Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

Something/Someone Old
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My Something/Someone Old today is King Edward VIII.

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As more information about this man comes out, my opinion of him declines further. He apparently was not only a selfish, easily-manipulated, light-minded fool, but also had Nazi leanings (like many members of the British aristocracy, actually) and was arguably an actual traitor. I just watched the following show, which was more or less based on newly-declassified FBI documents from the 30s and 40s:

Now, let me say that this is a historical documentary in the new style, which combines some elements of real historical scholarship with some elements of the 1980s shows A Current Affair and Hard Copy. For instance, it continually repeats innuendo as fact, so you have to listen carefully to separate the wheat from the chaff. Remembering that J Edgar Hoover was in charge of all these investigations should make any American careful of relying on statements from FBI documents of that time that do not have a clear chain of evidence. For instance, the FBI has always seemed to like speculating about its targets' sex lives, and I'm not convinced that Wallis Simpson was sleeping with everybody they said she was. When the evidence looks like this, my eyebrows go up:

The exercise was launched after the FBI had been passed intelligence that the duke and duchess were being used by the Nazis to obtain secrets which could wreck the allies' war effort. The US investigation became even more lurid when FBI agents interviewed a Benedictine monk in a Franciscan monastery in the United States; Father Odo had once been the Duke of Wurttemberg, a minor German royal with connections to Queen Mary, the duke's mother, and her brother, the Duke of Athlone, then governor general of Canada.

Father Odo told the agent: "He knew definitely that von Ribbentrop [the Nazi foreign minister], while in England, sent the then Wallis Simpson 17 carnations every day. The 17 supposedly represented the number of times they had slept together."

To begin with, the idea that the FBI visited a Franciscan monastery where a German Benedictine was staying in order to get juicy details of Wallis Simpson's sex life is just surreal. But more than that, the story sounds implausible. If they were lovers, why did the number of liaisons stay at 17?
Did they sleep together and then stop? Is this an affair that was over and done? In which case, why do you care (more on that later)?

If the affair was over, then why did he keep sending her 17 flowers a day? Because he couldn't get over her? How does the Benedictine monk, former minor royalty, "know definitely" that they had sex 17 times? Did von Ribbentrop tell him so? If so, why isn't that information in the FBI document? When someone says they "know definitely" but don't say how, it immediately makes me suspicious. What if von Ribbentrop was just trying to butter her up so she could remain a useful source? More to the point, who cares?

The minister was already thought to have been supplied with information by the duchess during the German invasion of France in 1940. Now it was suggested that there was far closer arrangement.

So let me get this straight. They already knew that Simpson was passing information to the Nazis during the German invasion of France. This is leading up to Dunkirk, right? And somehow, Wallis Simpson having sex with this guy, or not, is more important than what the FBI already knew? I thought the whole point of finding out if someone is "sleeping with the enemy" was that a person might be likely to leak information to their lovers. If you already know that someone is passing information to the enemy while the enemy is advancing toward your home, what the hell do you care who sleeps with whom?

That said, there's some interesting data that has emerged as the work of a German historian, Karina Urbach. Urbach apparently dug through historical archives in several countries (not Britain, where the information is under lock and key), and found evidence that Edward, after abdication, was actually urging the Germans to bomb Britain into submission:

“In June 1940 Don Javier Bermejillo, a Spanish diplomat and old friend of Windsor – he had known him since the 1920s – reported a conversation he had had with the Duke to his superiors,” Urbach said.

The diplomat says he had heard the embittered duke blame “the Jews, the Reds and the Foreign Office” for the approaching war, long before it began.

In another conversation on June 25, 1940,” Urbach writes, “Bermejillo reported that Windsor stressed if one bombed England effectively this could bring peace."

“Bermejillo concluded that the Duke of Windsor seemed very much to hope that this would occur: ‘He wants peace at any price.’”

The report found its way into the hands of Spain’s own fascist dictator, General Franco, according to Urbach. It was “then passed on to the Germans.”

