General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDown with all monarchies
Enough with this useless diversion.
The only good news is that Covid-19 will prevent a circus like funeral.
That is all.
Celerity
(43,360 posts)malaise
(268,998 posts)Enough of this bullshit
Tommymac
(7,263 posts)Ah well, at least they get an unscripted soap opera in return.
And America gets a preview of what we have so far narrowly avoided, a T**** duck dynasty.
3Hotdogs
(12,376 posts)Last edited Fri Apr 9, 2021, 11:34 PM - Edit history (1)
My favorite was Charles, his cell phone tapped, telling Camila he wished he could be reborn as her tampon. Now that beats any and all of Shakespeare's sonnets.
panader0
(25,816 posts)They showed a box of tampons with human heads and there was Charles.
LittleGirl
(8,287 posts)Thanks for sharing.
Weird.
malaise
(268,998 posts)He really said that?
certainot
(9,090 posts)malaise
(268,998 posts)Jack from Charlotte
(2,367 posts)It's a real good money maker for The UK. Queen/King is just like Mickey Mouse is for Disneyland/World. They're an attraction. American's especially love these people. Remember when Windsor Castle burned in the 90's? The repair/rebuild cost was huge. Queen sold tickets to tour Buckingham for a few months that paid for the whole repair. Created thousands of jobs and all paying taxes.
All those "Royal" properties bring in huge revenues. The royals just get to use them while they're alive. BF deal. They don't take them with them when they die.
I'd love to see a full financial analysis of Versailles. Built in the 1600's by King Louie. Last I read it costs $55 for admission and that's a bargain. There are 10 million visitors per year. With the train ride, food etc the income is about a billion $$ per year. It ain't moving to Orlando, either. Have to go to Paris.
So just think of the queen and other royals as the money making mascots of the country.
AZProgressive
(29,322 posts)Though I'm not interested in the Queen. They have beautiful landscape & historic sites they don't really need them for tourism.
If England wants to keep them that is up to them but when it comes to the Commonwealth they should probably try to work on unresolved issues with colonalism.
brooklynite
(94,562 posts)...and can remove their monarchies if they really want to.
Response to brooklynite (Reply #4)
Post removed
Mysterian
(4,587 posts)Anyone born into such a family with any dignity would remove themselves from it.
IrishAfricanAmerican
(3,816 posts)arlyellowdog
(866 posts)Layzeebeaver
(1,623 posts)The UK Royal Family's wealth is staggering when compared to the plight of the poor and working poor.
If she really was committed to caring for "Her people" there wold be a completely different way of engagement between the "Royal" family and the other families of Britain.
I live here. Can't stand them.
certainot
(9,090 posts)it's established (Political Conservatism As Motivated Social Cognition, for eg) that authoritarians have a need to avoid and are more easily frightened by uncertainty. authoritarianism is sometimes measured with the Uncertainty Avoidance Index.
what causes people to elevate and worship other people as gods is their i'm-never-wrong royal certitude (trump, etc). the sex on the wrong brain theory claims right handed masturbation can increase the irrational need for certainty (Certainty Deficit Disorder) because the right hand is connected to the left side of the brain, associating impatient satisfaction-demanding finality-demanding reproductive urges with mental processes like logic, etc. that should be patient and objective. greed is another major symptom, caused by associating sex with math, numbers, etc.....
the sowb theory claims that's the secret of authoritarian power and by design or default authoritarian systems repress sex. fear forces authoritarians to create certainty and they do it with with simplification, reduction, absolutism, racism, discrimination, etc. the pyramid - royalty up here, everyone else down here. everyone's scrambling over each other.
according to the theory our ape-like ancestors became increasingly right handed over millions of years because sex on the wrong brain gave right handers survival advantages in times of conflict etc. it got really bad in the last few thousand years when populations grew and more of them began to delay the age of reproduction (with the help of non-nature based religion, etc). high-sowb 'old world' meets low-sowb 'new world'. it suggests some populations may have selected for brain structure that favored particular preferred symptoms of sex on the wrong brain and that some racism may be inherited that way..
royalty and the 'high born' were less likely to experience real sex until they were old enough. basically, proud boys, boko haram, isis are masturbation cults.
a favorite bit from the book
Lulu's eyes closed and she dozed off to the rhythmic squeaking.
She went back to Wisconsin, to the little cabin her parents had rented for a summer of fishing and swimming when they were trying to help her get away from the immediate backlash from her phone call to Hack Rimmington.
