The Heritage (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)

The Heritage, formerly known as the Journal Record Building, Law Journal Record Building, Masonic Temple and the India Temple Shrine Building, is a Neoclassical building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It was completed in 1923 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It was damaged in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. It houses the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum in the western 1/3 of the building and The Heritage, a class A alternative office space, in the remaining portion of the building.
History.
The India Temple Shrine Building was constructed in 1923 by the various Masonic Lodges of Oklahoma, City. The first Masonic Lodge was charted in Oklahoma City in 1890, less than one year Oklahoma's land rush of 1889. By 1919, the number of lodges in the capital city had increased to 16. With an expanding membership and bulging treasury, the 16 Masonic Lodges of Oklahoma City voted to pool their resources for a grand temple large enough to host every lodge. They hired the prominent local architectural firm of Layton, Hicks and Forsyth to design their building. Construction of the India Temple Shrine Building was started in October 1922 and completed the following year at a cost of $1.3 million.
Financial conditions during the Great Depression forced the Masons to vacate the India Temple Shrine Building less than 10 years after it opened. It sat empty until December 1945, when it was sold at auction to Joe D. Morris, president and founder of the Home State Life Insurance Company. Morris paid $201,000 for the building, which he converted into office space.
The building was sold for a second time in December 1977 to Dan Hogan, owner of the Law Journal Record Publishing Company and underwent additional interior renovations in 1978.
The building received significant damage in the Oklahoma City bombing of April 19, 1995, which destroyed the nearby Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Twenty blocks of downtown OKC had to be cordoned off due to the bomb’s extent. The building was fully occupied at the time of the bombing and received extensive damage. The roof was blown off, several floors collapsed and glass permeated the entire structure. Fortunately, there were no fatalities, although there were several critical injuries. After the bombing, the building was purchased by the City of Oklahoma City using federal disaster funds and a major effort was undertaken to save the structure. It sat vacant for five years with the interior exposed to the elements as a result of roof damage and broken windows. The publishing plant at the west end of the building (a non-historic addition) was removed.
In 2000, the western 1/3 of the building was restored and became the home of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum, an affiliate of the National Park Service and the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism.
The rest and majority of the building remained largely vacant for over 20 years until Heritage Trust Company purchased it in 2015 for $4.255 million. Now known as The Heritage, the building underwent a $30 million redevelopment and is now a Class A alternative office space.
Architecture and decor.
The building is a six-story Neoclassical structure measuring by . Similar to other Masonic templates, the exterior was to have a classical design, with Ionic columns and capitals adorning the front. Combined with massive cut-stone construction, the design gave the temple a solid and ageless appearance. The building was constructed of limestone on the North and East sides and red brick on the South and West sides. The top three levels on the east side feature recessed windows, Ionic engage columns, capitals and a projecting cornice. The North face of the building also was divided into two distinct horizontal zones but without the Ionic columns.
The interior was just as ornate. Rooms and halls were decorated in various styles, from Egyptian and Greek to Roman and Byzantine. Entering the new Masonic Temple from Robinson, visitors found a spacious lobby with access to the secretarial offices of the Masonic Orders housed there. A wide corridor led directly to the Shrine Auditorium, the original centerpiece of the building. The Shrine Auditorium had 2,062 seats, a by stage, 2,400 lights, and a pipe organ with 3,000 pipes that cost $30,000. It was described as the second largest auditorium in the American West.
By 1947, most of the ornamentation was gone as a result of the remodeling directed by Morris, but the auditorium was retained for use as a theater and cinema. The theatre was successful at first, but its finances declined, and in 1952 the auditorium was gutted and the space was converted to office use.
In 2000, renovations of the building converted the western 1/3 of the building into the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum. The museum, opened to the public on February 19, 2001, occupies three stories with its entrance located on the west elevation of the building (using the address of 620 N. Harvey Avenue). A section of the second floor was left unrepaired so that visitors could see for themselves the damage caused by the bomb blast.
In 2015, renovations of the remaining portion of the building took place. Many of the temple’s original marble and features were kept, including the floor in the lobby and the stone steps leading into the building’s east side. Marble stored in the basement by the city following the bombing was found and is now the backdrop to framed art in the lobby. Beyond the ground floor renovations and restoration, the biggest change to the building's appearance was to the top of the building. A glass box was added to create a new sixth floor which includes a 750-square-foot rooftop terrace with accordion-style glass doors. An internal staircase leading from the fifth to the sixth floor and skylights made the fifth floor, originally an attic, more usable.


Gunn-Vivian Eide

Gunn-Vivian Eide (born 21 May 1964) is a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party.
From 1990 to 1992 she was the leader of the Young Liberals of Norway, the youth wing of the Liberal Party.
She served as a deputy representative to the Parliament of Norway from Hordaland during the term 1997–2001. In total she met during 3 days of parliamentary session. From 1995 to 1999 she was the municipal councillor ("kommunalråd") of Bergen.


Popular Alliance (San Marino)

The Popular Alliance (, AP) was a liberal-centrist political party in San Marino. The party formed a coalition with the Union for the Republic for the Sammarinese election of 2016 and following their electoral success, the two parties created a new party, Future Republic.
History.
AP was born as an anti-establishment party in 1993, in parallel with the rise of Lega Nord in Italy, of which it has been long considered the Sanmarinese counterpart, but has since then become a stable political force in San Marino, participating in government coalitions with the centrist Sammarinese Christian Democratic Party (PDCS) as well as with the centre-left Party of Socialists and Democrats (PSD) since 2002.
In the 2006 general election the party won 12.1% of the vote and 7 out of 60 seats in the Grand and General Council, making it the third-largest party of the country. In 2008 after the breaking-up of the governing coalition, due to the rising clashes between AP and United Left, under the new electoral system, the party decided to join PDCS in the centrist Pact for San Marino coalition for the 2008 general election, gaining 11.5% of votes and 7 seats out of the 35 of the coalition gained and 11.52% of the national vote. Assunta Meloni became one of the two Joint Captains Regent of San Marino.
After the political crisis of 2011, AP confirmed its alliance with PDCS, creating the new alliance San Marino Common Good, which won the 2012 general election, even though AP itself lost three seats.
For the 2016 general election, AP broke its alliance with PDCS and formed the Future Republic electoral list with Union for the Republic, which was a part of the "Adesso.sm" coalition. The list won eleven seats in the election's second round run-off.
On 24 February 2017 AP and UpR officially merged and formed Future Republic as a political party.


Zhiwu Chen

Zhiwu Chen (; born July 1962) is a Professor of Finance at The University of Hong Kong, specializing in finance theory, securities valuation, and the economy of China. He is a public intellectual in China, with a Sina Weibo following of over 9 million; in 2010 The Time Weekly named him one of "Ten Public Intellectuals Influencing China" and in 2012 public relations agency Burson-Marsteller named him one of China's ten most influential political voices on Weibo.
He graduated from Central South University in 1983 with a BS. Later he obtained an MS in 1986 from the Changsha Institute of Technology and a Ph.D from Yale University in 1990.
He is an editor of the journal Annals of Economics and Finance and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, among others. He has served on the executive boards of various companies including the Bank of Communications, PetroChina, Lord Abbett China, the Yale-China Association, and the Unirule Institute of Economics; he was also on China State Council's Advisory Panel on the Formation of the China Investment Corporation. He was Chief Academic Advisor to China Central Television for two documentary series, "Wall Street" and "Money." In 2011 he was appointed the Chief Advisor of the Permal Group, an alternative asset management firm.


ActionSA

ActionSA is a South African political party that has been established to "set South Africa free from the restraints of a broken political system and build a prosperous, non-racial and secure future for all its people." The party believes in the ideal of "Act as One to build a prosperous, non-racial and secure future for all South Africans."
The party has been established by former Mayor of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba, soon after leaving the Democratic Alliance.
Formation.
Party Launch.
On the 29th of August 2020, former Mayor of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba, announced that he had started a new political party. That party would be known as ActionSA and it was intending to run for the three Gauteng metro cities (Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane) in the 2021 local government elections. The party soon gained notoriety as it brought together former politicians who were dissatisfied with big parties such as the DA and ANC. Makhosi Khoza, Vytie Mentor, Andre Coetzee and David Tembe were amongst the former ANC politicians who joined the newly formed ActionSA. On October, 5th 2020, former DA provincial leader, John Moodey, announced that he had joined ActionSA. Soon, thereafter, he was followed by numerous former DA councillors, along with leaders like Abel Tau, Funzi Ngobeni and former DA Johannesburg youth leader, Lincoln Machaba.
Noting on how many of its leaders came from the DA, the party's inaugural spokesperson said that "the party was not formed as part of a detraction for the DA , but the need to create an alternative towards a shared future."
The party was quickly criticised by, then newly elected leader of the DA, John Steenhuisen, who noted that every time a voter supports a small party like ActionSA "the net result is the strengthening of the ANC. We’ve been through this scenario so many times. As soon as the elections are over, voters who tested the waters with one of these new start-ups realise they got zero bang for their buck from a one-man party with a regional footprint, and they return to the DA. But by then the damage is done for the next five years.” Steenhuisen's critique was not at these party's policies but rather that they are "too small" to impart any change. This criticism was followed by Steenhuisen's chief-of-staff's opinion piece which labelled ActionSA as "EFF-lite in disguise." In an open letter to Steenhuisen, Moodey criticised this opinion piece and what he called the DA's "race denialism" and defended ActionSA's vision and its leaders reasons from leaving the DA. Moodey claimed that "Herman left the DA because it gave up on the project of being a serious political party that could challenge and unseat the ANC."
IEC Registration.
A month after the party was launched, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) rejected the party's application to register itself as an official political party. This was due to another party, Party of Action, claiming that ActionSA had stolen its logo. On this claim, Mashaba noted, "The IEC’s decision is based on a perceived similarity with another political party and the use of the SA flag in our logo. We have already written to the IEC, initiating our right to appeal their decision as a result of its incorrect application of the law. We regard the IEC to have acted irrationally in their decision. We submit that our identifying features remain sufficiently different from the Party of Action (POA), a political party that has never contested elections before despite registering."
The party's appeal was again rejected by the IEC on the same basis. The party's present criticised this decision and initiated legal consultation.
On December 13th, 2020, the party publicly announced that it had been officially registered with the IEC, notably under a new logo.
Ideology and principles.
Values.
According to the party's website, the party has seven core values:
The party's current main policies focus on what it calls the solution blueprints on:


