Ersatz TLS discussion

Gpfr wrote: "Welcome to the new thread!
Good reading to all and here's hoping for good outcomes for all health issues, especially at the moment Robert & scarletnoir."

Thanks for the new thread! I am doing better, thank you.

Quarantine should end Friday, to the relief of my roommate and myself. Richard has lost his right leg below the knee, and had to wait for his stump to heal completely before he can be fitted with his prosthetic leg. Then the new work starts, and he's eager to start it.
Update on the reading material later.

AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "For anyone who can access it, and is interested, the new series of The Day of the Jackal is being aired on tv in the UK. It is on Sky Atlantic for Sky subscribers, and on Sky Sh..."

I agree. The original Day of the Jackal was itself a period piece; the filmmakers, in quick strokes, had to create the atmosphere of De Gaulle's time. They also had to tighten up the plot, keeping the story moving at a fast clip from the assassination attempt on De Gaulle to the OAS leadership's decision to hire a professional killer. a foreigner with no criminal record in France. It's held up well, and I'm not anxious to see it redone.

Robert wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Welcome to the new thread!
Good reading to all and here's hoping for good outcomes for all health issues, especially at the moment Robert & scarletnoir."

Thanks for the new thread! I ..."

good to hear this robert!

AB76 wrote: "my grandfather was a member of the Hardy Society and did talks and lectures, he got his love for Hardy via his mother, who was from Dorset...."

Your grandfather sounds a highly interesting chap. You were fortunate to have that closeness with him. I have found myself wishing I had my time over so that I could ask my grandparents all sorts of questions about their lives, the kind that just don’t occur to you when you’re young.

Robert wrote: "...The original Day of the Jackal was itself a period piece; the filmmakers, in quick strokes, had to create the atmosphere of De Gaulle's time... It's held up well, and I'm not anxious to see it redone."

I rather agree. The original Edward Fox version takes me right back to early 60s Paris. But I expect I’ll end up watching the new version. (I’m betting they will lose their nerve and not have Eddie Redmayne wear a cravat.) I read the book itself a year or so ago. For a first attempt at writing a novel it was pretty impressive. I’ve never read anything else by Frederick Forsyth.

Logger24 wrote: "Robert wrote: "...The original Day of the Jackal was itself a period piece; the filmmakers, in quick strokes, had to create the atmosphere of De Gaulle's time... It's held up well, and I'm not anxi..."

I've read, and enjoyed, quite a few of his books.

Logger24 wrote: "AB76 wrote: "my grandfather was a member of the Hardy Society and did talks and lectures, he got his love for Hardy via his mother, who was from Dorset...."

Your grandfather sounds a highly intere..."

he was a much loved example of all that is best in a loved one, a force of nature and a very kind man too, much missed, at his funeral his local church was overflowing

Logger24 wrote: "Robert wrote: "...The original Day of the Jackal was itself a period piece; the filmmakers, in quick strokes, had to create the atmosphere of De Gaulle's time... It's held up well, and I'm not anxi..."

i read the book recently too and was highly impressed, coming to it from having watched the film, recommended by my father in the 1990s

Robert wrote: "Quarantine should end Friday..."

Good news!

As it happens, I am reading a book where a whole (presumably fictional) town places itself in quarantine during the Spanish 'flu epidemic in 1917 - Thomas Mullen's The Last Town on Earth, having been impressed with his Atlanta black cop 'Darktown' series.

I mistakenly thought it was his latest, but it was his first novel written some 10 years before Darktown, and it won some prizes. It's well written, including details about the lifestyle of the loggers in a small town near Seattle, and the 'Everett massacre' where there was an armed confrontation between vigilanties (some paid by mill owners) and members of a radical trade union. It does feel a bit slower going than Darktown, however.

This book seems a bit prescient now, as it was published in 2006, many years before COVID.

Next novel up for me after Conan-Doyle, is an Irish classic from 1974 The Leavetaking by John McGahern.

I enjoyed one of his 1960s novels and a 1980s collection of short stories, plus there have been some good articles in the literary press in last 18 months. NYRB Classics have published his l;ate 1970s novel The Pornographer with a striking cover of Dublin at night

I hope to find it a novel of the interior mind, with scant plotting and a thoughtful poise, though it may be very different.

