Category: Uncategorized

Fake news at the Washington Post

I’m sure we all look forward to Facebook banning links to the Washington Post due to the fact that it is a confirmed provider of fake news:

The Washington Post has retracted its story about Russian hackers penetrating the nation’s electricity grid with a virus found in a Burlington, Vt., electric company laptop.

“Authorities say there is no indication of that so far [that Russians had penetrated the US electric grid],” according to an editor’s note attached to a corrected version of the story on the paper’s Web site. “The computer at Burlington Electric that was hacked was not attached to the grid,” the editor’s note read.

News of the supposed hack had set off a firestorm of recriminations, with Vermont leaders calling Russian President Vladimir Putin “a thug” earlier Saturday, after one of the state’s electric utilities found a virus on a laptop computer. A utility spokesman has also told the Burlington Free Press the laptop was not hooked into the grid.

The amusing thing about the whole SJW “fake news” strategy is that even liberal observers predicted that it was going to be turned around and used against the mainstream media. This simply goes to show, once more, that a calm and strategic approach combined with ruthless tactical meme magic is an extremely effective approach to defeating the SJWs despite their possession of the cultural high ground.

On a related note, James Delingpole pens a savage declaration of war on the Liberal/Globalist/SJW/Media/Establishment Left at Breitbart London:

We will take the fight to the enemy, not cower in No Man’s Land

One of the best things about 2016 for me was the way it gave the lie to the weaselish and wet aphorism – so often repeated by so many of our impeccably reasonable, sensible and balanced TV and newspaper pundits  – that elections are “won in the centre ground.”

This was the Belial philosophy that gave us, in the U.S., that hideous continuum from the Bushes and the Clintons to Obama; and in Britain, the grotesque and malign Third Way squishery that took us from Tony Blair through to his (self-admitted heir) David Cameron and beyond. (It’s also the mindset which invented the disgraceful, sell-out concept of “soft Brexit”.)

No wonder so many of us had become so fed up with politics: no matter which party you voted for, whether the notionally left-wing one or the notionally right-wing one you still seemed to end up up with the same old vested interests, the same old liberal Establishment elite.

Of course we should always despise the liberal-left because their philosophy is morally bankrupt, dangerous and wrong. But I sometimes think that the people we should despise most of all are the squishes who pretend to be on our side of the argument but forever betray our cause. Sometimes they do this by throwing the more outspoken among us to the wolves in order to signal how tolerant and virtuous they are; sometimes they do this by endorsing some fatuous liberal position in order to show their willingness to compromise.

I call the latter approach the “dogshit yogurt fallacy.”

If conservatives like fruit or honey in their yogurt and liberals prefer to eat it with dogshit, it is NOT a sensible accommodation – much as our centrist conservative columnists might wish it so – to say: “All right. How about we eat our yogurt with a little bit of both?” We need to understand, very clearly, that there are such things as right and wrong; and that, furthermore, it is always worth fighting to the bitter end for the right thing rather than accepting second best because a bunch of lawyers and politicians and hairdressers from Brazil and squishy newspaper columnists and other members of the liberal elite have told us that second best is the best we can hope for.

On Brexit, for example, I’m with Her Majesty the Queen: “‘I don’t see why we can’t just get out? What’s the problem?’


We will never apologise, never explain, never surrender

See those scalped corpses, littering the plains? These are the guys – and it is, invariably, men – who thought that if only they showed contrition for their confected crimes the enemy would leave them alone. Sir Tim Hunt apologised, the guy from Saatchi apologised, the guy on the Rosetta space programme who wore the “sexist” shirt apologised. A fat lot of good it did them. The vengeful liberal-left doesn’t just want humiliation – it wants total annihilation.

Giving even an inch of ground to an enemy so implacable and vile is not only futile – but it also badly lets the side down by granting them a power that they do not deserve. The most recent sorry example of this was Steve Martin who actually deleted a tweet praising his late friend Carrie Fisher as a “beautiful creature” because a bunch of feminazis on Twitter complained that this was sexist objectification.

Look, I know it’s a scary thing when the SJW witch-hunt mob turns on you. But read Vox Day’s SJW Attack Survival Guide, follow the example of Nigel Farage and fight these people to the very last bullet (keeping the final round for yourself). Do not surrender!

We may or may not be outnumbered. The recent European referenda and the US presidential election suggest that we are not. We may not have the high ground. But we are never outgunned, intellectually or literally. Do not surrender, do not apologize, and do not hesitate to go on the attack, either directly or circumspectly, every single time you encounter an SJW anywhere.

