Monarchy and elections Part 2: Portugal

    This will be a short post. I'm going to take this opportunity to promote the People's Monarchist Party for the Portuguese legislative elections that are coming up on January 30th.

    They currently hold no seats in the Legislative Assembly of the Republic but they do hold two seats in the Legislative Assembly of the Azores. It appears that they are the only (or at least the largest) organized monarchist political movement in Portugal. Restore the Kingdom of Portugal!

Photo of the Week: Grand duchesses Olga and Anastasia at Tsarskoye Selo, 1917

 

How much is a life (or three) worth?

On January 18th Spencer Bultman was sentenced to 30 years in prison for a drunk driving crash that killed three people and critically injured a fourth. On August 23, 2020 Bultman was driving eastbound in the westbound lanes of Highway 20 near Alden in Hardin County, Iowa when he struck a vehicle carrying Cristy Gutierres, her boyfriend Mario Zubia, and her 10-year-old son Jesse Gutierres. Her 6-year-old daughter was airlifted to Des Moines and survived.

The truly enraging part of the story is farther down the article:

Bultman had previously pleaded guilty in 2015 to charges that included driving while under the influence and in 2017 to public intoxication.

They always have priors. Instead of being locked up he was free to kill. Don't worry though, Bultman told the court he was "sorry" and that his actions were "selfish and stupid". I have little doubt that he'll be released early and I have no doubt that he'll drink and drive again, because that's the way these people are.

Photo(s) of the Week: Exile.

    If you hadn't noticed I was M.I.A. for a week, the reason being my internet and cable provider suffered "equipment failure" sometime on January 7th and the issue wasn't resolved until January 13/14. Obviously it was annoying (the internet more so than the cable) but I probably read more than in the previous month and wrote more than the previous six months. It was kind of nice to be shut out from the world for a week. I had a similar experience on August 10, 2020 when a derecho swept across Iowa and knocked out power to my town for 10 hours. The weather was extremely mild for summer in Iowa and I got to see the night sky unpolluted by city lights without having to go to the boondocks.

    That brings me to this week's subject: the Romanovs in Tobolsk. While it's definitely an idealized image, I've long had a vision in my head of Tobolsk as a smallish city in the wilds of Siberia with the Milky Way Galaxy glittering overhead and a noted absence of corporate advertising disrupting the skyline. Anyway, I present to you photos of the Romanovs in Tobolsk. Be wary, the photos aren't the greatest quality so I'm mostly guessing as to who's who.

Anastasia, Maria, Olga. This is thought to be the last photograph of Maria.

Anastasia, Alexandra, Maria, Olga

Olga and unknown man(possibly Nicholas?)

Olga and Anastasia

Olga, Alexei, Anastasia

Alexei

Photo(s) of the week: Cousins in Sevastopol

A few more photos of the Romanovs in Crimea, this time featuring Grand Duchess Olga, Grand Duchess Tatiana, and their cousin Princess Irina.

I'm also posting photos of Alexei with a mystery girl I originally thought was either Olga or Tatiana but now I'm thinking may be Irina though I'm not sure.