Friday, March 31, 2017

what's it for? thus far

Five years ago I started setting down things that I'd read and found telling or, exemplary or, demonstrative or, artful. Since then, after some five-hundred posts, some long, some technical, some breezy, a very few very short ones, several projects or series, stretching over time and multiple posts, intersecting with others, several lists can be made. 

 Over the last five years nearly sixty spots surfaced in the month of March. One fourth of those looked at current news. A dozen topics come from the diarist Marin Sanudo or revolve around his curious Venetian outlook. Another twelve posts review the early Spanish in Mexico from primary sources, also in translation. Six more stories that can be found from or about different women spring into view, as well as a general introduction to the concept. Seems a shame the very topic needs to be re-introduced. Another half dozen look at some of Columbus' troubles on his first and second voyages to the Caribbean. Only a couple are shorter collections or excerpts of other, different, longer strands, or, placemarkers for some organizational habit. 
There are stories of marches and wars, of Feasts, fires, captures, shipwrecks, schoolgirls, beer brewers, pilgrims. Famous people, failures, baldface lies. And that's just March. Go find it here, or here, here, and here.
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For more examples of what I've done here, there are also drafts of posts that look like the following clump, spilling hyperlink goo for its own connective webbiness. And in this example, all links to quotes are cited from Sanudo's Diaries, which were translated and then published by Johns Hopkins at long last in the current century not ten years ago. It was this book in 2011 that was such an encouragement in that I might learn so much more about the period.

wed to the sea: reference info for fleet to Syria and eastern grain shipments, April 12, 18, 1499

recruiting captain Grimani during Ottoman war April 21, 1499

story of Captain Calbo April, 1505

Ambassador Stella returns from France October 21, 1498

death of a corsair: 1500; birth of a map

Gritti In Constantinople July, 1499
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Four years ago in March, also in a draft, I remarked on what I was doing: What's it for?

 I have turned more attention to my blog. It may not be to your liking, that is, it may not be compelling enough for you/your interests, or even, a wider contemporary audience. I'm quite ok with that. I also have no delusion that I am really doing anything new with it, as in, furthering these studies, like graduate/phd theses, etc. 
Instead, I am merely linking various at-hand rennaisance history stories to the calendar, but providing context for them along the way, and this from primary sources as well, as understood by today's accepted western scholarship. I don't go after the academic controversies at all, really, just report what seems the present consensus, mostly. The only subtext that runs throughout is the curious paralells between the responses people had in those times and in ours. I know that's controversial enough. And while it is not systematic, chronological, let alone, exhaustive by any stretch, it satisfies a need for me to have 'something' to show for my compulsion to know more about pasttimes and human nature, etc. I have always done this sort of thing, with different times, places. This time I write down my investigative journey online and approach it more like an evolving piece of art. A history mosaic. I also put news blogs 3-4 times a month there, providing more context of the observer, almost in situ. 
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 Last year in a summary some other decent bits surfaced.

 As a present-day news junkie, perhaps, the daily happenings of the premier maritime, mercantile city, at the center of geopolitics, with new technologies, publishings and word of everything else coming through town, in rapid-fire serial fashion, struck me as immensely rich in particular. The simplistic idea of what was happening in Venice on this day, begs the additional questions of which year and regarding what. These scratchings soon sprout and blossom before the eyes in arboreal splendour. For me this source was an easy way into that world, one which was already so well-documented and an easy one to get a sense of their relation to the ebbs and flow of time. ...

 The sources are numerous, I wanted the recent ones and with so many sources I get lots of input as to what was happening all over Europe, how the war and everything else effected everything else, if not day to day at least week to week. But I can't keep up on everything, so I try to hit the high points of that topic, while simultaneously trying to get the larger and smaller perspectives from several places, authors or lenses. I see it as a bunch of meshing gears, the city-states, powers, motives, people, perspectives all engaging or disengaging, falling apart and coming together.

I also want to show in the blog as many aspects of the whole research project as possible. If some modern scholar gives excellent notes, or bibliographic info, I'll give direct example. If the flow of their narrative over chapters or paragraphs, seems artful or particularly clear, or helpful, I like to give example of that. If a description or elucidation of complex ideas strikes me as revealing in an author, that goes in. Variety in expression of form, style and substance regularly gets highlighted. Sometimes there's just notes. Less often are there sections that follow strict review patterns, but there are many summaries. There are innumerable, but light, seemingly parallel references to modern expressions, attitudes or news bits and trends, because there just are so many. People and circumstances remain what they are.

 ἔργῳ δ᾽ ἐστὶ μεῖζον ἢ λόγῳ. - Euripides

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Thursday, March 23, 2017

Money and Sway: Extending Control Over Spanish Church

As time went by, the King and Queen in Greater Spain drew more and more power for themselves from all quarters. By mostly traditional means, they were able to gain influence and then decisive power over old alcaldes, with new ministers of justice, as well as over the Orders that could maintain security. In addition, these brought fresh and renewing revenue streams. This same method would be applied to the Church who was wealthy beyond measure. With the precedent set at Granada in controlling offices, appointments, and other directives, the Monarchs could then demand more than just a third of the revenue. And this precedent could be extended far beyond Spain into the New World as well. A quick sketch and some scattered quotes should suffice.

Three concessions by successive popes (Alex VI in 1493, Julius II in 1508, and Adrian VI in 1523), gave the greatest of clerical authority to the Spanish Crown concerning the affirs of the Church in Spain. These authorities grew especially in those Spanish claimed lands in South and Central America. As Elliott puts it,
"In the New World... the Crown was absolute master, and exercised a virtually papal authority of its own. No cleric could go to the Indies without royal permission; there was no papal legate in the New World, and no direct contact between Rome and the clergy in Mexico or Peru; the Crown exercised a right of veto over the promulgation of papal bulls, and constantly intervened, through its viceroys and officials, in all the minutiae of ecclesiastical life." [p.102]
They had been granted the exclusive right to evangelize in the New World by Rodrigo Borgia, as Alex VI with his bull Inter caetera , as well as the right in 1501, for the Crown to perpetually keep tithes gathered for the Church in the western lands.

In 1508 Giuliano della Rovere, as pope Julius II, needed help against Venice. For this, Elliott tells us, he was willing to give up control of the presenting of Churchly benefices to the Spanish Crown. Though there would be fights on this very issue in various pockets of Greater Spain, this tool of extending benefices had already become a favorite for the King. A benefice could ensure loyalty. But providing an office that could be lucrative for the holder could also be lucrative for those bestowing it.

