Two hundred years ago this summer, the 18-year-old writer Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and her husband-to-be, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, stood on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland, with their friends poet Lord Byron and physician John William Polidori and dared one another to invent an original ghost story.
That legendary contest became the basis of Wollstonecraft Godwin’s novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, which is as resonant today as it was when it was first published in 1818.
Elizabeth Young, the Carl M. and Elsie A. Small Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College, studies American literature and culture. She wrote a book identifying and analyzing racial metaphors in American responses to the Frankenstein story. Young recently returned from a bicentennial conference in Geneva celebrating the origin of Frankenstein. She discussed her research and teaching in light of recent events and contemporary politics.
Your research and work focus on the ways in which literary works reflect and inform our culture. Your book, Black Frankenstein: The Making of an American Metaphor, examined the monster metaphor and how it has manifested itself in fiction, nonfiction, art, and film, particularly with respect to race. How has the metaphor been used and how has it transformed over time?
There are many racial resonances of the Frankenstein story in the United States. One important early example is from 1831, just after the Nat Turner Rebellion in Virginia, in which slaves revolted and killed dozens of white people.
After that, there was a debate about slavery in the Virginia legislature, and one of the legislators invoked the imagery of the Frankenstein story to defend slavery. He argued that if slaves were freed, they would all be like Frankenstein’s monsters, revolting against their masters.
On the other hand, you can find many more cases of people—including novelists, artists, and activists—using the Frankenstein story to argue against slavery and racial oppression. In the original novel, the monster himself is sympathetic and speaks eloquently about his enslavement. Also, in focusing on the relation between a creator and his creation, the metaphor provides a way to trace the origins of violence to an unjust relationship, and to talk about the inherent violence of oppression.
Today, the Frankenstein metaphor is still tragically relevant. The kinds of systemic violence against black men that has been so dramatically visible in the last few years is fueled by a culture in which white people continue to think of black men as monsters.
One of the most notable examples of this is in the case of Michael Brown, who was killed in Ferguson, Missouri, two summers ago. In his testimony, Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot Brown, said Brown looked like a “demon.” That is the language of black monstrosity, seeing black men as frightening monsters who must then be subdued.
Is Frankenstein relevant in other ways as a political metaphor today?
The metaphor of Frankenstein continues to be used in contemporary politics. For example, there have been numerous references to Donald Trump as the Republican Party’s Frankenstein monster. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is one of many people who have made the Trump–Frankenstein connection. This is a way of saying that the Republican Party, rather than distancing itself from Trump, needs to acknowledge that it is responsible for creating the conditions in which Trump flourished and ran amok.
You have been teaching at Mount Holyoke for 23 years. What keeps you growing as a professor?
Teaching my students is freshly rewarding each year. One example is the class I teach on American gothic literature and film. I begin it with stories by Edgar Allan Poe, which many students have already read and feel familiar with. The first week of class, I have them read some of Poe’s stories without any accompanying critical material. The following week, we look at slave narratives that were written around the same time as the Poe stories, focusing on their use of gothic imagery. The third week, we read Poe again, with the slave narratives in mind. This leads to discussions of the strong images of racial anxiety that pervade Poe’s work. Even students who feel they know Poe well find this revelatory.
As a teacher, it’s wonderful to have that kind of conversation in the classroom. Part of what is happening is the specific learning that the students are doing—reading gothic texts through the lens of race. But the other part of it is that they are debating how to build an interpretation of a literary text, and how to construct a persuasive argument. These are really exciting moments in the classroom. Students often come away with an expanded sense that “what I am reading is really giving me a different view of the world.” As a teacher, I find this absolutely wonderful.
Julia Cole '19 as Victor Frankenstein and Tamia Williams '18 as The Creature
Theatre Arts at Mount Holyoke College
The Mount Holyoke Department of Theatre Arts brings together artists, scholars and practitioners in a flexible curriculum designed to:
provide a strong liberal arts foundation, preparing students for advanced study and professional work in theatre and performance; train students to think critically and globally and to collaborate with others in a diverse environment; foster creativity through intensive study and practice and instill leadership skills as student ins take on key roles in acting, directing, design, technical theatre and stage management; cultivate and engage an audience as writers, performers, designers and directors. In addition to the general major in Theatre Arts, the department offers three areas of specialization — Acting/Directing, Design/Technical Theatre, and Theatre Histories and Theory — facilitating the choice of path best suited to student interests and career goals. The department encourages interdisciplinary work, linking the study of and work in performance to other fields, ranging from English through Psychology and Education, to Dance, Anthropology, Film Studies, Music, and Gender Studies, among others. Theatre Arts students enjoy the advantage of Five College department offerings and productions—an expansive range of opportunities in coursework and practical experience. Source: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/theatre Frankenstein is performed at Mount Holyoke College October 19-22
A retelling of Mary Shelley's classic novel, Frankenstein, adapted by Jonathan Yukich, directed by Noah Tuleja will be performed at Rooke Theatre. Suitable for ages 10 and up.
Victor Frankenstein, obsessed with finding the secret to recreating life famously succeeds, but fearing he has overstepped the bounds of science, quickly abandons his creation and the promise to make it a mate. The Creature, betrayed and forsaken, vows to ruthlessly destroy all that his creator loves and cherishes.
#HATJ & RKB Description and Impressions of Court Hearing...
10.18.17
This is the recording of a phone conversation I had with Katie, Lisa, and Judy who were all in courtroom to hear the hearing live.
I will also publish in video form, once it is rendered. ~ BZ
Before making this recording with Katie, Lisa, Judy. I spoke with Heather on the phone. She is doing well. “All is Perfect and Perfectly done.” Heather said she would call me later today after she could change clothes, rest a little and get comfortable… so we could do a recorded call. ~ BZ
~ Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen: Scenic & Lighting Design by Richard Finkelstein ~
WHEN THE EVENT HAPPENS, HOLOGRAPHIC ILLUSION OF THIRD DENSITY IS GONE...
