The traitorous Republican Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, was just ejected from the leadership position to which he never should have been elected.
First time in American history a motion to vacate has succeeded. Shortest serving speaker, clocking in at just 269 days.
It’s a little rich to complain about Republicans siding with the Democrats to give him the boot when the reason they did so was because of McCarthy striking a secret deal with Democrats to provide yet more funding for Ukraine.
If leaders won’t lead, get rid of them and find better ones.
Brad Torgersen and the Baen Anklebiter’s Brigade are STILL going on about Jon Del Arroz for no reason that anyone outside of their little Real Conservatives Club can discern.
This is a desperate and unconvincing attempt to reverse-DARVO. Remember, this was posted after Torgersen went out of his way to point out that JDA is divorced and even posted a link to the public record of the divorce filing.. Now, Torgersen was never a rocket scientist, but yes, if you’re publicly attacking someone over the state of their marriage, they are indeed the party who is being wronged.
It should be noted that JDA’s wife filed for divorce in November 2022. – Brad Torgersen, Oct 1, 2023
Duly noted, Torgersen. Duly noted. Just remember, you’re the one who established that marriages are fair game.
Now, regular readers already know what writers active in the community have to say about JDA. Supporting that is this email I received yesterday:
I thought I’d add my two cents regarding the character of Jon Del Arroz — when I reached out to him on Gab as a complete nobody writer in 2017, he gave me an excellent blurb for my book in a couple of weeks despite his presumably busy schedule. Afterwards, he took the time to follow up on the release and when he found out that I hadn’t sold any copies yet, he posted in a bunch of private groups to try and drum up some sales for me. Great guy and I’ll never forget his help.
It’s going to be hilarious when Baen finally shuts down and all these wannabes and never-weres finally stop pretending that they’re the only real professional writers because someone once offered them a book contract for $5,000. What’s so amusing about their bizarre pretensions is that real writers with the talent to get signed by the major houses and the literary houses – which is to say, writers like me – have always scorned the talentless genre writers signed to specialty imprints like Baen.
Note: I said writers like me. Not me personally. I’ve never scorned independent or genre writers and after repeatedly getting paid to not write books from the major houses, the only reason I talk to Random House and Simon & Schuster these days is to acquire rights from them.
But perhaps the funniest thing about this Baen Books professional in the business is that he has all of 3,087 Twitter followers.
Authors Larry Correia and Brad Torgosen have been attacking their fellow author Jon Del Arroz, I think because he uses internet controversy as a marketing strategy. Apparently that’s a no-no? And they’ve attempted to use personal family troubles of Del Arroz as a weapon in their campaign, which is despicable. So I thought I should add my voice to the character witnesses for Del Arroz.
The mass of facts is getting to the point where even the deranged NATO strategists are beginning to have to admit their relevance to the situation and the total impossibility of the NATO objectives.
Western arms and ammunition shortages. In June this year, British Defense Secretary Wallace said that Western countries had run out of national stocks of weapons that could be supplied to Kiev. For his part, Biden admitted in July that the decision to give cluster munitions to Ukraine was made because conventional shells had been exhausted.
Public confidence in politicians in Europe and the U.S. has been lost. Ratings of distrust towards the heads of state of the EU and the USA are at a historical peak. 57 percent disapprove of Biden’s actions, 69 percent disapprove of Macron’s actions, 72 percent disapprove of Scholz’s actions. The majority of people in the US and European countries oppose supplying arms to Ukraine.
The failure of the Kiev regime’s counteroffensive. The Ukrainian military, backed by NATO, has suffered huge losses in equipment and manpower. The lack of any results has disappointed Western sponsors.
Economic problems of Europe and the USA. Eurozone economies are in recession. Germany is forced to cut social payments to poor families because of the costs of militarization of the Kiev regime. France has reduced the number of aid recipients; food packages are no longer distributed to those in need, and reimbursing of the purchase of medicines has been cut back. International agencies, expecting deterioration of the financial situation of the United States in the next three years, downgraded the long-term investment rating of the United States.