Immigration is invasion

In There Will Be War Vol. X, Martin van Creveld demonstrated that immigration is war is immigration. The idea that because immigrants are unarmed, they are not invaders is more than simply false, at this point it is observably a lie. National borders are simply being overrun and nations are being conquered; the fact that neither guns are swords are being used is irrelevant:

RIOT police fought running battles with a mob of more than a thousand migrants who tried to storm Europe’s borders and force their way into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta today. At least 1,100 asylum seekers rushed the barbed wire fence protecting the tiny north African enclave, which is surrounded on all sides by Morocco, in a desperate bid to reach the EU.

Spanish and Moroccan authorities desperately fought to restore order as the migrants, most from sub-Saharan Africa, scaled the border barrier and brawled with police. Once inside the miniscule Spanish territory they would be able to claim asylum in Spain or travel onwards towards the promised lands of Germany and Sweden.

The migrants used rocks and metal bars as they battled with police officers from Spain and Morocco, who joined forces to defend the border. Television footage showed migrants perched on the top of the fence as they tried to get over. Around 55 police officers were injured in the chaos – 50 from Morocco and five from Spain. Moroccan authorities said 10 of their security personnel had been serious wounded during the fighting.

It is reprehensible that Europe’s governments are assisting, rather than sinking, the invaders’ ships and refusing to shoot the invaders, even those who are violently attacking those guarding the national borders. Violence is coming one way or another; better it take place on the borders than inside them.

How would it have been any less an invasion if Hitler had sent one million unarmed Hitler Jugend to cross the English channel on rafts seeking asylum? In the 1940s, the British had the courage to defend themselves. These days, virtually no one but the Saudis, the Hungarians, the Poles, and the Swiss are willing to do so.

Two questions

Both Selenoth-related. And yes, this is an example of the stuff we discuss at Brainstorm from time to time, but I need more general opinions on these two items.

1. A number of people have been saying they would like to see some sort of summary of the previous book in order to help refresh their memory of A THRONE OF BONES, or even to let them jump right into A SEA OF SKULLS. I really don’t like the idea of a conventional “What Has Gone Before”, since I don’t like intruding on the text, but I can imagine where a letter or two, such as appeared in the first book, might be apt. They would go into the Extended Edition, probably after the Prologue. Yes/No?

2. A few people have encouraged me to crowdfund the two audiobooks, because they are so long that it’s hard to find top quality narrators interested in ACX’s revenue share option. While we do have one good English volunteer presently tackling the short stories and Summa, it’s going to take him a long time just to get through those; I think he’s wrapping up Witchking and is moving on to Wardog soon. (We’ll put them out together with Summa, just as we’re doing with the print.) I’m a little leery about the crowdfunding idea, since you guys are already supporting so many things and this is simply not something I consider a priority on the order of Infogalactic, or even Brainstorm. A top-quality narrator goes for 200 to 400 per hour, and ATOB alone will require 36 hours. Do the math and you can see the problem. Anyhow, share your thoughts on this, if you have any.

To be blunt, I don’t listen to audiobooks myself, so it’s just never been a priority for me. But, I understand some people love them, and I can understand that fans of epic fantasy probably would enjoy having 72+ hours of Selenoth to listen to. So, I’m open to ideas and suggestions. Please note that I’m not looking for volunteers; we have a good volunteer already and I’m not willing to do anything that isn’t going to be both professional and excellent.

The state of publishing 2017

Larry Correia fisks a minor author who appears to be hell-bent on convincing herself that mainstream publishing is the only way to go despite having sold fewer books than every single Castalia House author:

I realized that Laurie wasn’t providing writing advice for people who actually want to make a decent living as writers. She is providing advice to people who want to be aloof artistes at dinner parties, before they go back to their day job at Starbucks.

As for what Laurie says about gatekeepers, it is all horse shit. She has no flipping idea what she’s talking about.

Publishers are the “gatekeepers”. If they like you, you’re in, and if they don’t like you, you’re out. Problem is, at best they only have so many publishing slots to fill every year, so they cater to some markets, and leave others to languish. And at worst, they are biased human beings, who often have their heads inserted into their own rectums.

Agents represent the author. Their job is to find stuff they think they can sell to a publisher, and then they keep 15%. So “good” is secondary to “Can I sell this to the gatekeepers?” And then we’re back to slots and rectums.