Now the little one room cabin was floating in mud and covered in grime. It was drizzling and there was junk and trash everywhere. The mosquitoes were big.
A miserable boy in rags, dirty and tired, scraped a hoe in a small dirt patch in the back.
"Fadra! Is that you?"
The young farmer slowly straightened up and looked around. He saw a well dressed boy his own age getting out of a limousine.
"It is I, Gladriel!" said the happy boy. "Remember? We would play together for hours while your mother serviced my father!"
Gladriel hugged Fadra but gagged on the smell.
"Those certainly were wonderful days!" said Gladriel.
"Sure. But then your father outlawed rubbers and abortions and now I have eight kids."
"Eight! Wow! Congratulations! We really need them!"
"I barely even have the energy to jack off."
"Oh, how I envy you! An army of crones watch me like hawks until I can marry the beautiful Ismarelda and rule the county. My father's mansion is full of buxom young slaves and I can do nothing all day BUT jack off!"
He made a right handed pumping motion.
His eyes got bigger and bigger.
"I...am...going...CRAZY, dude!"
Lulu came back to the squeaking, with the zombie cop still pumping away at the front of the van.
Layzeebeaver
(1,623 posts)up until I was about 15 I jacked-off with both hands.
Switch to only my right and voted for Regan in 1980
Switched to only my left after that and voted democratic ever sense.
TRUE!
certainot
(9,090 posts)to use both hands
for guys the general mechanics ensures most will use the dominant hand
Layzeebeaver
(1,623 posts)...one cannot forget the B^!!$
So there's another hand occupied.
This is hilarious - and must stop now!
certainot
(9,090 posts)malaise
(268,998 posts)panader0
(25,816 posts)I knew it would dominate the news today, and probably for days to come. Monarchies are
a relic, a bad relic of the long ago past, and an anachronism in this time.
Just another man, with no more actual importance than your next door neighbor.
He was very lucky to live to 99, and I'm sure he had the best medical care money
could buy.
malaise
(268,998 posts)It's all bullshit with deadly consequences
llmart
(15,539 posts)It sure was for Diana.
I am so glad Harry and Meghan are choosing the path THEY want for themselves.
malaise
(268,998 posts)because he was royally entitled to do as he pleased
jimfields33
(15,801 posts)We dont like monarch here so we dont have one. but we should not have a say in other countries.
Celerity
(43,360 posts)so we have skin in the game. I have a 3rd connection, as my mum is a dual UK/Barbados citizen (Barbados is also in the Commonwealth).
we joke that these fools swear to the queen and her hairs (not heirs). It's twice as funny when they drop the h
wnylib
(21,464 posts)Very, very distant, of course.
I've never worked out the degree of relationship because it is extremely thin. How many generations since 1369 CE? Maybe something like 143rd cousin, 72 times removed. We all have family skeletons to live down.
I was thinking of you, Malaise, when I heard about the evacuations. Hope you're in a safe area.
Gotta go now. Getting my 2nd Moderna in about an hour.
malaise
(268,998 posts)wnylib
(21,464 posts)the shot. I expect I will feel it this evening.
Did not even feel the first shot, but the arm was sore within a half hour and got worse as time went on. Soreness lasted a few days but was tolerable.
This time I felt a sting as the shot went in. No arm sorenes yet. Actually felt energetic after the shot, but I think that was relief at finally having both of them.
malaise
(268,998 posts)for half a day
wnylib
(21,464 posts)how much of my ignorance of Caribbean geography I revealed in a previous post. I mentioned the evacuation on St. Vincent because of the volcano and wondered if you were in a safe place.
So, I know the larger islands and their locations - Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica. And the Bahamas. But the strings of smaller Caribbean Islands are a jumbled mess in my mind regarding their locations. I had no idea where St. Vincent was until I just looked it up after hearing that the volcano finally blew today. So far from Jamaica that you wouldn't even see the ash in the air.
Oh well. I learned something.
Vincy (as we call her) is in the Eastern Caribbean - part of the Windward Islands in the Lesser Antilles. We're Northern Caribbean.
