Tag: Clown World

Globalization Taketh Away

A small town in Switzerland discovers the downside of going global, as a profitable local business is shut down after more than a century in operation:

British American Tobacco (BAT) will close a cigarette manufacturing factory in north-western Switzerland next year and lay off the 220 employees working there, it has been confirmed. This decision will have a major impact on the region, the Jura government said on Wednesday. In a statement, BAT confirmed that cigarette production would be transferred from Boncourt to bigger factories in Europe and that Boncourt would be closed.

Following the closure of the factory, the commune of Boncourt (1,200 residents) will lose its biggest taxpayer – around CHF 2 million in annual tax – from its yearly budget of CHF 9 million.

The Boncourt factory was founded by the Burrus family in 1814 and was taken over by Rothmans International in 1996, before merging with tobacco multinational BAT three years later. The site has produced Parisienne cigarettes since 1887, the second best-selling brand in Switzerland.

I’m sure the little town that has lost nearly one-quarter of its tax revenue and more than half of its jobs will be reassured by the knowledge that the cigarettes that it formerly manufactured will henceforth be produced more efficiently elsewhere in Europe.

Homo economus is not human, but vampire.

Strangely enough, it may be the NFL that provides one potential solution to the economic problem of Clown World. Green Bay is one of the oldest and most successful franchises in the NFL, and it not only survives, but thrives, in a small town because it is not owned by rent-seeking pirates, but by the community. The team cannot be sold or moved without the consent of the public.

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The Manufactured

It will surprise absolutely no one here to learn that evidence of Ben Shapiro’s “popularity” and “success” being entirely manufactured has surfaced.

Facebook Gives Ben Shapiro ‘Shadow-Boost’ To Make More Users See His Content

A report seems to confirm that Ben Shapiro was “shadow-boosted” by Facebook’s algorithm, meaning his content enters the feeds of people otherwise unlikely to interact with the personality. The report from Buzzfeed, which mostly erroneously focuses on claims that Facebook is somehow a safe-haven for supporters of Alex Jones and Infowars, revealed that Ben Shapiro had been pushed into the feeds of Facebook users who had not interacted with his content.

The report details changes made to a Facebook feature called In Feed Recommendations, which would insert posts into the Facebook feeds of people that they didn’t follow, but were similar to content they liked already. Buzzfeed gives the example of someone who followed the page for a specific football team, who may then see content from the NFL put into their feed.

However, the IFR was not meant to recommend political content, yet users began complaining that they were seeing posts from Ben Shapiro in their news feeds, “even though they had never engaged with that type of content”:

When the issue was flagged internally, Facebook’s content policy team warned that removing such suggestions for political content could reduce those pages’ engagement and traffic, and possibly inspire complaints from publishers. A News Feed product manager and a policy team member reiterated this argument in an August post to Facebook’s internal message board.

It is unclear who else may have been subject to the “shadow-boosting” by Facebook, as opposed to being shadow-banned, which many conservatives were subject to on Facebook and other Big Tech platforms, such as Twitter. Shapiro, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Wire, is a long-time critic of President Donald Trump and America First conservatives, and as such, Facebook’s actions may raise eyebrows on the right.

Facebook has been doing this for years. Much the same thing has been taking place on YouTube on behalf of Shapiro, Joe Rogan, Sam Harris, and Jordan Peterson, among others, as well. Shapiro is perhaps unique in having been a complete fraud from the very start, when he was being pushed as a child prodigy on WorldNetDaily and through the Creators Syndicate, but it’s clear that he wasn’t the only “conservative” being mysteriously protected and promoted by Facebook.

“In the US it appears that interventions have been almost exclusively on behalf of conservative publishers,” they wrote, attributing this to political pressure or a reluctance to upset sensitive publishers and high-profile users. As BuzzFeed News reported last summer, members of Facebook’s policy team — including Kaplan — intervened on behalf of right-wing figures and publications such as Charlie Kirk, Breitbart, and Prager University, in some cases pushing for the removal of misinformation strikes against their pages or accounts.

Anyhow, the truth is inevitable. The Noticing will continue.

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Free Speech is Anti-Christ

Free speech is a satanic concept that was developed by anti-christian atheists to attack Christian civilization during the Enlightenment. It is neither a Christian nor a conservative value. You don’t need to take my word for it, though. Read A HISTORY OF THE FREEDOM OF THOUGHT by historian JB Bury, who was a strong proponent of free speech.

That is one of two books I would recommend to read if you would like to understand how we went from Christian civilization to Clown World. The other one is AN AUSTRIAN PERSPECTIVE ON THE HISTORY OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS by Murray Rothbard. Whereas Bury describes the historical degradation of the anti-blasphemy laws, Rothbard describes the successful centuries-long assault on the anti-usury laws.

“The entire idea of free speech is a farce. It is a lie. It is not real.”

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The Chinese Listened

I was reading an old Jerry Pournelle anthology from the 80’s – the first Imperial Stars book – one that could be characterized as There Will Be Government in Space, when I was struck by a remarkable passage, the significance of which had eluded me in previous readings, from the concluding essay by Dr. Pournelle entitled The Stars at War.

