Agreed.

Would it be nicer if we lived in a multi party system? Probably. Do we? No. Voting as though we are is not useful (maybe unless you live in a state that you are 100% certain can not be flipped).

If you hate one candidate even slightly less than the other, for example because the former has not yet stated that they want to punish colleges that allow pro Palestine demonstrations, vote for that first one.

Isn’t that precisely what the article said?

They are, however, aces at reiterating the problem.

German Lutheran. We don’t go for strong feelings.

For sure. I think if I had to fly these days, I would feel vaguely uneasy if I ended up in a Boeing.

I’m guessing that was the rationale for sending it back unmanned?

I don’t think I have ever heard it called that. Very apt, though.

Satire is dead.

…and yet so apt - though it probably applies to Trump even more than to Vance: Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and yet able to tell (sort of) regular people what they want to hear. They could probably have used this skill for Good, but that’s not where they went. Sometimes I wonder whether they think they did.

The name recognition is just in case other voters are pickier / more discerning. If it’s someone super cool, they may even pull in people who were not going to vote. Yes, I would literally vote for a rusty bottle cap over Trump, but others may have different requirements.

Turns out she will actually be old enough to become president even before election day. And she certainly has the name recognition. Again, Biden is not likely to step down - and at this point, I would vote for an empty tube of toothpaste over Trump.

It may also be a little late to introduce a new candidate, unless they have great name recognition. Betcha Bernie 2.0 would mobilize a goodly number of people, while centrists would hold their noses, and just vote for Not Trump.

Bernie isn’t running, and Biden isn’t quitting, so we take what we can get. At this point, I would literally vote for a loofah if it ran against Trump.

Yep. Actions speak (even) louder than words, and his track record on leaving office without a tantrum is… not great.

I have been using it for a few months, and it is working well. By default, you get daily snapshots, with a retention of 7 days; I believe you can buy more.

rsync.net is no-frills remote storage that gets out of the way of whatever you want to do. In my case, this is rsync over ssh, but they also support borg.

I think of Debian as the Sensible Family Van.

Right. The principal parties of such negotiations are the Israeli- and the Palestinian Government, with Hamas in the mix, because they control the Gaza Strip.

Anyone outside those groups can make suggestions, demands, etc., but there are limited means for them to influence such negotiations. The US government can threaten to withhold support (at the risk of being labeled antisemitic or at least anti Israel), but I wouldn’t bet my bottom dollar that it would make a difference in this climate.

I did not mean imply that Biden and his government can make a plan, and expect it to be followed. However, I feel that for his own benefit, Biden has to make a public display of making stronger demands for a resolution of this problem. It may not fix things in the Middle East in the short term, but it will demonstrate that he cares, and that the USA cares.

Yes, he has been saying this. What is lacking is a plan to get there. Against the opposition of the current Israeli government.

I dislike Biden immeasurably less than Trump, and I plan to vote for him in November, yet:

“It is a red line," Biden said, adding, “but I’m never gonna leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical.”

That sounds to me like there is, in fact, not a red line.

Drawing a line without any consequences for crossing it is worse than not drawing a line at all (source: my pedagogy prof, many, many moons ago).

I realize that Biden did not, in fact, say that there were not going to be any consequences at all - but the other thing with lines is that the consequences need to be known in advance, and they need to be adhered to. From all I’m hearing in interviews, the US government seems very hesitant to commit to any consequences, and if the slaughter keeps going, it may save Netanyahu’s political career, but seriously bite Biden in the tush come election day.