The EU Commission is not the spirit of democracy

Although the commissioners seem to think so. I have my issues with democracy, but if one has to choose between direct democracy and limited representative democracy, it is now very clear that the former is vastly to be preferred to the latter, no matter what the American Founding Fathers wrote about “mob rule”. Because a mob of people are clearly wiser and less corrupt than the sort of unsavory creatures who inevitably slither into position to “represent” them.

Although the commission likes to talk a lot about democracy as a European value, it defines this as what Brussels wants, rather than what the people want. Time and again, with a ballot paper in front of them, a majority of voters – from those in Denmark who rejected the Maastricht Treaty in a referendum in 1992, to Britain last year and now Catalonia this week – have ticked the wrong box.

I am not sure that Catalan independence is a good idea any more than Scotland’s breakaway from the UK might be, but the choice is surely for the people affected.

Nothing displayed the EU’s blithe disregard for democracy better than the reaction to the Catalan vote by the European Parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt. He completely ignored the fact that the three separatist parties had won a total of 70 seats in the 135-seat regional parliament – ensuring a separatist majority – and instead congratulated the pro-Spanish Citizens party which gained 37 seats, admittedly making it the largest single party but one in no position of power.

The trouble for the EU is that resentment over this ‘democratic deficit’ is growing daily. Across Europe – from Austria, where the anti-EU far-Right Freedom Party is now part of the coalition government, to Eastern European EU nations such as Poland and Hungary, which are visceral in their opposition to EU immigration policies – Brussels is increasingly coming up against the anger of voters.

In Poland, Brussels has inflamed that anger by moving to suspend the country’s voting rights in the EU after a dispute over judicial reforms that Brussels claims undermine Polish courts’ independence.

This attempt by the EU to make Warsaw its whipping boy – as though Eastern European members should take their subsidies and in return do the commission’s bidding – has appalled Hungary, which has now come out in support of Poland.

The anti-democratic EU elite well-merits being dismissed as Eurofascists.

Throttling their own tech

Despite being a very early fan – I had both an Apple //e and an original Macintosh as well as a Macintosh SE – I despise what Apple has become. And with good cause; they are an SJW-converged and fundamentally dishonest corporation:

Apple has long inspired an almost religious devotion among customers and tech aficionados — but it just seriously undermined its fans’ faith and loyalty.

The company on Wednesday acknowledged what some people have long suspected: that it has been secretly stifling the performance of older iPhones.

Critics have accused the company in the past, based on anecdotal evidence, of purposely slowing phones to compel users to upgrade to the latest model. While Apple admitted to the practice on Wednesday, it sought to underscore that it had done so for a purely altruistic reason: to prevent older phones from shutting down unexpectedly.

The justification hasn’t mollified Apple’s outraged fans. If anything, the company’s statement has stoked the conspiracy theories, and for good reason.

Now they’re lying about the reason for their despicable behavior. Can you honestly say you are even a little bit surprised?

They knew all along

Ronald Reagan and the Queen of England discussed economics and the prospects for the future in 1991.

The footage begins with the former president asking if the coffee being served is decaffeinated. The Queen calls replies ‘No, it’s ordinary’ before calling over a waiter to request some, then telling Mr Reagan ‘We try our best. It’s coming.’

Their conversation then turns to economics.  Mr Reagan, who finished his second term as president in 1989, told the British monarch: ‘Now if you’ve got two thirds… paying for the bureaucrats and give only one third to the needy people, something’s wrong there.’

The Queen responded by saying that ‘democracies are bankrupt’ because of such policies.

‘But you see all of the democracies are bankrupt now, because of the way the services have been planned for people to grab,’ she told him.

‘I know, we tried to get some of these things changed and reduce them,’ said Reagan.

‘For example, we have a rule to this day, that a supervisor’s salary is based on the number of people he supervises,’ he continued.

‘Well now, you have a group of people that have no interest in reducing the payroll, even if they can, because it will reduce their salary.’

The Queen, who had hosted the event for Florida’s grandest society including another former US president – Jimmy Carter – agreed.

‘Obviously, yes. It’s extraordinary, isn’t it? I think the next generation is going to have a very difficult time.’

The answer, obviously, was to flood the West with credit and third world immigrants, because monetary and population inflation are good for the economy. It’s interesting, though, that both public figures already knew that which eluded the public and most opinion-leaders for another 17 years.

Mailvox: feel the rage

GW wonders about the socio-sexuality of skepticism:

Perhaps you haven’t been following the debacle between the YouTube race realists and the skeptic community, but I would love to hear your view on the main instigator of it, Kraut and Tea. His infantile attacks on imagined ghosts of the Alt-Right, blatant hypocrisy in regards to the principles of not deplatforming or doxxing people, and smug overestimation of his level of expertise in biology and statistics seem like classic symptoms of a Gamma’s wounded ego. That he also refuses to silence his tongue when thoroughly outmatched is just more proof of his status.

It makes me think the “online skeptic” nowadays is predisposed towards being Gamma. What else can explain their lack of conviction? Their unwillingness to argue the believer or race realist in good faith?

There is no question that the average “internet atheist” is a Gamma. More than a few are Omegas. Both scientific studies that looked into my original hypothesis about atheism being a consequence of being on the autism spectrum found correlations between an inability to make social connections and an inability to feel spiritual connections.

This sort of aggressive atheist are akin to the blind man who not only insists that everyone else is lying about their ability “to see”, but also that they are inferior to him due to their inability to come to terms with their blindness. And then proceeds to try to poke out their eyes.

I have no intrinsic problem with people who don’t believe what I do about God or anything else. But I utterly despise those who first proclaim that religion is a crutch, then promptly attempt to kick out that crutch from others who are reliant upon it. They are nasty little creatures.

Of abuse and assets

This executive order by the God-Emperor must have taken more than few people by surprise. I wonder whatever could have provoked it?

Executive Order Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse or Corruption

I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that the prevalence and severity of human rights abuse and corruption that have their source, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States, such as those committed or directed by persons listed in the Annex to this order, have reached such scope and gravity that they threaten the stability of international political and economic systems. Human rights abuse and corruption undermine the values that form an essential foundation of stable, secure, and functioning societies; have devastating impacts on individuals; weaken democratic institutions; degrade the rule of law; perpetuate violent conflicts; facilitate the activities of dangerous persons; and undermine economic markets. The United States seeks to impose tangible and significant consequences on those who commit serious human rights abuse or engage in corruption, as well as to protect the financial system of the United States from abuse by these same persons.

I therefore determine that serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, and I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.

I wonder if Mr. George Soros happens to be one of “(i) the persons listed in the Annex to this order”? And who else is on that list, because the order is clearly casting a very wide net, including anyone giving any assistance to the persons targeted.

And this would appear to confirm some of my suspicions about an unexpected corporate resignation today.

ES (Goog) resigned today post EO.

Coincidence?

There are no coincidences. Schmidt is definitely Deep State. It may be pertinent because the executive order gives the executive branch agents the ability to immediately shut down any corporation with executives who are involved in this. And to do so without warning.

Sec. 7. For those persons whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order who might have a constitutional presence in the United States, I find that because of the ability to transfer funds or other assets instantaneously, prior notice to such persons of measures to be taken pursuant to this order would render those measures ineffectual. I therefore determine that for these measures to be effective in addressing the national emergency declared in this order, there need be no prior notice of a listing or determination made pursuant to this order.

UPDATE: Make that two. Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter also stepped down today. Papa John’s Pizza….

Papa John’s says its founder John Schnatter will step down as CEO next month, about two months after he publicly criticized the NFL leadership over national anthem protests by football players. The company said Thursday that Schnatter remains chairman but be replaced as chief executive by Chief Operating Officer Steve Ritchie on Jan. 1. Ritchie would not say if Schnatter’s NFL comments played a role in the job change.

Magic: The Convergence

James Delingpole observes convergence at work at Wizards of the Coast

This is the story of Magicgate. Yes, another scandal, but one that for a change doesn’t involve any actual rape or sexual harassment… only game players who like pretending to be witches and wizards.
Like Gamergate, it concerns ordinary people who just want to be left alone to enjoy their hobby.

Ranged against these ingenus is an orcish horde of bullying, preening, self-righteous Social Justice Warriors who believe that everything — even an innocent collectible card game like Magic: The Gathering — should be played and policed according to their viciously intolerant politically correct rulebook.

