Author: VD

Right From Day One

Someone on Twitter declares that it might have been a good idea to take my criticism of Jordan Peterson seriously six years ago:

Watching Jordan Peterson – it’s hard not to conclude that Vox Day had it right from day one. Mentally unwell people can provide the stray insight that is unique, worth hearing. But they are not role models or gurus. It’s always a mistake to take a strange person and create a cult around him. This is basically also the problem of feminism – a handful of angry lesbians convincing healthy young women to live against their instincts.

The thing that was so frustrating for me about the general enthusiasm for Peterson was that it was based upon virtually nothing, and all of the contrary evidence was right out there on display. Literally all you had to do to know he was an evil, vainglorious nutbag was read either of his two books.

Stop looking for heroes. Stop looking for people to give you answers. Stop reading the Cliff’s Notes or paying any attention at all to the Next Great Conservative Hope. Because he will be a gatekeeper, and at best, a grifter. At worst, he’ll be a Federal honey trap, like good ol’ Ray Epps.

I don’t believe in taking advice from anyone who hasn’t been dead for at least 100 years. If their advice still holds up a century after their demise, then it’s probably worthwhile.

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The Fall Girl

The Director of the U.S. Secret Service finally resigned under pressure:

Kimberly Cheatle has resigned as director of the US Secret Service, after refusing to do so in the wake of the attempted assassination of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

A shooter nicked Trump’s ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, killing one person in the audience and injuring two others before Secret Service snipers managed to neutralize him. Thomas Crooks was able to position himself on a roof that had a clear shot to where Trump was speaking, which the protective detail had inexplicably left unguarded.

Cheatle tendered her resignation on Tuesday morning, one day after an acrimonious congressional hearing during which both Republicans and Democrats accused her of withholding information and refusing to take responsibility for security failures at the rally.

No one ever thinks that they’re going to be the patsy. But you can hardly claim “the buck stops with me” and then be surprised when people expect you to accept the consequences of your responsibility. That being said, while she almost certainly permitted the green flag, I very much doubt that she was the architect of what seems to have been a more complicated assassination attempt than it first appeared to be.

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He Never Had a Shot

Given the mainstream media’s determination to maintain its wall of silence even as Neil Gaiman cancels his planned public events, it seems appropriate to ensure that Mr. Tubcuddle is not allowed to simply avoid being forced to answer for his alleged actions.

One of Neil Gaiman’s public speaking appearances has been cancelled, according to the following information provided by a writer for Tortoise Media, which first reported about the sexual assault allegations he’s now facing, with a police report to back them up. So it looks like the reports have indeed had some negative effect on Gaiman’s career and reputation, though as some may have noticed, any coverage by the comics specialty press has been very muted, and last time I looked, comic-centric sources like Bleeding Cool, Newsarama, Comics Beat, and even Popverse haven’t said anything at all. Only Bleeding Fool, CBR, and Comic Book Movie seem to have reported anything. Most peculiar that the “believe all women” liberal establishment in comicdom has apparently chosen to ignore this potentially serious issue.

On Sigma Game, there are a pair of posts on the subject of Neil Gaiman that I believe help put the situation in context, one an analysis of his “close friendship” with Tori Amos and the other in response to an upset “leave Neil alone!” defender. And one thing you won’t want to miss on Thursday is Arkhaven Nights. You definitely will not want to miss that!

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Murdering the Refugees

A US government agency has publicly announced an evil plan to murder nearly 500,000 refugees:

U.S. wildlife officials plan to kill nearly half a million “invasive” American owls over three decades, new documents confirm. Experts say the cull is needed to help protect two native owl species, which have been put under threat from the invaders. However, animal rights activists have condemned the plan as cruel and unnecessary.

Barred owls (Strix varia) are large owls native to eastern North America. In the early 20th century, these owls started moving west of the Mississippi River following “human-induced changes” to the Great Plains and northern boreal forest, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). As a result, the owls have gained a stronghold in Washington, Oregon and California, where they are considered an invasive species.

The arrival of barred owls in the Northwest has adversely affected two native owl species — northern spotted owls (Strix occidentalis caurina) and California spotted owls (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) — which are both much smaller than the invaders and are being outcompeted for food and territory. Both native species have also been impacted by extreme logging activity over the last few decades, which has majorly reduced their range, according to California’s Santa Clara University.

Barred owls have also started mating with the spotted owls, creating hybrids that have the potential to reduce the gene pool of the spotted owl species.

