#there was also a third one (russia) but she died during the civil war

[eccentrickleptomaniac]

100 years ago

[sollannaart]

Józef Poniatowski’s family album.

Part II. Grandparents, uncles, cousins (or 3 Stanisławs, 2 Konstncjas, Kazimierz and Michał )))

This week let’s continue talking about prince Józef relatives. In the previous post on the topic I wrote (and showed portraits) of Pepi’s parents and sister. So today there will be images and some information about others.

Let’s start with the grandparents. (Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find much about Poniatowski’s maternal ancestors, so this post will be about relatives from his father's side...)

This fancy gentleman is the father of prince Anrdzej and the progenitor of the family - Stanisław Poniatowski.

Portrait of Stanisław Poniatowski, unknown painter, 18th century

He was born in 1676, as a son of a petty nobleman from Lesser Poland. And died in 1762, having achieved the highest rank possible for a civil servants in the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth - the castellan of Kraków. (Speaking in modern terms Stanisław Poniatowski can be called a self-made man.)

Of course, the life of such a man was full of ups and downs. That is why telling you about him I would like to focus only on things, which IMHO had some similarities with the destiny of Stanisłasw’s grandson, prince Józef.

During the Great Northern War Stanisław took the side of the Swedish king  Charles XII and the latter’s protégé - as a king of Poland - Stanisław Leszczyński. (On the other side there were Peter The First of Russia and August II of Saxony, who had been elected as a Polish king.)

To the misfortune of the first party, one of the decisive battles of that war, the one Poltava in 1709, was lost, but this wasn’t a reason for Poniatowski to turn his back on Charles. On the contrary, Stanisław then saved life of his suzerain, and after that help him to flee to Turkey. And remained faithful the Swedidh king to the very end, till Charles’ death 10 years later. (Although for this reason Stanisław had to spend all these years abroad, taking care of various matters of the latter.)

Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Stanisław Poniatowski, after 1758, National Museum in Warsaw

And only after Charles passing away, Poniatowski went to Poland and asked pardon from August II. And having received it, remaining a faithful servant of that ruler till the Saxon king’s death in 1732.

During the next interregnum, however, Stanisław supported again the candidacy of Stanisław Leszczyński, the former protégé of Charles II. And only under the pressure of circumstances (one of his youngest sons, his namesake Stanisław, the future last king of Poland, was kidnapped by the adversaries of the opposite, Saxon party, to forced Poniatowski to join them) he switched sides.

As for Stanisław’s private life - it was also not without complications. In 1710 he married Teresa Jasieniecka, a widow of a Lithuanian nobleman Ogiński. But shortly the wedding it turned out that Teresa’s financial state was not so well as expected, instead of money she possessed debts only. And it looks like it was the reason for Poniatowski to leave her. (Some sources even say that the couple eventually divorced).

Anyway, whatever happened with Teresa later, in 1720 Stanisław seemed to be eligible again, because that very year he married again, this time to Konstancja Czartoryska.

Per Krafft the Elder: Portrait of Konstancja Czartoryska, circa 1768, National Museum Kraków

Being born circa 1700 Konstancja was about 20-25 years younger than Stanisław’s, but this didn’t prevent the the marriage from being successful. The reason might have been that, though for Poniatowski this was again a kinda “strategic marriage” (because the Czartoryski family was very powerful), the bride was really in love with her groom. To such an extent that she married him despite her father’s will.

Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Konstancja Czartoryska, 18th century

And, in general, Konstancja was so stubborn and willful, that in the family she was called “Chmura gradowa” (hail cloud).

As an example of her adherence to principles there might be recalled the story of her son Kazimierz duel with Adam Tarło. First she forced Kazimierz to challenge Tarło - though even by the standards of that time the reason doesn’t seem justified enough. An then, when the shooting happened with no harm to both sides and young men reconciled,  the mother made the son to challenge his former adversary twice. And that time the duel ended with a death, fortunately to her - not of her son.

And such a story was not a unique one. (And something prompts me that had Konstancja been alive in 1761, when her son Andrzej, prince Józef’s future father, was about to marry a Czech noblewoman Teresa Kinska, the princess Poniatowska might not have agreed to that union. But the latter died already in 1758, so it wasn’t hard for Andrzej to get agreement from his very old and ailing father...)

Now, let us move to the next generation of Poniatowskis. The most known of them (and who, btw, was the favorite son of his mother) is Stanisław Antoni. Because in 1763 he was elected to become the king of the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth (and, ascending the throne, changed his second name to “August”).

Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder: Portrait of Stanislaus Augustus in a dressing-gown, between 1788 and 1789, National Museum in Warsaw

Do you remember that the second name of prince Józef was “Antoni”? Yes, he got it in honor of that uncle of his!

And later Stanisław August had a lot of influence on his nephew, taking care on young Pepi and his older sister Teresa after their father’s death in 1773.

But in my opinion it won’t be correct to call prince Józef the favorite of king Stanisław, the person whom the latter saw as his possible successor on the Polish throne. Why? Because there also was the oldest of Stanisław’s siblings children, the son of the above mentioned Kazimierz and the king’s namesake - one more Stanisław. (More about him - a little bit below.) And only for the short period from 1791, when that Stanisław withdrew from public life and emigrated to Italy, till 1795 Pepi’s candidature might have seriously been seemed as a possible royal successor.

Ok, now let’s look at Kazimierz. In addition to participating in that infamous duel the oldest of survived sons of the Poniatowskis was known for leading a rather riotous life. Having married a wealthy bride  Apolonia Ustrzycka he had a lot of money and spent them freely and sometimes rather eccentrically. In his greenhouses, for example, there were grown... pineapples! And he also brought  to Poland from Africa a bunch of monkeys (though all they died shortly because of the cold Polish climate (( )

Unidentified painter, Portrait of Kazimierz Poniatowski, second half of 18th century, Palace Museum in Wilanów

In his private life prince Kazimierz was also a real child of his time - he had several mistresses. And one of them he even drove around Warsaw naked - so that everyone could "see" her charms. (You see, prince Józef had people among his uncles to take examples from ))) And I must also mention, that Kazimierz had a loving affection for his nephew. And in the last decade of the 18th century, when Pepi was already living in Warsaw, the uncle willingly invited the nephew to his place and even supported him financially.

And despite that notorious style of life prince Kazimierz outlived all his younger brothers and died in 1800, being almost 80 years old.

And now a little bit information about Michał, the youngest of prince Józef uncles. He was destined by his parents for the clergy, and in the church hierarchy he “climbed” to the highest Polish rank - the Primate of Poland. (Though, as many sources state, prince Michal was a priest just in the spirit of his age - having mistresses and possible even illegitimate children.)

Marcello Bacciarelli, Portret of Michał Jerzy Poniatowski,  National Museum in Poznań, 18th century

And the circumstances of his death in 1794, in the age of 57 years only, still aren’t clear enough. That was the time, as you may remember, of Kościuszko’s Uprising, and Michał was among supporters of the king and the latter’s pro-Russian politics. So, when the primate became seriosly ill and then died there appeared rumors, that that might have been a suicide, in fear for being hanged, as those members of  Targowica Confederation who weren’t lucky to flee.

In relation with prince Józef I can name only one significant thing of Michał’s biography - it was who from him Pepi inherited Jabłonna village under Warsaw with its famous palace.

For the record I should also mention that the Poniatowskis-senior had also 2 daughters, Ludwika Maria and Izabela, but they didn’t seem to play significant roles in their nephew’s life.

And now let’s look at the third generation - Pepi’s cousins, children of prince Kazimierz.

This is the very prince Stanisław, whom I mentioned above:

Angelica Kauffman, Portrait of Stanisław Poniatowski (1754-1833), 1786

Very well educated and economically talented, he carried out a lot of reforms in his vast estates in Ukraine, and made these land prosper. Being interested in art, he founded a painting school in Warsaw. More than once a member of the Sejm, elected marshal of the knighthood of the Permanent Council, member of the confederation of the Four-Year Sejm and... not a popular figure among the the nobility (szlachta).

Because of the latter reason in 1790 there arose a conflict between prince Stanisław and his adversaries, after which the prince resigned from all his post and abroad.

Portrait of Stanisław Poniatowski (1754–1833), attributed to Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder, 18th century

He settled in Italy, where he owned estates, and unlike his cousin Józef, never returned to public life.

As for Stanisław’s private life - well, it also looked like a suitable plot for a romance novel. The prince met his future wife in Rome, when he was already in his fifties. She was thirty years younger than him and... a wife of his neighbor.

Her name was Cassandra Luci, and she was a common woman, beaten by her cruel husband. And one day, trying escape from an attack, she knocked on prince Poniatowski’s door, was allowed to enter his residence, and stayed with the latter forever.

First, of course, Cassandra served in Stanisław’s residence just as servant, becoming the housekeeper. But soon she answered his feelings, and... by 1816 the couple had already 5 children - 2 sons and 3 daughters. And when in 1830 Cassandra’s husband died, Stanisław was finally able to marry her.

And all the Poniatowskis living now in France are descendants of this couple. Or, to be more precise, of their second son Joseph Michael.

Relating to prince Józef - it looks like his cousin Stanisław didn’t have much affection on him. They met a couple of times before Pepi moved to Warsaw in 1788, definitely had chances to see each other between that time and the year when Stanisław emigrated, but that’s all. And much more close prince Józef was with his other “probably” cousins - the sons of king’s mistress, Elżbieta Grabowska. (But this definitely goes out the topic of this post.)

So, let’s move to the last person of today’s article, prince Stanisław’s younger sister princess Konstancja. 

Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of  Konstancja Tyszkiewicz, nee princess  Poniatowska,  circa 1775

And, I have to admit, she didn’t play any significant role in Pepi’s life either. (Though her daughter, Anetka, might have had - but about the latter I will write later, when the time comes to publish next post of prince Józef women.) But the reason I am writing about this Konstancja now is that her husband’s surname was Tyszkiewicz, just like the surname of the Pepi’s sister Teresa’s husband.

If you ask me whether those two Tyszkiewiczs were relative, I would answer you that they were very distant ones, because last common ancestor was the progenitor of the Tyszkiewicz family, named Tyszka, who lived in the 15th century. 

As for why the king decided to marry both his nieces to the Tyszkiewicz family - on this question I don’t either have an answer. But I can quote you a verse which was written in Poland that time:

Tyszkiewicza

Król policzą

Między bliskich swoje

Dał jednemu

Dał drugiemu

Swych synowic dwoje

(Translation: The king counts the Tyszkiewiczs among his relatives, he gave to one of them and to another two of his nieces)

And because of these two Tyszkiewiczs, and the fact that Anetka Potocka née Tyszkiewicz is sometimes called prince Józef’s niece (though in fact they were first cousins once removed) Teresa Poniatowska, Pepi’s sister is, in these cases, called her mother, which is not at all true. And eery time I write such a statement it that makes me cringe. That is why I felt I ought to write about Konstancja, for the people know that there was one more Mrs. Tyszkiewicz, and that she was Anetka’s real mother.

Well, that’s all for today. and I hope I didn’t make you much tires with untangling all these family ties? ))

[ariel-seagull-wings]

OC PROFILE (UPDATED): REBECA ROSENFELD

UNIVERSE: NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA (1971)

FACE CANON: MIRIAM MARGOLYES

@princesssarisa @sunlit-music @mademoiselle-princesse @amalthea9 @lieutenant-hel-odinsdottir @hmmm-what-am-i-doing @metropolitan-mutant-of-ark @superkingofpriderock

*Note: A year ago, i watched the british epic movie Nicholas and Alexandra, from 1971, wich was about the downfall of the Romanoff dinasty.

In it, Sir Ian Holm makes a cameo as Comissary Yakovlev, a calm, orderly and witty officer of the Revolutionary Bolshevik Goverment who is entrusted to take Tsar Nicholas for trial in Moscow (but is prevented of accomplishing this goal by some of his own party colleagues in Ekaterinburg, who intercept the Romanoffs along the  way during voyage).

Yakovlev’s personality left me quite smitten, so my mind started to imagine an OC to couple with him. Detaille that i tought that he was a fictional character invented for the movie, but later i learned that he was a real person. Still, since his actor was very phisically different from the real life personality, and the movie didn’t went into detailles about him, i treat this Yakovlev as more of a fictionalized character inspired on a real person, like the characters of Shakespeare’s History Plays.

A woman of jewish origin born and raised on a village in Yekaterinburg,  Rebeca works as a shoemaker, and is thrying to keep a family formed by her old father, Abner (who teached her how to make shoes when she was seven years old) and two young sisters, Noemi, who works making shoes alongside her, and Lilia, who is training to become a midwife.

Having experienced the tragedies of seeing her father been bitten till permanente blindness by a soldier of the Tzar (cossack) and loosing her mother, Sarah, to ilness at the age of sixteen, Rebeca developed a practical, but pessimistic, temperment.

One year after the Tzar’s fall, at the age of twenty six, she has the first encounter with the man who will become her husband:

After being stopped at Yekaterinburg, Comissary Yakovlev camps there with his companions, and takes some of their boots to get fixed. He gets the services of Rebeca, recomended by a milkman who was his guide to the village, and she gets surprised by the fact that he immediately pays her the fair price of the jobb (instead of trying to bargain for a low price) and doesn’t mistreat her for being jewish.

They talk a bit, and get friends. When the time arrives for Yakovlev to return to Moscow, he promisses to write back for Rebeca, but she doesn’t believe him.

To her surprise, Yakovlev really sends her letters, and Rebeca and her sisters (who believe in the possibility of a romantic relantionship between the two) write answers back. 

This correspondence lasts for months.

One day, it arrives one letter of Yakovlev asking Rebeca to marry him. The answer she sends is one of skepticism about a Gói (non-jew) wanting to marry a jewish woman.

To Rebeca’s surprise, Yakovlev arrives personally at her village in Yekaterinburg, and they have a conversation in wich he remembers she also didn’t believed that he would write back to her, and after a very long talk, Yakovlev convinces Rebeca to go with him to Moscow, bringing along her family, and mary him in a civilian cerimony.

Rebeca’s old father isn’t very happy with the fact of her marrying in a civilian instead of religious cerimony (and with a Góy for that matter), but since its him who depends on her, he doesn’t really have a power to veto Rebeca’s decision.

After the move to Moscow and their marriage, Yakovlev tries to convince Rebeca to leave behind her job as a shoemaker, but she chooses to keep it, based on the ground that the future of a officer from a recently risen revolutionary goverment is uncertain.

He presents her to his bolshevik parties companion, and while their ideas sound very complex and new to her more shy and simple mind, she gets along well with the jewish members of the party, particularlly the wimen, and has some respect and admiration for Leon Trótski. But at the same time, she perceives the internalized anti-semitism in a lot of the other non-jewish members, and keeps distance of them, fearing Joseph Stálin in particular.

Passed one year of marriage, Rebeca’s father dies of old age, and Yakovlev is summoned to serve on battlefield during the Russian Civil War. While processing her grief and waiting for her husband’s return, Rebeca discovers her first pregnancy, but miscarries within a few weeks of it. One year latter, after Yakovlev returns back home, Rebeca gets pregnant again, and this time (with her husband giving her double attention and care, convincing her to stop working during the nine months of gestation), she has a son, who its called Liev, born in October 25th of 1920, the third aniversary of the October Revolution. Three years later, in September 13th of 1923, Rebeca gives birth to her second child, a daughter named Leah.

In early 1924, after the death of Lenin, Rebeca fears that the political dispute between Trotski and Stalin ends badly for jews like her, her sisters and her children, so she has a conversation with Yakovlev about the family leaving Russia. 

First he tries to convince Rebeca to let all family stay, them to leave with her sisters and their children while he stays behind to continue his work as an officer, and them Rebeca finally convinces him that they must leave together.

With some help from allies of Trotski, Rebeca and Yakovlev’s family cross the borders with Lituania, and them from there they take a ship to Argentina.

And there they live a happy and more or less stable life, seeing  the internal political conflicts of Argentina while acompanying the news that arrive from Russia about the rising of the stalinist regime and of nazi fascism in the rest of Europe…

[papermoonloveslucy]

THE CUCKOO CLOCK CONSPIRACY

January 13, 1951

“The Cuckoo Clock Conspiracy” (aka ”The Cuckoo Clock”) is episode #114 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on January 13, 1951.

This was the 16th episode of the third season of MY FAVORITE HUSBAND. There were 31 new episodes, with the season ending on March 31, 1951.  

Synopsis ~ Liz bought George's Christmas present, a cuckoo clock, with a rubber check, and now she needs to figure out a way to make good on it so the store owner won't repossess the clock.

Parts of this script concerning the cuckoo clock where later used in “The Kleptomaniac” (ILL S1;E27), filmed on March 7, 1952, and first aired on April 14, 1952. 

“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benaderet was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.

MAIN CAST

Lucille Ball (Liz Cooper) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.

Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his  roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury) was considered the front-runner to be cast as Ethel Mertz but when “I Love Lucy” was ready to start production she was already playing a similar role on TV’s “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” so Vivian Vance was cast instead. On “I Love Lucy” she was cast as Lucy Ricardo’s spinster neighbor, Miss Lewis, in “Lucy Plays Cupid” (ILL S1;E15) in early 1952. Later, she was a success in her own show, “Petticoat Junction” as Shady Rest Hotel proprietress Kate Bradley. She starred in the series until her death in 1968.

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz, a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), as one of the member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). She died in 1996 at the age of 96.

Bob LeMond (Announcer) also served as the announcer for the pilot episode of “I Love Lucy”. When the long-lost pilot was finally discovered in 1990, a few moments of the opening narration were damaged and lost, so LeMond – fifty years later – recreated the narration for the CBS special and subsequent DVD release.

Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) does not appear in this episode, but his character is mentioned. 

GUEST CAST

Hans Conried (Mr. Haskell, the Jeweler) first co-starred with Lucille Ball in The Big Street (1942). He then appeared on “I Love Lucy” as used furniture man Dan Jenkins in “Redecorating” (ILL S2;E8) and later that same season as Percy Livermore in “Lucy Hires an English Tutor” (ILL S2;E13) – both in 1952. The following year he began an association with Disney by voicing Captain Hook in Peter Pan. On “The Lucy Show” he played Professor Gitterman in “Lucy’s Barbershop Quartet” (TLS S1;E19) and in “Lucy Plays Cleopatra” (TLS S2;E1). He was probably best known as Uncle Tonoose on “Make Room for Daddy” starring Danny Thomas, which was filmed on the Desilu lot. He joined Thomas on a season 6 episode of “Here’s Lucy” in 1973.

GeGe Pearson (Mrs. Haskell, the Jeweler’s Wife / Miss Russell, George’s Secretary) did two other episodes of “My Favorite Husband.” She will play a New York City tourist in “Lucy Visits Grauman’s” (ILL S5;E1) in 1955. She did the episode with her husband, Hal Gerard. The two actors were married in real-life. In 1956 the couple returned to CBS to appear in the same episode of “Damon Runyon Theatre.” She is perhaps best remembered as the voice of Crusader Rabbit. The couple died just a year apart in 1975 and 1976.

