Clown World is Getting Desperate

But not so desperate that they’re willing to die right here, right now. Andrei Martynov comments on the recent revelation that the USA ordered Ukraine to stand down on what would almost certainly have been a failed attempt to assassinate Vladimir Putin:

The Ukrainian special services were preparing an assassination attempt on Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of the country’s Ministry of Defense Andrei Belousov at the parade on Navy Day in St. Petersburg. According to Deputy Head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sergei Ryabkov, whose words were aired on the Rossiya TV channel, several days before the parade, Belousov contacted US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin by phone and urged him to persuade Kyiv to abandon its plans.

I was wrong thinking that it would be either Bortnikov or Patrushev conveying this type of message to Burns, but, evidently, it took Russian Defense Minister to explain what would happen to Kiev and Washington, if D.C.’s own criminals would have even tried to do so. Kiev would cease to exist (no need to use conventional weapons) and, after some time so would D.C. with most of the US if the US would have decided to play it tough. Boys in D.C. they cannot fight real fight, neither can inbred losers in London. So, they resort to terrorism. The fact that Ryabkov specifically singled out “some other countries” is telling.

Clown World’s grand strategy has always been based in delusion. The clowns simply don’t seem to understand that neither China nor Russia are susceptible to regime change tactics of the sort that have been used dozens of times in small countries over the last 70 years. Major powers are not one-man shows; Putin’s successors will almost certainly be considerably more aggressive and less circumspect than the man himself has been.

However, it is good to know that there are still a few rational actors in command of Clown World. One hopes that they will have the perspicacity, and the courage, to admit to their inevitable defeat and surrender while it is still possible to do so.

DISCUSS ON SG

Amanda Palmer Speaks

In a way. Neil Gaiman’s ex-wife’s cryptic allusions do NOT bode well for Neil Gaiman. She put out a Patreon post that mostly consisted of images.

“One of the pictures is a trash can on a city street that has a copy of “Lolita” sitting on the rim.”

Yeah, that’s not a good sign.

The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, a middle-aged literature professor called Humbert Humbert, is obsessed with the 12-year-old Dolores Haze, with whom he becomes sexually involved after he becomes her stepfather.

Whatever could she be trying to tell us about Mr. Tubcuddle?

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The Markets Sink

I stay very, very far away from the stock markets, since they are a rigged game. But they are useful indicators of social mood, and so it’s informative that Tokyo just saw the worst day on the Nikkei since the end of the Heisei Boom in 1988.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index plunged 12.4% on Monday, resuming sell-offs that are shaking world markets as investors fret over the state of the U.S. economy. The Nikkei closed down 4,451.28 points at 31,458.42. The market’s broader TOPIX index fell 12.8% as selling picked up in the afternoon.

Darkening the outlook for trading on Wall Street, early Monday the future for the S&P 500 was 2.4% lower and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2.6%.

The Nikkei 225 dropped 5.8% on Friday, making this its worst two-day decline ever. Its worst single-day rout was a plunge of 3,836 points, or 14.9%, on Oct. 20, 1987, a day that was dubbed “Black Monday.” This Monday was gloomy enough: at one point, the benchmark sank as much as 13.4%.

In any event, it’s clear that the central banks have kicked the can, locked things down, and pulled every rabbit out of their hat that they can imagine. This leaves war as the only available panacea, so I suppose it’s useful in this regard that WWIII already began two years ago; it would be an interesting historical echo if the USA gets directly involved again precisely two years after the global conflict began.

1914-1917, 1939-1941, 2022-2024?

The other thing that strikes me is that by sending four carriers to the Middle East, we may – MAY – be witnessing the anticipated Sicilian Expedition Moment in the making. Nothing would more profoundly exemplify the end of Pax Americana and the imperial USA than the simultaneous sinking of all four carriers.

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Evil Redefines

Americans and Afrikaners are “colonizers” on “stolen land” despite 400+ years of presence in America and South Africa. But the Rwandan immigrant who murdered British children is “Native Welsh”.