Abijah Catlin

Abijah Catlin (April 1, 1805 – April 14, 1891) was an American politician.
Abijah Catlin, elder son of Abijah Catlin, Jr., and Orinda (Williams) Catlin, was born in Harwinton, Connecticut, on April 1, 1805.
He graduated from Yale College in 1825. He studied law at the Yale Law School, and was admitted to the Litchfield County bar, but soon removed to Greensboro, Ga., where he practiced for about five years. He then returned to Harwinton, and followed his profession there. In 1837 he was elected by the Whig party to the Connecticut House of Representatives, and was re-elected for the next two years. In 1844 he was a member of the Connecticut State Senate, and was one of the "ex-officio" Fellows of Yale College. From 1847 to 1850 he held the office of Connecticut State Comptroller. In 1850 and 1851 he was again in the House, and in 1857 was Commissioner of the School Fund. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, in 1861, he was again sent to the Legislature, and served for two years, as well as in 1865, 1874, and 1879. He was judge of probate for some fourteen years between 1838 and his retirement on account of age in 1875 ; he was also judge of the County Court in 1844 and 1845.
He was twice married : first to Mary Simonton of Georgia ; and secondly to Mary, daughter of Dr. Andrew Abernethy, of Harwinton. He died in Harwinton, on April 14, 1891, at the age of 86.


Voltaire Foundation

The Voltaire Foundation is a research department of the University of Oxford, founded by Theodore Besterman in the 1970s. It publishes the definitive edition of the "Complete Works of Voltaire" ("Œuvres complètes de Voltaire"), as well as "Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment" (previously "SVEC", Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), a monograph series devoted to the eighteenth century, and the correspondences (letters) of several key French thinkers. Directed by Professor Nicholas Cronk, it forms part of Oxford's Humanities Division.
Origin.
In the 1950s, the bibliographer and translator Theodore Besterman started to collect, transcribe and publish all of Voltaire's writings. He founded the Voltaire Institute and Museum in Geneva where he began publishing collected volumes of Voltaire's correspondence. During the final years of his life, Besterman opened discussions with the University of Oxford. These culminated in him naming the university his residuary legatee and arranging for the posthumous transfer of his collection of books and manuscripts, which included many collective editions, to the Taylor Institution (the university centre for modern languages). The Institution dedicated a room as the Voltaire Room in January 1975, to house Besterman's collection and The Taylor Institution's own. Following Besterman’s death on 10 November 1976, the Voltaire Foundation was vested permanently in the University of Oxford.
"Complete Works of Voltaire".
The "Complete Works of Voltaire" ("Œuvres complètes de Voltaire") is the first critical edition of the totality of his writings, arranged chronologically. Each text is published with an introduction, variants and detailed annotations. A provisional table of contents listed 146 volumes, since expanded to 200 volumes by completion of the series, which is planned for 2018. In 2010, the foundation was awarded the by the Académie Française for this fifty-year project.
"Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment" (previously "SVEC").
Since its inception as "Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century" in 1955, nearly 550 books have been published within this series. It publishes scholarly work in English or French across a broad range of disciplines, including history, the history of ideas/philosophy, the history of the book, theatre, literature, visual arts and music, science and economics, and gender studies.


George Bruce Upton

George Bruce Upton (October 11, 1804 – July 1, 1874) was an American shipbuilder and politician who served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, the Massachusetts Senate and the Massachusetts Executive Council.
Early life.
Upton was born on October 11, 1804 to Daniel Putnam Upton and Hannah (Bruce) Upton in Eastport, Maine (then a part of Massachusetts).
Family life.
Upton married Ann Coffin Hussey of Nantucket on May 2, 1826. They had eight children.
Business career.
Upton served as the treasurer of the Michigan Central Railroad for eight years.
Public service.
While he lived in Nantucket Upton was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1837, and a member of the Massachusetts Senate in 1843. After he moved back to Boston Upton served as a member of the Massachusetts Executive Council in 1853, and as a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1853.
Whig National Convention.
Upton served as delegate to the Whig National Convention in 1844.


Fort George (Castine, Maine)

Fort George (also sometimes known as Fort Majabigwaduce, Castine, or Penobscot) was a palisaded earthwork fort built in 1779 by Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War in Castine, Maine. Located at a high point on the Bagaduce Peninsula, the fort was built as part of an initiative by the British to establish a new colony called New Ireland. It was the principal site of the British defense during the Massachusetts-organized Penobscot Expedition, a disastrous attempt in July and August of 1779 to retake Castine in response to the British move. The British re-occupied Castine in the War of 1812 from September 1814 to April 1815, rebuilding Fort George and establishing smaller forts around it, again creating the New Ireland colony. The remains of the fort, now little more than its earthworks, are part of a state-owned and town-maintained park.
Description and history.
Fort George is today a roughly square earthwork, about on each side, with bastions at the corners that project out an additional . These works are for the most part about in height, although the easternmost bastion is high. Features of the fort that have not survived include a palisade, moat, and gateway. The fort is one of a series of defenses erected by the British in 1779, which notably included the digging of a canal across much of the neck separating the Bagaduce Peninsula from the rest of the mainland.
Castine is set at a strategically significant location near the head of Penobscot Bay, and was a point of conflict at several times between the 17th and 19th centuries. Pursuant to plans for establishing a military presence on the coast of Maine as well as the colony of New Ireland, a British force led by General Francis McLean arrived off Castine in June 1779, seized the town, and established Fort George and other fortifications in the area. The state of Massachusetts, of which Maine was then a part, responded by raising a large militia force, which in an operation known as the Penobscot Expedition, disastrously failed in its attempt to dislodge the British in July and August of 1779.
The British established the fort under the command of a general named Campbell. There were about 30 houses in the area. They brought in prizes (captured ships and cargo) there, and received trade from British-controlled Halifax and New York. Loyalists from the surrounding area flocked to the village. A Loyalist guide for a party traveling from Falmouth (now Portland) to Fort George returned to his home in Camden afterwards and was later captured, court-martialed and executed by the Americans, tried by Major Benjamin Burton under the direction of Brigadier General Peleg Wadsworth. In revenge for this, a party of 25 Loyalists eventually went to Wadsworth's quarters and took him prisoner, also capturing Major Burton; they were incarcerated at Fort George. Wadsworth and Burton escaped on June 15, 1781 by cutting a hole in the roof of their jail.
The fort was not abandoned by the British until 1784, and was not re-used by the United States until after the War of 1812.
The British re-occupied Castine in the War of 1812 from September 1814 to April 1815, again establishing New Ireland. They rebuilt Fort George, renamed the captured Fort Madison (aka Fort United States) as Fort Castine, and built Forts Furieuse, Gosselin, Griffith, and Sherbrooke. They also refurbished the peninsula's canal defense line. They withdrew after the cessation of hostilities, and following a brief period of American use, the fort was abandoned and demolished in 1819.
The state of Maine acquired the fort in 1940, and twenty years later provided funds to rebuild a magazine with other improvements. The site of the fort's remains is now a park of , owned by the state and maintained by the town. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. Fort George is the site of Majabigwaduce, the location for Bernard Cornwell's 2010 book "The Fort", which is about the Penobscot Expedition.


