The media endangers itself

Journalists no longer should be afforded any protection, because journalists are not neutral observers. As they have chosen their side, they should be treated like the enemies of law and order that they are. As the primary enforcers of “hate speech”, they have no justification to hide their actions behind “freedom” or “free speech”.

“I remember this guy Velshi,” Trump said. “He got hit in the knee with a canister of tear gas, and he went down. He was down. ‘My knee, my knee.’ Nobody cared, these guys didn’t care, they moved him aside. And they just walked right through. It was the most beautiful thing,” Trump said. “No, because after we take all that crap for weeks and weeks, and you finally see men get up there and go right through them, wasn’t it really a beautiful sight? It’s called law and order.”

In a statement, MSNBC responded to Trump’s taunt, accusing him of encouraging violence towards the press. 

“Freedom of the press is a pillar of our democracy. When the President mocks a journalist for the injury he sustained while putting himself in harm’s way to inform the public, he endangers thousands of other journalists and undermines our freedoms.”

First, the USA is not a democracy. Second, the press has already undermined those freedoms. They don’t deserve any protection at all. They deserve prosecution. 

Flat-out Judases

Jim Caviezel rips into the Churchian leadership of Protestants and Catholics alike: 

Catholic actor Jim Caviezel, best known for playing Jesus in the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, blasted “lukewarm” Christians in a Fox News interview, saying it’s “a bloody shame” one can’t tell the difference “between a priest, a bishop, or a politician.”

“I got to play Jesus, some of us love Peter or Paul, but there are many of us right now, they are flat out Judases, okay? Or they’re Pontius Pilates or they’re the Pharisees, okay?” Caviezel told Shannon Bream on the Fox News show FOX@Night yesterday.

“It’s a bloody shame if you can’t tell the difference between a priest, a bishop, or a politician. It’s really sad, but this is called lukewarmness, and Christ has a very special place for them, and they know it.”

Caviezel appeared as a guest on FOX@Night to discuss his latest movie, Infidel, which he described to Bream as a “well executed thriller.” Caviezel made the remarks when asked by Bream about what his concerns are regarding the role of faith, and what people should be doing about it in today’s world.

He was blunt with Bream, telling her that his new film is not some “candy-ass Christian stupid film,” but is rather one about “what is really going on today” in terms of the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

“Well, it’s relevant because we have this thing called cancel culture, and if Christians don’t watch, it will be canceling Christianity as well, because a lot of our pastors, okay, our bishops, our priests — they’re laying right over,” Caviezel told Bream.

“They let their churches being burned, all right? How do we know that? Well, it’s right there in the news. Statues being ripped down. They don’t say anything.”

He’s absolutely right. God will certainly spit what passes for the modern Church out of His mouth, although most Churchians are worse than lukewarm. They follow the world and the Prince of this world, not Jesus Christ. That’s why they are laying right over; their objective is to lead their flocks away from God.

Read the Bible. Fear God. Serve Jesus Christ. Do not follow evil men and women into Hell simply because they call themselves christians, pastors, priests, or popes.

Pity the poor SF-SJW

Strange, I don’t recall any of them being terribly bothered about fake reviews back when their fellow SJWs were posting fake reviews about A THRONE OF BONES or SJWs Always Lie. But now that Tor authors are being targeted by fake reviewers, it’s a national emergency:

Remember, this is a book none of them have read, and none of them even have access to. We know who advanced reader copies have been sent to, and none of them are on the list. This is purely about continuing their terror campaign against a randomly picked target for fun.

I fully expect that before I wake up tomorrow, STARSHIP REPO will have several dozen fake, malicious reviews already posted on its Amazon page, along with the half dozen that have already appeared on Goodreads. All of the above evidence and explanation has already been repeatedly sent to Amazon customer service, both from myself, and from my publisher. And what has Amazon done in response?

