#we want Italian Beato

[silverhallow]

Giving you more time this year 😂 seeing as Lucia (aka Saint Lucy's Day) is in less than 2 weeks, could we see Charlie, Alex & Will dressed as mini-Santas, gingerbread men or little elves & Vivi dressed as one of Lucia's maids, with the whole family visiting grandma Violet to treat her with some light & baked goodies? 🥰 (maybe awoa would work for this since Lucia is celebrated in Italy as well?)

St Lucia’s day, or Saint Lucy’s day had been a big part of Sophie’s life growing up. Her Nonna Vittoria loved the day and Sophie had spent every St Lucia’s day as a child, dressed in a white dress with a red robe and a wreath upon her head.

Vittoria had always split the celebration using her Swedish and her Italian heritage as part of the celebrations. Vittoria, whilst she had been born in Italy, her mother was Swedish.

Sophie had adored the celebrations and always felt like a Princess and she loved the baked goods but this year, this year felt all the more Important to celebrate and remember as Vittoria had passed away just months before little Violetta Alice Bridgerton had been born.

she and Benedict had called their daughter Violetta to celebrate both Sophie’s heritage and Nonna as well as his mother, she was referred to as Vivi and she had been the light in their life after a trying few months for their family.

Charlie’s sepsis Infection, noticed and subsequently saved by Phillip Crane and then Vittoria’s stroke…

It had been a rough few months but with Christmas around the corner, Sophie knew this was the perfect opportunity to honour her heritage and Nonna.

Her father had been overjoyed when Sophie had told him she planned to celebrate this year and along with Alice and Albert had began to prepare all the treats and it wasn’t long before Sophie’s cottage style house was filled with the smell of Ginger biscuits and Saffron bread and she had three excited little boys in the kitchen desperate to help her.

As they entered the kitchen all three of them paused their grandfather and father behind them, holding their two month old daughter and he grinned at his sons“go on, we’ll sing it together”

Charlie took the lead as the eldest and with a little shove to Alex and William they began trying to sing the lyrics Benedict and Richard had been teaching them for the last two weeks:

Sul mare luccica l'astro d'argento

Placida è l'onda, prospero è il vento

Sul mare luccica l'astro d'argento

Placida è l'onda, prospero è il vento

Venite all'agile barchetta mia

Santa Lucia, santa Lucia

Venite all'agile barchetta mia

Santa Lucia, santa Lucia

Con questo zeffiro, così soave

O, com'è bello star sulla nave

Con questo zeffiro, così soave

O, com'è bello star sulla nave

Su passeggeri, venite via

Santa Lucia, santa Lucia

Su passeggeri, venite via

Santa Lucia, santa Lucia

O dolce Napoli, o suol beato

Ove sorridere volle il creato

O dolce Napoli, o suol beato

Ove sorridere volle il creato

Tu sei l'impero dell'armonia

Santa Lucia, santa Lucia

Tu sei l'impero dell'armonia

Santa Lucia, santa Lucia

Sophie beamed, having been filming an Instagram live video she quickly leaned over and cut off her camera before rushing around to hug her sons “oh mi cuccioli”

“We want to help Mama!!” Alex exclaimed loudly.

“Well my love, Mama has about finished but we do have to get ready for grandmas and I think Papa helped you all pick out your costumes?” Sophie said brightly as she took Vivi, already in her tiny white gown with her red sash from her husband.

“Oh mama!!! I’m so excited!” Charlie grinned at her

“Well them my little Prince, run off and get ready with Nonno and you can show Mama after”

All three boys squealed excitedly and ran out of the room as Richard let out a beleaguered sigh “these kids are going to kill me…”

“Blame Ben. They’re entirely Bridgerton in their nature”

“Excuse me, Alex yes… he’s so much like Colin but the other two…”

“Oh they’re like you Poppet… you were just as hyper on St Lucia’s day…” Richard laughed

“NONNO COME ON!!!!” Yelled Alex from the corridor

Chuckling Richard left the room.

“Have you got everything ready my love? Do you need a hand at all?” Benedict asked. Sophie was only just back on her feet after Vivi’s birth and he didn’t want her doing too much.

He would have put his foot down about her doing everything today but he knew how much it meant to her, how much it meant for her to honour her Nonna and he wanted to do so as well.

“It’s all in hand, Al’s making the Cuccia for me and I’ve managed to make the rest between our little Lucia’s feeds so it’s all good”

Benedict smiled; he knew that the Cuccia, a dish of boiled wheat berries often mixed with ricotta and honey which they served as a savoury soup with beans, was Albert’s speciality so it made sense for him to make it.

Sophie had tried once and it had been a bit of a rare disaster for Sophie.

“Thank you for teaching the boys the song. Nonna would have loved it” Sophie said as she pressed a kiss to her husband's cheek. “And for dressing Vivi…”

“We may have managed to find a matching outfit for you upstairs mi amor” Benedict said “and I’ve got a tiny crown for Vivi as well but we’ll put it on as we get to mums.”

Sophie nodded “what have the boys decided to wear?” Sophie asked

“Oh I can’t spoil the surprise” Benedict beamed “gimme our little princess and go get ready, I’ll pack the car up and then the boys should have finished messing around with Nonno”

Sophie handed Vivi over to her husband and dashed off to dress herself.

She was still feeling a bit delicate in places after her emergency c-section and subsequent hysterectomy and so the long white dress felt nice on her sore body.

She would never admit it to her husband but she maybe had overdone it just a touch over the last few days but she had been determined to honour her Nonna.

She winced as she pulled the red sash and put her hair into a quick bun as she saw her father stood at the door “Soph…” he sighed

“Dad… don’t”

“You don’t know what I’m going to say…”

“Yes I do. You’re going to take Ben’s side and tell me I’ve done too much too soon after Vivi…”

“He’s right though sweetheart, you nearly died… you shouldn’t…”

“It’s for Nonna dad… and besides I’m fine. I’m just tired is all. A newborn does that to you” Sophie said defiantly.

Richard sighed “I know it’s for Nonna sweetheart it’s why I’ve not said anything but please… take it easy okay. I can’t go through the thought of losing you again, and I don’t think Ben can either” Richard said

Sophie nodded “I will take it easy, even if I didn’t want to I think Ben Will force it on me”

“I knew there was a reason I approved of your husband” Richard laughed

“Dad… you think I’ve forgotten the two of you whisky drunk watching the rugby… you are sorely mistaken”

Richard grinned “I have no memory of that night, or very little memory anyway… but come on, there are three very excited little boys down stairs desperate to go see Granny Vi and show there Mama they’re costumes”

Sophie grinned and knew better than to ask her father, he kept secrets way better than her husband, and she made her way carefully down the stairs and gasped as she saw her three boys lined up at the bottom of the stairs.

