Victor Stater

Proud dad, lucky husband, historian, teacher, Conservative, 13th generation Anglican, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

[Victor Stater @VictorStater]

@JayRock_QueenCi Wow. Very impressive for a county courthouse. Was there mineral wealth back in the day?

[Frances Owen @_FrancesOwen]

@17thCenturyLady I've been re-reading The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave.
It's a retelling of witch trials in early 17th-century Norway, beautifully written and terrifying
#StuartSaturday

[Victor Stater @VictorStater]

@historybythpint @Mazza6069 A great book. Well worth the read

[Victor Stater @VictorStater]

@DanJTPitt It won 3 Oscars: best picture, best actor, and best supporting actor. Admittedly, Oscars don't always hold up, but these do

[Victor Stater @VictorStater]

Apparently I'm not yet dead. Thanks for the post!

[Susan Margaret Cooper - Author & Researcher 📜 @SueCooperBridge]

@17thCenturyLady #StuartSaturday! #KeepItStuart
Revisiting this excellent work by @VictorStater
High Life Low Morals - The Duel that Shook Stuart Society.

[Victor Stater @VictorStater]

@_FrancesOwen @SueCooperBridge @17thCenturyLady It tells the story of the long feud between Mohun and the 4th Duke of Hamilton, culminating in their mutually fatal duel in November 1712.

[Victor Stater @VictorStater]

@SueCooperBridge @17thCenturyLady Thank you Susan! A lovely way to start the weekend

[Tommo 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @LUFC1992_v2]

Sadly the rumours were true and Mike was inside because his pool was being cleaned 😔

But we did get to see our second 102,000 seater stadium as a
consolation

[Victor Stater @VictorStater]

@Heminator Carville is, of course, a clown. It's his shtick

[Calvin and Hobbes Daily @CalvinB0t]

12/9/1988

[Victor Stater @VictorStater]

@LUFC1992_v2 It does

[Victor Stater @VictorStater]

The John Deere Tractor Museum, Waterloo. Peak Iowa

[Diary of Samuel Pepys @DiaryOfPepys]

Thursday 25 June 1663

Up both of us pretty early and to my chamber, where he and I did draw up a letter to Sir G. Carteret in excuse and preparation for Creed against we meet before the Duke upon his accounts, which I drew up and it proved very well, but I am pleased to see with what secret cunning and variety of artifice this Creed has carried on his business even unknown to me, which he is now forced by an accident to communicate to me.…*
About this all the morning, only Mr. Bland came to me about some business of his, and told me the news, which holds to be true, that the Portuguese did let in the Spaniard by a plot, and they being in the midst of the country and we believing that they would have taken the whole country, they did all rise and kill the whole body, near 8,000 men, and Don John of Austria having two horses killed under him, was forced with one man to flee away….**
This noon I received a letter from the country from my wife, wherein she seems much pleased with the country; God continue that she may have pleasure while she is there.
She, by my Lady’s advice, desires a new petticoat of the new silk striped stuff, very pretty. So I went to Paternoster Row presently, and bought her one, with Mr. Creed’s help, a very fine rich one, the best I did see there, and much better than she desires or expects, and sent it by Creed to Unthanke to be made against tomorrow to send by the carrier, thinking it had been but Wednesday to-day, but I found myself mistaken, and also the taylor being out of the way, it could not be done, but the stuff was sent me back at night by Creed to dispose of some other way to make, but now I shall keep it to next week.

*Creed hid papers from the Controller to secure about £500 in personal profit through standard naval profiteering, which was one of the common perks like favorable exchanges and impress as Deputy Treasurer. Sam helped draft a defense but kept Creed hidden from Carteret, fearing collusion suspicions. Though he called him a “cunning knave,” he assisted as a fellow Sandwich client. It was typical office maneuvering.

**Mr. Bland brought news that the Portuguese had lured the Spaniards in and massacred nearly 8,000 men, with Don John of Austria fleeing after losing two horses. Carteret explained the Portuguese were confident due to an old prophecy from the French King predicting the Spaniards’ invasion, slaughter in a specific valley, and Portugal’s liberation. This was the Battle of Ameixial (8 June 1663). The prophecy’s apparent fulfilment struck Sam as “very strange but true.”

Titus Oates' false claim of meeting Don John of Austria (then Spanish Regent) in Madrid was a key blunder. Charles II, who had personally met him in Brussels in 1656, exposed the lie when Oates couldn't describe his appearance. It was one of the earliest signs that the entire conspiracy of the Popish Plot, was fabricated.

Anonymous painting and the young Don John as general of the Spanish army by Jusepe de Ribera

[Art @ZarkFiles]

Communism through (my) ages:
1) When I was 15, a teacher told me "It isn't as bad as they say, and makes a lot of sense."
2) At about 19, college friends, "Socialism isn't communism."
3) At 20, on meeting my grandfather-in-law, "They are evil. We escaped in 1949."
4) At 30, "China is a wonderful developing Democracy"
5) At 35, I was sent to communist China on business. It was a crowded, smelly, dirty, factory of despair and hopelessness. This I saw with my own eyes.
6) At 36, "China doesn't count. Successful socialism is in northern Europe."
7) I moved to northern Europe when I was 40. It was much nicer than China, but also felt like I was living in the past. I had to wait 6 months for a hernia operation.
8) When I was about 45, the migrant crisis began. The socialist/globalist/pacifist allowed them entry into every country, regardless how many crimes they committed along the way. Just 20 minutes from my house, in Calais, I was shocked to see migrants jumping onto trucks, breaking open the doors, scattering the contents across the highway, then climbing in. They went through the Chunnel and got out in England.
9) At 52, the soft socialism around me had transformed into globalism. I was told I had to call people by their preferred pronouns, though it was a lie, and even if I didn't know what the preferences were. I quit.
10) I returned to the US, and am now 60. "Socialism" is no longer a dirty word here. People openly espouse the virtues of it. Politicians run as socialists and win.

Socialism has taken many forms, from the Bolshevism of Russia, to the CCP in China, the Nazis in Germany, Fascists in Italy, and the many forms of it found in Latin America. It is one of the two most destructive ideologies on earth. It is designed to deprive, despirit, and murder everything that comes in contact with it.

Socialism is a great lie at every level. It helps no one, not even those who benefit the most. This is because the cost is the imposition of one's will on everyone else, and that destroys the soul of the usurper and the life of the oppressed.

Socialism always fails on its own, but only after destroying almost everything in its train. It can also be conquered. Those are the options.

[Flemish Masters @vlaamsemeesters]

The Money Changer and His Wife
Quinten Massijs, 1514

[JayRock @JayRock_QueenCi]

These western thunderstorms at high elevation are no joke

[Victor Stater @VictorStater]

This

[Victor Stater @VictorStater]

@AMikaberidze Modest as always, Boney

[Marco @marcorasi1960]

Metairie Cemetery at sunset, New Orleans

[Victor Stater @VictorStater]

@JayRock_QueenCi A paper map/atlas is essential for a good road trip, especially in the west, where cell service can be spotty. No cell service, no waze. Plus if you're exploring Waze sucks, because it always wants to take the shortest/fastest routes