State of the Discussion

The posts in play...

Monarchy in the UK
(26)
+
The South shall writhe again
(29)
+
Bal des Ardents
(8)
+
There have to be clowns
(5)
+
Weekend music thread #02 Bad Bunny
(17)
+
Politics thread
(13)
+
The Return of the Boat Hook
(12)
+
 

The comments...

GftNC
+ Andrew is a very stupid, arrogant, entitled creep. It's perfectly possible he didn't know that Virginia Giuffre was trafficked, he would have assumed that [. . .]
wjca
+ I live in north central Texas, and I never see anything like that [Confederate flag flying off the back of a pickup]. Would that suggest that [. . .]
Michael Cain

I expect the monarchy to survive as long as it's a big tourist draw for Americans.

Pro Bono
+ This takes me back to 1977, the year of the queen's silver jubilee (the 25th year of her reign). There was much love shown for [. . .]
CharlesWT
+ I live in blue part of blue MA, and the whole giant American and/or Confederate flag flying off the back of a pickup with Eric [. . .]
nous
+ The problem with monarchy according to Lewis Carroll: "Off with their heads, said the Queen." The problem with democracy according to Walt Kelly: "Yep son, we have met [. . .]
wjca
+ Oh, a benevolent monarchy (or a benevolent dictatorship of any sort) actually has the potential to work pretty well. The problem is, there's no [. . .]
hairshirthedonist

That is such a wild story. I'm beginning to think that monarchy is a bad idea.

Pro Bono

GftNC: not usually.

Hartmut
+ As a point of contrast, Germany post WWII was able to move past Naziism – to not continually be engaged in arguments about it (I [. . .]
Michael Cain
+ Look at how the majority of the most geographically racially segregated cities in the US are Northern – Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis,…The Black population in [. . .]
+ by this point, no decent person would sign up to be anywhere near Trump. working for him means you run the risk of destroying your [. . .]
nous
+ russell - But the whole country is complicit in that history, and I think the whole country participates in a refusal to come to terms [. . .]
russell
+ The comment in the podcast that most connected with me was Bouelle's statement about it not just being about the South as a geographic area, [. . .]
nous

They all float down here.

Hartmut

Thank you, lj.
Let's see whether the last few gaps can be closed still.

Liberal Japonicus
+ Hartmut, a best guess ==== In [Venice] Rollers [ahead] It's so full of fun While you roll, you feel the groove Such a sport that makes you move Grandpa and mama too Freaks are [. . .]
GftNC

Good heavens, Pro Bono, I very much hope that is not a description of your own state of mind!

Pro Bono
+ The extent to which these folks seem to have mush for brains ... is astounding. That was my first thought also. It's a Trump thing - [. . .]
Hartmut
+ Since this is a music thread: Is someone here able to transcribe the lyrics of this song for me? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJgDp5zF4s0 I only get disconnected fragments and the auto [. . .]
Hartmut
+ Opening fire early and with dreadful aim, a shameful display of incompetence [OK, just the usual far left extremist hate speech against the prime paladins [. . .]
Hartmut
+ Remember: It is perfidy to quote GOPsters verbatim and a felony to provide audio or video proof when the quotes get challenged. That includes public [. . .]
wjca
+ The extent to which these folks seem to have mush for brains (to phrase it politely) is astounding. In this particular instance, it makes [. . .]
Liberal Japonicus
+ Pro Bono's quote reminds me that the inner circle of George Bush was dubbed the 'Mayberry Machiavellis' (and Gemini tells me it was not by [. . .]
Liberal Japonicus
+ Just an ancillary observation, in hindsight, it is almost overdetermined that the first Black president had to have a white mother and be from an [. . .]
Pro Bono
+ Io spero, e lo sperar cresce ‘l tormento: io piango, e il pianger ciba il lasso core: io rido, e el rider mio non passa drento: io ardo, [. . .]
GftNC
+ God, what a fascinating story. I'd never heard it before - the most they might have said in school (high school) was that Charles [. . .]
nous
+ wj - (Especially those who didn’t see it coming, and so failedto plant something else this year. Too late now to do anything but plow [. . .]
nous
+ We're talking about the difference between herding cats and making anxious dogs bark. The Dems, unlike the GOP, have to bring in the dogs without upsetting [. . .]
Liberal Japonicus

A little late, but this Daily Show explainer on Reggaeton is good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rdNWZXFREA

wjca
+ Do that for 3 or 4 or 5 election cycles. They’ll lose a lot, and spend a lot of money on doing so. And they’ll [. . .]
wjca
+ I notice that Trump is now demanding that the Chinese resume buying soybeans from the US. One suspects that he discovered that Midwestern farmers [. . .]
Snarki, child of Loki
+ The consultants will advise: "hire more consultants". But it would be better for the D's to load the consultants on the B-Ark and send them to [. . .]
Michael Cain
+ My main criticism of the (D)’s over the last, say, 40 years is that they’ve neglected the areas that aren’t what they see as their [. . .]
GftNC
+ I think both cleek's and russell's suggestions are necessary, but I also think the Dems have fallen seriously behind in taking the message to the [. . .]
russell
+ Personal charisma is great, recognizing that nobody watches TV anymore so stop spending all your money there is great, understanding how to leverage social media [. . .]
Michael Cain
+ Somewhat related to the grain thing was the difference in public opinion about the war in Iowa as you went from SE (the longest settled) [. . .]
hairshirthedonist
+ <i>Why not a model focused on re-imagined Revolutionary War heritage and New England?</i> Not necessarily New England, but this was more of a thing when I [. . .]
+ You would think that charisma would be an obvious criterion for success in contemporary electoral politics, but somewhat oddly, that’s less often the case than [. . .]
Pro Bono
+ This may be the oddest picture I've ever taken: it's the Spourne Parclose, containing the tomb of John Ponder, in St Peter and St Paul's [. . .]
Liberal Japonicus
+ Speaking to novakant's point, I've been looking for clips from the New York mayoral debate and I'm really surprised that I don't see any. These [. . .]
novakant
+ How do you get coverage, online or otherwise, for the other side of that story?  Good question. My feeling is that much of the media is [. . .]
Liberal Japonicus
+ Michael's point about grain reminds me that it was countered by the King Cotton argument, where mills wouldn't be able to run without the cotton [. . .]
GftNC

lj, thanks for lengthening the Recent Posts list, and also for sorting out my link!

Michael Cain
+ Trump goes online and runs his mouth (fingers?) about make coal great again. The MSM covers his orders to keep a big coal-fired power [. . .]
Michael Cain
+ I don't know why they run the trucks-in-the-mountains ads in the rest of the country. In the 11-state contiguous western states, the vast majority [. . .]
Tony P.
+ Chris Hayes might be right: "I think we increasingly live in a postgaffe, even a postscandal society." Or he might be wrong. But I say this [. . .]
`wonkie
+ There is a mystique about the West that's every bit as bullshit ad the mystique about the South and similar in some ways. There's the [. . .]