William, having just turned 2, was dressed as an elf, looking adorable with the stripy tights and green and red hat that Aunty Daphne had clearly made. Charlie was dressed as a knight, he had insisted on it though it was a white knight so a nod towards the traditions as he had to protect his baby sister… and then Alex…

Sophie had to fight back the urge to burst out laughing, her little 4 year old trouble maker, dressed as a donkey. “Eeey orrrrrr” he said and Sophie broke…

And she burst out laughing as she hugged her little Boys “don’t you look wonderful! These are Fantastic!!!”

Benedict had dressed for the occasion, as Santa Claus much to all three boy’s excitement and he had gotten them into the car without much bother, Richard followed them in his having promised to collect Albert, Alice and Oscar on his way to Violet’s home for the celebration.

All the Bridgerton’s, after Kate’s insistence had dressed up, all the girls were in their white gowns with red Sashes and as a surprise Phillip had helped make everyone traditional crowns with Lingonberries and when Sophie, Richard and Alice saw the trouble they had gone into they had a little cry.

Well Richard and Alice had a little cry, Sophie burst into full blown sobs still a hormonal mess after her pregnancy.

It was nothing however compared to how she cried as they all sat down for dinner and little Charlie stood on his seat “Oscar… Neddy… Milo… Lottie…Ami, Bel, Cazzi, Davey… Manda…Oli…osc…” and all of his cousins, and his two little brothers all stood on their seats with their parents looking confused and they took a deep breath and they all sang the St Lucia song.

It took a full hour before Sophie calmed herself down and hugged all her Nieces and Nephews tightly and declared it had been the perfect way to remember her Nonna and the most perfect St Lucia’s day ever.

#ask ash #st Lucia day #bridgerton #benedict bridgerton #sophie beckett #benophie #a work of art #awoa AU

[uminekorandomness]

Keeping Grandma in there until Umineko Gold coming out

#please #we want Italian Beato #umineko #umineko no naku koro ni #umineko gold

[minervaslegacy-blog]

A trip to... Firenze!

Hi everyone! Welcome to the first column of A trip to…! I’m very excited to start this column because I think traveling is one of the richest things we can enjoy in life. Getting involved in someone else’s culture and language, getting to know other ways of living that are different from ours is the highest form of knowledge.

And to start things off, and keeping with the theme of the rest of the articles I’ve written for this week, today we make a small journey to Firenze, or Florence, as most people know her. I’ve never been to Florence, sadly enough, at least physically. In my dreams, I’ve been there quite a lot, or maybe I just went once and never left. But since I hope to one day finally go there, I have a few things that I’m dying to see and I want to share them with you. So, let’s go to Firenze!

I can only imagine what an experience it is to visit Florence and wonder at all the magnificent works of art build all over the city. A city that in itself is a work of art. Her real name is Firenze, and it's the capital of the Tuscan region (as you know, Italy is divided into twenty regions, and every single one of the as a sort of capital).

As most of you know, Florece has a very strong connection to art since the italian Rinascimentobut in the medieval had already a reputation for being an important center for finance and commercial trade. One of the most important banks of the medieval and Rinascimento times was born here, the Medici Bank ran by the Medici Family, one of the most important florentine mecenes patrons in history (I actually did the experience of researching “patrons” on google and Cosimo di Medici popped up).

I had to read a lot of old traveling journals, all of them to some city in Italy, to do a paper for one of my master’s courses. And I was amazed how every single author was amazed by this amazing city. Some of them called it the City of Flowers, some others called it the Italian Athens and it looks like a city frozen in time, in that period where you could see the importance of culture, art, philosophy. So, since I hope to one day to live there and never leave, I have a list of all the places I want to visit. Get ready!

Piazza del Duomo: Florence's Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore, with the Duomo engineered by Bruneleschi, Crypta of Santa Reparata, Campanile di Giotto, Battistero di San Giovanni, Museo dell’Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore.

Galleria degli Uffizi, one of the most important italian museums with amazing works of art, mainly connected to the Renaissance

Galleria dell'Accademia, that houses the magnificent word of Michelangelo, the sculpture of David, but it also houses and incredible collection of paintings

Ponte Vecchio, an historical landmark where today you can find jewelry stores, art dealers, etc.

Piazza della Signoria, the place where the florentine republic was born and 'till this day is stll seen has a political center for the city. Here, I'm really excited to city the Palazzo Vecchio (also known as Palazzo della Signoria) e La logia dei Lanzi.

I also want to visit Piazza Santo Spirito, where there's the Basilica di Santo Spirito, also designed by Bruneleschi (I'm a big Bruneleschi fan!)

Now, this one is very important! I did my thesis on some painting of Beato Angelico, so of course I have to visit the Museo Nacionale di San Marco, so I can fianlly see those beautiful frescos right in front of me.

Basilica di San Lorenzo and the Medici Chapel, I'm not sure but I think it's one of the biggest churchs in all of Florence. Another commision offered to Bruneleschi, but he couldn't finish it before he died.

Chiesa di Santa Maria Novella, the first basilica and the main dominican church of the city.

Palazzo Medici, also known as Palazzo Medici Riccardi, was the former home of the Medici Family before they moved to the imponent Palazzo Pitti. Now it's a museum, and I really want to see it!

Another basilica of this amazing city, is Chiesa di San Miniato al Monte, designed by Michelozzo. It holds the magnificent Cappella del Cardinale del Portogallo, a gorgous funeral monument holded in memory of Jaime de Portugal.

Palazzo Pitti, a rennaissance palace that became the official residence for the Medici Family in 1549, when it was sold to the wife of Cosimo I de Medici. Other than the amazing works of art, it also holds the Boboli Gardens, a master piece in itself.

Museo Casa di Dante, na via Santa Margherita. Needs no explanation! As a fan of Dante, I'm dying to see the place where he lived before he was exiled.

Piazza Santa Trinita, another very important point of the city. In the middle, you can find the Colonna della Giustizia, an ancient-roman column, given by Pope Pius IV to Cosimo I de Medici.