Before graduating from High School in Newport Beach, California I was bitten by the "theatre bug" and joined the Corona del Mar Drama Association and my first set design was for Kaufman & Hart's The Man Who Came to Dinner, the senior play in 1968. Then, I put my sights upon becoming a Broadway scene designer like Jo Melziner, so I attended the University of California at Riverside with that ambition in mind. The following year, I transferred to the Irvine campus of same University for professional quality training in the art from a design professor - only to find that our egos clashed. After descending from having "A" quality designs at the head of his class, I dropped to a "D" for no apparent reason. So, totally frustrated with this development, I dropped out of school and hitch-hiked across the United States to Massachusetts where I joined The Fisherman's Players of Cape Cod and started building sets at the community theatre level. Later, upon reaching my intended destination of Nantucket Island in the Fall of 1971, I built scenery at the Straight Wharf Theatre and was co-designing the set for Alice in Wonderland when another clash of egos resulted in me withdrawing my name from the program and yielding to the other designer. In 1975, Straight Wharf Theatre burned to the ground and photo in the island's newspaper showed "Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin" inscribed on the remaining backstage wall of the gutted theatre. The Courtyard, a mini-mall of curio shops now stands in its place. The Nantucket Theatre Workshop, formerly of the Straight Wharf venue moved up Centre Street to Bennett Hall at the First Congregational Church, where I took a minor role onstage as one of four Proteans in Stephen Sondheim's musical, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1984. Then, I played a pivotal character/cameo role in William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life in May of that year. By 1985, I designed the set for Company, another musical by Sondheim utilizing platforms on several levels and was the co-designer for Oklahoma! with the NTW Artistic Director. After I designed the set for The Unexpected Guest by Agatha Christie, Amahl and the Night Visitors (adapted from a 1950s era television script), Philadelphia, Here I Come! by Brian Friel, and Hotel Paradiso, a farce by Georges Feydeau - I left Nantucket Island for Gloucester on the North Shore of Massachusetts with Susan, and our infant daughter Mary in November, 1987. We raised her in "Fishtown" with her younger brother David who was born in 1990, and bought a home on Wheeler Street in 1993 that I called "Underhill", as it was at the base of Pole's Hill (saved by a local ballot initiative, Question 5, in 1998). In 2013 we sold it and moved to New Bedford, where I built sets and hung lights at Your Theatre briefly, before making a major personal change in life direction to join an Intentional Community in Shutesbury, MA - Sirius, which is an Eco-village started by former members of Findhorn in Scotland... I took a 5-week Immersion Program in 2015, and explored Membership starting in 2016, and was accepted as a Full Member on my 67th birthday in March of this year.
My experience in the field of Applied Metaphysics that began with my spiritual awakening in 1976, and continued under the mentorship of a close friend in Nantucket until I applied for admission at the University of Metaphysics (presently based in Sedona, Arizona) where I earned two Metaphysical doctoral degrees by 1997. This past month I taught my 1st Course in the Sirius Immersion Program: "How to Live by the Golden Rule: Accountability Training for Living in Community with Others." I also enjoy a freestyle form of creative dance that I initially discovered back in 1974 on an off-island trip to Cambridge, MA - held in a church hall not far from Harvard Square, known as "Dance Free." In the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, it is called "Dance Spree," and held at various locations on different nights of the week, with a daytime version on Sunday mornings known as "Dance Spirit." ~ JDHWB-R
WATCH THE VEIL BECOME TRANSPARENT, AS HUMANITY ENTERS A NEW PARADIGM!
I listened to BZ Riger's recording of her call with Randall K. Beane, who has been held in detention at the Blount County Jail in Maryville, TN without bail since his arrest. She asked that we flood the mail with postcards wishing Randy "Happy Birthday on September 29, 2017. I have experienced synchronicity with this calendar date several times over the years. My best friend from high school in California passed away on this date (1967), then another friend drowned, as the result of a car accident with his dog, in a Vermont river (1975). More recently, I lost a sister-in-law on this date due to illness (year is not relevant). All three "transitions" occurred on the Feast of Michaelmas (Archangels Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, and Uriel). Then, this morning I looked in my mailbox at Sirius Community to find a postcard from Randy Beane! His answer was completely unexpected, as many people have sent him postcards with birthday wishes in response to BZ's appeal to all of us... ~ JDHWB-R
Detailed Timeline of Las Vegas Route 91 Shooting Emerges
10/5/2017 by Gil Kaufman
We may never know exactly why Stephen Paddock opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest Festival last Sunday (Oct. 1), killing 59 people in the largest mass shooting in modern American history. But as investigators continue to dig into the 64 year-old millionaire real estate investor's movements and purchases in the months, days and hours leading up to his insane rampage, a more detailed picture has emerged about the meticulous planning that went into Paddock's unthinkable actions.
This is what we know so far about the night of the tragedy and the events leading up to it, according to a timeline from ABC News and a variety of other news sources.
Thursday, Sept. 28
Paddock checks into the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino three days before the shooting, with the Associated Press reporting that he requested a high-level suite overlooking the 15-acre site of the Route 91 festival. A source said he couldn't get the room he originally requested, but then moved to the 32nd-floor suite he opened fire from on Saturday night (Sept. 30).
Saturday, Sept. 30
The shooter moves to the room on the 32nd floor and transports a massive cache of 23 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition to his room. Police say he also set up at least three cameras to monitor the hallway outside. In one of the frequent press updates this week, Las Vegas Police Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said hotel employees are believed to have entered the room several times over the weekend and found nothing suspicious. Lombardo also said that Paddock had 50 pounds of explosives and 1,600 rounds of ammunition in his car in the hotel parking lot, indicating he may have intended to escape after the shooting.
Sunday, Oct. 1
10:05 p.m.
After using a hammer to break out two windows in his room, the shooter sets up a sniper's nest from which he begins firing down on the crowd of 22,000 at the country festival from a quarter mile away during singer Jason Aldean's set. The bullets rain down at high speed, helped by after-market, legal accessories called bump-stocks, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire more like automatic weapons that can spray hundreds of bullets a minute. The shots are caught on a closed-circuit TV from inside the venue.
