Author: VD

Remember This Next Time

“In terms of the vaccine mandates, I acknowledge that it was a challenging time for people but they ultimately made their own choices. There was no compulsory vaccination. People made their own choices.”

  • New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins

This statement is sparking an amount of outrage, mostly among those who feel they were forced to get vaccinated, and while the outrage is understandable, the man is telling no more than the literal truth. Virtually no one was actually compelled to get vaccinated, as we were all presented with choices. To be threatened with the loss of one’s job, the inability to play a sport, to drink in a club, or to eat in a restaurant, the cancellation of one’s college acceptance or one’s travel plans, may be unpleasant, but it is still to be presented with a choice.

Many people, most people, made bad choices. They made what in retrospect look like very suboptimal and dangerous choices that prioritized their short-term preferences over their long-term health.

So remember this next time! Remember this when the new “mandates” are put in place. The choice is still going to be yours. Learn from the mistakes that were made last time, and remember, those who are putting you in this difficult position are going to point out after the fact that you were the one who made your choice.

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Let Experience Be Silent

When more relevant information gainsays its conclusions. Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former Commanding Officer of the 1st Royal Tank Regiment, was certain that the British wunderpanzers were going to wreak havoc on the Russian lines back in June.

As a former tank commander, I can say one thing for certain: Putin’s demoralised conscripts are utterly unprepared for the shock action now hitting their lines. Ukrainian armoured formations are beginning to meet Russian forces in battle, and they are going to pulverise Russia’s defensive lines. I am confident for one simple reason: Ukraine will follow the Western ideology of manoeuvre warfare in a combined arms context, while the Russians will follow Soviet doctrine, relying on attrition and numbers. The Russians will find that the armour of Western tanks is far more resilient than flesh and bone, they will die in great numbers, and they will lose.

British-made tanks are about to sweep Putin’s conscripts aside, THE TELEGRAPH, 9 June 2023

Yeah, so, about that…

It turns out that attrition, numbers, and artillery trump propaganda and manoeuvre warfare. And apparently, the British are even more delusional about their tanks than they are about their chances of winning the World Cup. But like the World Cup, the 28 Challenger 2 tanks sent to Ukraine will not be coming home.

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China Lays the Legal Ground

I think it’s safe to expect Chinese corporations to be seizing foreign-owned property in Hong Kong and Taiwan soon, and taking steps to abandon the international arbitration system given these remarks on a new law that strips foreign state immunity by the Foreign Ministry.

Q: The Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress reviewed and passed the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Foreign State Immunity at a recent session. The law adjusted China’s previous stance of absolute state immunity and authorized courts in China to hear lawsuits against foreign states. What’s the reason for such an adjustment?

A: Enacting the Law on Foreign State Immunity is a normal legislative activity conducted by the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress. The law stipulates provisions related to foreign state immunity in line with international practices and aims to improve China’s foreign state immunity system. The law stipulates the rules for Chinese courts to handle civil cases involving a foreign State and its property, with a view to protecting the lawful rights and interests of the parties concerned, safeguarding the sovereign equality of States, and promoting friendly exchanges with other countries, which all in turn boost China’s higher-level opening-up.

The Law on Foreign State Immunity affirms the fundamental principle that a foreign State and its property enjoy immunity in China, at the same time stipulates exceptions relating to non-sovereign act of a foreign State, under which Chinese courts can exercise jurisdiction, such as cases involving disputes arising out of a commercial activity, relevant personal injury and property damage. The Law also states that Chinese courts can take compulsory judicial measures against a foreign State’s commercial property under strictly limited circumstances. It fully adheres to international law and it is also consistent with general state practices.

As a responsible major country, China firmly upholds the principle of sovereign equality and will faithfully implement this Law to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese nationals and legal persons and respect the immunities enjoyed by foreign States under international law.

Translation: The USA and other Western governments, including Canada, have increasingly been utilizing their courts to the detriment of Chinese corporations and individuals. China is clearly going to follow their lead by giving its courts the power to exercise jurisdiction over foreign entities and individuals who had previously been considered off-limits on the basis of foreign state immunity.