June Foray (Marie, the Beautician) was born June Lucille Forer in 1917 and was best known as the voice of such animated characters as Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha Fatale, Cindy Lou Who, Witch Hazel in the Bugs Bunny cartoons, Granny in the Tweety Bird cartoons, and many, many others. She provided the bark of Fred the dog on Season 6 of “I Love Lucy.” 

Ken Christy (Police Officer) later played the detective investigating the new tenants in “Oil Wells” (S3;E18) and will play the dock agent who directs Lucy to the helicopter that lowers her onto the deck of the S.S. Constitution in “Bon Voyage” (S5;E13). Christy was also featured on the TV series "Meet Corliss Archer” on CBS.

THE EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Cooper’s, it’s morning. George is at breakfast. Liz is in the kitchen talking to Katie the Maid.” 

Liz compliments Katie with the goal of getting a loan of $14.95. She explains that she bought George a cuckoo clock for Christmas using a check with no money in the account. To prevent George from finding out, Liz wrote the check on an account at another bank - one where she hasn’t got an account - and could face jail. 

In the dining room, Liz cuddles up to George with the same compliments she used on Katie! They smooch. George realizes that Liz is buttering him up for money. Liz directly asks George for a loan of $15 but banker George reminds her that borrowing money is a slippery slope into debt. 

LIZ: “Look, Dale Carnegie, I need the money.” 

Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) was the developer of courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills. He was the author of the best-sellers How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936) and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948), as well as several other books.

George reminds Liz that she made a New Year’s resolution to pay him $25 if she went over budget, so in giving her the loan, she would actually owe him $40!  Liz tells him to forget the whole deal - she will find the money elsewhere. 

At the beauty salon, Liz asks beautician Marie (Gege Pearson) where to find Iris Atterbury. Iris is having a mud pack which cracks upon hearing Liz wants a loan. She was just getting ready to ask Liz for a loan, too. It seems that Rudolph and George stated the new year on an economy wave. 

LIZ: “I guess it’s in the air. Darn those Russians, anyway.” 

In 1950 and well into early 1951, the US Government committed to what was known as an ‘economy wave’ in order to save money that might be used for civil defense and bolstering European strength during the cold war with Russia. This economy wave extended to all facets of American business, including Hollywood, so it would have been a topic familiar to the writers of “My Favorite Husband” in early January 1951. 

Liz explains her dilemma to Iris, who suggests she phone the jeweler and ask him to hold the check a few days. Liz thinks it is worth a try and calls Mr. Haskell (Hans Conried), who declines to hold the check a moment longer. Liz turns on the tears. Mrs. Haskell (Gege Pearson) gets on the line - she’s unsympathetic to tears. Liz and Iris rush off to get the clock out of George’s office before it is repossessed! 

Wilbur Hatch’s play-off music is “As Time Goes By” written by Herman Hupfeld in 1931. It became famous when it was featured in the 1942 Warner Brothers film Casablanca performed by Dooley Wilson as Sam (”Play it again, Sam.”) The song was likely chosen to tie-in with the episode’s clock theme. 

End of Part One

Announcer Bob LeMond does a live commercial, giving a recipe for a quick dessert using Jell-O.  

Part Two

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers once again, Liz is speeding to George’s office to make off with the cuckoo clock before Mr. Haskell, the jeweler, arrives to repossess it. Meanwhile, George Cooper in his office is just going out to lunch.”

George asks his secretary, Miss Russell (Gege Pearson), to wind the cuckoo clock while he is out.  After George leaves, she tries, but overwinds it. She takes it to Haskell’s to be fixed while George is out to lunch. 

Liz and Iris arrive and can’t find George, Miss Russell, or the cuckoo clock. They assume that Mr. Haskell has gotten there first and repossessed the clock!  They head towards Mr. Haskell’s Jewelry Shop.  

There they see the clock in the window!  Mr. Haskell explains that the clock in the window isn’t hers, but one just like it. He is a nervous wreck, thanks to a busy Christmas season. Liz still thinks that the window clock is hers, but Mr. Haskell insists it isn’t and won’t give it to her unless she pays for it. She and Iris leave in a huff. 

Outside they scheme to get what they think is their clock back. Liz will divert Mr. Haskell while Iris sneaks the clock out of the store. Iris is scared, but reluctantly agrees.  A whistle will be the signal that Mr. Haskell isn’t looking. 

Liz tells him she is shopping for Mr. Atterbury, who wants to buy his wife a present. Deciding on a diamond, a clueless Liz guesses that she wants 200 carats!  When Mr. Haskell whistles at the high carat-count, Iris mistakes it for the signal and tries to come in!  Liz blocks the door!  When Haskell goes to the back room for a diamond, Liz suddenly realizes she doesn’t known how to whistle, so calls to the back room asking him to repeat it for her!  Iris gets in and out just as...

MR. HASKELL (returning to the shop): “Would you like me to whistle a chorus of “Come to the Stable, Mabel”?   LIZ: “No, thanks!  Well, I’ll be running along now!  Bye!” 

Liz dashes out of the shop and hides the cuckoo clock under her coat!  

At the bank, Liz is greeted by Miss Russell, who tells her George isn’t back from lunch yet. They are shocked to discover that the cuckoo clock is back on the wall. They realize they have stolen Mr. Haskell’s new clock and must return it before he notices it is gone.   

They arrive at the Haskell’s and find a Policeman (Ken Christy) there. Liz quickly hides the clock under her coat, but it continually ‘cuckoos’ loudly in the presence of the officer!  Just as she’s about to be arrested for theft, Liz settles the matter by writing Mr. Haskell a post-dated check for January 20th - 1953! 

Lucille Ball could not have known it at the time, but one day earlier, on January 19, 1953, she gave birth to her son, Desi Jr. and on the same evening, Lucy Ricardo gave birth to Little Ricky.  On January 20, 1953, headlines like the one above dominated the nation’s newspapers. 

End of Episode!

Bob LeMond does another live Jell-O commercial and reminds listeners to look for their ads in leading January magazines. 

[Oops! While announcing the episode’s credits, Bob LeMond mistakenly says “Hans Conried played by Mr. Haskell” instead of the other way around. There is background laughter by the other cast members and LeMond starts to laugh a bit while finishing his announcements.]

ANNOUNCER: “Be sure to watch for Lucille Ball as a would-be cosmetics dealer in her latest picture ‘The Fuller Brush Girl’.”

[newstfionline]

Monday, November 23, 2020

Trump Using Last Days to Lock In Policies (NYT) Voters have decided that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. should guide the country through the next four years. But on issues of war, the environment, criminal justice, trade, the economy and more, President Trump and top administration officials are doing what they can to make changing direction more difficult. Top officials are racing against the clock to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, secure oil drilling leases in Alaska, punish China, carry out executions and thwart any plans Mr. Biden might have to reestablish the Iran nuclear deal. In some cases, like the executions and the oil leases, Mr. Trump’s government plans to act just days—or even hours—before Mr. Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20. At a wide range of departments and agencies, Mr. Trump’s political appointees are going to extraordinary lengths to try to prevent Mr. Biden from rolling back the president’s legacy. They are filling vacancies on scientific panels, pushing to complete rules that weaken environmental standards, nominating judges and rushing their confirmations through the Senate, and trying to eliminate health care regulations that have been in place for years. Mr. Biden and his top aides have not publicly criticized the president’s policy actions at home or abroad, abiding by the tradition that there is only one president at a time. But the president-elect has vowed to move quickly to undo many of Mr. Trump’s domestic and foreign policies.

Doctors and nurses want more data before championing vaccines to end the pandemic (Washington Post) Doctors and nurses, coping with the daily risk of coronavirus exposure, are expected to get top priority to receive vaccines that could become available as soon as next month. But it’s an open question how many will seize their place at the front of the line. The hesitancy of some health-care workers is attracting attention as the first two vaccines, from Pfizer and Moderna, near deployment. Government, academic, and health-care officials say that significant numbers of providers want more data about the vaccine before it is deployed. A report released Thursday by the University of California at Los Angeles researchers said that 66 percent of Los Angeles health-care workers who responded to an online questionnaire (not a randomized sample) said they would delay taking a vaccine. The American Nurses Association, a national union, said one-third of its members do not intend to take the vaccine, and an additional third are undecided. Among professionals contacted by the state of New Jersey, “some did not want to be in the first round, so they could wait and see if there are potential side effects,” New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith M. Persichilli said at a Nov. 9 news briefing. Health-care leaders say President Trump’s frequent promises about vaccines have raised doubts about the objectivity of agency reviews, as have the speed of the manufacturers’ clinical trials, and unfamiliarity with the novel techniques used by the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to trigger natural antibodies.

Music to get us through (NYT) At the fearful height of the pandemic in April, Simon Gronowski, an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor, began playing jazz tunes on his piano from his apartment window in Brussels, bringing relief to his besieged neighbors throughout the lockdown that lasted into late May. “Music is a means of communication, of connection,” said Mr. Gronowski, who taught himself how to play the piano as a teenager after escaping the Nazis. Piano was a way for him to connect with his sister who had died in Auschwitz. Throughout the summer and into the fall, live jazz has become a near-constant presence across New York City. The makeshift outdoor shows have been therapeutic for musicians and fans alike.

Homicides skyrocket across U.S. during pandemic (Washington Post) In Greensboro, N.C., the violence has gotten so extreme that a shootout erupted in front of the county courthouse the other day, across the street from the sheriff’s office, leaving a 20-year-old man dead. Greensboro set a city record with 45 homicides last year, and, as of Friday, already had 54 this year. “We’ve always had a level of gang activity,” Greensboro Police Chief Brian James said in an interview, “but it’s more prolific now. I’m not sure what’s changed, but the offenders are more bold than they’ve ever been.” Homicides across America rose more than 28 percent in the first nine months of this year, and aggravated assaults increased nine percent, while rapes and robberies saw significant drops compared to the same period last year, according to statistics compiled this month from 223 police agencies. Some police commanders say the twin impacts of the coronavirus and civil uprisings against police violence caused them to redirect their officers away from proactive anti-crime programs, whether due to virus-related budget cuts or strategic redeployment of forces to handle the unrest. Other officials point to job loss and other stresses of the pandemic as fueling tension and leading to violence. And with many schools shuttered, police say, many areas have seen a rise in violence involving juveniles.

Charleston weighs wall as seas rise and storms strengthen (AP) Vickie Hicks, who weaves intricate sweetgrass baskets in Charleston, South Carolina’s historic city market, remembers climbing onto the table at her grandmother’s booth downtown when the floodwaters rushed by. Decades later, the seasoned seller of this art form passed down by descendants of West African slaves still works downtown, where merchants regularly set out sandbags and scrutinize daily weather forecasts. Hicks says the flooding’s only gotten worse. “God’s taking back his land,” she said. Now, the low-lying Atlantic seaport is considering its most drastic measure yet to protect the lives and livelihoods of residents like Hicks from the threats of climate-driven flooding: walling off its peninsula from the ocean. In 2019, the downtown flooded a record 89 times according to the National Weather Service—mostly from high tides and wind pushing water inland. And the city could flood up to 180 times per year by 2045 according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. There’s also the threat each year that hurricane-driven storm surge could inundate the city’s peninsula, which is at the confluence of three rivers and mostly less than 20 feet (6.1 meters) above sea level.

Protesters in Guatemala Set Fire to Congress Building Over Spending Cuts (NYT) Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Guatemala’s capital on Saturday, setting fire to the nation’s congressional building in a show of anger over a budget bill passed this week that cut funding for health care and education. The demonstrations in Guatemala City, which also included peaceful marches in the central plaza, rocked a nation still recovering from back-to-back hurricanes that displaced thousands of people, destroyed homes and obliterated critical infrastructure. As heavy rains brought on by the second storm pummeled impoverished towns in Guatemala’s highlands and coastal regions on Wednesday, the country’s Congress passed a budget that cut spending on education and health in favor of increasing lawmakers’ meal stipends. The bill, which also proposed gutting funding to combat malnutrition and slashed funding for the judiciary, set off immediate outrage and led to demonstrations across the country. One group of protesters kicked in the windows of the Congress building and set a fire that sent flames billowing out of the entrance, social media videos showed. Police officers sprayed tear gas at demonstrators and firefighters quickly put the blaze out, according to local news reports.

Russia’s health system under strain as the virus surges back (AP) When Yekaterina Kobzeva, a nurse at a preschool in Russia’s Ural Mountains, began having trouble breathing, she called an ambulance. It was four days before she managed to find a free hospital bed. She was only admitted after her story made local headlines. Russia’s health care system, vast yet underfunded, has been under significant strains in recent weeks, as the pandemic surges again and daily infections and virus death regularly break records. Reports in Russian media have painted a bleak picture in recent weeks. Hospital corridors are filled with patients on gurneys and even the floor. Bodies in black plastic bags were seen piling up on the floors of a morgue. Long lines of ambulances wait at hospitals while pharmacies put up signs listing the drugs they no longer have in stock. Russian authorities have acknowledged problems in the health system. President Vladimir Putin even urged regional officials not to paper over the situation, saying that “feigning the impression that everything is perfectly normal is absolutely unacceptable.” During the fall resurgence of the virus, the Kremlin has consistently pointed fingers at regional governors. Regional governors find themselves in an impossible position, explained political analyst Abbas Gallyamov. They face public frustration if they don’t impose tough restrictions and the outbreak continues to rage, and they face it if they do because they don’t have the funds to ease the pain of closures.

Azerbaijanis who fled war look to return home, if it exists (AP) As Azerbaijan regains control of land it lost to Armenian forces a quarter-century ago, civilians who fled the fighting decades ago wonder if they can go back home now—and if there’s still a home to go back to. An estimated 600,000 Azerbaijanis were displaced in the 1990s war that left the Nagorno-Karabakh region under the control of ethnic Armenian separatists and large adjacent territories in Armenia’s hands. During six weeks of renewed fighting this fall that ended Nov. 10, Azerbaijan took back parts of Nagorno-Karabakh itself and sizeable swaths of the outlying areas. More territory is being returned as part of the ceasefire agreement that stopped the latest fighting. But as Azerbaijani forces discovered when the first area, Aghdam, was turned over on Friday, much of the recovered land is uninhabitable. The city of Aghdam, where 50,000 people once lived, is now a shattered ruin.

China to launch moon probe, seeking first lunar rock retrieval since 1970s (Reuters) China plans to launch an unmanned spacecraft to the moon this week to bring back lunar rocks in the first attempt by any nation to retrieve samples from Earth’s natural satellite since the 1970s. The Chang’e-5 probe, named after the ancient Chinese goddess of the moon, will seek to collect material that can help scientists understand more about the moon’s origins and formation. The mission will test China’s ability to remotely acquire samples from space, ahead of more complex missions. If successful, the mission will make China only the third country to have retrieved lunar samples, following the United States and the Soviet Union decades ago.

In Lebanon, army courts target anti-government protesters (AP) Khaldoun Jaber was taking part in an anti-government protest near the presidential palace outside Beirut last November when several Lebanese intelligence officers in plainclothes approached and forcibly took him away. The demonstration was part of a wave of protests sweeping Lebanon against corruption and misrule by a group of politicians who have monopolized power since the country’s civil war ended three decades ago. Jaber didn’t know it then, but Lebanese security forces targeted him because of his social media posts criticizing President Michel Aoun. What followed were 48 harrowing hours of detention during which security officers interrogated him and subjected him to physical abuse, before letting him go. “Three of my teeth were broken and I lost 70% of my hearing in my left ear,” Jaber said. A year after mass protests roiled Lebanon, dozens of protesters are being tried before military courts, proceedings that human rights lawyers say grossly violate due process and fail to investigate allegations of torture and abuse. Defendants tried before the military tribunal say the system is used to intimidate protesters and prop up Lebanon’s sectarian rulers. The trials underscore the growing perils of activism in Lebanon, where a string of court cases and judicial investigations against journalists and critics has eroded the country’s reputation for free speech and tolerance in a largely autocratic Arab world.

Palestinian rocket fire draws Israeli air strikes in Gaza (Reuters) Palestinian militants fired a rocket into Israel, drawing Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said on Sunday. There were no casualties reported on either side of the border. Israeli police said the Gaza rocket fired on Saturday night damaged a factory in the southern city of Ashkelon. The Israeli military said its aircraft struck in response against several military sites belonging to Hamas, the Islamist armed group that controls Gaza.

‘Save yourselves’, Ethiopia tells Tigrayans as it moves on rebel-held capital (Reuters) Ethiopia’s army plans to surround the rebel-held capital of Tigray region with tanks and may use artillery on the city to try to end a nearly three-week war, a military spokesman said on Sunday, urging civilians to save themselves. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which is refusing to surrender its rule of the northern region, said its forces were digging trenches and standing firm. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s federal troops have taken a string of towns during aerial bombardments and ground fighting, and are now aiming for Mekelle, a highland city of about 500,000 people where the rebels are based. The war has killed hundreds, possibly thousands, sent more than 30,000 refugees into neighbouring Sudan, and seen rockets fired by rebels into neighbouring Amhara region and across the border into the nation of Eritrea.

[birdsthatsingaftermidnight]

Monarch #6

Who: Edward(Old English: Eadweard) Also Known As: Edward the Martyr Where: England Succeeded: His father, Edgar Reigned: 8th July, 975 - 18th March, 978 Born: c.962 Died: 18th March, 978 (aged 15-16), Corfe Castle, Dorset Buried: Wareham, later Shaftesbury, later Woking (his bones were hidden during the reformation in order to prevent their desecration and were much later housed in a cutlery box at a Midland Bank vault in Woking as there was a dispute between the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and Shaftesbury Abbey over where the bones should go - ultimately the Orthodox Church won and he was enshrined in a church now named St Edward the Martyr Orthodox Church in Woking in September 1984. They might not even be Edward’s bones. Whilst they are approximately of the right date they appear to be the bones of a man in his late twenties/early thirties than those of a teenager). Consorts/Children: He did not marry or have any children.

Edward Facts! Edward was the eldest son of Edgar the Peaceful, but not his father’s named heir.  On Edgar’s death the throne was contested with some supporting Edward and others his younger half-brother, Æthelred.  Obviously, Edward’s supporters (who included both Archbishop Dunstan of Canterbury and Archsbishop Oswald of York) won that one, but a civil war very nearly broke out.

Contemporary sources name Edward as Edgar’s son, but all we know is that he was not the son of Edgar’s third queen, Ælfthryth.  Later sources, of questionable reliability, name Edward’s mother as Wulfthryth of Wilton, the nun abducted by Edgar as his second wife.  Another source names Edward as the son of Æthelflæd, Edgar’s first wife.  A charter of 966 names Ælfthryth as the king’s lawful wife, their eldest son Edmund (d.971) as the legitimate son of the king, and Edward as “the king’s son”[1].  Some argue this meaning that Edward was not legitimate, and others that the difference being that whilst Edward’s mother was  the wife of Edgar, it was Æthelred’s mother Ælfthryth who was anointed, consecrated queen, making her children “more” legitimate.  

