Category: Uncategorized

Never Give Up Cash

The problems of paper money pale in comparison with those of a cashless economy.

Credit cards could not be used at convenience stores and other merchants across Japan for hours on Thursday following a system outage that also affected some transportation companies’ credit card-linked electronic money apps. Major credit card issuer Mitsubishi UFJ Nicos Co. said the trouble began around 8 a.m. when card payments could not be processed at some merchants, while Sumitomo Mitsui Card Co. reported a similar problem.

The card companies said the trouble was caused by an outage in an international credit card brand’s network connecting merchants with card issuers. Sources familiar with the matter said the outage occurred within Visa’s network.

Every nation should go to the maximum extremes, including adopting constitutional measures, to ensure that the banks are never allowed to force the people into using digital payment methods. Just their dependence upon electricity is sufficient to demonstrate the absolute need to avoid a digital payments monopoly.

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The Postmortem

Reading the English media and social media vs the rest of world media and social media is absolutely surreal today. If you have an Instagram account, I HIGHLY recommend a scroll-through.

England:

  • IT’S THOMAS TUCHEL’S FAULT! We did NOT bring him in to do what Southgate would have done with a 1-0 lead!
  • We were totally in control of the game until we scored. Why did the manager leash our Brave Lions?
  • The first Argentine goal-scorer should have gotten a red card in the first three minutes of the game.
  • Pickford should have saved that first goal.

Everyone else

  • MESSI IS FOOTBALL!
  • It’s Jude Bellingham’s fault. Why did he pick a fight with Lionel Messi? What did he think would happen?
  • How did Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham, and Eliot Anderson not get yellow cards for their violent fouls on Messi?
  • Pickford was amazing in saving two certain goals.

I just find the contrast intriguing. Especially since it tends to show how it should not be surprising that the English players would have a tendency to go conservative and play negative. Here’s one observation that I’ve only seen once, but I think may be particularly perspicacious: Tuchel was tell his players to keep pushing forward, but they wouldn’t do it after they had the lead. So his defensive substitution wasn’t his tactical plan, it was an attempt to structurally defend what he observed was the shift in the players’ collective mentality.

Also, while Bellingham is a great player, he’s a hothead and more than a bit of a stupid prick. So the fact that he was dumb enough to follow in the footsteps of those who angered Michael Jordan and Steve Smith and inspired them to new heights in big games shouldn’t be a massive surprise.

Jude Bellingham was caught slapping rival Argentinian player Valentin Barco in feisty full-time scenes following England’s World Cup capitulation in Atlanta. Bellingham aimed a slap at the back of the head of Strasbourg star Barco, who did not even play in the match, in the aftermath of the Three Lions’ late collapse and 2-1 defeat.

UPDATE: Everyone blaming Tuchel for parking the bus is ignoring the timeline.

England were on the precipice of their first World Cup final in 60 years after taking the lead in the 55th minute through Anthony Gordon, but Tuchel opted to park the bus rather than try for a second goal. The German moved to play five at the back, with Gordon coming off for Ezri Konsa in the 72nd minute. Declan Rice and Reece James then made way for Dan Burn and Nico O’Reilly 10 minutes later.

The change they’re all blaming was 17 minutes later. Which is why I suspect that the fault for switching to a defensive mindset lay more with the England players than with the manager. If you’re urging your players to keep attacking, but they’re falling back despite your instructions, then reinforcing your defense is the correct decision whether it works out in the end or not.

After the match, Tuchel insisted he had ‘no regrets’ about his tactical decisions, arguing that the problems began before any of his changes were made.

What he probably needed to do to give England its very best chance to win was take off Harry Kane and whichever midfielder had shifted to a defensive mindset, but imagine how his critics would be howling for his head if he’d done that with a 1-0 lead and it didn’t work out! Tuchel hasn’t criticized any of the players, but he has said that he has no regrets about his changes, so I’m reasonably confident that this is the correct explanation for what so many people have found puzzling.

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Argentina 2 England 1

It was a very good game. Very chippy in the first half, as expected, but like the France-Spain semifinal, one of the more entertaining matches of the Mondiale. England’s goal was magnificent, but it didn’t escape either manager’s notice that it was against the run of play. I thought at the time – not after the fact, like a lot of commenters now that the results are known – that it was a big mistake to switch into a defensive mode and try to hold on against the very experienced reigning World Champions.