During the Reconquista of southern Spain, popes had granted bulls of cruzada allowing for the collection of indulgences from men, women and children. The very idea of it was the paying for the remission of sins, in order to finance a crusade against Spanish Moors, Ottoman Turks, or later, the locals who happened to live in Central America. In the sixteenth century this form of wealth extraction and its justification became very important to the Spanish Crown.

Yet it wasn't just wealth extraction that was important. The Spanish Church had its own internal problems that Queen Isabella worked to remedy as sovereign. Basic problems like absenteeism, and immorality wrestled with profligate concubinage among clerics with descendants commonly inheriting bishoprics and churchly estates, for eminence. [p. 103] First with the Jeronymite confessor Hernando de Talavera, then later with the austere Franciscan Jimenez de Cisneros, she would move to make both Granada Christian and Franciscans Observant.
"At a time when the desire for radical ecclesiastical reform was sweeping through Christendom, the rulers of Spain personally sponsored reform at home, thus simultaneously removing some of the worst sources of complaint and keeping firm control over a movement which might easily have got out of hand." [p.105]
The problems that pockets of Italy, much of Germany and all of Holland and England would suffer were greatly limited in Spain due to these actions from on high. This heavy hand of the Crown in Spain may have prevented troubles found elsewhere. But it also spawned the Inquisition.
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J.H. Elliott: Imperial Spain 1469-1716 : Penguin, NY, 2002
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Friday, March 10, 2017

Ricciardo Becchi, Florence's Diplomatic Failure At Rome: late winter 1497

Already in the first weeks of Lent in Florence, after the glorious festival of Carneval that year of 1497, everything again felt like it was in free fall. Despite the great bonfire that year, for which a Venetian diplomat was said to have offered 20,000 ducats for the lot, people were starving. Some were dying of starvation. Despite the banning or exiling or jailing of certain critics of the Dominican friar under the short term of Francesco Valori as Gonfalonier, other critcis grew louder. Despite Savonarola's sermons on Ezekiel, the French would agree to a ceasefire.

What was worse, for Florence, was that by setting a truce with the League (on February 25), Charles VIII had effectively abandoned the City to its neighbors. Already they circled around her and her interests.
"Without at least the threat of a new French expedition the city was instantly more vulnerable to the pressure of the pope and the League and its hope of recovering Pisa was severely diminished. Having steadily proclaimed Charles as the New Cyrus, Savonarola's own credibility as a prophet suffered accordingly. Moreover the pope and the League could feel they had a freer hand to settle accounts with him." [p. 219]
During such a truce Venice could effectively strengthen its hold over Pisa, which it had temporarily secured over the winter. This, for Florence, would mean little commerce or profits for another year or more from its once numerous, profitable holdings and channels there. The word from Rome was just as bad.  Excommunication was threatened and the court in Rome thought Savonarola ruled in Florence. After all, he had cheered the most when the French had come to Italy.

When the pope told him to stop preaching, he had refused. When word of the reorganization of the Lombard Congregation had been sent, Savonarola had drawn up a petition from hundreds of his brethren that begged out of that. Now, after what seemed the clearly partisan Francesco Valori was seen holding such a chief, if temporary, office in Florence, reports in Rome had reached another crescendo.

As a member of the League in Italy with Venice, the Spanish sovereigns, and Milan, in order to support Naples and drive out the French, the pope, having agreed to the truce with the French in February, was dealing with a political reality. If Milan was widely seen as playing both sides in The Italian Wars, Florence had advocated the invasion of France, through the pulpit of Savonarola.

Savonarola would be quick to rightly claim he had no such political power. He had long preached that it was God who brought the French. In politics he had striven for neutrality. Against Rome he had preached only against corruption, not specific persons. Detailing all this and countering the anti-Savonarolan voices in the Roman curia and court was Ricciardo Becchi.

Messer Becchi had been Florentine envoy in Rome, tasked with the difficult project of bridging the interests of Florence with papal initiatives. Both Martines and Weinstein show how within a year, Becchi had gone from Savonarolan apologist in Rome, to the voice of Roman critics for Florence. From there, by March 1497, Becchi was warning how low Florentine opinions had sunk within the papal court.

Such a warning came March 19, Weinstein writes, when Becchi alerted the Signoria that
"... the League's ambassador were urging the pope to have no further dealings with the Florentines since they refused "to declare themselves good Italians," and the Venetian envoy had assured him personally that without the good will of his government Pisa would never be restored to them. The pope and the whole court, Becchi continued, were convinced that fra Girolamo governed everything in the city.... That he [S.] continued to prophesy the destruction and renewal of the Church and of Rome was intolerable. Moreover, if he persisted in refusing to comply with the papal order creating the new Tusco-Roman Congregation, they would initiate proceedings to censure and excommunicate him." [pp. 219-20]
Ricciardo Becchi would not be able to convince Rome of Savonarola's better intentions and, later, Savonarola would admit not trusting him as an ally for his cause. The missives of Becchi can be found in Alessandro Gherardi, Nuovi documenti e studi intorno a Girolamo Savonarola. Florence (1887): 154-6. [Opinions at Rome, a year earlier, providing more context of how far Becchi had come, are also found in Gherardi, 123-42.]

Already in Florence, a new Gonafalonier had been selected for the months of March and April. Bernardo Del Nero was seen as a Medicean partisan with an eye toward finding fiscal solutions. One popular notion which Del Nero could accept was expanding the role of public office to those who paid taxes. This method was understood as returning to sortition, a process by lot selection of filling public office, and to many, as an anti-Republican proposal since more d'Medici allies could then assume office again.

On March 18, the Council of Eighty agreed to a practica to discuss the issue.  As a measure of Valori's (and Savonarola's) sudden loss of power, Valori could hold off debate only ten days. By April 4, he could only agree to sit on a committee with the Arrabbiati opposition that would look at the 'matter of elections' and make a report. When they did, a vote was held and the Council of Eighty supported it, but the Great Council did not. Enough had thought the measure had not gone far enough.
"Weeks of reports, proposals, counterproposals, and recriminations followed until both sides were exasperated and at a loss what to do next." [p.221]
It had been increasingly clear that Florence had a lack of leadership crisis. Savonarola could not hold together his coalition of allies. Outside forces agitated and made warnings. In late April, Piero de Medici, hearing of more claims of starvation in the City and, with the more friendly Del Nero as Gonfalonier in that post, decided to move. Once again he expected the City would rise up and welcome him. He too would be mistaken.
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quotes and pagination, footnotes in Donald Weinstein: Savonarola: the rise and fall of a renaissance prophet , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011
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Thursday, March 9, 2017

news early March 2017

Despite tornadoes effecting towns, farmland, even airports along the Kansas - Missouri border on Monday, with cleanup activities continuing since, it turns out these were not the worst of local diasters this week. A wildfire that has razed much in Kansas and Oklahoma has as well stretched in Oklahoma and Texas.
This morning's news was that Marines were on their way to establish a base in Syria.
This comes the day after a major strike and walk out by women and their allies across the US. A power outage the night before seemed strongly symbolic.