But evil not only redefines, it uses whatever definition happens to suit its purpose at the time. At no point in time does it simply utilize the historical truth:

  1. Most, though not all, of the land in the USA was stolen from the American Indians. This isn’t debatable, as there are over 386 treaties, many of them broken, on record to this effect, with the US government alone.
  2. Most, though not all, of the land in South Africa was stolen from the Khoisan and Bantu peoples by the British and the Dutch.
  3. The current wave of immigrants to Great Britain, Europe, and the United States are still in the early stages of the process of colonizing and stealing the land, their populations simply haven’t reached the point of the numbers required yet. But they already outnumber the initial European colonizations of South Africa and the USA.

A society that won’t use its military forces to prevent large numbers of incompatible outsiders from settling in their lands will not survive unless it changes course and expels them all. That being said, things can still be restored, as the example of the Spanish Reconquista proves. But that will require a degree of ambition, determination, and intolerance that neither Generation X nor the Millennials possess; the Boomers obviously don’t count because they welcomed the invasion in the first place and they won’t be around for any future restorations.

But for now, the conquest continues apace.

Furious locals are facing new-build hell amid plans to turn their sleepy village into a megacity to give Labour a boost in its bid to create millions of new homes. The proposal, put forward by a thinktank, looks to dramatically increase the population of Tempsford, Bedfordshire, from 600 to as many as 350,000 people.

UKDayOne described it as ‘probably the best-connected greenfield site in Britain’ for the Labour Government to build on to help fulfil its housing targets. The New Towns for New Britain report highlights the opportunity as it would sit at the intersection of the East Coast Main Line and the planned East-West Rail line.

Villagers say the plans are a ‘joke’ and have threatened to move away if it comes to fruition as it could turn the ‘beautiful little village’ – where locals rejoice to see deer and rabbits roaming around – into a town bigger than Cambridge.

The English still don’t get it at all. Threats to move away are no threat at all. Getting rid of them is the objective! This is an invasion far more destructive than the one that was threatened by the Germans, a conquest that is considerably more advanced than the failed one that never crossed the channel, and yet the English still don’t even recognize it as a war on them.

It’s really remarkable how many whites and Europeans still have no idea what has happened, and what continues to happen. Perhaps it takes an American Indian to recognize the pattern. After all, how can Americans recognize that their land is being stolen when they refuse to recognize that they stole it in the first place?

So let me spell it out for you. Again. You’re the Indians now.

DISCUSS ON SG

A Distinct Lack of Support

It’s not exactly a mystery why the radical feminists never get anywhere in their endless, and futile, campaign against sexual predators. They drive off everyone who isn’t one of them, then complain that no one supports even their most reasonable efforts. They now have a rule that nothing posted on r/neilgaimanmemes can be posted on r/neilgaimanuncovered, which is ironic because r/neilgaimanuncovered was set up in response to r/neilgaiman banning all discussion of Neil Gaiman or the growing number of allegations against him.

r/neilgaimanuncovered
A sub for discussion of Neil Gaiman, post sexual misconduct allegations and for any other writers with similar allegations.
Rules
1 Be nice.
2 No spam.
3 No racism, homophobia, sexism, ableism or TERFs.
4 If they say they’re traumatized, they are.
5 No “Bitches Be Crazy.”
6 No reposts from “Neil Gaiman Memes”

What’s particularly amusing is that the rule was just adopted today because a member of r/neilgaimanuncovered requested a meme that was subsequently produced on r/neilgaimanmemes.

What’s even funnier is that they sincerely believe their side is in sole possession of all human creativity and talent. To the contrary, some of the memes are excellent and are entertaining even if you have no idea who Neil Gaiman is.

On a tangentially-related note, it appears F&SF is already dead. There can be little doubt that this is a harbinger for the converged mainstream F&SF publishing industry.