I actually thought Argentina was a bit sloppy and careless, particularly at the back, until after England scored. In addition to sparking the change in England’s tactics, it also served to focus the Argentines; they would have scored almost right away if it weren’t for a fantastic return and last-ditch tackle by Jed Spence.

I thought the game was over after that 15-second span when Argentina nearly scored three times. Pickford was playing out of his mind in the English goal, but what works against teams like Mexico and Norway was never going to work against Argentina. They could have scored 7 times in the last 20 minutes, and only two posts, Messi deciding to waste time at the very end, and Pickford’s heroics kept the final score from being worse.

I thought England did very well against a better team, and while I would have gambled on trying to score a second goal and winning the game outright rather than trying to hold on, I understand why Tuchel decided to go defensive and it’s entirely possible that the end result would have been even worse. Again, England’s goal was against the run of play and Argentina was both a little unlucky and a little defensively lazy on the goal and the action leading up to it.

The fundamental problem, which so few professional managers understand, is that the cost of the mentality shift is seldom worth the benefit from having more men in the box. This is especially true when trying to defend against a team with at least five players capable of scoring outside the box and several excellent crossers. Messi is rightfully being praised for his two assists, but the low crosses being repeatedly whipped in from the right side by #4, I think it was, were simply lethal. Frankly, I thought England did extremely well to avoid committing any fouls and giving up any penalties in the last 20 minutes.

Anyhow, we’ll discuss more on tonight’s Darkstream, which will be devoted to discussing a) the World Cup, b) the upcoming AI campaign, and c) possibly a new song.

UPDATE: Before anyone complains about Argentina playing rough, I checked it out in slow motion and Jude Bellingham should definitely been called for a penalty for this foul against Messi. He literally put an arm around him, drove his shoulder into him, and knocked him down in the box without ever touching the ball.

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The Lies of Judeo Peterson

Jordan Peterson has set aside the apple cider and the meth long enough to delve into Judeo-Christian mythology.

With regard to “Judeo Christian”:

The 10 Commandments are Jewish.

The great stories of the Old Testament are Jewish.

The Jews developed the idea of subsidiarity as the alternative to tyranny and slavery.

The Jews established the cultural preconditions for the rise of universal literacy.

The fate of Israel at the hands of the Islamists is the fate of the West.

This rising tide of anti-semitism sickens me. Those of you engaging in it for your oh-so-moral reasons—you’re despicable.

And remember, you proud “Christians” objecting in all your purity to the term:

Christ Himself was a Jew.

First, the 10 Commandments are not, and have never been, Jewish. They are divine. Even if we credit them to Moses, Moses was not of the tribe of Judah. Moses was a Levite.

Second, a few of the great stories of the Old Testament are Jewish, but most of them are not. In fact, the first two Jewish stories from the Bible involve a) slavery, and b) incest. Judah was the one who convinced his brothers to sell Joseph into slavery rather than killing him and was later seduced by his daughter-in-law and had not one, but two sons by her.

Third, Jews were the biggest slave owners in American history and the primary owners of the New World slave trade. They have never had any moral problem with slavery, and some of them still believe that their satanic god is going to provide each of them with more than two thousand slaves apiece when they rule the world.

Fourth, Gutenberg wasn’t a Jew. Also, what universal literacy? Literacy rates have been falling in the West for decades.

Fifth, Israel is currently a significant problem for the West. The West’s fate is not tied to Israel’s in any way, shape, or form.

Sixth, anyone who believes that anti-satanism is anti-semitism is a satanist. Repent.

And finally, Jordan Peterson has absolutely no standing to say anything whatsoever about Christianity. He is, quite literally, on the other side and a servant of evil, both material and spiritual. He is an occultist and a blasphemer, and his own books indicate that he is at least demonically-oppressed, if not actually possessed.

Jesus Christ of Nazareth was a Nazarene and possibly of the tribe of Judah, although the Bible never identifies to which tribe Mary belonged. We know that Joseph was of the tribe of Judah, but Jesus was not his son. The Romans have a better documented claim to him. Regardless, Jesus Christ does not appear to have ever been a member of the satanic Babylonian religious group that hated him and demanded his death; at that time the Pharisees were mostly, though not exclusively, Levites. It is blasphemy to claim that Jesus Christ was a Jew; he was the Son of God, not a son of the Father of Lies.

Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would. And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.

When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified.

When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.

The word “judeo-christian” is a satanic rhetorical lie concocted by a small number of Jewish leaders after WWII in order to better help them integrate and gain influence in what was then Christian America. The Chosen, a great novel by Chaim Potok, describes that era. Prior to WWII, the term indicated a former Jew who had converted to Christianity.

