbers, both kinds of misrepresentations reflect his need to twist reality into grotesque but self-flattering shapes. While that tendency is often amusing, it is also more than a little disturbing to anyone who thinks truth should count for something in political debates.

Truth should count for something.

by Paul on November 17, 2020 at 10:27am | Permalink
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How to Upgrade to a New iPhone and AppleWATCH at the Same Time

It doesn’t happen often, but this year I just happened to receive both my new WATCH Series 6 and my new iPhone 12 Pro Max yesterday afternoon — on the same day at the same time.

So, the question becomes which should I upgrade first? Do I pair my new WATCH to my old iPhone and then upgrade the iPhone, or do I upgrade to my new iPhone and then upgrade to my new WATCH?

The answer is, well, kinda both. The only way to backup your WATCH is to unpair it from your iPhone, so what you’ll need to do — in broad strokes — is unpair your WATCH, then backup your iPhone and restore to the new iPhone, then pair your new WATCH to the new iPhone and select “restore” from the pairing options.

There are plenty of great articles online about how to move your WATCH to a new iPhone and what to backup before moving to your new iPhone (see links below, for a few of the artciles I followed), so I won’t repeat that information here, but just a general outline would look like something like this:

  1. Unpair your old WATCH from your old iPhone. This will create a backup of your WATCH on your iPhone.

  2. Backup your old iPhone. Personally, I like to do this step manually using Finder, but there are other options. Make sure you read about how to ensure you don’t lose your photos, messages and other data!

  3. Manually backup any other things from your old iPhone that are critical. This list will vary depending on the apps you’re using, but one thing I’ll specifically point out is 2FA apps. If you are using a 2FA app that does not backup to the cloud, then let me suggest Microsoft Authenticator or Authy.

  4. Setup your new iPhone and transfer the data from your old iPhone to the new iPhone.

  5. Ensure that your new iPhone has all the restored apps and data that it’s supposed to have. Personally, I usually wait 3-5 days before I wipe my old iPhone, just to be on the safe side.

  6. Pair your new WATCH to your new iPhone and restore your backed up WATCH data.

Last but not least, a word of advice: read through all the how-to articles before you start. Please, please, please, make sure you understand all the steps and the order in which to perform them before you start the process.

Good luck!

by Paul on November 14, 2020 at 7:17am | Permalink
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What Would You Say if You Saw It in Another Country?

From the paper of record’s “The Morning” briefing:

Imagine that a president of another country lost an election and refused to concede defeat. Instead, he lied about the vote count. He then filed lawsuits to have ballots thrown out, put pressure on other officials to back him up and used the power of government to prevent a transition of power from starting.

How would you describe this behavior? It’s certainly anti-democratic. It is an attempt to overrule the will of the people, ignore a country’s laws and illegitimately grab political power.

A fair question, to be sure.

President Trump’s efforts will probably fail, but they are unlike anything that living Americans have experienced. “What we have seen in the last week from the president more closely resembles the tactics of the kind of authoritarian leaders we follow,” Michael Abramowitz, the president of Freedom House, which tracks democracy, told The Times. “I never would have imagined seeing something like this in America.”

Indeed.

by Paul on November 12, 2020 at 10:13am | Permalink
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No Evidence of Voter Fraud

From the paper of record’s “The Morning” briefing:

The Times contacted top election officials in every state to ask about illegal voting. Officials in 45 states responded directly. For four of the remaining states, The Times spoke to other statewide officials or found public comments from secretaries of state. None said they had found evidence of any substantial fraud.

Of particular note here is that the majority of state Secretaries of State are Republican.

by Paul on November 11, 2020 at 7:50am | Permalink
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Libertarians Who Opposed Trump

Elizabeth Nolan Brown writing the Reason Roundup:

Libertarians who were less than 100 percent psyched about a Trump win this year have been taking gruff from some right-of-center types, who suggest anyone who didn’t help secure Trump a second term must intrinsically support Biden, or at least has no right to complain about anything Biden does.

But libertarians who opposed Trump did so precisely because he deviated from limited government and classical principles in significant ways, whether we’re talking free markets, free expression and other civil liberties, or foreign policy. Refusing to vote for Trump wasn’t a vote for big, overzealous, and unaccountable government; it was a vote against Trump’s version of it.

Precisely. As I’ve said numerous times before, Comrade Trumpski is not a conservative — he’s a lifelong Democrat, and with the exception of appointing conservative judges, he has governed just like the lifelong Democrat he is: trillion dollar deficits, trade wars, expanding the federal government, and he’s certainly no friend to individual freedom.

Few libertarians harbor any delusions that a Biden administration will be good for liberty and limited government. Everyone knows we’ll have our work cut out for us as watchdogs and non-partisan analysts of government shenanigans—undoubtedly more than during the past four years. A lot of journalists eager to point out Trump’s flaws and question federal law enforcement authorities during his tenure will, under Biden, suddenly rediscover the joys of regurgitating government press releases and calling it a day. A lot of people will assume good motives, and will assume that a good motive means good policy.

It’s going to be…well, basically, the Obama years all over again. Which won’t be very pleasant, but also won’t be new. This is a thing we recognize. This is a thing we know how to fight.

Indeed.

by Paul on November 9, 2020 at 12:24pm | Permalink
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On President-Elect Joe Biden’s Address to the Nation

I have to say that as an actual Conservative1, I disagree with Joe Biden more than I agree with him2. But I also have to acknowlege this:

Last night, I watched a President-Elect address the nation. He spoke in coherent, cogent, complete sentences. He spoke of his vision for the nation, and did so without lying, without attacking anyone, without insulting anyone, and without making it all about himself.

And I almost started crying.

Thank you Joe Biden.

yeah, in a minute…
1 For more on “actual Conservatism”, see what I’ve written before.

2 Of course, as an actual Conservative, I disagreed with Trump more than I agreed with him, as well.

by Paul on November 8, 2020 at 6:31am | Permalink
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