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Nearly five decades later, a new poll has found a clear majority of Americans still suspect there was a conspiracy behind the assassination. However, according to the Associated Press JFK poll, the percentage of those who believe accused shooter Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone is at its highest level since the mid-’60s. The survey, conducted in mid-April, said 59 percent of Americans think multiple people were involved in a conspiracy to kill the president, while 24 percent think Oswald acted alone, 16 percent are still unsure. A 2003 Gallup poll found 75 percent of Americans felt there was a conspiracy.

We’re joined for the hour by three-time Academy Award-winning director, producer, screenwriter, Oliver Stone. A Vietnam War veteran, he’s made around two dozen acclaimed Hollywood films, including Platoon, Wall Street, Salvador, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, Nixon, W., South of the Border and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. A commemorative edition of JFK comes out on Blu-ray next week as the 50th anniversary of his assassination approaches on November 22nd. Most recently, Stone has co-written a multi-part Showtime series called Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States, which is also available on Blu-ray and includes a companion book with the same name.

We’re also joined by Peter Kuznick, a professor of history and director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University, co-author of The Untold History of the United States.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Oliver Stone, let’s begin with you. As we move into this 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, your thoughts?

OLIVER STONE: Thank you, Amy, for having me back. It’s nice to see you again. Hello, Peter.

PETER KUZNICK: Hi, Oliver.

OLIVER STONE: My thoughts. I saw the film inside these last few days, and I’ve been able to assess it again, and I’ve followed the cases more or less from the outside. I haven’t been inside. It’s amazing to me that people still deny it. As you know, I was in the infantry in Vietnam. I had a fair amount of combat experience. I saw people blown away in action. When you look once again at the basics of the film—the bullets, the autopsy, the forensics, the shooting path—and stay away from all the other stuff—Oswald’s background and Garrison, etc.—just follow the meat, the evidence, what you see with your own eyes in those six seconds, it’s an amazing—it’s all there. It doesn’t need to be elaborated upon. You can see it with your own eyes.

You see Kennedy make his—get a hit in the throat. Then you see Kennedy get a hit in the back. Then you see him essentially get a hit from the front. When he gets the hit from the front, which is the fourth or the fifth or the sixth shot, he goes back and to the left. That’s the basic evidence. You see a man fly back because he gets hit right here. Many witnesses at Parkland and at the autopsy in Bethesda saw a massive exit wound to the rear of his skull, to the right side. The people at Parkland, including the young doctor, McClelland, saw his cerebellum, his brain, go out the—almost falling out of the back of his skull. Later, when he gets taken—illegally—to the—to Bethesda, Maryland, the military—

AMY GOODMAN: Why illegal?

OLIVER STONE: Via what?

AMY GOODMAN: You said when he was taken illegally.

OLIVER STONE: He was taken immediately, I mean, within an hour or two, he start—but it takes four hours to fly there, plus the autopsy doesn’t go off until later that evening. And it’s manipulated. It’s—the doctors at the autopsy are not in charge of the autopsy. They’re naval—naval technicians, surgeons. The military is telling them what to do.

And when this whole thing emerges, what we have are weird shots of—the back of his head is patched up, basically. And the shot—they’re trying to justify the shot from the rear to the front. So they’re saying that the shot from the back came into his back and hit Connally. There’s—they talk about three bullets. One missed. The magic bullet, that was devised by Arlen Specter and others, devises a path that’s impossible. It’s seven wounds in two people, in Kennedy and in Connally. The bullet hits Kennedy—

AMY GOODMAN: This was John Connally.

OLIVER STONE: —in the back, goes out his throat, zigs to the right, hits Connally in the left, goes down to Connally’s right wrist. It bounces back into his left knee. It’s a farce. And they got away with it, because it’s a lot of mumbo-jumbo, and they used scientific evidence. But when people are in combat, they see things. They see people—they go with the bullet wound. It’s essential. And this was a—Kennedy was shot right before Connally in the back. Connally gets shot. Then Kennedy—

AMY GOODMAN: Governor Connally.

OLIVER STONE: —gets the head shot. So there’s at least five shots here. And this is what you have to go in—look at the Zapruder film over and over again, even if they altered it, which—

AMY GOODMAN: And for young people who don’t know who Zapruder was, and the film—

OLIVER STONE: Oh, Zapruder was a—was a local man who shot this film, that was taken by the CIA and the Secret Service, and it was altered a bit, I think. There’s a lot of evidence to that effect. You have to—you’re getting into scientific now. But the Zapruder film, even now, is the best signpost. It’s the timing of the—it’s the timing. It shows you the, how do you call, the time frame of the assassination.

And we have a scene in the movie where you see the man trying to do what Oswald did with a bolt-action Mannlicher-Carcano rifle from World War II, which is a very bad weapon, Italian weapon, infantryman rifle. And you have to fire the shot, through a tree, at a moving—at a target moving away from you. You can’t do it. Two teams of FBI experts tried to do it, plus CBS, I believe, and various other organizations have tried to simulate that shooting in less than six seconds. It’s not possible. So, this was a sophisticated ambush. There had to be a shot from the front, from that—from that front, that fence, and at least one shooter from the front. At least one.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to go back to a clip from your film, JFK, when former New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison watches a TV news report about Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged killer. Then he makes a phone call to his associate and tells him to investigate Oswald’s connection to New Orleans a little bit further.

REPORTER: … of Lee Harvey Oswald.

MATTIE: [played by Pat Perkins] A fine man.

REPORTER: After a stint in the Marines, he apparently became fascinated by communism.

BOB: He is still believed to be a dedicated Marxist and a fanatical supporter of Fidel Castro and ultra-left-wing causes. He spent last summer in New Orleans and was arrested there in a brawl with anti-Castro Cuban exiles.

REPORTER: And apparently, Bob, Oswald had been passing out pro-Castro pamphlets for an organization …

JIM GARRISON: Hello, Lou? Yeah, sorry to disturb you this late.

LOU IVON: [played by Jay O. Sanders] That’s all right. I’m watching it, too.

JIM GARRISON: Yeah, a matter of routine, but we better get on this Oswald connection to New Orleans right away.

LOU IVON: Mm-hmm.

JIM GARRISON: All right, I want you to check out his record, find any friends or associates from last summer. Let’s meet with the senior assistants and investigators day after tomorrow, all right?

LOU IVON: That be on Sunday?

JIM GARRISON: Sunday, yeah, at 11:00.

LOU IVON: All right.

JIM GARRISON: All right, thanks, Lou.

LOU IVON: Mm-hmm.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Kevin Costner, who played Jim Garrison, who is actually the central figure in your film. Why Jim Garrison, the DA?

OLIVER STONE: Well, Jim Garrison was the only public official who brought charges in the case. He started this case. It was a very difficult thing to bring charges against the covert operations of a U.S. government, which he thought it was. You know, now that we’ve lived a little longer and we’re older, we know about how difficult that is. We know Snowden’s case. We know WikiLeaks’s case. We know Manning’s case. All these people have been—can’t get it out. I mean, they had trouble. People disbelieve it. When Garrison believed the story, as I did—I was younger—years go by, three years later Garrison—Garrison calls in David Ferrie. He—very suspicious things happened in New Orleans. But he was suspicious , but the FBI dismissed all—dismissed all the witnesses he called. Three years later, he got into the case because Senator Russell Long of Georgia told him that he didn’t believe this—this Warren—

AMY GOODMAN: Of Louisiana.

OLIVER STONE: So, Garrison started to read the whole Warren Commission, and he started to see all the inconsistencies of it, and he started to call in the witnesses. He got into some hot water. The CIA watched this thing very closely. We now know that they had files on Jim. They bugged his offices. They stole the files. They had informants on his staff. It was an impossible case. Three of his witnesses died. Others—others just were not called. They were—the subpoenas were denied, etc. He called Allen Dulles. He called several members of the CIA. That was not allowed.

AMY GOODMAN: Allen Dulles, the head of the CIA.

OLIVER STONE: Yeah, Allen Dulles had been the head of the CIA, had been fired by Kennedy and was the head of the Warren Commission and ran the commission, which is a very bizarre—

AMY GOODMAN: And the Warren Commission is the one that had investigated—

OLIVER STONE: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: —done the so-called independent investigation.

OLIVER STONE: Yeah, you’re asking me to go through the whole case here. Yeah, the Warren Commission is the—is the Rosetta Stone of this country. It’s another one of these mists that covers up.

You know, look, this case is very similar, that scene you showed—when Snowden was first described as a lone, fame-seeking narcissist, you find very much the similarities to the Oswald case. Oswald was identified right away, on that Friday afternoon. They had the profile ready. This is a lone nut, Marxist sympathizer, who obviously was not only alienated, but disliked Kennedy—none of which is true, because he was none of these things. And we go—you can find that out by reading or looking at the movie. But the first label seems to stick, whether it was the WMD in Iraq, when you put that first story out there. And there’s something about that, whether it’s the Tonkin Gulf Resolution that kicks off the Vietnam War or the—for that matter, the blowing up of the Maine in the Spanish harbor. These stories spread, and that first impression stays. And that’s—it’s a shame. It’s like the Reichstag fire in Germany.

And Oswald has been—what bothers me the most is that people who are intelligent, The New York Times, the Vanity Fair fellow, the guy in The New Yorker, they write these long pieces, and they just—and they say, essentially, in the article, “Well, we—history has sort of shown us that Oswald is the—the consensus is that Oswald did it alone.” Well, but they don’t read the books by Bob Groden or Cyril Wecht or James Douglass’s JFK and the Unspeakable, or they don’t deal with the ballistics, which is very important because the argument—Bob Groden has done the best photographic analysis of the bullet wounds and the photography. And he can show, in his last book—his most recent book is called Absolute Proof. It’s coming out right now. Bob Groden has done—has been on this thing 30 years. He’s the best. Talk to the people who really have studied pathology, autopsies and photo evidence.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Oliver Stone, why does this matter 50 years later?

OLIVER STONE: Ah, good question. Good question. What was Kennedy doing? Peter and I address this in a larger text in our Untold History of the United States. A very important president. Keep in mind, this is 13 years after the national security state starts. We are massively armed. Between 1947, Truman, and Eisenhower in 1960, we go from 1,000 nuclear weapons to 30,000 nuclear weapons. By 1960, we are supreme. We are the sole superpower, truly. We have the ability at this point, after many crises with the Soviet Union, many nuclear threats made by Eisenhower—several, five, six—John Foster Dulles believed in brinksmanship—you remember that policy?—taking things to the brink. We called it a containment of communism, but really we were forcing back, rolling back. We were aggressive. We wanted a war, basically, because we knew that the Soviets would arm up after 1960, they would catch up with us eventually. We feared that. They never did, but we feared it. We knew in 1960 that in a first-strike situation we could win, and we could—we could sustain the retaliation. So we had a very hopped-up Pentagon.

We saw in Berlin there was an anger at Kennedy for what they called being soft on communism, which meant that he allowed the wall to be built. Remember when the Berlin Wall went up, Kennedy had a great quote. He said, “I’d rather have a wall than a war.” And he was looked—he was looked on as a young man, not up to Eisenhower’s military status, not up to snuff. When Cuba came around, he failed to support the Bay of Pigs invasion. And then he failed to go into Laos, which was expected of him. And then, when the October crisis rolled around in ’62, he backed down. That was their viewpoint of it. He backed down, and he said no to invading Cuba, to going in and bombing the missile sites.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s interesting, Oliver, when we put out yesterday that you were coming on, we were just inundated with questions and—

OLIVER STONE: It’s a very important issue.

AMY GOODMAN: On our Facebook page, Ronan Duggan posted this question to you: “Would you agree that much of the history of JFK has been romanticized and he has been transformed into a sort of liberal hero? The truth is he was a horrific warmonger,” said this person on Facebook.