But they weren't the only ones upset. Another problem that doesn't seem to go away.
Newly appointed and Senate approved Attorney General, a long-time Senator from Alabama, has already got himself accused of lying to the Senate to get the job. A new poll this morning says a majority in the US want him to resign.
Another Russian businessman has died unexpectedly.

Somehow this is also happening and remains barely reported.

Earlier this week, the current fledgling administration offered up a second try for its temporary stay on admitting travellers from certain countries in the Mid East. Legal experts say it's still faulty and won't be allowed. Don't forget, this happened.
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In the meantime, there are a number of stories around the world that deserve lots of attention. The BBC worldservice reported on the desire in Kosovo to have an army, China's role in brokering a deescalation in tensions between North and South Korea, is also covered with a different focus on npr, the tense diplomacy between North Korea and Malaysia over the death of a sibling to N Korea's "Great Leader", and the chaos that has been unleashed in South Sudan. Also, Saudi Arabia is considering deporting five million refugees.

Riots over food have erupted in Venezuela. The national guard has been called in.
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Amazingly, yesterday, US House Speaker Paul Ryan announced they had produced a healthcare omnibus bill that would replace the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare with a sixty-six page redo. Already, no one but the speaker, the president and a small handful of others think it can pass. They've been working on a replacement for six years.

Rep John Conyers has a different idea entirely.
So do these people.
Still an evergreen moment.

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Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Last Things First: Notes On Sources: Cerretani, Parenti On Francesco Valori

Here's a quick pairing of sources for two modern biographies in English on the life and times of Girolamo Savonarola. Specific instances of footnotes are followed by specific citations on specific topics, quotes or mentions. These are followed by quotes or notes about the source or sources, as well as a more recent secondary collection, etc.

In Lauro Martines: Fire In The City: Savonarola and the struggle for the soul of Renaissance Florence ; Oxford University Press, New York, 2006 

Cerretani, Bartolomeo. 1994. Storia fiorentina. Ed. G. Berti. Florence. 248: "Description of Valori" [as Gonfalonier of Justice for the months Jan-Feb 1497]
"A man of gravity and few words, with a long reddish face, he is described by Cerretani as having had 'a giant of a spirit' (animo vastissimo), 'great presence', and 'extraordinary courage'. Although ambitious and 'austerely proud', he was generally regarded as a man of exceptional honesty and integrity, ... he lived sparely, dressed modestly, and had no children to whom he could pass on his political fortunes." [p. 152]
Francesco Valori, elected as Gonfalonier in the two-month stint January/ February of 1497, had been a man at the center of things before, and could be seen as a mostly reliable ally by the Frateschi and the Dominicans at San Marco. A chief rival of his had been Piero Capponi, killed in battle outside Pisa just the previous October 26. Valori proclaimed himself publicly as a partisan for the Frateschi. This fluid group in these uncertain times were political actors that publicly sided with the reforms called for by Savonarola and their Piagnoni, or, 'Wailers'. Then Valori was selected again to the Signoria and then by end of 1496 as chosen as Gonfalonier to start the new year. He would also play a decisive role in the execution of the five in August that year as well, and pay for that with his life the following spring.

Bartolomeo Cerretani our primary source here, is, along with Parenti and Landucci, Martines says, 'one of the leading chroniclers' for Florence in the period around the invasion of France and the rise and fall of Friar Savonarola. Martines calls Cerretani  'anti-Savonarolan', as well. Still he wasn't so partisan to leave out that the Friar had his effect in the City against gambling, the displayance of finery, and crimes like sodomy.

Along with Piero Parenti, Cerretani is called an 'upper class chronicler', but could still make huge errors. For instance, Cerretani doubles the number of French men at arms that Parenti says entered the city with the King of France. But he also may have been close enough to the center of action that day. Enough to give quotes of the lively interchange between the King and Piero Capponi, with troops in the city, in a moment of heat, where both could bluff about their intentions. Later, Cerretani seemed certain that Piero d'Medici's forces assembled outside the walls would have captured the city, if not for the rain that April day of 1497.

Worse, Cerretani repeats the story that the Dominican Friar had sent a note to Gonfalonier Bartoli in August 1497, calling tacitly that 'God wants justice', and that certain high-profile captive citizens should be executed for treason. Martines details this story, notes the source and disagrees due to the majority of the rest of the evidence, saying it would be outside the Savonarolan character. Sources say Cerretani died in 1524, but I can't find a birthdate.
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Parenti, Piero. 1994. Storia fiorentina I 1476-78, 1492-96. Ed. A Matucci. Florence. 317-18:
[On shifting pro-Medicean influence (going for and then against Savonarola) and the alliances in Florence]; and, vol. 4, 181-2, Parenti (Schnitzer)

In 1910 Liepzig published a collection of writings Savonarola nach den Aufzeichnungen des Florentiners Piero Parenti that dealt with the history of Florence in the years of Savonarola's prominence there. In 1912 a review of Schnitzer's work was published in The English Historical Review. A summary of Parenti's life can be found in that simple review.

Parenti was related to the Strozzi and an adult when Florence was overcome in turn by the French, and then by Savonarola. Thus he is a chief eyewitness to the many twists and turns in the lead up to the dissolution of the Republic of Florence. Parenti himself went on to live (d. 1518) and to see the return of the de'Medici family into his city. Parenti's church was that of the Franciscans at Santa Croce who were among those critical of Savonarola's prophecies and mysticism.

During the time that France was in Italy and the famines and upsets that followed, the continued battles over Pisa and even the warnings sent from the papacy about the Dominican friar, Parenti seems undecided about Savonarola's perceived power. Parenti seems more concerned about the return of de'Medici influence by whatever means. But when Francesco Valori announced himself a partisan with the Savonarolan stamp late 1496, and then elected to the Signory with the priors then selecting him as Gonfalonier for earliest 1497, Parenti's view becomes more critical of Valori.

