Build the Wall already

Steve Bannon addresses Trump’s low approval ratings. The president’s former chief strategist says once Trump builds the wall, his approval ratings will go up, and he’ll go on to a 2020 landslide.

Bannon is correct, but he is only stating the obvious. I have been saying this since before the Inauguration. To ensure reelection, Donald Trump needs to do one thing, and one thing only: BUILD THE WALL.

Everything else is irrelevant in comparison. Build the Wall and win handsomely, fail to build it and risk losing.

Jerry Pournelle Week

To celebrate the life and work of Jerry Pournelle, we will be giving away volumes of his classic military science fiction series, THERE WILL BE WAR, all week. Today and tomorrow, you can download THERE WILL BE WAR Vol. I for free. If you have never read Dr. Pournelle before, this is an excellent opportunity to acquaint yourself with his fiction and his philosophy. The man has gone to his reward, but his ideas remain with us.

Created by the bestselling SF novelist Jerry Pournelle, THERE WILL BE WAR is a landmark science fiction anthology series that combines top-notch military science fiction with factual essays by various generals and military experts on everything from High Frontier and the Strategic Defense Initiative to the aftermath of the Vietnam War. It features some of the greatest military science fiction ever published, such Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” in Volume I and Joel Rosenberg’s “Cincinnatus” in Volume II. Many science fiction greats were featured in the original nine-volume series, which ran from 1982 to 1990, including Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Gordon Dickson, Poul Anderson, John Brunner, Gregory Benford, Robert Silverberg, Harry Turtledove, and Ben Bova. 

33 years later, Castalia House has teamed up with Dr. Pournelle to make this classic science fiction series available to the public again. THERE WILL BE WAR is a treasure trove of science fiction and history that will educate and amaze new readers while reminding old ones how much the world has changed over the last three decades. Most of the stories, like war itself, remain entirely relevant today. 

Volume I is edited by Jerry Pournelle and John F. Carr, and features 23 stories, articles, and poems. Of particular note are “Reflex” by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, the original “Ender’s Game” novella by Orson Scott Card, “The Defenders” by Philip K. Dick, and a highly influential pair of essays devoted to the then-revolutionary concept of “High Frontier” by Robert A. Heinlein and Lt. General Daniel Graham. 

If you would prefer to buy Dr. Pournelle’s books instead, I would recommend adding the big, beautiful hardcover omnibus of THERE WILL BE WAR Vols. I and II to your library.

NFL Week One

This is the weekly NFL open thread. A reminder: those who attempt to take this opportunity to posture about their television-watching habits and answer a question that no one has asked will be spammed.

When success becomes self-sabotage

A liberal professor writes about the structural damage to the Left that the left-wing success in academia has wrought:

Liberal political education, such as it is, now takes place on campuses that are far removed, socially and geographically, from the rest of the country—and particularly from the sorts of people who once were the foundation of the Democratic Party. And the political catechism that is taught is a historical artifact, reflecting more the idiosyncratic experience of the ’60s generation than the realities of power politics today.

The experience of that era taught the New Left two lessons. The first was that movement politics was the only mode of engagement that actually changes things; the second was that political activity must have some authentic meaning for the self, making compromise seem like a self-betrayal.

These lessons, though, have little bearing on liberalism’s present crisis, which is that of being defeated time and again by a well-organized Republican Party that keeps tightening its grip on our institutions. Where those lessons do resonate is with young people in our highly individualistic bourgeois society—a society that keeps them focused on themselves and teaches them that personal choice, individual rights and self-definition are all that is sacred.

It is little wonder that students of the Facebook age are drawn to courses focused on their identities and movements related to them. Nor is it surprising that many join campus groups that engage in identity movement work. But the costs need to be tallied.

For those students who will soon become liberal and progressive elites, the line between self-discovery and political action has become blurred. Their political commitments are genuine but are circumscribed by the confines of their self-definitions. Issues that penetrate those confines take on looming importance, and since politics for them is personal, their positions tend to be absolutist and nonnegotiable. Those issues that don’t touch on their identities or affect people like themselves are hardly perceived. And classic liberal ideas like citizenship, solidarity and the common good have little meaning for them.

As a teacher, I am increasingly struck by a difference between my conservative and progressive students. Contrary to the stereotype, the conservatives are far more likely to connect their engagements to a set of political ideas and principles. Young people on the left are much more inclined to say that they are engaged in politics as an X, concerned about other Xs and those issues touching on X-ness. And they are less and less comfortable with debate.

Over the past decade a new, and very revealing, locution has drifted from our universities into the media mainstream: Speaking as an X…This is not an anodyne phrase. It sets up a wall against any questions that come from a non-X perspective. Classroom conversations that once might have begun, I think A, and here is my argument, now take the form, Speaking as an X, I am offended that you claim B. What replaces argument, then, are taboos against unfamiliar ideas and contrary opinions.