Shortage of Ukrainian army personnel. The Kiev regime is mobilizing men over 50 years old, as well as those with tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, HIV, and others. From October 1, 2023, women will also be enrolled in the military register. Nurses, doctors and pharmacists will be barred from leaving Ukraine.
Ukraine is bankrupt. Ukraine’s GDP in 2022 fell by 30.4 percent—the worst result in the country’s history. Without help from Washington and Brussels, Kiev cannot fulfill its obligations to its citizens. Ukraine has lost its financial autonomy.
Demographic catastrophe in Ukraine. More than 10.5 million people fled from Ukraine. Another 11.2 million residents of Crimea, Sevastopol, Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as Zaporizhya and Kherson regions made their choice to be with Russia. Since 2014, Ukraine has lost 53.7 percent of its population.
These 7 facts speak for themselves: Either the Kiev regime capitulates on the terms of the Russian Federation or Ukraine will cease to exist as a state.
The madness will end, and the sooner it ends, the better. Ukraine has already been comprehensively defeated. It has lost a higher percentage of its population than any of the defeated Axis states in WWII and any of the Triple Alliance states in WWI. NATO has been exposed as a paper tiger and the G7 “global” economy has been exposed as a mere regional one with no control and little influence over 80 percent of the planetary population.
WWIII will not end when Ukraine surrenders, but a NATO surrender on the Near Eastern Front will spare Europe some of the suffering that the Ukrainian people have experienced, because the war with China is going to be far more economically devastating than the proxy war with Russia has been.
I started writing a story for the forthcoming cyberpunk issue of Stupefying Stories, but it turned out to be unneeded, so I initially abandoned it. Then I recalled that we’re going to release the print edition of The Altar of Hate, my collection of non-Selenoth, non-Quantum Mortis short stories, as soon as we get the second Chuck Dixon’s Conan out the door.
So, here’s a preview of “Shinjuku Satan”:
They call me doctor. Partly because I have a doctorate in neuropsychology from Nanyang Technopolitan, but mostly because doctor is what you call the man in the white coat when you, or your kid, or your cat, isn’t feeling well. Most of the time, the doctor can fix what’s wrong with you, the kid, or the cat. And when he can’t, then the doctor is the guy who gets called in to put them down. I have an office on the 40th floor of the Tanjong Pagar Center, but it’s not your normal doctor’s office. It’s just one room, with a desk, three chairs, a coffee table, and a couch that looks exactly like what it is, a deluxe set ordered from the Professional Office section of the Japandi-Ikea site. The 96-inch flat-screen is above the couch and across from my desk, which permits me to maintain the illusion that I’m on top of things. Of course, I’m not, because no one who has to sleep more than fifteen minutes a day can possibly keep up with global events without round-the-clock digital assistance. The gentle sigh of a wind chime announces something new has happened somewhere, something algorithmically deemed worthy of my attention. “What’cha got, Suzie?” I address the empty room and the screen wakes up. A platinum blonde 80’s-era cybergirl appears, with Barbie-pink lips, a wicked smile, and eyes like silver mirrors. Suzie Shades. She’s my main girl, my colleague, my librarian, and my confessor all rolled into one. Some might say she’s not real, but she’s as real as anything else is to me. And if her intelligence is artificial, she’s got considerably more of it than your average man on the street. “A request for a meeting from the Archbishop of Chengdu.” “Archbishop?” “In this specific case, the title refers to a priest in service to The Most Holy and Apostolic Catholic Church with Chinese Characteristics. Address him as Eminence.” “Put him through.” She coughs, delicately. It’s her way of informing me that I’m being obtuse. “He’s here, in the protein.” “Very cute. Where?” “The elevator. Just hitting the thirteenth floor now.” I stand up and glance around the office space to make sure there is nothing exposed that might offend an Archbishop with Chinese Characteristics, whatever that might be. Then Suzie vanishes from the screen and is replaced by a live image of the corridor outside my office, in which stands nothing but a single potted plant until a man who definitely has Chinese characteristics, but is wearing a