#if you ask whether the soviets were the nazis were better

[memento-mariii]

Look I hate late-stage capitalism as much as the next person, but genuinely baffled by the tiny subset of people on this site who seem to think Stalinist USSR was some kind of a communist paradise.

#like it was still a genocidal totalitarian dictatorship??? #if you ask whether the soviets were the nazis were better #then yeah I guess the soviets were marginally better #because at least they didn't attempt to wipe out an entire people for the sake of wiping out an entire people #but like #that's not a very high bar to pass????? #the bar is so low that it's underground????? #like I hate how fascists use 'well the communists were evil too!' as a dogwhistle I really do #but if you start to claim that the ukrainian famine is a capitalist propaganda #I'm sorry but you officially have brainrot #literally the same vibe as the people who said that the hong kong protests were american propaganda #like you can claim to be a leftist all you want #but if you can turn a blind spot to human rights violations #I don't trust you as a leftist at all #/rant #do not reblog #like. #you shouldn't care about human rights because it's a leftist talking point #you should be a leftist *BECAUSE* you care about human rights #that means calling out other self-proclaimed 'leftists' when they're causing harm #esp. when they're doing it on a governmental basis

[pointnumbersixteen]

Imagine all the ghosts older than Julian getting confused with today’s world map

Answering under the assumption that this is the first time any of them have taken a good look at a world map since their deaths and that you don’t mind me loading this thing down with headcannoning everywhere:

First, Pat is thrilled at the collapse of the Soviet Union. No more Cold War! He spent his entire life, more or less, under the shadow of the Cold War, long enough to learn duck and cover drills as a boy and to teach them to other boys when he became a man. No more looming shadow of nuclear annihilation. Isn’t that brilliant? Of course, Julian’s the only one who knows what he’s talking about, so he has to try to explain the concept of the Cold War (and nuclear annihilation) to the other ghosts, who do not take it well. Mary doesn’t really understand the concept, but it sounds terrifying. It enters her list of superstitions like swans and the devil and throwing cake and doomed marriages and every bright flash of light or loud noise for the next several weeks send her wailing about nuclear bombs, until Pat, through painstaking hard work, talks her down. 

And the Captain irritated at all of it (and we’re not even talking about Mary’s wailing about nukes, that’s in the future, and we’re back in the moment). For the first portion of Captain’s life, it was Russia on the map. He should know. Geography was one of his better subjects. Then the Bolshies came and suddenly he had to learn that it was the Soviet Union. And now it’s Russia again. How is he supposed to keep up? And anyway, he had a bad feeling about that Stalin chap all along. The Cold War doesn’t surprise him at all. They showed up late to the Second World War and left the first one early; it should have been a clear sign not to trust them.

Fanny is cheered to know that Russia is Russia again. (She found out about the Soviet Revolution after she was dead, but then, it was impossible to miss, on the front of every newspaper and on the mouths of every titled aristocrat in England anxious not to have the silver spoon ripped from their own mouths. And of course, she was still haunting George morning, noon, and night then, in an endless screeching harangue, except every now and then she paused to take a breath she didn’t need and also to take in the latest gossip, and thus she learned about the fate of poor Tsar Nicholas and his lovely family... mind you, none of Fanny’s endless screeching made a difference to George. But maybe that didn’t matter to Fanny. Maybe she just needed a decade to vent. And George did develop a curious habit, after she was dead, of no longer sitting for pictures at Button House.) She is disappointed to learn that the monarchy was not restored when the Soviet Union fell. There were several Russian Grand-Duchesses that she was rather fond of whom she think survived. 

But speaking of things falling, what happened to the Empire?! The British Empire, where the sun never set. Why has it been replaced by all these horrid little countries and who is going to civilize them now? (Alison hears this in passing and her brain short circuits at the prospect of explaining to Fanny that those countries are already civilized and they always have been and that ‘civilized’ is not a synonym of ‘British’ and she goes and makes herself a cup of tea instead.) The Captain’s a bit miffed about this, too. All that effort saving the world from the Nazis in World War II, just to lose the British Empire? That hardly seems fair. All of the Empires have fallen, Fanny notes. The Ottoman Empire. The Austro-Hungarian Empire. The German Empire. The Russian Empire. The French Empire, back in Thomas’ time. Maybe the days of Empire are done. 

Thomas is barely interested. There’s no poetry in geopolitics. 

But Kitty’s fascinated. How did the United States get so big? Was it always that big? No, even Thomas agrees that it wasn’t always that big? (’What’s the United States?’ asks Mary. Pat gives it a go, but fails. He doesn’t know a good way to explain the United States. [Nor do I, really.]) And that’s what Australia looks like! She’d heard all about it and it’s strange animals, but she’d never seen it before (she’d also always wanted to see a kangaroo hop, and fortunately, this is one problem that Alison can easily solve with Youtube videos... she quickly comes to regret it, though, as she spends the rest of the evening queuing animal videos for the satisfaction of all the ghosts who died before the existence of zoos. ). And all of those little countries! Isn’t it interesting how many little countries there are? The younger ghosts are annoyed, because the names of some of those little countries have changed several times, apparently, and none of them can agree on what things should rightfully be called, but she doesn’t care, she’s just happy to know that they all exist! She’d like to find the little country she was born in on the map, but she can quite remember what it was called. But then, Julian points out, that wouldn’t help, because the name’s probably changed several times since then anyway. 

And Mary and Robin are just awed at the sheer scale of the thing. They both spent most of their lives within a county or so of the area they died in and that seemed big. The idea of England seemed nearly endless, Europe impossibly far away. And England? Is? Tiny? [Side note: I learned a few weeks ago that the land area of the UK is only a touch larger than twice the size of Ohio in the US and I was first: very amused (think of imagining something to be the size of elephant and realizing it was the size of a house cat) and second: rather ponderous about how sheer difference in scale can contribute to cultural differences.] There’s just so much of everywhere. So much of everywhere they never saw or went to and now never would. Mary is intimidated by this fact. Robin was already cognizant of it, in a way, though. He knew even when he was alive how much he’d like to understand and how little he did. It’s part of the reason he stuck around [I headcannon that Robin intentionally doesn’t move on out of boundless curiosity. He’s too invested in seeing where all of this goes and why to quit now.]. And today he learned how big the world is and how many different little countries there are in it. And he saw a video of a hippopotamus. That’s a good day.

As for Humphrey... well, he would definitely be pleased that Britain somehow managed to annex Scotland free of charge somewhere along the way, and I’m sure he would have an opinion on the collapse of the Spanish Empire- although what that opinion is might depend heavily on whether or not he’s Catholic. But of course, that doesn’t matter, because all of the ghosts have forgotten he exists again, save Robin, who left him in Mike’s underpants drawer this morning.    

#bbc ghosts #pat butcher #the captain #lady fanny button #mary #kitty #robin the caveman #headless humphrey #modern world map #headcannons everywhere

[wiypt-writes]

Stark Spangled Banner

Ch15: That Tie Looks Real Expensive

Summary: On the run from SHIELD, Katie and Steve find Natasha at the hospital when they head back for the memory drive. Their search for the truth leads Steve on yet another trip down memory lane and, as more truths bubble to the surface, the three of them are left running for their lives and are forced to seek help…

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Warnings: Language! Violence, and someone gets pushed off a roof but he’s Hydra so, meh.

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar Katie Stark and the other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

A/N: Not one but TWO edits from @angrybirdcr​ in this one!!

Chapter 14

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist // Main Masterlist

 After a bit of a skirmish on the bridge out of the Triskellion involving a Quinjet and some nasty looking road blocks, they made it out relatively unscathed all things considered and headed to the boxing gym they trained at so Steve could change. Katie told him to leave his suit behind in the hope that the tracking systems would give whoever came looking for them a bit of a detour. At her suggestion, in an attempt to keep them as unnoticeable as possible, he also locked his shield in his locker, with the view they’d collect it when it was safe to do so.

They reached the hospital with no further issues. Katie was feeling the effects of the fight in the elevator and the leap of faith they’d taken out of it and was stiff and bruised but she did her best to keep pace with Steve as they strode down the corridor. When they reached the vending machine, Steve stopped and peered into it, frowning as he realised the row where he had hidden the stick was empty. Then someone appeared behind them, and he saw Natasha’s reflection in the machine, blowing bubbles from the gum she’d obviously bought to retrieve the stick.

Steve spun round, temper reaching boiling point as he grabbed her by the neck in a display of anger Katie had rarely seen from him, pushing her into a room opposite.

“What happened to you?” She looked at Katie’s face, her eyes taking in the bruising around her left cheekbone and the split in her lip.

“Rumlow.” Katie snapped back, unwilling to discuss any further. Her patience with this whole situation was running thin and she was sick of not knowing who she could trust. She had resigned from SHIELD for this precise reason, and here she was, getting dragged once more back into their shit.

“Where is it?” Steve demanded, looking at Nat as he reached up and threw down his hood.

“Safe.”

“Do better.” Katie suggested, glaring at the woman she thought was her friend, not sure anymore whether or not to trust the red-head.

“Where did you get it?” Natasha asked.

“Why would I tell you?” Steve countered.

“Fury gave it to you,” she narrowed her eyes at him. “Why?”

“What’s on it?” Steve ask, ignoring her question.

“I don’t know,” Natasha answered.

 Steve lightly slammed her against the wall his patience thinning quickly, anger blazing from every inch of his body. “Stop lying,” he said through gritted teeth.

“I only act like I know everything, Rogers.”

“I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn’t you?” Katie said, looking at her.

“Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in…”

Katie let out a frustrated laugh before she spun around away from Natasha, groaning.

“I’m not gonna ask you again,” Steve threatened.

“I know who killed Fury.” Natasha spoke as Katie turned to face her again. “Most of the intelligence community doesn’t believe he exists. The ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He’s credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years.”

“So he’s a ghost story.” Steve concluded releasing her and taking a step back.

“Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran and somebody shot out my tires near Odessa.” She said, looking him straight in the eyes “We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him, straight through me.”

Natasha pulled up her shirt, revealing a scar on her lower left abdomen.

“Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye bye, bikinis.”

“Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now.” Steve half joked.

“Going after him is a dead end. I know, I’ve tried.” Nat stated before she pulled out the thumb drive and held it out for all of them to see.

Steve eyed her before taking it and putting it in his pocket before he looked at Katie then back to Natasha.

“Let’s find out what the ghost wants.”

*****

“You know you could have picked something a little more subtle.” Nat hummed as she lounged in the backseat of the truck that they had taken from an industrial estate opposite the gym when they had stopped to pick up Steve’s shield and ditch Nat’s Corvette on their way out to New Jersey.

They had gotten what they needed from the Mall, including the location of where the AI that kept countering Natasha’s commands on the pen drive was coming from, which to Steve’s shock had been Camp Lehigh, the place he had trained and been selected for Operation Rebirth. After a close shave with the STRIKE team, in which Katie and Natasha’s stealth skills really had been put to the test, although Steve hadn’t objected to one part in particular where he’d had to kiss his girl on the escalator, they had bolted for Natasha’s car and made it out, unscathed and thankfully with a few new changes of clothes each.

“It’s a truck, lots of men drive trucks.” Steve replied, as he comfortably drove with one hand on the wheel, the other on the gearshift, eyes focussed on the road.

“Because they think it looks cool when in fact it just makes them look like douchebags who are compensating for something.” Nat responded.

Despite himself, Steve couldn’t help but quip back playfully. “Maybe I am.” “Well I know that’s not true” Nat replied, her voice full of a smirk. “Katie told me.”

Steve felt his cheeks flush as Katie shifted in the seat beside him, whipping her head round to face the woman. “Jesus, Nat!”

“What were your exact words?” Natasha continued, a teasing expression on her face. “Oh yeah, if that thing wasn’t enhanced by the-“ “If you don’t shut up I’m gonna come back there and slap you into next week.” Katie hastily cut her off. She turned back round, glancing at Steve. His cheeks were flushed red with embarrassment but there was a faint trace of a smirk on his face, his eyes still focussed ahead. He could tell she was looking at him so he kept his eyes on the road, fully aware he blushing. But as far as discussing their sex life with her friend went, he supposed that there were far worse things she could be saying.

“So where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?” Natasha asked a few minutes later as Katie noticed that they were passing a sign welcoming them to New Jersey. All things considered they’d made pretty good time.

“Nazi Germany” Steve looked over his shoulder at her. “And we’re borrowing, take your feet off the seat.“

Natasha eyed him in the mirror, but did as she was told before she leant forward between the two front seats.

"Alright, I have a question for you both, which you do not have to answer. But I feel if you don’t answer it though, you’re kind of answering it, you know?”

“What?” Steve asked exasperatedly.

“So before in the Apple store… you guys were like engaged…” She began a hint of a smirk on her face. “Any chance of that happening for real?”

Katie moaned and, upon hearing her, Steve felt something in his stomach tighten.

"That bad an idea huh?” He asked stealing a glance over at her.

“I didn’t say that.” Katie sighed.

“No but it kinda sounded like that’s what you meant.” Steve continued.

“I not even gracing that with a response” Katie shot him a look.

“You gonna grace my other question with a response?”

“Which was?”

“Whether you’re gonna move in with me or not.” He stole another glance at her but before she could reply he felt Nat shift a little.

“You asked her?” She aised her eyebrows. “Will you fuck off?” Katie snapped. She’d had enough and well and truly reached her fill of Natasha’s sarcasm, of SHIELD, of everything.

“Take it easy Stark.” Nat drawled back, nonplussed. “You know, if you don’t want to answer a question straight you could try making something up.”

“What, like you?”  Katie scoffed, looking at her over her shoulder

“You know the truth is a matter of circumstances, it’s not all things to all people all the time. And neither am I.”

"That’s a hard way to live,” Steve commented as he took in the red-heads words. Besides him Katie shifted, agitatedly and he knew she was pissed. Natasha was supposed to be her friend and all this had shaken her trust.

“It’s a good way not to die, though.” Natasha mused unconcerned.

“You know, it’s kind of hard to trust someone when you don’t know who that someone really is.” Katie shot the red head a pointed look and Steve held his breath for the sarcastic response he was expecting back. He really didn’t want to have to split up a fight between the two. But knowing his girl as he did, he had a horrible feeling it would go that way if Natasha bit back. Thankfully, she didn’t, her tone was soft, almost wistful when she answered

“Yeah.” Natasha replied, looking through the window. “Who do you want me to be?”

“How about a friend?” Steve jumped in.

“Well, there’s a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers.” Natasha smirked returning to her comfortable position in the backseat.

They sat in silence for a bit and Katie turned to look at Steve. If there was one person in all this she could trust, she knew it was him. She had no idea what they were going to find, what they were going to walk into but she trusted him with her life, and loved him with every inch of her being. And she wanted him to know, in case this all went wrong, just how much.

Steve shifted in his seat as he could feel her eyes on him for a while before she spoke finally.

“I’m not gonna move in with you.”

Steve’s head whipped round, his mouth dry at her refusal, before he returned his attention to the road, trying not to read too much into her rejection, as she continued to speak.

“Your flat is full of bullet holes, your bed is in the wrong place and frankly it’s too small for all my stuff. You’ll have to move in with me.”

Wait, what? That wasn’t a refusal. 

He looked at her, aware a grin was spreading across his face. “Seriously?”

She nodded, returning her gaze to the front, and he did the same as her fingers tangled into his right hand where it was resting on the pillar between their seats, gently pulling it into her lap so she could trace shapes on his palm.

And, surprisingly, there was no sarcastic comment from the back seats.

*****

“It’s some kind of recording,” Natasha frowned as she tried to make sense of what was happening in front of them. They’d scoured the camp and after a long search, just as they were ready to give up, Steve had spotted that the munitions building was in the wrong place. Further investigations had led them into a huge, underground bunker and, after an hour or so more of searching, they had discovered a secret Elevator that led down to a huge room full of ancient computers…and a more modern USB terminal.

Natasha had plugged in the USB device into the port, which had activated the system and now, well, now Katie had no idea what the fuck they were looking at.

“I am not a recording, Fraulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945.”

Steve sighed heavily as the computer screen showed a black and white photo of a familiar odd looking man with round glasses. Zola.

“Who is that?” Katie asked as Steve glared at the photo on the computer screen.

“Do you know this thing?” Natasha questioned sceptically.

“Armin Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He’s been dead for years,” Steve explained shortly as he walked round the back of the screen, looking for anything that would explain how it was working.

“First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, that was worth saving. Two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain.” Zola explained.

“How did you get here?” Steve questioned, returning to the front of the television monitor.

“I was invited.”

“Operation Paperclip.” Natasha supplied as her and Katie exchanged a look.

“What?” Steve asked.

“After the War Shield recruited German scientists with strategic value.” Katie replied, her eyes still on the screen.

“They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own.” Zola continued.

“HYDRA died with the Red Skull,” Steve snapped.

“Cut off one head, two more shall take its place.” Zola said confidently

“Prove it.” Steve challenged and Katie had to stifle a sigh as she was pretty sure they were going to regret that.

“Accessing archive.”

The computer screen began to screen old footage of the Red Skull and of the original SHIELD founders.

“HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For seventy years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed.”

Various photos flashed up as he spoke of events through the course of modern history. Besides him Katie gulped when they reached the assassination of JFK, and the photo zoomed in on a grainy image of the masked man with the metal arm in the distance, aiming his rifle, The Winter Soldier.

“That’s impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you,” Natasha said quickly countering the computer.

“Accidents will happen.” The computer screen then revealed a very familiar item, the newspaper reporting Howard and Maria Stark’s deaths. Steve felt his mouth go dry as he realised what Zola was telling him, whilst besides him, Katie took a deep breath as she looked at the screen, her Parent’s faces looking back at her in black and white print. And then the ringing started in her ears.

Her parents had been killed. By HYDRA.

When she spoke again, her voice was as desperate as she was. Desperate for this to be nonsense. “No, that’s not… they died in an accident… it was a car crash…”

“Things are not what they seem.” The screen drawled back

“You killed them?” Katie’s chest was heaving, the anger now evident in her voice as it coursed through her veins, her voice loud as she balled her fists “HYDRA killed my parents? Why?”

A photo of Director Fury flashed up.

“HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security.” Pictures of three helicarriers were shown next, and Steve feltl the angry heat spread up his neck, blistering and raw. “Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA’s new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero sum.”

Steve’s anger boiled over, and it appeared Katie’s had as well as the pair of them surged forward. Katie lashed out with her right foot kicking over a chair in anger and Steve brought his right hand crashing into the TV, smashing the screen. It only resulted in silencing the Swiss man for a moment, before he spoke cockily once again from a different monitor

“As I was saying…”

"What’s on this drive?” Natasha asked quickly stepping in front of both Katie and Steve to avoid the pair of them destroying anything else.

“Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm.”

“What kind of algorithm? What does it do?” Katie demanded.

“The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it.”

Suddenly, the doors they came through started to close. Steve threw his shield attempting to catch them before they shut completely but it missed and he caught it as it ricocheted back.

“Guys, we got a bogey, short-range ballistics. Thirty seconds tops.” Natasha announced looking at her phone, her voice earnest.

“Who fired it?” asked Steve, as he starting to look for an alternative escape route.

“SHIELD.” She looked at him, then to Katie.

“Admit it Captain, it’s better this way. We’re both of us, out of time.” Warned Zola.

Katie looked around for any sign of a way out, knowing it was pointless. She spotted a grate in the floor not too far from where we were and yelled at Steve. Catching on to what she was saying, he easily threw the top off as Natasha pulled the drive out of the port that was on the desk.

“Get in!” Steve yelled. Natasha hopped down into the space, then Katie followed, the two girls getting as close to one another as they could to make room for Steve in the small space. He jumped down and pulled them both in close before holding his shield over their heads.

The missile hit a split second later. Instantly, heat, smoke and pressure surrounded the three of them. Steve could feel the ash in his throat and he had to fight with all his strength to keep his shield above them, as the debris from the collapsing building above rained down into the space they were hiding in. Letting out a groan he braced himself and simply stayed as strong as he could, and eventually the noise subsided. He could hear Katie’s heavy breathing as she struggled to maintain her calm, coughing slightly as she spoke.

