The global debt threat

I’ve been warning about the danger of the massive debt overhanging the global economy since 2002 to absolutely no avail. 

The problem is the giant, stagnant pool of loans that companies and people around the world are struggling to pay back. Bad debts have been a drag on economic activity ever since the financial crisis of 2008, but in recent months, the threat posed by an overhang of bad loans appears to be rising. China is the biggest source of worry. Some analysts estimate that China’s troubled credit could exceed $5 trillion, a staggering number that is equivalent to half the size of the country’s annual economic output.

Official figures show that Chinese banks pulled back on their lending in December. If such trends persist, China’s economy, the second-largest in the world behind the United States’, may then slow even more than it has, further harming the many countries that have for years relied on China for their growth.

But it’s not just China. Wherever governments and central banks
unleashed aggressive stimulus policies in recent years, a toxic debt
hangover has followed. In the United States, it took many months for
mortgage defaults to fall after the most recent housing bust — and
energy companies are struggling to pay off the cheap money that they
borrowed to pile into the shale boom.

In
Europe, analysts say bad loans total more than $1 trillion. Many large
European banks are still burdened with defaulted loans, complicating
policy makers’ efforts to revive the Continent’s economy. Italy, for
instance, announced a plan last week to clean out bad loans from its
plodding banking industry. Elsewhere,
bad loans are on the rise at Brazil’s biggest banks, as the country
grapples with the effects of an enormous credit binge.

2008 was the first stage, but instead of doing as I recommended,
permitting the bad loans to default, and allowing the banks and other
credit holders to go bankrupt, Ben Bernanke and the Republicans “saved
the economy” by kicking the can down the road just as Alan Greenspan did in 1987.

Granted, they kicked it further than I would have believed possible in 2009, but nevertheless, we’ve now reached it again, and it is bigger and heavier than it was 7 years ago. And the Fed’s metaphorical foot is broken.


Confessions of a sociopath

Either John Scalzi gets a little forgetful when he’s virtue-signaling or he is even more openly sociopathic than his stone cold “give no fucks” mentality would indicate:

John Scalzi Verified account ‏@scalzi 4 February 2016
Related, writing something that shows you’re a horrible person and then proclaiming “it’s satire!” neither makes it satire or excuses you.

Apparently this is neither satire nor excusable:

“I’m a rapist. I’m one of those men who likes to force myself on women without their consent or desire and then batter them sexually. The details of how I do this are not particularly important at the moment — although I love when you try to make distinctions about “forcible rape” or “legitimate rape” because that gives me all sorts of wiggle room — but I will tell you one of the details about why I do it: I like to control women and, also and independently, I like to remind them how little control they have.” – John Scalzi, 25 October 2012 

So, which is it, Johnny? Are you a rapist? Or is it satire?


Musings on Immigration IV

This is the final section of the four-part guest post.