The northern spotted owl population has declined severely over the past few decades, and the species is now outnumbered by barred owls across most of its range.

This, of course, is truly reprehensible. The barred owls aren’t even foreigners! They’re just as American as the northern spotted owl or the California spotted owl, and all they’re doing is chasing the American dream to make a better life for their children!

This Great Owl Replacement theory is just racism and spotted owl supremacism. Any decent owl would reject it; no owl-refugee is “illegal” or “invasive”. And if the spotted owls are mating with the barred owls, obviously they are welcoming the refugees.

Who cares about the gene pool of the spotted owl species? That’s just eugenics and Nazi pseudoscience, right? All owls are the same under their feathers, and obviously there is no place for “pure gene pools” or Spotted Owl supremacy in Owl Democracy!

A Spotted Owl supremacist seen protesting “the Great Owl Replacement.”

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China Takes a Victory Lap

The Chinese were mostly unaffected by the massive Cloudstrike outage that hit corporations all across the USA and Europe:

Although Microsoft Windows’ “blue screen of death” hit millions of users worldwide, including banks, airlines, hospitals and hotels, China was largely unaffected as the country’s technology independence and self-sufficiency efforts have provided a protective shield.

Chinese industrial players and experts said on Sunday that the Windows outage caused by a third-party cloud software faulty update left millions computers inoperable triggering chaos across many economic sectors, and the incident has prompted global cybersecurity concerns, highlighting the importance of tech independence.

Analysts also noted that given a mistake by one company can paralyze half the planet, countries cannot count on others for their national and economic security. They urged other countries to do their own research and development or diversify their suppliers to reduce dependence on US tech firms.

The nations rise again. The logic of survival dictates that they must. Interdependence is effective surrender.

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Biden Drops Out

President Biden announced Sunday that he will suspend his 2024 re-election campaign amid mounting pressure from his Democratic colleagues on Capitol Hill, top donors and Hollywood stars after a disastrous debate performance last month.

The unprecedented announcement came as an increasing number of Democrat lawmakers had begun to publicly call for Biden to step aside and the party’s leadership reportedly was engaged in efforts to convince Biden, 81, he could not win in November’s general election against former President Trump, the 2024 GOP nominee who Biden defeated four years ago to win the White House.

It’s not exactly a big surprise. The real question is if his faction is even able to hold on to the Presidency until November.

I suspect it’s less the unsuccessful assassination attempt and more Trump’s willingness to accept Vance as VP that led to this resolution.

The statement from Team Biden, since obviously none of the five Bidens wrote this:

My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.

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Adidas Endorses Gazacaust

The shoe company drops a Palestinian model because she stands publicly against the genocide and ethnic cleansing of her people.

German sportswear giant Adidas has dropped American model Bella Hadid from their advertising campaign for retro sneakers after facing criticism from Israel. Hadid, whose Palestinian father was born in Nazareth, has been a vocal advocate for the rights of the ethnonational group, calling for an end to the bloodshed in Gaza.

She has repeatedly criticized the Israeli government over the ongoing Gaza conflict, which to date has claimed over 38,000 Palestinian lives. In October 2023, the IDF launched a military operation in the enclave in response to a deadly Hamas raid that had left approximately 1,200 Israelis dead.

Bella and her sister Gigi, also a model with millions of social media followers, have participated in several pro-Palestinian demonstrations, publicly accusing Israel of committing “genocide” in the enclave. The Hadid sisters have also donated $1 million to support multiple Palestinian relief efforts in Gaza, including HEAL Palestine, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, World Central Kitchen, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

“Guess who the face of their campaign is? Bella Hadid, a half-Palestinian model who has a history of spreading anti-Semitism and calling for violence against Israelis and Jews,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry wrote on X on Thursday. Adidas responded that the company would be “revising the remainder of the campaign” with immediate effect without giving further details.

This may not turn out as the positive public relations statement for Adidas that the company assumes. Most of the world is now standing squarely against Israel’s attack on the Palestinian people, and it’s generally not a good idea to outsource your marketing decisions to a foreign government’s spokesman. I very much doubt this decision will end well for Adidas.

The fact is that no amount of crying Holocaust, Hamas, or “Israel has a right to defend itself” can justify either the October 7th green flag or the IDF “response” that was obviously planned well in advance. Everyone knows very well that the Netanyahu regime is attempting to complete the ethnic cleansing that was begun in 1948, which is why everyone around the world, both left and right, now despises it.