“Nat?”

No answer.

Steve grunted again as he pushed against his shield trying to clear away the debris on top of it just enough to get out. He let out a sigh of relief as, following a third huge heave, light flooded down into the chamber. With another almighty shove, he managed to clear a path for him to climb out. He scrambled up, checked around to make sure it was safe and the he glanced down at the two women.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I am, but Nat’s passed out.” Katie blinked up at him, awkwardly shifting Natasha around carefully in order so Steve could lift her out. Carefully he set her down on the floor and then wrapped his hand around his girl’s wrist and pulled her out of the hole. Immediately she crouched next to Nat.

“Her pulse is strong. I think she just fainted, she doesn’t do well in tight spaces, like me.”  Katie coughed harshly before she paused at the sound of a familiar hum growing steadily closer.

“Quinjets.” Her eyes grew wide.

“Let’s go.” Steve ordered quietly, scooping Natasha up in his arms. Ensuring Katie was in front of him at all times, they quickly began navigating their way out of the rubble as they headed back to the truck.

Katie climbed into the backseat and Steve laid Natasha down so that her head rested in Katie’s lap before he jumped into the driver’s seat, starting the car and taking off down the dirt road.

Neither of them spoke for a good five minutes. Katie was still trying to make sense of what Zola had said. HYDRA had killed her parents, for no other reason that she could think of bar the fact her dad had worked tirelessly against everything they stood for, as part of SHIELD. Her eyes misted over and she tried to blink back the tears, keeping her breathing even. She knew if she started crying, after everything that had happened, she wouldn’t stop. 

In the front of the truck, Steve’s head was also reeling. All this time, HYDRA had grown within SHIELD, he’d gone into the ice for what? He wiped his hand over his face and glanced in the rear view mirror. Katie was looking down at Natasha, gently carding her hands through her friend’s hair, but he could see her eyes were wet. He felt another flash of anger. How could Fury have not noticed? How could Peggy have not noticed? So many goddamned questions.

“What…” Natasha’s voice was croaky and Steve glanced back again to see the red head’s eyes fluttering as she looked around.

“You passed out” Katie looked down at her. “We’re alright now, we got out ok.”

She sat upright and blinked again, “Thanks…”

Steve turned back to the windscreen as the car fell into silence.

“So, where to now?” Nat asked the question. No one answered which caused her to suggest “Tony?”

“No” Steve and Katie both said at the same time.

“For one thing he isn’t in the country.” Katie shook her head. “He’s in Aus working on some deal.”

“And they’ll be watching the Tower.” Steve continued, “It’s not safe”

“We need to get hold of Hill.” Katie licked her lips. “She’s the only one in any of this I trust now.”

Steve pondered, and then had to concede she was right. “Alright, but we need to lay low whilst we do. Any ideas?”

“Yeah.” Katie nodded. “And it’s a crazy one, but one that no one will ever suspect as no on in SHIELD knows the guy exists. Not yet anyway.”  Steve shot her a questioning glance in the mirror, which turned into one of realisation as she finished. “Sam Wilson.”

“Honey we hardly know the guy.” Steve shook his head.

“Well trusting people we do know hasn’t exactly worked for us so far, has it?” Katie snapped back, a little tetchily. Steve opened his mouth to argue but Natasha cut him off.

“Nova’s right. Sometimes the person you have to trust is a stranger.” *********

Once they had tracked down Sam’s address, which was fairly easy to figure out when you had access to JARVIS via a StarkPhone, Sam let them in without so much as a question, the fact that the three of them were battered, bruised and filthy declaring everyone they knew was trying to kill them told him all he needed to know. He offered up his guestroom and Steve, being the gentleman that he was, let both Natasha and Katie go before him, giving Sam a brief overview of what had happened.

Katie and Natasha both showered quickly, and now they were currently sat quietly in the guestroom while Steve used the en-suite. He washed his face and looked in the mirror, letting out a sigh as he glanced back at his reflection, various bruises already covered his arms and upper body thanks to his accelerated healing but that wasn’t what bothered him. He was completely and utterly at a loss as to what to do next. Turning, he opened the door and saw Katie sitting behind Nat on the bed, drying the back of the woman’s red hair. He locked eyes with her, gave her a small smile and then looked at Natasha who was staring into space.

“You okay?" 

"Yeah,” She replied quickly, too quickly.

Steve set down the towel he was drying his hands with and entered the room then sat on the chair across from the girls. He leaned his elbows on his knees and looked at Natasha carefully. “What’s going on?”

“When I first joined SHIELD, I thought I was going straight. But I guess I just traded in the KGB for Hydra,” Natasha confessed, looking down at her hands. “I thought I knew whose lies I was telling, but I guess I can’t tell the difference anymore.”

“There’s a chance you might be in the wrong business.” Katie teased earning a small smile from the redhead.

“I owe you.” Natasha sighed quietly, “Both of you.”

“It’s okay,” Steve smiled.

“If it was the other way around, and it was down to me to save your lives – and be honest with me – would you trust me to do it?” She asked quietly, her green eyes locked onto Steve’s.

“I would now,” said Steve. “And I’m always honest.”

“Without question.” Katie added as Nat turned to her, a smile growing on her lips.

“Well,” She said as she looked back at Steve. “You seem pretty chipper for someone who just found out they died for nothing.”

“Well, guess I just like to know who I’m fighting,” Steve sighed in response, although she had hit a nerve.

“I made breakfast,” Sam’s voice came and the three looked to see him leaning up against the doorframe. “If you guys, eat that sort of thing.” He added as he left.

Steve inclined his head slightly, smiling as Natasha stood up and left the room, shouting after Sam to see if he had a hair dryer, earning her a sarcastic response about him not having had an afro since the late eighties. Katie made to follow her but Steve caught her arm gently as he too rose from his chair.

“Doll.” He started, wanting to talk to her about the discovery but she cut him off, shaking her head. She didn’t want to talk about it. It was too painful and the fear of what Tony would say was eating her up.

“You know, after mom and dad died, Tony lost it.” Katie sighed gently, voicing her fears. “When he finds out they were murdered it could push him over the edge again.”

“Don’t tell him then.” Steve found himself suggesting. He didn’t approve of lying, but sometimes if knowing the truth was detrimental then…

“And then if he does find out, and then realises I knew and didn’t tell him?” Katie swallowed, shaking her head “I don’t know what’s worse, Steve.”

She looked utterly lost and broken and Steve felt a lump catch in his throat as he pulled her to him, kissing the top of her head. He was desperately trying to think of something that would raise her mood, and then he found himself for some strange reason thinking back to the banter the three had shared in the truck and he knew just how to do it.

“Did you really tell Natasha I had a big…” He looked down at his girl as she gave a small chuckle, the sound music to his ears.

“No I said you were a big dick…she must have misheard me”

He rolled his eyes and a sarcastic “ha ha” fell from his mouth as she smiled, sliding her hands up his chest.

“What I actually said was that if that thing…”she glanced down at his crotch before looking back up. “wasn’t supersized at the same time you were, I have no idea how you managed to stand upright before the serum.”

Jesus she was incorrigible at times. But Steve loved her for that. And he was also secretly pleased she thought he was packing, so to speak. He smirked as his hands slid to her hips. “You’re a nightmare.”

“Yeah but you love me.” She grinned.

“Yeah, yeah I do.” His lips met hers in a soft kiss before the pair of them sighed, the moment of humour and good nature slipping away as they both remembered exactly where they were and why they were there.

“Come on.” Steve took her hand and together they headed down the hall into the kitchen area, the smell of food hitting his nostrils made his stomach grumble.  

“You all look a hell of a lot better.” Sam commented as Katie grabbed a few things for her plate- a couple of pancakes, fruit and toast. Steve smiled a bit at the quasi-compliment before he sighed, biting into a piece of toast.

“Well, it’s been an eventful twenty-four hours.” He responded as he slipped into a chair.

“I aint got anywhere to be.” Sam shrugged as he looked at Steve “I know you gave me the overview but how about you give me the details?”

Katie sat down next to Steve at the table and looked at him, then to Natasha before they launched into a detailed explanation of what had happened as Sam listened intently asking questions and serving coffee out to them as they continued explaining over the next thirty minutes or so.

“So, the question is, who in SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike?” Natasha asked from where she was stood, leaning comfortably back against Sam’s countertops.

“Alexander Pierce,” Katie confidently answered, finishing her coffee. It was amazing how much of the situation now was starting to slot into place following food and caffeine.

“Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world,” Natasha walked towards the table, standing behind Katie, almost snorting at the irony of the situation.

“He’s not working alone, Zola’s algorithm was on the Lemurian Star.” Steve continued.

“And you told me that Jasper Sitwell was too.” Katie added, as the three of them shared a glance. There was another piece of the puzzle.

“So, the real question is,” Steve looked at Katie then to Nat “How do the three most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?”

“The answer is, you don’t.” Sam dropped a file on to the table to the right of Katie.

“What’s this?” Steve asked, standing up as Natasha picked up the file.

“Call it a resume.”

Katie stood up as well so the three of them could look at the file.

“Is this Bakhmala? The Khalid Khandil mission-that was you?” Natasha asked and Sam nodded. She then turned to Steve. “You didn’t say he was a para rescue.”

“Riley?” Katie asked nodding to the photo of Sam and another man.

“Yeah.” Sam answered gently.

“I heard they couldn’t bring in the choppers because of the RPGs,” Natasha recalled. “What did you use, a stealth chute?”

“No. These.”

Sam handed Steve another file and he opened it, his eyes growing wide as they looked down at  Sam soaring through the air using what could only describe as a pair of mechanical wings. He shared an impressed look with Katie before he glanced at Sam.

“I thought you said you’re a pilot?”

“I never said a pilot.” Sam countered with a little chuckle and a smirk.

“I can’t ask you to do this, Sam. You got out for a good reason.” Steve shook his head.

“Dude, Captain America needs my help. There’s no better reason to get back in.” Sam almost scoffed.

“Where can we get our hands on one of these things?” Katie asked, looking up.

“The last one is at Fort Meade, behind three guarded gates and a twelve inch steel wall.” Sam supplied, his tone a little dejected.

Steve looked to Natasha who nodded with a shrug. “Shouldn’t be a problem.” He almost smiled, looking at Sam with a smirk before he turned to Katie. “Reckon you can track down Sitwell?”

“Sam, you got a Laptop?” Katie looked to the man who nodded. “Then yeah, I can track him down.” She affirmed, dropping her StarkPhone onto the table.

********

The plan was as solid as they could make it. Steve and Nat were taking Sam’s car to Fort Meade to break out his kit whilst Sam and Katie stayed behind to track down Sitwell. It wasn’t ideal splitting up, but it was the best option they had. All four of them travelling would have attracted attention, plus this way if two of them did get caught, the other two still had a chance of getting the job done.

Steve drove the truck down the freeway, Nat lounging in the front seat as she looked at the plans of the base that they now had courtesy of some expert searching via Google Maps.

“If we go in from the East Side we should have the element of surprise.” She spoke and Steve nodded.

“Right, we get in, we get out, minimum casualties, minimum fuss.”

Natasha hummed her agreement as Steve stopped at a red light.

“So, you actually asked Stark to move in?” Nat grinned.

“Yeah.” “I’m impressed. Your forty’s programming has been well and truly broken.” Steve rolled his eyes “Well I figured I want to spend the rest of my life with her so what does it matter?” He realised what he’d said instantly and let out a groan as Natasha grinned.

“You wanna marry her…” She said in a sing-song voice.

“People don’t always get married now.” Steve tried to shrug it off and Nat snorted.

“Bullshit Rogers! Soon as you can get a ring on it we all know you’re gonna.”

“Who’s we?”

“Everyone.” Natasha added sagely. “You two are like ultimate couple goals. It’s cute.”

Steve took a deep breath, staring ahead as he drove before he took a deep breath. “You know I kinda already asked her.” He looked back at Natasha who turned to him, mouth open. He had no idea why he was telling her this, absolutely no idea, other than the fact it felt nice to talk about something positive. “Well, not properly, but when I asked her to move in she was teasing me about us not being married so I said we could get married if she wanted, and-” “Great proposal.” Nat cut him off with a snigger. “What did she say?” “Told me to ask again with a, and I quote, big, fuck off tiffany diamond.”

“Every girl deserves a bit of sparkle.” Nat mused. “Unlucky for you, you’ve chosen a Billionaire to date.” “She’s not like that.” Steve instantly jumped to his girl’s defence.

“I know.” Nat soothed with a smile. “I know.”

They fell into silence for the rest of the way and, upon arriving at the base, they crept round to the best point of entry, following the heat scanners on Nat’s phone. Steve easily dispatched three guards, Natasha another two before they reached the room they were looking at. Natasha easily hacked the security codes thanks to something on her phone, Steve didn’t ask what, and they met no one on their way out.

Frankly, it went far too smoothly for Steve’s liking but he wasn’t going to complain. He just hoped Katie had got on as well with locating Sitwell.

***** Once Steve and Nat had left, Sam fired up the laptop for Katie and she plugged the end of her StarkPhone into the USB port.

“So you know this guy we’re looking for?” Sam asked, placing a coffee down next to her as she waited for the programme to run its magic.

“Vaguely.” She sighed out, knowing it would be easier if she knew him better. “But I can work with what I have.”

“So using what you have, how do we find him?”

“Simple, I’m going to check his work calendar.” Katie nodded at the laptop

 “And you can do that?” Sam asked

“Not on my own.” She grinned

“Good morning again Miss Stark.” JARVIS’ voice rang out from the laptop, causing Sam to slop coffee down his shirt in surprise.

“Hey JAR, I need a favour. Again. And it’s urgent.” “Of course.” “I need you to by-pass the SHIELD firewall and access someone’s calendar without them noticing.”

“Certainly, but permit me to ask,is everything ok Miss Stark?”

“Nope it is not…” she sighed “I’m in trouble J, but I’m hoping this is gonna help…”

“Should I alert Mr Stark? Maybe call him back from Australia?” “Absolutely not.” Katie shook her head. “There’s no time, in fact I forbid it…”

Once she had explained what she needed, JARVIS set to work, informing her he was going to scramble the IP address and set up a ghost server which would, in turn, allow him to access the information without being detected.

It didn’t take long. Fifteen or so minutes later Sitwell’s calendar flashed up and Katie gave a little yell of triumph.

“JARVIS, you are a genius, buddy!”

“Why thank you, Miss Stark. But I only have about sixty seconds before I will need to close down the connection.”

“Understood. Right let’s see where you’re at, you fucker.” Katie mused, as Sam peered over her shoulder.

“Look, briefing over lunch with Senator Stern at Occidental… 13:00 hours…” He read, pointing at the screen.

“Then he has another meeting at 14:30 back at the Triskellion… so Lunch is our window.” Katie looked up at Sam.

“Gives us an hour and a half.”

“Cutting it fine.” Katie mused. “Ok, thanks J, you can disconnect.”  “Certainly Miss Stark. Good luck.”

Just as the AI had shut the link down her mobile rang.

“We got it.” Nat’s voice instantly spoke as she put the phone on speaker. “All ok your side?”

“Yeah, we’re good.” Katie replied

“Any luck finding Sitwell?” this time it was Steve

“Yeah, he’s having lunch at Occidental with Senator Stern at 1pm.”

“Oh, how nice, they have a Senator involved.” Nat snorted sarcastically.

“And that’s going to be our only window before he’s back at the Triskellion at two-thirty.”

“Doesn’t give us much time…” Steve mused.

“What’s your ETA?”  Sam asked.

“About twenty five minutes.” 

“Okay, so let’s do the brain storming whilst you’re on the phone.”  Katie tapped at Sam’s laptop.  “The restaurant they’re going to is in the Business District, so we need somewhere secure that’s close by to take him for a little chat.”

She brought up the Google Map images so Sam could see.

“There.” Sam tapped at the screen, “There’s a multi-storey parking lot a few blocks down. We can take him up high…”

“And kick him off the edge.” Katie nodded.

“Stark, I like your style.” Nat replied, and Katie could hear the smirk in her voice.

“Okay so we got the where, now we need the how.” Steve sighed. “We can’t just pick him up at lunch. If the Senator’s there security will be a nightmare.”

"So we wait until he’s finished.” Sam shrugged

”But how do you get him to get in the car?”

“Simple. We give him a choice.” Katie eyed her gun where it lay on the table. “Do it or die.”

***** It turns out fear of death is a very, very good motivator.

Their plan went off perfectly. Natasha spoofed a phone number which Sam used to call Sitwell once he emerged from the restaurant after lunch. As predicted, Sitwell had been his usual cocky little shit of a self, asking Sam why on Earth he would what he was being instructed to do.

And then Katie had aimed her gun sight at him from her hiding place, the red laser sight clear in the middle of Sitwell’s chest.

“Because that tie looks really expensive, and I’d hate to mess it up.” Sam smirked.

Sitwell, resigned to his face, followed Sam instructions and as he left the little plaza upon which the restaurant was situated, Katie stepped out from her hiding place behind the wall of the bar Sam was sat at and pressed the muzzle of her gun into Sitwell’s lower back.

“One move and this goes straight into your spine. And I’ll make sure it doesn’t kill you, just leaves you with no feeling from the neck down…” She informed him, her voice low. Sitwell instantly tensed. "Miss Stark.” He grumbled out, seemingly more annoyed than scared. “Of course you’re involved with this.”

She took in a breath and glanced around, making sure none of the security team with him had realized what had happened. Sam was a few paces behind them and he gave her a nod to say they were clear before she turned back to Sitwell.

“You made me a wanted fugitive.” She shrugged. “Didn’t have much choice.” She stopped walking. “Now, get in the car.” She ordered, sternly.

“Where’s your boyfriend?”

“Get in the car.” She repeated. Sitwell stared at her, looked down at the gun before he swallowed and decided to do as he was told.

"We good?” Sam asked. Katie let out a breath and swiped a loose hair away from her face.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

They drove two blocks away and pulled up outside the large Starbucks on the main road.

“You know I could have got a coffee at the Restaurant.” Sitwell sighed, sarcastically. But his cocky demeanour soon dropped when both the rear car doors opened and Steve slid in one side, Natasha in the other.

“Good afternoon Agent Sitwell…” Steve turned to him, aviator shades covering his eyes. Sitwell looked at Steve, then to Natasha before his shoulders slumped and he bowed his head.

“Shit.”

******

Sitwell really was an arrogant little bastard, Steve had to give him that. The soldier easily manhandled the Agent onto the top of the Car Park roof, demanding to know what the Algorithm was, backing him up right to the edge where Sitwell had almost laughed, stating that it wasn’t Steve’s style to throw people off the edge.

Well, he had a point.

“You’re right. It’s not.” Steve released Sitwell, smoothing out his suit, letting the man nearly sigh in relief. Katie exchanged a glance with Natasha behind Steve’s back, the corner of her mouth twitched up slightly as Nat looked back. They were both going to enjoy this.

“It’s theirs.” Steve finished, before standing aside as both Katie and Natasha aimed strong kicks to Sitwell’s chest, sending him tumbling over the edge.

“So you’re definitely moving in together, then huh?”  Natasha asked, peering over the edge as Steve and Katie did the same, listening to Sitwell’s screams growing fainter.

“Yeah.” Steve smiled, looking down off the side of the room, hands in his pockets. “Although I’m not sure how I’m going to cope surrounded by mess.”

Katie rolled her eyes, as Sitwell’s screams started getting louder again and suddenly Sam flew over with him in his grasp and dropped him back onto the roof, before landing a few feet away. The three of them turned toward Sitwell and he stuck his hands up in surrender, telling them everything.

"Zola’s algorithm is a program, for choosing Insight’s targets!” He rushed out.

“What targets?” Steve demands.

“You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City. Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who’s a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future,” Sitwell continued to rush out failing to catch his breath.