Adriaan van Zeebergh

Adriaan van Zeebergh (3 June 1746 in Gorinchem – 25 September 1824 in Haarlem) was a Dutch politician during the Patriottentijd.
Personal life.
Van Zeebergh was the son of Ludovicus van Zeebergh, a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in Gorinchem. He studied law at Leiden University where he received his degree ("cum laude") on 18 July 1766 with a dissertation, entitled "De exhibitione et custodiis reorum". He married Johanna Maria Kuits (daughter of "burgemeester" Anthonie Kuits) in 1776. The marriage remained childless
Career.
After he received his law degree van Zeebergh practiced law in The Hague where he shared a home with the poet and lawyer Janus Grotius. The city of Haarlem appointed him on 2 December 1775 its pensionary.
Van Zeebergh had been recommended by Grand Pensionary Pieter van Bleiswijk, who held him for a adherent of the Orangist faction. However, he soon proved to be one of the most competent adversaries of the regime of stadtholder William V, and became an ally of the two other leaders of the Patriot faction, Cornelis de Gijselaar, pensionary of Dordrecht, and Engelbert François van Berckel, pensionary of Amsterdam; together they became known as "the triumvirate". He was one of the more enthusiastic persecutors of admiral Lodewijk van Bylandt in the Brest Affair, first by his role as interrogator in the Commission of the States General of the Netherlands that investigated that matter, and later when he (together with van Berckel) demanded the admiral's prosecution before a special admiralty court.
When in 1783 the "aristocratic" Patriots formed a Council of Patriot Regenten to coordinate policy with the "democratic" wing of the Patriot faction (with a. o. Joan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol), van Zeebergh was made part of its "Bureau of Correspondence" of the Holland pensionaries that corresponded with like-minded "regenten" in other provinces.
When the political strife in the Dutch Republic came to a boil after the occupation by the Dutch States Armyof the Patriot cities of Hattem and Elburg in September 1786, and the stadtholder was relieved of his offices of Captain-General and Admiral-General, van Zeebergh was appointed a member of the commission of the States of Holland that on 22 September 1786 took over his tasks. In October 1786 the Prussian mediators Chomel and von Goertz tried to get the stadtholder restored in his office of Captain-General, but in an interview with the latter on 10 November 1786 van Zeebergh, together with de Gijselaar, made clear that this would not happen.
On 30 January 1787 van Zeebergh introduced a resolution in the States of Holland to institute a commission to prepare a constitutional reform that would make "People's government by representation" possible. It stated: . Van Zeeberg was elected as one of the 16 members of the commission. Then on 17 February van Zeebergh proposed in the States of Holland that the "Legion of Salm" would be placed in garrison in The Hague. When this did not immediately happen, de Gijselaar and van Zeebergh left the meeting of the States in protest. Under the system of "last en ruggespraak" (mandate and consent) the Holland cities were then asked for their consent with this proposal, which precipitated a crisis in the Amsterdam city government, when the Amsterdam Free Corps put pressure on the "vroedschap" to go along with the proposal, and the "vroedschap" reluctantly agreed initially, but later refused. This eventually would lead to the purge of the anti-Patriot "regenten" from the Amsterdam "vroedschap" in May 1787.
When in May 1787 the Orangists formulated a virtual "declaration of war" in the form of the "declaratoir" of the stadtholder, and the democratic Patriots wanted to reply by dismissing William V from the office of stadtholder of Holland, van Zeebergh and de Gijselaar pleaded a cautious approach, which made them very unpopular with the hotheads. The triumvirate started to lose its grip on the situation. Then the crisis around the arrest of Princess Wilhelmina at Goejanverwellesluis erupted on 28 June 1787, followed by the ultimatum of her brother the Prussian king.The States of Holland rejected that ultimatum in a note that van Zeebergh drafted. This was a risky move that van Zeebergh himself recognized could turn out very badly. And it did: on 13 September 1787 the Prussians invaded the Dutch Republic.
On 15 September 1787 the Patriot troops in the city of Utrecht retreated to Amsterdam. The three pensionaries proposed that the States of Holland would also move to Amsterdam from The Hague, as that city was without defense. But they did not stay around to defend that proposal in the States, as they had already fled to Amsterdam themselves. A formal decision was therefore never taken, but a number of delegations of Holland cities in the States indeed moved to Amsterdam where they joined the three pensionaries on 17 September. But the rump-States in The Hague then took the decision to declare for the stadtholder, and the Patriot Revolt was over. On 8 October the purged States of Holland asked the Princess meekly what kind of satisfaction she desired for the insult she had suffered. She gave them a list of names of people she held responsible for the arrest at Goejanverwellesluis. Van Zeebergh was one of the people mentioned. Like the others he was forever barred from holding a government office. He became a private citizen.
Van Zeebergh was appointed director of Teylers Stichting in 1780 to replace Jacobus Barnaart. After he had become a private citizen again he devoted his life entirely to this function. Siegenbeek credits him with deflecting attempts by emperor Napoleon to appropriate the assets of the Foundation.
Van Zeebergh was made a Councillor of State in extraordinary service of the Kingdom of Holland and a Knight of the Order of the Union by king Louis Bonaparte. Emperor Napoleon gave him the Order of the Reunion.
After the death of his wife in 1816 van Zeebergh withdrew from public life, because he became too hard of hearing. He died in 1824.


Young Liberals (Switzerland)

The Young Liberals of Switzerland (, , , ), abbreviated to YLS, is the youth wing of FDP.The Liberals. It was founded in 1928 and, with more than 4,200 members aged between 15 and 35.
About.
The Young Liberals of Switzerland (YLS) are active on the federal, the Cantonal, the local level and at universities in Switzerland. The party has four members of the federal National Council, Christian Wasserfallen, Andri Silberschmidt, Philippe Nantermod, Christa Markwalder and one of the Council of States, Johanna Gapany. The party also holds several seats in Cantonal and local parliaments.
Although the YLS is independent, it is affiliated with the Free Democratic Party of Switzerland and, on the international level, with European Liberal Youth as well as International Federation of Liberal Youth.
Principles.
The Young Liberals stands for more freedom in daily life and fights against bureaucracy and unnecessary bans.
The Young Liberals commit themselves for an excellent education, secure social security within a sustainable social welfare system, a strong economy- based on free market principles -especially for small and medium business, security and a sustainable environment.
Organisation.
The sovereign body of the Young Liberals is called "The Congress", and meets once a year, usually in spring. The Congress elects the individually the members of the National Board and decides upon political strategy papers, which altogether form the manifesto.
During the year, the Council of Delegates meets four times and decides on current business, e.g. adopts the positions of the party on popular votes and referendums. The Young Liberals organized a referendum against fixed book prices and won the public vote.
The National Board is responsible for the daily business and coordination with the cantonal sections.
National Board
The current members of the National Board (as of July 2020):


Ingolv Helland (politician)

Ingolv Helland (29 March 1906 – 9 April 1999) was a Norwegian politician for Venstre.
He was born in Hamre.
He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Rogaland in 1961, and was re-elected in 1965.


Ferdinand Peroutka

Ferdinand Peroutka (6 February 1895 – 20 April 1978) was a Czech journalist and writer. A prominent political thinker and journalist during the First Czechoslovak Republic, Peroutka was persecuted by the Nazi regime for his democratic convictions and imprisoned at Buchenwald concentration camp. Following the 1948 coup by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, he emigrated to both the United Kingdom and, later, the United States.
Life.
Peroutka was born to a Czech-German family in Prague in 1895. In 1913 he began his career as a journalist. After World War I, he became an editor-in-chief of a new newspaper "Tribuna" ("Tribune"). Some articles published in "Tribuna" were later incorporated into books "Z deníku žurnalistova" ("Of the Journalist's Diary") and above all "Jací jsme" ("What we are like") —in this book Peroutka mapped some myths about the Czech nation.
In 1924 Peroutka passed from "Tribuna" to "Lidové noviny" and founded—thanks to Tomáš Masaryk's donation—the review "Přítomnost" ("The Presence"). As a commentator he became very influential, standing on the position of the "Castle" (group of President Masaryk) and criticizing both communists and the Right represented by the national-democratic party of the first Czechoslovak prime minister Karel Kramář. Peroutka expressed his political and other opinions also in several books: "Boje o dnešek" ("Fights for Today"), "Ano a ne" ("Yes and No"), "Budování státu" ("Building of the State") and "Osobnost, chaos a zlozvyky" ("Personality, Chaos and Bad Habits"). As a representative of the Czech democratic tradition, Peroutka was arrested after the outbreak of World War II in 1939 and held in the Buchenwald concentration camp until 1945. He was offered freedom on the condition that he would serve as editor of a collaborationist "Přítomnost"; he refused and spent the whole of the war in Buchenwald.
After liberation, Peroutka became an editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Svobodné noviny" and refounded his famous review, "Přítomnost", under the name "Dnešek" ("Today"). The journal became prominent through its critical stance on postwar violence committed on the German minority and hundreds of alleged collaborators. Nonetheless it also fit the general pattern of the time by hosting illusory views of the Communist party underestimating its totalitarian pretensions. Peroutka wrote two dramas: "Oblak a valčík" ("The Cloud and the Waltz") and "Štastlivec Sula" ("Sula the Happy Man"). Political articles Peroutka issued in the book "Tak nebo tak" ("One Way Or Another"). The 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état caused Peroutka to decide to emigrate. In 1951 he became a director of the Czech division of the Radio Free Europe. The summa of his democratic life views was issued in 1959 as "Democratic Manifesto".
Peroutka also became a novelist in exile. He re-wrote his drama to the novel of the same name. The second novel, "Pozdější život Panny" ("The Later Life of the Virgin"), deals with the idea of the rescue of Joan of Arc. Peroutka's last drama was named "Kdybych se ještě jednou narodil" ("If I Was Born One More Time").


Rare (website)

Rare is an American news and opinion website based in Washington, D.C. Rare was launched as a startup in 2013 by a team of journalists, marketers and business executives at Atlanta-based Cox Media Group. Rare's slogan is, “America's News Feed", describing itself as a "news, political, and lifestyle social content hub". Its current editors are Shannon Ratliff and Silke Jasso.
The publication's first editor in chief was Brett M. Decker, formerly an editorial page writer for "The Wall Street Journal" and editorial page editor of "The Washington Times". Will Alford, one of the site's original founders and a former newsroom director at "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution," became acting editor after Decker left. Betsi Fores, formerly of "The Daily Caller", became Rare's managing editor, and Jack Hunter, former aide to U.S. Senator Rand Paul, became the politics editor after resigning from his Senate job.
History.
Rare launched at a Newseum gala on April 15, 2013, and acquired 25 million page views within its first year. The website was aimed at a younger, center-right audience, and early contributors brought in by Decker's team included Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Grover Norquist. Rare has been described as libertarian-conservative and has been compared to the websites "Independent Journal Review", BuzzFeed, and "The Huffington Post".
Their original tagline, "Red is the Center" referred to an editorial position where conservative thinking was at the heart of American success. In 2014, their tagline became “America's News Feed”, reflecting more mainstream, high-traffic, popular content targeting a younger, socially engaged audience.
In March 2018, editors for the site said Cox had decided to cease publication. Following a mass layoff of over 50 staffers, the site and its affiliated web properties were purchased by Texas-based Wide Open Media Group.