Netanyahu might still get away with his gamble, but it was always going to be very difficult trying to sell ethnic cleansing for me, diversity for thee.

In the meantime, Israel’s war with Yemen has now officially gone hot. No doubt the Yemenis will be duly chastened and release their stranglehold on the Red Sea.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised the Israel Defense Forces for carrying out a “precise and successful operation” over 1,700 kilometers away from the country’s borders, which he says serves as a clear warning to all enemies of the Jewish state. The Israeli military launched its first-ever direct large-scale air raid against Yemen on Saturday, targeting the port city of Hodeidah. The attack triggered a massive fire at the port’s oil terminal and left at least 80 people injured, according to a preliminary tally by the health ministry in Sanaa.

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I Think We Know This One

Blind Item #1
In this song released earlier in 2024, the sleep-inducing A+ comic writer’s wife appears to have confirmed everything he’s been accused of and more.
– CDAN

The song is obviously Whakanewha by Amanda Palmer, which makes it pretty clear that she knew all about at least one of her ex-husband’s accusers, and lends credence to that accuser’s statement that Palmer was aware of at least 13 other similar situations. It also tends to suggest that there is a connection between the growing scandal and why she left him in the first place.

It’s actually a pretty good song from an otherwise mediocre artist, which is a reliable indicator that it’s coming from a place of genuine and powerful emotion. And it also appears that the media embargo on the Neil Gaiman sexual assault accusations is beginning to crack.

Another forest metaphor
You’ve heard a million before
The trees know everything, I tried a wedding ring
But you just cringed and said, “What for?”
And now the whole thing’s turned to ash
You try to cover it with cash
Another falling tree no one can hear but me
Another suicidal mass
Landing on my doorstep, thanks a ton
Oh, darling, how can I repay you for what you have done?

And then you lied to me at Whakanewha
And you sealed it with a kiss
I wanted to live with you, but, fuckin’-a, fuck you
No one on Earth could live like this

Another clear-cut load of crap
A few more corpses in the sack
You’ll get away with it, it’s just the same old script
This world is shaped to have your back
You said, “I’m sorry,” then you ran
And went and did it all again
I’m such a fool, I know
Street smart but gullible
I see the good in everything
A pound of flax, a pound of steel
I may be dumb, but I can feel
I wonder when you’ll realize what you had

A frightened bird, a crystal ball
So sad, you could’ve had it all
But you hate yourself too much to want all that
I had so much hope for your broken heart
But you’ve made your choice, and you chose the dark
And so I’ll bury you at Whakanewha
And have a party with my friends
I’ll miss you terribly, but, fuckin’-a, fuck me
It feels so good to love again

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Speaking of Cancellations

The Japanese are not at all happy with a gaijin who appears to be attempting to reinvent Japanese history by taking a page from the Mary Beard “everyone was Black” school of history. After all, if both England and Sweden can be “nations of immigrants”, why shouldn’t Japan be too? To top it all off, he’s not even a historian at Nihon University, he’s just an English teacher.

On Thursday, Variety revealed that JoAnn M. Hunter, the choreographer of “School of Rock” and “Bad Cinderella,” has been hired to direct the upcoming musical “Yasuke: The Black Samurai,” which is expected to open in 2026. With few historical documents on Yasuke, the story is likely to be chiefly based on the words of Thomas Lockley. An associate professor at Nihon University, he co-authored the first book in the world about Yasuke in 2019. But how much of what he wrote about the man dubbed the first non-Japanese samurai is true? Not a lot, according to netizens.

The English author has received widespread criticism, particularly in the past few days, and has reportedly deleted his Facebook page. The biggest backlash has been against his claim that several feudal lords in Japan were happy to make use of Black slaves. There have been close to 200,000 posts on the subject. “The rumor that black slaves were popular among Japanese daimyo needs to be properly refuted and stamped out, otherwise it could cause big problems later,” tweeted one user. There have also been allegations that Lockley edited Yasuke’s Wikipedia page under the name Tottoritom.

There are also reports that Lockley has been fired from Nihon University, which are unconfirmed, but a petition to fire him has already been signed by 20,000 Japanese people.

Interestingly enough, the only article about Lockley on Japan Today was marked “expired, no longer available”. He would be well-advised to leave Japan; Meiji-era radicals would literally behead him for this sort of insult to Japanese history and culture.

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