Ken's Blog

I enjoyed watching the testimony by Jack Smith about the attempt by you-know-who to subvert our democratic process in 2024. Smith was consistently clear, articulate and measured, and utterly unfazed by the clown show being put on by the Republicans on the committee.

It is clear that Smith is a patriot, fearlessly standing up to charlatans in his defense of our democratic process. But what the heck was going on with those Republicans?

They didn’t dare question the veracity of Smith’s account, since they knew it was all verifiably true. Instead they resorted to hurling third grade insults at him, and defending 47 by clinging to the farfetched theory that the poor boy didn’t actually know that he had lost.

In service of truth and honest representation, shouldn’t Jim Jordan (representative from Ohio) have been wearing clown make-up? That would have been consistent with his agenda during that hearing: Trying desperately to distract from the clear evidence of crimes against our nation by putting on a clown show.

The contrast between two speeches this week at the world economic summit in Davos was remarkable.

The speech by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney might very well be the best political speech that anyone has given in the 21st century. And it wasn’t written by staff — he wrote the whole thing himself, which is quite unusual for a major political speech.

But don’t take my word for it. Check it out for yourself.

Then there was that other speech, by the weird little child. It was idiotic, it was rambling, it was deeply embarrassing all around.

I will spare you the agony of watching it. To the extent that any of it was comprehensible, here’s the main take-away: He really, really wants the U.S. to take over Iceland.

Despite the confusion around by Mercator projection for people who never learned how maps work, the actual number of square miles of inhabitable land in Greenland is just about the same as the number of square miles in the state of California.

Maybe there could be o aone-for-one swap. If you-know-who gets Greenland, maybe Norway could get California.

I’m sure the good people of California would love to be part of a country that doesn’t send around masked goons to terrorize its own citizens. Wait — there’s a word for a country like that. What is that word…

Oh right — “civilized”.

Today we Americans celebrate one of our greatest heroes, Martin Luther King Jr. MLK was everything an American should be — courageous, compassionate, and deeply spiritual. He was also willing to put his own life on the line in the pursuit of justice and decency.

I see a reflection of that courage in the good people of Minneapolis. Very few people continue to believe the excuse given by the despicable monsters invading our country — led by the despicable monster in the White House — that they are protecting Americans by expelling illegal immigrants.

Their actions reveal their true intentions. Masked and armed goons are rounding up American citizens, sometimes dragging those citizens out into the freezing Minnesota winter without even having the decency to let them put on an overcoat.

As we’ve all realized by now, this has nothing to do “illegal immigration”. This is a deliberate unprovoked attack on American citizens, and the point seems to be to demonstrate that this administration is fully capable of a fascist takeover of our democracy.

But brave and patriotic Americans are fighting back, and despite the hysterical falsehoods from this rogue administration, they are doing it calmly, peacefully, and with deliberate intent. Despite the clear risk to their own lives, they are braving the cold and the tear gas and the bullets to help their neighbors.

I suspect the criminals who are behind this campaign of terror thought that the killing of Renee Good would be a deterrent to resistance. After all, if the government can get away with killing a white 37 year old devoutly Christian mother of three, then nobody is safe.

But Minnesotans have absorbed that message and have responded by continuing, with courage and with dignity, to stand up for freedom and for American values. Martin Luther King would have been proud.

Today, in anticipation of Martin Luther King Day, I went back and thoroughly reread Dr. King’s I’ve Been to the Mountaintop speech — the very last speech he ever gave, on the day before he was assassinated.

It’s a beautiful speech, both powerful and intelligent. It is the speech of a man who seems to know that he may not be alive for much longer, yet who finds peace in knowing that he has been able to make the world a better place during the time he was given.

It’s a speech that would not be understood by the idiot criminal in Washington, because it is deeply spiritual, and because it speaks to our shared humanity. Reading it reminded me what we are fighting for right now.

Make no mistake about it, America is under attack. Those of us who believe in freedom and human dignity — and there are many of us — need to push back forcefully against our nation’s enemies, especially when those enemies have taken up residence in the White House.