Given how little foreign investment there is in mainland China, one would tend to expect the primary application of this expanded jurisdiction will be in Hong Kong, and eventually, Taiwan.

I expect Taiwan to peacefully unify with the mainland much sooner than most people are expecting, and I strongly suspect that it will be someone like this man who will make it happen when the time comes. Despite his public statements, I would assume that he is, for all intents and purposes, the CPC’s preferred candidate for the office, because when China eventually makes its move for reunification, it will want to have a pragmatic figure in control of Taiwan’s government in order to avoid violence and bloodshed.

The billionaire founder of tech giant Foxconn, Terry Gou, has announced he will run for president of Taiwan as an independent candidate, pledging to fix cross-strait relations and boost Taiwan’s economy.

At a press conference on Monday, Gou – a well-known and outspoken businessman – announced what he called “the era of entrepreneurs’ rule”. “I have decided to join the 2024 presidential race,” he said, touting his business and finance experience, including dealings with China.

“Give me four years and I promise that I will bring 50 years of peace to the Taiwan Strait and build the deepest foundation for the mutual trust across the strait … Taiwan must not become Ukraine and I will not let Taiwan become the next Ukraine.”

Gou should not be able to come anywhere close to winning in normal political circumstances. He couldn’t even win the Kuomintang nomination. But given the fact that the outcome of the NATO-Russian war should be known by the time the election takes place in 2024, combined with the increased US activity in southeast Asia, the fear of being similarly sacrificed on the altar of US geostrategic interests may be enough to move the Taiwanese electorate away from the separatist parties.

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Monday Arktoons

SNAKEHAND Episode 36: Worse Than Expected

PAPER DOLL VERONIKA Episode 75: Claws

AESOPS FABLES Episode 16: The Mole and His Mother

CHATEAU GRIEF Episode 286: Joint Effort

THE RUNAWAY PRINCESS Episode 23: A Good Moral

THE WEIRD AND STRANGE Episode 13: When A Cartoonist Gets Bored

DIARY OF A POSTWAR PIRATE Episode 1: Just a Little Piracy

THE GRYPHON OF TIRSHAL Episode 1: Proper Respect for the Crown

GIVE MY REGARDS TO BLACK JACK Episode 21: In Ten Minutes

GORGO Episode 25: The Gorgo Solution

TREASURY OF TALES Episode 16: The Little Red Hen

Two new text series launch today, DIARY OF A POSTWAR PIRATE and THE GRYPHON OF TIRSHAL. Check them out!

RIP Steve Harwell

Steve Harwell, the lead singer of 90s rockers Smash Mouth, has died at the age of 56.

Smashmouth wasn’t technically a one-hit wonder, but what a great hit it was. “All-Star” was one of the definitive songs for the Millennial generation but it was GenX to the core; musically it was very simple, but lyrically it was of a philosophical bent. Marcus Aurelius would have approved of it.

“Get your game on. Go play.”

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I Was Wrong

After considerable review of statistics and video highlights in the aftermath of Argentina winning the World Cup, I have been forced to conclude that my previous opinion was in error. There simply isn’t any question about it.

Lionel Messi is the greatest soccer player of all time.

I’ve always considered Pele to be number one, with Maradona a close number two. But the fact is that Messi’s creative abilities, vision, and generosity make him a more complete, more effective player on the field than either Pele or Maradona. As for modern players, Cristiano Ronaldo is an incredible scorer and an inspirational leader for Portugal, and his speed, size, and aerial abilities are certainly superior to Messi’s, but the fact is that Messi is arguably more valuable as a goal-maker than he is as a goal-scorer.

This is unprecedented at the highest level of scoring even when one removes penalty goals from the equation. In his five-year peak at Barcelona, Messi averaged 1.03 non-penalty goals per game and 0.46 assists per game for a combined average of 1.5 goals per game.

Consider that the consummate midfielder, Zinedine Zidane, universally regarded as one of the ten-greatest to ever play the game, averaged 0.26 assists per game across his entire career. In Zidane’s best-ever season, at Juventus, he averaged 0.46 assists per game. Messi did that for five straight years. And he did that in addition to scoring a goal in every game himself.