Conclusion
If there is one thing that can be said in faint praise of Barrack
Obama, it is his unerring capability to escape the consequences of
gaffes that would have destroyed a lesser politician. Most recently,
his comparison of Syrian refugees to the pilgrims on the Mayflower
provoked derision and disbelief in equal measure. By welcoming
the Europeans to their shores and helping them to survive the first
hellish winter, the Native Americans signed their own death warrants.
There was no mass resistance to the immigration/invasion until it
was far too late.
Seriously, if you happened to be a Native American with access to a
time machine, what advice would you give the Indians? Help the
settlers or kill every last one of the white devils?
And that is the problem facing Europe now.
The lesson we have failed to learn, time and time again, is that
introducing large numbers of people who THINK differently from us to
our nations is asking for trouble. These people are not blank
slates. Young men raised in a society where women are regarded as
chattel, as little more than property, are unlikely to adjust well to
Western society. Nor do they understand the concept of the ‘iron
fist in the velvet glove,’ coming as they do from a society which
functions on the concept of ‘iron fist in the iron glove.’ Such
people regard such concepts as a sign of weakness, a sign that they
can (and should) go further. Arab society, in many ways, is based on
bullying. One is either the bully or the bullied.
Getting through to these people requires – demands – stern measures.
Gentle rebukes are meaningless because they don’t use gentle
rebukes themselves. Forbearance and tolerance is nothing more than a
sign of weakness.
There is an old saying that insists that fish have no word for water,
because they swim in it. That is certainly true of European Culture.
It is all around Europeans such as myself, yet it goes unnoticed
because we are too used to it. But because we are unaware of our
culture, we fail to comprehend that others might have a different
culture – or that defending our culture means not submitting to their
culture. Tolerance of what one may do in private, among consenting
adults, is one thing; tolerating the intolerable is quite another.
For all its flaws, and it has many, I LIKE Western Civilization.
Life is good here. We do not oppress women in any systematic manner.
Homosexuals can be homosexual without anyone giving a damn; they are
certainly not hunted down and thrown off tall buildings. People can
change their religion without being brutally murdered. There is a
great deal of freedom of choice, from everything like movies to
online porn! None of this is true of Arab counties. Women are
slaves, homosexuals are thrown off buildings, converts are killed …
The West has forgotten that it needs to draw lines. There is a
strong difference between anything done by consenting adults in
private and anything forced on an individual who does not
consent. The West has lost its ability to see that these lines
exist, instead making excuses for people who are ‘different.’
Pre-1945 Europe was a harsh and intolerant place in a great many
ways, but post-Cold War Europe is far too permissive. And, in not
standing up for its values, it has displayed a weakness that merely
attracts bullies. It has become far too permissive for its own good.
Above all, perhaps, the West has forgotten that the world is a cold
and brutal place. The years of peace enjoyed by Western Europe, held
in place by the nuclear deterrent and the American security
guarantee, was not a natural condition. If one happens to truly
desire peace, then prepare for war.
There are many arguments put forward by people who don’t see the
situation the way I do.
One chain of thought suggests that Germany needs younger immigrants;
the German population is growing older and the replacement babies are
not there. This argument hangs on the assumption that Mohammad will
be willing to work his ass off to keep Fritz in the retirement home,
a very dangerous assumption. Why should he? And even if Mohammad is
willing to work, can he? The vast majority of migrants have very
little in the way of useful skills.
Seriously, if Germany had wanted migrants, it would have been better
to pick and chose from people who could actually work.
Another suggests that the birth-rate among migrants is falling too,
that the nightmare of being overwhelmed by hordes of barbarians is
never going to materialise. I do not have any data, but I suspect
this isn’t particularly accurate. Arabs take pride in large
families. It will take at least two generations of assimilation, assuming that it happens at all, before birth-rates start to fall
significantly. That will be more than long enough to tip the
demographic balance squarely in their favor.
Indeed, given what tends to happen if there are large numbers of
migrants, I would be very surprised if the birth-rates fell at all.
A third argument suggests that we – Europe – have a duty, in line
with international law, to take refugees.
I am not an expert on international law, but it is, quite simply, unenforceable. No one can do more
than wag their fingers at Merkel if she decided to refuse sanctuary
to any further migrants, then start deporting the ones already in
Germany. International agreements were designed to prevent another
Holocaust, the destruction of a largely-inoffensive minority, not
force states to commit suicide by accepting large numbers of people
from a very offensive culture. There are times when keeping one’s
agreements is a good thing – a reputation for breaking them makes it
harder to make agreements in future – but this is not one of them.
If Merkel is unwilling or unable to recognise this, the next
government certainly will.
It is perhaps the greatest irony of the whole affair that agreements
made in the recognition that we – the West – failed to prevent a
genocide on a truly staggering scale may lead directly to another
genocide.
I am not sanguine about the future. Europe is facing a major crisis
at precisely the moment when it is psychologically, and perhaps
physically, unfit to handle it. Governments are increasingly under
siege by their own populations, who are demanding change, and facing
the threat of the EU coming apart once and for all. Fringe parties
that may want a more final solution to the migrant crisis ate gaining
in power as people lose faith in the elites. The rule of law is
crumbling. Violence is rising on the streets as people strive to
defend themselves against the migrant threat. Britain leaving the EU
in 2016 might merely be the first nail in its coffin.
Winter is coming.

Mailvox: SJW attacks

This sort of thing is precisely why I have been advising everyone to a) get the hell of Facebook, b) utilize anonymous callsigns when commenting, c) create alternative social media accounts, and d) practice sound operational security. The cultural war on social media only going to get worse as the SJWs, and perhaps even the cuckservatives, get more and more frantic about the growing popularity of the Alt-Right, the Mil-Right, and the nationalist Left:

I have a business page on Facebook, which I have used for collecting reviews and event promotion. This morning the following post was present on it. I went through the group of this particular SJW attacker, and he posted a picture of himself to gloat. He mentions you, Roosh, and Milo by name and is apparently trying to attack all of their Twitter followers.

