Brantley > Recent Status Updates

Translator is decent with most of it, but the semi rhyming translation of the chorus is absolutely killing me:

'Who can eliminate the seed, expel the household curse at last? / This family and dire catastrophe are glued together fast.'

Pure cringe.

"Conservatism rightly observes that progressivism's destination is a dead end, and progressivism rightly decries conservatism's nostalgia for a time that cannot be restored. Conservatives and progressives alike have advanced liberalism's project, and neither as constituted today can provide the new way forward that must be discerned outside our rutted path."

"Our electoral process today, however, appears more to be a Potemkin drama meant to convey the appearance of popular consent for a figure who will exercise in comparable arbitrary powers over domestic policy, International arrangements, and, especially, warmaking."

Author is positing that liberalism (not the kind opposed to conservatism but the broader, philosophical sort) has failed because of its success.

Pleasantly surprised. Keeps getting better.

First bout with magical realism. Certainly like a fever dream.

The new Star Wars novels are somewhat soulless, but there's a compelling threat to say the least.

Whigham's translation is kind of obnoxious.

Corey is hitting all the right notes.

Can't get enough of this series.

The 1876 presidential election was nuts; Grant had to send federal troops to halt murderous posses of Democrats who were forcibly suppressing black voters in the South.

Grant has been impugned unfairly by history. Currently on his creation of the Justice Department, his foundation of the first national park, and his efforts for civil rights.

Never knew that Grant was to have joined Lincoln at Ford's Theatre that fateful night and also saw John Wilkes Booth the day of the assassination. Wild stuff.

Inventive guy. Floated a bunch of ironclads and cargo ships down the Mississippi past Vicksburg in the dead of night in order to position troops secretly.

Touching words on Ted Kennedy and deep insight on the inside of the 2007-8 immigration bill battle.