Valori would go on to work his way in the Signoria and manage to cast out and ban many critics of the Dominican friar. His successor Bernardo Del Nero actively spoke out against the Friar and would continue to act with a pro-Medician lean.

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In Donald Weinstein: Savonarola: the rise and fall of a renaissance prophet , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011

Parenti, Piero di Marco, 1994. Storia fiorentina Ed. Andrea Matucci, 2 vols. (Florence, 2004-5). vol2, 1496-1502.

Much of Weinstein's discussion (pp. 214-6) on the time of Valori as Gonfalonier relies on Matucci's 2nd volume of Parenti's Storia fiorentina.  Weinstein gives us this intensive view of Valori's style of leadership, which by leaping into view, brings much into clear focus.
"Valori knew how to get his way with legislators even in the absence of majorities. One of his favorite tactics was to convene large consultative bodies (pratiche larghe) that he stacked with men he trusted to propose measures favorable to his party. When those bills duly came before the Council of Eighty and the Great Council only those known to be in favor were allowed to speak. If a measure faltered, Valori would introduce it again and again until all objections were overcome and its opponents silenced. In this way Valori speedily pushed through much of Savonarola's stalled reform program, including more thorough marshalling of the Florentine faniculli, more drastic penalties for sodomy and gambling, and tighter regulation of women's dress and ornament." [p.215]
A notable exception quickly diverting from Parenti's narrative via Weinstein, is a mention of Guicciardini's History of Florence  (123), where he says that the death of Piero Capponi in the field was necessary for the elevation of Francesco Valori in the Signoria.
and...
"Documents and information regarding the Valori in L. Polizzotto and C. Kovesi, Memorie di casa Valori (Florence, 2007)". But this is very recent.
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Never Cede Anything To The Proud; Machiavelli: Discoursi, ii, 13-14

Running roughly in chronological order thru Roman History, in the second part of Niccolo Machiavelli's Dicourses On the Ten Books of Livy, he writes of the time of the Roman Samnite Wars c. 340 BCE. This thirteenth heading, or chapter-heading in the second part (or, the 73rd chapter if counted from the beginning as some editions do) in Machiavelli's Discoursi, states a sort of truism. Almost an accusation, it is the simply constructed idea that the rise of low men (those of small fortune, piccola fortuna) to high positions, came as a result usually of fraud rather than by force.

In this section, however, Machiavelli goes into some detail describing the conflict between the Latins and the Samnites, as neighbors of the Romans in the days of Alexander the Great.  Kings commit fraud all the time, he asserts, and deceive in all sorts of ways but, he says, even Livy knew that the Republic was not above deception, if it led to the growth of the state. The author of the famous earlier twentieth century translation of the Discoursi, Leslie J Walker did not think that Machiavelli had made his case to prove the truism that this chapter heading seemed to assert. Or, at least, the reference to a speech in Livy was not enough to prove the assertion true.

The speech itself as written in Livy (viii, 4) was probably modeled after the one in Thucydides , when the Corcyreans came to Athens to ask for protection. This speech in Livy comes from a Latin praetor acting as ambassador to the Senate in Rome, representing interests of herself and her neighbors, both seeking and not seeking help. This passage in Livy and since has excited scholars in almost every age. There is still debate over what Machiavelli extracts from this, or, whether Livy meant to agree or not with Annius Setinus, the embassy speaker, or if the encounter, or start of the war, even happened this way. But more simply, could this speech merely be a bald acceptance of the sometimes fraudulent access to power, thru immoral means of deception, if such a means becomes the more practical route?

The reason this is an issue at all is because of the oft-vaunted glory of Rome and its Republic. Livy and Machiavelli both had reasons to show Rome as setting a very high bar, an exemplar for the right methods of rule, for the virtues of a state. Again and again in both authors, Roman wisdom, prudence and military glory are often continually praised. This rare exception where Livy shows some of the lengths Rome let itself go, so to speak, Machiavelli casually accepts and then pushes the envelope further.

In a chapter or subject heading such as "Pride In Others is Not Overcome by Humility in Oneself", ther fourteenth, a bit of hubris might be suspected. But Machiavelli seems quite clear reiterating his point that, in some public circumstances, humility in action may no longer win the day, the battle, or the war. Here he is drawing out the point, as he says Livy describes the start of the Roman-Samnite Wars, in Livy's History.
"There are to be found numerous cases in which humility is not only no help, but is a hindrance, especially when used in dealing with arrogant men who, either out of envy or for some other cause, have come to hate you."
This was the lesson, Macchiavelli says 'our historian' Livy assures "...was the cause of the war between the Romans and the Samnites...". But a proper response to this situation, for any leader, Machiavelli tells us, is to
"... never forget his dignity, nor ... should he ever waive a point agreed upon unless he can enforce it, or thinks he can enforce it."
The practical problem in not following this advice, the counter argument Macchiavelli offers, is that of the ever-weakening slippery slope with regard to strength, power and control of the situation.
"... if you yield to a threat, you do so in order to avoid war, and more often than not, you do not avoid war. For those before whom you have thus openly demeaned yourself by yielding, will not stop there, but will seek to extort further concessions, and the less they esteem you the more incensed will they become against you."
If, in the event force is used, even a little show early on can be used as an advantageous bit of leverage.
 "But, ... if you prepare to use force, even though your forces be inferior to his, he will begin to respect you.... This applies to where you have but one enemy. If you have more, the wiser course is to hand over some of your possessions ... to win him to your side."
Returning then to how this might be applied to the situation with the Latins and the Campanians aluded to in the end of chapter thirteen, Machiavelli makes a summation.
"... when the power of the Romans was first beginning to grow, they did not fail to use fraud; of which it is always necessary that those should make use who from small beginnings wish to rise to sublime heights, and the better they conceal it, as the Romans did, the less blameworthy it is."
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Niccolo Machiavelli: The Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy Edited by Bernard Crick, translated by Leslie J Walker, thrird revision by Brian Richardson, Penguin Books, London, 1970, 2003
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Friday, February 10, 2017

Queen and King Push For Influence In Catholic Appointments

The enduring stability of what became Greater, and eventually Imperial Spain, was made possible by the systems drawn out from tradition by the Royal House. It's reform of the courts , law enforcement and municipal administration that came to pass out of the Councils, such as that of Madrigal and Toledo, established these in formal agreements. These also maintained, but also reestablished the legal precedence of the Crown over such affairs across Castilian lands. There was also the turning of hidalgos across Old Spain into various levels of king's men. But all of these and their effects could reach only so far. There was also the Church to consider.
"They could never be absolute masters in their own land until they had brought under royal control the immensely powerful Spanish Church. The power of the Church in Spain was reinforced by its vast wealth and by the vast extent of its privileges. There were seven archbishoprics and forty bishoprics.... The regular and secular clergy shared with hidalgos the privilege of exemption from the taxes levied by the Crown, and they were more successful than the hidalgos in evading the payment of municipal dues...." [p. 99]

The Church members even excelled at promoting the welfare of their own servants and helpers. They grew great demesnes, held hereditary offices, enabling great families to remain central to power in many places. Over the centuries, of course, this independence furthered fueds. For example, in the fifteenth century, the act of presentation of "...the more important benefices was a source of constant dispute." Sees, Cathedral chapters, monastic Orders all felt pressured to conform from the ministers of the papacy as well as the King and Queen. For example, the handing over of certain fortresses of Don Alfonso Carillo to royal officials was coupled with royal demands that royal judgements and jurisdictions would remain superior to any local decisions, whether in the Church or not.