Concertgoers initially report thinking that the rapid popping sounds are fireworks associated with the show, but soon realize that they are coming from a firearm, and begin taking cover and fleeing the festival grounds.
10:08 p.m.
According to the Business Insider, officers start to exchange radio messages about the shooting within three minutes, with one exchange featuring a voice saying, "We got shots fired! It sounded like an automatic firearm!"
10:12 p.m.
The first two officers arrive on the 31st floor of the Mandalay Bay and report over the radio that the gunfire is coming from directly above them, according to a timeline provided by the Las Vegas Police Department.
10:15 p.m.
The final shots are fired from the suspect, as evidenced by "a body worn camera."
10:16 p.m.
One of the first social media posts on the shooting hits Twitter. "I'm pretty sure a terrorist attack just happened next to me im at mandalay bay."
i'm pretty sure a terrorist attack just happened next to me im at mandalay bay
— (@GLOKMIN) October 2, 2017
10:17 p.m.
The first two officers arrive on the 32nd floor.
10:18 p.m.
An unarmed hotel security officer tells the LVMPD that he's been shot and gives them the exact location of the suspect's room.
10:25 p.m.
Taxi drivers report receiving the first active shooter message from police telling them to avoid the area around the Mandalay Bay. According to Reuters, it says, "Drivers avoid LV Blvd and Tropicana. Active shooting from Mandalay Bay. Possible 3 shooters."
Police and rescue personnel gather at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Ave. after a reported mass shooting at a country music festival on Oct. 2, 2017 in Las Vegas.
Eight more officers arrive on the 32nd floor and start moving down the hall, clearing every room and looking for any injured patrons. According to the LVMPD, they move in this meticulous manner because they are no longer hearing gunshots, and the situation does not appear to be an active shooting incident.
10:30 p.m.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that University Medical Center of Southern Nevada trauma surgeon Dr. Jay Coates recieves a call to report to the hospital. "They were coming in so fast. We were taking care of bodies. We were just trying to keep people from dying," he tells Associated Press. "Every bed was full." At the same time, Reuters reports that police start herding people inside Mandalay Bay to get them out of the line of fire.
10:38 p.m.
LVMPD send out first tweet about shooting, telling people to avoid the area around the Mandalay Bay.
We're investigating reports of an active shooter near/around Mandalay Bay Casino. Asking everyone to please avoid the area. #LVMPDnews
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) October 2, 2017
10:40 p.m.
Newsweek reports that officers ask for permission to enter Paddock's room sooner but are told to wait for SWAT teams. At a press conference LVMPD Undersheriff Kevin McMahill defends the decision to wait by explaining that Paddock was "contained" and had stopped firing.
10:55 p.m.
Eight officers arrive in the stairwell on the opposite end of the hallway nearest to the suspect's room.
11:09 p.m.
ABC reports that first responders radio that they are at the end of the hallway on the 32nd floor but are proceeding cautiously to avoid fire from other first responders. "We are going to be peeking out into the hallway. Those officers down the hallway are going to need to acknowledge so we don't have a crossfire," one says.
11:20 p.m.
More than an hour after the shooting ended, the first breach is set off to blow open the door of suite 135 and officers enter the suspect's room. "Breach, breach, breach!" an officer is heard saying. They observe a suspect down on the ground and notice a second door that is not accessible.
11:27 p.m.
The second breach is set off, allowing officers to access the second room. Officers quickly realize there is no one else in the rooms, and announce over the radio that the suspect is down. Officials report that Paddock took his own life, but at press time it has not yet been revealed when he did so.
11:58 p.m.
Two hours after the first shots were fired LVMPD tweet confirmation that "one suspect is down."
Confirming that one suspect is down. This is an active investigation. Again, please do not head down to the Strip at this time.
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) October 2, 2017
12:31 a.m.
LVMPD tweet that the incident is over and that they don't believe there was more than one shooter.
At this time we do not believe there are any more shooters. More information to come shortly from @Sheriff_LVMPD.
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) October 2, 2017
1:30 a.m.
Aldean posts a message on Instagram: "Tonight has been beyond horrific. I still dont know what to say but wanted to let everyone know that Me and my Crew are safe. My Thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved tonight. It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night. #heartbroken #stopthehate," he writes.
In 1995, I attended my 1st International Metaphysical Ministry convention in Las Vegas, Nevada and toured the iconic Luxor Pyramid on the Strip, not far from the site of Route 91 Harvest Festival where Stephen Paddock killed 59 people on Sunday, shooting into the panic-stricken crowd through upper windows of Mandalay Bay Resort Casino... ~ JDHWB-R
Sex, Whales and Witchcraft: The Legend of Ichabod Paddock
I've lived in New England my whole life, but I have only been to Nantucket once. It was a memorable trip. The island is full of beautiful historic old homes and lots of upscale amenities. It's a great spot for a posh summer vacation.
This was not always the case. Once it was a desolate isolated island. Herman Melville describes it in Moby Dick (1851):
Nantucket! Take out your map and look at it. See what a real corner of the world it occupies; how it stands there, away off shore, more lonely than the Eddystone lighthouse. Look at it — a mere hillock, and elbow of sand; all beach, without a background. There is more sand there than you would use in twenty years as a substitute for blotting paper. Some gamesome wights will tell you that they have to plant weeds there, they don’t grow naturally; that they import Canada thistles; that they have to send beyond seas for a spile to stop a leak in an oil cask; that pieces of wood in Nantucket are carried about like bits of the true cross in Rome; that people there plant toadstools before their houses, to get under the shade in summer time; that one blade of grass makes an oasis, three blades in a day’s walk a prairie...
This does not sound like the summer playground of millionaires. It was not, but it was the whaling capital of the world. Melville himself sailed on the Charles and Henry, a Nantucket whaling ship, in 1842, which was one of the inspirations for Moby Dick.
