By J.C. Bruce
My wife Sandy and I are about to take a road trip, and she noticed an alarming new feature on Google Maps as we were plotting our route:
Google has already changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America. They earlier were quick to switch the name of the Gulf of Mexico, too. All in obeisance to Dear Leader Trump.
We thought their eagerness to jump on this idiotic bandwagon was odd. So, we looked at Apple Maps, figuring, surely, Apple wouldn’t misbehave like this.
But, no. Apple immediately fell in line with Trump’s directive, too.
I shouldn’t be surprised. Google has already coughed up millions for Trump’s inauguration and atrocious ballroom/bomb shelter. Apple CEO Tim Cook likewise. These corporate titans really know how to take a knee to a dictator, don’t they?
Now, it is crucial to note that Donald Trump does not have the authority to rename oceans or gulfs or lakes. He can make his flunkies in the federal government call them by different names if he wants to. He can rename the United States of America to Trumpville, if he pleases, I suppose. But that doesn’t change anything in the real world.
Unless everyone jumps on board, like Google and Apple have done. Which is appalling.
Turns out a competitor in the map business has decided not to play footsie with the Orange Trouser Stain.
MapQuest still uses Lake Ontario and—bless them—the Gulf of Mexico.
Consumers are rewarding their sanity.
MapQuest is now the No. 1 free map application in the Apple App Store after refusing to fall in line with Trump’s lunatic behavior.
“We were absolutely blown away by the response,” MapQuest General Manager Doug Berger told CNN. “The updated figure is over 1.5 million downloads.”
Consumers are not only rewarding MapQuest for this, they’re having fun with it too.
After announcing that it would not rename the Gulf of Mexico or Lake Ontario, MapQuest also created a Name Your Own Lake application that lets users rename Lake Ontario to whatever they want. Each of us has as much right to rename international bodies of water as Trump does—which is to say none at all—so why not?
I did.
On my MapQuest map, it is now Lake Natalie.
Here’s the link:
https://gulfof.mapquest.com/lakeontario
Here’s the CNN interview with Doug Bergman:
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Florida Democrats help defeat Supreme Court Amendment
House Speaker Mike Johnson trotted out a proposed constitutional amendment Wednesday that would permanently fix the number of Supreme Court justices at the current level — nine. It was a ploy to undercut efforts to expand the court to dilute the MAGA majority.
The measure failed to achieve the two-thirds vote it would need, actually barely getting a majority, 212-206.
All Florida Democrats in the House voted against it.
If you would like to see future madness on the part of the Republican Party similarly thwarted, remember the choice is yours on Nov. 3.
Poll results
I asked readers their views on expanding the court and/or adding term limits in a poll Wednesday afternoon in advance of the vote in the House. Two-thirds favored the idea of expanding the court, and 99 percent were in favor of term limits, as you can see:
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Thanks.
J.C. Bruce
Hip hip hooray!!!!!