Hawk (G.I. Joe)

Hawk is a fictional character from the ' media franchise. He is one of the original members of the G.I. Joe Team, and debuted in 1982 as a Missile Commander, but was later promoted to full commander of the team. Hawk is portrayed by Dennis Quaid in the 2009 live-action film '.
Profile.
Hawk's real name is Clayton M. Abernathy, and he was born in Denver, Colorado. He comes from a wealthy family, whose influence enabled him to enroll in West Point. He graduated at the top of his class. He also graduated from Advanced Infantry Training and Covert Ops School, and served on the fictional North Atlantic Range Command and USA ENG COM and EVR Missile Radar Training. Hawk is a qualified expert in the use of the M16 rifle and M-1911A1 automatic pistol.
Hawk is the original field commander of the G.I. Joe Team. His primary military specialty is strategic command operations and his secondary military specialties are ranger, artillery, intelligence and radar. His original rank was that of colonel. He was later promoted to brigadier general and then major general. As a colonel, Hawk served under General Lawrence Flagg, and was responsible for recruiting most of the team's early members. After General Flagg was killed in action and his successor, General Austin, retired from active duty, Hawk assumed full command of the G.I. Joe team.
As the conflict between G.I. Joe and Cobra became known in the United States and abroad, Hawk was the public face of the G.I. Joe team. He was also instrumental in the reinstatement of the G.I. Joe team after it was temporarily disbanded. This was due to his involvement with "The Jugglers", a top-secret group of generals who had frequently interfered with the team's operations. Hawk was able to undermine corruption from within by keeping tabs on them, and blackmailed them into immediately reinstating the team, once evidence was presented that Cobra was again operating on domestic soil. However, he decides to take on more of an advisory role as commander in chief, letting field command duties fall to Duke.
Toys.
Hawk was part of the first wave of action figures that were released in 1982, packaged with the Mobile Missile System playset. Although he held the rank of colonel and his file card has flattering statements about his leadership abilities, his job description was "Missile Commander", though in the Marvel Comics "" series he was G.I. Joe team's field commander. All of the original sixteen figures from 1982 were released with "straight arms". The same figure was re-released in 1983 with a "swivel-arm battle grip", which made it easier for figures to hold their rifles and accessories.
In 1986, Hasbro released a new Hawk action figure who carried the rank of brigadier general. Concurrent with that, he became overall commander in both the comics and the Sunbow cartoon following the death of General Flagg. A new action figure was released in 1991, with the name changed from "Hawk" to "General Hawk". General Hawk was also released in 1991 as part of the "Talking Battle Commanders" line. In 1993, two new versions of General Hawk were released as part of the Star Brigade line.
When Hasbro revived the "G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero" line in 2000, they failed to renew their trademark claim to the name "Hawk", and could no longer release the character with that name attached. Therefore, he was released as "General Tomahawk", with the rank of major general. His name was changed again in 2004 to "General Abernathy", and then to "G.I. Joe Hawk" in 2008.
In 2009, to coincide with the launch of the movie "", Hasbro released three figures based on the movie character, with the name General Clayton "Hawk" Abernathy. The first was released with the Pit Mobile Headquarters, the second as a stand-alone figure, and the third as a Wal-Mart exclusive with the Laser Artillery Weapon. A version of Hawk was also released as part of "The Pursuit of Cobra" line in 2011, with a non-actor based head.
Comics.
Marvel Comics.
Hawk first appears in the Marvel Comics series "" #1. He serves as a colonel and the field commander of the G.I. Joe team under General Lawrence Flagg. It is shown that prior to the creation of G.I. Joe, Hawk was a lieutenant colonel commanding security forces, and was responsible for recruiting many of the original members of the team, including Stalker and Snake Eyes. Hawk quickly gains the respect of his soldiers and participates in a number of early missions. In one mission, he and Grunt go undercover to infiltrate an illegal militia run by a man named Vance Wingfield. During a battle in the streets of Washington D.C., Hawk is shot point-blank in the back by Cobra Commander, but recovers due to a bulletproof vest.
After the death of General Flagg, Hawk assumes command of the G.I. Joe team, but is still advised by General Austin. Operations at The Pit keep him busy, so Hawk relegates field command to Duke. When General Austin later suffers a heart attack, he retires and promotes Hawk to Brigadier General, giving him command of the entire G.I. Joe operation. After the G.I. Joe team invades the Cobra-controlled town of Springfield and has nothing to show for it, the team is in danger of being shut down. Hawk accepts full responsibility, and meets with three high-ranking military officers deep in the otherwise empty Pit, when the facility is attacked by Cobra's Battle Android Troopers. Two of the generals are killed, but the survivor General Hollingsworth reactivates the team, and puts Hawk back in command.
Hawk leads the team through the first Cobra civil war, which takes place on Cobra Island. During the conflict, he is involved in a fist-fight with the Dreadnok Buzzer atop the Thunder Machine. Upon returning from this mission, General Hawk and General Hollingsworth are arrested, under claims that the Joes acted without authorization. Roadblock organizes a rescue mission, with the help of the Joes who had not been arrested. Destro, who was monitoring the situation, finds the lack of respect for his enemy intolerable. He shows up at the rescue, and neutralizes the entire situation by proving Hawk's innocence on live television.
In the Battle of Benzheen, Hawk leads nearly the entire team into battle, and deals with political corruption when the operation ends thanks to a deal their "allies" make with Cobra Commander. As a result, many Joes are executed while in Cobra custody. During a mission into Trans-Carpathia, Hawk nearly dies before other members of the Joe team can rescue him. He later personally leads missions into the Cobra-controlled town of Millville, and later returns to fight Cobra in Eastern Europe. Hawk's final duty as G.I. Joe commander is to preside over the closing ceremony of The Pit, after the G.I. Joe team was decommissioned at the cancellation of the series.
Devil's Due Publishing.
When Cobra returns a few years later in the , Hawk lobbies for the re-instatement of the G.I. Joe team. He is successful, and publicly announces the reinstatement of the G.I. Joe team, which is seen by members of Cobra. However, he does not re-assume full command, passing on leadership responsibility to Duke, while he takes on more of an advisory role. This is so he can devote time to keeping an eye on the Jugglers, a cabal of generals with an agenda of their own. He also mentions that several younger officers have nicknamed him "General Tomahawk". When Scarlett and Snake Eyes are taken prisoner by Destro, Hawk sends Kamakura and Spirit to find Cobra Commander's son Billy, who helps them rescue Scarlett and Snake Eyes.
Cobra Commander returns, accompanied by Storm Shadow, and creates plans to get revenge on both Destro and Hawk. Storm Shadow tries to assassinate Hawk, but is confronted by Snake Eyes before escaping. Destro is later double-crossed by the president of Sierra Gordo, and arrested by Duke. Destro makes a deal to deliver Cobra Commander in exchange for his freedom. The Joes confront Cobra, and Destro is traded for Cobra Commander, but during the conflict the Commander shoots Hawk in the back, and in turn is shot from behind by the Baroness.
Hawk survives but lapses into a coma. General Joseph Colton returns to fill in for Hawk as commander of the team. While in a coma, Hawk has a dream that he was finally retiring and settling down with his wife Carolee, who in reality was long dead. He then visits Cobra Commander in prison, and the two argue before Cobra Commander moves from the shadows to reveal Hawk's face. When Hawk wakes up, he learns that he has an unretractable bullet lodged in his spine, which has left him paralyzed below the waist. This experience makes him a bit crazed, intensifying his hatred for Cobra Commander. Unknown to Hawk, it was not Cobra Commander that shot him, for Zartan had switched places with the Commander shortly before the incident.
The Red Shadows organization finally steps forward, targeting members of both G.I. Joe and Cobra. Hawk is targeted, but is rescued from the Red Shadows by Scarlett, Snake Eyes and Kamakura. Red Shadows assassin Dela Eden attempts to kill Flint, but is stopped by Lady Jaye, who is then stabbed by Dela and dies. Dela is captured by Scarlett, who forms a plan with Flint and Hawk to investigate the Red Shadows organization. But the Red Shadows rescue Dela, and when G.I. Joe confronts them in New York, the leader of the Red Shadows Wilder Vaughn escapes. G.I. Joe is then deactivated by order of the President, given that Cobra as an organization has fractured, although Cobra Commander remains at large.
America's Elite.
In the "" series, Hawk is undergoing physiotherapy, and is rarely seen. General Joseph Colton again assumes command of the G.I. Joe team, at the President's request. Hawk is still obsessed with the capture of Cobra Commander, who had not been seen since Cobra's defeat a year earlier, and he sends the tracker Spirit on a classified mission to search the world for Cobra Commander. Spirit manages to locate Cobra Commander, but is captured. Spirit is later found and rescued, and reveals his findings to Hawk and the rest of the team. General Colton convinces Hawk to return to the team in an advisory role. He is a member of the team, when the Phoenix Guard infiltrates The Rock, and manages to capture several Joes including Hawk. The remaining Joes fight off the attack, as they finally discover the true identities of the Phoenix Guard members.
Hawk is forced to retreat from G.I. Joe headquarters during the events of World War III. With help from Destro and the Baroness, G.I. Joe is able to take back many of the areas controlled by Cobra. Cobra Commander and The Plague retreat to a secret base in the Appalachian Mountains, where the final battle takes place. General Colton is shot in the back by Cobra Commander, but survives. The battle ends when Hawk, using Velocity's jet pack, tackles Cobra Commander and knocks him out with a punch to the face. In the aftermath, Hawk and Colton are asked by the President to continue leading the G.I. Joe team, as it is fully reactivated. Cobra Commander is locked away in a special underwater prison, where Hawk later visits Cobra Commander and the two exchange words. Cobra Commander tells Hawk that when war breaks out again, Hawk will have him to thank for it. Hawk responds, "Maybe, Commander. But understand this: no matter what happens...you won't be taking part in any of it."
