toned_chupacabra

I'm afraid that my country the US is entering a dictatorship similar to the 1973-85 dictadura in Uruguay. Even about 40 years later, when I (stupidly) left there, I could see the political and social PTSD from it. Along with Uruguayans being "never again with that horror" from there successful transition to one of the strongest democracies in the Americas.

The big difference is, instead of being a "civic-military" dictatorship, the US is beginning a "civic-techbro" dictatorship.

The military will follow along later. Much of the enlisted, non-officer troops are pro-Trump. Even some officers are.

Source: immediate relative who is a sergeant in the US Army. He is horrified by the Trump supporters in his unit.

Others have explained why Chinese ownership of Opera might be bad.

I suggest you try the Vivaldi browser which is made by a company started by the co-founder & CEO of the original Opera. Basically builds upon the heritage and philosophy of the original Opera. Extremely customizable, tracker and ad blocking built in along with speed dials, gestures, UI customization of just about everything.

Has desktop for all platforms including Linux, and mobile for Android and iOS with sync (not going through Google) for all platforms.

Optional email, calendar, Mastodon and RSS clients in the desktop versions. Optional email account and Mastodon account accessible from any standard client and the Web, or via their desktop.

Not fully open source (nor is Opera) and built on the same open source Chromium base as Opera, Brave, Chrome, but seriously de-Googleized and does not use the Chromium UI. Will continue to support ad blocking even after Google/Chromium removal of the interfaces for ad blocking extensions. Yet desktop versions do allow installation of extensions from the Chrome/Chromium extension store.

Edit: fix link and some grammar

That happens if Biden slips and falls in the bath tube, too. Its not an argument for keeping him at the top of the ticket.

No that is not what happens. I'm not arguing to keep him at the top of the ticket. Exactly the opposite: I'm arguing to drop him from the not yet official ticket, but for him to stay on as president until his term ends. That keeps Johnson still only second-in-line for the presidency, with Harris still first-in-line.

If Biden (referring to his governmental role as the current President) dies, Vice President Kamala Harris immediately becomes President.

Whereas referring to his nongovernmental role once (IF) he becomes the official nominee of the Democratic Party, nobody is automatically elevated to be the new nominee of the party. If it's before the election, the executive board of the DNC determines the new nominee. Harris would very likely become the official nominee, but that's not their only choice.

But Biden is not yet the official nominee no matter how many times he and his supporters say he is. He is only the presumptive nominee. So if he died, was incapacitated, or dropped out as a candidate for the nomination now, before the convention roll call, it becomes essentially an open convention and the nominee is chosen the way it used to be, by the convention. Which might take multiple roll calls, behind the scenes favors trading, and all sorts of "fun" drama.

In none of those cases is Speaker of the House Johnson elevated to anything.

Not a great nor necessary plan.

1. If Biden resigns as president, yes Harris immediately becomes president. That means that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is only one heartbeat from the presidency until January 20.

There's no way for Harris to appoint and get confirmed a replacement vice president, and it would be impossible anyway because replacing the vacant VP slot requires a majority of both the House and Senate.

2. It doesn't when work for becoming the new nominee. Becoming President due to a vacancy has exactly nothing to do with becoming the nominee for the election for president.

Becoming President in this case is by the Constitution. It's the law, it's how our government works.

Becoming the nominee is internal political party, legally private non-governmental business.

What does work, whether or not one wants Harris as the new nominee, is this:

Biden drops out as the Democratic nominee for President, while remaining in office as President saying he must put all his energy and attention into governing these remaining months.

Then,

IF the party wants Harris. Harris aggressively campaigns to be President ELSE
Harris states she has to put all her energy and attention into helping Biden govern so will not accept a nomination.

Open convention occurs, but likely with a lot of prior discussion and alignment towards one or two best candidate.

Face saving all around

This carbon-based unit approves of this artwork.

I like UMCOR (United Methodist Committee On Relief) and as a member of that (mostly) progressive, non-fundamentalist denomination I do give to them at times.

But I feel it's important to let folks here know that a) UMCOR is the relief agency of a Christian church, because some may not want to donate through a religious agency; b) their international relief is not solely targeted at Gaza or Gaza+Israel; and c) some of its works are targeted there:

Long-time UMCOR partner International Blue Crescent (IBC) serving food to earthquake victims at the Kilis Community Center in Turkey. The community center is serving as a major hub for coordination and relief efforts, including cross-border response into Syria. UMCOR has provided an initial solidarity grant to IBC to provide basic supplies to earthquake victims UMCOR and its partners are responding to disasters across the globe every day. Please join us in prayer for the affected areas and consider giving to UMCOR International Disaster Response to support these efforts.

War in Israel/Gaza

Please join us in offering continued prayers for safety, comfort and peace for those in the Holy Land.

To date, UMCOR has awarded five emergency grants to local partners in Israel and Gaza. Partners are using funds for relocation support, food and hygiene kits for internally displaced people, psychosocial treatment and trauma counseling to women and children, and telemedicine services for disabled children in need of follow-up care, but without safe access to a clinic. We will provide additional updates as other grants are awarded.

In early October, Global Ministries issued a joint statement on the attacks with the World Methodist Council and the Methodist Church in the United Kingdom. On Friday, Nov. 11, The Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church issued a call for peace. On Monday, Nov. 13, Global Ministries General Secretary Roland Fernandes joined Churches for Middle East Peace and thirty American Christian leaders in calling for support of an immediate ceasefire, de-escalation and restraint by all involved.

You can give to UMCOR’s international disaster response and recovery efforts at: https://advance.umcmission.org/p-641-umcor-international-disaster-response-and-recovery.aspx[https://advance.umcmission.org/p-641-umcor-international-disaster-response-and-recovery.aspx](https://advance.umcmission.org/p-641-umcor-international-disaster-response-and-recovery.aspx).

(update as of Nov. 28, 2023)

Because sooner or later, some judge will decide it is enforceable.

Plus it serves as a deterrent for some from even filing a suit with the risk of it getting thrown out and them out thousands of dollars in legal fees.

The amount of consumer pressure within ham radio can be larger than you think. HF rigs can go for thousands of dollars, with VHF/UHF gear up there too.

Yes there are a lot of far less expensive ways to enjoy amateur radio. And I really should get my too-long unused cheap rig out of storage and do some of them, like digital modes on a computer over HF or satellite with a homebrew antenna and my old analog HTs.

P.S. It's ham not HAM. It has never been an acronym so it should never be capitalized. Ham radio at the beginning of a sentence just follows normal English language capitalization rules.

73 from now actually old and apparently grumpy OM

Even before anything else, you should change your DNS from your ISP to one of the many third party, respected, fast resolvers. Clooudflare 1.1.1.1, Quad9 9.9.9.9, both do not log and are free. There are many others.

I use the paid $1.99 USD/mo NextDNS with malware-only blocking on my router, and malware, ads, trackers blocking on my Android devices, Linux desktop and Windows desktop.

Notice that the opposition to these scans happened only after a Senator was included in the warrantless dragnet.

The reforms introduced Tuesday reflect discomfort over the practice of warrantless scans, which are authorized under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Its opponents were galvanized when the Office of Director of National Intelligence revealed in July that the FBI had improperly conducted searches for information about a U.S. senator and two state officials.

emphasis mine

My first compsci course was on a PDP/11. On RSTS/E. On a paper teleprinter console.

Good times.

Do it, Kevin! That will reduce the Republican majority, because House rep vacancies need to be filled by a special election. The governor can't name an immediate replacement the way it works for Senate vacancies.

I don't know how long it takes under California to do a special election, but it is some non-trivial duration.