In 1475, Isabella asked that she be able to pick the Archbishop of Zaragoza when the office fell vacant. The practice that she said she recalled was that a sovereign could pick a candidate 'in supplication to the Papacy' who would then 'give the blessing' of their pick. [p.100] In 1478 the sovereigns called a Council at Seville.
"The programme laid before the council for discussion made it clear that the Crown was determined to secure control over all benefices in Castile, and that it expected clerical ratification for its defiance of Rome. The council duly agreed to intercede with the Pope, but the delegation which it sent to Rome met with no success." [p 101] 
Next, Elliott tells of the vacancy in the see at Cuenca in 1479 where the sovereigns demanded their selection be met with the blessing in Rome. This wasn't resolved until 1482. As time went on, the sovereigns pushed their agenda to establish greater control over the Church in other ways as in Granada, in 1486 where the Crown did gain superior privileges. The eventual consequences of these early motions pushing the sovereign agenda would be huge for Europe in all sorts of ways.
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J.H. Elliott: Imperial Spain 1469-1716 : Penguin, NY, 2002
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Thursday, February 2, 2017

news: two weeks inside the 'Trump as POTUS' Daily Rollercoaster: late Jan 2017


There was the rainy Inauguration celebration the Friday that Trump became president. But the day after, Saturday, a much larger march was held in protest in Washington, DC called the #WomensMarch. But even though this seemed considerably larger than Trump's gathering, this also had become a march in many other cities that day across the US, and across the world.

The day of this Saturday march, Sean Spicer, acting Press Secretary for the new president, called a meeting to rail and yell at the press for their comments about crowd sizes that were in fact true. And this presentation was on his first day on the job. These were clearly not comments that the new president and his fans wanted to hear. Some in the press warn that this official disapproval of actual facts on the national level may, in addition, be meted out with repressive local legislation.
Also that same Saturday, President Trump went to the famous Memorial Wall at CIA headquarters ostensibly trying to patch up his already rocky relationship with the Agency. But, seeing as how the skills necessary in gathering intelligence include the set of skills necessary for detecting deception, many were left unimpressed.
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In addition to announcing appointees to his cabinet and White House team, there was much talk about first executive orders. Within days the new President began issuing Executive Orders conflicting with past tradition and effacing cultural norms, decrying the press, and aiming to limit government institutions, agencies and offices of all manner. Several stood up against such swift, and often unknowing, even authoritarian, effrontery. These included the acting Attorney General Susan Yates, and the head of ICE but also included many in the EPA, NASA and the National Park Service.

A week in the office, President Trump signed another Executive Order demanding targeted vetting for certain immigrants into the country. This order is particularly focused on people coming from seven majority Muslim countries.

This temporary ban has been met with widespread confusion within government and airline services. It also has generated a fair amount of condemnation and protests from people all over, fear from those targeted and, jubilation from those mistakenly believing that immigrants, and particularly Muslim immigrants cause their problems here in the US.
Thousands went to airports all over the country to protest the order and support immigrants, refugees and Muslims.
After verbally attacking China and Mexico as well, the list grows again by Thursday.

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The day before Donald Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States, Josh Rogin for The Washington Post wrote about Mr Trump's inner circle of closest advisors.
Some analysts see this shake-up, both in the way Trump will get his information and control National Security - as having placed responsibility for these weighty matters seemingly in the same person - as working toward specific ends.
There is little that might keep the majority from learning what happened with the election, the conflicts of interest that Trump and his Admin are ignoring or, the ends that Trump's closest advisers seem bent toward. It's all in the public record. Until now.

And unless they want to cover it up. But, there is also much superfluous else in the media - whether officially broadcast or not - that seems to wash away by sheer volume what should be the most alarming of these stories.
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Friday, January 27, 2017

notes, sources on Savonarola: nov1496 - aug1497

Looking carefully at the notes for both these recent secondary sources that I've been using on Dominican friar Savonarola, I wanted a more direct comparison. To be fair, Martines' narrative carries with it an interior aspect, telling the story in a way that nearly mimics what must have been their rather feverish times. On the other hand, Weinstein delivers a different viewpoint that seems more externally driven, bringing forth details of the scene to show additional contexts. One is not better than the other, though I have included fewer notes and sources here from Martines' book than I have from Weinstein's. Martines leaves the last half of the book to detail the political and the lead up to Savonarola's last eighteen months. Weinstein spends more time with the friar's early life and discussing Humanism and education in Savonarola's world. But both authors have done all the work here. These following bits are just a mere index meant to help me later track down parts of primary source materials.

Martines notes:
November 7, 1496 papal brief on Dominican reorganization p 138

January-February 1497 Francesco Valori elected Gonfalonier of Justice p 152-3, [Cerretani- Parenti]; 158, pp 167-8 [Schnitzer I, Parenti, Cordero III]
February famine and riots, p 178, [Parenti, Cordero IV]
March-April 1497: Bernardo del Nero elected Gonfalonier of Justice, pp 175-81
March 17: Piero at gates? p 177 (Fachard 2002); [Cappelli]
April attacks: (Fachard 2002); [Cerretani]
Hostages taken, on counsel from Valori {Guicciardini}, [Parenti]

June 1497 Savonarola sends out letter to supporters p 138-9 [Sav]
summer 1497 Francesco Altoviti diatribe v Sav. p 162-5 [Altoviti]
July 23, 1497 priest at Santa Maria Maggiore arrested for calling Savonarolans 'sodomites' p. 119 [Luca Landucci]
August arguments: pp 188-200; Giovanni Cambi

notes and pagination from Martines, Lauro: Fire In The City: Savonarola and the struggle for the soul of Renaissance Florence ; Oxford University Press, New York, 2006 