Dr. King’s beautiful words and ideas are powerful tools in that struggle. If your love this country, I know that his words will resonate with you as well.

Suppose a little kid wants another little kid’s bike, and thinks he can just take it. His mom points out that you can’t just take other peoples’s stuff.

“But I want it Mommy!” the kid screams, “Jimmy’s bike should be mine!!!!”

Our brat knows he also needs some leverage. So he adds “If you don’t give me Jimmy’s bike, I’m going to hold my breath until I turn blue!”

Clearly he is confident that his threat of self-harm will win the day. But that doesn’t mean he will end up getting what he wants.

This is pretty much what we are currently witnessing on the world stage. Our bratty president really, really wants Greenland. The fact that it already belongs to another sovereign nation doesn’t seem to bother him.

“But I want it Mommy!” you can almost him him screaming “Denmark’s territory should be mine!!!”

Our president knows he also needs some leverage. So he adds “If you don’t give me Greenland, I’m going to impose a 10% additional tariff on goods from Europe!”

Now as we all know, a tariff on goods from Europe is actually a tax on American consumers. We’re the ones who end up paying that 10%. In effect, the president is trying to force Europe to give up territory by threatening self-harm.

Clearly he is confident that his threat of self-harm will win the day. But that doesn’t mean he will end up getting what he wants.

If our president were capable of listening to reason, I would tell him “Don’t hold your breath.”

Today a colleague was telling me about his sometimes frustrating experiences trying to explain his technology product to various customers. It turns out that certain kinds of customers are less “tech-friendly” than others.

“But do you want to know which ones are the worst?” he said, “Doctors!”

He suddenly looked very intense. “Doctors,” he said, “have no patience.”

I couldn’t let that one go. “You realize how that sounds, don’t you?”

There was a moment’s pause. Then he realized what he had just said, and we both started laughing.

The killing of Renee Good might just be the incident that pushes our country into martial law. Here’s why.

There will always be True Believers who will accept anything our president says. If he says “the sky is green,” they will wake up in the morning admiring the fine emerald color overhead.

But those True Believers are not even close to a majority. Republicans won in 2024 largely because the undecideds — a much more significant voting bloc — felt betrayed when they learned about Biden’s condition.

When the president blames Good for what happened to her, and calls her a radical left domestic terrorist, nobody but the green sky people believe him. After all, we all saw the videos, and every video clearly shows Good turning her car away to avoid running into the man who then shot her in the head.

Unlike the green sky people, undecideds who voted Republican in 2024 are quite aware that they are being lied to about Good. And nobody likes being played for a fool.

So Republicans are likely to lose the voting bloc of the undecideds, and therefore the 2026 midterms.

And there is one surefire recipe to keep that from happening: Keep sending armed thugs with masks into cities, have them kill some middle class white Americans, then blame the dead victims. Stir and repeat.

Before you know it, you’ve got an angry citizen uprising on your hands. Et voila! The perfect excuse to declare martial law.

I recently read about a high end induction stove technology. It looks just like a regular countertop.

But when you put the right kind of cookware on it, the cookware automatically heats up. As soon as you take your pot or pan off the surface, the smart surface cools down.

Little glowing lights are embedded in the surface, so you know when its operating. Other than that, it’s just like any other part of your countertop. No need to worry about spills, and no crevices for crumbs to get stuck inside.

As technology advances, it would be interesting to generalize this idea.

Maybe if you put down a different kind of vessel, the same surface would be smart enough to cool down or even freeze. Your refrigerator or toaster would just be different kinds of containers on your countertop.

A little further in the future, hard benches by day could turn into soft beds at night. The smart surface would detect when a person is lying on it, and adjust itself accordingly. It would also recognize who is sleeping, and adjust its firmness to their preference.

In the long run we will no longer need garbage disposals. Just drop your egg shells or orange peels on the kitchen counter, where they will be quietly absorbed and disposed of.

We might want to draw the line at toilets. Not because smart surfaces would have a problem with that, but because we might.

This letter is just so brilliant and completely on target.

Fighting fascists is never easy. But being intelligent helps.