Hasbro later announced that all stories published by Devil's Due Publishing are no longer considered canonical, and are now considered an alternate continuity.
Alternate Continuities.
G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers: Marvel.
In the original alternate continuity series, the Joes come into conflict with the Transformers and Cobra over a mobile power station that could increase energy reserves for anyone who takes control over it. During the conflict, Hawk strikes up a brief romantic relationship with a U.S. Senator. This ends badly when the politician, disgraced by scandal, is murdered.
G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers: Devil's Due.
This series published by Devil's Due, is composed of four mini-series that chronicle a new origin to the G.I. Joe team. Hawk is the commander of a group of U.S. Army soldiers, including Stalker and Snake Eyes. Assigned to protect a peace conference in Washington D.C., they find themselves under attack by unknown forces using high-tech military-grade equipment. Some of this equipment transforms into high-tech robots.
After the attack, Hawk is made the leader of G.I. Joe, a special unit assembled for the purpose of taking down this terrorist organization, identifying itself as Cobra. G.I. Joe learns the truth about Cobra from both Mercer, a Cobra defector, and Wheeljack and Bumblebee, two alien robots who avoided being found when their ship was discovered by Cobra. With the help of an encrypted signal sent by Optimus Prime, the Joes discover the location of Cobra's hidden island base. As the Joes prepare for an assault on the island, Hawk receives orders to subdue the two alien robots that had allied with them, and take them to Area 51 for study, while the Cobra base is nuked. When Wheeljack warns Hawk about the catastrophic reaction of a nuclear explosion with the Energon Cobra was stockpiling, Hawk defies his orders and goes with his original invasion plan.
In volume 3, "G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers: Art of War", Hawk is commander of the team stationed to protect a secret military base in Area 51. He is working with the Autobots to remove the remainder of Cybertronian technology from Earth, but later finds that the U.S. Military was secretly bioengineering a Super Soldier, Serpent O.R. from the remains of Megatron (the fallen Decepticon leader), and the genetic make-up of history's greatest military leaders. Hawk is part of the team that goes to Cybertron and is captured by the Decepticons. In the final battle, Hawk uses the Matrix and becomes connected to it.
In volume 4, "G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers: Black Horizon", Hawk leaves the G.I. Joe team, after allegations of the events that occurred in Area 51, which branded him a traitor. He is still connected to the Matrix, and is troubled each night by a specific nightmare, which shows a future in which all humanity is destroyed. During an interview, Hawk is summoned by the Autobots, whom he is secretly working for, because they have discovered an ancient race in the Himalayan Mountains. Hawk investigates with the aid of Flint and Optimus Prime, and there they encounter Bludgeon and Cobra-La. As they are escaping, Prime is attacked by Bludgeon. Hawk uses his connection to the Matrix and uploads Energon energy to Bludgeon, which temporarily knocks him out. They find that they are trapped, until they meet General Joseph Colton, who knows of Hawk. Colton leads them further inside, and after a few battles with the Honor Guard of Cobra-La, the Joes put together a plan to save the day. Flint goes into space with spores designed to destroy technology, while Colton, Hawk, and Optimus Prime rescue Firewall and stop Cobra-La. Hawk faces off against Golobulus, and is aided by Optimus Prime. As the series ends, Hawk is seen again with the woman he once left, trying to put his life back together.
Fun Publications.
In the mirror universe created by Fun Publications, Hawk's is Vice President Clayton "Clay" Abernathy, serving in the administration of U.S. President Joseph Colton. In the story "Eye in the Sky", Clay advises the president during the loss of an orbital defense satellite to the evil Decepticons, and its eventual destruction thanks to the efforts of the heroic Autobots.
A version of Hawk is also among the members of The Convoy, a group of leaders from various realities united by the Transtech, in order to deal with various threats. Yet another version has his personality copied into the robot Serpent O.R., a Transformer version of Serpentor.
Animated series.
Sunbow.
In the Sunbow "" cartoon, General Hawk is voiced by Ed Gilbert. His first appearance is in the second season premiere episode "Arise, Serpentor, Arise!" Pt. 1, where he is brought in to lead the G.I. Joe team. His first task is to have Sgt. Slaughter retrain the Joe team, after a humiliating battle against Cobra forces. When Serpentor invades Washington DC, General Hawk disguises himself as the President to lead a surprise attack on Cobra. There was no on-screen explanation as to when Hawk became the leader. However, according to Buzz Dixon in an interview for "G.I. Joe: Yearbook" #2, Hawk "has never been seen before because he was in Washington with the Joint Chiefs of Staff". In "Not A Ghost Of A Chance", it was further revealed that Hawk was also the founder of the G.I. Joe team. The character had appeared in early animated commercials for the comic books and toys with his original blond-haired design.
G.I. Joe: The Movie.
Hawk also appeared briefly in the 1987 animated film ". After Serpentor is freed by the Dreadnoks, General Hawk scolds Lt. Falcon for abandoning his post, which led to Serpentor escaping and the Dreadnoks' new allies injuring three G.I. Joe members in the process. General Hawk ends up condemning Lt. Falcon to quarters until the court martial, and he orders Low-Light and Scarlett to get Lt. Falcon out of his sight. At the court martial, General Hawk brings up the charges against Lt. Falcon, which involved the incidents related to Serpentor's escape, and not being present with the other Rawhides in Beachhead's training exercise. Duke pleads to General Hawk to not inflict a harsh punishment on Lt. Falcon. Upon discussing this with the other four generals, General Hawk decides to have Lt. Falcon reassigned to the Slaughterhouse. After Duke is wounded while protecting Lt. Falcon from Serpentor's attack, General Hawk comforts Lt. Falcon and orders him and the other Rawhides to stay behind, while the rest of the Joes assault Cobra-La.
DiC series.
In DiC Entertainment's " series, General Hawk (reprised by Ed Gilbert in Season One, voiced by David Kaye in Season Two) continues his leadership of G.I. Joe in the fight against Cobra. In the first season, he is seen wearing his flight suit and using his jetpack to coincide with the release of his new figure. In the second season, Hawk appeared more frequently, and wore the same uniform as his Talking Battle Commanders figure.
Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles.
Hawk appears in the pilot episode of "Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles", titled "Old Heroes Never Die", where he is voiced by David Kaye. Hawk, along with Doc and Lady Jaye, discover Sgt. Savage, who was frozen alive during World War II, and leave him in charge of a group of talented but irresponsible sergeants facing court martial. Savage quickly whips them into shape.
Valor vs. Venom.
Hawk appeared in the direct-to-video CGI animated movie ", voiced by Phil Hayes. In this continuity, Hawk was abducted by Cobra, and was mutated into Venomous Maximus, who collaborates with Overkill to venomize the human population. The Joes restore Hawk to his old self with an antidote at the end of the film.
Sigma 6.
In ", Hawk is still recuperating from the events of "G.I. Joe: Valor vs. Venom", and serves as a mentor to Duke. It is revealed that Hawk has a teenage son named Scott, who is an expert with computers. Hawk is also afraid that Cobra might become too strong for the Joes alone, and commissions Lt. Stone to create a new Sub Base and several new vehicles, which are revealed in the opening of Season 2. Hawk is not seen again after Season 1.
Renegades.
General Abernathy appears in "", voiced by Lee Majors. In this series, General Abernathy is depicted as a bald man with an eye patch. General Abernathy is a full general in the US Military, who doesn't trust Cobra Industries. When he gets a call from Scarlett about what she learned, General Abernathy tells her that her team made the front news. When Duke claims they were set up, General Abernathy tells them to turn themselves in, because unless they have proof of their innocence, he can't help them. When General Abernathy asks Baroness if she needs help quarantining the nearby town, and Baroness says that the military has done enough. General Abernathy then appoints Flint to lead a team of military officers to bring Duke's team in. In "Revelations" Pt. 2, General Abernathy is with the Falcons, when the Joes and Professor Patrick O'Hara turn themselves in, with the proof that General Abernathy wanted. General Abernathy then plans a debriefing, as he shows the group that Breaker is officially working for both of them.
Live action film.
Dennis Quaid portrays Hawk in the 2009 live-action film "". In the film, NATO troops led by American soldiers Duke and Ripcord are asked to deliver four warheads, which are capable of destroying anything from tanks to cities, with nanomites designed to devour metal and other materials. Their convoy is ambushed by the Baroness, whom Duke recognizes to be his ex-fiancee Ana Lewis. Duke and Ripcord are rescued by Scarlett, Snake Eyes, Breaker, and Heavy Duty, who take the warheads to The Pit, G.I. Joe's command center in Egypt, and rendezvous with Hawk, the head of the G.I. Joe team. Hawk takes command of the warheads, and excuses Duke and Ripcord, only to be convinced to let them join his team, after Duke reveals that he knows the Baroness.
Later, Hawk is injured by Storm Shadow, and has to use a wheelchair for some time. By the end of the film, he has healed from his injuries and is walking unaided. Cover Girl was his aide-de-camp, until she was murdered by Zartan.
Video games.
Hawk is featured as a playable character in the 1991 Nintendo video game, "G.I. Joe". His appearance is based on the 1991 edition of his action figure. Hawk is also featured as a playable character in the 1992 game, ".
General Hawk appears as a non-playable, supporting character in the video game ", voiced by Josh Robert Thompson.
Other works.
Hawk is briefly discussed in the non-fiction novel 'Paradise Of Bombs'.
Hawk's figure is mentioned for a short period in the non fiction novel "6 Sick Hipsters". In the story, the character Paul Achting spent four years collecting G.I. Joe figures to set up a battle scene between the Joes and Cobra. As he imagined the characters in his head, he described four of the Joes on front lines of the battle: Hawk, Leatherneck, Wet Suit, and Sci-Fi "stood in procession, weapons raised, adrenaline pumping feverishly. Anxious for another victory over the dreaded Cobra." He described how Hawk, "the original field commander, was now a general. This battle would be the one that defined his military career. The one that make or break him."