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Weinstein notes: [Sav = Savonarola, HoF= Guicciardini's History of Florence]

All Saint's Days sermons: pp. 204-8; [Sav. Ruth & Micah]
November 7, 1496 papal breve, 208-10; [Villari, on text; Gherardi, de Maio, reception]
November 30 sermon: p. 211 [Sav. Ezechiel I]
December 13 sermon, pp 212-14: [Sav. Ezechiel I], [Nardi, reaction]
Francesco Valori: pp 214-6: [Polizzotto y Kovesi, House of Valori, 2007], [Parenti, Guicciardini, Ridolfi, Cadoni]
Jan-Feb 1497: Carneval: [Parenti, Macey "Bonfire Songs" pp 216-19
news of truce between France and League 25Feb97: pp 219-21 [Parenti, Landucci, Gherardi]
March-April: pro-Medicean Bernardo del Nero elected Gonfalonier of Justice: p220-2
Suor Maddalena squelched by Sav intervening: pp 221-2: [Parenti, Storia II, 89-92; Landucci, Diario, 146; I processi, 26]

Piero de Medici tries to attack, slinks away: pp 222-3: Valori insists hostages be taken [Cerretani, Storia fiorentina 234-5;]
Piero at the wall: [Landucci, Diario, 147]; leaves for Siena, [Parenti, Storia II, 89-100; Guicciardini, History of Florence, chap 15]
May-June: anti-Medicean Alberti elected Gonfalonier of Justice: pp 223-
Ascension Day tumult and sermon: pp 224-5 [Villari, Sav. Ezeckiel II, Landucci, Parenti, Pseudo-Burlamacchi]
Savonarola writes a letter: [Lettere e scritti apologetici 256-64; Parenti, Storia II, 101-6]
May 12, 1497 election reform bill, broadened the great council again, [Parenti, Cadoni, Lotte politiche 54-5]
bills reception: [Guicciardini HoF, 129; letter to Filippo Strozzi in Villari, La storia II, 25 n. 1; Landucci Diario, 149]
excommunication postponed: pp 227-9; [Landucci, 150-2]
June 18, 1497: excommunication breve read: pp 229-330; [Gherardi, 165-6, 168-9; Parenti 109]
Sav responds: pp 226-7; Lettere e scritti apologetici 271-6; Lettere 277-82;
city broods: pp 230-2; Parenti 109-13; urges Dominicans stay indoors for St John fest: [Nardi, Istorie I, 112; on Altoviti crit, Schnitzer Savonarola I ch 22; also Munich, 1903] [Angelo de Vallambroso, Lettere 84-92; Gherardi, 166-174];
Becchi and Bracchi letters to Ten: Gherardi, Nuovo documenti 169-74]
Condolences sent to Pope on death of Juan de Gandia; [Sav. Lettere e scritti apologetici 101-2; more letters to others 152-71]
Savonarola turned to write books: pp 234-40
plague strikes: pp 236-8 [Parenti, Storia II, 113; Landucci 152-5; Sav. Lettere e scritti apologetici 165-71, 175-99]
August: Lamberta dell-Antella captured: pp 241-3[Villari, La Storia II, iii-xxv; Parenti, Storia II, 119, 121-2, 127, 133-4; Guicciardini, HoF 132]
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from Donald Weinstein: Savonarola: the rise and fall of a renaissance prophet , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011
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Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Orsini Overwhelm Papal Forces : January 24, 1497

There was a battle between forces of Pope Alexander VI and those representing the Orsini family. The pope had even recalled his own son Juan Borgia to Rome from Spain to be blessed and sent out, along with Guidalbo Montefeltro the Duke of Urbino, in order to push back the Orsini from their own properties held, north of Rome, near Lake Bracciano. Johann Burchard makes easy work of the battle itself leaving no doubt of the score.
"On Tuesday, January 24th, a battle was fought near Bassano and the fortress of Soriano between the papal troops and those of the Orsini, and in the engagement, the former were heavily defeated in great dishonour. The Duke of Urbino was captured, some five hundred of our troops were killed and many more wounded, whilst the Orsini captured all our artillery and completely scattered our forces."
A mere sixteen days after Gentile Virginio Orsinio the patriarch and leader of the Orsini clan had died, armed forces were arrayed and the surprising accounts from the battlefield once again sent out. Burchard says new negotiations 'were begun' and a new agreement between the pope and these antagonists drawn up and agreed to by February 5th. These antagonists were forces marshalled by the famed and 'ancient' Orsini clan of Italy. The conflict was one of self-interest and politics, as well as lands, inherited estates and the neighboring papal territories. They had done many favors and received many rich gifts and favors from many popes and princes and republics.

The family, despite having many lines reaching back and forth in time had made themselves useful across Italy, again and again, over centuries. For the previous while, Virginio the head of the leading branch had been in service to the King of Naples and was appointed to be constable of Naples. But when the French invaded in 1494, Virginio had deserted his post in Naples and gave up his own castle in Bracciano north of Rome to the French sovereign. The year after, he got himself captured along with other French hostages and was held in captivity back in Naples, until he died, January 8.

The family had long sought to expand its influence in Rome, all the while battling the local Colonna family, marrying into other prominent families, and sending its youth to far-off places to soldier, negotiate, or serve the church. Following all the leads of all the lines of this effective, far-reaching and prolific family could be a lifelong research project for someone. Their name certainly did ring out. Its offshoots and sidelines come up so often in the histories of the period, an interesting cross-section of professions in the age might be produced from such a catalogue of names. Much more could be found here.
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p. 135: Johann Burchard: At The Court of the Borgia translated for english, with introduction by Geoffrey Parker, The Folio Society, Ltd, 1963


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Thursday, January 19, 2017

Al-Hasan Captured by Pirates, Kept in Rome: 1518-9

It was only recently I had the chance to get a copy and begin to read Natalie Zemon Davis' biography of the man who the west remembers as Leo Africanus. Pope Leo X had brought Al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan into papal protection in the Vatican, eventually, after he was delivered to Rome having been captured by Christian pirates during the summer of 1518. But this man was no mere castaway Moor coughed up by pirates for absolution of sins. As Davis explains, al-Wazzan had been returning from his second diplomatic mission to Cairo, sent over a year before for the pleasure of the Sultan Muhammad al-Burtughali in Fez.