As you can see, it's quite a list and I don't think it's all there. For an art historian, especialized in the italian rennaissance, Florence is the very definition of heaven. And that's why I think the moment I set foot on florentine floor, I'll never leave.

Have you ever been to Florence? What did you visit? Have any recommendations? Please use the ask box and let me know!

#italianculture #placeswedreamoff #firenze

[sealer-of-wenkamui]

So is this a Symbolic Vase representing Beato, and whatever happened to her...or something? Also this different look for her is weird enough, but she’s also so polite in the past... And yeah, she definitely doesn’t seem to have any sort of eternal bliss... oh but if boredom is poison to witches, we should...just make her very bored to win? Okay everyone, time to do NOTHING for these 2 days! Also work on the riddle?

Okayyyy so this place is literally Purgatory it seems? (It even said “Purgatorio” before the tea party...) Are both her and Battler stuck in Purgatory? Is she trying to pass on...?

And wait... googling that, I found Dante’s Purgatorio, in which there is a “Beatrice” who he loved?? That seems like where her name might be from... It’s Italian and everything....So is Kinzo Dante here??

Little Eva seems like Lambda’s influence, since she apparently helps hard workers, and Eva has been trying all she can....

Beato seems like she actually cares for Maria (I hope so), it seems like a parallel to her in the past and the “princess”.... I guess Maria is a witch (in training)... Beato might have been “human” at one time too...?

And now she has a butler, apparently because Battler started to accept her... he doesn’t seem like that bad of a guy though. I want to try those cookies, why is no one trying the cookies

That...line of reasoning seems flawed?? Proving you’re wise doesn’t automatically make everyone foolish? What are you talking about Beato... Sure if we know the number of people on the island, and it isn’t a 19th person it makes sense it would be one of the 18, but that example was pretty bad.

Yet Battler somehow won this opening round, and the existence of a 19th person hasn’t been disproven so yay..? Lets see how things go downhill from here!

#infel finally plays umineko #maybe i should look more into purgatorio too hah

[ingoldentent]

The Christmas Flag

(A Christmas gift for Laurel @golden-witch. Hope you enjoy it!

For context, this is a modern AU the two of us talk about, with some details explained at the story itself. Some bits might seem out of nowhere for most readers.

Also, featuring Ange/Beato because I feel like the gays deserve it.)

“Ah, finally you’ve arrived! I was starting to think that you were planning to purposefully starve your dearest sister to deaaaaath!!”

“Good evening to you too, Beato.” Lion calmly replies. “Will got stuck on petting this one stray cat a couple streets down here.”

“More like saving our lives.” The aforementioned Will replies. “That was not your typical cat, Lion. I could feel in my soul as she stared into me- the desire to tear me apart while laughing at it.”

“Yeah, sure.” The blonde shrugged off. This was not the time to indulge into Willard’s paranoia regarding that one black cat with the blue ribbon. “So, were we the last ones to arrive?”

“You can bet on that!” Battler shouted from afar, for he was too busy fighting against Jessica in a match of Silver Mysteria to look at the arriving couple. Not the most festive activity there is, but the perfect cousin bonding method. If anything, it’s a good way to channel fighting urges instead of them bickering to the point of violence.

Beato claps her hands, nodding enthusiastically at Battler’s words. “Yes, that’s very right! C’mon, Lion, everyone, enough playing. It’s finally time for our Christmas dinner!!”

With that energetic call, the seven people at the house got around the table to celebrate the occasion. Lion Castiglioni and Willard H. Wright; Battler Ushiromiya, Jessica Ushiromiya and Sayo Yasuda (who was today in a more ‘Yoshiya’ mood); lastly, Beatrice Castiglioni and… Ange Ushiromiya.

It’s not traditional of Japanese people to celebrate Christmas the same way people do in the West. While here there’s an emphasis on family and presents and the figure of Santa Claus, in Japan Christmas is mostly a date for small children and couples. In other words, it’s not too farfetched to say that this holiday is like a second Valentine’s Day there.

Thing is, as an Italian family, the Castiglioni’s have kept up with the tradition of holding a family dinner every Christmas Eve, even after they moved to Japan. And the Ushiromiyas, as expected after decades of being under the rule of Kinzo Ushiromiya and his West loving ways, followed a similar vein.

However, none of those here present truly felt fulfilled with such a shallow reunion, where they’re forced to bear smiles in their faces while standing to listen to veiled insults to each other. Some felt the full strike of that, like Beatrice, the problematic princess of the Castiglioni’s who committed the terrible ‘sin’ of being born with a penis. Or Ange, the bastard child who would forever carry the stain of having her mother be a convicted criminal and not receive genuine affection from her.

Then you have Sayo, whose life as a servant to the Castiglioni’s taught her several things about grudges, pessimism and the obsolescence of the gender binary. Lion got it better than their sister - being the favorite among the relatives and having no difficulties in pleasing others certainly helped, but they couldn’t leave Beato alone in this one chance for getting a decent holiday.

Battler’s life isn’t that different from the one most readers are used to. The main exception being, he and Jessica managed to have quite the detailed discussion in regards to how to conduct a polyamorous relationship with their mutual beloved. They don’t want each other, though. That’d be gross. Jessica’s biggest worry today is this one extracurricular program her parents want her to attend after winter break and the fact that Battler utterly destroyed her in Silver Mysteria right now.

Last, we have Willard, who’s only here to accompany his partner. He’s not really that close to any of the other people here, yet somehow he always ends up as their collective therapist when things spiral out of control.

This concludes presentations of this curious ensemble, which was now reunited in Ange’s apartment for a late Christmas celebration. It might be a strange group doing a strange thing on December 26th, but hey. None of them really felt like what they got during the day proper really carried an air of ‘peace’ and ‘happiness’. Isn’t that what this holiday should be about, to begin with?

Upon Beato’s loud exclamation of Lion and Willard’s arrival, Ange and Yoshiya, who were busy preparing the last components of the meal at the kitchen, joined the group to give their usual aloof greetings. The Ushiromiya girl simply waved at them, not really feeling like talking. Especially to Will, who gave her quite a painfully needed wake-up call on her behavior, last time they met. She is doing better now, but the shame of that time still runs through her veins.

“Alright, then, what did you guys get to do?” Jessica approached impatient. “My belly is starving after all the energy I’ve spent on that stupid game.”

“You mean,” Battler retorted. “the energy you spent losing to me, ihihi- OUCH!”

“S-Shut, dumbass!”

“Hey, you two, behave!” Yoshiya quickly berates. “If you don’t join the table soon, the dinner will get cold.”