OLIVER STONE: No, no. Kennedy, on the contrary, he did—had to—you could not become president in 1960, I mean, by being soft on communism. You had to be a hardliner. It was the only way to get elected. Yeah, he went to the right of Nixon at that point, true, and—but he did not know the missile gap. He believed the missile gap existed, that was being talked about. When he got into office, within six weeks, he hired Bob McNamara, an outsider from Ford, to be his defense secretary. He had McNamara go into the Pentagon and find out where we were. And he found out that it was all a myth, that in fact we were way ahead of the Soviets, on every level—on every level—and that we could have, unfortunately, a first strike against the Soviet Union. He realized, in that atmosphere, that his generals were up to—were really gearing up for a war, because if they didn’t fight the Soviets in 1960, their thinking was that the Soviets are going to catch up, and we’re going to have these crises in Berlin, Vietnam, Laos for the rest—it will—there will be a war sometime in the near future, by 1970. So they’re thinking about let’s do it, let’s do it now. And you remember the Dr. Strangelove movie about the whole thing about the retaliation? You remember Jack Ripper, the Sterling Hayden character? That’s based on Curtis LeMay, who was the chief of staff of the Air Force, and Thomas Power also, who was later the chief of staff. He was an Air Force general. These people wanted war. Or Arleigh Burke of the Navy, Lemnitzer, who was the chief of the—the head of the whole thing, chief of staff at the beginning. This new book, Bob Dallek, who’s an establishment historian, doesn’t agree with our assassination concept, he goes into detail in Camelot’s Court, this new book, about how Kennedy was fighting, for those years, with the military on all fronts.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going break and then come back. Our guest is Oliver Stone, three-time Academy Award-winning director, producer, screenwriter. Among his films, JFK. This month is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy. When we come back, we’ll also be joined by Peter Kuznick, history professor at American University. Together, they did Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back in a minute.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. Our guests for the hour, Oliver Stone, many-time Academy Award-winning director, producer, screenwriter; Peter Kuznick, history professor at American University. They co-authored the many-part series, The Untold History of the United States. It’s in both book form as well as DVD. It’s a Showtime series. I want to go right now to this clip from Untold History of the United States, which recalls a close call that happened October 27, 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis, when it was ultimately a Soviet colonel who averted nuclear war.

OLIVER STONE: On October 27th, an incident occurred that Schlesinger described as not only the most dangerous moment of the Cold War, it was “the most dangerous moment in human history.” The Russian ships were heading toward the quarantine line. One of four Soviet submarines sent to protect the ships was being hunted all day by the carrier, USS Randolph. More than a hundred miles outside the blockade, the Randolph began dropping depth charges, unaware the sub was carrying nuclear weapons. The explosion rocked the submarine, which went dark except for emergency lights. The temperature rose sharply. The carbon dioxide in the air reached near-lethal levels, and people could barely breathe. Men began to faint and fall down. The suffering went on for four hours. Then, the Americans hit us with something stronger. We thought, “That’s it. The end.” Panic ensued.

Commander Valentin Savitsky tried, without success, to reach the general staff. He assumed the war had already started, and they were going to die in disgrace for having done nothing. He ordered the nuclear torpedo to be prepared for firing. He turned to the other two officers aboard. Fortunately for mankind, the political officer, Vasili Arkhipov, was able to calm him down and convince him not to launch—probably single-handedly preventing nuclear war.

AMY GOODMAN: Oliver Stone narrating The Untold History of the United States, which was co-written by Oliver Stone and our guest, Peter Kuznick, as well, history professor at American University. Just continue on this 1962 moment and how—

OLIVER STONE: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: —nuclear war was averted, Oliver.

OLIVER STONE: Well, it was during this crisis in October, it—Eisenhower told Kennedy, through an intermediary, to go, to bomb. But we had no concept of what the Russians—there was 40,000 Russian troops, hardened troops, under the command of the commander of the—of Stalingrad during World War II. There were a rough, tough unit. They would have gone the distance. They had a hundred nuclear—battlefield nuclear weapons. A hundred. We didn’t know that. McNamara admitted all this much later in his life. The Cubans were armed, like 200,000 Cubans, so that we would have faced far more significant casualties going in there than we thought. It would have evolved into a real nuclear confrontation in the Caribbean, and it probably would have spread, most likely spread quickly, because we had bombers armed to go over China, drop bombs on China, from Okinawa. We were ready to blow off the Soviet Union. That was Eisenhower’s plan, was essentially—because what Eisenhower did in his eight years of office was to make nuclear weapons a alternative to conventional weapons, because we didn’t have the size of the conventional weapons of the Soviets, so we were ready to use nuclear. We were ready to go, and Washington was in the sights. The whole world, I don’t—I think, would have gone up.

Khrushchev and Kennedy, at the last second, through their—through Dobrynin and his brother Robert, said no, basically, to their hardliners. And it cost both men dearly. The generals were furious with Kennedy. LeMay was raging at the meeting that was described by McNamara and others. They thought—LeMay said, “We lost. We lost. This was our moment.” And Khrushchev was criticized by his own people, but the Soviets were inferior in strength. And they—but they built up after that crisis. They built up significantly, so by the late 1970s they were almost achieving parity. So, in other words, Kennedy and Khrushchev saved—what we’re saying is Kennedy and Khrushchev saved the world at a very key moment. We owe him a lot.

AMY GOODMAN: Peter Kuznick, this is also the beginning of the Cuban embargo that exists to this day, 1962. Can you explain how that happened?

PETER KUZNICK: Well, the United States policy was really to overthrow the Castro government, to do everything it could to sabotage, undermine, overthrow the Castro government. The fear was that you were going to have similar kinds of revolutionary movements throughout Latin America, that they would stand as an example. The United States policy since that time has been not only to isolate the Cuban government, but to attempt to prevent similar kind of left-wing uprisings from occurring elsewhere.

We do overthrow other governments down there. For example, the way we treat Vietnam in our Vietnam episode, episode seven, is we put it in a different context. We want to show that Vietnam is not an aberration, so we begin with the overthrow of the government in Brazil in 1964. We then go to the overthrow in the Dominican Republic in 1965. We show the U.S. role in the bloodbath in Indonesia in 1965. We talk about the escalation of Vietnam. And we also talk about U.S. overthrow of the Allende government in Chile.

The big concern for the United States was not Cuba itself; it was the possibility throughout Latin America, in our own backyard, for a series of communist revolutions and for radical movements down there. We work, under Kissinger, with the right-wing governments in Latin America in something called Operation Condor, which was basically an operation to set up death squads throughout Latin America to kill not only revolutionaries, but reformers and dissidents. We see this policy continue through the 1980s under the Reagan administration throughout Central America, the U.S. working with the right-wing government in El Salvador, the U.S. role in Guatemala, the U.S. support for the Contras in Nicaragua. So Cuba is only a small piece in it.

But as Oliver is saying, the Cuban missile crisis is a crucial turning point, and it’s a crucial turning point in Kennedy’s mind and in Khrushchev’s mind. Khrushchev, afterwards, writes a letter to Kennedy in which he says, “Evil has done some good. Our people have felt the flames of thermonuclear war. Let’s take an advantage of this.” He said, “Let’s remove every possible area of conflict between us that can lead to another crisis. Let’s stop all nuclear testing. Let’s remove all the problems between us.” So, Khrushchev then says, “Let’s get rid of the military blocks. Let’s get rid of NATO. Let’s get rid of the Warsaw Pact.” He reaches out to Kennedy. This is actually a moment, as he says that, evil can bring some good, because what Kennedy and Khrushchev both understood from the Cuban missile crisis was that despite all of their efforts to prevent a nuclear war, when a crisis like this occurs, they actually lose control. They both—we came very close to nuclear war despite the fact that both of them were doing everything they could to avert it at that point. So Khrushchev says, “Let’s get rid of anything that could cause another conflict.”

And what happens over the next year, until Kennedy’s assassination, is they do begin to cooperate on a number of issues. As Oliver was saying before, Kennedy had a lot of enemies. And the reason why he had so many enemies is because he stood up to the generals, to the joint chiefs, to the intelligence community, to the establishment, time after time after time. And then, in this period, we reach out. We conclude the Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty. The joint chiefs were furious about the Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty. It was the first nuclear arms control treaty we had. He begins to reach out to Cuba for rapprochement with Cuba at the end of his life. Castro was very, very disappointed when Kennedy was assassinated. He talks about pulling the U.S. forces out of Vietnam. In NSAM 263, he wants to pull a thousand troops out by the end of the year, get all the troops out by 1965. His signature initiative, in many people’s mind, is the space race. Kennedy says, “Why should we be competing with the Soviet Union for who’s going to be first to get into space? We should work together jointly for a joint mission of space exploration and putting a man jointly on the moon.” And in his American University commencement address, he basically calls for an end to the Cold War.

So, the Kennedy of 1963, in response to that person who posted on Facebook, Kennedy of 1963 was really very much of a visionary. And Oliver and I believe that this was the last time we had an American president who was really willing to—wanted to change the direction of the country, stand up to the militarists, stand up to the intelligence community, and take the United States in a very different direction. So, the tragedy of Kennedy’s assassination is not just that we lost this one man, but it’s that the United States and the Soviet Union were both looking to take the world in a very, very different direction. And Kennedy is assassinated. Khrushchev is ousted the next year. And as we say—Kennedy, in his inauguration, says we’re going to pass the torch forward to a new generation, and we say that now the torch has been passed back to the old generation, the generation of Johnson, Nixon, Eisenhower, and the world goes back very heavily into Cold War.

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go back—

PETER KUZNICK: Johnson wastes little time.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to a clip from The Untold History of the United States, where you look at the transition from JFK to LBJ.

OLIVER STONE: With the ascension of Vice President Lyndon Johnson, there would be important changes in many of Kennedy’s policies, particularly towards the Soviet Union and Vietnam.

PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON: I will do my best. That is all I can do.

OLIVER STONE: In his inaugural address in the morning of that decade in January 1961—

PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY: Let the word go forth, from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.

OLIVER STONE: But with his murder, the torch was passed back to an old generation, the generation of Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Reagan, leaders who would systematically destroy the promise of Kennedy’s last year, as they returned the country to war and repression. Though the vision Khrushchev and Kennedy had expressed would fall with them, it would not die. The seeds they had planted would germinate and sprout again long after their deaths.

AMY GOODMAN: Oliver Stone narrating The Untold History of the United States.

OLIVER STONE: Yes, yeah. It’s five years of my life. It’s perhaps my most ambitious project.

AMY GOODMAN: Why is this so important to you? It begins actually in what, 1898? The year after my grandmother was born.

OLIVER STONE: It begins with—it begins with the Spanish-American War and the first, really, effort overseas by America to expand. We take the Philippines, and we basically take Cuba. This whole series, from 1898 to 2013 is—in a sense, it’s a mourning. It’s a mourning for a country that could, after World War II, have taken another direction. And if Roosevelt had lived a little longer, it may well have, or if Henry Wallace had been the—had been the real vice president. And when I think—what we’re doing, Peter and I, is we’re really—after George Bush had been in office two terms in 2008, we said, “What is—is he an aberration, or is he a continuation of a pattern?” So we went back to our early lives in the 1940s and studied this whole pattern. And we see a pattern. If you look at all chapters together quickly, in 12 hours, you feel the dream, the fever dream, the aggression, the militarism, the racism towards the Third World—it doesn’t end—the exploitation.

AMY GOODMAN: In fact—

OLIVER STONE: There’s good things, too. I’m not saying only bad things. We try to point out the hopes.

AMY GOODMAN: In fact, didn’t this project start around you wanting to tell the story of Henry Wallace? Most people who are watching right now don’t even know who Henry Wallace was.