“The future? How could it know?” Steve asked in confusion. At this Sitwell laughed as he stumbled back to his feet, looking at Katie before he glanced at Steve.

“How could it not? The twenty-first century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it,” He said getting confused looks from the Soldier in return, “Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e‐mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores! Zola’s algorithm evaluates peoples’ past to predict their future.”

Steve swallowed. He’d heard and seen more unbelievable things.

“And what then?” He asked, already thinking he knew but didn’t want to know the answer. Sitwell shook his head in disbelief as Katie exchanged a glance with Sam who was stood behind Sitwell. He shook his head in disbelief.

“Oh, my god. Pierce is gonna kill me.” He mumbled to himself and he tried to back away from the advancing super-solider but Sam reached out, holding him in place with a firm hand on his shoulder.

“What then?” Steve demanded louder.

Sitwell sighed as he looked at Steve. “Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time.”

**** Chapter 16

**Original Posting**

#stark spangled banner #steve rogers #Katie Stark #steve rogers x ofc #steve rogers x original female character #steve rogers fic #steve rogers fanfiction #mcu #mcu fanfic #captain america #chris evans #chris evans characters

[noshitshakespeare]

I read in multiple places that Coriolanus has been performed "both as pro-fascist and pro-communist" and I desperately need to know more about that, but none of the places I've read it elaborated in any way. I guess I'm asking, what leads to those - so drastically different - interpretations? And do you know of any good examples of both?

Thank you for this great question! The staging history of Coriolanus and the politics of it all is a really fascinating subject (lots has been written on it). 

Many of Shakespeare's plays can be interpreted in drastically different ways, because the representation of the characters and their positions tend to be pretty nuanced and even-handed. the plays themselves don’t always give a full sense of who it sides with, or who the audience ought to side with. Even characters who do great evil, like Macbeth, are given the kind of psychological depth that makes it difficult to condemn him outright, though the case there is a little clearer than in Coriolanus. 

The chief reason that Coriolanus invites such diametrically opposed interpretations is because of the central themes: the class conflict between the patricians and the plebeians, war, patriotism, and the right to rule and authority. There’s some historical context for this. When Shakespeare wrote the play sometime around 1605-10 there had been especially bad harvests and high food prices for a few years, which led to the Midland Uprising of 1607-8 (pretty close to Stratford-upon-Avon). One of the chief complaints here was that rich people were storing their grain in order to drive the market price up so that when they do bring out their store to sell they could sell it for more. It’s precisely what the rioters complain about at the beginning of the play: ‘They ne’er cared for us yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses crammed with grain’ (1.1.76-78). But the bigger question here is who has the right to authority over others, control of land and food? These are issues that are not quieted easily, and in one form or other, led to the Civil War of 1642 that dissolved the monarchy.  

To put it very simply, what splits interpretations is whether you see the play as about the people rising up against an unfair government and potential dictator, or whether you see a potential dictator overcoming a corrupt democratic government and a weak-minded mob. Is it more patriotic to rise up and take control of a bad government, or to support power and expansion at all costs?

Coriolanus wasn’t a great favourite, and wasn’t performed in its original form in England for a very long time after Shakespeare’s death, but these questions remained and made it a very topical play all around Europe in the early twentieth century. For instance, just before the second world war, there was a big scene in Paris in 1933 when the Fascist Party, Action Française, got the Comédie-Française to put on a production of Coriolanus. The production presented the protagonist as a hero against a corrupt democratic government in protest against the then left-wing and scandal-ridden French government. The show even featured something that resembled the Nazi salute at the moment Martius returns in victory from the battle in Corioli. There were shouts then of ‘Bravo, Hitler’ in the audience, and, indirectly or not, the theatre became the focus for a riot that led to 15 deaths and 1300 injured people. Before this point, Coriolanus hadn’t been performed much in France after Napoleon banned an 1806 performance because he thought the Martius in the production was modeled too much after himself. Evidently, he didn’t think it a straightforwardly flattering enough portrait of martial prowess to risk the potential subversion that could be read into the play, especially given the fall of the hero at the end.  

But the real focus here has got to be the treatment of the play in Nazi Germany itself. Germany has a long history of love for Shakespeare, and even before the war, there were more performances of Shakespeare in Germany than by any native German playwright. This was, of course, some embarrassment to the emerging Nazi government, but instead of banning Shakespeare as a writer from an enemy country, they appropriated Shakespeare by emphasising that all great artists belong to the world, not to a particular country. And given the beauty of the Schlegel-Tieck translations of Shakespeare, Germans were even inclined to say that Shakespeare is better in German than in English (I still hear this sometimes. ‘Unser Shakespeare’, as they say). 

Coriolanus became part of the school curriculum in Nazi Germany, used to show the 'Hitler Youth the unsoundness of democracy and to idealize Martius as an heroic führer trying to lead his people to a healthier society “as Adolf Hitler in our days wishes to lead our beloved German father-land”’ (Oxford Shakespeare Coriolanus, p. 124). Coriolanus was perfect because it showed the military power of Rome, like the Germany Hilter was trying to create, and because it could be used to show Martius as a powerful warrior above the common people, with a personality that is ‘above’ democracy. Thus, translations of the play in Germany at the time called Coriolanus ‘the true hero and Führer’ against the plebians, who were ‘a misled people, a false democracy’. The strength of this teaching was so powerful that the Allied forces banned the play in Germany during their occupation, and it wasn’t performed in Germany again until after 1953. There’s no particular version you need to read (unless you can get your hands on a copy from the time and read it in German). The point is that they got this version mostly via interpretation, so the play itself is not changed very much. 

The communist readings obviously emphasise the other side of the divide and sees Martius as an anti-democratic fascist. There were, apparently, quite a lot of Soviet stagings of this play that emphasised this aspect, but, unfortunately, there aren’t very many records of those. You can readily see, though, how the play might be presented as the destructive power of egoistic individualism at the cost of social order and cohesion. The most obvious choice if you want to read one, would be Bertolt Brecht’s Coriolan, which is a re-written version of the play that was staged in East Berlin after his death. The focus there is on class warfare and the power of the plebeians in ending the tyrannical rule of Coriolanus. In other words, it centres on the dictatorial rise of Coriolanus and the plebeians’ restoration of democracy at the end instead of lauding the power of Coriolanus himself. This version is especially powerful when you consider that Brecht chose to write and stage it for an audience that would have been educated mostly under the Nazi regime and were used to seeing Martius as the representative of the heroic individual and power of the fatherland. 

To move away from these political nuances, many productions (especially in England) tried to focus more on Coriolanus the individual for many years, especially the Freudian interpretation of Martius’ relationship with his mother -- as in the famous RSC Olivier production -- or on his incredible rage. The key, it seems, was to try to focus on Martius as an individual -- his feelings and motivations -- rather than on the political circumstances of his rise and fall. But I think it’s difficult to divorce Coriolanus from this hero versus the people dichotomy, perhaps even more so after the political upheavals of the twentieth century, and maybe now once again in our politically unstable times. How power should be distributed; whether power lies with the people or the government; what to do when a government or leader is corrupt or tyrannical; and how to balance the amount of leadership someone has at times of war with national defence, are all complicated questions that will never cease to be relevant while we have borders, leaders, and governments, and the play contains a lot of potential for all sides to argue their case. 

#anon anon sir! #asks #Coriolanus #Shakespeare #Martius #Nazi #Fascism #Communism #Performance History #germany #long post #as usual

[upyrica]

Growing up in a small West Ukrainian town, for @sisterofiris. Disclaimer: my experience may be confined to that of a community of some ten thousand people on the edge of the Carpathian mountains.

1. My school was not Catholic, but it did share a fence with a church - therefore Christian Ethics and preparation for the First Communion were on the curriculum. We also had a chapel with a statue of the Virgin Mary, and a priest would come to bless the school builting every year. If a student happened to die, a service would be held in the chapel. 2. The priest would also come to bless people's private property annually; should you not wish for him to enter, the polite thing to do is to pretend you are not home. 3. Most things are resolved by having friends and jobs you do not officially occupy. You need a doctor - you go to a friend who is a doctor, you need a mechanic - you go to a friend who is a mechanic, you need a piece of technology - you go to a friend who owns a pawn shop or an electronics store. 4. Pre-regular check-ins, that is up to about 2008-9, if I recall correctly, it was easy to purchase alcoholic beverages and cigarettes as a teenager at smaller stores and kiosks. 5. As a child, you get presents under your pillow for St. Nicholas' Day, the 19th of December, and probably for the New Year. Christmas is in January, and is devoid of gifts, but you do get to cook the twelve ritual dishes (and stretch the definition of what counts as a separate dish) with mandatory  kutya, and fast until the first star is visible in the sky, exciting. 6. Further on holidays: Зелені свята, the Orthodox Pentecost, when you decorate everything around and in your house with green branches; the week before avoid bathing in rivers and lakes, or ideally at all, lest you should be drowned by undead water spirits. If it can not be helped, at least avoid the Thursday before. Definitely do visit graves of relatives, decorate them, and have a meal there. Колядки - when strangers, dressed up and with a star, come to your house on the 6th of January, for Christmas, to sing a little about Christ and a lot about prosperity, expecting the reward of treats and sausages and such or, later, money. Should be performed by the youth, but old ladies from the church know the songs better. Щедрування - basically the same, but on the 13th, for the Old New year, or the Generous Night, and involves littering with grain and is supposed to be only for boys. The old ladies from the church still know the songs better. The same as Маланка, the celebration of which you are more likely to encounter if you go out on the day, in the form of a mob in bizarre costumes which has no trouble harrassing you or your vehicle. Everyone makes wreaths for  Купала, regardless of whether or not you intend to perform any divination. 7. This is haunted, that is haunted, and that one yet has spooky stories about the Nazis about it. 8. The Catacombs under the town and conspiracy theories as to why all easily accessible entrances were concealed in the Soviet times (including demolishing a historic town hall and putting a square in that place, only to place the new hall right next to it. Yes, I am still bitter). 9. The graveyard is a frequented location, and bears inscriptions in Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, and German. 10. Everything is fairly commonly used as long as it is not on the private property, unless one has an argument with the owner, or said owner is known for being easily angered. You can, without overstepping, gather fruit that falls on the  road outside and utilise other people's outdoor benches and tables. 11. Outdoor, gravity-powered and sun-heated summer showers that consist of a small cabin, a shower head, and a barrel on the roof.

That is as much as comes to mind at the moment, dear, but you are welcome to ask further.

[michael-weinstein]

My Bayreuth Problem

When I was nearly 14, I travelled to Germany for the first time. It was to be a Bar Mitzvah Wagner pilgrimage to Bayreuth with extra days in Nuremberg and Munich. Bar Mitzvahs happen at the age of 13, but the trip (me and my dad) was delayed because of my mom’s cancer (long story short, we discovered it when it wasn’t too late, and after several months of chemo, she recovered). Meanwhile I was getting recordings and scores of all the Wagner operas (that is, from The Flying Dutchman on), and was getting pretty hyped.

Apparently the hype was too much, because when I arrived I was dissapointed. I consciously went to Bayreuth before the festival was underway, but I couldn’t visit the Festspielhaus, though my dad and I did spend quite of an amount of time at the front, taking photos, and listening from outside to an orchestral rehearsal of the second act of Walküre (not that I knew it). Wahnfried came, and went, and it was only a bit interesting to see the Margravial Opera House (newly reopened from UNESCO renovations). Nuremberg was okay-ish (not that you need to know a lot about it), though there was an amusing incident in discovering that the Documentation Center of the Third Reich, built on the former grounds of the infamous rallies, was off the track from the road named, of everything, Yitzhak Rabin Strasse (Rabin was one of Israel’s most famous leaders, and his asassination is highly important for understanding Israeli politics today). We spent a rainy day in Munich (it was the day following Germany’s loss to South Korea in the FIFA World Cup), saw the day before the memorial cross at Lake Starnberg where King Ludwig II died (it’s a mystery, google it up). Also, it was my first experience of an actual forest! It was pretty dark, and the trees were very high.

But perhaps the interesting visit - perhaps the most important in view of what I’m about to talk about - is the one that my dad and I did as soon as we rented a car at the Munich Airport: we went to the Dachau concentration camp. We both agreed that Dachau should be our first destination as soon as we get a car, for 2 reasons: to remember who I am, and the disastrous effect of Wagner’s polemics (if not even his music). We also planned to have a detour to Regensburg, but we were falling behind schedule so we decided to head directly to Bayreuth.

Here I am, 2 and a half years later, understanding that though I love Wagner, I don’t need Bayreuth for it. Besides, one of the things I realized is that Wagner makes you more extreme, and for a middle-of-the-road, all-accepting person like me that’s not a good thing. Bayreuth always attracts either the neo-Nazis or the hardcore-Marxists. And in either case, they are white, either Christian or atheist, male and above 40 (50 makes a better number on paper, but let’s try to be realistic, if it is). Obviously I’m generalizing, but it’s necessary for me to fight “Wagneritis” (as Artur Rubinstein so memorably called it, and he was a Wagner fan by any means). And the Wagner family itself is not exempt from this either; Wagner’s own terrible genetics are continued through the generations, whether through the direct family members Siegfried, Wieland, Wolfgang and Katharina, or their spouses Cosima (Wagner’s wife), Winifred (Siegfried’s), Gertrud (Wieland’s) and Gudrun (Wolfgang’s second wife).

Siegfried Wagner wrote in his testament that there need to be 3 more generations until the Festival can be released from its Wagner-exclusivity. It’s already time for it. In fact, back in 1966 Pierre Boulez (who was making his Bayreuth debut conducting Parsifal) was discussing plans with Wieland to expand the festival, and Sir Georg Solti (who only conducted there once, the Ring cycle in 1983), after discussing the bad quality of singers, likewise asked the same from Wolfgang:

What, then, should Wolfgang Wagner do? Close the Festspielhaus? On the contrary, he ought to open it further. Wagner intended it as a center not only for his works but for German opera in general. Why not perform Weber’s, Strauss’s, Henze’s operas, Pfitzner’s Palestrina, Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler? Abolish Wagnerism as a religion and let some fresh air into the theater, as Wagner wanted. Try to rejuvinate the audience. The Wagner Festival as such has outlived its time, and new thinking is needed.

So I know what I want to do when the Bayreuth festival gets some “fresh air”. Ideally it should be the very first concert, but I don’t mind anything as long as its early enough to effective. If I ever become a conductor, my plan is to conduct Mahler’s 6th symphony. This audience, and this family, need a slap of ice to their faces, they need to wake up and understand there are things beyond Wagner, stagings, opera and singers. They have become so enthused in their delusion in this town, place and festival, but their true, fanatic (even dark) nature will be revealed in the marches of the 1st movement and the finale, and the macabre scherzo. One could say that this is the victory of the spirits of Mahler, the Second Viennese School and Shostakovich, but that would be a downright lie, because each had at least appreciated if not even loved Wagner to an incredible degree.

But they showed they didn’t need Bayreuth for this. Mahler did his most forward-looking and most celebrated Wagner work in Vienna (most notably his Tristan production with Alfred Roller). He was never invited to Bayreuth, most likely because he was Jewish, but even if he was he wouldn’t have fit there artistically. Likewise, Schoenberg loved Wagner deeply, but preferred to learn from what Wagner did in Tristan and Parsifal and stretch it from there to the next level. As for Shostakovich, the sheer fact that whatever he went through in his difficult life, he never left the Soviet Union when he had the chance to speaks for itself (and it’s not because he necessarily supported the authorities).

Likewise, I’ve come to conclude that I don’t need anybody to tell me what Wagner is, and I don’t need Bayreuth for the ultimate Wagner experience. I can do Wagner wherever I want, whether it’s on both coasts of the United States, London, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Vienna, Italy, Salzburg, Greece, elsewhere in Europe or even (gasp) in Israel itself. And please think of me when a Mahler 6 happens in Bayreuth. I’ll do my best to be there.

#gustav mahler #wagner #richard wagner #bayreuth #pierre boulez #georg solti #nuremberg #munich #dachau #mahler 6

[theculturedmarxist]

For those that might not know, Grover Norquist is Washington’s anti-tax poster boy since the Reagan administration. Calling him an anti-tax lobbyist is missing the vast majority of other shit he’s responsible for or has had a hand in. He’s basically been integral in creating the immensely shitty situation in regards to a failed government and overpowered business lobby that we’re in today.

Anyway, I wanted to share the absolutely delusional bullshit these people say to each other, because it’s absolutely illuminating.

Grover Norquist On Taxes, Socialism And The Demonization Of The Rich

Grover Norquist is President of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), a taxpayer organization that opposes all tax increases as a matter of principle and has been leading campaigns for tax reductions since 1986. ATR was founded at the request of President Reagan and asks all candidates for office in the United States to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a written commitment to vote against any tax hikes while they are in office. Rainer Zitelmann spoke with him:

Rainer Zitelmann: In Europe, governments are already looking beyond the coronavirus crisis and planning massive tax increases. In particular, there have been increasing calls for a wealth tax on the richest within society to pay for coronavirus measures and guard against future crises. Supporters of free market economics, on the other hand, are calling for tax cuts to get the economy back on track once the current crisis has abated. What do you think will happen in the United States? If Trump is re-elected, will he cut taxes again? And what will happen if Biden wins?

Grover Norquist: Once we’re looking back on coronavirus in our rearview mirror rather than having it flying at the windshield—then what? Little will happen before the November 2020 American presidential election. Democrats will demand higher taxes and massive spending, Republicans will propose tax cuts. But the Democrat-controlled house will block any tax reductions and the Republican-dominated senate and the Trump veto will block any tax increases or spending explosion. Should Trump win re-election, Republicans will move to enact their stated goal of reducing the corporate income tax to 15% from today’s 21%. They will push to index capital gains for inflation—so capital gain taxes would only be due on real gains, not inflationary gains. Should Biden win the presidency, and the Democrats capture the senate, Biden has promised $3.4 trillion of new taxes. That is three times what Hillary Clinton threatened/promised in 2016—and she lost for being too left wing. Spending will explode. Income tax will be increased, an energy tax will be imposed and eventually a Value Added Tax will be levied. Of course, this fork in the road would be exactly the same if there was no coronavirus. Republicans are the party of tax reduction and (modest) spending restraint. Democrats remain the party of endless tax hikes and endless spending sprees.

Zitelmann: In the United States, socialism used to be a dirty word—and it still is for many older Americans. In contrast, large numbers of younger Americans are committed to “socialism.” So why has anticapitalism become so popular in the United States, especially among younger people?

Norquist: The sad answer is that younger Americans do not know what socialism means. Millennials do not remember the Soviet Union. Or Stalin’s Gulags or the Warsaw Pact. They only know Russia. They could not even tell you what the initials U.S.S.R. stood for, or that Nazi is the abbreviation of National Socialist. Somehow, Bernie Sanders, who is well versed in Soviet history and Cuba’s tradeoff of “literacy” against political prisoners, has explained to younger Americans that “socialism” means Sweden and Denmark.

‘Sanders Had Already Won The Policy Debate’

Zitelmann: Sanders is now out of the race. However, you believe that his ideas have nevertheless prevailed. Why is that?

Norquist: You might think that Bernie Sanders’ withdrawal from the 2020 campaign and the likely victory of Vice President Joe Biden represents a move to the center by the Democrats. Sadly, no. I would argue that Bernie Sanders left the race not because he failed to get enough delegates to win but because he had already won the policy debate. Biden’s threatened tax hikes total $3.4 trillion dollars over a decade. That is three times more than Hillary Clinton threatened. Biden promises to ban fracking, plastic bags (he said plastic, let’s generously assume he meant only plastic bags), expand Medicare with a “public option,” meaning a door through which all Americans could be pushed into a one-size-fits-all, government-controlled health care system, and an energy/carbon tax. What is the difference between Biden and Bernie? They have the same Rolodexes. The same likely White House staffers. The same rhetoric.

