Source: IG @blackstarops

Released during the Gulf War to document coalition forces, military hardware, and key political figures.

In December 1986, large-scale student protests broke out in Shanghai. Shanghai mayor Jiang Zemin, went to his alma mater SJTU, to hold talks with students. Opposition leaders had originally planned to subject him to a Cultural Revolution–style denunciation and to incite demonstrations on the spot. Jiang engaged in a five-hour debate with three thousand students and managed to persuade most of them. He also offer a interesting idea: the Cultural Revolution was in fact an extremely democratic movement, and that the disaster resulted from democracy spiraling out of control. So the tragic of Cultural Revolution should never happen again.

Jiang Zemin had rich experience in student movements, having participated in them since 1943 at the Japanese-occupied Nanjing Central University. During the Chinese Civil War at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, his eloquence allowed him to dismantle anti-communist student activities and incite pro-communist ones. In 1986, Jiang's debate at Jiao Tong University and his thorough ideological groundwork enabled the university to navigate the 1989 student movement smoothly.

Thanks to Jiang Zemin's keen awareness of the situation and thorough preparation in 1986 and 1989, combined with his eloquence and the widespread support among Shanghai citizens, student opposition representatives in Shanghai were left isolated and helpless. As a result, Shanghai peacefully weathered both the 1986 student demonstrations and the 1989 political crisis. In 1989, as both the reformist and conservative factions in Beijing suffered mutual defeat in their struggle, Jiang Zemi and the "Red Engineers" took control of China's leadership.

Spain’s use of chemical weapons in the Rif is one of the darkest and least talked about parts of the Rif War. After suffering major defeats against Abd elKrim’s forces, Spain began using chemical agents in the 1920s, including mustard gas, which was dropped from aircraft across parts of northern Morocco and affected areas where civilians lived as well as Riffian fighters. Mustard gas can cause severe burns, blindness, lung damage and is known to be fatal. Even today, people in the Rif often connect the region’s cancer cases to prove that today’s cancer rates are directly caused by chemical weapons used a century ago. The chemical attacks themselves, however, are well documented and remain a largely forgotten part of Morocco’s colonial history.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_use_of_chemical_weapons_in_the_Rif_War?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://international-review.icrc.org/articles/the-rif-war-a-forgotten-war-923?utm_source=chatgpt.com

The info from OP was actually quite insightful. Not one drop of remorse from the mother even after her (sold) children confronted her decades later, even has the audacity to feel ashamed on the picture.

The predecessor of Yimin Food Factory was an American-owned plant and served as a logistics facility for the Kuomintang during the Chinese Civil War. In 1947, Jiang Zemin worked as an engineer at the factory while operating as a underground Communist agent. During the Shanghai Campaign in 1949, he organized a worker uprising to prevent the KMT demolishing the factory in retreat. After the PLA took control, the plant was renamed Yimin Food Factory, with Jiang serving as vice factory director and engineer.

In 1950, when foreign brands still dominated Shanghai's cold drink market, Jiang created the Bright brand ("光明牌"), turning it into China's first national cold drink brand and securing widespread commercial success across Shanghai. Though Jiang left Yimin in 1952, he maintained a lifelong affection for the factory and the brand. In 1989, when he was called to Beijing to become China's new leader, he insisted on visiting Yimin Food Factory one last time before departing Shanghai.

In 1993, Yimin Food Factory was acquired by Hong Kong's A.S. Watson Group, which shelved the Bright brand to favor its own Mountain Cream line. Returning to Shanghai in 1995 as China President, Jiang was deeply angered to find that Bright had vanished. He compelled Watson's to sell back the factory and the brand, which were subsequently reorganized into the Bright Group with backing from state-owned enterprises. Today, Bright remains a iconic food brand throughout the Yangtze River Delta.

The film is called Disposable Humanity. Trailer and film here: https://watch.eventive.org/disposablehumanity/play/6a7868d1bdb10f0bb45affc6

Was helping my girlfriend go thew her Grandpas old photos and we found this picture, I’m not sure if it’s an original but I’ve never seen this photo before.

Michael Rockefeller, the youngest son of Nelson Rockefeller, traveled to Dutch New Guinea to document and collect the art of the Asmat people. He was on his second major trip to the region when his boat capsized near Otsjanep in November 1961. After clinging to an overturned hull, he reportedly said, “I think I can make it,” and swam toward shore. Rockefeller was never seen again and was officially declared dead in 1964 after an exhaustive but ultimately fruitless search.

Decades later, reporters and investigators reopened the case. Reportedly, Asmat villagers told them Michael had reached shore alive, was killed by men of Otsjanep, and that elements of his body were ritually consumed and reused: his skull cleaved to eat his brain, thigh bones turned into daggers, tibias into spear points, and the rest of his flesh reportedly eaten in rites tied to local concepts of revenge and power. A police officer reportedly recovered a skull that the Asmat identified as Rockefeller’s. However, those findings were archived and — according to later investigators — downplayed or classified amid Dutch political concerns about the island.

