Ross Douthat On The Unifying Fantasy Of The Left

Normally Ross Douthat tries to engage his Upper West Side readership with calm and sweet reason. Overcome, perhaps, by the martial memories of Memorial Day, he is now opting for a truth bomb which was nearly titled "Why Losers Lose":

How Liberalism Loses

An inflexible agenda and a global retreat.

In Australia a week ago, the party of the left lost an election it was supposed to win, to a conservative government headed by an evangelical Christian who won working-class votes by opposing liberal climate policies. In India last week, the Hindu-nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi, won an overwhelming electoral victory. And as of this writing, Europeans are electing a Parliament that promises to have more populist representation than before.

The global fade of liberalism, in other words, appears to be continuing.

Are there lessons to be learned?

The fact that populism is flourishing internationally, far from the Electoral College and Fox News, suggests that Trump’s specific faults might actually be propping up American liberalism. If we had a populist president who didn’t alienate so many persuadable voters, who took full advantage of a strong economy, and who had the political cunning displayed by Modi or Benjamin Netanyahu or Viktor Orban, the liberal belief in a hidden left-of-center mandate might be exposed as a fond delusion.

But are these lessons being learned?

That liberal belief may also misunderstand the real correlation of forces in our politics. We had an example this week on our op-ed podcast, The Argument, where my colleague and co-host David Leonhardt interviewed Pete Buttigieg, the Midwestern mayor running for president with promises to build bridges between the heartland and the coasts. Leonhardt pressed Buttigieg on whether that bridge-building might include compromise on any social issues, and the answer seemed to be “no” — in part because Mayor Pete argued that on abortion and guns and immigration most middle Americans already agree with Democrats, that the liberal position is already the common ground.

The strategic flaw in this reading of the liberal situation is that politics isn’t about casually held opinions on a wide range of topics, but focused prioritization of specifics. As the Democratic data analyst David Shor has noted, you can take a cluster of nine Democratic positions that each poll over 50 percent individually, and find that only 18 percent of Americans agree with all of them. And a single strong, focused disagreement can be enough to turn a voter against liberalism, especially if liberals seem uncompromising on that issue.

A pattern of narrow, issue-by-issue resistance is also what you’d expect in an era where the popular culture is more monolithically left-wing than before. That cultural dominance establishes a broad, shallow left-of-center consensus, which then evaporates when people have some personal reason to reject liberalism, or confront the limits of its case.

None of this needs to spell doom for liberals; it just requires them to prioritize and compromise. If you want to put climate change at the center of liberal politics, for instance, then you’ll keep losing voters in the Rust Belt, just as liberal parties have lost similar voters in Europe and Australia. In which case you would need to reassure some other group, be it suburban evangelicals or libertarians, that you’re willing to compromise on the issues that keep them from voting Democratic.

Alternatively, if you want to make crushing religious conservatives your mission, then you need to woo secular populists on guns or immigration, or peel off more of the tax-sensitive upper middle class by not going full socialist.

Liberals need to compromise and prioritize? You see where this is going - "No enemies to the left" implies no compromise with any faction of the right.

But the liberal impulse at the moment, Buttigiegian as well as Ocasio-Cortezan, is to insist that liberalism is a seamless garment, an indivisible agenda that need not be compromised on any front. And instead of recognizing populism as a motley coalition united primarily by opposition to liberalism’s rule, liberals want to believe they’re facing a unitary enemy — a revanchist patriarchal white supremacy, infecting every branch and tributary of the right.

In this view it’s not enough to see racial resentment as one important form of anti-liberalism (which it surely is); all anti-liberalism must fall under the canopy. Libertarianism is white supremacy, the N.R.A. is white supremacy, immigration skepticism is white supremacy, tax-sensitive suburbia is white supremacy, the pro-life movement is white supremacy, anxiety about terrorism is white supremacy … and you can’t compromise with white supremacists, you can only crush them.

Which liberals may do in 2020, because Trump remains eminently beatable.

Well, beating Trump won't be the same as re-taking the Senate and the many GOP governorships, but yes, for the left it would be a start.

But in the long run, the global trend suggests that a liberalism that remains inflexible in the face of variegated resistance is the ideology more likely to be crushed.

"Stop hating, haters" as a response to any and all critics is unlikely to develop into a winning message.