OLIVER STONE: Henry Wallace is a wonderful character, but not the only character in this thing. No, the—what for me was the important thing—I was born right after it—was the atomic bomb. I always had accepted, like I accepted the story of Kennedy’s assassination, I accepted that we needed to drop the bomb to win World War II, because the Japanese were fanatics. Well, we’ve got to go back to that myth, and we explore it in depth. And we have it—I think we show that our use of the bomb was criminal and immoral. And we proved to the Soviet Union, as well as to the world, that we could be as barbaric as the Nazis were.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain why you think the world would be a very different place if this vice president in the 1940s—

OLIVER STONE: Right, right.

AMY GOODMAN: —Henry Wallace, had actually continued to be the vice president under FDR?

OLIVER STONE: Yeah. Well, because he was a—he was a peace seeker. He was a man of international vision. He spoke of the century of the common man in—it was a counter to Henry Luce of Time magazine that made a speech about this is the American century. Luce talks a lot like Hillary Clinton these days. So, Wallace countered with, “No, America should stand for the common man throughout the world.” He was very much an internationalist—women’s rights, labor rights, believed in—hated colonialism, hated the British Empire and all of what Winston Churchill was fighting for in World War II. They were enemies. Roosevelt agreed with a lot of them, but Roosevelt was sickening and weakening, and the country was becoming more fearful of postwar issues. Wallace hung in there, although he had been robbed of the vice presidency by a fixed convention in ’44. He hung in there as secretary of commerce under Truman for as long as he could, fighting for peace after the war. Of course, he was called a communist and all that stuff, but he was really a liberal. And—

AMY GOODMAN: He ran for president in 1948.

OLIVER STONE: Yeah, as a third party.

AMY GOODMAN: But in ’44, he was knocked out, and Truman was the vice-presidential candidate of FDR.

OLIVER STONE: Yeah, and Wallace was the most popular man in the—at the Democratic convention. He had 65 percent of the Democratic voters liked him. And he almost won that first night, but he was blocked. The convention was closed down. Fire exits were closed, or something like that. Truman had 2 percent of the vote. Truman was a nonentity who overnight became—and didn’t know much about what Roosevelt’s plans were. But the—the Grand Alliance—

AMY GOODMAN: And the significance of the ascension of Truman after FDR died in office?

OLIVER STONE: Yes. And he—

AMY GOODMAN: He is the one who dropped the bomb.

OLIVER STONE: Truman, within two weeks of becoming president after Roosevelt’s death, insulted the Soviet foreign minister. I mean, it was—within 11 days, our policy towards the Soviet Union shifted and stayed that way. And, you know, if you read all the revisionist historians who have written about this in depth, the United States took a hostile—Roosevelt had a vision, and it was a Grand Alliance between the Soviets and the British. Perhaps that was very hard to maintain. It takes a big man. Roosevelt was that kind of thinker. Wallace was. And we’re saying Kennedy was. And I urge you to rethink your—the fellow who said he was a warmonger, please, rethink Kennedy and look at everything here we’re talking about. This is a big issue. But we’ve lost that Grand Alliance. We’ve lost that—we’ve lost that leadership that’s bigger than simply ideological economic factions, is what we have in the United States. We’ve given in to what Peter called militarism, as you know very well.

AMY GOODMAN: When we come back from break, I want to ask you about this next chapter of American history, about surveillance and drones, about President Obama and where you think he stands, and also about this next project that you’ll be working on around Dr. King.

OLIVER STONE: Sure.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! We’re with Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick. Stay with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: Our guest for the hour, three-time Academy Award-winning director, producer, screenwriter, Oliver Stone, did Born on the Fourth of July and Platoon and Wall Street and Salvador and JFK, as well as a 10-part series for Showtime called The Untold History of the United States, now out in DVD form with two extra chapters. Our guest also, Peter Kuznick, who co-wrote the book and worked—co-authored the series, a history professor at American University. Peter Kuznick, what this next chapter looks like today, what we are experiencing today in the United States?

PETER KUZNICK: It’s a continuation of the trends that Oliver and I were talking about from the 1890s up to the present. We had a lot of hope for Obama when he was elected in 2008. I guess we were somewhat naive, because Obama, rather than breaking with the patterns of American empire and American militarism, has continued most of them. Ari Fleischer, Bush’s press secretary, said that this is actually George W. Bush’s fourth term that we’re experiencing now. And in some ways that’s true, and disappointingly so. Obama, from the beginning, surrounded himself with very, very conservative advisers. His economic team was considered — The New York Times called them a constellation of Rubinites, followers of Robert Rubin. His military team, his defense policy, foreign policy, were mostly hawks—people like Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, General Jones—and his policies have reflected that.

Oliver and I see him as simply a more efficient manager of the American empire, not somebody who’s breaking with the empire. He doesn’t even think in different terms. For example, he recently called for a 13-year commemoration of the Vietnam War, in which we’re going to reposition our understanding of the Vietnam War. And that’s very, very dangerous. A recent poll showed that 51 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds now think that the Vietnam War was worth fighting, see the Vietnam War as an American interest. Those people our age, about 70 percent say the Vietnam War was a mistake or even worse. But the fact that younger people are not learning history and are seeing the Vietnam War in more positive light is symptomatic of what Oliver and are concerned about, that people’s understanding of history is distorted in such a way as to perpetuate the trends that we find very, very objectionable.

Video link. From November 5, 2013.

#oliver stone #democracy now #jfk #untold history of the united states #video #audio #amy goodman #peter kuznick

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beautifulloverwitch · 1 year

Text

By Fire, Sea and Blood

The untold tale of an approaching collapse

Chapter three: Look at her now.

previous ///// next

Summary: An attempt to push the children together, unite them as the one, seemed to only gnaw at the growing rift between them all.

__________________

Pairing: Aemond Targaryen x Daenerys Velaryon (strong! oc)

wc: 7k

warnings: assault

Taglist: Open

Masterlist

The king found himself struggling to enjoy the magnificent model he would commonly take delight in assembling. An intricate model of what the histories attempted to put into words of the indescribable Valyrian capital. Whenever he was away from the prolonged and sometimes uneventful council sessions, he would allow his eyes to skim over each intricate detail of the stone display. Not shying away from expressing his disapproval regarding any errors that so slightly contradicted what he had envisioned. Today a great concern rests upon his mind, the ever-growing tension between his family haunting his every step.

“Your grace? Are today’s changes to your liking? If not, I shall call for the stonemasons to return” his squire asked, confused by his king’s lack of interest today.

His silence even startled his wife who sat by the table the two so commonly conversed on, she glanced over her shoulder to her pondering husband.

The king arose from his dwelling sea of thoughts and looked up at the awaiting squire “No need, Eddard,” he spoke, he gestured to him “let us continue another day.”

Alicent’s narrowed gaze followed the squire as he left before she worriedly looked at the troubled Viserys “Is everything alright Viserys?”

He looked to her and sighed, groaning as he stood up and made his way to join her at the table “I’ve found myself consumed with worry these passing moons,” he explained as he attempted to word his concerns.

“What kind?” Alicent sounded eager to know, she had hoped he’d begun to realise her own concerns.

“The boys,” he addressed, bewilderment written across his features, his thoughts distracted him enough that he had not noticed Alicent’s hopeful expression “All that I have tried to do, nothing has quelled the animosity between them!”

Alicent sighed in dismay “Your kind intentions should not be wasted my King,” she explained, taking a sip from her cup “you’ve done all you could.”

He shook his head in disagreement “not enough,” he muttered to himself before looking to her again, curious to ask, “How has time treated Helaena and Daenerys’s friendship,” He was worried the animosity had corrupted even their pure bond.

She hummed before answering “They’re doing well, they care not for the boy’s hostility of one another,” she frowned in confusion as she stated aloud “even Aemond seems to have grown fond of princess Daenerys,” the words tasted bitter, for She was quite contented by the rift between her sons and Rhaenyra’s boys. Daenerys seemed to be a strongly rooted obstacle that proved a great challenge in maintaining that rift.

He pondered for a moment, speaking his thoughts aloud “Aemond, Helaena, and Dany have always been fond of one another, why is it so difficult for them to maintain sentiments for the lot of them?” the longer he spoke of their hostility, his voice would waver with anger “I had hoped Jace, and Daeron would grow to have the fondness those three seem to share.”

Alicent shook her head, hands resting upon her lap as she patronisingly spoke to him “My king, two boys being milk brothers does not garner amity.”

The king huffed, recalling what became of their third son “you speak as though it was not you who had sent Daeron away so soon,” he spat, still irked by the decision to have the boy sent away from his home at the young age of five. A sigh escaped him as he realised the venom of his words made his wife sink into her seat “all I wish is for this family to be united, for the boys to not stand against one another but together,” his fist clenching as his tender voice spoke of the dream he so longed for “there will be a time when none of us will be there to protect them,” his fingers running over his gloved hand, concealing the decaying finger beneath it “I only wish for them to be allied together when such a time comes.”

Alicents brow knitted together as she pictured such a future, a future where she would not be there to protect her children. Imagining who would take her place, she had considered, for a mere moment Viserys’s dream of a future they were absent from, but the vines of a delusion born of deception tightened their grasp on her again. A world absent of Viserys would be a world full of Rhaenyra, with a crown decorating her head. A crown with four hands gripping it tightly.

Falling back to her ways she voiced “Those boys are barbaric unlike their sister,” earning a disapproving stare from her husband “you can’t expect them to change.”

“Our boys are no different,” at their mention, Alicent seemingly did not appreciate Viserys placing them on equal grounds as she lowered her hardened gaze to the ground “and there is still time for them all to learn.”

His words caused Alicent to look back up, wary as she noticed his fingers fiddle with his bandaged little finger, something he would always do whenever he was considering an important decision “I’ve made the decision, that it is best for all the boys to do their princely duties together,” at those words Alicents demeanour changed, her head seemed to retreat backwards, perturbed by the proposal, words seemed to escape her as her eyes darted around while Viserys continued “every feast one of them is invited to, all of them go, whenever one of them is meant to be training at arms, they will all be training it arms, if one of them is studying, all of them will be studying,” he explained, he punctuated each sentence with a slap to the table. A proud smile on his lips as he looked at his wife, his smile soon faded as he noticed the look of disbelief on her face.

“Viserys, you can’t,” she simply stated, attempting to gather words “the boys cannot bare walking past one another!” her voice trembling with worry at what prospect such a decision could create.

“I understand your worry my queen,” he spoke calmly, raising his hand up attempting to dampen her concern “but that is the very reason they must go forth with it.”

Her shoulders slumped in defeat “you’ve already made the decision,” her eyes widen, incredulous when he nodded “without my council, nor Rhaenyra’s, the mothers of the children you’ve decided to make such a ruling on?”

He refused to meet her gaze as he spoke “had I asked for either of your council, I would have realised the true source of this enmity between the children.”

She fell back into her seat, chest falling and rising as she attempted to subdue the growing anger bubbling within her. Her head shaking in pointless refusal before glancing back up at him “I would not wish to question your decisions your grace,” she voiced with forceful respect and acceptance for the decision “but I ask you to allow me the right to choose whom shall help prepare the princes for their duties,” this earned her a wary look from her husband before she continued “I wish for them all to be taught by the best mentors the seven can offer, might I remind you it was I who chose the septa for Helaena and Daenerys.”

The king reluctantly agreed, and she stood up, lips tense as she muttered “Your grace,” before leaving his chambers. He sighed, jaw clenching as one of the figurines shattered to the ground after Alicent slammed the door to his chambers rudely shut.

The three boys awkwardly stood beside one another as they awaited their mentor to offer them their weapons, the fourth boy absent for he was deemed far too young to be trained in the art of the sword. Their mentor was a man with coal black and lush hair, his attire the coveted white of a member of the Kings guard. He approached the boys with three wooden swords in hand, handing it over to Aegon and Aemond while shoving one towards Jace. The boy clutched the blunt blade in his arms, a fearful look on his face as he watched the man walk away.

