richardmurray

Tiktok and Fanbase january 24th 2025 https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11431-tiktok-service-restored-ban-suspended/#findComment-71288 IF YOU DONT WANT TO CLICK THE LINK ABOVE @Pioneer1 tiktok was never owned by the chinese government, the firm that owns it in china is bytedance. The issue with china is the chinese constitution which is not in its first iteration but fourth, specifically gives, from the first iteration, the chinese government control over any firm for the interest of china. This stems from the china being split into parts by outsiders including the usa before mao. No firm doing business in china or based in china is about the chinese government, it is their law, from their first constitution and has survived each constitutional restructuring. The reason is simple, most foreign websites simply don't do well. If you look at the internet all the major english speaking websites are from the usa, france/germany/uk/russia have all tried but the english market is dominated by usa websites until bytedance took their short video social media service, duayin [bad anglicized spelling] and made tiktok. Then the implications hit the usa government. The funny thing is, in parallel, the chinese government by its own law, can never allow a firm to do business in china that doesn't have a security arrangement with the government of china. Remember the usa federal government from its very infancy was never designed to be proactive. Rememeber, the articles of confederation was the first idea, and that was merely a militaristic function and nothing more at the federal level. Yes, the constitution gives the executive branch powers, but from the cia/fbi to executive order usa growth, to the expansion of the federal military and the expansion of powers to the president under national security or others, the federal government has grown beyond what it was intended. The idea was the governments of the states would be strong and the federal government would be this military protector to them. The federal government of the usa was never designed to be a centralized authority, like the chinese government from mao. Outside of military affairs the usa federal government is very reactionary, meaning let problems occur in the market and then fix them. @Troy Tiktok is for adults. It has the best numbers for youth among the big websites, especially in the usa but tiktok is heavily used by adults to. From my point of view, it is what twitter is to blogging. The short video si what youtube never was able to implement correct. Tiktok got it correct and the algorithm tkiktok uses is key.I know quite a few artists , adult artists of various genres on there. Email newsletters is the way do you want a follow on fanbase? tell me how the migration goes for you, i have far less tiktok content rmemeber when facebook went down for a day.. this is the modern reality, people who have their money or their lives tied into the esocial services such that their pausal is devastating @ProfD whining:) the influencer industry is a multimillion dollar industry:) I wonder why you use the word whining? Ahhh the I am late so all his talk of early is wasted https://www.fanbase.app/@RMfanbase UPDATES Fanbase has audio rooms https://www.fanbase.app/audio/room2_a0e97793-0be3-45ae-bb56-d51802db3eb9 and Tiktok now has been sold to a private set of investors in a private contract, with Oracle of Austin Texas, who handle networks for CIA+FBA+NSA+others handling some data storage systems. But the full details I don'tknow. 1/24/2026 Citation https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/12355-black-owned-online-social-media-websites-future-what-is-their-future/#findComment-79623 sted just now @ProfD 4 hours ago, ProfD said: Producing a Black-owned social media website is relatively easy. Getting Black foks to use it is the bigger challenge. really? monthly rent for hosting data, data transmisions, cost more than a dollar? if the site becomes popular you have to support that popularity with more expensive backend. the likes of facebook and tiktok have huge silos or network systems all over the world to simulate instantaneous use, that is easy? the money to get that is easy? ok, i don't think it is easy at all. And, considering how many websites have failed @Troy what percent of websites have succeeded that have been made since the 1990s in the internet? I say less than one hundreth of a percent. I think that proves getting anyone to use a website is a challenge. Which makes sense to me. A website has to have a function. Tiktok does short videos. youtube does long videos. twitter does bylines. facebook is where whole clans are connected online. instagram does photos. google is a search engine. Each major website serves a strict function. yes, you have niche players, like a tumblr/aalbc/deviantart that all serve specific or more detailed functions. yahoo search is still active. but I think most websites are failures so I don't see why most black websites being failures is anamolistic? @Pioneer1 3 hours ago, Pioneer1 said: I've said time and time again that one of the problems a lot of our people...especially a lot of women....have with this site is that there is too much personal freedom to post and say what you like with very little moderation. Troy is very light handed when it comes to being a moderator. Conventional wisdom would say that having the freedom to post your opinions freely is a good thing that would attract people by the thousands. A true expression of freedom of speech and thought. However because of the angry and vindictive nature of a lot of our people, this produces the opposite effect. People like to be able to get you in trouble. They like to get your posts deleted or even get you blocked/banned if you say something they don't like. You see it all over social media where you come on a channel or show and you say something the crowd doesn't like or agree with....instead of ignoring you or tolerating you....they alert the moderators and tell them to block or ban you. It's the culture now. A culture of intolerance. Those same people get mad as hell for being blocked for expressing THEIR opinion on a matter, but they'll then turn around and insist that it's fair and demand the same punishment for other of a differing opinion. This is the very juvenile and extreme thinking of a lot of people. So a site where they can't run and tattle tale to a mod or point the finger at somebody and make them vanish isn't very attractive to them. Some of the things you and I have said on this site....we would have been banned our first WEEK on Lipstick Alley, lol. Plus....let's keep it real..... A lot of our people don't like sites where Black men are in charge. Going back to our sistaz again. Some of our sistaz don't like spaces where the ultimate authority is a Black man. They'll accept it from a White man or even another Black woman, but the idea of a Black man holding power over what goes on or who goes and who stays....they don't like. I've known some who didn't want to even WORK for a Black man. Nearly all of them had daddy issues. But the very idea that a Black man signed their pay check and told them what to do and could punish them, they didn't like at all. They were so used to dissing Black men growing up and telling them to kiss their ass....for a brutha to have that type of authority didn't sit well with them. I know what I'm saying may sound extra, but it's the real deal when it comes to why the traffic on this and other Black ran sites are often light. Expand I am paraphrasing the mariner from the film waterworld, "I have traveled farther than most online and I have never seen a websites failure based on anything but its effectiveness" In my travels, I have seen a number of chinese websites fail, japanese websites fail, french websites fail, brasilian websites fail. usa websites fail. What they each have in common is not some demographic group hurting them, but each failed or has failures or has become niche because the function they served another website served better or more robustly. When I look at black owned websites online. First and foremost I can't recall one black owned website that had a technological edge or focus. Youtube emphasized videos. Tiktok short videos. Google search. Neither was the first to do it. Other websites before youtube did videos but they didn't emphasize the technology, the investment was small, it was more toy than function. Tiktok the same. youtube literally did a short video service three years before tiktok, it failed and youtube shut it. Now youtube has shorts in response to tiktok, but what is the point. Tiktok invested in short video in a scale that gave it an edge or focus. Google wasn't the first search engine but again they focused on it, gave it an edge that others didn't. When I look at Yahoo for example, which started as a web directory. Yahoo's great flaw in their financial history was that they gave up on web directories. they assumed falsely, that the growth of the internet would make a directory unfeasible but I think they were wrong. I argue the internet could use a great web directory. And then yahoo led in email but again, didn't implement email's better over time. Blackplanet never had a technological edge, its whole selling point was a place for black people but it didn't offer a technological edge. So most black people looking to make videos went to youtube. Wanting a search used google. Sharing photos on the phones used instagram. Chatgpt, right? it is the llm use. Technological edge first and foremost leads people to anywebsite and for all the black engineers who are lauded in media for graduating from MIT or working for Goldman Sachs , I don't see any of them with any websites ideas. And yes, tech cost money on the backend, but again, this isn't 1926, 2000 wasn't 1900, some black people were billionaires so....no excuse. AALBC doesn't have a technological tool that isn't present anywhere else, if it did, that would help. Second, when I look at the internet and websites that are communally driven, most work because the culture of the particular peoples is out the sphere of anglo media. Meaning what? Overdrive was supposed to be France's answer to the social media, but most people in france went to facebook/instagram/twitter? why? is it because white people in france don't like themselves. No, it is , because the way they communicate wasn't different enough, their culture wasn't different enough than what was offered in anglo media. Black owned websites offer the same reality. Black people's culture or communication fits well enough in the anglo websites to exist. But if you are japanese/chinese who tend to have cultural websites because they have cultures/communication that doesn't fit the anglo internet as well. India doesn't have one major website, and how many firms in the usa have indians all through them? why. because indians are usually anglophiles, who culturally fit well into anglo media. Indian or French websites aren't being hindered by the women in their community , their online populace simply fits well enough in anglo websites and it makes all of their websites niche, like aalbc. I have tried to find a black populace that needs an outlet, that would help aalbc to serve a particular black populace. Third, userbases, Cristiano ronaldo is the most followed person online, he gets paid by websites for his presence. And why do the websites pay, because his presence brings users, and the greater the userbase, the greater the ad revenue, the greater the userbase, the greater the views to posts in general. AALBC hosts black authors, who are barely in the forum. If Troy paid them they would be more, as in the big websites who pay millions to people like barrack obama to be active on their websites, which helps their userbase. Now, AALBC as a niche website doesn't have to do that. But that is the reality. Tiktok/Facebook/Instagram/Youtube/twitter/even schrumpfs truth social all have big users who attract casual users. That is reality. It is uneven to ask AALBC or specifically Troy to pay people to engage. And you see this all over the internet. It isn't something rare. So, the userbase of AALBC absent attractors has limits of growth.If Beyonce+ Oprah+Neymar + Paul Kagame were on AALBC, I think this website would have a huge increase in usage. So, I don't see any blame in black women for AALBC's usage or lack thereof. I commend Troy for maintaining this large rent. As most people who own a restaurant will tell you, I am not doing this for the money, I am doing this cause I love it. But if AALBC could find a technological edge. If aalbc could reach a particular black populace whose culture was away from the anglophone, and needed particular attention. if AALBC could afford to pay for big attractors. That would change the volume, not necessarily quality, of activity on the website in a positive way. @Troy Interesting, how pervasive is lurking online? I see in discord many talk of lurkers. how many lurk online? 1/25/2026 Citation https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/12355-black-owned-online-social-media-websites-future-what-is-their-future/#findComment-79700 osted just now @ProfD 16 hours ago, ProfD said: F*cebook was started by a teenager in a college dormitory. M*crosoft was started by a college dropout. Apple was started by a marketing wizard & his friend who was a wiz with electronics. Y*hoo & G**gle were started by nerds in silicon valley. Sure, these companies have grown into sprawling behemoths but they came from the proverbial mustard seed. IMO, Black folks have the aptitude to invent things. Too few lack the entrepreneurial spirit. Seems easier to trade labor for wages. Expand Filo + Musk who started yahoo are the only ones from truly financially humble beginnings. And, to be even, they got lucky. Again, less than 1% of all websites failed. So, the entrepreneurial spirit you are talking about failed many non blacks. so.. your argument on the whole is unfounded but... I continue Zuckerburgs father offered his son a mcdonald's franchise , how many black parents can do that or euqivalent for their children? please don't say it is common for black parents to offer the next generation wealth. Gates parents have always been on the boards of big companies, how many black parents are on the boards of large companies while their children are in high school? please don't say it is common. And don't insult black history, again, black people have been blockaded from financial wealth by whites in the usa from1 492 to 1980 nearest holistically. Jobs father is from a fiscally wealthy syrian family. wozniak's father was an engineer for lockheed. Please don't say that they are financially common. Page and BRin for Google had well connected and well off parents. working as engineers for nasa or colleges in the usa. How many black engineers have not been accepted at Nasa? that had every single thing a white engineer did. Nasa is a great job for an engineer. You are connecting with big financial channels. All of them through their relatives or communities, many are white jews or have white jewish background which has a financial aspect to it, some are simply nepo babies, that have money or access to money, like Musk, who is also from a financialy wealth white clan. You mention entrepreneurial spirit but don't mention lack of fiscally capable parents. I know few black people have fiscally aiding black parents. I know that. it is interesting to me how so many black people in the usa accept white power or white advantage but then in assessing black people, blame ourselves as if the white people who are wealthiest in the usa, aren't assisted by white power or white advantage but simply have the entrepreneurial spirit. It is very imbalanced, or uneven thinking. @Pioneer1 I give blood to a blood bank, five times a day. @Troy 1 hour ago, Troy said: 90% of social media visitors are lurkers. It is probably higher than that on some platforms. How many of you actually created TicTok or YouTube video for the public but have used the platform. The number of lurkers here is probably higher than 90% because of some very popular posts generate a lot of traffic. I have created youtube or tiktok videos to share my art, but I am not the biggest user of either platform. There are a few youtubers I like because they are informative or interesting in the arts. I like Mayowa's world cause she is a black natural haired woman who has insightful positions on black identity, accented cinema cause he makes great posts on asian cinema. I like shadversity cause they develop weapons and test them and have helped me think on weapons in my own stories. So i admit as an artist youtube has some great educational folk. What are your thoughts on what to do about lurkers? any ideas. I comprehend that bots have always been used to augment perceived activity on websites, from the early 1990s. Thinking on it for a minute, from bots to paid real members of websites to now the llm identities, the children of the bots, so much activity online is augmented... two questions come to mind. 1)Of the facebooks/twitter/youtubes/google searches/netflix or other, how many of them used bots to augment their activity to appear positive? In my mind I begin to wonder, how many websites failed cause they didn't invest in bots, didn't invest in ways to augment popularity? If you augment popularity even if you aren't making money, maybe you can keep the investments running, especially in the dot com craze days, the earlier eras of the internet when money flowed to these bleeding firms. 2) what activity online has the least lurkers? I comprehend if one is online it invites de facto lurking, at least the possibility. I guess email, but I imagine you know, if not through experience through conference with others. 3) should black owned websites invested in lurking more ? I remember when beyonce or jay-z had some media thing and it was found out it had a bunch of bots, but it seemed so late in the internet, like an old style bot drive that white people used ten years earlier? 1/25/2026 Cittion https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/12355-black-owned-online-social-media-websites-future-what-is-their-future/#findComment-79704 osted just now @ProfD 1 hour ago, ProfD said: The successful keep getting back up & trying again. 2 hours ago, richardmurray said: And had help, you never mention with the people you call financially successful, why do you always omit the help they got? What is that about? 1 hour ago, ProfD said: Black folks collectively have enough wealth to invest in businesses including social media platforms. really, again, i have done economic corners going through the labor numbers white people themselves state, most people in the usa aren't employed to live on their own without subsidy, and that is all demographics. And then you add the number of black people in prison, in institutions, in the military which isn't profitable. The numbers don't add up to the wealth you suggest the black populace in the usa has, let alone any populace. the white populace doesn't have the wealth suggested by media. it isn't there. The government gives people money , that isn't their wealth. If you need government subsidy to afford your life you don't have wealth. You and other blacks keep saying financial lies like this on our populace in the usa, I wonder what your agenda really is. Maybe your not black. 1 hour ago, ProfD said: Do not continue trying to tell me how to communicate. My patience isn't that long before I become the most rude & insulting mf'er you could ever read. if you insult, i will call you out as an insulter. I will ask you stop insulting black history if you do it, every single time. I don't give strangers, which is what you are to me, demands. I don't know you. I am not trying to know you. We communicate online only. Now having said that, be the most rude now, you don't know me. so, it is no harm. 1 hour ago, ProfD said: No more excuses. Billions of dollars go through Black folks hands every year. what billions? black prisoners are getting billions, from who? black people on welfare are getting billions, from who? black solders are getting billions, from who? Numbers don't add up. How many black college graduates have thousand of dollars of student debt they will never be able to pay? who has this billions you are speaking of? white man says black people are 50 million people in the usa. so for fifty million to make one billion a month is twenty dollars a month. Now, cut out black children who aren't making any money. White man say twnety seven percent are children. So fifty million minus thirteen million and five hundred thousand gets you thrity six million and five hundred. Now white man says 37% of black people are in prison or in jail in the usa. so... that is eighteen million and five hundred. so let's subtract eighteen million and fife hundred from thirty six million and five hundred which is the total black populace minus the kids who aren't making any money. That gets you eighteen million black people. Comprehend thirty seven percent + twenty seven percent is is sixty four percent, who are children or in jail prison, so no money. Now white man says one million and three hundred and thirty active soldiers are in the military and seventeen percent are black. so thhat is two hundred and twenty six thousand black folk who are making no money as rank and file, black generals are making money but their exact number i don't know and I will ignore. So that is now seventeen million, seven hundred and seventy four thousand. Now white man says twelve percent of black people in the usa are the elderly so between healthcost/rent/food and et cetera whether they use it themselves or have singed away their freedom, willingly or unwillingly , to a prison called an old folks home. that is six million so, seventeen thousand, seven hundred and seventy four minus six million which is eleven million, seven hundred and seventy four thousand. Now, white man says, twenty five percent of black people are on welfare which means they can't financially support themselves without aid from the government. So, we have from the prior calculations eleven million seven hundred and seventy thousand minut twelve million and five hundred thousand. which is negative seven hundred and twenty six thusand. If you notice, between 27% children + 37% in jail+ 12% elderly + 25% welfare that is 101% or one hundred and one part of a hundred, so what does this mean? If we hold the same statistics true from whites that black have billions of dollars per year, it isn't the children, black children earn twenty dollars a month? it isn't the people in prison. Prison labor is real but it is far below market rate, ala slavery. and most prisoners don't work. it isn't the elders with their costs, they are looking for constant savings for rent or food or medicine because they don't have it. it isn't the soldiers, soldiers stipend is over twenty dollars a month. ok, but taking soldiers out doesn't get the numbers positive, and it is well known many/most soldiers use financial assistance. It obviously isn't the people on welfare getting assistance. you can't say you earn money when you need assistance to live. the assistance is allowing what you earn to be spent other ways, that means you are in the red and being augmented, like goldman sachs. That isn't wealth. But then who? As I have always said, and who has always existed in the usa, or the english colonies that preceded it. It is the black one percent. One percent of fifty million is five hundred thousand. Which means each of the five hundred thousand would have to make two thousand a month to get to a billion. yeah, I can see that. The NFL has seventeen hundred athletes , seventy percent are black. five hundred and thirty seven athletes in the nba. successful musicians like beyonce or jayz, yeah. The numbers fit now. Black people like you have been saying erroneously, that somehow the larger village has billions. No, children/in jail/elderly/welfare recipient/soldiers. none of the above can say they earn twenty dollars a month. But the black one percent: entertainers[athletes/musicans/pundits/agents]+ the one percent of black elders with with like black enterprise folk mention+ the black one percent of soldiers who are generals or captains with a nice bit of wealth+ black one percent of elected officials like Barrack Obama and company yeah, they can reach five hundred thousand and each are easily making over two thousand a month. Yeah, your right, ProfD, the Black one percent is making billions per year. So please talk to them, but stop lying on the black financially common or impoverished masses. and as was discussed in this very form, the black one percent are a very financially stringent group, they don't gamble. they don't risk their money. they tend to invest with white cause that is safer than investing their own. So , you already know what the black one percent is doing with their money. So thus ends your points, cause no body else black has money. 1 hour ago, ProfD said: How many engineering firms have Black folks started? I know percy julian had to fight to get his chemistry firm started in the 1900s and he couldn't do it in the usa because of white power, and had to fight constantly for his business to even existeven while in mexico, by white powers of the usa , so if you are asking how many black owned engineering firms were started by DOSers when white folks allowed it in the usa, circa 1980. I imagine many black engineering firms have been started. . I offhand know of a black chipmaker who is in flux, a black owned chemical firm who went out of business. As the cost of starting a business has always risen this isn't easy. And white restriction to black empowerment has never faded away completely. And, I comprehend your larger point, which is terrible fiscal management. Saturation isn't a wise strategy financially. You accept the odds of business success across racial lines plus accept white power exists and is real, though you seem to suggest it is diminished in value today, which is the nitty gritty, but this means you your strategy is over saturation of business startups, but that is financially irresponsible. As someone who has started a business and failed, I don't think black people starting tons of businesses in the usa is close to financially warranted and far from wise. 1 hour ago, ProfD said: The village collectively could invest in its own people. village has no money, black one percent can. if they want to. why don't you ask them 1 hour ago, ProfD said: I don't believe you realize outside of New York there are a high number of successful Black people. new york by white mans own account and my own personal observations has more financially wealthy black people in it than any other city in the usa, but that doesn't mean a majority of black people in the black populace of nyc are wealthy, they are called the one percent. And the black one percent exists all throughout the usa, but again, that isn't the black populace. 1 hour ago, ProfD said: Successful Black people see things from a different perspective. One of the biggest challenges is getting our people to believe they can do better. is that perspective you speak of based on truth or a lie. Belief isn't as important as facts financially. you can't believe money into existence, that is a lie. You can't believe opportunity into existence, that is a lie. You can believe in yourself, but assuming makes an ass out of you. 1 hour ago, ProfD said: Understand that because I'm a successful FBA/AfroAmerican man of average intelligence, I believe other Black folks can do it too. Just a matter of putting in the work. in my opinion, very very few black people doubt black ability, but black people don't doubt their eyes and the truth in their lives. MAdam CJ walker was one hundred years ago, the garveyites were older, black people don't doubt what they can do, at least the black people I am connected too offline. but the black people i am connected too offline don't lie either and I don't ask them to lie. Wherever you live, maybe you want black people to think they can turn water into wine but I don't ask black people to do that. Positive thinking is one thing , false belief or lying to the environment your in or the experiences you had is another. 1/25/2026 Citation https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/12355-black-owned-online-social-media-websites-future-what-is-their-future/#findComment-79728 sted just now @ProfD 2 hours ago, ProfD said: Encouraging Black people to do better does not diminish or insult our history. I admit that I am speaking from a life of comfort. It is easy to say people don't need encouragement when one has always been encouraged, helped, supported in their personal life, by family... not sanguine but family whether blood related or not. I do value encouragement less than in the black populace. I think about circa 1865, when african methodist episcopal pastors were preaching encouragements to black people to use a nonviolent methodology. And I am against the heritage that created which persists to this day. The episcopal is a pastor, episcopalians believe in the role and function of the pastor as a guide [this is opposed to the gnostics who believe no one individual can be as knowledgeable about the spiritual affairs, including pastors or popes] anyway, the methodists believe in a life led by a lifestyle, the bushido from the people of nippon is a similar idea. when i look at the AME heritage it fits. Black person acts as a guide to the black group by preaching persisitance to a way of life, in DOSers case, it is nonviolent participation in the usa, regardless of white activity and I admit I am sick of hearing it. I think it is dysfunctional. Black people don't need encouragement, most black people need to presented ideas. The black people who spoke at the million man march was the same encouragement nonsense. A bunch of episcoopals of various religions or no religion, preaching the continuance of the nonviolent method in the usa regardless of the usa or the white people in it.. I am tired of that. 2 hours ago, ProfD said: As I've mentioned before, billions of dollars pass through Black churches every year. From who is my question Black children? no , black children don't earn billions of dollars. Black prisoners? no, how many prisons even have a chapel these days? Black welfare recipients? no, they don't have income to dispose, that is why they are on welfare. They can't pay their standard bills so, no way. Black elders? maybe some, but how many. I can see the black elders who come to the old church in the city every sunday from their home in the suburbs. Quite a few of them, all over the usa. yeah , but they are a fraction of black elders, a definitive minority. But the money is good. Black soldierS? maybe, i know many soldiers are religious. but soldiers have families, tend to complain about cost of living. so i can't imagine too many of them. Definitely, the officers. but rank and file, no way. Then I think about Barrack Obama sitting in that black mega church, that black guy with a mega church "walk by faith not by sight" I recall seeing that somewhere, made me laugh. So, yeah , your right, billions do go through the black churches, from the black one percent. And the black one percent is like the white one percent, this isn't the whole black populace. At this moment in time, It isn't that I challenge the presence of billions in the black populace in the usa, but I challenge its source. It isn't the common black masses, it is the black one percent, the black wealthy. and they are a very small but financially very wealthy populace so... talk to them. 2 hours ago, ProfD said: It isn't the Black 1% pouring billions into churches & gross consumerism. Even enough, I have made my case. The numbers fit in my case. The black one percent isn't a large populace BUT, they have the financial scale to make the multitude of billions per year. It fits them: black officers in the military, black elders of weallth especially from the black churches, black entertainers , black elected officials. black business owners with many of them networked into the other groups. John Starks has one of the biggest dealerships in NY metropolitan area but a millionaire black athlete networked with other millionaire black athletes. I forge tthe former detroit piston who owns a computer programming firm. yeah, it all fits, but they are all black one percenters. the black wealthy. And I am 100% black churchs in NYC, are very tribal. I knwo for a fact that many of them, network opportunities amongst their specific tribes within the black village. I can see the black one percent fueling money into churches. Cause again, NYC's black churches that are standing strong are attached to black one percenters . many black churches have gone under, but those were where regular folk, financially went, thus no money. I am convinced that the black one percent is the source of the billions. Now maybe the white man is lying about the percentages, but based on the percentages the white man has collected and the financial reality of prisoners/soldiers/children/welfare recipients/black one percent, the black one percent is the source of the billions. Black one percenters do spend on vanity like all people with money. A cotillion is expensive. High end clothes are expensive. cars are expensive. I think you fiscally underestimate the cost of homes for the black one percent. Those homes are expensive per month. Those homes they have are gross /large consumerism. Now to be even, the only group in the black populace in the usa who could have any significant consumerism is the black people on welfare. Black Teachers or nurses are on welfare, starting in the 1970s, so black people working while on welfare isn't new it is very old. But, I will not chagrin black poor people,upper poor people, affording themselves something to enjoy, as gross consumerism. Consumerism, yes, but it isn't gross. I am 100% certain with those i know on welfare that 90% of black people on welfare don't have gross consumerism, if gross consumerism is defined as based on the fiscal scale of what is consumed, not the presence of consumerism. Cause I happen to know there are some blacks who like to suggest gross consumerism is consumerism itself, which I oppose. In NYC, it was recently unveiled that over 95% of white children in the orthodox jewish schools can't pass the basic state wide exams while they have schools full of trips around the world and game rooms and swimming pools. So, for any blacks who feel that black children who passed and are passing their state exams at a hell of a higher rate with schools absent any amenities or opportunities can't get a few pairs of sneakers from their parents on welfare, i say fuck off. 2 hours ago, ProfD said: But, when AI puts a whole bunch of Black folks outta work, we'll have no choice. we? well humanity en large is going through a labor movement reality with large language models and other similar computer programs. I don't know what will happen. I see many options, the choices various people need to make haven't been made to see a clear path yet. 2 hours ago, ProfD said: The Black 1% definitely is not exempt from investing in the community. Right, well they are acting exempt in majority and I repeat I don't blame them. Black wealth in modernity comes from struggle and rarely do black people have the fortune to get it through crimes or illegalities, and even when we do, it is absent the ease of whites. So black people tend to be frightened of poverty. For too many blacks poverty is a sign of self, which is hilarious historically. we didn't enslave ourselves into boats. And 90% of the black folk in the boats died over the ocean, they never made any shores so, ... 2 hours ago, ProfD said: It is a fact that Black people can make a lot of money. No assumptions. that is historical fact, sadly it is also a generalization, whom among blacks is where the details reside and the details is where black people tend to make assumptions on other black people based on hope or encouragement, not truth. 2 hours ago, ProfD said: I don't have to convince the Black people where I live that they too can be successful. me neither, common ground, finally

