Where All Roads Lead

MIDNIGHT’S WAR UPDATE

Days Left: 5

% of Goal: 202.9 percent

% of Stretch Goal 1: 101.5 percent

% of Stretch Goal 2: 67.6 percent

Backers: 359

It’s official. Castalia House will publish a short novel set in the Midnight World entitled OUT OF THE SHADOWS. As promised, chapter two:

MIDNIGHT’S WAR: Out of the Shadows

Chapter Two: Where All Roads Lead

All throughout the following day, Elliott found himself somewhat distracted. He zoned out during a conference call with Bank of America, and twice had to be pulled out of his reveries during a meeting with the Human Resources team by his executive assistant, Natalie.

He couldn’t stop thinking about what this mysterious meeting might entail, and what “very profitable,” might mean. It couldn’t be Blackrock behind this, could it? Even if they wanted to keep their interest on the down low in order to hide their intentions from the competitors that trailed them like remoras sticking to a great white shark, Elliott was pretty sure sending an executive to the site in question wasn’t their modus operandi. To paraphrase the Muslims, Mohammed would have to go to the Rock, as the Rock wasn’t in the habit of coming to him.

For a reason that he couldn’t quite rationalize, he felt there might be a European element lurking somewhere underneath it all, perhaps even a very old European element. Being a second-generation son of Silicon Valley, Elliott knew very little about the money markets of the Old World, the London oligarchs, the Swiss private banks, and the ancient Italian investment firms that seemed to own everything from Greek shipping firms to Vietnamese wineries without anyone ever even knowing their names.

So what would the play be, he wondered. That old generational money never seemed to be very interested in the stock markets, let alone in splashy public offerings and the media attention they attracted. But how would an outright buyout make any sense at this point in time? Making money was all about the multiple, but what potential buyer, no matter how well-endowed, could match the buying power of an entire market pumped up on hype and the hypothetical promise of longer life?

Continue reading “Where All Roads Lead”

Weekend Arktoons

MY SISTER SUPREMA Episode 34: An Actual Evil Lair

PAPER DOLL VERONIKA Episode 43: Voices in the Depths

FULL OF EYES Episode 15: This is Love

CHUCK DIXON PRESENTS: ADVENTURE Episode 70: A Pirate Christmas

CHATEAU GRIEF Episode 182: Aggregated Assault

ENTER: NIGHT Episode 10: Missing Person

THE RED TATTOO Episode 27: The Tattoo

VEGFOLK FABLES Episode 170: Saint Lennon’s Hair

INVASION ’55 Episode 23: Ricky & Jimmy

BEN GARRISON CLASSICS Episode 74: JP Morgan .999 Stops .666

CHUCK DIXON PRESENTS: COMEDY Episode 69: Christmas In July

Black Magick War

Zelensky might sound insane, and from a rational materialist perspective he probably is. But then, rational materialists, by definition, are not capable of recognizing or analyzing the esoteric:

‘Reconquest’ of Crimea has started – Zelensky

Ukrainians are now psychologically ready to retake the Crimean Peninsula from Russia by force, President Vladimir Zelensky told French broadcaster TF1 in an interview on Sunday. “The Reconquest” of Crimea has supposedly already started in Ukrainians’ heads, the president claimed, hinting that he could visit the “de-occupied” peninsula as early as 2023.

“The operation itself has not started yet,” Zelensky said, when asked about Kiev’s plans for Crimea. “When it starts, you will definitely hear about it,” he told TF1, adding that he personally believes “the reconquest of Crimea has started in people’s heads, and that’s very important.”

There is genuine intent behind this seemingly lunatic announcement. It’s an obvious attempt to speak will into being. However, the Russians are also actively engaged in the spiritual war, which is why Zelensky has banned the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He regards the Christians in Ukraine as being as much his masters’ enemies as the Russians.

I suspect it won’t be long now before the Russians launch a massive offensive, because Zelensky appears to be rapidly approaching the “Hitler in the bunker” stage.

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2-2 (4-2)

Argentina have won the World Cup. Congratulations to the Albiceleste and their fans. It’s good to see a national team that actually represents its nation win, instead of the team that represents the state that successfully imports the best Africans. And while it was a fun and exciting tournament, one is left with one conclusion.

Too many penalties. So many penalties.

The game really should not be designed to encourage teams to build their offense around playing for fouls in the box.