“”Y-Yes, love…” They bow down in shame and do as solicited.

“That’s right.” Beato nods in agreement. “The longer you keep on that stuff, the longer I’ll have to wait until I get to be preeeetty gay with Ange, you know~?”

“B-BEATO!” Ange blushes like an apple at that affirmation from her girlfriend. “Not in front of them, e-especially Onii-chan!!”

The group laughs at the scene. Ah, young adult life. The moment where your spirit still carries the passion and wish for fun from adolescence, but you’re forced to face the reality of responsibilities and sustenance. That makes creating moments like these harder and harder, which’s why they must be enjoyed to the max.

With everyone on table, the dinner finally goes on without bigger problems. The group discusses questions regarding college, jobs, money, plans and promises for next year. It’s not that unlike what they had with the rest of their families the previous days. However, getting to share their perspective in an environment where they won’t be judged for not sharing the same ideology as their parents was certainly refreshing. Not to count, you wouldn’t see this much sincere laughter at either the Castiglioni’s or Ushiromiya’s tables.

To that, Beato was really glad. Ah, it’s been months ever since she has had an evening this pleasant. Anxious fits about her body still disturb her even when Ange has proven to her, time and time again, that she isn’t ‘furniture’ anymore. Yes, that’s in the past. A new chapter in her life is about to begin, one that for once she isn’t dreading to start…

“Beato?” Ange’s voice cuts the blonde from her thoughts, making her drop the fork on her hand. “You’re thinking of something?”

“A-Ah, nothing, n-nothing!” To prove that, she proceeds to munch several portions of the food on her dish at once. “W-Was jwust admwired at wour cooking skwll, wes!”

“………………….”

Ange can see her just perfectly behind her cheerful facade, can’t she? Who is she fooling? She’s still damn terrified of this whole thing! A life with friends, with someone who loves and accepts her for who she is… Does someone as selfish and disgusting as her really deserve any of this?

Just as she was having those thoughts, a gentle hand suddenly starts patting her head. “Ah, Battler!”

“You’re in one of those ‘moods’ again, aren’t you?” He asks with a concerned tone. She takes a chance to look around the table and notices- everyone is staring at her, no? Oh, great. Now she’s made everyone worried. She was singlehandedly ruining the festive spirit! Oooooh, she wants to die right now-

“SO!” All of a sudden, Jessica slams the table with her open palms. “I think we’ve all finished eating for now. Why don’t we move to dessert?! I’ve heard that you prepared a delicious thing, didn’t you, Yoshiya-kun?”

“Did I- Oh, right! Yes, I did.” He nods, catching on what Jessica’s intention is. He coughs awkwardly, in such a way that it becomes clear to Beato what is just happening. Still, she’s glad. At least like this, she can let herself be drowned in her intrusive thoughts without bothering anyone…

“Beato. It’s me, Lion.” The heir says after knocking at the bathroom door. “You’ve been there for 10 minutes already. Y-You okay?”

No response.

“Beatrice,” Will joined in. “if you’re hiding because you don’t want us to get worried over seeing your messy state, I’m sorry to say that might not be workin- GHNK!”

“Willard, manners.” Lion cuts him short, fingers quickly retreating from his butt at a pinching pose. Still no response from the other side.

“Nothing, huh…?” Ange sighs, while the others watch the door from afar. They all agree that it’s best limiting how many people try talking to Beato when she’s having an anxiety attack.

“At least I can’t hear her breathing hard anymore. She should be coming out soon.” Will says.

“Tsk… idiot. Why today of all days?! These stupid brains of ours must be defective or something!!” Ange punches a wall in protest. It’s not like she can talk much, though. She had a similar crisis just yesterday, at the Ushiromiya mansion. Were Battler not there to take her to a calmer place, who knows what a scandal she would have pulled in front of the relatives. That’d be utterly disgraceful to her pride.

Speaking of him… “Oh, Ange, I have an idea! Bring up the flags already, instead of leaving it to the very end!”

“The flags…” Ah, yes. It had been an idea that she had come up with to make the two of them more comfortable with the season. Ange was never good at picking presents for others or at giving comforting words according to what they need, as Battler is. So, she thought, perhaps… something simpler would be able to express what she thinks of Beato and their relationship in a better manner.

And you can’t go more symbolic than with these flags.

“…Beato.” She knocks the bathroom door. “Why don’t we… finish setting up the Christmas tree now? I left the top of it to you, you know?”

She’s referring to a small, slightly broken tree that they found abandoned on the street the other day. It seems like even on Japan, people have been getting too much into Christmas trees recently, to the point where defective ones have been appearing on trash cans more and more. For someone like Ange, however, who detested getting in touch with any of her family’s richness, this was just the perfect decoration for the season.

A couple seconds pass, no response coming from the blonde. Looks like Beatrice isn’t up to even this, Ange concludes. Willard tells them to return to the others, but before they can do so-

*CREEEEEEK!*

“…………” Beato stands there, eyes looking down and hair disheveled. It’s not hard to deduce what she was doing inside that bathroom, but the others choose not to comment on it - for her sake… and their own. They simply smile at her, Lion moving to pat her on the back.

“Welcome back, Beatrice-sama.” Yoshiya greets. “Feeling better?”

“Y-Yeah, I guess…” She sighs. A hand of hers is over her chest. Perhaps she’s still feeling her heart beat fast, but at least her breath seems to be more controlled by now. Jessica approaches her and, alongside Battler, help her sit down on a sofa. Meanwhile, Willard goes get a glass of water to her.

“Drink it. Your body needs to stay hydrated.” He commands, which Beato attends without difficulties. In the meantime, Ange brings the small tree closer to her girlfriend.

“See? The top is still missing. But I’ve prepared something that we can put on it, together.” She starts blushing. “I-If you want, of course!”

“Ah…” Beato massages a temple of hers, as if guiding her consciousness back to the situation in front of her. “Hmmmm...”

“C’mon, it’s gonna be great!” Battler cheers her. “I bet that it’s gonna make you smile aaaall night long, ehehehe~.”

“O-Oni-chan!! Don’t give her that sort of perverted idea about me!” Ange huffs at him. That finally warrants a more elaborated answer from Beato - a chuckle, to be more specific.

“Don’t you worry, Battler. On another occasion I’ll make sure that your sister spends all night long smiling too~.” She winks at Ange, who by now looks like a tomato. Ange feels like jumping at her brother for starting such an embarrassing line of conversation, but manages to contain herself. It did help cheer Beato, at least exteriorly, so she’ll forgive him this time.