Military Vicariate of Chile


The Human Comedy (film)

The Human Comedy is a 1943 American comedy-drama film directed by Clarence Brown. It is based on the 1943 William Saroyan novel of the same name, but Saroyan actually wrote the 240-page screenplay first, left the film project, and quickly wrote the novel and published it just before the film was released. Howard Estabrook was brought in to reduce the run time to two hours. The picture stars Mickey Rooney with Frank Morgan; also appearing in the film are James Craig, Marsha Hunt, Fay Bainter, Ray Collins, Van Johnson, Donna Reed and Jackie "Butch" Jenkins. Barry Nelson, Robert Mitchum and Don DeFore appear together as boisterous soldiers in uncredited supporting roles.
Plot.
The film is the story of a teenaged Homer Macauley in high school, working part-time as a telegram delivery boy, in the fictional town of Ithaca, California, during World War II. The effects of the war on the "Home Front" over a year in Homer's life are depicted in a series of perceptive vignettes—some amusing, some grave, some ugly, some touching, some sentimental—involving himself, his family, friends and neighbors in his California hometown, and his brother Marcus, a Private in the U.S. Army. The storyline is introduced and directed by a narrator, Homer's father, who has been dead for two years.
Cast.
The AFI catalog lists 75 actors, including the 21 principals given credit on screen.
Robert Mitchum (as Horse) and Don DeFore (as Texas) appear in small roles as soldiers who, with their buddy Fat, have a night off from training. Trying to meet girls and take in a movie, they meet Bess and Mary. Although they have character names and lines in the script (Mitchum portrays "Quentin"), both are uncredited. Carl Switzer, best known as "Alfalfa" in the Our Gang shorts, appears uncredited as Auggie, a friend of Ulysses.
Production.
Saroyan wrote a film treatment and a screenplay that he expected to direct. He left the project when his 240-page script proved to be too long—approximately 4 hours long—and he was removed as director. Saroyan went home and turned his original script into a novel, which was published just before the film was released and became an instant best-seller.
Saroyan was not at all happy with the film as completed by Brown. Among the noticeable differences between the film and the novel are a more vivid characterization of the four-year-old Ulysses, stronger social criticism and far fewer sentimental scenes than were incorporated into the film by Estabrook and Brown.
Modern sources indicate that MGM chief Louis B. Mayer said that this was his favorite film.
According to the AFI catalog, music credited in the film included "All the World Will Be Jealous of Me", by Ernest R. Ball and Al Dubin, and "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms", words by E. A. Hoffman, music by A. J. Showalter., but they are not credited on screen. Music is important to the Macauley family and to those around them, including Marcus's Army buddies. The score is full of allusive phrases and songs, that were familiar to 1943 audiences, from the strains of the "Star-Spangled Banner" that open and close the film, to little Ulysses' fascination with "My Old Kentucky Home", to a long, rousing rendition of "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms", sung by the soldiers on the train, where one shot breaks the fourth wall and invites the audience to sing along to the last chorus. Alcoholic Mr. Grogan copes with the despair caused by the relentless stream of telegrams from the War Department by turning to songs — "Rock of Ages" and "Church in the Wildwood" among them — as well as cold water in the face and black coffee. Mrs. Sandoval rocks and croons "Cielito lindo" to the memory of the son she has just lost. Other pieces woven into the score are: "Where the River Shannon Flows", "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling", "Now the Day Is Over", "My Country 'Tis of Thee", "You're in the Army Now", "Git Along Little Dogies", "The Happy Farmer", "Polly Wolly Doodle", "Onward Christian Soldiers", "The Caissons Go Rolling Along", "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" and "A Dream", an old love song sung by Mary and Bess as Tobey and Homer approach the house with news of Marcus's death. In the scene where Tom and Diana Spangler drive through the Valley Festival, he points out the people wearing traditional costume, playing traditional music and dancing folk dances: "Greeks, Serbs, Russians, Poles, Spanish, Mexicans, Armenians, Swedes and all the rest".
Reception.
"The New York Times" critic Bosley Crowther praised the film's performances, especially Rooney's, saying that "There is a tenderness and restraint in his characterization." But he chided the film for excessive sentimentality, saying it featured "some most charming bits of fine motion-picture expression and some most maudlin gobs of cinematic goo."
"Variety" commented that Saroyan's "initial original screenplay is a brilliant sketch of the basic fundamentals of the American way of life, transferred to the screen with exceptional fidelity."
According to TCM's Notes on the production, the reviewer for "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote: "the best picture this reviewer has ever seen," "Daily Variety" predicted it would be "one of the screen's immortals.” The Motion Picture Research Bureau gave it the best audience ratings. The Canadian Department of National Defence named it the best film of 1943.
The film made $2.8 million in the US and Canada and $1.0 million elsewhere resulting in a profit of $1.5 million.
Leonard Maltin gives the picture 3 1/2 out of 4 stars, describing it as: “Memorable Americana, faithfully adapted... Unfolds like a novel, with many lovely vignettes, and one of Rooney's best performances...”
Dennis Schwartz says the film: "outdoes Capra in cornball melodrama, but does it well...(It) gets the close-knit community mood right of small town America during World War II, and keeps it from becoming bloated with sentimentality (though it’s unquestionably sugary) ... (reminding) Americans of an innocent time when they believed they were warm-hearted decent people who cared about their country, community and others ... where one could advance by getting a good public education and the people in the country felt they could safely leave their house doors unlocked. It’s an America that probably no longer exists, which makes this film relic a memorable look back."
Rotten Tomatoes rates it 80 percent fresh.
Awards.
It won the Oscar for Best Story and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Mickey Rooney), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Director and Best Picture.


Military Ordinariate of the South African Defence Force

The Military Ordinariate of the South African (National) Defence Force (or of South Africa) is a military ordinariate of the Roman Catholic Church to provides pastoral care to Roman Catholics serving in the South African National Defence Force and their families.
It is exempt, i.e. immediately subject to the Holy See, not part of any ecclesiastical province. Since its inception, it has been held by the Metropolitan Archbishops of South Africa's national capital Pretoria (where it is headquartered) and has no proper episcopal see of its own.
As per 2014, it comprises a single parish and only eight 'diocesan' (secular) priests. The current incumbent is the Metropolita Dabula Anthony Mpako, since 30 April 2019.
History.
It was established as Military vicariate of the South African Defence Force on 17 May 1951. It originally provided chaplains to the South African Defence Force.
It was promoted as Military Ordinariate of the South African Defence Force on 21 July 1986. Following the dismantling of the apartheid system it now provides chaplains to the South African National Defence Force.
Episcopal ordinaries.
(all Roman Rite)


