Wheels within wheels

One can’t help but notice that neither the Israelis nor the neocons appear to be overly pleased about the recent assassination of Qassem Soleimani. Perhaps, instead of a prelude to war, it was a prelude to the long-overdue withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

The Iraqi parliament called on the government on Sunday to work to end all foreign troop presence as a backlash grew after the killing of a top Iranian military commander and an Iraqi militia leader in a U.S. strike in Baghdad.

A resolution passed by a special session of parliament said the government should cancel its request for assistance from a U.S.-led coalition.

Parliament resolutions, unlike laws, are non-binding to the government. But this one is likely to be heeded: Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi had earlier called on parliament to end foreign troop presence as soon as possible.

Remember, the god-emperor seldom does the obvious. So, the obvious explanation for his actions is seldom going to be the correct one. After all, there is no reason to believe this was even an attack by the U.S. military, given the fact that the previous attempt on Soleimani was by someone else.

And one immediate result has been the cessation of offensive actions by the U.S. military:

The US-led coalition has announced it will put most of its operations on hold and focus on ensuring the security of its troops as tensions in the Middle East skyrocket after the death of Iran’s top general at the hands of the US. The coalition will from now on devote most of its efforts to protecting its troops and bases, a coalition spokesman told journalists, adding that most operations against militant groups have been put on hold. 

NFC Wildcard weekend

I will, of course, be cheering for the Vikings. That doesn’t mean I expect them to win. In the other game, I don’t expect Seattle to have too much trouble with the Eagles.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Mailvox: a prediction

A radio host who shall remain nameless was kind enough to make the following prediction for 2021 after reading the 2019 traffic report:

I draw much joy in observing your growth over the years and I take great satisfaction that I discovered you early on and knew you had a voice that needed to be heard. Your next leg up, another doubling of your traffic, will begin to occur in 2021. When the Fed-managed economy runs aground and a host of conflicts break out, the demand for insight will grow again.

While it would certainly be impressive to hit five million monthly pageviews, I’m perfectly content with where we are now. Regardless, I am very appreciative of those few in the media who have taken the trouble and the risk to support and encourage me over the last 20 years. While it is known that I do not forget those who have attacked me and mine, it is equally true that I do not forget those who have assisted me.

Always respect your predecessors. Theirs are the shoulders on which you stand.

On a tangential note, some readers have lamented the way in which I am increasingly disinclined to reveal my thoughts, ideas, and inspirations on this blog or in public discussions. This comment at the Unz Review underlines why I no longer talk to either the media or the new media, and why I ignore the vast majority of questions directed at me:

After disagreeing on a couple of points in this article (civilly, of course) on social media and having a conversation with one of Philip’s connections, who was in the process of providing some data to change my mind, Philip sadly decided to block me. I like a lot of what Philip writes, and it is indeed unfortunate that we can’t even have a civil debate without a couple of people jumping in with foolish personal attacks and then Philip, who is most times a reasonable man, deciding to block a longtime connection over a political disagreement, especially when that person was in the process of asking questions and receiving answers. A sad sign of our times.

But when did Philip ever declare that he was seeking a civil debate, let alone one with the commenter? At some point in recent years, people began to mistake accessibility for accountability, and assume that because a writer permitted comments on his work, he was seeking constructive criticism of it. Rest assured, this is almost never true. As a general rule, one very good way to ensure that your email address joins the spam file is to respond to any answer you receive with an immediate follow-up question.

I now attempt to avoid stating anything in public that I do not feel able to prove to the satisfaction of a dubious neutral. Because everything that I say and write is subject to relentless examination and highly-critical analysis, I try to avoid expressing an opinion on anything I cannot conclusively substantiate. The problem is not so much with the analyses themselves, but the way that, no matter how flawed they may be, they are inevitably used as the bases for attempted deplatformings, discreditings, disqualifyings, and even disemployment on the part of anklebiters on the Right and ideological enemies on the Left.

So, with a very small number of exceptions that mostly involve Castalia House authors and Unauthorized creators, I no longer talk to the media or the new media, I no longer talk publicly about our intentions, and I no longer tell anyone what is happening on the legal front until it becomes part of the public record. I previously tried to distinguish between a) talking about myself and b) talking about some organization or project with which I am involved, but in addition to leading to ridiculous accusations of inconsistency, I saw people trying to use (b) as a substitute for (a).

So, don’t bother asking if I will talk to X or get Y on Unauthorized or publish Z with Castalia. The answer is always and inevitably NO. It’s mildly amusing to see how stroppy some journalists and YouTubers now get when I tell them no, I will not talk to them about anything, now or in the future. That’s the advantage of building our own platforms. We simply don’t need anyone else’s anymore.

Inquisition 2024

Don Jr., yes. Ivanka, absolutely, unquestionably no.

