@karlauerbach@sfba.social cover
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

karlauerbach

@karlauerbach@sfba.social

I'm a techie & attorney.

Been on the net a long time.

I have a Norbert Wiener Award for Social and Professional Responsibility, and I've been a Fellow of Law and Technology at CalTech & Loyola/Marymount Law.

And yes, I am that person who was elected to the ICANN Board of Directors and who ended up suing them to see the financials (I won, hands down.)

Everything there is to know about me is on my personal and company websites:

https://cavebear.com/
https://iwl.com/

searchable

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

Nonilex , to random
@Nonilex@masto.ai avatar

Not much to say about the other than, I am terrified.

did way better than expected even if he lied start to finish.

was not strong at all.

So yeah, I am terrified.

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@Nonilex @bouriquet Playwright Athol Fugard once wrote (paraphrase) "The saddest words in your language are 'too late'."

I am not willing to say that it is too late to change, that it is too late for Biden to put country over ego, and withdraw.

So who to replace him - we have several names from the 2020 race (I like Klobuchar or Harris, although I admit the latter is disliked by many.)

Now is a time for the D-party to be bold. Legally they have dug themselves into a deep hole. But Biden has the sword to cut that Gordian Knot.

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@Nonilex @bouriquet I wish I could disagree with you about our voters' bias against women and others who are not (like me) white straight male. But I can't, because you are right.

But my sense is that Biden is now doomed to lose, which to me means "it is time to try something new" - a football "hail Mary".

I had not heard much about Pressley. I'll take a deeper look (on the hopes that we will have a country left to have an election in 2028.)

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Also, please let go of the fantasy of Trump in a fact checked debate. He'd insult the fact checker, call them names, keep rolling and say even more wild and untrue things. "That fact checker was paid off by NATO to hide the truth from everyone." etc.

You can't fact check away lies that some people want to believe.

Anyway maybe this debate will help the fundraising gap move back where it ought to be.

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@futurebird You make a good point about trying to check a firehose with a teaspoon.

However, increasing fundraising begs for the question: fundraising for whom? Who is, really, going to invest in the doddering Biden we saw tonight?

As I see it the course of events for the D-part is to push Biden to withdraw. And that means "to be replaced by whom?" (I'd say Harris, but she is unpopular, so I will say Amy Klobuchar.)

karlauerbach , to random
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

Did TFG just call Biden "Brandon"?

I wonder if Biden is going to directly remind everyone that TFG killed hundreds of thousands of Americans with his Covid stupidity.

JamesGleick , to random
@JamesGleick@zirk.us avatar

Six Republican Justices, already embroiled in scandal for receiving millions in “gifts” from oligarchs with business before the Supreme Court, overturned the clear will of Congress today to legalize bribery-after-the-fact. Or as they call it, “gratuities.”

Justice Jackson, dissenting, has some choice words: (1/5)

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@JamesGleick There is, I believe, a still open question of who paid Kavanaugh's quite large credit card and country club debts.

rbreich , to random
@rbreich@masto.ai avatar

Executive Pay is Out of Control https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpd0MGYESBw&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@rbreich On July 1 I will become a CEO. My pay (including many non-monetary benefits) is $0 until employees and contractors get paid.

From my point of view, only larger businesses are doing well enough to have big executive and CEO payouts: smaller companies here in the US are struggling.

Nonilex , to random
@Nonilex@masto.ai avatar

rules govt CANNOT regulate as machine .

Bump stocks modify rifles to fire 800 rounds per minute w/a single trigger pull.

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@Nonilex SCOTUS appears to have focused on the "single" part of the "pull trigger" language of the statute. They seem to read the statutory language as defining any firearm that requires a trigger pull for each shot - whether that pull is the result of a voluntary choice of a human mind or the result of a purely mechanical response to recoil shock via human bones/muscles - is not a "machine gun".

