90 Miles From Tyranny

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Killer Queen: Meet Queen Elfrida – The Original Wicked Stepmother

History has seen some incredible, cut-throat politics and lurid scandals, including the reign of Queen Elgiva: a teenage Saxon princess who was caught enjoying a threesome (along with her mother!), in the bed of King Eadwig, on the day of his coronation and at a time when he should have been discussing affairs of state with his noblemen and courtiers.

Elgiva faded from the pages of history just four years later when King Eadwig conveniently died (he was probably murdered) and was replaced by his brother Edgar.

King Eadwig

Known as King Edgar the Peaceable (or Peaceful), he went on to rule for 20 years and, according to one historian, enjoyed a reign “singularly devoid of recorded incident.” This is not exactly true, as according to legend there was one very dark secret in Edgar’s life that was to have disastrous consequences for the Kingdom of England!

Eadwig’s brother, Edgar became King

The King’s Dark Secret

Edgar, in common with most Saxon kings of this era, practiced what we’d now call “serial monogamy.” Kings would only have one wife or mistress/concubine at a time, but they would be discarded – the consanguinity rules (viz that they were too closely related) were a popular way of ending no longer convenient marriages – and sent to a nunnery when the monarch took a fancy to another woman.

So, for example, Edgar had a relationship with a woman called Aethelflaed (Ethel) by whom he had a son Eadweard (Edward). Then he had a relationship with Wulfthryth (Wifrida) by whom he had a daughter Eadgyth (Edith). And then along came Aelfthryth (Elfrida) by whom he had two more sons: Edmund, who died while still an infant, and Aethelraed (Ethelred).

Edgar’s dark secret relates to how he first met and wooed Elfrida. The king had heard that an ealdorman (earl) called Ordgar, in what is now Devon, had a beautiful daughter whose mother was a member of the royal family of Wessex. As he was looking for a queen, Edgar commissioned an East Anglian thegn (thane/nobleman) called Aethelwold to visit her and offer her a royal marriage—if she really was as beautiful as everyone said.

She was as beautiful as everyone said but, concealing his true mission from both her and her parents, Aethelwold wooed and married the girl himself, reporting back to Edgar that Elfrida was a “vulgar and common-looking” and “unworthy of a royal marriage”.

Double-Cross

Initially Edgar accepted this explanation, but as he continued to hear reports of her beauty, he decided to visit the happy couple himself. News of the pending royal visit threw Aethelwold into a panic and, while begging Elfrida to make herself as unattractive as possible and wear her plainest clothes, he inadvertently revealed how he had deceived both her and the king.

Related: Exploring the True Origins of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

As all contemporary reports suggest Elfrida was an ambitious woman, the realization she had missed out on becoming queen did not go down at all well. Repaying Aethelwold’s deceit in kind, she agreed to appear dowdy, but she actually went in the opposite direction and was presented to the king wearing the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of hair extensions, spray tan, and a gown that showed plenty of cleavage and was split to the....

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GOP Lawmakers Press for Investigation of FBI’s ‘Special Treatment’ of Hillary Clinton Probe

Conservatives are calling for an investigation of what they say was the FBI’s “special treatment” of Hillary Clinton ahead of the Dec. 7 testimony of FBI Director Christopher Wray before the House Judiciary Committee.

“I am proud to be joined by my fellow conservatives in the House to call for an investigation into the FBI’s procedures that allowed Hillary Clinton to receive special treatment,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said at a press conference Wednesday. “We’ll also investigate the unprecedented bias against President [Donald] Trump that exists when we allow people who hate the president to participate in the investigations against him.”

Gaetz, who was joined at the press conference by Reps. Jody Hice, R-Ga.; Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.; Scott Perry, R-Pa.; and Mark Meadows, R-N.C., called for an investigation into the FBI’s treatment of Clinton’s email use. The FBI investigation was deemed as “special,” according to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

“Each day, we learn more information that reflects the double standard that, unfortunately, seems to be pervasive at the FBI and at the Department of Justice,” Gaetz said. A “small team” at FBI headquarters was assigned to conduct the Clinton investigation, according to emails released from McCabe, he noted.