World War Meth - January 23rd 2025 https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2832&type=status IF YOU DIDNT CLIC THE LINK ABOVE World War Speed MY THOUGHTS Great information on the use of drugs in world war two. And how The german government used it heavy and excelled in the war, the british government, general montgomery commissioned heavy drug use. 20 milligrams per day is given to the tank brigades in the break through the german line. Funny how the drug is restricted by germans when the usa enters world war two and eisenhauer looks for millions. Amazing, the story on fake german leather is excellent.and the militaristic culture of germany which always relied on quick attacks and technology. VIDEO UNIFORM RESOURCE LOCATOR https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/preview-world-war-speed/4337/ TRANSCRIPT [ Suspenseful music plays ] -It's long been known that German soldiers used a form of methamphetamine called Pervitin in the Second World War. -[Speaking German] -But have tales of Nazis on speed... [ Suspenseful chord strikes ] ...obscured the other side of the story? [ Radio chatter ] [ Suspenseful chord strikes ] -Wow! That's amazing, isn't it? -The massive use of stimulants by British and American troops. [ Rapid gunfire ] Did total war unleash the world's first pharmacological arms race? ♪♪ And, in the face of industrial slaughter, what role did drugs play in combat? ♪♪ Now, one historian... -My goodness, look. There's the swastika. -...is on a quest to dig deeper... -You got the machine guns there. You got the tools. So you just do this, you just go...? -Precisely. -A cannon shell is just gonna rip through. -This soldier here that can hardly walk. -Yes. -...and learn the truth behind World War speed. -Stand by. -Eight, seven, six... -The amount of dust was incredible! [ Explosion ] -...five, four... -Oh, my goodness, me. Look at that! -...three, two, -Set, shoot. Fire One. -one. [ Explosions ] -Oh, my god! [ Suspenseful chord strikes ] ♪♪ [ Engine humming ] [ Static crackling ] -[ Speaking German ] -[ Speaking German ] -[ Speaking German ] -[ Speaking German ] -December 1942. A German bomber crew struggles to keep their damaged plane aloft. -[ Conversing in German ] [ Engine buzzing ] [ Ominous chord strikes ] [ Suspenseful music plays ] ♪♪ -Seven decades after it went down, this German Heinkel He 115 bomber is pulled from a Norwegian fjord. [ Oxygen whooshing ] It's an amazing discovery. The only aircraft of its kind ever recovered, from a time when England stood alone against fascism in Europe. [ Poignant tune plays ] The fjord's oxygen-poor water has left the plane remarkably intact and the recovery team will soon discover artifacts inside [ Camera shutter clicking ] in near-pristine condition, including brandy, caffeine-infused chocolate, and speed. [ Suspenseful music plays ] -[Speaking local language] -We're going to see the remains of a Heinkel 115, which is a float plane, a sea plane, that was used by the German Navy. And, not only did they pull up this Heinkel 115, they also found lots of things on it, [ Turn signal clicking ] including, it turns out, a packet a Pervitin. ♪♪ For me, there's a massive difference between just being an armchair historian and actually getting out on the ground, rolling up your sleeves, and doing some proper primary research. ♪♪ You can't really understand a subject unless you actually seen what you're looking at for real, you know, you've touched those pieces of paper, looked at the sites, talked to other people who really know what they're talking about. And it is amazing how it actually then prompts you to ask all sorts of other questions that you might not have thought about in the first place. -James Holland has written nearly 30 books about the Second World War. He's an expert on the blitzkrieg of 1940 and the Battle of Britain, which will prove pivotal chapters in his quest to understand how amphetamine use evolved during the conflict. -[Speaking local language] -Could German amphetamine packets have survived the crash and decades underwater? If so, they may provide unique insight into the role speed played during German bombing missions over England. -You know, I've seen a few aircraft wrecks that have been pulled out of the water, but this Heinkel 115 that's been pulled up out of the fjord was in incredible condition, so good that you could still see the paintbrush marks on the tailplane. So I'm looking at the bomb bay, here, aren't I? -Yeah. Yeah. -Okay, but this was carrying bombs when it was found? -Yeah. Yeah. -So where would they be? -They was in the center section. -And this is a camouflage for going over the dark North Sea. -You know, you wouldn't want it light, would you? You look at that sea from above, you can see how dark it is all the time. ♪♪ -For German bomber crews, night missions from Norway involved a 12-hour round-trip flight over the North Sea. [ Rapid gunfire ] Raving spitfires and flak over England, then, surviving the long trip home. ♪♪ German victories make the Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht seem invincible. [ Explosion ] Rumors circulate of German soldiers and airmen fueled by a super-drug that makes them fearless, energized, and able to press on without need for rest or recuperation. [ Tranquil tune plays ] Even Nazi dive-bombers stir theories about so-called Stuka-Tablets, pills that enable fliers to withstand G-force plunges to target no human being could possibly survive. ♪♪ -This is the Heinkel 115 elevator. It was cut in two when the plane crashed, so. -Right. -In the wing, there was a dinghy. -Yes. -And, within the dinghy, there was a rescue package. -It's possible to look at it? -Yes. -Fantastic. So, when I walked in and saw the table full of objects from this escape kit, plus a few other little bits and pieces they found, I, you know, I was absolutely staggered. And, obviously, we've got a brace of machine guns here. These are 17s? -MG 17s, yeah. -You got the machine guns there; you got the tools. You got all this, but this is the bit that's really catching my eye. -Matches. -Yeah. -Cigarettes? -Yeah, it is. -This is obviously chocolate. This has a high caffeine content, doesn't it? -Yes. -And this is the brandy. -Yes, that's the brandy. -I can't believe you haven't tried it. Okay, but there's one item here that, to me, is missing. -Yes, I guess we are missing the Pervitin. -Yes, where's that? -Well, when it came up and we tried to clean it, it started to dissolve and, when we looked back into the box, it was -- There's nothing left, so, it just vanished. Well, I'm sorry, we have only a photograph of it. -The whole reason for coming here is because Pervitin has been found on this plane when it was brought up from the fjord. It was a little disappointing. -Despite Jim's disappointment, the Pervitin's location on the plane may be more important than seeing the package itself. -So this was in the -- this was in the wing? What was really interesting is it wasn't sort of in the cockpit equivalent of the glove compartment, you know. It wasn't found right by the pilot's seat or something, you know. It was actually found in a pre-prepared [ Camera shutter clicking ] emergency escape pack. That made me kind of think that it wasn't used in a kind of sort of casual way, but in a quite pragmatic way. -If the Pervitin pack was kept out of reach, it suggests the drug wasn't meant to keep men awake during flight, but to keep them alive, should their plane go down. -So you've got the brandy, to keep the cold away. You've got some cigarettes to keep you going; chocolate with caffeine in it; and, of course, you've got the Pervitin. We all know what that does. That keeps you going for another 12 hours or so, while you're bobbing around on the North Sea. They were flying in winter, so it's going to be bitterly, bitterly cold. The most important thing is that they don't fall asleep and die of hypothermia. So what's gonna keep you awake? Well, Pervitin's gonna do that. [ Suspenseful music plays ] -Jim's Norway stop has been illuminating and frustrating, all at the same time. [ Bell tolls ] He decides to head south, to a museum in Germany, where you can still see and hold Pervitin samples from World War II. -And I met with Dr. Peter Steinkamp, who's an expert in this. You know, I just really wanted to pick his brains about what this stuff was, how it came to be, and to look at Pervitin packets for the first time. Wow. That's amazing, isn't it? [ Suspenseful music intensifies ] -This was methamphetamine created in the 1930s by a German pharmacologist. He called it Pervitin. This is a version for injection and this is the version for piercing. -And what's this say, here? -"Inject slowly, not too fast." -[Laughing] Oh, goodness, me. Imagine buying, over the counter, vials of stuff to inject yourself, you know, with a Class A drug. I mean, it's just absolutely extraordinary and just so casual. If I took one of those, how long would I be completely wired for? -Well, about two nights. -So this came out in Germany, what, in the late 1930s? -Yes. In 1938, it was first available in drugstores. -So I could just walk in and I could go, "I'll have a packet of 12 Pervitin, please"? -Yeah, really. -Wow! That's amazing, isn't it? ♪♪ -By 1938, Pervitin manufacturer Temmler Pharmaceutical of Berlin had launched a PR campaign modeled on Coca-Cola's global marketing strategy. ♪♪ And, despite Hitler's vehement anti-drug rhetoric, many Nazis, including the Fuehrer himself, were heavy drug users. [ Cheering ] Methamphetamines seemed geared to the modern, tech-embracing Reich that was envisioned. -The Nazi state is all about, "If you work hard, if you strive for a better Germany, then you'll get a better Germany. Come on, get your backbone into it and let's get working. Let's make Nazi Germany, the Third Reich, let's make it a thousand-year Reich. Let's make it brilliant!" You know, and they embraced science and technology, and pharmacology is all tied in with that. That's why it appeals. So it's not much of a step, is it, from day-to-day domestic use to being used in the armed services? -Yes, yes, you're right. The officers said to the medical officer, "Please, now, give Pervitin to our soldiers." ♪♪ -By May 1940, German troops under the influence of Pervitin have already conquered Poland. Now, Hitler's Army masses for another attack, against France. ♪♪ The British and French armies facing them outnumber the Germans in men, artillery, and even tanks, but the German plan is audacious: built on the use of combined arms; using air power as moving artillery; and what some will call a new method of warfare, which really wasn't new at all. -The German way of war, what has become known as blitzkrieg, has always been traditionally depicted as something kind of new. It isn't. It's an extension of the way of war that Germans have always been practicing and, before Germany became Germany in 1871, the Prussians before them. And it's because they're stuck in the middle of Europe. They don't have those resources of bauxite and copper and iron ore and, more latterly, oil, and food, actually, that you need to protract a long, attritional war. So what do you do? Well, you get round that by fighting your wars with overwhelming force at the point of impact, where you first attack, knocking your enemy off-balance, surrounding them and annihilating them, and you do that incredibly quickly. -At this point in the war, the German army is outgunned and outnumbered. To win, they'll have to move swiftly, with no time for rest. And, like the Luftwaffe, the army also has a secret weapon to help defeat the military commanders' oldest enemy: sleep. ♪♪ -I mean, how much Pervitin was used in 1940? -During the war against France in 1940, there was a delivering of 35 million pills -Ha! -of Pervitin to the Wehrmacht. -Wow. So, literally, just in sort of 10, 12 weeks, they're issuing 35 million tablets of Pervitin? -Yeah, yes. -You know, all-in, there's only about 3 million troops involved in the whole thing. [ Rapid gunfire ] -In the end, the German army pulls off what seemed impossible, even to Hitler. [ Rapid gunfire ] Wehrmacht tanks and foot soldiers managed to fight and march for 10 days straight... ♪♪ ...trapping the entire British army on the beaches of Dunkirk. ♪♪ [ Gunfire ] German troops move an average of 22 miles a day, [ Flames crackling ] under fire. It's considered one of the greatest feats [ Flames crackling ] in military history. -So, obviously, Pervitin keeps you awake, but what else does it do to you? [ Rapid gunfire ] -When you're taking it and you have to do a duty... ♪♪ ...you are focused on it. There was no fear and you don't think about anything else in that moment. -What other side effects are there? -I talked to some veterans who used Pervitin and they said, after doing the duty, they sometimes got frightened -Oh. -because "We were in fear that we could never, ever, sleep again and, when we could not sleep anymore, we must die." ♪♪ -However the drug affects individual soldiers, the larger outcome is clear: German troops, fueled by methamphetamine, crushed the combined arms of Western Europe in little over a week. Nazi tactics and technology seem unstoppable. [ Suspenseful chord strikes ] But did the Wehrmacht truly need a stimulant to achieve victory in 1940? Was marching 22 miles in a single day an amazing pace or has the blitzkrieg tale, like the word itself, been warped into legend over time? ♪♪ Today, Jim's gathered a group of fellow history fanatics to put this question to the test. -The idea is that, rather -- -They start by comparing British and German infantry gear, to see if one was better than the other. -Much more. Just asking. -Taff Gillingham has served as a military consultant for feature films and TV series. -You then don't need to take your eye off the target until you've knocked him over. -He's an expert on Second World War paraphernalia. -Well, Taff, you know, we've got this all laid out. We've got British here, German here. Presumably, this is an ammunition pouch? -That's right. That's the ammunition pouch. You've got three clips in each of those pouches. -I mean, they do love leather, don't they, the Germans? I mean, every bit of it is. It's just leather, leather, leather. -The British had a simpler idea, which was to carry a cotton bandolier, and then you just pull the clips out, ready to push into the rifle. -Hm. ♪♪ -The British kitty is actually pretty quiet because it's all cotton, it's canvas. It doesn't make much noise as you move around. Whereas, the veterans always had this story that you could hear the German Army coming because they sounded like a loose cutlery drawer with all this stuff clinking and clanking away [ Laughter ] as the German -- Exactly. The gas mask tin bouncing around. ♪♪ -I'll take this back. -Next, they'll set out to see just how hard it would've been to cover 22 miles while carrying a 60-pound combat load, with only coffee or tea to keep you going. -That's quite heavy. [laughs] ♪♪ -I can't believe that they'd have walked a long way with a kit like that. -I mean, this is the reason for doing this. It's only when you actually start using this practically that you can understand how people would operate with it back in the day. So the real point of this entire experiment is, after walking 20 miles around here with all this kit, if you've got a drug that can keep you going, can we understand why they're using this in 1940? -Okay. Let's do it. -Let's do it. ♪♪ -My feet are -- Oof. ♪♪ -How's that? -That looks good. -Feels better. Oh, post. ♪♪ Ooh! That's my feet. Now they hurt. ♪♪ [ Grunts ] ♪♪ -Ah! [ Metal clinking ] [ Laughter ] We'll maybe leave that bit out. [ Laughter ] -Two hours and seven miles in, the group breaks for tea. -It's heating up pretty quick, isn't it? -For many Allied soldiers, caffeine was the stimulant of choice. Coffee was so critical to American GI Joes that, today, cup of Joe is synonymous with the drink. -All right, cheers. -I've got my foot out. -Peel your heel off. Where is it? -Just there. -Wiggle your foot. How much am I getting paid for this is all I wanna know. -So, because we're able to take caffeine, we're on these lovely, delicious-looking chocolate, caffeine-enhanced chocolate. So, James, this should send us around the next bit of the march a bit quicker then, eh? -Should do. -Come on, let's go. -Yeah. ♪♪ -They may not be in combat... -Hello, Woofit. -[Barking] -...but they are carrying the same 60-pound load that German and British soldiers would've humped, back in 1940, and it's proving no easy task. -Where's the shortcut, then? ♪♪ -If it's not 100 yards, I'm gonna collapse in a pile, there. [coughing] Oh! Oh. Oh, [bleep] Ow. My feet are broken. ♪♪ My ankles are broke. So, I reckon that 20 miles is achievable, but, day after day, that's a very hard thing to ask for a platoon of soldiers. -Despite bruised ankles, they've logged 14 miles in just under 4 hours. At this pace, they'd have easily hit the 22-mile mark of the Wehrmacht. -You know, they're all trained up for doing this kinda stuff, so you have to think that walking 22 miles a day, over consecutive days, for those guys, really shouldn't have been a massive problem without drugs. [ Band plays march ] I am not convinced that the Germans needed it, at all. ♪♪ -Whether the Wehrmacht needed Pervitin or not, the Nazi victory in France is a stunning one. ♪♪ By June 1940, France has been brought to its knees. ♪♪ The British army lies in tatters and, soon, London itself is ablaze. [ Explosion ] ♪♪ [ Explosion ] [ Flames crackling ] The English are desperate to learn the source of Germany's success... ♪♪ and, when a German plane goes down in the south of England, they find the answer. [ Flames crackling ] Inside, they discover a packet of an unknown substance that holds the key to the Nazis' boundless energy. Lab analysis will soon reveal the substance is methamphetamine, Germany's super-drug. [ Suspenseful chord strikes ] To find out more about the British side of the story, Jim's meeting pharmacology historian Dr. James Pugh. -So, what have you got here? -So I brought some files along which I thought you might be interested in seeing. -Mm-hmm. -The first is a letter to Winston Churchill, in fact. -Oh, really? -And it's actually from his physician, Sir Charles Wilson, letting Churchill know that the British have discovered that Germany is making use of amphetamines in a military context. -Mm! -And suggesting to him that, perhaps, this is something the British need to consider. -I mean, this is a really interesting line: "In short, it was concluded that the drug would be useful to the majority of men if it is desired to keep them strenuously and dangerously active for 24 hours at a stretch." -Germany has occupied France, by this stage, -Mm. -so anything that the British feel they can do to gain an advantage or to level the playing field again is something that they need to consider and I guess you could characterize this as maybe the beginning of a chemical arms race, I suppose. One of the other ways that the drug was used is in its inhaler form. -Gosh, look at that. God, it's like a Vicks inhaler. So you just do this, you just go...? -Yeah, I probably wouldn't do that, at this point, but. -[laughs] No, but I mean, that's the process? -Yeah. -The Allied version of Pervitin was called Benzedrine and, like German speed, it was already used by civilians before the war began. Both drugs make users intensely alert, flooding them with a sense of euphoria. With its added methyl group molecule, Pervitin races across the blood-brain barrier a bit faster than Benzedrine. Otherwise, the two drugs have virtually the same impact. ♪♪ During the battle of Britain, exhausted Spitfire pilots were getting Benzedrine, unofficially, from local pharmacies, but Churchill seems to push things to another level. -So one of the very interesting things is that this is being sent to Churchill and what's important about that is he's a man of science. He's very interested in novel developments and new technologies and stuff and so drugs kind of fit that bill for him. -Soon, the Royal Air Force begins testing Benzedrine under combat conditions. They turn to a 30-year-old flight surgeon, named Roland Winfield, to administer the drug to British air crew and record the reactions. ♪♪ By late 1941, Allied bombers are hitting back. [ Bombs whistling ] [ Explosions ] ♪♪ Long night missions over Nazi Germany, with a fatality rate of more than 45%, are a terrifying ordeal. ♪♪ -You know, that's one of those things where, obviously, so if that can keep you awake and keep you alive, then, you know, clearly, that's a good thing. -I suppose, on the other side of it, too -- -Later, Jim and James head out to explore a British Lancaster bomber, the same type of aircraft in which Roland Winfield conducted the only known combat tests of amphetamines during the war. ♪♪ -These bomb bays are pretty impressive, aren't they? -My goodness. [laughing] That's gigantic. -They can take 6.5 tons. -6.5 tons?! -Yeah. And they can be adapted to take a Grand Slam, which is 10 tons. -10 tons. -I mean, it is incredible, the lift of this. -Just absolutely overwhelmed by the size of it. This is gonna be tight, I reckon, for you, James. -I mean, look at it. [ Knocking, hollow ] It's a tin can, isn't it? -So there's no armor here or anything like this. -No. No. -This is just thin. -And, you know, a cannon shell or a bullet's just gonna rip through. -Rip straight through. -On that Lancaster, you're just thinking, "This is a piece of tin. I'm gonna be shot at. I'm gonna be scared. If I need to escape quickly," [laughs] you know, it's just next to impossible. There are very few concessions to human comfort. -Yeah, yeah. -For me, this is designed for one thing, and one thing only, and that's dropping large amounts of bombs. -Goodness, me, yeah. [ Bomb whistling ] [ Explosions ] -Physically exhausting and terrifying. In the air war over Europe, aviation technology pushes men beyond the limits of human endurance. ♪♪ -You know, I can understand why you would take a Benzedrine pill, you know? -I think I can as well. Just going past the navigator's desk, here. -Again, I mean, look how cramped it is. -It is. And, as you emerge into the cockpit, there's a little bit more space here, I suppose, [laughs] until you try and get in the seat. Case -- Oh, my goodness! This is snug. -Yeah, it really is, isn't it? -[laughing] Yeah, this is snug. -So tell me about Winfield's tests that he was doing. -Yeah, he actually flies with the crews. He administers the drugs in flight, you know; he also administers placebos. And then, yeah, he reports back on the experiences the crews have. ♪♪ -In all, Winfield observed troops who were given amphetamines on 20 RAF missions. ♪♪ -[Indistinct] -I mean, just imagine this, James. You know, you're sitting here, you're piloting this plane. -We're over the lake now. -You know, this is unpressurized, this cabin. -Yeah. -You know, -45°, freezing cold. ♪♪ You've gotta watch out for night fighters and you've got lots of flak coming up. -Yeah, yeah. -The whole thing is terrifying. [ Rapid gunfire ] [ Explosion ] [ Explosion ] -So, after crews have dropped their bombs, they will experience what's known as the post-adrenal crash. So their bodies have been flooded with adrenaline for an extended period of time. That adrenaline starts to leave the body at that point and they become extremely fatigued. This is one of the things that Winfield concludes and he recommends in his reports, is, if you take the drug about an hour and a half before you're going to drop your bombs, the drug will start to sort of act upon your consciousness at that point. ♪♪ -Of all Winfield's findings, perhaps the most influential are his reports describing how air crews high on speed show increased aggression under fire. -One of the things that he notes in his report is an example of an attack, which the air crews actually dive down to a very, very low height and attack a flak [indistinct] -Really, they start shooting it up? -Yeah, yeah. Of course, Winfield is also simultaneously concerned by some of this, too. Ultimately, when the RAF come to think about this drug, they're actually concerned about those effects... -Are you all right? You get any of the baddies? -...where the crews will start to lean on the drugs, as opposed to using them as a tool to help manage their wakefulness. ♪♪ -But if the RAF sees these side effects as a potential problem, the British army sees them as a benefit. ♪♪ Even more than keeping troops awake, British ground commanders want a pill that can make the men fearless. [ Explosions ] ♪♪ By 1942, the Allies are losing massive numbers of soldiers to a byproduct of industrial warfare: shell shock, known today as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Over the course of the conflict, as many as one in three frontline soldiers will be incapacitated by it. -Oh, God, listen! -Benzedrine, it is hoped, might offer a solution. [ Suspenseful music fades ] [ Piano plays melancholy tune ] For this hidden side of the story, Jim's traveling to a small museum connected to a hospital that first treated thousands of shell shock victims during the previous World War. ♪♪ -Well, I suppose, when we think of, well, the concept of war neurosis, shell shock, it really goes back to the first World War, doesn't it? And is that the first time that it starts to become recognized? -I think the stress of combat has always been recognized, certainly from the Crimean War onwards, but what happens in the first World War, is that industry has intensified killing power, so large numbers of soldiers, 60%, are killed by shrapnel, by artillery, by mortars. ♪♪ After the Battle of the Somme, when there's been something like 420,000 casualties, a significant number of those, maybe 50,000 to 60,000, would be shell shock. So it's not only a medical problem, it's also a military problem because this is a war of attrition and, if you're losing large numbers of men to battle exhaustion, to psychiatric breakdown, and you're not able to treat them, then it's eroding your fighting strength. -So, in the treatment of combat fatigue, when do they start looking at drugs? When do they start looking at pharmacology and