The pirate who found him (we're not sure how or where) was named Don Pedro de Cabrera y Bobadilla. He also happened to be the brother of the bishop of Salamanca, who lived at Rome at the time, and thus, could deliver this man to the current pope. It was common for pirates of whatever nobility in those days to bring captured and kidnapped notables to the ports which would provide the best exchange. It is an interesting question, (though the specifics less known and little discussed) why this diplomat could fetch the best price in Rome of all places. But so it occurred.

By the fall of that same year, the reputation of this diplomat, as it was initially (and mostly mistakenly) reported all over Italy, was said to be representing a number of different far off places. He was also still being held in the Castell San'Angelo in Rome. This much at least (and much else, to be fair) Marin Sanudo in Venice could learn about this diplomat, if not exactly where he was from. While it seems that the officials in Rome tasked with dealing with these matters really had little by way of context to understand who this guy was, still, it was reasonably surmised he was some kind of ambassador: an orator, as Italians called them then.

Al-Wazzan may have been busy that fall rebuilding his repute in such a foreign world as the tunnels under the Castell San' Angelo certainly were for him, lying under the ancient city of Rome. Even so, this was a place that held errant clerics, as well as sometimes noted artists like Benvenuto Cellini. A wealthy banker who had fallen into bad repute that November was also brought to the tunnels. It must have seemed a very strange world to al-Wazzan, but some things remained the same. Rapidly, even among this sort of company, al-Wazzan would ascend.

Within a month of his arrival, with his own bags confiscated, he was given Arabic texts to read, and in time, even allowed to autograph them as having been read by his own eyes. The librarian at the Vatican then, the Dominican Zenobi Acciaiuoli was naturally "interested in the prophetic renewal of Christianity" - meaning, in those days, the subjugation of Islam - and thus could find much to learn from this very literate and well-spoken Moor. It turns out, he had a lot of experience. Yes, he had met with, and even bathed with the Ottoman Sultan Selim in Cairo after his conquests there. But there were so many stories, and the whole place at the Castella was mostly run by Christian clergymen. There was the jailer Giuliano Tornabuoni, bishop of Saluzzo, who Davis tells, could even confide to him how many cardinals, for instance, had been imprisoned there, literally, beneath Rome, just in the previous year.

There were the three clergymen later, in 1519, who Ms Davis asserts al-Wazzan had to impress before getting to the favors that the pope could confer on him. One was the master of ceremonies Paride Grassi, who Davis also draws much information from on al-Wazzan's time in Rome, as she documents much else in concurrent news with Sanudo's Diarii. Even the footnotes Davis provides are rich and far-flung, yet also, pointedly specific.

As example, she points out an additional 'et' in the manuscript of Grassi's Diarium detailing these doings, found in MS E53, vol 2 in the Special Collections of the Spencer Research Libraray at the University of Kansas [in n.21, p 296], which the Vatican manuscript does not have. This is what leads her to the assertion that Grassi himself had a leading hand in determining al-Wazzan's connection, and then consequent protection by Pope Leo X.

There was also Gabriel Fosco, archbishop of Durazzo, who had just returned from a trip to Spain in order to raise funds for a crusade against the Turks. However many there were, so important seemed this orator, these men were tasked with chatechizing and observing al-Wazzan during his imprisonment in Rome, until such time he could be baptized in the Christian faith. This did take time and was sure to conjure images and memories for al-Wazzan from his childhood. He and his family had left Granada in the years when war circled around that city leading up to its eventual conquest by the Spanish crown. His family was one of many that did not want to live under the rule of the Christian monarchs there, and so had left for Fez. And that is a different story.

There are several stories regarding al-Hasan. He had several patrons and godfathers while in Rome. They had friends and acquaintances who certainly may have found him intriguing. He would spend some time in Rome with several of them, and even in some of their households doing transcription and translation work. He would go on to become acquainted with ambassadors who knew the kings and rulers of Europe. In addition to being baptized during the celebration of Epiphany in Rome, January 1520, al-Hasan would begin a new kind of life there, surrounded by clergy, humanists, philosophers and diplomats in the midst of the Italian Renaissance.
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from pp. 54-65 in Davis, Natalie Zemon: Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth Century Muslim Between Worlds, Hill and Wang, A Division of Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, NY, 2006
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the news mid January 2017

By tomorrow, Donald J Trump will be inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. Nobody seems ready for it. The 44th President Barack H Obama, had his last meeting with the press yesterday in an old tradition that seemed sweet and endearing in contrast to most of the news the last few months.You can watch it here, courtesy of youtube and the PBS News Hour.
Regular meetings with the press is a practice that goes back many decades here. This is generally understood as an opportunity for the executive branch of government to remain open and to answer questions from the 'Fourth Estate' - that last bastion of critical and public scrutiny: the adversarial press. This basic scrutiny (still demanded by citizens at large), still remains necessary if only for the country to be able to cultivate an informed democracy.

This is how it has been. The press still remains that chief non-governmental actor in western society that can hold governmental actors accountable to what they promise to do. Or the press can at least try. There have been many instances in the last few months where even these basic traditional actions or attributes of the press seem in question. Or perhaps they are merely disregarded by the whims of Mr Trump, or even supplanted by the misinformation that he is occasionally informed with. A recent example of this was where Trump got into an argument with all of the US Intelligence Offices. And denied any wrong-doing on his part. And this shows the mood in the country about it.

So, Donald Trump is having problems with the media, and the CIA and the other US Intelligence Agencies. I won't mention the problem with the FBI since the election is over. But maybe also he's having problems with the Russians. It's hard to tell at this time. And he's provoked China unnecessarily. Irony and irons in the fire seem to be all over the place.

Also, just as central to Mr Trump's legitimacy is his unwillingness to resolve his business conflicts of interest. He seems to owe billions to sovereign nations, contractors and individuals all over the world. The US Government's Office of Government Ethics has made it clear that Trump's announced plans to divest and place his assets in a 'blind trust' with his sons is woefully inadequate. Unfortunately there are partisan members of Congress who are doing their best to get that same office to complete reviews of Trump's picks for his cabinet done in a brief matter of days. Or, to stop talking about the longstanding rules.
The last few weeks have seen a rush in Congress of hearings for Trump's picks to fill his cabinet, for all positions that require Congressional approval. Only one or two have very wide appeal.

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Last year was hottest on record. Third year in a row, but last year was another el Niño. Scientists expect averages to not exceed last year's highpoints this coming year. But we're still in a warming trend.