Editors try to make the author’s stuff better. Period. They aren’t gate keepers, because it is their job to make the stuff that got through the gate suck less (seriously, the HuffPo should hire one).  Only self-published authors can hire editors too. Andy Weir hired Bryan Thomas Schmidt to edit the original self-published The Martian. Last I heard that book did okay.

“National and international reviewers” are on the wrong side of the gate, and I’m baffled why she included them. Reviewers come along after the fact, some are useful, but most aren’t. Even though I was ignored or despised by most of the big review places for most of my career, they haven’t made a lick of difference to my sales.

These gatekeepers are assessing whether or not your work is any good.

The problem is that “good” is subjective. What you personally think is “good” is irrelevant when there are a million consumers who disagree. I wouldn’t buy a copy of Twilight, but the author lives in a house made out of solid gold bars. “Good” is arbitrary. The real question is whether your product is sellable. (and yes, it is just a product, get over yourself)


Readers expect books to have passed through all the gates, to be vetted by professionals. This system doesn’t always work out perfectly, but it’s the best system we have.

It was the only system we had before technology came along and upset their apple cart.

When only the gatekeepers could vet what was “good”, sometimes they were right, but since often the “professionals” were 20 something lit majors just out of college, or some clueless weasel who had spent his whole existence in the echo chamber of Manhattan publishing, often the system fed its own tastes and ignored vast swaths of the market.

And when you neglect a market, it will spend its entertainment dollars elsewhere. So in this case, competition is good. Because the real competition isn’t between traditional and indy publishing, it is between reading and movies and video games and streaming. Ultimately the market decides who wins, not some self-appointed gatekeeper.

As Larry correctly observes, her atttitude is that of an author who is more interested in personal validation than professional status. The viability of independent publishing doesn’t mean there isn’t some advantage to publishing with the Big Five, especially if your name happens to begin with MILO. But, as in so many other things, what works for Milo is very unlikely to work for you. He’s a genuine star. Regardless, even very successful independent writers who sell millions of copies don’t hit #1 on Amazon months before release.

Nor is print anywhere close to dead. It’s not really fair to compare our print sales to our digital sales, since less than one-third of our books are in print yet and we have even fewer audio books out, but the breakdown of Castalia’s 2016 book sales is as follows:

  • 67.8% ebook
  • 20.5% print edition
  • 07.5% Kindle Unlimited
  • 04.2% audiobook

That’s unexpected, since we originally assumed Castalia would be an ebook-only publisher. But the real game changer, where the mainstream publishers are concerned, is KU. They don’t play there and they can’t afford to play there. And since publishing is a negative sum game, every $12 million paid out per month by Amazon probably represents at least another $48 million in revenue lost to the major publishers plus around $10 million lost to the authors published by them. It’s my suspicion that Amazon tries to set the KU compensation so that an author will make roughly the same amount from a KU sale-equivalent that he’ll make from conventional publishing sale, rather than the same amount he’ll make from an ebook sale.

KU isn’t great for independent publishers even though some of our big books pay out more per book equivalent than we make per sale. For reference, the average KU payout per page was $0.004848 in 2016. But at least we can afford to be there.

Better deportations than bounties

Italy’s new government hasn’t waited to act on the migrant crisis:

Italy will seek to deport more migrants who have no right to be in the country and will open new detention centers to hold them before their expulsion, according to a written directive and a ministry source. Police chief Franco Gabrielli sent a two-page directive to stations across the country on Friday ordering them to increase efforts to identify and deport migrants a week after Berlin Christmas market attacker Anis Amri was shot dead near Milan.

The directive, seen by Reuters, says police should take “extraordinary action” before the “growing migratory pressure in an international context marked by instability and threats” to “control and remove irregular foreigners.”

Interior Minister Marco Minniti plans to open several new detention centers that hold migrants prior to their expulsion, a ministry source said, in line with repeated requests by European Union partners.

The tougher migrant stance, which several Italian papers ran on their front pages on Saturday, is the first major policy change made by Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni’s government since it took power in mid-December, and comes on the heels of a record year of boat migrant arrivals.

It also comes less than a month after the Berlin truck attack by Amri that killed 12, including an Italian woman.

We’ll see how serious they are about this, but if the government doesn’t resolve the situation soon, the people are going to take care of it themselves. And the Sicilian Vespers will probably be the model, given that famous Italian temperance.