Why The Rich Are Being Demonized

Zitelmann: In the Democratic primaries, all of the candidates seemed to be competing to outdo each in terms of their “rich-bashing” rhetoric. Even Michael Bloomberg, himself one of the richest men in the world, was forced to demand higher taxes on the rich before he was forced to withdraw from the race. Where does this hatred of the rich come from?

Norquist: The Democrats need trillions of dollars to buy votes to win the 2020 election. To do that they will require a great deal more money than the $3.8 trillion raised in taxes under the 2019 budget. And they can’t afford to admit that regular voters are the likely target of their new and additional taxes—an energy tax, a Value Added Tax and higher payroll taxes. So Democrat candidates, continuing the strategies adopted by Clinton and Obama, started by demonizing the rich and then promising to tax them—not you, the typical voter. Now, both Clinton and Obama did raise taxes on the middle class—but they talked so much about taxing the rich that even a well-educated voter could be forgiven for thinking that the new taxes were all on the rich. Every new tax voters heard about were announced as targeting the rich (or corporations which, of course, pass on their increased tax burdens to consumers in the form of higher prices and workers in lower wages). The left needs to demonize the rich. It is, after all, their justification for taxing them. Americans do not like the idea of taking money away from someone who earned it.

Zitelmann: A great deal of energy is expended on arguing that the “rich” did not earn their money.

Norquist: Yes, the logic is this: If the rich are only rich because they got lucky, then they never truly earned or deserve their fortunes. This is why Barack Obama told small businessmen in the 2009 campaign, “You did not build that,” when referring to their own small businesses. If you didn’t build it—it isn’t really yours. And, once Democrat logic is accepted, taking it away is not really theft. Nor wrong. Nor immoral. But demonizing the rich has a second advantage for the left. In addition to making it easier to tax the rich and trick voters/taxpayers into thinking they are not the true target of higher taxes, the war on the rich covers up the 50-year failure of the Great Society. The Great Society was launched in 1965 with the promise that the government knew how to help the poor become middle class and self-reliant. Government spending on housing, healthcare and education would instill the poor with middle-class values such as hard work, self-reliance and a willingness to work and save today for a better tomorrow, maintaining a long-term perspective. But the Great Society spent some $14 trillion in giving money to the poor, or more often paying well-paid government employees to “provide services” to the poor, and has little or nothing to show for it in terms of improvements in savings, income, education or work. So rather than admit that they wasted trillions of dollars and concede that they should shut down government job programs that only benefit the Democrat party’s base, the left pivoted to a new problem. Not that the poor are poor, but that there is a large gap between the rich and poor.

This new problem—inequality—can be solved without helping to lift a single poor person out of poverty and into the middle class. One only needs to reduce the wealth and income of the rich. That way we will be more equal. All worse off. But more equal. It is possible for modern Democrats to reduce inequality without doing anything to help poor people or communities. The middle class can suffer while we “reduce inequality.” That they can do. To tax the rich; first undermine their right to keep what they create. Demonize them. To avoid embarrassing questions about the failure of the left’s “war on poverty” you just need to shift the focus to inequality.

‘Immigration Is Our Strongest Competitive Advantage’

Zitelmann: Donald Trump has certainly done some positive things in terms of tax policy and deregulation. At the same time, however, he has increased what was already an extremely high level of national debt and is pursuing protectionist trade policies. I have the impression that Trump has no clear market economy compass. How capitalist is Trump?

Norquist: It’s not clear whether Donald Trump has ever read Hayek. But his tax cuts are straight out of the Ronald Reagan/Art Laffer/Milton Friedman playbook. His de-regulation goes further than all previous presidents combined. His judges will strengthen and repair America’s commitment to the rule of law for a generation. And his unwillingness to be dragged into every stupid idea some European intellectual thought up—windmills, solar to replace real energy that really powers a national economy—has been a godsend. Those who wish to embroil America in every war in every quadrant of the globe have no ally in Trump. Trump knows that war is the enemy of liberty and fiscal prudence. Free trade and immigration are issues where Trump departs from President Reagan and Adam Smith. But as President Trump said before the coronavirus crisis—we are running out of workers in the United States. And the higher wages and jobs growth he delivered reduced the grumpiness of American voters who no longer lash out at immigrants and foreign competitors suspected of stealing their jobs. Trump’s tax cuts, de-regulation, sound legal system and respect for property rights delivered growth to America before the virus and will return when the virus is behind us. Trump’s growth silenced the concerns that drive protectionism and tariffs and stoke fears of immigration. Yes, the wall will be built. America will gain control of its borders, but it will maintain large and open doors. Immigration is our strongest competitive advantage over China, Japan, Russia and most of the world. And yes, our trade agreements need to ensure that our intellectual property is not stolen and reduce the ability of governments anywhere to subsidize trade and disadvantage foreign competition.

Zitelmann: What are your thoughts on the Fed’s low interest rate policy? What does this mean for our market economy system?

Norquist: The danger of near-zero federal interest rates is that borrowing money is seen as “almost” free. The deficit is not the problem. Overspending is the problem. The deadweight cost of government is total spending. The deficit is one element of the problem—like the visible part of an iceberg. But it is the larger, hidden mass of the iceberg below the water line that ripped the Titanic apart. If deficit spending is held down, and taxes are not raised, then there is a limit on spending. That is good. But if deficit spending is “free” or “inexpensive” because interest rates (today) are low, then public opposition to more and more government spending is reduced and government spending will be allowed to increase and weaken the economy.

#republicans #grover norquist #subhuman #american politics #forbes #class warfare #class war #2020 presidential election #bernie sanders #bourgeoisie #bourgeois ideology #ideology #ideoloji #ideologia

[what-is-your-plan-today]

Stark Spangled Banner Ch 15: That Tie Looks Real Expensive

Summary: On the run from SHIELD, Katie and Steve encounter Natasha at the hospital when they head back for the memory drive. Their search for the truth leads Steve on yet another trip down memory lane, and as more truths bubble to the surface, the three of them are left reeling and are forced to seek help...

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Warnings: None for this chapter bar them saying some bad language words and someone gets pushed off a roof but he’s Hydra so, meh

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist

Open for Tags- Ping me an Ask!

After a bit of a skirmish on the bridge out of the Triskellion with a Quinjet, they headed to the small boxing gym they trained at so Steve could change, leaving his suit behind in the hope that the tracking systems would give whoever came looking for them a bit of a detour. He also locked his shield in his locker, with the view they’d collect it when it was safe to do so, in an attempt to keep them as unnoticeable as possible.  

Surprisingly they reached the hospital, both relatively unscathed. Katie was feeling bruised but she kept pace with Steve as they strode down the corridor. When they reached the vending machine, Steve stopped and peered into it, frowning as he realised the row where he had hidden the stick was empty. Then someone appeared behind them, and he saw Natasha’s reflection in the machine, blowing bubbles from the gum she’d obviously bought to retrieve the stick.

Steve spun round, temper reaching boiling point as he grabbed her by the neck in a display of anger Katie had rarely seen from him, pushing her into a room opposite.

“What happened to you?” she looked at Katie’s face, which was already bruising from the blow she had taken before.

“Rumlow.” Katie snapped back, unwilling to discuss any further. Her patience with this whole situation was running thin and she was sick of not knowing who she could trust. She had resigned from SHIELD for this precise reason, and here she was, getting dragged back into their shit.

"Where is it?" Steve demanded, looking at Nat as he threw down his hood.

"Safe."

"Do better." Katie suggested, glaring at the woman she thought was her friend, not sure anymore whether or not to trust the red-head.

"Where did you get it?" Natasha asked.

"Why would I tell you?" Steve countered.

"Fury gave it to you," she narrowed her eyes at him. "Why?"

"What's on it?" Steve ask, ignoring her question.

"I don't know," Natasha answered.

Steve lightly slammed her against the wall his patience thinning quickly, anger blazing from every inch of his body. "Stop lying," he said through gritted teeth.

"I only act like I know everything, Rogers."

"I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?" Katie said, looking at her.

"Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in..."

Katie let out a frustrated laugh before she spun around, away from Natasha groaning.

"I'm not gonna ask you again," Steve threatened.

"I know who killed Fury." she said as Katie turned to face her again. "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years."

"So he's a ghost story." Steve concluded releasing her and taking a step back.

"Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran and somebody shot out my tires near Odessa.” She said, looking him straight in the eyes “We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him, straight through me."

Natasha pulled up her shirt, revealing a scar on her lower left abdomen.

"Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye bye, bikinis."

"Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now," Steve half joked.

"Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried." She stated before she pulled out the thumb drive and held it out for all of them to see.

Steve eyed her before taking it and putting it in his pocket before he looked at Katie then back to Natasha.

"Let's find out what the ghost wants."

*****

“You know you could have picked something a little more subtle.” Nat said as she lounged in the backseat of the truck that they had taken from an industrial estate opposite the gym when they had stopped to pick up Steve’s shield and ditch Nat’s Corvette heading to New Jersey.

They had gotten what they needed from the Mall, including the location of where the AI that kept countering Natasha's commands on the pen drive was coming from, which to Steve’s shock had been Camp Lehigh, the place he had trained and been selected for Operation Rebirth. After a close shave with the STRIKE team they had bolted for Natasha's car and made it out, unscathed and thankfully with a few new changes of clothes each.

“It’s a truck, lots of men drive trucks” Steve replied, as he comfortably drove with one hand on the wheel, the other on the gearshift, eyes focussed on the road.

“Because they think it looks cool when in fact it just makes them look like douchebags who are compensating for something” Nat responded.

Despite himself he couldn’t help but quip back playfully “Maybe I am.” “Well I know that’s not true” Nat said, her voice full of a smirk “Katie told me.”

Steve felt his cheeks flush as Katie shifted in the seat besides him, whipping her head round to face the woman. “Jesus Nat…”

“What were your exact words?” she teased “If that thing wasn’t enhanced by the-” “If you don’t shut up I’m gonna come back there and slap you into next week.” Katie said cutting her off. She turned back round, glancing at Steve. His cheeks were flushed red with embarrassment but there was a faint trace of a smirk on his face, his eyes still focussed ahead. He could tell she was looking at him so he kept his eyes on the road, fully aware he blushing. But as far as discussing their sex life with her friend he supposed that there were worst things she could be saying…

"So where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" Natasha spoke again a few minutes later as Katie noticed that they were passing a sign welcoming them to New Jersey. All things considered they’d made pretty good time.

“Nazi Germany” Steve said, looking over his shoulder at her “and we’re borrowing, take your feet off the seat."

Natasha eyed him in the mirror, but did as she was told before she leant forward between the two front seats.

"Alright, I have a question for you both, which you do not have to answer. But I feel if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it, you know?"

"What?" Steve said exasperatedly.

"So before in the store… you guys were like engaged…” she began a hint of a smirk on her face. “Any chance of that happening for real?”

Katie moaned, the red head had no idea how close to the bone she was. Upon hearing the moan, Steve felt something in his stomach stir.

"That bad an idea huh?" he asked stealing a glance over at her.

"I didn't say that." Katie sighed.

“No but it kinda sounded like that’s what you meant.” Steve continued.

“I not even gracing that with a response” she shot him a look.

“I’m still waiting on you telling me whether you’re gonna move in with me or not.” he said, his tone teasing.

“You asked her?” Nat raised her eyebrows. “Will you fuck off?” Katie snapped. She’d had enough and well and truly reached her fill of Natasha’s sarcasm, SHIELD, everything.

“Take it easy Stark.” Nat drawled back, nonplussed. “You know, if you don’t want to answer a question straight you could try making something up…”

“What, like you?”  Katie scoffed, looking at her over her shoulder

“You know the truth is a matter of circumstances, it's not all things to all people all the time. And neither am I."

"That's a hard way to live," Steve commented as he took in the red-heads words. Besides him Katie shifted, agitatedly and he knew she was pissed. Natasha was supposed to be her friend and all this had shaken her trust.

"It's a good way not to die, though," Natasha mused unconcerned.

"You know, it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is." Katie shot the red head a pointed look and Steve held his breath for the sarcastic response he was expecting back. He really didn't want to have to split up a fight between the two. But knowing his girl as he did, he had a horrible feeling it would go that way if Natasha bit back. Thankfully, she didn't, her tone was soft, almost wistful when she answered

"Yeah." Natasha replied, looking through the window. "Who do you want me to be?"

"How about a friend?" Steve jumped in.

"Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers." Natasha smirked returning to her comfortable position in the backseat.

They sat in silence for a bit and Katie turned to look at Steve. If there was one person in all this she could trust, she knew it was him. She had no idea what they were going to find, what they were going to walk into but she trusted him with her life, and loved him with every bone in her body. And she wanted him to know, just in case this all went wrong, just how much.

Steve shifted in his seat as he could feel her eyes on him for a while before she spoke finally.

“I’m not gonna move in with you.” she said, shaking her head, and his head whipped round, mouth dry at her refusal, before he returned his attention to the road, trying not to read too much into her rejection, as she continued to speak. “Your flat is full of bullet holes, your bed is in the wrong place and frankly it’s too small for all my stuff. You’ll have to move in with me.”

Wait, what? That wasn’t a refusal. She’d just said yes. She wanted to live together. 

He looked at her, aware a grin was spreading across his face. “Seriously?”

She nodded, returning her gaze to the front, and he did the same as her fingers tangled into his right hand where it was resting on the pillar between their seats, gently pulling it into her lap so she could trace shapes on his palm.

“Gross…” came a voice from the back seat.

*****

"It's some kind of recording," Natasha said frowning as she tried to make sense of what was happening in front of them. They’d scoured the camp, Steve having identified that the munitions building was in the wrong place, and that had led them into a huge, underground bunker. After an hour or so more of searching they had discovered a secret Elevator that led down to a huge room full of ancient computers…and a more modern USB terminal. They had plugged in the USB device which had activated the system and now…well, now Katie had no idea what the fuck they were looking at.

"I am not a recording, Fraulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945..."

Steve sighed heavily as the computer screen showed a black and white photo of a familiar odd looking man with round glasses. Zola.

"Who is that?" Katie asked as Steve glared at the photo on the computer screen.

"Do you know this thing?" Natasha questioned sceptically.

"Armin Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years," Steve explained shortly as he walked round the back of the screen, looking for anything that would explain how it was working.

"First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, that was worth saving. Two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain," Zola explained.

"How did you get here?" Steve questioned, returning to the front of the television monitor.

"I was invited."

“Operation Paperclip," Natasha supplied as her and Katie exchanged a look.

“What is it?” Steve asked.

“After the War Shield recruited German scientists with strategic value." Katie said.

"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own." Zola continued.

"Hydra died with the Red Skull," Steve snapped.

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." Zola said confidently

"Prove it," Steve challenged and Katie had to stifle a sigh as she was pretty sure they were going to regret that.

"Accessing archive."

The computer screen began to screen old footage of the Red Skull and of the original shield founders.

"Hydra was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For seventy years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed."

Various photos flashed up as he spoke of events through the course of modern history. Besides him Katie gulped when they reached the assassination of JFK, and the photo zoomed in on a grainy image of the masked man with the metal arm in the distance, aiming his rifle, The Winter Soldier.

"That's impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you," Natasha said quickly countering the computer.

"Accidents will happen." The computer screen then revealed a very familiar item, the newspaper reporting Howard and Maria Stark’s deaths. Steve felt his mouth go dry as he realised what Zola was telling him, whilst besides him, Katie took a deep breath as she looked at the screen, her Parent’s faces looking back at her in black and white print. And then the ringing started in her ears.

Her parents had been killed? By the Winter Soldier? By HYDRA? When she spoke again, her voice was desperate as she was, desperate for this to be nonsense. “No, that’s not… they died in an accident… it was a car crash…”

“Things are not what they seem...” the screen drawled back

“You killed them?” she said, the anger now evident in her voice as it coursed through her veins, her voice loud as she balled her fists “HYDRA killed my parents? Why?”

A photo of Director Fury flashed up.

"HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security." Pictures of three helicarriers were shown next, and Steve feel the angry heat spread up his neck, blistering and raw. "Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero sum."

Steve's anger boiled over, and it appeared Katie's had as well as the pair of them surged forward. Katie lashed out with her right foot kicking over a chair in anger and Steve brought his right hand crashing into the TV, smashing the screen. It only resulted in silencing the Swiss man for a moment, before he spoke cockily once again from a different monitor

"As I was saying…”

"What's on this drive?" Natasha asked quickly stepping in front of both Katie and Steve to avoid the pair of them destroying anything else.

"Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm."

"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Katie demanded.

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it."

Suddenly, the doors they came through started to close. Steve threw his shield attempting to catch them before they shut completely but it missed and he caught it as it ricocheted back.

"Guys, we got a bogey, short-range ballistics. Thirty seconds tops." Natasha announced looking at her phone, her voice earnest.

"Who fired it?" asked Steve, as he starting to look for an escape route.

"SHIELD." She looked at him, then to Katie.

"Admit it Captain, it's better this way. We're both of us, out of time," warned Zola.

Katie looked around for any sign of a way out, knowing it was pointless. She spotted a grate in the floor not too far from where we were and yelled at Steve. He easily threw the top off as Natasha pulled the drive out of the port that was on the desk.

"Get in!" Steve yelled. Natasha hopped in, then Katie jumped down as well, the two girls getting as close to one another as they could to make room for Steve in the small space. He jumped down and pulled them both in close before holding his shield over their heads.

The missile hit just as he did so. Instantly heat, smoke and pressure surrounded the three of them. Steve could feel the ash and heat in his throat and he had to fight with all his strength to keep his shield above them, as the debris from the collapsing building above us rained down. Letting out a groan he braced himself and simply stayed as strong as he could, and eventually the noise subsided. He could hear Katie’s heavy breathing as she struggled to maintain her calm, coughing slightly a she spoke.

“Nat…”

No answer.

Steve grunted again as he pushed against his shield trying to clear away the debris on top of it just enough to get out. He let out a sigh of relief as he gave a strong push and light flooded down into the chamber. With another almighty cry and a heave, he managed to clear a path for him to climb out. He scrambled up, checked around to make sure it was safe and the he glanced down at the two women.

"Hey," he called “You ok?”

“I think so… Nat’s passed out.” Katie said, awkwardly shifting Natasha around carefully in order so Steve could lift her out. Carefully he set her down and then wrapped his hand around his girl’s wrist and pulled her out of the hole. Immediately she crouched next to Nat.

“Her pulse is strong…I think she just fainted…she doesn't do well in tight spaces, like me...”  Katie said, coughing harshly before she paused at the sound of a familiar hum growing steadily closer. Quinjets.

"Let's go." Steve ordered quietly, scooping Natasha up in his arms. Ensuring Katie was in front of him at all times, they quickly began navigating their way out of the rubble. "Get back to the truck."

Katie climbed into the backseat and Steve laid Natasha down along the seat so that her head rested in Katie’s lap before he jumped into the driver's seat, starting the car and taking off down the dirt road.

Neither of them spoke for a good 5 minutes. Katie was still trying to make sense of what Zola had said. HYDRA had killed her parents, for no other reason that she could think of bar the fact her dad had worked tirelessly against everything they stood for, as part of SHIELD. Her eyes misted over and she tried to blink back the tears, keeping her breathing even. She knew if she started crying, after everything that had happened, she wouldn’t stop. 

In the front of the truck, Steve’s head was also reeling. All this time, HYDRA had grown within SHIELD, he’d gone into the ice for what? He wiped his hand over his face and glanced in the rear view mirror. Katie was looking down at Natasha, gently carding her hands through her friend’s hair, but he could see her eyes were wet. He felt another flash of anger. How could Fury have not noticed? How could Peggy have not noticed? So many goddamned questions…

“What…” Natasha’s voice was croaky and Steve glanced back again to see the red head’s eyes fluttering as she looked around.

“You passed out” Katie said, looking down at her “we’re alright now, we got out ok.”

She sat upright and blinked again, “Thanks…”

Steve turned back to the windscreen as the car fell into silence.

“So…where to now?” Nat asked the question. No one answered which caused her to suggest “Tony?”