Conservatives complain loudest about today’s campus follies, but it is really liberals who should be angry. The big story is not that leftist professors successfully turn millions of young people into dangerous political radicals every year. It is that they have gotten students so obsessed with their personal identities that, by the time they graduate, they have much less interest in, and even less engagement with, the wider political world outside their heads.

Unfortunately, if we look at the complete failure of the Bush-era Right, and the current fecklessness of the Republican House and Senate, we can’t really say this tendency is limited to the Left.

Landfall

Hurricane Irma hits Florida:

Hurricane Irma has now made landfall on Florida, slamming into Key West, bringing sustained winds of 130mph, as well as rain and threats of tornadoes in what is expected to be one of the worst storms to hit the area in living memory.

The state thought it had escaped the worst case scenario as the storm moved into land and was downgraded to Category 3 – but late Saturday night it re-energized and was upgraded back to Category 4, the second-worst level, with gusts of up to 144mph.

And this is only the beginning for the mainland US, as Irma is set to move inland northwest, threatening Naples and other cities up the west coast of Florida as the wears on. A man was killed after tropical-storm-strength winds caused him to lose control of the truck he was driving through Monroe County, which contains Key West. He had been carrying a generator, local officials told ABC News. Two others died in a car accident in Hardee County, Florida, the Florida Highway Patrol said. The area is around 60 miles inland from Sarasota.

Those deaths come after Irma claimed at least 25 lives in the Caribbean as it swept over several countries, destroying entire islands. Meanwhile, more than a million people have been left without power across the state, while storm surges of 10-15 feet have been predicted around the Everglades, where lower land exacerbates the floods. Highs of 5-10 feet have been predicted in Miami.

The ideas, they percolate

An article on PJ media about a distressed young liberal woman who keeps finding out that the men to whom she is attracted turn out to be Trump voters.

No woman wants a man she can push around, walk all over, or beat in an arm-wrestling match. Politics be damned. That’s not how biology works. (Now, I realize I may be talking to biology deniers, but you asked “why can’t I stop?” and this is why. Biology.) Women are naturally attracted to alpha males and not that gamma guy in a onesie with fragile wrists. The left has emasculated their men to the point of putting them in dresses and sending them into the ladies’ room. It’s no wonder you need to shop outside your herd. Why the heck wouldn’t you?

The reality you’re facing is that your guys are the ones getting a wedgie and ours are the ones you want to go home with. I don’t blame you.

People often think that influence is somehow related to everyone knowing your name. That’s not influence. That’s fame.

On a related note, I’ve been hearing for the last week or two that the various kerfluffles with the two Andrews, Anglin and Torba, are “bad PR” and bad for my brand.

The objective measures:

  • Twitter followers declined from 33,000 to 32,800
  • Five Infogalactic Burn Unit members canceled their subscriptions. All five have already been replaced.
  • Daily average site traffic increased 5 percent
  • Daily average book sales increased 225 percent
  • 7 8 new Legal Legion of Evil volunteers.
It would appear there is a sound basis for the Fake Right theory that Mike Cernovich became a successful shekel-grubbing book salesman on the basis of metaphorically punching Clown Nazis. That wasn’t my intention, but if this is what “destroying my brand” looks like, I think I can live with it. Although perhaps the more apt term would be “thrive” on it.

By the way, there is going to be a BIG surprise awaiting the self-appointed experts on defamation presently expressing their legal theories on Gab. I have to admit, I was genuinely shocked myself to discover what is actually considered defamation per se in the relevant jurisdiction. I mean, there is not a single non-lawyer, on either side of the issue, who had a clear grasp of the actual legal situation at hand.

Hurricane Irma

This is an open thread to discuss the incoming hurricane and the preparations for it. And nothing else, please. Spare a thought or two for the people who are being forced to evacuate their homes.

Convincing

I changed my mind. This response to the Anglin debate was my favorite.

Kek Vult
Man who is this Anglin dude? He’s sounds like a real gentleman and hes got a handsome voice. I really wanna check out his website!

Kek Vult
Man who is this Anglin dude? He’s sounds like a real gentleman and hes got a handsome voice. I really wanna check out his website!

It’s even more convincing when you post it twice, apparently. Alt-Retard may be giving these Stormpuppets too much credit. I’ve been hitherto fortunate in my near complete ignorance of them, but now that I’ve been made a little more familiar with the best that they have to offer, all I can conclude is that if the fate of the West depends upon them, we should all start learning Arabic and Chinese.

Debate: National Socialism II

DEBATE: Andrew Anglin vs Vox Day on National Socialism (Saturday 11 am NYC Time)

Listen live here.

So, that was slightly less of a clown show than I expected. Although it was the first debate I’ve seen that the moderator lost. One thing I thought was interesting was the way Anglin did not reveal his Google pageviews. Based on the difference between his pre-prepared statement and his ability to argue from it, I would guess that several people were involved in writing it.

He provided a few informative statements. I don’t recall them all, but I did note these:

  • “Nobody cares about the historical context of left and right.”
  • “Everything that Hitler did served to support the order of nature.”
  • “Liberalism was invented by Jews.”
  • “I have never commented on your blog.”
  • “Everywhere I look, behind every problem I have, I see hook nosed jews.”

In my opinion, the actual debate ended here:

AA: Understanding Right wing is preservation of the natural order through tradition. Left wing is the push for equality to override the natural order.
VD: NSADAP Munich Manifesto, Point 9. All citizens must possess equal rights and duties.

While the meta-debate ended here:

AA: Don’t be Vox Day, Don’t attack people on the same side as you.
VD: We’re not on the same side.

My favorite take: “It’s just bad PR for Vox Day, even if his rant was correct and Hitler was left wing, that has literally nothing to do with Andrew Anglin.”

True enough. I can’t argue with that.

RIP Jerry Pournelle

J. Lamplighter Wright recalls Jerry Pournelle’s last public performance at Dragoncon, where he gave out the Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction novel.

What Mr Pournelle did not tell you is that when he went up to hand out the award, he got a standing ovation. Everyone stood up…even Larry Niven. It wasn’t a big crowd, but it was a wonderful moment. I also noticed that, unlike everyone else who seemed to be reading the names, I could have sworn that Pournelle had his list memorized. He recited them smoothly while looking out at the audience.

I’m so pleased to hear that he was publicly celebrated to the very end, as he deserved. My favorite memory of Mr. Pournelle was talking to him after the publication of Riding the Red Horse. At almost the last possible moment, he had agreed to let me use “His Truth Goes Marching On”, a story which had appeared in the first volume of There Will Be War, which Riding the Red Horse was consciously designed to imitate. I thought that would be a fitting symbol of the torch being passed from the one series to the next, since I had been unable to obtain the rights to the original anthology series.

Then, at absolutely the last possible moment, I happened to see an article written by him in an old issue of The General, which combined strategy, wargames, and game design. Excited to have discovered it, I shot him an email asking him for permission to republish it, which right he graciously granted. This is the introduction I wrote for it.

Editor’s Introduction to:

SIMULATING THE ART OF WAR

by Jerry Pournelle

Science fiction’s gain was the game industry’s loss.

There are few, very few, readers of this anthology who do not know of Jerry Pournelle, the science fiction writer. Nearly everyone has heard of the author of Jannissaries and The Mote in God’s Eye, the editor of many anthologies, the techno-savvy Byte columnist, the SFWA president, the Lord of Chaos Manor, even the aphorist who coined the Iron Law of Bureaucracy.

In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.

But there are not very many who know of J.E. Pournelle, Ph.D., wargamer, and particular fan of the classic Avalon Hill game Afrika Korps. In the early 1970s, Jerry was also an occasional contributor to the Avalon Hill house magazine, The General, in which he introduced new rules for Waterloo, conceived an clever device for counter concealment that anticipated Fifth Frontier War‘s Fleet rules by a decade, and penned an astute article explaining how to draw upon the timeless Principles of War for the purposes of designing better wargames.

Alas, it is a lesson that few designers in the industry have taken to heart. These little-known facts may be reasonably cited as evidence that Dr. Pangloss was wrong, and we do not, in fact, live in the best of all possible worlds. After all, we narrowly missed living in a world where J.E. Pournelle designed Halo: Combat Evolved!

But the best part was yet to come. Not long after the publication of Riding the Red Horse, Jerry called me up and said, “You know, maybe it would be a good idea to revive There Will Be War. Would you have any interest in bringing that back into print?”

I did my best to remain calm, refrained from mentioning that obtaining the rights to publish There Will Be War had always been my original desire, and informed him that we would be extremely pleased to do so. I am very sorry that we were unable to get the last two original volumes, Vols VII and VIII, out before his death, but they will be released later this month, and at least Jerry was able to see his flagship anthology fully revived with Volume X last year. As I said before, working with him was both an honor and a privilege.

Please feel free to post your remembrances of Dr. Pournelle and his work here. Beginning tomorrow, Castalia House will honor Jerry Pournelle by making the first volume in his classic military science fiction anthology, There Will Be War Vol. I  a free download on Amazon for three days. Also, Chaos Manor has set up a Well-Wishing Page in case you wish to offer the Pournelle family your condolences.