 

Comments

[MissMarple2]

My definitive impression of Al Gore was during the campaign of 2000 when he was giving an interview and tour of his house on C-SPAN.

As many of you know, Tipper Gore suffered from bouts of depression.

So, Gore is going around the house and suddenly insisted on showing a self-portrait of Tipper done while she was pregnant, and it was a NUDE! And Tipper was with him and protested, but he insisted on showing it anyway.

1. Why was it on the wall at their home where children and grandchildren would see it?

2. Why insist on showing it on national TV? If you ask me, that was emotional abuse. Big time.

If some day we read that she shot him dead, I will not be surprised.

[Jack is Back!]

Security clearances can be refused every day at access. I think Mr. Brennan is in that category.

[MissMarple2]

BNL NEWS
‏ @BreakingNLive
18m18 minutes ago

BREAKING: #EUelections2019: FIRST RESULTS: U.K.:

Corby (East Midlands) result:

Brex: 40.2% (+40.2)
Lab: 23.1% (-15.5)
LDem: 11.7% (+9.0)
Grn: 7.6% (+4.1)
Con: 7.3% (-8.9)
UKIP: 5.3% (-29.7)

[lyle]

There’s an SR 71 in the Boeing museum in Seattle.

[MissMarple2]

The largest United States Flag ever made displayed proudly at Hoover Dam.

Each star is over 17 feet high.

It takes a crew of 15 to unfurl it.

God Bless America! pic.twitter.com/v786eKGGjJ

— Don Purser (@DGPurser) May 26, 2019

Photo at link.

[Jack is Back!]

I know a lot of static display Buffers like at McCoy (i.e. Orlando International) and Rome AFB (sbw territory) but none inside.) Big difference.

Nothing to brag about except the electronics deployed even in 1966.

Today it would be laughable.

[lyle]

There’s also a aircraft carrier fighter jet flight simulator there you can ride. Pro tip: skip it! (Well, unless you like feeling woozy for several hours.)

[Beasts of England]

'You could probably walk across Lake Lanier today with all the gazillion boats.'

What else did you expect during Obama's 11th Recovery Summer™? 😜

[Pinandpuller]

This Dr Edward Dutton guy has more degrees than Adam Weishaupt. He refers to atheists as "spiteful mutants."

Religiousness correlates with good physical health, mental health, recovering from illness more quickly, fertility and-based on twin studies-it's about 40% genetic.

I don't know if anyone has used a control group of Nephelim.

Abstract
Industrialisation leads to relaxed selection and thus the accumulation of fitness-damaging genetic mutations. We argue that religion is a selected trait that would be highly sensitive to mutational load. We further argue that a specific form of religiousness was selected for in complex societies up until industrialisation based around the collective worship of moral gods. With the relaxation of selection, we predict the degeneration of this form of religion and diverse deviations from it. These deviations, however, would correlate with the same indicators because they would all be underpinned by mutational load. We test this hypothesis using two very different deviations: atheism and paranormal belief. We examine associations between these deviations and four indicators of mutational load: (1) poor general health, (2) autism, (3) fluctuating asymmetry, and (4) left-handedness. A systematic literature review combined with primary research on handedness demonstrates that atheism and/or paranormal belief is associated with all of these indicators of high mutational load.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40806-017-0133-5

[bubarooni]

henry:

"JiB, when the Women can beat an average HS boys team, ..."

I had a similar conversation a couple of years ago with an SIL bemoaning the pay gap in the NBA vs WNBA.

My response was something along the lines of:

You pick your WNBA All-Stars. I'll take the Indiana High School Boys All-Star team.

My center will 6'10" to 7' and weigh about 250 pounds. Your center will be 6'3" or 6'4" and and weight 200 tops.

My forwards will be 6'6" to 6'10" and weigh 210 lbs to 230 lbs. Your forwards will be 6' to 6'2" and weigh a buck 80 tops.

My guards will be 5'10" to 6'5" and weigh between 185 lbs and 215 lbs. Your guards will 5'9" to 6' and be 160 to 170 lbs.

Your players will be good to great players for their size. Very skilled in basketball and purveyors of great court sense.

My players will be bigger, stronger and faster than your players. They'll be more aggresive and black your players eyes.

They will beat you 100 to 50 if I put the subs in the fourth quarter.