Read more here: The Story Of Michael Rockefeller's Disappearance And The Gruesome Theories Behind It

11 Aug 1933 - FISHER'S GHOST

WINDSOR AND RICHMOND GAZETTE, FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 1933.

FISHER'S GHOST

OLD STORY RETOLD

HOW TICKET-OF-LEAVE MAN DIED

SPOOK WHO SAT ON FENCE RAIL.

A CONVICT tragedy 'in 1826 supplied the basis for a ghost story that became famous throughout Australia. It was an old but circumstantial spook story over 50 years ago, and we have since heard it recounted with superstitious awe, as a case in which a dead man's ghost appeared to reveal their murder. If there are any who still cling to the belief that Fisher's Ghost was a matter of supernatural agency, the full story of this old Campbelltown tragedy may help in dispelling that idea.

The weird story of Fisher's Ghost centres round two ticket-of-leave men — Fred-erick Fisher, the victim, and George Worrall, the murderer. They lived together at Fisher's Farm, in the vicinity of Campbelltown, and on the night of June 17, 1826, 106 years ago, they were drinking with others in one of the old-time Campbelltown inns. Other men, neighbors, were there, and all left together.

Shortly after a couple of the men returned to the hotel. They had come, so they said, to rejoin Fisher, who they thought had returned before them. "Where is he?" they asked. 'He promised us some money for drinks.' No, they Were told, Fisher had not returned, nor did he ever return again—nor was he ever again seen alive. But it would be better to tell the whole story—the Why and the wherefore—as related by an old-time writer who went to Campbelltown a few years after the tragedy to piece things together, and get, among other things, a reliable aspect of the ghost story.

FISHER'S STORY

Fisher was a boy at the time he committed the offence which made him a convict. His misdeed completely ostracised him from his relatives, and he was left entirely to himself and his own devices when he got his ticket-of-leave. After his discharge he went to live in Campbelltown, and went, too, with the best intentions of making good. He owned a cottage, and adjoining it he started to build a large brick building to be used as a store.

The store was never finished. Its erection was cut short by his murder, and the building soon fell into decay, to be pointed out for years as a landmark of the tragedy.

Bad companions led Fisher into difficulties, and he gradually got into debt up to £150. One of his creditors took action, and he found himself lodged in gaol. While so incarcerated he took counsel, and evil counsel it was, of a friend named Worrall, who proposed to him a fraudulent transaction whereby he could save his property from his creditors and retain it for his own use when he came out of gaol.

He agreed to sign a bogus conveyance of the property to Worrall, and at the same time obtain from Worrall a written agreement to return the property to him on demand. These nefarious documents were duly prepared and signed by both. On the face of things everything looked all right, and the creditor who was responsible for gaoling him withdrew his plaint, as it was no good keeping a man in gaol who had parted with his property. The evil scheme had worked well, hut there was another side to it, and that was Worrall's cupidity, which led to Fisher's undoing.

WORRALL'S PART

As the absence of Fisher became noted, Worrall was naturally questioned, and he grave it forth that on account of forgery that had come to light, Fisher had hurriedly left the colony. He certainly detailed how he had accompanied Fisher to Sydney, and seen him off in a vessel sailing for England. He added that Fisher had left him an authority to deal with his farm and effects. This accounted for him selling some stock immediately.

The alleged written authority was never produced, but he did show a document to a man with reference to Fisher's house. The man he showed it to, knew Fisher's signature well and quickly realised, that the one produced by Worrall was a forgery, but he refrained from, comment at the time. Then Worrall drove another nail in his coffin when he went to see Mr. D. Cooper, a. big business man of that period, to whom Fisher owed £80, and who had held the deeds of Fisher's farm in connection with this transaction. Worrall offered to pay Cooper the £80 if he would hand over to himself as the new owner the farm deeds. This Cooper refused to do, and closely questioned Worrall as to facts connected with Fisher's flight from the colony.

Cooper was well acquainted with Fisher, and was convinced that there were no reasons why he should want to hurriedly leave New South Wales.

From Worrall's demeanor and story, Cooper rapidly became convinced that Fisher had met with foul play, but kept his suspicions to himself. The ship that Worrall mentioned as being the one Fisher had left in, was known not to have been in Sydney Harbor. While Cooper had not told Worrall that he suspected him of doing away with Fisher, he did tell another person, and when that person told Worrall in a friendly way, he was struck with the man's agitation.

GHOST ON SCENE

Then the ghost story, as told by a man named Farley (or Hurley, as the old account we are using had it), developed a new chapter in the drama. Farley, as we will call him, deeply impressed the little community, whose views on the supernatural, were by no means advanced. Farley was known to be a man of sober habits and not therefore likely to be effected with such hallucinations as drink engenders.

He left Campbelltown one night some four months after the murder and his way took him past Fisher's house.

After he had passed it he observed the figure of a man sitting on the fence on the same side of the road as the house.

As he drew closer he recognised the features of Fisher, then, as reported, well on his Way to England. He walked closer to the figure to make sure of his man, when the ghostly face that he saw filled his heart with terror and chained him to the spot.

The figure rose slowly and waved an arm, pointing in the direction of a small creek, which crossed the paddocks; it then disappeared slowly from view, apparently following the windings of the creek.