Absolutely nothing. Indeed, they have actively refused to take any action at all, falling back on the excuse that their algorithms have already determined the reviews are genuine, and no human actively polices them anyway.

This is, to put it mildly, disappointing coming from one of the largest and most powerful companies in the entire world. When all is said and done, I don’t really blame the trolls for their antisocial, maladjusted behavior, any more than I would blame a baby for soiling its diaper, or a college student puking up six hours of 2-4-1 Long Island Ice Teas in an Applebee’s sink on their 21st birthday. In all three cases, they simply have no control over themselves, and can’t be expected to do better.

But Amazon and other companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit can be expected to do better. Indeed, we must demand they do. Targets of online harassment campaigns must be given the tools they need to combat these all-encompassing attacks, and their oppressors silenced.

Somehow, when it comes to our collective online lives, society has agreed to the perverse notion that people of accomplishment and status, be they actors, athletes, writers, or musicians, should just shut up and take it when harassed. “Don’t feed the trolls” people who have never been in the spotlight say, not realizing that trolls turn to stone in the presence of sunlight. Meanwhile, hordes of anonymous terrorists are somehow afforded infinite free speech rights, up to and including consequence-free libel, incitement to violence, and threats of bodily harm or death.

This social compact is not just counterintuitive, but utterly insane. It validates and encourages the dead worst behavior, from the world’s most awful people. It has poisoned social media and public discourse, and it must change.

I, for one, can’t be bothered to care. It is what it is. Maybe they should consider building their own platforms.

Blinded by lies

 AC points out that the US “meritocracy” was always a lie:

It is amazing how a conglomeration of these little lies, slipped in below your awareness, almost subconsciously, blinded us completely. We would see pedophile rings, and idiots in power, and public graft, and organized riots, and rumors of a vast surveillance state, and the richest people who were all new billionaires that all got their money off a chance clever idea while no multi-generational old-money family starting with billions, ever stole their idea and their fortune before they ever made it, creating multi-generational dynasties with so much wealth they were undefeatable. We even see an eerie exact rerun of pre-WWII Germany. And we saw all of that, pointing to a shadow dictatorship just out of sight which was lying to us, and rerunning a global plan for world war. But what we believed was we lived in the freest country in the world with privacy, and the people in control of the government, and elections, and it could never really be taken from us. And in reality, we never had it to begin with.

But it is all falling apart now. The truth always breaks through eventually.

I left the USA in part because at the age of 20 I was given the opportunity to see, up close and personal, what sort of people were at the very heart of power in the USA. And they were not only mediocrities, they were corrupt to the bone, without an atom of truth or honesty or integrity in them. 

Perhaps the most accurate way to describe the present system of US government is wickedocracy, or if you prefer, iniquitocracy. Advancement within the system depends upon one’s willingness to take the ticket, to sell one’s soul, to render oneself a hostage to the rulers of the darkness of this world. This is why the establishment hates President Trump and Qanon with such a virulent passion. The President and the movement represent the first genuine threat to the wickedocracy in generations.

Challenge accepted

The Left is promising war over Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s dead body:

Mount up. You dare try and replace her right now and there will be a war. That’s a promise. 

Signed, 

Us

#RBG

Seems to me they already started what they think passes for a war over George Floyd’s dead body. Either way, the sooner things get rolling in the USA, the better for actual Americans. But I very much doubt the God-Emperor is going to permit anything to get out of hand on his watch. 

Two new books

First, fans of Kai Wai Cheah will be very pleased to learn that Castalia House has finally published the third volume in The Covenant Chronicles, The Prince of Shadows. It’s every bit as good as the first two.

THE OLD GODS ARE COMING BACK!

When a black op goes awry, the Nemesis Project pulls deniable operator Luke Landon off the line. But while mortal authorities want him to stand down, the gods aren’t done with him yet.

Pressed into a secret war between infernal and divine powers, Landon is thrust into a new campaign. The elder gods are returning to do battle with the Unmaker—and they are choosing agents to carry out their will.

