Open thread 7/1/23
Françoise Gilot, an artist who had a ten-year-long relationship and two children with Pablo Picasso and later was married to Dr. Jonas Salk for 25 years, died on June 6, 2023 at the age of 101. In this 1998 interview, Gilot tells the story of how she and Salk met:
Two days ago, I added an open-thread comment about the flood of AI generated nonsense books on Amazon.
In more AI news, access to Twitter has now been restricted to those who log in. Elon Musk blames it on AI companies. Of course, the internet is full of keyboard Marxists who hate Musk and claim he’s lying, although it’s not clear why he’d do so.
Here’s the text of Musk’s announcement:
“This will be unlocked shortly. Per my earlier post, drastic & immediate action was necessary due to EXTREME levels of data scraping.
Almost every company doing AI, from startups to some of the biggest corporations on Earth, was scraping vast amounts of data.
It is rather galling to have to bring large numbers of servers online on an emergency basis just to facilitate some AI startup’s outrageous valuation.”
(https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1674942336583757825?s=20)
Speaking of long-lived French persons, Philippe de Gaulle, the only living child of Le grand Charles, turned 101 in December 2022. When the Germans invaded France in 1940, Philippe was a cadet at the École navale (the French Annapolis); he escaped to the UK and joined the Free French Naval Forces. After the war he remained in the French Navy, becoming a naval aviation pilot and later an admiral. Joining the navy rather than the army might have been a constructive way to rebel against his father.
Audio’s wretched. Can’t understand a word she says. Have to regard with skepticism anyone who would invest their time in Picasso.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r97s3KJ_kHI
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Neo has no discernible interest in the New Christy Minstrels.
Face it. She must have been great in the sack.
In other French news: after four nights of rioting (over a “youth” killed by a cop in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris), Macron had to cancel a trip to Germany to deal with the crisis. Photos of the fires, looted shops, protesters, riot squads, etc. here:
https://sports.yahoo.com/terrifying-images-france-throes-riots-172400037.html
(No, I don’t know why Yahoo! posted the photos under the category of “sports”– not even Disco Demolition Night [1979, Comiskey Park] was this bad.)
I read Gilot’s memoir, “My Life With Picasso,” in my 20s when I was coming to grips with modern art. Enjoyable and informative.
Also, as you may have heard, Pablo Picasso was Not a Nice Man.
Gilot emerged as a reasonably sane, intelligent person. She may have made a devil’s bargain in her time with Picasso, but she did leave him and she was enriched by the experience. I found her interesting and likeable.
I like her artwork too. There was a time when I had three reproductions of her work up on my bohemian walls. Checking the web, I see her individual works sell in the thousands of dollars — not astronomical, but I’m sure she could have made a living without Jonas Salk.
Re: French riots
PA+Cat:
–Peter Zeihan, France’s Demographic Blindspot: Racial Inequality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdN8BCRVMjk
Zeihan tends to disappoint, imagining himself as a disinterested observer, when he blithely skates into the culture wars. However, he does provide information I find useful.
According to Zeihan, France has made it illegal to collect ethnic/racial information on its population. You’re all French now!
Which sounds like a good thing to me, but as Zeihan points out, this means the French policymakers don’t know how big a problem the ethnic-French/non-French divide may be.
Zeihan says it may be a 50-50 proposition today. I find that a sobering thought.
Otherwise, Zeihan is bullish on France.
About those friendly riots in France, just saw a TicTok that showed them using beltfed automatic weapons. The Police need reinforcements, send in the Army, with shoot to kill rioters.
I have been pondering the phenomenon of “The Big Lie” as it may play into the Biden Bribery Scandal.
Practitioners of propaganda such as Hitler and Goebbels are said to have counseled that the ideal lie is effected through two fundamental techniques:
1. Incessant repetition in every possible medium and at every opportunity, will tend to make the lie a commonplace that eventually becomes a certainty that transcends any questioning.
2. Preposterousness will perversely convince many that the lie must be true, on the assumption that no-one would concoct such a lie and expect that it would be believed.
I find the second point most interesting, in that it should work in the Republicans’ favor in their telling of the story of Biden’s treachery, a story I regard as quite likely true, by the way.
But the strong investment of the media with the Democrats may allow factor number 1 above to work against the story of Biden’s crimes to be believed. For one, the “Trump – Russia Collusion” propaganda has been repeated so often during the previous 7 years that it might not be overcome, and may prevent the Republicans from communicating the truth.
I encourage Republicans to have faith in 2 above however, and tell their story without reservation. To my mind, the Suspicious (financial) Activity Reports filed with the US Treasury stand out above any anecdotal evidence advanced for Trump collusion.
huxley–
French Jews have been leaving France for Israel in record numbers since 2015– there is a graph in a 2016 CNN article that shows almost 8000 Jews left France that year, compared to maybe 100 or so from Germany and 774 from the UK:
https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/22/middleeast/france-israel-jews-immigration/index.html
I’ve read that French first responders are well aware of the ethnic composition of some of the banlieues around Paris and don’t go into them. Zeihan may be correct about the 50/50 population proportion but his figure seems high to me.
Back when I was working in a West African French ex-colony, things would occasionally get a little wild. The advance warning would be when tires started getting burned in the middle of the street. Fortunately, our staff house was located about 100 yds from the small French Foreign Legion outpost, and we had regular BBQs to ensure the very best of terms. They were some hard cases. Anyway – whenever the tires started going up, the Legion would organize for a little ‘practice’ session, involving a nice low-level parachute drop at the airport. The display of military readiness was usually enough, so maybe it will be back in the homeland too. The maps of France showing all the hot spots are disturbing.
The news reporting is sketchy, but it does sound a little like a similarly-contrived George Floyd moment from French society. A 17 year-old Algerian immigrant that doesn’t have a license, is too young to qualify for a full license, yet has a string of driving offenses to his name, at the wheel in a canary-yellow Mercedes AMG – a high performance auto that has been expensively tuned for extreme performance, if this is true. The reporting says he’s working as a ‘delivery driver’, delivering take-away food. And when stopped by the cop, rather than follow instructions, he guns it – and gets shot. One passenger takes off, the other, another minor, is in custody.
So once again, it doesn’t have to add up – It doesn’t matter if, to all appearances, he’s a drug dealer. No need for the media to investigate. Just start blaming the cops (politicians included) and start the fires.
https://archive.fo/NAG6s
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Given the apparently collusive nature of the banks’ behavior, I’m wagering regulators are behind this.
Zeihan says it may be a 50-50 proposition today. I find that a sobering thought.
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The French government does not collect useful census data. Private agencies undertake survey research. Pew estimated the Muslim population of France at 7.5% of the total in 2010. Note, Edith Cresson when she was prime minister of France (1991-92) railed at the number of illegal aliens in the country. As here, nothing happens.
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In regard to the recent riots, the punk shot to death had been previously arrested 13x, let off by France’s worthless court system each time.
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This is learned helplessness.
She looks pretty good for someone in her 90s.
Macron committed an almost Bidenesque gaffe during the current crisis: he and Mme. Macron went to an Elton John concert on Wednesday (the day after the “yute” was shot) and posed for photographs with John and his “husband” (photo of the foursome at the link). “Emmanuel Macron has urged parents to keep teenagers at home to limit rioting in French cities– but is facing a backlash over attending an Elton John gig as the disorder took hold. . . . A video on social media also shows Mr Macron tapping his feet while the singer performs ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting.'”
https://news.sky.com/story/macron-seen-dancing-at-elton-john-gig-as-riots-raged-across-france-12912193
Cicero:
Here she is in her Picasso days.
Aggie– glad to know the racial turmoil in France resembles ours here. Seems like Western Civilization is doomed. Macron is apologetic!
Here [Gilot] is in her Picasso days.
I’ve always thought of Robert Capa as a war photographer– his 11 photos of the D-Day landings appear in almost every documentary about the operation. It’s good to know that he did celebrity shots as well.