This was my direct response to Peterson’s tweet, in addition to the Stonetoss comic.

You’re a satanic liar, Judeo-Peterson. I called you out about your lies concerning Jewish IQ years ago, and now you’re lying about Jesus Christ himself. Also, Moses was a Levite, you apple cider-addled moron. The Old Testament isn’t “Jewish” at all.

Those who lie about the past always rely upon the amphibolic redefinition. It should be no surprise that it was the specific tactic utilized here.

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Russia = Charlie Brown

The Foreign Minister says that this time, for sure, Russia will stop believing that Clown World is going to pull the football away:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has announced that Russia will no longer believe the West when it claims to seek “negotiated solutions on Ukraine”.

Source: Russian propaganda agencies TASS and RIA Novosti

Quote: “We will no longer believe the West that it wants negotiated solutions. This reserve of goodwill and hope has been exhausted entirely.”

Details: According to Lavrov, the West is allegedly simulating readiness for negotiations on Ukraine while “now openly beginning to issue ultimatums to Russia”.

With all due respect to Mr. Lavrov, once you’ve determined that a party is “agreement incapable” then if you choose to believe anything that party says going forward, it’s really on you. I frankly have no idea why Russia or Iran continue to entertain “negotiations” with any of the Clown World entities at this point nor do I see what positive purpose any pretense at believing in the legitimacy of the fake negotiations serves their interests.

Granted, attrition is on the side of both Russia or Iran, so perhaps they’re simply playing along with Clown World’s desire to postpone its collapse in order to reduce any risks to the process. But if so, then what is the point of publicly declaring, again, that you don’t believe them.

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Spain 2 France 0

Spain definitely kicked it up a gear. That’s the way possession football should be played, using the ball to attack relentlessly rather than having the defenders passing it around. Spain took risks, but they had the speed, the fitness, and the technical skill to do so. It was probably the best game of this Mondiale to date.

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A Clown World Assassination

It appears Ann Widdecombe was murdered as part of a planned assassination campaign against Reform UK leaders:

Police investigating the alleged murder of Ann Widdecombe are looking at whether the suspect was targeting ‘other Reform politicians’.

The Head of Counter Terrorism Policing, Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, said the political veteran was the victim of a ‘targeted attack’ and confirmed officers are still looking into any ‘motivation’ behind the 78-year-old’s death.

Police believe the former Tory minister – latterly Reform’s justice and immigration spokesman – was killed in her remote Dartmoor home on Wednesday lunchtime.

A 28-year-old remains in custody on suspicion of murder and terror offences.

Mr Taylor said this afternoon: ‘It is clear that this was a targeted attack.

‘We are still working to understand the extent of any planning or preparation, and the motivation that sits behind that attack.

We’ve already seen an attempt at creating a financial scandal around Farage, which suggests that the decline of the Labour and Conservative Parties may be more precipitous than anyone had imagined.

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No Path to Surrender

A Swiss journalist travels to Kiev to take the measure of the popularity of the regime that rules the remnants of Ukraine, and what he finds there is not really encouraging for anyone.

There are countless radio and television stations, but they all present a single point of view. All opposition stations in Ukraine have been shut down. Even a completely harmless discussion about the causes of the conflict can lead to criminal prosecution and actual prison sentences. Some journalists have managed to flee and are now operating from outside Ukraine. But they have only very limited influence on the people inside the country; I explained the reasons for this earlier.

The same applies to political organizations. They all conform to the prevailing opinion. In the Rada, the parliament, there are various parties, but only one political direction. There is no political force capable of considering all sides of the conflict and serving as a guide for the citizens of Ukraine.

Many readers will ask: How much support does the Ukrainian leadership have among the population?

None of the people I spoke with expressed open support for the Ukrainian leadership. For some, given their specific living circumstances, this can certainly be seen as an expression of personal resistance. Others simply want to hang in there and be left in peace. Still others, who openly supported the government just one or two years ago, are now conspicuously reluctant to make such statements. What they all have in common is a longing for a normal life, without war.

Based on what I was able to gather during my few days there, the regime does not enjoy broad support. It is perceived as a small group of criminals who, with the help of the West, have a firm grip on the structures of power, know how to exploit them brutally, and base everything else on that.

Unfortunately, this leaves Russia with no choice but to end this conflict on the battlefield by military means—a conflict that should never have started in the first place.