She kept it up for three or four minutes telling me I discounted 'skill and experience'.

I doubt I did.

[MissMarple2]

I am very proud of my city and state today. The race went well, there were no major problems with the crowd, police did a great job with traffic and crowd control, and we didn't look like a bunch of goobers.

[Pinandpuller]

I think in general a wealthy, industrialized and decadent society has a higher carrying capacity for lazy FULL COMMIE writers, philosophers and maladapted atheists. These types have little actual stress so they manufacture it and try to make the rest of us miserable.

[Beasts of England]

Y'all done good, Miss Marple! :)

[Past is Prologue]

TK and friends of Frau -
I’ve received a gracious note from Mr. Frau, who's doing fine, but is still in shock that it is he and not she who has survived, as they’d planned for the reverse outcome. But his memory for those long ago times is awesome. He cited a few incidents even I did not recall, remembered the house where we lived, and much more.

A quote from him: “[Frau] cherished her time on JOM and the friends she made there … I agreed with her that there was an unusually brilliant group of people that found each other on the internet … small world, isn't it?"

[MissMarple2]

https://www.politico.eu/article/economist-gitanas-nauseda-elected-lithuanian-president/

Emphasized independence from any party.

[lyle]

RIP, Frau. We miss you.

[lyle]

Thanks for the update BTW, PiP.

[clarice]

I miss Frau, too, She was great.

[GUS]

Post it again Foxholio. You're so so popular.

[bubarooni]

with it being Memorial Day weekend, Past is Prologue's post is especially poignant.

[Beasts of England]

Frau was a gem - and my most favorite. Thank you so much for the update, Past is Prologue. And continued prayers for Mr. Frau.

[MissMarple2]

Democrat Pete Buttigieg blames John Bolton for escalation w/Iran

Martha Raddatz: "This is not John Bolton asking for this. This is the military."

Buttigieg tries to deflect

Raddatz: "Let me stick to this because it’s based on intelligence. Do you believe the intelligence?" pic.twitter.com/bkjnxb9Lep

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) May 26, 2019

Video at link.

[Buckeye]

and we didn't look like a bunch of goobers.

Except for the guy that sang "Back Home Again in Indiana".

He was the quintessential goober:)

[lyle]

Yes, prayers for all the late JOMer families on this MD weekend.

[MissMarple2]

Buckeye,

Well, I didn't see him, only heard him singing, and on that he was pretty good.

I will take your word for it, but he was only on air for a couple of minutes so it's ok.

[MissMarple2]

Reuters Top News
‏Verified account @Reuters
11m11 minutes ago

Not sensible to aim exclusively for no deal Brexit: UK leadership frontrunner Johnson http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-boris-idUSKCN1SW0WD?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_content=5ceb09052866ef00011c943f&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter …

Looks like I may have to withdraw my rooting for Boris.

[Another Bob]

Buckeye, he’s also the anthem singer in Chicago at Blackhawks games. No goober IMO.

Now Jim Nabors...

[Extraneus]

Are goobers frowned upon in Indiana?

(Missing Frau, too.)

[Jane]

Past is Prologue ,

Thank you so much for posting that!

[Buckeye]

I couldn't resist teasing MM:)

[MissMarple2]

https://dailycaller.com/2019/05/26/melania-hot-pink-dress-dinner-tokyo-trip/

Melania wows in hot pink dress.

Lots of photos.

[MissMarple2]

https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/politics/2018/04/12/president-trump-nominates-marine-first-black-female-general/33778979/

That racist.

[JM Hanes]

Extraneus:

There's something really off about that MLK story -- right down to the tangled grammar, which I don't think is typical of the Daily Mai (the grammar that is, not the salaciousness).

"Secret FBI recordings accuse Martin Luther King Jr of ... etc." Tapes don't accuse. "Material shows the scale of King's philandering and claims he fathered a child. It also show [sic] how King looked on while Logan Kearse raped a parishioner" How does material "claim" anything? How do audio tapes "show" anything? Exactly what evidence are we talking about?

"The shocking unearthed tapes have been analyzed by biographer David Garrow." But that's not true! Further down the page we learn that Garrow only "unearthed the FBI summaries of the various incidents." The tapes themselves, "are being held in a vault at the U.S. National Archives and are not due for release until 2027"

"The civil rights hero was also heard allegedly joking he was the founder of the 'International Association for the Advancement of P***y-Eaters'" 

I believe that would be allegedly heard, not allegedly joking, which sounds incidental but actually isn't. Sometimes we're "hearing" from recording, sometimes files, or the FBI document, or tape; it's not clear what the author really has in hand. Who is writing this stuff?