That's crazy. Bump stocks turn a single initiating voluntary trigger pull into a sequence of subsequent involuntary trigger pulls - the human becomes part of the "machine" part of that "machine gun". The only human volition in that machine system of repetition is that the human can break the cycling feedback loop by relaxing the trigger finger - just like a soldier can end a sequence of more traditional machine gun fire.

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@Nonilex Better to say "w/a single voluntary trigger pull".

SCOTUS said "there are multiple trigger pulls, one for each shot fired", which is technically accurate.

However, only the first pull was voluntary. The subsequent pulls occurred without conscious volition as the shooter's muscles, bones, tendons, and other body parts became part of the gun-machine.

Any decent legislative intent review would have led SCOTUS to a conclusion opposite of the one they chose to reach.

Nonilex , to random
@Nonilex@masto.ai avatar

host 'pep rally' w/ in his 1st visit to Capitol Hill since attack

3½ yrs ago, Trump incited a violent at the Capitol in a bid to overturn Joe ’s election victory & remain in power, a special cmte concluded after a lengthy investigation.

Today, gave a him hero’s welcome.


https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-meeting-republicans-first-visit-capitol-hill-jan-6-rcna156779

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@Nonilex "Entirely positive"? Is that "positive" as the part of a battery (like on a boat surrounded by sharks) that is opposite the "negative"?

Nonilex , to random
@Nonilex@masto.ai avatar

rejects attempt to ‘’

The on Thurs rejected a California lawyer’s claim that he may trademark the double-entendre phrase “Trump Too Small” to use on T-shirts criticizing .
The admin asked justices to uphold the US & Trademark Office’s decision to deny the trademark application from atty Steve Elster because fed disallows trademarks that use a person’s name w/o their consent.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/13/supreme-court-trump-too-small/

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@Nonilex Does this suggest that an attempt to trademark former Twitter as X should fail because of Malcom X?

Nonilex , to random
@Nonilex@masto.ai avatar

#Trump formally argued that a limited #GagOrder in his falsifying records case must be lifted post-verdict as a presidential debate nears & as his rivals (aka the witnesses, lawyers, judge, jury) continue to speak about his #legal predicament during a peak time in his 2024 campaign.
Attorneys argued in a 21-pg motion that Trump is getting hit w/a barrage of attacks from adversaries & from a pair of #witnesses who testified against him.

#law
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/12/trump-gag-order-motion/

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@Nonilex I have been thinking of creating a company that would offer a service in which the customer would be registered to run in every political contest possible.

That way the customer could claim immunity from being criminally indicted, tried, convicted, or incarcerated.

There is really no difference in 1st amendment terms between running for Prez and running for dog catcher. What's good for TFG ought to equally apply to everyone else - otherwise we are not a system of blind justice but, rather, a system of privilege.

Nonilex , to random
@Nonilex@masto.ai avatar

#LocalNews channels across the country used a nearly identical script to push coverage of a controversial @WSJ article questioning President Joe #Biden’s mental fitness.

An eerie supercut compiled by #PopularInformation shows how anchors on dozens of channels owned by #SinclairBroadcastGroup parroted the story in a coordinated fashion.

#disinformation #BidenHarris2024 #SharkVsElectrocution
https://www.mediaite.com/news/supercut-shows-sinclair-stations-collective-push-of-controversial-wsj-report-attacking-bidens-mental-fitness/

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@Nonilex @juddlegum I notice the Sinclair tag - are these all Sinclair owned outlets?

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@Nonilex Seems like there is a roughly inverse correlation between location and population density.

Nonilex , to random
@Nonilex@masto.ai avatar

The #legal fight over the #2024election has begun

Trump's team is more focused so far on building a sprawling network of "#ElectionIntegrity" #lawyers & #PollWatchers than on rounding up organizers & door knockers to reach voters.

It's a sign that 5 months before Election Day, the legal battle is underway —& that Trump PLANS to cry "rigged" if he loses, as it did after the #2020election & his #felony #convictions.