Petr Zenkl

Petr Zenkl (13 June 1884 – 2 November 1975) was an influential Czech politician, government minister, mayor of Prague, chairman of the Czechoslovak National Social Party (1945-1948), deputy prime minister of Czechoslovakia (1946-1948) and the chairman of exile Council of Free Czechoslovakia (1949-1974).
Biography.
Petr Zenkl was born as the eighth son of a small businessman, originally a tailor, in the South Bohemian town of Tábor. All of the children helped their father in his business and strived to earn money. The father was Czech patriot, thus the children joined the Sokol movement. Zenkl studied at the gymnasium (grammar school) in Tábor and later graduated from the Philosophy Faculty of the Charles University in Prague and in 1907 gained a doctorate. During his studies in Tábor he met a daughter of his history teacher, 16-year-old Pavla, and married her six years later in 1909.
From 1911 Zenkl was active in local politics in Prague, more precisely in Karlín, which was until 1921 an independent town before its incorporation to Prague. In 1911 he became a member of the Karlín town council, and in 1919 became a mayor of Karlín. He lost his position when Karlín was incorporated into Prague in 1921–1922. As a member of the Prague city council, Zenkl was installed in 1937 to the position of Prague's mayor, replacing his successful predecessor, dr. Karel Baxa.
Shortly after the Nazi German occupation of Prague (March 1939) Zenkl was arrested and jailed in the Pankrác Prison. From there he was transported to the Dachau concentration camp and, after three weeks, to the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he was liberated together with other inmates by the army of U.S. General George S. Patton. Zenkl is mentioned in Edward R Murrow's report of Buchenwald on 11 April 1945, when a man turned to him in a barracks and said "You remember me, I am Peter Zenkl, onetime mayor of Prague". The two had indeed met before, but given such harsh treatment as Zenkl had endured, he was unrecognizable. With American military help, he was able to fly through Frankfurt am Main and Paris to London, where he learned that his place as Mayor of Prague had been taken by the communist Václav Vacek. He was also informed that he had been elected chairman of his Czechoslovak National Social Party by the Revolutionary Committee of the party.
He took over his position as a mayor in August 1945, replacing Vacek, and fulfilled his duties until May 1946, when elections took place and Václav Vacek was installed to the office again. After the elections, as a chairman of the second strongest party (after the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia) he became the Deputy Prime Minister of the Czechoslovak government in May 1946. In September 1947 Zenkl, together with minister Jan Masaryk and fellow National Socialist minister of justice Prokop Drtina, were victims of communist-orchestrated intimidation, when they received boxes containing explosives. In February 1948 Zenkl resigned, together with other non-communist government ministers, to convince the communist Minister of Interior Václav Nosek to cancel unconstitutional measures, which Nosek instituted during his ministry.
After the communist coup d'état of 1948 Zenkl was under constant surveillance by the communist State Security apparatus. He managed, however, to escape with his wife to the West in August 1948. In subsequent years he became the head of the Czechoslovak political exile movement. In 1949-1974 he was a chairman of the exile Council of Free Czechoslovakia, based in Washington, D.C.. After the fall of communism in 1989, his remains were transferred from the United States to the Vyšehrad Cemetery in Prague. In October 1991 he was awarded, "in memoriam", the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, II class, by President Václav Havel.


Menachem Savidor

Menachem Savidor (, 20 August 1917 – 2 November 1988) was an Israeli civil servant and politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Likud from 1977 until 1984. Between 1981 and 1984 he was the Knesset's eighth Speaker.
Biography.
Born Menachem Khodorovsky in Bakhmut in the Russian Empire, Savidor attended high school in Poland and Vilnius University.
In 1941, he made aliyah to Mandate Palestine, and enlisted in the British Army. He was demobilised in 1946, and enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces in 1948. He founded the Military School for Organisation and Management, and was its first commander. He also headed the Police and Discipline Branch. In 1953, he was demobilised with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
In 1953, he joined the General Zionists party and was also appointed deputy director of the Ministry of Transportation. The following year he became director-general of Israel Railways, a post he held until 1964 when he was appointed director-general of Vered, a subsidiary of the Rassco housing company. After leaving the role in 1967, he served as director-general of a citrus fruit export company until 1977.
He was elected onto Tel Aviv city council, and headed the Gahal faction (an alliance of the Liberal Party (which the General Zionists had merged into) and Herut) from 1969 until 1974. He became deputy chairman of the Liberal Party's central committee and headed its political think tank. In 1977 he was elected to the Knesset on the Likud list (an alliance of the Liberal Party, Herut and other right-wing parties). He was re-elected in 1981, and was appointed Speaker of the Knesset, replacing Yitzhak Berman.
Having lost his seat in the 1984 elections, Savidor was appointed chairman of the Public Committee to Rehabilitate the Economy in 1985. In 1987 he became chairman of the Fund for the Security of Israel, but died the following year at the age of 71.
The Tel Aviv Savidor Central Railway Station is named after him.


Resistencia Civil

Resistencia Civil (Civil Resistance) is a libertarian political movement in
Venezuela which advocates classical liberal principles i.e. limited government and free market. The movement is led by Domingo Alberto Rangel, who holds the rank of executive secretary of the "Resistencia Civil". Guillermo Rodríguez is the chief economist of the movement.


Dover Castle

Dover Castle is a medieval castle in Dover, Kent, England. It was founded in the 11th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history. Some sources say it is the largest castle in England, a title also claimed by Windsor Castle.
History.
Iron age.
This site may have been fortified with earthworks in the Iron Age or earlier, before the Romans invaded in AD 43. This is suggested on the basis of the unusual pattern of the earthworks which does not seem to be a perfect fit for the medieval castle. Excavations have provided evidence of Iron Age occupation within the locality of the castle, but it is not certain whether this is associated with the hillfort.
Roman era.
The site also contains one of Dover's two Roman lighthouses (or pharoses), one of only three surviving Roman-era lighthouses in the world, and the tallest and most complete standing Roman structure in England. It is also claimed to be Britain's oldest standing building. Built in the early 2nd century, the 5-level 8-sided tower was made of layers of tufa, Kentish ragstone, and red bricks. The castle lighthouse survived after being converted into a belfry in the Saxon era (c.1000), having a new upper layer added (c.1430), and was partially renovated in 1913–1915. The scant remains of the other Roman lighthouse, known as the Bredenstone or the Devil's Drop of Mortar, are located on the opposing Western Heights, across the town of Dover.
The Roman lighthouse at Boulogne-sur-Mer across the Channel survived for many centuries, and its light should have been visible from Dover. It was built circa 39 AD by order of the Emperor Caligula, possibly in preparation for an invasion of Britain. Suetonius refers to Caligula's "erection of a tall lighthouse, not unlike the one at Pharos, in which fires were to be kept going all night as a guide to ships". Known as the Tour d'Ordre, coastal erosion led to it toppling into the sea in 1644. Engravings of its height may show how the Dover Roman lighthouse once looked.
Saxon and early Norman.
After the Battle of Hastings in October 1066, William the Conqueror and his forces marched to Westminster Abbey for his coronation. They took a roundabout route via Romney, Dover and Canterbury. From the Cinque Ports foundation in 1050, Dover has always been a chief member—it may also have been this that first attracted William's attention, and got Kent the motto of Invicta. In the words of William of Poitiers:
In 1088, eight knights were appointed under tenures to guard Dover Castle, their names were: William d'Albrincis; Fulberl de Dover, William d'Arsic; Geoffrey Peverell; William Maminot; Robert du Port; Hugh Crevecoeur; and Adam Fitzwilliam.
Henry II to early modern times.
It was during the reign of Henry II that the castle began to take recognisable shape. The inner and outer baileys and the great keep belong to this time. Maurice the Engineer was responsible for building the keep. From 1179 to 1188, the King spent over £6,500 on the castle, an enormous sum, considering that his annual revenue was likely around £10,000.
In 1216, during the First Barons' War, a group of rebel barons invited the future Louis VIII of France to come and take the English crown. He had some success breaching the walls, but was ultimately unable to take the castle. The vulnerable north gate that had been breached in the siege was converted into an underground forward-defence complex (including St John's Tower), and new gates built into the outer curtain wall on the western (Fitzwilliam's Gate) and eastern (Constable's Gate) sides. During the siege, the English defenders tunnelled outwards and attacked the French.
During the time of Stephen de Pencester, a windmill was erected on Tower 22, which was later known as the Mill Tower. By the Tudor age, the defences themselves had been superseded by gunpowder. They were improved by Henry VIII, who made a personal visit, and added to it with the Moat Bulwark.
During the English Civil War it was held for the king but then taken by supporters of the Parliamentarians in 1642 without a shot being fired. Knowing the castle was lightly guarded, a local merchant Richard Dawkes accompanied by 10 men scaled the cliffs and attacked the porter's lodge, obtaining the keys and entering the castle before the garrison was summoned.
Dover Castle was a crucial observation point for the cross-channel sightings of the Anglo-French Survey, which used trigonometric calculations to link the Royal Greenwich Observatory with the Paris Observatory. This work was overseen by General William Roy.
19th century.
Massive rebuilding took place at the end of the 18th century during the Napoleonic Wars. William Twiss, the Commanding Engineer of the Southern District, as part of his brief to improve the town's defences, completed the remodelling of the outer defences of Dover Castle by adding the huge Horseshoe, Hudson's, East Arrow and East Demi-Bastions to provide extra gun positions on the eastern side, and constructing the Constable's Bastion for additional protection on the west. Twiss further strengthened the Spur at the northern end of the castle, adding a redan, or raised gun platform. By taking the roof off the keep and replacing it with massive brick vaults he was able to mount heavy artillery on the top. Twiss also constructed Canon's Gateway to link the defences of the castle with those of the town.
With Dover becoming a garrison town, there was a need for barracks and storerooms for the additional troops and their equipment. The solution adopted by Twiss and the Royal Engineers was to create a complex of barracks tunnels about 15 metres below the cliff top, and the first troops were accommodated in 1803. The windmill on the Mill Tower was demolished during the Anglo-American War of the orders of the Ordnance Board. It was said that the sale of materials from the demolished mill did not cover the cost of the demolition. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the tunnels were partly converted and used by the Coast Blockade Service to combat smuggling. This was a short-term endeavour though, and in 1827 the headquarters were moved closer to shore. The tunnels then remained abandoned for more than a century.
Between 1856-58, Anthony Salvin constructed a new Officers’ Barracks to the south of the castle. Salvin was responsible for the exterior, which he designed in a Tudor Revival style, while the castle’s Clerk of the Works, G. Arnold, was responsible for the interior.
Second World War.
The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 saw the tunnels converted first into an air-raid shelter and then later into a military command centre and underground hospital. In May 1940, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay directed the evacuation of French and British soldiers from Dunkirk, code-named Operation Dynamo, from his headquarters in the cliff tunnels. A military telephone exchange was installed in 1941 and served the underground headquarters. The switchboards were constantly in use and had to have a new tunnel created alongside it to house the batteries and chargers necessary to keep them functioning. A statue of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay stands outside the tunnels in honour of his work on the Dunkirk evacuation and protecting Dover during the Second World War.
Post-war.
After the war the tunnels were used as a shelter for the Regional Seats of Government in the event of a nuclear attack. This plan was abandoned for various reasons, including the realisation that the chalk of the cliffs would not provide significant protection from radiation, and because of the inconvenient form of the tunnels and their generally poor condition. Tunnel levels are denoted as A - Annexe, B - Bastion, C - Casemate, D - Dumpy and E - Esplanade. Annexe and Casemate levels are open to the public, Bastion is 'lost' but investigations continue to locate it and gain access, Dumpy (converted from Second World War use to serve as a Regional Seat of Government in event of an atomic war) is closed, as is Esplanade (last used as an air raid shelter in the Second World War).
Between 2007 and 2009, English Heritage spent £2.45 million on recreating the castle's interior. According to figures released by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, 368,243 people visited Dover Castle in 2019. The Queen's & Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment Regimental Museum is located in the castle.
Dover Castle remains a Scheduled Monument, which means it is a "nationally important" historic building and archaeological site that has been given protection against unauthorised change. It is also a Grade I listed building, and recognised as an internationally important structure. The Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports is officially head of the castle, in his conjoint position of Constable of Dover Castle, and the Deputy Constable has his residence in Constable's Gate.
Churches and chapels.
There are two sacred places within the grounds of the castle:
Filming location.
The castle has been used by productions such as the "Doctor Who" episode "The Mind of Evil", "Wolf Hall", "The Hollow Crown" and "The Amazing Race 31".


AfD pro-Russia movement

Parts of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) support Russia, its foreign policy, and its allies.
Positions.
Ukraine crisis and war in Donbass.
In March 2019, party leader Alexander Gauland said in an interview with the Russian newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" that they consider the War in Donbass to be a Ukrainian internal matter, and that Germany should not get involved in the internal affairs of Ukraine or Russia. He also said the AfD is against Western sanctions imposed on Russia.
AfD rejects EU sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine conflict.
Media.
The Russian state foreign media agency Russia Today has since 2014 a German speaking outlet, which spread right wing conspiracy theories and several times promoted AfD-politicians and their positions. Often German AfD politicians got interviewed in the German and International RT programs.
The daily show "The missing part" ("Der fehlende Part") with which RT claims to send "what others do not say, what others do not show". RT is inviting guests like the AfD supporter Ken Jebsen, a journalist, who get kicked out of puplic broadcaster RBB after anti-Semitism charges had been raised against him. "RT Deutsch" was reporting intensively about pro-Russian Berlin Monday demonstrations, which are closely linked to the right-wing populist publicist Jürgen Elsässer, editor-in-chief of Compact. Compact is de facto the voice of AfD.
Protagonists.
Markus Frohnmaier.
Markus Frohnmaier has been an AFD member of the Bundestag since 2017. The ZDF, Spiegel and other media had reported that the Kremlin had specifically supported Frohnmaier to promote Russian interests in the Bundestag. In a strategy paper of the Presidential Administration of Vladimir Putin, which is to come from the time before the general election in 2017, it is said that Frohnmaier "will be under absolute control". Further on "our people could also set up a non-profit organization, which will be registered with the Bundestag and can be promoted through the pro-Russian positions."
Udo Hemmelgarn.
Udo Hemmelgarn has been an AFD member of the Bundestag since 2017. He supports the Assad government and demands German support of the Russian involvement in Syria. In 2019 Hemmelgarn organized a secret trip of four AfD members of the Bundestag to Syria. He is a strong supporter of a "new Syria-policy" in the Bundestag. For AfD that meant backing the Assad government and the supporting Russian government.
Robby Schlund.
Robby Schlund has been an AFD member of the Bundestag since 2017. He delineates himself as a member of the right-wing factional cluster 'Der Flügel' (the wing) around Björn Höcke Under the chairmanship of Robby Schlund, for the first time in years, a German-Russian parliamentary group in 2019 was making efforts to establish better contacts from Germany with Russia.


Jerry Doyle

Jerry Doyle (July 16, 1956 – July 27, 2016) was an American talk radio host, right-libertarian political commentator, television actor and founder of the content platform EpicTimes. His nationally syndicated talk show, "The Jerry Doyle Show", aired throughout the United States on Talk Radio Network. As an actor, Doyle was known for his role as Michael Garibaldi in the science fiction series "Babylon 5" (1994–1998).
Early life.
Doyle graduated from Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta, New Jersey, in 1973, where he played varsity football and basketball. In 1978, Doyle earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, while also receiving his flight training.
Television and radio career.
Previously a corporate jet pilot and after a decade as a stockbroker on Wall Street, Doyle made an abrupt career change into acting in 1991, when he moved to Los Angeles. His first television role was on the series "Moonlighting" where he played a potential replacement for Bruce Willis' character. This was followed by a recurring role as a lawyer on the soap opera "The Bold and the Beautiful". "Babylon 5" was his first significant starring role, starring as security officer Michael Garibaldi. Doyle quipped that on "Babylon 5" he was a "Mick from Brooklyn playing a Wop from Mars."
From 1996 to 1997, Doyle was the voice of the title character in animated cartoon "Captain Simian & the Space Monkeys".
He began his own production company to move into production television and independent films, which he described as an "experiment". Other work included a series on the aircraft of the Second World War entitled "Keep 'em Flying", alongside producer John Copeland, with whom Doyle had previously worked on "Babylon 5". Doyle was a frequent guest on Newsmax Media TV, primarily on the program Midpoint with Ed Berliner. He had also been a featured guest on "Fox & Friends".
Radio.
Weekdays from 3 p.m.–6 p.m. PT (6 –9  ET), the "Jerry Doyle Show" aired on the Talk Radio Network, although the show aired at different times in different markets. It was the sixth most popular talk radio show in the country, with an average of 3.75 million listeners on a weekly basis by early 2012.
Doyle was announced as the replacement program for "The Savage Nation" in Talk Radio Network's lineup in October 2012. "The Savage Nation", at the time the third most-listened-to radio talk show in the United States, abruptly ended its run September 26 when host Michael Savage won a lawsuit against TRN. Doyle replaced Savage on all of Savage's approximately 300 affiliates except for those who chose their own replacement programs. He launched the new media content platform EpicTimes in February 2013, which served as a "one stop shop" for both hard hitting news of the day as well as entertaining "water cooler" type pieces. It was subsequently banned within China.
Personal life.
Doyle was married to his "Babylon 5" co-star Andrea Thompson from 1995 to 1997. They were married in Cabo San Lucas, in Baja California Sur, in a short ceremony. Doyle remarked that "If the ceremony takes longer than it takes for a margarita to separate, it's too long".
Political efforts.
Following his work on "Babylon 5", Doyle ran as the Republican Party candidate for seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000. Doyle won the primary without spending any money on the campaign. However, in the general election on November 7, 2000, he lost to The Democratic incumbent Brad Sherman, with Sherman earning 66% of the vote, compared to Doyle's 30%, the Libertarian candidate's 3%, and the Natural Law candidate's 1%. He received only 43,000 votes. In December 2011, Doyle endorsed Ron Paul for the Presidency of the United States.
Death.
On July 27, 2016, eleven days after his 60th birthday, Doyle was found unresponsive in his Las Vegas home, and declared dead shortly thereafter. The Clark County Coroner's Office later stated that Doyle died from natural causes, with complications from chronic alcoholism being a contributing factor.
His former co-stars offered their condolences, including Bruce Boxleitner, who wrote that he was "so devastated at the news of the untimely death of my good friend". "Babylon 5" creator J. Michael Straczynski released a statement, saying "Regardless of whatever was going on in his life, whether it was marital issues, a broken arm, forced couch-surfing with Bruce and Andreas or other problems, he never once pulled a prima donna on us; he showed up every day on time, knew his lines, and insisted that the guest cast live up to the standards of the main cast."