If the other VFM could find out who this guy is and put pressure back on him, it may dissuade his efforts. I can’t imagine I’m the only one this guy has gone after.

Needless to say, active and vigorous reprisals are in order. Get on it, VFM. See if you can beat the current record of 57 minutes to ID him.

SJWs always forget that the social media sword cuts both ways. One formerly mouthy gentleman stopped yapping the moment I sent him a link to the harassment reporting page of his organization, observed that he was very clearly in violation of several of the employee guidelines, and mentioned that if his attacks continued, I would be sending the archived links to his employer. He’s been very well-behaved since.

First, archive everything related to the attack at archive.today. Second, go through the links for all identifying information. Third, contact me and send me what you have; I will send it out to the VFM. Fourth, shut the hell up about slander, libel, suing, and the courts. You’re not going to do it in the USA because you won’t win, so stop posturing.  Fifth, learn the cyberstalking statutes in your state. Sixth, aim for antifragility.

Start nothing, finish everything.



“The embodiment of white nerd privilege”

Wil Wheaton has been called out for going against the SJW Narrative. It was inevitable, of course. After all, we have been reliably informed that as a white man, he is playing on the Easiest Difficulty Level:

Like many of you, I’ve been aware of Wil Wheaton’s outspoken position as a Bro-Feminist for quite some time. Occasionally, he’ll retweet or even say something that might seem profound. But I’m also not alone in suspecting that, beneath his “yay, feminism!” facade, lies deep-rooted misogyny. Recently, he proved my suspicions correct when he attempted to brand Clinton supporters a rather disgusting sexist slur that I will not repeat.

Make no mistake. Wheaton is the embodiment of white male nerd privilege. This “actor” had one role back in the 1980s that people actually remember, and somehow he’s more famous than the trailblazing women who had more prominent roles than him in the same fucking series. He’s parlayed his “I’m just like you!” nerd celebrity status into a recurring role as himself on a hit sitcom. He doesn’t even have to act, he literally just shows up and gets paid just for being him. How much more privileged can a creepy white dude get?

No wonder he’s loved so much by nerds. He’s the epitome of what all nerds want to be – rewarded by everyone just for being their precious, nerdy selves. He even got a “hit” YouTube series where he gets to hang out and play board games with people who have actual accomplishments. He even drags his wife on the show every now and then, as if to prove to all his little nerdling fans that hot girls really do like him.

Speaking of which, how creepy is it that his YouTube show seems to be an excuse for him to spend time with women who wouldn’t give him the time of day otherwise?

Anyway, back to my point. Wheaton has shown his true colours with his recent sexist campaign against Hillary Clinton…. Frankly, the man reminds me of the rapist Jian Ghomeshi. His espousing
of progressive values is nothing more than a mask. And we’ve just seen
his mask slip, giving a peek at the sexist evil hidden beneath.

Wait, hold on… okay, never mind. Wil Wheaton apologized. And as we all know, an apology always suffices to make the SJWs go away.


A dialogue with a Sanders voter

I can never decide whether it is more amusing or depressing that these are the sort of people who consider themselves to be better educated and more intelligent. Regardless, it is certainly ironic:

uraniumUmbra @bigbadelite
Not all are refugees. But the amount that are far outweigh those that aren’t.

Supreme Dark Lord @voxday
You have it completely backwards. The vast majority are not refugees.

uraniumUmbra @bigbadelite
Proof?

Supreme Dark Lord @voxday
You made a false and baseless claim. Now you want proof? You’re a moron.

uraniumUmbra @bigbadelite
You made a baseless claim then say I’m the one at fault.

Supreme Dark Lord @voxday
You made a totally false claim with zero support. You are wrong.

uraniumUmbra @bigbadelite
Well where the fuck is your proof? I’m open to being proven wrong

Supreme Dark Lord @voxday
You are wrong, you moron. You’ll get as much “proof” as you cited.

uraniumUmbra @bigbadelite
You offered no support either. I guess we are both wrong.

Supreme Dark Lord ‏@voxday
See, that’s why you are a moron. One of us HAS to be right. You’re not.

uraniumUmbra @bigbadelite
Then prove I’m not. This is why you’re a hypocrite.

uraniumUmbra @bigbadelite
If lack of a cited source makes me wrong then same standard to you.

