Cerno does 60 Minutes

This is an open thread to discuss Mike Cernovich’s recent appearance on 60 Minutes:

During a contentious debate on the nature of truth and what is “fake news,” Mike Cernovich told Scott Pelley what story 60 Minutes would publish before the episode had aired. Find an excerpt of this interview below:

Scott Pelley: Who’s gunning for you?

Mike Cernovich: You are. I’m on 60 Minutes. Right?

Scott Pelley: What do you mean, we’re gunning for you?

Mike Cernovich: Do I really think that you guys are going to tell the story that I would like to have told, no. Your story’s going to be here’s a guy, spreads fake news, uses social media, these social media people better … I know the story you guys are doing before you do it.

Scott Pelley: What’s wrong with that story?

Mike Cernovich: Because it is an agenda. The agenda is … The truth is you’ve talked to a person who sincerely believes true, you must also admit that there have been many stories reported by major outlets like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Rolling Stone, that were false.

Scott Pelley: Agreed.

Mike Cernovich: People get it wrong, so why then come guns blazing at me, and not guns blazing at everybody? Why isn’t this segment going to say, how did the New York Times get conned? How did the Washington Post believe that Russia had hacked the power grid? We all together, collectively need to discover what the truth is, and converse with one another what the truth is, that’s a different story.

Mike and I discussed whether it was a good idea for him to make an exception to his usual policy to not grant interviews to what he calls the Hoax Media a few days ago. We’ll find out soon enough!


Dear, oh dear

And you see, even if I wasn’t opposed to fake reviews, the following is why, in this case, they are not only wrong and deceptive, but redundant. There will be no shortage of legitimate one-star reviews by Scalzi fans who feel let down by his latest effort, particularly since it is the result of nearly two years of groundless hype.

Half a novel. Don’t bother.
March 25, 2017
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase

I’ve enjoyed Scalzi’s work enough that I pre-ordered this novel. Having read it (and enjoyed what there was of it) I feel profoundly cheated.

The problem has nothing to do with length — plenty of excellent complete novels have been written in fewer pages. Here though, critical elements of the story are left undeveloped at the end of the novel. I don’t want to spoil what there is of the plot, so suffice it to say that there are no meaningufl resolutions of conflicts facing any of the main characters except, I suppose, for the one who dies and another relatively minor villian. The resolution of the only interesting plot question that is revealed is blindingly obvious half way through the book. So no payoff there either.

I have no objection to setting a plot line that sets up a sequel. The series seems to be almost an imperative in sci-sfi publishing these days. But that’s quite different from a novel that basically ends with a “to be continued” on all fronts that anyone cares about.

As for the fake good reviews, why, the more the better! The more people who fall for the deception and buy the shlockfest, the more disgusted Scalzi-haters there will be. Remember, even I once fell for “the new Heinlein” hype too.

The problem Tor Books faces is simple. Sooner or later, the truth will out. And the truth is that John Scalzi is a mediocre and derivative midlister who has only reached “major” status in science fiction as a result of his own deceptive self-marketing combined with the extraordinary marketing efforts made on his behalf by Patrick Nielsen Hayden. Scalzi has a legitimate fan base, but it is much smaller than Larry Correia’s; imagine how many books Larry would sell if he was being featured in Audible advertising, having fake New York Times bestseller slots arranged for him, and talked up by Tor-published contributors at the Guardian, then featured in puff pieces in the New York Times, and NPR.

Pity poor Brandon Sanderson, who actually is a major SF author and outsells Scalzi by a significant margin, but doesn’t get one-tenth the attention or support from his publisher that Scalzi does. That’s the price of working with an SJW-converged publisher. They will always put their political agenda ahead of their professional responsibilities.

Anyhow, I’d assumed Scalzi would need to “restructure” his contract after delivering the fourth book. In light of this disaster, he’s probably going to have to do so after he fails to deliver the second book on time and Macmillan finally discovers that PNH has sold them a midlister in major’s clothing.