AB76 wrote: "Next novel up for me after Conan-Doyle, is an Irish classic from 1974 The Leavetaking by John McGahern.

I enjoyed one of his 1960s novels and a 1980s collection of short stories, plus there have..."

Speaking of things Irish, have you ever read Sheridan Le Fanu? Dorothy Sayers, in her wonderful Omnibus of Crime anthology, has praise for Le Fanu, and she included a reference to him in one of her Peter Wimsey novels-- Nine Tailors, I think.

Le Fanu wrote two types of stories: Gothic mystery novels, where the reader expects the uncanny atmosphere to turn ghostly, and short stories of the pure supernatural.

Sherdan Le Fanu was as interested in psychology, and as careful in sketching place and character, as Poe-- they were roughly contemporary writers.
In the Irishman's stories, who the narrator is is as important as what happens. A young provincial peasant girl turned house servant, as in Madame Crowl's Ghost, finds much to worry and confuse her; the supernatural comes in gradually.

As for an older girl of a higher social class, like the beautiful officer's daughter in Carmilla, the setting is equally Gothic-- schloss in the Austrian forest-- the characters are multilingual, the father insists on English being spoken at the dinner table but is always thwarted, and the uncanny is woven together with Laura's sexuality. The story needs a point of disturbance, and it arrives in dramatic fashion.
His Gothic mystery novel Uncle Silas is a locked room mystery, though so much peril is sensed by the heroine that we can lose track of it. The novel stayed in print long after Le Fanu himself was gone.
In all of these stories, the Victorian present looks back at the much harsher eighteenth century-- Whig days, a time hungry for property, backed by ferocious laws protecting it.

A note on current reading: my sister loaned me a copy of A Heart Full of Headstones, a police procedural by Ian Rankin. It's apparently a part of a long series following a detective named John Rebus. The book is set in Edinburgh at the end of the Covid shutdown, and Rebus, a retired detective, is restless. Apparently in earlier novels Rebus, a widower, cut rather a swath among bright younger women, women now detectives themselves, or in the coroner's office. The police work of the women, still active on the force, and the snooping of Rebus, produce two different storylines. I think that I've figured out the connection, but have more mystery to go.
After the fantasy of The Night Circus, I wanted to re-read Robertson Davies' World of Wonders. The fascination we find in illusion, from the seedy carnival where a Canadian boy named Paul Dempster spent his formative years (he was carried off by a creep), work as a busker, the turn of fortune that makes him a man of all work in a theater, are rich storytelling, but Davies presents the worlds of illusion in warts-and-all detail, though Davies always includes notes of the Gothic. Davies was a playwright as well as a novelist, and he wrote in complete scenes.
The third book, also one I'd ordered, is Black Easter by James Blish. It's a story of black magic with not one but three Faustian bargains, and no sooner did I finish the book than I went back and re-read Blish's strong scenes. His main villain, Dr. Ware, professes to have no humor, but has a sharp satiric tongue.
All for now.

Robert wrote: "A note on current reading: my sister loaned me a copy of A Heart Full of Headstones, a police procedural by Ian Rankin. It's apparently a part of a long series following a detective named John Rebu..."

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/r/ia...

Here you are Robert, I think you will find quite a few of us have read the series. Without trying to put a damper in it, I think you may enjoy all his earlier ones more, if you can get hold of them. So, if you aren't too keep on this one, don't let it put you off.

Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Next novel up for me after Conan-Doyle, is an Irish classic from 1974 The Leavetaking by John McGahern.

I enjoyed one of his 1960s novels and a 1980s collection of short stories, plus..."

i did try some Le Fanu over time but was underwhelmed, alongside Bram Stoker, he is a famed Anglo-Irish Protestant writer of the uncanny but while i love Stoker, i have never warmed to Le Fanu

But i can see the value of Le Fanu, his story is an interesting one and i would link him with Hoffmann, Kliest and the earlier German romantic writers

giveusaclue wrote: "I think you will find quite a few of us have read the series. Without trying to put a damper in it, I think you may enjoy all his earlier ones more, if you can get hold of them. So, if you aren't too keep on this one, don't let it put you off...."

I agree - although the early Rebus tales were a bit inconsistent, Rankin settled into a very good rhythm with the middle period... now that he's* a codger like me, I find the tales less interesting though I expect I'll read this one sooner or later.

BTW - I really don't remember Rebus being much of a womaniser in 'real time' - is that something Rankin has introduced retrospectively in this one, looking back? He always seemed more interested in drinking beer and in obscure Scottish rock bands. Indeed, he was even married in the very early novels, though it didn't last.

*Edit: I mean Rebus, not Rankin!

scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "I think you will find quite a few of us have read the series. Without trying to put a damper in it, I think you may enjoy all his earlier ones more, if you can get hold of them...."

No,. he definitely wasn't a womaniser.

giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "I think you will find quite a few of us have read the series. Without trying to put a damper in it, I think you may enjoy all his earlier ones more, if you c..."

I think that part of the comment should have been addressed to Robert - my mistake!

Oh dear. Here is the review I posted of



November 11, 2024
Sorry Dan, I have loved all your non fiction historical books, they are great. However, although I finished Essex Dogs which was only ok, I have given up on this one after about 70 pages. Whilst I know that you should expect pretty foul language from this bunch, you can have too much of a not so good thing. The story line is disjointed and does not have a flow and asks you to suspend disbelief too often. A soldier who spends most of his time high on hallucinogenic drugs, which he just happens to have a steady supply of, would not be a crack archer. And the portrayal of Prince Edward, the future Black Prince, is wholly unconvincing. Add to that a woman of Amazonian build as a member of the army??

Such a shame because I hoped that after his first foray into fiction his style might have improved, but it hasn't.

giveusaclue wrote: "Oh dear. Here is the review I posted of
Wolves of Winter ..."

Definitely sounds like one not to try!

i'm 70% into Jozef Czapskis memoir of WW2 Inhuman Land and its an amazingly rich kaleidoscope of nations, peoples and experiences in a minor key

Captured as the USSR plundered eastern Poland in 1939, Czapski faced months in savage conditions in Soviet POW camps, before being released top join the Anders Army near Samara. Stalin had granted, with Allied influence, the forming of a Polish Army on Soviet soil. The irony was that the POles forming the army were all victims of the 1939-41 vicious deportations and killings he set in place. Czapski chronicles the oceans of misery that descend on Samara, women, children and the men, starving, emaciated and in dire need of medical attention, on the freezing Russian plains.

He then moves south towards Iran, as it becomes clear Stalin has no desire to feed or clothe 80,000 Poles or more, who he was killing or using as slave labour a year before. Eventually he has ended up in Mashad, Iran, as the Anders Army prepares to join the Allies in Iraq. The legions of starving and dying Polish children he accompanies to Iran is shocking, all victims of Stalin and Czapski still wonders where 20,000 of the Polish soldiers he was in camp with have vanished to (executed at Katyn by Stalin). The women and children he accompanies to Mashad, then head off to Bombay.

One has to wonder if there was a crueller system than what Stalin achieved in his misreable 20 odd years as dictator. The contradictions, the apathy, the cruelty, the brazen alliance with Hitler that led to one half of Poland being terrorised by Stalins henchman.

AB76 wrote: "i'm 70% into Jozef Czapskis memoir of WW2 Inhuman Land and its an amazingly rich kaleidoscope of nations, peop..."

Makes you wonder what separates the far right from the far left doesn't it? Perhaps they should all come under the one heading "extremists."

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "i'm 70% into Jozef Czapskis memoir of WW2 Inhuman Land and its an amazingly rich kaleidoscope of n..."

yes, the only difference i think between 1933-45 was that the Nazi system seemed less arbitary than the soviet one, if you were to fall victim(i mean if you were a german as opposed to a soviet national). The Nazi's laid down a racist, vile system but didnt muddy those waters as much,while with Stalin even his most loyal henchman and many loyal common citizens could find themselves in a gulag or dead with minimal reason or logic

Surviving under the Nazi system as a loyalist seemed logical and easy i think until the SS court martials of Jan-Apr 1945 where i guess it became mob rule. Under the USSR i would imagine you had no idea how secure you were, of course for dissedents in both regimes, it was very dangerous, but yet again it depended who you were in Germany, while in the USSR nobody was safe

I remember an article on the hotel in Moscow where foreign communists stayed and during the 1930s purges your death could simply be due to an odd number on your hotel door, 101 rather than 102...knock knock...out you go. (In Nazi Germany it was never that random)

But both systems were extrmist, cruel and most foul, sadly Stalin had many many more years than Hitler to deal out his cruel methods...if only both had been wiped out in 1945

AB76 wrote: "...But both systems were extrmist, cruel and most foul, sadly Stalin had many many more years than Hitler to deal out his cruel methods...if only both had been wiped out in 1945."