Although the Wampanoag who originally lived on Nantucket may have occasionally killed whales, whaling as an industry only began there in 1690 when Ichabod Paddock arrived from Cape Cod. Paddock was a Quaker, an accomplished whaler, and a semi-legendary figure.
There are several legends about Paddock. For example, one claims that while he was in the Pacific he threw his favorite harpoon into a whale. The harpoon reached its mark, but the whale escaped. Thirteen years later, he was once again in the Pacific. His ship sighted a whale, which the crew successfully captured and killed. While they were cutting it up they found a harpoon embedded deep in its flesh. It had the initials "I.P." on it. It was the same whale Paddock had harpooned thirteen years ago.
One of the weirder legends tells how Paddock's ship was pursuing a whale named Crookjaw. No matter how hard Paddock's crew threw their harpoons they just bounced off Crookjaw. Even Ichabod himself could not harpoon the whale. Frustrated and unwilling to admit defeat, Ichabod put a knife between his teeth and dove into the ocean. As his terrified crew watched he swam right towards Crookjaw.
Crookjaw opened his mouth and swallowed Paddock whole.
Much to his surprise, Paddock did not die inside the darkness of a whale's stomach. Instead, he found himself inside a comfortable ship's cabin. Lanterns hung from the ceiling, and a large feather bed sat against one wall. A table filled the center of the room, and two people were playing cards at it. One was a beautiful blonde woman who had a shining green fish tail instead of legs. The other was a dark-clad man who smelled of fire and brimstone.
When the card players saw Paddock the dark man threw down his cards in anger and disappeared. The blonde woman (mermaid? witch?) smiled at Paddock.
"What were you wagering on?" he asked her.
"Why you, of course." She smiled again.
Meanwhile, the crew of Paddock's ship waited for some sign of their captain. After swallowing him Crookjaw just sat immobile, floating silently as the waves splashed against him. The crew didn't know what else to do. Their harpoons and knives were useless against the whale.
After several hours, Crookjaw opened his mouth and Paddock swam out on a torrent of water. He climbed back aboard his ship. "Boys," he said with a big grin, "We need to come back here tomorrow. I've got more work to do!"
Paddock and his crew came back the next day, and once again Paddock swam into the whale's mouth. His crew waited for hours while Crookjaw floated passively in the water until their captain emerged from the whale. Then they came back the next day. And the day after that.
This went on for quite a while. Rumors began to circulate around Nantucket that Paddock had been seduced by a devilish woman who lived in a whale, and they eventually reached the ears of his wife. Mrs. Paddock was young, beautiful, and unwilling to cede her husband to a witchy mermaid. She developed a plan.
One day as Paddock was about to set sail his wife ran down the wharf to his ship. "Husband!" she cried, "Husband! I have brought you a gift."
In her hands she held a glistening new harpoon. It's sharp tip shone brightly in the sun. Paddock thanked her and set sail for his assignation with her gift in his hand. Mrs. Paddock smiled a cold smile as the ship left the wharf.
When the ship found Crookjaw in his usual spot Paddock prepared to dive into the sea, but one of his crew stopped him. "Captain," he said, "Don't you think you should try that new harpoon your wife gave you? It's mighty fine. Maybe it can pierce the monster's skin."
Grudgingly, Paddock took up the harpoon. He knew it couldn't harm the enchanted whale, and he was eager to see his marine mistress. Still, he needed to keep up some level of appearance. He drew back his arm and threw the shining harpoon at Crookjaw.
The harpoon easily pierced the whale's hide, and with a hideous groan Crookjaw rolled over on his back. He was dead. Mrs. Paddock had asked a local blacksmith to forge a harpoon with a silver tip, and silver is one metal that always defeats witchcraft.
The crew didn't find a ship's cabin inside the whale when they cut open its stomach, just bile and half-digested fish. Paddock searched desperately through the offal for some sign of his lover, but all he found was long yellow seaweed and a few seashells.
This story appears in quite a few places and with several variations. In some versions the seductress is clearly a witch, and in others a mermaid. I found this version in Nathaniel Philbrick's Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602 - 1890. Philbrick notes that Paddock was eventually kicked out of the Quakers after he "sailed about in a vessel where dancing was performed and he a partaker therein." The story about Crookjaw may be a legend but it seems to say something true about Paddock's personality.
Witches and sailors have a fraught (and often sexual) relationship in New England folklore. For example, Captain Sylvanus Rich was seduced by a witch who gave him the "sweet milk of Satan," while Skipper Ireson was ridden like a stallion at night by a witch as punishment. The Paddock legend is more elaborate but clearly fits in this genre.
Hercules, Hesione, and the Sea Monster, from the Museum of Fine Arts
Heroes have been swallowed by giant sea monsters throughout history. For example, Hercules was swallowed by a sea monster that came to eat the Trojan princess Hesione. He emerged alive several days later after killing the monster from the inside, but not before losing all his hair due to the acid in the monster's stomach. Two lessons to learn: Hercules is invulnerable but his hair isn't, and sea monster acid is nature's depilatory.
The most famous person to emerge from a whale's stomach is of course the Biblical prophet Jonah. Jonah was told by God to preach in Nineveh, but didn't want to because he was afraid of the hostile reception he'd get there. He booked passage on a ship going in the opposite direction, but the crew threw him overboard after God besieged the ship with a storm. A whale swallowed Jonah, swam to Nineveh, and vomited him up on the shore. Jonah got the message and started preaching.
In the movie Pinocchio, Gepetto is swallowed by a whale, and Pinocchio eventually goes inside to save him. This act of sacrifice turns the puppet Pinocchio into a real boy.
Hercules, Jonah and Pinocchio find heroism, destiny and redemption inside their respective whales. Ichabod Paddock finds witchcraft, secret sex and the Devil. But after all, this is New England.
Aerial View - Solar Eclipse, Columbia, SC - August 21, 2017
WAKE UP AMERICA! United We Stand, but Divided We Fall... On August 11, 2017 a white supremacist March, dubbed "Unite the Right," climbed steps at University of Virginia campus in protest of decision to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee and were confronted there by antifascist demonstrators. Election of Donald Trump as President was catalyst, along with Republicans taking control of both House and Senate in the Congress.
On August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse crossed above continental United States from Oregon to South Carolina (1st state to secede from the Union: December 20, 1860). A second one crosses from Texas to Maine on April 8, 2024. Vortex point is above Carbondale, Illinois. The Ohio and Mississippi Rivers meet in Cairo, also in the zone of totality for both eclipses. We as Americans have been given a warning to either wake up or perish as a nation!
In 1776, when Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, a solar eclipse occurred that year over America. Jefferson also founded the University of Virginia in 1819.
Window of 2017-2024 is the Last Call for Unity to move us beyond the Divide and Conquer meme here in the United States of America... BECOME THE BRIDGE OF AWAKENING NOW!!!
Whatever You Do, Mr. President, Please Don't Push the Button...
Tillerson dials back rhetoric after Trump's North Korea 'fire and fury' threats
By Joshua Berlinger, Zachary Cohen and Angela Dewan, CNN
Updated 5:41 PM ET, Wed August 9, 2017
(CNN)US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has sought to allay fears of a military confrontation with North Korea after President Donald Trump warned he could unleash "fire and fury" on the pariah state.
Tillerson defended Trump's comments but said there was no sign that the threat level from North Korea had changed and that Americans should "sleep well at night."
His unscheduled remarks, on a flight out of the region early Wednesday, appeared designed to dial back the unprecedented rhetoric from Trump.
In comments that were significantly more incendiary than any made by US presidents in the past, Trump had appeared to threaten nuclear war with North Korea.
"North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen," Trump said on Tuesday at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Hours after Trump spoke, and apparently in response to military exercises by the US earlier in the week, Pyonyang warned that it would carry out preemptive military strikes against the US, including the Pacific territory of Guam.
In a report on state-run media, North Korea said it would "turn the US mainland into the theater of a nuclear war" at the first sign of an impending American attack.
Tillerson was at pains to stress that the US did not believe that the threat from North Korea had changed."Nothing that I have seen and nothing that I know of would indicate that the situation has dramatically changed in the last 24 hours," he said, adding that "Americans should sleep well at night."
But he also defended Trump's comments."I think what the President was doing was sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong Un would understand, because he doesn't seem to understand diplomatic language," Tillerson said.
Soon after he spoke, however, Trump touted US nuclear capabilities, potentially further escalating the standoff with Pyongyang. "My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before," Trump wrote on Twitter just before 8 a.m. ET from his golf resort in New Jersey.
But in a second tweet, he seemed to play down the idea that the US would need to use them any time soon. "Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!"
Threats from North Korea
KCNA, North Korea's state media, said that a strike on Guam would be aimed at the US military bases on the Pacific island.
Guam's governor, Eddie Baza Calvo, released a video address Wednesday, reassuring the island's residents that there was no escalated threat. Guam's Homeland Security Advisor George Charfauros told CNN that he remains confident of the island's defenses.
But North Korea warned in a separate KCNA report on Wednesday that it was looking beyond Guam and would hit the US mainland with preemptive strikes, with the use of nuclear weapons, should there be any sign the US planned to strike North Korea first.
"The US should (remember), however, that once there observed a sign of action for 'preventive war' from the US, the army of the DPRK will turn the US mainland into the theater of a nuclear war before the inviolable land of the DPRK turns into the one," the report said.
White House sends mixed messages
Critics have said the White house has sent conflicting messages on its stance on North Korea, and Trump's aggressive approach is at odds with Tillerson's more diplomatic stance.
The threat from North Korea's nuclear and missile programs has been a top foreign policy priority for Trump since taking office in January, but the dangers posed by North Korea have taken center stage since the country test-fired two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month.
The latest crisis intensified when reports emerged this week that US intelligence sources believed North Korea had developed the ability to miniaturize a nuclear warhead to fit top of a missile. Those reports appeared to prompt Trump's tirade from Bedminster Tuesday.
Republican Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Trump risked going too far.
"I take exception to the President's comments because you've got to be sure that you can do what you say you're going to do. In other words, the old walk softly but carry a big stick," McCain told KTAR radio in Arizona.
Democrats slammed Trump, saying his comments were "unhinged."
"President Trump is not helping the situation with his bombastic comments," California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said in a statement.
Tillerson has maintained that the US is open to dialogue with North Korea, if it promises to abandon its development of nuclear weapons.
But the US military has flexed its muscles by conducting joint military drills with Japan and South Korea and conducting show-of-force operations.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday warned against making aggravating remarks.
"China calls on the relevant sides to follow the broad direction of resolving the nuclear issue through political means, avoid remarks and actions that could aggravate conflicts and escalate tensions, and make a greater effort to return to the correct path of resolving the issue through dialogue and negotiations," it said in a statement.
China voted to move new sanctions against North Korea this week after the country test-fired two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month.
But Washington has pressed Beijing for more action on North Korea. China has leverage over the country as its biggest trading partner and main source of food and energy.
Pyongyang capabilities unchanged
Despite the threats little has changed in the assessment about Pyongyang's military capabilities and the chances of a US strike.
While US intelligence analysts have claimed that Pyongyang has produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead, it's not believed that the capability has been tested, according to the sources.
However, there's debate within the intelligence community that Pyongyang has the required skill and technology. The Washington Post, which was first to publish details, reported that it was the analysis of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
The threat from North Korea's nuclear and missile programs has been a top foreign policy priority for Trump since taking office in January, but the dangers posed by North Korea have taken center stage since the country was able to fire two intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Weapons experts say both of those missiles, designed to carry nuclear warheads, could theoretically reach the US mainland, based on the range of two recent missile tests.
North Korea observers have long maintained that a war between the US and North Korea is unlikely, largely for two reasons. The first being that both sides recognize how devastating another Korean War would be, the second being that the Kim regime, which values its survival above all else, knows it would lose.
