#he should lose his pulitizer

[warsofasoiaf]

Why did Walter Duranty cover up the Soviet Famine and the holdomor in Ukraine?

Partially it's because if he wrote anything too critical of the Soviet Union, he would be forbidden from returning. Duranty actually had a relatively comfortable life when he went to the Soviet Union - he had a nice apartment in Moscow complete with staff and a lover named Katya, with whom he bore a son. Moreover, he was invited to very glamorous parties, and his influence allowed him to request interviews and receive them from a variety of sources, thus punching his professional ticket and ensuring he could remain a highly-paid foreign correspondent.

There are other contributing factors. It's believed that he was being blackmailed, and there's some evidence that he believed that honestly reporting the scope of the Soviet famine would have denigrated the idea of a worker's state and cast an unbearable pall on the ideology itself.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[lifeofanerdygirl]

For the Sun Can Burn yet Without It There Is Only Darkness

The gif above that I created of Kara’s smile in 5x15 inspired me to write this. 

//

Laughter. Smiles. Love. Warmth and happiness. That’s what life is like with Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor couldn’t be happier. That is until she finds out Kara’s secret which breaks her heart, shattering it into a million pieces and descends her into darkness and loneliness. Can their relationship ever get back to where it was before?

Or

A journey of Lena’s emotions focusing on the aftermath of learning Kara’s secret.

//

Kara Danvers was like the sun, her smile emitting a powerful ray of warmth and happiness to those around her. For the ones who were struggling flowers in a garden, life flowed through them once more, allowing them to grow and bloom into something beautiful.

Just ask Lena Luthor, for she knew this all too well. Her life was completely turned upside down the day Kara Danvers waltzed into her office. As they grew closer, evolving from acquaintances to friends to best friends, she had the pleasure of spending more time with her and witnessing that radiant smile on lunch dates, movie nights at Kara’s apartment and many other various occasions. It filled Lena with nothing but warmth and happiness and she bloomed and grew in Kara’s presence, flowering into something beautiful. Her life became more meaningful and enjoyable, something she didn’t think was ever possible being she was a Luthor. 

Yet, with any sunshine, carried the risk of potentially getting burned. It seemed that whenever Lena got close to someone, they ended up betraying her at one point, leaving scars on her heart that wouldn’t ever completely fade away. One of her more recent betrayals occurred with her former best friend, now business partner Andrea Rojas, several years ago. Because of this, she closed herself off, building her walls up high and constructing them out of one of the most durable materials possible.

When she moved to National City she concentrated on her work, rebranding LuthorCorp into L-Corp and rebuilding it as a force for good after its reputation was tarnished by her evil brother. Business relationships were fine while personal ones were set aside. After all, she did not come to National City to make friends she had once declared soon after arriving. Despite all of this, after meeting the literal sunshine that was Kara Danvers and getting to know her, those walls slowly came crumbling down. Kara clearly was in possession of the one tool that was able to break down the almost impervious material that surrounded her heart. Thus, Lena eventually allowed it and opened up, believing that she wouldn’t get burned again, especially by someone so kind and wonderful as Kara.

Alas, she was proven wrong yet again after several years of friendship. Kara betrayed her like Andrea had, keeping a secret locked deep inside for her own benefit with Lena discovering it in the most unpleasant way. The words Kara Danvers is Supergirl spilled out of her psychopathic brother’s mouth moments after she had just fired a bullet from her handgun and severely wounded him. Her whole world came crashing down in a matter of seconds, descending it into nothing but darkness with cold and loneliness rapidly overtaking the warmth that was once present in her heart.

In the time that followed, Lena never admitted to Kara that she was now aware of her secret and allowed their life to continue on as normal, wearing a smile on her face in her presence. She was a Luthor after all and to pretend to be okay was nothing she hadn’t done before.

It wasn’t too long after that Kara eventually divulged her secret to Lena, as the guilt had finally consumed her completely. Breaking down in front of her, which Lena had rarely seen, a tear-stained and emotionally wrecked Kara explained And I just kept thinking... if I could be Kara, just Kara... that I could keep you as a friend. I was selfish and scared, and I didn't wanna lose you.

