"QUESTION: Did Watergate propel Republicans into a “no more nice guy” mode?

Reagan’s pivot came 10 years after Lewis Powell’s memo which went along with vast encouragement of deeply biased anti-progressive media well funded by the likes of Richard Mellon Scaife. Then in the 1990s Newt Gingrich emerged as a confrontational political force that opposed any cooperation with Democrats and has greatly caused subsequent damage.

Anyway, just thinking out loud, about the way that the Republican party transmuted from the huge infrastructure investments of the Eisenhower period into a deeply destructive irresponsible entity that denied climate change, defunded family planning programs in the third world, and to reduce taxes, borrowed huge amounts of money, causing our current huge national debt, and the slashing of programs to help lower income Americans, while opposing raises in the minimum wage.

I think future historians will expose Republican behavior post 1980 as a real disaster for the well being of the American people."

- Robert Light 2026-06-07

GLWGB! One of the prettiest sets running right now!!

The Chyrosran22 Beam Spring B104 review video has been posted!


There was some discussion in the video about the smoothness of the typing experience and I wanted to share some of the comments on this thread, those emailed to me, and those on other forums, which especially praise the smoothness of the typing:

"I just got mine in, and it's amazing to type on, the feel is buttery smooth yet with that tactile mechanical feedback - I didn't think the Model F repro could be surpassed but this did it.  Setup was painless and I'm more than satisfied - the wait was worth it!"

"got mine today! thanks Ellipse its everything id hoped it would be, incredible."

"The keyboard is a dream to type on, and the solenoid really adds to the experience. I might have to turn it down to the minimum setting, however. If I don't, I may well wake up to the fiancée hitting me over the head with the board."

"They feel awesome, it's a very unique experience to type on it, something never been felt in my life, not even a Model F can resembles the key feel. Smooth, deep thock and click happening simultaneously, you can't really describe it accurately, just like having the premium curry in your mouth, you can tell what's the ingredients in it, but it's indescribable when all the chemistry happening in your mouth. I no longer crave for another keyboard (except the unshipped B62), I think this is the end of my keyboard journey."

"Shipping to [Europe] went perfectly fine, only one module was broken and one more needed reseating on arrival. MT3 keycaps fit the stems without an issue (see attached photo), software-wise the setup was a breeze. Hardware-wise, well, could definitely have been easier but I succeeded despite having hardly any prior experience assembling keyboards, so I guess it could have been significantly worse as well. The keyboard feels and sounds glorious, as expected, thank you once again."

"Been using it a couple days now and am really enjoying the switches; in setting it up I fortunately only had to reattach the beam flipper for one switch and wiggle another"

"B104 arrived today - worked right out the gate. Very happy with the product and it was worth the wait. This will be replacing my Model F permanently!"

"I just received my keyboard and finished setting it all up and its working great out of the box with no adjustments needed!  It looks and types great, I also like the touch of printing the packing list on a dot matrix printer.  Keep up the good work!"