In Japan, a goddess has chosen a shrine maiden as her soldier. The shadowy Organization, the secret rulers of the world, have her in their sights. Without official sanction or backup, Landon and his allies must go rogue to save her.

Landon has always been prepared to lay down his life. But this time, he may just have to give up his immortal soul.

Second, a new author has joined forces with us, as the relentless Razörfist is publishing his first novel, an illustrated fantasy noir entitled The Long Moonlight. Preorders are now being taken for both the signed hardcover edition and the paperback at Arkhaven.

MENUVIA

A sparkling gem made rough stone, the seat of political power in the Kingdom of Vale. Revolt foments among the patrician class and open gang war looms on the horizon. As the Argentine Tower plots revolution, a lone thief with a past as dark as Menuvia itself picks the wrong lock and opens the wrong door. Shadows still cast in the dark of night, underneath THE LONG MOONLIGHT.

Featuring a series of original illustrations. Published by Dark Legion Books.

The signed hardcover edition also includes the ebook, which will be sent out when it is released.

Razörfist has even produced a video packed full of lore introducing the book.

A free year of Castalia Library

A generous Castalia Library subscriber has graciously offered to donate an annual Castalia Library subscription to a family that cannot afford the books. Since the subscription presently begins with Lives Vol. II by Plutarch and it would be a travesty to split up the two volumes with their matching spines, Castalia will also be donating a free copy of Lives Vol. I to the recipients.

We’d like the seven books to go to a homeschooling family that cannot afford the price of a Library subscription, so if you feel that your family would meet the requirements for this princely gift, please send me an email before noon on Sunday explaining why you believe your family would be the ideal beneficiaries of the Castalia Library Books 5 through 11, which will include both volumes of Lives, Summa Elvetica, Politics by Aristotle, and at least one volume of The Arts of War, as well as two other books yet to be determined.

After reviewing the emails, I will make the decision and announce the winner on Monday. Below is a copy of the cover of the Library edition of Lives Vol. I.

Unprecedented

In case you don’t fully appreciate how fragile the global economy is, notice that the banks have rendered themselves almost entirely irrelevant now thanks to the tsunami of debt they have created:

The Bank of England indicated Thursday that it could cut interest rates below zero for the first time in its 326-year history as it tries to shore up a U.K. economic recovery that is facing the dual headwinds of the coronavirus and Brexit.

After unanimously deciding to maintain the bank’s main interest rate at the record low of 0.1{5274a41d3bd2aa3d5829764fe19e8a7ecbc79c108731aad5f1ff2d292e60e2b4}, the nine-member rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee said it had discussed its “policy toolkit, and the effectiveness of negative policy rates in particular.”

In minutes accompanying the decision, the rate-setters said a recent wave of virus infections has “the potential to weigh further on economic activity, albeit probably on a lesser scale than seen earlier in the year.”

Though the committee noted that recent economic data have been a “little stronger than expected” at its last meeting in early August, it said it is unclear what that says about the future “given the risks.”

One clear concern relates to whether Britain, like others in Europe, will reimpose broad restrictions on businesses and public life after the recent flare-up in virus infections across the region. Already social gatherings are being restricted and certain areas of the U.K. are seeing localized lockdowns.

The British economy suffered one of the deepest recessions in the world this year when many sectors were effectively mothballed to help contain the pandemic. Though it recouped some ground in the summer as lockdown restrictions were eased, the economy was still around 12{5274a41d3bd2aa3d5829764fe19e8a7ecbc79c108731aad5f1ff2d292e60e2b4} smaller at the end of July than it was in February, when the pandemic started in Europe.

Debt jubilee is the only way out. Debts that cannot be repaid will not be repaid. The key to the solution is to make sure that those who are responsible for this epic debacle are forced to bear the primary consequences and are prevented from attempting to recreate the situation.