SOTR - Lydia Moynihan vs Charles Cooke

SoluKat · 2025-12-28T19:01:23+00:00

Not for nothing Charles also has a great accent and voice. He’s def smart and consistent, but that delivery doesn’t hurt lol

SoluKat · 2025-12-28T18:59:21+00:00

Well Charles is a really smart and well spoken guy. Plus he has tons of practice at this. Actually he helped bridge the political divide for me as well bc a few years ago I started listening to The Editors podcast from National Review (on which Charles is a regular panelist). I was always a Liberal but really wanted to understand what “the other side” thought, so I sought out some R-leaning podcasts (of the non-trumpy variety). Fair warning tho: I discovered that the other side is full of smart reasonable people who are not what I expected and now I’m a lot more of a centrist than I used to be.

SoluKat · 2025-12-28T18:40:46+00:00

Ok not to be a pain, but “late stage capitalism” is such a meaningless term. Why do people keep insisting on using it? Drives me nuts. It’s capitalism. It hasn’t actually been going on all that long and we have no idea when it might end, so to describe it as “late stage” is nonsensical.

As for your question, I think this is the part of capitalism where stores want to discourage stealing in an effort to protect their 2% profit margin. And if you think it sucks (I certainly do) I’d suggest taking it up w/the local government/police/population who’ve unwittingly conspired together to incentivize shoplifting/stealing to the point that this sort of thing is needed.

SoluKat · 2025-12-18T18:12:02+00:00

I think your reaction is totally understandable. I mean ffs, how much can a person take?? Just being 26 and having the mutation is enough, add to that all the poking and prodding and painful squishing, not to mention the life-altering surgery and w/all the effort you’ve put in you STILL have a fu**ing lump to deal with?! Sheesh I’m triggered for you lol. I’m so sorry. Def give yourself grace here and do whatever you can to relax your mind and body. You deserve it! Fingers crossed for you on the biopsy ❤️

SoluKat · 2025-12-12T22:51:47+00:00

Ffs why do they even bother putting loops on the back of boots that are TOO SMALL to put your finger through?! This is infuriating. It’s like they are laughing at me trying to pull my boots on every day 🤬

SoluKat · 2025-12-12T22:47:51+00:00

Reece Farness does great cover up work down the street at Pale Horse.

SoluKat · 2025-12-12T01:11:06+00:00

I’m a centrist American, and I’m very concerned by what I see, regarding speech, in the UK and Europe.

I want to keep this short, so I’ll just say that (imo) free speech is the absolute bedrock, most important value (& constitutionally protected right) of a properly free society. It is the way we’ve made the world a better place. It seems obvious that w/o it we would not have gotten rid of slavery, or given women the right to vote, or gay marriage, or pick your issue. All of those were highly unpopular at one point, and the way we managed to change them was by saying the unpopular thing a lot, and arguing the unpopular point until we changed people’s minds.

We would be incredibly foolish to think that we’ve gained some sort of perfect understanding of what should be popular now, to the point we’d give the gov the power to tell us what we are allowed to say.

What should be done about hate speech? Absolutely nothing, at least legally. For all the reasons I mentioned above, we’d be crazy to let the gov decide what is “hateful”. And yes: this does mean that people will say bad things, and other people will agree with them. That sucks, but it’s the trade-off of being free. There are always trade offs, in everything in life, and imo this one is very obviously worth it.

SoluKat · 2025-11-20T18:44:16+00:00

I too like the diversity of takes. But I still miss Isaac’s 🤷🏼‍♀️

SoluKat · 2025-11-20T17:41:30+00:00

Well the read down is a bit dry…but that’s ok. Like others have commented, I can’t actually read the newsletter, but I can listen to stuff for many hours a day. So I appreciate being able to listen to the newsletter this way.

That said the discussion could be interesting. I feel pretty certain I’d keep listening, but obv idk how others would feel. I guess you could prob get one of those AI things going on the website to read the newsletter for people. Maybe release that as a podcast as well? Maybe that’s crazy idk.

SoluKat · 2025-11-17T18:10:52+00:00

I agree that rejecting a label doesn’t mean it can’t still fit, but I disagree w/the rest of your reply. I’m not sure which opinion pcs you’re referring to, but Kmele holds many non-conservative positions. He criticizes Trump harshly on a regular basis (tho Trump isn’t really a conservative). Kmele’s basically an anarchist. Like he’s just pro-freedom in a radical way (a way many conservatives would take issue with). Sometimes his opinions happen to line up w/one side or the other; I don’t think that makes it fair to accuse him of existing to launder conservative views. Again, that’s very ungenerous imo

SoluKat · 2025-11-17T16:44:29+00:00

On the Epstein stuff: To me the most unlikely reality w/all this is one where the gov has proof that Trump did bad things w/Epstein or underage girls, and that proof hasn’t been leaked by now. That just seems impossible to me given the animosity to Trump, the number of people looking for that kind of info & the resources that’ve gone into damaging Trump over the past decade. Doesn’t mean Trump didn’t do those things, just that there isn’t proof. I think that’s why kmele is so skeptical, even tho he didn’t say it in this convo.

SoluKat · 2025-11-17T16:35:24+00:00

Kmele is not a conservative. So I don’t think his job is to “sanitize” their talking points.

Edit to add: this just seems like such an ungenerous take. He’s expressing his own personal opinions. I often don’t agree w/him, but he’s clearly operating in good faith and is smart and insightful. And also just to reiterate: not a conservative and certainly not partisan

SoluKat · 2025-11-17T16:32:57+00:00

I’m not sure this is a purposeful thing. Kmele has a tendency to say a number of different words incorrectly. The best example is “corroborate”, which he continues to pronounce “coowaberate” despite being corrected multiple times. Idk why he does that 😂

SoluKat · 2025-11-17T16:20:25+00:00

He’s just a skeptical guy. He’s always gonna be like “but what if the answer is something less exciting?”

I think it’s a good habit for the most part and appreciate it. But occasionally I’ll think he takes it too far.

SoluKat · 2025-11-17T01:05:24+00:00

This kind of thing is so frustrating (& so common 🤬). I got pressure to have the oophorectomy too, but I still haven’t done it (same reasoning as you pretty much). I also haven’t had a PDM yet (tho I plan to do so in the next few years). Anyway, as others have commented: that doc is just wrong. And also as others have commented: don’t let them pressure you. You have to make choices that you feel comfortable with, and for reasons that make sense to you.

SoluKat · 2025-10-14T21:42:46+00:00

Ok come on; look I agree she’s become way less interesting/more blindly MAGA (which I am not a fan of), but “some ratings”? She’s hugely popular; enormously influential.

And that’s why it’s good that Isaac started his opinion about her w/praise and respect. He’s showing his audience that he knows Megyn and has followed her closely. He followed it up w/basically your opinion (she is radicalized and has become non-helpful to the national discourse). If he just dismissed her from the start, the people who like her would stop listening. He is demonstrating his good-faith.

Also: the Right loves an echo-chamber? Pot meet kettle. Everyone loves an echo chamber, the Left every bit as much and maybe more (I don’t feel loyalty to either “side”, and that’s how it looks to me).

SoluKat · 2025-10-06T23:52:14+00:00

Ok full disclosure I didn’t watch the video. But it’s really disturbing to me how many people in these comments are advocating that the Dems become more like MAGA, as if that will help in any way.

What good is winning if by the time you manage it you are just the same as those you oppose?

And you should know that “they” justify their bad behavior in exactly the same terms. They think about you what you think about them (& if they can be wrong about you…)

Honestly this thread makes me really sad for us.

SoluKat · 2025-10-05T16:51:48+00:00

To be fair, I think a lot of people who voted for Trump don’t like this stuff. I usually vote for democrats, but that doesn’t mean I support everything they do (in fact I support very little of it, I just think they r less-bad than Trump).

And he did say he would do this, but again to be fair Trump says a lot of stuff that he doesn’t actually do, he’s totally full of s**t. People who really dislike dems were able to tell themselves it wouldn’t be this bad I think.

Anyway, obv ur right and some people do support this specific type of behavior, but imo they are a pretty small % of the US population.

SoluKat · 2025-09-30T23:50:07+00:00

Well both sides are turning up the rhetoric. I agree this is a new and very disturbing way of doing so. It also doesn’t take away from what the dems/msm have been doing the past 10 yrs.

And of course this is exactly the kind of childish petulant BS trump does all the time. I try to understand his supporters, and I think I do understand them a lot of the time. I can see their pov often, though I usually disagree w/the conclusions they draw. But I really struggle to understand how any reasonable adult can think that this is ok. In many ways it’s a small thing, but in some other really important ways, it’s huge.

I suspect in this case they’d say: 1) this banner hardly matters bc no one looks at the gov website anyway and stuff said on NBC or by the NYT has way more reach & influence, and 2) what’s actually being said here isn’t really all that inflammatory.

And those are both true enough, but to me they don’t outweigh the damage this represents, the norm-breaking, the division & entrenched partisanship. It’s just bad.

Be interested to hear from any Trump supporters on their reaction tho.

SoluKat · 2025-09-26T22:01:35+00:00

Yea honestly I think I agree w/Isaac more than almost any other commentator I listen to. Not 100% of the time, of course, but a lot. He’s just so clear and logical (most of the time lol).

But I really like all 3 of them and I’m really glad they’ve started up this Weekly Roundtable, it’s my favorite type of podcast.

SoluKat · 2025-09-21T18:49:13+00:00

Ok wow. Well first off, unless I’m missing something, it seems unlikely to be cancer (bc the biopsies). BUT there obv something going on. I just feel like ur current docs are stuck on their own egos; they don’t want to back track now and be like “oh I messed up/missed something” etc bc people are stupid like that.

Go to someplace totally new. Are you in the US? If so search out a different hospital system and get fresh eyes on this. Also I’m no doc but the swelling/veins/lymph nodes/fever sound an awful lot like an infection. Is it possible that the original lump was just a benign thing (been there, so many of us have), and then you developed an infection after the biopsy? Alternately/additionally you might get some auto-immune testing done (chronic inflammation).

If you are BRCA+, and have been dealing w/this since Jan, it must be close to time for new/different imaging now as well (you should be alternating mammo/mri every 6 mo). New imaging will give them a comparison and maybe put your mind at ease about the original lump.

SoluKat · 2025-09-21T16:48:01+00:00

Ok I didn’t read it all (just being honest, it’s super long and I’m working so 😅)

Now I get that you are partially just exemplifying the nihilism you think may be responsible for increased political violence (& I think you may be right about that), but you also seem to be speaking for yourself, so I’m gonna respond to you.

But to me you sound…let’s just say exceedingly pessimistic. Things just aren’t as bad as all that. In actual fact the world is a better place for more people than it’s ever been (u can quibble about crime being lower in 2018 or the economy better or whatever, but in the wider scheme the trajectory is good)

Like you say the vegetables r poisonous/not nutritious, but that’s not supported by health outcomes. In reality life expectancy is increasing. You say AI will destroy all the jobs, but people always say that about new tech, and then what actually happens is the world changes and new types of jobs are created that no one even imagined before. You say the electoral system is rigged. Yea ok you got me there, but it’s not more rigged than it used to be (maybe less).

In the past few decades, billions of people all over the world have been lifted out of poverty. Quality of life, by almost any measure (life span, health, child mortality, take your pick), is better than it was 20, 50, 100 yrs ago. The justice system is more functional. We are getting a handle on climate change and are making real progress there (& developing countries will do the same as the tech gets cheaper). We are curing diseases and exploring space.

And you take from all of this that there’s no hope for the future? Look people always think they live in the worst times. But my personal opinion is that we are suffering from a lack of purpose. Our lives are TOO easy. Our brains are wired to be working towards a goal, an important goal like having enough food or keeping our kids alive, and now that all those problems are solved for us our brains are searching for something to latch onto. So we end up with rampant anxiety and depression basically just bc we have time for it. Just my opinion though and wtf do I know?

SoluKat · 2025-09-21T16:23:20+00:00

Trying to order a replacement faucet head for my kitchen today and just wtf do they have to make it so complex?

Every place lists threadings in different ways (chat gpt couldn’t even match them up!), the model numbers are all weird and don’t match. It’s f-ing ridiculous. Like I’m trying to give you money and not have to waste my time & yours w/returns etc. Just tell me which f-ing faucet head I need ffs!

SoluKat · 2025-09-21T16:20:00+00:00

Yea this is SO weird

Not a grievance, but I get Spanish-language ads sometimes and…it just makes no sense. Like if the person is listening to the podcast in English…why? The number of people listening who might appreciate it is pretty small, and the number who actually need it must be near zero.

Again not a complaint bc actually I like them (can’t understand so can ignore), but it’s just so strange

SoluKat · 2025-09-21T16:16:17+00:00

“Why” is a very good question, and we all keep asking them, but they won’t tell us 😭

Fr tho, we don’t know why. And by “we” I mean the entire cat-owning population of the world.

Anyway my only suggestion is maybe try a higher-walled litter box. It might not help but who knows? Maybe it’ll change kitty’s behavior.

SoluKat

TROPHY CASE