Horrible, right?

Biden says the 2024 race is binary. Millions don’t see it that way.

Third-party options are especially alarming to Democratic operatives, many of whom believe the last two Republican presidents made it to the Oval Office only because liberal voters in critical states did not view the 2000 and 2016 elections through the two-party lens, opting instead for Green Party candidates — Ralph Nader and Jill Stein — who they felt better represented their views.

[Emphasis mine.] 

Or maybe not.

Look. There are more than 330 million citizens of the U.S., and let's assume, just to be super safe (I don't want to say "conservative" here, so safe) there are 50 million who meet all the legal requirements for being president. Fifty million. Quite a few of whom might "represent our views."

And we get only two to chose from. And they're those two.

That's absurd.

Imagine our relief (and other news)

No, the Ken Doll is Not Pregnant

Whew.

There's a sucker born every minute, P.T. Barnum (maybe) said…but that was before social media was invented. 

Read it and weep

No inflation here: Affordable Masters’ menu still includes $1.50 pimento cheese sandwiches

A hot dog at Wrigley Field, however, is $6.49.

1) Learn to swim

Water pouring out of rural Utah dam through 60-foot crack, putting nearby town at risk

State and local leaders don’t think the Panguitch Lake Dam is in imminent danger of breaking open but have told residents to be prepared to evacuate if conditions worsen. Emergency management officials passed out a list of evacuation procedures to worried residents at a Wednesday evening town meeting meant to mitigate panic.

 And bridges falling down.

Infrastructure is a problem, and the so called infrastructure bill funds should be used for more than building EV charging stations and plugging potholes in a few swing states.

Fleeing New Hampshire

Many eclipse visitors to northern New England pulled an all-nighter trying to leave

Some people who had paper maps with them navigated their way through back roads. Others were running out of gas, and some broke down. Some people opted for the dangerous maneuver of driving across a median ditch and turning back onto northbound lanes. At least one car got stuck in the ditch.

Paper maps. Imagine.

Which reminds me. I got a solicitation this afternoon for a magazine (a magazine!), one of those things that arrives in the mail (the mail!)…and it's full of paper (paper!). Can you believe it?

Also I saw the season's first dandelion. 

It's been quite a day.

There's always a silver lining

Synthia Nguyen and Jen Cerna from Washington, D.C.…were excited that totality would last a few minutes, long enough for it to sink in.

The pair work in an ophthalmology office.

“We’re expecting a lot of calls tomorrow,” Cerna said.

Or green.

[More from the Associated Press.]

[NASA's eclipse site.]

Just how dark will it get?

Many can’t wait for the eclipse. Some can’t wait until it’s over.

Some of the criticism is easy to dismiss. “I had one lady call to ask why we scheduled the eclipse on a Monday instead of a Saturday,” he added.

But other concerns are well justified, and authorities around the country are hoping to get through the next few days without incident.

 Seems like an example of long-buried, dark human instincts, getting his excited about an eclipse. But the local senior center has a supply of viewing glasses, I'm told, so it might be worth walking a few blocks to take a look. We won't be able to see the totality from here, but it's expected to be a clear day. So maybe something.