֎ [536.com] But, soft! What emoji news through yonder computer screen breaks? Apple has announced fall additions to its keyboard that will include a guide dog, an ear with a hearing aid, a person in a wheelchair, a prosthetic arm and a prosthetic leg. There will also be expanded options for the “hand-holding couple” emoji, which will feature 75 different combinations of the hand-holders’ race and gender.

When mariner learned to write, he remembers it being difficult to satisfy his cursive instructor. Not only that, he had to write cursive with his right hand since being left of anything was a reference to evil in the Bible. With Apple’s inclusion of emoji on the keyboard, cursive isn’t the issue; the issue is will anyone remember the alphabet?

– – – –

Tom Friedman was interviewed on The Eleventh Hour with Brian Williams after having been a guest on MSNBC earlier that day with the same message. His message was simple, direct and clearly a choice for the democrats: “Which do the democrats prefer, start a revolution now and accept four more years of Donald or focus on getting rid of Donald, weaken the GOP hold on the Senate and then start a revolution?”

This is the first piece of solid planning mariner has heard and believes it is a good place to go in the democrat’s bid for the presidency. Having two dozen candidates doesn’t help with a solidified front against Donald; it is a serious distraction and doesn’t focus on Donald. Ocasio-Cortez et al may have a legitimate assignment from their electorate and may be historically correct in the long term but there are two phases (1) get rid of Donald and safeguard against the Electoral College (2) clean up Donald’s mess and move toward a modern economy capable of dealing with brand new issues like job creation as AI erases jobs, balancing the US debt versus dysfunctional taxes, climate change and international liaisons that protect against too many dictators.

Ancient Mariner