Charging adapter I paid extra to get here before our road trip—which starts this morning—still hasn’t arrived. Will it sneak in under the deadline? Or will we have slow-charge anxiety on the middle third of our trip? Stay tuned.

I want to express my deep gratitude for Joe Biden. I had no doubt he would be a good president. I was pleasantly surprised that he is a great president. I am an independent (but not a centrist). And I have deep respect for the decision he made today. Not because he stepped aside and endorsed his running mate for president. I would have happily voted for Joe. I’ve said before that Joe in a coma would be a better president than Trump on his best day. I will happily vote for Kamala Harris, even though I did not vote for her when she ran for president previously. She is sharp, capable, and classy; this is self-evident.

I am deeply grateful for Joe’s service to our nation. Today, he came to believe that Kamala had a better chance at being the next president than he himself had. The courage to hand the baton to Kamala shows the type of man he is. He is stepping away from the job he’s always wanted, and that happens to be an office that gives one human the most power in the world. The courage and strength that takes is laudable. It’s the definition of selfless patriotism. The Biden family has given so much to this country, and today they’ve given even more.

Thank you, Joe.

Let’s go Kamala

Not a fan of the Tour de France ending with a time trial. I turned it off this morning, in favor of the Hungarian Grand Prix, which did not disappoint. One pleasant surprise was learning that the Tour is still on (due to it being a time trial) and I guess I’ll watch Pogacar finish it out over lunch.

I just finished a book by YouTuber (And Cambridge-educated MD) Ali Abdaal called Feel-good Productivity which I almost didn’t read due to the title. I figured, well, his videos are mostly excellent and thoughtful, and I can borrow it via Libby, so there’s no risk. I’m glad I did. (I read it on my Kobo Libra 2 which has Overdrive built right in for borrowing from your local library)

The book reads not as self-help, but more like pop-sci citing dozens of interesting studies to back up much of the most useful stuff I’ve read over the years on how to beat procrastination and get more of the meaningful stuff done. Further, he doesn’t present it as a magic formula for you to follow to the T, but rather a menu of selections you can choose to test against your own needs. I’m going to buy a copy from my local bookseller to keep around the house in hopes my kids might read some of it.

One plus is, after having watched a few hours of his videos over the past year, I could read it in my head entirely in his calm and affable British accent. Here’s his book launch announcement, if you want more background or just want to hear his voice.

The moment ends, but I feel winds…

Finally decided to actually delete Twitter from my phone. It had only been for following links for maybe the last year with an occasional look at my weather list. But after the latest EM non-sense ($45M/mo to DJT, all companies to TX), I just had to reduce their installed base by one.

I came here to post a cute question about why people love dragonflies and hate other insects… but then I read about the DJT-appointed judge letting him off and got some other bad news from a friend and now I’m just in a rotten mood.

What was so bad with the word “request” that people had to turn “ask” into a noun?

Southgate gets a lot of crap as England manager, but he’s got England in their second Euro Championship Final in a row. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

This is why people think companies are using AI stupidly. (Or hate AI altogether.)

My newest stance on Biden’s age and health: If the party wants him to step down, Nancy Pelosi (83), Jim Clyburn (83), and Chuck Schumer (73) should all say they too will resign, to show how serious they see the situation on age and capability within the party.

Congrats to our French brothers and sisters for holding of a right wing extremist take over of their democracy.

Tomorrow morning my 15 year old starts Drivers Ed. I figured he could use a little practical experience before to help abstract concepts seem more real. So I had him drive me to the end of the driveway. And then he backed back down. And then he wanted to go again. So we did it twice.

We did not exceed 3MPH. As I was explaining things to him—he is not into cars like I was at his age—I came to realize driving an EV is a lot simpler than a gas car. So first time I get him in the vehicle he’s likely to drive most, I’m going to have to explain a whole ‘nother level of stuff like “when you take your foot off the brake your car typically takes off on its own before you ever press the accelerator.”

Love that the TdF added gravel this year. It’s driving me a little crazy that Bobke keeps calling the sectors “cobbles”—vocal muscle memory?

I’d like to participate in political polls, but I don’t trust anyone who texts me from an unknown number. I’m already on too many political email lists I didn’t sign up for. Makes me question all polling numbers. Who is responding to these texts that look like spam? Do people who answer lean MAGA?

I always find these types of things fun to go through. The URL speaks for itself. https://fediverse.observer/map — I especially enjoy checking out the nodes in the more remote places. Thanks to @trisweb@m.trisweb.com for sharing it.

Changing settings left’n’right on Microdotblog today. If you’re reading this from Mastodon and my account suddenly vanishes in the next couple days, it’s because I started using my briandigtal.com domain as my user name… I haven’t figured it out fully just yet, so I’m unsure if you’ll even see this.

One of the things I love in July is waking up and putting the Tour de France on. I haven’t been able to watch it live until today. Unfortunately since NBC shut down NBC Sports, the race is no longer broadcast fully on TV in the US. Apparently only a couple stages will be broadcast on NBC this year. For years now, NBC has been funneling cycling fans to streaming to watch a sport that doesn’t fit with American sports TV norms.

