Author / Justin

Posts by Justin

Justin spends most of his day angrily screaming at the world from his office window.
by Justin

A letter to Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb

We’re barely treading water in net migration. Let’s be honest: most people don’t want to live in Indiana.

Governor Holcomb,

Everyone said when Mike Pence began his term as Governor he had some huge shoes to fill left by Mitch Daniels. I think that was true, but I also believe you have an even bigger set of shoes to don now that Mr. Pence has left the State House.

I appreciate your work so far as Governor. We’ve met on a couple of occasions, once in your office (I was there to take photos at an event). For the first time in a while, Hoosiers think the state the is on the right track. I’m here to implore you to take your work to the next level so Indiana can leapfrog competing states.

We know from the Indiana Chamber, among others, that Indiana’s universities are powerhouses in STEM fields. Indiana’s high school graduation rate is nation-leading. Our logistics and agriculture businesses are firing on all cylinders. Tech is flourishing at a rapid pace in Indianapolis. But we also know that migration isn’t increasing. We’re barely treading water in net migration. Let’s be honest: most people don’t want to live in Indiana.

That might be because of work or family obligations elsewhere. But we know from places like Hamilton County and Kokomo that jobs follow people, not necessarily the other way around.

Let’s be honest about another point: Americans across the country think poorly of Indiana. People think Hoosiers are friendly, but not very bright. People believe that we’re too religious to a fault, too socially conservative, and incapable of being open to new ideas and societal changes.

Does everyone believe that? Of course not. Is this all a bad thing? Not necessarily. Does it matter what other people think of us? Maybe not, but net migration is significant. I think you get my point: Indiana has a severe image problem. Our brand is tarnished. People are voting with their feet and leaving for elsewhere.

If Indiana’s goal is to attract a new, modern, educated workforce, it starts with you. If we do a quick market analysis we’ll find there’s a niche not being filled by any state: “Affordable, but progressive.”

I’m not talking progressive politics in taxation or regulation. That would undo the “affordable” part, wouldn’t it? Indiana, under your leadership, can be the nation’s leader in affordability and be noticed for being truly socially welcoming, free, and contemporary. Colorado almost had this clinched, and that’s worked well for them, but their affordability is getting out of hand.

Indiana can embrace LGBT rights, responsible marijuana and alcohol laws, urbanism in its cities and towns, technology, parks, place-making, and so much more to make communities great places to live. There has to be more than just being a place to work. Like Governor Daniels said, “We have to build the best sandbox in the country.” We’ve built the sandbox, but there aren’t many sand castles yet.

Some work will require legislation. Others are simpler, like seeing you at next year’s Indy Pride festival. Your remarks on Indiana’s alcohol laws are promising, but we can’t be seen playing catch-up from a century of lousy laws.

We don’t have the best weather or significant natural landmarks like mountains or many beaches. But there’s no reason Indiana can’t have the cultural and inspirational leadership of Washington or New York and the affordability and business climate to compete with Texas. It’s a differentiation no one else is making. Will it make some people here uncomfortable? You bet. Will it be better for Indiana in 20 years? Absolutely.

I think you know that. You can set that tone for everyone to see and recognize. The House and Senate trust you, and so do most Hoosiers, to lead Indiana’s brand to the next level.

Sincerely,

 

 

Justin Harter, Indianapolis

by Justin

Fixing Windows Hello PINs not working after a BIOS update

This weekend I updated my Lenovo Yoga Book’s BIOS to fix some sleep issues with the device.

This weekend I updated my Lenovo Yoga Book’s BIOS to fix some sleep issues with the device. This BIOS update came through Lenovo’s website, along with some driver updates, and not through Windows Update.

After I updated I realized two things about changing the BIOS out from under Windows 10:

  1. Bitlocker will lock your device on reboot because it thinks something deep within the hardware has changed, and that is true. Make sure you have a Bitlocker key handy. This can be generated from the Settings or is tied into your Microsoft Account (so you can access it via a phone or another device). You can get that here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=237614
  2. The Windows Hello PIN won’t work anymore. Try as I might, I kept getting an error with no error code identifiable online. Removing and re-adding the PIN threw me into a “Something went wrong” loop.

The solution to this was pretty easy and I’m writing it here to help anyone else in the future:

  1. Go to Settings > Accounts > Switch my account to a local account. Don’t worry, it won’t delete anything or change much.
  2. Go back and select “Sign in with a Microsoft Account” again. This switch from online to local or local to online and back again flips whatever’s needed in the security key and PIN settings to clear it up.