It may simply be that the state of the “legitimacy” of Edgar’s son was well understood and the upheavals of Edward’s reign were caused by resentment of Edgar, a strong ruler, forcing monastic reforms on the church and nobility.  The actual fight was more likely over these reforms - and many lands were grabbed back from the monasteries - than the question of legitimacy of Edgar’s children (Archbishop Dunstan, supporting Edward, questioned the legitimacy of both Edgar’s marriage to Ælfthryth and thus of their son, Æthelred).

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Edward’s coronation was followed by a comet appearing and famine following in its wake.  There were several appointments of new ealdormen, notably in Wessex and Northumbria.  

Edward was murdered at Corfe Castle in 978.  That he was murdered is not in doubt, but the circumstances are not clear.  He was buried hurriedly in Dorset, then later reburied with greater ceremony at Shaftesbury Abbey in 979, then moved again, this time to a more prominent place in the abbey, very likely under the instructions of his successor, his half-brother Æthelred, in 1001.  Of his death, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle E, The Peterborough Chronicle, said: 

"No worse deed for the English race was done than this was, since they first sought out the land of Britain. Men murdered him, but God exalted him. In life he was an earthly king; after death he is now a heavenly saint. His earthly relatives would not avenge him, but his Heavenly Father has much avenged him."

11th century sources put the blame of the murder at the feet of Edward’s stepmother, Ælfthryth.  One chronicler claimed that she killed Edward herself.  However, there are three main modern theories as to who was behind the murder: 

Edward was killed, as the early source “The Life of Oswald of Worcester” says, by men in Æthelred's service, either as the result of a personal quarrel (the Life makes Edward out to be an unstable young man who offended a lot of people) or in order to put Æthelred on the throne. 

Ælfthryth either plotted the murder or at the least let the killers go free and unpunished. 

In 978 Edward was getting close to the age whereby he could rule alone, and  Ealdorman Ælfhere of Mercia was behind the killing in order that he might preserve his power (presumably inveigling himself with the new, much younger king) and not have to worry about Edward taking land back for the monasteries that Ælfhere had grabbed back off them following King Edgar granting them to the Benedictines.[2]  In support of this is offers the idea that Ælfhere’s playing a large part in the reburial of Edward was as a penance for his part in the murder.

Edward was already being venerated as a saint at the time of his reburial in 1001.  He is today regarded as a saint by the Easter Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglican Communion.  His feast day is 18th March and the Orthodox Church further celebrates him on 3rd September and commemorates his translation into the Orthodox Church on 13th February. 

He was succeeded by his half-brother,  Æthelred II the Unready.

[1] Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 2; John, Reassessing Anglo-Saxon England, p. 120 [2] Higham, Death of Anglo-Saxon England, p. 12

[militant-holy-knight]

Tom Kratman’s Caliphate Review: Disturbingly Prophetic

Its easy to forget that outright right-winged/conservative literature actually exists though admittedly it’s hard to find those with actual merit nor enjoy the same popularity as other types of works. I’ve came across one example written by retired US Army soldier Tom Kratman whom you may or may have not heard about if you are familiar with the Sad Puppies incident from 2015, where the Hugo Awards were biased against writers with conservative leanings. Kratman is someone who delights in offending left-wing sensibilities by his own admission and it’s reflected in his works that often deal with themes like fighting Muslim terrorists in sci-fi settings. One such of these works is Caliphate, written in 2008 and it struck me how... prescient this book was about the contemporary times and may well still be for the future.

The premise is as follows: Islamic terrorists seize nuclear weapons and use it to nuke three American cities during September 11 (as well as London and Israel). The American outrage against Muslims spirals into the election of a third-party populist candidate who promises vengeance against this attack, which he does by simultaneously nuking all Islamic countries in the world (and North Korea for good measure). This disaster leads to an massive exodus of Muslims into Europe who migrate there and thanks to their massive birthrates, they are able to hijack countries by voting for hardcore Islamist parties (as democracy must abide by the majority). They transform Europe - or at least Western Europe or the countries associated with the EU - into a Islamic empire, the titular Caliphate which functions like a hybrid of the modern day Islamist regime like the Taliban, ISIS and Boko Haram (public executions, lashings, women can’t be seen outside without being covered), and the Ottoman Empire (conscription and brainwashing of dhimmis into military service).

The story follows two parallel narratives: one in the distant future over a century after the terrorist attack where America has transformed into a totalitarian empire know as ISA (Imperial States of America) which is in cold war against the Caliphate in Europe and a second one set in “present days” when things are relatively normal but then we witness the events quickly fall apart. The first one follows John Hamilton, an disillusioned American soldier who is recruited by the CIA to infiltrate the Caliphate and investigate a trio of Canadian scientists who are working in a virus to destroy America. The second one follows Gabrielle, a liberal German woman that sees the collapse of Europe up close and tying them together is that she is the ancestor of one of the main characters. These narratives are told simultaneously and are always accompanied by critical quotes of Islam in their opening.

You’d think a work like this would be simply “AMERICA FUCK YEAH” and “FUCK ISLAM” over and over, but Kratman actually does a surprising amount of nuance. For one, it’s made clear that this America is really a dystopia and not an ideal place to live, reflected by its actions and Hamilton’s thoughts about it - at one point, US soldiers carry out ethnic cleansing against Moros in the Philippines and Hamilton is disturbed even after someone close to him died because of them. And while the book doesn’t hold back in bashing Islam, not all of them are portrayed as intolerant religious fanatics - there are genuinely good characters and even some grey ones with complexity added to them. For that matter, even non-Muslims can be villains too so it isn’t a black and white kind of work.

A surprising amount of world-building was put in place to make this world interesting: it’s established that the USA has occupied Canada and the Philippines, England has turned into an absolute monarchy, China has become some kind of transhuman empire, only a portion of Europe is actually under the Caliphate control with most of Eastern Europe under Russia control (because of course) and it’s heavily implied Israel has carried out a final solution against Palestinians. This can however can be a detriment because all these interesting paths are presented but never truly explored. We never see how the UK is under the absolute monarchy, nor this Russian tsardom and we only hear whispers about how bad China is in the distant future (which is implied to be worse than the Caliphate). The one that truly does get any exposure is the Neo-Boer State which was established in the southern half of the African continent by European refugees fleeing from Muslims in their own country and has a section of the story taking place there.

Besides Hamilton, there are other viewpoints in the story with the ones after his following German brothers Hans and Petra, two Christian siblings that live in the Caliphate and are taken apart by the devishrme-like system. He becomes a janissary soldier, while she becomes a servant in a Muslim household. Their stories are actually far more compelling than Hamilton since their struggles are more personal while Hamilton wouldn’t be out of place in a video game where he starred as it’s generic Space Marine protagonist. Hans remains a Christian despite his outward conversion to Islam and actively rebels against Caliphate culture which leads to him adopting a crusader identity, while Petra’s storyline explores the woes faced by women under a fundamentalist Islamic regime i.e. not unlike what those who endured Taliban or ISIS regime.

And make no mistake: the story never holds back on the graphic content. There is plenty of violence including impalement, crucifixions, sexual attacks and etc, which may be a turn off for many readers, and it doesn’t help they have to drive home how dystopian this setting is. It may come across as over-the-top as it made me wonder how plausible this Caliphate could even function (it’s established that the Caliphate can only function in a slave-based economy or taxing the dhimmis, which they can’t afford to abuse or exile since they’d collapse). The Arab Peninsula was once unified under Muhammad and his four successors who drove out all Christians, Jews and polytheists from their lands, but then fell into tribalism and stayed that way for centuries with only Mecca and Medina (the only relevant sites of Islam) being controlled by outsider Muslims.

I know I make the story sound unrealistic and fantastical, but the main takeway from this book I had was how prophetic the story was in regards to the current and political atmosphere. Keep in mind that what I am about to write was published in April 2008, in a completely different scenario than the one we live:

The insane American president who nukes the Islamic world is very Trumpesque and shares similar slogans (”WE WILL MAKE THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS PAY”). He is basically what leftists believed Trump would actually do if he was elected like put Muslims in internment camps like the Japanese-Americans in WW2.

Great Britain actually breaks out from the European Union, except under much different circumstances: rather than voting themselves out like Brexit, they turn into an absolute monarchy once again and become completely isolationist.

The rise of an brutal, terrorist regime mirrors the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria that rose to prominence during the Arab Spring in 2011.

A large-scale migration of Middle-Easterns into the West triggered by some kind of disaster, only it was an genocidal attack in the book rather than the consequences of a regional movement that led to the collapse of MENA states with the Arab Spring.

The “present day” narrative also presents scenarios no different than the current reality of Europe with no-go zones where migrants of Muslim background are involved in criminal activity and target the native population as seen in France, Germany and Sweden.

Islamists infiltrating democratic institutions in order to impose their values as seen with many neighbors in Belgium and the Netherlands where Muslims are the majority to the native population.

Russia expanding their control over Eastern Europe mirroring their foreign policy to consolidate their regional superpower status.

China being up to no good with technology.

And of course a deadly virus engineered to destroy political rivals, though this time by rogue scientists working for Muslim terrorists rather than China.

It’s possible that some of Kratman wrote was already true of his time which served as basis for the present day narrative. But reality was much different back then: Obama was yet to become President and Bush was still in office (and nobody had an idea how the former would turn out), China was less despotic then than it’s now under Xi Jinping, the Russo-Georgian War was still to take place and migration to the West was relatively low compared to after the 2015′s refugee crisis, the UKIP was considered a fringe party and the UK leaving the European Union was a distant dream. Nobody was talking about no-go zones, but then again the Internet wasn’t as big back then as it’s now. Rather than writing about the modern political atmosphere of his time, Kratman envisioned a possible future which he predicted fairly closely and at the same time, it spoke about issues that are relevant to anyone who isn’t afraid to speak about the problems regarding Islamic ideology or integration of migrants into their host countries.

What depressed me the most about the book is that it’s dystopian reality may be our own future. It’s an common concern for conservatives and right-wingers that Muslims become a majority in the West - a boast that they never cease making - soon which might lead to an eventual clash of civilizations. A quarter of Belgium might be Islamic and this is possible because of enabling from leftist politicians that flirt with radicals for convenience and consider the values they promote like women and LGBT rights to be an acceptable sacrifice to overthrow conservative capitalism. This kind of behavior is actually acknowledged and mocked by Kratman, as Gabrielle is an radical SJW that hates Western conservatives more than Islamists to the point this leads to the breakdown with her relationship with an Egyptian migrant that converts to Christianity and ends up moving to the USA before becoming a authoritarian regime.

The book presents Islam’s conquest of Europe as a complete surrender without a fight - the migrants just breed like rats and vote for Islamist parties to hijack the government through legitimate means and one American ambassador chides Gabrielle and her people for abandoning their own values and allowing this to happen. This probably speaks a lot to the more cynical among us who see our governments bending over to outsiders over their own people and see where it might be headed. Personally I don’t believe a caliphate is where the future is headed, as it provides no real attractive alternative that the West has presented, but it certainly won’t stop some people from trying and there will be certainly a fight.

Are we really going have to look forward for an revived Ottoman Empire in the heartland of Europe where Christian boys are whipped into slave-soldiers, girls are sold to harems like cheap prostitutes and non-Muslims live like second class citizens being forced to pay outrageous, humiliating taxes like the jizya? Hopefully not, but the possibility of terrorists acquiring nukes is an always constant one, and with the Iranian nuclear program will push it’s neighbors to do the same as form of deterrence if they feel threatened. Knowing how fragile Muslims states are and that if those nukes fell into the wrong hands, the events of the book could be precipitated but luckily for us, nuclear armament is expensive and takes a lot of work which not even the wealthiest countries like Saudi Arabia can afford to develop it themselves, let alone the poorest ones like Syria and Iraq so that might not be a reality just now.

Do I recommend this book? The world is very interesting, it’s actually a bit more complex and nuanced as both sides don’t come off as “bright” (albeit the Caliphate is presented as worse). If you want to see a book that talks about issues you find relevant like immigration and terrorism from a conservative perspective, this is a must-read. The main protagonist can be very dull whereas the secondary protagonists are more compelling - it depends on how much you like military heroes written by an American veteran I guess. While the ending to the main story was satisfying on itself (the present day ends on a sad foregone conclusion), it sets up a sequel with many plot threads going unresolved. It’s disappointing to me since this is a standalone book and Kratman hasn’t indicated any plans on writing a follow-up, though if he did it now I am sure he would have done so without a completely different perspective than the one he has in 2008 and he would have certainly got more material to work with. 

P.S. This book has a Skanderbeg reference, so it’s an instant win for me.

[alexsmitposts]

US Smears Those Questioning Latest Claims vs. ChinaColumn:

Politics

Region:

Eastern Asia

Country:

China

The Coda Story – a media front funded and created by and for the US government, its “Atlanticist” partners, and the corporate interests driving the vast majority of Western foreign policy – recently ran a smear against alternative media figures questioning the US-led “Uyghur-Xinjiang” narrative.

The smear is part of a wider campaign aimed at anyone questioning Washington’s Uyghur-Xinjiang narrative and the US’ attempt to use it to undermine China.

These smears follow a very specific playbook. Step one – deny there is a terrorism problem in Xinjiang, China. Step two – cite reports based entirely on anecdotal stories. Step three – never mention these stories and reports are created wholly by US-based, US government-funded organizations.

Step One: Deny Terrorism in Xinjiang  

The article, “Pro-Beijing influencers and their rose-tinted view of life in Xinjiang,” claims, amid the first victim of its smear – Jerry Grey – that:

Grey, who is a former London Metropolitan police officer, admitted that he found Xinjiang’s surveillance network and continual police checks oppressive. “It was a pain in the butt,” he said. “But at no stage were they ever abusive.”

I asked him if he would willingly live under a draconian regime of surveillance and arbitrary detention like the one that operates in Xinjiang, controlling the region’s Muslim population under the guise of combating terrorism.

“Under the guise of combating terrorism?”

Terrorism in Xinjiang carried out by extremists radicalized by US, Saudi, and Turkish programs is real.

Even the Western media whose lies today Coda seeks to buttress have previously admitted the large scale and frequency of terrorism in China’s Xinjiang region.

In the BBC’s 2014 article, “Why is there tension between China and the Uighurs?,” alone it was admitted that (emphasis added):

In June 2012, six Uighurs reportedly tried to hijack a plane from Hotan to Urumqi before they were overpowered by passengers and crew. There was bloodshed in April 2013 and in June that year, 27 people died in Shanshan county after police opened fire on what state media described as a mob armed with knives attacking local government buildings At least 31 people were killed and more than 90 suffered injuries in May 2014 when two cars crashed through an Urumqi market and explosives were tossed into the crowd. China called it a “violent terrorist incident”. It followed a bomb and knife attack at Urumqi’s south railway station in April, which killed three and injured 79 others. In July, authorities said a knife-wielding gang attacked a police station and government offices in Yarkant, leaving 96 dead. The imam of China’s largest mosque, Jume Tahir, was stabbed to death days later. In September about 50 died in blasts in Luntai county outside police stations, a market and a shop. Details of both incidents are unclear and activists have contested some accounts of incidents in state media. Some violence has also spilled out of Xinjiang. A March stabbing spree in Kunming in Yunnan province that killed 29 people was blamed on Xinjiang separatists, as was an October 2013 incident where a car ploughed into a crowd and burst into flames in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

Other Western media sources have confirmed terrorist organizations like the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) are funneling extremists from Xinjiang onto battlefields across North Africa and the Middle East and particularly in Syria alongside other extremists armed and backed by NATO.

The Western media admits that potentially thousands of these Uyghur extremists may return home and use their battlefield experience to wage a campaign of terrorism against Beijing.

US State Department-funded and directed Voice of America (VOA) in its article, “Analysts: Uighur Jihadis in Syria Could Pose Threat,” would admit (emphasis added):

Analysts are warning that the jihadi group Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) in northwestern Syria could pose a danger to Syria’s volatile Idlib province, where efforts continue to keep a fragile Turkey-Russia-brokered cease-fire between Syrian regime forces and the various rebel groups. The TIP declared an Islamic emirate in Idlib in late November and has largely remained off the radar of authorities and the media thanks to its low profile. Founded in 2008 in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang, the TIP has been one of the major extremist groups in Syria since the outbreak of the civil war in the country in 2011. The TIP is primarily made up of Uighur Muslims from China, but in recent years it also has included other jihadi fighters within its ranks.

The TIP has already carried out deadly terrorism inside China. For example, it claimed responsibility for the 2011 Kashgar attacks in Xinjiang killing 23 people.

Would the detention of radicalized extremists in networks carrying out this violence or the creation of security check points in a region where such violence is taking place be considered “draconian?”

No. But Coda’s article never discusses this even though the West’s own media – not Chinese state media – has already admitted terrorism is a major security threat. In fact, Coda’s article never mentions terrorism in Xinjiang even once.

Is the BBC lying? Or have the facts reported on by the BBC in 2014 simply become politically inconvenient amid the West’s current and growing information, economic, and proxy war against China?

Steps Two and Three: Cite Anecdotal Stories – Never Mention They are Produced by US-based, US Government-Funded Orgs

Another target of Coda’s smear was a TikTok user who the article quotes as saying:

“I keep seeing people post about the Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, claiming there are concentration camps there – that is not true, it’s fabricated by the CIA.”

The claims being fabricated by the CIA is the closest thing resembling the truth in Coda’s article.

These claims are indeed fabricated – specifically by Washington-based fronts funded directly by the US government via the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

Separatist groups like the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) who openly seek Xinjiang “independence” have literal offices in Washington DC and are funded by the NED.

In fact, the US NED’s grant money to subversion in China is divided into several regions with their own dedicated pages on the NED website. Xinjiang is is listed by NED as “Xinjiang/East Turkestan” – East Turkestan being the fictional country extremists seek to create.

Other organizations funded by NED include the Uyghur American Association and the Uyghur Human Rights Project.

Unsurprisingly, Coda is also funded by the NED.

Not only is Coda itself funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) via admitted supporters including the NED and US State Department-funded International Center for Journalists as well as Europe’s own “European Endowment for Democracy” (EED) – but the author of the above mentioned smear piece – Isobel Cockerell – previously reported for Rappler – a Philippine online media website also funded by the NED.

Is it possible Isobel Cockerell is unaware that the accusations against China she repeats and smears others for questioning originate from DC-based fronts funded by the US government itself?

No. Cockerell herself has cited these very organizations in other articles. For example, in her article, “Revealed: New videos expose China’s forced migration of Uyghurs during the pandemic,” she cites UHRP she herself admits is based in Washington DC – though she omits any mention of the organization’s US NED funding.

The summation of evidence provided in Cockerell’s articles is anecdotal – based on personal accounts – or provided by dubious US-based US government-funded fronts like UHRP which – in turn – depend entirely on anecdotal accounts.