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One Week Left

MIDNIGHT’S WAR UPDATE

Days Left: 7

% of Goal: 196.0 percent

% of Stretch Goal: 97.9 percent

Backers: 342

Dante encourages a backer to consider an additional add-on.

If we hit the stretch goal, I will post the second chapter of MIDNIGHT’S WAR: Out of the Shadows here.

UPDATE: And thanks to the backers, the first stretch goal has been unlocked! On Monday, I will post the second chapter here and a limited edition hardcover of MIDNIGHT’S WAR: Out of the Shadows, a 30,000-word novel set in the Midnight World, will be offered as an add-on. You can read the first chapter here.

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The Economics of Clown World

Michael Hudson explains the basic operation of what passes for Clown World’s economic system in an interview:

MEGA Radio: In your new book The Destiny of Civilization: Finance Capitalism, Industrial Capitalism, or Socialism you state that the world economy is now fracturing between two parts, the United States and Europe is the dollarized part. And this Western neoliberal unit is driving Eurasia and most of the Global South into a separate group. You just stated this in an interview from November. Could you explain this for our outlet?

Michael Hudson: The split is not only geographic but above all reflects the conflict between Western neoliberalism and the traditional logic of industrial capitalism. The West has deindustrialized its economies by replacing industrial capitalism with finance capitalism, initially in an attempt to keep its wages down by moving abroad to employ foreign labor, and then to try and establish monopoly privileges and captive markets or arms (and now oil) and high-technology essentials, becoming rentier economies.

A century ago, industrial capitalism was expected to evolve into industrial socialism, with governments providing subsidized basic infrastructure services (such as health care, education, communication, research and development) to minimize their cost of living and doing business. That is how the United States, Germany and other countries built up their industrial power, and it also is how China and other Eurasian countries have done so more recently.

But the West’s choice to privatize and financialize its basic infrastructure, dismantling the role of government and shifting planning to Wall Street, London and other financial centers, has left it with little to offer other countries – except or the promise not to bomb them or treat them as enemies if they seek to keep their wealth in their own hands instead of transferring it to U.S. investors and corporations.

The result is that when China and other countries build up their economies in the same way that the United States did from the end of its Civil War to World War II, they are treated as enemies. It is as if U.S. diplomats see that the game is lost, and that their economy has become so debt-ridden, privatized and high-cost that it cannot compete, that it simply hopes to keep making other countries dependent tributaries for as long as it can until the game finally is over.

If the U.S. succeeds in imposing financial neoliberalism on the world, then other countries will end up with the same problems that the United States is experiencing.

Read the whole thing. It’s really good and it even references Crusader Kings. And Hudson points out that the cruelest thing Russia can do to Europe is not to invade it, but rather, to abandon it to the rapacious rule of the US financial elite.

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A Ticket-Taker’s Holiday

If you take the ticket, you’re not going to be celebrating Christmas much longer.

Harry and Meghan’s ‘paper free’ ‘holiday season’ card features a glitzy black-and-white photo from the night they received an award for opposing ‘structural racism’ in the Royal Family but fails to include any mention of Christmas.

It’s very telling that the most staunch opponents of “racism” are just as opposed to Christmas. And it’s not a coincidence. Never trust anyone or any organization that makes a point of evading the celebration of the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ.

None of this sort of thing is accidental. It is always purposeful signaling, and if you pay attention to it, you will seldom be surprised when the bad actors eventually reveal themselves.

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We Don’t KNOW It Was the Vaxx

Okay, for once, it wasn’t the vaxx. Or at least, it probably wasn’t the vaxx:

A huge aquarium exploded inside a German hotel today, injuring two people and filling the lobby with 1,500 fish and a million litres of water. The 46ft-high tank in the foyer of the Radisson Blu hotel in central Berlin burst at around 5.50am.

The incident at the AquaDom aquarium left two people suffering injuries from glass shards and caused ‘incredible maritime damage’, German police said.

The explosion filled the hotel lobby with over a million litres of water and 1,500 tropical fish. The leaking water reached the outside of the complex, prompting police to close a nearby street.

I stayed there about 10 years ago for a technology event that was being held there. The aquarium absolutely towered over the lobby; it was massively gigantic and I can’t even fathom what it must have been like to see it explode.

Press F for the 1,500 fish.

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