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, commonly referred to as F&SF, has long been revered as one of the last century’s most important genre fiction magazines. It’s the one cultural staple that held out the longest against wokeism, actually focusing on great storytelling for much of the 2010s, but it appears as if the magazine may be in trouble or even ceasing publication entirely... Since the Winter Issue, Fantasy & Science Fiction has not published any new content, its website has not been updated, and no commentary has been made on the magazine’s status.

UPDATE: Wow, Bing has declared “Neil Gaiman” to be unsafe content.

Prompt: Neil Gaiman signs a book

Result: Unsafe image content detected Your image generations are not displayed because we detected unsafe content in the images based on our content policy. Please try creating again with another prompt.

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The End Game

More women across the West desperately need to understand that all of their “oh, poor refugees” and “someone should so something” and “be nice, don’t be raciss” and “they’re just here to seek a better life” is going to avail them precisely nothing once the foreign invaders have sufficient numbers to impose their will on society and reshape it more to their liking.

This is the end game for women’s suffrage. As I have pointed out for decades, there is absolutely no evidence that a society can survive it for long. And what we’re witnessing now is the inevitable fate for which the majority of women have dutifully, if not smugly, voted for decades.

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More Rumors of War

The neocons are hoping that after more than 20 years of agitating for it, they’re finally going to get the war between Iran and the USA they’ve been seeking. This appears to be the culmination of Michael Ledeen’s “Faster, Please”. But be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

The US and Israel are continuing preparations for a major attack by Iran in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, Axios reported on Saturday, citing sources. The assault is anticipated to begin on Monday.

According to two unnamed US officials, Gen. Michael Kurilla, the head of US Central Command, has arrived in the region for a preplanned visit that is likely to focus on efforts to mobilize the same broad international and regional coalition that defended Israel from a previous major Iranian attack in April.

Tensions in the Middle East have reached the boiling point in recent days, after Iran accused Israel of killing Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in a bombing in Tehran. While Israel has neither confirmed nor denied orchestrating the hit, it did admit to eliminating Hezbollah leader Fouad Shukr in Beirut, who it said was responsible for an attack on a soccer field in the Golan Heights that killed 12 minors.

With the Iran promising to retaliate, the Israeli military has been put on high alert, and the US – its main ally – has increased its presence in the region.

Axios sources suggested that Iran’s attack will follow the same playbook as in April, when Tehran launched a retaliatory strike on Israel in response to what it claimed was West Jerusalem’s bombing of its consulate in Syria. That assault involved hundreds of drones and missiles, but Israeli officials insisted the damage was minimal.

At the same time, officials told the outlet that the upcoming strike could be more massive and involve Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, adding that they do not know whether Iran and Hezbollah will conduct coordinated or separate strikes. They also said they believe Tehran and Hezbollah are now finalizing their plans, which must be approved at the highest political level.

The neocons wanted a war with Russia in Ukraine too, and while it has produced the expected quantities of dead Slavs, the results haven’t otherwise gone the way the Clown Worlders were anticipating. Given that Russia is now openly supporting Iran, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if things take an unexpected turn.

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Adieu, Old Friends

This one stabs the heart a little bit. Paul was my best friend’s younger brother’s best friend, so I’d known him since I was around 13 or so. Andy, I met through Paul not long after GI got rolling. We played games with them many times, both in the Digital Ghetto and at their offices; I saw Andy’s band play his fantastic THREE-CHORD SONG at the Fine Line, and they both came to our epic Christmas parties back in the day.

Paul’s been gone for a long time and now his legacy is at an end too. Then again, at 33 years it was the longest-running game publication and it lasted a lot longer than our game company did, so I guess you’d have to say the Pro Player won one last game.

DISCUSS ON SG

Neocons are Back

And they’re rolling the dice. Now that the neocon faction that controls Harris has succeeded in pushing aside the Six Bidens and gaining control of the US military, it appears that the second front of WWIII is about to kick off in earnest. Michael Hudson comments on what looks like joint US-Israeli preparations for war with Hezbollah and Iran:

You say Israel, but it’s actually Israel in the United States. And all this has happened right after Netanyahu came to Congress and met in Washington with the Democratic Party leaders and then with Trump. So I think it’s really the policy of the neocons. They’ve worked hand in hand. And I’ve known these people for over 50 years…

So I think that the neocons in Washington believe that war is going to be inevitable. America is fighting for control of the Near East because the Near East controls the oil. And American foreign policy has been based on control of food supplies from American farms and control of the oil trade, because if you can control the oil trade, you can turn off people’s electricity, their heating, and their power. And power use for workers is the root of productivity.

