When my then-girlfriend agreed to be my wife, I told her it was time to have the discussion about her converting. She said, “Don’t worry, I’ve already talked to the rabbi and started the process of becoming Jewish. I know our kids will be growing up in a house without a Christmas tree and I’m okay with that.” But that wasn’t the conversion I was talking about. I explained to her that our kids would be growing up in a house without Windows-based PCs. I’ve been using Macs since there were just a few of us. We’d see each other at small, dank Mac stores and wonder why the rest of the world didn’t see what we could see. Then Steve Jobs came back to Apple. And slowly, as the new iProducts came, Steve and I converted more and more of my friends and family. One by one they all came over. Those old faces from the corner Mac stores were now joined by millions in lines outside of grand Apple stores. The iPhone came out just about the time my first child was born. So he’s never really had my full attention. Around the same time, I decided to bet on Apple stock. Apple has monopolized my time and my portfolio ever since. So it doesn’t come as that much of a shock that, according to the Justice Department, Apple has monopolized more than that; news I received in an alert on my iPhone and am now sharing via my MacBook Air. The Verge: US sues Apple for illegal monopoly over smartphones. According to the antitrust division of the DOJ, “For years, Apple responded to competitive threats by imposing a series of ‘Whac-A-Mole’ contractual rules and restrictions that have allowed Apple to extract higher prices from consumers, impose higher fees on developers and creators, and to throttle competitive alternatives from rival technologies.” The focus is on messaging (the green bubbles), digital wallets, switching costs, and streaming apps. CNN: Green bubbles, Apple Pay and other reasons why America says Apple is breaking the law. Maybe this would the right time for Apple to finally acquire America. The user experience would be improved, as Apple’s competitors can attest, the borders would be airtight, the economy would be unbelievable, the citizen/user happiness levels would soar, and there’s no way the design team would let Donald Trump onto the platform.