Lena’s heart shattered and her whole world came crashing down once more and she couldn’t prevent the tears from forming in her eyes. After Kara had finished her apology, she begged Lena to say something but instead of responding and admitting that she already knew, Lena simply strode away. 

Moments later, she presented the speech for Kara’s Pulitizer Prize, afterward declaring you will always be my best friend. To Kara, it seemed like everything would be okay and that her secret would not completely tear apart their friendship. However, little did she know that it was all just an act and Lena was the main actress performing her part. No, her heart had shattered into a million pieces, not once, but twice now because of Kara’s secret, and this was not something that could be forgiven that easily or quickly. She knew that she would only continue pretending everything was fine to keep up this facade as part of her plan to inflict this same pain that Kara had caused her. 

In the months that followed, she secretly worked behind Kara’s back on Non Nocere, a project designed to control one’s mind and not allow them to cause harm to one another. All while continuing to use Kara for her benefit to further the project along. Her heart, in the meantime, was torn between the kindness that Kara still showed her despite everything that had happened and heart-wrenching pain from the betrayal.

Circumstances turned sour quickly on their adventure to The Fortress of Solitude when Kara caught Lena with Myriad in her hands. After weeks of pretending that all was fine between them, the tension building up like a full pot of water being set on the stove to boil, Lena erupted with anger and heartbreak screaming at Kara with tears streaming down her face don’t you understand what you’ve done? She explained that she knew Kara’s secret long before she told her, it coming from the devious mouth of her dying brother whom she had just shot no less. The pot had finally reached its boiling point and overflowed, leaving scalding burns on her and Kara, both experiencing pain from one another that they had never felt before. Pressing a button, she locked Kara in an ice cell laced with kryptonite, using the Fortress’ defense systems against her. You shouldn’t have treated me like a villain she muttered, Myriad still clutched in her hands, before exiting through a portal to continue the next phase of her plan.

Now, the darkness was no longer buried deep inside and consumed every part of her. She could feel it overtaking her heart, deep within her bones, coursing through her blood, and consuming her mind. She distanced herself away from Kara, continuing her focus on Non Nocere, the cold and loneliness ever the more present. Even when Kara managed to pry her way into her space soon after, begging for forgiveness with tear-soaked eyes and to stop whatever she had planned, Lena shot her down, not wanting to listen to anything the Kryptonian had to say. It was too late for forgiveness.

She was almost successful in launching Non Nocere, yet Kara and the DEO had managed to thwart her plan. Therefore, it was back to the drawing board as she contemplated what her next step would be. Crisis, however, threw a wrench in her plans, creating a whole new world, with a whole new set of problems, the main one involving none other than her brother, Lex Luthor as he was now adored by the people of Earth and head of the DEO. She really was in hell.

However, despite this, she knew Lex could help move her project forward and therefore after he offered, she chose to side with him. Kara, of course, completely against Lena’s decision, didn’t argue too much this time, knowing all too well that it wouldn’t do any good. In the end, she simply uttered just be careful with a small smile before taking off from Lena’s balcony and into the skies of National City.

Several weeks passed and, with some help from her brother, her project had made progress. However, one evening Kara touched down on her balcony donned in her Supergirl suit yet again, wanting to speak with her.

Let me guess. You're here to tell me once again that I should forgive you. Or maybe that I shouldn't work with my brother? Lena asked, her tone harsh and cold. 

Not this time. I recognize that I made a mistake in hiding my identity from you for so long. But the past is the past, and I can't change it. Forgive me or not, that's your choice. Just like it's your choice to work with Lex. I'm done blaming myself for your bad decisions.

Then why are you here?

To tell you that from now on you're accountable for your own actions. If you decide to forgive me, I will be there for you. But if you continue to work with Lex, if you go through with whatever it is the two of you are planning, I will do everything in my power to stop you. Just like I would any other villain.

With that, Kara turned around and flew off, leaving Lena alone once again with tear-soaked eyes, a pain in her heart and more pieces of their relationship shattered on the floor.

Yet, despite all of the pain and heartache she had caused, deep down Lena missed Kara, her literal ray of sunshine, for she didn’t realize how much she needed her until she was gone. At this point, Lena was nothing but a flower withering away, only worsening day by day due to the lousy treatment from her brother. Yes, Lex was helping her, but deep down she knew it was only for his own benefit and was just stringing her along like she was his puppet and he was the master puppeteer.