INVESTIGATIONS

More than terrified, Farley ran to the nearest house and swooned in the doorway. He was carried inside and lay raving for well-nigh a week. When he recovered he asked for the magistrate, and William Howe, of Glen Lee, who was Superintendent of Police in the Campbelltown district, came

immediately to him.

Whether the story told was believed or not, it led to decisive action. Other rumors had spread, and some four months (after the date of Fisher's disappearance the authorities set to work to investigate them and the ghost story told by Farley.

Constable George Leeland was entrusted with the inquiry. He was instructed to search for Fisher's body on the assumption that murder had been committed. The first thing he found was blood sprinkled on some of the rails of the fence on which the ghost had sat.

Attention was drawn to these stains—attempts had apparently been made to burn off the blood marks. Then the services of blacktrackers were resorted to and two aboriginals took up the search.

Starting from the damning evidence on the fence, they stopped at an adjacent waterhole fed by a creek. Gilbert (one of the blacks) scummed off something from the surface of the pool with a maiza leaf, smelt it, tasted it, and said, "White man's fat sit down here."

Led by this native, they went further up the creek 40 yards away, and one of the blacks dug an iron rod in the ground in a marshy spot, and called- out, "White man here."

The place was dug and the body of Fisher was found. At the inquest a verdict of wilful murder was found against some person or persons unknown.

WORRALL CONVICTED

The outstanding suspect was Worrall, who had profited by Fisher's death. He was promptly arrested, also another man named Lawrence. They were duly tried, and Worrall was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Before his execution he made a confession which, although confirming his guilt, sought to prove extenuating circumstances.

His story was to the effect that he and Fisher had been driving a horse out of a crop of wheat, and that in making a blow at the horse with a paling, he inadvertently struck Fisher and killed him. But this story did not ring true, for one ''reason. Instead of one accidental hit on the victim's head there were many wounds which betokened a cruel battering.

He further recounted that becoming alarmed at the way in which rumor was coupling his name with Fisher's disappearance, he removed the murdered body from where he had hidden it in the reeds of the marsh, to where it was found by the black trackers.

Worrall was hanged for his crime, and the whole community felt that he had got his deserts. But the tale of the murdered man's ghost standing accusatively at his own slip-rails died hard; for fully 70 years after the crime, it was always evidence, when the supernatural came under discussion in local circles, and to generations it was served up as an authentic case of spirit intervention in the cause of justice.

As a ghost story ft was mentioned briefly in R. M. Martin's "History of the British Colonies," published in London in 1835. A very full account was also published in Tegg's monthly magazine, March, 1836, and most of the. later versions were based on this last publication.

It has been suggested that Farley — the man who had the vision, or rather who said he had — was one of a number of residents who were certain of Worrall's guilt, before the police took action, and, becoming fearful of being accused of being an accomplice, or of being dragged into the affair as an informer, decided on the ghost story as a safer way of bringing matters to a head.

The Press of the day, however, did not in any way foster the idea. In the 'Monitor's story there was no hint of the supernatural, nor was there in the "Sydney Gazette" or the "Australian," which all dealt with the publication of the murder.

It is therefore at the door of Dame Rumor that this long-cherished belief must be laid, and since she is responsible for so much, this weird tale of 106 years ago must be regarded as part of that old folk-lore which supplies the material for innumerable tales, leg-ends, and superstitions, which fascinate successive generations in all countries.

TLDR: The new VP took the Senate to the woodshed about how they have all these dumb rules, then left to have dinner with Calvin Coolidge.

Per the rules of the Senate, they had not been adjourned, so could not leave.

https://you.stonybrook.edu/crisisandcatharsis/2024/07/29/calvin-coolidges-inauguration-day-its-fallout/

For nearly three days, rescuers in Midland, Texas, worked without rest to free “Baby Jessica,” who had fallen into an eight-inch-wide well shaft in her aunt’s backyard. Using heavy drilling equipment and with help from local oil workers, they dug a parallel shaft and a connecting tunnel through solid rock to reach her.

When paramedic Robert O’Donnell finally pulled her to safety, the nation — and much of the world — breathed a sigh of relief. The image of the dirt-covered toddler being carried from the well became one of the most memorable photographs of the decade. Jessica miraculously survived with only minor injuries, including the loss of one toe. The public’s outpouring of emotion led to over $1.2 million in donations, gifts, and messages from around the world.

Learn more here: Baby Jessica, The 18-Month-Old Girl Who Fell 22 Feet Down A Texas Well — And Miraculously Survived

I was in Italy on Holliday a few years ago, Naples specifically, and I was very surprised to see Mussolini’s face everywhere. Pretty much every souvenir shop had fridge magnets / lighters / postcards with his face on.

I confess to getting a fridge magnet myself 😂

Of course, Mussolini wasn’t as far along the evil scale as Hitler but I was surprise nonetheless that he seemed to be a big selling point for those tourist shops.

Presumably he is not viewed by Italians in anywhere near the same way as Germans view Hitler.

Could anyone explain how he is viewed by today’s Italians?

Thanks