You can make pesto with mint instead of basil (though using both its best).

If elections didn’t have a chance to change things, corporations wouldn’t spend so much money trying to influence them.

That is what the proposed new “Trump class” of ships is for. This will probably just be an excuse why they are necessary.

I was talking with a retired admiral this morning about this issue. He said it can’t be done without rebuilding half the ship. You would have to rip out and then relocate most of the engineering compartments.

“Every Democrat rejected Blanche’s nomination as the Republican-led Senate voted 50-49.”

He’s getting blamed for high gas prices and he’s passing the blame as usual.

Democrats really need to just lean into the Right’s socialism accusations. Yes, Social Security and Medicare are socialism. So are fire departments and libraries. Normalize it.

Yeah, Marx would quibble that it’s supposed to describe the economy as a who but who gives a fuck.

I agree it’s a shit situation but the only solution is changing the first past the post voting system. That is slowly happening at the state level but only when Democrats get a significant enough majority to overcome both the centrists and Republicans.

The idea that there is another option besides the Democrat and the Republican candidates is an illusion in all but the smallest races (I.e. water reclamation district boar seats). Splitting the Dem vote is functionally exactly the same as a vote for the Republican candidate.

There isn’t a sea of progressives who usually never vote waiting for just the right candidate. Most progressives vote Democrat just to keep the Republicans out of office as the least worst option. All you will be doing is splitting the vote. This happens again and again, but every time someone thinks “my candidate is different” and makes the same mistake again.

This splits the vote and guarantees the Republican candidate wins.

It was after the railroads had mostly been finished, so the racism took precedence. White conservatives got really scared that the Chinese would have enough population to gain significant political power. Sounds familiar?

Immigration law in the US is and has always has been racist. The first federal immigration law was called the Chinese Exclusion act for fucks sake.

Gerrymandering maybe?

Or that the “death threats” are as imaginary as antifa terrorists.

If they actually enforced the Constitution and defended the laws as they swore to, they wouldn’t need security. Traitors to the people should fear the people.

Or they will use it as an excuse to give up on the failed Iran negotiations and try a ground assault.

Slavery should definitely be on the list, your right.

Pirates may not have raped people on the boats they took, because there often weren’t any. The pubescent cabin boys and powder monkeys were a different story however.

As far as torture, lashings were the standard baseline punishment. Edward Low was known to be particularly violent and liked cutting ears off people on ships he boarded. Keelhauling wasn’t as universal as media would indicate, but it was an actual practice.

It will never not be funny to me that people are totally okay with a pirate tattoo, but not a Nazi tattoo. Pirates routinely raped, tortured, murdered and pillaged.

What I am trying to say is that nobodys hands are clean. Not yours. Not mine. It’s convenient that you draw the line so you don’t have any responsibility.

Like it or not, you are responsible for who you vote for. Perhaps I have a different definition of responsibility than you do. Voting for a rep who has been openly supportive of Israel which has been oppressing and abusing Palestinians for decades is responsibility in my book. Oct 7 wasn’t the beginning of something new. It was just what made people notice.