“A-ANYWAY!!” She coughs, then rummages through a pocket on her pants. “I-It’s not really anything grandiose or spectacular, but… I hope you’ll like it.” At last, Ange pulls the two flags out of her pocket, making them perfectly visible to Beato.

Her pupils dilate at the vision. “Those are…!”

On Ange’s hands, two small flags, enough to fit on an open palm, were presented. One had several colored stripes in it, a composition similar to a rainbow, except with only one blue instead of two. The other was stripped too, except with only blue, pink and white. It should be no mystery what they stand for.

“You want to… really put these on the tree… for everyone to see?!” Beato asked. Her voice was laced with apprehension. Not surprising, for putting those up would mean… to have pride of them.

“W-Well, yeah.” Ange coughs some more. “I… I love you, you know?” Her eyes darted away from Beatrice as she uttered those words. “A-A-And… I’m happy with what we are, who we are. O-Or, well…” She takes a deep breath.

Everyone else stays silent. They don’t want to break Ange’s willingness to speak like this. Battler in particular would know, considering his sister trained these words with him a couple days ago.

“Uuuuh, I’m… glad to have you as my girlfriend. And I don’t want to feel ashamed about that ever again.” Then… Ange smiles. A small, pretty smile that she rarely shows. “I hope… that you’re glad for having me as well. That’d be nice.”

“Ange…” Beato’s eyes begin tearing at those words. As expected, the other isn’t the most eloquent person ever. Still, her speech touched the blonde deeply. “A-ANGEEEEEEEEE!!!!”

Beato proceeds to tackle her in a tight hug, all while sobbing in an ugly manner. “Waaaaah, Ange… I’m… I-I’m so happy!! That, that you think of me like that…!!”

Of course, such a sudden display of physical affection - in front of others, even - isn’t the most comfortable scenario for Ange. But, well… These ARE her friends (or the closest thing to the term that she considers to have) and it IS Christmas (or the day after it), so… Perhaps she’ll let this last a bit longer… just this time.

The others clap in celebration. That’s when Jessica makes a comment. “Yo, guys, the marathon of horror Christmas movies on Channel Lyte is about to begin! Hurry up!!”

“Fine, fine. Let’s join them, Ange?” Beato asks. There’re still trails of tears on her face, but she’s trying to clean them.

“Y-Yes, we will.” Ange replies, a small blush on her face. So the group spends the rest of the night getting spooked or laughing at the screen, all while a small Christmas tree stands at the corner, two flags hanging over it.

#umineko #umineko no naku koro ni #goldenwitch #beaange #(Merry Christmas dear <3)

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

(You've commented a fair number of times about how you don't like EP7 much compared to other EPs. If you don't mind elaborating, what are your complaints about it?)

It’s difficult to explain my feelings in regard to Ep 7... and they might feel like things that affect just me so, everyone, if you feel like digging in this explanation, consider yourself warned.

In fact, to be honest, some of the issues I’ve with it are a matter of personal taste, for example I didn’t like at all how it was structured (as in the way the whole story was delivered to us) and I felt like many choices in it weren’t really necessary to the plot. All this can of course be countered by another person with a mere ‘but I liked it!’. We’re all different, after all, and my tastes don’t rule the world or dictate what should be likable and what shouldn’t.

Some issues I’ve about it are in regard to how ‘confusing’ its presentation is. No, I’m not talking about Will giving us obscure answers, I’m talking about the huge Meta structure that basically permeates all Ep 7 and that is never well explained. By now I’ve my theories and I’ve more or less sorted it out but the problem is that they’re just MY theories, MY interpretations. People come asking me what in the world is going on in Ep 7 and all I can reply to them is what I THINK is going on but I can’t say for sure and what makes it worse is that I don’t think we needed things to be so confusing. Umineko had better Meta ways to deliver things that had already been used. No need to complicate everything by making new ones. Of course, again, there can be people who loved all this.

Another issue I’ve with it is the Theatre-going authority. We’re lulled into thinking that it will push characters to tell us things, and that their testimony will be the truth. All the people Will uses it on were ALREADY willing to speak (even Kinzo was persuaded to do so by Lion) and they tell us an extremely personal, sometimes even deliberately mendacious version of the truth (Kinzo was the one who wanted to kill the Italians, not Yamamoto). The effect of the theatre-going authority is fundamentally the one of a giant fantasy flashback. We already had them, no need for it... unless they were supposed to be red herring? The only person who didn’t want to talk is Shannon, Will tries to use the theatre-going authority on her and then… gives up. It seems as if the theatre-going authority only existed to let us see Shannon going in ‘freaky/robot mode’ (it varies according to you reading the VN or the manga). It’s one of the things I felt we could go without.

A small issue is about Will, Lion and Clair. Although I love them to pieces, plot wise I feel we didn’t need those extra characters. I wave it off because… well, I love them madly because Ryukishi is awesome at creating characters. This doesn’t change the fact I get the feelings the addition of those extra was a tad forced.

A concrete issue I’ve with it is how it hand waves certain matters, just appealing to our suspension of disbelief on threat that if we think too much at it we’ll get a headache. Those things could have been explained one way or another but instead… no explanation is given for those oddities happening. They just… happens and we’re either asked to swallow them or make up our own explanation about why such odd things took place.

Will’s presence on the island? Hand waved, no one wonders how this strange got there or who he is, even though it’s a private island and he wasn’t on the boat with the adults. He walks in their private property out of nowhere and no one stops to wonder who’s this guy and from where it comes from, not the servants who should know who was invited nor Kinzo, the master of the house or… everyone else, really. Krauss asks him who he is but then he drops him with Lion and ignores the whole matter, because evidently that’s no more a private ceremony in a private chapel in a private island but a public place. Lion is the one who has a vaguely normal reaction and asks Will why he’s at the funeral, when a better question would be how he got on that island.

The portrait hanged in 1984? No reason for this is given in Lion’s world, it’s just something Kinzo decided on a whim.

Battler’s absence from the conference in Lion’s world is unexplained (yes, my Battler/Sayo heart shipper tells me it’s because Sayo wasn’t on the island but that’s my heart talking, not Umineko. Knox would wave it off as a random guess…).

The same goes for Kinzo’s decision to hold Beatrice’s funeral that year… in which nothing special happened. Kinzo just woke up that morning and decided to hold a ceremony to mourn Beatrice. When he didn’t feel like it when Beatrice truly died.