Once I did that it worked great. And the BIOS update from Lenovo is about two versions ahead of what’s in Windows Update. It fixes Yoga Book sleep issues where it requires a force reboot to load after hibernating. WiFi driver helps speed it up, too.

by Justin

There is no party for the modern Millennial

Urban or rural, it doesn’t matter, because the parties have distorted themselves in positions they refuse to back down from that no one cares about.

The Washington Post has this story about shifting political attitudes in parties, especially under 30’s. Like I wrote earlier, this sort of stuff happens as the country changes and the parties are slow to adapt. Often the other is the beneficiary, but sometimes, like now, neither party wins all the spoils.

If I had to plot my political attitudes on a graph I’m not sure I could do it. If I did, it’d come out as what we’d currently describe as an “Independent”, and I have a voting record that would back that up. I’ve voted for Republicans, Democrats, and Libertarian candidates in a lot of races.

The thing that bothers me about the whole experience is I want to feel comfortable in a party. I’ve bounced between a few party meetups and meetings, and I never understand it. Like I’ve told some close friends, “Belonging to a party today seems like a mental illness.” It’s about the feelings and not about the policy or ideas. We’re short on ideas that extend beyond “The government can do that” and “The market can do that.”

I’m heavily conflicted in a variety of ways. I’m a supporter of property rights (this goes for your body), the enforcement of those rights, and the ability for people to do with their bodies and property as they wish. But then my neighbor doesn’t clean up his lawn and it drives me nuts. Or someone smokes in front of me on the sidewalk and it blows in my face. That pisses me off.

I’m a supporter of people’s ability to further themselves and do at least 90% of the work to improve their lot in life themselves. I don’t think it’s entirely 100% within a person’s control. The government can help, it can get in the way, and does so frequently. Licensing is a good example – I see no reason why hairdressers need a license. That’s protectionism of a favored industry. But I can’t shake the fact that some people are just not wired to be able to help themselves – able-bodied or not – and something has to be done for them.

I have spent years watching Democrats run towards identity politics and be hypocritical of the most bizarre things (“Listen to scientists on global warming! Don’t listen to scientists on GMOs!”). I’ve spent years watching Republicans become the party of anti-conservatism, big-budget-busting wars and spending, and a bizarre religious infatuation that defies human decency and logic. The Libertarians are just jumping up and down trying to get noticed and still spend all their time complaining the system is rigged and how everything would be better if we just did nothing. When I ask for policy ideas, everyone comes up dry on everything. Fair or not, real or not, I’m not interested in any of that and can’t possibly put my name on such an entity.

There is no party for the modern Millennial. Urban or rural, it doesn’t matter, because the parties have distorted themselves in positions they refuse to back down from. They’re in positions of defending things no one cares about, harms others maliciously, or benefits a select special interest. A fear of being wrong, a fear of conserving but still intelligently using natural resources, a fear of bizarre social issues, an inability to do no harm and not push religious and character views, a fear of research and science, a lack of curiosity, it’s all boneheaded.

I can’t call myself a Democrat, a Republican, Socialist, or a Libertarian. I know many more people alongside me that can’t either. This inability to join up fractures the purpose of parties, which is to some extent coalesce around the least-worst candidate and keep moving forward. Republicans are still very good at this, but the country is literally on fire as they do half the time.

At the state level, I can’t shake the fact that we can’t all be in a race to the bottom. We used to accomplish so much and literally move the earth to benefit us in the present and the future. Today we can’t scrounge for change in the couch Governor’s couch cushions without a fierce call for a tax credit or spending it on some short-sighted stuff. What’s the goal? 0 taxes? No reasonable person thinks that’ll work.

There is no Independent Party (there’s one of a similar name, but it’s a bonafide hate group). Ultimately, do you want low voter turnout? Because this is how you get low voter turnout – and Trump.

by Justin

Stop using the phrase “GOP”

There’s no comparing the Republicans of today to 1950, 1910, or 1864 or the Democrats of today to 1963 and 1944. Heck, Andrew Jackson was a “Democrat”.

I never use the phrase “GOP” (except now, apparently). I don’t like it because it’s not true.

The “Grand Old Party” is supposed to be the party of Lincoln and Roosevelt. But as I’ve voraciously been consuming the definitive autobiographies and books on these and other Presidents, I can’t draw a line from Lincoln to Republicans today. I could maybe have an easier time with Democrats, but it would take a wild line through and around issues of slavery.

The best theory to explain this that I can come up with is partially due to Grover Norquist, who mused in Leave Us Alone that a lot of voters vote for one party or another because their father did and their grandfather and great-grandfather before that. In other words, a lot of people vote party-line like the way children often assume the religious beliefs of their parents.

This happens everywhere but has been particularly sticky in the south. This still explains Kentucky today. When you wonder how Kentucky votes for a Democratic governor in what should be a reliably red state up and down the board, it’s because people are still voting at least partially on their family’s civil-war era tradition when Democrats were the more like the “Republicans” (by a modern definition).

