Dark Roasted Blend: Wonder Weapons of World War Two

 

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2009/04/wonder-weapons-of-world-war-two.html

The Second World War was a period of remarkable advances in technology and many new weapons were invented during this period, some of which entered production and actually saw service in the war, while others never left the drawing board.

Most of us are familiar with the secret weapons the Nazis had at their disposal in the last months of the war that were expected to turn the tide against the Allies. However, Germany had a reputation as a scientifically advanced nation well before the outbreak of hostilities in 1939. At the beginning of the war, the Germans had a significant advantage in many areas of military technology, although it lost the lead, for a variety of reasons, as the war progressed.

For the naval war, Germany built some submarines that could:
- stay submerged for an entire patrol
- used advanced sonar so they could target the enemy without raising the periscope
- were equipped with the first electric powered torpedoes which left no trail of bubbles to give away the sub’s position
- some even had stealth coating, rendering them invisible, when surfaced, to Allied planes using infra-red searchlights.

This was years ahead of its time, similar to the radar absorbing coating of modern stealth aircraft. Germany also developed synthetic fuel from coal, in order to lessen its dependence on imported oil for its petroleum needs. And very early in the war, German bombers operating at night used fixed radio transmitters, with receivers installed in the bombers, to very effectively navigate to their target areas. This system was the forerunner of GPS that we are familiar with today and for the first couple of years of the conflict at least, Allied air forces had no comparable system.

Thinking the war was already won, Hitler placed less emphasis on weapons development. Later, when the war turned against them, Germany turned to new, highly sophisticated weaponry in a desperate bid to turn the tide. These wonder weapons, or wunderwaffe, mostly reached the field of combat too late to make a difference, although some, like the V2 rockets, were deployed and were superior to anything possessed by the Allies at the time. Most of these weapons were very advanced for their era and with the exception of the gigantic tanks, were all developed by other counties in the subsequent decades. There are too many to cover in detail in this article, but here are some of the most fascinating ones.

WunderWaffe 1 - Vampire Vision

The Sturmgewehr 44 was the first ever assault rifle, similar to the modern M-16 and AK-47. The ZG 1229, also known by the code name Vampir, was an infra-red sight designed so that this rifle could be used by snipers at night. It was first used in combat in the last months of the war and weighed about five pounds, but was also connected to a thirty pound battery support pack, strapped to the soldier’s back.

WunderWaffe 2 - Shooting Around Corners

"The idea of weapons capable of proving aimed fire from around corners has always existed, and eventually materializes in the form of working pieces. One such device was "Der Gebone Lauf" ("The Curved Barrel"), created by the Germans in WWII, seen below fitted to an MP44 7.92 x 33 mm (7.92 Kurz) caliber assault rifle."

WunderWaffe 3 - Super-Heavy Tanks

German engineers worked on a number of designs for super-heavy tanks and the Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus was the heaviest model of which a working prototype was made during the war. This tank weighed in at around 180 tonnes and this ended up being its principal problem. No engine was powerful enough to allow the tank to achieve the desired speed of 20 km/h, with only 13km/h being reached and that under ideal conditions. It was also too heavy to cross bridges. However, because the tank stood relatively high off the ground, it could actually ford deep streams and for deeper rivers was able to go underwater and drive along the bottom. However, to do this it had to be partnered with another tank, which supplied the electrical power through a cable. Amazingly, a long snorkel, allowing the crossing tank to submerge to a depth of 45 feet, fed air to the submerged tank’s crew.

"Design studies found at Krupp showed a version of the Maus carrying a 305mm breech-loading mortar, named 'Bear', and a giant 1500-ton vehicle with a 800mm gun as main armament plus two 150mm guns in auxiliary turrets on the rear quarters. This vehicle, put forward by two engineers named Grote and Hacker, was planned to be powered by four U-boat diesel engines!"

WunderWaffe 4 - "The Walking Tank", the mine-clearing vehicle

One of the MinenRaumers - "In 1944, Krupp built a prototype of this super heavy mineclearing vehicle. The 130t vehicle was articulated in the centre, and was suspended on 2.7m diameter steel wheels. These were set on different track widths at front and rear, so as to sweep a wider path. Each section of the Raumer S was powered by a Maybach HL90 motor. It was captured at end of the war by the U.S Army."

WunderWaffe 5 - the world’s first cruise missile

The Fieseler Fi 103, more familiar as the V-1, from the German vergeltungswaffe or vengeance weapon, was the world’s first cruise missile. The V-1 was powered by jets and carried an 1875 lb warhead with a range of 125 miles, the first ones being launched at England on June 13, 1944, just after D Day. The missile was sometimes delivered in the air from bombers, but was mostly ground launched, with long ramps hidden in wooded terrain. However, these were clearly visible from the air, so were usually bombed very quickly, forcing the German army to use mobile ramps instead, which they moved around the Pas-de-Calais region of the French channel coast.

Despite its fearsome reputation, although nearly 9,250 V1’s were fired against London and other English towns and cities, fewer than 2,500 reached their target, the others being destroyed by anti-aircraft fire, fighters, and even barrage balloons. However, V1 firing continued, at Antwerp and other cities on the European mainland as well as against England, until Allied forces finally captured the launch areas in late March 1945.

WunderWaffe 6 - the original long-range ballistic missile

The V1’s successor, perhaps a little predictably known as the V-2, was the original long-range ballistic missile and the first man-made object to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight. With a range of 200 miles and a 2150lb warhead, the V2 also traveled at 2500 mph, so it was impossible to intercept and hit its target from above faster than the speed of sound. There was no advance warning and although the V2 was far from accurate, it caused mass terror and panic when used against civilians. The rockets were also fired from mobile launchers, which were difficult to locate either before or after they were fired. Over 3000 V2’s were fired against the Allies, killing over 7000 people, both military and civilian, and the rocket threat was only finally ended when the German army was forced to retreat beyond the launch range.

The V2 was very expensive to produce, inaccurate and only carried a small warhead, but had the Germans had more time to develop it, the war might have taken a very different course. They may have been able to attach a nuclear warhead, and were working on using biological and chemical weapons in the rocket program. By the last days of the war, Germany had supplies of the nerve agents sarin, tabun and soman, but had never used them.

A rocket launching platform towed behind a submarine, intended for use against the North American continent, was successfully tested and scientists were also supposedly at work on the V9 rocket. This version would actually have a pilot, who was to bail out at the last minute with a parachute and be rescued at sea by a submarine. The V9 was to be armed with a one ton warhead, and be able to reach the US from Europe in just thirty five minutes.

At the end of the war, American, British or Soviet forces captured many German weapons, undeveloped projects and blueprints, plus the scientists who worked on them. Rocket scientists in particular played a large role in the space race and were instrumental helping the United States achieve the moon landing in 1969.

WunderWaffe 7 - the rocket-powered fighter plane

With aircraft, some of the German designs not only made it off the drawing board, but also flew in combat, although often not in sufficient numbers to alter the course of the war in Germany’s favour. The Messerschmitt Me 163 was the only operational rocket-powered fighter plane of the war, but although it was very advanced it performed poorly in combat and downed limited numbers of Allied aircraft.

The first turbojet fighter aircraft, the Messerschmitt Me 262, first appeared in the skies over Europe in 1944. Although arriving too late to seriously impact the course of the conflict, the Me 262 still claimed over 500 Allied aircraft, losing around 100 Me 262s in the process.

Intended to be the successor of the Me 262, the Focke-Wulf Ta-183 fighter jet had only been tested in wind tunnels by the end of the war, although the plane’s basic design was developed in Argentina after 1945. Is thought that the Soviet MiG-15 was based on captured German plans, and the two planes do bear some resemblance, although Russian historians reject these theories.

The Bachem Ba 349 was an experimental rocket-powered interceptor. With a vertical take off rather than using vulnerable airfields, it was intended to operate like an unmanned missile. Most of its journey to reach enemy bombers was radio controlled by ground personnel, although it did have a pilot, who would aim at the target and fire its rockets when close enough. However, the test pilot was killed in the plane’s first and last test flight in March 1945.

The DFS 346 was a high-speed, rocket powered research aircraft. The prototype, unfinished at the time of the German surrender, was apparently rebuilt and underwent successful test flights in the Soviet Union a few years later.

The Heinkel He 162 was a single engine jet fighter. It was made mostly of wood, since by this stage of the war, metals for aircraft manufacture were becoming scarce, but the He 162 was the fastest of the early jets. Henschel’s Hs 132, an interceptor aircraft and dive-bomber, never flew in active combat.

The Arado 234, the world’s original jet bomber, was very advanced for its time. It was equipped with automatic pilot, an ejector seat, pilot-aimed rear guns, and powered by twin jet engines, it proved far too fast for Allied planes to intercept.

WunderWaffe 8 - a sub-orbital bomber

Silbervogel, which translates as Silverbird, was a rocket powered sub-orbital bomber, which was tested in wind tunnels, but never actually produced. However, it was a forerunner of future winged space vehicles such as the Space Shuttle.

Scientists believed that the Silbervogel would be able to cross the Atlantic carrying an 8,800 lb bomb to the continental USA, and then land in territory held by Japan in the Pacific. It would cover such a vast distance in a series of hops. After reaching 1200 mph with the help of a rocket-powered sled on a two mile rail track, the Silverbird’s rocket engines kicked in once it was airborne. Eventually flying at ninety miles and at a speed of almost 14,000 mph, it would slowly fall into the stratosphere and greater air density would give it a bounce to regain altitude. The size of the bounce would decrease each time, but German technicians still figured the Silverbird was very capable of making a mind-boggling trip of between 12000 and15000 miles.

WunderWaffe 9 - the flying-wing bomber

The Horten Ho-IX was a flying wing fighter/bomber, the prototype being developed in the latter part of the war.

The earliest military helicopters were built by Germany and mainly saw service in the Mediterranean, but a few were also used in the Aegean and Baltic theatres. Both the Flettner 282 and the Focke Achgelis 223 (shown here) were never built in large numbers as a result of the production facilities being destroyed by Allied bombers.

WunderWaffe 10 - the Wind Cannon & the Vortex Gun

Some of the more bizarre inventions and ideas developed by German scientists were
- the sun cannon
- the vortex gun
- the sound cannon
- and the wind cannon.

The sun cannon had a big sun-reflector intended for use against enemy aircraft. The Americans captured an experimental model of the cannon in 1945, but its unknown whether any tests were done after the war - more info

The vortex gun was designed to try and take advantage of the known fact that air turbulence could bring down large aircraft and break them into pieces. The vortex gun’s shells, containing coal-dust and a slow-burning explosive in the center, were supposed to create an artificial whirlwind or tornado, which would make enemy airplanes lose control and thus fall from the sky. During testing and under near perfect conditions this odd device seemed to work quite well. It wasn’t known if the air pressure would actually cause structural failure in a plane, but the pressure it put on the wings would probably be very high and that might be enough to down the aircraft. Fortunately for the Allies, the vortex gun was never put into practice.

The wind cannon was designed to shoot a powerful jet of compressed air, as effective as a small shell, against enemy aircraft. As you can see from this picture it was an odd looking device. In tests, such a blast could break a 25mm wooden board from over 600 feet away. However, the potential effect on a fast moving aircraft would obviously be very different than against a fixed target, so as intriguing as the wind cannon was, it was unlikely to have produced the desired results. Even so, a cannon was set up on at one on the Elbe bridges in the closing stages of the war, but didn’t succeed in bringing down any hostile planes.

The sound cannon was supposed to turn explosions of oxygen and methane into noise that could kill. A very high amplitude sound beam would be emitted at pressures exceeding 1000 milibars from a distance of around 150 feet, which would be fatal to a human exposed to it for thirty seconds. At a greater distance, a soldier would still suffer great pain and be seriously incapacitated for a considerable time afterwards. The sound weapon wasn’t used in combat or tested on people but it is thought that lab animals may have been used. Another acoustic device, which was said to resemble a large cannon, supposedly sent out a sonic boom shock wave with enough force to bring down a large bomber.

All of these "wonder weapons" are confirmed fact; if you'd like to chek out various myths (including Nazi UFO Flying Saucer program), then there are plenty of sites to help you along. In our future articles we will touch on fantastic "secret" weapons of the Communist block and, pehaps, some spy technology.

Now listening to Back To The Future II by Alan Silvestri and Scarface by various artists...

 

Danae by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1636.

 

Рикэ-хохолок (1985)

 

Год производства: 1985

Кукольный мультипликационный фильм по мотивам сказки Шарля Перро. О всепобеждающей силе любви, которая превратила безобразного принца Рикэ в красавца, а глупую, но красивую принцессу - в самую умную женщину на свете. «…Все, что мы с вами полюбили, для нас прекрасно и умно».

Empire Granville 7 Cinemas in Vancouver, CA - Cinema Treasures

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/21748

This is the last bastion of glory on Vancouver’s Theatre Row. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, there were a minimum of 20 movie theatres along several blocks of Granville Street. Now, in 2007, there is only one left. It is appropriately named the Granville. It was Cineplex Odeon’s mid-1980’s seven screen showpiece that was built to replace the Coronet Twin and the Odeon. (The latter is now the Plaza nightclub.) It was opened on June 19, 1987.

In 2006 it became a discount theatre. It showed second run films and artsy/obscure fare. It was still a very beautiful theatre and well worth a trip downtown. It closed on November 4, 2012.

 

Honest Trailers - Taken

 

America's about to get Taken for the third time! So revisit the first two Takenings, which prove that Liam Neeson should pretty much stay out of Europe.

JAWS 3-D - Composed and Conducted by ALAN PARKER

http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.9653/.f

For this latest edition in the Intrada Special Collection, Intrada has revisited an earlier Special Collection release — Alan Parker's score to Jaws 3-D — and remixed and reassembled the entire score for this 2-CD set. Although Jaws 3-D was Alan Parker's his first feature film assignment, he delivered an exciting and sometimes even romantic score, being the first Jaws score to feature a love theme. It is a rousing mixture of his own original material and the world-famous John Williams theme. Like Williams’ Jaws 2, it frequently takes a high-spirited approach, emphasizing the fun nature of the Sea World setting, with the main title featuring both the shark theme and a rousing motif for the water-skiers. Parker put his own stamp on the film’s shark music:

“While the main motif is exactly the same as John Williams’ [basses and cellos], I did a different horn thing for my own shark theme that would have a slight edge to it. There are two Great Whites here, a mother and a baby. So I wanted the score to differentiate their identities and level of threat. While their motif is the same, the baby has a lighter presence with two horns, woodwinds and strings. And when the mother comes in, she’s scored with six horns and intelthe entire trombone section. It’s music that has more ‘weight.’ It’s the difference between saying that one shark isn’t too bad and then suddenly hitting the audience between the eyes with something bigger and nastier.”

Parker composed and conducted enough music for two pictures. He made numerous rewrites and often recorded two different versions of his cues, recording one version at a given session, then making significant changes that altered not only the timing but the tone and intensity of the cue involved and recording the new version during another session. In the final cut, almost all of Parker’s cues are truncated, with a large portion of them being used in places for which they were not originally intended. For this release Intrada was provided with all the original 1” eight-channel scoring session masters of every cue; the ½” 15 ips Dolby A-encoded three-channel stereo mixes of all of the rewrites, overlays, stingers and other short bits; and the ¼” 15 ips Dolby A-encoded two-track stereo mixes of the source cues—everything that was recorded in London between late April and mid-June of 1983.

The film takes place in a brand new water park, where chief engineer Michael Brody is expecting a visit from his younger brother Sean, who is still terrified of the water after the shark attacks that haunted his childhood. As a series of mysterious deaths and disappearances plagues the park, Brody and his girlfriend, marine biologist Kay Morgan, discover another visitor—a small Great White shark. Kay tries and fails to keep the shark alive in captivity, but soon the cause of the deaths becomes apparent—the shark’s full-size mother, who is stalking the park’s lagoons.

 

Just finished watching Gemini Man (2019) and Jupiter Ascending (2015)...

 

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together Review - GameRevolution

 

https://www.gamerevolution.com/review/50232-tactics-ogre-let-us-cling-together-review

I want you all to take a moment to remember and pay your respects to the one and only Freddie Mercury. The Queen mastermind was many things: an unparalleled showman, an incredible singer, flamboyantly gay, a living legend, and surprisingly shy off stage. Freddie was one of the greatest rock stars of all time, and he gave us so much to enjoy as his legacy.

Now, the younger and/or less experienced of you out there are no doubt wondering why the hell I’m kicking off an RPG review with prattle about a dead musician, no matter how brilliant or talented he may be. Meanwhile, the Ogre fans who’ve been around the block are nodding along in understanding (and appreciation, I hope) – because the Ogre Battle series is, indirectly, part of Freddie’s legacy. I doubt Freddie ever considered that his music would be the inspiration for a young Japanese video game designer, but fate works in mysterious ways. Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, like Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen before it, draws its name from quirky Queen song titles, despite the game itself having nothing else in common with the band.

It was over 15 years ago that Tactics Ogre was first released, and back then it was a feisty little upstart in the RPG world; it introduced plenty of revolutionary concepts and put the Tactics RPG on the map, paving the way for future fan favorites like FF Tactics and Disgaea. But a lot of time has passed since then, and Square had their work cut out for them to make the PSP remake seem fresh and not the old granddaddy of the genre.

And they’ve succeeded, for the most part. The story has been updated and given a brand new translation – a far more sophisticated script for a more sophisticated era. In fact, some might even consider it too sophisticated; the dialogue, for all its richness and depth, may come across as verbose to the point of distraction. Don’t get me wrong – this may be the most intricate and lovingly crafted translation I’ve ever seen of a Japanese title – but I fear that gamers who aren’t students of literature may lose interest in the overall story because it’s so damn dense.

The war-torn continent of Valeria has innumerable factions and characters jockeying for power: The Walister, Galgastani, and Bakram are the three social castes fighting for control, all while juggling political alliances, truces, and hostilities with neighbors like Xenobia and the Holy Lodis Empire. If that sounded like a mouthful, it only gets more and more complex when you actually play the game, and you’ll inevitably be overwhelmed at first when bombarded with the many characters who form the major players of all these factions.

So you’d do well to visit the Warren Report often, which is a nice handy reference for keeping track of those said characters and factions. It takes hours just to get acquainted with the Tactics Ogre world, and for some (I’m looking at you, Halo fanboys), that may be too much to ask from a video game before the story really gets rolling. If you’re willing to put in the time, though, very few game universes rival the depth and intrigue of this one.

For now, all you need to know is that Denam, his sister Catiua, and longtime friend Vyce have lost their families to the war, and meet secretly to conspire for their revenge on the enemies responsible and free their native Walisters from Bakram and Galgastani oppression. As you’d no doubt expect, plenty of allies, enemies, treachery, loyalty, victories, and defeat line the long road to justice. If there’s one constant in epic storytelling, it’s the “unexpected” plot twist.

That road, however, doesn’t just have twists and turns – the original Tactics Ogre innovated by throwing forks in there too. The remake of course keeps these branching storylines intact, and it’s as interesting as ever to see where your particular choices land you. Each weighty decision you make will throw Denam and his party in remarkably different situations down the road. Characters may live or die, people may or may not betray you, and some new battles may pop up while others never occur. If you and a friend each play the game, it’s a fun side activity just to ask each other what happened in your respective games – you’d be surprised how differently one playthrough ends up from another.

Luckily, Square made a great addition with the Wheel of Fortune. While this feature won’t win you a new car or a trip to the Bahamas, it does something even better: allow you to change your fate. Certain major events in the story are referred to as “anchor points”, and the Wheel of Fortune gives you the option of turning back time to that point in the game, allowing you to make different choices and see other branches of the story without starting from scratch. Remember how awesome it was when you were a kid to read those "choose your own adventure” books and flip through all the different pages to see the outcomes? That’s sort of like what the Wheel of Fortune does for this game.

The battles on the typical isometric grids are characteristically engaging and can be pretty tough without the proper preparation. It’ll be instantly familiar to a Tactics RPG veteran: move your characters around, taking one action per turn (attacking, healing, using items, activating special abilities that cost TP, etc.) and trying to eliminate the enemy force or often just the leader. A smaller version of the Wheel of Fortune, called the Chariot Tarot, allows you to go back up to 50 turns in battle any time you want to correct your missteps. A purist would refrain from using this feature, and the game keeps track of battles you won using it as opposed to the victories that were legit.

Even the shorter battles in the game are pretty damn long (at least half an hour each, some much more) which makes Tactics Ogre less suited to quick sessions. You’ll sink as much time into organizing your army between battles as you will fighting with them. There’s the usual staggering level of customization involved with a Tactics game – you can change any character’s class and equipment outside of combat, teach them magic spells, or learn new abilities and assign them to the limited number of ability slots. One nice gameplay tweak to this version is that characters don’t have individual levels, only the classes do. So if you leveled a knight up to 10, any character that switched to the knight class would be 10. Conversely, if you never leveled any wizards, switching that same level 10 knight to a wizard would drop his level to 1.

The graphics and presentation are a real mixed bag. Virtually nothing has been done to change the fuzzy sprites and backgrounds of yesteryear, still looking like they belong on a Super Famicom. On the other hand, the detailed character artwork and maps outside of combat are gorgeous, although not in a technically impressive way. The soundtrack was and still is one of Tactics Ogre’s strong points, beating plenty of modern games and their cacophony of loud noises today.

In the end, Tactics Ogre doesn’t change the fact that the Tactics RPG is a niche genre, putting some people off while the fans ravenously eat it up. If you’re into Tactics, this game is definitely one of the best. It takes more than a fair amount of commitment on the player’s part to get absorbed into the intricate, many-layered story and environment, but if you do, you won’t be disappointed.

Now if they would only come out with a sequel to Ogre Battle 64, I could die happy.

On St. Georges Avenue in North Vancouver. Summer of 2019.

 

Back to the Future Part 2 (3/12) Movie CLIP - Hover Board Chase (1989) HD

 

Marty (Michael J. Fox) borrows a hover board to escape Griff's (Thomas F. Wilson) gang, but loses momentum over a pond.

Things have barely settled from the excitement and resolve of the original Back to the Future, when in pops that crazy inventor Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) with news that in order to prevent a series of events that could ruin the McFly name for posterity, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox ) and his girlfriend are whisked into the future to the year 2015, where Marty must tangle with a teen rogue named Griff, who's obviously the descendant of Biff, the first Future film's bully. Marty foils Griff and his group when he jumps on an air-foil skateboard that flies him through town at rakish speeds with the loser bullies beaten again. Marty gets a money-making brainstorm before hopping in the time-traveling DeLorean, and he purchases a sports almanac. He figures that back in 1985 he'll be able to place sure-fire bets using the published sports scores of the games that are yet to happen. Unfortunately for Marty, Dr. Brown disapproves of his betting scheme — he feels too much messing with time is very dangerous — and he tosses the almanac. A hidden Biff overhears the discussion about the almanac, sees it get tossed out, and grabs it. Thus begins a time-traveling swirl to make the head spin. Biff swipes the DeLorean, heads back to 1955, and with the help of the unerring almanac, bets his way to power. The now-altered "Biff world" has turned into a nightmarish scene with Biff the mogul, residing in a Vegas-styled pleasure palace and running everything. It's all our hero Marty can do to pull the pieces together this time, as he must jump between three generations of intertwined time travel. The end of Back to the Future, Part 2 introduces its sequel as the zany professor has already time-dashed away to the Wild West of the late 1800s and invites Marty into a new adventure.

Ronald Reagan Paved the Way for Donald Trump

 

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/12/showtime-reagans-ronald-nancy-trump

A new Showtime docuseries reminds us of just how awful Ronald Reagan was and how his brand of demagogic racism became a model for Trump.

Watching the four-part Showtime docuseries, The Reagans, is an interesting form of leftist self-punishment for all you masochists out there. You may be familiar with most of the Ron and Nancy horror show laid out here in traditional documentary form through lavish photos, clips, and talking-head interviews.

Memories, how they linger — from calling in the National Guard on peaceful student protesters in Berkeley as governor to breaking the Air Traffic Controllers’ strike as president, to forcing disastrous tax cuts, massive military escalation, corporate deregulation, and “trickle-down economics” upon us. There’s even the story about how Reagan got the idea for the delusional and costly “Star Wars” missile defense system from a ray gun he carried in one of his old B movies — it’s all here!

But some of the details that you probably forgot — or maybe never knew — will make you groan aloud in pain that this man was unleashed upon the country at such a pivotal moment. And that his legacy, sadly, is seen everywhere today.

You doubtlessly recall Reagan’s notorious attempt to undermine support for the welfare program while president — the fantasy of black “welfare queens” rolling up in Cadillacs to collect their checks. But have you ever heard Reagan’s racist talk about life in California in the 1960s, such as the city streets that become “jungle paths after dark”? That’s the kind of racist dog whistle Reagan first used to get himself elected governor of California in 1966, defeating beloved two-term progressive Democratic governor Pat Brown.

The material covered in the second hour-long episode of the series, titled “The Right Turn,” is the most important in the series, according to director Matt Tyrnauer in a recent interview with Jacobin. It covers Reagan’s early political career, backed by a powerful consortium of California millionaires who raised the money for his gubernatorial campaign “over lunch,” after Reagan’s turn from a New Deal Democrat to a rigidly conservative Goldwater Republican made him their perfect candidate. This early era of Reagan’s political career is less well known to mainstream America. Thankfully, the docuseries is helping to change that, exposing Reagan’s aggressive use of “institutional racism” to win over white voters frightened of civil rights gains and the newly proposed fair housing laws.

Tyrnauer says that if he’d had to make only a one-hour documentary on the Reagans, instead of the four-hour series commissioned by Showtime, he’d choose this episode for the way it draws a straight line between Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump for those who would deny the connection:

How is it possible that even never-Trump Republicans can still say Ronald Reagan is their hero? He practiced the same kind of demagogic racism [as Trump]!

The refusal to recognize the similarities between Trump and Reagan is characteristic of centrist Democrats as well, who consistently represent Trump as a horrifying anomaly instead of a fairly standard Republican when it comes to policy. As a result of the attitude that Trump is a monster the like of which we’ve never seen before, there’s been a bizarre whitewashing of George W. Bush’s heinous reputation. Now, pre-Trump Republican presidents are suddenly regarded as fine, statesmanlike, “decent men” by comparison.

“I like to quote Gore Vidal, who said ‘We live in the United States of Amnesia,’” as Tyrnauer puts it.

To Tyrnauer’s chagrin, some American film reviewers are failing to connect those dots between Reagan and Trump, however strongly they’re emphasized in the docuseries. The obvious indicators include Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign motto, “Let’s Make American Great Again,” which made an abbreviated reappearance on millions of pro-Trump MAGA hats.

Like Trump, Reagan’s landslide victory in 1980 came as a shock to most liberals. His entire career, as Tyrnauer puts it, seemed to “rise invisibly through the 1960s.” Just as liberals mocked Reagan for being a “middling washed-up ex-actor” in 1980, Trump, too, was dismissed at first as nothing more than a vulgar TV star. The same Dr Anthony Fauci who tried and failed to reason with Trump about the urgency of the COVID-19 epidemic once tried and failed, as a much younger man, to reason with Reagan about the urgency of the AIDS epidemic.

It’s ironic, Tyrnauer says, that the primary complaint about the docuseries is that when it comes to the Reagans, we’ve simply seen it all before: “Because you haven’t.”

In fact, much of the footage in The Reagans has been seen rarely or never. In the crucial second episode, for example, we see Nancy Reagan being interviewed in her new post as First Lady of California. She relentlessly complains on camera about the supposedly unlivable governor’s mansion — complaints she would repeat when she got to the White House and began angling for expensive remodeling of the private rooms. That documentary video was only shown once, and was sufficiently unflattering that Nancy Reagan asked to have it destroyed.

Tyrnauer begins and ends the series with Reagan’s claim, “If you’re not a good actor, you can’t be a good president.” At the start, from behind the scenes, we’re shown Reagan delivering a presidential speech for the cameras, holding a dignified pose and never fluffing a line. This kind of image construction seems very familiar by now, but for Tyrnauer it’s still an urgent issue, because of a tendency in the general public to watch political performances uncritically. “People need to be grabbed by the lapels and shaken: ‘You’re not looking at reality!’”

And indeed, Reagan was notoriously as far from reality as he could get. There was so much filmed evidence of Reagan’s confusion with fantasy role play versus reality that Tyrnauer had to pick and choose among countless examples. As the late Michael Rogin laid out in pitiless detail in Ronald Reagan, the Movie, Reagan consistently confused his reel life with his real life in a way that dangerously determined presidential policy.

It was a syndrome that began early in life, as the docuseries demonstrates, and was shared by Nancy, a fellow actor who was also scarred by an unhappy childhood. Unable to deal with his own precarious youth, with a failed traveling salesman and alcoholic for a father, Reagan cast himself early in the role of hero in a fantasy life he made as real as he possibly could every day.

The closest Reagan could come to grappling with the harshness of his early life was recalling that, at an impossibly young age, he once dragged his dead-drunk father out of the snow, where he would’ve frozen to death, up many steps into the family home. It was like a heroic scene out of a nineteenth-century melodrama about demon rum, and Reagan’s son Ron Jr admitted it could never have happened as described because “I saw the steps.”

Reagan played football, badly, because he felt it was a heroic sport, but then got to play the title role in Knute Rockne – All American and quote “the Gipper’s” lines from it for the rest of his life. Asked by a reporter what his dog’s name was, Reagan answered, “Lassie,” the name of the most famous dog star in Hollywood history. His dog’s name was actually Millie. Perhaps most notoriously, Reagan couldn’t seem to remember that he wasn’t allowed to go into combat in World War II because of his terrible eyesight — a perfectly honorable reason to spend the war “fighting the battle of Culver City” under the command of Jack Warner, making propaganda films for the war effort.

But he couldn’t live with that idea of himself, not when fellow actors like Jimmy Stewart went off to fight and became real war heroes. Instead, Reagan told anecdotes about battles that were actually from war movies he’d starred in and made absurd claims about how much combat had changed him.

During the 1950s, when Reagan became General Electric’s television spokesperson, he and Nancy were given a gadget-packed GE home and filmed in extensive advertisements as idealized Ward and June Cleaver parents raising their perfect children in a perfect house. The reality was quite different in ways they couldn’t hide so easily in the White House, though Ron and Nancy did their best to “stick to the script.” Daughter Patti and son Ron Jr became liberal Democrats and outspoken critics of their parents’ policies.

In this regard, Tyrnauer said that of all the material he might’ve included on Reagan and regretted he didn’t have room for in the series running time,

I’d probably have most liked to include a section about the relationship between Ronald Reagan and Walt Disney, who were highly conscious of one another as figures representing the same values. Reagan carried them from movies into politics while Disney carried them from movies into a mass media empire and experiments in social engineering.

Both men were old-fashioned, rock-ribbed Republicans — pro-business, anti-union, hysterical about the “threat of communism,” desperate to overcome miserable, impoverished working-class childhoods by inventing a society designed around a sanitized fantasy of a white suburban family life that they themselves never experienced. Reagan was even chosen for the emcee team hired to drum up enthusiasm for the opening day of Disneyland in 1955, with its sentimental vision of an America that never existed outside of popular fiction, the first of nearly a dozen such Disney theme parks now spread around the globe.

Though it might seem as if the premiere of The Reagans shortly after the election indicates that Showtime intended it to be received as a commentary on it, Tyrnauer says the initial release was actually scheduled for next year. Instead, “a hole in the schedule created by the pandemic” led to the earlier release. According to Tyrnauer, several of his friends said, “Don’t you wish it had aired two weeks before, so you could persuade people?”

Though persuading people to vote for Joe Biden can hardly be seen as saving us from Reagan’s legacy.

Tyrnauer’s docuseries is a visceral reminder that America has always been — and likely will always be — fertile ground for reactionary showmen like Trump and Reagan. Both were celebrities savvy enough to recognize the gap between the American middle-class dream on TV and the dashed dreams of those same people struggling for their slice of the pie in reality. And once in the White House, both presidents did everything they could to redistribute wealth upward, further enshrining a ruling class deeper in the halls of power even as they made the working man the hero of their political vision.

And with the further retreat of a political left in America, and widening inequality since the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s only a matter of time before the next Gipper takes the stage. God help us all.

Georgy Sviridov - Time, Forward! (Full Album)

 

Georgy Sviridov - Time, Forward! (1965 soundtrack)

01. 00:00 The Urals Tune
02. 04:04 Chastushka
03. 05:03 March
04. 08:50 Little Foxtrot
05. 11:15 Night
06. 15:39 Time, Forward!

Maidan's Tragic Aftermath: Ukraine Slides Into 'Staggering' Poverty

 

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201601211033478838-ukraine-economy-poverty-inflation/

Two years after the US-backed Maidan revolution, Ukraine is worse off than it was before – the country is sliding into poverty, Germany's daily newspaper Junge Welt reported, describing the life of ordinary Ukrainians as "staggering."

"Since the end of the Yanukovych era, the average income has decreased by 50 percent," the media outlet noted.

In addition, consumers in Ukraine have lost half of their purchasing power. Inflation reached 25 percent in 2014 and spiked to 44 percent last year, according to the data released by Ukraine's Central Bank in late December.

Last October, the World Bank updated its forecast for Ukraine, saying that the country's GDP was expected to contract by 12 percent in 2015, instead of a projected 7.5 percent decline.

The average pension in Ukraine is 80 euros, Junge Welt noted. Those pensioners, who continued to work, received 15 percent less last year. It is not surprising then that in these conditions "more and more" Ukrainians rely on food grown in dacha gardens, which belong to them or their relatives.

Ukraine's dire economic state has had a negative impact on the president's popularity. Earlier this month, Ukrainian TV Channel Novin 24 reported that approximately 17 percent of respondents supported Petro Poroshenko. This makes the current Ukrainian president less popular than his predecessor Viktor Yanukovych was shortly before the February 2014 coup.

Ukraine could well face complete economic failure. Its economy has been plagued by corruption, inefficient reforms and civil war. Billions of dollars in foreign financial assistance have also been unable to help it recover.

Ukrainian leadership blames the country's poor economic state primarily on the ongoing civil war, but Western investors, according to the newspaper, see these claims as an excuse. "What matters is that Kiev authorities have done little or nothing to prevent corruption and insider trading," Junge Welt noted.

10 of the Most Iconic Buildings of Modern Architecture - Arch2O.com

 

https://www.arch2o.com/10-most-iconic-buildings-modern-architecture/

Modern architecture is the school of design that prevailed since the turn of the 20th century until World War II. The horrendous war altered the kind of buildings needed in the post-war era. People needed practicality and functionality more than ever to rebuild—from scratch—the entire cities that were demolished at the time. The dominant Beaux-Arts and neoclassical architecture, back then, had to subside to make way for a new architectural style that can meet the public needs. This is how Modern architecture arose and there are architecture icons that define postmodernism from the 20th century.

Modern Architecture Style:

Modern Architecture depended on utilizing novel construction techniques and materials like reinforced concrete, steel, and glass. This architectural style was very “in”, especially for government buildings and universities, until the 1980s where it started to face strong competition from other new schools like postmodernism and neomodernism. Today, we bring you a broad selection of some of the most famous buildings created under the umbrella of Modern architecture:

Modern Buildings:

1) The Fallingwater House (Frank Lloyd Wright, Mill Run, Pennsylvania, USA, 1935)

The design of the iconic house was inspired by Japanese architecture which is famous for using cantilevers. The house, that was ideally incorporated into the natural landscape, was created as a weekend getaway for the Kaufmann family.

The house’s condition started to deteriorate quickly after construction that Mr. Kaufman called it the ‘seven-buckets building’, referring to the leaky roof. Moreover, the cantilevered terraces started to fall off due to the lack of proper reinforcement. The house underwent revamp several times and was converted into a museum in 2002.

2) Glass House (Philip Johnson, New Canaan, Connecticut, USA, 1949)

Philip Johnson built that house to be his own. His design was minimal and utilized the reflection/transparency features of glass. He also experimented with dimensions and geometric shapes which made the house one of the landmarks of the area and an icon in the world of Modern architecture.

The weekend home was made mainly of glass and steel. However, it also suffered from the ‘leaky roof’ issue like the Fallingwater house, which made Johnson describe it, jokingly, as the ’four-bucket house’.

3) Villa Savoye (Le Corbusier, Paris, France, 1931)

The house was built as a family retreat for the Savoyes, in Poissy, on the outskirts of Paris. Its distinct design manifested the ‘five points’ that Le Corbusier endorsed which included the open plan, the grid of reinforced concrete columns, the horizontal windows, the roof garden, and the independent façade.

The family suffered greatly from problems that arose after they started using it. Faulty construction and design mishaps caused the family to abandon it a few years later. It has miraculously made it to the list of ’Public Buildings’ and has been turned into a museum.

4) The Guggenheim Museum (Frank Lloyd Wright, New York, USA, 1959)

The great architect marketed the concept of organic architecture which envisioned humanity being intimately linked to the environment.

The cone-shaped museum comprises many key galleries and art collections. The spirally-designed interior takes you on an endless journey dissolving all obstacles between spaces. The rigid geometric shapes that were dominant in Modern architecture were described by Wright, who says: “these geometric forms suggest certain human ideas, moods, sentiments – as for instance: the circle, infinity; the triangle, structural unity; the spiral, organic progress; the square, integrity.” Wright saw the Guggenheim as a ‘temple of the spirit’.

5) Barcelona Pavilion (Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, Barcelona, Spain, 1929)

The pavilion was originally introduced as the German Pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, hosting the German wing of the exhibition. The design, which was influenced by the Bauhaus movement, features transparent walls and a cantilevered roof. Although the pavilion was quite minimal, the architect did his best to use luxurious materials like red onyx, marble, and Travertine. One of the lavish pieces of furniture, specially created for the building, was the legendary ‘Barcelona Chair’.

6) David S. Ingalls Skating Rink in New Haven (Eero Saarinen, Connecticut, USA)

The building is also known as ‘Yale Whale’, referring to Yale University, from which Eero Saarinen has graduated. The creative design holds the distinct architectural signature of Saarinen, who often used catenary arches. The hockey arena has an undulating cantilevered roof which is supported by a 90-meter-high arch of reinforced concrete.

7) Villa Dirickz (Marcel Leborgne, Brussels, Belgium, 1933)

Another seminal building of Modern architecture is Villa Dirickz. It features eye-catching blocky features, glass works, and white concrete surrounded by greenery. The villa, that is $10,000,000-worth, houses lavish interiors as well as facilities like a wine cellar and a cinema.

Marcel Leborgne is a pioneering Belgian architect, and he is the father of Modern architecture in his homeland. The house was designed for Mr.Dirickz, an industrial magnate, who took interest in arts. Many years afterward, the villa fell into the well of neglect till developer Alexander Cambron bought it in 2007. Cambron dedicated all possible resources to renovate the villa.

8) Isokon Building in London (Wells Coates, London, UK, 1934)

The residential building, that is still in use up to this day, consists of 32 apartments; 24 of which are studio apartments and 8 are single-bedroom apartments. The building also includes staff rooms and a spacious garage.

The apartments had tiny kitchens because there was a communal kitchen at the disposal of the residents. They could freely use it to prepare food. There were, also, other services like laundry and shoe-shining.

Avanti Architects, who are specialized in revamping apartments Modern architecture, refurbished the building in 2003. The refurbishment resulted in establishing a communal gallery in the garage to tell the people the history of the building. The concrete residential block is listed as a Grade I-building and is one of the key architectural landmarks in the British capital.

9) Neue National Galerie (Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, Berlin, Germany, 1968)

Dedicated to modern art, the museum hosts an art collection that dates back to the early years of the 20th century. Its typical modernist design included a great amount of glass, a cantilevered roof, and flat exteriors. The building is surrounded by a sculptured landscape which was also created by Mies Van der Rohe.

The museum is a section of the National Gallery of the Berlin State Museums. The gallery has been closed since 2015 for renovations.

10) The Cité Radieuse (Le Corbusier, Marseille, France, 1952)

This housing project is one of the most important works of Le Corbusier that inspired many other Modern architectural projects. The minimal project was influenced by the Bauhaus choice of colors—yellow, red, and blue. It is composed of 337 flats of 27 different types, in addition to a playground and a pool. The building is made of rough-cast concrete, and the architect planned to also include a steel frame, but to his misfortune, World War II made that kind of material hard to acquire.

The edifice has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2016.

Retro Review: Resident Evil (2002) - BagoGames

 

https://bagogames.com/retro-review-resident-evil-remake/

It is hard to believe that Capcom perfected their survival horror franchise in the span of six years. The original Resident Evil on the PlayStation came out in 1996, the GameCube remake was released in 2002 and it was at that point that Capcom showed the world how to make a gorgeous video game in the early 2000’s. I remember having a hard time deciding which console of that generation to buy first. I weighed my options and thought about what games were out. Then I read somewhere that Capcom was bringing us back to the Spencer Mansion and my decision was immediately made. I gleefully ran to a place of business and purchased my purple cube. This was in an era where we didn’t have to wait for updates after purchasing a game or title. So I got to pop in the first disc of Resident Evil and delve back into the world of survival horror.

Let us talk about the gorgeous graphics first. Capcom outdid themselves with the Spencer Mansion re-design. Every little detail is there; from chains on the walls, torn and dilapidated wallpaper, spooky doors to unlock and plenty of zombies ready to take a chomp out of you. Capcom even redid the opening scene, sadly this time around with no human actors and less hokey jokes. In 2002, this game looked like one giant cut-scene, it was truly amazing, and I’ve dabbled in the HD release of this title as well, and wow GameCube games have aged the best from that generation. The character designs and animations are realistic and gorgeous, the zombies are scary and slowly rot before you, and all the boss designs are truly frightening. This is one beautiful game from start to finish and really is the definitive way to dive into the history of the series, and I suggest playing it on the PS3 or the Xbox One. It will be easier to find and the HD touch makes the game almost look almost current gen.

Capcom really fleshed the story out with this remake. They tied the first game’s lore into Code Veronica so much better, and saved it from becoming one hot mess of a story. Something Capcom would eventually ruin in Resident Evil 5 and 6. I played as Jill through my first playthrough and I enjoyed how the Remake re-wrote some of the super cheesy lines. The lines fit a bit better with normal human speech, but gone are the “Master of Unlocking” and “Jill Sandwhich” lines. You are still trapped in the Spencer Mansion trying to get out and save your life and the life of your partner. As you do this you unmask a traitor and find a newfound love for Barry Burton. For those who have bested the original version on the PlayStation you are in for a surprise, many of the items are in different places and you are dropped into a far bigger mansion. Not only do you have to find the four keys but Capcom tacks on masks and such to continue your way through the mansion and into the lab. I enjoyed Capcom’s re-writes and fixes for the story and it makes me want to play this game over and over again. I wish Capcom could still create games like this. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Resident Evil VII but I didn’t feel the innate urge to replay it immediately.

Capcom didn’t fix the controls with the GameCube version, but in the HD remake of it you can play with updated and more modern controls. That’s another reason to find or download that version instead. Tank controls can be very taxing and frustrating if you are babied by the current generation of games or if you’ve not ever played an original Resident Evil title. They worked well then but if you never played the original, they don’t feel quite right now. The D-pad or left thumb stick move your S.T.A.R.S. member around, but it gets tricky when the camera shifts on you, if you let go of your direction you can end up going backwards. Yeah, like I said it gets confusing and difficult if you are trying to dodge zombies. Even after playing for about 8 hours I would get balled up while going up stairs when the camera would switch. People who play a lot of first-person shooters will have a rough go with the combat at the beginning. It works well once you get used to it but definitely goes against what other genres would have you do. To ready your weapon you push the left trigger, then fire with the A button. Should you have any issue with the first two control mechanics Capcom was nice enough to add quick-turn to this installment, just flip the C-Stick to which direction you need to go, hit the left thumb stick and the B button and you’ll be running in the opposite direction of danger.

This is the entry that really changed survival horror; not only are there multiple baddies that want to eat you or gut you but you also have to deal with other obstacles. First off is item management which can be pretty difficult. You have 8 slots as Jill and a space for a lock-pick you will eventually be given. So you have to carry a weapon, ammo, health and certain puzzle items. The Spencer Mansion is laced with puzzles that you must solve to get to safety. Some of the puzzles are pretty simple, but some really make you scratch your head, always remember to examine everything and combine items. Several new mechanics were introduced in this game, then never revisited again is the defensive weapon slot. As you search the mansion you can find defensive weapons that will automatically trigger when you are grabbed by an enemy. Knives, batteries for a tazer and certain grenades can keep you alive in a tricky situation. Another mechanic they introduced was the burning of bodies. Graphic right? But if you don’t burn them they evolve into harder zombies to kill, so keep your oil canteen and lighter nearby. The biggest challenge I always had and still have in these games is to run and gun, you learn quickly not to do that or you’ll find yourself surrounded with only a knife, which pretty much means instant death. Also, one more caveat here, there are no checkpoints, when you die, you go to your last save so save smart.

I love this game, this is definitely in my top five Resident Evil games ever, but there are several always fighting it out for the number one spot. This one was the first though. The first to begin the long series that still resonates today. The characters, the weapons, the viruses and the villains are some of the best ever created in a video game. Albert Wesker is one of my favorite villains in any game or media franchise and it was so nice to see where it all began again. Every survival horror fan needs to play this game. Yes it can be frustrating and yes no one uses pre-rendered backgrounds anymore but you’ll be experiencing history. If you thought you were a badass as Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil 4, you will be shown what it was like before Mikami re-imagined his own creation and you’ll get your ass handed to you. This is as close to Dark Souls as we could get fifteen years ago, and I enjoyed every painful minute.

Some of the Things it is "False and Defamatory" to Say About the Stinky Saint, Julian of Assange

 

https://nomadiceveryman.blogspot.com/2019/09/some-of-things-it-is-false-and.html

Apparently the minders over at Wikileaks, a CIA honeypot, have decided there are certain things we as journalists are NOT ALLOWED too say about Saint Julian of Assange.

They claim the list itself is off the record and folks are not allowed to publish it.

“Confidential legal communication. Not for publication.”

They sent out the list, unsolicited of course, to a number of outlets whom I guess they thought might traffic in these "smears" of the holy one, in hopes that their editorial staff will consider the litigious ramifications if they publish any of the 140 things they declare are off the table when it comes to discussing Julian.

You would expect most of them like "It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange is a rapist" and "It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange is, or has ever been, an agent or officer of any intelligence service"

But there are a couple that are just so off the wall, I had to take the time to post em here to share with you guys. You'll get a kick out em:

It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange “fled” to the Embassy of Ecuador [in fact, he walked...]
It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange is, or has been, “hiding” in the embassy [in fact, his location is well known...]
It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange’s asylum is “self-imposed” or that he is “free to walk out any time he likes” [in fact, the UK government states that he will be immediately arrested...]

So, he didn't "flee" to the embassy to try to escape being arrested on the charges brought by the two women... cus he walked there. And he's not "hiding"... he just stayed there, voluntarily, because he knew if he left he would face prosecution.

Right. Moving on.

It is false and defamatory to suggest that WikiLeaks or Julian Assange has asserted that the Syrian government did not conduct chemical attacks during the war in Syria

So much for everything they ever published was "100% true"

It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange or WikiLeaks promoted or invented the “pizzagate” conspiracy theory

Well... now wait a minute... Wikileaks hosts a page on their website for devoted followers of the PizzaGate disinfo psyop to share news and discoveries on the subject.  https://our.wikileaks.org/Pizzagate Does that count as promoting?

It is false and defamatory to suggest that WikiLeaks or Julian Assange claimed that any person or entity was their source for WikiLeaks’ 2016 U.S. election publications

Well he didn't actually SAY it in so many words, but this is a partial transcript of an interview Saint Julian gave right after publishing the DNC leaks.

Assange: "Wikileaks never sits on material. Our whistle-blowers go thru significant efforts to get us material and often at very significant risks. There's a 27-year-old, who works for the DNC, who was shot in the back -- murdered -- just a few weeks ago, for unknown reasons as he was walking down the street in Washington."
Host: "That was just a robbery, I believe, wasn't it?"
Assange: "No. There's no finding."
Host: "What are you suggesting?"
Assange: "I'm suggesting that our sources take risks, and they become concerned to see things occurring like that--"
Host: "But was he one of your sources then?"
Assange: "We don't comment on who our sources are, but--"
Host: "Then why make the suggestion? About a young guy being shot in the streets of Washington?"
Assange: "Because we have to understand how high the stakes are in the United States, and that our sources are -- you know, our sources face serious risks.

What is the implication in that statement? He is clearly feeding into the Seth Rich psyop story by implying that Seth was the one who provided SOMETHING to Wikileaks. There is no doubt he did that. It's still on Youtube.

Now lets get into some of the more entertaining ones:

It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange, or his mother, or his father, is, or was ever, a member of a cult.
It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange bleaches his hair.
It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange’s mother is, or ever was, a “hippie”.

And now we are getting personal:

It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange drinks to excess.
It is false and defamatory to suggest that Ecuador asked Julian Assange to improve his hygiene.
It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange stinks.
It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange does not use cutlery or does not wash his hands.

Has anyone seen a report that states that the Almighty Assange is a stinky drunk with bad table manners? It's gotta be out there somewhere.

Wikileaks published a version of these (1.3) after they went public (after their email said it would be illegal to do so) and they removed the one about Julian being skinky plus these two as well...

It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange has ever tortured a cat or dog.
It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange lives, or has ever lived, in a basement, cupboard or under the stairs.

Their latest version redacted a few of the statements but it's curious that they choose those two specifically to redact as well. Maybe someone has actual verifiable proof Julian likes to hang out under the stairs and abuse animals?

Anyone ever see that Wes Craven film The People Under the Stairs? Just sayin...

And I will leave you with this one...

It is false and defamatory to suggest that WikiLeaks or Julian Assange has ever suppressed materials critical of Israel...

Yep. I guess my point here is, the saintly one doth protest too much, methinks. When you got to go through this much effort to try to protect the brand of your asset, you probably should have chose better to start with.

I notice they don't say a word about Julian working with the CIA assets in Hong Kong that got him started way back when. You know, the "dissidents" who formed the base core of Wikileaks from day one?

Now listening to Rock And Roll Over by Kiss and The Bodyguard by various artists...