Even if, like me, you’re not among the 20 million people who play Magic: The Gathering, what I hope you’ll appreciate is that this is a story that should concern us all.

By the end, I hope, you’ll feel as angered as I am by this ugly, scary power grab by the regressive left. And I hope you’ll want to join me in making your voice heard by hitting the people responsible where it hurts most: in their bank balance.

That means the companies which own and profit by Magic: the Gathering. That means you, Hasbro toys. And you, Wizards of the Coast.

I want you to realize that playing games is not a left-wing thing or a right-wing thing but an everybody thing.

I want you to realize that it is not the business of games manufacturers to discriminate against or punish players for their political opinions.

I want you to realize that your miserable sordid scheme to bully everyone who plays your games into sharing your SJW values is not remotely liberal but authoritarian and fascistic.

I also want you to realize that we have got your number: you try to claim the moral high ground, yet your entire business model is based on the kind of predator capitalism I’m sure you’d be the first to condemn if you weren’t getting so rich off of it.

Great. Now we’re going to have to get into collectible card games…. Although, more seriously, if there are any hardcore – and I mean hardcore – Traveller fans who are interested in providing assistance to an RPG-related project that is not Alt★Hero-related, please email me with LBB in the subject.

Anyhow, to return to the subject, I’m pleased that the two books in The Laws of Social Justice series are helping people understand these actions by SJW-converged corporations and put them in the proper context. Because these actions are not mere happenstance and they are all connected by the same twisted vision of reality and civilization.

Really, it’s about that extremely creepy, insidious and dangerous phenomenon which Vox Day anatomizes in his latest book SJWs Always Double Down: the thing he calls “Convergence.”

Convergence, essentially, is the SJW equivalent of those parasitic wasps which lay their eggs inside other insects. The eggs then hatch and the hapless host body is devoured from within.

Obvious victims of this include organizations like Facebook, Apple, and Google, which increasingly put the values of “social justice” before more conventional free market goals like customer service and the bottom line. And, indeed, before more traditional values like freedom of speech or individual rights.

But almost no institution is immune.

Indeed, every institution and organization is vulnerable. Be sure to SJW-proof yours.

End the foreign aid

After all, giving money to UN member states that oppose the US moving its embassy in Israel is not only anti-American, but anti-Semitic:

The UN General Assembly has voted 128 to 9, with 35 abstentions, to adopt a motion rejecting the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

That is despite the US President threatening to cut billions of dollars in aid to countries that dared to defy him. Trump had said ahead of the vote that ‘we’re watching’ the outcome, while Nikki Haley, his representative, had warned that the US would be ‘taking names’.

Trump usually follows through on his public threats, so the shrieking and crying promises to be epic.

The SJW perspective

I’m linking this The Last Jedi review by an SJW so everyone understands that SJWs really do get off on destroying what you love. They’re not stupid, they’re not clueless, they are literally unrestrained evil.

The Force doesn’t really care who you are. Nobody is the chosen one. Concepts like Destiny and Mysticism are hubris. Legends are problematic. The cycle of the empire vs the rebellion repeats in the first order vs the resistance and the ideologies of both sides are inherently flawed. It’s a machine. And the only way to be free is not to join. The past must be destroyed. The Jedi must end. We have to stop fighting what we hate and start saving what we love.

My favorite scene in the entire film is when Luke takes a torch to the Jedi Tree because he’s going to finally burn it all down. He’s going to burn the Jedi texts and end it. Then he hesitates. So Yoda appears as a force ghosts and does it for him. Yoda basically tells Luke to stop being so dramatic. Even in his attempt to hide from the past and close himself off from the Force, Luke is deifying the Jedi order. And Yoda tells him straight. None of this is really important. And then in a sublime moment commiserates with this former padawan by reminding him that when you’re a teacher, you’re agreeing to be the thing that your students move beyond. You get left behind, that’s part of the deal. Woof!

I mean, how great is that moment?

So yeah, when a movie takes the concepts that have been central to Star Wars and tears them down some people are going to react badly. I get that.

But God, how I loved it.

They don’t “miss opportunities.” They don’t “fail to understand.” They don’t “just not get it.” They genuinely live to shit on you, your values, your morals, your faith, your culture, and your children. They are purely destructive and there is no place in any civilized society for them.

And they know it, which is why they derive pleasure from tearing civilization down.

They are the rejected Muslim suitors throwing acid in the faces of the girls who rejected them. They are the gammas muttering spitefully about sexual proclivities of the pretty cheerleaders and ponytailed soccer players whom they will never attract. They are cowards insistent that not only are there no heroes, but that heroism is impossible.

This is all you really need to know about SJWs: “The only way to be free is not to join. The past must be destroyed.”

The negation of all that is beautiful, good, and true is the heart of the SJW.

What ARE the odds?

Such a coincidence….

The third man killed in the deadly Amtrak derailment south of Seattle has been identified as an Auburn child pornography collector and an outspoken proponent of child sexual abuse, whose crimes were first detailed in a 2013 SeattlePI story.

The days since the deadly Amtrak derailment between Tacoma and Olympia saw two of the three fatally injured victims, Jim Hamre and Zack Willhoite, celebrated for their love of trains. Hamre, 61, and Willhoite, 35, were close friends and volunteers on the board of All Aboard Washington, a rail advocacy organization.

Benjamin Gran’s story is more complicated.

Gran, a leading member of an online forum dedicated to promoting the sexual abuse of children, served a federal prison term after he was caught with a vast collection of child pornography videos.

The Pierce County coroner’s office said Wednesday that Gran, 40, died of multiple traumatic injuries sustained in Monday’s crash. His death came six years after child pornography investigator came knocking on his apartment door.

The Lost Jedi

5-day revenues
TFA: $325,438,146
TLJ: $261,820,146
-19.6  percent

Day 5 revenue per screen
TFA: $9,038/screen
TLJ: $4,786/screen
-47.1 percent

Unexpectedly, both the average critic’s rating (92{8b465fcc1261600c3844715b0002d5b2f22fe6ddf2fd7bce983edf903d17ed70}) and the average audience rating (54{8b465fcc1261600c3844715b0002d5b2f22fe6ddf2fd7bce983edf903d17ed70}) on Rotten Tomatoes are falling as time goes on. At this rate of decline, the audience rating will be below 50{8b465fcc1261600c3844715b0002d5b2f22fe6ddf2fd7bce983edf903d17ed70} inside a week. To put into perspective what a bomb this movie is, it took The Force Awakens 18 days for its revenue/screen average to fall below the $4,786 figure hit by The Last Jedi on Day 5.

Other than the massive opening weekend, TLJ is performing much more like a Marvel movie than a Star Wars film, which is the first sign that its domestic box office might actually end up reaching less than HALF of TFA’s $936,662,225. In fact, if we simply add how TFA did after Day 18 to TLJ’s five-day total, that suggests it will bring in less than $450 milllion domestically, well short of the $750 million it was expected to make. Given the terrible reviews, it may not even hit $400 million.

TL;DR: SJW convergence is expensive.

UPDATE: the media is belatedly beginning to notice that TLJ is a failure by Star Wars standards, even though they can’t understand the reason for it.

Monday’s box office numbers turned up a new glitch in the numbers for “The Last Jedi.” Even the Disney experts must have been surprised. “Jedi” took home $21.5 million on Monday, an important night for adult filmgoers.

But two years ago, “The Force Awakens” reaped just over $40 million on its first Monday. It’s almost twice as much.

There’s a feeling that “Jedi” is soft at the box office. I don’t know why. It’s just as good if not better. And it has major plot developments for “Star Wars” fans.

So this afternoon’s report on Tuesday numbers will be scrutinized closely. “Force Awakens” did $37.3 million on its first Tuesday. Will “Jedi” compare favorably? Stay tuned…

No, no, it did not. Instead of comparing favorably on its first Tuesday (Day 5), TLJ compared very disfavorably, coming in 42 percent south of its predecessor at $20.3 million.

UPDATE: TLJ is rapidly approaching freefall territory.

Day 6: $16,900,000 (-65.6{8b465fcc1261600c3844715b0002d5b2f22fe6ddf2fd7bce983edf903d17ed70} from Day 6 TFA)
$3,993 per screen (-67{8b465fcc1261600c3844715b0002d5b2f22fe6ddf2fd7bce983edf903d17ed70} from Day 6 TFA)