Benzedrine? -Well, Benzedrine has been introduced to the UK in 1935, but as the war gets closer and closer, senior doctors and commanders recognize that this could have a major beneficial, you know, use, in all three services, in keeping soldiers awake, alert, and boosting their morale in times of stress, so I think the British army used Benzedrine to keep people awake, but also to lift spirits. -So Dr. Jones was very interesting about the use of Benzedrine, not just as a wakey-wakey pill, which is what is was sometimes referred to, but also one that would improve morale, that would give those who took it a sense of kind of well-being and greater physical courage. [ Suspenseful music plays ] -Jim's Glenside visit has given him critical insight. By using the drug as a tool to heighten aggression and lift morale, Britain is raising the stakes in the pharmacological fight against the Nazis, who still primarily see amphetamine as a way to offset fatigue. By 1942, British troops in North Africa are in desperate need of a morale boost. They've retreated across 600 miles of desert, chased by Germany's renowned Africa Corps, and are dug in around a tiny trading post: El Alamein. But in October, a feisty new commander, who is likely familiar with the RAF amphetamine tests, arrives: Bernard Montgomery. He is ready to go on the offensive. -When Montgomery took over, morale in British 8th Army was at rock-bottom and it was one of the things he realized that he had to turn around, by the way he was talking. -I want to impress on everyone that the bad times are over. -And, you know, "There'll be no more retreats," you know, "You're really well-equipped. We're gonna smash the Germans and the Italian forces," and trying to give them a greater sense of self-belief. -We can't stay here alive. They'll never stay here dead. -But if there's a pill that could do part of that job for you, then it's gotta be worth taking. ♪♪ -It's always been a bit of a mystery whether Monty, himself, brought Benzedrine to the desert and whether he truly saw it as a morale builder, but Jim's recently discovered a document from Montgomery's medical officer, QV Wallace, which proves orders for Benzedrine came straight from the top. [ Suspenseful music climbs ] -I've never before seen any direct, written reference in any official capacity, to the mass use of Benzedrine, but Brigadier Wallace's memo absolutely knocks that into touch because there it is, absolutely spelled out. The troops that were involved in the opening stages of the Battle of Alamein were given Benzedrine, not just to keep them going, not just to keep them awake, but also to give them resolve, to give them confidence, to bolster their morale. ♪♪ -By late 1942, the Americans still have not put any boots on the ground in the West, but they do provide a new tank, which will give the British a technological edge in battles to come. ♪♪ -The Sherman is incredibly important when it comes in. They get 300 of them straight into Egypt and they're kinda tested up and made battle-ready. At the time, it is the best tank on the battlefield. You know, it's got this incredibly accurate gun. It's pretty well-armored. It's very easy to maintain. This is a very good tank, which is now entering battle on the British side. -Just like long-range bombers, modern tanks, like the Sherman, were now pushing men to the limits of human endurance, so how welcome would a pill that could offset these conditions be, to those who served? Jim visits an old friend who might be able to help him find out. ♪♪ -Okay, so Jim Clark is a restorer of wartime military vehicles and he's got a whole host of stuff. He's got Jeeps; he's got trucks. But he's also got a Sherman tank. ♪♪ So Jim, one of the things I'm trying to find out a bit is, I mean, obviously you know, when you're in a tank, you're gonna get shot at and that's quite traumatic, but the other thing I'm quite interested in is just what it's like, sort of existing and operating in these tanks 'cause -Yeah. -it's a confined space. You know, man's not really designed for this. Ah! -All right? -We're in! -Right. [ Engine wheezing ] [ Engine starts ] [ Engine revs ] [ Whimsical tune plays ] ♪♪ -It's not an environment that is comfortable, in any shape or form. ♪♪ The smell of the fumes was immense. Very quickly, you start to kind of catch your throat. Oh, dear, I gotta say, the amount of dust is incredible! -The fan that cools the engine -Yeah. draws the air in through the crew compartment. -it gets drawn over you, -[Laughs] -so you get covered in it. ♪♪ -If I'm feeling this amount of grit going into my eyes and up my nose, just from going down a short stretch of track in the middle of winter in England, what's it gonna be like in the desert? It must've just been absolutely impossible. [ Suspenseful music plays ] -"Tank men," wrote one veteran, "fought their war in an enclosed, suffocating, noisy metal box, fearful of being struck and burned alive by an enemy they could not see." [ Explosion ] [ Explosions ] ♪♪ -You really do get a feel of how physically draining it must be to just operate one of these things. ♪♪ So, you can see, can't you, the stress and strain -Yeah. -of doing that? You know, quite apart from the fact that you're, almost on a daily basis, been in battle. -Yeah. The toll of fightin' all day long and then no proper sleep, no rest. Um -- Even if you're sleeping at night, there's probably shelling goin' on, so you probably didn't have much decent rest. [ Gunfire ] -[laughing] And this is just stuffed full of highly explosive material. -Yeah. In the turret basket, I think there's about 15 or rounds. There's probably 20 or 30 on each side. -Yeah, it's a good number. -Yeah, a good number, yeah. Then, there was .50-cal rounds in the base. Then, you got your 160 gallons of fuel. Like a mobile bomb, basically. [ Explosion ] ♪♪ -At El Alamein, the British 24th Armoured Tank Brigade is given the job of punching through German defenses. As the Wallace memo makes clear, on the eve of the attack, each man is given a huge dose of Benzedrine: 20 milligrams per day, twice he amount recommended to RAF pilots. -I know that the 24th Armoured Brigade were issued with Benzedrine because he wanted them to keep going. You know, what he said was the first bit of the battle was gonna be the dogfight. It was gonna be the grinding, attritional battle, and, for that grinding, attritional battle, he wanted his men to keep going. [ Explosions ] -Unlike modern pills, Benzedrine tablets in '42 have no slow-release coating. The full dose will hit all at once. For some soldiers, alertness and euphoria will give way to a false sense of power. ♪♪ In the coming days, the men of the 24th will prove exceedingly aggressive, fatally so. Because, for crewmen of either side, the use of amphetamine will do more than make them more alert. It may suppress a natural reaction in combat: fear. -Fear is about self-preservation. You're scared because you don't want to die. If you take that away and you sort of don't care quite so much, you're not quite so careful. The problem of being charged up on Benzedrine is that your ability to make rational decisions and that normal preservation instinct which kicks in as a result of fear might be absent if you're absolutely pumped on speed. [ Suspenseful chord strikes ] ♪♪ -Even with their new Shermans, hopped-up British soldiers face an array of lethal German anti-tank guns. [ Blast ] [ Explosion ] -What the Germans have is the infamous 88-millimeter, which is a dual-purpose antiaircraft gun. This is something that can hurl a shell 24,000 feet, vertically, into the air and can also be used as an anti-tank gun on a horizontal position, straight at something, and this is firing at 2,900 feet per second. ♪♪ -If their judgment was impaired by high doses of Benzedrine, what kind of fate awaited them? Jim's visiting a military explosives range for a demonstration. ♪♪ Trevor Lawrence runs the COTEC live-fire range on Salisbury Plain, where they test all new ordinance for the British military. -Trevor Lawrence had been there, seen that, done it. I mean, you know, this is a guy who's been clearing mines, clearing IEDs, you know, explosives, in Northern Ireland during the, kind of, height of the Troubles but he also served in, you know, Bosnia during the civil war there; and in Iraq, so, you know, he knew a thing or two about explosives. So, Trevor, what we're trying to replicate is the first Sherman tanks. They're arriving. They're in action at the Battle of Alamein in Egypt in October 1942 and they're under attack from German anti-tank guns, either the 75-millimeter Pak 40, or the 88-millimeter. And what we want to do is replicate what it would be like being in that tank, if you were hit by one of those shells. -O-kay. ♪♪ I've arranged a metal framework. -Yep. -What we're gonna attach to that is a sheet of armored steel and that's the sort of steel that you would've seen on a Sherman tank. Now, rather than actually firing a hardened steel projectile into it, what I'm going to do is I'm going to attach an explosive charge to the plate here. -So, for all purposes, Trevor, that is an 88-millimeter anti-tank round? -Absolutely. As the shock wave runs through the explosive, where it hits the plate, it will produce the same sort of force that you'd get from a kinetic energy round striking the plate. -Wow. Okay. And can we put anything behind here, so you can see, actually, the effect of falling shrapnel? ♪♪ -Well, here comes the tank crew. -Here they are, and little do they know the fate that awaits them. We can put some dummies close to it. -These are our tank crew. -Close in the tank crew, but also to get a better idea of what fragmentation we've got, what we tend to use is a sheet of aluminium and the fragmentation that's falling will go through, punch holes in that, and it'll give us a good idea of just how much has been produced. -Wow, that sounds amazing. [ Birds chirping ] -At Alamein, imperceptible desert ridges often concealed German 88s. If Benzedrine led British tank crews to abandon caution and charge recklessly into hidden enemy guns, the results would've been devastating. -Go ahead. -Stand by. [ Birds chirping ] -Three, two, one. Firing. [ Explosions ] -Whoa! ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Oh, my goodness, me. Look at that! -It does not look very well for our driver, does it? -No, it doesn't. Ouch. ♪♪ So, really interesting, when we got there, we had a look at it. You could see that it was just this little kind of marble, small, little kind of circle where it had actually punched all the way through, but then, you look on the reverse side. Oh, my goodness, me. So a huge bit of metal has just disintegrated and it's just shattered. -There we go. -Oh, my god! -Right in the center of the chest. -And look at all these. -But also, look at, see all this other fragmentation. -On the head. -'Cause, although it's come off in one big scab, it's also sent all these other, smaller fragments out. [ Melancholy tune plays ] -Both of them had been absolutely covered with little splinter marks all over, each one of which could've been entirely lethal. That's just the -- -That's just the blast has just smashed his chest in. -Shrapnel melted onto the aluminium, and you can just imagine your crew member, behind these two, all into me, into the shells. -Oh, it would be impossible to survive. Absolutely impossible. -I've interviewed so many people that have been in this situation, that have been in tanks, have served in tanks. ♪♪ What I never fully appreciated was the pressure blast from the force of a shell like that hitting another and penetrating and transferring that huge force into the confined space of a tank. If you're in an environment like a tank, that shrapnel that's falling would've just pinged all around here and you think about all that ordinance we've just been talking about. -Yeah. You know, it's only got one of those that's gotta penetrate one of the propellant charges on one of those shells and it's you're in big trouble, -Yeah. -aren't you? [ Rumbling ] -Having taken huge doses of Benzedrine, the 24th Armoured Brigade sets out for battle. ♪♪ With new Sherman tanks leading the way, troops exhibit hyperaggressive behavior some historians attribute to the drug. ♪♪ By battle's end, the brigade suffers 80% casualties and ceases to exist. ♪♪ -By the end of it, they're absolutely shattered. Where's the escape hatch? Oh, there. -There, yeah. -Jesus. -But you've got seconds to do it. If you think -Yeah. -you may be on fire and maybe your crew members are also in agony and you [indistinct] to save them or save yourself. -Yeah. ♪♪ -Yeah, you know, it's -- [sigh] There's protection here, to a point, but, I don't really wanna be in a tank crew. -No. It is sad. -Yeah. ♪♪ -So, can you see if someone's -- If the medical officer of the regiment said, "Look, here you go. Here's a Benzedrine pill. This will keep you going," you'd be quite tempted to take that? -Yeah. I think, if it works, I think I'd be well up for it. [ Suspenseful music plays ] ♪♪ -On November 8, 1942, a month after Alamein, American GIs finally enter ground combat in North Africa. [ Blasting ] [ Explosion ] [ Gunshot zips ] They carry with them packets of Benzedrine. [ Blast ] After the British victory at Alamein, US General Dwight Eisenhower orders some half-million tablets for American troops. ♪♪ But, just as the Allies are doubling down on speed, the Nazis are reconsidering its use. Ironically, Hitler's Reich health leader has concerns about the addictive nature and dangerous side effects of amphetamine and, although German soldiers will continue to use it sporadically, the drug is severely restricted, especially for civilian use. Still, Hitler's infatuation with science and technology remains strong. [ Birds chirping ] [ Melancholy tune plays ] By late '44, with his navy in tatters, the Fuehrer looks to a bizarre wonder weapon, that, with the help of amphetamines, might turn the tide. ♪♪ In the end, Jim returns to Germany, to visit the site of one of the first Nazi concentration camps. ♪♪ -In November 1944, some 40,000 men are stuck in this camp. -What's it designed for? -10,000? -Okay, so four times more than there should've been. -Four times more. ♪♪ Germany had lost the war -Of course. -already and the sphere of influence of the German navy was reduced to the Baltic Sea. Everything else was controlled by the British. So these small submarines were constructed, mainly for espionage. [ Suspenseful music plays ] -In addition to espionage, Hitler's minisubs were also equipped with single torpedoes, designed to sink Allied ships moving supplies and troops across the English Channel. -They were very small. Only one or two soldiers could sit in it and they have to sit there for 48 hours, without sleeping, without getting up, without anything, so they needed a drug to keep them awake for that time. -God! It's just unimaginable, isn't it? So you need this drug to keep you going and to keep, but also presumably to keep your spirits up as well. -Yeah. They were testing different drugs and comparing it, wanting to find out which drug keeps the people awake for the longest time with the smallest side effects. This is the secret report on the experiments and this gives the four different substances: A, B, C, D. The first is cocaine, [speaking German] in different doses. Second is cocaine in chewing gum. Pervitin in a chewing gum. -But 100 milligrams, I mean, that's a huge dose! -Yeah. It's a huge dose, indeed. The men must have been completely stoned. 100 milligrams is really a lot. -I mean, can you imagine it? You know. You're a young member of the German navy, you've been singled out to man one of these submarines. You're chewing on gum that has been laced with cocaine and methamphetamines. I mean, we're talking crystal meth, here, and you're chewing away on this thing in this tiny, tight little cockpit, and, you know, you're high on speed. I mean, it's just, it's insane. I mean, it is absolutely insane. -To test the stimulants, the German navy decides to force Sachsenhausen prisoners to take the drugs and then carry sacks of rocks around the camp's infamous shoe track. -So this is the testing track. It was. -This one, here? -This, here. It was once around the roll call area and it was covered with different materials. So here you would have sand, the next one is concrete, small gravel. And the reason for setting it up was the testing of artificial leather. ♪♪ Germany did not have leather; they always imported leather -Right. -and, when they started the war, [laughing] nobody wanted to sell them leather, so they ordered companies to develop artificial -- -Fake leather. -Artificial leather, yeah. -God, it's absolutely fascinating. I had no idea. -And it's quite hard to walk on here, isn't it? -It is, yeah. -If you have to march, it's not so easy. [ Melancholy tune plays ] Sachsenhausen was designed by an architect and the architect wanted to give a message with the architecture of the camp. With the one tower as the highest point, every morning, the prisoners had to stand on the roll call area, being counted, and, up here, there was a huge machine gun. For the prisoners down there, looking into the eye of this machine gun up here, the message was, "You're completely in our hands. You're completely helpless and we can do whatever we want." [ Buzzing ] -I mean, it's doing exactly what it's designed to do. I mean, you can feel it, even just standing up here. -Yeah. ♪♪ -What a grim place. ♪♪ -After the minisubs fail and his army falters, Hitler, who may himself have been addicted to drugs by war's end, takes his own life. Luftwaffe commander and heroin addict Hermann Goering does the same. [ Rattling ] But Benzedrine and Pervitin live on. [ Suspenseful music plays ] -During the Second World War, one of the things that it certainly does do is it familiarizes hundreds of thousands of individuals with a drug that perhaps they otherwise wouldn't have used. So it sort of normalizes the use of that drug and it sort of reinforces its position as a useful tool. ♪♪ -By the 1950s, amphetamines are being marketed as a diet pill and mood enhancer. Bennie inhalers are offered on airplane menus. Celebrities, ranging from Marilyn Monroe to Jack Kerouac, are avid users. Soon, millions are abusing speed, in what is now considered America's first prescription-drug epidemic. [ Applause ] One likely user is a young combat vet from Massachusetts, named John F. Kennedy. -Picking this country of ours up and sending it into the '60s. [ Cheering ] -When I first embarked on this investigation, I was a bit scandalized that so much speed was taken during the Second World War and how outrageous that was. -World War II military leaders saw amphetamines as simply another technological tool, like rockets and radar, tools that changed the world forever. -For us, in the 21st century, drugs are bad, amphetamines are bad. Speed is a dodgy word. You've got to see this in the light of the 1930s and the 1940s. World War II takes place over six years. A lot is being expected of the young men [ Gunshots ] of the major combatant nations, and, is it any wonder, in this life-and-death struggle for the future of the world, that people are going to be looking at drugs that can keep people awake, that can keep morale improved? It's absolutely no wonder at all. [ Suspenseful music climbs, chords striking ] 1/25/2026 citation https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/12353-with-the-heritage-of-meth-drug-dealing-in-the-usa-from-the-1940s-was-its-current-potency-in-modernity-an-inevitability/#findComment-79703 osted just now @Pioneer1 5 hours ago, Pioneer1 said: I wonder what goes through people's minds when they first try drugs like Meth or Crack. What are they thinking....that THEY won't be addicted? why didn't you mention cocaine? crack is merely cheap cocaine? crack is like those dollar beers fiscally poor people drink at times, it isn't 100 proof vodka , far from it but it does have alcohol in it. Cocaine is more potent than crack and cocaine mountains have always existed downtown manhatten in white offices and homes of the upper or lower rich and upper poor whites. What are white people thinking? I find it interesting you singled out meth and crack but didn't mention opium which is where the opiods from from, or cocaine where the crack comes from? @ProfD 5 hours ago, ProfD said: German soldiers high as a kite were able to brave the elements & sleep deprivation in order to fight & felt nothing when they were killed. don't exaggerate, "felt nothing when they were killed" next you will say, they ate things that made a billy goat puke . no need for all of that 5 hours ago, ProfD said: Ovet the past 50+ years, drugs both legal & illegal has been the most profitable war waged against humans. In my view the most profitable enterprise is enslavement. The key today post jim crow is how enslavement has been finessed into ways, the days of crude, shackle on the throat enslavement is rare to see in the wealhy countries of the world, but slavery is still king for me. Interesting you worded it, war waged against humans... may I know who waged said war against humans? don't say the martians. @Pioneer1 4 hours ago, Pioneer1 said: Look at how many people are addicted to Red Bull and those Monster drinks. Now they're guzzling down those 5 hour energy shot which are straight up drugs in my opinion. ...cocaine in a bottle. lets add gambling, let's not limit addiction to substanced, i argue gambling is far more potent, if you consider how many people play the lotto in humanity, i am speaking of the lotto exists in every country with money, think about that: india/china/russia/usa/england/australia/brazil, every country has lotto or similar forms of gambling, that use of wealth that goes nowhere but to the tables pockets, alot of drugs get daily use and not just powders and elixers. @ProfD 3 hours ago, ProfD said: Follow the money. The economy is fueled by all types of drugs and the conditions, industries & jobs created by demand for it including law enforcement, judicial, hospitals & prisons. well said and I may add, this goes back to the end of the enslavement era in the usa, 1865. and back to the issue of bankruptcy and financial failure. All white wealth in the usa stems from cheating in the marketplace not penalized in contracts /illegalities not penalized in the courtroom/crimes legally allowed. This is financial fact. So it makes sense that any crime legally allowed, like drugging people, or illegalities not taken to courtroom like burning black towns and assaulting black people, will have its versions in the future. OR lastly but very important in the modern, many whites are able to benefit from the wealth gained by their bloodline in the past through various illegalities or criminalities that in modernity are inheritances, which non blacks similarly never or rarely have. BUT, my thoughts go to the black populace in the usa. The relation is simple What is black wealth over time in the usa? Black labor[education or time]+ Black drive[ambition]+ black inheritance[parents or community financing, mostly nonexistent until the 1980s]+Black networking[ connections to those black with wealth] What is white wealth over time in the usa? white inheritance[ existent since 1492 through all means of criminal or illegal behavior]+ White education[labor or time]+White drive[ambition]+White networking[ connection to whites with wealth, ala ivy league schools original purpose] Black wealth over time in the usa by those elements can never be greater than white wealth over time unless one thing happens, white inheritance has to reduce tremendously. With that it invalidates black people who mention black wealth in the usa, because I don't see the numbers add up. White networking has hundreds of years of advantage over black networking which whites wouldn't allow till the very late 1900s. White inheritance has hundreds of years of advantage over black inheritance which whites wouldn't allow till the very late 1900s. so... I don't see how the numbers add up for black people in the usa who talk of financial leaping when the white neighbor has a huge advantage built by their forebears at the detriment to our own over centuries. @Pioneer1 2 hours ago, Pioneer1 said: Now you have to go to a Whole Foods or GNC or some independent health food store to get the real stuff that actually works or that is potent. the answer is grow your own, but again, who stole or took black peoples land int the usa or the colonies that preceded it for hundreds of years... The sad thing about DOSers in particular is we all know if we know anything about our bloodlines history that whites took advantage of us. took land by all sorts of means from our forebears, to make sure we today didn't have land to be inherited. and then now in 2026, after white people took land our forebears could had given us over and over again over centuries, we are supposed just magically acquire land absent any inheritance what so ever. magically gain wealth absent any inheritance. magically just financially come up with gold. 1/25/2026 Citation https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/12353-with-the-heritage-of-meth-drug-dealing-in-the-usa-from-the-1940s-was-its-current-potency-in-modernity-an-inevitability/#findComment-79734 ted just now @Pioneer1 3 hours ago, Pioneer1 said: street drug yeah drug, i will love for black people to say suburban drug 3 hours ago, Pioneer1 said: You must have read that post in between your visits to the blood bank to make your hourly deposit....lol. in for a penny, in for a pound 3 hours ago, Pioneer1 said: However gambling usually doesn't pose a danger to others outside of those who are participating....usually. no pioneer, deeper research 3 hours ago, Pioneer1 said: You rarely hear about gambling addicts trying to rob a store or selling their children to support their habits. yeah in the same way you rarely hear about white priest crimes or white welfare recipient violence or... well, white opiod addiction not too long ago... when white people commit crimes, most in the usa rarely hear anything about it. but you got to have money to gamble, people of color historically don't have that.