Time would only tell if their wounds would begin to heal and they would be able to join forces once again, collecting and repairing the shattered pieces of their relationship that laid scattered upon the floor.

If not, then they were doomed to be enemies, proving that once again, just like her brother, a Super and a Luthor just couldn’t ever be together.

Lena prayed the latter wasn’t true.

[fabianocolucci]

Just a summary of Italian prime ministers over the last ten years

As you may know from my blog, I am Italian, and, sometimes, one of the things that some Italians would say while talking about politics is that “we haven’t had an elected President since 2011”.

Now, before I begin, I should probably explain what happens in Italy when we elect our leaders.

At the end of every legislation (which should last for 5 years, but it can be shortened for various reasons, like with what happened in 2008, when the government simply didn’t have the backing of the parliament, so new elections were called up 2 years after the previous ones), Italian citizens are called to vote for the parliamentary composition. If you are 18 or older, you can vote for the Chamber of Deputies, but, if you are 25 or older, you can also vote for the Senate of the Republic.

What happens next is that, once the elections are over, the parliamentary seats are shared between political groups based on the votes they received. Then, it is the job of the parliament to gather around and elect someone who could be the President of the Republic (those elections are sometimes funny when there are deputies or senators who don’t want to vote for a specific person, so they jokingly nominate celebrities, artists and so on) for a mandate that lasts seven years.

Afterwards, it is the President of the Republic who, after talking to the leaders of every political group, has to nominate a President of the Cabinet (prime minister) who can have the backing of the majority of the seats.

As a result, you may noticed that at no point I mentioned that we directly vote for either the President of the Republic or for the President of the Cabinet.

However, the issue has been that, especially in the eras between the Berlusconi governments (who has been prime minister four times between 1994 and 2011), it was common that the leader of the party (or coalition) who received most nominations would then become the prime minister. Berlusconi himself even used to have “Berlusconi Presidente” written inside the logo of his party, because it was taken for granted that, if Forza Italia (or the PDL in 2008) would have won the elections, he was going to lead the cabinet.

Still, it was not written in stone that this has to be the case all the time, which is why we have had some interesting situations in the last 10 years. Now, let me go in chronological order.

In 2011, after three years of government, Berlusconi lost the parliament’s trust after continuous scandals revolving around him. As a result, 86 year old President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano (I have to specify his age because it will be relevant soon) ended up for the second time during his mandate without a government. However, unlike the first time, in which he called for new elections, he simply decided to form a “technical government” (that is, a government where the various ministers aren’t politicians, but experts in those fields).

To lead that “technical government”, Napolitano nominated economist Mario Monti as prime minister. Now, since the law specifies that the prime minister must be in parliament, he nominated Monti as senator for life.

Monti, then, remained in charge until the natural end of the legislation, in 2013, when new elections took place.

However, the Italian political scenario was entering a period of chaos and confusion. The centre-right and centre-left coalitions, which usually were the leaders in politics after the “Mani Pulite” scandal of the early ‘90s, were now standing next to a new party, the Five Star Movement, who fit itself as centre. As a result, Italy was now split politically in three parts, and that was not a good sign, since there was the need to form a new cabinet.

The chaos that emerged was such that nobody agreed on who would have to become the President of the Republic, and so there was a period of time where Italy had technically no head of state (and it coincided with Pope Benedict XVI’s abdication, something that was not lost on some people). As a result, Napolitano agreed to let them elect him once more for a second mandate, something that had never happened in Italy ever since it became a Republic in 1946.

Napolitano, who was 88, criticised them for not agreeing on what to do to govern Italy, and he told them that he was going to remain as President up until time would have let him, due to his advanced age, in hopes that the situation would have stabilised by then.

After a while, Democratic Party member Enrico Letta was appointed as prime minister, a position which he held for less than a year.

In fact, after some months, the newly elected secretary of his party took his place, and thus began Matteo Renzi’s “one thousand days of government”, because that is, more or less, for how long he remained in charge.

Of course, Renzi’s haters disliked his move of replacing Letta, with some even comparing it to a coup, despite the fact that nothing changed in the parliament after that.