well-cut black suit with a red collar in the place of a necktie, strides past it. “The Archbishop Zhang Wenlan,” Suzie intones a moment before the door opens itself before my unscheduled visitor. I rise to my feet. I’m not sure what the protocol for greeting an archbishop of any sort might be, much less one with Chinese Characteristics but civility is my compass where potential clients are concerned. “Anata no sonzai wa kōeidesu, Archbishop.” I bow as deeply as I can without cracking my forehead on the desk. “Dono yo ni o yakunitate reba yoideshou ka?” “Doctor Sagamihara,” he says, with a barely perceptible inclination of his head. Status superior, but he’s willing to speak on neutral ground. So we’ve got that established. English it is. Good to know where I stand vis-a-vis His Eminence. His Eminence is younger than I would have imagined, or perhaps just better enhanced. My best guess is sixty going on forty. He looks standard, but then, so do I. And I am, as they say, a very technical boy. “We are informed that you are the world’s foremost digital neuropsychologist, specializing in the neurotherapeutic treatment, and if necessary, euthanasia, of disordered machine intelligences. Would you say that is a fair characterization?” “Fair enough. It might be more succinct to call me a Rogue AI Hunter, but then I’d have to cut my rates in half, and in half again.” “And your rates are?” “Ten thousand gonghui per day, plus expenses.” “We prefer to pay a flat fee. Five hundred thousand gonghui on acceptance and five million upon completion of the project to our satisfaction. Plus approved expenses, said approval not to be unreasonably withheld. Are those terms acceptable?” I do a little math in my head. That’s fifty days at a full rate up front. It tells me that either The Most Holy and Apostolic Catholic Church with Chinese Characteristics doesn’t have an abacus or this job is going to be a definite bitch-and-a-half. Regardless, the offer is much too good to refuse. “The terms are acceptable,” I graciously allow. “So spill, comrade padre. What’s the job? And don’t leave out all the little devils in the details.” “It’s not a question of devils,” the archbishop says with a smile that never comes close to reaching his black eyes. “But rather gods, I’m afraid.”
I don’t think this declaration by Germany’s Foreign Minister is going to age well, especially how it calls back to the infamous Lebensraum policy of the Third Reich.
Ukraine’s future “lies in” the European Union, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Monday, adding that the bloc would soon incorporate regions that had joined Russia in 2022 but are still claimed by Kiev.
“[The EU] will soon stretch from Lisbon to Lugansk,” Baerbock told journalists on the sidelines of the EU foreign ministers’ meeting in the Ukrainian capital.
Lugansk is the capital of the Lugansk People’s Republic – one of the two former eastern Ukrainian regions that declared independence from Kiev in 2014 in the wake of the Western-backed Maidan coup in Kiev. Russia recognized its independence in February 2022, just days before the start of its military campaign in Ukraine. In autumn 2022, the Lugansk People’s Republic joined Russia, together with three other former Ukrainian territories following a series of referendums.
I don’t think this will surprise the Russians, who have known they were going to have to defeat NATO directly ever since the decapitation attack on Kiev failed at the beginning of the special military operation. And while I’m confident the Russians aren’t seeking a European empire, I think it is far more likely that Imperial Russia will stretch from Primorsky Krai to Porto than the EU will reach Lugansk. I very much doubt either Ukraine or the EU will survive WWIII as political entities.
This does not bode well for Europeans who had hoped for saner governments in the aftermath of the inevitable failure of the Ukro-NATO offensive.
The brilliant Hans Schantz tells of his differing experiences with Jon Del Arroz and the big-name authors who are presently engaged in a series of unprofessional and inappropriate attacks on the Arkhaven author:
As my fans and Wise of Heart subscribers are well aware, I run periodic “Based Book Sales” where indie and small press authors join together to offer some of their books at $0.99 or free. I compile them in a couple of big blog posts and we all use our social media reach and email lists to promote the sale. We introduce our readers to other authors whose works they might find interesting. And those other authors introduce their readers to our books. It’s a win-win.