On Nov. 15, documents were released that show McCabe “wrote an email on his official government account stating that the Hillary Clinton email probe had been given ‘special’ status,” The Hill reported.

During Clinton’s tenure at the State Department from 2009 to 2013, she used a private email account and server while conducting State Department business.

“For me, this question is why,” Perry said at the press conference. “Why are there two different standards of justice? Why doesn’t the FBI and the Justice Department have to comply with subpoenas by the Congress for...

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IS THE DEEP STATE ATTEMPTING A COUP?

That is a question I never thought I would need to ask. But, via InstaPundit, law professor Randy Barnett makes an alarming point:

Barnett was responding to this tweet:

Administrative employees are nominally subject to the control of those appointed by politicians who have won elections, but Democrats embedded in the federal bureaucracy have proclaimed themselves part of the “resistance” to President Trump, and are using their positions to undermine his administration. Bureaucrats thus frustrate the will of the voters. President Trump has been...

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160 Things Trump Has Done to Make America Great Again Since Taking Office

“Trump is failing, and the White House is covering it up with lies” — The Washington Post, October 2017.

“Donald Trump’s first six months in office have been a spectacular failure” — The New Republic, July 2017.

“Trump is falling apart, and nobody knows what to do about it” — Salon, October 2017.

Wow. From the sounds of things, 2017 was the year Donald J. Trump replaced alcoholic, sniveling, slavery-enabling Democrat Franklin Pierce as America’s worst president. That’s pretty bad. No wonder every media outlet not named Fox News is screaming about presidential Armageddon (or something akin to it, like, I don’t know, a fourth hour of “Morning Joe“).

What this all obscures is the fact that, love him or hate him, Donald Trump’s first year has actually been incredibly productive.

Sure, he didn’t get health care reform and we have to wait to see on the tax bill, but there are plenty of things Trump-wary conservatives can be thankful for this holiday season. One-hundred and sixty of them, in fact, compiled by the wonderful people at WND. We’re reprinting it here because we think it serves as an important rebuke to a media who thinks the president’s only accomplishment is boosting Twitter stock.

Let’s go by month, shall we?

January:
Ending the Trans Pacific Partnership via executive order, prioritizing Christian refugee settlement, instituting the first version of the travel ban (which would have to be revised a few times), resuming criminal prosecution of individuals who had illegally crossed the border for the first time, expediting environmental reviews on infrastructure projects, reducing regulatory burdens on manufacturers, supporting the March for Life and sending Vice President Mike Pence to attend (first VP to ever go to the pro-life march, introducing task forces within government agencies to end “job killing regulations” and thusly increase “economic opportunity,” helping launch the United States-Canada Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, expanding deportation priorities for those who “have committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense,” signing a memorandum promising to rebuild and expand the military, ordering a hiring freeze on federal employees, signing an executive order that said for every one new regulation, two must be cut, reinstating the “Mexico City Policy” on not funding organizations that promote abortions worldwide, donating his salary, meeting with tech giants like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.

February:
Eliminated a Dodd-Frank rule that mandated oil companies publicly disclose taxes and fees paid to other governments, saving energy companies $385 million a year; ordered a review of both Dodd-Frank and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s purview; countered Russian propaganda outlets like RT by launching American-run Russian-language broadcasters; purchased new F-35 jets at a considerably reduced price, a savings of $725 million compared to what was was paid earlier in the program; refusing to fill government positions he felt were unnecessary; signing three executive orders strengthening law enforcement protections; reversing the Obama administration’s policy on transgender bathrooms in public schools; repealing an Obama administration rule that took away Second Amendment rights from certain senior citizens.

