Author: Mark Alexander

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Geek Stuff

So I Had to Send My AirPods in For Repair.

The left bud was hissing whenever I had it on noise canceling or transparency, so after a 15 minute chat with an online Apple “Have you tried resetting them?” representative, said rep  agreed that even though they were out of warranty, repairs were covered under some extended program and they needed to be sent in.

I was a little hesitant because I didn’t want to be without them for however long it was going to take, and quite frankly I wondered if I could just live with the situation until the AirPods Pro 2  came out in a few months which we all know I’ll be grabbing up the moment they’re available.

When the postage-paid return box arrived two days later however, I threw any misgivings I had to the wind, packed them up and sent them on their way.

I got a the next day that “Mark’s AirPods Pro have been left behind.”  I’d completely forgotten I had that enabled, but also thought the feature was supposed to work in a much more timely fashion. But whatever.

I clicked their location in the Find My app.

They were already at the repair facility in California.

The next day I got an email informing me that they had been repaired and had been shipped out.

I checked the location again, and they were still at the same facility.

The following day I got notice that they’d been delivered to our PO Box, so I checked the location again.

It turns out they just replaced both buds outright; the old ones were in California waiting for their ultimate disposition.

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The Real Threat to Democracy Is Not The Big Lie

From Wil Wheaton:

The real threat to democracy is not the Big Lie. It’s something worse.

This is not to suggest that election denialism or conspiracy theories are not dangerous; they are, of course. But the House January 6th Committee has reminded us of something important: The whole Big Lie thing is ludicrous, risible, inane bullshit. It is an entire political belief system based on demented theories about Italian satellites, Venezuelan voting machines, and the hallucinations of Mike Lindell.

But that’s not the point.

You may have noticed how the various claims from Rudy/Dinesh/[Insert name of insane Republican] are ever-shifting. A bogus charge is made, it is debunked, and it is quickly replaced with the next fabrication, and so on. It’s an endless morphing chain of guano-soaked nonsense. But despite the parade of absurdities, no factual refutation ever seems to stick.

Why? Because the lies don’t matter. Only the outcome counts.

In other words, millions of Americans don’t necessarily believe something crazy and bogus. They believe something much worse.

The Big Lie is the pretext for the refusal to accept the peaceful transfer of power to political opponents who are seen as evil and dangerous.

Forget about the dropboxes, mules, and rigged voting machines; nobody really cares about the votes or the counting of votes. It’s not about that; it’s about winning — or to be more precise, defeating the enemy.

A subtext of right-wing politics now is that the other side simply cannot be allowed to win. They hate America, they hate God, and they will destroy everything you hold dear.

It’s the Flight 93 election forever. It’s Jan. 6th … forever.

The Big Lie Is Just the Pretext – by Charlie Sykes

You may have noticed how the various claims from Rudy/Dinesh/[Insert name of insane Republican] are ever-shifting. A bogus charge is made, it is debunked, and it is quickly replaced with the next fabrication, and so on. It’s an endless morphing chain of guano-soaked nonsense. But despite the parade of absurdities, no factual refutation ever seems to stick.

Why? Because the lies don’t matter. Only the outcome counts.

In other words, millions of Americans don’t necessarily believe something crazy and bogus. They believe something much worse.

The Big Lie is the pretext for the refusal to accept the peaceful transfer of power to political opponents who are seen as evil and dangerous

(Source: morningshots.thebulwark.com)

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“The meek shall inherit the earth. The rest of us are going to the stars.”

~ Peter H. Diamandis

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