Lucy Worsley on the Gunpowder Plot - January 23rd 2025 https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2831&type=status MY THOUGHTS Vendetta comes from the latin vindicare meaning "force to proclaim" . I modulate into a precise wordage " a tactile nonverbal action to speak". A vendetta is a tactile nonverbal action to speak. The questions is clear, what leads someone to choose speaking with tactile nonverbal action in opposition to other forms? The episode in defense explains the guides: bloody tactile actions that a person can deem as an assault on a member of their community by another community or the government, legal actions that a financially affluent person in a community can deem restrictive or inequal by another community or the government , a vibe to another community or the government that a person in a community is empowered by, an individual in a community who has the will to harm others through tactile means. Guy Fawkes and his accomplices had it all: examples of individuals murdered by the government for being a member of their community in all their memory, government sanctions or restrictions on the wealthy members of their group for being members of their community, an energy in their community to commit acts of violence toward the government, themselves as willing members of their community to commit vendetta. One of the modern tricks of governments, stemming from the usa, is learning how to maintain and embrace the fiscally wealthy in each community such that the financing or resources to vendetta by abused communities, ala first peoples in the usa or black descended of enslaved in the usa, doesn't have their own wealthy backing it. This is a huge deterrent to vendetta occurring in the usa. the group I call the Black fiscal aristocracy in the usa has never been blockaded completely and always embraced more and more by the white fiscal aristocracy or the usa federal/state/city governments the white fiscal aristocracy control. The older governments in humanity allowed union of the fiscal groups in oppressed communities in their borders, the usa and the worlds governments influenced by it, still abuse, still create daily examples of inequal abuse, still has those in abused populae who want to vendetta but the fiscally wealthy in most abused populaces is treated disfavorably but not restricted or blockaded. TRANSCRIPT ♪ Lucy Worsley: Midnight on the 4th of November, 1605. [Wind blowing] ♪ In a cellar deep below Parliament, a man called Guy Fawkes prepares to light the fuse of a deadly attack planned by a small network of men... ♪ determined... [Crackling] to destroy the king and his government. [Cawing] Unstopped, this one explosion... [Crack] could have changed the history of Britain entirely. So what were the steps, the causes, and connections that led these men to attempt to blow up Parliament. ♪ [Explosion] [Cawing] ♪ In this series, I'm reinvestigating some of the most dramatic and brutal chapters in British history. Oh, yes, here we go. Man: And now you're face to face with William the Conqueror. Woman: They know that sex sells and that violence sells. Worsley: These stories form part of our national mythology. They harbor mysteries that have intrigued us for centuries. It turns very dark here. Woman: Clearly showing us-- Worsley: Refugees. There are such graphic images of religious violence. But with the passage of time, we have new ways to unlock their secrets using scientific advances and a modern perspective. He was what we would now call a foreign fighter. Worsley: I'm going to uncover forgotten witnesses. I'm going to reexamine old evidence and follow new clues... The human hand. to get closer to the truth. It's like fake news. Worsley: You're questioning whether we can actually take that seriously as a piece of evidence. ♪ [Explosion] ♪ Worsley: I'm deep beneath the streets of London on the trail of a group of men who many would now call domestic terrorists. Ah, here it is. These are the Gunpowder Plotters, the infamous Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators, who on the 5th of November, 1605, tried to blow up a packed parliament in the name of their Catholic faith. I think that this image shows just how sanitized this story has become. Every year, much of Britain still celebrates Guy Fawkes Night, his night, on the 5th of November. The Gunpowder Plot has become a nice, family-friendly party night with bonfires and fireworks and an engraving that's safe enough to be shown on the Tube. But this is not a safe story. ♪ Back in 1605 when Guy Fawkes was caught, the ports were closed, people panicked. The state focused all its attention on tracking down and executing the group of would-be killers. ♪ [Chains rattling] ♪ I want to investigate how these men reached the extreme, how they connected with others and came to believe that the answer to their problems was wiping out the seat of power. This was a dangerously radicalized network of men. They were willing to risk everything to kill hundreds, if not thousands, of people for their cause, but what made them unite and plan this really monumental act of violence? ♪ We tend to forget the names or even the existence of most of the plotters, yet even as children, they had connections to each other... so to uncover the roots of their radicalization, I'm starting this investigation by going back much earlier than most people do, to their childhoods. ♪ 3 of the future conspirators, John Wright and his brother Christopher Wright, as well as Guy Fawkes, all went to the same school, growing up in the city of York. ♪ [Bells tolling] ♪ Amazing. ♪ This is Saint Michael Le Belfrey Church, which has been active for nearly 500 years. It's currently undergoing a major renovation, but I've been allowed to come in to take a look at the church records. ♪ This book contains the first written record of Guy Fawkes. Here he is, the third one down. It says, "Guy Fawkes, the son of Edward Fawkes, was christened," here in this church in 1570. But there's something else I want to look at in this book to get a sense of Guy's early life. Oh, yes! Here it is. A list of burials from 8 years later, 1578, and among the people who've died is...Edward Fawkes. That's Guy's father, so Guy lost his father when he was still a child, and there's something else here, too. It's quite tricky to read, but it says he was registrar and advocate of the consistory court of the cathedral, so that means he was a lawyer working in the church court. That would have been dealing with cases like the annulment of people's marriages, that sort of thing, and it's interesting because it means that Guy's father was working for the church, and at the time, that meant the Protestant church. ♪ So Guy, who will ultimately die for a Catholic cause, is born a Protestant. ♪ In the late 16th century, faith had the power to dictate life on Earth and beyond. Protestants and Catholics disagreed on the route to salvation. Picking the wrong side meant the difference between heaven and hell. ♪ In the 1580s, Guy's mother remarried into a Catholic family. Around this time, Guy became a convert. When Guy converted to Catholicism, he must have felt that this was the only way to obey God and ultimately to go to heaven, but in the eyes of the state, he was utterly wrong. The Protestant Queen Elizabeth was on the throne, and by the 1580s, when the young Guy was walking these streets, Catholicism was effectively banned. Not going to Protestant church could mean fines or even prison. Catholic priests were outlaws, and protecting priests meant real danger. When Guy was in his teens, a local woman called Margaret Clitherow-- she was the wife of a butcher-- was accused of hiding priests in her house. As a result of this, she was brought to the middle of York, and she was very publicly killed. ♪ I want to know what effect this event might have had on Guy Fawkes and the other York-based conspirators, the Wrights, who were from a known Catholic family, and there's a tantalizing clue in the city's Bar Convent. ♪ Worsley: Hannah, what is this completely extraordinary object? So we are looking at the hand of Margaret Clitherow. -The hand? -The hand. -The human hand? -The human hand. This is a relic taken at some point by her followers so they had something to remember her by, to keep safe. Can you tell me a bit of Margaret's story? She's somebody who converts to Catholicism in her 20s, and then she runs runs a sort of secret Catholic network, safe homes for priests. She's imprisoned 3 times over a 7-year period, and then in 1585, the law changes, and it makes it a capital offense to harbor a priest, and then under that law, she is prosecuted, so she refuses to plead guilty or not guilty to protect people around her. So the sentence that's actually passed on her is to be crushed until she enters a plea or until she dies. To be--to be what? -To be crushed? -Crushed? -Yes. Yes. -Ohh! That is terrible. Yeah. It's a particularly brutal death. There's a sharp stone put under her back, a door is laid on top of her, and then heavy weights are put on top of the door, so they're constantly added, so it gets heavier and heavier, and obviously, naturally, I think she lasts about 15 minutes. It's a particularly horrific way to die, very public, quite undignified. So she's stripped. She's just in her kind of linen shift. And people are watching this. People are watching. There's a huge crowd watching it. Is it possible that Guy Fawkes was present at this public spectacle of execution? It's very possible. A lot of the Catholics in the city were there. We know that there are accounts of there being a really large crowd. So even if they weren't there necessarily in person at the execution, then we know they would have heard about the story. So we've got the manuscript biography of her life, which was circulated amongst the Catholic community, and then we've got a little sort of picture, as well, which does a similar job. So it's a little engraving of her execution, so the death is happening here at the background. And they're putting the weights on. -Putting the weights on. -Gosh. And again, you could pass this around the community. You could share the story. That's such a powerful image, isn't it? "This is what those Protestants have done to us." It must have been a hugely, viscerally distressing experience for everybody. I think it must have had a massive impact. The two other gunpowder plotters, John and Christopher Wright, they were possibly there, as well. So the men that were to later on become the Gunpowder Plotters, you know, they're in their teens at this point, and then this story becomes a sort of what if that was my mother, or what if that was our family? Changes their whole world to be labeled as a Catholic. It's not just a case of where do they go to church on a Sunday. It's a real sort of everyday struggle. There's constant persecution. I'm thinking if I were a Catholic this might well make me paranoid, but in a sense that paranoia is completely justified. There are people out to kill them. Yeah, absolutely. It is a stark reminder of the realities of what they're doing. ♪ Worsley: The violent death of Margaret Clitherow must have had a seismic effect on the community here in York, where Guy Fawkes and some of the other future plotters were teenagers. This was an impressionable age for them, and I can imagine that if you were recently converted to Catholicism or thinking about becoming a Catholic, then this must have had a real impact. I'm not saying that watching somebody being killed for their religion justifies the killing of other people. Absolutely not, but I think I can begin to glimpse the sort of effect it might have had on Guy Fawkes. To him, religion must have started to feel like it was a matter of life and death. [Bells tolling] We can never know exactly what the young Guy Fawkes thought about his home country and the ruling regime at this time... [Water sloshing] but we do know he decided to leave. In his early 20s, Guy went to Europe to fight for Catholic Spain in its wars against the Protestant Dutch... ♪ but he was becoming a soldier. He's not an extremist yet... ♪ and although Guy has today become the face of the Gunpowder Plot, it wasn't his idea. To understand what drove this plan for radical violence, I'm going to have to follow a different line of inquiry to look at the man credited with coming up with the plot, the ringleader Robert Catesby. ♪ I've come to Ashby Manor in Northamptonshire, which belonged to the Catesby family. Ashby is mentioned in letters between the conspirators as a base where they could meet, and hidden away here is the perfect room. This is the gatehouse. It's supposed to be a good place for plotting because it's at a distance from the main house over there. That's so Robert Catesby's mum didn't need to know what was going on, and it's here they had some of the meetings to plan the gunpowder attack on Westminster. ♪ [Hushed] It happened here. ♪ The other conspirators later talked about Catesby as a charismatic man who drew them into the Gunpowder Plot... but this wasn't the first uprising Robert Catesby had been involved with. [Priest speaking Latin] 4 years earlier in 1601, Catesby had joined an attempted coup known as the Essex Rebellion. This wasn't a Catholic plot, but a power grab within the court of Elizabeth I, which attracted a range of disaffected groups. ♪ To try to understand Catesby's motivations, I'm meeting a historian who studied the evidence for his life. We're sat here in one of the Catesby family's homes. Can you tell me a bit about Robert's background? Well, he's from a prominent gentry family, who are descended from one of the cronies of Richard III, but by the 1580s, Catesby's father is known as one of the kind of leading Catholic gentlemen in the area. He is somebody who we call a recusant, who pays fines for not attending the Church of England services, and he's seen as potentially troublesome to the regime. So like father, like son, there's a history of being a Catholic agitator. Yeah. Catesby's father William Catesby, as far as we know, did not get involved in any schemes that involved violent action, and he declared that he was a loyal subject of the Crown, just not of the church. [Indistinct voices] So in that sense, Robert Catesby is of a generation that has decided that violent action is now necessary because they can't see that their situation and the situation of those who are suffering for their religion is going to become any better. [Indistinct voices] For Catesby, the outlawing of his religion meant you're not really-- you can't participate in the state. You're not anything we'd call a citizen, and for a member of the gentry, that means really, you can't live the kind of life to which you are born properly. He seems to have been extremely ambitious but also possessed of this kind of desire for action. We have records of him in conversation with Catholic priests saying, "I cannot wait. "I cannot wait for Catholicism "to be restored by Providence. I have to act now." -He's an action man. -He's an action man. Alexandra, what happens to the people who were involved in the Earl of Essex's rebellion? Well, Essex himself, with a handful of his really close conspirators are executed. They're beheaded, but a much larger number of them are imprisoned and fined quite significantly. This document says, "The names of those that are fined and reserved to Her Majesty's use," and here we see the name of Robert Catesby. 4,000 marks. That's a pretty big fine. It's difficult to make these kinds of calculations, but we think that's, at a very low estimate, at least £4 million today. Gosh. And what does it mean to be reserved to Her Majesty like that? That means, theoretically, to be imprisoned or to be placed under some kind of close confinement -such as house arrest? -Gosh. He's certainly, from this point, on the radar of the Privy Council and the Crown as somebody who might be a potential threat. Just before Elizabeth's death, he's one of a number of Catholic gentlemen who are placed under some kind of confinement and watch. They're described as hunger starved for innovation. That means that they're seen as seditious. They want some kind of change, and he's seen as a kind of turbulent spirit, who might be dangerous. ♪ Worsley: It seems to me that Robert Catesby was a desperate man... so keen for change that it was already landing him in trouble. Elizabethan rule had been hard on these Catholic families. There was a mood of anger... ♪ but I want to examine why that anger then grew into extremism under a different monarch... ♪ because the Gunpowder Plot took place two years after the death of Elizabeth. In 1603, King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England. ♪ Catholics like Robert Catesby could find reasons to be optimistic. ♪ King James was Protestant, but his mother had been the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, and James' own wife had converted to Catholicism, suggesting his children could be brought up in the faith. ♪ James was the leader many Catholics had hoped for. In fact, one of the plotters-- Thomas Percy was his name-- had even met up with James before he'd taken the English throne in order to discuss toleration for Catholics. ♪ So why would the plotters turn from being hopeful about the new king to wanting to kill him? James' biographer believes that a book written by the king himself reveals a reason why the plotters might have felt betrayed. So this is James' "Basilikon Doron," or "The Kingly Gift," and it's a sort of how to be a king that James had written to his son Prince Henry, and it was first written in 1599 when he was King of Scotland but then became a mammoth bestseller in England upon his accession to the English throne in 1603. What kind of insights do we get from the book then? We get some quite surprising insights into how James might have operated. One of those is the idea of being economical with the truth. Is that OK? Well, for James it is at times. So in this passage in the 1603 edition, he says that "it may be thought a point "of imbecility of spirit in a king to speak obscurely, much more untruly." So that means you've got to be a straight talker -to be a good king. -That's exactly right. In the 1603 edition. In the earliest forms of the text, however, in 1599, it's a little bit different. No way. What does he say? So I've got here the older Scottish version from 1599. "The king must not speak obscurely, "much more untruly, except some unhappy mutiny "or sudden rebellion were blazed up. "Then indeed it is a lawful policy to bear "with that present fiery confusion by fair general speeches." What a dirty devil! So he's saying, if there's a crisis going on, it's OK not to tell the truth. -Absolutely. -To say things that are kind of meaningless just to-- just to smooth things over. Yes. That's right, and indeed, he goes on to say, "keeping you as far as you can from direct promises." So give them the brush off. So if that's his true thought-- and I can imagine him coming to England and saying all of these kind things about the Catholics-- -Mm. -is that how they got the idea that he was going to tolerate them. Uh, yes, on one level, I think that is true. Before he is safely ensconced on the English throne, he is trying to appeal to different audiences who might be useful to him in bringing about a smooth course to succeed to Elizabeth's throne, almost like a politician seeking election, and when James came south in the spring of 1603, things did get lighter for Catholics. Fines on Catholics for nonattendance at church were greatly alleviated, so James gives off these signals. He's able to leave people thinking that they have been listened to. In that sense, he's a slippery character