“No” Steve and Katie both said at the same time.

“For one thing he isn’t in the country.” Katie said, “He’s in Aus working on some deal.”

“And they’ll be watching the Tower.” Steve continued, “It’s not safe”

“We need to get hold of Hill.” Katie said, “She’s the only one in any of this I trust now.”

Steve pondered, and then had to concede she was right. “Alright, but we need to lay low whilst we do…any ideas?”

“Yeah.” Katie said, and it was a crazy one, but one that no one would even suspect, as no one in SHIELD knew the man existed. Not yet anyway.  “Nat, any chance you can look up an address?”

“Sure…” she said, pulling her phone of out her pocket.

Steve shot her a questioning glance in the mirror, which turned into one of realisation as she spoke.

“Sam Wilson.”

“Honey we hardly know the guy.” Steve said, voicing his concern

“Well trusting people we do know hasn’t exactly worked for us so far, has it?” she snapped back, a little tetchily. Steve opened his mouth to argue back but Natasha cut him off.

“Nova’s right. Sometimes the person you have to trust is a stranger.” *********

Sam let them in without so much as a question, the fact that the three of them were battered, bruised and filthy declaring everyone they knew was trying to kill them told them all he needed to know. He offered up his guestroom and Steve being the gentleman that he was let both Natasha and Katie go before him, giving Sam a brief overview of what had happened.

Katie and Natasha both showered quickly, and now they were currently sat quietly in the guestroom while Steve used the en-suite. He washed his face and looked in the mirror, letting out a sigh as he glanced back at his reflection, various bruises already covered his arms and upper body thanks to his accelerated healing but that wasn’t what bothered him. He was completely and utterly at a loss as to what to do next. Well, whatever it was, he wasn’t going to find the answer in here. Turning, he opened the door and saw Katie sitting behind Nat on the bed, drying the back of the woman’s red hair. He locked eyes with her, gave her a small smile and then looked at Natasha who was staring into space.

"You okay?" 

"Yeah," she replied quickly, too quickly.

Steve set down the towel he was drying his hands with and entered the room then sat on the chair across from the girls. He leaned his elbows on his knees and looked at Natasha carefully. "What's going on?"

"When I first joined SHIELD, I thought I was going straight. But I guess I just traded in the KGB for Hydra," Natasha confessed, looking down at her hands. "I thought I knew whose lies I was telling, but I guess I can't tell the difference anymore."

"There's a chance you might be in the wrong business." Katie teased earning a small smile from the redhead.

"I owe you." Natasha said quietly, "Both of you." She added looking at Katie

"It's okay," Steve said.

"If it was the other way around, and it was down to me to save your lives – and be honest with me – would you trust me to do it?" asked Natasha quietly, her green eyes locked onto Steve’s.

"I would now," said Steve. "And I'm always honest."

"Without question." Katie said as well as Nat turned to her, a smile growing on her lips.

"Well," she said as she looked back at Steve. "You seem pretty chipper for someone who just found out they died for nothing."

"Well, guess I just like to know who I'm fighting," Steve said in response, although she had hit a nerve.

"I made breakfast," Sam's voice came and the three looked to see him leaning up against the doorframe. "If you guys, eat that sort of thing." He added as he left.

Steve inclined his head slightly, smiling as Natasha stood up and left the room, shouting after Sam to see if he had a hair dryer, earning her a sarcastic response about him not having had an afro since the late 80s. Katie made to follow her but Steve caught her arm gently as he too rose from his chair.

“Baby…” he started, wanting to talk to her about the discovery but she cut him off, shaking her head. She didn’t want to talk about it. It was too painful and the fear of what Tony would say…

“You know, after mom and dad died, Tony lost it.” she said gently, voicing her fears. “When he finds out they were murdered it could push him over the edge again.”

“Don’t tell him then” Steve found himself suggesting. He didn’t approve of lying, but sometimes if knowing the truth was detrimental then…

“And then if he does find out, and then realises I knew and didn’t tell him?” Katie sighed “I don’t know what’s worse…”

She looked utterly lost and broken and he felt a lump catch in his throat as he pulled her to him, kissing the top of her head. He was desperately trying to think of something that would raise her mood, and then he found himself for some strange reason thinking back to the banter the 3 had shared in the truck. He looked down at his girl.

“Did you really tell Natasha I had a big…” She gave a small chuckle, the sound music to his ears. “No I said you were a big dick…she must have misheard me”

He rolled his eyes and a sarcastic “ha ha” fell from his mouth as she smiled, sliding her hands up his chest.

“What I actually said was that if that thing…”she glanced down at his crotch before looking back up “Wasn’t supersized at the same time you were, I have no idea how you managed to stand upright before the serum.”

Jesus she was incorrigible at times. But he loved her for that. And he was also secretly pleased she thought he was packing, so to speak. He smirked as his hands slid to her hips “you’re a nightmare…” he looked at her.

“Yeah but you love me.” she grinned.

“Yeah, yeah I do…” he said, his lips meeting hers in a soft kiss before the pair of them sighed, the moment of humour and good nature slipping away as they both remembered exactly where they were and why they were there.

“Come on…” Steve said, taking her hand and together they headed down the hall into the kitchen area, the smell of food hitting his nostrils made his stomach grumble.  

"You all look a hell of a lot better." Sam commented as Katie grabbed a few things for her plate- a couple of pancakes, fruit and toast. Steve smiled a bit at the quasi-compliment before he sighed, biting into a piece of toast.

"Well, it's been an eventful twenty-four hours." he responded as he slipped into a chair.

“I aint got anywhere to be.” Sam shrugged as he looked a Steve “I know you gave me the overview but how about you give me the details?”

Katie sat down next to Steve at the table and looked at him, then to Natasha before they launched into a detailed explanation of what had happened as Sam listened intently asking questions and serving coffee out to them as they continued explaining over the next 30 minutes or so.

"So, the question is, who in SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike?" Natasha asked from where she was stood, leaning comfortably back against Sam's countertops.

"Alexander Pierce," Katie confidently answered, finishing her coffee.

Steve looked at her, smiling softly. She was at it again, that analytical brain was going 10 to the dozen. It was amazing how different and better everything seemed once you’d eaten and how much of the situation now was starting to slot into place.

"Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world," Natasha said as she walked towards the table, standing behind Katie, almost snorting at the irony of the situation.

"He's not working alone, Zola's algorithm was on the Lemurian Star." Steve continued.

"And you told me that Jasper Sitwell was too." Katie said, and there it was, another piece of the puzzle.

"So, the real question is…” Steve looked at her and Nat “How do the three most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?"

"The answer is, you don't," Sam dropped a file on to the table to the right of Katie.

"What's this?" Steve asked, standing up as Natasha picked up the file.

"Call it a resume."

Katie stood up as well so the three of them could look at the file.

"Is this Bakhmala? The Khalid Khandil mission, that was you," Natasha then turned to Steve. "You didn't say he was a para rescue."

"Riley?" Katie asked nodding to the photo of Sam and another man.

"Yeah," Sam answered.

"I heard they couldn't bring in the choppers because of the RPGs," Natasha recalled. "What did you use, a stealth chute?"

"No. These."

Sam handed Steve another file and he looked down at what could only describe as a pair of mechanical wings. He shared an impressed look with Katie before he glanced at Sam.

"I thought you said you're a pilot?" Steve asked Sam.

"I never said a pilot," Sam countered with a smirk.

"I can't ask you to do this, Sam. You got out for a good reason."

"Dude, Captain America needs my help. There's no better reason to get back in." Sam almost scoffed.

"Where can we get our hands on one of these things?" Katie said, looking up.

"The last one is at Fort Meade, behind three guarded gates and a twelve inch steel wall," Sam supplied.

Steve looked to Natasha who nodded with a shrug. "Shouldn't be a problem." he said, looking at Sam with a smirk before he turned to Katie. “Reckon you can track down Sitwell?”

“Sam, you got a Laptop?” She looked to the man who nodded.

“Then yeah, I can track him down…”she said, dropping her StarkPhone onto the table.

********

The plan was as solid as they could make it. Steve and Nat were taking Sam’s car to Fort Meade to break out his kit whilst Sam and Katie stayed behind, in an attempt to track down Sitwell. It wasn’t ideal splitting up, but it was the best option they had. All 4 of them travelling would have attracted attention, plus this way if 2 of them did get caught, the other 2 still had a chance of getting the job done.

Steve drove the truck down the freeway, Nat lounging in the front seat as she looked at the plans of the base that they had courtesy of some expert searching on Google Maps.

“If we go in from the East Side we should have the element of surprise.” she said.

“Right, we get in, we get out, minimum casualties, minimum fuss” Steve nodded.

Natasha hummed her agreement as Steve stopped at a red light.

“So, you actually asked Stark to move in?” Nat grinned.

“Yeah.” “I’m impressed.” she drawled “Your 40s programming has been well and truly broken.” He rolled his eyes “Well I figured I want to spend the rest of my life with her so…” He realised what he’d said instantly and let out a groan as Natasha grinned “You wanna marry her…” she said in a sing-song voice.

“People don’t always get married now…” he said, trying to shrug it off and she snorted.

“Bullshit Rogers!” she laughed “Soon as you can get a ring on it we know you’re gonna.” “You know I kinda already asked her.” he said, looking at the red head who turned to him, mouth open. He had no idea why he was telling her this, absolutely no idea, other than the fact it felt nice to talk about something positive. “Well, not properly but when I asked her to move in she was teasing me about us not being married so I said we could get married if she wanted…” “Great proposal.” Nat sniggered, rolling her eyes “And what did she say?” “Told me to ask again with a, and I quote, big, fuck off tiffany diamond.”

“Every girl deserves a bit of sparkle…” Nat mused “Unlucky for you, you’ve chosen a Billionaire to date.” “She’s not like that.” Steve instantly jumped to his girl’s defence.

“I know.” Nat soothed with a smile “I know.”

They fell into silence for the rest of the way and upon arriving at the base they crept round to the best point of entry, following the heat scanners on Nat’s phone. Steve easily dispatched 3 guards, Natasha another 2 before they reached their room, and she hacked the security codes. They met no one on their way out, and all in all it went far too smoothly for Steve’s liking. He just hoped Katie had got on as well with locating Sitwell.

And she had.

Once Steve and Nat had left, Sam fired up the laptop for her and she plugged the end of her StarkPhone into the USB port.

"So you know this guy we’re looking for?" Sam asked, placing a coffee down next to her as she waited for the programme to run its magic.

"Vaguely." she sighed out, knowing it would be easier if she knew him better. "But I can work with what I have…”

“So using what you have, how do we find him?" he asked

“First, I’m going to check his calendar.” Katie said, nodding at the laptop

 “And you can do that?” Sam asked

“Not on my own.” she grinned

“Good morning Miss Stark…” JARVIS’ voice rang out from the laptop, causing Sam to slop coffee down his shirt in surprise.

“Hey JAR, I need a favour…this is urgent.” “Of course…” “I need you to by-pass the SHIELD firewall and get me into their server without being noticed.”

“Certainly, but permit me to ask…is everything ok Miss Stark?”

“Nope it is not…” she sighed “I’m in trouble J, but I’m hoping this is gonna help…”

“Should I alert Mr Stark…call him back from Australia?” “Absolutely not.” she shook her head. “There’s no time, in fact I forbid it…”

JARVIS set to work, informing her he was going to scramble the IP address and set up a ghost server which would, in turn, allow her to access the SHIELD remote log in without being detected.

It didn’t take long, 15 minutes later the SHIELD log in page flashed up.

“So People are lazy and 9 times outta 10 use the same passwords for all their accounts.” she said as she tapped away “And Sitwell is an arrogant ass hole, thinks he’s smart, clever so his password will be something to remind him of that, something that every time he types will feed his ego, remind him of what he’s doing right under everyone’s nose…”

And then it came to her. She took a deep breath as she typed in the words.

“Here goes…” she said, pushing the enter button. There was a short pause, before the Welcome Screen flashed up and she gave a yell of success.

“What was it?” Sam asked, hi-fiving her

“Heil HYDRA.” she smirked, tapping again. "Right, let's see where you're at, you fucker.” she said, as Sam peered over her shoulder.

“Look, briefing over lunch with Senator Stern at Occidental… 13:00 hours…” he read.

“Then he has another meeting at 14:30 back at the Triskellion… so Lunch is our window.” Katie looked at Sam.

“Gives us an hour and a half…”

“Cutting it fine…” Katie mused.

She had a quick scan through his emails, but there was nothing incriminating in there at all. Not that she had expected there to be, whatever HYDRA were up to it would be held on a completely different, hidden network.

“Ok, thanks J…” she said, logging out of Sitwell’s account “Can you disconnect.”  “Certainly Miss Stark. Good luck.”

Just as the AI had shut the link down her mobile rang.

“We got it…” Nat’s voice said as she put the phone on speaker. “All ok your side?”

“Yeah, we’re good.” Katie replied

“Any luck finding Sitwell?” this time it was Steve

“Yeah, he’s having lunch at Occidental with Senator Stern at 1pm…”

“Oh, how nice, they have a Senator involved.” Nat said sarcastically.

“Doesn’t give us much time…” Steve mused.

“What’s your ETA…” Sam asked.

“About 25 minutes.” Steve said.

“Ok so let’s do the brain storming whilst you’re on the phone…”  Katie said, tapping at the laptop.  “The restaurant they’re going to is in the Business District…so we need somewhere secure that’s close by to take him for a little chat…”

She brought up the Google Map images so Sam could see.

“There…” Sam said, tapping at the screen, “There’s a multi-storey parking lot a few blocks down…take him up high…”

“Kick him off the edge…” Katie said, shrugging.

“Stark, I like your style.” Nat replied, and Katie could hear the smirk in her voice.

“Ok so we got there where, now we need the how…” Steve sighed. “Well can’t just pick him up at lunch, if the Senator’s there security will be a nightmare.”

"So we wait until he’s finished.” Sam shrugged

"But how do you get him to get in the car?" Steve asked

“We make him…” Katie said, simply, eyeing her gun where it lay on the table.

***** Turns out fear is a very, very good motivator. The plan went off perfectly. They spoofed a phone number, had Sam call Sitwell once lunch was over to instruct him to head to Sam’s car which was parked round the corner. As predicted, Sitwell had been his usual cocky little shit of a self, until Katie had aimed her gun sight at him.

“Because that tie looks really expensive, and I'd hate to mess it up” Sam smirked.

Katie stepped out from her hiding place behind the wall of the restaurant and pressed the muzzle of her gun into Sitwell’s lower back as he passed.

“Agent Sitwell.” she said “One move and this goes straight into your spine. And I’ll make sure it doesn’t kill you, just leaves you with no feeling from the neck down…” Sitwell instantly tensed.

"Miss Stark," he grumbled out, seemingly annoyed, "Of course you're involved with this."

She took in a breath and glanced around, making sure none of his security had realized what had happened to him. Sam was a few paces behind them and he gave her a nod to say they were clear before she turned back to Sitwell.

"You made me a wanted fugitive." she managed out through gritted teeth. “Didn’t have much choice. Get in the car." she ordered, sternly.

“Where’s your boyfriend?”

“Get in the car…” she said again. He stared at her, looked down at the gun before he swallowed and decided to do as he was told.

"We good?" Sam asked. Katie let out a breath and swiped a loose hair away from her face.

"Yeah, let's go."

They drove 2 blocks away and pulled up outside the large Starbucks on the main road.

“You know I could have got a coffee at the Restaurant” Sitwell said, sarcastically. But his cocky demeanour soon dropped when both the rear car doors opened and Steve slid in one side, Natasha in the other.

“Good afternoon Agent Sitwell…” Steve turned to him, aviator shades covering his eyes. Sitwell looked at Steve, then to Natasha before his shoulders slumped and he bowed his head.

“Shit.”

******

Sitwell really was a cocky little bastard, Steve had to give him that. He easily manhandled him onto the top of the Car Park roof, demanding to know what the Algorithm was, backing him up right to the edge where the agent almost laughed, stating that it wasn’t Steve’s style to throw people off the edge.

Well, he had a point.

"You're right. It's not." Steve said releasing Sitwell and smoothing out his suit letting the man nearly sigh in relief. Katie exchanged a glance with Natasha behind Steve’s back, the corner of her mouth twitched up slightly as Nat looked back. They were both going to enjoy this.

"It's theirs" Steve finished, before standing aside as both Katie and Natasha aimed strong kicks to his chest, the two of them sending him tumbling over the edge.

"So you’re definitely moving in together, then huh?”  Natasha asked, peering over the edge as Steve and Katie did the same, listening to Sitwell’s screams growing fainter.

“Yeah…” Steve said, looking down off the side of the room, hands in his pockets. “Although I’m not sure how I’m going to cope surrounded by your mess.”

Katie rolled her eyes, her too looking down as Sitwell's screams started getting louder again and suddenly Sam flew over with him in his grasp and dropped him back onto the roof, before landing a few feet away. The three of them turned toward Sitwell and he stuck his hands up in surrender, telling them everything.

"Zola's algorithm is a program, for choosing Insight's targets!" he rushed out.

"What targets?" Steve demands.

"You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City. Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future," he continued to rush out failing to catch his breath.

"The future? How could it know?" Steve asked in confusion. At this Sitwell laughed as he stumbled back to his feet, looking at Katie before he glanced at Steve.

"How could it not? The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it," He said getting confused looks from the Soldier in return, "Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e‐mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores…Zola's algorithm evaluates peoples' past to predict their future."

Steve swallowed. He’d heard and seen more unbelievable things.

"And what then?" he asked, already thinking he knew but didn’t want to know the answer. Sitwell shook his head in disbelief as Katie exchanged a glance with Sam who was stood behind Sitwell. He shook his head in disbelief.

"Oh, my god. Pierce is gonna kill me," he mumbled to himself and he tried to back away from the advancing super-solider but Sam reached out, holding him in place with a firm hand on his shoulder.

"What then?" Steve demanded louder.

"Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time," Sitwell answered hesitantly after a moment.

Tags

@the-omni-princess

@momobaby227

@geekofmanythings 16

#steve rogers x original female character #steve rogers x oc #captain america #natasha romanoff #black widow #sam wilson #falcon #the winter soldier #marvel #marvel fanfiction #mcu #mcu fanfiction #avengers #avengers fanfiction #fanfic #fancfiction

[alexsmitposts]

Food Stamp Cuts – Western Capitalism & “Useless Eaters” Donald Trump recently announced changes to the US Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly called “Food Stamps.” This program enables low income Americans to buy food. As a result, 750,000 people will immediately lose their food assistance, while it is expected that as many as 3 million will be deprived of their benefits in the near future. Meanwhile, Michael Bloomberg, former New York City Mayor, has announced that he is running for President of the United States as a Democrat. Many are revisiting his leadership of New York City and the many controversial things he did. Among them is was a subway advertisement campaign intended to discourage teen girls from becoming mothers by shaming them. The ads, showing a small child with the words “I’m twice as likely not to graduate high school because you had me as a teen” had the obvious, though unstated goal of increasing abortion among low-income New York City residents, many of which are not white. Unemployment in the USA is low currently, and despite numerous projections that things could get bad soon, the stock market numbers and other measurements currently look somewhat better than most of the last decade. So, why cut food stamps? Eliminating “Useless Eaters” To Save Capitalism Those who equate the Soviet Union with Nazi Germany overlook many very key differences between the two countries and their political systems. One of the most obvious is this: the Soviet Union worked very hard to expand its population, while the Nazis worked very hard to reduce their population. As Stalin’s Five Year Economic plans created huge steel mills and power plants, and new universities sprung up across the Soviet Union amid the abolition of illiteracy, a special prize called “Mother of the Soviet Union” was given to any woman who had more than 10 children. The Soviet government wanted more people to be born and to join in the project of building and developing a new, strong socialist country. However, Nazi Germany did the opposite and began forcibly sterilizing people. In 1934, just a year after the Nazis took power, 300,000 to 400,000 people were forcibly sterilized. A law was passed in 1935 making it illegal for anyone to get married if any kind of hereditary ailment could be passed on to the children. Following the sterilizations came the exterminations. The Nazi government began referring to disabled people as “useless eaters” and executing them in gas chambers. Eventually, the Nazi state began exterminating Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals and Political Dissidents. The justification for this “final solution” was belief that all social defects were hereditary and needed to be eliminated from the gene pool. The Nazis were big believers in the concept of “overpopulation,” though this was a concept they did not invent. The term comes from the work of Robert Thomas Malthus, the British economist who blamed the French Revolution and the social unrest of the 1790s on the population growing at a faster rate than the food supply. John D. Rockefeller, the billionaire and founder of Standard Oil (now Exxon-Mobil)  was a big supporter of Malthus and his economic theories. Eventually Rockefeller bankrolled the Birth Control League of Margaret Sanger, now known as “Planned Parenthood.” The organization pushed for the legalization of contraception and abortion. One of the posters used to raise funds for the Birth Control League was a poster of a starving child holding out an empty bowl begging for food. Though Margaret Sanger had once been a socialist, as she became the voice of the “Birth Control” movement she published explicitly racist books and pamphlets and spoke at Ku Klux Klan events. She also began using phrases like “the cruelty of charity” arguing that the social welfare state was immoral because it encouraged inferior people to breed. When Margaret Sanger traded socialism for sex, and abandoned class struggle in pursuit of sexual liberation, she stopped advocating for the working class. During the 1930s depression, the Communist Party USA organized “Hunger Marches” saying “Don’t Starve, Fight!”  The Communist Party USA said the great depression pointed toward the need for the US economy to reorganized in a rational way, to serve the people, not the irrationality of profits. However, Margaret Sanger took the opposite approach, working to reduce “overpopulation” by eliminating “useless eaters.” Automation & The Crisis of Capitalism The causes of the Great Depression were rooted in the technological advancements of the 1920s. Henry Ford’s assembly line innovations and other breakthroughs made it easier for radios, cars, and other commodities to be churned out more efficiently than ever before. Soon the market was glutted with more products than ever before, produced more efficiently than ever before. However, across the western world millions of workers were left “outcast and starving” because they had no place at the assembly line. They could not afford to buy these products, and soon banks failed, corporations collapsed, and the US experienced an episode of mass malnutrition. The 2008 financial crisis was the opening explosion of a long-term crisis rooted in the same problem, decades later. The innovations of Henry Ford and the 1920s factory owners were child’s play compared to the continuing computer revolution, marching forward at a rapid pace since the 1980s. Andrew Yang, the maverick Democratic Presidential candidate continues to highlight the looming threat of mass unemployment due to technology. He told the New York Times: “All you need is self-driving cars to destabilize society…we’re going to have a million truck drivers out of work who are 94 percent male, with an average level of education of high school or one year of college. That one innovation will be enough to create riots in the street. And we’re about to do the same thing to retail workers, call center workers, fast-food workers, insurance companies, accounting firms.” Among Silicon Valley forecasters, the alarm bells about automation are going off, and proposals such as “universal basic income” are being raised. The underlying basis of the discussion is the same as Malthus, Sanger and Rockefeller’s discussion in times past. The voices raising alarm about the crisis of automation are all essentially asking “Soon millions and millions of Americans will have no place in the economy. What do we do about all the useless eaters?” Western capitalism has entered a stage where it views the population not as an asset, but as a burden. Instead of seeing each citizen as capable of creating a contribution to society, and making the country better, the population is viewed as a problematic horde that must be carefully managed and prevented from causing further problems. “Populism” is presented as a great evil, because it involves the rabble asserting political aspirations deemed by the elite to be unacceptable. Even much of what passes for “socialism” in 21st Century America, addresses the question in the same manner. The “Democratic Socialist” current argues that as technology eliminates jobs, more money should be spent to provide healthcare and education to the population. At the same time, however, the “Democratic Socialist” voices like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders advocate reducing US living standards and consumption in the name of environmentalism. They argue that Americans consume too many resources, and in the name of climate sustainability, the population should transition to a lifestyle of less extravagance. However, the basic solution to this long standing problem seems to be ignored. Karl Marx’s magnum opus, the economic textbook called “Capital” discusses the General Law of Capitalist Accumulation and workers competition with machines, pointing toward the only real way to resolve this contradiction. The banks, factories and industries must be operated in a rational way. The economy must not operate on the basis of profits. In a centrally planned economy, in which profits are no longer in command, automation would increase the wealth of society, and abundance would not result in poverty. The pessimism of the 21st century western world is rooted in the economic reality that under the rule of profits, technology and historical progress continue to point toward great catastrophe. It is only by re-opening the question of whether or not socialism is a viable alternative that this pessimism can be overcome.

[somar78]

A Brief History of the Austin Champ – Everything You Need To Know

Introduction: To Build a Better Jeep

My first, and only, working experience with an Austin Champ was on a farm down in Australia where I was helping the property owner with some vermin control. We were racing across a sheep paddock doing at least 30 mph, although it felt like a lot more, in hot pursuit of the aforementioned vermin with me riding shotgun, literally, sitting on the bare metal of the Champ’s rear. Sitting is probably the wrong word, hanging on for dear life might be closer.

Suddenly the farmer yelled out an expletive and “HOLD ON”. No sooner had he bellowed that than we came to a ridge hidden in the crop and the Austin Champ was airborne a few feet off the ground. Suffice to say that gravity being what it is and an Austin Champ having no ability to fly whatsoever we landed with an almighty thump made all the more painful as my backside impacted with the hard steel of the Champ. Though my bodywork sustained a degree of painful injury the Austin Champ continued unharmed and unabated, a tribute to British engineering.

History is fascinating in part because it takes so many twists and turns that you just wouldn’t expect. That’s the difference between history and fiction: fiction is planned and sequential whereas history contains twists and turns that a human being just couldn’t imagine, until they happen. The origin of the Austin Champ has elements of that. Over in the United States back in 1940, as the Department of War realized that the nation was going to be in a major war sooner rather than later, they got stuck into preparations in the fast lane. One of the pieces of equipment they knew they were going to need was a multi-purpose scout car.

The Department of War sent out requests for designs for such a vehicle to no less than 135 manufacturers giving them 11 days to respond with a bid, 49 days in which to have a prototype ready, and 75 days in which to produce an initial run of 70 vehicles. The specifications for this new vehicle were that it had to be a four-wheel-drive capable of carrying a crew of three, have a wheelbase of 75″ and a track of no more than 47″. The empty weight of the vehicle was to be no more than 1,300 lbs and it had to be able to take a payload of 660 lbs.

Above Image: A Bantam Jeep, towing a 37 mm Gun M3, jumping over a small hill in New River, North Carolina, United States, Circa 941.

Of those 135 manufacturers who were asked just one, American Bantam, which used to be American Austin, took up the challenge and they created the Bantam BRC 40, a “Jeep” that could tow a field gun so fast it was able to get both itself and the gun airborne. So it was actually American Bantam, which had previously been a branch of British car maker Austin of England, which created the first “Jeep”. And it would be through another twist of history that one of those American Bantam “Jeeps” would be captured by Japanese troops during their invasion of the Philippines and sent home to Japan where it was copied and then improved on by Japanese car maker Toyota to become the Toyota Land Cruiser.

Over in Britain however they found themselves starting World War II in a Jeepless condition, and so they had to get their Jeeps from the United States and some of these early Jeeps were in fact American Bantam (i.e. American Austin) BRC 40’s, which were nicknamed the “Blitz Buggy” after the Blitz, the Nazi’s rather unfriendly practice of flying over Britain and dropping bombs on people.

Once the war was over however and the Nazis had been suitably dealt with, the British Army decided that they wanted a vehicle like the Jeep but better: a purpose built combat vehicle that could do rather more than a Jeep. And so in that aura of “the British are best at everything” sort of thinking they began the process of creating their very own “Rolls-Royce of Jeeps” complete with an actual Rolls-Royce engine.

Development On The Austin Champ Begins

The British Army lost no time in getting to work on their new multi-purpose light combat vehicle. Just because the World War was officially over didn’t mean that the nation was in a time of peace. The Maoist Communists were still fighting to take over mainland China, and would succeed in 1949, they would then go on to play a significant role in the Korean War the following year.

The relations with the Soviet Union became increasingly unfriendly and the Cold War developed. The world had not suddenly become a safe place at the end of the war and the British Army knew they needed to prepare and re-equip so they could competently deal with more conflict.

The creation of the Austin Champ was one part of the process of re-equipping and work on it began shortly after the end of the Second World War in the late 1940’s, with work officially beginning in 1947. The proposed vehicle was to be “Car, 4×4, 5 cwt. FV1800-Series”. It was to be able to function with complete reliability in all possible theaters of British Army operation whether that was the arctic, the deserts of Africa, jungles of South-East Asia, or anywhere else. The first prototype was the Nuffield Gutty and it was fitted with a horizontally opposed four cylinder “boxer” front mounted engine which was also planned to be used in the planned Nuffield Morris Mosquito small car.

The Nuffield Gutty served to point the way to the design improvements needed and the British Army Fighting Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (FVRDE) undertook the task of creating a new design to fulfill the Army’s requirements.

The design team was led by Charles William “Rex” Sewell and included Alec Issigonis who designed the suspension system and who would later design the Austin/Morris Mini, 1100 and 1800 series of civilian passenger cars for British Motor Corporation (BMC).

The first thirty prototypes of the new vehicle were made by British car maker Wolseley and named the  “Wolseley Mudlark”, presumably because they were intended to be a vehicle well suited to larking about in the mud. These Mudlarks were fitted with the Rolls-Royce B40 No. 1 Mk 2A petrol/gasoline engine. There is some debate as to whether there were only thirty Mudlarks made, one was listed as being a “saloon” which would mean an enclosed car and it may have been additional to the thirty.

The FVRDE “Austin Champ” Design

The Fighting Vehicles Research and Development Establishment left no stone unturned in their quest for the “Holy Grail” of a new combat vehicle that front line soldiers could trust their lives to. There were to be just three trucks given the “CT” Combat designation. The smallest of these was to be the “Truck, 1/4 Ton, 4×4, CT” which would be more commonly referred to as the “Austin Champ”.

Next up in size was the “Truck, 1 Ton, 4×4, CT” which was manufactured by car and commercial vehicle maker Humber.

The third and largest of the “CT” Combat vehicles was the “Truck, 10 Ton, 6×6, CT” which was manufactured by truck maker Leyland and commonly known as the “Leyland Martian”.

The British Army “CT” Combat vehicles were made with a view to ensuring the designs were standardized and coordinated so that there was maximized parts interchangeability thus minimizing the range of spare parts that were needed to keep them operational, simplifying provision of spare parts for vehicles on active service.

The new vehicle was designated the FV1801a as the first model of the FV1800 Series. Translated, the full name of the vehicle “Truck, 1/4 Ton, 4×4, CT, Austin Mk.1” reads as “Truck, with a 1/4 ton carrying capacity, 4×4 = four wheel drive, CT being short for CombaT, and “Austin Mk.1” meaning that this was Austin of England’s first manufacturing effort.

The Rolls-Royce B40 engine for the Austin Champ was based on a 1936 Rolls-Royce design that had been created with absolute reliability in mind. The pre-production and early production Austin Champs were fitted with the same engine as the Mudlarks; the B40 No.1 Mk 2A using the BSF (British Standard Fine) thread system on studs, bolts and nuts etc.

These were crossflow inlet over exhaust in-line four cylinder engines with a capacity of 2,838cc and featured a cast aluminum cylinder head with screwed in hardened steel valve seats. This would change after the 1949 standardization to UNF (Unified Fine) threads for later production Austin Champs to use the UNF thread engine B40 No.1 Mk 5A [UNF]. This engine featured some manufacturing simplifications, used a cast iron cylinder head, and was painted light blue with “UNF” cast into its rocker cover.

Early production engines were manufactured by Rolls-Royce at their Crewe factory but most Austin Champs were fitted with the later Austin manufactured engines made to the Rolls-Royce designs. The engine drew its fuel from a 20 Imperial gallon fuel tank. Fuel consumption was expected to be around 15 mpg giving a range of 300 miles, although if being driven enthusiastically fuel consumption would drop into single digits and the vehicle range would be somewhat shorter.

The engine, transmission and electrical system were all waterproofed so the vehicle could operate submerged to a depth of six feet. The air intake featured a folding snorkel that could be raised if the Champ needed to do a water crossing.

The transmission of the Austin Champ was quite unusual. The gearbox was a solidly constructed all synchromesh five speed unit. This was connected to a standard Borg and Beck clutch with a mechanical linkage for optimum reliability and ease of repair. From the clutch was a drive shaft to connect to the rear mounted transfer box and differential assembly.

The need to place the transfer box at the rear and make it in unit with the differential came from the cruciform shape of the chassis which precluded attaching the transfer case to the gearbox in the more common way. This led to the Austin Champ gaining a rather unusual feature: the reversing gear was located in the transfer box meaning that the Champ had five forward gears, and five reverse gears. So, the Champ could do over 50 mph forwards or backwards, which could be rather handy if one needed to beat a hasty retreat.

The Austin Champ’s suspension was fully independent front and rear using double “A”  arms (i.e. wishbones) with torsion bar springing. The system, designed by Alex Issigonis, had the torsion bars set longitudinally under the center of the cruciform “X” shaped chassis and fitted into the base of the “A” arms. It was an ingenious design that provided good wheel travel for off-road driving and good handling whether on the rough or on a road.

Steering was by rack and pinion, brakes were non-servo assisted hydraulic drums by Girling with a single hydraulic circuit to simplify maintenance. The drive shafts to the wheels used Bendix Tracta constant velocity joints. The front and rear axles were in a cradle sub-assembly to enable easier repair or replacement in the field.

The electrical system on the Austin Champ was 24 volt in accordance with the standards set by an agreement between the British, Canadians and Americans. Electrical parts and systems were by CAV, Delco-Remy, Simms, and Lucas (sometimes referred to as “Lucas, Prince of Darkness” by those who had to fix them), and instrumentation was by Smiths of London.

The bodywork of the Austin Champ was designed to structurally integrate with the chassis and provide supplementary structural stiffness. It was made by British Company “Pressed Steel” who made automotive bodywork for Rolls-Royce, Jaguar, and various other car makers.

The equipment provided for the Austin Champ varied depending on its role. It was provided with a simple “Rexine” PVC covered cloth top and side screens for a measure of protection in rain, hail, sleet and snow. The windscreen was able to be folded forward from the underside to assist with de-fogging and the whole windscreen could be folded flat onto the bonnet/hood if the top was down. This was a necessary feature for a military vehicle as one would be quite likely to want to be able to fire a rifle or pistol without having a windscreen in the way. It was also a useful feature for civilians doing vermin control or wanting to reduce the vehicle’s height so they could drive it through the shrubbery into more inaccessible places.

Standard equipment would include a shovel and a pickaxe for digging one’s Champ out of a sticky situation, and the vehicle was fitted with a carrier for a 20 liter jerrycan for water.

The Austin Champ was optionally fitted out for a variety of roles. The vehicle could be set up as a FFR (Fitted For Radio) vehicle with a 50″ sliding table, battery mountings etc.

The Austin Champ was also fitted out for armaments in much the same way as the American Jeep. Armaments could range from a .303 Bren Light Machine Gun, .303 Vickers Water Cooled Heavy Machine Gun, 7.62mm NATO Browning machine gun, or for an adversary who was being particularly troublesome an ATGM (Anti Tank Guided Missile).

Versions of the Champ included those fitted out for ambulance transport, cable laying, and a fire fighting model called the Firefly which carried a 60 Imperial gallon water tank.

The “Truck, 1/4 Ton, 4×4, CT, Austin Mk.1”, which became known as the Austin Champ entered production on 1st September 1951. The British Army contracted with Austin to produced 15,000 of them and both the Army and Austin were happy with the deal. The Army was happy because they at last had their “British is Best” perfect small combat vehicle complete with Rolls-Royce engine and the ability to do 50mph in reverse, something the American Jeep could not do. Austin were happy because of all those lovely crisp British Pound notes flooding into their company bank account.

The happiness was not to last however as the shortcomings of the Champ began to show themselves. This expensive combat vehicle proved to be heavy, and unexpectedly prone to rear axle failure. It was also discovered that the humble Land Rover was able to do almost everything that the Champ could do, and the Land Rover was about half the price of the £1,200 Champ. The Army had to face facts and decided to curtail their contract with Austin in 1955, so only 11,732 Champs were made. Land Rovers became the standard British Army light vehicle and the nice crisp British Pound banknotes flooded into Rover’s coffers instead.

The Champs were moved from front line Army service to the Territorial Army by the mid 1960’s and were all put up for sale by 1968. So despite their amazing cross country performance, such as I experienced with my farmer friend and our airborne Champ, they did not have a long service life with the Army.

The Civilian Version of the Austin Champ

There came to be some confusion over the names and specifications for the military and civilian versions of the Austin Champ. This is in part due to the fact that the Champ did not remain long in military service before it was declared obsolete and the vehicles were sold off to the civilian market. So there finished up being a mixture of military and civilian Champs in private hands. This in part led to military and civilian vehicles all being referred to as Austin Champs regardless: and it must be confessed that calling the vehicle by its military name “Truck, 1/4 Ton, 4×4, CT,” or “FV1801a” (Fighting Vehicle 1801a) is a bit of an effort, while “Champ” has personality.

The civilian models of the Austin Champ were either fitted with the Rolls-Royce engine or the civilian 2,660cc Austin A90 engine. Electrics on the civilian Champ were by Lucas as they were for the majority of British cars of the time and the electrical system was 12 volt rather than military 24 volt.

Austin did not only produce the Champ however and seeing the success Rover were having with their Land Rover Austin decided to create a model that was in some respects like a cross between the Champ and the Land Rover. It was called the Austin Gypsy and despite its independent suspension it did not prove popular.

Austin Champ Specifications

Engine: Rolls-Royce B40 2,838cc inline Inlet Over Exhaust crossflow four cylinder petrol/gasoline producing 80bhp @ 3,750rpm.

Transmission: Five speed all synchromesh manual gearbox with mechanically actuated Borg and Beck clutch. Rear mounted transfer box with reversing gear and differential as an integrated unit. This provided 5 speeds both forwards and in reverse. The civilian version had optional provision for a power take-off from the transfer box.

Brakes: Girling drum brakes with single hydraulic circuit.

Steering: Rack and Pinion

Chassis and Body: Cruciform box steel chassis, steel four seater body with stress sharing between body and chassis. Length 12′ (3.66 meters), width 5′ 5″ (1.65 meters), Height 6′ 8 1/2″ (1.87 meters).

Suspension: Independent all around with double “A” arms (wishbones) front and rear. Longitudinally mounted torsion bars.

Conclusion

The Austin Champ was all it was designed to be but turned out to be expensive, and not to have the absolute bullet proof reliability that had been hoped for it. It was and still is a superb cross country vehicle and probably holds the world speed record for a standard production vehicle in reverse gear. The Champ has acquired a dedicated following by owners who appreciate the vehicle’s qualities and so there are significant numbers of Champs which are well looked after. It was a great attempt by Britain to build the perfect “Jeep”, but like so many human efforts at creating perfection, it didn’t quite live up to the high expectations people had for it.

Photo Credits: FVRDE, US Army, Austin, British Army.

The post A Brief History of the Austin Champ – Everything You Need To Know appeared first on Silodrome.

source https://silodrome.com/austin-champ-history/

#cars

[mikeo56]

“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize“

– Voltaire

Why do I speak of “AngloZionists”? I got that question many times in the past, so I am making a separate post about it to (hopefully) explain this once and for all.

1) Anglo:

The USA in an Empire. With roughly 1000 overseas bases (depends on how you count), an undeniably messianic ideology, a bigger defense-offense budget then the rest of the planet combined, 16+ spy agencies, the dollar as the world’s currency, there is no doubt that the US is a planetary Empire.