Still, during this government, Napolitano, now 90, decided to step aside, and, in a more stable parliamentary situation, a new President of the Republic was found in Sergio Mattarella in 2015.

Renzi’s government lasted until late 2016, because he called for a constitutional referendum, while promising that, should the changes he wanted to make lose, he would quit as prime minister, something that he did that same night.

Thus, deputy Paolo Gentiloni, a member of the parliament since 2001 who comes from a noble family tied into politics for over a hundred years, became prime minister for the remaining year and a half of the legislation.

As you may have noticed, between 2011 and 2018, Italy had so far had Monti, Letta, Renzi and Gentiloni as prime ministers, but we are not done yet.

Remember when I mentioned that Italian politics is now split into three groups? Well, the 2018 elections just made those divisions more rock solid, which ended up in a scenario where none of them had a clear majority on its own.

For instance, the Five Star Movement was the party who won the majority of the votes, but, as a coalition, the centre-right had the upper hand. Thus, a larger coalition was formed under their leaders, Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini. However, none of them would become the prime minister, as Di Maio suggested a neutral figure as the leader.

This is when professor Giuseppe Conte stepped in, and he had to form the government twice. Why? Because the aforementioned Salvini started acting on his behalf, even going as far as demanding full powers, so Conte called him out in the parliament and resigned, only to be brought once again as prime minister after a new government was put in charge, this time without Salvini.

Conte has stayed as prime minister throughout the entirety of 2020, in the difficult lockdowns related to Covid-19. Still, apparently Italian politicians decided that, instead of joining forces to let our country made it out of this trying times, they had to cause instability, so the parliament made Conte fall too.

And this is how, since last winter, we ended up with our sixth prime minister in a decade, as Mario Draghi, former president of the Central European Bank, was appointed by Mattarella to do whatever it takes to help Italy.

I wanted to write this long article about Italian politics in the last decade. I don’t know how many would read it, but, you know, I’m the kind of person that thinks “if I can’t find something I want to read, I will make it myself”.

Well, the article is over. Let’s have some fun now!

[warsofasoiaf]

Would you mind elaborating on why you think FDR "misread" Stalin? As someone who didn't get into history until I was away from American public school textbooks and really saw history as much more grey concept than the "We're America, and we went there to help" propaganda nonsense they spill, its really refreshing to hear about our past presidents for what they more than likely were than to only show the shiny bits. Hope you had a great vacation! Long time reader, first time asking.

Question about your recent answer on the Western Betrayal question. Could you elaborate on the theories as to why Roosevelt misread Stalin, or for whatever reason did not oppose his actions in puppetizing the Eastern European countries? I had come across this issue before and generally feel that western historians typically give the western Allies a very rose colored glasses treatment in relation to their unsavory actions in the war. I would love to hear your thoughts.     

What are theories on why Roosevelt misread Stalin? Was it just cynical realpolitik on his part?            

I also always found it baffling how trusting FDR was of Stalin. It really doesn’t make any sense. Care to share your theories? A more conspiratorially minded aquintance of mind once theorized that FDR was intentionally trying to set up what we now call the Cold War.            

Hmm, I definitely didn’t expect this much feedback from that question.

Anyway, first things out of the way that the first and second Anon’s brought up, this is absolutely true that historians tend to give their home team a lot of leeway. Politics in history is nothing new, plenty of historians have put pen to paper with the intent of making sure a particular truth is told through a combination of overemphasizing their own contributions and minimizing others, spinning or omitting critical context, lies of false statements and omissions, and other media shaping techniques that have been used throughout history. As an example, a lot of Western history books written during the Cold War era had a tendency to glorify the Allies while vilifying the Soviet Union. In the age of the internet though, that is starting to change. High-quality translations are made much more available in modern day, and research papers regarding any number of historical topics are one search away on JSTOR or library, so we can read about Churchill in Greece and so on.

Anyway, as I said, there’s theories as to what Roosevelt was thinking, propagated by a variety of scholars and historians. Coloring everything is that Roosevelt was certain to know that his papers would all become records; he had donated them in 1939 and knew that the rest would be donated again, so it would have been in his best interest to record the best possible version of himself for posterity.