Or if Lenin hadn’t suffered his incapacitating strokes in 1922, at the point when, finally onto Stalin, he was planning to recommend his removal as General Secretary. Stalin might have been just a footnote in accounts of the Revolution… But then, who else would have galvanized the Russian defence to the German invasion? The ifs of history.

Logger24 wrote: "AB76 wrote: "...But both systems were extrmist, cruel and most foul, sadly Stalin had many many more years than Hitler to deal out his cruel methods...if only both had been wiped out in 1945."

Or ..."

i think whoever led the USSR in 1941 would have defeated the Germans, Russia was too vast for Napoleon and the USSR was even vaster for Hitler. I would have imagined a longer war but i dont think the Germans would have got much past Stalingrad or Moscow and could they succeed if thye had to fight another huge urban battle for Samara, or Baku or Novogrod?

giveusaclue wrote: "Makes you wonder what separates the far right from the far left doesn't it? Perhaps they should all come under the one heading "extremists.".."

Oh, indeed. I don't think the terms 'left' and 'right' mean much in this context... what we are talking about is the difference between democracy (of whatever sort) and autocracy.

I suppose 'left' means roughly a system where the state controls quite a few things - say power and transport systems - whereas 'right' implies a belief that 'the market' can be trusted to find the most efficient way to run things. Both can be linked to either a democratic or an autocratic view of the system of government.

AB76 wrote: "Surviving under the Nazi system as a loyalist seemed logical and easy..."

H'm. I think you are going a bit easy on the Nazis there - it didn't work out so well for Ernst Röhm, did it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_o...

scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Makes you wonder what separates the far right from the far left doesn't it? Perhaps they should all come under the one heading "extremists.".."

Oh, indeed. I don't think the te..."

Good points scarlet

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Surviving under the Nazi system as a loyalist seemed logical and easy..."

H'm. I think you are going a bit easy on the Nazis there - it didn't work out so well for Ernst Röhm, did it?..."

i always saw rohm as an agitator and an outspoken, ex military man, a dangerous rival for a canny Adolf Hitler, despite his position in the party. i;'m suprised rohm lasted so long

giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "I think you will find quite a few of us have read the series. Without trying to put a damper in it, I think you may enjoy all his earlier ones more, if you c..."

It was only a guess. Rebus, who favors the "just barge in" theory of human relations, asks his former colleagues for a lot of favors, mostly information, and favors are provided, though under protest. These women put up with a lot from Rebus, which gave me the impression that they were old girlfriends or former lovers.

AB76 wrote: "...i think whoever led the USSR in 1941 would have defeated the Germans, Russia was too vast for Napoleon and the USSR was even vaster for Hitler. I would have imagined a longer war but i dont think the Germans would have got much past Stalingrad or Moscow and could they succeed if thye had to fight another huge urban battle for Samara, or Baku or Novogrod?."

I think you're right on the vastness of the USSR, but it's interesting to speculate, isn't it? I think the Germans, if they hadn't suffered the disaster of Stalingrad, would have had a real go at capturing distant Baku and its vital oilfields.

Logger24 wrote: "AB76 wrote: "...i think whoever led the USSR in 1941 would have defeated the Germans, Russia was too vast for Napoleon and the USSR was even vaster for Hitler. I would have imagined a longer war bu..."

yes, but supply lines by then would be ridiculously stretched and only reliable with air superiority, the problem the Germans would have had was manpower and materiel vs the much deeper Soviet resources to fight a long war.

The Black Loch, the sequel to Peter May's Lewis trilogy.
His hero, Fin MacLeod, comes back to the island where his son is accused of murder. It's pretty exciting.
There's rather more than I maybe wished to know about salmon farming which will definitely make one even more careful about what salmon one eats.