Experts worry Trump's rhetoric could hurt the US by feeding North Korean insecurities and adding instability to an already tenuous situation.
"We have two inexperienced, impulsive presidents in control of these massive military machines," Joe Cirincione, president of Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation, told CNN on Monday.
"It's one thing to make a mistake intentionally, its another thing to stumble into a conflict ... either one -- Kim Jong Un or Donald Trump -- could miscalculate and let loose a war unlike anything we have seen since World War II."
CNN's Jim Sciutto, Barbara Starr, Elise Labott, Taehoon Lee, Will Ripley and Ryan Browne contributed to this report
English Common Law plus Admiralty Law creates “Equity Law"
~ A History Collage (source) ~
Legal/Law History of the USA, Inc. 1666-2017 by Anna von Reitz -- First Instruction Letter to Donald Trump
by Anna von Reitz, July 16th, 2017
[Scanned copy to be posted on the website--- letter to Trump, Mnuchin, Sessions, and Judges Thomas Hogan and Royce Lamberth dated July 17, 2017.]
Dear Mr. President and Mr. Secretaries and Honorable Judges:
We will quickly summarize how we arrived at the current situation so that you have the necessary background to comprehend our position. Please read on.
1666 – The Great Fire of London creates the occasion for the creation of individual public trusts as a means of seizing private property: The Cestui Que Vie Act of 1666.
Related The Sabbatean-Frankist Cult -- The Satanic Infiltration of the Western World
1702 – The British Crown and Dutch East India Company collude under Maritime Wagering Act. Living men are deemed to be “vessels” and insured. Their death/loss becomes a means of enrichment for the commercial corporations and the British Government.
1765 – The pollution of English Common Law with Admiralty Law to create “Equity Law” granting absolute power to the judiciary to seize upon and distribute private property comes to fruition in England under Lord Mansfield.
1776 – Partly in objection to this usurpation of power by the judicial functionaries, the American Colonists rebel.
1819 – The American states pass the Titles of Nobility Amendment to the original Constitution, putting teeth and penalties into earlier provisions effectively prohibiting members of the Bar Associations from holding public offices.
1822 – The then-Pope and then-British Monarch secretly collude to act in Breach of Trust against the Americans and sign the Secret Treaty of Verona.
1837 – The British Settlement Act sets aside public wastelands as “common wealth” and paupers are said to be settled upon this land, thus becoming wards of the state. This effectively prevents the lower classes from ever being landlords and provides a basis for claiming them as chattel property.
1858 – Benjamin Disraeli begins the push to enfranchise British laborers as properties belonging to the British Crown. They and their assets are seized upon in the process as collateral backing government debt. Their “voluntary” enslavement is used to fund the British Raj in India---though they are never told any of this.
1860 – Abraham Lincoln, a Bar Attorney, is elected President. He can serve only in the private office of President of the United States (Trading Company), not as President of the United States of America, as a result of the Titles of Nobility Amendment. He contrives to start the Civil War, which is never declared by Congress.
1863 – Lincoln succeeds in bankrupting the United States (Trading Company) and issues General Order 100, placing the Grand Army of the Republic in charge of the government. The entire “war” is an illegal commercial mercenary action resulting in a military dictatorship being established in the District of Columbia.
1865 – Lee surrenders his army to Grant at Appomattox, but no official peace treaty is ever signed. The Southern States are carved up into ten military districts and all the original states are improperly subsumed into the bankruptcy of the United States (Trading Company) by a process of assumpsit.
1868 – The Creditors of the United States (Trading Company) issue a look-alike, sound-alike corporate charter called the “Constitution of the United States of America”. This creates a commercial corporation merely calling itself the “United States of America” that then substituted itself for the actual government owed to the people and states of this country under The Constitution for the united States of America.
1868- 1875 -- This new “government” entity then forces the original unincorporated state governments to write new state constitutions and to assume new doing-business-as names in the form of: Wisconsin State, Connecticut State, and so on, while seizing upon the name of the original states and operating “Territorial franchises” for itself under their names: State of Wisconsin, State of Connecticut, and so on. All these semantic deceits are pulled off on the trusting public.
1907 – The 1868 version of The United States of America, Inc. is bankrupted. The land of the actual states and people is unlawfully seized upon by the creditors of The United States of America, Inc., as collateral backing its debts in bankruptcy. “Title” is taken to the land and the actual patents seized upon, with the Creditors receiving the equitable title and benefit.
1930-34 - A second corporation calling itself “the United States of America” is bankrupted. This time, FDR unlawfully converts the entire population of this country, re-interpreting our Trade Names on the land to be Foreign Situs Trusts operating in the international jurisdiction of the sea. This allows the Creditors of the bankrupt private, mostly foreign-owned “United States of America, Inc.” to seize upon the labor and other private property of Americans in gross Breach of Trust owed to us by the Popes and by the British Monarch. By this deliberate fraud, we are “presumed” to be commercial vessels belonging to the bankrupt United States of America, Inc., and by process of extortion and assumpsit, are forced to pay its debts.
We are also considered “missing, presumed lost at sea” and Cestui Que Vie Trusts are established by the Municipal United States in our names. These things are operated under deceptive account designations that appear to be our names: JOHN MICHAEL DOE, JANET ANN WILSON, and so on.
1953 - We finally pay off the 1907 bankruptcy of The United States of America, Inc., but instead of returning the land patents owed to the actual states and people, those responsible pretended not to know who the land belonged to, and rolled it all up in giant land trusts, which they continued to tax, lease, rent, and otherwise benefit from in our purported “absence”.
1999 – We finally pay off the 1933 bankruptcy of the United States of America, Inc., but instead of returning all the Cestui Que Vie ESTATE trust assets owed to the living people, Bill Clinton signs Executive Order #13037, stepping up the conscription process, and again, pretending that nobody knows who these accounts belong to, hoping to seize upon all our property including our names via a claim on abandonment.