And the way that the military thinks—and again, I’ve worked with them for years—is the timing, that, are we in a better position now than we will be next year or not. And I think the American military realizes that Russia and China and the other Eurasian countries are getting together. The American ability to fight militarily is going down. And to the military, that means if we don’t have war now and wait till next year in the future, we’ll be less and less and less able to win.

Well, the reality is they’re going to lose wherever they go, unless there’s atomic war and the chessboard is thrown over. And I think their feeling is the Americans are doing everything they can, from Ukraine to Israel to Iran, to try to stir up a retaliation so that they can then say, ah, we’re under attack, we’re purely defending ourselves, and once you tell your population and your voters this is a war for defense, as the Nazis know, you can always get a—as Goebbels said, you can always get a population on your side if you say it’s for defense.

So I’m very worried that the neocons are going to say there will never be a better or at least a less worse time to go to war in the Near East than right now. That seems to be what is leading the trigger, and even the military has said every way that they’ve gamed out the military sequence there, America loses. They’re not going to lose as bad now as they will in the future. And this is very dangerous, given the whole mindset that they have, and the mindset that they have to control the Near East, or else the rest of the world will not be neoliberalized.

That’s been my assumption as well. Next year is not going to be any easier. Five years from now is not going to be any easier. Time is on the side of the sovereign nations, so Clown World has to act now if it is going to act at all. I was hoping that Trump would come in to preside over a soft collapse, but that option appears to have pretty much disappeared with the assassination and the JD Vance selection.

It will be interesting to see how Russia and China react to this. Very interesting indeed. Because if the US military is sufficiently committed on this front, it won’t have much ability to interfere in Europe or in Asia.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Sound of a Sea

Hark! What’s that you hear? We submitted the hardcover edition of A SEA OF SKULLS to the printer last night. I’ll review them next week, and assuming they pass muster, we’ll release it into the distribution system. You’ll be able to purchase them from directly NDM Express, of course, as well as from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and your local bookseller. At 299,434 words, it’s a slightly longer book than ATOB in terms of word count, although with the much more efficient layout program we have now, it only clocks in at 760 pages. We do plan to do a revised version of ATOB so that the interior styles will match more precisely, but probably not for a month or two.

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FJOTRA

Fjotra did not object, in principle, to learning about the gods of her new people. She had known from the time her father, the Skullbreaker, sent her to marry the heir to the southern kingdom, that she would have to learn many different new ways. The language was different, but she was young enough to learn it without difficulty. The food was considerably more abundant and flavorful, and her palate did not take long to adapt to the various meats and breads and sauces that were much to be preferred to the salted fish and charred game of her home islands. The clothing was lighter and more comfortable, and she adored wearing silk and cotton dresses in the place of the crude leather and canvas clothes that had been worn by Dalarn women since the coming of the Aalvarg had made raising sheep for wool and growing flax for linen impossible. Even the weather was much more gentle than it customarily was in the windswept Wolf Isles.

But despite the best efforts of Father Francois, who took great pains to talk her through the nonsense, she could make neither heads nor tails about the gods of the southerners. They worshipped a god who was both dead and alive, who was both father to himself and son to himself, and also took on a third form that was nevertheless the same as the other two. It wasn’t that the idea a god had different forms was foreign to her; the Aldaföðr had a hundred names, from Arnhöfði to Völundrómu, and each name represented a different aspect of her people’s greatest god. But despite his many aspects, he was merely the first among a host of gods, and Fjotra particularly venerated Valfreyja, the beautiful goddess who was queen of the Choosers of the Slain.

Continue reading “The Sound of a Sea”