Supreme Dark Lord @voxday
It’s not the lack of a cited source that makes your claim wrong. Idiot.

uraniumUmbra @bigbadelite
Most are running from ISIS. And until Vox here proves me wrong I stand by my claim.

Space Bunnyopoulos @Spacebunnyday
Standing by your baseless and demonstrably wrong claim just makes you an idiot.

What I find fascinating about this exchange is the way in which UrineShadow or whatever his name is observably does not understand the concept of objective reality. And basic logic, specifically, the law of non-contradiction, is also beyond him.

He doesn’t understand that due to the principium tertii exclusi, one of us has to be correct. Either most of the migrants are refugees or most of them are not refugees. The ability or inability of either of us to prove the case is totally irrelevant with regards to who is correct; the facts are what they are because the nature of the refugees is not dictated by our perception, definition, or knowledge of them.


But that is not the only problem. Note his accusation of hypocrisy, when in fact he is the only hypocrite here, demanding proof despite providing none in his original assertion. This is further proof of the Third Law of SJW: SJWs always project.

Contra the dictum of Saint Hitch, who was a witty man, but no logician, that which is asserted without proof cannot reasonably be dismissed without proof. For it is not proof, or evidence, or sources that matter, but truth, which is to say, a subjective opinion that is in line with observable objective reality.

The ability, or the willingness, to demonstrate this harmony is irrelevant with regards to the simple fact of its existence.


Rand Paul drops out

Showing more sense than Jeb Bush and the other no-hopers, Sen. Rand Paul ends his presidential campaign:

Rand Paul on Wednesday dropped out of the race for president, saying he will now focus on his reelection to the U.S. Senate.

“It’s been an incredible honor to run a principled campaign for the White House. Today, I will end where I began, ready and willing to fight for the cause of Liberty,” Paul said in a statement.

It’s a pity, as his father’s supporters were more than ready to support him, but Paul shot his presidential aspirations in the foot by moving to the center even as the center was moving to the nationalist right.

Despite being good on foreign policy, he got it hopelessly wrong on immigration and that rendered him moot in 2016. He’s not bad, as politicians go, but he’s simply not worthy of carrying his father’s torch nor is he capable of doing so.


Rabid Puppies 2016: Best Fan Writer

The preliminary recommendations for the Best Fan Writer category.  

Compare and contrast the impressive and substantial work of these fan writers with the lightweights and pro authors favored in recent years by the SF-SJWs. The difference is downright risible.

Other 2016 Hugo categories


The news, converged

Oliver Campbell observes that SJWs, especially SJWs in the media, always lie. A staff reporter for The Intercept is busted impersonating his editor and fabricating quotes:

The Intercept recently discovered a pattern of deception in the actions of a staff member. The employee, Juan Thompson, was a staff reporter from November 2014 until last month. Thompson fabricated several quotes in his stories and created fake email accounts that he used to impersonate people, one of which was a Gmail account in my name.

An investigation into Thompson’s reporting turned up three instances in which quotes were attributed to people who said they had not been interviewed. In other instances, quotes were attributed to individuals we could not reach, who could not remember speaking with him, or whose identities could not be confirmed. In his reporting Thompson also used quotes that we cannot verify from unnamed people whom he claimed to have encountered at public events. Thompson went to great lengths to deceive his editors, creating an email account to impersonate a source and lying about his reporting methods.

We have published corrections and editor’s notes to the affected pieces, and we will publish further corrections if we identify additional problems. We are retracting one story in its entirety. We have decided not to remove the posts but have labeled them “Retracted” or “Corrected,” based on our findings. We have added notes to stories with unconfirmed quotes.

We apologize to the subjects of the stories; to the people who were falsely quoted; and to you, our readers. We are contacting news outlets that picked up the corrected stories to alert them to the problems.

What does convergence mean in an already SJW-infested media? It means that the news goes from being openly biased to entirely fictional. Remember, SJWism requires not only being delusional about reality, but relentlessly selling those delusions to the rest of the world, no matter how contradictory they are.

That’s why any SJW in your organization should be Identified, Expelled, and Ignored. IEI. Where the president of the R Foundation failed was in not maintaining the second I; he apparently submitted to internal pressure and retracted. Don’t ever give in to the entryists and activists no matter how much they whine, cry, and lobby; you will regret it.

I somehow doubt the editor of The Intercept will make the same mistake.