2015 - President Obama puts the UNITED STATES, INC. and all its “Municipal Franchises” including the Cestui Que Vie ESTATES belonging to Americans into Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Liquidation. Almost as an afterthought, he puts the USA, Inc. into Chapter 11 Reorganization. This effectively bankrupts the entire world--- all the Municipal Government franchises dba CHINA, FRANCE, and LOUIS ALLAN FULFORD, all the Territorial Government franchises dba Germany, United Kingdom, and Lois Lillian Hardy.
2015 – Americans who have become aware of the fraud return to the land jurisdiction of their birth.
The unincorporated government of the actual states and people doing business as the United States of America revives itself. The new government issues new Sovereign Letters Patent for the states (November 4) and for the Indian Nations (November 6) and also issues an Express Trust --- The Declaration of Joint Sovereignty.
2017 – After extensive Due Process given to all the Principal Parties responsible, the liens against all the Municipal and Territorial government corporations and their franchises are completed and cured, including Agricultural Liens. January 6, 2017, a Private Registered Indemnity Bond covering all the actual states and people is lodged with the United States Treasury, and a Payment Bond is lodged with the Vatican Chancery Court.
Related Free Money? Utilizing YOUR Treasury Direct Accounts (Birth Certificate/Strawman Trust/Bond) -- Understanding the Law, Risks, and Potential Consequences
June 29, 2017: The American states and people represented by the unincorporated United States of America visit The United States District Court for the District of Columbia and claim back their property and assets as the Paramount Security Interest Holders and Priority Creditors of the bankrupt Territorial and Municipal Government corporations and their franchises worldwide.
That all brings us forward to the present moment. The One People’s Public Trust foreclosed on the Territorial and Municipal corporations, intending to create a gigantic global version of the Public Charitable Trust that they would then control. However, they are not the Creditors. We are.
We are the lawful owners of all that several generations of dishonest employees and middlemen have amassed--- and which they have hoped to claim as abandoned property.
The success of this scheme would have ended private property rights worldwide.
The Secondary Creditors had already set up a plan to discharge the debts of the Municipal franchises in bankruptcy via Treasury Direct Accounts.
This process avoids the fact that these debts are all odious hypothecated debts that the living people never owed in the first place. It also avoids the fact that the living people are the actual Paramount Security Interest Holders who have been defrauded in Breach of Trust, and instead mischaracterizes them as bankrupt “US citizens”.
As our included Public and Judicial Notice- Number 4 discloses, “citizenship” is a form of indentured servitude to the government of a country, and in the modern world, it must be voluntary, proven, and equitable or it becomes a form of peonage and enslavement outlawed worldwide since 1926.
We maintain that the incorporated foreign governmental service corporations operating under color of law and purposeful deceit on our shores since 1868 have effectively enslaved our population and brought insupportable claims against our land and our assets.
We maintain that we are not and have never been subjects of nor subject to bankruptcy proceedings related to these disreputable foreign corporations and that we are owed the actual constitution.
We maintain that the Municipal UNITED STATES and the Territorial USA practiced a form of genocide on paper against the American states and people which is forbidden by the Geneva Conventions and also practiced unlawful conversion of our assets, inland piracy, kidnapping, identity theft and human trafficking against a peaceful Third Party civilian population composed of their own employers and Priority Creditors.
These actions by the UNITED STATES and USA against the American states and people are by definition international crimes of employees against their employers.
We maintain that the bankruptcy of these foreign entities doing business as the UNITED STATES and USA on our shores has nothing legitimate to do with us or our property assets and that they exist in a jurisdiction that is now and always has been foreign and separate from us.
As the Paramount Creditors, we have stipulated to the court guidelines that must be met to establish proof of voluntary and equitable federal citizenship without which no presumption of citizenship accrues to anyone born on the soil of an American state.
In practical terms this means that there are two classes of people to be addressed by The United States District Court for the District of Columbia: (1) actual federal employees and dependents who are subject to the Municipal and Territorial bankruptcies and who are owed discharge of the debts of their respective franchises as part of the general bankruptcy, and (2) Americans who are likewise owed discharge of these bogus foreign debts via probate action, collapsing the Municipal Cestui Que Vie Trusts and Puerto Rican transmitting utility franchises and other Territorial franchises that have been created by federal corporations infringing on their Trade Names without their knowledge or consent.
So the actual federal employees are owed bankruptcy protection at the same time the American states and people, who are the Paramount Creditors throughout, are owed probate action wiping away debts accrued by secondary beneficiaries, and the return of their land patents and other property assets without further disloyalty, obfuscation, claim, or delay.
We direct the Treasury and The United States District Court for the District of Columbia to administratively reconfigure the Treasury Direct Accounts to recognize these two classes of people and the two necessary but separate processes (bankruptcy settlement on one hand, discharge through probate on the other) needed to clean up this mess.
Now and in the future, we require some sure and certain means to differentiate between federal citizens and the people of the American states. This can take the form of new identification credentials that will replace the use of State of State Driver Licenses, except for actual federal employees and proven actual dependents.
We have no ill-will toward our employees despite their incompetence and the destructive nature of their misbehavior and will not object to them seeking bankruptcy protection, however, we insist that our assets are not subject to their bankruptcy and must be removed from the Public Charitable Trust and returned together with the titles and land patents and other assets owed to the actual states and people.
Discharge of odious debts both in probate (for Americans) and in bankruptcy (for actual federal citizens) can commence immediately to bring relief to both the Creditors and the Debtors, subject to creating a record keeping process at the Treasury to identify members of the two separate populations and giving each their due.
It is apparent that the plot to create one giant all-controlling public trust for the entire globe has failed and private property rights have been restored and retained throughout the world impacted by these corporate bankruptcies.
The Paramount Security Interest Holders, the American states and people represented by the unincorporated United States of America, hereby willingly order the discharge of all similar odious debts owed to them by Municipal and Territorial franchises formed under the names of living people throughout the world. Read that--- we aren’t here to press claims of debt against little old ladies in Hungary or farmers in Zimbabwe or tradesmen in England who have been defrauded and conscripted and enfranchised just as we were under false pretenses and conditions of non-disclosure and deceit by their own respective governmental services corporation franchises.