The NED is chaired by many prominent political figures in the US who openly promoted the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, many wars and interventions beforehand, and many since. This includes Elliot Abrams who had until recently oversaw US regime change attempts in Venezuela before being reassigned to targeting Iran.

It was fabricated accusations the US used to first apply sanctions against Iraq, to undermine its government upon the global stage, and eventually justify military aggression against Iraq including a devastating invasion in 2003 and subsequent occupation that is ongoing to this very day.

A similar strategy is now being aimed at China.

NED is also chaired by figures in the US media guilty of helping promote these fabricated accusations – not only against Iraq but against other targets of US military aggression and regime change including Libya, Syria, Ukraine, and more recently China’s Hong Kong.

This includes the Washington Post’s Anne Applebaum.

Applebaum is also on Coda’s board of advisers alongside others drawn straight from the US and British corporate and state media.

Thus – from funding the organizations telling the lies – to spreading those lies across the corporate media – to then buttressing those lies with fronts posing as smaller, third-party news organizations like Coda – the US government and those aiding its efforts are involved in every step of the way.

For lies about China’s “abuses” of Uyghurs in Xinjiang – Anne Applebaum literally helped oversee the funding of fronts like WUC and UHRP producing these baseless accusations. Applebaum’s employer – the Washington Post – would then transform these fabrications into headline news – then use Coda she serves as adviser to as one of many “third-party” amplifiers in the US government’s echo chamber.

This is not journalism nor confronting fake news and disinformation. This is an industrialized pipeline pumping out fake news.

Another smear aimed at alternative media publications challenging Washington’s Uyghur-Xinjiang narrative published by Axios – citing Coda – would claim:

One classic Russian disinformation tactic is the amplification of “conspiracy websites,” which Rosenberger said are third-party sites without funding transparency that promote the same theories the state aims to boost.

“Having westerners say things that are in line with the state narrative helps bolster their claims,” Darren Byler, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Asian Studies, said in a July 30 interview with Coda Story.

What separates “disinformation” from information are actual facts – which are clearly absent amidst the West’s attacks on China. Thus, Axios and Coda are accusing “Russia” and “China” of doing precisely what they themselves are clearly doing. Axios and Coda are not only “third-party sites” being amplified by the Western media to help promote their false narratives, they are third-party sites created specifically for this purpose.

It is no surprise that those actually engaged in fake news on an industrial scale would attempt to shift the blame elsewhere. The growing number of organizations across the West dedicated to shifting this blame and smearing those questioning transparently false and politically-motivated narratives promoted by verified liars and aggressors – is itself growing to an industrial scale.

But the necessity for such levels of deception only means there is an equal or greater level of honest people engaged in real journalism and analysis – efforts that are making a difference, and efforts that should continue if not doubled.

[nanshe-of-nina]

Wizarding Russian Empire and USSR || Soviet Aurors, part I

Roksana Anatolyevna Cyhanenko (21 June 1877 – 18 March 1938) Cyhanenko was an Auror’s daughter from Transcarpathia. Her father was of distant Romani descent, but their family had long since become “settled.” She attended Koldovstortez from 1887 until 1895 and after completing her studies, she joined the Obshchina Ved’m i Volshebnikov. She initially joined the Shabash Volshebnikov in 1897, but broke with them in 1914. Cyhanenko was arrested in Ledenets in 1905 and sentenced to death, but escaped across the Black Sea to Romania. When World War I broke out, she took a firmly an anti-war and anti-intervention stance and worked on columns about the subject with Mariamna Timofeyevna Gretskaya and the Lutsenkos. She returned to Russia in 1917 and helped lead the stormings of the Dubovaya Roshcha in Lysaya Gora and Pryanichnyy Dvorets in Ledenets.

During the Civil War, she was assigned to the Ukraine and focused mostly on crushing the OSK. At the end of the Civil War, she was among those sent to the Urals with M.I. Znamenshchikov to crush the rebellion of goblins and Kladenets, which they did with extreme brutality. After the end of the war, she became a staunch Leftist and a political supporter of Oksana and Vladimir Lutsenko. However, like most other Leftists, she recanted her views and was readmitted to the BK in 1928.

In 1936, she was a witness to the show trial of Zaria Krasavkina, Yefrem Levandovsky, Germes Golubtsov, and others and fully believed the charges at the time, calling for their executions. However, in December 1936, she confided to Zdravko Vlaykovich that, in retrospect, something about the trial seemed off— Krasavkina came off as far too mentally unstable to have been operating a food stand, let alone an international terrorist group; Golubtsov kept making bitter and sarcastic comments; no one could agree who was supposed to have done what; V.D. Solovieva had claimed she went to Ledenets in January 1933 when she had actually been in exile in the Urals; and the youngest defendant, Alisa Genrikhovna Zakite, had trouble distinguishing between Viktor and Vitaly Lutsenko, the eldest and third sons of Oksana and Vladimir, even though she claimed to have met with them together and separately in France and the Netherlands.

Cyhanenko did not get a chance to confide her suspicions to anyone else. She arrested 15 November 1937 and executed 18 March 1938. Her second husband, Orfey Tarasovich Litvinenko, was also executed (her first husband, whom she’d divorced in 1924, had died in 1929), while her four children and two stepdaughters were packed off to Vyraj. One of her daughters and one of her stepdaughters both died there, but the others were freed in the mid-1950s.

Cyhanenko was one of the first convicted victims of the Great Harvest to be cleared posthumously and two of her surviving children, Astreya and Zefir, both became historians and dissidents after their release from Vyraj and used the compound surname, Cyhanenko-Uhrinenko, to honor both of their parents.

Metsavana Kalevovich Alamets (13 May 1881 – 1 July 1937) A Halfblood from Estonia, Alamets completed his studies at Koldovstortez in 1898 and became an Auror in 1903. In 1916, sick of the incompetence of the Volshebny Duma, he resigned his post and attempted to return home, but found himself unable to do so because of the German army’s occupation of the area.

In 1918, he was one of the numerous former aurors who had served under the VD who joined the BK. In 1919, he was one of those who foiled Veles Svetovidovich Medvedev’s attack on the city of Ledenets and was then later sent south to deal with Yelisaveta Patrikeyevna Korsakova, the last of the VSDP Aurors left standing. In 1931, he largely gave up active duty as an Auror in favor of becoming the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Koldovstortez.

From about 1919 until 1926, Alamets had been in a romantic relationship with fellow Auror, Aleksey Yevdokimovich Kopeinikov, which proved to be his undoing after Kopeinikov became a defendant in the first show trial in September 1936. Though Kopeinikov had not implicated him, the Zhnetsy were apparently suspicious nonetheless and tortured Uzgiryte and Esaulova and then Znamenshchikov into implicating him instead. He only lasted a week under torture before admitting to everything and signing a confession.

After his execution, his sister, Metsaema Alamets, and her husband were both arrested and executed in 1939. Their daughter, Veteema Alliksaar, was sent to Vyraj, but freed in the 1950s.

Mikhail Anatolyevich Reznichenko (21 November 1882 – 31 August 1938) Reznichenko was a Halfblood from the Ukraine, one of the ten children of a Zemlyanin butcher and a witch. He was taught magic at home by his mother and had no formal education. His mother died when he was 13 and he ran away from home at 15 to escape from his violent alcoholic father and ended up in Kiev where he found menial work. In the summer of 1915, due to World War I, he moved to Ledenets and joined the BK shortly after, due to his disgust at the VD's decision to blithely ignore the widespread devastation in the Russian Empire. In December 1916, he, Roksana Cyhanenko, and her then-husband, Astrey Anatolyevich Uhrinenko, organized a demonstration in Ledenets to call for the overthrow of the VD. They were imprisoned for their efforts, but were freed that February and went to Lysaya Gora, where they helped in the storming of the Dubovaya Roshcha.

At some point before or after this point he married Zhiva Dogodinichna Kazakova, a fellow revolutionary of Old Pureblood stock who was seventeen years his senior. In the fall of 1919, he was sent to help prepare defenses of Ledenets from the forces of Veles Medvedev, but instead took the food and supplies and men he was given and stayed in the south of the Ukraine. That October, he still hadn’t showed, which the SK in Lysaya Gora realized when they received a panicked owl from Zaria Krasavkina, the Vedma of the city. Babushkin was enraged at Reznichenko’s behavior and ordered that a warrant be put out for his arrest. Instead, Reznichenko fled for the Crimea and spent most of his time organizing a reign of terror against the Mavka, Rusalki, and other non-humans, who had claimed had been collaborating with the VSDP. This came to an abrupt end when the area was retaken by M.I. Volkov. Reznichenko left most of his followers behind to be massacred while he fled back into the Ukraine.

He was found and arrested in December 1919 and taken back to Lysaya Gora, but let off with a slap on a wrist after he claimed the weather had not permitted him to set sail for Buyan. In February 1920, he was allowed back into the field and helped rout Volkov in southern Russia and the North Caucasus, but then blundered again. In March, his forces managed to capture Lazar Stefanovich Kargin, an Auror who supported the  VSDP and husband of Yelizaveta Korsakova, who was given command of what was left of the VSDP’s forces after Volkov was forced to resign. There were hopes that Kargin could be used as a bargaining chip, but that was smashed when Reznichenko became extremely intoxicated on the evening of 30 April 1920 and passed out. While was unconscious, a group of his followers murdered Kargin. The group responsible claimed afterwards that he had tried to escape and they had no choice, though the VSDP insisted that he was murdered while tied to a post. This event led to Reznichenko being recalled to Lysaya Gora again and was censured. In the end, the event ended up being temporarily forgotten, because the VSDP was already a spent force and Korsakova fled Russia for the Balkans at the end of 1920.

After the Civil War ended, he remained part of the Auror office, but became known as a brutal bungler. He and Kazakova divorced in 1922 or 1923 after she found out that he had been cheating on her with a seventeen-year-old named Pelagiya Pavlovna Zolotova. He tried to poison himself, but failed, and remarried to Zolotova in 1925. This marriage was even shorter than his first: she also left him in 1929 and took their son with her. Afterwards, he was sent to Azerbaijan to crush rebellions and gained the ire of the region’s deputy Vedma, Asena Zaurovna Aslanova, because his love of massacres and looting was provoking rebellions.

By the early 1930s, Reznichenko had made countless enemies among his fellow Aurors, including Znamenshchikov, Kalnietis, Babochkina, and his own assistant, Marina Yuriyevna Kasatkina. Kasatkina in particular loathed him, regarding him as incompetent, drunken thug.

This turned deadly by the late 1930s and he helped the arrange the arrests of both Kasatkina and Znamenshchikov. He then was assigned to Ledenets in place of Babochkina and helped the Zhnets, Viktor Arkhipovich Baltais, carry out repressions there. However, he was himself arrested 24 March 1938, charged with spying for Gellert Grindelwald, and extensively tortured until he confessed. He was executed 31 August 1938. 

Varvara Grigoriyevna Sarycheva (4 December 1883 – 24 December 1938) Sarycheva was born in 1883, the third of four children. Her family were poor and halfblood. She had an older sister, Yefrosinia Sarycheva, who joined the KDMM in 1895, and a younger sister, Lyusya, who became a healer. She and Lyusya first joined the Bratsvo in 1914 and took part in the Civil War. Yefrosinia later participated in the KDMM’s attempted rebellion against the BK, which fell flat, and attempted to flee Russia, but was caught and executed. Her behavior, however, did not (at the least at the time) diminish the standing of her younger sisters in any way. In 1920, she gained almost immediate fame for heading off an attack by the VSDP while eight months pregnant with her youngest daughter.

After the end of the Civil War, she was sent to China and later was posted in the East in 1927. The remoteness of the region meant that she played no role in the power struggles during the late 1920s and was allowed to relatively aloof from the feuds in the Auror office. In 1934, she, Znamenshchikov, S.V. Ryndin, and M.S. Zherebtsov were all named as senior Aurors. She was often considered the most mild-mannered and least bloodthirsty of the four.

During the Great Harvest, Sarycheva was briefly spared from arrest for wholly practical reasons, but found herself in trouble due to the defection of the Zhnets, Grigori Lukyanovich Alatyrtsev to Mongolia, and the fact that her younger sister, Lyusya, had been the mistress of the executed Znamenshchikov from 1918 until 1925. In the summer of 1938, she was visited in the Far East by the deputy head of the Zhnetsy, Melanippa Ippolitovna Chernyshova and Yuri Sylenovich Kozachenko, Kostov’s former private secretary, who immediately set about making her life a living hell. Chernyshova embarked on a gaslighting campaign against her while Kozachenko spent his time harassing virtually everyone to a virtual inquisition.

Sarycheva was arrested 4 November 1938, three days after her sister and second husband, Afinodor Zinovyevich Sychev. All three were extensively tortured to make them confess to espionage and treason and Lyusya confessed to all charges after Nane Aslanyan ordered Nataliya Valeryevna Voronova to gouge out both of her eyes.

What initially happened to Sarycheva was unknown, though it was discovered in the 1990s that she was died as a result of unceasing torture on the night of 24 December 1938. She had repeatedly refused to sign a confession, saying that she “deserved this”. Afterwards, her husband, sister, and son were executed, while her daughters and four stepchildren and Lyusya’s two sons were sent to Vyraj.

Of those, only her youngest daughter, Pelagiya, and three of the stepchildren made it out alive, as had the young son that her eldest daughter, Yevfemiya, had given birth to shortly before dying of Black Cat Flu. In 1955, at his private trial, the former Zhnets, Svarog Borisovich Myasnikov, confessed that he’d had Lyusya’s younger son, Grigori Andreyevich Zhuravlev, executed in 1949 on Kostov's orders due the suspicions that he’d actually been fathered by Znamenshchikov, but the rest had simply died of illness or exhaustion. ( Myasnikov also confessed to having ordered the murder that same year of Znamenshchikov’s only legitimate son, Ilya.)

Kaloyan Ivanovich Reznikov (8 October 1884 – 1 July 1937) Reznikov was born in southern Ukraine as the son of a zemlyanin Jewish laborer and a witch of Bulgarian descent. His mother taught him magic at home and afterwards moved to Minsk in search of work. A long time sympathizer of revolutionary movements, he joined the BK in 1917, where he was put through a quick study program in the methods of dueling and martial magic.

In 1921, he took part in the suppression of the revolt of Goblins and Kladenets in the Urals. In mid-1920s, he was stationed in Germany before recalled and given command in Ledenets in 1928. He was arrested 31 May 1937 and rather undergo torture, immediately incriminated all the people the Zhnets assigned to interrogate him had in mind. He was executed 1 July 1937, though he’d hoped to be spared execution.

Merkuriy Ilyich Znamenshchikov (24 November 1887 – 1 July 1937) Born into an Old, but impoverished, Pureblood family, Znamenshchikov nevertheless joined the BK in 1917, though he was far from the only member with such a background. He was considered a hero of the Civil War, notwithstanding his ruthlessness and brutality. Most infamously, in 1921 and 1922, he was given the job of crushing first the rebel Aurors who had taken over Koldovstortez and then the rebellion of Goblins and Kladenets in the Urals.

He first came into conflict with Afanasiy Kostov in the 1920s, when he supported Svetovid Vladimirovich Levchenko’s attempts to reform the Auror Office and then protested the promotion of S.V. Ryndin to the Commissar after Levchenko and his wife and son were massacred by Mavka in the Ukraine. Not surprisingly, Ryndin and Znamenshchikov took to each other like oil and water and the Aurors quickly became divided between the two camps.

In 1928, Marena Kulchytskaya and Devana Zalischenko sent Kostov information that claimed he was involved in a conspiracy against the regime. Neither women appear to have trusted him fully, probably because of his origins, though ironically, the two of them were also from Old Pureblood families. However, at the time, Kostov was more interested in trying to force Anfisa Krupina and Nestor Voinov from power, so it came to nothing.

However, in 1937, he was implicated in a supposed vast conspiracy in the Aurors’ Office by Uzgiryte and Esaulova after both of them had been tortured over the course of around seven months. He was arrested 6 June 1937 and tortured by S.I. Sobiesky, Melanippa Chernyshova, Gekata Saranchina, and Yevrinom Mushenko until he broke down and confessed that in the late 1920s, Shushanik Khosrovna Tehlirian, the former headmistress of Koldovstortez, had recruited him into a conspiracy with Krupina and Voinov, that had joined with the Leftist terrorist groups organized by Krasavkina and Levandovsky in 1931. After her own arrest in 1939, Chernyshova confessed that they had broken him by threatening to have his two teenage daughters gang raped in front of him. Znamenshchikov also implicated Varvara Sarychina, and claimed that they’d been communicating together through her younger sister, Lyusya, who had been his mistress from 1918 until 1926.

After his execution, his second wife, Marfa Feodorovna Kuritsyna, was arrested as was his mistress, Ipatiya Nestorovna Levandovskaya, the former Arithmancy professor at Koldovstoretz and supposed key player in the plot; his three sisters; and three daughters by his late first wife. His two brothers were both executed. 

Zhyamina Azuolasovna Uzgiryte (31 December 1887 – 1 July 1937) Born into a poor, but Pureblood Lithuanian family, Uzgiryte had no formal education and spent her earliest years as a self-taught herbologist and healer. In 1915, she fled Lithuania for Belarus after the former was invaded by the German army, enraged that the Volshebnyi Duma were still insisting on no intervention. In February 1917, she joined the BK and in 1918, she was appointed as an Auror and fought in the Civil War. In the 1920s, Uzgiryte briefly took the side of the Lutsenkos, but had left by 1927, concluding that their cause was hopeless and instead enrolled in Koldovstortez’s adult education programs. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, she served abroad, mainly in Japan and the United Kingdom.

However, in the summer of 1936, she was implicated in the supposed vast Lutsenkoist-Krasvakinan conspiracy, first by the former Lutsenkoists, Azovka Bulatovna Timurova and Sofoniya Isaakovna Arkhipienka, who had both been arrested in May 1936 and tortured until they confessed to being active terrorists acting at the specific instructions of Oksana Lutsenko and her sons.

Uzgiryte was arrested 19 September 1936, six days after Nastasya Vasilyevna Esaulova. The two of them were then repeatedly questioned and tortured over the course of seven months, only breaking down in May 1937. During the course of this, Uzgiryte was implicated again by L.U. Nemeczek.

In May 1937, Uzgiryte confessed to plotting terrorism and treason with Timurova; Arkhipienka; and the former Auror, Aleksey Yevdokimovich Kopeinikov (all defendants at the first show trial) and also named Znamenshchikov and Babochkina as co-conspirators. Uzgiryte was put on trial alongside the other Aurors from 27 June until 1 July 1937 and executed that evening. 

Austaras Perunovich Kalnietis (6 January 1890 – 1 July 1937) Kalnietis was born in Lithuania into a middle class family. The Black Crone Zhnets, Ausrine Avreliyevna Kalnietyte, was his first cousin. He attended Koldovstortez from 1900 until 1908, earning top marks in nearly all of his courses. In 1914, he successfully became an Auror and married a Latvian witch named Larisa Pelasgovna Ziedina in 1916. However, he chose to join the BK in the spring of 1917 due to the failures of the fledgling Russian Ministry.