In any event, Johan Kalsi and I would like to thank you all for making his debut with Castalia House such an unforgettable one. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? Mr. Kalsi is already hard at work on the sequel to Corrosion, which will be entitled Corrosion and Empire, and eagerly awaits the announcement from Tor Books concerning the direction of his next new series. And I have to say, perhaps the most amusing thing in all this, to me, is the angry, upset SF-SJWs who are unaware that this little stunt is literally nothing new in the science fiction world; it should hardly surprise anyone that the current publisher of There Will Be War would be aware of the various, perfectly legitimate, marketing possibilities in this regard.

There is more at Castalia House. Including, but not limited, to this video commentary.

The return of Walt Ames

Peter Grant, the author of The Ames Archives, has debuted the title and cover of the second book in the series, the sequel to his very well-received revival of the Western, BRINGS THE LIGHTNING, on his site.

I think perhaps a brief excerpt from ROCKY MOUNTAIN RETRIBUTION would be in order:

As the half-light of dawn began to spread across the eastern horizon, Walt arranged himself into his prone shooting position, tucking the stock of the Remington Rolling Block rifle more tightly into his shoulder. Its powerful .50 Government cartridge would kick back like a mule if he wasn’t positioned correctly to absorb its recoil. He put his eye to the full-length Malcolm telescope sight mounted over the barrel, but the shadows were still too deep and too dark to make out the carcass in the field below.


He waited patiently as the morning light grew slowly brighter. Looking downward from his hide in a rocky outcrop, he began to make out a dark mass against the green grass of the field. It looked larger than it had the evening before, when he set up this position… and, yes, it was moving! He grinned triumphantly and bent his head to the sight once more.


The big brown bear was soon breaking its fast by ripping chunks of meat off the dead cow, eating quickly. Walt reckoned it had probably already learned the hard way that, while farmers’ cattle were easy prey, the farmer would express his resentment of their loss with burning powder and hot lead. Even as he watched, the bear took a last mouthful, then turned, looking up past the rocks as it prepared to climb the hill to the safety of the tree line.


He took a deep breath, let it half-out, and held it. Aim low, he reminded himself. You’re shooting downhill. You’ve got to make allowance for that. He’d already pushed forward the set trigger until it clicked, adjusting its pull weight to mere ounces. He set the sight’s crosshairs on the bottom edge of the bear’s body, to the left of its head, as it walked towards him on all fours. His finger tightened on the trigger, gently… slowly… gently…


The rifle boomed in the still morning air, sparks and white gunpowder smoke erupting from its muzzle. Walt immediately reached up with his right hand, re-cocked the hammer, and flicked open the breech to remove the fired case, then withdrew another fat .50-70-450 cartridge from the box at his side and slid it into the chamber. Closing the action, he pushed the trigger forward to reset it. The whole sequence took no more than three seconds before his eye was back at the telescope sight.


The first round had slammed into the top of the bear’s left shoulder and raked downwards into its chest, rocking the beast’s massive body. It roared aloud in pain and anger as it reared upright, standing on its hind legs, looking to see where the unexpected attack was coming from. It spotted the cloud of smoke drifting away on the light morning breeze and roared again – just as Walt’s second bullet smashed into its breast, piercing its heart. It bellowed once more in anguished fury as it fell forward onto all fours. It started up the hill towards him, but within just a few steps its gait grew unsteady, and faltered. With a final groan, the bear toppled forward onto its snout, then slid back a few feet on the dew-wet grass.


Trust the God-Emperor

An insightful comment on Gab by American Nationalist:

Trump’s handling of the AHCA went from questionable to spectacular the moment Jeanine Pirro laid the smackdown on Paul Ryan after he tweeted to watch her show tonight.

It was as I hoped – Trump pledged his support for Ryan’s catastrophe so he could isolate and destroy him – publicly.

Whether that was his original intent or whether this is an example of the God-Emperor adroitly turning lemons into lemonade is irrelevant. The former may be more comforting, but the latter is actually more encouraging; it’s nice when things go according to plan, but it’s even better when one is able to turn setbacks into advances.

Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro, whose show President Trump urged his followers on Twitter to watch earlier in the day, opened her program at 9pm on Saturday by calling for Speaker Paul Ryan’s resignation.

“Ryan needs to step down as Speaker of the House. The reason, he failed to deliver the votes on his healthcare bill, the one trumpeted to repeal and replace ObamaCare, the one that he had 7 years to work on; the one he hid under lock and key in the basement of Congress; the one that had to be pulled to prevent the embarrassment of not having enough votes to pass.” Pirro said in her opening statement. “Speaker Ryan, you come in with all your swagger and experience and sell them a bill of goods which ends up a complete and total failure and you allow our president, in his first 100 days, to come out of the box like that, based on what?”

What made Pirro’s fiery comments about Ryan especially notable is that they came hours after Trump tweeted to encourage his followers to watch “Justice with Judge Jeanine.”

Another reason I find the “lemonade” theory to be more convincing is that Obamacare was never a particular focus of Trump’s, which was why I didn’t understand how it had somehow become a supposed priority when it was, and is, primarily a legislative priority for the House and Senate Republicans. Of course, we all know they’re more or less useless, and the Ryancare debacle is only the latest example.

Regardless, I hope Trump has learned that he’s got to work with the more conservative legislators and isolate the mainstream moderates if he’s going to get anything through the House and Senate. The moderates will cave under pressure, the conservatives are much less likely to do so, having successfully resisted most moderate Republican pressure since the first Bush amnesty attempt.

Frankly, I’d like to see him stop getting pulled into these conventional battles and stay totally focused on the strategic ones, such as neutralizing the anti-Constitutional judiciary and making sure the wall is built before the end of his first term. War, Trade, and Repatriation are the three presidential priorities, everything else is trivial in comparison.

Meanwhile, Scott Adams notes that his model for the dynamic media narrative is actually running ahead of schedule:

With the failure of the Ryan healthcare bill, the illusion of Trump-is-Hitler has been fully replaced with Trump-is-incompetent meme. Look for the new meme to dominate the news, probably through the summer. By year end, you will see a second turn, from incompetent to “Competent, but we don’t like it.” I have been predicting this story arc for some time now. So far, we’re ahead of schedule.


Beating up Black Bloc

What an apt metaphor! That’s the photo of the year. To absolutely no one’s surprise, Black Bloc has turned out to be a collection of pussies who can’t fight when they don’t have a heavy advantage of numbers as well as police standing in the way of an open fight and protecting them from retaliation.

A Make America Great Again rally that began with a dove release to symbolize peace turned violent when supporters were doused with pepper spray by anti-Trump protesters in Southern California. The clashes, which led to three arrests after police clad in riot gear intervened, came before the president posted a tweet thanking those who marched. In Huntington Beach alone, almost 2,000 Trump supporters gathered for the pro-Trump rally. 

The guy getting chased in the photograph was subsequently arrested.

Stand firm. Fight back. The police will stop being amenable authorities for the SJWs once they realize that there are far more anti-SJWs now willing to fight than there are SJWs willing to do so.

Remember, their entire strategy is to cause fear and to intimidate the opposition into silence. And as you can see, nothing terrifies them more than unexpectedly determined resistance.

A comment on GabAt the Trump rally in Huntington Beach California supporters were chanting, “u can’t run, u can’t hide, u get helicopter rides!”, with one young man in front holding a “da goyim know” placard. Is it just me, or is the Alt-Right spreading like wildfire?


It is indeed. Conservatives don’t fight. The Alt-Right exists to fight. Remember, the Alt-Right is a political taxonomical description, not a membership club with monthly dues. If you’re beating the hell out of a Black Bloc thug, then you’re Alt-Right even if you don’t know it yet. The lion doesn’t know that he’s called a “lion”, after all.


