Podbit · The Rest Is History
The Dutch Republic's culture of unofficial religious tolerance — turning a blind eye to Catholics, Quakers, Jews, and Muslims — made Amsterdam one of the great centres of Jewish life in the 17th century. It became home to Spinoza, who would go on to question the very value of religion itself and launch the radical Enlightenment.
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At 57:50 · chapter starts 53:50
The strangeness of the Wilhelmus runs deeper than its paradoxical lyrics: its melody was born at a Catholic victory — the 1568 siege of Chartres, where a Catholic garrison repelled a Protestant attack. The Calvinist rebels then claimed it as their own, in a move Tom reads as part of a wider logic of appropriation: just as the Calvinist rebels converted Catholic churches into Protestant ones, they converted a Catholic melody into a Protestant anthem. [1] — Tom Holland "The melody of the Wilhelmus originated at the 1568 siege of Chartres — a Catholic garrison's victory over a Protestant attack. The Calvinis…" 53:45 But Tom suggests the appropriation was also diplomatically sophisticated. The revolt was never exclusively Calvinist: many rebels were Catholic, and William himself only converted to Calvinism in 1573, after the Wilhelmus was written. A Protestant song with a Catholic melody was a compromise — something for everyone. And this connects to William's own stated ambition for the emerging Dutch state: freedom of religion for both Reformed and Roman Catholic in public or in private. Though Calvinism ultimately became the public religion of the Dutch Republic, a blind-eye tolerance of Catholics, Quakers, Jews, and Muslims persisted — making Amsterdam the great centre of Jewish life and the eventual home of Spinoza, precursor of the radical Enlightenment.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
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