We aren’t told why Natsuhi changed her mind and accepted Lion even though it’s apparently extremely unlikely. Natsuhi just woke up and decided that hey, maybe tossing him off a cliff would be a bad idea.

Kinzo doesn’t notice how Rosa is screaming she killed Beatrice.

The whole story of how an Italian submarine carrying gold came to Japan is historically illogic as submarines in such conditions would historically go to Spain. To make us swallow it we’re told that maybe they had a reason to go to Japan but ‘nobody knows it because who knew died’. For the gold the same principle is used. It was hard enough to think it was Italian but then Will randomly tosses in it could be German which opens up an even huge can of historical worms and again the whole issue is hand waved with a ‘oh well, we don’t know’.

Clair doesn’t ask Will the solution for all the mysteries. Of course we believe Will knows everything but if we accept she believed he knew everything also then why questioning him in the first place? If I’m not wrong Ryukishi claimed somewhere he wanted to focus only on the riddles that seemed difficult but then the whole scene ends up on being a plot contrivance to deliver to the readers some answers in an obscure way. Oh, it’s artistically pretty and I love it for its prettiness, but it’s plot structure is shaky.

Note that Ep 7 (and Ryukishi) also raised questions in points that didn’t need some.

The tale Battler wrote for Beato? The fandom knew it was Dawn only EP 7 described it in such a way people didn’t really find it matching with Dawn plot so people started wondering if there was another tale written for her and it didn’t help that Ep 7 manga version didn’t bother posting the title on the book cover, something that Ep 8 has no problems making (note that, due to how the manga was printed the two scenes didn’t exactly came out at years of distance but were pretty close so I don’t see where’s the problem in confirming things in EP 7).

Battler’s letter? Maybe in the Japanese fandom things were different but I didn’t remember people doubting he merely didn’t write it until Ryukishi in an interview raised the issue there was more about it… before dropping it completely. The letter is never addressed again. Not even in Ep 8. What broke Sayo’s heart is just… hand waved. Battler doesn’t know about it and while in Ep 8 he’ll apologize for not coming back he’ll never get a head up about the letter matter.

We’re all disgusted by Kinzo’s behavior with Kuwadorian Beatrice? If I don’t remember wrong Ryukishi tells us we don’t really know how things went between them… which is true but it’s clear enough they were horrible enough to push her to follow a complete stranger and try to escape. Not knowing the details of the rape doesn’t really erase it. Unless we’re supposed to doubt the whole story Rosa told us as well as what the servants told us and think that Kuwadorian Beatrice slept with Kinzo willingly and that she left Kuwadorian only for a short walk that ended poorly.

The family conference in the year in which Battler should have come back is conveniently skipped. Or handled so poorly it seems it’s skipped. We actually have a scene from 1980… but it doesn’t look like a family conference and people talking about what will happen in ‘that year’s family conference’ (Kyrie will supposedly show up) reinforces this opinion only it turns out that the next conference we’ll see is the one of 1981… Maybe a problem in the translation? Still it doesn’t work well.

Shannon feels up on asking Genji and Kumasawa to lie to Kinzo, Krauss and Natsuhi and also… hire her as Kanon. And no one notices a thing about this boy whose face is the same as Shannon and that doesn’t come from the Fukuin house as no one of the Fukuin servants could know him but… out of nowhere, really.

Kinzo pulls out the epitaph, which is a hint to Genji that he knows Shannon might be Lion and Genji gives hints to Shannon about how to solve it but… he, Kumasawa and Nanjo don’t stop thinking to a less traumatic way to break the truth to her in those almost two month it’ll take for her to solve it as if they couldn’t realize how traumatic it would be for her. No, the idea of Ep 7 is that they had to traumatize her which requires them to be either jerks or dumb… while it could have more or less worked if everything had happened without them having the chance to predict it and so, caught by surprise, they ended up saying things in a poor manner.

We spiral down with the teaparty. We’re left with the adults in a definite situation, Eva and Hideyoshi are arguing with Krauss, Natsuhi is instead arguing with the other siblings… then all of sudden we’re told that Natsuhi jumped on Eva and this caused her to get shoot. The manga worsened things by showing that the two groups were even distant and that Eva and Natsuhi were giving each other their backs and it kept on worsening things when it insisted on how EXACTLY THE SAME THING would happen in Lion’s world as well, with the only difference that Lion would be called in Jessica’s place. I can swallow that the siblings were in economical troubles even if Kinzo was alive and hated each other so much that they would still argue and kill each other but… different conditions should cause minor shifts in the plot. Instead the only difference between a dead scene and the other is in how the gun next to Eva is placed… which can be the result of a mistake done due to the change in perspective… and well, that Beato isn’t there.

Then there’s Kyrie’s characterization. Kyrie is supposed to be suspicious, careful, rational. All this flies out of the window when she decides she can trust that the credit card really will lead them to all that money without checking first, that there’s no way to convert the gold without Krauss’ help when Sayo, in order to get money on that credit card, should have been able to do it, that the bomb will surely explode even through its mechanism wasn’t tested, that the range of the explosion surely won’t involve Kuwadorian, that the safest way to go through it will start gunning down people instead than grabbing some sleeping pills from Nanjo’s bag, drugging everyone and then gunning them down and, worse of all, she doesn’t check neither Sayo or Eva’s corpses and misses their vital points rather badly even though we were told she was good with guns. Note that I can accept that Kyrie would consider murdering everyone… but I’ve issues with how careless she becomes.

Rudolf too comes as a little odd as he knows he has a defective gun but doesn’t go take another one. It’s minor as Rudolf is lazy… but well, when you’re going on a killing spree and a defective gun can cause you troubles you should play on the careful side. But well, I can swallow it.

Battler’s ‘disappearance’ also doesn’t work well. Ep 8 explains us that the solution to this is ‘Battler left the house then, all of sudden, remembered he didn’t remember the way to the chapel and came back to ask about it to Gohda’ which feels silly as: Kyrie shouldn’t have sent him in such a place considering how it was easy to predict he wouldn’t remember where it was or should have made sure he knew the way (it’s well known that the church is hardly used and Battler had been missing from the house for 6 years, you can expect him not to remember were it is) and Battler should have asked her where the church was. So again, Kyrie comes out as careless and Battler leaving to realize he doesn’t know where to and coming back comes out as a plot contrivance.

On a general note… I think that the previous episodes better addressed Sayo’s issues than the whole of Ep 7. Ep 7 focuses a lot on how ‘it’s all Battler’s fault’, when he actually wasn’t the only one to blame, and generates the false impression that this was Sayo’s only problem. It’s true that there are hints in Ep 7 that this actually wasn’t her only problem but after getting all that ‘it’s Battler’s fault’ for so long, with Will agreeing to it as well, the other issues seem minor when they actually played a big role. Sayo also comes out as petty, pushing the blame of her actions solely on Battler, when we know that in Prime she actually took responsibility for them. So ultimately I think Ep 7 did her a disservice.

Ep 7 also lost a good chance to dig deeper into the motivations of minor characters like Genji, Nanjo and Kumasawa for setting up Sayo’s life in a manner that was… simply terrible.

I’ll let slide the whole matter of how they let her believe her sex was female without even bothering to prepare her for the fact she wouldn’t develop secondary sex characteristic or be able to become pregnant because Umineko wanted to keep in the dark Sayo’s sex and use the full trauma of her discovering her own condition as one of the driving forces for the whole thing (even though the fact that Ep 7 completely overlooked on the whole matter ended up making it look less important than it was).

Let’s focus on the fact they kidnapped Sayo and gave her a new identity so that Kinzo won’t make the same mistake and rape her, which is understandable really, but then they took her back on Rokkenjima AS AN ORPHANED SERVANT, when she was too young to work and under the disguise she was actually younger. Kinzo could have recognized Beatrice in her again, think this time Beatrice reincarnated in a person unrelated to him and rape her all over taking advantage of the fact that now she was his servant. It’s a horrible plan and their decision for going through it is… poorly explained.

Then there’s the loss of a chance to let us know more about minor characters like Kinzo’s wife (where was she when the baby was handed to Natsuhi since she was clearly still alive to scold Rosa and push her to escape in the forest and meet with Beatrice? Natsuhi claimed that Krauss and Kinzo were away but what about Kinzo’s wife? Did they drag her along?) or how Asumu, a young woman with no health problem mentioned, suddenly died, to dig a little better in Battler’s six years away from his family and his feelings for Sayo (he’s jealous she chose George but then he can brush it off… so it looks like it isn’t a big deal… only we’ll learn in Prime he risked his life for her more than once and, hadn’t she died, he was willing to spend the rest of his life with her).

Then there are issues I’ve specifically with the manga.

In the scene in which the culprit shows up for the first time… the culprit’s form is slightly kept in the dark but we can see she’s not Shannon, she’s not Beatrice and she isn’t even Clair. There’s no reason for this person in the dark to be an ‘extra’ person.

Kinzo’s wife has no face nor name. I can get over the fact they didn’t give her a name, not on the fact the mangaka didn’t give her a face as there’s no reason to obscure it. She’s not hiding some dark secret. We won’t learn the truth about her later on as we’ll do with Asumu, whose face will be showed only in Ep 8 (bless Ep 8). Yes, maybe they wanted to drive home that for Kinzo she was a ‘not entity’ (his children too get no face) but still… I don’t like this. Personal taste? Maybe.

The manga tossed in a bunch of nameless maids who… go nowhere really (when it would have been so much better if, as someone (myself included) speculated, they also were vessels for things like the Chiesters or the Eiserne Jungfraws) as they don’t get names and just… disappear, while waited to introduce Reinon. This is more or less a direct transposition of how the VN handled matters, only in the VN it worked better as there were no random new faces, just random voices so you could speculate it was a 7 sister maid the one speaking and it wasn’t so clear that Reinon popped up later. The manga makes obvious that’s not the case.

Ep 5 manga version implied the promise happened on the same balcony on which Beatrice, in Ep 4, asked Battler to remember about his sin. This was a wonderful new info but… it goes completely skipped over in the manga transposition of Ep 7. Ep 7 manga version transposes faithfully the novel and just focus on the scene in the garden… where no clear promise is made. Sayo just urges Battler to come and he confirms he’ll do but he never says ‘I promise’ nor they’ll make a pinky swear.

Overall, Ep 7 isn’t fully to blame for most of the issues I’ve with it.

The background behind the Umineko plot is one of an huge amount of extremely unlikely facts happening one after the other, most of whom we’re asked to figure out. While unlikely facts can and will happen, often, in stories in general and in mystery stories in particular the author usually avoids them or explains/excuses them. Umineko just… embraced them as if the unlikely were the ordinary and Ep 7 was the point in which we were asked to do the same, often without being given a convincing reason for having to do this beyond ‘it was unlikely but it just happened, insert devil’s proof here’.

That’s why I wish the manga had at least dimmed some issues I had with the novel version, for example handled better (and not worse) why Eva ended up shooting Natsuhi or how Kyrie and Rudolf murdered everyone in Lion’s world as well.

Most of those issues weren’t IMPOSSIBLE to handle. They just weren’t explained, hand waved with an ‘it happened, don’t think too hard at it’.

As a result, I feel Ep 7 was handled poorly and the manga version did nothing to fix it. It’s my personal impression. I know there’s who loves Ep 7 and how it handled everything and, as usual, that’s fine.

#Umineko #Requiem of the Golden Witch #Umineko VN #Umineko Manga

[thisdaynews]

Trump’s expansive view of executive power gets a post-impeachment surge

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/trumps-expansive-view-of-executive-power-gets-a-post-impeachment-surge/

Trump’s expansive view of executive power gets a post-impeachment surge

President Donald Trump. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo

Pat Cipollone took only a short post-impeachment break.

The White House’s top attorney and other members of President Donald Trump’s legal team attended a private party at the Trump International Hotel to celebrate, just hours after the Senate voted largely along party lines to acquit the president.

Then Cipollone and his team of roughly 40 lawyers returned to their routine business — much of which had been put on pause as the top lawyers defended the president from an effort to oust him from office.

The counsel’s office had hoped Trump would move on, too, after the Senate trial and the president would focus on reelection, the economy or the business of governing, now that he no longer faced the intense pressure of impeachment and the sense that Democrats were out to hurt him and his family.

But Trump had his own ideas. In the days since that acquittal he has engaged in a full-bore revenge victory lap. Now the lawyers, who helped to secure that big victory, are watching the emboldened president push the boundaries of their profession in ways that could reshape the office of the presidency for decades to come.