Is anyone actually surprised

The individual behind a series of “anti-Semitic bomb threats” turns out to be an Israeli-American Jew:

Israeli police have arrested a 19-year-old Jewish Israeli American from Ashkelon for his suspected role behind a slew of bomb threats made against Jewish community centers across the globe.

The arrest comes after bomb threats were made against dozens of community centers in Australia, the U.S., Europe and New Zealand over the last six months. Israeli investigators found that many of the threats led back to Israel, though the suspect is not believed to be responsible for all of the threats, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Israeli officials withheld the suspect’s name and offered few details on their background. Here’s what we do know: The person is a dual Israeli-American citizen, he is not a member of the Israeli Defense Forces, he is not ultra-Orthodox and at some point he made aliya (immigration to Israel by Jews in the diaspora) to Israel.

This Marxian dialectical summary was amusing, particularly in light of the philosemitic rhetoric one sees from Christian Zionist Americans from time to time.

thesis: The Jews did it!
antithesis: The Jooos did it!
synthesis: Seriously, though, the Jews did it.

Of course, it’s not just Jews. It’s all minorities. Any time there is a “hate crime” against any minority, particularly the sort of crime in which the perpetrator is able to remain hidden, one can be relatively confident that the perpetrator is a member of that minority group and that the crime is a hoax. I assumed these threats were being made by an American Jew; the SPLC has constructed a $300 million business on hoax crimes and Muslims tend to be more inclined to simply bomb things than idly threaten to do so.

It’s the same reason that you can be certain that a noose or a spray-painted KKK on a college campus will spark outrage up until the inevitable moment it is discovered that a black student is responsible.

The reason minorities do this, and not majorities, is that minorities are ultimately dependent upon maintaining the good will of the majority populations, and one way to achieve that is through instilling guilt in the majority population through obtaining and maintaining victim status. That’s why it is significant that the perpetrator here was an Israeli-American; American Jews consider themselves to be a minority, whereas Israeli Jews do not. Homeland matters.


Uber’s driverless car crashes

That’s not confidence-inspiring:

A self-driving car operated by Uber Technologies Inc. was involved in a crash in Tempe, Arizona, the latest setback for a company reeling from multiple crises.

In a photo posted on Twitter, one of Uber’s Volvo self-driving SUVs is pictured on its side next to another car with dents and smashed windows. An Uber spokeswoman confirmed the incident, and the veracity of the photo, in an email to Bloomberg News.

The spokeswoman could not immediately confirm if there were any injuries, or whether the car was carrying passengers. Uber’s self-driving cars began picking up customers in Arizona last month.

I have to admit, I do not understand the fascination of technology-companies with self-driving cars. I suppose one has to be a bit of a fascist, or at least a monopolist, to be enamored of the concept, which would explain why Apple and Google have gotten involved.


Ryancare goes down in flames

Not even the God-Emperor’s intervention was enough to save it:

Following a day of drama in Congress yesterday, Friday was another nail-biter until the last moment, and after Trump’s Thursday ultimatum failed to yield more “yes” votes, the embattled bill seeking to replace major parts of Obamacare was yanked Friday from the floor of the House.

As a result, Trump suffered a second consecutive blow as opposition from within his own party forced Republican leaders to cancel a vote on healthcare reform for the second time, casting doubt on the president’s ability to deliver on other priorities.

The withdrawal pointed to Trump’s failure to charm republicans in the last minute, raising questions about whether he could unify Republicans behind his pro-growth legislative goals of tax reform and infrastructure spending.

NBC News reported that the President Donald Trump asked House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., to pull the bill. A source told NBC that Ryan during visit to Trump at the White House earlier Friday afternoon had “pleaded to pull” the bill after telling the president that the GOP leaders had failed to convince enough House Republicans to support the bill.

Trump personally told Washington Post reporter Robert Costa about the move to avoid an embarrassing loss in the House during a phone call, Costa tweeted. “We just pulled it,” Trump reportedly said to Costa.