His closest rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, scored fewer non-penalty goals and had 25 percent fewer assists during his own five-year peak at Real Madrid. CR7’s combined average of 1.3 goals per game is still historically excellent to the point of being very nearly unprecedented, but across the 170 games played, that 0.2 delta is a difference of 34 goals in five seasons!

Statistically speaking, at their mutual peaks, Messi was worth one more goal every five games than Cristiano Ronaldo. That’s the statistical equivalent of having one additional mediocre striker or one above-average midfielder on the field every single game. And this peak-to-peak comparison is actually favorable to CR7. The career delta between Messi and Ronaldo is 0.32 despite the latter’s Saudi league-inflated numbers. To put that into perspective, 0.32 happens to be the career average of Andrés Iniesta, an excellent Spanish international who was named to the FIFA Pro World XI no less than nine times.

So the cold hard tangibles are perfectly clear. What about the intangibles? All you need to do is to forget about the goals and watch one highlight reel of Messi dribbling, followed by another one of him making assists. Only Maradona can compare to his dribbling and I’ve never seen anyone who creates opportunities for others as well as Messi does. Any lingering doubts about his ability to win the biggest competitions were settled once and for all when Argentina beat Brazil in the 2021 Copa America, then followed that up by winning the 2022 World Cup.

Dennis Bergkamp will always be my favorite player, and I’ll always harbor the utmost respect for Pele, Maradona, and CR7. But the unquestionable fact, the undeniable fact, is that Lionel Messi is the greatest footballer to ever play the game.

And Americans are very fortunate to be able to watch him doing what he does at Inter Miami. Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar took the Saudi money, but what Messi is doing with David Beckham in Miami is more important, as they are building stronger foundations for the beautiful game.

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The Satanic Essence of Globalism

The Archbishop explains the nature of modern Babelism and why it seeks to erase every aspect of Christianity from society:

The essence of globalism is satanic, and the essence of Satanism is globalist. Because Satan’s plan is to establish the reign of the Antichrist, allowing him to parody Christ’s earthly life, to imitate His miracles with grotesque wonders, to lead crowds not with the simplicity of Truth but with deception and lies. Globalism is, so to speak, the staging, the script and the scenario that must prepare humanity for the political ascent of the Antichrist, to whom the leaders of the world – his servants – will cede national sovereignty so that he becomes a kind of global tyrant.

But the kingdom of the Antichrist is not created out of nothing: it is first necessary to erase what remains of the kingdom of Christ in the institutions, in the culture and in the daily life of the citizens. Moral dissolution is one of the simplest means of subjugating the masses, encouraging them to vice, ridiculing virtue; and, of course, by destroying the natural family, the fundamental cell of society. Once the family is demolished, the children become commodities, products that those with money can order over the Internet, fuelling the vast and growing criminal network, not to mention the surrogacy industry. Divorce, abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality and pan- sexualism, mutilation for gender transition have proven to be effective tools for eliminating not only the revealed Faith, but also the most sacred principles of Natural Law.

And it is indeed a religion, the one that is being established with the Woke ideology; a religion which, like the true Religion but with diametrically opposed goals, intends to impose itself in society, to imbue its dogmas into the institutions, the laws, the education, the culture, the arts and human activities. The globalists apply the Catholic principles of “social kingship,” but proclaim Satan king of society: Te nationum præsides honore tollant publico: colant magistri, judices; leges et artes exprimant. May the rulers of the world publicly honour and extol Thee; May teachers and judges reverence Thee; May the laws and the arts bear Thy mark. These are the words of the hymn of Christ the King, but we see them applied blasphemously by the priests of the New World Order to their king, the prince of this world, and to the Antichrist in his time.

Beware though: globalism, as an emanation of Masonic and revolutionary thought, apparently proclaims democracy and condemns absolute regimes; but in fact, it knows very well that the Monarchy of Divine Right is the best possible form of government, because it subjugates everyone – including the king himself, who is the Vicar of Christ in temporal things – to a transcendent law to which everyone owes obedience.

