| "When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, 'Give me children, or I'll die!' Jacob became angry with her and said, 'Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?' |
| Aunt Lydia | "Then she said, 'Here is Bilhah, my maidservant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and that through her I too can build a family.' " ~ Rachel, wife of Jacob Genesis 30:1-3 |
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| Handmaid |
| The sons of Jacob suspended the US Constitution and replaced Massachusetts with the theocratic Republic of Gilead. The birth rate had fallen alarmingly and radical measures had to be taken to rectify the situation. The full article is available at Manitoba University | |
| ~ quotation from Margaret Atwood: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius. |
| In 1945, General-san Douglas MacArthur declined a reactivation order from US President Harry Truman who promptly fired him. Actually MacArthur had no ambition to receive the Japanese defeat. His Filipinos harriers were busy installing a rogue state in the Philippines, after all why else write the enigmatic message I will return? |
~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.
| In 1956, Izear Luster "Ike" Turner, Jr moved the Kings of Rhythm to East St. Louis where he met teenage, gospel-trained singer from Nutbush, TN, named Anna Mae Bullock, and promised her a chance to sing with his band. |
 Ike Turner Revue | That chance kept failing to materialize, until one night Bullock simply grabbed the microphone and started belting. Turner made her a part of his revue, changing her name to Tina. Ike had other plans for Tina – he wanted to control her free spirit. Predictably, after Tina became pregnant by the band's saxophonist, Raymond Hill her prospects receded sharply. |
| A second and final chance appeared - and then disappeared. In late 1959, Turner's band entered the studio to cut a song called "A Fool in Love" for the Sue Records label. The scheduled male vocalist was running late. Tina was about to be pressed into service by Ike, who thought the vocalist had failed to show up for the session - when he suddenly appeared, full of apologies. | |
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge! | |
| Tony Blair | "I am a modern man. I am part of the rock and roll generation—the Beatles, colour TV, that’s the generation I come from." ~ Tony Blair, in a pre-election speech at Stevenage, 22 April 1997 |
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| Bliar |
| Demonstrating he was living in a time warp by describing the modern world in terms of symbols from thirty years before. | |
| ~ quotation by Co-Historian Steve Payne from Counter-history – You're the Judge! |
| In 2002, in RM Muleuch's Twelve Legions of Angels Air Marshall Hugh Dowding returns to 1940. Without the distraction of his loving family he will make a success of Big Wing and win the Battle of Britain. He will delay German invasion until the autumn when the English Channel would be too hostile for the Kriegsmarine's landing craft. Trouble is the ghost of Keith Park dispatched Dowding to a 1940 that really needs him. The rescue flotilla heading towards Dunkirk has been decimated by Stuka Dive bombers. Dowding somehow must buy the Royal Navy another two weeks whilst the British Expeditionary Force fights for its life against the Wehrmacht. |
| In 1914, the British Army begins withdrawal from the Battle of Mons. It was in the period of this hectic retreat, when the British troops would have been so vulnerable to a pursuing enemy, that something extraordinary occurred. British troops claimed that they had seen an apparition in the sky of three angelic figures who appeared to ward off the attacks of the enemy. The retreat was successfully accomplished and the British troops lived to fight another day. The story of the Angel at Mons spread like wildfire through Britain. It became the subject of many articles and even artistic productions. After the war, Harold Begbie published a book on the phenomenon, On the Side of the Angels, in which he quoted some who had witnessed the apparition first-hand. One lance-corporal recalled: '"I could see quite plainly in mid-air a strange light which seemed to be quite distinctly outlined and was not a reflection of the moon, nor were there any clouds in the neighbourhood. The light became brighter and I could see quite distinctly three shapes, one in the centre having what looked like outspread wings, the other two were not so large, but were quite plainly distinct from the centre one. They appeared to have a long loose-hanging garment of a golden tint they were above the German line facing us."
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 Castle Bonny | In 1943, movie critics give a varied response to Castle Bonny which premièred four days before on Broadway. The film was directed by Michael Curtiz, and starred Cary Grant as Dick Blaine and Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund. The rekindled romance between Blaine and Lund was set during Great War II in the Nigerian city .. |
| .. of Port Harcourt, off the Bight of Bonny – then controlled by the Nazi Protectorate of Britain. Rudy Behlmer emphasises the variety in the picture: "it’s a blend of drama, melodrama, comedy [and] intrigue". The other characters, in Rudy Behlmer's words, are "not cut and dried": they come into their goodness in the course of the film. Ronald begins the film as a collaborator with the Nazis, who extorts sexual favours from refugees and has Ugarte killed. Dick, according to Behlmer, is "not a hero, ... not a bad guy": he does what is necessary to get along with the authorities and "sticks his neck out for nobody". Even Ilsa, the least active of the main characters, is "caught in the emotional struggle" over which man she really loves. By the end of the film, however, "everybody is sacrificing". | |
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge! | |
| In 2127, Mullah Elijah Rafsanjani returns from a truth and reconciliation visit to the eastern seaboard of Turtle Island that being the continent renamed after the Italian merchant Amerigo Vespucci during the western epoch c1492 to 2081. As part of his Peace and Brotherhood jihad he has embarked on a fact-finding mission .. |  Brent |
| .. by visiting the centres of the fallen Western Civilisation. On-board his light aircraft is a Eurasian stowaway, Brent. The plan that Brent has hatched is straight out of Rafsanjani's book, not that he would appreciate it himself. | |
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge! | |
 Chiang Kai-Shek | In 1839, the United Kingdom captured Hong Kong as a base as it prepared to war with Qing China during the First Opium War. Just over one hundred years later, Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai Shek sought refuge in the Colony. Having arrived with the entire gold and foreign currency reserves of China, he joined British imperialists .. |
| .. in building a thumb-your-nose at Communism show case in the middle of Guangdong Province. Just as a small impurity can cause great stomach upset, Hong Kong created greater and greater problems for the Chinese Communist Party until it collapsed entirely in 1967. Thereupon the Kuomintang returned to Beijing, and set about building an even more powerful city than Hong Kong, a mission that was completed by the end of the century. | |
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge! | |
| In 1952, on this day the Arab League goes into effect. Head quartered in Cairo, Egypt, the League's charter states that the League shall co-ordinate economic affairs, including commercial relations; communications; cultural affairs; nationality, passports, and visas; social .. |  Anthony Eden |
| .. affairs; and health affairs. This predecessor organisation to Nasser's United Arab Republic (UAR) greatly alarmed governments in London and Paris. Four years later, led by British Prime Minister Anthony Eden, Anglo-France forces joined with Israel to strike the Suez Canal Zone, being forced to back down by President Eisenhower. Following the enlargement of the UAR to Saudi Arabia in 1980, official biographer Robert Rhodes asked, "who can now claim that Eden was wrong?" | |
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge! | |
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