A large number of GOP House members had declared their opposition to the bill since Thursday night. It was the second time in less than 30 hours that Republicans postponed a scheduled House vote on the American Health Care Act. Republicans could afford to lose at most 22 members of their caucus in the vote. But as of Friday afternoon, there were 34 GOP House member publicly opposing the bill.

Ryan visited Donald Trump at the White House at around 1 p.m. to inform him of the shortfall in support. The second delay was another humiliating setback for GOP leaders and Trump, who had thrown his weight behind the bill.

Trump on Thursday night demanded that the House vote on the plan on Friday, and said he would not agree to change the bill further than he already had in an effort to persuade wavering Republicans to back it.

Shortly after the president drew that line in the sand, GOP leaders amended the bill further to allow states, as opposed to the federal government, to mandate what essential health benefits have to be part of all insurance plans.

But as was the case on Thursday, GOP leaders knew Friday that if the vote occurred as scheduled, the bill would be defeated.

I think the key thing here is that the God-Emperor learns who his allies are. He should have been working with the conservative element in the House that voted against the act, not the Ryan-led mainstream element that was the core Republican opposition to him in the primaries.

This is going to be a little counterintuitive for a centrist negotiator like Trump, but he’s just experienced the same thing that George W. Bush did whenever immigration reform was proposed. The core Republican power in the House is the conservatives, not the moderates. To get anything done, Trump has to work with them first.

Ultimately, this should be a good thing, because Trump always learns from his failures. That’s why I don’t put any stock in the “fatal blow to Trump’s political capital” narrative that the opposition media will inevitably be pushing.


Shooting in Lille, France

It is “unclear who carried out the attack”. Right.

A shooting in the northern French city of Lille has left many wounded, it has been reported. It is unclear who carried out the attack.  Local reports said a 14-year-old boy had been shot in leg and at least two others had been injured. The incident occurred near the Porte d’Arras metro stop in the south of the city. Armed police have sealed off roads in the city centre.

It’s probably Norwegians. Or possibly B’ahai.


Would this really surprise you?

The intel leaker is reported to be Sen. John McCain:

This could be the beginning of the end for embattled Sen. John McCain’s life in politics. According to White House officials, McCain is believed to have somehow gained access to the content of President Donald Trump’s private, classified telephone calls with world leaders. And he isn’t keeping quiet about what was talked about either.

An analysis of McCain’s recent public statements by White House officials, coupled with information from intelligence personnel working with the Trump administration, paints a disturbing picture for McCain — or any elected U.S. politician. Officials believe the senator has inside knowledge of a number of President Trump’s telephone conversations, including at least one conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Even more alarming, officials believe McCain is secretly sharing this sensitive information with colleagues and his cabal of friendly mainstream media journalists in a dangerous clandestine campaign to damage Trump’s presidency even before it has a chance to succeed. Trump has been searching for media rats in the Beltway in recent weeks. White House aides are confident they have now outed one of the major leaks plaguing the early days of the Trump presidency. To everyone’s surprise, it is a senior senator supposedly belonging to the same side of the political aisle as the president.

Never trust a cuckservative. Never EVER trust a cuck. At least you can trust the Left to always shriek and attack you at every given opportunity. But a cuck will play Noble Sir while nobly opposing you on the basis of nobly going down to defeat on noble principle, all the while trying to sneak around and stab you in the back.

Cucks talk about nobility and honor and principle all the time for the same reason that Google talks about not being evil and Apple talks about the user experience.

On a tangential note:

Lt. Gen. Thomas Mcinerney weighed in on Devin Nunes’ bombshell revelations that said the Trump team were being spied on by the NSA/CIA — and it wasn’t Russia related. The whole cover for the surveillance was supposed to be because Trump had a bunch of Ivans working for him, but that simply wasn’t the case, or the concern, inside the Obama White House.

McInerney believes when all of the evidence comes out, Obama will rue the day he decided to spy on Trump. Moreover, he said the democrats are chimping out and fabricating a Russian spy novel in order to avoid Trump investigating the Clinton server and how both Hillary and Obama violated the espionage act, a crime punishable by heavy fines and up to 10 years in prison.