Gao Zongwu

Gao Zongwu (; 1905—1994) was a Chinese diplomat in the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. He was best known for playing a key role in negotiations between China and Japan from 1937 to 1940 that initially intended to bring about a peace agreement between them, but which led to the defection of prominent statesman Wang Jingwei and the establishment of the pro-Japanese collaborationist Reorganized National Government of China. Disillusioned with the harsh terms imposed on the new Wang Jingwei regime by the Japanese, he released the full documents of the outline of the Basic Treaty that Japan demanded as the basis of its relations with the new regime, which was a major propaganda coup for Chiang Kai-shek and a blow for Wang's fledgling government that had just been exposed as just another puppet state. Gao had originally been slated to serve as the vice foreign minister of the Wang Jingwei regime before his defection back to Chiang in January 1940.
Biography.
Early life and career.
Born around 1905, Gao Zongwu was educated in Japan at the Kyushu Imperial University. Described as being intelligent and a skilled politician, Gao suffered from chronic bouts of tuberculosis. He later returned to China to teach political science at Nanjing University and parts of his dissertation on Sino-Japanese diplomacy were published in Chinese magazines. These were read by Li Shengwu, an Oxford-educated scholar on international law and colleague of Wang Jingwei, who brought them to his attention. Wang met with Gao, being impressed with the young man's work, and invited him to join the government (Wang being the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time). Gao rapidly rose through the ranks due to his abilities and became Chief of the Asia Bureau of the Foreign Ministry before he was thirty years old. Thus he became one of Wang's closest friends and supporters, entering the so-called "low-key club" of Chinese officials who wanted to establish peace with Japan after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, despite the atmosphere of treason that surrounded those who supported a peace policy in the eyes of the public. He became one of the most prominent members of the group, along with Zhou Fohai. Gao also had extensive contacts among the Chinese banking community, a member of which he knew well through a mutual acquaintance, which helped advance his career.
Gao Zongwu spoke fluent Japanese and had served as Wang Jingwei's translator while the latter had been foreign minister.
Sino-Japanese peace talks.
Gao would go on to play a major role in negotiations between Japan and the Chinese government throughout the next two years. Between the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in the summer of 1937 and the outbreak of fighting in Shanghai by fall of that year, Gao met with both Wang and Chiang Kai-shek. He expressed his intent to establish a peace agreement with Japan and completely turn around Sino-Japanese relations. Wang agreed, and Chiang gave his approval. On July 31, 1937, Gao met with a banking contact and his acquaintance, Japanese businessman Nishi Yoshiaki, a protege of Matsuoka Yosuke, Japanese diplomat and former president of the South Manchurian Railway Company, who supported the peace movement. Shortly after the fall of Nanjing Gao resigned from his position in the Foreign Ministry and traveled to Hong Kong on what was ostensibly an intelligence gathering mission, but was really there at the behest of Zhou Fohai and the low-key club to make contacts with officials sympathetic to the peace movement. Zhou kept Chiang informed of their efforts the entire time.
In late 1937 Gao took a break to recuperate from a tuberculosis attack, and a friend of his from the Foreign Ministry continued his work, meeting with Nishi in January 1938 in Shanghai. It was through Nishi that Gao's friend arranged a visit to Tokyo on February 15 to begin conversations with pro-Chinese members of the Japanese leadership, the main one being Colonel Kagesa Sadaaki of the strategy section of the Army General Staff, along with Vice Chief of General Staff Hayao Tada. Through Gao's friend they passed a number of letters to Chiang Kai-shek describing their desire to negotiate a peace. After leaving Japan on March 5, he met with Gao, Nishi, and the journalist Matsumoto Shigeharu—Gao's former professor at Kyushu University—in Hong Kong. Afterwards they headed to report their findings to Zhou, who passed on the letters to Chiang.
On April 16 Gao returned to Hong Kong and met with Nishi, telling him Chiang's positive reaction to the letters from Colonel Kagesa. He had also told Gao basic conditions for peace, including Japanese recognition of Chinese sovereignty, and later negotiations for the question of Manchukuo and Inner Mongolia. Nishi then departed to Japan on April 19 to see if a visit to Tokyo by Gao was possible, but returned with negative results as Kagesa was not willing to enter negotiations at the time. He returned from Japan with nothing more than vague assurances of support from some officers of the Army General Staff, which Gao reported to Chiang, much to the Chinese leader's outrage, who ordered Gao to cut off the talks. In March 1938, however, Gao met with Matsumoto, who encouraged him to undertake an unauthorized mission to Tokyo. Zhou Fohai supported the idea, offering to take responsibility for the trip. Gao arrived in Japan in early July.
During the diplomat's three-week stay in Tokyo he met with Takeru Inukai, an advisor to Prime Minister of Japan Prince Fumimaro Konoe, among others. It was unclear exactly how the name of Wang Jingwei came up but Gao, while emphasizing he did not intend to oppose Chiang, believed that negotiations could continue through Wang if Chiang was too unwilling to continue them. Gao passed the results of his mission on to Zhou after his return to Shanghai in mid-July but ended up being hospitalized again because of tuberculosis. Zhou reported the results of Gao's Tokyo trip to both Wang—who was opposed to the idea of betraying Chiang—and also the Chinese leader himself, who was more annoyed with it than anything else. However, Wang's attitude would change as 1938 went on and more Chinese civilians died as a result of the intensifying warfare, which Wang blamed on the Kuomintang's resistance policies. By the fall of 1938, Gao had arranged contact between another low-key club member, Mei Siping, and Matsumoto, who in turn connected him to Tokyo which assured Mei that the Japanese War Ministry was willing to have a more lenient China policy. The low-key club was further encouraged by Prince Konoe's radio address on 3 November 1938 that called for a "New Order in East Asia" to oppose Communism and Western imperialism, and that Japan would welcome China into it, even considering giving up demands for territorial and economic concessions.
From November 12 until November 20, Gao, Mei Siping, and Zhou Longxiang went to Shanghai to take part in negotiations for Wang's eventual defection from the government of Chiang Kai-shek in Chongqing. They would sign a document known as the "Conference Proceedings" which would serve as the basic agreement of terms between the low-key club and the Imperial Japanese Army. On the Japanese side with Lieutenant Colonel Imai Takeo, head of "Operation Watanabe" (the Japanese code name for the dealings that led to Wang's defection), along with Colonel Kagesa and Takeru Inukai who flew in from Tokyo as the last details were worked out. Five important issues were discussed by Gao's team and the Japanese side—recognition of Manchukuo, Chinese indemnity payments to Japan, Japanese economic activities in China, Japanese extraterritoriality, and the withdrawal of IJA troops from China. Conflicting reports from participants arose over whether the Chinese side agreed to recognize Manchukuo or not. But they firmly rejected any indemnity payments. Gao and his group won concessions on economic affairs, agreeing to simply grant Japan permission to exploit the natural resources of north China and give it favored trade nation status. The Japanese also agreed to review their extraterritorial concessions in China. As for the troop withdrawal, they agreed that China and Japan would have a joint anti-Soviet defense force in Inner Mongolia and the Beijing–Tianjin corridor, while Japanese troops would leave the rest of China within two years.
The two groups also came to an agreement regarding the details of Wang's defection, and that he would not merely lead a peace movement but essentially a new collaborationist government (although Wang later made a contradictory claim to this in his deathbed testament in 1944, asserting that it was not their intent at the time to establish a regime opposing Chiang). According to Gao, the French ambassador to China Henri Cosme had some influence on Wang's decision to defect, who believed that China would be better off reaching a peace agreement as Japan was more powerful. They intended to set up this government in unoccupied China in order to emphasis Wang's independence and avoid the treasonous puppet status of the existing puppet regimes, the Provisional Government and Reformed Government of the Republic of China. They would rely on support from anti-Kuomintang regional warlords who distrusted Chiang, which they expected to join the Wang government, as well as major offensives by the IJA against the Nationalist Army.
Unbeknownst to Gao and the others at the time, the Japanese government had not taken a full role in overseeing the results of the conference in Shanghai but left the work to lower-ranking military officers. These were officials sympathetic to China but representing a minority in the Japanese leadership. This would have consequences later on when the Japanese higher leadership ultimately disagreed to use the terms reached at this conference. Meanwhile, the delegates also worked out a schedule for Wang's defection. Wang eventually escaped to Hanoi in French Indochina, but continued negotiations dragged out for months as Prince Konoe damaged the peace movement in a 22 December 1938 announcement that made clear his lack of commitment to the terms from the conference, bowing to pressure from the hardline faction of the General Staff. A much harsher policy towards China had been adopted by the military bureaucracy around that time, while Prince Konoe personally had no interest in supporting Wang in forming a new Chinese government. Konoe's successor as premier, Baron Hiranuma Kiichirō, also adopted a wait-and-see attitude in regards to the Wang Jingwei situation.
As the Wang group began leaving from Hanoi to Japan in April 1939 and had passed the point of no return after Wang's personal secretary was assassinated in a botched Kuomintang Blue Shirts hit, Gao Zongwu was becoming disillusioned and came to represent the anti-Japanese camp of the peace movement. The Japanese already started to dislike him due to his persistent attitude at the Shanghai conference to give the Wang regime as much independence and power as possible. He believed Wang was in danger of becoming a puppet. In May and June Wang made a visit to Tokyo to meet with high officials of the Japanese government, along with Zhou and Gao (who advised him against the meeting). During that time their Japanese hosts identified Gao as a "troublemaker" and sought to separate him from Wang as much as possible. Gao had come close to being poisoned while there, which did not improve his opinion of the Japanese.
However, the Wang movement had made progress in mid-1939 after the conclusion of the border clashes between Japan and the Soviets in Manchuria. When following the clashes Japan's ally Germany signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, the pro-Axis Hiranuma government fell, and it was replaced by Abe Nobuyuki's government, who was sympathetic to Wang. The Abe government agreed to pledge full support for Wang. In light of this, the IJA commands in China were reorganized into one unified command (the China Expeditionary Army) which ended Wang's quarrels with the leaders of existing puppet regimes and their Japanese advocates, allowing him to bring them under his authority. In November and December 1939 the Wang group negotiated with the Japanese authorities a different set of terms in which the Japanese went back on everything they promised in the previous Shanghai conference negotiated by Gao and Mei, relying on the harsher terms composed by the military bureaucracy, and by then Gao had become so disenchanted from the rest of the peace movement because of this Japanese betrayal that he abandoned Wang.
On New Year's Day in 1940, Gao Zongwu and one of his associates, Tao Xisheng, escaped with the assistance of the infamous Shanghai crime boss Du Yuesheng—who had contacted Chiang to let him know of Gao's intent to return, who had Nationalist intelligence chief General Dai Li help organize their defection. Gao, who had translated the treaty to Chinese for Wang, stole a copy of it with him. They arrived in Hong Kong on January 5. They initially remained quiet but handed over the secret documents from Wang's negotiations with the Japanese to the Kuomintang news agency on January 21. They then publicized the next day a telegram that accused Japan of trying to dismember China and urged Wang to reconsider his actions. This caused a shock in Wang's movement, enraging Zhou Fohai, for example. Wang's group responded that Gao was upset over his position (slated to be merely the vice foreign minister despite his critical role and diplomatic experience, while the foreign ministry portfolio instead went to a medical doctor by profession, Chu Minyi), and that the documents were fake. They were in fact copies of the initial proposals and not the final agreement, but many of their points had remained the same, and represented a major propaganda victory for Chiang Kai-shek's government as they destroyed the good name of Wang in the public perception.
Later life.
Following his much-celebrated defection by the authorities in Chongqing, Gao was given a passport by the Chinese Generalissimo and emigrated to the United States, where he lived the rest of his life until his death.
His memoirs were later published and have been an important source of information for historians on the Wang Jingwei peace movement.


Dear Ruth (film)