Richard St George Mansergh-St George


Australian Democrats

The Australian Democrats is a centrist political party in Australia. Founded in 1977 from a merger of the Australia Party and the New Liberal Movement, both of which were descended from Liberal Party dissenting splinter groups, it was Australia's largest minor party from its formation in 1977 through to 2004 and frequently held the balance of power in the Senate during that time.
The Democrats' inaugural leader was Don Chipp, a former Liberal cabinet minister, who famously promised to "keep the bastards honest". At the 1977 federal election, the Democrats polled 11.1 percent of the Senate vote and secured two seats. The party would retain a presence in the Senate for the next 30 years, at its peak (between 1999 and 2002) holding nine out of 76 seats, though never securing a seat in the lower house. The party's share of the vote collapsed at the 2004 election and was further diminished in 2007 with the last senators leaving office in 2008.
Due to the party's numbers in the Senate, both Liberal and Labor governments required the assistance of the Democrats to pass contentious legislation, most notably in the case of the Howard Government's goods and services tax. Ideologically, the Democrats were usually regarded as centrists, occupying the political middle ground between the Liberal Party and the Labor Party.
Over three decades, the Australian Democrats achieved representation in the legislatures of the ACT, South Australia, New South Wales, Western Australia and Tasmania as well as Senate seats in all six states. However, at the 2004 and 2007 federal elections, all seven of its Senate seats were lost. The last remaining State parliamentarian, David Winderlich, left the party and was defeated as an independent in 2010.
The party was formally deregistered in 2016 for not having the required 500 members. In 2018 the Australian Democrats merged with Country Minded, an Australian political party seeking accountable regional and agricultural representation. On 7 April 2019 the merged entity regained registration of the name "Australian Democrats" with the Australian Electoral Commission.
As of 2020 the National President of the party is former Parliamentary Leader and Senator, Lyn Allison.
History.
1977–1986: Foundation and Don Chipp's leadership.
The Australian Democrats were formed in May 1977 from an amalgamation of the Australia Party and the New Liberal Movement.
The two groups found a common basis for a new political movement in the widespread discontent with the two major parties. In the former Liberal Government Minister, Don Chipp, the two groups found their leader.
The party's broad aim was to achieve a balance of power in one or more parliaments and to exercise it responsibly in line with policies determined by membership.
The first Australian Democrat parliamentarian was Robin Millhouse, the sole New LM member of the South Australian House of Assembly, who joined the Democrats in 1977. Millhouse held his seat (Mitcham) at the 1977 and 1979 state elections. In 1982, Millhouse resigned to take up a senior judicial appointment, and Heather Southcott won the by-election for the Democrats, but lost the seat to the Liberals later that year at the 1982 state election. Mitcham was the only single-member lower-house seat anywhere in Australia to be won by the Democrats.
The first Democrat federal parliamentarian was Senator Janine Haines, who in 1977 was nominated by the South Australian Parliament to fill the casual vacancy caused by the resignation of Liberal Senator Steele Hall. Hall had been elected as a Liberal Movement senator, before rejoining the Liberal Party in 1976, and South Australian premier Don Dunstan nominated Haines on the basis that the Democrats was the successor party to the Liberal Movement.
At the 1977 election, the Australian Democrats secured two seats in the Senate with the election of Colin Mason (NSW) and Don Chipp (VIC), though Haines lost her seat in South Australia. At the 1980 election, this increased to five seats with the election of Michael Macklin (QLD) and John Siddons (VIC) and the return of Janine Haines (SA). Thereafter they frequently held enough seats to give them the balance of power in the upper chamber.
At a Melbourne media conference on 19 September 1980, in the midst of the 1980 election campaign, Chipp described his party's aim as to "keep the bastards honest"—the "bastards" being the major parties and/or politicians in general. This became a long-lived slogan for the Democrats.
1986–1990: Janine Haines' leadership.
Don Chipp resigned from the Senate on 18 August 1986, being succeeded as party leader by Janine Haines and replaced as a senator for Victoria by Janet Powell.
At the 1987 election following a double dissolution, the reduced quota of 7.7% necessary to win a seat assisted the election of three new senators. 6-year terms were won by Paul McLean (NSW) and incumbents Janine Haines (South Australia) and Janet Powell (Victoria). In South Australia, a second senator, John Coulter, was elected for a 3-year term, as were incumbent Michael Macklin (Queensland) and Jean Jenkins (Western Australia).
1990 saw the voluntary departure from the Senate of Janine Haines (a step with which not all Democrats agreed) and the failure of her strategic goal of winning the House of Representatives seat of Kingston.
The casual vacancy was filled by Meg Lees several months before the election of Cheryl Kernot in place of retired deputy leader Michael Macklin. The ambitious Kernot immediately contested the party's national parliamentary deputy leadership. Being unemployed at the time, she requested and obtained party funds to pay for her travel to address members in all seven divisions. In the event, Victorian Janet Powell was elected as leader and John Coulter was chosen as deputy leader.
1990-1993: Janet Powell and John Coulter.
Despite the loss of Haines and the WA Senate seat (through an inconsistent national preference agreement with the ALP), the 1990 federal election heralded something of a rebirth for the party, with a dramatic rise in primary vote. This was at the same time as an economic recession was building, and events such as the Gulf War in Kuwait were beginning to shepherd issues of globalisation and transnational trade on to national government agendas.
The Australian Democrats had a long-standing policy to oppose war and so opposed Australia's support of, and participation in, the Gulf War. Whereas the House of Representatives was able to avoid any debate about the war and Australia's participation, the Democrats took full advantage of the opportunity to move for a debate in the Senate.
Because of the party's pacifist-based opposition to the Gulf War, there was mass-media antipathy and negative publicity which some construed as poor media performance by Janet Powell, the party's standing having stalled at about 10%. Before 12 months of her leadership had passed, the South Australian and Queensland divisions were circulating the party's first-ever petition to criticise and oust the parliamentary leader. The explicit grounds related to Powell's alleged responsibility for poor AD ratings in Gallup and other media surveys of potential voting support. When this charge was deemed insufficient, interested party officers and senators reinforced it with negative media 'leaks' concerning her openly established relationship with Sid Spindler and exposure of administrative failings resulting in excessive overtime to a staff member. With National Executive blessing, the party room pre-empted the ballot by replacing the leader with deputy John Coulter. In the process, severe internal divisions were generated. One major collateral casualty was the party whip Paul McLean who resigned and quit the Senate in disgust at what he perceived as in-fighting between close friends. The casual NSW vacancy created by his resignation was filled by Karin Sowada. Powell duly left the party, along with many leading figures of the Victorian branch of the party, and unsuccessfully stood as an Independent candidate when her term expired. In later years, she campaigned for the Australian Greens.
1993–1997: Cheryl Kernot.
The party's parliamentary influence was weakened in 1996 after the Howard Government was elected, and a Labor senator, Mal Colston, resigned from the Labor Party. Since the Democrats now shared the parliamentary balance of power with two Independent senators, the Coalition government was able on occasion to pass legislation by negotiating with Colston and Brian Harradine.
In October 1997, party leader Cheryl Kernot resigned, announcing that she would be joining the Australian Labor Party. (Five years later it was revealed that she had been in a sexual relationship with Labor deputy leader Gareth Evans). Kernot resigned from the Senate and was replaced by Andrew Bartlett, while deputy Meg Lees became the new party leader.
1997–2004: Meg Lees, Natasha Stott Despoja and Andrew Bartlett.
Under Lees' leadership, in the 1998 federal election, the Democrats' candidate John Schumann came within 2 per cent of taking Liberal Foreign Minister Alexander Downer's seat of Mayo in the Adelaide Hills under Australia's preferential voting system. The party's representation increased to nine senators, and they regained the balance of power, holding it until the Coalition gained a Senate majority at the 2004 election.
Internal conflict and leadership tensions from 2000 to 2002, blamed on the party's support for the Government's Goods and Services Tax, was damaging to the Democrats. Opposed by the Labor Party, the Australian Greens and independent Senator Harradine, the tax required Democrat support to pass. In an election fought on tax, the Democrats publicly stated that they liked neither the Liberal's nor the Labor's tax packages, but pledged to work with whichever party was elected to make theirs better. They campaigned with the slogan "No Goods and Services Tax on Food".
In 1999, after negotiations with Prime Minister Howard, Meg Lees, Andrew Murray and the party room senators agreed to support the A New Tax System legislation with exemptions from goods and services tax for most food and some medicines, as well as many environmental and social concessions. Five Australian Democrats senators voted in favour. However, two dissident senators on the party's left Natasha Stott Despoja and Andrew Bartlett voted against the goods and services tax.
In 2001, a leadership spill saw Meg Lees replaced as leader by Natasha Stott Despoja after a very public and bitter leadership battle. Despite criticism of Stott Despoja's youth and lack of experience, the 2001 election saw the Democrats receive similar media coverage to the previous election. Despite the internal divisions, the Australian Democrats' election result in 2001 was quite good. However, it was not enough to prevent the loss of Vicki Bourne's Senate seat in NSW.
The 2002 South Australian election was the last time an Australian Democrat would be elected to an Australian parliament. Sandra Kanck was re-elected to a second eight-year term from an upper house primary vote of 7.3 percent.
Resulting tensions between Stott Despoja and Lees led to Meg Lees leaving the party in 2002, becoming an independent and forming the Australian Progressive Alliance. Stott Despoja stood down from the leadership following a loss of confidence by her party room colleagues. It led to a protracted leadership battle in 2002, which eventually led to the election of Senator Andrew Bartlett as leader. While the public fighting stopped, the public support for the party remained at record lows.
On 6 December 2003, Bartlett stepped aside temporarily as leader of the party, after an incident in which he swore at Liberal Senator Jeannie Ferris on the floor of Parliament while intoxicated. The party issued a statement stating that deputy leader Lyn Allison would serve as the acting leader of the party. Bartlett apologised to the Democrats, Jeannie Ferris and the Australian public for his behaviour and assured all concerned that it would never happen again. On 29 January 2004, after seeking medical treatment, Bartlett returned to the Australian Democrats leadership, vowing to abstain from alcohol.
Decline.
Following internal conflict over the goods and services tax and resultant leadership changes, a dramatic decline occurred in the Democrats' membership and voting support in all states. Simultaneously, an increase was recorded in support for the Australian Greens who, by 2004, were supplanting the Democrats as a substantial third party. The trend was noted that year by political scientists Dean Jaensch et al.
Support for the Australian Democrats fell significantly at the 2004 federal election in which they achieved only 2.4 per cent of the national vote. Nowhere was this more noticeable than in their key support base of suburban Adelaide in South Australia, where they received between 1 and 4 percent of the lower house vote; by comparison, they tallied between 7 and 31 per cent of the vote in 2001. No Democrat senators were elected, though four kept their seats due to being elected in 2001, thus their representation fell from eight senators to four. Three incumbent senators were defeated: Aden Ridgeway (NSW), Brian Greig (WA) and John Cherry (Qld). Following the loss, the customary post-election leadership ballot installed Allison as leader, with Bartlett as her deputy. From 1 July 2005 the Australian Democrats lost official parliamentary party status, being represented by only four senators while the governing Liberal-National Coalition gained a majority and potential control of the Senate—the first time this advantage had been enjoyed by any government since 1980.
On 28 August 2006, the founder of the Australian Democrats, Don Chipp, died. Former prime minister Bob Hawke said: "... there is a coincidental timing almost between the passing of Don Chipp and what I think is the death throes of the Democrats." In November 2006, the Australian Democrats fared very poorly in the Victorian state election, receiving a Legislative Council vote tally of only 0.83%, less than half of the party's result in 2002 (1.79 per cent).
The Democrats again had no success at the 2007 federal election, and lost all four of their remaining Senate seats. Two incumbent senators, Lyn Allison (Victoria) and Andrew Bartlett (Queensland), were defeated, their seats both reverting to major parties. Their two remaining colleagues, Andrew Murray (WA) and Natasha Stott Despoja (SA), retired. All four senators' terms expired on 30 June 2008—leaving the Australian Democrats with no federal representation for the first time since its founding in 1977. Later, in 2009, Jaensch suggested it was possible the Democrats could make a political comeback at the 2010 South Australian election, but this did not occur.
State/territory losses.
The Tasmanian division of the party was deregistered for having insufficient members in January 2006.
At the 2006 South Australian election, the Australian Democrats were reduced to 1.7 per cent of the Legislative Council (upper house) vote. Their sole councillor up for re-election, Kate Reynolds, was defeated. In July 2006, Richard Pascoe, national and South Australian party president, resigned, citing slumping opinion polls and the poor result in the 2006 South Australian election as well as South Australian parliamentary leader Sandra Kanck's comments regarding the drug MDMA which he saw as damaging to the party.
In the New South Wales state election of March 2007, the Australian Democrats lost their last remaining NSW Upper House representative, Arthur Chesterfield-Evans. The party fared poorly, gaining only 1.8 per cent of the Legislative Council vote.
On 13 September 2007, the ACT Democrats (Australian Capital Territory Division of the party) was deregistered by the ACT Electoral Commissioner, being unable to demonstrate a minimum membership of 100 electors.
These losses left Sandra Kanck, in South Australia, as the party's only parliamentarian. She retired in 2009 and was replaced by David Winderlich, making him (as of 2020) the last Democrat to sit in any Australian parliament. The Democrats lost all representation when Winderlich resigned from the party in October 2009. He sat the remainder of his term as an independent, and lost his seat at the 2010 South Australian election.
Deregistration.
On 16 April 2015, the Australian Electoral Commission deregistered the Australian Democrats as a political party for failure to demonstrate the requisite 500 members to maintain registration. However, the party did run candidates and remain registered for a period of time thereafter in the New South Wales Democrats and Queensland Democrat divisions.
Renewed registration (2019–).
In November 2018 there was a report that CountryMinded, a de-registered microparty, would merge with the Australian Democrats in a new bid to seek membership growth, electoral re-registration and financial support. In February 2019, application for registration was submitted to the AEC and was upheld on 7 April 2019, despite an objection from the Australian Democrats (Queensland Division).
The party unsuccessfully contested the lower-house seat of Adelaide and a total of six Senate seats (two in each state of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia) at the 2019 federal election.
Overview.
The party was founded on principles of honesty, tolerance, compassion and direct democracy through postal ballots of all members, so that "there should be no hierarchical structure ... by which a carefully engineered elite could make decisions for the members." From the outset, members' participation was fiercely protected in national and divisional constitutions prescribing internal elections, regular meeting protocols, annual conferences—and monthly journals for open discussion and balloting. Dispute resolution procedures were established, with final recourse to a party ombudsman and membership ballot.
Policies determined by the unique participatory method promoted environmental awareness and sustainability, opposition to the primacy of economic rationalism (Australian neoliberalism), preventative approaches to human health and welfare, animal rights, rejection of nuclear technology and weapons.
The Australian Democrats were the first representatives of green politics at the federal level in Australia. They "were in the vanguard of environmentalism in Australia. From the early 1980s they were unequivocally opposed to the building of the Franklin Dam in Tasmania and they opposed the mining and export of uranium and the development of nuclear power plants in Australia." In particular, leader Don Chipp, and Tasmanian state Democrat Norm Sanders, played crucial legislative roles in protecting the Franklin Dam.
The party's centrist role made it subject to criticism from both the right and left of the political spectrum. In particular, Chipp's former conservative affiliation was frequently recalled by opponents on the left. This problem was to torment later leaders and strategists who, by 1991, were proclaiming "the electoral objective" as a higher priority than the rigorous participatory democracy espoused by the party's founders.
Because of their numbers on the cross benches during the Hawke and Keating governments, the Democrats were sometimes regarded as exercising a balance of power—which attracted electoral support from a significant sector of the electorate which had been alienated by both Labor and Coalition policies and practices.