March:
Signed an executive order that would review our trade deficits, condemned an anti-Israel U.N. report by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, which ended with the commissions executive director resigning; homebuilder confidence highest in almost 12 years; Trump administration negotiated a G-20 statement that did not mention climate change nor opposed economic protectionism; signed an executive order mandating an audit of executive branch agencies.

April:
Neil Gorsuch nominated and appointed to the Supreme Court, government announced illegal border crossings were down 40 percent in first month of the Trump administration and 73 percent by the president’s 100th day in office, signed an executive order expanding offshore drilling for gas and oil as well as a leasing program that developed energy resources off the coast, announced an investigation into Chinese trade policies regarding steel and aluminum exports, announced the “Buy American and Hire American” executive order, which reformed visa waivers and loopholes; ordered the Department of Agriculture to examine regulations and eliminate unnecessary ones; refused to sign the G-7 statement on energy because “the other nations could not agree to include support for nuclear and fossil fuels without support for the Paris climate agreement,” thus leaving the G-7 without a joint statement; refused waivers for companies who wanted to deal with sanctions-laden Russia; the Department of Justice announced efforts to speed up illegal immigrant deportations, including announcing the hiring of 125 immigration judges within two years; announcing an executive order slashing funding for sanctuary cities, announced that deportation of criminal aliens and gang members were up 38 percent over the final year of Obama’s term, with roughly 6,000 members of the ultra-violent MS-13 gang arrested in the first several months of the administration; Trump gave Defense Secretary Mattis the authority to set troop levels in the fight against the Islamic State group, a key factor in virtually wiping out the terrorist group; Trump used the “Mother of All Bombs” on the Islamic State group in Afghanistan; the president signed the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act of 2017, which authorized additional funds for private treatment for veterans more than 40 miles from a VA facility; Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a review of Obama-era “agreements” with local police departments which restricted their ability to fight crime; Trump ordered Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to conduct a review with an eye to returning power to states and local governments; Trump signed a “bill into law annulling a recent Obama administration regulation that would have prohibited states from discriminating in awarding Title X family planning funds based on whether a local clinic also performs abortions; the administration eliminated funding for the United Nations Population Fund, a pro-abortion agency with links to China’s one-child policy; the administration appointed Dr. Charmaine Yoest as the assistant secretary of public affairs for the Department of Health and Human Services. Yoest is a former president of Americans United for Life and replaced a Planned Parenthood advocate. Two other pro-life advocates with the Family Research Council also received appointments to key positions.

May:
President Trump visited the Middle East, visiting Saudi Arabia (where he signed a $110 billion arms deal with a further $350 million in the coming 10 years; further deals with American businesses were also finalized); Trump helped strengthen alliances with Arab allies and Israel during the trip, as well, with a speech about security and regional relations to the Arab Islamic American Summit. Income rose 0.4 percent in the United States in May, which beat estimates of 0.3 percent; housing sales doubled over the same period the previous year; Mexico agreed to cut back its exports of sugar to the United States, a major trade win for the United States; Trump announced his intention to renegotiate NAFTA; the president ordered air strikes on Syria after President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on his own people; the number of unaccompanied child illegal immigrants entering the United States fell under 1000 fir the first time in several years; the president established a commission to investigate voter fraud; The Trump administration announced its intent to create a school choice plan which states can opt into; on the National Day of Prayer, Trump signed an executive order which eliminated the Johnson Amendment, which had severe IRS restrictions on the political activities of tax-exempt religious groups; the administration expanded the Mexico City policy “to restrict funding to any international health organization that performs or gives information about abortions, expanding the amount of money affected from $600,000 to nearly $9 billion.”