#gaslighting #autocracy #democracy #BidenHarris2024
https://www.axios.com/2024/06/02/legal-battle-2024-election-begun-biden-trump

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@Nonilex Take a look at Lessig's recent book "How To Steal a Presidential Election". One of the methods is for TFG to cause chaos and uncertainty in order to give state governors or secretaries of state the ability to pick the TFG panel of electors. The new law about counting electors doesn't cover that situation, in fact it reinforces it.

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@Nonilex Read this:

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300270792/how-to-steal-a-presidential-election/

Nonilex , to random
@Nonilex@masto.ai avatar

#Inflation soared under President #Biden in 2021 & 2022, as the #economy emerged from the #pandemic recession [that began under Trump]. Its causes were complex, including snarled #SupplyChains, stimulative policies by the #FederalReserve &, to a degree, federal fiscal policies incl’ing #Covid relief bills signed by #Trump &…Biden.

#Greedflation
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/06/us/politics/biden-inflation-greedflation-economy.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&u2g=c&pvid=F1E5E311-DDED-46BC-BF10-D4F5600BFD08&sgrp=c-cb

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@Nonilex Our business (tools for testing internet protocol stacks) seems to have declined as Silly Valley tech companies have laid off their QA and support groups because those are expensive and the latter is being (stupidly) replaced by awful AI run things.

My sense is that we had a decline under TFG and Covid, that we've had a recovery, but that that recovery is partial, unevenly distributed, and may well relapse, much as the period 1929-1941 had multiple collapses and seeming recoveries.

Biden has the bad luck to be holding a smouldering, dynamite-filled bag, much of which was filled and ignited by TFG, but for which Biden will be blamed.

I fear that TFG is going to be elected come November, even without R-party manipulation of voting and counting.

(I blame that on the DNC that gave us Biden for re-election rather than a younger, more attuned, more visibly forceful candidate.)

Nonilex , to random
@Nonilex@masto.ai avatar

The federal is facing a dwindling window to the use of in campaigns before the . The chair announced a plan last month to require to disclose use in TV & radio . But the prop is facing opposition from a top ofcl, which has been considering its own new rules on AI campaign use.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/06/06/ai-election-2024-us-misinformation-regulation/

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@Nonilex The FTC is in there as well - I don't know how WaPo missed that?. (Perhaps they filed it in their /dev/null storage with the Alito's flag story?)

We may see action first from the states of the US and EU, much as the GDPR and California privacy laws, have created pressures (not yet addressed by the Fed gov't) in the US.

But for this election, our ever-rearword, looking CYA legislatures and executives, have pushed us to the edge and I fear we are going to be overwhelmed by AI generated, often personally targeted gunk using the hordes of personal data gathered by companies like Google, Facebook, Axciom, etc - in other words AI super-spear-phishing information tailored to each individual person.

Nonilex , to random
@Nonilex@masto.ai avatar

plans aggressive weaponization [ ] investigations [ ] in wake of
Spkr vowed to use oversight powers & other measures to target jurisdictions pursuing prosecutions of Trump. in doubled down on their defense of Trump after his conviction on 34 counts related to falsifying business records.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/04/gop-trump-house-weaponization-investigations/

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@Nonilex @Pourroy Sounds like a good idea - as long as they take the test in public, recorded on publicly available video, and without online access for the test taker.

I'd add some questions, like "What ever happened to the 'privileges or immunities" clause of the 14th amendment?" Or "Is the right to vote protected by the Constitution?"

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@Nonilex @courtcan @Pourroy I'd agree that the test has many questions, but I don't think much of the quality of the questions.

Speaking as an aging lawyer who has spent about half a century dealing with Constitutional issues my perspective on what a citizen ought to know tends to the "you need to know much more" side of things than to the "cursory overview" side.

For instance there is only one question about the1st amendment and its expected answers are trivial to the point of being almost useless. Yes, there is a right of religion, but nothing about "free exercise" vs "non-establishment". Far too many people let the test's inadequate shorthands lead to a lot of misunderstandings in our politics.

rbreich , to random
@rbreich@masto.ai avatar

Facing more than half a billion dollars in legal judgments and fees, Trump just sold his $10 million jet to one of his megadonors.

Is the fire sale beginning?

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@rbreich Perhaps these sales are a form of money laundering?

Nonilex , to random
@Nonilex@masto.ai avatar

#Trump is speaking soon on the #verdict of #guilty on 34 #felonies.

But first a look at the #frontpage of today’s #newspapers:

#Felon #Criminal #law #politics #TrumpTrial

Clockwise from top left: The Sun, The Daily News, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Der Spiegel, The Queens Daily Eagle, The DailyStar, The Drudge Report, The Star Tribune. Center: The Daily Mirror

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@Nonilex Clearly the speaker has neither understanding of the separation of State and Federal authority under our Constitution nor the laws regarding the jurisdiction of SCOTUS.

I have met good, smart R-party people - such as former Rep. Tom Campbell (from San Jose, California). But the present R-party seems to be filled with non-educated morons.

randahl , (edited ) to random
@randahl@mastodon.social avatar

China demonstrates robot dog which can hunt down humans and kill them with automatic gun fire.

Man this is dystopian.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/28/china/china-military-rifle-toting-robot-dogs-intl-hnk-ml/index.html

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@randahl Several years back when I was working on the DARPA robotics challenge Boston Dynamics had an early version of this running around the track - it was fast - and it caught on fire (a battery burst into flames.)

rbreich , to random
@rbreich@masto.ai avatar

Each of Trump's 34 criminal counts of false business filings in the New York case carries a penalty of up to four years in prison.

If Trump is convicted, what should the sentence be?

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@rbreich Attica prison, in the general population.

Or in Kushner's cheapest tenement.

rbreich , to random
@rbreich@masto.ai avatar

Donald Trump has violated the gag order placed on him during his NY trial ten times so far. If he keeps violating it, what should Judge Juan Merchan do?

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@rbreich I'd love to see the judge grab a role of Duct Tape, come down from the bench, and slap a strip of tape over TFG's mouth. But I dream.

I like the picking up trash idea, but I have no idea of NY law allows it.

So, that leaves me with "jail". I do not care diddly squat if that inconveniences the Secret Service (although some agents might suffer PTSD from what they see.)

cdarwin , to random
@cdarwin@c.im avatar

“It can happen again,” Judge Chutkan, who is expected to preside over Donald Trump’s criminal trial for trying to overturn the 2020 election, said Friday.
“Extremism is alive and well in this country. Threats of violence continue unabated.”
Those threats have become normalized in Republican discourse,
with right-wing figures across the country invoking violence and urging their supporters to arm themselves.
The man behind it all, Donald Trump, has yet to face any consequences thanks to the Supreme Court holding up his case over questions of presidential immunity.
Since the January 6 attack, Trump has not toned down his own rhetoric,
saying that 2024 could be the “last election we ever have”
—and his far-right supporters could try to make that a reality.

https://newrepublic.com/post/180851/judge-warning-second-january-6-attack-chutkan-trump

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@cdarwin Have you seen/read Larry Lessig's new book "How To Steal A Presidential Election"? It is scary.

eff , to random
@eff@mastodon.social avatar

"I have a hard time believing that YouTube would be unable to keep business afloat without the revenue generated by behavioral-tracking advertisements,” EFF’s Daly Barnett told @theregister. “It’s a lazy and deliberately malicious move on their part."
https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/16/youtube_ad_blocking/

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@eff @theregister Google sez: "We want to emphasize that our terms don’t allow third-party apps to turn off ads because that prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership..."

That is pure hog wash. I've got some videos on YT. Google plasters ads in front of and on top of 'em. And I get nada, zip, nothing.

rbreich , to random
@rbreich@masto.ai avatar

Excuse me but how is Louis DeJoy still postmaster general?

His destructive 10-year plan for the Post Office—slowing mail delivery, hiking prices for consumers, and speeding up privatization—is in full effect.

Hello?

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@rbreich Under NoJoy's go-slow regime I've had important documents s,ent First Class, that took nearly two weeks to go from San Francisco to New York.