Senior FBI officials later sent King a copy of the incriminating tape and called him an 'evil abnormal beast' and his sexual exploits would be 'on record for all time'.

The article mentions that "Garrow... spent several months digging through the archive material," which, perhaps purposely, suggests he had access to the National Archives primary sources, when I suspect it would be more accurate to say he was dealing with "archival material" from a source which is neither identified or described. Was he granted access to other FBI archival material, or was his unearthing done elsewhere? If what he found is as damning as it is made to seem, why would he need to use a conditional "could" here:

"Writing in British magazine Standpoint, Garrow says that the shocking files could lead to a 'painful historical reckoning' for the man who is celebrated across the world for his campaign against racial injustice."

That's from the article in which he ostensibly lays everything out, but which, it seems, is yet to be published. One assumes the Daily Mail got an advance copy, but it looks more like they just decided to beef up a provocative PR handout with some pix, and a lot of old public domain news and speculation as filler. I could go on....

There maybe a legitimate underlying story here, but I'd say this ain't it. I haven't bothered to check out the author, or his pulitzer prize winning bio of MLK, but maybe someone else will think it's worth the bother.

[Beasts of England]

Mrs. Abe is also very elegant.

[Another Bob]

“withdraw my rooting for Boris“

If I read it correctly, Boris would have been one of those who knew that MI6 was involved in Spygate.

Would be nice to think he dropped a dime, but who knows.

[Gentlejim]

The Air Zoo in Kalamazoo and Pima Air and Space museum in Tucson are pretty cool also.

[Extraneus]

I believe that would be allegedly heard, not allegedly joking

Great points and a fine fisking.

[sbwaters]

I see nothing wrong with what Boris said. It is the proper negotiating position. Let’s see where Britain ends up.

[MissMarple2]

Radio guys say that the singer stepped in after a group sang it but was sort of meh. They think he fills Jim Nabors shoes admirably.

[Beasts of England]

'International Association for the Advancement of P***y-Eaters'

I think I've watched their telethon.

[MissMarple2]

Jack,

Talented beagle! Video at link.

I’m always looking for new talent to listen to. This guy is great! 😉 NEW SONG!!!! 🥓"BACON"🥓 by BUDDY MERCURY THE AMAZING PIANO DOG!!!! https://t.co/Z7DPUoVpGx via @YouTube

— Kathy⭐️⭐️⭐️🇮🇱🇺🇸 (@kathym4321) May 26, 2019

[bubarooni]

"Are goobers frowned upon in Indiana?"

I've made it so far.

[Gentlejim]

Careful teasing MM, buckeye. She can easily make the drive over to you post-surgery. That is if she gets her plates renewed. I keed, I keed...

[MissMarple2]

Gray Connolly
‏ @GrayConnolly
Feb 16

As I often say here, if you look closely at the EU structure, it is the Kaiser's plan for a post-WW1 German Europe, with a weak periphery tied to a (Franco)Teutonic core. (map from Fischer's "Germany's Aims in the First World War"). Were I German, I would support the EU.

Map at this link:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzlPEDQVAAAB7ZI.jpg

[Beasts of England]

lol, Gentlejim!! :)

[MissMarple2]

Thread dealing in history and reasoning behind my 6:33 post:

https://twitter.com/GrayConnolly/status/1096994932579946497

[Extraneus]

Pro-Europe vote fragments but limits nationalist gains in EU election

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Parties committed to strengthening the European Union held on to two-thirds of seats in the EU parliament, official projections from the bloc’s elections showed on Sunday, though far-right and nationalist opponents saw strong gains.

[MissMarple2]

Gentlejim,

Buckeye is safe until Friday, when the pension check comes in. Until then I don't have enough dough.

I could have done it earlier this month and skipped buying as many groceries (since I bought a lot of cleaning supplies) but my brain was in old fart mode. LOL!

[Captain Hate]

I thought of Frau yesterday when I grabbed that dog running loose.

[MissMarple2]

https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2019/05/26/blue-check-journos-fooled-by-hoax-bobcat-story/

They are really stupid about everything, not just politics and government.