The most realpolitik of theories is that he knew that the money wasn’t in the tank, that the military budget would be slashed hard, and so he couldn’t afford the efforts to stymie Stalin once wartime spending ended. Certainly, Truman had to handle massive military spending cuts following V-J Day, so the knowledge that the budget would be a problem can’t simply be dismissed without consideration. Supporting this are the percentage concessions made by both Churchill and FDR which suggests that the administration of postwar Europe would need Soviet contribution. The problem with this theory is that we don’t see any talk about budget slashing until the Truman administration, and why would FDR be worrying about the budget in 1942 and 1943 for post-war concerns beyond the most theoretical; the war still needed to be won, so I don’t consider it to be so credible.

FDR’s defenders often point out that he was hoping for both the USSR and the USA to act as stabilizers in the world at the forefront of the United Nations, and that shared victory and the cost of war would cause the USSR to give up the idea of seizing buffer states. This would be achieved through a positive relationship with Stalin was the way to achieve this and prevent the sort of dynamic that actually erupted during the Cold War, citing FDR’s optimism and ease as defining personality traits, as well as his rather warm relationship with Stalin. It’s also posited that FDR didn’t believe the rumors about the famines of the 1930′s. The Times’s Moscow Bureau Chief Walter Duranty won a Pulitizer Prize for his articles which denied Holodomer, the Ukranian famine. English playwright George Bernard Shaw also wrote heavily denying Stalin’s starvation policies in the Ukraine. Those writings have largely been discredited, and it’s speculated that both men denied the Holodomer because both had affinities for socialism and did not wish to report on the rampant starvation as they believed it would drive support away from socialism and Communism (there’s that particular truth being told again), but at the time the sources were considered highly credible, though alternate sources even in the 1930′s contradicted them. In turn, following FDR’s death, Truman lacked the same relationship with Stalin and so Stalin seized border states and menaced Europe with the Red Army. The problem with this theory is that Stalin was rather ruthless beforehand and rather ruthless after, so there’s no real evidence to suggest that FDR’s natural bonhomie would have significantly altered Stalin and the foreign policy of the USSR. Even Bertrand Russell, noted World War I pacifist, suggested soon after World War II that America should use the atomic bomb to establish a one-world order, stating that Stalin had inherited Hitler’s dream to conquer Europe.

There’s also the theory that gullible FDR was played like a violin by Stalin, that he was led into believing that Stalin could be amenable if offered a few concessions, then Stalin snapped them up and laughed at the naivete of his American counterpart, because Stalin never missed a chance to seize an opportunity where one could be gained. Another less favorable read goes in the opposite direction, that FDR arrogantly believed he could control the “drunken Georgian” through a few carrots, and that Stalin made it seem like he was all to happy to have the Americans as friends and then fleeced him. Either way, the result is the same, Stalin tricked FDR. The problem is, even in private moments, Stalin did seem to really like FDR, though it’s possible he maintained it simply because Japan before he could really swipe Europe in the post-war aftermath. Stalin was certainly no slouch as a foreign policy man, and he was eager to prop up communist satellite states and snatch up territory to expand the USSR.

More cynical reads suggest FDR simply had little to no regard for Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Romania and did not desire to expend the blood and treasure necessary to keep them from Stalin. Racial attitudes during the 1940′s were about what you’d expect. This would fit with realpolitik of not seeing the expenditure as justified, though there’s no evidence to my knowledge that suggests that FDR cared so little about Eastern Europe that he didn’t care if Stalin brutalized them. Certainly he had to envision that his intended UN would specifically look to stop this sort of thing.

There are even more theories out there. Which theory is correct? I don’t know. I personally subscribe that Roosevelt didn’t feel that stopping the Soviets from taking Eastern Europe was worth the expenditure or risk of losing Stalin as an ally for his fledgling UN project, given his statements to Churchill when the latter proposed ignoring Soviet demands for no air support and closing his airfields for American use. Given how much media FDR was said to consume, I find it hard to believe he didn’t have suspicions about Stalin’s intentions given all the intelligence reporting coming out of Bern, so I don’t think he was tricked. He wrote off the Eastern Bloc as the price of doing business in realpolitik fashion.

Thanks for the questions, Anons.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King