“I was appointed by the queen to instruct you all to become formidable swordsmen,” he announced, hands resting on the hilt of his wooden blade, his piercing eyes scanning over the three princes “you all may be in your earnest ages but your training will still be harsh, and I am intolerant of any unnecessary weakness displayed by any of you,” he glanced to Jace, eyes sending a message of plain detest “this training is unavoidable, by command of the king,” he felt satisfied when he saw Jace cowering under his gaze “swords up!”

The boys raised their swords, all of them struggled to keep their arms extended as the weight of the swords caused their muscles to ache. The man circled them all, using his wooden sword to adjust their arms “let it be an extension of your arm,” he instructed, swatting away the other hand of Aemond “one hand prince Aemond.” Aemond nodded before raising his sword again, sword extended and arm as steady as possible.

Aegon had a proud smile on his face as he managed to learn quite quickly, the advantage he had did not go unnoticed by the two younger boys, but neither dared voice their opinion on it. Jace was soon to follow in skill, even though he could only observe for Ser Criston neglected to focus on the boy. Aemond seemed to struggle the most out of the three, baring most, if not all of Cristons attention. He swung at the training dummy, grunting as he twisted his wrists in an incorrect manner.

Aegon would notice his brothers struggle, nudging Jace and gesturing for him to watch the boy as he grappled with the wooden sword. The two laughed at his struggle and Aegon shouted to his brother “come on brother! A dragonless Targaryen must learn to fend for himself from the ground,” he yelled, earning a surprised laugh from Jace.

Aemonds face flushed in anger, vexed by his brothers jabs and his nephew’s laughter. He channelled his anger through his swings. Criston gave a quick glance of caution to the boys before advising the irked Aemond “lighter swings my Prince.”

An amused Jace spoke to his uncle “We shouldn’t even be here, what good use is swordsmanship on dragon back?” his words and their laughter did not miss the ears of Aemond.

He halted his movements, sword clenched at his side as he sneered at the muddy ground. Had he looked up at their taunting faces, he would have mistaken them for the wooden dummy before him.

“Did I tell the either of you to stop?” Criston asked prompting them to choke on their teasing laughter. Once they turned away, he gave a reassuring nod to the vexed prince "go on."

Aemond huffed out a shuddered breath, displeased by his reliance on someone else to come to his own defence.

Aegon and Jace from then on did not shy away from making little comments about the slow learning and dragonless boy. Seemingly, the Kings decision served well to bring the boys together, two of them at least.

“That will be all for today,” Criston announced as his eyes jumped about the three boys, not knowing whether to feel disappointed or pleased by their amateur progression. His eyes lingered on Jace, whom this time, had not been bothered by his stare, he was too busy joking with Aegon to notice.

The boys placed their weapons back upon the rack, the dragon keepers waiting to escort them to the dragon pit. Aegon shoved his weapon to his brother “If you could brother,” He spoke, not paying him any mind as he walked away.

Aemond huffed in annoyance at his brothers disregard for him, noting how Jace was quick to follow Aegon. He returned the weapon to its place on the rack and turned to join them. Fell away his annoyance as he saw his brother, his blood, walk away with the dark-haired bastard. Seeing his brother walk away with the boy left Aemond in dejected humiliation. His hands balled up at his sides, feeling the stares of the those that took pity on him.

Criston rested his hand on the tense shoulder of the boy, an attempt of comfort but the boy was quick to shrug away his pity and march off the training grounds. Cristons cold stare did not waver as it followed the two tormenting boys.

As the months passed so continued their endless torment of the boy. Nothing seemed to dampen their teasing remarks to Aemond, whose anger seemed to rise and boil beneath his skin. He slowly began to excel in every teaching they received together, he was swift with his sword and calculating in his movements, he would be prepared for every teaching with their appointed Maester, and courteous to every Lord and Lady he encountered with the other two. To his dismay, it never seemed enough for his brother to stop.

Months after the king enforced the rule upon the boys, Luke joined their sessions and to Aemonds misfortune, he was quick to side with the two wolves that continued to gnaw at him.

He attempted to inform his brother of his detest at how he has been treated these few months. He was given a false assurance that his feelings had been acknowledged, only to have offered Aegon upon a silver platter, another wound to prod at with his sharp words.

He blankly stared ahead of himself, the tome in his lap long forgotten. Fingers digging into the leather binding and oxidised paper. The look in his eyes void of the beaming light of the sun that shone upon the godswood. Lips squeezed in contempt and face still as he marinated in his own anger.

Daenerys was too lost in her own rambling to notice his usual silence lasting far too long. She glanced down at him from the tree crook she settled upon, worry whelmed her as she saw the distant look on his face. Hopping down she called out “Aemond,” a soft grunt escaped her as she landed on her knees against the dry ground, probably scraped them beneath her dress “Aaaaeeemmmooondddd” she drawled out, her voice held a wavering puckishness that fell away when he remained unresponsive. She knelt beside him, an arm around her knees as she tilted her head to get a better look at his face, her hand reached out and rested upon his shoulder and she called out for him again, the note of tenderness seemed to reach him as he glanced up at her “Aemond?”

His jaw rolled as he ducked his head, trying to ease away his anger.

“What has caught your tongue?” she jovially asked, resting beside him “you’ve barely flicked past a single page,” she pointed to the untouched bookmark on the tome. She chuckled as she asked, “I do hope your sessions with the Maester have not granted you someone more interesting than I to read with you,” she frowned when she noticed the sneer that danced across his upper lip. Her lips downturned and she rested her back against the bark of the tree, fingers fiddling with the compass that hung at her hip. The two sat together in a long silence, the girl sighed, the uncomfortable silence felt awkward to her, but she knew he needed a moment to gather himself.

words came together as his thoughts cleared, he asked “your brothers…” her brows knitted at the mention of her young brother “have they ever teased you?”

She was taken aback by the question, an incredulous look on her face as she asked, “what could they possibly tease me for?”

He abruptly interrupted “for not having a dragon, have they ever shamed you for not having a dragon?” He was taken aback by how her face suddenly dropped at the mention of it, dread overcame him as he accused her “They’ve spoken about it to you!” he bolted up from where had sat and looked down at her, the sudden action caused her to tense in fear “Luke and Jace have been ridiculing me to you, and you’ve allowed it?! All these months?” he shouted; voice wavering as he pictured her laughing along with her brothers at his troubles.

Daenerys frowned in confusion, baffled by the conclusion he had so swiftly arrived at. She shot up from the ground and remarked “what? No! I would never!” she exclaimed, but it seemed as though it was not enough, grimacing in shock as she saw him shake his head and begin to walk away from her. She chased after him and stood in his path, growing outraged by the accusation. He turned away from her, rudely giving her his shoulder to speak to “Luke only spoke ill of you once and I gave him AND Jace an earful to make them cease their taunting!” she explained. When she had first heard of her brothers’ jests about Aemond, she was terribly hurt by their barbed words. She was not innocent of poking fun at him either, but she knew that some open wounds were best not to be pried at, Especially with Aemonds fiery temper.

The first she was made aware of her brothers’ insults, she wondered if they had thought the same of her, for she was in the same predicament as the boy they constantly poked fun at.

Her eyes glazed over with the sorrowful sheen of tears “I, out of everyone understand the plight you and I face,” lips twisting as the young girl did her best to maintain her composure “to laugh at a struggle that I understand would make me crueller than Jace, or Luke, or your brother!”

His lips pursed as he pondered her words, hands gripping at his arms as they grew tighter around his chest. His brows knitted as he stared at the cobble floor, giving it instead of her an icy glare.

A shuddered sigh escaped Daenerys “why would you think I’d ever laugh at you for such a thing?” she questioned, fingers brushing over the knuckles of her hand.

“You’re their eldest sibling,” he muttered, his foot digging at the floor beneath him. His gaze slowly moved up the brush across the sky and back to her as she patiently stood at his side, awaiting an answer “younger siblings always learn from their elder sibling.”

She scoffed, her hands breaking away from one another “I would hope not,” she made her way back to the abandoned tree slowly followed by a wary Aemond.

“Why is that?” he asked, his voice now softer, losing the burning harshness.

She was subtle to wipe away the hot tears before turning to face him as she sat down “Imagine! To deal with one Aegon is enough, but two or three!” she jovially exclaimed “I’d be praying to the seven to take me sooner.”

Pleasant surprise splashed away the solemn and cold expression on his face before he laughed along with her.

She sighed in relief upon seeing the smile that tore through his often-dour face. He joined her and sat beside her again, seemingly noticing she awaited a response from him “forgive me for placing blame upon you, it’s just not fair,” he said, his shoulders slumping in sorrow “my brother takes joy in their presence, if I am not the hind of the joke, I am a nuisance.”

Her bottom lip jutted outwards as she pondered “Maybe he won’t realise it now, nor will he realise tomorrow, nor the day after that,” she looked over her shoulder, seeing his sorrow taking grasp of him again, she rested her hand over his, her words laced with sincere warmth “But no friendship compares to that of a brother’s.”

He glanced down to their joined hands, before looking up at her with a child’s sheepishness. She patted his hand “He will come around to realise the joy of your presence, just as I have, with time,” her kind voice assured. She sighed for a moment before proposing “as for my brothers, I will keep watch of them, I will… be sure that next I go archery training… I shall be closer to where you and my brothers commence your sword training.”

His face awkwardly contorted to relief at hearing her assurance, no matter how naïve it may have sounded he held it closely to heart in hopes of it someday coming true. To hope for some day, that he may share a trusting endearment with his neglectful brother.

He fiddled with the edges of his book before asking “Have you thought about your mothers’ question?”

Daenerys chuckled and shook her head “Will there ever be a day that passes where you don’t ask me about that?” she harmlessly chided “Have you ever considered to ask me about my archery skills? I have finally managed to shoot the target and not my father’s foot.”

“It’s an important decision Dany,” he defended setting the book aside before turning to face her. He struggled to understand her evasion, the reason for his endless prying was because it was the one topic, she seemed disinterested in ever discussing with him.

Rolling her eyes, her head fell back against the tree. As much as she had taken joy in his presence, she favoured Helaena’s more, a moment with her was always free from talk of politics. The pestered girl was quick in her remark “A decision which I am a decade away from making!”

The aspect of the throne’s importance was still foreign to her, she knew whom ever sat it ruled the seven kingdoms and was king or queen. She knew its history, she knew of how coveted it was by both noble and low born, but her knowledge of it ended at that.

“If a decade had already passed,” he slowly suggested, his hand quickly reaching for her arm as she began to rise from her place beside him “what would you say?” he curiously questioned, expression silently pleading for her to consider his question.

The bothered Daenerys pouted, as she glared at the unmoved boy. Sighing she stared at the ground, it should have been an easy answer, who would not want to rule the seven kingdoms?

The light squeeze she felt on her arm pulled her away from her short-lived pondering. Her hand reached up to pull at the lobe of her ear “yes?” she answered, wincing as she tugged her ear too hard “A seat so coveted, a responsibility so large, so… powerful, I see no reason to refuse it,” she explained, before looking to him. Shoulders rigid when she was met with what she perceived as doubtfulness from Aemonds eyes. Nails beginning to dig deeper into the delicate flesh of her ear.

Reaching up he pulled her hand away from her ear, clutching it in his hand. She glanced down, lips twisting the side, had the decision been asked of her months earlier, she would have said yes, but now all she could think of was the other option. She looked at him through the corner of her eye, relieved to see the familiar ungraceful grin on Aemonds lips “If it is of any consolation, I think you should say yes,” He was met with a jovial scoff from Daenerys, who tugged her hand away from his and lightly shoved him away. He chuckled at her childish action and justified “Only because I think you’d make for a great queen.”

It was true, for although Aemond had detested the fact that the throne was to be inherited by his half-sister once his father passed. He was more than capable of baring that if it meant Daenerys would success it after her. In his eyes she would make for a memorable queen if the histories were to be kind enough to her. With the right guidance, he believed she may be capable to mend whatever mess her mother would leave for her to manage.

They were aligned once again side by side. Three of them so huddled together that the fourth looked entirely misplaced, as though he had mistakenly stumbled upon the training grounds and was too ashamed to leave. They were also accompanied by Ser Harwin, the commander keeping watch over his trainee archers, but made use of every moment he could sneak a pointed glance over to Rhaenyra’s boys as he watched them neglected by their instructor.

The righteous Ser Criston hands were rested at the hilt of his sword, watching the near piteous swings of his newest pupil, prince Lucerys. He had learned to hide his disgust behind a face tightened by his years of upheld duty untainted by depravity. He tore away his gaze on the boy and towards his favoured pupil, the only who seemed recuperate far quicker than the rest.

“The weapon is an extension of your arm Prince Aemond,” he stated, the young prince turned to look at him attentively “understand that and your swings will be much quicker.”

Aemond sighed, his arm gripped tightly at the wooden sword hanging at his side “my strikes can’t get any weaker Ser Criston.”

Criston walked over to him and turned him towards the dummy again “Strong strikes serve you no good if you don’t know where to use them, and when,” He explained to him, his instruction not reaching the rest of the boys who would have made good use of his instruction “nor will they help you if you are without the speed to avoid the strikes of your opponent.”

His brow scrunched as he listened before nodding and continuing his lighter, yet rapid assaults on the flesh of hay and bone of wood.

“Your opponent will not stick to one place young knights!” Criston yelled as he strode around them all “move around them, evade whatever attacks they intend on making!”

Jace nodded, twirling his blade in his wrist as he prepared himself. The boy latched on to whatever instruction he could gain from the stoic knight, pushing it to its limit until he overhears another instruction not meant for his ears. He and the rest stalked around their opponent and struck every few steps.

Luke would look over to his brother and attempt to mimic his movements, he could mimic his brother all he wished, but he could not mimic his brother’s physical condition which Luke has yet to perfect. His face grew red, and breaths grew rapid as his arm idly hit his opponent. He grimaced as he dropped his hands to his knees, catching his breath.

“Congratulations prince Luke, you’ve been effectively maimed by your opponent,” Criston scolded, restraining the smirk that pulled at his lip upon hearing the laughter of Aemond and Aegon “lift your sword from the ground.”

Luke pouted, huffing as he stood up to face his opponent again, trying to regain motivation to impress the cold Criston, who had not spared the boy a moment unless he had made an understandable mistake for him to reprimand.

To the right of the field Daenerys stood rigid with bow outstretched in hand, clad in a simple blue dress and leather bracers. Behind her was her instructor, wary of each time she let an arrow soar. Daenerys was adamant on learning how to use the ranged weapon, her father was reluctant, and many around her attempted to talk her out of this ambition. Her mother found it odd at first, not many princesses wish to seek to have such a trait in their arsenal. But when honeyed words and charm wore out, her daughter would eventually need another means of protecting herself.

Daenerys found today’s session to be less than fulfilling compared to the rest. While her shots landed somewhere other than the centre of her target -a great improvement compared to her first session- she did not feel the satisfaction of success, for her mind was busied in keeping watch of her brothers and Aemond.

Nobles gathered around to watch the princess, who had gained the vexing title the bungled archer. Curtesy of her dear uncle Aegon.

Aemond would glance over to where she was every now and then, impressed by her improvement, and Light chuckles slipping from him, finding himself amused by how red her face would get whenever another arrow found itself upright on the ground. His sudden spike of happiness did not go unnoticed by Aegon, who glanced between his brother and his dark-haired niece with disgust.

Daenerys snuck a quick glance over her shoulder while she drew back another arrow. She saw Aegon gesture to Aemond while muttering something to Jace and Luke, both laughed but froze when they saw her piercing lilac eyes warn them to seize their laughter. Jace nudged his brother to quiet down before the two moved away from Aegon.

Aegon noticed them retreating further and further away. He followed their gaze and noticed the warning look their sister had given them. His nostril flared as he huffed, irritated by her presence. He glanced around the training grounds and noticed how everyone seemed to have their attention on her, the bastard girl graced with a feature special enough to distract them all from the plain obvious.

He stalked towards his brother, leaning over his shoulder. A bewildered Aemond tensed, leaning away from his brother who had a menacing grin on his face “You think archery will be enough for her to protect herself? Should we invite our dear niece to join us in our training as well?” he spoke gesturing towards her with his head. Aemond looked at her from the corner of his eye, wary of what words would leave his brother next “Those eyes aren’t capable of protecting her from what mortal perils lie on the ground,” his taunting smile grew wider as he saw his brother turn to him, a silent message of caution emanating from his icy blue eyes “I heard there are people in the world that want to pluck them, right. Out.”

An irked Aemond forcefully stepped forward, away from his looming brother that stumbled back from the force of his movement. Aegon chuckled walking back to his station, merrily twirling his sword.

The action did not go unnoticed by the watchful Daenerys. She could only imagine what the exchange was about to cause such a response from Aemond. Adjusting her grip on her bow she breathed in.

“This is your last shot for the day princess Daenerys,” her annoyingly stoic instructor spoke, arms across his chest as he told “narrow your focus.”

She frowned in worry before shaking away every other possible bother. Stance open and arrow arm loose as she drew back the nock of her arrow against the string of her bow. ‘Just this one shot, just one shot, please!’ she pleaded, eyes focused on the bright red dye at the centre of her target. It was as though every failed attempt faded away as she restated her goal time and time again. She released the nock of her arrow and allowed it to find its path.

Her face softened with hope, the moment she let go, her body relaxed from its rigidity and her bow fell to her side. It was like a ray of sun cutting through a cloudy day when a bright smile tore across her face. The arrow once in her grip, was now protruding from the red dot of her target. She turned to look at her instructor, who had met her with a look of stifled pride.

She was alerted by applause coming from around her, the young princess was bashful upon seeing the noble men and women applauding her success around her. she bowed her head in appreciation before handing her bow to her instructor. Her brothers startled her as they gathered around her.

“You finally did it!” Lucerys yelled, jumping for joy as he pointed towards the target.

Jacaerys squeezed her arm “Father made a mistake not coming today.”

She shrugged before joking “maybe he’s been the cause of my shortcomings,” Her joke garnered laughter from her younger brothers. Glancing away from them she had noticed the approaching nobles and realised she had another important duty to attend to. She was not keen on another teaching from Septa Olera, she was only in a rush to avoid the prodding eyes of the Lords and Ladies “I’ll see the both of you at dinner!” She told her brothers, giving the two light pats to their heads before rushing past them.

As she dodged and weaved between the men and women, yelling quick thank you’s as she ran past. She regrettably had to run past Aemond as well, whom wanted to congratulate her “Dany, yo-“

She turned to face him as she walked back towards the stair “I’ll speak with you later Aemond!” she offered him a quick smile before rushing up the stairs.

His arms fell to his side, saddened by her dismissal. He continued practicing his strikes, his guard returned, Daenerys was no longer present to thwart her brothers taunting of Aemond.

Aegon glared at the faces of the dispersing crowd, who had not even bothered to gather around him after Daenerys departed the training grounds. Their disinterest caused his blood to boil, all she had done was shoot a toothpick through a cotton plate.

“Back to your stations Princes!” Ser Criston called out; he found the crowding of the princess unnecessary. Such a simple discipline archery was, he called the weapon of cowards. Too scared to get close enough to a fight. It was the art of the sword that should have garnered that attention.

The man returned to his attentiveness of Aegon and Aemond. Luke and Jace had eventually stopped their practice and simply watched. Criston had not cared enough to notice. Jacaerys had grown to find it irritating, himself and Lucerys were barely advancing in their training.

Lucerys took matters into his own hands once, he thought the knight had perceived him as too weak and slow. The looming shadow of wanting to be better, pushed him to take Cristons Morningstar, wanting to take swing at that weapon instead. The boy nearly knocked his own head off his shoulders, had the stone walls surrounding the training grounds not caught the weapon. From then on, the shadow of Ser Harwin strong seemed to linger inconspicuously in the training grounds.

Harwin would not shy away from sending disapproving glares towards their neglectful instructor. He whistled to the two boys, gaining the attention of Jacaerys. He gave a quick nod towards Cole before turning his back to them.

Jacaerys turned to look at his instructor, attempting to gather the will to ask “Ser Criston?” he gulped when he was met with the intense stare of the knight “What can we do?” He asked, puffing up his chest, he was a prince why should he be so unnerved by a king’s guard? “My brother and I have been doing for months what prince Aegon and Aemond have been doing in a week.”

Aemond had his back to them, his brow arching up as he smirked to himself. He heard Aegon whining, mocking the two boys. He did not hide the laughter that omitted from him.

Ser Criston hummed “My teachings have proven effective so far, young prince.”

“I do not plan on challenging a tree to a dual Ser Criston,” His bluntness startled him, but he kept his head high.

Cristons smugness fell away, instead it was replaced by the familiar jaded expression “very well, let us test your skill, shall we?” he turned to look at Aegon “Prove to me you can best Aegon and both you and your brother may ascend to my next teaching.”

Aegon was startled, glancing to the young boy. Aegon was at a great advantage, but eventually took the opportunity to place at least one of the Velaryons in their place. He swung his sword around as he approached the frightened Jacaerys “Come Jace! You needn’t worry, this will take me only a few moments.”

As their swords clashed it was clear that Jacaerys attentive ear was of great use to him, their prowess was nearly similar. Had it not been for Aegons height, their skill would have been identical. Jacaerys struck with force, while Aegons actions were erratic, he was stunned by the boy’s strength.

His presumption of Jacaerys weakness cost him, he was so stunned he had not noticed that his sword had been knocked out of his grip. He was awakened from his stupor by the young boys bellowing laughter of victory.

Jacaerys turned to look at his brother who mirrored his joy. He turned to look back at Aegon, hoping for a pat on the back, thinking the older prince to be a good sport about his loss. Instead, he was tackled to the ground, he was quicker to awareness than his opponent, fighting back against the furiously humiliated boy. An event the queen would be quick to latch on once she receives word of it.

Ser Criston was not quick to pry the two off one another. Aegon stumbled back, a quivering sneer on his lips. Glancing around him, attention returned to him at the worse moment, the judging stares of the crowd piercing into him. he could have sworn that the face of his mother appeared at least ten times as he looked around.

Such a childish display from the eldest of the young princes.

He cut through the unmoving crowd, marching swiftly to his chambers. He thought he had grown accustomed to the disapproving glares and painful criticisms of his mother, but to feel it ten-fold was something he had never expected himself to face. Never a moment was he seen at his best, always at his worst.

As he passed through the shadowed edges of the courtyard, he heard the sound of what he perceived was the goading laughter of the cause of his greatest woes. Daenerys Velaryon sat beside his sister, laughing to her hearts content, while he was made to fall to a shadow, she had never been in. whatever thought of rationality had drowned in the boiling water of years of anger and jealousy. His hand, as though with a will of its own, reached for the hilt of the dagger strapped to his hip. Such turmoil this day had been for him, and such a lingering putrid taste it would leave in his mouth, so he had to wash it out somehow.

Helaena had a pitiful smile as she watched Daenerys struggle to complete her embroidery, or even start it for that matter. She was hunched over, embroidery held closely to her face as she worked.

“Your hand is shaking too much, stop clenching the needle too much!” she attempted to reach for the needle only to have her hand gently swatted away.

“Septa Olera will notice that you’ve helped me on my embroidery Helaena,” She explained.

“How?” she questioned curiously.

She scoffed before resting the embroidery on her lap “all she’ll have to search for is perfection and discipline.”

“Let me at least tie off your thread at the start!” she urged.

Daenerys sighed and handed it over to her. She rested her hands on her cheeks as she leaned on her knees, peering over to see Helaenas work. She frowned when she saw her swap out the blue thread she had been using “My thread…”

“It’s frayed Dany, let’s use one of mine! Septa Olera always admires it, she’ll be sure to give you the same admiration!” she spoke credulously.