In a SurveyMonkey poll for Axios, Republican voters chose children of President Trump — Don Jr. and Ivanka — as two of the top four picks for president in four years.

Why it matters: An early poll like this is largely a measure of name ID. But it’s also a vivid illustration of just how strong Trump’s brand is with the GOP.

Ivanka and Don Jr. find themselves near the top of a long list of politicians who have held elected office, many of them vocal supporters of the president.

The big picture: Don Jr. has emerged as one of the most prominent defenders of his dad, frequently going after the left on Twitter, where he has 4.2 million followers, and serving as a popular warm-up act for presidential rallies. His book — “Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us,” released in November — reached No. 1 on the N.Y. Times nonfiction bestseller list. In October, at a rally in San Antonio for president Trump’s re-election, the crowd chanted “2024!” as Don Jr. spoke.

Before we get too excited about the god-emperor-in-waiting, let’s focus on seeing the god-emperor himself reelected in 2020. Those who weirdly – and suspiciously – have questioned whether I have lost faith in President Trump simply because I am capable of pointing out the entirely obvious in the aftermath of the supposed Soleimani assassination are simply not paying attention to my comments on it. I will do a Darkstream on the subject tonight after the Vikings game.

I don’t know what is actually going on. Nor does anyone else, however much they might like to pretend that they do. But I would still rather have the god-emperor in the White House right now than any U.S. politician or world leader not named Duterte. Then again, the thought of what Duterte could do with the U.S. military at his disposal is terrifying.

On the one hand, the opioid crisis would definitely be over and the Devil Mouse would no longer exist. On the other, we might find ourselves maintaining a military occupation of California while caught up in a massive war with the Elder Ones in Antarctica.

Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson made what should be an obvious point and needs to be addressed by every current and would-be U.S. leader:

Before we enter into a single new war, there’s a criterion that ought to be met. Our leaders should explain to us how that conflict will make the United States richer and more secure. There are an awful lot of bad people in this world. We can’t kill them all. It’s not our job. Instead, our government exists to defend and promote the interests of American citizens. Period. That’s why we have a government. So, how has the killing of Soleimani done that? Maybe. No one in Washington has explained how.

Did the Churchians win?

The Churchian Methodists are offering Christians $25 million to leave the denomination:

Factions in the United Methodist Church (UMC) have reached an initial settlement around its intractable division over LGBT marriage and ordination—offering $25 million to a group of conservative congregations who want to break away and form a new denomination.

Various groups were slated to once again propose different plans for a split at the UMC’s general conference in May, but under the new agreement, they will abandon the proposals and put their full support behind the Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation, which was announced Friday…. The protocol will still need to be approved by the UMC’s legislative body, but has unanimous support from a diverse 16-member mediation team, including representatives from “UMCNext; Mainstream UMC; Uniting Methodists; The Confessing Movement; Good News; The Institute on Religion & Democracy; the Wesleyan Covenant Association; Affirmation; Methodist Federation for Social Action; Reconciling Ministries Network; and the United Methodist Queer Clergy Caucus; as well as bishops from the United States and across the world.”

“This is very likely to bring to an end this dysfunction that we have suffered through for the past 47 years,” said Rob Renfroe, president and publisher of Good News and pastor of adult discipleship at The Woodlands UMC outside of Houston. “We were never going to find a way to move forward together. Our ultimate goal of setting each other free to do ministry as we believe God would have us do has come to fruition.”

The 12.5-million-member UMC has been in a standoff over LGBT issues for decades, culminating in a vote in favor of its traditional position against same-sex marriage and gay clergy during a special session last year. As a result, some left the UMC, some continued to defy the UMC positions outright, and some challenged the legality of the vote in the denomination’s court—ultimately putting the question of how to move forward before the delegation once again in 2020.

The result of months of negotiation, the new protocol creates a quick, “clean break” for a new, traditionalist denomination that has yet to be created but will receive a $25 million sum at its inception.

It was looking good after the vote this spring, and yet it seems that the Fake Christians always seem to end up with the leadership positions and the property. This is the price of failing to heed the Biblical warning about wolves in sheeps’ clothing.

That being said, it’s not over yet. And at the end of the day, all we need is twelve.

Post-peak NFL

The serious drop in attendance hasn’t happened yet, but the NFL does appear to be past its peak already:

According to David Broughton and Andrew Levin of Sports Business Daily, the NFL averaged 66,648 attendees at home games in 2019. That’s the lowest average since 2004.

The Cowboys averaged 90,929, leading the league for 11 straight seasons. Fifteen teams saw a decline in attendance, led by the Jaguars (8.7 percent drop), Raiders (7.6 percent) and Bengals (7.0 percent)….

Attendance peaked in 2016, with 69,487 per game. In 2004, 66,328 attended each game, on average.