Let it never be said that the Americans are ungenerous or dishonest, despite the mischaracterization and criminal misrepresentation we have received at the hands of our own employees and the Breach of Trust we have suffered at the hands of our own international Trustees for six generations.
The release of all these odious debts held against living people throughout the world in all those countries impacted can commence as soon as it can be expedited by the Treasury and IMF officials.
In the wake of this great debt restructuring and the enumeration and separation of the Creditors from the Debtors, we require that all the bankrupt bank franchises turn over their account records and prepare to negotiate terms with the actual asset holders which are for the most part private Historical Trusts. It is not our will to cause any disruption or to move assets in any destructive way, but we will have an accounting of those assets owed to the actual heirs and trustees and beneficiaries of these funds and we will have agreements with all the bankrupt commercial banks regarding access to these resources and these assets by the actual living owners for non-violent and philanthropic and purely personal purposes.
We also require a public accounting to be conducted throughout all sectors of the government that has been provided by the bankrupt governmental services corporations (state of, county of, and municipal entities) and their hired subcontracting agencies, beginning with the most recent Annual Financial Reports (APRs) of agencies and departments and public trusts in each state, the most recent Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFRs) of the State of State organizations.
Our credit may be accessed to pay for these services leading to an accurate public accounting for the first time since 1946.
As police in Hamburg step up security ahead of the visit of 20 state heads there may be another problem they are less prepared for.
One thousand grey zombies are walking the town.
The 1000 undead are part of a performance art piece titled: 1000 Gestalten (1000 figures) happening on the edges of the G20 summit that kicks off on July 7.
"The goal of our performance today is to move the people in their hearts, to give them the motivation to get politically engaged again. We want to create an image, because we believe in the power of images...we want to motivate people to take part. To free themselves from their crusted shells, to take part in the political process," one of the event organisers, Catalina Lopez told Reuters TV.
For some the shuffling, silent zombie walk is a welcome alternative to the violence-prone protests that traditionally accompany G20 meetings.
Passers-by praised the effectiveness of the mass sleep-walkers as an allegory for political apathy in current times.
After passing through the streets of Germany's northern port city the zombies will free themselves from their encrusted shells to represent a joyous awakening.
Myron Coureval Fagan (31 October 1887 - 12 May 1972) was an American writer, producer and director for film and theatre and a red scare figure in the late 1940s and 50s. Fagan was an ardent anti-communist.
Fagan arrived on Broadway in 1907, where he quickly became one of the youngest playwrights in American Theater. Over the years, he worked in the theater with, among others, Alla Nazimova, Douglas Fairbanks, and John Barrymore. He also directed plays for the producers such as Charles Frohman, David Belasco. Fagan also became the dramatic editor of the Associated Newspapers. Many of the actors including Humphrey Bogart, Brian Donlevy and Robert Ryan whom Fagan directed or who appeared in his plays or screen adaptions, later became stars in Hollywood.
In 1916 Fagan took a break from the theater to serve as Director of Public Relations for Republican Presidential candidate Charles Evans Hughes. When a similar offer was made in 1928 to him by Herbert Hoover he turned it down.
In 1929 the talking picture version of his play "The Great Power" earned the dubious record of being the shortest run of any movie at the Capitol Theatre, New York. It was replaced with a silent comedy film after only one performance.
He moved to Hollywood in 1930, where he served as a writer and director with Pathe Pictures, Inc., then owned by Joseph P. Kennedy, and also at 20th Century Fox, and other Hollywood Film Studios.
Anti-communism
In 1945, Fagan claimed he saw secret documents of the meetings in Yalta, shown to him by author John T. Flynn, that led him to write the plays Red Rainbow, and Thieves Paradise. Written in 1945, Red Rainbow portrays Roosevelt, Stalin and others in Yalta plotting to deliver the Balkans, Eastern Europe and Berlin to Stalin. Left-wing groups in the New York opposed the production of the play and Fagan had difficulties getting financial backing to produce it. Fagan took the play to Hollywood where he encountered even more protests against it than he had in New York.
In the late 1940s Fagan launched a one-man crusade against what he claimed was a "Red Conspiracy in Hollywood". Out of this crusade would come the Cinema Education Guild.
In 1953, Red Rainbow was produced by Bruce Fagan and staged for 16 performances at the Royal Theatre between 14 September and 26 September.
Written two years later, Thieves Paradise portrays the same group plotting to create the United Nations as a Communist front for one world government.
Despite opposition, Thieves Paradise opened at the Las Palmas Theatre in Hollywood on December 26, 1947. It starred Howard Johnson who was subject to a campaign of harassment so bitter and intense that it sent him to St. Vincent's Hospital with a nervous breakdown after six performances and never made another movie in Hollywood. Thieves Paradise was also produced and staged at the El Patio theatre in Hollywood in April, 1948. It opened on April 12, and, despite protest against it, was able to complete its run.
Pamphleteer
From this period onward Fagan did not produce any further work for stage or screen, instead he wrote anti-communist pamphlets, such as "Hollywood Reds are On the Run", and bulletins for the remainder of his life.
The Eleventh Report of the Senate Fact-Finding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities of the California Legislature said this of Fagan's anti-Communist lists,
But those who realized their mistake and left the front organizations in disgust and disillusionment are often still carried as subversives on the Fagan lists, and therein lies the danger from any unofficial organization that undertakes to publish lists of alleged subversive organizations and individuals. They do not have the facilities, nor the authority, nor the experience to handle these matters in an expert fashion and therefore they produce an enormous amount of harm by falsely accusing individuals who are not only loyal but who have profited greatly by their unfortunate experiences in having been lured into Communist-front groups.
Conspiracy
Between 1967 and 1968 Fagan recorded The Illuminati and the Council on Foreign Relations, three LP records documenting the activities of the house of Rothschild known as "The Illuminati" which were produced by Anthony J. Hilder.