Daenerys found Helaena’s unwary demeanour terribly reassuring, never hid her intent, and never seemed to hold an ill one. It had taken her weeks to grow accustomed to it and eventually it became the greatest reason for her to view her aunt as a great friend to keep.

Helaena pulled out her favourite red thread, poking it through the needle before beginning her work “Break away a branch of red…” her soft voice spoke, but her words had not slipped the curious ears of Daenerys, she pierced the back of the fabric and looped back to pierce it again. Creating a small loop at the back of it, she pierced the fabric a third time and passed the thread through the loop “charging towards…” she pulled the thread and closed the loop around it “a dances end.”

She presented it to the confounded Daenerys, it was the only downside to her friendship with Helaena. The curious sentences she would mutter every now and then irked Daenerys for she would never be capable of deciphering any of Helaenas often concerning riddles.

Her surroundings petered out as she fell to the constant daze she’d go into after hearing one of Helaenas riddles. A sharp tug at her hair tore a shrill scream of horror from her throat. She tried to pull away, but her attacker kept a tight grasp of the handful of hair he had kept in his grip. Hair so long it reached her lower back, she took so much pride in the head of hair she had been born with.

The tugging had suddenly ended, and she collapsed to the stone ground in front of her, her cheek and palms scraping against it. The blood trickling from the scrape on her cheek and brow, and the burning of her palms seemed to not be of concern once she noticed the long tufts of hair landing around her. The braid that hung from the back of her head was now on the ground in front of her. Her lips began to quiver as she sat on her knees. As it dawned upon her, she turned to look at her attacker, who laughed at her state.

“Aegon!” Helaena cried out in shock.

Aegon clutched his chest as he cackled. Many began to gather around, gasping in horror upon seeing the sight, all of them looming over. The mortified princess stared at the locks of hair in her attackers’ hand with beating dread in her wide eyes, sobs beginning to build within her chest. Heart hammering in her ears as she began to shrink away. Her heavy tears began to pour so much that had she not been focused on understanding why he would do such a thing; she would fear that she would drown herself in her own sorrow.

“A few more cuts Dany, and we’ll get rid of everything else strong about you.”

One of the lords stepped forward, reaching down to the terrified girl, pitying her state “princess Daenerys… let me take you to your mother,” his hands slowly resting on her shoulders.

Like a dear running at the sound of a snapping twig she bolted out of the courtyard, the sound of her cries following her. Her once long dark hair, now a mess of length. She had evaded every one of the guards and nobles she encountered and disappeared into the red keep. Stumbling into the secret dark corridor she had accidentally found one day; the darkness of the corridor repelled her from making it a common place to visit. But her feet seemed to guide her straight into it.

Shutting the door behind her she shook her head, glancing to the left and the right of the ill-lit corridor. She rushed towards the sight of two rays of light, falling beside the worn window, and scurrying to the wall, curling up against it. The exhilaration of the run combined with the trepidation inflicted upon her by Aegon’s Malicious actions, threw the poor girl into a panic. Her face blemished by the anguish of it all, heart beating at a rate the rest of her body found it difficult to catch up with. Her limbs limp around her as she fought against this foreign feeling. The sound of drops hitting the cold cobblestone caught her currently frenzied attention.

Her finger tapping for each second that passed before the next drop of water splashed on the small puddle it had formed.

Eight seconds she had counted. Gathering her courage, she gulped and pushed herself up and against the wall, head leaning against the cold stone as she fought to regain control of her body. Heaving in a deep breath of air, for a moment it felt as though it had all cleared, but her breath hitched at the interrupting sound of the splash. With that she let out a shuddered exhale, finding a calming rhythm. Collecting herself with every eight seconds.

Her legs straight ahead of her, Staring ahead of herself as she tugged at her ear, she found it difficult to reach for her hair, every time she had, another strand of hair would find itself in her hand. it was not a clean cut; she could still feel the painful tension of his tugging on her scalp. It had not helped that the thoughts of why he would do such a thing to her began to beat against the wall of her skull. With every possible reason that was denied, she eventually had to succumb to the fact that the reason of why, was to her dismay: unknown.

#house of the dragon #aemond the kinslayer #aemond targaryen #hotd #aemond fanfiction #aemond x oc #alicent hightower #rhaenyra targaryen #viserys targaryen #helaena targaryen #aegon targaryen #jacaerys velaryon #lucerys velaryon #harwin strong #laenor velaryon #dragons #a song of ice and fire #aemond targaryen x reader #want for nothing

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dear-mrs-otome · 1 year

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Hello friends. Would you like to meet the antagonist of Faust's route? The dastardly entity responsible for untold pain and misery, for putting our intrepid couple through the metaphorical wringer? The arch-enemy of mankind for centuries??

(spoilers behind the cut)

Here you go! Yersinia pestis, or Y. pestis to its friends, in all its gram-negative, electron scanned, color enhanced glory.

Aww, but Mrs O, you say, it's so cute! Look at its widdle fimbriae waving hewwo! Its pastel pink Lisa Frank inspired palette!

But don't be fooled! This tiny cold-blooded killer is responsible for more deaths than possibly any other infectious agent in the history of humankind - we all know it as the bubonic plague. The Black Death. It's cut down hundreds of millions of people over the course of human history, and it is still a threat today.

Transmitted to humans primarily by the bite of fleas, Y. pestis is a nasty character - without treatment, mortality rates upon infection are 30% - 90%. It sets up shop in a nearby lymph node, gets busy, and the resulting damage causes tissues to die. Victims tend to develop large, swollen, and painful lymph nodes called buboes, which is where the illness gets the name 'bubonic plague'.

One thing to note though, for Faust's route, is that while we generally think of this type of plague as THE plague...there are two other forms an infection with Y. pestis can take. A septicemic infection, where the bacteria enter the blood stream rather than the lymph nodes and which is almost always fatal, and a pneumonic version. This one here is the stuff of epidemiology nightmares. It often is the result of inhaling airborne droplets from another infected individual, and it can spread from person to person very easily unlike the usual bubonic form which requires bodily contact or a bite from an infected flea. It causes fevers, weakness, and violently severe coughing, and without antibiotics is nearly 100% fatal in a frighteningly short period of time - most victims are dead within mere days. Sometimes hours.

The first major recorded outbreak of the bubonic plague was the Plague of Justinian, which began about 1,500 years ago in 541 CE and ravaged the Sasanian and Byzantine empires. It's estimated that the plague resulted in anywhere from 15 to 100 million deaths, up to 40% of the population of Constantinople at the time, and some historians believe people were dying at a rate of 5,000 per day in the capital city.

The second plague epidemic, the one many people are more familiar with, was the one we refer to as the Black Death. This epidemic began raging across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia in the late 1330s, with Europe being hit particularly hard. By the time it was over Europe would see its population cut between 30% and 60%, and the Middle East losing about a third of its people as well. Numbers are difficult to estimate but they range from 75 -200 million dead.

There is, however, a third plague epidemic, although not as well known. In the 18th century the plague made a resurgence in SW China, remaining somewhat localized until the mid 19th century when it spread to Hong Kong and from there globally. There were outbreaks in the United States, India, many African countries, SE Asian countries, Russia, South America, the Caribbean, and most importantly for our story purposes - Europe. The largest outbreak was in Lisbon, but there were many smaller pockets of infection in various cities across the continent.

This was around the time the plague bacterium got its scientific name, Yersinia pestis, because of this man - a secondary character in our vampire love story, albeit with a slightly different name:

Say hello to Alexandre Yersin, a Swiss-French doctor and scientist.

Keenly interested in bacteriology, in 1886 he studied in Paris where Louis Pasteur was doing work in microbiology and worked on antiserum for rabies and antitoxin for diphtheria, two other famous scourges. (Antiserum, in the briefest of explanations, is basically a way to transfer antibodies from someone/something exposed to an infectious agent to a different person, thereby triggering the recipients immune system earlier and more vigorously EDITED TO ADD: this also applies to venom and this is actually how antivenom is made as well!)

In 1894, he was sent to Hong Kong to investigate the plague outbreak and it was here that he identified the bacteria responsible, the one that now bears his name, along with confirmation of its transmission route via rodents. (A Japanese scientist in Hong Kong at the same time, Kitasato Shibasaburou, independently identified the bacterium almost simultaneously as well, but because his documentations were not as clear it is Yersin who is generally credited with the initial find)

Yersin spent the next few years continuing his studies of the plague, traveling back to Paris in 1895 to develop the first anti-plague serum. It was the work of scientists like him, and so many others at this time, that paved the way for modern medicine and a path towards eradicating the diseases that have held us in their skeletal grip for so much of mankind's history.

...And perhaps, in the world of Ikevamp, that path owes just a little bit to a certain bespectacled German priest.

#ikemen vampire #ikevamp #ikevamp faust #spoiler #spoilers #ikemen vampire spoilers #ikevamp spoilers #how to tag this?#lore? background? idek #maybe just 'stuff i wish i'd known the first time i read his route'

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beardedmrbean · 3 months

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Wait

The Native Americans are fighting against the wokies?

It not surprising because how problematic they see things as. Fuck the recent Predator movie Prey did more to preserve the Comanche language it’s was also fully dub into it

But seriously I seen it in black media, notice how 95% of black media only focus on blm stuff or how many black historical figures are often erased by white wokies? Like black peopke can’t thrive in capitalism…please ignore that restaurant owner that inspire the Disney Princess Tiana

But back to the natives, yeah they would attack you guys. The left can barely understand Japanese POP CULTURE much as native historical stuff.

Good luck natives…tbh I think I know more about the Iroquois playing via playing a fictional historical game more than what leftist learn about native Americans in college.

Admittedly it got shit on pretty hard in the Tulsa Race Riots, but "black wall street" was a thing and there were many thriving former slaves and children of former slaves at that point. Would have been nice if they'd managed to rebuild I will admit the cards were not just stacked against them, there was bulldozers pushing those cards too, few still managed.

Would have been nice if they could have been more able to defend themselves properly, trying to find NRA activity for southern Black folks post reconstruction/Jim crow era not much popping up other than.

Begin Tangent

This guy who just popped on to my radar.

Born in North Carolina in 1925, Williams’ experience mirrors that of many African-Americans of his generation. He moved to Detroit as part of the Second Great Migration, where he was privy to race rioting over jobs. He served in the then-segregated United States Marine Corps for a year and a half after being drafted in 1944. Upon returning to his North Carolina hometown, Williams found a moribund chapter of the NAACP. With only six members and little opposition, he used his USMC training to commandeer the local branch and turn it in a decidedly more military direction. The local chapter soon had over 200 members under Williams’ leadership. If nothing else, his leadership was effective at building the movement from the ground up.

An early incident is particularly instructive in how effective these new tactics were. The KKK was very active in Monroe, with an estimated 7,500 members in a town of 12,000. After hearing rumors that the Klan intended to attack NAACP chapter Vice President Dr. Albert Perry’s house, Williams and members of the Black Armed Guard surrounded the doctor’s house with sandbags and showed up with rifles. Klansman fired on the house from a moving vehicle and the Guard returned fire. Soon after, the Klan required a special permit from the city’s police chief to meet. One incident of self-defense did more to move the goalposts than all previous legislative pressure had.

Monroe’s Black Armed Guard wasn’t a subsidiary of the Communist Party, nor an independent organization like the Black Panther Party that would use similar tactics of arming their members later. In fact, “Black Armed Guard” was nothing more than a fancy name for an officially chartered National Rifle Association chapter.

He got a bit more militant later on, I will blame a good deal of that on the fbi doing what the fbi did to black people that stood up for other black people. Not gonna call him a hero just yet because I haven't looked far enough into him to have a full picture, but this stuff is pretty damn heroic. Remember gun control has frequently been used as a tool to keep minorities in check, and will continue to be used as so until more people put their foot down.