Lately, sales have been moving about a thousand books in each outing. The all-time record was about five thousand. Each sale connects several dozen authors to hundreds of new readers. And Jon del Arroz has been there since the beginning, participating and helping out fellow authors, most of whom have no where near his social media reach.
The big-name authors are well aware of the sale. We even include their books, since our readers may not be familiar with some of them and might appreciate being introduced to a new author. But with few exceptions, they prefer to whine about how they are being ignored by influencers with greater reach than theirs, while at the same time refusing to lend a hand to the “parasites” trying to “ride on their coat tails”…
The “Sad Puppies” saga is not my story to tell. I was merely one of thousands of backers and supporters of the movement. From my in-the-trenches perspective, though, it was an effort to carve out a niche for non-woke fiction from the Skittle-hair people in the publishing industry who sought to ignore and suppress not only dissenting views, but also any fiction that failed to properly kow-tow to their diversity quotas and social justice diktats. Great progress was made… until big-name authors and their big-name publishers decided enough controversy was enough, their point had been made and they were going to take their flags and go home, abandoning the rest of us on the field of battle.
Painful as that betrayal was at the time, it was probably for the best, because it gave rise to a more decentralized and less cancellable movement. Individual creators carved out their own independent pieces of a based literature movement, call it “Iron Age,” or “Comicsgate,” or “Superversive.” Based creators making based fiction and graphic novels serving their fans and defying their would-be gatekeepers.
And the legacy big-name authors and some of their fans are clueless and fail to understand what Jon means when he says “I am the leader of Sad Puppies,” for he omits the rest of the Gamergate-inspired mantra: “and so can you.”
L’Affaire del Arroz, 2 October 2023
As it happens, the Sad Puppies saga and the Comicsgate kerfluffle are my stories to tell, and I will tell them when I appear on Jon Del Arroz’s stream on Thursday night for an interview with him. It’s not my intention to criticize anyone, victimize anyone, or air any dirty laundry – and there isn’t any to air anyhow, Sad Puppies really was just a fundamental difference of opinions – but I will ensure that everyone knows exactly what happened and why it happened for future reference.
We’ll also have a new announcement to make concerning Alt-Hero.
In the interest of full disclosure, I note that Hans Schantz is an Arktoons contributor and I have occasionally supported his Based Book Sales marketing efforts.
This is a very good summary of how to meme effectively takes into account everything from Aristotle to GamerGate.
THE ON MEMEWAR GUIDE TO WRITING BETTER PROPAGANDA
THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE: CATCH PEOPLE’S ATTENTION AND HOLD IT BY BEING ENTERTAINING
KNOW YOUR TARGET:
Have a specific target in mind (either a person, or a well-developed stereotype). Know the narratives they use to make sense of the world.
Know what they are likely to find entertaining.
WRITE TO THE NARRATIVE:
Use a message that the target is likely to agree with.
If this is not possible, frame the message that they will disagree with in terms that they are likely to agree with. Ensure it fits enough so that it is not just recognizable, but is considered true without having to think about it. Use vague terms that are likely to have wide appeal, and can be applied to whatever the target has in mind.
BE ENTERTAINING:
Ensure that the propaganda is concise enough to be easily understood and digested.
Follow the setup/payoff model:
Setup: A familiar premise that sets expectations.
Payoff: An unexpected development that subverts the expectation.
The Payoff must be delivered quickly enough to trigger the ‘sudden realization’ that induces humor.
The setup and payoff can be Explicit (A guy walks into a bar) Contextual (your boss farts in a meeting) or Ironic (A towtruck stuck in a ditch)
Use forms and motifs from propaganda that is already successful. This ensures recognizability, which is eye-catching.
It also means there is a high likelihood that the person will find it entertaining.
EMOTIONAL MANIPULATION:
A strong emotion will overwhelm the target’s ability to rationally think through the implications of the message. Any emotion can achieve this. A very funny piece, an enraging piece, or a piece that causes dread or demoralization can be effective. AS LONG AS IT RESONATES WITH THE TARGET’S NARRATIVES.