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Thursday, December 22, 2016

Catching Up With Henry VII, in England, late 1497

Through the summer of 1497, and into late fall, Henry VII the Tudor, may well have been disturbed by the many tumults and upsets that had threatened his reign, time and again that year. But by Christmas, he could also look back to a year marked also by a steady supply of surprise breakthroughs, resolutions and alliances. The results by end of year for Henry, according to J.D. Mackie, after so much offense, intrigue, and suspense, looked very well indeed.

There had been the uprising that started with Cornish miners and who faced off with the King's men near Blakheath in June. The week after these were put down, Henry squared off with James IV in Scotland over the pretender Perkin Warbeck [p. 143]. Scots advanced on Norham in July, and were repulsed. That same month there was also the finalising of  the Magnus Intercursus [p. 139] and the many certain worrisome details to iron out of the previous year's omnibus trade law with the Dutch.

After Warbeck was scared into submission and surrendered himself, (around the first of October, 1497 [p. 145]), Warbeck's wife, Lady Katherine Huntly was also captured and in time was brought into Henry's court.

In addition to using Don Pedro de Ayala from the Spanish court the year before (1496) as an ambassador with James IV in Scotland, Henry also used this diplomat to finalise certain milestones in his relations with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella with a marriage. The betrothal of ten year-old Arthur, the English heir apparent would have him marry Catherine of Aragon, the infant daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella [p. 148]. The settlement reached in July, was celebrated formally in August, and every few months thereafter, until the youths could come of age. By the end of September, Ayala had also secured a truce between James and Henry for ten years.

Through November, while at Exeter, Henry also established a great tax collecting scheme. The program was extensive, strict, and far-seeing. It's reach and effects, Mackie tells us, went on for some ten years til 1507. [p. 146] At some point Henry and his train left Exeter, arriving in Westminster November 27. Here again Warbeck was made to tell his tale again. An assistant to him, a serjeant farrier and a deserter were captured and hung at Tyburn on December 4 [p. 147]. After much hard work, and even well laid plans, Henry could see himself as, and be respected all over as, a stable monarch [p.150]. At peace with everyone but the French, and quiet again domestically, these were reasons a King could rest contentedly.

Each of these stories, the one Perkin Warbeck told after his capture about what he had in fact done, the story of the truce of Henry and James, a peace that would last til their deaths, and the one about poor Prince Arthur and his bride to be Catherine of Aragon, all deserve to be chapters of their own. I'd like to find a book in English about Pedro de Ayala.

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quotes and pagination from J.D. Mackie: The Earlier Tudors 1485-1558 Oxford, UK 1957
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Thursday, December 1, 2016

Is it time for breakfast, yet?

 Found a bunch of semi-related things in front of me today. This hardly ever happens to me anymore. Different unintended paralells or, overlaps from different fields and areas, also seeming to call attention to themselves and each other.

Learned this week that courtiers in the fifteenth century practiced what they called mediocrità (yes, with an accent on the a). This was a skill, an ability to shift from seriousness to facetiousness or, produce levity, especially at the same time. A thing in the middle that can comment critically by doing both. But as Daniel Javitch points out, this is also a practiced thing, and often done counter to the natural bearing or upbringing, or training, of such persons employed as a courtier. An art of dissembling, disinvoultura - an ease of misdirection - or even deception and often for the purposes of discretion must be practiced. Despots demanded dependence and diplomats declaimed denuded disputations, like dour dunces, dainty driscolls, and droll devotees. To the teeth.
[definitions from, Javitch, Daniel : Castiglione: The Ideal and the Real in Renaissance Culture , ed. Robert W. Hanning and David Rosand (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983). More later.]
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Also found this last week that made me laugh a bunch.

"What advantages attended shaving by night?"
A softer beard: a softer brush if intentionally allowed to remain from shave to shave in its agglutinated lather: a softer skin if unexpectedly encountering female acquaintances in remote places at incustomary hours: quiet reflections upon the course of the day: a cleaner sensation when awakening after a fresher sleep since matutinal noises, premonitions and perturbations, a clattered milkcan, a postman's double knock, a paper read, reread while lathering, relathering the same spot, a shock, a shoot, with thought of aught he sought though fraught with nought might cause a faster rate of shaving and a nick on which incision plaster with precision cut and humected and applied adhered which was to be done." Joyce, Ulysses p. 657 in the Modern Library ed. 1934
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There's a website that Trump followers go to that started to get more views than even Drudge this year. It's a platform set up for those on the right to get their daily red on. Which is a pun, but whatever.

They've been accused of 'White Zionism', as being Islamophobic, anti-Obama, anti-women etc. and become bright flashpots in the cablenews world. Turned out a strong right arm for Trump's campaign. They've also given voice to white nationalists, anti-vacciners and Area 51-curious curios, told like facts, or may as well be's.Because, FOX and Drudge, in the zeroth year of Trumplandia, needs a place to source farther right material from, and have old favorites on for little chats. In the Year of DJT, blessed be our future King of Tort Brooms.
Businesses of different walks have begun boycotting this Platform of Breitbart, because of how they talk about people and their behavior, by the disallowing of ads of these companies on said Platform. Ads on the internet these days act as subsidy contracts between the major advertised companies and high traffic websites. So, this comes as a potential blow fiscally, a limiting of the ad market for Platform Breitbart to 'keep the lights on' and for their columnists to get paid. And when big influential companies start paying other outlets to advertise on other platforms, other companies follow suit.

So, when Kellogg's, the brand most known for selling US breakfast cereal said they were boycotting Breitbart, this morning, the twitter tweeters had an excuse to fight again. Like any other day. Those on the far right who notice these things said they'd boycott Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes. Everybody else laughed. For a minute, the hashtag #Breitbartcereals made the rounds.



'Mediocrità' indeed.

or this cartoon by Tom Tomorrow...
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Because there have been a great deal of questions about Trump's global business reach, people are learning what 'conflicts of interest' may mean.
Maybe funniest of all was the very random approval by the Gov Office of Ethics yesterday afternoon via twitter. A series of tweets from the office came upon the announcement that the PEOTUS shamboll we are currently pretending to find unity with made a public announcement that he would opt to postpone til 15December, an announcement about his business dealings, but not get into the details, quite yet.

The series of tweets from the OGE claimed he had already agreed with them for a complete divestiture of all his business dealings acting as if that would resolve all the mounting concerns for conflicts of interest between them and government work. It's a funny story, had npr calling them rogue tweets. Many thought the site had been hacked, but no, today's departure from their pretty staid, straight ahead tweets, caught everyone by surprise.
Here's the npr story. You can hear it if you click on the play button once the link opens.

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