Dear Ruth is a 1947 romantic comedy film starring Joan Caulfield, William Holden, Mona Freeman, and Edward Arnold. It was based on the 1944 Broadway play of the same name by Norman Krasna. A teenage girl has a soldier for a pen pal, but uses her older sister's name and photograph. Then the man shows up while on a two-day leave.
There were two sequels: "Dear Wife" (1949), with all of the principal actors reprising their roles, and "Dear Brat" (1951), featuring Freeman, Arnold and De Wolfe.
Although it is sometimes mistakenly believed that J. D. Salinger got the name for his character Holden Caulfield, in "The Catcher in the Rye" and other works, when he saw a marquee for the film, the first Holden Caulfield story, "I'm Crazy", was published in December 1945, a year and a half before the movie's release.
Plot.
Judge Wilkins and his wife Edie are puzzled when Lieutenant William Seacroft, a complete stranger, shows up at their home, asking for their elder, 22-year-old daughter Ruth. (She has gone to work at the bank, driven by her 34-year-old boyfriend Albert.) Bill has just returned from Italy, where he flew 25 missions over Germany as the bombardier of a B-26 bomber, but he only has a two-day leave. He explains that he has been corresponding with their daughter and has fallen in love with her long-distance. He makes a favorable impression on Ruth's parents and promises to return at 5:30 to meet her for the first time in person.
Ruth comes home and tells her parents she is getting married. They assume she has encountered Bill, but it turns out she is marrying Albert. They soon find out that their energetic 16-year-old daughter Miriam wrote to Bill 60 times, using her sister's name and sending him a photograph of Ruth, just one of her many contributions to the war effort and servicemen's morale. Ruth decides to tell Bill the truth immediately, but when he arrives, she cannot bring herself to do so. When Albert shows up for a date with Ruth, she slips away with Bill so that she can tell him privately, not in front of her entire family.
Bill takes her to a play, dinner and dancing until past 1 am. Albert and Ruth's parents wait up. Later, Ruth tells Albert that after Bill leaves for the Pacific, she will write to him and gently break off their relationship. She then gets the letters from Miriam and starts reading them.
The next morning, Bill's kid sister Martha waits for him in front of the Wilkins home. When Bill arrives, Ruth insists on taking Martha with them, supposedly because she has not seen her brother in two years, but actually to try to keep Bill's amorous behavior in check, so Bill invites a secretly fuming Albert too. Bill takes every opportunity to kiss Ruth, infuriating Albert. Then somebody pushes Albert off a crowded subway car at a station, and he gets separated from the others. He races to another station on the same line, but gets arrested for trying to get in without paying.
A further romantic complication ensues when both Martha and Sergeant Chuck Vincent, Bill's friend, arrive at the Wilkins residence. Martha broke up with Chuck very recently. Lunch is therefore very awkward. Then Bill and Ruth show up and announce they are engaged. When Bill leaves the room, Ruth tells Albert that it is only for a few more hours. However, Bill receives a telephone call informing him that he and Chuck will be instructors in Florida. Chuck and Martha reconcile and decide to get married themselves. Judge Wilkins conducts the ceremony.
Ruth then tells Bill that she only agreed to marry him because he was going back into combat, but nothing more. Miriam inadvertently reveals the whole truth to Bill. Bill accepts the situation, but after Martha and Chuck get married, Ruth has a change of heart. She and Bill also get married by her father, before leaving for Florida. Then a sailor appears, asking for Ruth. Startled, Miriam blurts out his name.
Production.
Norman Krasna's play had been hugely popular on Broadway. Film rights were sold to Paramount in February 1945 for a reported $450,000 with the proviso that a movie not be made until the play finished a two-year run. It was the most money Paramount had ever paid for a property, exceeding the $283,000 paid for the film rights to "Lady in the Dark". Henry Ginsberg, executive vice president at the studio, announced the male lead would be Sonny Tufts and that Ruth would be played by Joan Caulfield or Paulette Goddard while Miriam would be played by Diana Lynn or Mona Freeman.
In March 1946 Paramount announced the film as part of its slate for the following year. Albert Goodrich and Frances Hackett were writing the script.
In July 1946 Paramount announced that Joan Caulfield and William Holden would play the leads. It was Holden's first film since getting out of the army in November 1945. Filming was to begin in August with Sidney Lanfield directing and Paul Jones producing. Arthur Sheekman, Frances Goodrich and Arnold Hackett had worked on the script. In July 1946 Edward Arnold signed to join the cast.
Sidney Lanfield was to direct but in August he asked to be relieved by illness and was replaced by William Russell. Mona Freeman had tested for her role several times but Lanfield did not want her. However when Russell came in, Freeman was cast. Freeman joined the cast in August.
Lawsuit.
Columbia Pictures sued Krasna and the filmmakers for plagiarism, claiming the story infringed the copyright of a story they had bought in 1942 called "Dear Mr Private" and intended to make with Lee Bowman. Columbia was unsuccessful, appealed the decision and lost the appeal.
Reception.
Critical.
Bosley Crowther praised the film in "The New York Times", calling it "one of those simon-pure excursions in fun, which bubbles and sparkles its way into your heart and completely disarms any resistance which an unadorned outline of its conventional plot might invoke" and noting that "the pace never drags, even though the slim story is stretched out over ninety minutes."
Box office.
The film was successful at the box office. It earned almost $4 million during the films first year of release in North America, and led to two sequels.
Sequels.
Paramount purchased the rights to use the characters again. In December 1947 the studio announced it would make a sequel.


Joint Operations Command (Zimbabwe)

The Joint Operations Command (JOC) is the supreme organ for the coordination of state security in Zimbabwe. It was established by the Rhodesian Security Forces to supervise its counter-insurgency campaign in the Rhodesian Bush War as well as external incursions into neighbouring countries such as Zambia and Mozambique. The JOC retained its role in the post-independence Zimbabwe Defence Forces, and has since been accused of manipulating elections and orchestrating political violence.
2008.
The JOC was headed in 2008 by Minister of State Security Didymus Mutasa, but he was replaced soon after the Zimbabwean presidential election held on 29 March 2008, by the Minister of Rural Housing and Social Amenities Emmerson Mnangagwa. The JOC has been accused of organising repression campaigns against both opposition partisans, civil society and the U.S. ambassador.
It has been claimed that in the wake of the Zimbabwean presidential election, the JOC de facto took over control of the day-to-day decision-making of government, effectively operating as a military junta. The JOC has also been implicated in the violent suppression of opposition supporters between the 29 March election and the runoff election in July 2008.
It has come under scrutiny from members of the Politburo of the ZANU-PF.
Membership.
Members and former members included:
Proposed restructuring.
According to the deal arising out of political negotiations between the three largest political parties, the JOC was to be renamed the National Security Council. It was to be chaired by Robert Mugabe and the former prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, was to be a sitting member.


Dundumwezi

Dundumwezi is a modified word from its original "Dundumwenze" which means a male mountain. is a constituency in chief siachitema in the south-west of Kalomo District of Southern Province, Zambia. It is an underdeveloped remote constituency that lacks infrastructure and basic necessities and is often ignored by the government. It lacks roads hospitals, schools and housing.
Demographics.
Dundumwezi is inhabited by the Tonga people of Zambia.
August 2016 Election.
In 2012 Dundumwezi constituents favored an independent candidate over the popular United Party for National Development (UPND) candidate.
In the August 2016 General Election, voters showed overwhelming support for the leading opposition party President Hakainde Hichilema while only 252 voted for the ruling party President Edgar Lungu, who had never visited the area until July, 2017.
The elections were marred by violence instigated by the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) Party against supporters of the opposition parties.
The counting process took three days. The result was called into question by many opposition parties. They accused the ruling party of
The area had been visited by a sitting President once in 1991 and ignored thereafter. Following the visit of his excellence Mr. Edgar Lungu this year 2017, he has recognized and respected the cry of the people to develop Dundumwezi. The President is committed and has since included it in the National Development Plan despite having received few votes from the area. Tourism has also been extended in Dundumwezi as development takes off.


Abdulrahman al-Awlaki

Abdulrahman Anwar al-Awlaki (also spelled al-Aulaqi, ; August 26, 1995 – October 14, 2011) was a 16-year-old American of Yemeni descent who was killed while eating dinner at an outdoor restaurant in Yemen by a drone airstrike ordered by U.S. President Barack Obama on October 14, 2011. Abdulrahman al-Awlaki's father, Anwar al-Awlaki, was alleged to be an operational leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Anwar was killed by a CIA drone strike also ordered by Obama two weeks prior to the killing of his son.
Death.
Human rights groups questioned why al-Awlaki was killed by the U.S. in a country with which the United States was not at war. Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, stated "If the government is going to be firing Predator missiles at American citizens, surely the American public has a right to know who's being targeted, and why."
Two U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity stated that the target of the October 14, 2011, airstrike was Ibrahim al-Banna, an Egyptian believed to be a senior operative in Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Another U.S. administration official speaking on condition of anonymity described Abdulrahman al-Awlaki as a bystander who was "in the wrong place at the wrong time," stating that "the U.S. government did not know that Mr. Awlaki's son was there" before the airstrike was ordered. When pressed by a reporter to defend the targeted killing policy that resulted in Abdulrahman al-Awlaki's death, former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs deflected blame to the victim's father: "I would suggest that you should have a far more responsible father if they are truly concerned about the well-being of their children. I don't think becoming an al-Qaeda jihadist terrorist is the best way to go about doing your business."
Legacy.
On January 29, 2017, Anwar al-Awlaki's 8-year-old daughter, Nawar al-Awlaki, the half-sister of Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, was killed in the Raid on Yakla, a commando attack ordered by President Donald Trump.


Military Vicariate of Italy


John Steele (comics)

John Steele is a fictional character, a superhuman World War II soldier appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
Publication history.
The character first appeared in "Daring Mystery Comics" #1 and was created by Larry Antonette (under the pseudonym Dean Carr). The character received a modern revamp in Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's "The Marvels Project" and has made a reappearance as an antagonist in Brubaker's "Secret Avengers" where, as he's introduced, in the caption it reads "America's real first Super-Soldier" supposedly meaning that Steele was the predecessor of Captain America.
Fictional character biography.
John Steele was an American soldier serving during the Civil War and in the trenches in World War I. Through unrevealed means, he possessed super-human strength and durability. He aided French spy Marie Antoinette in delivering plans to General Joseph Carr.
Sometime during the end of World War I, John Steele was captured by the Germans and held in suspended animation for study. Over the years many scientists tried to study his body to discover the source of his abilities. Among the many scientists to do so was Abraham Erskine, creator of the Super-Soldier Formula. Steele was freed from captivity by an Allied bombing. Despite having been in stasis for 20 years, Steele went right back to fighting Germans, this time in secret behind enemy lines. He eventually ran into a secret Allied military unit composed of Nick Fury, Red Hargrove, and the Sky Devils. Steele stayed with Fury and the men until they were called back to the States. Steele decided to remain behind for two reasons; first because he didn't want to return home to be a guinea pig, and second because he wanted to track down the Red Skull. He discovered the Red Skull's allegiance with the Japanese and the renegade Atlantean U-Man and how all three parties were planning the attack on Pearl Harbor and an assassination attempt on Winston Churchill. Steele continued to battle the Nazis behind enemy lines until he disappeared shortly after the Invasion of Normandy.
The character later appeared working for the Shadow Council in "Secret Avengers". Steve Rogers and his Secret Avengers squad capture Steele and Rogers has Beast use a machine to access Steele's memories to find out why he joined the Shadow Council. It is revealed that Steele was captured by the Shadow Council while teaming with Rogers on a mission in 1943. Steele gets his mind back and Rogers offers him a chance to get back at the Council.
Max Fury and the Masters of Evil capture John Steele after he attempts to escape Bagalia with the Serpent Crown and the Crown of Thorns. John Steele ends up killed by Max Fury.
Powers and abilities.
John Steele has enhanced strength, speed, durability and stamina. The extent of these abilities is unknown, but he is strong enough to easily bend steel, fast enough to out-fight Captain America and bulletproof. John possesses a healing factor and is an expert in hand-to-hand combat.


