Crude oil us primarily classified based on density and sulphur content. It’s all hydrocarbons and a portion of all of it can be turned into gasoline.

Only butt-munchers will reply to this comment about something vague regarding US gasoline production

Can’t do anything without holding all 3 parts of government - including a filibuster proof majority in the senate.
But yes, it would have been nice to see democrats speaking up about workers wages & universal healthcare. Loudly, broadly and repeatedly.

Just this year I learnt you should carve out the top (stem) part. Apparently there’s some nutrients/water, magic, or something, left in it; and if you leave it uncut it will help the rest of the pumpkin look better for longer.

Cut out the bottom, or a hole in the back, instead.

Death penalty

On one hand, I don’t believe capital punishment has any place in civilized society.
On the other, there are some in-human people (serial killers mainly, but including e.g. CEOs who have caused thousands of deaths to increase profits), where it just seems a waste of everyone’s time, to lock them away in a cell for decades. Some people are just completely beyond rehabilitation, and if they are proven guilty with 99.9+% certainty, what’s the point of locking then up and waiting for old age to do the job?

The? Rupert Murdoch has been running a huge propaganda network playing ‘defense’ for republicans for decades.

I’m so out of the loop, and far behind on movies & series, I had never heard of ‘the wild robot’ until now. Sounds like a pretty good movie though.

Rural states have a large advantage in the house, huge advantage in the senate, and of course significant skew in the electoral college. And much of it comes from compromises with slave owners.
Abolishing the EC would not mean rural regions get completely ignored, not only would they have reps and senators still courting their votes (and campaign donations), civilized countries with functional democracies have multiple parties. A rural party would show up, which could court voters in all rural areas, instead of only in swing states.

Well, they are called unrestrained continuous pollution, or ‘man made climate change’ if you will.

The are all great, but tawdry is fantastic!

Rolls of the tongue, and we all come across several tawdry things/people in a given day.

If I’m not mistaken, residents can vote in local elections in many places.

I hate that “feature” so much. For a while it has used the speed of other’s phones for your ETA. As in, if everyone is doing 10-15 over the speed limit, you’re expected to go with the flow.
I don’t want a more accurate ETA. I want to arrive when it says I will if I follow all speed limits, and shave off a couple minutes if I am going faster than that.

Very tough situation, wish I had something helpful to share, but any chance you can nudge them towards well sourced, largely promoting critical thinking, but also entertaining videos?

https://youtu.be/rE3j_RHkqJc?si=4TIAOEJDIjPijGmP

https://youtu.be/m81q-ZkfBm0?si=we-Zqq4w4xXlLJrd

https://youtu.be/wmVkJvieaOA?si=XmKdb_fAW_sMGlkD

https://youtu.be/wfYbgdo8e-8?si=zMl9IAfvZeYhsnXo

https://youtu.be/C8dfiDeJeDU?si=TSgDaYdZr9j78xzZ

I recall Taxi being very 90s as well!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi_(1998_film)

Likely some form of secure/encrypted phone. There are special versions of phones made, not available to the general public.

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect. Frank Wilhoit

Well, the top 25 wealth hoarding dragons paid 13.6 billion in federal income taxes in a span of 5 years. https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax
So you were likely only very mildly exaggerating that claim.
And before some class traitorboot-licker squeaks up about * the article looks at wealth which isn’t taxed, only income is taxed.* 1 that wasn’t the point & 2 you don’t need income when you have that kind of assets. But they built their wealth by massively benefiting from the society they pay so very little back to.

What democracy? The will of US citizens have practically no factor in which laws pass, big money on the other hand…

That being said, congressmen & president are somewhat democratically elected - and voting is thrice as influential if you’re in a low population state!.
So you can influence if big money A’s laws get passed, or big money C’s (big money B gets their way regardless).

This 3 foot pipe is also considered a storm drain. Unclear in the article if he was sucked down a street drain with unnecessarily large opening, or a drain for a creek.

Where do you think illegally acquired firearms are sourced from?

PDF: ATF NFCTA vol2 part3, Crime Guns Recovered and Traced
ATF traced 70.2% (1 million firearms) of submitted ‘crime guns’ to having originally been purchased from a dealer. An additional 22.6% (⅓ million) were from pawnbrokes. [page 7]
In 12.2% of the cases [page 26] purchaser and possessor was the same.
One or more guns are stolen in 63% of household burglaries.

From conclusion page 41:

Traced crime guns typically originate from the legal supply chain of manufacture (or import), distribution, and retail sale. Crime guns may change hands a number of times after that first retail sale, and some of those transactions may be a theft or violate one or more regulations on firearm commerce.