“The bombing of Britain started on 10 July,” she added

https://www.rt.com/uk/265951-nazi-sympathizer-king-uk/

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Sounds like Edward was a venomous little shit, with, shall we say, little concern for consequences, but I'll bet Hitler regretted taking the advice. It's shocking how little Edward understood his own people, though I'll admit it was touch and go, and without Churchill's leadership on the domestic front, the Blitz might have worked. Still, the idea that the British are likely to crumble under adversity is not particularly supported by evidence. They have cultural faults, for certain, but that's not one of them. If anything, they seem to get stronger when faced with adversity. Whether or not that strength is deployed in a beneficial direction is another matter, but custardy weaklings they are not.

Regardless, urging a country at war with your own to bomb your own country harder pretty much defines treason. If true, I'm not surprised the British put the information under lock and key; if they had not, they would have been placed in the embarrassing position of having to bring Edward back and execute him.

And ironically, by getting Edward infatuated with her, it's arguable that Wallis Simpson may have saved the nation of Britain from becoming a Nazi outpost. Funny old world, ain't it?

Something New
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My Something New this week is Hillary's new dossier:

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Hillary Clinton is in secret negotiations with Christopher Steele, the author of the infamous Russian dossier, to purchase a second report that allegedly contains salacious new charges against President Trump, according to several sources with personal knowledge of the transaction.

Apparently this time it's not about prostitutes pissing and whether or not such things could be used to blackmail Donald Trump, which to me sounds like saying you could make a rodeo clown look bad by putting a toilet seat around his neck. Anyway, that dossier has been discredited. So obviously the smart thing to do is to get a second such dossier from the same source.

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Is this how she always handles political challenges? I'm stunned that we made it through her tenure as Secretary of State. Just as it was a good thing Joe McCarthy was wrong about there being a Communist infiltration of the U.S. government, because if there had been he would have totally botched any investigation into it, having not the slightest clue how to actually identify either Communists or spies, it's a good thing that this Trump-is-controlled-by-Russia narrative is a lie, because if it were true, Hillary's investigations into the matter would totally obscure any actually significant information.

The second dossier will allegedly contain evidence that Trump had 'romantic involvements with Russian women' connected to the Kremlin's spy apparatus

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5056421/Hillary-Clinton-talks-bu...

Connected how? In the same way that Kevin Bacon is connected to Vladimir Putin?

Vladimir Putin has a Bacon number of 3.
Vladimir Putin
was in
Zima, ukhodi! (2012)
with
Gennady Gudkov
was in
Srok (2014)
with
Yoko Ono (I)
was in
Imagine New York (2003)
with
Kevin Bacon


https://oracleofbacon.org/movielinks.php

I bring this up not merely to point out its absurdity. The reports of Hillary's new dossier have led me to a serious decision.

Until or unless actual, significant new information comes out about Hillary or Bill or their political machine, I'm no longer going to talk about Hillary, Bill, or their political machine.

Why? Because she won't stop campaigning. As I said elsewhere this week, the media centrifuge keeps spinning faster and faster, whirling the poisonous solids of her campaign talking points into a fine paste while emitting an increasingly high-pitched whine. I want someone to turn down the volume on that noxious shit, and it's increasingly clear the only one who can do that is me. It won't get turned down by the media or by her, and there's apparently no one powerful enough to make her stop it--or, more likely, we haven't yet reached a critical mass of elites who are sick of her.

The only thing to do is to stop paying attention to it on my end.

I'm currently doing some political writing of my own, that I hope may eventually turn into something publishable, and I might write about the Clintons there (it could come up in my discussion of other things). But my time of blogging about them, and about her specifically, is done for the time being. All of you already know what I think of the Clinton/Bush political cartel; I've repeated my views of them often enough. I have to take time off from her poisonous crap. Giving her my attention now feels like feeding a troll.

Something Borrowed
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I'm a sucker for this song, and embedding the Doctor Who video above got it on my mind. So for my Something Borrowed today, a young fellow named Aldo Blaga doing a really smashing job of "Moonlight Serenade." This video is from five years ago. I wonder what he's doing now?

Here's another cover, in a more whimsical vein, by a young woman with a ukulele:

Something Blue
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My Something Blue today is the bluespotted ribbontail stingray of the Pacific.

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Found from the intertidal zone to a depth of 30 m (100 ft), this species is common throughout the tropical Indian and western Pacific Oceans in nearshore, coral reef-associated habitats. It is a fairly small ray, not exceeding 35 cm (14 in) in width, with a mostly smooth, oval pectoral fin disc, large protruding eyes, and a relatively short and thick tail with a deep fin fold underneath. It can be easily identified by its striking color pattern of many electric blue spots on a yellowish background, with a pair of blue stripes on the tail.