Yesterday, I missed Mark Cavendish capturing the record for most TdF stage wins all time, and even Eddy Merckx himself said “Such a nice guy to break my record”. Of course Merckx himself is not diminished by this at all. The sport has changed a lot since his time. Nowadays an outstanding sprint specialist can achieve such a stage win record, while Merckx is know as the greatest all-around rider, winning many full races. This is not to speak ill of Cavendish.

I was digging through my Apple Notes looking for something else, and stumbled into this, in a folder I labeled “Journal” which appears to be a one-entry attempt, while on vacation with my family. Below I’ve pasted the entry in full.

Thoughts 2020 Aug 1

Williams Pond, Bucksport, Maine

There are no great men. Only great deeds. A man should be measured by his deeds.

There are no great nations. Nations may do great things. They should be judged by both the balance of the deeds, but also by the recency of their last great deed.

There are no great religions or mythology. There are only great morals, lessons, stories.

What’s the largest vessel that can be considered great? A novel? A song?

--*

FWIW, I also only logged one entry into Apple’s Journal app for iPhone, as well. I’ve never been able to pick up the habit.

It’s been several days since the Joe Biden debate debacle. A couple of new crises— aggressive glare in the direction of the Supreme Court of the United States —have even surfaced since. News cycles never seem to slow down. I have been chewing on my reaction to the debate performance.

My current bottom line: anyone who understands what’s going on in the world, even loosely is voting for team and not candidate. No debate will change that. The only people who matter right now are “low-information” undecided, likely voters. Whatever they believe will determine the path forward for our country in this existential election.

Franklin D. Roosevelt is regarded as one of the most successful US Presidents. FDR was in office in a wheelchair for all terms of his presidency, and was in the final days of his life at the end of World War II while in office. The Germans actually surrendered during FDR’s 30-day mourning period. The US government continued to succeed during its most trying periods under his watch, and later the watch of his Vice President Harry Truman.

Joe has been one of the most successful presidents of the modern era. Joe can handle it, and if he can’t, there’s literally a line of succession. The government will be fine. The country will continue to work. There is no world in which an even moderately informed voter who is likely to vote for Biden will instead vote for Trump because they fear for Biden’s health.

It’s the low-information voter whose judgement I fear the most; the both-sidesism people (“They’re all bad!”).

Another scary angle is people who vote for opposite parties for president and congress. A GOP-blocked Congress can do a lot to hem in Biden, because Biden adheres to norms. A Trump presidency with a Democratic-led Congress can do a lot more damage by appointing more SCOTUS justices, and appointing cabinet members who will be tasked with dismantling the departments they head to “give power back to the states”.

Basically, if Trump wins, we no longer need alternative-history fiction to imagine what would have happened if the Confederacy won. We’ll see it in action. Except since it’s not 1865, the US is now the dominant world superpower with nuclear weapons… and “rivals” who also possess such weapons.

How did we get here? Two things coming to confluence at the same time.

Conservatives have been marching in this direction since the 70s. Since the GOP knows demographically they are unlikely to ever again be able to be legitimately voted to power on their policies, they must gerrymander and use other underhanded tactics to retain any power. I genuinely wonder if they will ever again win the popular vote for President? Seeing power slipping, they have surrendered all hope to the momentum of the alt-right, conspiracies, and a cult of personality around a known con-man that has no moral convictions(1) himself, and will tell them anything they want to hear in order to achieve or retain power. He will in turn be their strong man to set up a regime that cannot be overturned at the ballot box. He already made the crucial first step of capturing the Supreme Court, and freeing them to make decisions based on their political beliefs, and not following the traditions of American law.

(1) He does, however, have dozens of felony convictions.

Both parties are under the grip of leaders who are too old, and have not relinquished power early enough to allow the next generations leadership experience. Therefore regardless of which team is your team, the only people with a legitimate path to major party nomination for president are those who have been playing the longest.

This same mindset is what kept Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the bench until her death, allowing DJT to replace her with a right-wing sycophant. Younger generations need the opportunity to experience leadership by doing. Because they have not had that opportunity, there are no legitimate alternatives to Joe Biden in the Democratic Party.

Choices at the ballot box would not be a problem if we implemented Rank Choice Voting for Congressional and Presidential elections as they do in Maine.

US Soccer (USMNT) has more talent than ever. Is it Berhalter? I’m not sure it’s his fault? 2026 is going to be here before we know it.😔

After today’s Supreme Court ruling, the majority should be indicted as Trump’s co-conspirators after the fact.

Biden needs a Supreme Court reform strategy now.

Always proud to support my ancestors’ football team, but my Danes had a tough draw trying to knock off the hosts Germany today at The Euros. The VAR gods didn’t need to pile on as well.⚽️🇩🇰

Typically if I am not doing my “day job”, I am not using a desktop (laptop). My personal Mac was from 2017 and in need of an update, so I bought a new M3 MacBook Air 13”, which arrived (days early) Wednesday. I’ve spent much of today noodling with it—still on the charge that shipped in the box.