Major Gowen


National Loaf

The National Loaf was a bread made from wholemeal flour with added calcium and vitamins, introduced in Britain during the Second World War by the Federation of Bakers (FOB). Introduced in 1942, the loaf (similar to today's brown bread) was made from wholemeal flour to combat wartime shortages of white flour. The loaf was abolished in October 1956.
Consistency.
The National Loaf was grey, mushy and unappetising; only one person in seven preferred it to white bread, which became unavailable. The government insisted on it because it saved space in shipping food to Britain,
allowed better utilization of existing stocks of wheat, and discouraged the immoderate consumption of bread.
History.
The Federation of Bakers was set up in 1942 to produce the National Loaf.
Eleanor Roosevelt, the American First Lady, visiting Buckingham Palace in 1942, noted that "We were served on gold and silver plates, but our bread was the same kind of war bread every other family had to eat."


Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Western Guangxi

The Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Guangxi was a counter-guerrilla / counterinsurgency campaign the communists fought against the nationalist guerrilla force that mostly consisted of bandits and nationalist regular troops left behind after the nationalist government withdrew from mainland China. This campaign is the last stage of the Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Guangxi, after which the last nationalist force left in Guangxi was annihilated. The campaign was fought during the Chinese Civil War in the post-World War II era in the western Guangxi, and resulted in communist victory.
Strategies.
The nationalists had faced a precarious dilemma in waging the campaign against its communist enemy because of complex situation they had faced, and consequently, made several grave miscalculations which contributed to their eventual failure.
Nationalist miscalculations.
Like other nationalist futile attempts to fight guerrilla and insurgency warfare against the communists after being driven off from mainland China, the very first grave strategic miscalculation made by the retreating nationalist government contributed at least equally if not greater than the enemy's political and military pressure to the nationalist defeat in this campaign. The very first strategic miscalculation made by the retreating nationalist government was identical to the earlier one the nationalist government had made immediately after World War II, when it had neither sufficient troops nor enough transportation assets to be deployed into the Japanese-occupied regions of China, and unwilling to let these regions falling into communist hands, the nationalist government ordered the Japanese and their turncoat Chinese puppet government not to surrender to the communists and allowed them to keep their fighting capabilities to "maintain order" in the Japanese occupied regions by fighting off the communists. This earlier miscalculation resulted in further alienation and resentment to the nationalist government by the local population, which had already blamed the nationalists for losing the regions to the Japanese invaders during the war. Half a decade later when the nationalists were driven from mainland China, they had made the similar miscalculation once again in their desperation, this time by enlisting the help of local bandits to fight the communists, and ordering the nationalist troops left behind to join these bandits in the struggle against the communism. However, the bandits were deeply feared and hated by the local populace they plagued for so long, and nationalist troops left behind joining the bandits certainly did not help them win the support of the general population. In fact, it served the exact opposite, strengthening the popular support of their communist enemy.
The second grave strategic miscalculation made by the retreating nationalist government was also similar to the one the nationalist government had made immediately after World War II, when it attempted to simultaneously solve the warlord problem that had plagued China for so long with the problem of the exterminating communists together: those warlords allied with Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist government were only interested in keeping their own power and defected to the Japanese side when Japanese invaders offered to let them keep their power in exchange for their collaborations. After World War II, these forces of former Japanese puppet governments once again returned to the nationalist camp for the same reason they defected to the Japanese invaders. Obviously, it was difficult for Chiang to immediately get rid of these warlords for good as soon as they surrendered to Chiang and rejoined nationalists, because such move would alienate other factions within the nationalist ranks, and those former Japanese puppet government's warlords could still help the nationalists to by holding on to what was under their control and fighting off communists, and they and the communists would both be weakened. Similarly, the bandits the nationalist governments had failed to exterminate were obviously not good candidates for evacuation to Taiwan half a decade later, and using them to fight communists appeared to be the only logical alternative. If the communists were great weakened by the bandits, then it would the nationalists would have easier time in their counterattacks to retake China. If the bandits were defeated, then the nationalists would have easier job to eradicate them later after retaking China. However, just like those warlords, these bandits were only interested in keeping their own power also, and thus did not put any real efforts to fight the communists like some of the nationalists who were dedicated to their political cause. The eradication of bandits by the communist government only strengthened its popular support since previous governments (including the nationalist government itself) dating back from Qing Dynasty had failed to do so.
The third grave strategic miscalculation made by the retreating nationalist government was similar to the second one, but this one was about its own troops left behind. The nationalist government had faced a dilemma: the highly disciplined troops were in desperate need to defend Taiwan, the last nationalist island sanctuary. The less disciplined second rate and undisciplined third rate troops, both of which mostly consisted of warlords' troop were definitely not suited to be withdrawn to defend the last stand nationalists had made, and they were not given the top priority for evacuation. Instead, they were left behind to fight the communists behind the enemy line, but such move had alienated many of the troops left behind, and it was impossible to expect them to fight their communist enemy with the same kind of dedication like those nationalist agents who believed in their political cause. Compounding the problem, due to the need of bandits' knowledge of local area, they were often rewarded with higher ranks than the nationalist troops left behind. As a result, the former-nationalist regular troops turned guerrilla fighters lacked any willingness to work together with the bandits they once attempted to exterminate, especially when many of the bandits had killed their comrades-in-arms earlier in the battles of eradications / pacifications. Many loyal nationalists were enraged by the fact that they had to serve under the former-enemy they once fought. Similarly, the bandits lacked the similar willingness and attempted to expend those nationalist troops whenever they could in order to save their own skin.
The fourth grave strategic miscalculation made by the retreating nationalist government was financial / economical: due to the lack of money, those bandits turned guerrillas were mostly provided with arms, but not sufficient supplies and money. The bandits turned guerrilla had no problem of looting the local population to get what they need, as they had done for decades, which inevitably drove the general popular support further into the communist side. The little financial support provided by the nationalist government was simply not enough to support such guerrilla and insurgency warfare on such a large scale. Another unexpected but disastrous result of the insufficient financial support was that it had greatly eroded the support of the nationalist government within its own ranks. The wealthy landowners and businessmen were the strong supporters of nationalist government and as their properties were confiscated by the communists and redistributed to the poor, their hatred toward the communist government was enough to cause many of them to stay behind voluntarily to fight behind the enemy line. However, the landowners and businessmen were also longtime victims of bandits due to their wealth, and many of them had suffered even more than the general populace who had far less wealth. As these former landowners and businessmen turned guerrilla fighters were ordered to join their former bandits who once threatened, looted, kidnapped and even killed them and their relatives, it was obvious that such cooperation was mostly in name only and could not produce any actual benefits, and the alienation and discontent toward the nationalist government harbored by these once ardent nationalists would only grow greater.
Another problem for the nationalists was the strong disagreement among themselves over how to fight the war against their communist enemy. Military professionals preferred to fight a total war, incapacitate the enemy's ability to fight, but this inevitably conflicted with the interest of another faction of strong supporters of the nationalist government: the landowners and businessmen, who joined bandits to oppose such tactic. The reason was that landowners and businessmen supporting and joining the nationalist guerrilla firmly believed that the nationalists would be able to retake mainland China within several years and they would be able to regain their lost lands, businesses, and other properties that were confiscated and redistributed to the poor by the communists. As the nationalist military professionals in the guerrilla suggested and destroyed the production facilities and businesses as part of the total war, the landowners and businessmen would not be able to regain any valuable properties after the return of the nationalist government because those properties had been destroyed. The bandits agreed with the businessmen and landowners to oppose the idea of total war for a different reason: when the properties were destroyed and productivity dropped, they would not be able to loot enough supply to survive. As a result, despite the animosities between the bandits and landowners and businessmen, they were united together in the opposition to the military professional faction of the nationalists.
Communist strategies.
In contrast to the nationalists, communists had much simpler but effective strategy because communists did not have the dilemma the nationalists had, and all they had to do was to eradicate bandits. The job of fighting a counterinsurgency and counter guerrilla war was made much easier for the communists by the grave strategic miscalculations nationalists they had made themselves, and communists exploited these to the maximum for their advantage. As with all other bandit eradication campaigns fought at the time, the most important communist strategy was to mobilize the entire population to fight the bandits, and furthermore, additional strategies were devised specifically to fit the local situation to fight the bandits.
Order of battle.
Nationalists:
Communists:
Campaign.
After the nationalist government was driven off from mainland China, it ordered the troops left behind in western Guangxi to join forces with local bandits to attack communists to harass the communist enemy. By March 1951, over 70 bands of bandits totaling over 13,000 strong were active in western Guangxi, and succeeded in temporarily taking two towns Xilong (西隆) and Xilin (西林), while another 13 towns were attacked. In response, communists decided to eradicate these bandits and formed the Western Guangxi Bandit Eradication Task Committee and the general headquarters for bandit eradication in April 1951, commanding forces that was primarily consisted of formations from the 53rd Army of the XXI Corps. Troops deployed included the 219th Division, a portion of the 217th Division, 6 regiments of Nanning and Baise Military Sub-regions, and 13 battalions of communist forces from Guizhou and Yunnan.
On April 15, 1951, the campaign formally begun and within several days, over a thousand bandits were killed by the communist 219th Division in the area it was responsible for. The Independent Regiment of Baise Military Sub-region succeeded in annihilating the Anticommunist National Salvation Army of the Border Area of Guangxi – Guizhou, killing its commander Lu Feipeng (陆飞鹏) along with over a hundred bandits. In the regions of Eastern Orchid (Donglan, 东兰) and Windy Mountain (Fengshan, 风山), the communist 649th Regiment succeeded in killing over five hundred bandits. By end of May, the communists annihilated most of the bandits, succeeding in capturing nationalist commanders assigned to lead these bandits, including Wu Wu (), the chief-of-staff of the 7th Army Group of Anticommunist National Salvation Army, and Huang Zhaoyin (黄兆辰), the commander of Chinese Liberation People's National Establishment Communist Eradication Army of Vietnam – Guangxi Front. The nationalist commander in charge of the region, Wu Zhongjian (), the commander-in-chief of 7th Army Group of Anticommunist National Salvation Army was killed in action, along with most of his staff, some of whom were airdropped into the region earlier to help to fight communists.
The loss of the experienced political military officers proved to be serious blow to the nationalist cause because without their presence and help, the bandit force was simply capitulated. By the end of September 1951, the last remaining bandits were annihilated, with the complete destruction of Anticommunist Uprising People's Army headed by its deputy commander-in-chief, Lu Senglin (卢森林). This final defeat suffered by the nationalists cost the nationalist over thirteen thousand fighters, and it was the conclusion of the Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Guangxi, as well the larger Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Guangxi, with the organized armed resistance against communists in Guangxi ended for good.
Outcome.
Although sharing the common anticommunist goal, the nationalist guerrilla and insurgency warfare was largely handicapped by the enlistment of bandits, many of whom had fought and killed nationalist troops earlier in the eradication / pacification campaign, and also looted, kidnapped and even killed landlords and business owners, an important faction that supported the nationalist government, but then united against the common enemy. However, their effort against the communists was half-hearted at best. Compounding the problem further with additional differences within the ranks of the nationalist guerrillas themselves, the futile nationalist guerrilla and insurgency warfare against its communist enemy was destined to fail.