[Buckeye]

Buckeye is safe until Friday

Dodged that bullet:)

[Past is Prologue]

Thanks for the caring thoughts and prayers, RIP Frau. Did she have a dog CH?

[Captain Hate]

I don't know, PiP; but she always remembered my interactions with animals over the previous year on my birthday.

[MissMarple2]

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/445629-trump-congratulates-winning-indianapolis-500-team

[lyle]

What was the connection, CH?

[lyle]

Never mind. 😬

[MissMarple2]

I cna't remember if I posted this hear or sent it in anemail to a friend.

I am going to start my eBay business under my daughter's name, since my account is screwed up by my bad credit rating due to the foreclosure.

I have gobs of figurines, Hallmark Christmas ornaments, Weller pottery, expensive purses I never use etc. It's stupid to keep all of this stuff when I know how to sell it and get money.

Besides, I enjoy doing it. It will keep me from obsessing on Twitter.

[Extraneus]

Good for you, MM.

[clarice]

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/331529/
Brexit wins

[MissMarple2]

clarice,

I think not only has Trump salvaged the USA, he has also saved the entire world.

[Narciso79]

I talked to Mr. Frau, when I first was able to identify his name.

[JM Hanes]

Pin:

"Religiousness correlates with good physical health, mental health, recovering from illness more quickly, fertility and-based on twin studies-it's about 40% genetic.

Aside from the correlation to health, I didn't see any of those conclusions in Dutton's abstract. Have you explored the study you linked? I note the title:

""The Mutant Says in His Heart, “There Is No God”: the Rejection of Collective Religiosity Centred Around the Worship of Moral Gods Is Associated with High Mutational Load"

I didn't see any listing of Dutton's degrees, either, but I personally think that "Evolutionary Psychological Science" or "Evolutionary Psychology" as it used to be called, largely consists of rank speculation based on assumptions people have long held about how "primitive" man, or in this case "pre-industrial man," must have lived and thought. It has about as much to do with science as scientology does. A "review of the literature," of course, can mean a lot of different things, as can the value of conclusions drawn from such surveys. Dutton seems mostly seems interested in dressing moral philosophy in scientific clothing, to me.

I seriously doubt that there's a significant correlation between left-handedness (heritability 24%) and atheism, outside of superstitious belief, or between atheism and mutational load generally. Considering the mutational signatures involved, would Dutton argue that the religious people get less cancer than atheists? I'm not actually positive about what the author means by "moral gods," which sounds a bit vague when hitched to scientific inquiry. Would Buddha, for example, qualify? I doubt there is even sufficient literature to include Buddhists, one way or the other.

In a Newsweek article aimed at laymen, he states his central thesis:

"[R]eligious people are a genetically normal remnant population from preindustrial times, and the rest of us are mutants who'd have died as children back then.”

He also asserts a link between intelligence and atheism, along with the rather bizarre prediction that

"in the end, intelligence and atheism will be both undone by a gradual return to natural selection."

Evolutionary psychology is in worse trouble than I thought.

[Buckeye]

MM

I ask my BIL about his collectibles. They are Matchbox, not Hot Wheels.

His best transaction so far was selling an item that cost him $125 for $10,000.

I ask if him paid the capital gains tax. He just smiled:)

[Narciso79]

Who could it be erovchin,who was outed by the Steele dossier allegedly.

[Gentlejim]

MM,
Good for you restarting your business.

[Captain Hate]

I think not only has Trump salvaged the USA, he has also saved the entire world.

As with Reagan and the fall of communism, people will say "welp it would've happened anyway". Except it didn't. True, the original vote was on 6/23/2016 but the lines were already drawn in this country.

I have no problem with the concept that DJT is part of a worldwide phenomenon. But he's definitely a big dog.

[Captain Hate]

Yes to what Gentlejim said on restarting your business, MM.

[Narciso79]

Congrats miss marple

[MissMarple2]

Buckeye,

My dream of a transaction! Matchbox is what I meant, especially about that Star Trek Enterprise.

[Dave (in MA)]

clarice | May 26, 2019 at 07:41 PM I guess they didn't throw enough milkshakes.