Donald Trumps remarkable and alarming election win is starting to make me look back to the dissolution of the monastaries in the 16c, where the entire system of hundreds of years of monastic life was dismembered and plundered

Project 2025, Kevin Roberts, Elon Musk and others, all will have significant chances to destroy the existing american pillars, hollow them out and weaken them in the next 2 years at least (losing congress or the senate may subdue them in the second 2 years).

it makes me wonder about a MAGA trope, the so called "deep state", if it does exist, i wonder how it will stop the damage that trump will do? I fully expect a third term as well...

Some of the cabinet nominees make me wonder if i'm dreaming, like Kirstie Noem, who shot her "disobedient" dog and then did the same to the pet goat, who she didnt like the look of....these are dangerous times!

it was good to see Biden offering a smooth transition today and Harris conceding without the pantomime antics of Trump in 2020

Gpfr wrote: " The Black Loch, the sequel to Peter May's Lewis trilogy.
His hero, Fin MacLeod, comes back to the island where his son is accused of murder. I..."

That is one I am looking forward to reading.

AB76 wrote: "Donald Trumps remarkable and alarming election win is starting to make me look back to the dissolution of the monastaries in the 16c, where the entire system of hundreds of years of monastic life w..."

Trying to steer clear of politics here but:

Telegraph - Allison Pearson - Twitter - Police - 12 month old tweet which they won't divulge and they won't tell her who or what has been complained about.

Then they asked for her email address so they could contact her, when they were on her doorstep and had her home address.

Meanwhile don't get burgled or shoplifted.

giveusaclue wrote: "Telegraph - Allison Pearson - Twitter - Police - 12 month old tweet which they won't divulge and they won't tell her who or what has been complained about."

I have no liking for Allison Pearson, but if that is a fair summary then it does seem pretty silly. I doubt that she's losing any sleep over it though - those people tend to have good lawyers, if they need them.

I see that the Booker prize has been won by Samantha Harvey for Orbital - a day in the life of astronauts circling the earth. It sounds better (more accessible and readable, less pretentious) than most Booker winners, so I may give it a go in 5 years' time.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
I'd have liked to see Percival Everett win it, but as the only man out of six finalists the odds were always against... as a woman hadn't won for several years, it wouldn't have been a 'good look' if a man won it this year.

scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Telegraph - Allison Pearson - Twitter - Police - 12 month old tweet which they won't divulge and they won't tell her who or what has been complained about."

I have no liking fo..."

But what if it happens (and has) to Joe Bloggs who hasn't got a good lawyer?

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Donald Trumps remarkable and alarming election win is starting to make me look back to the dissolution of the monastaries in the 16c, where the entire system of hundreds of years of mo..."

scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Telegraph - Allison Pearson - Twitter - Police - 12 month old tweet which they won't divulge and they won't tell her who or what has been complained about."

I have no liking fo..."

Pearson has been a sloppy, careless commentator for a good decade, in my youth i remember she wrote nonsense for a paper but in the last decade she has become unhinged

Kudos to the G for removing themselves as a paper from Twitter/X. Musk is a vey powerful man and now a part of the new Trump government, he should be made to divest his interest in X but wait...his new dept is not part of the govt....how convenient but will be "advising" Trump on thousands of redundancies....for the civil service

i'm no fan of wokery, especially the G wokerati who delete posts on What We Are Reading but X has become a swamp since Musk tookover and there is alarming evidence of memes about "making men great again", with Andrew Tate prominent

Accounts of China and India, though only 75 pages long has been a wonderful read

As its set before the Europeans made their ways into the Indian Ocean area, these are commentaries on peoples un-distorted by colonialism and race. One gets a picture of groups of people mutually interested in each others culture and traditions.

Violence can be quick and arbitary but one gets a feel for the curioisity of the arab travellers who compiled these accounts

A waterstones bookseller recommended me Phillipe Sands account of the Chagos Islands dispute The Last Colony. Thankfully Sir Keir has given the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius but it seems there is anger now that the 3,000 or so Chagossians deported by the Brits didnt get a say in the situation

Sands will no doubt educate me further. I see that Nigel Farage has commented that his great friend, the president-elect Donald Trump, is not happy with the deal

Has anyone read Hillbilly Elegy by vice president Vance?

I'm tempted to have a spell of "reading the enemy", so trying to get to grips with President Trump and others via their writings.

A few people i know have spoken highly of the Vance book, despite not being MAGA enthusiasts

AB76 wrote: "Kudos to the G for removing themselves as a paper from Twitter/X. Musk is a vey powerful man and now a part of the new Trump government..."