What is more ominous about this is that it is happening towards the end of an economic boom at a stock market peak. It’s only a 4.5 percent decline, but as I noted in Corporate Cancer, the first downward stage is usually a 20 percent drop before it temporarily stabilizes at the lower plateau, with an eventual decline to 50 percent of peak.

Naming the names

A young victim of the Devil Mouse machine has filed a lawsuit against his victimizers that the media is attempting to bury:

Tammy’s son Ricky Garcia, 20, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court in which he named his ex-manager Joby Harte, 37, Joby’s Hot Rocks Media business partners Paul Cohen and Sheri Anderson Thomas, talent agency APA, former APA agent Tyler Grasham, and manager Nils Larsen, currently employed by Management 360.

The suit alleges that from the age of 12 years old Ricky was groomed, sexually abused and raped on a weekly basis, and that Joby Harte passed him around as a “sexual plaything” to other powerful pedophiles throughout the business.

The day the suit was filed articles appeared in People, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, and TMZ, among others. However, despite the serious nature of the charges and the many and far-reaching implications of the case, not a single outlet pursued the story further.

“The one thing that can fix this is talking about it, but Hollywood doesn’t want to talk about pedophilia,” Tammy says, a reality she quickly figured out the day after the story of Ricky’s lawsuit broke, when everything went radio silent. And, of course it did. This story has the power to bring down giants. The problem is, it’s the same giants who also own the media….

Over the course of nearly two months of phone conversations as well as an in-person, sit-down interview, which will be released to the public, Tammy took me through a stunning timeline of events as well as provided me with emails, written witness testimonies and documents compiled for the civil lawsuit, all of which detail the years of torture and abuse her son suffered, the names of those who partook, those who knew, and those who covered it up. The following expose’ is entirely drawn from these documents, emails and witness testimonies.

It’s long past time to methodically expose the Hollywood monstrosities to the public and permit them to clearly see the evil, rotting heart of the entertainment industry.

Twitter adds a new feature

Shadow-banning is now officially a feature of the Twitter services, according to their revised Terms of Use:

The process of limiting how many people can see posts from a certain Twitter account is commonly referred to as “shadow banning,” and many (including the company itself) have claimed that it is simply a conspiracy theory by conservatives and that Twitter does not limit the reach of content on its platform. But now, a change to Twitter’s terms of service appears to give the social media platform the right to do exactly that.

ReclaimTheNet.org notes that a recent change to Twitter’s terms of service adds that the company “may also remove or refuse to distribute any Content on the Services, limit distribution or visibility of any Content on the service…”

Twitter does not clarify what content may be subject to “limited distribution or visibility” giving the company free rein to limit any content it sees fit.

Sadly, the Legal Legion can’t take any credit for this particular modification. In other social media-related news, SG2 has added video for a very select number of Paragon accounts. We’re just testing it now, so if you’re on SG2 already, don’t ask for it, please.

Not a good start to the year

It seems unlikely that the assassination of a general from a country with whom the United States is not at war is going to end well for Americans:

President Donald Trump has ordered an airstrike that killed Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani, the powerful head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, at Baghdad International Airport, the Pentagon confirmed.

The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, which were responsible for the recent attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, officials said.

Tehran has vowed ‘crushing’ vengeance for Soleimani’s death, an extremely popular figure at home, the country’s highest ranking general and responsible for shaping Iranian foreign policy throughout the Middle East.

A Pentagon statement issued to DailyMail.com late Thursday, Washington DC time, said: ‘At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Quasem Soleimani.’

The United States has nearly two million Iranian residents living inside its borders. I tend to doubt most of them are more loyal to President Trump and the U.S. military than the Iranian people, which is why I am concerned that the next stage of the USA’s Syracuse Expedition may have just begun.

It’s particularly disappointing because the president had been doing such a good job of refusing to expand the needless imperial wars up until now. Perhaps the strike was legitimately justified, but given the last 18 years of costly, pointless, and mostly unsuccessful war, that also appears less than likely.

Certainly the Iraqis don’t appreciate the action.

The caretaker leader of Iraq’s protest-challenged government, Adil Abdul Mahdi, said the US assassination operation was a “flagrant violation of Iraqi sovereignty” and an insult to the dignity of his country. He stressed that the US had violated the terms under which American troops are allowed to stay in Iraq with the purpose of training Iraqi troops and fighting the jihadist organization Islamic State. 

UPDATE: ‘Due to heightened tensions in Iraq and the region, the US Embassy urges American citizens to heed the January 2020 Travel Advisory and depart Iraq immediately. US citizens should depart via airline while possible, and failing that, to other countries via land.’

Despite all the announcements and theatrics, I can’t help but observe that an identification reportedly based on a well-known ring could be faked rather easily. It would not shock me if Soleimani were to unexpectedly surface in the future.