at times, but that does then pose some problems because the hopes that they had in him turn out not to be quite what they had thought. ♪ Worsley: The king's attitude towards Catholics soon hardened. In March 1604, James made a proclamation to Parliament, making it clear he was never going to tolerate Catholicism. He ordered the deportation of Jesuit priests, accusing them of being a malevolent foreign influence. The fines Queen Elizabeth had established for not going to church were soon reintroduced and backdated. There was a sense of doors closing. The options for toleration were shutting down. ♪ For an already frustrated man like Robert Catesby, all this must have felt like a real blow, perhaps even a provocation... ♪ but while these events were unfolding in England, Guy Fawkes was hundreds of miles away. ♪ So how far down the road to extremism was he? ♪ When King James came to the throne, Guy Fawkes had been in Europe for about a decade, fighting for Catholic Spain. ♪ His name appears on lists of soldiers, but there's very little detail... ♪ but to get a sense of how Guy was feeling about events in England... ♪ I tracked down some evidence in a Spanish historical archive in Simancas. This is a document that's supposed to be written rather excitingly by Fawkes himself. Now it's in Spanish--ahh! And I can see what he's done. He's changed his name to the more Spanish-sounding Guido. He's become Guido Fawkes here. It's from 1603, and Guido Fawkes is reporting news to the royal court in Spain. ♪ The subject is the new King James, and this English translation exposes the true nature of Guy's position. It says here that James is a heretic and that he's determined to "tyrannize" the English Catholics. That's a strong word. Guy goes on to claim there's infighting in James' court. It appears he's deliberately undermining the new king. He's telling the Spanish that England is not a happy place, especially for Catholics. ♪ It's likely that by spreading these stories Guy was hoping Spain would step in and help. ♪ Spain had been at war with England since the mid 1580s. [Men shouting] [Explosions] In 1588, the fleet of the Spanish Armada had attempted to invade England. Ever since, English Catholics had lobbied Spain to try again or at least support a rebellion. ♪ And there's another document here that I think suggests just how desperate for change Guy was. Hmm. This is--this is amazing. This is Guy imagining the future. He's drafted a proclamation that's to be handed out to English people after an imaginary future foreign invasion, so he's literally making plans for there to be a new regime in England, and hidden inside what he's written is this fascinating point. He says that God is going to be OK if you use violence, provided you've been oppressed and when no other remedy is offered. So what he's saying is that when there's no other option, violence is justified in the eyes of God. Guy's ready to fight back. ♪ Guy wasn't the only person hoping Spain would help the English Catholics. Catesby and other plotters, too, appealed to the Spanish for aid. It was their last big hope, but Spain was short of cash. War was expensive, So in 1604, Spain and England signed a peace treaty. This must have left the English Catholics feeling alone. The cavalry were not coming, and perhaps this was the final twist in the screw that made Catesby and the other conspirators feel that it was down to them. Nobody was going to help them. They must take drastic action. ♪ Within a year of James' coronation, Catesby had begun to gather a small group of men to plot a major uprising. John Wright had grown up in York and, like Catesby, had been part of the Essex Rebellion. Thomas Wintour was Robert Catesby's cousin and a relative of one of the priests hidden by Margaret Clitherow. ♪ To get inside the heads of these plotters as they made their early plans, I've come to Hatfield House, built by Robert Cecil, the Secretary of State, who oversaw the Gunpowder Plot investigations. ♪ Among Cecil's papers here are the confessions of core conspirator Thomas Wintour. These are key, key sources for what happened in the Gunpowder Plot. A lot of the detail comes out here about what was happening in the room when the conspirators were actually having these dangerous conversations. It's like being a fly on the wall. Wintour talks here about the first time Robert Catesby told him he'd thought of a way to bring back the Catholic religion to England. "In a word," Catesby says, "it was to blow up the Parliament House with gunpowder." There it is. "In that place have they... done...us all the mischief." So he means "in that place, the Parliament, they have done the bad things to us Catholics," and--oh--this is-- it turns very dark here, And he says, "Perchance God "has designed that place for their punishment. "For what they've done "to the members of the Catholic faith, these people in the Parliament have to die." ♪ In a single blast, they would take out the entire structure of power. Targeting the opening day of Parliament meant the king and most of his family would be at Westminster. So would members of the House of Lords and MPs, who all had a say in making the law, but there has to be more to the plot than this. The explosion was supposed to cause huge confusion in London, and the plotters were going to go galloping up to the Midlands to rouse their supporters for a rebellion. They were also going to kidnap the king's daughter, his little girl, and set her up as a Catholic puppet queen. So this was supposed to be regime change, new monarch, new government. Catesby was building his team and knew exactly who he needed. Down here, we get for the first time the mention of a very significant name in connection with the plot. Catesby tells Wintour to go abroad, to go to the Spanish Netherlands, and to bring back with him "some confident gentleman." That means a gentleman he can trust, "such as you shall understand best able for this business and named unto me Mr. Fawkes." ♪ So why was this Guy Fawkes the best man for the job? ♪ By the time Wintour went to recruit Guy Fawkes, Guy had been a soldier fighting in a holy war for most of his adult life. ♪ That must have given him a key practical skill. ♪ He was likely to have worked with gunpowder. This wasn't a suicide mission. The plan was to light the fuse and escape. Guy Fawkes should have had the know-how to do just that... ♪ but I'm interested in how else Guy's experience abroad might have influenced him. Now, even though there's a great mass of 17th century documentation about the Gunpowder Plot, it's still quite hard for me to grasp what pushed Guy over the edge, what turned him from being a rebel who wanted change into an absolute radical willing to kill? ♪ I'm intrigued. if modern knowledge of extremism can help me understand the lengths to which Guy was willing to go, so I've enlisted the help of a journalist and author who's written extensively on terror, and particularly al Qaeda. Jason, why do you think the plotters go abroad to recruit Guy Fawkes? Because it's abroad that they'll find exactly the person they need. The one thing that's really clear about more recent plots, those in the last few decades, is that spending time overseas and then coming back is absolutely crucial. If they're overseas or, in fact, if they're just a long way from home, they can be kept in an environment where the radicalization process is really very intense. There are no other influences getting in. It's just the group, the ideology, the other people in that group. Someone who's involved in terrorist training said to me once that the only way that he could take a teenager and turn them into the kind of extremist actor that he wanted was by taking them away from their home, and you put them in a kind of camp somewhere in a particular environment where you're surrounded by people who are committed to the same cause. That will work. I mean, he said to me, "If they go back to their mum every night, forget it. That's not gonna happen." If a if they're in an environment that's outside their own kind of domestic environment, then you can really see that the radicalization processes will happen quite fast. Do you think it's significant that Guy Fawkes himself had been working as a soldier? Oh, yeah, very much so. In that real kind of hothouse environment, his commitment and his tolerance for violence, also, will be reinforced, get higher and higher and higher, so I think it's really important that he was what we would now call a foreign fighter. He got skills, got psychologically hardened there, was exposed to some probably quite traumatic experiences, and then came back and is absolutely perfect to fit into this plot that is preexisting. Jason, do you have any insight into what makes a person willing to go all the way and kill loads of people? The whole thing about terrorism is it's not a science. What you can say is that whoever does it... needs to believe that it is the only thing they can do in those circumstances. They're very often seeing their community or the people they identify with as under threat. Now, that might be wrong. Often is, but that's what they see, and then that then justifies what they think they have to do. -No alternative. -There's no alternative. It is now, it is urgent, and they have to be the ones who will do it. ♪ Worsley: In May 1604, the core plotters came together to take an oath of secrecy and make plans. ♪ While Catesby was known to the authorities, Guy Fawkes wasn't. He was able to move around without suspicion. ♪ Thomas Percy also now joined. He was the brother-in-law of John and Christopher Wright, but crucially, he was also a member of the King's Bodyguard. With easy access to Westminster, he rented the cellar beneath the parliamentary complex, where the gunpowder would be hidden. Preparations would take more than a year. Meetings of Parliament were postponed, so the date slipped. Plans were carefully made for the Midlands part of the rebellion. Funds had to be raised. ♪ That meant the network of conspirators grew. These were cousins, brothers, friends. It was a cell of mostly wealthy men hoping for more power under a regime change. On the 4th of November, 1605, the stage was finally set for attack. [Bell tolls] The following day, the king was due to open parliament, but underneath the parliament-- in the old building, not this one-- Guy Fawkes was waiting with his 36 barrels of gunpowder... ♪ but now the plotters' network had widened, there was a leak. An anonymous letter had been sent to a Catholic peer, warning him not to go to the opening of Parliament. That letter was passed on to the authorities. [Wind blowing] On the night of November the 4th, with conspirators poised for rebellion around London and in the Midlands, Guy Fawkes waited for his big moment, but the king had ordered two searches of the cellars beneath Parliament, and in the early hours of the fifth... [Strike, fuse sparking] [Cawing] Guy was discovered. ♪ The most radical part of their plot had collapsed, but some in the group believed the rest of the uprising might still succeed. ♪ Guy was brought to the Tower of London to be interrogated. This was now a race against time. On the one hand, the authorities wanted to know who is this man, who else might be involved, what else might be planned? On the other hand, Guy Fawkes wanted to stall for as long as possible. If this rebellion was going to succeed, then Catesby and the rest of them needed time to rouse up their supporters. ♪ Catesby had built a cell of men willing to go to extremes. ♪ He must have felt like their future now hinged on Guy's interrogation. ♪ I want to know exactly how committed Guy was to this plot. Records from the time tell us what was said in the interrogation, but a modern perspective might help me delve into Guy's state of mind under pressure... ♪ so I'm meeting a psychologist who works as a registered intermediary in police interviews and has designed an app to evaluate interview technique. ♪ Laura, this is the actual room where Guy Fawkes was questioned. You spend a lot of your time in investigative interview situations, don't you? -Yes, I do. -Bit different to this. Very different. This is a very grand room. I guess the idea was these are really grand surroundings. This represents the majesty of the king, and you're just a little worm. Yeah, definitely. You're meant to feel intimidated when you walk into an interrogation room. And how does Guy Fawkes stand up to the questioning? Yeah. So what the app allows us to do is see when there are significant turning points in an interview or an interrogation, so this here maps out the interrogation on the second day with Guy Fawkes. In the early stages, he's very happy to answer questions about facts that are probably known. For example, "Whether did you convey yet in barrels or otherwise?" How he carried the gunpowder, and then he says in barrels, so he's answering those questions. He's given them that information, but it's clear to everybody it was in barrels because he was caught there. He's merely confirming the details -that are already known... -Yeah. but we do see a switch as the interrogation goes on. What this app allows us to see is that he then closes down. His responses drop down to the red. So the first one is when they start demanding where he was in the nights leading up to the actual plot. And they don't know that information. And they don't know that information. And what does he say? He says he has forgotten. He's forgotten?! And you can see it all the way through the interrogation. When they are asking him questions about facts they do not know, such as his location or the other conspirators, he does not give them any information. So as the questions get more important, as it were, he's basically saying, "Up yours. I'm not telling you anything." Absolutely, and he seems-- when you read through this interrogation, he seems very much in control. He's obviously an extremist, and there are two main schools of thought around why they engage with that type of behavior. The first one is that there are mental health problems, they are delusional, and they are going through with these acts in a chaotic state of mind. I don't necessarily see that in the interrogations with Guy Fawkes. He actually appears to be quite the opposite, which leads us nicely on to the second school of thought that actually it's because they are very controlled. They have this duty, and they won't stop at anything to do it. and when Guy Fawkes is caught red-handed, when he's interrogated, you can see that he remains that composed state. He's not given erratic information. He's actually been very controlled and very careful with what he is providing to the interrogators. I think he gives us a clue here into his source of strength because he says to the questioners, "You would have me betray my friends." -Hmm. -"My friends." He's got friends. He's part of something social. He sees himself as part of a social group. In his head, you know, he knows that he's been caught, but he's very much hoping that the plot will still go ahead, and so he's not giving away any information that will jeopardize that. ♪ Worsley: It seems to me that Guy's belief in the plot was extremely deep... ♪ but I've come to the National Archives to examine the evidence for what it might have taken to make him crack. ♪ Now, this completely astonishing document is in the king's own handwriting, so it's a little window into his mind, and it explains how the king wants the interrogation done. He says, "If Guy Fawkes won't confess, then the gentler tortures"-- tortures-- "are to be first used unto him." And then after that, the king actually goes into Latin because what he's saying is so dark and serious. He says, "et sic per gradus ad ima tenditur." That means the tortures are to be increased little by little until you get to the very worst. ♪ Torture was technically illegal, but the king would sanction it to bring down the plotters. This document is a record of what Guy Fawkes said in his interrogation. This is the 7th of November, and at the end of the session, they got him to sign his name, supposedly to show that it was an accurate reflection of his words, but when we fast forward two days, you can see he's finally cracked because at the end of this session where they've asked him to sign his name, he can hardly write, which suggests--and this is really brutally awful-- that during those two days he's been tortured so badly, whether using the thumbscrews or the rack or whatever, that he's lost the use of his hands. ♪ Despite all of his confidence and his ability to withstand interrogation that he showed earlier on, he's finally broken. But the irony is Guy's naming of his accomplices was irrelevant. [Groaning] ♪ While Guy was being questioned in the tower, the authorities were already hunting for known Catholics who had left London suddenly. ♪ On the 5th of November, hearing Guy Fawkes had been caught, Catesby sped here to the Midlands, still determined he could start a rebellion... ♪ but in reality, support was dwindling. ♪ Within days, the authorities had the plotters surrounded in a Catholic safe house in Staffordshire. I've got an account here by Thomas Wintour, who was holed up in the house with them, and it's brilliant because he takes us right into the drama of the situation. It says here that Wintour asked them, the others, "what they resolved to do," and they answered, "'We mean here to die.'" Wintour's confession gives us the detail of Catesby's last minutes. He says he and Catesby were standing "before the door they were to enter." That's the authorities. They're just about to burst in, and Catesby said, "'Stand by me, Tom, and we will die together.'" ♪ Catesby, Thomas Percy, and the two Wright brothers were shot and killed on the 8th of November. It's hard not to feel emotional at the thought of these loyal friends dying together. Catesby was willing to take a bullet, a lethal bullet, for his beliefs, but don't forget, he was very willing to kill other people for his beliefs, as well. He was willing to take the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of people. ♪ 4 men were dead, but the surviving plotters would face the consequences of their actions. ♪ The trial of Guy Fawkes and the other remaining conspirators was held here in Westminster Hall on January the 27th, 1606. This is one of the few parliamentary buildings that remain from the time. This whole vast hall was full of a crowd, who'd paid to get in. There was a real squeeze on space. Some members of Parliament complained that they hadn't been able to get decent seats. Guy Fawkes and the other conspirators were up on a little platform, and there was even a rumor that the king himself was present, hidden away, secretly listening in. ♪ This was a show trial lasting just one day. It was used to target the conspirators' priests, suggesting they'd encouraged the plot. ♪ Just a few days later, Guy Fawkes and some of the other plotters were taken to the yard outside the Palace of Westminster, and they were brutally executed. ♪ In 1605, Guy Fawkes and the other conspirators were united by a very specific desire for change... ♪ but now Guy's face has been transformed into a broader symbol of protest and rebellion with little connection to the original deadly plan. ♪ The radical violence at the heart of the plot seems forgotten, yet I think it's the journey to extremism that's worth remembering. The Gunpowder Plot happened at a time of deep divisions and high stakes. People had strong beliefs that sometimes led to extreme actions. Time gives us perspective and the space to start to understand the motivations of both sides, but perhaps we should be mindful about what and who we choose to celebrate. ♪