In 1919, he and Nastasya Vasilyevna Esaulova gained recognition by helping defend Lysaya Gora from an assault by Mstislav Volkov. The following year, he was sent to the North Caucasus to destroy Volkov and his forces and later participated in the destruction of Volkov’s replacement, Yelisaveta Korsakova before helping crush the Goblin and Kladenets Rebellion in the Urals.

After the end of the Civil War, he was assigned to the North Caucasus region. In the early and mid-1920s, he became an outspoken supporter of Levchenko and befriended both Znamenshchikov and Babochkina. The three of them were noted to have been exceptionally unfond of the nominal commander, Sevastyan Ryndin, who was appointed after Levchenko was massacred by Mavka in 1925. After months of torture, the Aurors, Uzgiryte and Esaulova, incriminated all three of them and countless others.

Kalnietis was arrested 11 June 1937, five years after Znamenshchikov. They were executed together on 1 July 1937. Afterwards, his wife was arrested and executed in 1940 while their eighteen-year-old twin daughters, Ausrine and Vakarine Kalnietyte, were both sent to Vyraj. The twins were both released in 1947, but sent to live in Kazakhstan where they stayed until 1955 when their father’s conviction was overturned.

Mirina Timofeyevna Babochkina (4 April 1890 – 1 July 1937) Babochkina was the second of the four daughters of a Russian Jewish rozhdennyy zemley from Bessarabia and a Catholic Romanian Pureblood. She studied at Koldovstoretz from 1906 until 1914, focusing mostly on Potions and became a potions researcher after the completion of her studies. In 1914 or 1915, she married a Ukrainian squib named Danilo Lazarevich Levenko, who was as mild-mannered and gentle as she was fiery and outspoken.

In 1917, she joined the Brátstvo and took an active part in the Civil War. Despite her lack of formal training, she showed great skill in marital magic, eventually being dubbed an Auror in 1919 after helping defend Ledenets from an attack by the VSDP Auror, S.V. Medvedev. She quickly gained a reputation for brutality, especially against recalcitrant non-humans. She was one of the two Mirinas of the Civil War and called “Red Mirina” because of her red hair while the other was “Black Mirina”, the dark-haired Zhnets, Mirina Feodorovna Voinova.

After the war, she became a close associate of Levchenko and Znamenshchikov and they tried to reform the trainings and tactics of Aurors, especially in reference to the growing threat that Grindelwald posed to Europe. At some point in the 1920s, she became a close friend of Miroslava Vseslav’yevna Volkova, who constantly vouched for Babochkina’s trustworthiness, but this did not protect her, nor did the fact that her younger sister, Marpesia, was the widow of S.V. Lekarev.

Babochkina was arrested 13 June 1937 and tortured into confessing to all matter of crimes. In the course of the interrogations, Medvednikov somehow came up the idea that she and her sisters were former prostitutes. After her execution, her mother, husband, two surviving sisters, two brothers-in-law, and nephews were all executed while her daughters and one of her nieces were packed off to Vyraj (the younger niece, Otrera was permitted to be adopted her half-brother, both because of her youth and the fact that she was the late Lekarev’s daughter).

In her memoir, Taliya Anatolyevna Krupina recalled meeting Ippolita, the younger of Babochkina’s two daughters, shortly after her arrival in Vyraj and that she attempted to comfort the girl, who was barely 18, ill, and thoroughly terrified. Ippolita did manage to survive, however, and became a dissident after her release, much to her older sister’s displeasure. A noted critic of Svyatoslav Savvich Tarakanov, she was arrested repeatedly in the 1960s and 70s and died in exile in Siberia in 1980 at the age of 61.

Nastasya Vasilyevna Esaulova (11 November 1891 – 1 July 1937) Esaulova, a halfblood ethnic Russian, was the youngest of three girls who was raised by their father’s parents after their mother died young. She was introduced to left-wing politics by her older sister, Apraksa, who married a revolutionary, Volos Leshyevich Dubovich, in 1906. In 1907, shortly after the completion of her studies at Koldovstortez, Esaulova also joined the BK, and helped distribute literature that Apraksa wrote.

However, she was caught in 1914 and sentenced to a lifetime of exile in Siberia. While there, she married the poet, Germanik Konstaninovich Boligolov, in 1916. Her best friend from this period onwards was the writer, Noyema Moiseyevna Rosenthal, best known as the muse of the poet, Stefan  Yemelyanovich Pugachev. After the downfall of the VD, Esaulova went back to western Russia and was reunited with her older sister. At the same time, the two managed to convince their brother-in-law, Mikhail Zherebtsov, to join the BK’s cause. Their oldest sister, Marya, however, was uninterested in politics and said she had enough to do caring for her three children. Like her brother-in-law, Esaulova became an Auror during the Civil War, mainly due to her demonstrated talent at marital magic and dueling.

In 1918, she and Boligolov divorced and the following year, she married again to a fellow Auror, Mstislav Ivanovich Dunyaev, by whom she would have two daughters and a son. However, during the 1920s, rifts grew between the family. First, Apraksa and Nastasya came to hate Zherebtsov on account of his infidelity to their sister and they blamed him for her untimely death in 1925. Further problems developed, because of politics: Nastasya and Apraksa’s two husbands, Dubovich and Zolotarev, were all staunchly opposed to the powers of Afanasiy Kostov and supported the Lutsenkos, Krasavkina, and Ye. I. Levandovsky, while Apraksa and Dunyaev angrily insisted that they were going to tear the party apart.

By the end of the 1920s, this rift was largely mended, but came back to haunt them in 1936. During the interrogation of Krasavkina, Levandovsky, and others, Dubovich, Zolotarev, and Esaulova were all accused of being apart of the supposed conspiracy. Zolotarev was arrested 26 August and Esaulova 13 September. While Zolotarev quickly agreed to confess to whatever his interrogators whatever to save his wife and daughters, Esaulova refused to break until June 1937. The supposed catalyst for her relenting was her husband visiting her in prison and angrily denouncing her as a traitor. The day after this she signed a confession and implicated all of the people the Zhnetsy had in mind.

She was executed on 1 July 1937 with the other Aurors. Dunyaev killed himself five days after his wife’s execution, in apparent remorse. Their three children were all sent to Vyraj and not freed until the 1950s. Their son died shortly after his release, but the two daughters, Zlata and Zoria, lobbied for their mother's rehabilitation, which was granted in 1957.

[cincinnatusvirtue]

Presidential Profile: Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) 30th US President.

Pre-Presidency (1872-1923):

-Calvin Coolidge was born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.  on July 4th, 1872.  Making him the only President to date born on the 4th of July.

-Coolidge was born in Plymouth Notch, Vermont to John Sr. and Virginia Coolidge (Moor).  He had one younger sister Abigail Grace.  His father was a farmer, general store owner and holder of several public offices and civil service positions, including justice of the peace, tax collector and member of the Vermont State House of Representatives and Vermont State Senate.  His mother was the daughter of a Plymouth Notch farmer.

-Coolidge went by his middle name his entire life to differentiate him from his father.

-His ancestry was primarily of English descent going far back to Colonial era New England and the English Puritans who settled there.  His great great grandfather, also named John Coolidge was a veteran and officer in Patriot Army during the American Revolution

-Many of Coolidge’s ancestors served as civil servants and politicians throughout Vermont’s history including his paternal grandfather.

- His mother died of tuberculosis in 1885 when Coolidge was age 13.  His sister died of appendicitis 5 years later when Coolidge was 18.  His father would remarry in 1891 and live until the year 1926 dying at age 80, still living in the same homestead the rest of his life.

-Coolidge attended Amherst College in Massachusetts.  He graduated cum laude, was a member of the debate team and was greatly influenced by a philosophy teacher named Charles Edward Garman who would mentor Coolidge and help shape his later political philosophy.  Summed up by Coolidge as follows:

“There is a standard of righteousness that might does not make right, that the end does not justify the means, and that expediency as a working principle is bound to fail. The only hope of perfecting human relationships is in accordance with the law of service under which men are not so solicitous about what they shall get as they are about what they shall give. Yet people are entitled to the rewards of their industry. What they earn is theirs, no matter how small or how great. But the possession of property carries the obligation to use it in a larger service.”

-Coolidge then moved to Northampton, Massachusetts to become a lawyer.  He avoided law school and as was common in the 19th century, apprenticed at a law firm and “read” the law.  He was admitted to the state bar in 1897, the following year he opened his own small law firm.  He focused on commercial law and often sought to settle out of court.  He quickly developed a reputation in the area as a hard working, attentive and honest attorney.  He represented banks and many other local businesses.

-In 1903, he met his future wife, Grace Anna Goodhue who worked as a teacher for the deaf.  They married two years later in 1905 despite his mother in law’s initial dislike of him.  They would go on to have two sons John (1906-2000) and Calvin Jr. (1908-1924).  Years later Coolidge summed up his relationship with his wife as follows:

“"For almost a quarter of a century she has borne with my infirmities and I have rejoiced in her graces".

-Coolidge was a member of the Republican Party which dominated New England and most Northern states in the US at the time.  He began to run for local offices in Northampton.  Serving on City Council, and as City Solicitor before he returned to his law practice.  He also ran for school board but lost, this would be the only political defeat in his career.

-Later he served in the Massachusetts State House of Representatives before returning to Northampton and becoming Mayor. As mayor some signature accomplishments included giving teachers a raise, lowering the city’s government debt and even lowering local taxes.  These final two achievements would become pattern obsessions of Coolidge all throughout his career.

-He later became a State Senator in Massachusetts, returning to Boston once more.  This time he became noteworthy for his support of women’s suffrage and perhaps most notably for his 1914 speech to the state senate, called Have Faith in Massachusetts.  He argued another cornerstone of his conservative philosophy:

“Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong. Don't hurry to legislate. Give the administration a chance to catch up with legislation.”

-Coolidge was elected to Lieutenant Governor along with new elected Governor Samuel McCall in 1915.  At the time the Governorship was elected for one year terms.  He and McCall were reelected in 1916 and 1917.  In 1918 McCall declined a fourth term and this allowed Coolidge to run and win the Governorship of Massachusetts in 1918.

-1919 was a turning point in Coolidge’ career.  In Boston, many members of the police force were planning on forming a union due to working conditions and low pay.  Many of the members of the police force were former war veterans who had recently returned from World War I.  In response to the plan to form a union, Police Commissioner Edwin Curtis refused and said no union could be tolerated for the police force.  In August, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) gave a charter to the Boston Police Union.  Curtis gave an ultimatum, the leaders of the union would be suspended from their positions unless they agreed to dissolve the union by a deadline of September 4th.  The Mayor of Boston convinced Curtis to extend that deadline to allow negotiations to continue.  The police union leaders were then suspended on September 8th.  The next day, 3/4ths of Boston policemen went on strike in solidarity with the union leaders suspension.  There was break outs of violence, looting and lawlessness throughout the city due to the lack of a sufficient police force.  The Boston Mayor, Andrew Peters was worried firefighters would strike next out of sympathy.  Coolidge himself was sympathetic, to Commissioner Curtis’s position.  Curtis was dismissed by Peters who felt it necessary due to what he saw as Curtis mishandling the situation with heavy handedness.  Coolidge as Governor then called up units of the Massachusetts National Guard to serve as a temporary police force.  The military largely secured the city and ended the lawlessness.  Coolidge also restored Curtis to the position of Police Commissioner and took personal control over the National Guard as police force.  Curtis then announced all striking police officers were fired and that new ones were to be hired, a position which Coolidge accepted as necessary.  Coolidge received a telegraph from AFL leader, Samuel Gompers who advised that it was Curtis’s fault for the strike and the lawlessness because he would not accept the worker’s rights and grievances.  Coolidge famously responded publicly to Gompers:

"Your assertion that the Commissioner was wrong cannot justify the wrong of leaving the city unguarded. That furnished the opportunity; the criminal element furnished the action. There is no right to strike against the public safety by anyone, anywhere, any time." 

-The striking police force was indeed replaced by 1,500 newer officers who in the end did receive somewhat better pay and working conditions.  The period of the strike lead to the deaths of 9 people in the city due to lawlessness.  The National Guard also killed 8 rioters as well.  The strike was a setback for the labor movement across the country.  The failure of the strike resulted in AFL avoided involvement with police unions for nearly two decades.

-Coolidge became an overnight hero of the American public who was largely unsupportive of the strike.  In part, because America’s political climate involved the Red Scare of 1919 at the time, with the backdrop of World War I and the rise of communism in Russia, many Americans worried that labor unions  and leftist radicals were potentially communist agents who sought to overthrow the American republic and establish something along the lines of the emerging USSR.  Coolidge was praised as a hero of conservatism for his decisive executive action in calling up the National Guard to restore order, his support for Curtis and the establishment of a new police force and for his unwavering belief that while the police might have legitimate grievances, their job and oath as public servants required a sense of duty to the public safety beyond their pay.

-Coolidge as a result became a national household name, he was reelected in 1919 and was later mentioned as a contender for Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket in 1920.  He was nominated at the party convention that year and paired with running mate for the President, Warren G. Harding a US Senator from Ohio.  They were opposed by the Democratic Party nominees , for President James Cox, Governor of Ohio and for Vice President, the future US President, then Assistant Secretary to the Navy Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Harding and Coolidge ran on a “return to normalcy” campaign.  Which in its ethos sought to restore America’s political climate in the wake of World War I, the Progressive era, labor strikes and general atmosphere of political radicalism to a more moderate and conservative tone.  One that supported capitalism and deregulated economics.  Harding and Coolidge won in a landslide election capturing 60 percent of the popular vote, carrying 37 states total and capturing 404 electoral college votes to Cox and Roosevelt’s 127.

-Harding and Coolidge were inaugurated as President and Vice President respectively on March 4, 1921.  They succeeded Woodrow Wilson and his administration, Wilson for his part had suffered a serious stroke in 1919 that left him in ill health and had prevented his goal of running for a third term as President.  Harding’s election was a repudiation of Wilson’s international leanings with a greater focus on domestic issues away from the foreign policy of WWI.  

-As Vice President, Coolidge was as many Vice Presidents prior to him not a holder of many official duties aside from presiding over the US Senate.  Unlike his predecessors though, he was invited to Cabinet meetings, becoming the first Vice President to ever receive this invite from their President.  Most of his time was spent giving speeches around the country and attending parties in Washington DC.  It was during this time, the Coolidge’s legacy as a quiet and stern man was born.  He was nicknamed “Silent Cal” for his economics with words and his known disdain of formal dinner parties.  When asked why he showed up if hated them so much he replied matter of fact “Got to eat somewhere.”  His wife Grace, proved to be much more social and outgoing, balancing out Coolidge’s more taciturn personality.  The most famous story from this time was possibly pure invention but may have summed up Coolidge’s reputation best of all.  At a dinner party, a female guest sitting next to Coolidge supposedly informed him that they made a bet that they could get him to say more than three words supposedly Coolidge said once again matter of fact “You lose.”  Coolidge for his part was always shy from his childhood on.  He also considered that politicians should speak very little in general and that the words they use carry great political weight, he was a firm believer in the principle of choose your words wisely.

-In August 1923, Coolidge and his family went to visit his father back at his childhood home in Plymouth Notch, Vermont.  Meanwhile, President Harding was on a speaking tour out on the west coast.  On August 2nd, Harding died unexpectedly from congestive heart failure in San Francisco, having experienced worsening symptoms in the days preceding his death.  Coolidge had to be informed of Harding death and his own subsequent accession to the Presidency.  Coolidge’ s father’s farm had no phone or electricity.  They were informed by messenger in the middle of the night.  Coolidge got dressed, prayed and then was sworn in as 30th President of the United States in the family parlor by kerosene light around 3am by his own father who was a notary public and justice of the peace.  He then went back to bed.

-Coolidge returned to Washington DC by train the next day.  He immediately had a second swearing in of the Presidential oath by having a federal judge from the Supreme Court District of Washington DC administer the oath to him.  The goal of the second swearing in was to prevent any doubt about whether the first was invalid because his father was a state level official and not a federal one.

Presidency (1923-1929)

-Coolidge at first kept Harding’s entire Cabinet in their roles, a believer in the retention of all Cabinet members until one was elected in their own right.  He sought to carry out Harding’s domestically oriented goals if by putting his own spin on them.  At the time, Harding was a very popular President but his Cabinet has earned a scandalized reputation due to involvement in the Teapot Dome Scandal which involved bribery.  Coolidge was called to fire some in the Cabinet on the need to punish those presumed guilty.  Coolidge ever the believer in law and order, refused to the do so and expected each man would be tried by evidence first and if found guilty would be removed or if not would be acquitted in his eyes.  Coolidge earned praise for his belief in the Constitutional right to be tried when accused of a crime.  Those Cabinet members who were uncooperative with the congressional investigations however would be removed since Coolidge saw these investigations as effectively the trial period for each accused Cabinet member.

-Coolidge in 1923 became the first sitting President to give a speech broadcast on radio.  Despite his reputation as “Silent Cal” and being a man of few words, Coolidge became the first President to utilize the modern inventions of radio, and movie cameras to communicate with the American public.  He also gave more personal press conferences than any US President in history.  Coolidge became well liked by the media for the access he granted them and in turn he was well aware of the potential communicative power the new mediums of radio and motion pictures had for the Presidency and in pushing his agenda.

- Coolidge did sign the Immigration Act of 1924 that placed restrictions on immigration from parts of Southern and Eastern Europe.  His added a signing statement expressing his reluctance and displeasure to sign the bill because of what he saw as its implicit racism towards Asian, namely Japanese immigration. Coolidge was personally friendly with immigrants and believed immigration was important and vital, however he believed America should be able to regulate immigration and should place some controls on the amount of immigrants coming into the country.  Coolidge thought immigration proceeded best when slowed down which allowed time for the country to absorb regulated waves of immigration and allow them to assimilate.  The slowing down and conservative approach to all things in government was in line with Coolidge’s nature.

-Coolidge also signed the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924, this granted US citizenship to all Native Americans living on reservations henceforth.  It remains in effect to this day.

-On racial issues in general, Coolidge was praised in most quarters for his opposition to racism across the board.  He was described as being devoid of all racial prejudice.  He saw immigration to the US as important, spoke of the importance of immigration and assimilation to US cultural values.  He also spoke to immigrants and American citizens alike to drop their racial prejudice and hatreds.  He also asked the Congress to pass anti-lynching laws at the federal level.  In his first State of the Union address, he spoke favorably of African-Americans, stated their rights were as important as any others and should be publicly and privately defended.  He also thanked African-Americans in several speeches over the years for their contributions to America and advances in education while acknowledging they continued to face discrimination.  Coolidge personally disliked the Ku Klux Klan and is not known to have appointed any Klansmen to a federal position.