Where did the US Empire come from? Again, that’s a no-brainer – from the British Empire. Furthermore, the US Empire is really based on a select group of nations: the Echelon countries, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and, of course, the US. What do these countries have in common? They are the leftovers of the British Empire and they are all English speaking. Notice that France, Germany or Japan are not part of this elite even though they are arguably as important or more to the USA then, say, New Zealand and far more powerful.

So the “Anglo” part is undeniable. And yet, even though “Anglo” is an ethnic/linguistic/cultural category while “Zionist” is a political/ideological one, very rarely do I get an objection about speaking of “Anglos” or the “Anglosphere”.

2) Zionist:

Let’s take the (hyper politically correct) Wikipedia definition of what the word “Zionism” means: it is “a nationalist movement of Jews and Jewish culture that supports the creation of a Jewish homeland in the territory defined as the Land of Israel“. Apparently, no link to the US, the Ukraine or Timbuktu, right? But think again. Why would Jews – whether defined as a religion or an ethnicity – need a homeland anyway? Why can’t they just live wherever they are born, just like Buddhist (a religion) or the African Bushmen (ethnicity) who live in many different countries?

The canonical answer is that Jews have been persecuted everywhere and that therefore they need their own homeland to serve as a safe haven in case of persecutions. Without going into the issue of why Jews were persecuted everywhere and, apparently, in all times, this rationale clearly implies if not the inevitability of more persecutions or, at the very least, a high risk thereof. Let’s accept that for demonstration sake and see what this, in turn, implies.

First, that implies that Jews are inherently threatened by non-Jews who are all at least potential anti-Semites. The threat is so severe that a separate Gentile-free homeland must be created as the only, best and last way to protect Jews worldwide. This, in turn, implies that the continued existence of this homeland should become a vital and irreplaceable priority of all Jews worldwide lest a persecution suddenly breaks out and they have nowhere to go. Furthermore, until all Jews finally “move up” to Israel, they had better be very, very careful as all the goyim around them could literally come down with a sudden case of genocidal anti-Semitism at any moment. Hence all the anti-anti-Semitic organizations a la ADL or UEJF, the Betar clubs, the networks of sayanim, etc.

In other words, far from being a local “dealing with Israel only” phenomenon, Zionism is a worldwide movement whose aim is to protect Jews from the apparently incurable anti-Semitism of the rest of the planet.

As Israel Shahak correctly identified it, Zionism postulates that Jews should “think locally and act globally” and when given a choice of policies they should always ask THE crucial question: “But is it good for Jews?“.

So far from being only focused on Israel, Zionism is really a global, planetary, ideology which unequivocally splits up all of mankind into two groups (Jews and Gentiles). It assumes the latter are all potential genocidal maniacs (which is racist) and believes that saving Jewish lives is qualitatively different and more important than saving Gentile lives (which is racist again).

Anyone doubting the ferocity of this determination should either ask a Palestinian or study the holiday of Purim, or both. Even better, read Gilad Atzmon and look up his definition of what is brilliantly called “pre-traumatic stress disorder”

3) Anglo-Zionist:

The British Empire and the early USA used to be pretty much wall-to-wall Anglo. Sure, Jews had a strong influence (in banking for example), but Zionism was a non-issue not only among non-Jews, but also among US Jews. Besides, religious Jews were often very hostile to the notion of a secular Israel while secular Jews did not really care about this quasi-Biblical notion.

WWII gave a massive boost to the Zionist movement while, as Norman Finkelstein explained it, the topic of the “Holocaust” became central to Jewish discourse and identity only many years later. I won’t go into the history of the rise to power of Jews in the USA, but from roughly Ford to GW Bush’s Neocons it has been steady. And even though Obama initially pushed the Neocons out, they came right back in through the backdoor. Right now, the only question is whether US Jews have more power than US Anglos or the other way around.

Before going any further, let me also immediately say that I am not talking about Jews or Anglos as a group, but I am referring to the top 1% within each of these groups. Furthermore, I don’t believe that the top 1% of Jews cares any more about Israel or the 99% of Jews than the top 1% of Anglos care about the USA or the Anglo people.

So, here is my thesis:

The US Empire is run by a 1% (or less) elite which can be called the “deep state” which is composed of two main groups: Anglos and Jews. These two groups are in many ways hostile to each other (just like the SS and SA or Trotskysts and Stalinists), but they share 1) a racist outlook on the rest of mankind 2) a messianic ideology 3) a phenomenal propensity for violence 4) an obsession with money and greed and its power to corrupt. So they work together almost all the time.

Now this might seem basic, but so many people miss it, that I will have to explicitly state it:

To say that most US elites are Anglos or Jews does not mean that most Anglos or Jews are part of the US elites. That is a straw-man argument which deliberately ignores the noncommutative property of my thesis to turn it into a racist statement which accuses most/all Anglos or Jews of some evil doing. So to be very clear:

When I speak of AngloZionist Empire I am referring to the predominant ideology of the 1%ers, the elites which form the Empire’s “deep state”.

By the way, there are non-Jewish Zionists (Biden, in his own words) and there are plenty of anti-Zionist Jews. Likewise, there are non-Anglo imperialists and there are plenty of anti-imperialists Anglos. To speak of “Nazi Germany” or “Soviet Russia” does in no way imply that all Germans were Nazis or all Russians Communists. All this means it that the predominant ideology of these nations at that specific moment in time was National-Socialism and Marxism, that’s all.

My personal opinion now:

First, I don’t believe that Jews are a race or an ethnicity. I have always doubted it, but reading Shlomo Sand really convinced me. Jews are not defined by religion either (most/many are secular). Truly, Jews are a tribe (which Oxford Dictionaires defines as: a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader). A group one can chose to join (Elizabeth Taylor) or leave (Gilad Atzmon).

In other words, I see “Jewishness” as a culture, or ideology, or education or any other number of things, but not something rooted in biology. I fully agree with Atzmon when he says that Jews can be racist, but that does not make them a race.

Second, I don’t even believe that the concept of “race” has been properly defined and, hence, that it has any objective meaning. I, therefore, don’t differentiate between human beings on the basis of an undefined criterion.

Third, since being Jew (or not) is a choice: to belong, adhere and endorse a tribe (secular Jews) or a religion (Judaics). Any choice implies a judgment call and it, therefore, a legitimate target for scrutiny and criticism.

Fourth, I believe that Zionism, even when secular, instrumentalizes the values, ideas, myths and ethos of rabbinical Judaism (aka “Talmudism” or “Phariseeism”) and both are racist in their core value and assumptions.

Fifth, both Zionism and Nazism are twin brothers born from the same ugly womb: 19th-century European nationalism (Brecht was right, “The belly is still fertile from which the foul beast sprang”). Nazis and Zionists can hate each other to their hearts’ content, but they are still twins.

Sixth, I reject any and all form of racism as a denial of our common humanity, a denial of the freedom of choice of each human being and – being an Orthodox Christian – as a heresy (a form of iconoclasm, really). To me people who chose to identify themselves with, and as, Jews are not inherently different from any other human and they deserve no more and no fewer rights and protections than any other human being.

I will note here that while the vast majority of my readers are Anglos, they almost never complain about the “Anglo” part of my “AngloZionist” term. The vast majority of objections focus on the “Zionist” part. You might want to think long and hard about why this is so and what it tells us about the kind of power Zionists have over the prevailing ideology. Could it be linked to the reason why the (openly racist and truly genocidal) Israeli Prime Minister gets more standing ovations in Congress (29) than the US President (25)? Probably, but this is hardly the full story.

(This is the end of the 2014 blog entry. The current article begins below)

It is undeniable that Jews did suffer persecutions in the past and that the Nazis horribly persecuted Jews during WWII. This is important because nowadays we are all conditioned to associate and even identify any criticism of Jews or Zionist with the kind of anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist rhetoric which the Nazis used to justify their atrocities. This is quite understandable, but it is also completely illogical because what this reaction is based on is the implicit assumption that any criticism of Jews or Zionist must be Nazi in its argumentation, motives, goals or methods. This is beyond ridiculous.

Saint John Chrysostom (349 – 407), the “Golden Mouth” of early Christianity, recognized as one of the greatest saints in history by both Orthodox Christians and Roman Catholics, authored a series of homilies, Kata Ioudaiōn, which are extremely critical of Jews, yet no sane person would accuse him of being a Nazi. Chrysostom was hardly alone. Other great saints critical of Jews include Saint Cyprian of Carthage, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Saint Ambrose of Milan, Saint Justin Martyr and many others.

But if these saints were not Nazis, maybe they still were racist, no? That, of course, depends on your definition of ‘racism’. Here is my own:

First, racism is, in my opinion, not so much the belief that various human groups are different from each other, say like dog breeds can be different, but the belief that the differences between human groups are larger than similarities within the group.

Second, racism is also a belief that the biological characteristics of your group somehow pre-determine your actions/choices/values in life.

Third, racism often, but not always, assumes a hierarchy amongst human groups (Germanic Aryans over Slavs or Jews, Jews over Gentiles, etc.)

I reject all three of these assumptions because I believe that God created all humans with the same purpose and that we are all “brothers in Adam”, that we all equally share the image (eternal and inherent potential for perfection) of God (as opposed to our likeness to Him, which is our temporary and changing individual condition).

By that definition, the Church Fathers were most definitely not racists as their critique was solely aimed at the religion of the Jews, not at their ethnicity (which is hardly surprising since Christ and His Apostles and most early Christians were all “ethnic” Jews). This begs the question of whether criticizing a religion is legitimate or not.

I submit that anything resulting from an individual choice is fair game for criticism. Even if somebody is “born into” a religious community, all adults come to the point in life where they make a conscious decision to endorse or reject the religion they were “born into”. Being a Christian, a Muslim or a Jew (in the sense of “Judaic”) is always a personal decision. The same applies to political views. One chooses to become a Marxist or a Monarchist or a Zionist. And since our individual decisions do, indeed, directly impact our other choices in life, it is not racist or objectionable to criticize Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Marxism, Monarchism or Zionism. Criticizing any one of them, or even all of them, in no way denies our common humanity which is something which racism always does.

Having said all that, none of the above addresses a most important, but rarely openly discussed, issue: what if, regardless of all the arguments above, using expressions such as “AngloZionism” offends some people (Jews or not), what if the use of this term alienates them so much that it would make them unwilling to listen to any argument or point of view using this expression?

This is a very different issue, not an ethical, moral or philosophical one – but a practical one: is it worth losing readers, supporters and even donors for the sake of using an expression which requires several pages of explanations in its defense? This issue is one every blogger, every website, every alternative news outlet has had to struggle with. I know that I got more angry mails over this than over any other form of crimethink I so often engage in.

I will readily admit that there is a cost involved in using the term “AngloZionist Empire”. But that cost needs to be compared to the cost of *not* using that term.

Is there anybody out there who seriously doubts the huge role the so-called “Israel Lobby” or the “Neocons” or, to use the expression of Professor James Petras, the “Zionist Power Configuration” plays in modern politics? Twenty years ago – maybe. But not today. We all are perfectly aware of the “elephant in the room”, courtesy not only of courageous folks like Gilad Atzmon, Israel Shahak or Norman Finkelstein but even such mainstream Anglo personalities as John J. Mearsheimer, Stephen M. Walt or even Jimmy Carter.

It is plain silly to pretend that we don’t know when we all know that we all know.

Pretending that we don’t see this elephant in the room makes us look either subservient to that elephant, or simply like a coward who dares not speak truth to power. In other words, if you do want to shoot your credibility, pretend really hard that you are totally unaware of the elephant in the room: some of your sponsors might love you, but everybody else will despise you.

What about the very real risk of being perceived as some kind of Nazi?

Yes, the risk is there, but only if you allow yourself to flirt with racist or even para-racist notions. But if you are categorical in your rejection of any form of racism (including any form of anti-Jewish racism), then the accusation will simply not stick. Oh sure, the Zionists out there will try hard to make you look like a Nazi, but they will fail simply because they will have nothing to base that accusation on other than some vague “overtones” or “lack of sensitivity”. In my experience, people are not that stupid and they rapidly see through that worn-out accusation of “anti-Semitism” ( a meaningless concept to begin with, as Michael Neumann so brilliantly demonstrates in his essay “What is Antisemitism?”).

The truth is that the Zionists are only as powerful as we allow them to be. If we allow them to scare us into silence, then indeed their power is immense, but if we simply demand that they stop treating some humans as “more equal than others” then their own racism suddenly becomes obvious for all to see and their power vanishes.

It is really that simple: since nobody can accuse a real anti-racist of racism, then truly being an anti-racist gives you an immunity against the accusation of anti-Semitism.

So what we need, at this point, is to consider the terms used.

“Israel Lobby” suffers from several major issues. First, it implies that the folks in this lobby really care about Israel and the people of Israel. While some probably do, we also have overwhelming evidence (such as the testimony of Sibel Edmonds) that many/most folks in the “Israel Lobby” use the topic of Israel for their own, very different goals (usually power, often money). Have the people of Israel really benefited from from the Neocon-triggered wars? I doubt it.

Furthermore, when hearing the word “Israel Lobby” most people will think of a lobby in the US Congress, something like the NRA or the AARP. The problem we are dealing with today is clearly international. Bernard Henri Levi, George Soros or Mikhail Khodorkovsky have no connection to AIPAC or the US Congress. “Zionist Power Configuration” is better, but “configuration” is vague. What we are dealing with is clearly an empire. Besides, this is clearly not only a Zionist Empire, the Anglo component is at least as influential, so why only mention one and not both?

Still, I don’t think that we should get too caught up in semantics here. From my point of view, there are two truly essential issues which need to be addressed:

1) We need to start talking freely about the “elephant in the room” and stop fearing reprisals from those who want us to pretend we don’t see it.

2) We need to stop using politically correct euphemisms in the vain hope that those who want us to shut up will accept them. They won’t.

Currently, much of the discourse on Jewish or Zionist topics is severely restricted. Doubting the obligatory “6 million” murdered Jews during WWII can land in you jail in several European countries. Ditto if you express any doubts about the actual mode of executions (gas chambers vs firing squads and disease) of these Jews. “Revisionism”, as asking such questions is now known, is seen either as a crime or, at least, a moral abomination, even though “revisionism” is what all real historians do: historiography is revisionistic by its very nature. But even daring to mention such truisms immediately makes you a potential Nazi in the eyes of many/most people.

Since when is expressing a doubt an endorsement of an ideology? This is crazy, no?

I personally came to the conclusion that the West became an easy victim of such “conceptual hijackings” because of a sense of guilt about having let the Nazis murder so many European Jews without taking any meaningful action. It is a fact that it was the Soviet Union which carried 80% or more of the burden of destroying Hitler’s war machine: most Europeans resisted shamefully little. As for the Anglos, they waited until the Soviet victory before even entering the war in Europe.

Okay, fine – let those who feel guilty feel guilty (even if I personally don’t believe in collective guilt). But we cannot allow them to try to silence those of us who strongly feel that we are guilty of absolutely nothing!

Do we really have to kowtow to all Jews, including the top 1% of Jews who, like all 1%ers, do not care about the rest of the 99%? How long are we going to continue to allow the top 1% of Jews enjoy a bizarre form of political immunity because they hide behind the memory of Jews murdered during WWII or the political sensitivities of the 99% of Jews with whom they have no real connection anyway?

I strongly believe that all 1%ers are exactly the same: they care about themselves and nobody else. Their power, what I call the AngloZionist Empire, is based on two things: deception and violence. Their worldview is based on one of two forms of messianism: Anglo imperialism and Zionism (which is just a secularized version of Judaic racial exceptionalism). This has nothing to do with Nazism, WWII or anti-Semitism and everything with ruthless power politics. Unless we are willing to call a spade a spade we will never be able to meaningfully oppose this Empire or the 1%ers who run it.

In truth, since we owe them nothing except our categorical rejection and opposition. It is, I believe, our moral duty to shed a powerful light on their true nature and debunk the lies they try so hard to hide behind.

If their way is by deception, then ours ought to be by truth, because, as Christ said, the truth shall make us free.

Euphemisms only serve to further enslave us.

The Saker

#anglo-zionist

[whatisonthemoonarchive]

While some continue to complain about the profound effects of indoctrination into the totalistic worldview of the Moon ideology,  it is puzzling that they seem  unconcerned about the  mind control and ideological indoctrination inflicted from all directions outside the Moon movement on society at large. After all, it is difficult to not notice that a massive world-wide combination of educational institutions, media, the entertainment industry, government agencies, computer companies,  the United Nations and its accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are all involved in the indoctrination of the masses into a totalitarian, one world government ideology. Are the effects of indoctrination in the Moon ideology dangerous in comparison to the effects of indoctrination into the totalitarian one world government ideology?    When considering this, take into account that the totalitarian, one world government ideology promotes and facilitates various lifestyles and practices considered to be sinful according traditional Christian standards, whereas the Moon ideology, whether it be true or not, upholds traditional Christian morality and takes a hard line against sin.

The one world government indoctrination program begins in elementary school with a planned, step-by-step process of replacing the traditional family-taught beliefs, morality, Biblical values and world view with a new way of thinking designed to support the totalitarian world government agenda [see 'Brainwashing in America']   The techniques of brainwashing developed in totalitarian countries are routinely used in psychological conditioning programs imposed on American school children to bring about these results. These include emotional shock and desensitization*, psychological isolation from sources of support, stripping away defenses, manipulative cross-examination of the individual's underlying moral values, and inducing acceptance of alternative values by psychological rather than rational means.

The goal of education is no longer to teach the kind of literacy, wisdom and knowledge we once considered essentials of responsible citizenship.  It is to train world citizens--a compliant international workforce, willing to flow with change and uncertainty. These citizens must be ready to believe and do whatever will serve a  government determined 'common good' or 'greater whole'.  Educators may promise to teach students to think for themselves, but if these state educators continue what they have started, then tomorrow's students will have neither the facts nor the freedom needed for independent thinking.  Like Nazi youth, they will be taught to react, not to think, when told to do the unthinkable.

Are the effects of indoctrination into the Moon ideology really so dangerous in comparison to the effects of the ongoing state run indoctrination into the totalitarian one world government ideology?  

__________________________

*A common method used in training students to reject truth is emotional shock therapy which is described in the following example:  Ashley, a California tenth-grader, heard her teacher announce the following writing assignment: 'You're going to consult an oracle. It will tell you that you're going to kill your best friend. This is destined to happen, and there is absolutely no way out. You will commit this murder. What will you do before this event occurs? Describe how you felt leading up to it. How did you actually kill your best friend?'  Ashley became very upset. Why would her English teacher tell her to imagine something so horrible. 'I don't want to do this.', she told herself and long after she had told this to her parents, the awful feelings continued.

This method of emotional shock therapy has become standard fare in public schools from coast to coast. It produces cognitive dissonance -- mental and moral confusion -- especially in students trained to follow God's guidelines. While classroom topics may range from homosexual or occult practices to euthanasia and suicide, they all challenge and stretch a student's moral boundaries. But why?

'[Our objective] will require a change in the prevailing culture--the attitudes, values, norms and accepted ways of doing things,' says Marc Tucker, the master-mind behind the school-to-work and 'workforce development' program implemented in every state. Working with Hillary Clinton and other globalist leaders, he called for a paradigm shift--a total transformation in the way people think, believe, and perceive reality. This new paradigm rules out traditional values and biblical truth, which are now considered hateful and intolerant. (See "Clinton's War on Hate Bans Christian Values") All religions must be pressed into the mold of the new global spirituality.  Since globalist leaders tout this world religion as a means of building public awareness of our supposed planetary oneness, Biblical Christianity doesn't fit. It is simply too 'exclusive' and 'judgmental.'

Immersing students in imaginary situations that clash with home-taught values confuses and distorts a student's conscience. Each shocking story and group dialogue tends to weaken resistance to change. Biblical absolutes simply don't fit the hypothetical stories that prompt children to question and replace home-taught values. Before long, God's standard for right and wrong is turned upside-down, and unthinkable behavior begins to seem more normal than the Christian tradition that formed the basis of western civilization.