Book Review by Richard Murray for Freedom at Dawn: Robert Smalls’s Voyage Out of Slavery by Leah Schanke, SPHR Illustrated by Oboh Moses https://aalbc.com/book_review/9780807524282 on AALBC.com IN AMENDMENT https://www.tumblr.com/everythingfox/688794883560013824/catching-some-rays-via

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CENTO Series episode 85 She can snap a human back to reality with the best of her brethren: Aphrodite’s always got things to do. She’d rather a surrender to the inevitable. the thrill of lakes unknown. https://www.deviantart.com/everystupidstar/art/Love-But-Actually-An-Alligator-981888862 Maelstroms cry Towards the mountains Even the begrudged adonis That try upon your peace It's because you're lightning Birds gather at your porch They say god missed the paradise https://www.deviantart.com/hoaxdreams/art/Anlangen-990331007 Epub series https://www.kobo.com/us/en/series/richard-murray-short-story-collection Audiobook series https://www.kobo.com/us/en/series/richard-murray-tip-jar-audios To get a microcalligraphy signature go to the following pay page https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/commission/Microcalligraphy-signatures-1487995

CENTO Series episode 84 Leaving the print of a reality you remember living. I plead for the sanctity of home, Gently observing the moment. https://www.deviantart.com/againjo/art/Make-Me-a-Dream-1005078133 so go on and play with your new friend buttons, arms, top hat, carrot nose when the first snow falls https://www.deviantart.com/rtnightmare/art/Positive-Feature-Poem-Snowman-1017292677 Epub series https://www.kobo.com/us/en/series/richard-murray-short-story-collection Audiobook series https://www.kobo.com/us/en/series/richard-murray-tip-jar-audios To get a microcalligraphy signature go to the following pay page https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/commission/Microcalligraphy-signatures-1487995

CENTO Series episode 83 until they cannot be read, where no thoughts are exchanged, because everybody is babbling, of what next to say, https://www.deviantart.com/witherway/art/Scrabble-1007828639 Zerstuckelt mit Hass War das Herz einst rein ein kampf mit sich selber ... Dismembered with hate The heart was once pure a fight with yourself https://www.deviantart.com/writingbubble/art/Another-German-poem-1007351325 Epub series https://www.kobo.com/us/en/series/richard-murray-short-story-collection Audiobook series https://www.kobo.com/us/en/series/richard-murray-tip-jar-audios To get a microcalligraphy signature go to the following pay page https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/commission/Microcalligraphy-signatures-1487995

CENTO Series episode 82 to think we have knowledge of several millennia ago tales of old deities and warriors seeking glory with artifacts and architecture made to last https://www.deviantart.com/rtnightmare/art/Positive-Feature-Poem-Ancient-1014962485 pieces of Monet glisten on the table and I am lost knowing I ran for the future like a toddler whining with low fever, cheeks in some unnamable place, "I worry about the future." Do you remember https://www.deviantart.com/beyondthesilenttrees/art/The-Future-revised-1008017034 Epub series https://www.kobo.com/us/en/series/richard-murray-short-story-collection Audiobook series https://www.kobo.com/us/en/series/richard-murray-tip-jar-audios To get a microcalligraphy signature go to the following pay page https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/commission/Microcalligraphy-signatures-1487995

CENTO Series episode 81 Just enjoy this day for everyone to see I can dance i can sing https://www.deviantart.com/illustrationsandme/art/Amazing-1012743592 I just wish I could feel like it feels weird into the things I regard https://www.deviantart.com/soulesspoet365/art/I-Feel-Like-I-ve-Been-Reset-1008319744 Epub series https://www.kobo.com/us/en/series/richard-murray-short-story-collection Audiobook series https://www.kobo.com/us/en/series/richard-murray-tip-jar-audios To get a microcalligraphy signature go to the following pay page https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/commission/Microcalligraphy-signatures-1487995

CENTO Series episode 80 So the Cricket quaffed his sherry; then with a loud chirp most merry, I am searching on this evening, on an errand most demeaning--- By the grim and stern decorum of the countenance it wore; Off he hopped from th' umbrella stand, and straight out my chamber door; Out there jumped a big black Cricket, in length three inches or more! Back into my chamber turning, my stomach within me churning, Soon I heard that ghastly chirping, even louder than before. To my liquor cabinet tripping, scarcely had I started sipping, Again I heard a squeak come ripping through the air outside my door: "'Tis some creditor," I muttered, "burping at my chamber door--- Only this, and nothing more." https://www.deviantart.com/chaosfive-55/art/The-Cricket-169114538 less than two decades until the end to let our imagination roam when the world feels infinite https://www.deviantart.com/rtnightmare/art/Positive-Feature-Poem-Childhood-1012828356 Epub series https://www.kobo.com/us/en/series/richard-murray-short-story-collection Audiobook series https://www.kobo.com/us/en/series/richard-murray-tip-jar-audios To get a microcalligraphy signature go to the following pay page https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/commission/Microcalligraphy-signatures-1487995

CENTO Series episode 79 the music finally left having been broken, in a room full of ashes, spinning in my own blood, https://www.deviantart.com/mineralaccident/art/I-found-myself-after-986243842 in a cup of hot coco painting the world and people's hearts https://www.deviantart.com/roesavlon/art/Beauty-of-Snow-1006075604 PRIOR Cento series elements are in the over-blog https://rmnewsletter.over-blog.com/ Epub series https://www.kobo.com/us/en/series/richard-murray-short-story-collection Audiobook series https://www.kobo.com/us/en/series/richard-murray-tip-jar-audios To get a microcalligraphy signature go to the following pay page https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/commission/Microcalligraphy-signatures-1487995

Lucy Worsley on William the Conqueror - Janaury 18th 2025 https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2830&type=status MY THOUGHTS The Bayeux Tapestry [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry ] was lovely to see. The episode focuses on a truth we all know. Conquest is never as simple as the history books put it. It usually far more bloodier and far more complicated. William is a conqueror not because the simplicity of hastings but because he destroyed the multiculturalism south of scotland or the picts back then , destroyed the allowance of the welsh or northumbrians/scandanavian cultures and pushed the normans in. At the end of the day the saxons wasn't all of england but just the south of england. The saxons on one side of the channel plus the normans on the other side were cousins. But the other regions of england were different, welsh or northumbrian. William defeated the saxons but needed to defeat the other cultures in the land commonly called england, and he did by fire and starvation. And thus made england two cultures, Norman + Saxon , with the saxon being a blend of welsh/saxon/northumbrian merged under a norman identity. The name of the child going from Tostig [ pronounced Tostee] to Williams says it all. On a side note, it is very interesting hearing how the welsh/saxon/northumbrian women went to convent, tried to evade being married to normans whose entire purpose in being with non norman women was making halfbreeds, ala the spanish conquistadors in central america/caribbean/south america/mexico. It explains a key point, that the women of the various cultures the normans conquered worked hard to remain with the conquered peoples. Willing to marry to any but a norman, thus the multicultural set of women made the saxons, and over time the saxons + normans became the english. TRANSCRIPT ♪ Lucy Worsley, voice-over: Christmas Day, 1069, Northern England. ♪ A warrior king makes his way through the ruins of York Cathedral. The king's name is William I of England, but you might know him better by his later name-- William the Conqueror. [Men shouting] Worsley, voice-over: Most of us think the Norman Conquest of England happened in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings-- one battle won, and the defeated nation bent the knee-- but actually, that was just the beginning, so how do you go about taking over, conquering an entire country? In this series, I'm reinvestigating some of the most dramatic and brutal chapters in British history. Oh, yes. Here we go, Man: And now you're face to face with William the Conqueror. Woman, voice-over: They know that sex sells and that violence sells. Worsley, voice-over: These stories form part of our national mythology. They harbor mysteries that have intrigued us for centuries... Worsley: It turns very dark here. Clearly showing us-- Refugees. There's such graphic images of religious violence. Worsley, voice-over: but with the passage of time, we have new ways to unlock their secrets using scientific advances and a modern perspective. He was what we would now call a foreign fighter. Worsley, voice-over: I'm going to uncover forgotten witnesses. I'm going to reexamine old evidence and follow new clues... The human hand. Worsley, voice-over: to get closer to the truth. It's like fake news. Worsley: You're questioning whether we can actually take that seriously as a piece of evidence. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: 1066 is one of the best-known years in British history. We know this date because of the Battle of Hastings, but very few of us know the whole story. ♪ The Norman Conquest was the biggest land grab in Western medieval history. This prosperous, stable country called England was just taken by William, Duke of Normandy, seemingly overnight, and stone castles like this one sprang up all over the land. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: This is Pevensey Castle, the first Norman castle on English soil, but it's actually a repurposed Roman fort. Of course, England had been invaded before. There were the Romans, but they eventually left; then the Vikings, but they never gained complete control. But when the Normans invaded in 1066, they created a regime that lasted. They transformed the country, and they left traces that we can still see to this day. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: In fact, we can trace a line from William the Conqueror to our current monarch King Charles III, but this belies the truth of how difficult the conquest really was. It took two decades for William to cement Norman rule, so how did he do it, and was William a conqueror or a war criminal? ♪ I think I'll begin my investigation in the place where William's master plan for conquest was originally formed-- Normandy in Northwest France. [Bells tolling] Worsley: Duke William built his castle here at Caen in 1060. He did it to consolidate his control over all of this part of France here. He was a Norman, the word coming from "Northman" or even "Norseman" because William's ancestors were warlike Vikings from Scandinavia. They came down here, and they settled, and once they'd made this their home, they renamed it as Normandy. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: At this point, William wasn't known as William the Conqueror, but William the Bastard. He'd risen a long way as the illegitimate son of Robert I of Normandy. Now he wanted to expand his territory and conquer the lands across the English Channel. If William ever came up here himself, I think he'd have spent his time looking in that direction because a hundred miles over there is the English coast, and on the 5th of January 1066, the English king Edward the Confessor died without leaving an obvious successor, and William believed that he was the rightful heir to the English crown. Worsley, voice-over: There's one astonishing historical artifact just a few miles away in the town of Bayeux which might explain exactly why William believed this. It's not a book or a manuscript. It's nearly 230 feet long, and it's over 900 years old. It's kept in the dark, quite literally, for its own protection. Oh, there it is-- the Bayeux Tapestry. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: This tapestry shows the invasion of England and the Battle of Hastings in 1066 as a heroic enterprise. ♪ Worsley: It's basically a medieval movie. It tells the story scene by scene from beginning to end, and did you know it's not actually a tapestry at all? The pictures are stitched on, which is embroidery. This is women's work, and I suspect that the men who give names to things like this don't necessarily know what they're looking at, but the first thing that strikes me is the sheer scale of it. Look how long it is, and it goes off right round the corner. It's just a stunning piece of work. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: And here's the scene I'm looking for. It depicts a pact which allegedly took place between two of the main contenders for the English throne: the hero of the tapestry-- that's William-- and Harold, King Edward the Confessor's brother-in-law. Worsley: This is Harold, and you can tell because of his ginger mustache-- the Anglo-Saxons have mustaches; Normans are all clean-shaven-- and what's happening here, it says in the caption, this is the bit where Harold, he fecit a sacramentum. He makes an oath to Duke William of Normandy, who's that chap there, and Harold is touching a casket full of holy relics to make the oath even more powerful, and in his oath, he swears he will support William's claim to be king. Let's see what happens next. Well--ah, here we go-- Edward the Confessor dies. There's his dead body. He's defunctus. He's defunct, and in this scene, ah, Harold has made himself king-- "Rex: Anglorum," "King of the English," it says. Huh, so--in this version of the story, at least, the Norman version of the story-- Harold has betrayed William. This is why William is justified in invading England. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: But, like all historical sources, the tapestry has an agenda. It was commissioned by William's half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and it was basically propaganda justifying William's invasion of England. On the 28th of September 1066, William's fleet of hundreds of ships carrying thousands of men landed here at Pevensey on the south coast of England. ♪ This is the very beach where the Normans landed, but the battle took place a few miles away in that direction at Hastings. It was a brutal fight. It lasted for more than 9 hours. [Men shouting] [Swords clanging] Worsley, voice-over: You could be forgiven for thinking that, although William's victory was hard won, it was basically inevitable. The tapestry suggests that the Normans had enormous military superiority. [Shouting continues] [Horse neighs] Worsley: Here are the Norman knights, and what's brilliant is the way that you see them moving off. They're starting to gallop. They're off. It's really exciting, and here are the Norman archers. It's really striking that the Normans have got better weapons. They've got these horses. They've got bows and arrows. The poor Anglo-Saxons have only got things like axes and clubs. You do get the impression of this indomitable Norman war machine. The stormtroopers are coming. ♪ [Men shouting] Worsley, voice-over: The Bayeux Tapestry famously ends with the death of Harold. An arrow from a Norman archer hits him in the eye. ♪ It's a heroic end to the story. Harold is dead, and William, the rightful king, is triumphant, but is this what really happened? There's another source that historians now believe to be one of the earliest depictions of the Battle of Hastings. This Latin poem, probably dating from 1068, has a very different story to tell about Harold's last moments. It's called the "Carmen," or the "Song of the Battle of Hastings," written two years after the battle, we think, and, according to this version, it took 4 Norman soldiers to finish him off. It's quite hard to read, but I've got some notes here from the translation. It says the first of them did the job of shattering his breast through his shield. The second, by his sword, severed the head. The third of them, by his spear, ooh, poured forth the body's entrails, oof, and then the fourth of them hewed off a leg-- some other translations say it was a different body part than that-- and then, being removed, he drove it afar. He threw the body part away, so that makes it sound like Harold was really difficult to kill, and there's no mention at all of the arrow going into his eye. Worsley, voice-over: Unlike the tapestry, the poem is an unsanitized, hyperviolent account of the battle. [Men shouting] [Swords clanging] Harold's body was so mutilated, it could only be identified by some marks on his skin. One of those 4 Normans who killed Harold was William himself. I wonder if this poem is the more accurate predictor of the violence still to come after the battle. Worsley: When it was over and William had won, he wasn't automatically King of England. He was kind of in limbo. He waited for the English to formally surrender to him, but nobody came. Worsley, voice-over: Somebody was coming, but they weren't coming to offer William the throne. They were coming for a fight. ♪ Hundreds of miles from Hastings in the North of England, two brothers would play a significant part in this resistance. Edwin, Earl of Mercia, and Morcar, Earl of Northumbria, saw William as a foreign aggressor who was trying to take over their country. Their rightful king was the teenager Edgar AEtheling, and they were gearing up to lead the counteroffensive in his name. Rrgh! ♪ Worsley, voice-over: I'm meeting a medieval specialist to find out what happened next. ♪ It's just after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. What does William the Conqueror now need to do to consolidate his win? There's a lot of unrest still within the kingdom. People have fled the battlefield, so there's still warriors around, fled the battlefield. political elite gathering in London. He's killed one king on the battlefield, but there is a contender still for the throne. It's the teenage boy Edgar AEtheling, and he is in London with Edwin and Morcar, and they come with the crucial thing-- military force, so William needs to get himself to London, and he needs to get the support of a bishop so that he can get himself crowned, ideally an archbishop. Hmm. How is William going to hold the land in Kent and Sussex that he's he's already gained control over once he sets off to London? So part of that is through the castles that he builds, so quick, wooden castles put up really just to secure the area as a place of fortification and defense for his men, and they are a way of holding power over the local area because you have your garrison, your troops, positioned there in order to perhaps fight off any disturbances that arise. What was in store for the local people living in Kent and Sussex? Yeah. I think it must have been a really terrifying time for them. They must have seen William's troops committing atrocities around them-- burning houses, taking crops, livestock. There's also the reinforcements that William calls from Normandy who come to another part of the south coast, possibly around Chichester. Those communities en route are clearly having houses burnt. There's pillaging of supplies and livestock in order to feed the army as they go. There's a picture on the Bayeux Tapestry that actually we can have a little look at-- a mother and child fleeing from a burning building. Oh. It says, "Hic domus incenditur," "Here this building is being burnt," so this is probably depicting the scenes at Pevensey or Hastings. The torch is setting alight to the roof, where you can see the flames rising. And this poor, little boy, I think he's got his mouth open because he's crying his eyes out. He's being led away by his-- Do you think that's his mother? She's saying, "Come on. Get out of here." Yeah... "It's really dangerous." and I think it's a really moving scene. It's clearly showing us... Refugees. yeah, refugees, the women and children who lost their homes as part of this conquest. I can understand why the Normans took the food, but I can't understand why they burnt the houses. Was there also just an element of pure intimidation in doing that and destroying the homes of people, do you think? I think there must have been, and I think William needs to use this kind of intimidating factor in order to remove pockets of resistance and also as a warning to other communities and a clear statement that William means business, that William is not going to go lightly. If there is opposition, he's going to go in all guns blazing. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: What was meant to be a quick operation was becoming a brutal campaign of intimidation, and these castles were key. They were a way of crushing local resistance and securing a strong supply line from Normandy. So this is a map of Southeast England. It's not a brilliant map, but you get the idea. You'll recognize it a bit better when I put in France and Normandy, and this is the Channel, and William landed pretty close to here and quickly built a castle at Pevensey, where I am right now. It was just over there. Quite quickly, another castle sprang up at Hastings and then one at Dover, just along the coast there, but where he really wanted to be was over here at London. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: London was the political heart of Anglo-Saxon England, but getting there wasn't as simple as it looked. With Edwin and Morcar in London, William realized a direct assault from the south was too difficult, so he marched west, devastating the land as he went. He secured the strategic crossing of the Thames at Wallingford and advanced to Berkhamsted. This was where he waited for the Anglo-Saxon earls, Edgar, and other leaders. ♪ At this point, Edwin and Morcar realized they'd been outmaneuvered. ♪ William promised leniency and protection to those who submitted immediately, so they surrendered and bent the knee... ♪ for now. ♪ William finally marched on London in December 1066. ♪ He was crowned William, King of the English, on Christmas Day. ♪ He then set about building his most notorious castle-- the Tower of London... ♪ but William only controlled the southeast. ♪ None of this made the whole of England his. ♪ I want to examine William's next move, and it wasn't a military one. There's something that's nearly a thousand years old, and I'm so eager to see it. It's a world-famous treasure, and it lives in a super secure vault. It's the Domesday Book. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: The Domesday Book was compiled later in William's reign, but I think it might reveal his political strategy after 1066. ♪ Worsley: I'm about to see the most precious document in the National Archives that I think means it's the most precious document in British history, and it's just in here. ♪ Ah. Oh, yes. Ha ha ha! There it is. It's amazing to see it... ♪ not in a case. If it ever comes out of this strongroom, it would be displayed with high security, the real thing. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: This is the volume of what's called Great Domesday. It's made up of more than 800 pages, handwritten by just one scribe. I think a lot of people will have heard of the Domesday Book without being aware of what's actually in it, and seeing it laid out like this in the columns is making me realize that it's basically a spreadsheet detailing who owns all the land. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: It's a survey of nearly every town and manor in England down to the last peasant, plow, and goat, and the reason for doing this--money. William wanted to know how much tax he could get out of his new country, but the book also reveals something more sinister. I asked if I could see the entry for Grimsby, the town my dad's from. Now, at this point, my medieval Latin is letting me down, so I'm going to get a bit of help from the translation copy I've got here. There is land for 4 1/2 plows. There is a church and a priest. There's a mill that produces 4 shillings, and a ferry that renders 5 shillings, and before the conquest, it was owned by an Anglo-Saxon lady called Eadgifu. After the conquest, it's owned by a man called Richard. That's a Norman name, so it's gone from an Anglo-Saxon lady to a Norman man, and this incredible detail is replicated throughout the whole book. There are 13,000 settlements, from little villages to towns, and in each case, the story is the same-- the transfer of ownership from the Anglo-Saxons to the Normans. Worsley, voice-over: So it looks like William's confiscating people's land for at least a decade after 1066. At first, some of the English had been able to keep their property by acknowledging William as king, but by 1086, the majority of Anglo-Saxons were disinherited. Domesday means the Day of Judgment. There's no arguing with this book. This is the last word in Norman power. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: William's brutal tactics are now becoming clearer to me. ♪ Firstly, there was the military victory at Hastings. Then there was the building of castles to keep people under control, and now, by seizing Anglo-Saxon property and assets, William was further reducing their ability to resist. The Domesday Book is more evidence of a conquest taking shape. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: But you can't conquer a country with hard power alone. As well as subjugating people, you also have to win hearts and minds... ♪ what's known as soft power. I'm meeting a specialist in medieval women's history. She's unearthed a source that reveals how the Normans used this power in ordinary daily life. Do you think it's possible that when William was looking at the future management of the country of England, he saw marriage, intermarriage, as something that would be a tool at his disposal? I think he certainly at the start of the conquest had that plan, but from the first, say, 10, 15 years after the conquest, we don't have that many, and the reason for that is, we think, that the women were obviously very reluctant to be used as pawns in this game of the Conquest. From an Englishwoman's perspective, if your parents had to arrange a marriage for you, you much rather be married, presumably, to an Englishman, than to one of these bullies who came from the other side of the Channel because, you know, you couldn't be sure that you would be safe. What did the Anglo-Saxon women who were in that position feel about it? What did they do? They obviously were very anxious about this, and some of them took matters in their own hands, and... Oh. I have here this absolutely fascinating piece of evidence, which is a 12th-century manuscript, and interestingly, the text refers to women taking refuge in monasteries. It refers to those women who, not out of love for the religion-- "non amore religioni, sed timore francigenaro," but out of fear from the French, have taken refuge in these institutions. So these poor women going to the nunneries, they were feeling vulnerable sexually, you know, in the immediate physical sense and also perhaps vulnerable if they own land to being sucked into marriages so that the Normans would be taking their land off them. Absolutely. It's really hard to hear the voices of women in the whole story of the Norman Conquest, but here we've got a little echo, and it's a chilling echo. You're absolutely right. That is what this very important document shows us, and it's not generally known. The Norman Conquest is not only a story about soldiers and battles, but it is about mothers and sisters and wives. ♪ Worsley: It's so distressing to think of these Anglo-Saxon women hiding themselves away out of fear of being forced to marry these Norman men. They would have understood that marriage was part and parcel of a wider strategy of conquest. Anglo-Norman marriages would lead to Anglo-Norman children, which would mean that the Normans' claims to the lands they'd taken would be legitimized forever. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: William tried this soft-power approach in his own court. In 1067, he brought Edwin and Morcar home with him to Normandy and promised Edwin a marriage to his daughter. It was a strategy of "keep your friends close but your enemies closer." ♪ Outwardly, they were guests, but in truth, they were hostages. William wanted a trouble-free takeover of England, but the Anglo-Saxons were still mobilizing. ♪ That same year, a revolt began in the Welsh borders... ♪ and Exeter in the southwest rose up, forcing William to besiege the city for 18 days. In the end, Exeter surrendered, allowing William to build a castle in the city and consolidate his hold over the West Country. ♪ The farther you ventured from the center of William's power in London, the more the insurrection intensified. ♪ In 1068, sensing it was now or never, Edwin and Morcar escaped William's court and raised rebellion in the Midlands. Williams suppressed this, but by now, the flames of revolt were spreading northward. Morcar and a growing gang of other English nobles started plotting another rebellion against William. One of the English chronicles tells us that they were motivated by hatred of William for the injustice and the tyranny he inflicted upon the English. ♪ I know that the northerners mounted a much tougher and more prolonged resistance against William, but what was it about their rebellion that made it so difficult to extinguish? Hello. Hi, Lucy. You'll be Katherine. Yes. Worsley, voice-over: I'm meeting a cultural historian in a village that Morcar used to own--Middleton, which in the 1060s was in his earldom of Northumbria. ♪ There's an ancient sculpture here that she wants to show me. ♪ Gosh, look at these. They're amazing. The shape of the cross is such a potent... symbol of kind of mystic power. So this is a grave marker or some sort of commemorative monument for the person depicted on the front. Who is this little person with the pointed hat? Look at that. It might look cute, but he's meant to look quite terrifying, I think, because if you look closely, you can see that he is dressed in military gear. He's surrounded by weaponry, so I think that this is somebody who might have been a Viking. Is that his sword I can see there? That's his sword and shield here. And he's got a kind of a chopper here? So that's his ax. We can see he's got a knife, as well, that's slung up to his belt. We can see somebody who comes from a military background, power and strength are shown through military imagery. He has settled here, and he is now the lord of the local area. ♪ Katherine, what was our Viking warrior doing here in this part of England? Well, we often think of Vikings as raiders, but from the middle of the ninth century, they came to England in much larger armies. And did they settle down? Yes. They conquered and settled the lands, so if we think about it, in 1066, there had been 200 years of Scandinavian influence in the North of England, and so we can see from lots of different kinds of evidence that they grew together and became one community, so some of the words that we still use today come from Old Norse. A nice example is "window." "Window"? It means wind eye. "Husband" is another one that comes from the Old Norse "husbondi," which is sort of the master of the household, and one that is quite well-known and really frequent, is place names that end in -by, which means, really, a farmstead, so we can think of Whitby, for example, or Selby near York, Grimsby. So Grimsby is the farm of Mr. Grim from Scandinavia. Yeah, and we even see this in, like, small landscape features, as well, like a beck or a fell or a dale. These all come from Old Norse. So is it fair to say, then, that when the Normans arrived in England, this area of the North, Yorkshire and so on, it had its own quite distinctive culture? Yeah. I think that's definitely fair to say. I'm getting the impression, Katherine, then, that these people would have been particularly not keen on the Normans coming in and taking over. Is that fair to say? Yeah. I think that's true. I wonder if William the Conqueror knew what he was getting into when he tried to subdue these folk up here. ♪ Hmm, so I've learned that the people who lived in Northumbria had a different center of gravity. It wasn't London down south. It was Scandinavia. The region had its own separate identity, and the English rulers before 1066 kind of went along with that. They were happy to have a hands-off relationship with the North, but when William, Duke of Normandy, came along, he intended to change all that. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the king was informed that the people in the North had gathered together and planned to make a stand against him if he came near. ♪ In 1068, William marched first to Mercia, where he suppressed all revolts, and then on to York, where he built a castle. Then he installed one of his Norman enforcers as Earl of Northumbria, but his control was illusory. ♪ In January 1069, the Northumbrians killed William's Norman earl in Durham and marched to York. Then they brought in Danish reinforcements. In September, these combined forces stormed York... [Men shouting] and torched William's two Norman castles were. ♪ Almost all of the Norman garrison was slaughtered. ♪ They then proclaimed Edgar AEtheling as the true King of the English. William now faced a serious challenge to his conquest of England. He was on the back foot. Was this the moment to go hard or go home? I want to know how William is going to respond, so I'm going to turn to one of the key key sources for the period. This is the work of a monk called Orderic Vitalis. He was one of these Anglo-Normans-- he had an English mum and a French dad-- and these pages are from his most famous book-- the Historia Ecclesiastica. The bit I want is about York, so I'm looking in the Latin text for "Eboracum," which is here. That's what I want to read, but for ease of reading, let's go over to the translation. They approached York looking for rebels. The king-- that's William himself-- "cut down many in his vengeance; "destroyed the lairs of others; "harried the land, "and burned homes to ashes. Nowhere else had William shown such cruelty," so this is William's vengeance, his punishment upon the North for having rebelled, and this word "harried" is very significant. It means to lay waste, to devastate, and in this context, it forms part of one of the most resonant phrases in British history-- the Harrying of the North. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: But these are just words on a page. I wonder what it was like to experience harrying as a weapon of war. ♪ I've come to York Castle to meet a senior curator at Yorkshire Museum... Hi. Nice to meet you, Lucy. Worsley, voice-over: who has some unusual archeological evidence. Worsley: Why did you suggest that we meet here at the top of the tower? Well, the tower is perhaps the best example of William the Conqueror's attempt to pacify York and across the region, really. This building, the motte underneath it was built in 1068 for William to try and control this unruly part of the country, so this is perhaps the best symbol of the Harrying of the North still standing. Rebellious people in Yorkshire, right? I mean, hard to believe, right, but, yes, Yorkshire and most of the North is in open rebellion against William for most of the late 1060s. And what have you brought here? They look very precious. I have brought you 3 coins, which are the protagonists of 1066. On the left here, you have Edward the Confessor, so his death in early 1066 sparks all of the events that happen later. I do that. Hopefully, you get a good chance-- Ooh, I can see his little face, yes, and is he wearing a crown, Andy? He is wearing a crown, so he's looking off to the right with a sort of pointy nose, and he's wearing this rather elaborate crown and holding the scepter, so the symbols of state. OK, so that's the ruler before the Battle of Hastings. It is. What's the other ones that you've got? Sure. This is Harold Godwinson, now, slightly less clear portrait, but hopefully, you can see he's looking the other way. He's looking the other way, isn't he? He's got quite chubby cheeks, has Harold. He has. Is that really rare? Yeah. We only have two of Harold Godwinson. We don't often bring this one out, so I'm pleased to be able to share it with you today, actually. Oh, what a treat, so who's this one? Now you're face to face with the man himself-- William, Duke of Normandy. I have to say, I feel intimidated by being face to face with William, Duke of Normandy. I think he's made a very clever choice there to be looking right at me. I find him more scary than Harold for that reason alone, maybe because I know about the Harrying of the North and what he did-- I'm extrapolating here-- but I just don't like the look in his eyes. ♪ So did all of these 3 coins belong to the same person? No, so these are from different hoards, so we get groups of coins buried in the ground, and we call them a hoard. And why would they be burying their coins in the ground? In a world before banks, you buried your money in times of challenge, times of crisis, and you come back and dig it up when the crisis blows over, but the crucial question in some ways is, why didn't they come and dig them back up again? And I guess if you're in York in the 1068 or '69, you know, there's an army coming towards you. You bury your wealth. You might escape town, and you might not ever be able to come and dig it back up again. Gosh, that's horrifying to think of-- people in fear and panic thinking the Normans are coming, and the people who buried these little coins never came back to get them. Yeah. In some ways, the evidence of the coins, particularly the hoards from York, is some of the best archeological evidence we actually have for the Harrying of the North and its effect upon the people. There are more coin hoards buried within the city walls of York than there are across the whole of Southern England at the same time. The reason these were buried in the ground, the reason that we're looking at them today, is all because the person who had them was probably terrified of the arrival of the Norman army, and may have lost their life to it. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: In times of conflict, international alliances are forged and broken. In late 1069, William bought off the Danish allies who'd come to the aid of the northerners. He then took back the city of York. On Christmas Day, exactly 3 years after his coronation, he paraded through the ruins of York Cathedral... ♪ but William didn't want the northerners to be able to use any of their lands to raise another army against him. ♪ He ordered the systematic destruction of villagers' homes, livestock, and crops in all the land north of the Humber River. [People shouting] ♪ I'm going to one of the places that experienced William's wrath, Levisham in the Yorkshire Moors, to see if I can glimpse the human impact of this. ♪ I'd like to see what these different chronicles have to say. Here's my friend Orderic Vitalis, oh, but he says that in his anger he--that's William-- commanded that all the crops and food be burnt to ashes so that there was no food left in the whole of the region, "regione," beyond, "trans," the River Humber, "Umbrana," my goodness, and he says that 100,000 people died in a famine. ♪ This chronicle's by another monk, Simeon of Durham, and he says people were so desperate for food that they ate the flesh of horses and dogs and humans... ♪ and this chronicle is from the Abbey of Evesham, which is in Worcestershire, so that's not in the North at all, but they were getting refugees from up here, from Yorkshire, and some of these refugees were so famished that when the monks gave them food, "cibum," they ate it so ravenously that their bodies couldn't handle it, and they died. I really feel that William has got blood on his hands for this. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: William had obliterated the rebellion in the North, but he'd also engineered a famine. ♪ Inflicting violence like this on people leaves a legacy, as I think the Domesday Book might be able to show us. ♪ This page covers Eurvicsciure, or Yorkshire, the biggest county in the North, one that was right in the firing line, and I'm going to pick out this little place here within Yorkshire called Asulvesby. Before the conquest, it was worth 10 shillings and 8 pence, but now, after the conquest, it's worth nothing, nothing at all, and that's because it's in waste. It's been laid waste to, and now I've spotted that tiny word "waste," it's catching my eye. I can see it's coming up again and again-- this place and this place and this one, too. It's like Yorkshire's been wiped off the face of the earth. At first sight, you think that this book is about accountancy and taxation, but actually, there's also a story here about a huge amount of destruction and human suffering. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: The Harrying of the North marks the end of Edwin and Morcar's power. Morcar and other die-hard rebels joined the last desperate resistance to the Normans at Ely in Cambridgeshire, but it was quashed. As far as we know, it was in a Norman prison that he died. ♪ As for his brother Edwin, he was ultimately betrayed by fellow Englishmen. They took his head to William himself as a tribute to the Conqueror's power. ♪ For some, the Harrying of the North was a step too far, even by medieval standards, and many of William's supporters now turned on him. Here's the monk Orderic Vitalis once again. Now, Orderic's generally on William's side, but not when it comes to the Harrying of the North. Where are my notes from the translation? Here we are. He says, "But for this act, which condemned innocent "and guilty alike to die by slow starvation, "I cannot commend him. Such brutal slaughter cannot remain unpunished." ♪ Worsley, voice-over: In the 1070s, the concept of war crimes as we understand them obviously didn't exist, but there were early codes of conduct that guided how wars should be fought and how soldiers should make amends. ♪ This giant book is from the 17th century, but it's got in it a record of a much older document that was drawn up by Norman bishops just after the Battle of Hastings, around 1067. It's a list of penances for those who kill in bello, in war. A penance is kind of like a punishment. It's either praying or giving alms or fasting, and this is what you have to do if you've committed different sins. This is if you kill somebody in the magno praelio, which is the great battle, the Battle of Hastings. You have to do one year, but--this is interesting-- if you fought in that battle as an archer, as a Sagittariis, then you might be ignorant of how many people you'd killed with your arrows, so your penance was less, just a matter of months, so there is some kind of a moral code that exists in Norman heads, oh, and this next one's interesting. If you killed somebody for praedandi-- so that's loot or for plunder-- then you got the worst punishment of all. You had to do 3 years of penance, tres annos. It's fascinating. It's like looking inside the minds of the Norman bishops who drew up this list of penances. You get an insight into what they thought was acceptable, what was good, what was bad. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: This code of conduct was written before the Harrying of the North, and William violated its accepted standards. ♪ It's become clear to me that William destroyed the North because he failed politically. ♪ Having utterly alienated the Anglo-Saxons, he could only rule through violence. ♪ The Harrying of the North didn't completely extinguish resistance. William would face further invasion threats from the Danes, but by 1071, he was the Conqueror of England. ♪ Even today, we still feel the impact of how the Normans took over England. We see it in our landscape, our laws, and even in our names. This is from the biography of a Norman celebrity-- a famous hermit, actually-- but he started out in life as a little boy in Yorkshire, one of the bits of Yorkshire that had a very strong Viking influence, one of the parts that had been harried by the Normans, actually, and the little boy's name was Tostig. You pronounce it "Tostee," and that's a very Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian-sounding name, so what happened to Tostig? My notes from the translation will tell me, when his youthful companions mocked the name Tostig, "Tostee," his parents decided to change it, and what did they change it to? Well, the very Norman name of William. It's just a tiny, little detail, isn't it, about a little boy, but I think it speaks volumes. ♪ Worsley, voice-over: If the Normans hadn't broken Yorkshire and Northumbria, it's possible that the language and culture of Northern England would be even more distinctive than it still is from the South. ♪ William's conquest meant the North would no longer look instinctively across the North Sea to Scandinavia. Now it would look south and be part of a more tightly controlled England bound to Normandy for centuries. ♪ Before I started investigating the Norman Conquest, I think I'd assumed it was straightforward, almost inevitable, but I come to realize just how difficult it was for William to do it, and the human cost. Now, England was invaded before the Normans came along but never successfully afterwards. Perhaps that's William's legacy. ♪

TikTok banning on book publishing MY THOUGHTS 1) tiktok is the most popular website in modern humanity so replacing its algorithm joined to its userbase will be a challenge- many websites will try but i think many will fail, an expensive failure 2) outside a website with a similar userbase size [google/meta] a website with a smaller relative userbase that succeeds with a sharper marketing style will lack the exposure or outreach of a larger userbase 3) Book readers will survive and at the end of the day the Booktok model will survive maybe mirrored in various places that will require book lovers to know where to be online. An interesting time for the commercial structure of the literature business concerning the internet ARTICLE BookTok shaped a new generation of readers, authors. What happens if TikTok is banned? Clare Mulroy USA TODAY It doesn’t matter if you’re off social media or chronically online enough to know what “faerie smut” is – if you’re a reader, you’ve probably heard of BookTok. Reader communities are nothing new. But BookTok isn’t your grandma’s book club or the Facebook fan page of your mom’s generation – in fact, it gave online book communities of days past a run for their money by boosting book sales and birthing an entirely new generation of readers. But on Friday, the Supreme Court began hearing arguments to determine whether it should block a law requiring TikTok to cut ties with the Chinese government or be banned Jan. 19. What happens for booklovers if it all goes away? The 2020 pandemic lockdown days and TikTok’s growing popularity primed young adult readers for this online bibliophile's paradise. Backlist sales soared, especially with romance and fantasy authors like Colleen Hoover and Sarah J. Maas. Hoover's romance book sales increased 693% from 2020 to 2021, the Washington Post reported. Maas anchored a 75% year-over-year revenue increase in 2024, according to Publishers Weekly. TikTok’s algorithm also became the silver bullet for many independent and self-published authors. On a platform where anyone could go viral, any book was fair game for discussion, and some authors’ followings ballooned. “Because TikTok is free, so to speak, it’s a very valuable, cost-effective marketing tool that authors have used,” says Regina Brooks, president of the Association of American Literary Agents. “If you find readers who really value your work, you as the author don’t have to do the same type of pushing because you have ambassadors who will do that work for you.” Bloom, an imprint of Sourcebooks, became a big name in romance publishing by taking over the distribution and marketing of some of BookTok's viral self-published authors including Ana Huang and Lucy Score. “It really democratized social media and it really put voices all at one level, including those of our authors,” says Maranda Seney, the publisher's senior online marketing manager. “What that did was really facilitate an openness and vulnerability and a new level of connection between authors and readers. And I do think that TikTok and TikTok’s algorithm were incredibly helpful in that.” Before, authors were often encouraged to keep interactions with fans limited. Molly Waxman, vice president and executive director of marketing at Sourcebooks who has been in the industry for 25 years, remembers when the fanmail-answering guidance was “let the USPS be the barrier between you and your fans.” Now, on TikTok, authors are encouraged to hop on a livestream or answer fan questions. Many agents and publishers look specifically to sign authors who already have a social following. Some TikTok users have even secured book deals from their viral videos like Alex Aster's "Lightlark" and "Charlotte Illes Is Not a Detective" by Katie Siegel, who both posted concept videos and caught the attention of publishers. That emotional connection between authors and readers has been “powerful” to watch, says Dominique Raccah, publisher and CEO of Sourcebooks. Rather than being on a pedestal, authors are rewarded for their candidness and authenticity. “It’s about being human, you’re on this journey with somebody you admire and really love their books and you’re walking every step with them,” Raccah says. But if TikTok does get banned, will that mentality sundown too? Rachel Whitehurst is the founder of the marketing firm The Nerd Fam, offering public relations support to independent authors who don’t have a marketing team. She thinks the seed has already been planted – support of self-published authors will only continue on the next “BookTok.” “It will be more important for (indie authors) to use that business acumen,” she says. “It’s unfortunate, and I do think that adapting is going to be the most important thing, but I’m not worried.” Authors may have benefitted, but really, readers and content creators are the ones driving the BookTok bus; finding bubbles of niche reading tastes thanks to an effective algorithm that uses large swaths of data to bring users videos tailored to their interests. Rachael Beck, an author and owner of FanCornerCreations, makes fandom and fantasy-themed trinkets like “Harry Potter” wedding ring boxes, earrings and games. “We make the nerdy products no one else does, with the passion only a fellow fan can,” her site reads. On BookTok, Beck found a loyal, supportive community that valued her creations as much as she did. Her success on the app allowed her to quit her corporate job and focus on her business fulltime. Half of the traffic to her website comes from TikTok, she says, and it’s how she gets people to visit her booth at Comic Cons. “It’s been very life-changing,” she says. “I really feel like I found my voice because of TikTok.” To prepare for a possible ban, Beck started cross-posting on Instagram but the community aspect didn’t translate, she says. When she posts well-performing, well-received TikTok videos on Instagram, they get fewer views and more derisive comments. “I’m the same human, sometimes literally (posting) the exact same content,” Beck says. “I try to cater it to the different platform I'm on, but there’s absolutely no question that TikTok’s algorithm puts you in front of more people. And it’s a better algorithm, so the people you’re being put in front of are much more engaged in the content.” She’ll continue no matter what happens with TikTok, but she worries about other small businesses, who she says need support to feel like they can keep going. “I think there’s going to be a lot of small businesses who’ve never weathered a big storm before, who just capsize,” Beck says. Industry experts are looking to readers for the next steps, confident they'll find them wherever they land if TikTok goes away. “There’s always going to be an iteration of this. It’s about community,” says Pamela Jaffee, senior director of publicity and brand marketing at Bloom Books and Casablanca. “Twelve years ago, it was the in-person book club that made ‘50 Shades of Grey.’” The book community got online with Facebook, then blogging, then Instagram, with a dozen apps in between. “The readers took that voice back on TikTok and now that they have that voice, they’re not going to be silenced. They’re going to share that love and that passion, and I think it just leads to more opportunity to reach readers widely,” Jaffee says. Seney concurs: “At this point, it’s technology’s job to catch up with readers and then to meet us where we are, which is in this place of community and connection.” Brooks also sees a silver lining in a possible eviction from BookTok – new creative endeavors. “That platform also kind of turned books into status symbols, and I think in a way that other platforms have not done. And I also think that if TikTok goes away, it could spur a bit more innovation in marketing,” she says. “I would love to see people be a little bit more creative about how books can reach their intended audience." Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY’s Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, check out her recent articles or tell her what you’re reading at cmulroy@usatoday.com. article url https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2025/01/10/tiktok-ban-supreme-court-booktok-publishing/77601633007/ linkedin referral from Regina Brooks of Serendipity Literary Agency https://www.linkedin.com/posts/regina-brooks_following-its-rise-in-popularity-in-2020-activity-7284612784460300290-I_pS?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop Prior Post https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11422-economiccorner007/ POST URL https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11424-economiccorner008/ PRIOR EDITION https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/143-economic-corner-7-january-14th-2025/ NEXT EDITION https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/165-economic-corner-09-media-properties-dictate-01282025/ 01/15/2026 https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/12295-whatever-happened-to-the-tiktok-ban/#findComment-79367 @ProfD I don't even recall them selling any part of the company. Last I cognized they were in court or it had been stalled. I need to do more research. if it was a ruse and the objective was to sell a part, then what was in the part sold that satisfied those who attacked it? I wonder

The porn industry has always been active or alive, the key is where is it legal or allowed to be legal. The financial beauty of onlyfans or similar, plus why the video porn industry diminished, is the privacy or intimacy of onlyfans or similar; they are alot more safe for women, are not on the street thus are safe from law enforcement of the street, or all the visual desires men have can be sated for a price. Someone asked an interesting question, cited below. The problem with the general video market and this goes to the larger issue with fiction , is humanity is in a cinema verite era. Life film. Yes, a person can watch a free film but seeing the live action is the thrill, this is unique, this is personal, this isn't for the exact mass consumption and that plays into the ego of the male buyers, or buyers in general. The key isn't the porn in itself, you can get that for free, the key is the personalization of the porn. I recall a pole dancer, a black woman with a very supple athletic body, once said, though i paraphrase, the key isn't dancing on the pole, but getting the customer to think you are dancing on the pole for him. Yes, a porn star in a movie can sleep with ten men with penile implants pounding away and do it smiling with giddy sounds, a great performance; but it isn't one to one, it isn't personal. A porn star on onlyfans, who doesn't have the physical condition to handle multiple penile implanted men pounding, or is unskilled as a thespian to provide the sound or face for convincing joyous revelry , can offer that personalization , that illusion to one to one, like the phone sex but with visual media, that a recorded film to the masses can't. I was unable to confirm the numbers but this explains a big path for all the arts commercially. Art that somehow interacts with customers is the commercial key in the near future. Kim Kardashian and similar in the past who were in many ways mocked comprehended the power of the future of cinema verite, where the recorded will be manipulatable, the common can be generated through computer programming, it gives greater value to the real, even if the real is scripted or engineered. A QUESTION This can’t be real. Do people realize that they have free porn sites?? https://x.com/Ohearn22/status/1878118399676486068 VIDEO VIDEO TRANSCRIPT 1.4 Million women in the United States of America are active users of onlyfans 1.2 million are between 18 and 24 I decided to google the number of onlyfans workers And when i tell you guys this number, I want you to remember, sex work is an industry for young women, and so the majority of this number will come from gen z I found out 1.4 Million women in the United States of America are active users of onlyfans 1.2 million are between 18 and 24 What percent of women, how many women in the usa are between 18 to 24. I find out roughly ten million women. So , just from onlyfans members, ten percent of women in that age group are only fans members. So there is only ten million women between 18 to 25. Then i decided to think more about the consumers. who is consuming onlyfans. And, I found out that 82 million American men subscribe to onlyfans. To think about that number is. How many people are in the united states of America? 165 million men are in the usa. So they are telling me 82 million from 162 million are subscribed to onlyfans. Of the 82 million men subscribed to onlyfans 90 percent are married. And 87 % users are male , and 68% of users are white. So the average onlyfans customer is a white married man VIDEO CITATION https://x.com/OfficialTrigga7/status/1878050225752887458 VIDEO ORIGINAL https://www.tiktok.com/@justpearlythingspodcast/video/7454375207340444974?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7453919654784943662 REFERRED FROM Former WNBA star Liz Cambage retired & joined Onlyfans & says she made more money her first week on onlyfans than her entire WNBA career https://x.com/DailyLoud/status/1877850539615989897 Prior entry https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11405-economiccorner006/ POST URL https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11422-economiccorner007/ PRIOR EDITION https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/142-economic-corner-6-january-6th-2025 / NEXT EDITION https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/144-economic-corner-8-january-15th-2025/

The Cellist states something few state, London has no toll to get into the city so when they did congestion pricing that was the first toll into London. New York City is full of tolls. And the comparisons to Singapore which is a wealthy city state, or stocklhom which is the only city in a low populace country full of natural resources, are dysfunctional to new York city which is the largest city in a country with over three hundred million people. And Oren Barzilay admitted that EMS workers live in shelters, they are not on welfare, but they don't make enough to live outside the shelters. ... What are my points? 1) no two places in humanity are financially the same. Applying governmental policy to two different places will never yield the same result. 2) the true financial condition of cities isn't in mayor's speeches or investments in stadiums. It is in the quality of life to the lowest wage workers. Eric Adams suggest New York City is financially flying high, then if so why not pay the emergency medical service workers more? why not make congestion pricing void for them? You claim to have money earned but you don't use it , can only mean you are hoarding it. when governments do that, it means illegal money transactions in the bureaucracy. Congestion pricing and the Broadway community By Roberto Araujo New York City PUBLISHED 2:18 PM ET Dec. 30, 2024 Broadway musician Mairi Dorman-Phaneuf plays the cello in the Broadway musical “The Great Gatsby." She drives into Midtown Manhattan from her home in Hartsdale, New York. “We lived in Inwood before we bought this house, and we spent, the idea was to be able to take the Metro-North, which we did up until the pandemic. We always took the train,” Dorman-Phaneuf said. “But then in the pandemic, the trains home went away and they still haven’t come back. So even though I wish we could be taking the train, on a weekday, there were just, there’s a train at 10:30, and then there’s a train at 11:44. So if we get done at 10:35 at work, the next train is 11:44, and that means I’d get home at 12:40,” she said. "And that's just untenable, you know, to have to wait an hour for a train." In a statement, the MTA said, “Schedules are based on current ridership data of more than 200,000 daily riders who use Metro-North. As Metro-North’s ridership continues to grow, the railroad is constantly monitoring ridership patterns and trends to see what future adjustments may be necessary.” https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/on-stage/2024/12/30/congestion-pricing-and-the-broadway-community official link https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/on-stage/2024/12/30/congestion-pricing-and-the-broadway-community?cid=share_clip Drivers react to day one of congestion pricing By Noorulain Khawaja Manhattan PUBLISHED 2:14 PM ET Jan. 05, 2025 Some New Yorkers thoughts to Congestion pricing https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2025/01/05/drivers-react-to-day-one-of-congestion-pricing The Port Authority tolls will increase alongside congestion pricing https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2025/01/05/port-authority-tolls-increase-alongside-start-of-congestion-pricing Local EMS union encourages workers to request reassignment out of congestion relief zone Local Union 2507 sent a notice to their members that included a reassignment request form. Heather Fordham Jan 3, 2025, 10:30 PM Updated 2 days ago The local union that represents the city's EMS and paramedics is now encouraging their members assigned to stations in the congestion relief zone to request reassignments. Local Union 2507 sent a notice to their members that included a reassignment request form. The union represents 4,100 emergency medical technicians and paramedics that travel from all parts of the city — and even outside of the state, to be on the city's front lines. Under congestion pricing, those who live outside of 60th Street in Manhattan will have to pay a toll beginning at $9 for cars during peak periods in order to get to stations located in downtown Manhattan. Union president Oren Barzilay said Friday while they fought for exemptions and discounts at public hearings, ultimately, they were not included in the groups eligible. "My men and woman, they live in their cars, they live in their families or friends' houses. They sleep on couches, they sleep at stations because they can't afford to go back and forth every day. This will more than likely be the nail in the coffin, they will likely resign, or demand to be transferred to another station," Barzilay said. Barzilay did not have an exact number, but said some workers have already submitted reassignment forms and they expect the number to increase once the toll goes into effect on Jan. 5. “Mark my words, it will likely have a large, negative impact on public safety that will soon enough lead to a rush by Albany and City Hall’s countless and well-paid government funded spin doctors to point the blame and fingers at each other, as they always do. Actions speak louder than words and this tax is a lose-lose for the FDNY EMS and public safety,” Barzilay added. https://brooklyn.news12.com/local-ems-union-encourages-workers-to-request-reassignment-out-of-congestion-relief-zone IN AMENDMENT murders in NYC 375 in 2024 390 in 2023 shootings in NYC 1091 in 2024 1150 in 2023 New York Ctiy has ten million people , ten percent is one million, one percent is one hundred thousand. a tenth of one percent is ten thousand. a hundredth of one percent is one thousand Piror Entry https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11402-economiccorner005/ POST URL https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11405-economiccorner006/ PRIOR EDITION https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/141-economic-corner-5-january-4th-2025 / NEXT EDITION https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/143-economic-corner-7-january-14th-2025/