ElleGray , to random
@ElleGray@mstdn.social avatar

this is mars’s moon phobos eclipsing the sun. this is what passes for a total solar eclipse there. second-rate planet. just sad

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@ElleGray Well, the orbit of our own moon is slowly increasing it's radius. That means that eventually the moon will at distances where it can not fully eclipse the sun, leaving us with, at best, annular eclipses.

Nonilex , to random
@Nonilex@masto.ai avatar

officially requested Judge in his trial recuse himself, AGAIN.

Trump attys argued the judge’s daughter works for a marketing firm that benefits from politically targeting Trump because it works for some Democrats—making the exact same argument that failed before.


https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/5de1e0d7-8488-4b16-ac1c-207ae9668720/downloads/2024.04.03%20-%20DJT%20Recusal%20Motion%20-%20Brief.pdf?ver=1712345705474

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@Nonilex If, as the Citizens United case says, money is speech then it stands to reason that TFG's adoptation and regurgitation of the words of others is also speech by TFG and thus subject to the gag order.

mastodonmigration , to random
@mastodonmigration@mastodon.online avatar

Might be wrong here, but seems like this may be a bigger deal than a clerical error as is being widely reported:

Rejected and ‘returned for correction’: Docs for Trump’s $175M bond get bounced >>> https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/rejected-and-returned-for-correction-docs-for-trumps-175m-bond-get-bounced/

It may be that the bond company didn't report their financials because they have insufficient collateral to secure a bond of this magnitude. In which case the bond is no good, Trump doesn't have a bond, and he is out of time.

Let's see how this gets resolved...

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@mastodonmigration @GottaLaff Ten more days -- plays right into TFG's strategy to delay and delay and delay.

On the other hand, that California guy who put up the bond seems like a super-sleaze; no tears would be shed should he end up holding an empty bag.

karlauerbach , to random
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@SteveBellovin Today you posted a note about how someone appears to have injected a Trojan into the source of XV. (Oops, I mean xz.) And there was another post about the increase in complex tool chains and dependencies that are larding-up the software many of us use.

That made me wonder about whether national security bodies - intelligence, military, or other - or social movements, e.g. ISI) might be injecting similar things into source trees.

It would be relatively easy to hide such things, particularly via the tool chains or Makefiles - like who is going to notice a sed script in a autoconfig part of a build chain?

Like good spies, such things could be planted years in advance and only triggered, if ever, when desired.

This is not an open source issue, it is a ubiquitous issue. And in light of Ken Thompson's "Reflections on Trust" some of these could be quite invisible in some kinds of source code.

I am very nervous about the vulnerability and brittleness of our new world of tech as a utility.

flexghost , to random
@flexghost@mastodon.social avatar

Biden has now cancelled over $140 Billion in student loan debt

This is in spite of the Supreme Court shutting down his loan forgiveness program

This is in spite of republicans killing further reaching legislation over student loan forgiveness

This is another win that voters need to be aware of

Let them know since most of the media refuses to.

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@flexghost Biden did well on this one. There's still a lot of student debt that isn't addressed, yet. But one step - including this BIG step .. at a time.

MetalClassicalRocks , to classicalmusic group
@MetalClassicalRocks@musician.social avatar

Khachaturian
Piano Concerto
(1936)

https://youtu.be/8j3_R_jhpCg

@classicalmusic

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@MetalClassicalRocks @classicalmusic My father had some 78rpm recordings of this that were frequently played. It's one of the first pieces I learned.

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Trump’s Favorite Dr Has Been Lying About His Military Rank: Report

Fmr WH dr Ronny Jackson was quietly demoted from rank of Rear Admiral after scathing DOD investig into allegations of misconduct

Jackson’s “overall course of conduct toward subordinates disparaged, belittled, bullied & humiliated them & fostered a neg work environment”; Jackson “made sexual & denigrating statements” about his female colleagues; “engaged in inapprop conduct involving use of Alcohol” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/ronny-jackson-military-rank-demoted-1234982957/

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@GottaLaff Can doctor ronnie still be subject to court marshal procedures for dispensing drugs like candy canes at Christmas?

karlauerbach , to random
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

Thinking of TFG and his criminal trials. So many legal pundits think merely in very narrow legal contexts, without considering that our legal rules are our own creation and subject to our own change, and that legal acts can bring social reaction.

