I love Evangelion. I don’t love this stupid bullshit.

The majority of American elections are winner-takes-all, first-past-the-post races decided with plurality voting. Among other things, this means that if you are voting for someone outside of the realm of the statistical possibility for victory, you are simply throwing your vote away. That is the way the system works today, whether we like it or not, and wasting my vote by writing in Bugs Bunny or whatever isn’t actually a reasonable, productive, grown-up, or intelligent thing to do–especially not in the face of impending autocratic fascism.

In other words, the winner of the 2024 Presidential Election will either be Joe Biden (D) or Donald Trump ®. Of those two, I can easily pick Joe Biden as the person I would like to see running the country, controlling the US nuclear arsenal, and watching over the western world. Again, it’s an easy choice for me. As someone who does probably too much research and overthinking into voting, I’ve never had an easier choice.

But hey, if you’re like me and you don’t like the current American two-party political system, then I encourage you to vote for democratic reforms like Ranked Choice Voting, STAR voting, approval voting, etc. Multiple states have implemented better, more democratic voting systems, and more will hopefully continue to in future years, because unsurprisingly they are almost all better and more democratic than plurality voting.

I understand what you mean, and people should get a chance to vote in the primaries for the person who they think is best, but Biden is the incumbent, and he’s out there winning primaries with like >85% of the vote. Hell, he even won the write-in campaign in Iowa. ( That’s to say nothing of him winning against more than a dozen other, younger candidates in 2020. ) Marianne Williamson is the only other candidate to regularly crack 1%, and she’s not exactly “president material” if you ask me.

It’s going to Biden vs Trump. Two old ass white dudes who aren’t exactly sharp (though Trump is most certainly dumber, weirder and not to mention a fucking criminal fascist). For me, that makes it the easiest choice of my year.

Hardware wise, you’ll be hard pressed to find any even half-way popular computer that can’t run some form of Linux. So I’d say just get something that’s within your budget. Those x86 APU-based mini pcs that you can find for ~$200 are becoming pretty popular for projects these days. Something like a Raspberry Pi or Orange Pi or whatever might also be fine depending on what you want to do with it, just keep your power expectations in check. If you want to spend more money on something with graphics hardware, I’d recommend going for AMD over NVidia, just because the drivers are built into the kernel and essentially no-hassle.

When it comes to software, especially if you’re on x86, just arbitrarily pick one of the reasonably popular distros like Ubuntu, Fedora, PopOS, or any of the other ones you’ve probably heard of. One of the first things to learn about “Linux” is that there’s a whole ecosystem of software projects behind it, and there is a lot of overlap between the software that each distro runs. Yes, there are some meaningful differences between, for example, Ubuntu and Fedora, but I think they are much less meaningful to a noobie (who is just learning the basics of Linux) or an expert (who probably knows enough to bend and customize just about any distro into whatever they want).

Small caveat #1: If you prefer to have a desktop that more closely resembles Windows (like the one of the Steam Deck’s desktop mode) you might want to pick a distro spin that uses the KDE Plasma desktop. On the other hand, if you want to play around with something that’s a bit different than what you’re used to, it might be worth checking out a distro spin that uses the Gnome desktop. I can recommend them both for different reasons, so you might want to check out some videos of them to see what you’re more into before picking. (Other desktops are available, these are just the two big ones! So there truly are a ton of options to explore here if you want to.)

Small caveat #2: At this point in time are you more interested in stability or customization? If you want a truly rock-solid Linux system that’s hard to ever break, you might want to consider one of the new “atomic” distributions like Fedora Silverblue/Kinoite (or others), though you might find some of their limitations annoying. On the other side of the spectrum, if deep customization and flexibility is what you’re looking for, then you might want to venture into the deep end with things like NixOS or ArchLinux, just keep in mind that they can be very technical and overwhelming for noobs. Personally I have been using Fedora Silverblue for a couple years now and I love the stability of it, and I can work around it’s limitations with distrobox.

Another thing to consider is just using what you already have. For example, playing around with Linux in a virtual machine, setting up a Linux-based server on one of the popular VPS services, or just plugging your Steam Deck into a dock with a keyboard and monitor attached and playing with something like distrobox (which you can probably find a guide on how to set that up for your deck).

Microsoft basically tied with Apple for the title of richest company in the world, by the way.

Modartt’s Pianoteq is a nice Linux native, physically modeled piano plugin.

In my experience yabridge is fantastic. With a bit of initial setup, it’s the closest thing to a native experience that I’ve come across.

You do control it with a CLI interface, so you need to be comfortable with that.

You also need to have already installed the Windows VSTs manually using WINE or whatever, and so there’s a bit of a typical “how well does this work under wine” crapshoot and a bit of a learning curve there.

Good for him. Nobody should be forced to fight in a war they don’t believe in.

They also mentioned in our therapy that their greatest fear is divorce and I don’t know if that’s because they’re still so attached to me or if it’s the fear of having to make it on their own.

It sounds like they might feel just as stuck as you feel. What if they are also unhappy in the relationship, but are only holding it together and going through the motions so that they can continue to rely on you financially? How can that kind of situation ever lead to anything resembling a happy and healthy relationship?

But that means that if I leave, they’re done for. They can’t pay the mortgage alone, nevertheless the bills or food. They also mentioned in our therapy that their greatest fear is divorce and I don’t know if that’s because they’re still so attached to me or if it’s the fear of having to make it on their own.

I think the big problem here is that you’re both treating your partner as a dependent; someone you are responsible for taking care of, not an equal adult with their own responsibilities.

If you leave, they aren’t “done for”, they just have to grow up and live in the adult world with the rest of us, doing what needs to be done to support themselves like we all do. They slacked off in college, they have remained unemployed and now have a sort of crappy job, it’s certainly not ideal, but it’s survivable and ultimately not your fault. So, yeah, you both might mean finding a new place to live, finding a roommate, moving back in with family, or whatever, but that’s life. If anything, maybe being put in that situation will be the incentive that they need to better themself and take less for granted?

Great news and I’m sure that more will follow.

I could say that the head of psychiatry at Tel Aviv hospital who is treating the people in question (people who were, in a matter of obvious and well-documented fact, taken hostage by Hamas) is a reliable source. Certainly they’re more reliable than you are.

For example?

I’ll always be on the side of the innocent. Innocent Palestinians who are caught up in a war between Netenyahu’s IDF and Hamas terrorists. Innocent Israelis who have been murdered, kidnapped and taken hostage by Hamas terrorists who were propped up for decades by far-right Israeli politicians.

You have nothing. No response but made-up straw-man accusations. You would be embarrassed if you weren’t completely incapable of shame and logic.

If there is no justice, there can be no peace.

Oh ok, “no peace”… So then you want war in Gaza.

Good luck with your war, amigo.

It’s only hard to believe victims when you don’t want to believe them.

We saw people captured and murdered by Hamas terrorists with out very eyes. They were taken into Gaza, which very soon became a war zone. They, as in the victims themselves, have provided first hand accounts of trauma, physical abuse, sexual assault, torture, and many of them are still being treated in hospitals for that trauma.

So what exactly are you contesting here? Are you trying to say that innocent people weren’t and aren’t kidnapped and being held by Hamas terrorists? Or maybe you’re trying to say that they were treated like kings over the last months since October 7th…?

“Safe space”, huh? You argue like Ron Desantis.

Next thing you’ll be calling me “woke” because you clearly don’t have a leg to stand on or a brain to think with.

Of the 14 hostages treated by Eitan’s team, nine are under 18 and two are under 10. Most need long-term treatment for trauma.

Go ahead and explain to us how 9 teens and 2 children are guilty of oppressing anyone.
Or maybe you hear “jew” in your head and can’t help but create some kind of twisted mental image?

Either way, I’ll wait for your top mind to come up with an answer, because I just love a good laugh.

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They’re either too stupid to read or too biased to read.

Either way, they’re probably beyond help at this point. It’s frankly just sad at this point.

What the fuck are you even talking about? Seriously, did you even take 3 minutes to read the article?

These people, who were (and still are) being taken captive by Hamas, are not “the oppressors” by any stretch.

They are innocent people (in this case women and children) who were taken captive by terrorists and murderers, brought into a terrifying war zone, physically and sexually abused, drugged without consent, kept in 1x1.5 animal cages, kept in pitch black darkness, deprived of food, water, medication, and never knowing whether they or their families are going to die.

You shouldn’t have to choose between sympathy to the innocent people of Gaza who are suffering in this war, and the innocent people of Israel who are also suffering. The fact that you even feel the need to “choose a side” or complain about media bias here is a stain on your soul and you should be fucking ashamed of that.

Happy New Year, bitch.

You probably shouldn’t have…

Among the 14 freed hostages treated at her centre, she said, were child hostages who had been drugged by their captors – including with ketamine – and were suffering from withdrawal, those who had subjected to or witnessed sexual abuse, a woman who had been kept in a tiny [1 x 1.5m, with another woman] cage, and another who had a breakdown after being kept in complete darkness for days.

Rather than picking a side between the IDF and Hamas, be on the side of the innocent people on both sides of this war who are victims of unspeakable atrocities. It’s not hard for me. It shouldn’t be hard for you. And if it is, that speaks to the darkness of bias and hatred within you.

• AI “content” is trivial to make and will soon be everywhere.

• Nobody wants to read, watch or listen to AI generated “content”

Infinite supply, zero demand. Sounds pretty devoid of value to me.