John Gjerde

John Gjerde (born 10 May 1929 in Sande) is a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party.
He served as a deputy representative to the Norwegian Parliament from Møre og Romsdal during the term 1977–1981.
On the local level Gjerde held various positions in Sande municipality council from 1959 to 1964 and 1971 to 1987, serving as mayor from 1975.


Fort Morris

Fort Morris is an earthen works fort in Liberty County, Georgia, in the United States. The fort is on a bend in the Medway River and played an important role in the protection of southeast Georgia throughout various conflicts beginning in 1741 and ending in 1865 at the conclusion of the American Civil War, including the French and Indian and American Revolutionary Wars and War of 1812. The historic site is in size and sits at an elevation of .
On May 13, 1970, the fort was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Today it is a state park, Fort Morris Historic Site.
History.
French and Indian War.
The first fort built at the site was constructed in 1741 to protect a plantation owned by Captain Mark Carr. Carr owned of land in the area that was granted to him by the Georgia Trustees. Carr was the commander of a company of marine rangers in the British Colonial Army from 1732 - 1751. His plantation came under attack on March 18, 1741 by a group of Indians who were allies with the Spanish colonial forces in Florida. Several soldiers defending the fort were killed in the raid and the contents of the fort and plantation were taken away in a large boat that belonged to the plantation.
The next fort at the site was constructed in 1756 at the encouragement of locals who were being attacked during uprising of Creek Indians in the era during the French and Indian War. The fort was expanded in 1758 to provide protection for the new settlement of Sunbury which was built on land owned by Carr. The fort was a square with each side measuring . Governor Henry Ellis noted that the fort had a battery of eight guns. By 1762 the fort had fallen into disrepair.
American Revolution.
The need to defend the Medway River and Sunbury rose again at the outset of the American Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress authorized the construction of two forts in Georgia. One was to be built at Savannah and the other at Sunbury. A company of artillery consisting of fifty men was sent to the area. Fort Morris was built to the southeast of Sunbury and would be used first as a base for several campaigns to take British Florida and then as a defensive position in defending Sunbury and points upriver.
The colonial forces were never able to establish control of Florida, which had become a refuge for loyalists. Royal Governor Patrick Tonyn of East Florida sought to invade Georgia. The East Florida Rangers were loyalists from Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Indian allies and the British 60th regiment was part of the plan to take Georgia from the Continental Army. The East Florida Rangers, a naval fleet, and loyalists from New York were quickly able to take Savannah in 1778. They next moved to Sunbury and Fort Morris. A small contingent of British soldiers attempted to take the fort on November 25, 1778. The 200 Americans at Fort Morris were led by Colonel John McIntosh. McIntosh defiantly replied, "Come and take it!" after the British demanded the surrender of the fort. The British declined to attack and pulled back only to return in January with a larger force.
Fort Morris was attacked by the British on January 9, 1779, and was taken the next day. The number of lives lost in the siege is not well documented. Historians suppose that less than twelve American soldiers died and fewer British. The fort was renamed Fort George and was occupied by the British until September 1779, when the fort's garrison was ordered to Savannah to provide for its defense. After the fort was abandoned by the British it was taken again by colonial forces who found an empty fort with a few, damaged guns left behind. They were only able to hold the fort for a month before it was retaken by the British in October. Fort Morris/Fort George remained under the control of British forces until 1782.
War of 1812.
The fort fell into disrepair once again in the years following the Revolution. The need to defend Sunbury and the river rose again with the outset of the War of 1812. Fort Defiance was constructed on the site of the former Fort Morris in 1814. Construction of the fort was not completed prior to the end of the war and it was left unfinished.
American Civil War.
Fort Morris and Sunbury played a minor role in the American Civil War. A small group of Confederate soldiers were stationed at Sunbury and may have used the fort. General William T. Sherman's March to the Sea brought an influx of Union soldiers to the area. They removed some cannons from the fort in 1864 to be taken to Union-controlled forts on the Atlantic coast.


Fenriz

Gylve Fenris Nagell (born Leif Nagell; 28 November 1971), better known as Fenriz, is a Norwegian musician, part-time music journalist and online radio host (with the show "Radio Fenriz") who is best known as being one half of the extreme metal duo Darkthrone, alongside Nocturno Culto. Although primarily a drummer, he has also played bass, guitar and done vocals for Darkthrone and several other metal bands. Fenriz is famed for his encyclopedic knowledge of metal music, his eager promotion of underground bands and the DIY ethic, and his rejection of the "showbiz side of the music industry". Fenriz was also the studio drummer for doom metal band Valhall, and has had several solo projects, including the folk black metal project Isengard and the dark ambient project Neptune Towers.
Biography.
Fenriz's first exposure to heavy metal music came when he was a child and received Uriah Heep's album "Sweet Freedom" from his uncle for his birthday. At age 16, Fenriz dropped out of school and began working full time to support his music. In 1986 he co-founded the death metal band Black Death with Ivar Enger and Anders Risberget. By 1988 they had been joined by Ted Skjellum (Nocturno Culto) and were renamed Darkthrone. After releasing their first death metal album in 1990, the band changed style and became one of the leading bands in the early Norwegian black metal scene. Fenriz said he had a passive interest in Bathory and Celtic Frost, but claims that he did not understand the "darkness" of black metal until hearing a song by the Hungarian band Tormentor. Darkthrone were not involved in the church burnings and murders carried out by some other members of the scene, and Fenriz has denounced the "hype" surrounding it.
Since 1993, Darkthrone have been a duo of Fenriz and Nocturno Culto. Fenriz recorded all instruments on their albums "Transilvanian Hunger" (1994) and "Panzerfaust" (1995). From the late 1980s to the mid 1990s Fenriz also founded several solo projects, including the folk black metal project Isengard and the dark ambient project Neptune Towers. He was also the drummer for the band Valhall on their three studio albums. In the 1990s he co-founded the folk metal band Storm with Sigurd Wongraven, which released one album.
Both he and Nocturno have refused to play live since the 1990s. In 2004, they turned down a nomination for a Norwegian Alarm Award for their album "Sardonic Wrath". Fenriz said, "we have no interest in being part of the glitter and showbiz side of the music industry". Fenriz (alongside Varg Vikernes) is the principal focus of the 2008 black metal documentary film "Until The Light Takes Us".
In 2016, it was widely reported that Fenriz had been elected to his local municipal council, Oppegård. He was elected for a four-year term as a substitute councillor for the Liberal Party, explaining that he would "have to step in when the usual people who go to the big meetings are sick or something". Fenriz said: "They called and asked if I wanted to be on the list [of backup representatives]. I said yeah, thinking I would be like 18th on the list and I wouldn't really have to do anything". His "campaign" was a photo of him holding his cat with the caption "Please Don't Vote For Me".
Fenriz lives in his hometown of Kolbotn. According to "The Guardian", Fenriz "has long been a hero in the underground scene" and "has an obsession with unearthing new music and promoting it with rabid enthusiasm". The heavy metal magazine "Iron Fist" noted he has a reputation as a "walking metal encyclopedia". He is a part-time music journalist and hosts a monthly online radio show on NTS called "Radio Fenriz". He created the "Band of the Week" blog from which the acts for the underground metal festival Live Evil are sourced. Fenriz has famously been working part-time in the postal service since the late 1980s, which he says allows him to spend many hours each week listening to new music. He has also appeared on a Norwegian television show about hiking in forests.


Fernando Vianello

Fernando Vianello (17 August 1939 – 10 August 2009) was an Italian economist and academic.
Together with Michele Salvati, Sebastiano Brusco, Andrea Ginzburg and Salvatore Biasco, he founded the Faculty of Economics of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.
In 1963 he graduated in Law from the University of Bologna with a thesis on the Italian economic development, under the supervision of Paolo Sylos Labini.
In the same year he attended the sixth training course on "Economic Development" organized in Rome by SVIMEZ (Italian Association of Southern Italy's Industries Development), managed by Claudio Napoleoni.
From 1964 to 1966 he was an assistant professor in "Principles of Political Economy" course held by Sylos Labini at the Faculty of Statistics of the "Sapienza" University of Rome.
Since 1966 he began attending economic courses taught by Joan Robinson, Nicholas Kaldor, Richard Kahn and James Meade in the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom). In 1968 he obtained a degree in Economics (Bachelor of Arts Degree) at Jesus College in the University of Cambridge.
Academic career.
During his career Prof. Vianello had the opportunity to collaborate some of the most important Italian economists of the twentieth century, such as Federico Caffè, Paolo Sylos Labini and Pierangelo Garegnani.
University of Siena.
Faculty of Economic and Banking Sciences
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.
Faculty of Economics
"Sapienza" University of Rome.
Faculty of Economics
Research.
Prof. Vianello developed his expertise on several research fields.
He worked with the theories of value and distribution of income and paid special attention to the link between capital accumulation and the profit rate. He analyzed classical political economy theories from Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Karl Marx.
He then tackled important events in the Italian economy and the European Union. Regarding the Italian economy, he first studied the aftermath of the Second World War, then the answer to the workers' struggles of the sixties and early seventies, and most recently Italy's adhesion to the European single currency.
With regard to the European economy, he focused his attention to the reasons, operating ways and the consequences of the European Monetary System and the European single currency.
Finally, he studied the issues of prices, interest rate and effective demand, and developed ideas that were stimulated by the writings of John Maynard Keynes.
Personal life.
Prof. Vianello has a wife, Mariella Gramaglia "née" Vianello, a journalist who was a member of the Italian Parliament during the Legislature X of Italy. Mrs. Vianello was also assessor appointed at Comune of Rome first by mayor Francesco Rutelli and then by mayor Walter Veltroni. They have two children: Maddalena and Michele.
List of publications.
A selection of published works written by Prof. Vianello is available online at the website of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.


Ballot de Sauvot

Sylvain Ballot de Sauvot (1703 – Decembre 1760) was an 18th-century French lawyer at Parlement de Paris and man of letters amateur, belonging to the entourage of Jean-Philippe Rameau (Sylvain Ballot, his brother, was Rameau's notary).
He reworked the librettos of "Pygmalion", acte de ballet set in music by Rameau, and that of the comédie lyrique "Platée" for the revival at Académie royale de musique 9 February 1749, after the première had taken place in Versailles, four years before.
During the Querelle des Bouffons, he defended Rameau, whom he greatly admired, and fought a duel in 1753 with the castrato Gaetano Caffarelli.


Haim Cohen-Meguri

Haim Cohen-Meguri (, born 1 April 1913, died 10 June 2000) was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Herut and Gahal.
Biography.
Born in Yemen Vilayet in the Ottoman Empire, Cohen-Meguri made aliyah to Mandatory Palestine in 1921. In 1927 he joined the Revisionist Zionist Betar movement, and in 1935 joined the Irgun.
In 1948 he joined Menachem Begin's Herut movement, and became a member of its central committee and directorate. He was elected to the Knesset on Herut's list in 1949. Although he lost his seat in the 1951 elections, he returned to the Knesset on 6 July 1953 as a replacement for Aryeh Ben-Eliezer. He was re-elected in 1955, 1959, 1961 and 1965, by which time Herut had allied with the Liberal Party under the name Gahal. He lost his seat in the 1969 elections.
In addition to being a member of the Knesset, Cohen-Meguri also served on Netanya's city council and religious council. He died in 2000 at the age of 87.