Its range is pretty extensive, from South Africa through the Mediterranean and the Indian ocean, all the way over to the Pacific Ocean. It is categorized as "near-threatened," so it's doing fairly well, all things considered, given that its preferred coral habitat is in deep trouble. Not sure you can see the blue edging along the continents which represent its range--I hope it comes through!

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One of the most abundant stingrays inhabiting Indo-Pacific reefs, the bluespotted ribbontail ray generally spends the day hidden alone inside caves or under coral ledges or other debris (including from shipwrecks), often with only its tail showing.[8][9][12] At night, small groups assemble and swim onto shallow sandy flats with the rising tide to feed. Unlike many other stingrays, this species seldom buries itself in sand.[13] The bluespotted ribbontail ray excavates sand pits in search of molluscs, polychaete worms, shrimps, crabs, and small benthic bony fishes; when prey is located, it is trapped by the body of the ray and maneuvered into the mouth with the disc. Other fishes, such as goatfish, frequently follow foraging rays, seeking food missed by the ray.[10][14]

Here's some cool footage of a bluespotted ribbontailed ray in the Red Sea. This was seven years ago:

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

On second glance, today's Open Thread seems to have quite the focus on assholes. If you need to, just scroll down and listen to those sweet young people singing Moonlight Serenade, and watch the bluespotted ribbontail sailing along in that fine way common to all stingrays.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Lookout's picture

I gave up on the $hill months ago. As I learned from years in the classroom, the most negative re-enforcement is to ignore them.

If only the citizenry knew of the Foundation pay-to-play corruption, they would tar and feather the Clintons.

I've become a Bill Binney fan. Mark from Queens suggested watching O. Stone's documentary about him on Netflix (A Good American)...and I was wowed.

Here he is with ex-CIA Ray McGovern in an 11 min interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1BZD6UX3wU

At least there are a few folks speaking out against the expansion and deception of the Empire.

Hope you all have a good day!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Lookout Oh, I haven't had any positive investment in her for years. If I still had any positive feelings about her, this would have ended them forever:

What I've come to realize is that she is a troll. I just didn't see it because it's on such a grand scale. She has the same effect on American political culture that a successful troll has on a website he's targeted.

Damn it! I just realized I should actually write an essay about that, because I haven't seen anybody else frame it that way. /facepalm I don't suppose there's any chance I could palm that task off on you?

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Lookout's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal @Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

I should have written, "I've given up on focusing one iota of attention on the $hill". And really I can also add the democratic party as well. They are both a waste of time and energy.

And I know you have no interest in her...

Let the female dog sleep.

[edit to add]
I agree with your comment below... they are today's heroes.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Lookout By the way, Bill Binney and Ray McGovern, like Snowden, are the closest thing we have to heroes now.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

enhydra lutris's picture

going today. I love the Kevin Bacon linkage (especially since it goes through Yoko). I bring the broader idea up often to friends and neighbors who buy that "linked to" shit myself.

The Windsor thing recalls McCarthy and Jedgar and their illogic and far-fetched accusations, but not more so than all the Russiagate shit and a lot of the anti-Berner crap. Also the Anti-Syria, and other propaganda efforts. Pointing out the lack of logic or meaningful evidence, however, is both tiresome and thankless, since it never seems to make a difference.

I really got a kick out of the Franciscan monk narrative, but the Spanish dude was better. In some private tirade/rant, Windsor opines that effective bombing of England would end the war. His audience takes it upon himself to decide that he thinks that Windsor want's this to happen and conveys this info to Franco who passes it to Hitler. Thus did Windsor traitoriously urge Hitler to bomb the UK? It sounds more like the Spaniards to take some rant and run with it.