I posted a Caribbean map on the original volcano thread. The capitol of St Vincent is Kingstown and we're Kingston so I'll give you a break.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=15319069
wnylib
(21,464 posts)(How embarrassing.)
malaise
(268,998 posts)Trust me
wnylib
(21,464 posts)a lot of Americans wouldn't do too well on US geography.
llmart
(15,539 posts)However, we are allowed to have an "opinion", and that's different.
malaise
(268,998 posts)The US has never had a problem intervening in other countries and pretending that it is about democracy, when (in reality) it is all about controlling resources.
jaxexpat
(6,828 posts)IrishAfricanAmerican
(3,816 posts)Dream Girl
(5,111 posts)And there is at lest one Brit on this thread. Were not all American.
Mysterian
(4,587 posts)The concept of royalty is an affront to human dignity.
Some nations are maintaining their royalty as an historical novelty. Other nations have a true monarchy which is just another term for hereditary dictatorship. People in a dictatorship have not chosen their system of government, it has been forced upon them at the end of a gun. The USA should oppose dictatorships everywhere.
IrishAfricanAmerican
(3,816 posts)Some "historical novelties" need to be erased, (i.e., Confederate flags, statues, "Southern heritage," etc.) That includes the racist, unethical institutions of "royalty."
kcr
(15,317 posts)Silent3
(15,212 posts)I sure didn't see that, just an expression of distaste for monarchies.
Do you believe the OP shouldn't even express an opinion on the matter?
Jon King
(1,910 posts)Why people support and fawn over people whose entire accomplishment was being born is beyond me. No offense but that William and his kids are utterly average and unremarkable in every way yet the media worships their every move.
and they perpetuate and promote inequality.
Many folks who work in media are royalists.
Tommymac
(7,263 posts)The US MSM is not too far behind...I'm cringing over the royalist goop that will come out of The Sunday Morning Shows now.
The guy died. May he rest in peace.
As I hope the almost 3 MILLION regular people who have died from COVID globally over the coarse of the Pandemic do too.
But THEY will not get many TV shows to discuss THEIR lives, which I dare say were probably more relevant and productive.
CaptainTruth
(6,591 posts)Mysterian
(4,587 posts)Anyone born a "royal" with any shred of dignity would throw down the trappings and reject the titles.
This is why I admire Henry David.
FSogol
(45,485 posts)Response to malaise (Original post)
sinkingfeeling This message was self-deleted by its author.
multigraincracker
(32,677 posts)lastlib
(23,233 posts)Last edited Fri Apr 9, 2021, 11:51 AM - Edit history (1)
...That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men...that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it..."
Res ipsa loquitor.
malaise
(268,998 posts)Can't be both
Roisin Ni Fiachra
(2,574 posts)by the news media 24/7.
My grandfather's brother sold an English Lord/Landlord a red mare with the stipulation that he could buy it back from him as soon as he got the money to buy her back. When the revolution drove the Lords/Landlords out of Ireland the nasty entitled POS burned his stable with all the horses in it, because he said "the Irish don't know how to treat their animals".
I am owed much beer and travel money, and a good horse.
Down with all monarchies, hereditary titles, and other such nonsense.
Loki Liesmith
(4,602 posts)Demnation
(391 posts)Americans would be wise to try to understand the nations of others, rather to dismiss their ways out of hand. The British monarchy is archaic and needs some serious reworking, but to demolish it would be a serious mistake.
The British are our friends and they should be respected. I guarantee you, Britain is in mourning today.
With respect.
Tommymac
(7,263 posts)With respect, monarchies are obscene.
kcr
(15,317 posts)to try to understand that not everyone else is American.
Jon King
(1,910 posts)Basketball is brutally even, we have kids living out of cars who come to the gym and dominate every other kid, no matter the other kids socioeconomic status. That poor kid spends hours each day practicing by himself on a broken basket with no net.
Junior tennis is the opposite. The rich kids show up with a variety of coaches, trainers, 6 new racquets and play against a poorer kid with an old racquet and who is lucky if the local coach at the park knows a forehand from a serve. The rich kids may be way less athletic but they have such advantages, they can win matches.
The Royals remind me of the rich tennis kids, the only way they can compete is when they have tremendous advantage over others.
luvtheGWN
(1,336 posts)Whenever I see a photo of Charles, I remember reading that his valet spreads toothpaste on his toothbrush for him.
Yes, The Queen is to the UK what Mickey Mouse is to Disneyland. And she knows it.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Looks like I'll spend the next few days trashing wasted threads about the latest Royal boils here.
Treefrog
(4,170 posts)Ive learned du is extremely predictable.
mwooldri
(10,303 posts)UK Royal family provide a service. England has tried a Republic before, didn't like it, went back to monarchy. Plus all the power is at Number Ten, not Buck House. There are advantages to a constitutional monarchy - and the way the current setup is the monarchy can be abolished or reformed at any time.
Personally I will never be a Republican - neither politically nor constitutionally. But then my view is biased by growing up in the UK for my first 24 years of life. No I don't want Lizzie Windsor-Mountbatten to come back and rule the USA because the Republic is working for the United States. America has this nice saying "if it ain't broke don't fix it".
The US news media will not be all in on the death of the Duke of Edinburgh. There's too much going on here.
Journeyman
(15,031 posts)Chautauquas
(4,440 posts)because I posted this comment - "I got a tie-dyed Princess Di died t-shirt". I thought it was funny. The moderators did not.
Journeyman
(15,031 posts)lonely bird
(1,685 posts)Down with the royals.
Does that include the Kennedys, the Bushes, the Gates, the Buffets, Elon Musk, every fucking celebrity, those famous for being famous and so on?
Societies organize themselves in various ways. Everyone is entitled to an opinion regarding how their own society is organized as well as how others are organized.
My opinion is that I dont give a shit if other countries have a monarchy. That is their business. We have our own royalty that the masses gawk at and waste time and other resources bashing/fawning over. It helps distract them from the economic royalists (to borrow from FDR) who are screwing them while shrieking that there is no alternative political economy to live under. Oh, dont let us forget to shriek freedom! while being shackled.
This country is more class ridden than the UK.
VGNonly
(7,491 posts)until the last king is strangled by the entrails with the last priest.
the truth
VGNonly
(7,491 posts)The French philosopher, some attribute it to Voltaire.
VGNonly
(7,491 posts)[link:
|HipChick
(25,485 posts)wanker...aka bit of a prick
Paladin
(28,257 posts)FakeNoose
(32,639 posts)We already fought that battle, and won.
GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)They fixed that not long after. With mixed results.
BradBo
(530 posts)PatrickforB
(14,574 posts)Last edited Fri Apr 9, 2021, 12:37 PM - Edit history (1)
racism they had toward Meghan Markle.
They had lost me before when Lady Diana got killed, and that whole Camilla thing.
And then wondering how dark Meghan's baby will be?
Eff-em.
As to Prince Phillip, may he rest in peace.
As to the living 'royals,' perhaps they should be stripped of wealth and have that money go to help fund Britain's National Health Service. I know that, silly me, if given the choice between nursing a 'royal family' into the twenty-first century, and having a national healthcare system, I wouldn't even have to think. I've envied the Brits their NHS system for decades, especially as ours has worsened.
oregonjen
(3,337 posts)PatrickforB
(14,574 posts)inserted the correct name.
malthaussen
(17,195 posts)I'm not into hero worship, especially when the heroes are, you know, not even my country's. Funny that monarch-loving is not seen as a form of "cultural appropriation" in the US.
-- Mal
mnhtnbb
(31,388 posts)I'll take the British Royal Family over Trump and his ilk--including scum like McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Cruz, and other Trump humping Republican enablers--any day.
jalan48
(13,865 posts)lindysalsagal
(20,684 posts)I love history, though, so, there is a little romance in seeing that unbroken line from the beginnings of the world.
But it has not been worth the cost: "England" has gone out of it's way to hurt Ireland, Scotland and Wales, using up their resources and young men in nasty battles. WWI was beyond horrific and totally useless. It decimated the continent, making a ripe fruit for the rot of the Nazis to flourish.
No one likes to admit that their role in WWI probably caused WWII.
malaise
(268,998 posts)with the Atlantic slave trade, I might enjoy their romantic history.
I refuse to celebrate monsters
hunter
(38,311 posts)...seemed mostly harmless.
On January 8, 1880, Norton collapsed at the corner of California and Dupont (now Grant) streets and died before he could be given medical treatment. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, upwards of 10,000 people lined the streets of San Francisco to pay him homage at his funeral. Norton has been immortalized as the basis of characters in the literature of Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Christopher Moore, Morris and René Goscinny, Selma Lagerlöf, G.S Denning, and Neil Gaiman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Norton
malaise
(268,998 posts)Thanks
tenderfoot
(8,432 posts)FWIW, I went to visit Britain for the pop culture (Beatles, Abbey Road, the Who, punk rock, etc.) but that's just me.
WarGamer
(12,444 posts)malaise
(268,998 posts)class power