[JM Hanes]

Pin:

You might want to be careful about citing Dutton as an authority. I decided to check out his degrees, after all. According to Wikipedia, he has a degree in Theology from Durham University and a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Aberdeen, hence the hint of moral philosophizing, I suppose. Wikipedia also points to what look like some other rather questionable connections to white supremacy, anti-semitism and eugenics related groups. I didn't look any further than that, so I have no idea if the Wikipedia page is accurate or not. I'm just passing the info along, in case it gives you pause or you want to investigate further yourself.

[Jane]

I agree MM. good for you!

[Narciso79]

1984 as how to guide:

https://mobile.twitter.com/Vermeullarmine/status/1132692346066407425

[Narciso79]

A little more context:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/05/26/eu-election-results-greens-and-euroskeptics-gain.html

[Narciso79]

The greens advancing is troublesome it's more sacrificing to the skydragon

[Narciso79]

I tried to come up with more source material of the guelfs and the ghibbelines I recall Manchester had something about it,

[The Infamous Ignatz]

That David Garrow dude of the MLK story seems to be a pretty conventional left wing prog for this day and age.
Writes regularly for The NYT, The Nation and New Republic. Is a member of The Democratic Socialists of Amurikkka. PhD from Dook.Has taught at a bunch of standard Us.
A left wing loon for sure, but they pretty much all are these days and he doesn't seem the type to make crazy assertions against a prog icon.
Maybe he's a really smart atheist mutant who thinks MLK was one of them normal, preindustrial, religiousness dudes.

[GUS]

University of Aberdeen. JMH, I remember you visiting Scotland a while back. In a "pinch" on my Honeymoon, I bought my Bride dinner at a McDonalds' in Aberdeen. I've been to Scotland so many times, it was bound to happen.

[Narciso79]

He wrote that giant data dump that he disguised as an Obama bio a year or two back.

[MissMarple2]

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone!

[Dave (in MA)]

Jeremy McLellan@JeremyMcLellan

Update: Brexit party won, which means they have to
do the election again.

[Jim,SunnyvaleCA,USA]

On the run sorry if already posted.
MANY funnies here

https://mobile.twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/1132636912777342976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

[The Infamous Ignatz]

Correct, narc.

[Narciso79]

So the French and the Italians did as expected, the germans are so screwed up, the Greek lefties lost out to the top men new Democrats

[Dave (in MA)]

.

[Narciso79]

The Russian gambit re Austria worked as planned:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-26/europe-s-mainstream-holds-as-populists-fail-to-break-through

[The Infamous Ignatz]

You're not counting the triple witch score, Dave.

[Narciso79]

In Barcelona the Qatar backed secessionist lost out to the farther left party:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/live-blog/2019-05-14/european-parliamentary-elections#5CEB0926B2240001

[GUS]

I don't understand why F-1 and Indy cars don't do the STAGES deal. I hear that the NY and BOSTON Marathons are going to that.

[Jane]

I always celebrate Buster Dyerman on Memorial Day. He was a friend of my sister in HS. I only met him once or twice. He died in VietNam after enlisting after H.S. I don’t remember what he looked like, but I’ve been celebrating him since the 60’s.

[Jane]

And I absolutely spelled his name wrong.

[Narciso79]

Ervochins fate is mentioned in Grady's attempt to be topical novella, Russian roulette (get it) of course they have him going Norwegian blue months before the dossier was published

[MissMarple2]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/george-hw-bush-service-dog-sully-rehabilitating-veterans-friends-of-americas-vetdogs/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=68125612

[MissMarple2]

Steve Herman
‏Verified account @W7VOA
3m3 minutes ago

"Congratulations, it's a tremendous thing. Something they are talking about all over the world," @POTUS tells Emperor Naruhito inside the Chowaden reception hall, according to fellow pool reporter @fran_chambers.
==============

Comment to the new emperor about his elevation to the throne.

[GUS]

My son graduated from Marquette University High School today. Mass last night, Commencement today.
Saw him smoke a cigar!!!! One of the best days of my life.

[Neo]

The intelligence agencies are stuck between a Church and a Barr.

[Jane]

Congrats Gus!

[JM Hanes]

Next up, as soon as I've had supper:

JMH's Guide to Personal Fans

Dom't miss it if you worry about heat exhaustion!

[MissMarple2]

Gus,

Congratulations! I know you are very proud!

[Buckeye]

Congrats GUS!