Traffic report 2016

Last year I mentioned that I believed 2016 was going to be “absolutely extraordinary”. And it turned out to be exactly that, as the God-Emperor Ascendant’s unexpected success in the early primary turned into a Super Tuesday victory that became a nomination and eventual election. More excellent authors joined Castalia House, Infogalactic and Gab were launched, I finally got some new Selenoth out the door, and Milo became the bestselling author on all of Amazon. Incredible.

In 2016, Vox Popoli had 25,817,343 pageviews and Alpha Game 5,332,285 for a total of 31,149,628
Google pageviews. The blogs are now running at a average rate of 85,341 daily pageviews, up from an average 56,923 last year. The running annual pageview totals are as follows:

2008: 3,496,757
2009: 4,414,801
2010: 4,827,183
2011: 5,969,066
2012: 7,774,074
2013: 13,111,695
2014: 15,693,622
2015: 20,776,969
2016: 31,149,628

I very much appreciate the part you have all played in making that happen. On Twitter, I picked up an additional 21,000 followers, but that has proved irrelevant since I stopped using it in favor of Gab, where I now have 14,006 followers. We’ve been making so many server-related changes at Infogalactic of late that the statistics are a bit wonky, but it already has average daily traffic in excess of 90,000 pageviews. The Burn Unit is now 173 subscribers strong and we’re hoping to increase that to 1,000 by the end of the year while making serious progress in Phase Two. Dark Lord Designs now features 11 different t-shirt and sweatshirt designs in a variety of colors.

Castalia House grew from 37 titles, including 5 in print and 1 in audiobook, to 65, with 19 titles in print and 8 in audiobook. Book sales increased 54 percent, with print now accounting for 21 percent of the total. The three new editors made a big difference, although we did not get three of the books out that I anticipated releasing this time last year. This year, we’re looking forward to publishing new fiction from John C. Wright, Nick Cole, B.V. Larson and David VanDyke, Peter Grant, Mojo Mori, Stefan Molyneux, and Martin van Creveld, as well as non-fiction from Jerry Pournelle, Jeffro Johnson, Mike Cernovich, Vox Day, and Martin van Creveld.

Yes, that’s correct. Castalia House will be publishing a novel by Martin van Creveld, which I believe will be his debut novel. I think I can guarantee that the subject matter will blow everyone’s minds. Think CS Lewis meets Robert Graves. We’ll also get the Eternal Warriors trilogy out this year, in ebook and in print, as well as the three volumes that comprise the Collected Columns from my WND days. I anticipate publishing two additional non-fiction books this year, plus the complete print edition of A Sea of Skulls.

Thanks to all of you who continue to support VP and all of its various endeavors. Thanks to the VFM for your mindless obedience and ever-burning hatred for the SJW enemy, thanks to the Dread Ilk for your awe-inspiring loyalty, thanks to the Brainstormers for your support and advice, thanks to the Original Galaxians, Techstars, Burn Unit and Phase 2 donators for making Infogalactic possible, thanks to the Rabid Puppies for your gleeful and wanton destruction, and thanks especially to the entire Castalia House team of authors, editors, proofreaders, and volunteers.

We may not be responsible for the God-Emperor’s ascension, but we are, without question, making a substantive difference in many people’s lives around the world. As good as 2016 was – and it was very good – I anticipate an even better 2017, as more Dread Ilk begin to spread their dark wings, launch their own initiatives, and begin rampaging across the land. In closing, I will note that it’s inspiring to see John Scalzi courageously keeping his nonexistent chin up despite another 11 percent decline in traffic at The Most Important Blog in Science Fiction Ever, a 38 percent decline from its 2012 peak that has brought it back to late-2009 levels of traffic. So brave. Thank you for this.

What a shameless hypocrite

Angela Merkel has got to be the most shameless hypocrite in the world today.

Angela Merkel has told German citizens that the biggest challenge the country is facing is from Islamist terrorism. In her New Year message she tells Germans that their country is stronger than terrorism and the government will do everything to ensure ‘security in freedom’.

In her annual televised message, which is being broadcast today, chancellor Mrs Merkel says 2016 has been ‘a year of severe tests’, the toughest of them Islamic extremist terror. But she adds, however, that she is ‘confident for Germany’.

‘It is particularly bitter and sickening when terror attacks are committed by people who claim to seek protection in our country,’ Mrs Merkel, who has faced criticism for allowing large numbers of migrants into Germany in 2015, says in her address. But ‘in going about our life and our work, we are telling the terrorists: you are murderers full of hatred but you will not determine how we live and want to live’.