-In foreign policy Coolidge was somewhat removed in comparison to his domestic agenda.  The 1920′s was a time of isolationism in American politics.  He did oversee the initial enforcement of the Washington Naval Treaty which sought to deescalate a naval arms race with other nations, namely Japan.  He was largely a non-interventionist in outlook.  He did not oppose the League of Nations but did not actively seek to enact American membership in it either.  Coolidge also helped normalize relations with Mexico which had soured with the Revolution there in previous years which also saw border conflicts with the US, his new Ambassador was successful in helping smooth over relations.  He also pushed the Dawes Plan which lent economic support to Germany in the form of partial reparation relief post World War I.  This move actually briefly boosted Germany’s post war economy which had suffered for years and slightly helped smooth relations with Germany in a way that neither France nor Britain sought to do.  Coolidge refused to recognize the USSR officially as a nation.  He also continued the prior administration's policy of US troops occupying Nicaragua due to the political instability there, though he would withdraw and reinstall them there after the return of instability.  Hoping to curb the perception of America being imperialist in Latin America, Coolidge made his only international Presidential visit to Havana, Cuba to attend the Sixth International Conference of American States in 1928.  Coolidge stated these nations should be treated as equals to the US in terms of foreign relations.  He became the last sitting US President to visit Cuba until President Barack Obama did in 2016.

-Coolidge’s main focus was the United States economy.  He sought to achieve his signature goals of budget and tax reduction.  Coolidge was personally very frugal and economical.  He reduced the size of White House domestic staff and never owned a home in Northampton Massachusetts, preferring to rent and live modestly on a modest income.  During his tenure as President, each summer he and First Lady Grace Coolidge would send their sons to work to earn their own pay and learn the value of labor.  Coolidge’s most essential Cabinet member was a holdover from the Harding days, US Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon.  Mellon and Coolidge both shared a belief that government should not intervene in the economy and that deregulation of business was ideal to stimulate the American economy.  In a precursor to the supply-side economics or Reaganomics of the 1980′s, called “scientific taxation” Coolidge and Mellon proposed and passed the Revenue Acts of 1924, ‘26 and ‘28.  All of these reduced income tax totally by 24%.  By 1927 only the top 2% of income earners in America paid federal income taxes.  The other component of Mellon and Coolidge’s plan was reduction of the overall size of government.  In very much a libertarian mode of thinking, Coolidge deregulated business and his appointees to regulatory committees often were nominal and not very active. Coolidge would be meet weekly with advisors on how to save on federal spending prior to each Cabinet meeting.  These advisors kept Coolidge informed on all department budgets and allowed him to better comprehend the needs of each department without giving preferential treatment to one department’  s budget over the other, this allowed for a consistency in his treatment of Cabinet members.  Throughout Coolidge’s tenure, federal spending remained essentially flat.  This in turn retired a fourth of the federal government's debt in total by the end of his tenure.

-Coolidge’s tenure was part of the Roaring 20′s, businesses were booming and the business deregulation mentality he presented and epitomized yielded real results for the length of his tenure as the economy steadily grew and improved.  Coolidge growing up in economical circumstances was philosophically inclined to believe in a more laissez-faire form of capitalism.  He strongly believed as a matter of morality government had little to no place in interfering with business and controlling how people spent their money.  Economic freedom for citizens and businesses were for Coolidge the best expression of political freedom.  He believed in private property and the notion that people should be able to spend their hard earned dollars as they saw fit rather than through government.  In turn this would propel the economy and by most measures for his tenure this seemed to be the case.  Additionally, his keeping of federal spending flat along with retiring debt and tax cuts actually saw new levels of government revenues as well, two thirds coming from the highest income earners.  He summed up the ethos of the times with the following:

“It is probable that a press which maintains an intimate touch with the business currents of the nation is likely to be more reliable than it would be if it were a stranger to these influences. After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world.”

-As Governor of Massachusetts, Coolidge actually supported a number of measures from the Progressive era, seemingly at odds with his federal deregulation as President.  As governor he passed or supported laws opposing child labor, in favor of wages and hours controls, economics controls and improved safety regulations.  His opposition to regulation as President not only stemmed from his overall economic moral philosophy but his belief in federalism.  Regulation in the 1920′s was largely seen as a state and local matter for laws and not a federal one and it was largely perceived by Coolidge to be a matter of principle not to regulate from the federal level as it was essentially unconstitutional in his eyes beyond Congress’s ability to regulate interstate trade.

-Coolidge was criticized by some for not supporting strong enough measures for Farm Subsidies.  He again opposed bills on this for moral reasons, believing government should be in the business of providing subsidies to businesses, Coolidge believed in an almost total hands off approach.  Almost no breaks or handouts whatsoever and no overzealous regulation, everything was to be moderated in the wake of the Progressive era.  He also faced criticism for his handing of the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927, federal disaster relief was limited under Coolidge and he did not visit the disaster areas not for a lack of caring but a genuine belief that it would appear as political grandstanding and wouldn’t practically provide much help.  Coolidge was consistent in keeping a low profile and as always choosing his words and appearances as he saw it wisely.  In 1928, Congress and Coolidge signed a compromise bill to provide relief funding to those affected by the disaster, Coolidge signed it privately not wishing to appear publicly advocating a position he saw as interference in the lives of the American citizen.  Again, believing Americans to be most resilient on their own, providing citizens great freedom also in Coolidge’s mind meant bearing great personal responsibility.

-Coolidge finished out the last year and half of Harding’s term in late 1923 and all of 1924 into 1925.  He ran for his own election in 1924, was personally very popular with everyday Americans after his handling of the economy and his restoring confidence in the moral integrity of the White House after the Teapot Dome Scandal had hurt Harding’s once popular reputation.  

-1924 however saw a turning point in Coolidge’s personal life.  That summer his sons were home from school at the White House, while playing tennis one day his younger son, Calvin Jr. developed a blister and became gravely ill very fast.  Coolidge and his wife Grace did what they could to console the child who feared for his life.  Nonetheless, Calvin Jr. died days later, the result of septicemia.  Coolidge apparently in an effort to calm his son in his final days, reportedly got on his own hands and knees to find a small rabbit in the White House garden and present it to his son as a gift since Calvin Jr. and the whole Coolidge family had a love of animals.  Coolidge remarked that he tried what he could reassure his son but he that he had failed.  For the rest of his life, Coolidge sank into a deep depression, many people around him reported a personality change of distractedness, anger and sadness.  His interest in the Presidency is seen to have died with him.  Coolidge was elected in a very subdued campaign that November out of respectful mourning for the Coolidges.  Coolidge won 55% of the popular vote and 382 electoral college votes. carrying 35 states.

-As mentioned the Coolidge family loved animals and to this day had the largest overall collection of animals any Presidential family had in US history.  They had among other animals a variety of cats, dogs, birds, raccoons, briefly a black bear, a pygmy hippo and two lions cubs gifted from South Africa, Coolidge named the cubs Tax Reduction and Budget Bureau after his favorite political focus.

-In 1928, Coolidge decided not to run for second full term on his own.  He felt his time in Washington was accomplished enough and he looked to finally retire after 30 years of political involvement.  Also, he was still dealing with the depression of his son’s death, mentioning repeatedly that he held himself responsible for his son’s demise.  He blamed his political ambitions as leading to the circumstances which caused his son to get a blister and fatal infection at the White House.  in almost religious overtones, Coolidge saw it as a form of divine punishment for a life of politics.  His announcement not to seek another term was even a secret from his wife.  His Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover was elected in 1928, inaugurated on March 4, 1929.

Post-Presidency/Legacy (1929-1933):

-Several months after Coolidge’s departure the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929 took place the Great Depression of the next decade or so began.  Coolidge has received some blame for the Great Depression due to his laissez faire economics and lack of regulation.  To this day the causes of the Great Depression are controversial and debated, Coolidge also has supporters who state he couldn’t have known it would have happened nor was he in a position of power to regulate the economy since the federal government had little to do with the stock market which was seen as a state matter in those days.  His supporters also place blame on Herbert Hoover’s regulartory measures in the months leading up to the crash.  Either way Coolidge’s role in this tarnished his reputation for many years among historians who tend to rank him in the lower half of US Presidents overall. Though modern libertarians, and fiscal conservatives and capitalist supporters tend to praise Coolidge’s time in office.

-Coolidge moved back to Northampton and ended up earning money providing syndicated newspaper columns and publishing an autobiography.  He also served as a trustee on various boards and earned monies from these various streams of revenue.  Coolidge also donated earnings to his wife Grace’s favorite charity, the school for the deaf which she taught when they first married.  It was his way of paying her back for giving up her own career to raise a family and support his political career.  In 1932, he supported Herbert Hoover for reelection out of party loyalty rather than personal admiration for Hoover, whom he saw as often providing him bad advice during his own Presidency.  Hoover was defeated by FDR nonetheless and the era of New Deal had begun.

-Coolidge died aged 60 in January 1933 from coronary thrombosis.

-Coolidge was honored with posthumous appearances on postage stamps, additionally he was the only President to appear on US coinage in their lifetime during their Presidency.  Appearing on the 150th anniversary edition of Declaration of Independence, half-dollar coin with George Washington’s likeness.

-Ronald Reagan cited Coolidge as an influence and during the Reagan era a reassessment of Coolidge as a person and politician was very popular.  Overall, Coolidge still is ranked as average to below average in general but his esteem is largely influenced by the political ideology of those reviewing him.

[dark-and-twisty-01]

Aircraft Crashes: accidents or murder?

The past nine decades, various fatal air crashes have spawned conspiracy theories that linger as haunting historical mysteries. Five cases produced official verdicts of criminal activity, but no suspects were ever indicted. The remainder are listed as accidents, but nagging doubts remain. These cases include:

July 4, 1923 Actor-pilot Beverly “B.H” DeLay and passenger R.I short (president of the Essandee Corporation) died while performing aerial acrobatics at Venice Beach, California. Time Magazine reported that half-inch bolts in the wings of DeLay’s aircraft had been switched with smaller bolts, causing the wings to collapse during flight. Gunshots of unknown origin had also been fired at DeLay days earlier, during a performance in Santa Monica. Journalists linked the crash to bitter litigation between DeLay and C.E Frey, a rival who claimed ownership of an airstrip purchased by DeLay in 1919. Several Frey employees were jailed for sabotaging that airfield, but no one was indicted for DeLay’s murder.

October 10, 1933 A United Airlines Boeing 247 aircraft travelling from Cleveland to Chicago crashed near Chesterton, Indiana, killing all seven persons aboard. Witnesses reported hearing a mid-air explosion at 9:15pm and watching the plane plummet into flames from 1,000 feet. Investigators from North-western University and Chicago FBI office concluded that a bomb had detonated in the plane’s baggage compartment, but no suspects were ever identified.

March 29, 1959 Barthelemy Boganda, first prime minister of the Central African Republic (C.A.R) and presumed to win election as president when France released control of his nation in 1960, died with all others aboard when his plane crashed 99 miles west of Bangui. No cause of the crash was officially determined, but suspicion of sabotage persists. On May 7, 1959, the Paris weekly L’Express reported discovery of explosive residue in the plane’s wreckage whereupon the French high commissioner banned sale of that issue in the C.A.R. In 1997 author Brian Titley suggested that Boganda’s wife, Michelle Jourdan, may have killed hi to avert divorce and collect a large insurance policy.

November 16, 1959 National Airlines Flight 967 vanished over the Gulf of Mexico with 42 persons aboard while en route from Tampa, Florida, to New Orleans. The final radar contact with Flight 967 was recorded at 12:46 am. Searchers found scattered wreckage with corpses near that point, but most of the aircraft was never recovered. Suspicion focused on passenger William Taylor, who boarded the plane with a ticket issued to ex-convict Robert Vernon Spears. Authorities surmised that Spears had tricked Taylor, a friend from prison, into boarding the plane with a bomb, thus permitting Spears to collect on a life insurance policy purchased in his name. Police later arrested Spears in Phoenix, driving a car registered to Taylor, but he subsequently vanished and was never charged with any crime pertaining to the crash.

September 18, 1961 Dag Hammarskjold, second secretary-general of the United Nations, died with 15 others when his plane crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), during a diplomatic tour of the strife-torn Congo. Security was tight during the tour, including use of a decoy aircraft, and Hammarskjold’s pilot filed no flight plans on the trip. Officially, the crash resulted from a pilot’s error in approaching Ndola’s airfield at the wrong altitude after nightfall. Many observers suspected a bomb or rocket attack. In August 1998, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, chairman of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, announced that recently uncovered letters implicated South African intelligence officers, Britain’s MI5, and the American CIA in Hammarskjold’s death. One letter claimed that a bomb in the plane’s wheel bay was set to explode on landing. In July 2005, Norwegian major general Bjorn Egge told the newspaper Aftenposten that an apparent bullet hole in Hammarskjold’s forehead was air brushed out of photos later published showing his corpse.

October 16, 1972 House majority leader Thomas Hale Boggs, Sr., was campaigning for Representative Nick Begich when their airplane vanished during a flight from Anchorage to Juneau, Alaska. Also aboard were pilot Don Jonz and Begich aide Russell Brown. The plane was never found. Begich won November’s election with a 56-percent margin, but his presumed death left GOP rival Don Young running unopposed in a special election to fill Begich’s vacant seat in Congress. Some conspiracy theorists link the disappearance to Bogg’s outspoken criticism of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (who died in May 1972), but Begich’s children blamed President Richard Nixon, claiming that the crash was staged in a vain attempt to thwart congressional investigation of the unfolding Watergate scandal.

August 1, 1981 Brigadier General Omar Torrijos Herrera, “Supreme Chief of Government” for Panama since 1968, died with several others when his plane exploded in mid air during a storm. Slipshod radio coverage delayed the report of his plane’s disappearance for nearly a day, and several more days elapsed before soldiers found the wreckage. Florencio Flores succeeded Torrijos as commander of Panama’s National Guard and de facto ruler of the country.

October 19, 1986 Samora Moises Machel, president of Mozambique and leading critic of South Africa’s racist apartheid system, died with all board when his plane crashed near Mbuzini, in South Africa’s Lebombo Mountains. At the time, Machel was returning home from an international conference in Zambia. The Margo Commission, an investigate panel including representatives from several nations, blamed the crash on pilot error, a verdict flatly rejected by the governments of Mozambique and the Soviet Union Russian members of the commission filed a minority report claiming that Machel’s plane was lured off-course by a decoy radio beacon, set up by South African intelligence officers. Machel’s widow, Graca, remains convinced that was murdered. In 1998 she married then-South African president Nelson Mandela.

 August 17, 1989 General Muhammad Ziaul-Haq, ruler of Pakistan since he overthrew predecessor Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1977, died with several other generals and U.S. ambassador Arnold Raphel when their plane crashed shortly after take off from Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Witnesses reported a smooth lift off, followed by erratic flying and a steep nosedive. FBI agents called the crash accidental, but persistent conspiracy theories blame a wide range of suspects, including the CIA, Russia’s KGB, Israel’s Mossad, India’s RAW Intelligence agency, Afghan communists, ad Shi’ite Muslim separatists.

April 6, 1994 Unknown snipers shot down a government aircraft at Rwanda’s Kigali airport, killing Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi, and all others aboard. The resultant political chaos led to full-scale genocide in Rwanda, where ruling Hutu tribesmen slaughtered rival Tutsis, and sparked civil war in Burundi.

July 19, 1994 Alas Chiricanas Flight 901 exploded while en route from Colon, Panama, to Panama City, killing all 21 persons aboard. Authorities found evidence of a bomb, blaming the crime on terrorists. Suspicion focused on Jamal Lya, the only passenger who corpse remained unclaimed after the bombing. Soon afterward, an unknown spokesperson for a group calling itself Ansar Allah (“Followers of God”) claimed credit for the attack, but investigators could find no other trace of the organization.

July 17, 1996 Trans World Airlines flight 800 left New York’s JFK Airport, bound for Paris, at 10:19pm Twelve minutes later it exploded in mid-air, killing all 230 persons aboard and littering the ocean with wreckage offshore from East Moriches, New York. Despite initial speculation of a terrorist attack, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a final report in August 2000, blaming the explosion on a presumed electrical short circuit that ignited fumes in the aircraft’s centre wing fuel tank. Meanwhile, multiple eyewitnesses on land reported seeing “a streak of light” rising from sea level toward the airliner before it exploded. Initial examination of the wreckage revealed apparent residue from three different explosive compounds, PETN, RDX, and nitro-glycerine but authorities claimed to find no evidence of impact from a rocket or missile. Some conspiracy theorists maintain that Flight 800 was shot down by terrorists, while others suggest a disastrous mistake during an offshore U.S. Navy training exercise involving surface-to-air missiles. The case is officially closed.

October 25, 2002 Minnesota senator Paul Wellstone died with seven others, including his wife and three children, when his aircraft crashed near Eveleth, Minnesota. Wellstone was near the end of his campaign for a third Senate term, his death coming 11 days before the scheduled balloting. Initial reports blamed icing of the aircraft's wing, but that suggestion was later rejected. Federal investigators finally named pilot error as the “likely” cause of the crash, claiming that deceased First Officer Michael Guess was “below average” in proficiency. In fact, Guess had been fired from two previous flying jobs for incompetence. Jim Fetzer, a philosophy professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth, published a book in 2004, blaming Wellstone’s death on unnamed members of President George W. Bush’s administration.

 July 30, 2005 Dr. John Garang De Mabior, vice president of Sudan and former head of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army, died when his helicopter crashed in southern Sudan. Circumstances of the crash remain unclear, and Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni blamed “external factors” for the incident. Foreign observers note that Garang’s death helped bring an end to Sudan’s long-running civil war.

[imperial-russia]

Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (26th June 1899 - 17th July 1918)

In life she used to be overshadowed by her elder sisters, in the years post her death it was the name of Anastasia that drew attention. Maria Nikolaevna, third daughter of the last Tsar, had a reputation of being placid and almost angelic, as well as often ending as the butt of a joke because of her clumsiness. By nature Maria was essentially a Mother. Extremely earthy and straightforward, she felt awkward during official occassions, but would lose any shyness when face to face to an ordinary person. With remarkable memory for faces, Maria never forgot anyone and felt keen interest in other people. Occassionally there would be pangs of loneliness and jealousy in her heart, owing to the fact she suffered from the middle child syndrome, but her inborn unselfishness and devotion always triumphed over them. 

Maria was the only one of the four sisters whose birth disappointed the Emperor so much that he had to take a long, solitary walk in the park before he could face his wife and greet the new baby. But it was also this daughter, who stood as the greatest support and pillar of strength to her parents during the days of February revolution in 1917, and a year later during their transport to Ekaterinburg. She died a horrible death in the hail of bullets and thrusts of blunt bayonets, just one among millions of innocent victims of the Russian Civil War. Today she is considered a martyr and a saint. But all she ever wanted was to have a family of her own.