At any rate, it was a great day for England. The battle of Britain went a long way to crippling the Lutwaffe, and I suspect that the results would have been different if the air war took place over the continent because of the effect of fuel limitations.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@enhydra lutris I am inclined to think Edward was the kind of person who wouldn't be particularly concerned about anything that didn't affect him or his nearest or dearest pretty directly, and I don't think he gave two shits about whether or not East London got bombed to smithereens. I also think he was petulantly irritated about the whole Wallis thing (imagine, during the early years of WWII, worrying about whether or not your honey was being curtseyed to and called Her Royal Highness, when it wasn't altogether clear that there would remain anything for her to be a Royal Highness of!) I think the Spanish guy is a lot more believable than the Father Odo nonsense (it illogically irritates me that Odo shares a name with one of my favorite fictional characters, from Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed). It seems fairly clear that Hitler was attempting to cultivate the pair of them as potential allies within Britain (not an illogical nor a particularly nefarious thing to do, certainly by his standards), and it probably suited him and his regime to believe that Edward had his finger on the pulse of the British people.

But then, I don't like Edward, and in fairness, I must admit that the Spanish guy is just as much hearsay as Father Odo. It's just a lot more plausible hearsay, supported (but not proven) by some related facts.

There are British aristocrats who liked Hitler (early on) that I have far more sympathy for than Edward, because I do understand that they were both terrified of a second World War and, some of them, actually wracked with guilt over the bullshit they and their country pulled at Versailles. They wanted to believe he was a strong leader who would lead Germany out of the economic and political abyss they (and France) had driven it into with that treaty, and they wanted to believe he was a decent guy that just wanted to be friends with Britain, if only the British leadership would be reasonable. That was a much more pleasant thing for them to believe than that their country's, and France's, past political mistakes had given rise to an autocratic madman and that on the horizon were horrors hitherto largely unimagined. Also there was plenty of anti-Semitism amongst the British aristocracy of the time to allow them to shove some of the early evidence of those horrors under their personal mental rugs.

Maybe "sympathy" is the wrong word. More like angry pity.

But Edward, and others like him--I doubt very much he was deeply concerned about the fate of his people. Looks to me like his people functioned in his life pretty much as an admiring mirror, and that's it.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

enhydra lutris's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
asshole and a Nazi or Nazi sympathizer, I just found the material presented to be unconvincing. As to Odo, just talking to him is silly: 1) Catholic (Edward is C of E and Simpson is an adulteress) 2) Kin who wound up with a minor Duchy instead of the British Throne, 3) German petty nobility in "exile" in the US, etc. But, that's the FBI for ya.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@enhydra lutris The Kevin Bacon thing was good, wasn't it? I think that website might provide some excellent rejoinders to the Clinton supporters who continually state that something or other is connected to Putin.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

enhydra lutris's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
Markos Moulitsas has a Bacon number of 2.

Markos Moulitsas
was in
W.T.F. (W., Thanks and Farewell): A Look Back at the Bush Years (2009) (TV)
with
Harry Shearer
was in
Live Earth (2007) (TV)
with
Kevin Bacon

Ergo, via Bacon, he has a Putin number of no more than 5

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@enhydra lutris I made much the same argument in a FP essay today!

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

enhydra lutris's picture

@enhydra lutris

Hillary Clinton
was in
The Final Days (2000)
with
Al Gore (I)
was in
Live Earth (2007) (TV)
with
Kevin Bacon

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

enhydra lutris's picture

@enhydra lutris
Hillary Clinton has a Vladimir Putin number of 1.

Hillary Clinton
was in
Uncivil War: Battle for America (2017)
with
Vladimir Putin

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

mhagle's picture

I enjoyed the essay and comments. History lessons for me and beautiful music and a cool stingray.

Open thread is the place to put off topic comments, yes?

So today, my son and I are cruising on Highway 31 in Texas. It is a pleasant easy going road. Entering the beauty of east Texas, so it is a lovely drive.

Several miles before we reach the Trinity River we see a speeding silver car followed by a local police car and a highway patrol car. I say "wow . . . I have never seen a high speed chase before."

As we keep driving we see law enforcement cars everywhere. We say "wow . . . look at all those cop cars."

Then, nearing the stoplight in Malakoff, TX where we are about to turn left, we get in the left turn lane and see a police car blocking the other lane. I consider turning into the gas station on the left when, zoom . . . the speeding silver car and a dozen law enforcement cars pass me on the left at 100 mph missing us by inches.

Shit. Terrifying.

Left me shaking.

I don't have anything profound to say about it, but I am glad I did not turn left as I was about to do.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

enhydra lutris's picture

@mhagle

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --