Test One Comms Good

After six failed attempts, I finally got the Darkstream going live via YouTube, which considerably improves both the video and audio. If you want alerts for them, subscribe to the voxday channel, which you should note is NOT the Voxiversity channel. There were still a few minor bugs, which is why I deleted the video, but I should be able to get it rolling again tonight. Far more people are watching these on YouTube than on Periscope, and I’d rather not use a Twitter-owned service due to my being banned there anyhow.

Also, if you’re ELoE on Idka, check it out later today for more communications news.

An excellent cabinet for Italy

La Lega to get economy and interior.

Giuseppe Conte, 53, approved as the next prime minister of Italy by its president. He leads a rag-tag coalition of far-right and anti-establishment parties. They want to deport immigrants and hand out £14.9b in universal basic income. Mr Conte’s government was also seen as highly eurosceptic, particularly in choosing Paolo Savona as economy minister. Minister for industry between 1993-94, he was staunchly opposed to signing the Maastricht Treaty and said he considered the euro currency a ‘German cage’.

His planned appointment, and the coalition’s victory, was mat with dismay by European leaders. Conte’s appointment could herald an end to more than two months of political uncertainty in the eurozone’s third-biggest economy.

But he must now finalise his cabinet, the subject of days of tough negotiations between the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the far-right League.

The list of ministerial candidates must then be endorsed by head-of-state President Mattarella before it can seek parliamentary approval. Italian media reported League chief Matteo Salvini would become interior minister and Five Star leader Luigi Di Maio have the economic development ministry.

That’s big, because it means the Euro and immigration will be controlled by La Lega, not Cinque Stelle. It looks like Cinque Stelle wants to blow out the EU budgetary limits and hand out money to low-income Italians while La Lega gets rid of the invaders, both Eurocrats and Africans. It’s not a done deal yet, because Mattarella has to sign off on Savona and Salvini and he will be under tremendous pressure from the EU not to do so, but Salvini has made it clear that if he doesn’t, La Lega will simply force another election that will only strengthen the alliance’s hand.

This is a potentially better outcome than I had expected before the elections.

Show some respect

The NFL finally does what it should have done more than a year ago:

NFL owners agreed Wednesday to a new policy governing player’s behavior during the pre-game national anthem ceremony. Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that the owners voted to fine teams if their players are on the field or sideline during the national anthem but refuse to stand. Players will be allowed to remain in the locker room if they so choose. “This season, all league and team personnel shall stand and show respect for the flag and the anthem,” Goodell said in a statement. “Personnel who choose not to stand for the anthem may stay in the locker room until after the anthem has been performed.”

See, conservatives, that’s what actually putting your money where your mouth is can accomplish! Now how about you stop handing over your money to Disney and other Hollywood Values companies?

Mailvox: from participation prize to SJW

A reader drops some recent science on us:

The following is part of a comment at a subscription-only site that caught my attention, as it tied in so well with the shrunken-amygdala discussions held so often at VP.  It’s forwarded with permission of the comment’s author, with the bold/italics in the original:

How have humans been turned into snowflakes where emotions are in control and learning has been suppressed?  This article explains it.  When reward is uncertain (even if 90{1983971bb5de6643cbeaedda99937c85acb0dd096e528b5d15681018ba042139} likely), learning in the medial prefrontal cortex is enabled by the dopaminergic reward seeking system.  But if reward is certain, the learning circuits of the medial prefrontal cortex are disabled. 

It makes perfect sense from an evolutionary point of view; if you already know enough to get the reward with certainty, there is no point in wasting further effort to learn more. 

What pertaining to rewards has critically changed over the past couple of generations?  Everyone now receives a reward for participating!  Not just the winner of the race.  Not just the smart student who studied hard and aced the test.  Everybody gets an unconditional hence certain reward.

These unconditional rewards have turned off learning.  The younger generation is broadly liberal and progressive because their ability to learn has been systematically shut off since childhood.  No wonder they act like spoiled children.  They have never learned to grow up!

We have a very big and very serious generational problem.  Those unconditional rewards aren’t just silly; they are literally mentally crippling.

I’m not sufficiently familiar with the science, but I have to wonder if this phenomenon actually re-inforces the under-development of the amygdalae in susceptible individuals, so that the “participation trophy syndrome” has helped to make the SJWs even worse than they might have been.

I have always known that learning how to compete, how to win, and how to lose, is important, but I never had any idea that a failure to do so might lead to literal insanity. It also explains why SJWs are never able to learn from their past mistakes.

TURNED EARTH by David the Good

You have no idea how many ways to kill you are lurking in the little laboratory of mass destruction known as your neighbor’s garden.

Gardening is just a hobby for most – but for some, it’s a matter of life and death. 

Who keeps killing soil scientists and agriculture industry executives around the world? If you dare to ask, you may end up as the next corpse left to serve as garden compost. When gardener Jack Broccoli and his boss are targeted by a radical farming cult, Jack’s entire life is turned upside-down as he’s forced into a terrifying world of international agro-industrial intrigue. 

TURNED EARTH is a frighteningly funny novel by master gardener David The Good and the first in the Jack Broccoli series of gardening thrillers.

This is one of those books you have to read to believe that it’s real. Yes, it’s a gardening thriller, and somehow, inexplicably, the concept actually works. Also, it appears that gardeners have considerably more ways to kill you than ninjas, hit men, and the U.S. Marine Corps combined. I am now officially terrified of all those little blue-haired women who spend their days laboring painstakingly over their well-tended laboratories of mass destruction.

From the first review of TURNED EARTH: A Jack Broccoli novel:

  • This might the world’s first garden thriller ever to be published. Imagine Mel Bartholomew meets Liam Neeson as written by a graft of Douglas Adams and Dave Barry, and lyrics by David Byrne, if it had lyrics. You aren’t going to read the secrets of Life, the Universe, and Everything, but you will be asking yourself “How did I get here?” and “That’s not my house” which is more of a statement than question.

Italy turns against EU

The Euroskeptic parties Movimento 5 Stelle and La Lega are taking control of the Italian government:

Italians threaten to defy EU rules by kicking out 500,000 immigrants, tearing up spending plans and forging links with Russia

Last week the parties said they would renegotiate EU rules that require migrants to be dealt with by the first country they arrive in. They also pledged to build more detention centres and review the policy of rescuing migrants whose boats capsize. Italy has been on the front line of the EU’s migrant crisis, with hundreds of thousands making the journey across the Mediterranean from North Africa.

Lega leader Matteo Salvini has said an estimated 500,000 undocumented migrants in Italy must be deported ‘as a priority’. He told supporters he would rid the country of ‘delinquents’. The parties have also warned they will ignore Brussels rules on spending designed to prevent another eurozone crisis. They reject what they call the EU’s ‘austerity’ measures and want to renegotiate Italy’s debts.

Luigi Di Maio, the Five Star leader, said money to fund tax cuts would be found through investments and upcoming negotiations on the EU budget.

Euroskepticism has been on the rise throughout Italy since the Euro was forced on the country. Now the nationalists of both Left and Right have come to power even earlier than expected by virtue of joining forces. And once other Europeans see how the Italians improve their quality of life without migrants and Eurocrats, I expect they will follow suit.

Nationalists need to learn from the Italian example that an opponent from the other side of the political spectrum is not necessarily an enemy, unlike the globalists, who are the enemies of every nation.

Just the beginning

Stefan Halper was not the only spy that the Federal agencies attempted to insert into the Trump campaign:

At least one additional government “informant” attempted to infiltrate the Trump campaign under President Barack Obama, former Trump campaign aide Michael Caputo revealed exclusively on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” Monday night.

“Let me tell you something that I know for a fact,” Caputo told host Laura Ingraham. “This informant, this person that they tried to plant into the campaign — and even into the administration, if you believe Axios — he’s not the only person who came at the campaign. And the FBI is not the only Obama agency who came at the campaign.

“I know because they came at me,” Caputo added. “And I’m looking for clearance from my attorney to reveal this to the public. This is just the beginning.”

This is already far worse than Watergate, and we don’t even know the half of it yet.

Break up Facebook

Even the EU Parliament is skeptical of Zuckerberg’s Monster:

Zuckerberg responded after the questioning, addressing the issue of political bias.

“We are committed to being a platform for all ideas,” he declared. “It’s very important to me that we’re a service that allows a wide variety of political discourse.”

“We have never and will not make decisions about what content is allowed or how we do ranking on the basis of a political orientation,” Zuckerberg said.

“We’ve made a number of changes this year to make sure we’re showing people’s friends and family and community content,” he said, citing the “well-being” research the company has done to make sure that the technology is helping people. All the research, he said, shows that connecting with people you care about is “good for your well-being.” He explained that news “isn’t correlated with those same benefits.”

He reiterated that Facebook is “not targeting any specific political ideology.”

I’m dubious that such shameless lying is going to help his cause much.

Diversity program’s success declared

In fairness, the Royal diversity program does appear to have gone over rather better than the average corporate diversity program:

LONDON—Touting the remarkable progress made towards broader cultural representation in the royal family, Queen Elizabeth II declared Monday that the British monarchy’s recent diversity initiative was a complete success. “It is with great pleasure that I tell you all that the Crown’s plan to introduce diversity into the royal family has been a rousing success,” said the queen, who launched the initiative in 2013 in response to mounting public pressure for the Blood Royal to include more perspectives of people of color. “We’ve done a lot to bring more women in over the last decade, but we lagged behind in terms of multiethnic inclusion. It’s important that the royal family represents the true face of Britannia. Now, with Meghan in the fold, we’re just that much closer.”

What do you figure the odds of the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex making it longer than Charles and Diana did? I’d probably give 20-1.

More FBI “bungling”

After all, Jordan Peterson himself has assured us that one should never assume malevolence when stupidity can explain an action. I mean, only stupidity could explain why top FBI officials would discuss their secret investigations with CNN executives, right?

E-mails Show FBI Brass Discussed Dossier Briefing Details With CNN

New e-mails show former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe was surprisingly knowledgeable about CNN’s understanding of and deliberation about a dossier briefing given to Donald Trump days before CNN ever reported on the matter.

Newly revealed e-mails show that former Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) deputy director Andrew McCabe was keenly aware of CNN’s internal understanding of a secret briefing about the infamous Steele dossier, days before CNN published any stories on the matter. The e-mails, which were obtained by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), also reveal that top officials used coded language to refer to the salacious and unverified allegations made by Steele.

Peterson’s “general rule of thumb” is a false dilemma. There is no contradiction between evil and stupidity. Evil comes in many forms, most of them stupid, some of them intelligent.

But a better rule of thumb is this: Anyone who claims stupidity is sufficient explanation for malevolence is in league with the malevolent.

If there is one thing I have learned from editing Moira Greyland’s book and observing how various scandals have played out over the last five years, it is that the truth is usually worse than the skeptics and conspiracy theorists ever imagine.