But it takes more than a twisted conscience to produce compliant world citizens. New values must replace God's timeless truths, as described in the following example:

 Matt Piecora, a fifth grader from the Seattle area, was told to complete the sentence, 'If I could wish for three things, I would wish for…'  Matt wrote 'infinitely more wishes, to meet God, and for all my friends to be Christians.'  Matt's wish didn't pass. The teacher told him that his last wish could hurt people who didn't share his beliefs. Matt didn't want to hurt anyone, so he agreed to add 'if they want to be.'  Another sentence to be completed began, 'If I could meet anyone, I would like to meet…'.

Matt wrote: 'God because he is the one who made us!' The teacher told him to add 'in my opinion.' When Matt's parents saw his work, they noticed the phrases that had been added to Matt's sentences and asked,  'Why did you add this?'. 'The teacher didn't want me to hurt other people's feelings,' he answered. 'But these are just your wishes…'  'I thought so, Mom.'  Matt looked confused. Later, the teacher explained to Matt's parents that she wanted diversity' in her class and was looking out for her other students. But the excuse didn't make sense. If the papers were supposed to 'express the students' diverse views,' why couldn't Matt share his views? Didn't his wishes fit? Or was Christianity the real problem?  'I try to instill God's truths in my son,' said Matt's father, 'but it seems like the school wants to remove them.'

 He is right. The old Judeo-Christian beliefs don't fit the new beliefs and values designed for global unity. The planned oneness demands 'new thinking, new strategies, new behavior, and new beliefs'  that turn God's Word and values upside-down and no strategy works better than the old dialectic (consensus) process explained by Georg Hegel, embraced by Marx and Lenin, and incorporated into American education during the nineteen eighties.  Directed group discussion based on the dialectic (consensus) process is key to the transformation. Professor Benjamin Bloom, called 'Father of Outcome-based Education', summarized it as follows:

'The purpose of education and the schools is to change the thoughts, feelings and actions of students.  ....a large part of what we call good teaching is the teacher's ability to attain effective objectives through challenging the students' fixed beliefs and getting them to discuss issues.'  Matt's last comment was especially threatening to the teacher. His statement, 'God made us' is an absolute truth. It can't be modified to please the group. Therefore it doesn't fit the consensus process -- the main psycho-social strategy of the new national-international education system designed to mold world citizens.  It demands that all children participate in group discussions and agree to: · be open to new ideas · share personal feelings · set aside home-taught values that might offend the group · compromise in order to seek common ground and please the group. · respect all opinions, no matter how contrary to God's guidelines · never argue or violate someone's comfort zone

First tested in Soviet schools, this mind-changing process required students in the USSR, China and other Communist nations to 'confess' their thoughts and feelings in their respective groups. Day after day, trained facilitator-teachers would guide these groups toward a pre-planned consensus. Opposite opinions or ideas -- 'thesis' and 'antithesis' -- were blended into ever-evolving higher 'truths'. Each new truth or 'synthesis' would ideally reflect a blend of each participant's feelings and opinions. In reality, the students were manipulated into compromising their values and accepting the politically correct Soviet understanding of the issue discussed. Worse yet, the children learned to trade individual thinking for a collective mindset. Since the concluding consensus would probably change with the next dialogue, the process immunized them against faith in any unchanging truth or fact. This revolutionary training program was officially brought into our education system in 1985, when President Reagan and Soviet President Gorbachev signed the U.S. - U.S.S.R. Education Exchange Agreement. It put American technology into the hands of Communist strategists and, in return, gave us all the psycho-social strategies used in Communist nations to indoctrinate Soviet children with Communist ideology and to monitor compliance for the rest of their lives. Today, American children from coast to coast learn reading, health, and science through group work and dialogue. Most subjects are 'integrated' or blended together and discussed in a multicultural context. Thus, fourth graders in Iowa 'learn' ecology, economy, and science by 'real-life' immersion into Native American cultures. They role-play tribal life and idealize the religion modeled by imaginary shamans. Seeking common ground with the guidance of a trained facilitator-teacher, they share their beliefs, feelings, and 'experiences' with each other. They might agree that 'there are many gods' or 'many names for the same god' and compare the exaggerated spiritual thrills of shamanism with their own church experiences. Which religion would sound most exciting to the group? The consensus would merely be a temporary answer in a world of 'continual change' -- one of many steps in the ongoing evolution toward better understanding of truth -- as defined by leaders who envision a uniform global workforce and management system operating through compliant groups everywhere.     http://www.inplainsite.org/html/mind_control_in_schools.html

[spiritcc]

i do, in fact, have some more facts, but i think i’ve ran out of the funney ones so it’s just whatever interesting i can remember:

17 moments was far from the first stirlitz story getting adapted on screen, so that might have been the reason why the book op was pretty eh about everything. Lioznova though, combed through the book BIG FUCKING TIME, reworked and rewrote everything, added new scenes and plot lines that made the show legit better than the book, so much that even Semyonov the op went HOLI SHIT!!! He was especially touched with Stirlitz’s wife scene, that was not in the book, so he wrote a mini-story about these two called Tenderness right after the series came out, dedicated to the show, so to say. 

Speaking of that scene lmao, originally Lioznova wanted to bring the wife AND the kid to the bar (bc Stirlitz has a kid), but as they started working on the scene it became evident that Stirlitz would’ve naturally stared more at the kid that he saw for the first time in his life instead of his wife. So Lioznova was like FUK DIS SHIT I WANT ROMANCE!!!!!!!! so she fucking kicked the kid out and got her twilight instead. absolute legend 

that one scene wonder, the general on the train, was a bit of a pain to film, bc the guy was old enough to have major issues remembering his text. he would be reading it off of something behind the camera, which meant you couldn’t have stirlitz sitting there as well in the same shot, which resulted in them kinda getting filmed separately enough. find me a shot where they are in the same frame: there really will not be many. poor guy irl REALLY did not end up well but thats another sad short story. 

kgb and its director, andropov himself (who’d later become the general secretary of the ussr), were the ones who commissioned the series, so to say, as propaganda plus a nice victory day present for the folks. they were the ones who also curated the production and served as advisors under fake names in the titles. it was andropov who proposed to add all this war footage in the series bc otherwise it looked like stirlitz alone won the war. the decision of the kgb was pretty much the final decision of whether the series would see the light of day, basically.

one of the show’s advisors was an actual former nazi spy, the name of whom i fucking forgot: actually, the guy WAS a nazi who either changed his mind later or become one for the sake of Spy. he was either american or english, legit worked in gestapo or somewhere for quite a few years and then worked for the ussr after the war, until one day he suddenly got exposed and arrested and nobody knows how. he was proposed with writing a memoir in exchange for freedom where’d his subtly shit on the ussr and escape for a FREE LIBERATED HOUSE ABROAD HEIL AMERICA, which he politely refused. in the end, the soviets rescued him by making an exchange with the other side: this one guy got exchanged for a bus (!) full of american spies. so he got back home, retired and then advised 17 moments on things, loved the show and watched it many times. 

Another batch of #facts i tried to recall, BROUGHT TO YOU BY ASK ME QUESTIONS

#QUESTION TIM BITCH #seventeen moments of spring #the last one i've read in a newspaper this summer i was like :0 #the more you know huh

[coin-river-blog]

Let’s talk about abortion. I’ve always been “pro-choice.” On a personal level, I’ve never considered abortion. I’m currently a single father of four as a result. I don’t like to make decisions for other people. If you feel you need to have an abortion, it’s a legal procedure. I’m not a fan of states that try to make it impossible through various means. I don’t let morality enter into it. If it’s not my body, it’s not my moral conundrum. I hadn’t thought much about it recently until I saw this video of Virginia lawmaker Kathy Tran, in which she states her third trimester (begins in week 28 of pregnancy) abortion bill has no provision preventing the murder of an American child.

If this video doesn’t disturb you, seek mental help.

The Difference Between Abortion and Murder

Look, there’s a reason we have term limits on abortion. It’s not an arbitrary limit. The limit is in place because after a certain point, you’re simply taking away a life. We have modern medicine. As the video clearly shows, Tran and her people couldn’t provide one example wherein the mother’s life might be at risk that late in the pregnancy. The unnamed cases which her assistant couldn’t say much about were “anomalies.”

Tran’s bill allows for the third trimester “termination of a pregnancy” in the event that it would “harm the mental health of the mother.” Another delegate asks Tran, how late in the pregnancy would that be allowed? She walks around saying: until the last day of the pregnancy.

You’re due to deliver on the 10th, you can terminate on the 9th, as long as you get one doctor to say it’s okay. You also don’t have to go to a hospital to do it. Let’s deregulate a delicate and dangerous procedure while we’re at it.

Tell the same Democrats the government doesn’t have any business in our pocketbooks and they’ll argue all day.

The Difference Between Pro-Choice and Advocating Murder

Again, I support the right to terminate pregnancies, in all cases. I’m not a “pro-life” extremist. There’s a difference between a fetus and a baby. And that difference happens around 19-20 weeks. It’s in those weeks that we begin to get to where, in an emergency situation, we could be delivered prematurely and actually live. I’m sure a few people to the right of me are already firing up their keyboards, thinking they’ll sway me further on the issue. You won’t.

No, I’m not against abortion. I am against murder, which I define as the taking of an innocent life. Soldier’s aren’t murderers. A huge portion of “murder” trials in America should be classified as something else. While liberals like Kathy Tran are overwhelmingly in favor of killing infants, in some places they don’t even want you to have the right to defend your home.

A State Which Fails to Protect Children Is A Failed State

I believe if you’re going to have a government, it had better protect those who can’t protect themselves. I’d like to see less money wasted on regulation and spent on helping those people. If these mothers don’t want their “technically viable” children, I believe we as a society should prepare them to be contributing citizens, at our expense. We should foster a healthier attitude toward sex and children if we want to see less of that, I feel.

If you’re going to have a government, it better keep murder illegal. Killing someone the day or the week before they are born is definitely murder. In real terms, it’s no different than killing them the day after they are born. It is the killing of an innocent. That’s murder. Deal with it. Get out of your little mind and accept that. You’re advocating the murder of children with this.

There are plenty on my side of politics who would prefer a woman have no rights at all in this department. I think they are wrong. There are cases where it’s more acceptable to have an abortion than not. I also think for the most part it’s none of my business. But in the same way, I wouldn’t let a child be killed out in the middle of my street if I could prevent it, I don’t think our society should allow laws like Kathy Tran’s or New York’s to exist.

Kathy Tran Believes Mentally Ill Mothers Should Be Allowed to Kill Their Infants

Because now you’re talking about killing American children. You’re not talking about a medical procedure. It confounds me that you can take the same argument I use to defend a woman’s right to choose and spin it into her and some doctor’s right to choose infanticide. “Morally repugnant” doesn’t do it justice.

Tran’s push follows the passage of a law in New York that allows the same as described. The law doesn’t only legalize murder. In the event that the child is delivered, the mother and the doctors are allowed to decide whether or not to let the child live.

Let’s be clear: most children will not survive without some medical care immediately after birth. Any law that allows for the denial of medical care is a dereliction of what it means to govern. Frankly, it sounds like the kind of laws that Nazis would have agreed with – genetically inferior children have less right to life than those of the master race or some crap.

Listen, Democrat. In the end, these types of liberals make you all look bad. Your failure to rein them in will hopefully be the end of your viability as a party. The backlash won’t be pretty. Arkansas, my state, is all set to fully outlaw abortion if a federal decision ever allows for it. Several other states are on board with this type of regression. They will use cases like Kathy Tran and the Soviet Socialist Republic of New York to justify such unconstitutional decisions. I suggest you think twice the next time you choose not to condemn your colleagues when they start describing murder as a rational medical procedure.

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[fandomsandfeminism]

Ever since President Annoying Orange von GrabbyHands came into office, there’s been a lot of chatter about Orwell, and 1984, and whether this or that is Orwellian. Amazon was actually sold out of copies of 1984 for a few days after Kellyanne Conway said that falsehoods being spread by the administration were “Alternative Facts.”

So today I want to talk about 1984, what “Orwellian” actually means, and how Orwell explores the impact of language on thought and dissent with NewSpeak in his novel. And, at the end, we will look at how these concepts do and don’t apply to today’s political climate

Transcript below:

Quick warning: This video is going to be...political. This is to be expected when discussing Orwell, but I think it bears saying. This will be a political video, and if you aren’t sure which way my politics lean right now, you are about to find out. I will try to keep my rage to a reasonable level, but this could get...kinda ranty. So...you’ve been warned.  Ok.So.Ever since President Annoying Orange von GrabbyHands came into office, there’s been a lot of chatter about Orwell, and 1984, and whether this or that is Orwellian. Amazon was actually sold out of copies of 1984 for a few days after Kellyanne Conway said that falsehoods being spread by the administration were “Alternative Facts.”So today I want to talk about 1984, what “Orwellian” actually means, and how Orwell explores the impact of language on thought and dissent with NewSpeak in his novel. And, at the end, we will look at how these concepts do and don’t apply to today’s political climate -

Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name, George Orwell was born June 25th 1903. He was an English novelist who was particularly concerned with social injustice, totalitarianism, and was an outspoken advocate in favor of democratic socialism. My kinda guy. His most famous works are his allegorical novella, Animal Farm, which follows the rise and corruption of Stalinist Russia as told through farm animals, and 1984, our focus for today.  

I want to give a quick shout out to another dystopian novel that I love, and that is often taught as a pair with 1984. Huxley’s novel “Brave  New World” is an amazing book that focuses on how a dystopian government will seek to control the populace through the cultivation of apathy. Through escapism and drugs, sex and a carefully cultivated caste system, a totalitarian regime can carry on with little to no violence on its part simply because the citizens are too unaware to do anything about it. Huxley feared that the things we love will destroy us because we won’t care enough to stop them.

Orwell though? Orwell’s warning of the future is far more brutal- the things we fear will destroy us because when sufficiently powerful, they can not be stopped.

1984 is a dystopian novel published in 1949 that explores the extreme totalitarian regime of Oceania, specifically the province of Airstrip One (Formerly Great Britain) and the protagonist, Winston Smith’s failed attempt at breaking free of the grip of the government. The government is characterized by its hyper-surveillance, the dictator figure of Big Brother, the idea of thoughtcrime, the two minutes of hate where party members must express their hatred of the party enemies loudly and publically every day, the repeated revision of history in the government’s favor, and the repression, aggression, and anxiety that pervades such a political atmosphere.

Many aspects of the novel are based on the totalitarian governments that Orwell was familiar with. The revision of history for example, is a reference to Soviet Russia. There are many examples of people being seen clearly in official photographs of Soviet Russia, and later being removed when they fell out of favor with Stalin. - So what does Orwellian mean? It’s not just a synonym for dictatorial or authoritarian, though you’ll see people use it that way. Orwellian is meant to be more specific. Some characteristics of a situation  or government that are Orwellian include: Extreme and persistent government surveillance The emphasis on loyalty to the state above all else, even family. The advocation for “doublethink” where citizens must accept obvious contradictions-  like giving up liberties to achieve true freedom State revision of history The use of a contradictory euphemism to describe the function of an agency- the Ministry of Peace is responsible for the military and war for example The manipulation of language for the purpose of controlling the people

And this brings me to NewSpeak and Language. Within 1984, the government is working to create a new official state language- NewSpeak. The idea behind NewSpeak, on the surface, is fairly reasonable. English, as a language, is highly inefficient. We have many synonyms with many shades of connotation after all. So on the surface, NewSpeak aims at eliminating all redundancy. You don’t need the words phenomenal, wonderful, amazing, fantastic, and exceptional when just Good will do. And on that same note, you don’t need the words dreadful, terrible, horrible, awful, and horrendous when UnGood will do. Want to show emphasis? DoubleUnGood. Need even more emphasis? DoublePlus Ungood. Simple.

But the true purpose behind NewSpeak is far more sinister. The book says “ "Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.”

By controlling the way people talk, the government can control the way people think. It’s impossible to dissent or rebel if the words you need to dissent or rebel don’t exist. -

And while that sounds pretty far fetched, there really is some evidence that language can shape the way we think. Russian speakers are faster to distinguish shades of blue than English speakers, for example. Traditionally, Japan didn’t have separate words for blue and green, and didn’t develop a distinction between the two colors until after world war 2. Some aboriginal languages in Australia don’t have words for right and left- all directions are described in terms of North, south, East, and West. Many languages gender nouns and this affects the way native speakers will describe those objects. If you were asked to describe a "key" —a masculine word in German and a feminine word in Spanish — the German speakers are more likely to use words like "hard," "jagged," or "metal,"; while Spanish speakers are more likely to say "golden," "little," "lovely," and "shiny," The languages we speak seem to affect the way we see the world.

Even on a more basic note, you can’t identify with a group of people if there is no word to describe that group. The creation and definition of labels is important to community building. Create the word, make it possible to talk about that group.

Even something as simple as pushing a certain phrase or alternative name can affect how people feel about something. The current rise in stories of people who LOVE the Affordable Care Act, but HATE ObamaCare, failing to realize they are the same thing, is evidence of that.

Orwell uses this idea- that language itself shapes the kind of thoughts we can have, to suggest that if a government can control language, they can control the thoughts of the citizens. Going beyond even the most aggressive propaganda, leaving citizens unable to rebel because no thought of rebellion is possible because no word for rebellion exists. - Now.

Not everything that a politician does that you dislike is “Orwellian.” Trump’s executive order about banning immigrants from predominantly islamic countries and the mexican border wall are awful, but not Orwellian. When Betsy god damn Devos can stand in front of congress and admit to not knowing a god damn thing about public education, pedagogy, or current educational policy and still become the secretary of education: Not particularly Orwellian, but definitely incompetent and terrifying and infuriating. Not Orwellian. Millions of people losing their healthcare if the Affordable Care Act is gutted is heartless and evil, but not Orwellian. Trump having globe spanning conflicts of interest, when people made Jimmy Carter sell his goddamn peanut farm for be president, but apparently we’re just going to sit here and let Trump run his billion dollar businesses because who the hell cares and where are his tax returns?- ridiculously hypocritical and infuriating, but not Orwellian.

But-Thinking about Putting an Anti-Vaxxer in charge of the Vaccine Safety Committee? That’s Pretty Orwellian. Insisting again and again that his inauguration crowds were huge and shouting down any evidence that says otherwise as “fake news” and pressuring the park service to find photos that support his version of events- That’s Orwellian. When are people renaming Neo-Nazis as “the Alt Right”: Kinda Orwellian. When the House Science Committee chairman says that people should get their facts from the administration, and not the news….Orwellian. When Trump says he has “drained the swamp” and gotten money out of politics, and his appointed cabinet is richer than ⅓ of America combined? That’s some DoublePlus UnGood DoubleThink. And it makes me UnBellyFeel.

1984 is a bleak vision of the future, a future that suggests that resistance is futile if the government gains so much control that it can literally brainwash citizens.

And here is where I’m going to get...extra political. I know that the first two weeks and counting of SprayTan McBabyPaws’s presidency has been alarming and stressful for many, myself included. But we are not Airstrip 1. We are not Oceania. We do not have Big Brother looming over us, ever vigilant for ThoughtCrime. We are in a frightening situation as a country right now, but we will persist if we stick together. We preserve the past. We fight for what is true. We resist propaganda and fear mongering, revisionist history and scapegoating. We can’t allow ourselves to ever believe that 2 and 2 make 5 just because the party says so, we can’t allow ourselves to fall into fatigue and complacency.

We can do this. We can do this together. Call representatives. Go to marches. Speak out.

Stay strong.

Thank you for watching this video. I’ll see yall down in the comments. As always, if you’ve enjoyed listening to this queer millennial feminist with a BA in English, feel free to subscribe.

#trump #feminism #politics #orwell #1984 #newspeak #orwellian #george orwell #surviving trump