‘We are free, considerate and open,’ she adds.

What Germans are is sitting ducks, helpless and restrained from defending themselves, their nation, and their culture, as long as this horrible, hypocritical woman is in power.

On cherishing extremists

People have asked me, repeatedly, if I am not violating my stated tactic of “protect and cherish your extremists” when I criticize those on the right for doing what I consider to be objectively stupid things. The answer is both simple and obvious: no.

You protect an extremist by refusing to criticize him when he does something extreme to the enemy in the interest of the cause. You protect an extremist by refusing to criticize the excessive tactics he utilizes in taking the battle to the other side. You do not protect an idiot by refusing to criticize him when he a) acts like a moderate and attacks someone on your side, b) does something idiotic and irrelevant, c) serves the interests of the other side by dancing for the media.

The latter really isn’t that hard to understand. Look at how the media actually went so far as to pay for the KKK’s wood and fuel just so they could create evidence to support their “stupid white people is raciss” narrative.

TIJAT producers went so far as to orchestrate more than one cross-burning ceremony in Pulaski, though it is presented in the documentary as if the KKK is actually hosting the event. “We’ve been allowed special access to film this secret induction,” reads a title card that precedes one of the cross-burning scenes.

“It was the producers who told me they wanted a cross-lighting,” recounted Nichols. “In fact they made two cross-lightings cause they wanted to reshoot some scenes. They bought everything—the wood, the burlap to wrap around the wood, the diesel and kerosene for my cross lighting. They even brought all the food for everyone.”

If you’re dressed in a monkey suit and dancing for the media, you’re not “playing 4d chess”, you’re not “mocking the media”, you’re not an extremist who merits defending, you’re just a dancing monkey being used by ruthless hypocrites on the other side.

“They kept asking me, wanting me, to use the word ‘nigger,’” said Nichols, who alleged he was paid $600 per day by producers to participate. “I was sitting down being filmed and interviewed with the lights and the backdrop set up, and I said something and used the word ‘blacks.’ Then the producer interrupted me and said ‘No, no, no. We want him to use the word “nigger!”’’’

There is always demand for idiots who will play media patsy. And while there are people who can go boldly into the lion’s den and make the lions do tricks, if your name is not “Donald Trump” or “Milo Yiannopoulos”, you are not one of them. Trust me on this. I am smarter than you, I am better-educated than you, and as a three-time nationally syndicated columnist, I have far more media experience than you. And yet, even I can’t do it reliably. That’s why I limit my contact with the media to written questions, and that’s why they don’t run my answers when they interview me. I don’t serve their narrative.

Turn your guns on allies and sympathizers instead of the enemy, and you lose all right to any cover or assistance or regard. I don’t have much tolerance for idiots and I don’t have any for those who attack my friends and allies. If you’re going to attack Mike and Milo and Stefan and Roosh, you won’t do it here and you will go immediately on my “ignore that idiot” list.

Told ya

Remember when Ronda Rousey claimed she was good enough to not only fight Floyd Mayweather, but beat him? That was every bit as dumb as everyone who knows anything about women’s martial arts capabilities said it was at the time:

Ronda Rousey was once again pummeled by a striker and lost her second consecutive bout. The former women’s bantamweight champion was completely outclassed in the striking game by Amanda Nunes, who stopped Rousey at 48 seconds of the first round to retain her women’s bantamweight championship in the main event of UFC 207 at T-Mobile Arena.

Nunes landed a big right just seconds into the fight that clearly hurt Rousey, who was fighting for the first time since a stunning defeat at the hands of Holly Holm on Nov. 14, 2015.

Rousey tried to throw punches with Nunes, but she had nothing to offer. Nunes was blistering her with combinations, hitting her with virtually everything she threw.

As I said at the time, Rousey not only couldn’t last a round with Floyd, she couldn’t last a round with me. Even trained women are weaker than 13 year-old-boys, they’re much slower than 13-year-old boys, and they don’t take punches as well.

Remember that. Every time you talk about how the latest female fighter du jour can take on a champion boxer or whoever, you’re essentially claiming that a really tough 11-year-old can beat the man. It’s not merely wrong to do so, it’s stupid and dangerous.

And notice that Nunes landed 23 of 35 strikes on a largely defenseless Rousey, but still didn’t put her down.