Indeed. I have never joined X and never posted there... the sooner Musk takes his one-way trip to Mars, the better.

As for the G... a lot of good and some bad - which is better than the converse. Their mods are incredibly thin skinned... recently, someone posted a response to one of my comments which was rather apologetic in tone, but the comments were closed. I eventually found them commenting on another topic, and responded that no apology was necessary... but I also mentioned, without any criticism, that I had failed to respond in the 'appropriate thread' since the comments had closed there.

The comment never appeared.

Hollywood by Charles Bukowski

I read a couple of Bukowskis quite a few years ago - 'Post Office' and 'Ham on Rye' - and liked them well enough, without feeling like reading his whole back catalogue... Recently I saw this book recommended somewhere (here? WWR?) and so decided to give it a go, as I like cinema. It tells the thinly fictionalised tale of the making of 'Barfly', a film scripted by 'Chinaski' (Bukowski's alter ego) - the film is called 'The Dance of Jim Beam' in the book, which is a better title, IMO. The film harks back to a period 30-40 years previous, when Bukowski lived with an older woman - Jane Cooney Baker - a fellow alcoholic who died young.

The driving force behind this project was Barbet Schroeder (Jon Pinchot in the book), an Iranian-Swiss filmmaker who admired Bukowski's writing... he persuades the reluctant author to write a screenplay, and manages somehow to get the finance together from crazed producers 'Friedman and Fischman' (in real life, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus of the Cannon group), whose MO seemed to be to beat everyone down to the lowest possible price then to claim that there was NO MONEY (they do shout a lot) and THE PICTURE IS CANCELLED! in order to shave a few more % off the costs.

Eventually, the money is found and the film gets made... Bukowski is not a 'great writer', but he is a good storyteller... he recounts many amusing anecdotes about those involved in the process, and either has astonishing recall or is able to recreate a lot of conversations in what feels like a realistic style. A couple of examples of the tales: at one point, he is at a gathering of film people where the famous director 'Modard' (obviously, Godard) refuses to talk to anyone and is "standing in a corner, being a genius". As put-downs go, that's both short and effective. Later, the film's female lead (Faye Dunaway in real life) insists that 'Chinaski' write an extra scene where she can show off her legs because "I have great legs!". This one must be true, as the trailer for Barfly features Dunaway's legs most prominently:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092618/...

To sum up: this is a rather meandering novel which I strongly suspect doesn't stray very far from reality as regards the bonkers way some people in Hollywood go about their business. It has many funny tales about the individuals and the process of getting the film financed, made and released. In the meantime, 'Chinaski' and his girlfriend drink a lot and he gambles on the horses... there was rather too much about Chinaski's betting systems for my taste, but then I don't gamble.

But was I entertained overall? Oh, yes.

scarletnoir wrote: "Hollywood by Charles Bukowski

I read a couple of Bukowskis quite a few years ago - 'Post Office' and 'Ham on Rye' - and liked them well enough, without feeling like reading his whole back catalogue..."

I’ve never read any Bukowski. Sounds as though this might be one to try. I like the story of Great Legs Dunaway.

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Kudos to the G for removing themselves as a paper from Twitter/X. Musk is a vey powerful man and now a part of the new Trump government..."

Indeed. I have never joined X and never pos..."

trump will be vicious on the wokerati, there is no doubt, its just a shame the G doesnt have more balance when it moderates harmless stuff about books!

I wonder what will be left of the USA in 4 years....for the american right these are exciting times, they can do whatever they like, at any time. for the american left this is going to be a very painful 4 years and i would imagine court cases will begin against many top democrats, trump will pardon the January 6th rioters and January 6th will become a national holiday....i hope not, of course

I never joined FB, Twitter/X, Friends Reunited, or anything else was never interested in doing so. Musk is likely to make sure anyone in the civil service who works on regulating silicon valley and his companies will be sacked first, i dont think i have ever seen such a serious conflict of interests but Trump can do whatever he likes now

AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Kudos to the G for removing themselves as a paper from Twitter/X. Musk is a vey powerful man and now a part of the new Trump government..."

Indeed. I have never jo..."

