Has Duncan ever come out with a thesis on why the American and Haitian revolutions succeeded with... relatively little?... backslide, whereas all the others seem to struggle so much? I am psyched for his take on the Russian revolution, though I wish the podcast wasn’t ending soon after that; I’d love his take on China…

I’m on the Mexican revolution, where Duncan is having to skip *years* worth of skirmishes and battles because there were so much back-and-forth. You’re gonna love the French revolution(s), they are a trip. I’m actually ashamed to say I didn’t realize the full extent of them switching between a republic and an empire…

Yeah, I’m confused, weren’t there a ton of comments right here in Gawker/Splinter about how Clinton lost because she was just anti-Trump and not pushing useful policies? I mean, she *was*, but the media only really reported on her anti-Trump comments, never on her actual positions.

And now those exact same commenters…

“Not to mention that violent uprisings usually just end in a slaughter of the less powerful side; the ones we hear more about were the anomalies.”
Yep. I am a huge fan of the Revolutions podcast, and it’s eerie how many times the same patterns repeat. Revolutions, even morally righteous, necessary ones are very bloody,…

I’m not sure about this. There was anti-vaxx hysteria back during the last smallpox epidemic in the US (late 1800's), and pharmaceutical companies and greedy hospitals weren’t yet the thing they are currently. Ironically, the reasons given then are very close to the reasons given now. I think there’s just something in…

That’s true for a vast amount of topics, isn’t it? Bible was super into the idea of charity and the corruption of wealth, and yet, say hello to the prosperity gospel! So much of modern Christianity is a corruption of everything Jesus championed.

“I hope the losing candidates put their support behind the winner as enthusiastically and gracefully as Bernie did when he lost to HRC in the primaries.”

.... Is this sarcastic? After the convention I’ll agree he got behind Clinton relatively well, but uh.... he had lost the primary in terms of numbers at least a month…

“you ignore the fact that any candidate not named Hillary Clinton probably would have had more votes and probably would have won the electoral vote as well.”

2 years here into the future, 40% of the country is still saying they’d be fine with re-electing Trump. That’s not a majority, thank God, but depending on where…

>the Max Baucus type who got rid of the Public Option in the ACA bill in the House
... What are you talking about? The House passed the Public Opinion in the ACA bill, it was the Senate that killed it.

#3! They have an old plantation style mansion in addition to the house they renovated during Fixer Upper.

Just started reading the book “Pox” by Michael Willrich about the 1900 smallpox epidemic and how it dovetailed with early anti-vaxx movements. Yes, seriously, there was a real (sometimes even successful) movement to resist mandatory vaccination for *freaking smallpox*, which has a fatality rate of about 30% cause…

Hi I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter because I need more of your historic home decor commentary in my life. 

Sure, that sounds a fantastic idea. Yes, my problem is the segregation and discrimination applied to the New Deal.... which is why my point is not that socialism is a problem, but that socialism can be corrupted like any other ideology. Soooooo, what’s your point?

“Got a problem with FDR’s New Deal, too?”

What you say is true, but what you fail to grasp is that we don’t have a great way of measuring what the “calories out” is, and metabolism can be screwed for so many complicated and hard to identify reasons. Even with obsessive tracking, even with intense dedication, “calories in/calories out” is not helpful if you…

But this can happen to skinny people, too. Like the above poster said, our visceral hate for fat bodies/body positive is exclusively about *looks*, not health. I eat healthier, work out more and am generally way healthier than I’ve ever been, but I look/am fatter, and that’s all doctors focus on. Guys who pass…

Seriously, what a strange declaration. Warren is probably as anti-Wall Street as you’re going to find in American politics today; who in the world would tag her as “Wall Street supportive centrism”??

Yeah this slays me. Splinter gave Dems the *barest minimum* credit for selecting Abrams as the response, clearly recognizing that it is significant and that if they had chosen oh, I don’t know, an old white guy, they would have been crucified for the optics (including on this site!) Then they turn around and just…

Sorry, I don’t follow Greenwald’s tweets daily, and that one is from yesterday; before yesterday, he seemed very much on board with Tulsi. Apologies for not stalking his Twitter account more routinely. 

It would really help the argument that this kind of criticism is just about examining Harris’ record if there was more nuanced reporting of her policies (numerous comments in the Jezebel article about her truancy policy pointed out the black-white reporting and how it left out the actual impact) and we saw this level…