[sciencespies]

From Nazi Prisons to Cat Sanctuaries, Explore the Many Lives of These Russian Palaces

https://sciencespies.com/history/from-nazi-prisons-to-cat-sanctuaries-explore-the-many-lives-of-these-russian-palaces/

From Nazi Prisons to Cat Sanctuaries, Explore the Many Lives of These Russian Palaces

In August 1917, former czar Nicholas Romanov, his wife and five children marched out of their palace in the Tsarskoye Selo (now Pushkin) countryside for the last time. For their last five months there, the extravagant estate served as the literal gilded cage for the ex-royal family on house arrest. The family maintained daily life—studying, doing handiwork, gardening, literally anything they could do to keep their minds occupied. On July 17, 1918, nearly a year after departing the grounds, the family and their four remaining servants were woken from their beds by their Bolshevik captors, ordered to dress, then were shot and bayoneted in the cellar of the Yekaterinburg home where they were being held.

In 1547, Ivan IV—more commonly known as Ivan the Terrible, grandson of Ivan the Great—became the first czar of Russia. He was a paranoid and ruthless leader, organizing Russia into the largest country on the planet but also executing thousands of people, including his own son and rightful heir to the crown. Ivan died from a stroke in 1584, leaving the throne to Feodor, his middle son, who ruled until his death in 1598. From there, Russia entered the Time of Troubles, a period rife with war, famine and civil uprisings. This lasted until 1613, when Michael Romanov was elected czar. He was the first cousin once removed from Feodor, and the Romanov family continued to rule Russia for about 300 years. The Romanovs lived mostly around St. Petersburg throughout their reign, which lasted until March 1917, when Nicholas II abdicated the throne. (The fall of the Romanov dynasty has been the focus of this summer’s “The Last Czars” on Netflix.) The family constructed opulent palaces as their homes and getaways, which were often expanded or updated by incoming rulers.

The Romanovs left behind a legacy of palaces and residences throughout Russia that in the following years continued to live storied and unusual lives. Take your own self-guided tour to these famous former czar residences that you can still visit in Russia today.

Alexander Palace, Pushkin

Alexander Palace.

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Alexander Palace was built in 1796, commissioned by Catherine the Great, who wanted to give the palace to her grandson Alexander Pavlovich (who would become Czar Alexander I) when he married. Alexander, though, didn’t enjoy spending time in the palace and gave it to his brother, the future Czar Nicholas I, who extensively renovated and improved both the buildings and the grounds. The neoclassical palace has an impressive facade of columns and statuary, and inside, has a large number of religious icons and several unique art nouveau rooms.

Under Nicholas I, the palace became the summer residence for future czars, until Nicholas II, the final czar, and his family moved there full-time in 1905. Following the Bloody Sunday massacre that year in St. Petersburg, where authorities fired upon a group of peaceful demonstrators and killed more than 100 people, Alexander Palace was determined to be a safer place for the family. But when Nicholas II abdicated the throne in 1917, Alexander Palace became the family’s prison. They were executed within a year.

After the revolution, the palace had a number of uses. First it was a state museum, then temporary housing for the Soviet Union’s interior ministry and an orphanage. After the Nazis invaded, German army staff and Gestapo members stayed in the palace. They opened a prison in the basement and used the front square as an SS cemetery. In 1946, it became a Pushkin museum and home to the Institute of Russian Literature’s collections. The Russian Navy took ownership of the palace in 1951, establishing a military institute, but retaining the museum portions. In 2009, the palace once more became a state-owned museum and has remained so since.

The palace itself is currently closed for renovations, but the grounds are still open for exploration. Visitors to the site will find the New Garden, constructed in the 1740s as an extension of the nearby Catherine Palace. The garden at Alexander Park has a Chinese influence; it’s accessed by a bridge with lanterns and statues of historical Chinese figures, and has a summerhouse with five columns and a pagoda roof, five smaller colorful bridges, an abandoned theater that had Asian-inspired upturned roofing, and a small village with a pagoda-shaped observatory and typical Chinese houses. There’s also a landscape park on the grounds of a former zoo, with museums sprinkled throughout the remaining buildings.

Catherine Palace, Pushkin

Catherine Palace.

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What started as a simple two-story building in 1717 eventually became the opulent structure that Catherine Palace is today, stretching into a square more than a half-mile around. The original building was built for Catherine I, the second wife of Peter the Great. Their daughter, Empress Elizabeth, remodeled the building to its current glory—outfitting it with elaborate blue and white exteriors and gilding on nearly every surface inside. The largest room, the Great Hall, is one of the most heavily gilded rooms in the world. According to a local Russian tour guide for Viking Cruises, Elizabeth often used this room for gender-swap parties where men would dress as women and vice versa, because she liked the way her legs looked in men’s stockings.

The Nazis used the palace as barracks during World War II, and then deliberately destroyed it after the Germans began to retreat, leaving it to crumble and rot as a shell of what it once was. After the war, extensive restorations began, and are still ongoing.

Today, the most well known part of Catherine Palace is the mysterious Amber Room. The walls were panels of intricately designed amber and gemstones, gifted to Peter the Great in 1716. Czarina Elizabeth had the panels installed at Catherine Palace in 1755. During World War II, though, Nazis looted the palace and stole the panels. It was rebuilt in a German castle museum, then taken down two years later before the castle museum was destroyed by bombs. From there, no one knows what happened to the panels of the original Amber Room. A replica exists in Catherine Palace today, built over 25 years starting in 1979.

Kremlin, Moscow

The Kremlin.

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Moscow was a seat of power in the region long before Russian rule. Evidence of human activity at the Kremlin site dates back to 500 BC. But the first known structure appeared around 1147, a wooden fort built by Yuri Dolgoruky, the Grand Duke of Kiev. This year is also generally known as the founding date of the city. In the early 14th century, after Moscow had been razed and rebuilt several times thanks to fire and invasions, stone buildings began appearing at the Kremlin site. Eventually the site was enclosed by a stone wall. When Ivan the Great appeared in the 1460s, he commissioned cathedrals and palaces be built on the spot, giving the Kremlin much of its modern look. The Russian czars continued to live here until Peter the Great moved the capital to St. Petersburg, where they lived until Moscow was restored as the capital after the revolution.

During the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Lenin’s followers captured the Kremlin and it became a base for the fledgling government. It was declared state property in 1918 and remained the living and working space for government officials throughout the Soviet era. In 1955, the grounds were opened to visitors.

While none of the three former czar palaces at the Kremlin (the Terem, Faceted and Great Kremlin palaces) are open for tours, visitors can still walk the grounds of the Kremlin and visit a number of other attractions—including multiple cathedrals and the armory, which holds the jeweled treasures and weapons of Russia’s royal past. The Cathedral of the Archangel Michael is particularly important to the Kremlin’s history; it contains the burial tombs of 57 past royals. A Russian tour guide at the Kremlin says Cathedral Square is nicknamed the “Circle of Life,” because the czars were baptized in one church, coronated in the one next door and buried in a third.

Peterhof Palace, Petrodvorets

Peterhof Palace.

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Peterhof didn’t start off as the massive palace it is today; it began as a simple country estate, built by Peter the Great in 1709. But after visiting Versailles in 1717, he decided to expand the estate into something brilliant, rivaling the best the French court had to offer. He built a grand palace, gardens and fountains, causing Peterhof to quickly become the most-loved summer czar residence and a center of social life in royal Russia.

After 300 years of existence, like Catherine Palace, the Nazis deliberately destroyed Peterhof when German armies began their retreat from Russia in World War II. Unconfirmed but oft-repeated local legend, though, says that Stalin had Peterhof bombed again in December 1941, after hearing that Hitler wanted to host a Christmas party there. Restoration began after the war and still continues.

Today, visitors can explore the roughly 1,000-foot-long, bright yellow Grand Palace, but the real centerpiece is the Grand Cascade fountain around the back, built after Peter’s death when his daughter Elizabeth assumed the throne. The water feature has three waterfalls, 37 gold statues and 67 individual fountains. In the surrounding park, Peter the Great installed trick fountains triggered by stepping on a certain rock that would soak the unexpecting guests.

Winter Palace, St. Petersburg

The Hermitage, formerly the Winter Palace.

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Starting with Catherine the Great, nearly every czar used the Winter Palace as their main residence. It took eight years, employing more than 4,000 workers, to construct the luxurious interiors of more than 460 rooms. The current building is the fourth iteration of the Winter Palace. The first version was a wooden house that Peter the Great and his family used, built in 1708. In 1711, the wooden house was replaced with a stone one. In 1735, a new Winter Palace—larger and more opulent—opened at the behest of Empress Anna. This palace remained in use for 17 years, when Empress Elizabeth then decided to update and expand the Winter Palace once again, which brought it mostly to its current state. Alexander II was the last czar to live there mostly full time, and his assassination in 1881 showed that the building was a bit too large to properly protect, so future czars chose to live in the suburbs.

Since the 1917 revolution, the Winter Palace has been a museum. Today it holds part of the Hermitage, an exceptional art museum with a collection that includes works by Rembrandt and Leonardo da Vinci, a collection of Greek statuary, an authentic Egyptian mummy, the country’s most famous mechanical clock and about 3 million other treasures. The Hermitage is also famous for a legion of cats living in the cellars—about 75 former strays that are now legendary at the museum. There’s even a Press Secretary to the Cats and three full-time volunteers that take care of them.

#History

[newstfionline]

Sunday, April 11, 2021

Group to study more justices, term limits for Supreme Court (AP) President Joe Biden has ordered a study on overhauling the Supreme Court, creating a bipartisan commission Friday that will spend the next six months examining the politically incendiary issues of expanding the court and instituting term limits for justices, among other issues. In launching the review, Biden fulfilled a campaign promise made amid pressure from activists and Democrats to realign the Supreme Court after its composition tilted sharply to the right during President Donald Trump’s term. Trump nominated three justices to the high court, giving conservatives a 6-3 split with liberals on the court. Some progressives have viewed adding seats to the court or setting term limits as a way to offset the influence of any one president on its makeup. Conservatives, in turn, have denounced such ideas as “court-packing” similar to the failed effort by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s.

Ramsey Clark, attorney general who became a critic of U.S. policies, dies at 93 (Washington Post) Ramsey Clark, who was U.S. attorney general under President Lyndon B. Johnson and then, after leaving government service, redefined himself as a relentless critic of American foreign policy died April 9 at his home in New York City. He was 93. The son of conservative Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark, Mr. Clark grew up in the lap of the political establishment and was the last surviving member of Johnson’s cabinet. As a young man, he showed few signs of his firebrand future, but in the half-century that followed his 22-month term as the nation’s top prosecutor, he underwent a remarkable political transformation and became a persistent voice of dissent against the government. He attacked what he called the United States’ “sham” democracy, ruled not by the people but by the wealthy few, and he decried the nation’s “genocidal” foreign policy and “certifiably insane” military spending. “If you really love your country, you work very hard to make it right,” Mr. Clark told the Los Angeles Times. “Anything else is an extreme act of disloyalty and an extreme failure of courage.”

Pandemic pushing thousands into sex work in Mexico (AP) Hardships caused by the coronavirus pandemic have forced former sex workers in Mexico back into the trade years after they left, made it more dangerous and reduced some to having sex in cars or on sidewalks for lack of available hotels. Claudia, who like most of the sex workers interviewed asked to be identified only by her first name, had stopped working the streets a decade ago after she married one of her former clients. But when her husband lost his job early in the pandemic, the couple fell four months behind on rent for their apartment. The only solution Claudia saw was to go back to working the streets. “It was an income in order to eat, to pay the rent we owe,” said Claudia, who now owes only one month back rent. “It is hard to come back and see so many of my fellow workers from the old days, my era, going back to do the same thing … to see all the problems out there.” Thousands of new sex workers have pushed onto the streets as the pandemic forced closure of restaurants and shops. Elvira Madrid, who leads the activist group Street Brigade in Support of Women said her group found 15,200 sex workers on Mexico City’s streets in August, about twice the number before the pandemic.

St. Vincent awaits new volcanic explosions as help arrives (AP) Cots, tents, and respirator masks poured into the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent as officials expected to start distributing them on Saturday, a day after a powerful explosion at La Soufriere volcano uprooted the lives of thousands of people who evacuated their homes under government orders. Nations ranging from Antigua to Guyana offered help by either shipping emergency supplies to their neighbor or agreeing to temporarily open their borders to the roughly 16,000 evacuees fleeing ash-covered communities with as many personal belongings as they could stuff into suitcases and backpacks. The volcano, which last erupted in 1979, kept rumbling as experts warned that explosive eruptions could continue for days or possibly weeks. A previous eruption in 1902 killed some 1,600 people.

Peruvians head to polls with masks, pens and little excitement (AP) Peruvians were preparing to head to the polls on Sunday in a presidential election marked by uncertainty due to widespread public apathy following decades of graft and mismanagement and a possible low turnout because of the COVID-19 pandemic. With none of the 18 presidential candidates polling more than 11% and a “no vote” still the most popular choice for disgruntled respondents in the first round of voting, two contenders from opposite poles of the political spectrum could face off in the second round in June. Keiko Fujimori, a right-winger and the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, who was jailed for human rights abuses, and radical leftist professor Pedro Castillo have slim leads over the rest of the field, according to the latest polls.

Britain pays tribute to Prince Philip (Reuters) Gun salutes will be fired across Britain on Saturday to mark the death of Prince Philip as tributes flooded in for a man who was a pillar of strength for Queen Elizabeth during her 69-year reign. Members of the public laid flowers outside royal residences, paying their respects to the 99-year-old prince. “We’re all weeping with you, Ma’am,” read the front page of the Sun tabloid, while its rival the Daily Mail ran a 144-page tribute to Philip, who died on Friday at Windsor Castle. The armed forces will mark Philip’s death at noon (1100 GMT) with a Death Gun Salute. Artillery units in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast and Gibraltar, and some navy warships, will fire their guns. The death of “her beloved husband”, announced by the queen, robs the 94-year-old monarch of her closest confidante, the one person she could trust and who was free to speak his mind to her. They had been married for 73 years and he would have turned 100 in June.

Kremlin says it fears full-scale fighting in Ukraine’s east (AP) The Kremlin said Friday it fears a resumption of full-scale fighting in eastern Ukraine and could take steps to protect Russian civilians there, a stark warning that comes amid a Russian troop build-up along the border. The statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, reflected the Kremlin’s determination to prevent Ukraine from using force to try to retake control over separatist-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine’s military chief dismissed the Russian claims that the country’s armed forces are preparing for an attack on the rebel east. Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists have been fighting in eastern Ukraine since shortly after Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. More than 14,000 people have died in the conflict, and efforts to negotiate a political settlement have stalled.

India’s daily COVID-19 cases rise to record for fifth time this week (Reuters) India’s daily coronavirus cases on Saturday rose by a record for the fifth time this week and deaths surged to the highest in more than five months, with hospitals and crematoriums overflowing in parts of the country. New cases in the world’s second-most populous country have totalled the most of anywhere in the world over the last two weeks. India’s overall tally of 13.21 million is the third-highest globally, just shy of Brazil and below the worst affected country, the United States. The second surge in infections, which has spread much more rapidly than the first one that peaked in September, has forced many states to impose fresh curbs but Prime Minister Narendra Modi has refused to impose a national lockdown given the high economic costs.

Reports: Myanmar forces kill 82 in single day in city (AP) At least 82 people were killed in one day in a crackdown by Myanmar security forces on pro-democracy protesters, according to reports Saturday from independent local media and an organization that keeps track of casualties since the military’s February seizure of power. Friday’s death toll in Bago was the biggest one-day total for a single city since March 14, when just over 100 people were killed in Yangon, the country’s biggest city. Bago is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Yangon. The Associated Press is unable to independently verify the number of deaths. At least 701 protesters and bystanders have been killed by security forces since the army’s takeover, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Syria after 10 years of war (The Week) The Syrian civil war is now a decade old, said Elizaveta Naumova at Lenta (Russia), and there is still no end in sight. More than 500,000 people—most of them civilians—have been killed in 10 years of fighting, and at least 2 million have been wounded. Of the 22 million people who lived in Syria before the war, more than half have fled their homes. Some 5.6 million of those left the country, seeking shelter in Turkey, Lebanon, and the European Union and sparking anti-migrant backlashes. “Little is left of old Syria, not only demographically, but also culturally.” The commercial capital of Aleppo lies in ruins. The U.S., for its part, leveled the city of Raqqa while pursuing ISIS. Many of the ancient archaeological treasures of Palmyra have been blown up or looted.      Syrians desperately need our help, said Aude Lasjaunias at Le Monde (France). Many hospitals and schools have been destroyed or damaged, and electricity and running water are spotty or absent in much of the country. Nearly 90 percent of Syrians have slipped below the poverty line, and 60 percent lack enough food. The U.S., EU, and dozens of other nations pledged $6.4 billion in aid last month to help address Syria’s mounting humanitarian crises. But that was far short of the $10 billion sought by the United Nations, and a mere drop compared with the estimated $400 billion it will actually take to rebuild the country. Where will that money come from? “Assad’s allies, Russia and Iran, do not have the means to bail out Damascus,” and the West is conditioning large-scale aid on “a real political transition” that is vanishingly unlikely.      Even if Syria manages to somehow come back to life, said Hoda Al-Helaissi at Arab News (Saudi Arabia), the youngest generation will always bear the scars. Those who were children when the war began, or who have been born since, “have no memories or history” of the cosmopolitan country Syria once was. They have seen only “death, blood, or rubble,” and they are growing up “malnourished, uneducated, deprived, and poor.”

[infolibrary]

10 People Who Faked Their Own Death

New Post has been published on http://www.infolibrary.net/10-people-who-faked-their-own-death/

10 People Who Faked Their Own Death

Many people dream of getting away from it all and starting again. For most, this is just a pipe dream. Some might leave their home, their jobs, and even their families and make drastic life changes, but for a few people, even this is not enough. They decide that in order to start again, they have to kill off the person they once were.

Mostly, these “pseudosuicides” are done due to debt, the threat of arrest, or to collect on life insurance policies, but people have “died” for stranger reasons, too. One man even faked his death in order to prove to his grieving girlfriend how much she loved him. He staged a car crash, and while she wept at the scene, he leaped out with balloons and an engagement ring to propose to the “lucky” girl. (Amazingly, she accepted his proposal.)

Here are ten people who faked their own deaths for less ridiculous reasons.

10 The Spy Who Caught Malaria

Photo credit: Innovative History

Juan Pujol Garcia had fought in the Spanish Civil War. After the outbreak of World War II, he was determined to continue his fight against totalitarianism and become a spy for the British government.

The Brits turned down his application because of his lack of qualifications, but despite this, he posed as a Spanish official in Madrid, where he met Nazi officials and offered to spy for them against the British. He then began to send them false information that was supposed to have come from London, thereby undermining the Nazi war effort.

By 1942, he felt he had built up enough of a reputation and approached MI5 again. This time, he was officially accepted to do the job he was already doing. The Germans never discovered that he was a double agent. They believed that Pujol had recruited a whole network of spies, all of whom were, in fact, imaginary.