The Reluctant Tommy

The Reluctant Tommy is a book compiled by Duncan Barrett from the memoirs of Ronald Skirth, a member of the Royal Garrison Artillery during the First World War. His experiences during the Battle of Messines, the Battle of Passchendaele and the Second Battle of the Piave River, which Skirth calls the Battle of the Asiago Plateau, were detailed in this book. The book captured attention due to Skirth's actions during the war to avoid enemy casualties. The manuscript was known only by the family for decades before finally being published in 2010. The book received favourable reviews on publication, but was also criticised for significant historical inaccuracies.
History.
After coming home from the war Ronald Skirth entered the teaching profession. When he retired in 1971 he started work on his war time memories during the First World War, and in particular his experience of disillusionment. Although he initially intended to focus on his relationship with his wife Ella, touching on the war only briefly, he soon felt under a "compulsion" to write more about his war experiences. He worked on the memoir for over a year, eventually filling five green ring binders with many hundreds of pages, and over the next few years, despite suffering two strokes, he repeatedly went back to the material, editing, amending and adding to what he had written.
Publication.
In 2010 the memoir was published in book form by Macmillan, as "The Reluctant Tommy: Ronald Skirth's Extraordinary Memoir of the First World War", edited by Duncan Barrett. Barrett wrote in an introduction that he felt that Skirth's story "deserved as wide an audience as possible—and to be read in its protagonist's own words". Skirth's daughter Jean, who had given permission for the memoir to be published remained uncertain whether publishing the memoir was what her father would have wanted, but believed that it was important that his story was widely known. The book carried a foreword by Channel 4 News anchor Jon Snow, in which he wrote about his grandfather Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas D'Oyly Snow. Referring to the popular description of the lower ranks as "lions led by donkeys", Snow acknowledged that "If Ronald Skirth was a 'lion', Thom Snow was ultimately a 'donkey'."
Critical reaction.
"The Reluctant Tommy" received largely favourable reviews – for example by Richard Holmes in the "Evening Standard" and Jonathan Gibbs in the "Financial Times" – as well as coverage in "Socialist Worker" and, in an article written by the book's editor, the "Sunday Express".
Not all criticism has been favourable. A review in the BBC's "Who Do You Think You Are" magazine remarks on the disparities between official war records and Skirth's version of events:
In response to general criticism received after initial publication that Skirth was a liar or a fantasist, Barrett revised his introduction to the paperback edition, published in 2011. He recognised that there were discrepancies between Skirth's account and historical sources which made his book an unreliable history, but still considered the book a valuable memoir of one man's personal experiences.
In 2011, "The Sunday Times" reported that Skirth had been "...exposed for character assassination..." and that the Imperial War Museum, which had held Skirth's memoirs since 1999, "...has admitted they are mostly fictional". The report was based on research begun by Ruth Ward as part of a campaign to clear the name of her grandfather, Bernard Bromley, who had served with Skirth and whose character Skirth had besmirched. Ward's research, which was lodged with the Imperial War Museum when it was completed in 2014, identified significant discrepancies in Skirth's account. It revealed differences in the biographical information of characters and in events described by Skirth when compared to official historical sources. Ward concludes that "Skirth's war memoir was not a genuine account, or a semi-fictional one, but a satire" which "unfairly represented genuine figures" to "subtly and implicitly" ridicule the shortcomings of the British Army.


Born on the Fourth of July

Born on the Fourth of July, published in 1976, is the best-selling autobiography by Ron Kovic, a paralyzed Vietnam War veteran who became an anti-war activist. Kovic was born on July 4, 1946, and his book's ironic title echoed a famous line from George M. Cohan's patriotic 1904 song, "The Yankee Doodle Boy" (also known as "Yankee Doodle Dandy"). The book was adapted into a 1989 Academy Award-winning film of the same name co-written by Oliver Stone and Ron Kovic, starring Tom Cruise as Kovic.
Origin.
"Born on the Fourth of July" was written in Santa Monica, California, during the fall of 1974 in exactly one month, three weeks and two days. It tells the story of Kovic's life growing up in Massapequa, New York, joining the United States Marine Corps right out of high school, going to Vietnam for two tours of duty, getting shot, finding himself paralyzed and in need of a wheelchair, and eventually starting a new life as a peace activist.


Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee

The Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) is a Zimbabwean multipartisan panel that was first launched on January 30, 2009, pursuant of the 2008 Zimbabwean power-sharing agreement.


