Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Jan 4, 1903: Topsy, an elephant, is executed by electrocution by the owners of Luna Park, Coney Island. The Edison film company records the film Electrocuting an Elephant of Topsy's death. FFS, what a scene that must of been to have witnessed.

The 74-second film opens with Topsy being led past a crowd of people through an unfinished Luna Park to the execution spot, an island in the middle of a "lagoon" used for boat-rides, by elephant handler Carl Goliath.

The film cuts and an intervening hour and forty-five minutes are not recorded. During this unrecorded interval, Topsy refused to cross the bridge to the island forcing the park employees and Brooklyn Edison electricians to re-rig the strangling apparatus and electrical wiring to where Topsy stood. Topsy was also fed carrots laced with cyanide while copper-clad sandals connected to electric lines were strapped to her feet.

When the film camera restarts, Topsy is seen with the bridge over the lagoon and the original execution spot. Topsy tries to shake off one of the sandals and then stands still. At that point she stiffens as 6,600-volts AC is applied to her body. Smoke rises from her feet as she topples to the ground. Right at the end of the film, the noose tied around Topsy's neck can be seen tightening.

Japanese map published at the start of the Second World War, ca. 1939. Designed by Ichisaburō Sawai and titled "Pictorial Map of the Great European War", the map shows Germany and the Soviet Union invading Poland, with British and French Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain and Édouard Daladier looking on in concern. Air and naval battles also take place in the West. Mussolini looks angrily across the Adriatic. Hitler occupies the centre of the map. The cutout diagram with an elevator shaft over France represents the Maginot line.


Translation of the text at the bottom:


With the involvement of Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and others, the war between Germany and Poland is on the verge of becoming a world war.

Japan has decided to quickly resolve the China incident without paying attention to the European war, but it seems that the United States and Italy will be dragged into the war whether they want to or not.

The German army invaded Poland, occupying various areas with incredible force, and together with the Soviet army attacking from the east, they nearly devoured the whole country. They then turned their forces west, ready for a decisive battle with British and French forces on the French border.

There are two great fortresses here, the famous Siegfried Line and the Maginot Line, which the German and the French built using all their ingenuity, and it is said that they are difficult to breach no matter how hard an attacker tries.

In addition, the German air force, which has been hiding its strength until now, will begin to show its true strength and probably fight against the British and French air forces, so there will likely be some fierce air battles happening soon.

Seemingly produced as an educational map for children, not necessarily propagandistic but interesting all the same.

Ichisaburō Sawai produced at least one other, more openly propagandistic map (or board game?) later in the war (ca. 1944) celebrating the Japanese Empire.




President Theodore Roosevelt transformed the Monroe Doctrine on Dec 6, 1904. While Teddy pledged to "interfere with them only in the last resort", the Roosevelt Corollary provided a pretext for intervention over the next three decades.




A Sputnik-themed car deployed in Rome by the Italian Communist Party ahead of the 1958 general election. The car toured the city on April 12, 1958 fitted with a model of a Soviet Sputnik satellite in celebration of the USSR's successful launch of Sputnik a year earlier. The car was also fitted with loudspeakers and, according to a contemporary report, carried a dog in homage to Laika, the Soviet dog sent to space in 1957.

I think you can see the (toy?) dog in the bottom photo, inside the model Sputnik.




Jan 4, 1959: Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon. Luna 1 passed within 3725 miles (5995 km) of the Moon's surface on 4 January after 34 hours of flight. It went into orbit around the Sun, between the orbits of Earth and Mars.


The spacecraft contained a 19.993 MHz system which transmitted signals of 50.9 second duration, a 183.6 MHz transmitter for tracking purposes, and a 70.2 MHz transmitter. Four whip antennas and one rigid antenna mounted on the sphere provided the communications link. Power was supplied by mercury-oxide batteries and silver-zinc accumulators. There were five different sets of scientific devices for studying interplanetary space, including a magnetometer, geiger counter, scintillation counter, and micrometeorite detector, and other equipment. The measurements obtained during this mission provided new data on the Earth's radiation belt and outer space, including the discovery that the Moon had no magnetic field and that a solar wind, a strong flow of ionized plasma emmanating from the Sun, streamed through interplanetary space.