The problem, of course, is that the leadership isn’t Ukrainian. The regime is foreign, and is observably less interested in the wellbeing of the Ukrainian people than the Russian leadership is.

This is why empire is a short-sighted endeavor and why permitting foreigners to join the national elite is always a stupid and fatal mistake for a nation. Foreign rulers always come to view the nations over which they rule as tools to be utilized as they please, and will never hesitate to destroy the people if they happen see their destruction as being in their own interest.

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Losing the Technological Lead

The US government is badly mishandling the way AI is developed and utilized, and has already just about ensured that China will soon secure leadership in the AI arena:

Chinese models have held above 30% of the platform’s enterprise token volume every week since February 8, peaking at 46% in June. US-origin models from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google have collectively fallen to 35.7%. DeepSeek commands 17.6% of routed tokens as the platform’s single largest vendor, and Alibaba’s Qwen follows at 13.9%.

Lindy, an AI automation company, migrated all of its traffic from Claude to DeepSeek and projects millions in savings. Coinbase runs 1,200 AI agents on Chinese models and halved its AI spending. Uber burned through its annual AI budget in four months as AI coding tool usage surged beyond the company’s ability to tie it to shipped products. Harpreet Arora, Vercel’s head of agentic infrastructure, told CNBC that enterprise teams now route tasks to the cheapest model that clears the quality bar, and Chinese models consistently win that trade.

The June 12 suspension of Anthropic’s Fable 5 under export controls pulled one of the most capable US models offline for 18 days. Chinese AI usage by US firms surged during the blackout, as enterprises discovered that cheaper alternatives cleared their quality bars. OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 spent its first 13 days in a government-coordinated preview limited to roughly 20 vetted organizations before launching publicly on July 9. During both windows, Chinese open-weight models faced no comparable restrictions on global distribution. Access to Fable 5 returned on July 1. The CNBC data, published six days later, showed that Chinese model share had not retreated since the shift began in February.

One of the things that is absolutely maddening about the way Western governments operate is that they regard taxation and regulation as being their primary priorities, thereby forcing productive and innovative people and organizations to waste a tremendous amount of time on unproductive activities as well as degrading the capabilities of their products in order to comply with government concerns.

The suspension of Fable – which I quite literally cannot even use due to my Athos skill settings – is a perfect example of the costs this imposes on US businesses. The problem isn’t just that the new advanced model wasn’t available for a limited period of time, it is that everyone now recognizes that reliable future access to it and newer models can no longer be assured.

Which, of course, is why we will be crowdfunding our Castalia AI project very soon. The team is established, we’re already on version 4.5 of the build document, and a lot of people have contacted me or posted on SG to confirm they will be strongly supporting this project.

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TRANSLATION: Zaragoza

Castalia House’s epic quest to translate the entirety of the historic Spanish Episodios Nacionales into the English language continues with the publication of the sixth book, Zaragoza, about the French siege of the Spanish city during the Peninsular War.

The sixth volume of the Episodios Nacionales — the great historical novel cycle of Spain — Zaragoza takes Gabriel Araceli into the most terrible siege in modern European history: the second French assault on the Aragonese capital, where sixty thousand civilians and soldiers held the ruins of their city against Napoleon’s marshals through two months of bombardment, starvation, plague, and hand-to-hand fighting in the cellars.

Gabriel arrives in Zaragoza half-starved and in rags, having escaped a French prisoner column in the company of Don Roque. They sleep among beggars in the shattered monastery of Santa Engracia and are taken in by Don José de Montoria, a proud Aragonese labrador of iron convictions and volcanic patriotism, who has given both his sons to the defence. The elder is already dead. The younger, Agustín, is a theology student whom the siege has transformed into a soldier and who is carrying on a desperate love affair with Mariquilla Candiola, the beautiful daughter of the most hated man in the city: el tío Candiola, a miser of Dickensian proportions whose house stands at the very edge of the French advance.

As the French tighten the noose, the novel compresses with the siege itself, from the open streets to the barricaded quarters, from the quarters to single houses defended room by room, from the houses to the tunnels where Spanish and French sappers dig toward each other in the dark. The city burns. The plague spreads. The dead lie unburied in the streets. Women carry ammunition under fire and friars take up muskets. And through it all, Gabriel watches the collision between Agustín’s love and his father’s honour, between the miser’s gold and the patriot’s sacrifice, between the claims of private tenderness and the needs of a city that will not surrender.

The book has already been delivered to the paid subscribers supporting Castalia’s translation efforts. You can read an excerpt from Zaragoza at Castalia Library.

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