It's not so far away from the McCarthyite era though. I think the US has been there before, somehow... And that is, in a way, the problem. The US is very used to using, and abusing, power (and so were we, at the height of the British Empire!) and so is Putin, and Russia, and many other National 'states' these days.

I kind of see the benefits of small principalities, as long as they stick to local issues that is... Perhaps the end result might be that the US States 'defederlise'? eventually. Whenever they find out whatever the majority, within the state, is believing in, that they, individually, want to go in very separate ways, and based on very different principles, which should, surely, be acknowledged, under the principles of free expression, from the far right, which they are so happy to bang on about?...

I'm not sure that the far right will be all that happy, about losing size, power, and status though. What made my day, today, is that 'The Onion' has bought up Alex Jones's 'Infowars,' at the bankruptcy auction https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c...

Tam wrote: "AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Kudos to the G for removing themselves as a paper from Twitter/X. Musk is a vey powerful man and now a part of the new Trump government..."

Indeed. I ..."

i think whats changed from 2016, was that trump made mistakes and the wily state system had him cornered at many levels, there were people prepared to speak out and he was stymied at every turn on small and big issues

the difference now is that trump has both houses, a plaint supreme court, a supplicant EU and an ally he can bully (the UK, though thankfully with no Tory govt). The concern for me is that his changes will go beyond him, he only needed 4 years and the help of the desperate and dishonest McConnell to move the SC to the right, which is probably the most damage Trump has done

Maybe the right wing who loathe Trump are quietly happy with the SC change, which will last for decades, and less concerned about deporting thousands of people, handing Ukraine to Putin and having tea with Kim Jong Un(while giving his soldiers medals for their service in Ukraine)

Whether the Senate will confirm Gaetz as AG will be a definitive test of the loyalty and submissiveness of the Republican majority there.

But wait… maybe he could do it as a recess appointment, which would avoid all the difficulty of a confirmation hearing, and that’s what Trump means when he says he doesn’t want any interference from the Senate on recess appointments. It seems he is contemplating that the new Senate majority leader should just call a recess when the Senate would otherwise be in regular session. Does calling a recess require a vote? Don’t know. Difficult to believe there would be 50 GOP Senators ready to vote away their constitutional role, and so transparently.

Logger24 wrote: "Whether the Senate will confirm Gaetz as AG will be a definitive test of the loyalty and submissiveness of the Republican majority there.

But wait… maybe he could do it as a recess appointment, wh..."

Yes, the fact he needs to call for recess appointments just shows impatience and the lack of concern for due process. He has the majority to pass all his nominees (except for Gaetz), so should really do the right thing here, of course it will take time but why rush in? Unless he has some even more ghoulish cabinet proposals in mind than Neom and Gaetz

i think many will do what Trump wants sadly, if that involves obedience and voting away constitutional roles, so be it. I would imagine like many things in the famed american consititution of loopholes, there doesnt need to be a vote! Not many checks and balances have managed to stop or change Trump yet. He has been sly with Musk, who can now work outside the govt and its guidelines but get access to all the civil service records and areas of work and cut the ones he doesnt want, like anti-trust etc, Musk is winner on this one.

Of course like the equally nonsensical brexit vote, we will see 51% of the USA getting what they wanted and 49% fustrated, with no compromises. Like with Brexit where it seemed the hardest, most damaging divorce from the EU was the only way.

Logger24 wrote: "AB76 wrote: "...i think whoever led the USSR in 1941 would have defeated the Germans, Russia was too vast for Napoleon and the USSR was even vaster for Hitler. I would have imagined a longer war bu..."

Oddly enough, it seems that Goering sensed the problems before Hitler or the Army's generals. About a month after the invasion of Russia, Hitler called a conference of his advisors. His generals were exulting over their victories in Russia, and the tone, as Hitler put it, was that it was only a matter of cutting up the cake. In opposition to this, Goering raised two major points: food and communications, both problems caused by the sheer scale of the invasion.
In his interrogation at Nuremberg, the chief Soviet prosecutor asked Goering about this conference. Goering stated that he did not want to be drawn into "these endless discussions" about the annexation of territory. "After the war there would be a treaty of peace, and then we could annex what territory served our purposes. As an old hunter, I knew not to divide the bear's skin before the bear is shot."
Soviet Prosecutor: "Fortunately, the bear was not shot."
Goering: "Fortunately for you."