Consider some prior trials: OJ and Rodney King.

OJ was acquitted by a very talented legal team (one of whom was my advisor in law school) against rather strong evidence.

Rodney King was beaten by LAPD officers who were clearly acting with Stazi-like brutality. They were acquitted by a jury that was almost certainly angry at the OJ acquittal.

Riots ensued.

Are we leading up to similar, potentially violent, reactions against our Article III judicial system, by what appears to be a knowing attempt to protect one of the greatest criminals in US history?

karlauerbach , to random
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

So, SCOTUS has pretty much assured that the TFG criminal trials will last longer, from criminal act to judgement, than the US participation in WW-II or the entire US Civil War.

Justice delayed is justice denied - and our judicial system is delaying, delaying, and delaying - in favor of TFG and in ways that ordinary citizens could not even dream of receiving.

karlauerbach OP ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@mastodonmigration I agree with you that the biggest, heaviest, and most determinative hammer we have is to unambiguously crush TFG in the November election.

But it should be noted that the lack of a criminal verdict, or even a public trial in which we can all see the evidence, is a factor in the way that many marginal TFG voters will vote in November. So the delays in the trials do have an effect - possibly a deciding effect - on the election counts.

karlauerbach , to random
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

I just discovered that one can register to vote when filing the California tax forms.

California has a qualitatively different voting policy than those retrograde states. Here one can vote during a period of weeks, postage is free on mail ballots, you can register and vote (provisionally) at the same time, you can drop a ballot at any precinct in the state, there are mobile voting centers that will come to you, and there is a state law that promotes voting by every person who is eligible to vote.

And you can bring food and water to people waiting to vote.

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

This. Was excellent.

“Pundits suggest replacing President Biden as the Democratic nominee because they don’t understand the job of the presidency or how conventions work. Lawrence O’Donnell gives a history lesson in governing in the age of television.”

https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-on-what-they-don-t-tell-you-about-the-dump-biden-fantasy-204684869613

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@GottaLaff I am in the dump Biden camp. But I recognize that the D party has put us into this situation and that, as a practical matter, changing candidates would be difficult. I am angry at the DNC for this.

But the premise of the piece - that Biden is unique and irreplaceable is not an argument that carries weight in my mind. There are plenty of people who could replace him as a candidate - and with people who have skills as senior or top government executives. Yes, those people are not instantly familiar with the knobs and levers of Presidential power, but they know how knobs/levers work (unlike many Senators, for example.)

My concern is not with skills but, rather that Biden is an unattractive candidate to a large block of voters who may chose to stay home and thus effectively open the door to a return of TFG.

Our goal this election is not to elect Biden; our goal is to keep TFG out. That's where our maximum effort must be made.

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@jztusk @GottaLaff I am far more skilled in losing elections than in winning them.

I am voting for Biden, perhaps with a small clip on my nose because I haven't forgiven him for the Thomas confirmation debacle.

It is the DNC that most angers me for creating a situation in which we did not develop a viable slate of alternate candidates at an early enough date.

The D party is like a baseball team with a pitcher in his 16th inning of a double header and nobody warming up.

We could well find TFG being sworn in on Jan 20, 2025 because the DNC has given us a candidate who could not create the interest to get large blocks of voters to actually vote.

As I've said, the mistake was to treat this election cycle's goal as that of re-electing Biden when the true goal should have been keeping TFG out of office.

karlauerbach ,
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

@marksquires @jztusk @GottaLaff I do hope you are right and that I am wrong.

Yes, I think Biden can win. But to me that's an upside that stands next to an amazing deep and dark downside should he lose.

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