Venezuelan mural (2024) showing Jesus, Imam Mahdi and Hugo Chavez walking with Iranian, Iraqi and Lebanese military leaders.


The mural is titled "Mural of Saviours" and was unveiled in Caracas in January 2024. The figures (most called 'martyrs' here) are, from left to right:

Hamid Taghavi, Iranian Brigadier General killed in Iraq in 2014.

Hugo Chavez.

Qasem Soleimani, killed by US drone strike Jan 3, 2020.

Jesus Christ and Imam Mahdi.

Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Iraqi commander killed in the same drone strike as Soleimani.

Sayyed Razi Mousavi, Iranian Brigadier General killed by Israeli airstrike in 2023.

Imad Mughniyeh, Lebanese military leader killed during a CIA-Mossad operation in Damascus in 2008.

The mural was commissioned to mark the fourth anniversary of Soleimani's assassination. Smaller text reads in Spanish and Persian: 'The way of the martyrs is derived from the way of the divine prophets'. It's located on the city's 'Iran-Venezuela Friendship Path'.

Imam Mahdi is a messianic figure in Islamic belief that will be sent by god and appear on earth to lead the armies of Allah in the end times battle against the Dajal ("anti-christ" type figure). The Mahdi is mentioned in several compilations of hadith, but absent from the Quran and the two most-revered Sunni hadith collections (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim). As such, he plays only a marginal role in Sunni Islam and some Sunni theologians have rejected the concept of the Mahdi altogether. However, the Mahdi plays a significant role among Twelver Shias, who believe that the Mahdi is Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi, the twelfth Imam, son of the eleventh Imam Hasan al-Askari (d. 874), who is said to be in occultation (ghayba) by divine will.

The powers of western democracy will never ever conquer this ideological belief system in the Eastern nor the Western hemisphere.



Triggered by mean tweet...



In case you might know, Katie Miller is Stephen Miller's wife (the White House deputy chief of staff for policy). Stephen is more crazier than Trump.

Without any doubt, the EU will respond with unparalleled levels of "monitoring the situation". Yet, subservient EU leaders applaud the regime change in Venezuela and do not seem to understand that they could be next.

We don’t do "kingdoms" anymore, chief. How many times has the USGOV broke agreements, security guarantees and btw NATO is degrading.

I'm assuming Trump's obsession with Greenland has more to do with rare earth minerals since China has slammed the door on Washington.

The US has closed or abandoned around 30 military bases and installations in Greenland since World War II. Only Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule Air Base) remains active today.


We're just in the first act of The Empire Strikes Back, and even the people who say "No one is prepared for what comes next" are really prepared for what comes next. The dying world order had coping mechanisms for either a Crazy Trump or a Serious Trump, and if it held out for three years, Europe could still hope for a miracle cure. But an emboldened Crazy Trump who's as serious as Dick Cheney's heart attack, not one has a playbook for that.

Maduro to appear in New York mother court on Monday.




In 2015, President Obama issued an executive order declaring Venezuela's President a national security threat and the Maduro government a narco terrorist organisation.

The Trump administration (first term) escalated actions using Obama's 2015 EO as a foundation, including the 2020 indictments, $15 million bounty, and expanded sanctions.

In 2022, President Biden increased the then-$15 million bounty on Maduro to $25 million. $25 million for anyone who can deliver Maduro to America.

In 2025, Marco Rubio doubles the bounty to $50 million. (Amazing no takers)

In 2026, Trump executes the orders of Obama and Biden.
Who is the joker, hero or villain? Obama, Biden or Trump.

Secretary Rubio: "María Corina Machado is fantastic, I've known her for years and she is the entire movement... But here we are dealing with an immediate reality, we want a transition to democracy, but the majority of the opposition is in exile and we have to think about the next 2 or 3 weeks, 2 or 3 months...

The first steps consist of safeguarding the national interests of the United States and, at the same time, benefiting the people of Venezuela... No more drug trafficking. No more presence of Iran/Hezbollah there. No more use of the oil industry to enrich all our adversaries..."
https://x.com/EmmaRincon/status/2007826122558283781


Nominating the headline "Grateful Venezuelans hug Donald Trump at opulent Mar-a-Lago dinner" for the Nobel Peace Prize.


Daily Victory Mail

America 250: Presidential Message on the Anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine