Hope you get through this okay.  I'll say a little prayer for you.  It can't hurt.

re: 40 miles north of NYC

Nice area.  I've visited New York City several times.  Once we took a drive up through the Hudson River valley and into the Catskills.  Lovely.

re: Death in Venice

Great movie.  The book is even better.  Way back I studied German literature and Der Tod in Venedig was one of the first novels I read from start to finish in German.  It's relatively easy (not as easy as the likewise short and now suddenly very popular La Peste by Camus, though).

Of course, honoring just a few of those who suffered is a no no because it ignores all the rest who haven't been memorialized, so it's better not to get started with trivial pursuits such as the museum.

And let's pretend that whites were lynched because of their color.

And now that, there were more union soldiers killed in the civil war than blacks lynched and hell, lets muddy the waters further by citing that enough of them deserved it , so again why get started.  

Got any more excuses, I mean those were winners.

Thanks, prayers can't hurt. Good will always helps. I'm more appreciative towards you than I may come across when discussing the other stuff.

I saw the movie too. It's hard to argue with Visconti , but the melodramatic content, particularly the use of Mahler's music in a way which wasn't very reflective of the inherent depth he instilled into it. 

Apollonius (Theocritos) said:

Half of American voters believe the system is broken. Democrats especially have no interest in fixing it.

Do you honestly believe Republicans would cross the aisle to help Democrats abolish the electoral system?

I assume you are talking about the Electoral College.  It would require a Constitutional amendment, passed by a two thirds majority of state legislatures.   So no, it's not going to happen.

The U.S. is a federal state.  Canada is similar and so is the E.U.   Individual states have, in effect, a  veto against altering the way the big things (like how presidents are selected) operate.

What is possible, is to reform voting regulations.  That's because they are there merely to enforce laws already on the books, such as that you must be an American citizen to vote or that you cannot vote twice.

I think you need to start with a uniform system of voting across all 50 states.

If you have concerns about mail in ballots, then fix what you think is wrong.

If you have concerns about voting machines, then switch to pen and paper (very difficult to hack).

And, most importantly, don't blindly accept every claim of voter fraud as true.  Investigate it.

Analysis

www.abc.net.au

America is arming up to protect itself from an insurgency sparked from within

With 20,000 troops in Washington, the US Capitol looks anything but the shining pillar of democracy it's supposed to be. Combined with Donald Trump's impeachment, it serves as a stark reminder that democracies are fragile, writes Kathryn Diss.

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Jenifer (Zarknorph) said:

I think you need to start with a uniform system of voting across all 50 states. If you have concerns about mail in ballots, then fix what you think is wrong. If you have concerns about voting machines, then switch to pen and paper (very difficult to hack). And, most importantly, don't blindly accept every claim of voter fraud as true.  Investigate it.

These are the very suggestions that those of us who ask for tightening up of voting procedures have been talking about forever.  

Jenifer (Zarknorph) said:

 And, most importantly, don't blindly accept every claim of voter fraud as true.  Investigate it.

Why do I have to keep repeating myself?  We don't blindly accept every claim of voter fraud.  They all have to be investigated on a case-by-case basis. 

Apollonius (Theocritos) said:

These are the very suggestions that those of us who ask for tightening up of voting procedures have been talking about forever.

I've only noticed people talking about this since mid 2020.

The electoral college, however, really has to go.

Apollonius (Theocritos) said:

Why do I have to keep repeating myself? We don't blindly accept every claim of voter fraud. They all have to be investigated on a case-by-case basis.

And if they are disproven, you will accept that?

The dead voter conspiracy theory peddled by Trump voters, debunked

US Election 2020: The 'dead voters' in Michigan who are still alive