I recall luc bessons collaborator olivier megaton, did a film partially set in the banlieus, around 2010, it showed some of the grit and decay of the area in question, this was four years before bataclan, (of course one of the production trucks were stolen in the course of the filming,) essentially one of the worst slums but with a berber and arabic hiphop soundtrack,
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/07/01/police-arrest-1000-rioters-nahel-funeral-france-violence/
neo @ 4:06pm,
That’s a great photo! Really well done. Must have been elaborately staged but still looks impromptu.
“Surviving Picasso” (1996) is largely based on Gilot’s relationship with Picasso. James Ivory directed, Anthony Hopkins played Picasso and Natascha McElhone, Gilot.
It was classy, but I found it unsatisfying, though I’ve forgotten exactly why. I think it got too much into the relationship melodrama.
The film didn’t do well with critics or the box office.
Still … Anthony Hopkins! As Picasso!
RE: UFOs, Grusch’s testimony, and it’s impact–
I’ve just gotten done viewing the important, very extended interview of Ross Coulthart on Curt Jaimungal’s Youtube channel, “Theories of Everything.”*
Coulthart, is an Australian investigative journalist who has followed and reported on the UFO issue for many years.
His interview, three weeks ago now, on the new news station NewsNation with Air Force Intelligence officer and whistleblower Dave Grusch—a trusted member of the intelligence community who had the highest security clearances–exposed a lot more people to information about UFOs, and made the idea of the existence of Aliens, and the possibility/reality of secret government/contractor UFO crash retrieval and reverse engineering programs, referred to collectively by insiders as “The Program,” a topic of current conversation.
It is now a major topic on the Internet, and on what we might call second and third tier news sources, gathering what I had thought was increasing “momentum.”
However, judging by what has happened in the three weeks since his groundbreaking interview with Grusch, Coulthart now believes that–despite statements by a few members of Congress–such as Senator Marco Rubio, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who says that, over the last couple of years, several high ranking Program insiders have come to the Committee with first hand information which supports Grusch’ claims, and Congressman Comer, who says that the House Oversight Committee will hold a Hearing, trying to find the truth of Grusch’ statements and, moreover, despite the bipartisan creation and passage of legislative language over the last couple of years to establish AARO, designed to bring information about these clandestine programs to public light–Coulthart is increasingly pessimistic about the chances for anything of any substance being revealed, especially revealed to the public.
He believes that the general “Disclosure,” long hoped for in the “UFO community,” will not be happening.
This is because Coulthart believes that too few in Congress (many of them also beholden to the aero-space industry for contributions and support) have the stomach to actually dig for facts, especially in the face of the force of the ongoing military-intelligence agency disinformation campaign—very successfully operating now for almost 80 years–designed to keep this information about UFOs, Aliens, and The Program contained, by making them the subject, the focus of stigma and ridicule.
This has been a campaign which has, for instance, so far been successful in keeping any serious discussion of Grusch’s charges and information out of the MSM and off the pages of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and off of the main television networks; only disbelief and mockery have been allowed.
Coulthart says that the defense reporters at these publications have likely been told by the DOD that–if they do take serious note of, and do any serious reporting and analysis of this interview and the subjects discussed–they will lose their DOD contacts, briefings, and tips about stories; that is how the game is played.
Moreover, even if, say, the members of Congress’ “gang of eight”–quite possibly kept ignorant of this “Program” up until now–might end up being informed about these deeply buried, secret, and allegedly illegal programs (them likely the only members of Congress who have security clearances high enough to even hear all of the testimony about this entire subject), the Congress as a whole will not be informed, and neither will the American people.
As emblematic of the defense department’s up until now very successful cover up and containment efforts, Coulthart points to the newly established All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office or AARO, established by Congress within the DOD, and supposedly set up to pursue a very wide-ranging investigation of the UFO issue.
ARRO, it might be noted, whose head Dr. Shaun Kirpatrick, reports to Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, Ronald Moultree, one of the two high level presenters at the recent, first in 50 years, April 19, 2023 Hearing on UFOs, whose performance demonstrated a clueless, a feigned or perhaps real lack of any knowledge of the history, key incidents, or substance of the UFO issue; his testimony saying, in essence, this is a subject not worth pursuing, “nothing to see here, move on.”