Trump has fired or pushed out White House staffers who testified against him in the House proceedings, while elevating or re-hiring key aides who he views as loyal. He reminded the attorney general over Twitter that he believes he has the right to interfere in judicial matters — an awkward situation for Cipollone, who remains close to Bill Barr. Trump said in a radio interview he may stop the longstanding practice of having aides listen in on phone calls with foreign leaders since he distrusts so much of his national security staff.

Trump’s expansive view of executive power, long supported by conservatives like Cipollone, is now being put to the test. Trump survived both the Mueller probe and impeachment. He has received almost no pushback from Republican lawmakers. And the White House’s stonewalling of congressional investigations has proven to be politically effective.

“It is beyond anything the presidency has achieved yet and beyond anything Nixon could have imagined,” said Michael Gerhardt, a professor of jurisprudence at the University of North Carolina School of Law whose work centers on constitutional conflicts between presidents and Congress. “There is literally no way to hold the president accountable in Pat Cipollone’s worldview.”

Allies of Cipollone’s say the arguments laid out during Trump’s impeachment trial only maintained the view of executive authority that was also present under President Barack Obama.

“Frankly, we remained faithful to previous precedents, including precedents established by the administrations of both political parties,” said one person close to the legal team. “We would not view it as an expansion of executive power.”

“We defended the president, the presidency and the Constitution,” the person added.

Trump was happy with the outcome of his acquittal but still views it as just a single step toward further vindication, according to several senior administration officials and Republicans close to the White House.

In meetings with senior staff in recent weeks, Trump has asked repeatedly for updates on the Durham investigation into pre-election federal probes of Trump and has expressed frustration it’s not moving along at a faster clip. He wants anyone associated with the origins of the Mueller investigation to be brought to justice.

Some of the questions raised by the impeachment proceedings about the scope of executive authority remain undecided — and will be heard by the courts this spring. “In the short term, the acquittal was a win for presidential power. It strengthened the hand of the presidency and showed you can stonewall and not turn over anything, but that doesn’t mean it will hold,” said one former senior administration official. “So much of it will end up getting sorted out in the courts.”

Cipollone’s “lasting legacy will be getting his client through impeachment and not messing it up,” said Neil Eggleston, Obama’s White House counsel from 2014 to 2017. “He had a jury that was entirely not going to convict the president, so his goal was to get through it and sound credible.”

Cipollone supported the Trump candidacy early on during the 2016 election. But he first came to the attention of Trumpworld late in the cycle when he helped the candidate prepare for debates. The Trump transition also considered him for the job of deputy attorney general under Jeff Sessions, a position that never materialized because Sessions instead wanted to install career prosecutor Rod Rosenstein.

In the fall of 2018, Cipollone left a lucrative partnership in private practice to take the job of White House counsel because he liked Trump’s policy positions and felt he wanted to serve the country that had welcomed his Italian immigrant parents. “The latter may sound hokey but it’s how he feels,” said Laura Ingraham, a Fox News host and close friend of Cipollone’s.

Inside the White House, Cipollone quickly established himself as the opposite of Trump’s first White House counsel, Don McGahn — standing out as an affable presence who enjoyed spending time in the Oval Office and who tried to help implement the president’s wishes as much as he could.

Whereas McGahn focused intently on judicial nominations and deregulation during his time leading the counsel’s office, Cipollone did not enter the job with set policy preferences.

Instead, he followed the president’s lead. Cipollone helped develop the rationale for an emergency declaration that allowed the president to shift money around to fund the border wall. He worked with the president to prepare tariffs on Mexico until the U.S. and Mexico cut a deal to avoid them, and he led the counsel’s office through multiple investigations and eventually the all-consuming Senate impeachment trial.

Cipollone’s allies say he runs the counsel’s office — the “most important law firm in the world” — as an affable leader who is a good listener, said Alan Dershowitz, a friend of the president’s and member of his legal team. “He takes everyone seriously. It was a pleasure to watch.”

Republicans close to the White House say the counsel’s office functions like a tight-knit team.

Inside the broader White House, however, Cipollone has clashed with acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney over the sharing of information and the best person to lead the White House impeachment strategy. Several staffers from other key offices came to view Cipollone as territorial and overly secretive with information — and ill-equipped to handle the political dimensions of an impeachment trial.

His allies argue that keeping tight control over information is typical behavior for any good lawyer, especially one who wants to keep the strategy secret in a White House known for leaks. “Everyone had the info they needed to do their job,” said a second person familiar with the legal team.

During the impeachment proceedings, the president’s relationship with Cipollone had ups and downs. Trump was angry with Cipollone at one point during the House proceedings in December when several administration officials testified as witnesses, said a Republican close to the White House.

Yet during the Senate trial, Trump was pleased with Cipollone’s made-for-TV performance including his emotional and tough exchange at one point with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler on the Senate floor. During his post-impeachment speech in the East Room, Cipollone was one of the first people Trump singled out for praise.

On the legal team, Cipollone functioned like the “anti-Giuliani,” said one Republican close to the White House, who said Cipollone remained calm, rational and under the radar even while facing intense scrutiny.

“It is highly ironic that the guy who is OK with no one recognizing him or knowing who he is, is front and center on every channel in the world,” said Jonathan Missner, Cipollone’s former partner at the law firm of Stein Mitchell Beato & Missner.

Post-impeachment, several friends and allies of Cipollone’s say he is likely to remain at the White House through the end of the first term. No one knows exactly what he will do after November, be it return to private practice or continue to work for the president if he wins reelection.

Friends say Cipollone often lets his faith guide major career decisions. Allies say he does not think much about his career legacy, and it’s hard to know whether the impeachment and acquittal will end up being the capstone of his time in the White House.

“If you go back to the Clinton impeachment, no one remembers who the White House lawyers are,” one Republican attorney said.

Instead, Cipollone’s legacy may be staying in the president’s good graces for an extended period of time. Maintaining a good and consistent relationship with the president inside the White House has bedeviled other top staffers — including former chief of staff John Kelly, former national security adviser John Bolton and Cipollone’s predecessor, McGahn, who liked to call Trump “King Kong” behind his back.

“Pat has skills that many people do not have,” said Missner, his former law partner. “Whenever everyone else says, ‘You can’t do it this way,’ Pat doesn’t think in those terms. He finds them to be silly. Just follow the path of how he helped to lead the strategy of what you just watched on impeachment. Every pundit said, ‘You can’t do this.’ But it worked.”

Daniel Lippman contributed to this report.

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#Foreign #Politics #post-impeachment #surge