Famously, Pujol told the Nazis that the rumor they’d heard about a planned invasion of Normandy was fake, and this information was instrumental in the Germans’ lack of preparation for D-Day. The success of the plan was put at risk, however, by Juan’s wife, who was not happy.

She threatened to expose her husband as a double agent so that the Nazis would have no more use for him, and she would be allowed to return home to Spain. In order to protect their “asset,” the British government tricked her into believing that Pujol had been arrested and imprisoned as a result of her threats, and she eventually backed down.

After the war, Pujol decided not to go home straight away but rather to fake his own death in case of “Nazi reprisals” and head to Venezuela. He laid a trail of information suggesting that he had died of malaria in Angola, and a year later, he was officially declared dead. His secret went undiscovered for almost 40 years, until he was tracked down by a British writer.

Could he really have been afraid of Nazi retribution all that time, or was there perhaps someone else he was trying to avoid?

9 The Politician Who Drowned

Photo credit: Birmingham Mail

John Stonehouse was a British MP and, as such, a pillar of society. When he was reported missing, presumed drowned, off the coast of Miami in 1974, however, all sorts of evidence started to turn up which showed Stonehouse in a completely different light.

Stonehouse had simply left a pile of clothes on the beach to suggest that he had gone swimming, in the hopes that it would be assumed that he had drowned or been eaten by a shark. Initially, he was indeed presumed dead.

The subsequent investigation, however, led to all sorts of allegations, and there were claims that Stonehouse had even been a spy for Czechoslovakia during the 1960s. Questions were asked about it in the Houses of Parliament. Then it was revealed that there were discrepencies in the accounts of a charity that he was involved in, and his finances were found to be in complete disarray. Suddenly, Stonehouse’s disappearance and presumed death seemed entirely too convenient.

John Stonehouse was discovered on Christmas Eve 1974 in Australia, where he had fled with his secretary. He was living under the name of a deceased constituent whose identity he had stolen. He was eventually brought back to the UK to face charges of fraud.

During the time of his disappearance, and his remand in prison, Stonehouse was still a serving MP, and while on bail, he even went to Parliament to make a statement about his “bizarre conduct and psychiatric suicide.” At his trial, he chose to defend himself and was subsequently convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison. Only then did he resign as an MP.

It was later revealed that Stonehouse had, in fact, been a Czech spy.

8 The Author Who Jumped Off A Cliff

Photo credit: The Oregon History Project

Ken Kesey, the celebrated Beat Generation writer and author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, may not have been, er, thinking clearly when he faked his own death. Noted for his wild parties, a heady mix of LSD, Hell’s Angels, and a fair amount of Peace and Love, Kesey may have had one too many psychedelic experiences with the band of friends he called the Merry Pranksters.

In 1965, Kesey was arrested for possession of marijuana and came up with a great idea to beat the rap. He parked his car near a cliff and left a poetic suicide note on the seat, hoping the authorities would conclude that he had jumped. Then he climbed into the back of a friend’s car and headed for Mexico.

As plans go, it wasn’t the greatest. Kesey, after all, was a well-known writer and would, presumably, need to go on writing and being well-known in the future.

While the media ran with the story, the authorities didn’t buy it. They spent eight months hunting for him. Eventually, Kesey, realizing that his plan was a bit stupid, returned to California, where he was sentenced to six months in jail.

7 The Shopkeeper With Mad Cow Disease

Photo credit: Baker County Sheriff’s Office

In 2013, Jose Salvador Lantigua told his wife the terrible news that he had been diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or, as it is more commonly known, mad cow disease.

It seemed that Lantigua just couldn’t catch a break. He was once the owner of a large furniture store, but his business had failed. He also tried to secure $2 million in loans using fraudulent documents. With charges hanging over him, he had supposedly been given only six months to live. But, he said, there was a ray of hope.

Doctors had told him about a surgical procedure that could save his life. It would mean flying to Colombia, that well-known center of medical innovation. Lantigua kept the story going until just before he was scheduled to leave, when he confessed to his wife that he did not, actually, have mad cow disease at all. Being completely straight with her, he explained that he was being hunted by a rogue CIA agent because of his past exploits as a special operative in a covert military unit. Furthermore, he had killed the leader of a drug cartel in the course of his duty and was now being blackmailed.

Uh-huh.

He convinced his wife that the solution to their problems was for him to fake his own death, and so, in April 2013, he flew to Venezuela and purchased a fake death certificate and an equally bogus certificate of cremation. Then he convinced his wife to apply for a “certificate of death abroad” and begin to collect on the seven life insurance policies that he had thoughtfully purchased before his disappearance.

Meanwhile, Lantigua paid $5,000 to be smuggled back into the US on a fishing boat, and he assumed a new identity. He was caught when he tried to use his forged documents to apply for a legitimate passport. Though they were both arrested, the court accepted that Lantigua’s wife was acting under the belief that their lives were in danger and that she was more a victim than a perpetrator. She was sentenced to five years’ probation, while Lantigua was jailed for 14 years for fraud.

6 The Crook Who Jumped Off A Bridge

Photo credit: AP

Samuel Israel looked every inch the successful businessman during the 1990s. He had spent 20 years building a career on Wall Street, and at first glance, he was living life large. At one point, he was even renting a luxurious house from Donald Trump. However, his hedge funds were built on lies and fraudulent deals, and it is alleged that he stole more than $400 million from investors.

Israel was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment, but on the day that he was due to begin his sentence, he faked his death by suicide. He wrote “Suicide is Painless” on the dust on the hood of his SUV, which he parked, suggestively, on a bridge, hoping that it would be assumed that he had jumped to his death.

It is likely that Israel had underestimated just how cross his investors were, because they would never have given up chasing him without a body. Wanted posters were issued, and investigations began. The authorities monitored border crossings and airports and staked out the offices of his acquaintances.

Samuel Israel must have realized that it was never going to work, and he surrendered to the police to begin his sentence a few weeks later.

5 The Psychologist Who Just Dropped Dead

Photo credit: Invicta Kent Media

Stephen Kellaway was a psychologist who earned a good living from his counseling business and his property empire. But he was obviously of the view that you can never have enough money, so he supplemented his income by falsely claiming welfare benefits.

He used the extra money to take his third wife to Moscow for a breast enlargement operation. However, while he was in Russia, he feared the authorities were about to uncover his fraud, so he took the opportunity to fake his own death.

He gallantly left his wife to return home alone and report his death. She brought with her a fake death certificate and an urn which apparently contained his ashes. Kellaway had bribed a mortuary official with a bottle of vodka to match a deceased tramp with his passport details and to issue a death certificate with vague details as to the cause. The plan to collect on the £1.7 million life insurance policy was abandoned after investigators began to look further into the case.

Kellaway was eventually discovered living rough near an airport in Bangkok, after his stepmother had come forward to say he was still alive. He carried a false passport, but since it was that of a deceased seven-year-old boy, it wasn’t a foolproof disguise. He was deported back to Britain, where he was sentenced to 32 months in jail. His wife was given a suspended sentence after the judge accepted that she had been coerced.

4 The Mayor In A Diabetic Coma

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Sometimes when you’re dead, its better to stay dead. In 2010, Lenin Caraballido was accused of having participated in a gang rape six years earlier. His relatives, however, produced a death certificate showing that he had died of a diabetic coma, and the matter was dropped.

And this would have been the end of the story if he hadn’t decided to run for mayor of San Agustin Amatengo, Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2013. He had publicity pictures taken, and posters went up all over town. Caraballido won the election, narrowly, and then his world fell apart.

Any interested citizen, or rival candidate, could have looked up Lenin Caraballido and found nothing untoward. Nothing at all, in fact. There was, however a Leninguer Caraballido . . .

It soon became clear that the death certificate was faked. Suddenly, the mayor-elect became camera-shy and stopped taking calls from the press. Caraballido was arrested and charged with providing false testimony, and the rape case was reopened.[8]

3 The Businessman In A Canoe

Photo credit: BBC News

John Darwin went missing on a canoe trip in the North Sea in 2002, leaving behind a wife and two sons.

In actual fact, he was hiding in a property that he and his wife owned, not far from the family home. He had persuaded his wife, Anne, that the way out of the mounting debt, caused by his failed businesses, was to claim on the life insurance. He assured her that he would only need to hide for a few weeks until the insurance paid out, but he ultimately remained hidden for four years. All the while, his wife was pretending to friends, neighbors, and their two sons that her husband was dead.

In 2006, Darwin came up with a new plan. He applied for a passport in the name of a dead child and planned a new life for them both in Panama. And again, Anne went along with it. The two were even photographed in Panama (shown above). But in 2007, Darwin decided that he wanted to go home. He returned to England, where he suddenly reappeared, pretending to have been suffering from amnesia.

This left his wife in a bit of a hole. Their deception soon unraveled, and they were both charged with fraud. Despite Anne pleading marital coercion, both John Darwin and his wife were convicted of fraud and jailed. Anne was given a longer sentence because of her not guilty plea.

2 The Commodities Trader Who Washed Up On The Shore

Some people go to extraordinary lengths to fake their own deaths. And some people are just lazy.

When a body was dredged up from Manila Bay in 1994, Takashi Mori simply paid officials in the Philippine Homicide Division to provide a death certificate and autopsy report confirming that the body was his. The remains were immediately cremated, and the ashes were returned to Japan, where Mori’s son made a claim on the $6.5 million life insurance. Easy peasy.

The speed of the cremation, however, roused the suspicion of the Japanese Embassy, particularly as it was carried out by the family before they had informed the embassy and gained permission. After conducting a fairly brief investigation, police found Mori hiding in the home of his daughter-in-law in the Philippine. He was charged with insurance fraud, and his wife and son were deported to the Philippines.

1 The Preacher Who Was Kidnapped For Ransom

Photo credit: United Press International

Aimee Semple McPherson was an American Evangelist in the 1920s and a celebrity. Her sermons drew huge crowds and were said to be more like Broadway theater productions than church services, involving, as they did, elaborate costumes and a full orchestra.

So when she vanished while out swimming off the Santa Monica beach in 1926, her disappearance made headline news. Weeks passed. Her congregation held vigils, praying for her safe return, and the Coast Guard searched the sea and shore looking for her remains.

Just when people began to wonder whether it had all been a publicity stunt, McPherson was found, crawling through the Mexican desert. She claimed that after her swim, she had met a couple who asked her to come and pray for their baby, who, they said, was desperately ill. As she climbed into their car, she was chloroformed, and she came to tied to a chair in a shack in Mexico. She was told she was being held for ransom, to the tune of $500,000, and that if the church didn’t pay up, she would be sold into slavery.

The church had, in fact, received dozens of ransom notes, and they were all dismissed as hoaxes.

Oh dear.

McPherson then claimed she’d managed to free herself from the ropes and escape. Some 50,000 people welcomed her home, but the authorities smelled a rat. Several people claimed to have seen her alive and well while she was supposedly being held captive, and it was suspected that her disappearance may have been linked to that of a married man, an employee of McPherson’s church, who had gone missing at the same time and who returned shortly after. He later admitted to having had an extramarital affair but declined to name the lady.

Aimee McPherson was charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice, though the charges were later dropped. It was suggested that the “abduction” was, in fact, an attempt to fake her own death so that the pair could be together and that one of them had later gotten cold feet. Whether that was before or after the church had refused to pay up, who can say?

[historybehindassassinscreed]

In Game:

Apples of Eden were types of Pieces of Eden, a very specific type of technology made by Isu (more commonly referred to as “The First Civilization”).

Long before humans existed, the First Civilization of technologically advanced beings inhabited Earth. They created humanity and enslaved them by modifying their brains to be manipulable by Pieces of Eden. For some time there was a forced peace until Adam and Eve stole one of the Pieces, an Apple, and started the Human-Isu War.

A major solar flare impacted the earth, after which the First Civilization began to go extinct. From there, humans populated the earth and began to see their predecessors as myths or gods. The Pieces of Eden were not destroyed by the blast, and throughout time, humans started to recover them from various locations (such as beneath Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem or Basilica di Santa Maria in Aracoeli in Rome), also causing a split of sides based on different mindsets; Templars and Assassins. The Templars were out to restore peace in the way the First Civilization had once done, forced by the Pieces, unlike the Assassins, that fought for freedom and a flawed humanity, putting free will above order.

The Apples are the most well-known Piece of Eden, being favored by Abstergo Industries in their plan of a New World Order, being likely the most predictable Piece, as some other Pieces were known to be able to create time paradoxes. 

Apples were designed to create illusions and to control human minds and even turn thought into reality, as stated by Juno, hence, they were used by many great rulers throughout history, proving the efficiency of the Apples' powers.

Although there have been many different Apples (at least seven are mentioned throughout the games), some of the most notable wielders include Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, Ezio Auditore de Firenze, Aguilar de Nerha, Cesare Borgia, Queen Elizabeth I, George Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolph Hitler, Desmond Miles, Alan Rikkin, and Callum Lynch.

The locations of five of the Apples are unknown, though the one that belonged to Altaïr was destroyed; Abstergo Industries had been experimenting with it underneath Denver International Airport. The Templar, Daniel Cross, upon visiting the underground facility, fell under the influence of the project's Apple of Eden and killed everyone in the facility before the company's clean-up crew had arrived. The Apple itself was ultimately destroyed. This would later become known as the DIA Satellite Accident.

Aguilar’s Apple of Eden is the other with a known location; it is currently in the hands of the Assassins. During the 15th century, it came into the possession of the Sultan of the Emirate of Granada, Muhammad XII, though it did not help him win his conflict against the Christian kingdoms of Iberia, Castile, and Aragon. When the Spanish Inquisition under the command of Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada, a leading Templar, caught wind of Muhammad XII's treasure, they abducted his son to be used as ransom for the artifact, only to be promptly deprived of it by the intervention of the Assassins Aguilar de Nerha and Maria. From Aguilar, the Apple was in turn transferred to the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus for safe keeping. In October of 2016, the Apple was briefly in the hands of Alan Rikkin, the CEO of Abstergo Industries, before he was killed by the Assassin, Callum Lynch.

In Real Life:

Golden apples show up in various mythologies around the world.

In Greek Mythology, the first time that a magic, golden apple makes an appearance is in the tale of Atalanta. Atalanta was the daughter of Iasus (or Mainalos or Schoeneus, according to Hyginus), a Boeotian (according to Hesiod), or an Arcadian princess (according to the Bibliotheca). She was a virgin huntress of Artemis (Diana, in Rome), unwilling to marry.

Because of her beauty, she gained a number of suitors and finally agreed to marry, but under the condition that her suitor was obligated to beat her in a footrace. Competitors who failed to beat her would be put to death. As Atalanta could run extremely fast, all her suitors died.

Melanion, however, as one of Atalanta’s suitors, realized that because she was under the protection of Artemis she could not be defeated in a fair race. Thus, he prayed to the goddess Aphrodite (Venus). The goddess gave him three golden apples and told him to drop them one at a time to distract Atalanta. Sure enough, she quit running long enough to retrieve each golden apple. It took all three apples and all of his speed, but Melanion finally succeeded, winning the race and Atalanta's hand.

Another myth in Greek Mythology that involves golden apples is the tale of the Golden Apple of Trojan War. In Olympus, Zeus (Jupiter) held a banquet in celebration of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis. Eris (Discordia), the goddess of discord, was not invited for her troublesome nature, and upon turning up uninvited, she threw a golden apple into the ceremony, with an inscription that read, “For the fairest.”

Three goddesses, Athena (Minerva), Hera (Juno), and Aphrodite all claimed the apple of discord for their own. They brought the matter before Zeus. Not wanting to get involved, Zeus assigned the task to Paris of Troy. Paris had demonstrated his exemplary fairness previously when he awarded a prize unhesitatingly to Ares after the god, in bull form, had bested his own prize bull.

Zeus gave the apple to Hermes and told him to deliver it to Paris and tell him that the goddesses would accept his decision without argument. As each goddess wanted to receive the apple, they each stripped off their own clothing and appeared naked before Paris. Each of the goddesses also offered Paris a gift as a bribe in return for the apple; Hera offered to make him the king of Europe and Asia, Athena offered him wisdom and skill in battle, and Aphrodite offered to give to him as a wife a most beautiful woman, Helen of Sparta, who according to legend was already married to Menelaus. Paris chose Aphrodite's bribe of committing adultery, a decision that caused the destruction of both adulterous Paris and his city, Troy, via the Trojan war.

(Image source)

The third Greek myth that involves golden apples was the eleventh labor of Hercules. After Hercules completed the first ten labors, Eurystheus gave him two more claiming that slaying the Hydra didn't count (because Iolaus helped Hercules) nor did cleaning the Augean Stables (either because he was paid for the job or because the rivers did the work).The first additional labor was to steal the apples from the garden of the Hesperides.

Hercules finally made his way to the Garden of the Hesperides, where he encountered the Titan Atlas holding up the heavens on his shoulders. Hercules persuaded Atlas to get some of the Golden Apples for him, by offering to hold up the heavens in his place for a little while. This would have made the labor – like the Hydra and the Augean Stables – void because Hercules had received help. When Atlas returned, he decided that he did not want to take the heavens back, and instead offered to deliver the Apples himself. But Hercules tricked him by agreeing to remain in the place of Atlas on condition that Atlas relieve him temporarily while Hercules adjusted his cloak. Atlas agreed, but Hercules reneged and walked away with the Apples. According to an alternative version, Hercules slew Ladon, the dragon-like guardian of the Apples, instead.

Golden Apples make appearances in Norse Mythology as well. In Norse Mythology the Golden Apples are cultivated by Idun, the goddess of love, fertility and the personification of springtime. The immortal gods of Asgard would have to eat one of the apples every day so that they could ward off disabilities and old age and diseases, in order to remain beautiful, young through countless ages and vigorous.

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Irish Mythology has stories of Golden Apples as well. They are far more minor and less specific in Irish lore, mostly because it is an element of the Silver Branch, or Silver Bough, a symbol that is connected to the Celtic Otherworld. It is described as “A branch of silver with three golden apples on his shoulder” and is said that if someone were to try to travel to the afterlife before the time of their death, they would have to have the silver branch with golden apples as payment, further continuing the apple's divine connection found in Greek and Norse myth. Additionally, the apples themselves were said to have produced a music so beautiful that it could put anyone to sleep.

Lastly, Golden Apples make appearances in several fairy tales from different European countries; Germany (”The Golden Bird” and “The White Snake”), Russia (”The Fire Bird and the Gray Wolf”), Bulgaria (”The Three Brothers and the Golden Apple”), and Romania ("The Nine Peahens and the Golden Apples"). Most of these stories usually begin the Golden Apple being stolen from a king, usually by a bird.

Sources:

https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Heroes/Atlanta/atlanta.html

http://www.uexpress.com/tell-me-a-story/2014/12/7/the-golden-apple-of-discord-a

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labours_of_Hercules#Eleventh_labour:_apples_of_the_Hesperides

http://www.messagetoeagle.com/goddess-idun-and-the-golden-apple-myth-in-norse-mythology/