Coulthart notes that in his testimony at that April 19th Hearing on UFOs Dr. Kirkpatric testified that “AARO has found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology or objects that defy the known laws of physics,” and that DOD spokeswoman Susan Gough has further said that, ARRO is always open to “receiving” information.
Coluthart points out that AARO is not trusted by some potential whistleblowers and, moreover, that passively waiting to “receive” information from some source is a far cry from going out, investigating, digging around, and trying to “find” such perhaps deeply buried information.
Coulthart also believes that the staff of AARO might not have the clearances (and both Title 10 and title 50 clearances are necessary) high enough to be able to be allowed to know of, or to be “read into” and to investigate the elements of “Program” and what they contain.
There is also the question of whether the members of AARO have clearances valid for the Department of Energy—a likely recipient of such Alien crash debris or craft–which apparently has it’s own clearance system, distinct from that of DOD and the Intelligence agencies.
Aerospace companies are also involved in the “The Program,” and, according to Coulthart, have themselves done their own share of crash retrievals, without any help from DOD, arguably giving them a claim to ownership of any Alien items they might have “recovered.”
Whatever crash debris or whole alien spacecraft which DOD may also have been passed on to select aerospace companies—Lockheed-Martin was mentioned—back many decades ago, starting in the 1950s—poses the legal problem of whether, under the law, those items actually might belong to these companies and, thus, be immune from scrutiny or potential confiscation.
* See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQnGcX7oxms
P.S.–How do defense contractors manage to get so much support from various members of Congress?
Well, one way is to very carefully make sure that whatever items are necessary to put together a major (or minor) defense item—an aircraft, a tank, a ship, various weapons large and small, some piece of “military spec” electronic gear–mil spec nuts, bolts, special forgings, electrical wire, paint, washers, grommets, circuit boards, specialized computer screens, cases custom made for various specific items–tens of thousands of different items and their separate components in turn–are deliberately and consciously sourced from as many states and areas within those states as possible.
And the companies in those areas and states do contact the members of Congress who represent their area and state, in an attempt to keep the jobs making those defense items alive and flowing, and their companies afloat.
Wheels within wheels, or saucers within saucers, within saucers.
Mil spec is just that, a military specification, see Perun’s videos on military procurement to answer some of you basic questions Snow on Pine. There are diverse and many organizations that promulgate specifications for industrial materials and widgets: Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), American Petroleum Institute (API), DIN, etc. Specifications for valves in nuke plants, pressure vessels, electrical wire, wire rope. Engineers do that sort of thing. Mil Spec is just one kind.
Audio’s wretched. Can’t understand a word she says. Have to regard with skepticism anyone who would invest their time in Picasso.
Audio is perfectly fine. Gilot speaks English well, but with a very strong French accent.
I’ve been quite happy to learn that the French have as much trouble speaking English as we do French.
It’s wonderful to hear them struggle to say “Harry Potter” or “Jodie Foster” properly.
Picasso was an ass, but he did know art as well as anyone at that time.
RE: UFOs–
Well-connected, canny, well-educated, and very intelligent UFO researcher, historian, and author Richard Dolan, who has been investigating the UFO phenomenon for more than 30 years, reminds us that the DOD’s pretense that they have only just recently discovered the issue of UFOs is a bunch of bullshit, and that the involvement of the U.S. government and military with UFOs may have started back in the l930s, and certainly in the 1940s.
Thus, the idea that the DOD will “investigate” this “new” phenomenon and, in effect, “they will get back to us when they find out anything” presumes that we are all clueless idiots and ignorant of UFO history.
This raises the question, is the new ARRO organization anything more than the latest in a long line of earlier DOD “investigations” which attempted to tamp down interest in, and to bury the UFO issue?
Mr. Dolan also sees trends which he thinks means that we are headed towards a world-wide digital surveillance state, and much less personal freedom—some sort of “hive mind”–and that from what he can see the Aliens (think, for example, of the “Greys,” which have been characterized as being machine-like, and without any real personality) which he believes have been here on Earth in force for at least eighty years—appear to be OK with this development.
Open Thread Sunday: Russo-Ukranian War, Two Deuce Coup?
Wagner’s Mutiny – what it means for Putin’s Russia (and Coups 101) -Perun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP8VPkWXOfU
Lots of linked sources.
Timestamps:
00:00:00 — The Wagner Mutiny
00:01:56 — What Am I Talking About
00:04:16 — Rumours & Speculation
00:04:58 — Coups 101
00:10:39 — Rules For A Good One
00:17:11 — The Russian Attempt
00:31:02 — The Days After
00:33:03 — Could It Have Worked
00:36:38 — Conspiracy Theories
00:39:47 — Key Observations
00:47:20 — The Impact Going Forward?
01:04:57 — Conclusions
01:06:15 — Channel Update
RE: Riots in France
The French have done this to themselves, and such riots by Muslim “yours” were and are entirely predictable after France let hordes of Muslims enter and settle in France.
Muslims most of whom, I might add, apparently had no intention of assimilating, but rather want to impose the strictures of Islam on the native French population.
How many mosques do you think are now in France?
Make that “youts.”
Answer to above question about Mosques–Wiki says 2,300 with another 200-250 in process.
at first they felt noblesse oblige, particularly with the harkis, after the 73 oil shock, it was sort of a mandatory guilt imposed, also the gaullists were violently arabist by this time, the socialists were not far behind,
If I were at the wedding, I would have been the one saying that it could never last.
It does sound a bit like a movie. Would it be a comedy with an Audrey Hepburn or Audrey Tautou type as Gilot? Or a weepy melodrama?
I’m glad it worked out well for them in real life.
RE: The political atmosphere in Washington, D.C.
Plain talking Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett was just interviewed about UFOs on John Michael Godier’s “Event Horizon” Youtube channel, in which the Congressman said that he believed that all of the assertions made by whistleblower David Grusch were true. *
But what struck me about this interview was something entirely different, and that was how Representative Burchett described the political atmosphere he found in Washington, D.C.
“It’s all about power, influence, and money.”
Because what he was describing was a corrupt, a very dangerous, and cut throat atmosphere–having to tiptoe through a landscape filled with landmines–and it sounded as if he might have been describing the realities of the political situation in Caligula’s Rome, or in Florence at the time of the Medicis.
Thus, Burchette talked about how many members of Congress were completely compromised, about how easy it was to take some action which could expose you to blackmail, about people who wanted Burchette to travel to some location to see something, and how he refused to do so, because he feared “ending up in somebody’s freezer,” or about how the DOD would play games.
Things like DOD representatives inviting him and other members to a location for a classified briefing and then withholding the promised information, or inviting him for a classified briefing in a SCIF on some subject he already knew about– as a way of preventing him from discussing that information thereafter–because he had been given a classified briefing on the subject, etc.
Talk about a snake pit!
* See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHGEMjhuVSY
It is rather galling to have to bring large numbers of servers online on an emergency basis just to facilitate some AI startup’s outrageous valuation.
I also find it galling that I had to pay higher taxes for years to fund Tesla’s valuation…
Paris is no longer Paris
Catch-22: Civilized Western values prevent effective solutions to the scourge of imported barbarians. Barbarians are well aware, and lustfully press their advantage vs hapless natives.
Meme video:
Somewhere in France
they are reenacting the events of 2020, from across the pond, or the tottenham riots from 2010 thereabouts,
yes AARO is likely a whitewash, just as with the surrepticious release of documents from the Kennedy archives, with little rhyme or reason
Barry Meisllin linked an article on Madonna’s recent collapse while overworking to compete with Taylor Swift. I am morbidly curious about Madonna’s efforts to stay forever young and sexy. So I clicked the bait.