My theory is the country changes, the electorate changes, but the south is always the laggard by a wide margin. And there are enough of them, plus Texas and Oklahoma, maybe Indiana, that it puts a dent in the course of the country’s leadership.

Most people have a casual understanding of the “flip” in the parties’ beliefs and core voters, mostly around the Civil War and later Nixon’s election. But for years before Nixon, to put it bluntly, many southern voters were somewhat unaware that the Democrats weren’t really the bearer of their character and beliefs anymore. Eventually, they caught up. I suspect we may be another 75 or 100 years away from another flip like that. This is a generations-long process that is altered only by death and slow, steady, change.

So when I hear the phrase “GOP”, I hear the Republicans of today taking credit for things their forefathers did under the same label but with entirely different context and pretenses. That’s offensive to early Republicans. It’s like if the producers of the Jason Bourne films said they were proud of the work they did in early James Bond films. You don’t get to take credit for that. You weren’t even there, so sit down and shut up.

As one example, Theodore Roosevelt wouldn’t recognize either party today. He could arguably be considered an independent today, and some may consider him one of his time (George Washington was our only true independent President, as he never declared a party and has been the only unanimous vote-getter in the electoral college). Roosevelt wanted big government projects in Panama and around the US. He wanted to bust up large trusts and monopolies like railroads and banks. He also wanted a big, strong, and world-dominating military. Roosevelt wasn’t keen on racial discrimination either and was the first President to welcome a black man to the White House.

Roosevelt was most proud of his achievements in civil service reform, which stopped the practice of appointing people to lush government jobs without real qualifications. He weakened the parties by stomping on their machinery in races small and large.

Trump has Roosevelt’s portrait hanging in the Oval Office and he says he admires him and Andrew Theodore most. Theordore Roosevelt was a conservative, not a Republican. He conserved nature and limited resources, was a populist and true champion of miners, coal workers, and factory workers. He had no use for big corporations running afoul of laws both real and moral. If he were alive today he’d punch Trump in the face and call him a sissy for not being able to kill a moose with his bare hands.

There’s no comparing the Republicans of today to 1950, 1910, or 1864 or the Democrats of today to 1963 and 1944. Heck, Andrew Jackson was a “Democrat”.

by Justin

Trump’s Brain in a Vat

My left-leaning Facebook friends are frothing at the mouth over this impeachment talk like it’s their first orgasm all over again.

There’s a philosophical argument dubbed “The Brain in a Vat”. If I can oversimplify it, the brain in a vat argument asks you to imagine the possibility that your brain is hooked up to a computer (like the Borg!). This computer can simulate all that we encounter in the world, including your body. The question goes: If you can’t be sure that you’re not hooked up to a computer, then you can’t rule out the possibility that all your beliefs are false, can you? In meme terms, “You can’t be a God-fearing Christian with a love of classical music if there is no God and music!”

That would all be very comforting to a lot of people right now. My Trump-supporting Facebook friends have gone dark over the last couple of weeks. Most have turned to non-issues like the removal of confederate monuments as a proxy for their character beliefs. My left-leaning Facebook friends are frothing at the mouth over this impeachment talk like it’s their first orgasm all over again.

It’s bad enough that I almost opened LinkedIn. It’s that bad.

The problem with impeachment is three-fold. First, it’s likely to take a very long time. People conveniently forget government works slow and the gears at the Bureau of Bureaucracy aren’t designed to work fast. The Nixon-era Watergate scandal took two years or more to fully play out. In that time the midterm elections happened and Republicans lost big and continued to do so. In 1974, Republicans lost 49 seats in the House 3 months into Gerald Ford’s term. I’m not sure what it would take for Republicans to move to impeach Trump and remove him from office, but I doubt they’re there yet. Remember, the Constitution only calls two items specifically and one broadly as impeachable offenses: “treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors”. The last part is up to Congress to define.

The second impeachment problem is people think impeachment is removal from office. It isn’t. Impeachment is like indictments for mortals – it just means charges have been raised against you. Removal from office is a whole other process. Trump could be impeached and remain in office in the current environment.

The third issue is a Theseus paradox. If you replace all of the components of an object, is it still fundamentally the same object? In other words, if you replace Trump with Pence, is it still the same White House? With exception of a few close aides, it’s hard to imagine Pence replacing the entire cabinet. Jeff Sessions would still probably be sitting there. It’s not hard to argue that the current state of affairs is bad for the country, but it’s also bad for getting things done domestically. In some ways, we have a blissful moment of inaction because Trump is so mired in scandals all the time. Pence is much more adept at handling and deflecting that. He could move legislation.