Abrams v. United States

Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 (1919), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States upholding the 1918 Amendment to the Espionage Act of 1917, which made it a criminal offense to urge the curtailment of production of the materials necessary to wage the war against Germany with intent to hinder the progress of the war. The 1918 Amendment is commonly referred to as if it were a separate Act, the Sedition Act of 1918.
The defendants were convicted on the basis of two leaflets they printed and threw from windows of a building in New York City. One leaflet, signed "revolutionists", denounced the sending of American troops to Russia. The second leaflet, written in Yiddish, denounced the war and US efforts to impede the Russian Revolution. It advocated the cessation of the production of weapons to be used against Soviet Russia.
The defendants were charged and convicted of inciting resistance to the war effort and urging curtailment of production of essential war material. They were sentenced to 10 and 20 years in prison. The Supreme Court ruled, 7–2, that the defendants' freedom of speech, protected by the First Amendment, was not violated. Justice John Hessin Clarke in an opinion for the majority held that the defendants' intent to hinder war production could be inferred from their words, and that Congress had determined such expressions posed an imminent danger. Their conviction was accordingly warranted under the "clear-and-present-danger" standard, derived from the common law and announced in "Schenck v. United States" and companion cases earlier in 1919. Opinions for a unanimous Court in those cases were written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. In the "Abrams" case, however, Holmes dissented, rejecting the argument that the defendants' leaflets posed the "clear and present danger" that was true of the defendants in "Schenck". In a powerful dissenting opinion joined by Justice Louis Brandeis, he said that the "Abrams" defendants lacked the specific intent to interfere with the war against Germany, and that they posed no actual risk. He went on to say that even if their acts could be shown to pose a risk of damaging war production, the draconian sentences imposed showed that they were being prosecuted not for their speech, but for their beliefs.
Background of the case.
On August 12, 1919, Hyman Rosansky was arrested after throwing flyers out of a 4th-floor window of a hat factory located near the corner of Houston and Crosby, in lower Manhattan, New York. Rosanky had received the flyers the night before while attending an anarchist meeting. Two different flyers were given to him, one in English, the other in Yiddish. The flyers were an acerbic protest against the Woodrow Wilson administration for interfering with the Russian Revolution in support of the Russian government. The flyers had been printed on or about June 15, 1919, in a basement rented by Jacob Abrams located at 1582 Madison Avenue. With Rosansky's help, police arrested six other Russian Jews: Mollie Steimer, Jacob Abrams, Hyman Lachowsky, Jacob Schwartz, Gabriel Prober, and Samuel Lipman. All had emigrated from Russia to the United States.
The defendants were indicted for conspiring to violate the Espionage Act of 1917. Although trial had begun on October 10, 1919, actual trial proceedings were set to commence on October 15, 1919. On October 14, Jacob Schwartz died at Bellevue Hospital. The official cause of death was that he succumbed to the Spanish flu.
The trial concluded on October 23, 1919, resulting in the following dispositions; (1) Gabriel Prober was acquitted, (2) Hyman Rosansky was convicted and sentenced to 3 years, (3) Jacob Abrams, Hyman Lachowsky, and Samuel Lipman were convicted and sentenced to 20 years and a $1,000 fine, and (4) Mollie Steimer was convicted and sentenced to 15 years and a $5,000 fine. The defendants appealed their convictions to the United States Supreme Court.
Majority opinion.
Writing for the majority, Justice John Hessin Clarke asserted that the leaflets demonstrated an intent to hinder production of war material, and could not be characterized as simple expressions of political opinion. Quoting English translations of a leaflet written in Yiddish, Clark concluded:
In answer to the claim that the defendants were concerned only with United States' intervention in Russia, he asserted that the leaflets
The Court held that the leaflets' call for a general strike and the curtailment of munitions production violated the Sedition Act of 1918. Congress' determination that all such propaganda posed a danger to the war effort was sufficient to meet the standard set in "Schenck v. United States" for prosecution of attempted crimes, when the attempt was made through speech or writing. Holmes' argument, in dissent, that criminal prosecution required a showing of the specific intent to bring about the particular harm at which the statute was aimed, was rejected.
Holmes's dissent.
In his dissent, Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote that although the defendant's pamphlet called for a cessation of weapons production, it had not violated the Act of May 16, 1918. He wrote that the defendants did not have the requisite intent "to cripple or hinder the United States in the prosecution of the war" against Germany. The defendants were objecting only to the United States intervention in the Russian civil war. The defendants therefore lacked the specific intent to commit the crime of obstructing the war effort.
Holmes's three earlier opinions for a unanimous Supreme Court concerned convictions under the 1918 Sedition Act, in the first of which, "Schenck v. United States", he stated the famous "clear and present danger" standard: speech could be punished if it posed a clear and present danger of causing some harm that Congress had power to forbid. The defendants in "Schenck" had mailed leaflets to men awaiting induction, urging them to resist the draft. The defendants did not deny that they intended this result. Since they could have been prosecuted for a crime if they accomplished the intended result, and there was a clear and present danger that they would, they could also be convicted of an attempt to commit the crime of obstructing the draft. The statute only applied to successful obstructions, but common-law precedents allowed prosecution in this case for an attempt. In his opinion, Holmes relied on the common law of "attempts," and concluded without much discussion that an attempt might be made by words as by other means, the First Amendment notwithstanding.
In his "Abrams" dissent, Holmes explained why some speech was protected by the Constitution, an explanation that was not called for in the earlier cases. His opinion for the Court in "Schenck" had been criticized by a scholar, Zechariah Chafee, who said the Court had explained only that attempts to commit crimes could be prosecuted. Holmes had young friends, Jewish immigrants who had themselves been attacked for their left-wing opinions, and he therefore may have felt more strongly about this case than its predecessors. In his dissent he now explained his views more fully. He did insist that the majority had departed from the standard adopted by a unanimous court that same year, since the "Abrams" defendants neither intended the forbidden result nor did their leaflets, written in Yiddish, threaten to cause a forbidden result. Holmes's dissent is now accepted as the better statement of the standard, but the Court's ruling that legislation could criminalize all seditious speech has also been upheld.
Holmes's passionate, indignant opinion is often quoted:
Holmes expressed himself more fully in this dissent than in his earlier opinions for a unanimous Court concerning the value of free expression, and the reasons for which it might be regulated. In his "Abrams" dissent, he added this explanation of his dissent. He had not asked the Court as a whole to endorse this larger expression in the earlier cases.
Scholars have debated whether Holmes altered his views over the course of the weeks between the two sets of opinions. Holmes always maintained that he had adhered to the standard for punishing criminal attempts used in the earlier convictions, a standard based on long years as a common-law judge and scholar. Critics of his earlier "clear-and-present-danger" opinion have insisted that the "Abrams" dissent stands on a different footing, and is more protective. The objection may be based in part on a misunderstanding. In his "Abrams" dissent, Holmes first disposed of the argument that the facts in the case supported a conviction under the clear-and-present-danger standard, insisting that a criminal prosecution required proof of specific intent to commit the crime that was charged. He then went on to say, however, that even if the defendants' speech could be punished as an attempted crime, even if "enough can be squeezed from these poor and puny anonymities to turn the color of legal litmus paper," the sentences of ten and twenty years, followed by deportation, showed that Abrams and his friends were prosecuted, not for their dangerous attempts, but for their beliefs. Holmes went on to challenge, not the Court's conclusion, but the Wilson Administration's prosecution of these defendants as an outrageous abuse of power. The "marketplace of ideas" Holmes insisted is the foundation of the constitutional system, not merely the First Amendment, and efforts to suppress opinions by force therefore contradict a fundamental principle of the Constitution.
Holmes's friends and colleagues generally supported the decision in "Schenck", but he encountered mild criticism from a young judge, Learned Hand, who had ruled differently in a similar case. In an article Zechariah Chafee complained that Holmes had failed in his opinions for the Court to define the contours of the privilege accorded to speech, holding only that criminal speech could be prosecuted. In his "Abrams" dissent, Holmes expanded his statement of the privilege accorded to honest expressions of opinions, on much the lines that Chafee had recommended, extending the analysis made in "Schenck". Scholars have claimed that Holmes was influenced by Chafee and Hand, by Brandeis, or by others. These claims are stated in numerous articles, and summarized in a book by Richard Polenberg. In 1989 Sheldon Novick's first full biography of Holmes suggested that the justice had been consistent in his decisions, as he claimed to have been. Building on the argument that Holmes changed his mind, scholars have claimed not only that the dissent in "Abrams" expressed a different and more liberal understanding of the First Amendment, but that the "Abrams" dissent set the standard for modern First Amendment jurisprudence. The Supreme Court has rejected this view, however.
Subsequent jurisprudence.
The "Abrams" case has been kept alive by the scholarly dispute, but in recent years the Supreme Court has not cited either the majority opinion or Holmes' dissent as authority. The World War I sedition cases were overshadowed by new prosecutions under new statutes in World War II, the Cold War, the Vietnam War and the War on Terror. Learned Hand, a judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, contributed to the modern dislike of the "clear-and-present-danger" formula by citing it in an opinion upholding the convictions of the leaders of the Communist Party; his opinion was upheld by a bitterly divided Supreme Court in "Dennis v. United States" (1951), and the Supreme Court subsequently avoided use of that phrase, replacing it with a similar formula in "Brandenburg v. Ohio" (1968), holding that speech can only be prosecuted as an attempt if it is intended to produce "imminent lawless action".
More recently, the Court has expressly rejected the reasoning of Holmes' "Abrams" dissent in two decisions. In "Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project" (2010) the facts were similar to those in "Abrams." Respondents had offered advice and other verbal assistance to organizations fighting established governments in Sri Lanka and Turkey, organizations that had been designated as terrorists, and were subject to prosecution for attempting to provide material support to terrorist organizations in violation of what is now the USA PATRIOT Act, section 2339B. The respondents argued, supported by three dissenting justices, that they lacked the specific intent to aid in terrorist acts, and therefore could not be prosecuted for a criminal attempt. The majority rejected this argument, however, and repeated without citing the majority opinion in "Abrams," that Congress had the power to determine that all such expressive conduct posed a threat to national security.
In the same year, in "Citizens United v. FEC" dissenting judges made Holmes's argument that the Constitution broadly protects the "marketplace of ideas", but the majority opinion brushed this aside, saying that freedom of expression was an individual right, not rooted in community interests, possessed by artificial as well as natural persons. As the law now stands, it appears that neither the majority opinion in "Abrams", with its reliance on the clear-and-present-danger formula, nor Holmes's dissent, are authoritative, and while "Schenck" appears to remain good law, it is now more common to cite "Brandenburg v. Ohio" for the standard to be applied in criminal prosecutions, except in cases involving national security in which "Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project" governs.


Peng Shaoyi

Peng Shaoyi (; 9 November 1917 – 6 May 2017) was a Chinese physical chemist. Peng was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1980. He was a member of China Democratic League since 1956.
Peng's ancestral home is Liyang of Southern Jiangsu, he was born on 9 November 1917 in Wuchang, Wuhan. Peng had never received formal education until he attended the provincial high school. At 17 he enrolled at Wuhan University. Following the relocation of the university, he arrived in Leshan, Sichuan where he graduated from in 1939. Then he was appointed a research assistant at a fuel factory of the Chongqing government. He departed for the U.S in 1947, began his abroad studying and researching. He returned to China in 1949.
Peng severed at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS and Institute of Coal Chemistry, CAS. He concentrated on the catalysts for petroleum refining and chromatography. He was also deemed a pioneer of Chinese chromatography.
On the early morning of the 6 May 2017, Peng died of deteriorating health.


Culture of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe has many different cultures, which may include beliefs and ceremonies, one of them being Shona. Zimbabwe's largest ethnic group is Shona. The Shona people have created many sculptures and carvings which are made with the finest materials available.
Art.
Traditional arts in Zimbabwe include pottery, basketry, textiles, jewelry and carving. Among the distinctive qualities are symmetrically patterned woven baskets and stools carved out of a single piece of wood. Shona sculpture in modern times has become a fusion of African folklore with European influences.It is widely respected across the globe and it itself has had an impact on the global sculpture scene since at least the 1980s. A recurring theme in Zimbabwean art is the metamorphosis of man into beast.
Among members of the white minority community, theatre has a large following, with numerous theatrical companies performing in Zimbabwe's urban areas.
The country's art is admired by those that know of its existence, several Zimbabwean artists have managed to gain a world audience. To name some world-famous Zimbabwean sculptors, we have Nicholas, Nesbert and Anderson Mukomberanwa, Tapfuma Gutsa, Henry Munyaradzi, and Locardia Ndandarika. Internationally, Zimbabwean sculptors have managed to influence a new generation of artists, particularly African Americans, through lengthy apprenticeships with master sculptors in Zimbabwe. Contemporary artists, including New York sculptor M. Scott Johnson and California sculptor Russel Albans have learned to fuse both African and Afro-diasporic aesthetics in a way that travels beyond the simplistic mimicry of African Art by some Black artists of past generations in the United States.
Language.
Zimbabwe has 16 official languages, Chewa, Chibarwe, English, Kalanga, "Koisan" (presumably Tsoa), Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangani, Shona, "sign language" (Zimbabwean sign languages), Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda, and Xhosa. Much of the population speaks Bantu languages, such as Shona (chishona) (76%) and Ndebele (18%). Shona has a rich oral tradition, which was incorporated into the first Shona novel, "Feso" by Solomon Mutswairo, published in 1957. English is spoken primarily in the cities, but less so in rural areas. Education in Zimbabwe is taught in English, Shona and Ndebele. Many rural primary schools teach in the native language until grade three; then, school is taught in English.
Food.
Like in many African countries, a majority of Zimbabweans depend on staple foods. "Mealie meal", or cornmeal as it is known in other parts of the world, is used to prepare "bota", a porridge made by mixing cornmeal with water, to make a thick paste. This is usually flavored with butter or peanut butter. Bota is usually eaten for breakfast. Cornmeal is also used to make "sadza", which is usually eaten for dinner, and by many for lunch too. The process of making sadza is similar to bota, however after the paste has been cooking for several minutes, more cornmeal is added to thicken the paste until it is firm. This meal is usually served with vegetables (spinach, chou moellier, or spring greens/collard greens), beans, and meat (stewed, grilled, roasted, or sundried). Sadza is also commonly eaten with "boerewors" (a sausage made from beef or pork), chicken, or curdled milk (sour milk), commonly known as "lacto" ("mukaka wakakora or "amasi""). Rice and chicken with coleslaw salad is often served as the main meal. Graduations, weddings, and any other family gatherings will usually be celebrated with the killing of a goat, sheep, or cow, which will be "braaied" (or barbecued) for the gathered family.
Since Zimbabwe was a British colony, they have adopted some English habits. For example, most people will have porridge in the morning, however they will still have 10 o'clock tea (midday tea). They will have lunch, which can be leftovers from the night before, freshly cooked "sadza", or sandwiches (which is more common in the cities). After lunch, there is usually 4 o'clock tea (afternoon tea), which is served before dinner. It is not uncommon for tea to be had after dinner.