End tangent __________________

Ya we went over this before with Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben among others, removing minority representation in order to not offend white leftists who will just find something else to be offended about anyhow so just please ignore them and ask the people you're supposedly doing it for, I will say I'm glad that the "latinx" debate is over, only took most of Latin America and the royal Spanish society both saying it's stupid and insulting to get it killed.

Also don't try to turn it around on white people because

_____________________

We eat this shit up, fighting whites one went on sale, sold out really fast and the money went to a scholarship program for indigenous students I think, it's in the link and they should make them again if you ask me.

#zoomer huey anon

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awesome-casuallyfamouscollector · 6 months

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youtube

The Dark Untold History The Arabs Have Tried To Erase

The Arab history of anti black racism predates European anti black racism by several centuries. The early Islamic empire exhibited all the characteristics of anti black racism, and blacks suffered the lowest form of bondage. Europeans took photographs of chained black African slaves in Arab slave trading vessels on the East Coast of Africa in the eighteen eighties. Slavery persisted openly in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries in the latter half of the twentieth century, one hundred years after slavery was abolished in the United States. As late as the nineteen sixties, African Muslims still sold slaves when they arrived on pilgrimages, as a way to finance their pilgrimages. Arab nations lagged far behind the rest of the world in abolishing slavery: Saudi Arabia and Yemen in nineteen sixty two, United Arab Emirates in nineteen sixty three, Oman in nineteen seventy! However, unlike the rest of the Arab nations, hereditary racial slavery persists in Mauritania despite multiple official attempts to abolish it(..)

P.S. Fortunately for Europe, Charles Martel was not a "multiculturalist" and saved Europe from the horrors of Muslim invasion and slavery at the Battle of Tours in October 732. Today's pseudo-liberals are trying to eradicate European history and open the borders to Muslim terrorist invasion and modern slavery...

Yesterday, I saw the original and uncensored video material that today's "popular" media is TRYING TO HIDE and silence from the world community about hamaz crimes. I lack WORDS TO DESCRIBE and COMMENT ON WHAT I SAW!

The only thing I can say is that every aerial bomb dropped by Israel finds its target, spare no artillery shells and bullets, spare no mosque, leave no stone unturned and remember the mentally retarded who funded, propagandized and supported hamas...organized demonstrations, opened borders for them, find them too...!!!!

#muslim invasion #muslim war crimes #religion #Youtube

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ashleybenlove · 4 months

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@lifblogs asked me a few days ago if I was gonna share the list of books I read this year. So, I'm gonna do that.

Due to character limits, I had to separate the numbered lists, so first list goes up to 100 and then the second list is the rest.

Couple of notes, my list includes the date I finished reading and a couple of marks.

Their meanings:

Started in 2022: * This book is a reread: ** Did not write down the date but probably the date: *? (Basically I decided after I had started to include the date finished.) Special notation for Dracula and Dracula Daily: **!

Bold denotes favorites.

Eight Kinky Nights: An f/f Chanukah romance by Xan West* – Jan 1*?

Through the Moon: A Graphic Novel (The Dragon Prince Graphic Novel #1) by Peter Wartman – Jan 4

Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jennings – Jan 7

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World by Steve Brusatte – Jan 12

A Brother’s Price by Wen Spencer** - Jan 13

Gossie and Gertie by Olivier Dunrea – Jan 17

A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters by Andrew H. Knoll – Jan 18

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler – Jan 22

Flying Dinosaurs: How Fearsome Reptiles Became Birds by John Pickrell – Jan 25

Promised Land: a Revolutionary Romance by Rose Lerner – Jan 26

Bad Girls Never Say Die by Jennifer Mathieu – Jan 27

How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr – Feb 2

Artemis by Andy Weir – Feb 4

Hunting Game by Helene Tursten – Feb 7

How the Earth Turned Green: A Brief 3.8-Billion-Year History of Plants by Joseph E. Armstrong – Feb 14

Fortuna by Kristyn Merbeth – Feb 16

After Hours on Milagro Street by Angelina M. Lopez – Feb 22

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan – Feb 22

Super Volcanoes: What They Reveal about Earth and the Worlds Beyond by Robin George Andrews – Feb 28

Memoria by Kristyn Merbeth – Feb 28

American Revolution: A History From Beginning to End by Hourly History – Mar 5

Discordia by Kristyn Merbeth – Mar 6

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley – Mar 17

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester – Mar 18

The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions by Peter Brannen – Mar 18

Big Chicas Don't Cry by Annette Chavez Macias – Mar 19

Innumerable Insects: The Story of the Most Diverse and Myriad Animals on Earth by Michael S. Engel – Mar 21

The Cause: The American Revolution and its Discontents, 1773-1783 by Joseph J. Ellis – Mar 24

Eragon by Christopher Paolini – Mar 25

Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive by Philipp Dettmer – Mar 25

Locked in Time by Lois Duncan** – Mar 26

Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur – Mar 28

The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict – April 4

Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham – April 7

Bisexually Stuffed By Our Living Christmas Stocking by Chuck Tingle – April 8

Bloodmoon Huntress: A Graphic Novel (The Dragon Prince Graphic Novel #2) by Nicole Andelfinger – April 9

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell – April 11

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton – April 13

The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis – April 17

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Jimenez – April 19

Cinder by Marissa Meyer – April 20

The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson – April 20

Eldest by Christopher Paolini – April 22

The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan – April 23

The Sentient Lesbian Em Dash — My Favorite Punctuation Mark — Gets Me Off by Chuck Tingle – April 24

The Pleistocene Era: The History of the Ice Age and the Dawn of Modern Humans by Charles River Editors – April 26

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie – April 27

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach – April 29

Absolution by Murder by Peter Tremayne – May 3

Matrix by Lauren Groff – May 6

The Color Purple by Alice Walker – May 7

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie – May 9

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume – May 11

The Dragon Prince Book One: Moon by Aaron Ehasz and Melanie McGanney Ehasz – May 13

Mind the Gap, Dash & Lily by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan – May 15

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez – May 15

Atlas of Unusual Borders: Discover Intriguing Boundaries, Territories and Geographical Curiosities by Zoran Nikolic – May 20

How the Mountains Grew: A New Geological History of North America by John Dvorak – May 20

The Guncle by Steven Rowley – May 21

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini – May 24

Reflection: A Twisted Tale by Elizabeth Lim – May 26

Sailor's Delight by Rose Lerner – May 26

The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World by Riley Black – May 28

Humans are Weird: I Have the Data by Betty Adams – June 3

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro – June 4

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer – June 8

Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut – June 9

A Tip for the Hangman by Allison Epstein – June 11

Cress by Marissa Meyer – June 20

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao – June 22

The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us by Steve Brusatte – June 24

After the Hurricane by Leah Franqui – June 24

Inheritance by Christopher Paolini – June 25

Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez – June 26

Dark Room Etiquette by Robin Roe – June 30

The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack – July 4

Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains by Bethany Brookshire – July 5

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin – July 7

Cosmos by Carl Sagan – July 10

1984 by George Orwell** -- July 11

What Once Was Mine: A Twisted Tale by Liz Braswell – July 17

Evolution Gone Wrong: The Curious Reasons Why Our Bodies Work (Or Don't) by Alex Bezzerides – July 20

The Planet Factory: Exoplanets and the Search for a Second Earth Hardcover by Elizabeth Tasker – July 21

Witches by Brenda Lozano – July 24

Son of a Sailor: A Cozy Pirate Tale by Marshall J. Moore – July 29

Winter by Marissa Meyer – July 29

As Old As Time: A Twisted Tale by Liz Braswell – July 30

Baking Yesteryear: The Best Recipes from the 1900s to the 1980s by B. Dylan Hollis – August 4

Half Bad by Sally Green – August 7

The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time by John Kelly – August 14

Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley – August 18

Gory Details: Adventures From the Dark Side of Science by Erika Engelhaupt – August 22

The Last Karankawas by Kimberly Garza – August 25

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore – Sept 5

Oceans of Kansas, Second Edition: A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea by Michael J. Everhart – Sept 7

Corpus Christi: The History of a Texas Seaport by Bill Walraven – Sept 9

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury** – Sept 12

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Sept 18

The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera – Sept 20

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett – Sept 22

The Mammals of Texas by William B. Davis and David J. Schmidly – Sept 29

The Romance Recipe by Ruby Barrett – Oct 4

The 2024 Old Farmer’s Almanac edited by Janice Stillman – Oct 7

Half Wild by Sally Green – Oct 7

Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James – Oct 7

Verity by Colleen Hoover – Oct 10

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence – Oct 15

Archaeology: Unearthing the Mysteries of the Past by Kate Santon – Oct 16

100 Places to See After You Die: A Travel Guide to the Afterlife by Ken Jennings – Oct 22

The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie – Oct 22

Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe García McCall – Oct 22

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie – Oct 27

How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler – Oct 28

The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found by Mary Beard – Oct 29

Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair by Sarah Schulman – Oct 31

The Great Texas Dragon Race by Kacy Ritter – Nov 6

Dracula by Bram Stoker**! – Nov 7/8

The Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser – Nov 9

Cascadia's Fault: The Coming Earthquake and Tsunami that Could Devastate North America by Jerry Thompson – Nov 10

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison – Nov 11

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney – Nov 13

Untamed by Glennon Doyle – Nov 14

Nimona by ND Stevenson – Nov 18

Dracula Daily by Matt Kirkland**! – Nov 20

A Mother Would Know by Amber Garza – Nov 24

Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie – Nov 25

How To Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell** – Nov 27

Hickory Dickory Dock by Agatha Christie – Dec 1

Murtagh by Christopher Paolini – Dec 8

The Labours of Hercules by Agatha Christie – Dec 8

Icehenge by Kim Stanley Robinson – Dec 9

These Holiday Movies With Bizarrely Similar Smiling Heterosexual Couples Dressed In Green And Red On Their Cover Get Me Off Bisexually by Chuck Tingle – Dec 9

The Domesday Book: England's Heritage, Then & Now edited by Thomas Hindle – Dec 10

You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation by Julissa Arce – Dec 13

Himawari House by Harmony Becker – Dec 13

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck** – Dec 18

Born Into It: A Fan’s Life by Jay Baruchel – Dec 18

The Dragon Prince Book Two: Sky by Aaron Ehasz and Melanie McGanney Ehasz – Dec 23

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree – Dec 24

Half Lost by Sally Green – Dec 24

Understudies by Priya Sridhar – Dec 28

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir – Dec 28

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking – Dec 31

#ashleybenlove posts #and yes I am aware that Zhao and Walker are problematic bigoted people #books #long post #i should really count how many nonfiction books I read...

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ausetkmt · 5 months

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A brave new voice has emerged on the independent film scene. Meet Nazenet Habtezghi, a Black creative who’s carved out a niche for herself as a documentary filmmaker. Her latest project, where she serves as both director and producer, is “Birthing A Nation: The Resistance of Mary Gaffney” (MTV Documentary Films). It’s a story that takes the audience on an emotional rollercoaster as Habtezghi carefully unpacks the life of an enslaved woman who’s hellbent on preventing her enslavers from controlling her reproductive future. While the subject somewhat eerily mirrors some of the issues of agency that women are facing today, Habtezghi is able to keep the integrity of the era in which Mary Gaffney lived using testimonies from formally enslaved people. The film is only 19 minutes long, but each second grabs you in such a way that you’ll be thinking about Mary Gaffney many moments later.

The Brooklyn-based journalist-turned-filmmaker is a nurturing, compassionate storyteller who takes pride in disrupting the system. Habtezghi took her time to ensure she could frame Gaffney’s story in the most impactful way.