HAVE A PURPOSE:
The propaganda should work to convey a narrative message. This can be a simple message about a person (or group of people).
IE, Joe Biden or all Democrats are stupid.
This can also be a way to contextualize events or relations.
IE, Joe Biden wants to tax us to death, the Democrats are running up the deficit.
The best messages are short and simple.
Overtime, the cumulative effect of many short messages will change a person’s worldview.
Some of the memes being produced in accordance with this guidance, and utilizing the latest DALL-E AI graphics engine, are very good. One example:
Almost 90 retail leaders, including the bosses of Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Boots and WH Smith, have written to the government demanding action on rising retail crime, in which violent criminals are “emptying stores”.
The retailers, who also include the bosses of Aldi, Primark and Superdrug, call for the creation of a new UK-wide aggravated offence of assaulting or abusing a retail worker – as already exists in Scotland – which would carry tougher sentences and require police to record all incidents of retail crime and allow the allocation of more resources.
“The police consistently tell us that a lack of data about these offences means they have no visibility about the nature or scale of the issue,” the letter says.
The 88 retail bosses have asked for a meeting with the home secretary, Suella Braverman, to discuss the issue after a meeting with the minister for crime, Chris Philp, led to the promise to develop an action plan.
The call comes after retailers, including the Co-op and John Lewis, highlighted what they said was a worsening issue. A survey of members of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents all the major chains, found levels of shoplifting in 10 of the biggest cities had risen by an average of 27% this year.
Meanwhile, the police’s own data for one major retailer shows that forces failed to respond to 73% of serious retail crimes that were reported, while 44% of retailers in the BRC’s annual crime survey rated the police response as “poor” or “very poor”.
Apparently the English dirt isn’t magic either. Of course, all of the “retail leaders” complaining about immigrant crime are still funding advertising that relentlessly pushes Africans into every single ad on British television. To judge by the advertising, and by the advertising for the shows, you’d think that BBC stood for the Botswana Broadcasting Corporation.
However, speaking of British television advertising, I was excited to spot family number 15 for the man who appears to be the primary black actor available for hire as a family man this last week. That makes 12 white wives and 3 black ones for him so far.
Jon is a sociopathic grifter who goes through life trying to insert himself into other peoples’ troubles to try and score clout for himself. He starts shit for others and then cries how he’s a victim. When you take exception to him fucking people over for clout he will say everybody but him is a secret leftist sell out and you just hate him because he’s “Christian”. Do not trust him. He’s fucking cancer. Seriously. I can’t accentuate this enough. Trust him at your own peril. That dude is the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Larry Correia, 25 September 2023
I have zero interest in saying anything negative about Larry Correia or contributing to the never-ending stream of Baen-related drama. I’ve never had any problem with him, personal or professional. He’s a significant figure of the right-wing cultural scene and I like both his Monster Hunter and Grimoire novels. Quantum Mortis: A Man Disrupted was a conscious attempt to out gun-porn Larry in a science fiction setting. And even our disagreement about the ideal way to handle the Hugo Awards led directly to my favorite experience of my entire literary career, the epic two-year Rabid Puppies rampage, for which I will always be grateful.
However, given the public nature of these accusations about a valued contributor to both Arktoons and Unauthorized, I would be remiss if I did not clearly state for the record that Larry Correia is flat-out wrong about Jon Del Arroz. Larry is flat-out and provably wrong. I can testify, from personal experience, that Jon is neither “fucking cancer” nor a “vile fucker”, and that it’s both unprofessional and incorrect for any established writer to assert that he is.
Unauthorized subscribers who wish to hear Jon’s take can watch his UATV-exclusive video on the subject.
And since we’re speaking of Jon Del Arroz, I’m pleased to observe that his novel JUSTIFIED, the first in The Saga of the Nano Templar, launched in episodic format on Arktoons today.