It’s a hard thing for many Americans to accept that the revolutionary concepts of freedom and liberty and equality around which the original Republic was founded were evil philosophical seeds planted during the Enlightenment. But the wicked nature of their fruits, and the bitter harvest they have entailed, can hardly be denied.

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Nigeria May Be Next

Nigeria is the USA’s Great Black Hope in Africa. It provides the greater part of the ECOWAS troops that are supposed to be invading Niger in response to the anti-Western coup there, and it is the most formidable true African military force, being rated ahead of both Sweden and Iraq in the 2023 global military rankings.

(I don’t count either Egypt or South Africa as a proper African military, for reasons that should be obvious.)

However, it’s pretty obvious that something is going on inside Nigeria, and I suspect that at least an attempted military coup there is in the offing.

A press release published by Presidential Adviser Ajuri Ngelale on Saturday said that “President Bola Tinubu has directed the recall of all career and non-career ambassadors from their duty posts worldwide” with immediate effect. According to the document, the decision was made as a result of a “careful study of the present state of affairs at Nigerian Consulate Offices and Embassies worldwide.” The stated aim of the measure is to ensure that Abuja’s diplomatic missions deliver “world-class efficiency and quality.”

Tinubu, who assumed office in late May this year, has since replaced Nigeria’s defense chief, along with the heads of the army, navy, and air force. In June, the president also dissolved the boards of federal government institutions, agencies, and state-owned enterprises.

Nigeria suspends almost all diplomatic missions, RUSSIA TODAY, 3 September 2023

It’s pretty clear that Russia and China are working quietly to establish a number of new tertiary fronts that methodically drain Western military resources. But whereas removing Niger from the colonial collection primarily weakened France, the removal of Nigeria would essentially secure the elimination of Western influence from the entire continent.

The West can’t afford to lose Nigeria, which it is relying upon to keep the other African states in line. Which is why I expect Nigeria to be the central point of conflict of WWIII’s African front.

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Changes in Comics News

Bleeding Cool used to be one of the leading comic book sites on the Internet. It was sufficiently influential that the 2018 interview of me by its chief editor and founder Mark Siefert led directly to the post-crowdfund deplatforming of Arkhaven’s Alt-Hero: Q campaign, but the subsequent firing of Siefert and the decline of DC Comics and Marvel, and its refusal to cover major independent players from Arkhaven, Ethan van Sciver, Eric July, and Razorfist to the various ‘toons sites have left Bleeding Cool in a state of decline that mirrors that of the overall mainstream US comics industry.

So while it’s encouraging to see the Arkhaven-friendly site Bounding Into Comics passing Bleeding Cool in terms of popularity, traffic, and influence, it was always inevitable given the SJW convergence of the latter. There isn’t much use for a comics site that doesn’t cover what is not only an entire section of the industry, but the growing section of the industry, after all, and one gets a much more accurate picture of what is actually happening in comics these days from Bounding Into Comics.

But congratulations to John Trent and company for this major competitive milestone as noted by Similarweb. It’s good to see that there is still one news organization in the industry that reports actual news with some degree of impartiality and objectivity.

In tangential news, John Trent wonders why anyone would want to read Marvel’s new erstatz Punisher, in light of how SHIELD agent Joe Garrison has replaced the iconic Frank Castle.

It’s unclear why anyone would purchase this series after the first issue. The entire series as described by Pepose in this interview and how it was initially announced at San Diego Comic-Con appears it’s just a derivative version of Frank Castle.

Not only does Garrison sound like a derivative version of Castle, but, of course, Marvel has to push the demasculinization and demoralization narrative with having Garrison report to a woman. It’s also not hard to imagine that they “very cool preexisting villains” will be reimagined to fit the same demoralization narrative. Furthermore, we don’t know what kind of “family” Joe Garrison has. One can only imagine it fits the agenda.

Readers looking for new Punisher stories are probably better served diving back into their long boxes and reading the classic The Punisher War Journal stories or Garth Ennis’ Punisher Max.

Or, better yet, reading Arkhaven’s forthcoming Black Warrant, written by ex-Punisher writer Chuck Dixon.

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