Zorral

This is hilarious: The Mission, should you accept it, is to build a submarine made of cheese. May accepted The Mission to build a submarine made of cheese because she wanted to be Prime Minister.

Is book being made that in the not distant future the orange nazi is going to howl that he never said he'd shut down the government, he, himself and nobody else, because he's not getting what he wants? And that it was Hillary's emails and Obama's criminality that did it?

If you are partial to vacant and vacuous and pouty submissive pathetically attempting to pose as dominant . . . .

You may not want it there , but as the UK is as fully inhabited by saps, dupes and criminals in the ruling class as in the USA , it happened(s), so all ya all gotta own it.

Not all of us agreed with that either, particularly in the context of the era in which her character was placed and the character she was supposed to be. There was no charisma of any sort in her. No sorcerer, magician, wizard, shaman, etc., can manage without that.

She was not. She was risible. The actor who is Uhtred could barely stand being in scene with her.

Thanks. I shall just make myself comfy on the woolsack, shall I? BTW. there's an in-depth report tomorrow morning on the NPR network's "Morning Edition" of all the ways Russia has attacked internally and externally every nation in NATO. https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/? Putin etc. have fully allied themselves and support the white supremacy, anti-democracy, anti-public safety net movements throughout Europe and the US, providing funds and propaganda -- which it heavily funds too. Here, for instance, it funneled a lot of moola into the NRA, which then basically funded the 2016 Republican Convention. It's doing this sort of thing throughout the NATO and Euro nations, and has been for quite some years. Steve Bannon's been up in it to his bald spot for years. It's rather astounding how many Brits and USians are standing up in support of Russia, showing themselves as bigly saps as the orange nazi and his family members -- and o ya, and Saudi's part of this too, going back at least to the first Bush.

Hey! All you all are leaving off the list that brilliant solver of all problems, NY governor Andrew Cuomo, who the whole country knows by first name and admires o so much!

Guess which of the two is a subject of a US federal DOJ investigation including criminal collusion financial and other sorts of meddling with the 2016 election? Guess which one has been proved to have taken all sorts of means to push against European democracies? Even to the point of military invasion to re-establish its old 'empire'?

It also has a woolsack. Well, the House of Lords has a woolsack.

Ya, I believe this too. Calling Thyra and her arc stupid and that she did it to herself is mean and short-sighted, and just wrong. But fridging women to advance character arcs and plots for the male characters is something Cornwell does in all his series, most of which were written, including the first novels of the Saxon Stories, before Bechdel tests became known and before #Metoo gained so many members, many of whom were not even born during the writing of most of Cornwell's many books. Not that this didn't bother a lot of discerning readers even then. In fact, this is a primary reason I couldn't ever read his Sharpe series: any woman with whom the protag falls in love will either betray him or die. It was the formula, and it bored me silly. But men seemed to be the primary demo, both author and publisher thought, and they didn't mind at all, both publisher and author thought. It was a real shocker when it was noticed that at least as many women as men were passionately involved with the Saxon Tales -- if not more women, in fact. Just as the latest research has revealed, shockingly, that films with female leads, whether blockbusters, art films, indie movies, etc., make more money than those with male leads. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/11/movies/creative-artists-agency-study.html

BREXIT and the orange nazi's election are two parts of a concerted campaign. And alas, the two reinforce the full corruption and dysfuction of each other in both nations. (The campaign is also in other European countries too.) This has been discussed periodically in many a periodical / on media site. So there are lots of 'em when one googles.

We agree on that. All those old white guys / women that people are racing to put forth as Dem candidates are not good candidates. They are all what has made so many voters furious with the Dems in the first place.

Fantasy writer, Katharine Kerr, has produced a multi-volume "Celtic" series, known as the Deverry Cycle, with a further complication of reincarnation of the characters over eras and centuries. They don't know this, of course. But the Merlin-figure does. In about the middle of the series a figure much like Arthur shows up. The magician works a glamour spell on the fellow, that allows him to appear to shine, be taller, more handsome, charismatic, and so on, to attract and retain followers. He wasn't really that superior to everyone else, but the glamour helps him to appear so.

You don't count because this is your area of research and study. Of course you would know. I have heard of him because I follow far too closely for my own good politics both here and in other countries -- though that doesn't mean I actually know a whole lot, with a few exceptions. (I'm a lot better with the past than the present -- but then, so are most political operatives.) I guarantee you that even my midwestern relatives have never heard of the guy. They have heard, vaguely, some of them, mmmm, a few of them? at least two of them, that I can vouch for, of Beto O'Rourke -- because he's from Texas and Texas matters because, well, Texas! (In my family all the males believe deep inside he's a Texas cowboy, Texas Ranger, etc. Nevermind that a few of them also believe they are 17th Century Pirates of the Caribbean ....) This doesn't mean they like Beto O'Rourke. But they don't like Ted Cruz either, because of that foreign Catholic name . . . .