June:
Trump approves Dakota Access Pipeline and Keystone XL projects; inflation reduced to 1.6 percent, an eight-month low; American beef imports returned to china for the first time in 14 years; Trump announced a rollback in relations with communist Cuba, partially ending Obama’s rapprochement with the country; Trump signed executive order increasing apprenticeship programs; Trump expands property rights by ending Obama’s Waters of the United States rule; DHS announces new tracking system to see whether or not visitors have left the country; Trump pulls out of the Paris Climate Accord; at Trump’s urging, NATO members increase their share of defense in the organization by a total of $10 billion; the administration implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, sanctions aimed at Russian oligarchs; Trump administration implements more sanctions against the Russians, this time on 38 persons and entities responsible for violations in the conflict with Ukraine; ICE announces that it arrested an average of 13,085 between February and June, compared to 9,134 average arrests in the last three months of the Obama administration; the DHS ended Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, which would have given 4 million parents of illegal immigrant children amnesty in the U.S.; Trump gave the Pentagon authorization to set troop levels in Afghanistan and Somalia, allowing them to better assess the threat there; the president established the Veterans Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, which established protections for whistleblowers and allowed senior officials at Veterans Affairs to fire underperforming employees more easily. Since January of 2017, 500 employees had been fired from one of Obama’s most disastrous departments and 200 more had faced suspensions. The VA also adopted a new Defense Department records system which allowed them to share information more easily with the Pentagon; a new VA hotline also became operational in June; Betsy DeVos appointed Adam Kissel, one of the most vocal critics of Title IX abuses in the Obama administration.

July:

GDP grew by 2.6 percent, double the first quarter; unemployment fell from 4.8 in January to 4.4 percent; Trump signed an order that increased drilling for energy on federally-owned lands; the president repealed the Obama administration’s “Stream Protection Rule,” which cost the coal industry and America $81 million a year; Trump managed to get “companies such as Ford, Chrysler and Carrier Air Conditioners to manufacture and build plants in the United States,” as well as getting companies like Corning and Foxconn to make significant investments in the United States; the administration ended a program to arm “moderate” rebels in Syria, many of whom who turned out not to be so “moderate;” coalition forces pushed the Islamic State out of the Iraqi city of Mosul; the president created the Office of American Innovation, which aims to modernize the U.S. government; Trump implemented a five-year ban on lobbying for political appointees and prohibited them from lobbying for foreign countries; the DOJ busted 400 people who were prescribing opioid drugs to addicts in what Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the “largest health-care fraud takedown operation in American history; Sessions’ DOJ also cracked down on leaks, “pursuing three times more investigations in the first six months of the Trump administration than had been open at the end of the Obama administration.”

August:

Alarmist scientists have been caught red-handed tampering with raw data in order to exaggerate sea level rise.

The raw (unadjusted) data from three Indian Ocean gauges – Aden, Karachi and Mumbai – showed that local sea level trends in the last 140 years had been very gently rising, neutral or negative (ie sea levels had fallen).

But after the evidence had been adjusted by tidal records gatekeepers at the global databank Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) it suddenly showed a sharp and dramatic rise.

The whistle was blown by two Australian scientists Dr. Albert Parker and Dr. Clifford Ollier in a paper for Earth Systems and Environment.

The paper – Is the Sea Level Stable at Aden, Yemen? – examines the discrepancies between raw and adjusted sea level data in Aden, Karachi and Mumbai.

Kenneth Richard at No Tricks Zone reports:

The authors expose how PSMSL data-adjusters make it appear that stable sea levels can be rendered to look like they are nonetheless rising at an accelerated pace.

The data-adjusters take misaligned and incomplete sea level data from tide gauges that show no sea level rise (or even a falling trend). Then, they subjectively and arbitrarily cobble them together, or realign them. In each case assessed, PSMSL data-adjusters lower the earlier misaligned rates and raise the more recent measurements. By doing so, they concoct a new linearly-rising trend.

Here is a before/after from Karachi:

The authors do not mince their words. They refer to these adjustments as “highly questionable” and “suspicious.”

That’s because they can find no plausible scientific explanation for...