blah the Prussian

WOULD I? Why yes, yes I would. So, basically, let's look at the two forms of democratic Republics in our society, the Presidential and the Parliamentary. Presidential Republics are problematic because the involve the Head of State directly in politics. I believe that the Head of State should generally be a figurehead with no real power, because if they're involved in politics it makes them far too divisive to be head of state. Take Trump in America, for example. Regardless of how you feel about him, the number of people shouting "Not my President" shows you that he has fundamentally failed to be a symbol of the nation because of how divisive he is. So, let's look at a Parliamentary Republic, eg most of Europe. In this case, the President has no actual power, which is an improvement, but there are still elections for him, elections taking up time and money. The money spent on elections, incidentally, evens out the cost of a Monarchy, especially when you consider that the President will live in a Palace anyway. Plus, as the monarch isn't elected they tend to be around for a long time, making them much better symbols. How many could name the Queen of the U.K., and how many could name the PM? Finally, I think that the monarch should have some role in politics. If Trump has demonstrated anything, it's that Separation of a powers quickly goes out the window once the same electorate is electing two branches directly, and one branch is appointed by an elected person. To have a true balance you need one branch to be unelected. Plus, a monarch could break deadlocks in Parliament; not only would that stop the country from grinding to a halt, it would also motivate politicians to work together.

Aight, question. You have been speaking out in favor of allowing Fascists, who wish, in some cases, for genocide, free speech, which I disagree with. Now, though, you appear to be advocating for the censorship of professors on the left who are advocating for something as bad. For what it's worth, I agree with this, but this seems rather inconsistent.

Hopefully this will be followed by an invasion of the second country on the peninsula.

Either Mystery of the Emblem or Sacred Stones. Sacred Stones has a simple story that manages to stay extremely focused, with good writing in general. Lyon is easily the best written villain in FE, although unfortunately that isn't present on Eirika's route. Eirika is a better protagonist than Ephraim, though, so it evens out.

It's fine, I see them now, it must have been a problem on my end.

Deliberate attempts to destroy languages should be stopped, but if a language is dying because of "cultural imperialism" then i maintain we should let it. Generally speaking if a language is in danger of being extinct then loss of cultural identity will have been a cause, not an effect. That is true; there should be an effort to preserve texts from dying languages, as the Catholic Church did with Latin texts.

Unfortunately, the images appear to not work.

Exactly. Adapt to survive, evolve, or become a dead language. The more people use a language, the more useful it is. Languages are fundamentally tools, they are important to culture, but their cultural utility does not outweigh their practical utility.

Nothing lasts forever, not species, not nations, not languages. Let languages die naturally.

DAMN FALSE DMITRI REE

So I just had an idea that the reason that Sakura is at that fort is that the military is now using her as a hostage to prevent the Emperor from surrendering. Would that work?

Extended families are a thing my dude. Current claimant is HIM Maria I. Also, I don't think Nicholas II was a paragon of monarchy to look up to, but I don't believe in denying an entire family their rights over the failures of one ruler.

So, apparently Kiribati, a small island nation in the Pacific, is considering giving three uninhabited islands to a restored Russian Tsardom, supported by political opponents of Putin. This will act as a parallel government until such a time as Putin is overthrown and the legitimate Monarchy is restored. And,cve cause for a story as strange as this it's sure as hell needed, here's a link: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-38798535?ocid=socialflow_twitter So, what do I think of this? I'm happy, for several reasons. First of all, a Monarchy is a Monarchy, even if that Monarchy only rules a few hotels in the Pacific, so I'm ecstatic to see a new one rise. Secondly, and more significantly, this represents a sect of Rissian Monarchist's moving decisively away from the Putin regime, and presenting themselves as a credible opposition. This is BEAUTIFUL, because, with almost 1/3 of Russians supporting a restoration already, this gives them a real chance to make a decisive push by gaining support from opposition to Putin. This may be wishful thinking, but I'm happy to see Monarchism making any headway at all after the dissapointment that was Libya. So yeah, I'm ready for the Romanovs to rule SOMETHING again.

So alliance with Charlemagne now?

Isn't Lycia a Confederation of states, though, in that their member states aren't technically independent, though? Marquess still doesn't really work, though. But yes, usually Dukes are the lowest rulers of independent states, except for Archbishops. Counts ruled some independent states, though, or at least de facto ones, particularly in 100 Years War France.

China, I'd say, was distinct from Rome in that it started out as a Monarchy while Rome transitioned into one, and it's Emperors still had to pay lip service to the idea of a Republic until Diocletian. I also think that that characterization of China is a bit unfair; it wasn't until the Ming that China got extremely reactionary, and for Manchu women under the Qing it wasn't actually so bad. The Qing actually tried to ban footbinding because women in Manchu society were more respected; they didn't get very far to appease the Han, but they were more open to female rulers because of this. The other important female rulers were also before the Ming; I'd say that Confucianism wasn't actually as consistently rigid as it's often portrayed, but that its revival under the Ming after the fall of the Yuan was quite regressive. But, well, when we're talking about Manchu policy towards footbinding in the General US Politics thread, that's when you know it's time to stop.

Referring to Alexander Severus? Of course, that ended when the legions literally preferred a barbarian to an Emperor who took advice from his mother. Hardly an indicator of a society with good women's rights.

Institutionally, however, women having influence on government was much more prevalent in other nations. Inheritance doesn't come into it, because on an institutional level we see the opinions of women respected much more in these other countries. The only Roman woman to ever actually run Rome was Ulpia Severina, wife of Emperor Aurelian, who acted as Regent while an heir for her husband was selected. That's one example in centuries. Admittedly, the Byzantines got better about this.

Ah man, I feel bad about killing such an awesome historical figure as Abd al-Rahman, but whatever. In my experience the Umayyads usually don't last a century before they can be destroyed piecemeal.

...no, not really. Rome did a lot of good things, but it was shit in woman's rights even compared to other coutnries of the time, such as the Alexandrian successor states, which had Queens either as co-monarchs with their husbands or full on female inheiritance, and Persia, which had female regents and several female monarchs, although admittedly most of those were assasinated pretty quick. So no, Roman women were a little a bit above Saudi Arabia in that they could dress a bit freer, but apart from that it was utter shit. The real thing the Ancient World was good about was LGBT rights.

Well, it was meant as in women's rights would be like in the Roman Empire, but yeah.

The march in Prague only took up a little space in Wenceslaus Square, and no one even uses the road it was blocking. Overall it was a good experience;'I was there with my friends, although, unfortunately, the vast majority of speakers were utter crap. One even said Trump was planning on bringing America back to a Roman times, which, I believe, is laying it on a bit thick.

Yes, I couldn't resist changing my profile pic to the iconic FE2 character Otto von Bismarck.

Chapter 11 Fall of the Kingfish By the year 1964, Huey Long had ruled the USSA with an iron fist for decades. He had purged the Communist Party, won the Second World War, and spread Communism across the world. However, cracks had begun to form in his regime. The rebel group the Sons of Liberty, led by Martin Luther King Jr., was growing in strength, and the secret police was becoming an increasingly dangerous career choice. Arguably even worse, for the first time since the death of Jack Reed, real opposition was present in the Communist Party. The reformers, led by writer Kurt Vonnegut, sought after "Socialism with a human face", as an alternative to Long's authoritarianism. Long had allowed them to function as long as they did not call for his overthrow, but conflict between the two seemed inevitable. Ironically, however, the downfall of Huey Long would not come from the Sons of Liberty or from Vonnegut; instead, it would come from his chief henchman, J. Edgar Hoover. Ever since his ascension to the position of head of the Secret Police, that Hoover was Long's successor had been an open secret. However, by 1965 Hoover had grown impatient; he wasn't getting any younger, and Long showed no signs of dying. Thus, when Long got a heart attack on February 2, 1965, Hoover saw his chance. He bribed Long's doctors to offer him incompetent treatment. Within a week the Kingfish, who brought Fascism to its knees, was dead, killed by one of the few people he trusted. Hoover, however, was no Long. He had the respect of no one, from the military to the rest of Long's cabinet. Thus, when he announced that, "In accordance with the wishes of great Comrade Long" he would be the next President of the USSA, he found his hold on power to be very shaky. Not helping matters was that, on March 13, one of the doctors revealed Hoover's treachery. Now, not even the hardcore Longists supported Hoover, and an unusual alliance between General Matthew Ridgeway, chief of the People's Army, Kurt Vonnegut, and Martin Luther King was born. Protests racked the country. Hoover initially threatened nuclear retaliation against the protestors, but his own secret police arrested him. The next day, on March 16, King spoke to jubilant crowds in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The first free elections in the USSA since Reed were called. In truth, the election of 1965 was only going to go one way. King was supported only by a fringe group of radicals, and, even though Vonnegut (as interim President) pardoned him, he was still tainted by the label of 'terrorist'. Ridgeway, for his part, had no interest in leading, and so the Longist faction of the Communist Party put forth as their candidate the thoroughly loathed Lyndon Baines Johnson. It was never a contest. On May 4, Vonnegut was sworn in as the new President of the USSA. The President's reforms were immediate. The Secret Police was dissolved, and the Communist Party was split up into different factions; the Longists, the Democratic Socialists, the Syndicalists, and the Liberals(King's party). Further, American foreign policy was reshuffled. The death of Long had led to reformists taking power across Latin America; Vonnegut recognized these Democratic Socialists as legitimate. He also cut off support for the regimes in Iberia, South Italy, and Israel. North Italian forces were quickly marching south to dethrone the Mafia bosses who ran the South. Meanwhile, the European League prepared to invade Iberia and restore its Monarchy, an invasion that would be over in a month. The social fallout, however, would be another matter, with the next generation of Spanish and Portuguese nobility (who, of course, recovered their estates after the fall of the regime) being traumatized children who spent their childhood in concentration camps being told that their parents were evil. Needless to say, the new Kingdom's therapy budget was significant. The importance of the year 1965 cannot be overstated. Well, actually, it can, because some commentators began to call it the "end of history" because the USSA had embraced democracy. This claim, of course, was idiotic. Still, though, it was important. The First Cold War came to an end, and a reconciliation between Communism and Capitalism seemed around the corner. Of course, not everyone was happy with this state of affairs... New York, USSA "So," John asked, "how was the army?" "Great, great," Donald Trump told his childhood friend. "You know, being in South Africa, it changes you. I saw people who had nothing, and they were liberated, thanks to us. They were so grateful." At this his hand clenched into a fist. "And then I get back here and Long's dead and we're in the hands of a traitor. Doesn't seem right." John knew better than to argue with his friend on the subject of Long. Donald, though, was not done. "I mean, we won big in WWII, you know? Real big. But then Vonnegut... he signs it all away to the Capitalists. It wasn't his to give! It was the soldiers who won it, it was the people of those countries. Not him." "So what do you want to do?" John heard himself say. Donald thought for a split second before replying. "I'm going to make Communism great again."

Well that depends on if Pokemon are people or not. What is the measure of a person? Is conflating Pokemon with people just another method of the elite to dehumanize the Proletariat? These are the questions that must keep us awake at night.