“It was important for me to say her name," said Habtezghi. “I like to say that Mary found me. I came across her testimony, and I was initially fixated on the part where she talked about chewing cotton root. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? The thing that you’re being forced to pick on the plantation is what you’re using to control your fertility,’" said the first-time director.

Gaffney’s audaciousness in defying her slave breeders is what makes her so badass and she wasn't the only one. There were others who also chewed on the cotton root as a "natural" contraceptive, exercising control of their own reproductive futures. “I was lost in that part of her testimony. It was just so incredible."

Habtezghi was working at Firelight Films, producing, researching, and developing a different project about the Transatlantic slave trade, when she came across the archival testimonies from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a government work release program that provided 8.5 million jobs to Americans during the Great Depression in 1935. Most of what she discovered were detailed interviews with 2,300 formerly enslaved men and women.

“After reading buried testimonies of enslaved people, enslaved women, and enslavers talking about how they raped women, I was in this emotional space,” said Habtezghi.

She later explained how a mentorship with historians Dr. Jennifer L. Morgan and Dr. Daina Ramey Berry, both of whom are featured in the film as experts on the enslaved, helped her gain a greater understanding of the relationship between Black women’s physical labor and their reproductive labor and how, when combined, it emphatically dictated and sustained slavery in America through the 19th century once the Transatlantic slave trade market was no longer an option.

“It fueled slavery and gave rise to capitalism in the United States," said Habtezghi.“Capitalism could not have existed if it wasn’t for Black women. It’s Mary’s story but it’s also the collective [story] right? It’s important to be rooted in her resistance but then become empowered by it.”

When COVID-19 happened, the project was put on pause. As luck would have it, another opportunity presented itself through Firelight Films and MTV Documentary Films. They were looking for filmmakers to create short films that could speak to the forgotten or unknown parts of Black history. Habtezghi knew exactly what story she wanted to tell. It took almost two years to bring details of Mary Gaffney’s life to light. Now, the film has been nominated for a Black Reel Award in the "Outstanding Short Film" category.

Habtezghi’s connection to this story goes even deeper. Her emotions get the best of her as she describes her personal journey as a young girl, fleeing her home in the war-stricken African nation of Eritrea and migrating to the United States. She grew up in Dallas, Texas, and would graduate with a B.A. in Journalism from Oklahoma University. In time, she landed her dream job as an editor at ESSENCE magazine.

Habtezghi has earned her bones by contributing to documentaries that have been featured on PBS, Netflix, and HBO. She co-directed The ABCs of Book Banning with esteemed documentarian Sheila Nevins for MTV Documentary Films. Nevins, who has produced hundreds of projects for HBO, is also a 32-time Emmy winner.

In her next project, Habtzghi is set to produce and direct “American Problems, Trans Solutions,” a docuseries in partnership with transgender activist Imara Jones. She has made quite an entrance in the documentary filmmaking arena with Mary Gaffney’s story, masterfully breathing life into a buried tale and giving a voice to an otherwise unknown Black woman whose secret defiance in the face of slavery deserves to be told.

#Nazenet Habtezghi Unravels the Untold Story of an Enslaved Black Woman’s Bold Decision To Control Her Own Destiny #Birthing A Nation: The Resistance of Mary Gaffney #Mary Gaffney #formerly enslaved #Black Women #Nazenet Habtezghi #Black Women Filmmakers #Youtube

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truecrimethirdeyeblind · 5 months

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TYLER DOYLE, MISSING DUCK HUNTER LITTLE RIVER, SOUTH CAROLINA 1/26/23

Everyone deserves for their story to be told; no matter who they are, if they are not here to tell it, they deserve to have a voice. With this blog, I hope to be that listening ear to that voice in the darkness and make sure that their story is broadcasted to the best of my ability.

Coastal South Carolina is filled with beauty and wonder; marshlands that support an entire ecosystem of fish and birds and other wildlife. The low country streams and rivers meander into lakes and slough off into swampy marsh filled with turtles and heron and cayman. In summer, the air is heavy with brine and still except for the sounds of crickets and tree frogs and splashes of alligators. Spanish moss drapes wanton like forest green curtains hung haphazardly over live oaks that stretch into the sultry southern sky.

There are wide expanses of beach, sand and dunes, beach grass bending to the wind in a cadence matching the ever present tides. The blue green Atlantic beckons like a siren, calling in surfers and swimmers and boaters and fishermen. On stormy days and the skies turn grey casting a pall on the cerulean sea as it churns into blue grey whorls; those are the days the sea claims them all for its own.

Every year, over 20 million people flock to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to enjoy the sun and sand by day and by night there are hundreds of activities and adventures to choose from. There are aquariums, amusement parks, over 2000 restaurants, and more mini golf than you can shake a stick at. If you should you choose, you can even take a cruise on a casino boat and try your hand with Lady Luck.

But for every bit of paradise, there always seems to be a sinister side. For all that beauty and wonder, there is a matched darkness and evil. According to the FBI’s latest US Crime Report, Myrtle Beach, SC is now officially the 3rd most dangerous city in the United States (Charlotte Stories, 2019). These are high statistics and surprising because most would assume that larger cities like New York City or Los Angeles would fall highest on that list.

Crimes listed vary from murder to larceny to kidnapping. South Carolina Department of Natural Resources reported in 2022 (SCDNR.gov 2023) that missing persons cases went up by 131%. Again, these are high statistics and suggest that perhaps there is a trend given that crime in general is high in this city.

Just North of this crime mecca is North Myrtle Beach which ranked at number 30 on the same federal list. That is where this untold story comes in. North Myrtle Beach/Little River is some of the most beautiful raw nature on South Carolina’s coast. It boasts a small town running along the Intracoastal Waterway, rife with beautiful waterfront homes and sandy beaches that lead to the Atlantic. There are oyster beds on the intracoastal and long marsh-walks stretching across the vast waterways that course out to the Atlantic. The area is rich with history and family owned land dating back to the 1800s in the glory days of lumber mills.

On January 26, 2023, Tyler Doyle, a duck hunter from Loris, South Carolina went missing right there in Little River, South Carolina. As the story goes, he was going duck hunting that afternoon with a friend. He is said to have dropped the friend at the jetty rocks in order to go scare up some ducks to shoot. The friend calls 911 some minutes later stating that “I am in the ocean and my boat is drifting out into the ocean.” The 911 dispatcher asks for verification if anyone is hurt on the boat. There is a pause. He then states “I’m on the jetty rocks, Tyler, a buddy of mine; his boat is sinking.” He explains that Tyler had called him in distress and that the engine had cut off and the boat was taking on water.

The friend asks to hang up so that he may call Tyler and check on him. He has stated that he cannot see him any longer and that he had turned away and when he looked back, he was gone. The 911 dispatcher instructs him to hang up to call Tyler and call her right back. Several minutes pass and the friend calls back. On this second 911 call, he states that he was not able to reach him. Phone records later showed that he had not even attempted to call him. Instead, he had called a different friend for assistance stating that “If I need you, will you come.” Just tuck that little feather in your hat for later.

The 911 operator patches him through to the Coast Guard who is already on the way. He tells the dispatcher before the patch that he cannot see the boat. The dispatcher tells the caller that the Coast Guard should be there, as in they at least should be visible.

TLDR: The friend is picked up from the jetties by a rescue boat. He is transported to the landing. There is at first a report of two people being rescued, so there is momentary confusion. Did Tyler get rescued as well?

It turned out that he did not. A 911 call from a family member from that night reveals the anguish felt in learning that Tyler Doyle was indeed missing.

Remember that feather? Yeah, go ahead and pluck it out. At the landing, the friend who was with Tyler, now the sole witness of his disappearance, refused medical care even though he had to get in the water in order to be rescued by waiting officials. He denied treatment for potential hypothermia. He stated that he was waiting for his friend. Everyone assumed he meant Tyler, but he did not.

The friend that showed up, the one he had called instead of Tyler, was given possession of the gun and waders that was on his person during the time in question. No explanation was given for why these items were allowed to be removed by a civilian who then later refused to come to the station to give a statement. It was instead written by the lead investigator.

Hours pass, officials arrive and a search is made. It is suspended around 10:00 pm due to unfavorable conditions, stating that they would regroup in the morning.

Over the ensuing days and weeks, they searched over 600 square miles of ocean, all the way up into the Cape Fear River because some duck decoys had been found. Five days into the search, a family led search party found a pair of waders. They contained Tyler’s wallet with identifying information and cash. It is unclear whether the items were wet or dry; there is conflicting information that has been released at the time of this post. After that, the trail went cold. The search was officially called off after 43 days; ruled a boating accident and no foul play was suspected.

And yet there are questions. There are always questions when someone disappears but this case felt different to me so I stayed in tune. I began to research. I gathered my own evidence. I walked the beaches with which I was already so familiar. I had spent my entire life traveling to this area. And then I realize that is why this bothered me so much. I know the area like the back of my hand. The jetties are not some magical wall that occludes visibility. The friend should have been able to see Tyler at all times.

Immediately after Tyler went missing, posts began to circulate. Tyler Doyle Discussion groups began to form. These groups grew to over 100k in some instances. There was infighting in the groups. In the wake of no information being found and day after day, reports that Tyler had not been found, people started to speculate and it got a little crazy: Somebody came and stole somebody’s Daddy. Wild theories emerged. Tyler was in Mexico with a mysterious pop up go-fund me that grew to over 30K and was then cut off due to the speculations and criticism over the web-based charity pot. For a brief time, Tyler was thought to be on the run because he had been charged with attempted murder. On searching records, officials were immediately able to verify that those charges had been dismissed and expunged far prior to the incident in which Tyler went missing.

Family was not heard from during the early months of the search for Tyler and subsequent quest for answers. They started to speak up as their shock wore off and they have questions too.

The reports and statements submitted by the investigating body are sloppy and incomplete at best. However, it should be noted that this law enforcement agency is not designed to investigate foul play or even trained to recognize patterns or critical thinking in criminal situations. They are put in place to deal with land and endangered species preservation in times of accidents, give out gaming tickets and patrol the waterways for potential dangers.

Besides, it was a small Southern town. Everyone knows everyone; who could possibly want to hurt him? Living in the low country though, everything isn't as it seems sometimes. Not everyone has that idyllic white picket life.

As it turns out; things were not perfect in his life. There were echoes of marital strife with a baby on the way in a fairly new marriage. In June, the wife moved out of the home she shared with her missing husband; lawsuits were filed against her by Tyler’s family for allegedly removing items that she shouldn’t have. The case is still ongoing at the time of publishing of this post.

And what of the attempted murder charges which were said to be connected to a Snapchat argument between Tyler’s brother and some unknown individuals who later did not show up for the trial?

Could it have been a revenge killing? Did someone have something against Tyler? The bigger question in my mind was that I know duck hunters. When I ran this case by them, their first question was “why was he going duck hunting in the afternoon.” For myself, the area in question does not seem conducive to duck hunting. I’ve gone down there my whole life and again that’s why this case has always bothered e me.

There are more questions on this case than answers and as of December 5, 2023, SLED (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) joined the case of missing Tyler Doyle. As of December 11, 2023; SLED officials picked up Tyler’s boat from SCDNR.

The family, the media, and thousands of interested parties now await what could be a months-long review of the investigation. Witnesses could be called back in for questioning and further statements could be needed in order to sort out the cloudy timeline of events surrounding the disappearance of this young husband and father to be.

I will be posting more about this case as it develops and filling in information that I have been able to find on my own. It has been nearly 11 months since Tyler went missing and Christmas is approaching. I am sure that his presence is dearly missed. Tyler is described as a thoughtful kind young man by all that knew and loved him.

We can only hope that answers are found soon and that Tyler can be found and laid to rest and his family and friends can gain some semblance of closure.

The question remains: What really happened to Tyler Doyle?

True Crime Journalist / Web Blogger

#true crime #missing persons #tyler doyle #scdnr #sled

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