Unfortunately, we’re having trouble filling even part-time positions.

We do tend to be better-disposed towards the good-looking, even if sometimes only subconsciously, and one of Caesar’s great strengths was his absolutely insane charisma, so there may be a bit more to that than just an idle thought!

Also, “[Caesar is] every woman’s man and every man’s woman”

Unfortunately, I’m teetering on the edge of an underweight BMI at this point.

Fuck.

Local manufacturing is politically advantageous and may employ some people at the same time, but that’s where benefits end.

There are legitimate strategic concerns with sourcing things long-term from potentially hostile states.

Europe should absolutely take advantage of current Chinese production to improve their own green energy efforts, but looking into local production in addition is not just a ‘for-show’ move. As sanctions on Russia show, dependence on markets that can potentially turn hostile can be very damaging.

Jordan Peterson, the crying man depicted at the bottom, is known for his, uh, very… abstractly worded defenses of conservative positions like ‘women need to be controlled’ and ‘any deviation from my upper-middle class norms is the fall of Western Civilization™’.

Note that while ranged troops are included here as auxiliaries, the front lines still consist of troops equipped as heavy infantry. While we sometimes think of the auxiliaries as distinct in appearance, the truth is that in most cases, auxiliary (provincial) troops would have been equipped, and fought, largely like their legionary (citizen) counterparts. One notable feature distinguishing them - at least in official Roman propaganda depictions - is that only legionaries are depicted with the rectangular scutum and lorica segmentata that we associate so strongly with Rome, while auxiliaries hold the oval shield depicted here and are shown wearing chainmail and scale (in reality worn by both auxiliaries and legionaries, as the situation demanded).

Explanation: The three men pictured and named were the three members of the First Triuumvirate, a political alliance of the Late Republic which concentrated political power into the hands of the three men, who had clawed their ways upwards in the world - whether through obscene wealth (Crassus), military exploits (Pompey), or skilled politiking (Caesar) rather than the strength of their family names and connections. All three men were thus opposed strongly by the optimates - the aristocratic faction of the Late Republic, though of the three men, only Caesar was a longtime populare, a member of the faction of the poor. This alliance allowed the three men, all holding powerful offices, to push through various measures, many self-serving, some ideological, which otherwise would have been blocked by the normal functions of the Senate and Assemblies.

After Crassus’s untimely death in the favorite Roman pastime of ‘failing to conquer Persia’, Pompey and Caesar became estranged, and Pompey eventually sided with the Senatorial aristocracy against Caesar in the ensuing civil war.

Well, congratulations on the upcoming move! I hope you like seafood, because as someone who has always lived in coastal states, having all the fancy regional fresh seafood around is really wasted on my dull palate. XD

My friend: “I found this really great seafood place, a little hole in the wall, let me take you.”

My friend, after eating: “What do you think?”

Me: “Tastes like… fish?”

Don’t like crabs, don’t like lobster, don’t like most fish… I wasn’t born to live on the coast, clearly.

My mood improved considerably after republican lawmakers started opposing his appointees, he clearly won’t be able to accomplish as much harm as he wants to.

They’re furrowing their brows, Susan Collins style. It doesn’t mean anything.

I’m not the one sending billions in weapons to support the genocide and then telling voters “other guy worse” to justify it.

No, instead, you’re the one enabling the candidate to support the genocide with billions more and then telling prospective voters “More genocide and less genocide are exactly the same.”

You still don’t take fascism seriously, because this was never a threat to you. Politics is more than a game online for some of us. But what should I expect from someone who plays apologist for Muslim-American Trump voters?

then democrats should try being different from the republicans

They are. But you either can’t see it, or are deliberately ignoring it because it lets you play purity tests.

Or are you going to tell me that this upcoming fascist regime is just business as usual, just like if the Dems won? Go ahead. Say it. We all know you’re thinking it.

You cannot shame me for criticizing support of genocide.

How about I shame you for supporting genocide, like you’ve done through your actions, and pretending your hands are clean?

I’m not the one ignoring genocide, buddy.

Really? Because last I checked, you spent the past few months peddling the exact kind of voter suppression “BOTHSIDES” nonsense and downplaying the very real risk of fascism as a Dem plot to bully people into voting. That’s either ignoring genocide, supporting genocide, or being the most self-defeating anti-genocide advocate imaginable.

But it’s okay. You got to feel good about yourself, and that’s what counts. Fuck minorities. Fuck the oppressed. Only your feelings matter.

Maybe if you keep ignoring fascists taking over the country and enabling the genocide of as many minorities as possibly, you’ll attain a truly equitable and equal world someday.

Or you’ll sit there with a smile as we’re thrown in camps and you get to stay smug and safe. Whichever.

Maybe if you give enough asspats to people who sat by and refused to help put out the fire, next time will be different.

My point is that I can’t mentally avoid the reality of living under a Nero, as much as I’d like to. Not that I won’t find ways to cope, some helpful to broader society, and some not.

I’m far too aware that the level of action I’m willing to take and the level of action it would take for one individual to change the course of nations are too far apart for anything but for my mood to change with the winds of the times, despair or hope as massive demographics drive them. On some level, I think, I would prefer to be clueless to that.

But I can’t be. Some fuckers taught me how to read and write and shit, and now I’m cursed with literacy and awareness. I fucking hate it.

Unfortunately, we’re also fucked by this.

Of course, it’s how one asserts dominance over the other player

Do they really have absolutely nothing to show?

They don’t want to find out. The backers are coming into office in two months’ time.