And found a classic One-Eye portrait of Madonna in tour gear:
https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/NYPICHPDPICT000013372949.jpg
This is the occult Eye of Horus look which the website “Vigilant Citizen” is constantly alerting readers to.
https://vigilantcitizen.com/pics-of-the-month/symbolic-pics-of-the-month-05-23/
It’s definitely a thing, whatever that thing is.
madonna has become so eldritch, it’s rather embarassing to look at her anymore
focused like a laser
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2023/07/02/nikki-haley-i-absolutely-would-sign-15-week-national-abortion-ban/
I didn’t notice this mentioned yet. I’m sure it makes sense to a lot of ‘experts’:
https://granitegrok.com/blog/2023/07/a-bunch-of-idoits-want-to-block-out-the-sun-cuz-global-warming
See what Peter Zeihan is very recently saying about how he views the war in the Ukraine.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su2HeayamtU
France:
Marine Le Pen commenting on the situation…
https://twitter.com/i/status/1675585810060521474
H/T Blazingcatfur blog
And from the “Just Another Scam” File:
“THERE IS NO TRANSITION”—
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/07/there-is-no-transition.php
Opening graf:
‘ We are told constantly that the world is in the midst of a transition from fossil fuels to “green” energy. “News” outlets commonly report this as fact. But in reality, no such transition is underway, nor will it ever be….’
Well, SOMEONE’s making a lot of money…
…as the vector of ECOLOGICAL DAMAGE/DEVASTATION caused by the “TRANSITION” “GREEN ENERGY” is merely being TRANSFORMED towards destroying large marine life, birds, and those locales that havethe misfortune of hosting solar energy farms, etc….
OTOH, not sure that the “…nor will it ever be…” part of the author’s assessment is at all accurate.
At some point, seems to me, nuclear will kick in (re-kick in?)—new and improved, fusion being the “holy grail”, of course, but it doesn’t have to be just fusion.
(For that matter, we’ll soon, no doubt, be able to generate electricity at the cellular level, i.e. biologically…depends what the definition of “soon” is, of course…)
In the run up to the Fourth of July, a must-read from Powerline blog on heroism and dignity.
“AMOS PIERCE GETS HIS MEDALS”—
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/07/amos-pierce-gets-his-medals.php
RE: Riots in France, head in the sand edition–
By the way, who set Notre Dame on fire?
Well, apparently singer Morrissey has an idea.*
Sample Lyric, “Notre Dame we know who tried to kill you.”
If I remember correctly–before this information was shoved down the memory hole–early reporting on the fire featured a brief video showing a man dressed in robes—I believe they said he was thought to be an “African immigrant”–wandering through the upper parts of the Cathedral’s structure just before the fire started.
I might also mention that there had been a series of fires set in various historic Catholic churches in the months prior to the fire at Nortre Dame and that, curiously, the fire at Notre Dame just happened to take place on the most religiously significant day in French Catholicism, the first Monday of Holy Week.
Then, the MSM quickly went to the workman’s cigarette, short circuit, or welding torch theories, ’cause it couldn’t possibly have been arson.
Notable, too, is the fact that even while flames where still seen burning in the cathedral, and they couldn’t access a lot of the scene, French authorities had ruled out arson as a cause of the fire. **
I guess this is in the same category as the denial by various French authorities a while ago that there were any “no-go” areas in France (same denials found in England) where French police and fire personnel fear to enter.
See https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/07/music-legend-morrissey-sheds-new-light-notre-dame/
* * See https://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2019/04/17/why-were-authorities-so-quick-to-rule-out-arson-in-the-notre-dame-conflagration-n118857
P.S.–Clueless non-Muslims, always trying to think the best of people, “Infidels” who know nothing of Islam–it’s world-view, it’s history, it’s significant dates (and believe me, Muslims are very aware of significant dates, events, and anniversaries in the history of Islam, and that’s why certain actions take place on certain specific dates), it’s particular reasoning, rhetoric, and ultimate aims–are so easy to fool.
this is why they called islamophobia, what is properly islamognosos, knowledge about islam, the al hijra, invasion by immigration, is to attempt what the saracens failed to do because of roland in 753, in America, the fairy tale that Dan Brown spread about the Merovingians, informs some circles,
this is the dhimmi class, as baat ‘yeor’ informs us aboutm
P.P.S.-You want an example of the “significant date” idea try 9/11, September 11, the day Muslim forces were defeated at the Battle of Vienna in 1683.
that date was closest to the 15th of shaban, one of the shia martyr days,
https://grabien.com/story.php?id=429837