Military establishments, ours among them, have always been inefficient, and better organized for the last war than the next. If we wait for perfection, we may well wait forever.

Thus three facts stand out:

  1. The Soviets have an enormous military establishment, and we are not going to match it tank for tank and gun for gun.
  2. Our present course of buying some of this and some of that, more tanks here and more planes there, isn’t an adequate, or indeed reasonable, response to the threat, and “reform of the Pentagon” and other efforts to “trim the fat and reduce waste” aren’t likely to succeed very quickly, if at all.
  3. We have to do something and soon.

This reasoning was the starting point for Lt. General Daniel O. Graham’s strategic analysis. If what we’re doing isn’t going to work, and we have to do something, where can we go? Graham concluded that we needed a bold new approach, a strategic sidestep; that we had to stop competing with the Soviets in areas in which we can’t win, and begin to compete where we have the advantage.

The Stars at War, Jerry Pournelle, 1986

In other words, 13 years before the two Chinese colonels published Unrestricted Warfare, Jerry Pournelle was already writing about a US general’s strategic analysis that essentially laid the foundation for the Chinese defeat of the US military.

Because this is the essence of the asymetric strategy that underlies the decades-long Chinese implementation of unrestricted warfare: stop competing with the Soviets in areas in which we can’t win, and begin to compete where we have the advantage.

That’s exactly what the Chinese have been doing since 1999. This is perhaps the most important material difference between China and Clown World. China pays close attention to the best minds of the East and the best minds of the West. Clown World ignores the best of the East and attempts to silence the best of the West.

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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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Why Russia Will Defeat Clown World

Much can be usefully learned from this excerpt from a book published in 1989 concerning a brief conversation that took place forty years prior between a German Army officer and a Soviet political officer.

Much to my surprise, the NKVD officer expressed a wish to speak to me alone in the presence of the interpreter.

“Polkovnik,” he said, “a question: how many convinced Communists do you think there are in this and the other German POW camps?” Was it a catch question? It was hard to answer, and it also seemed to me dangerous to give my own views. So I said, “About ten percent, I should think.”

“Oh, no; at most six to seven percent,” he replied. “And Polkovnik, how many do you think there are in East Germany?”

“Since you have been in East Germany now for nearly five years, it might be some eight to ten percent.”

“At most three to four percent. And what about West Germany?” Surprised by his figures, I suggested, “Less, about two to three percent.” To which he gave an even more astonishing reply, “Nil. You see, we are realists in Moscow. And because we are, we see no chance of being able to convince the German people of communism.” His conclusion, “Neither the Italian nor the French Communists can be numbered among us. They are first and foremost Italians and Frenchmen. Britain is on the other side of the Channel, the Americans are far away. But we do have to reckon with you.”

And then his words held doubt and fear again, “One day you will want to have an army again, with which you will invade us again. There lies our whole interest in keeping Germany ‘neutral.“ With a neutral Germany danger for us is banished. We can convince Europe of our desire, but also of our intention, never again to allow a war on our territory. That’s how things look, Polkovnik.”

This was one of the most interesting and instructive conversations I had as a prisoner of war. The view was in keeping with that of ordinary soldiers, Russian convicts, and civilians, who had already said to me previously, “Although it will be hard for us, we shall one day forget what has happened. But you will go back to your country. Then you will build up a new army and march into Russia, destroy our villages and kill or carry off our people.” How can this fear ever be removed from the people or from the “realists” in Moscow? All the noisy reactions to the rebuilding of the Bundeswehr, the federal army, and to the alliance with the American superpower are to be seen against this background.

PANZER COMMANDER by Col Hans von Luck

The Russians trusted, briefly, in the promises made to them in the early days of the post-Soviet era. After seeing their economy raped and their boundaries methodically encroached upon by the very Satanic clowns who previously ruled over them, they will never again give the benefit of any doubt to Clown World’s servants in Germany, the UK, or the USA.

And they have very good reason to place absolutely no trust in them.

British general admits UK deployed troops to Ukraine

British Royal Marines conducted high-risk operations in Ukraine in April, Lieutenant General Robert Magowan has admitted, according to a report in The Times on Tuesday. Russia has consistently warned that NATO troops have been active in the conflict, but these statements have been dismissed by Western analysts and media.

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Free Trade is Dead

In amidst the economic pain and disruption incumbent in the fall of Clown World, there are some significant silver linings:

The founder of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, Morris Chang, says geopolitics is having profound effects on the semiconductor industry.

Speaking at an event in Phoenix Arizona, where his firm was debuting an ambitious $40 billion upgrade and expansion of its new manufacturing facility in the state, he explained the new constraints being placed on the sector by the changing geopolitical scene.

Speaking of the new facility, which is TSMC’s first advanced chip plant built in the United States in over two decades, Chang said there remained a lot of hard work ahead, if it was to be a success.

The upgrades for the facility will enable the phoenix plant to manufacture the chips for Apple’s iPhone, which can perform almost 17 trillion specialized calculations per second. TMSC is planning an even newer facility in the state which will house even more advanced production technology, capable of producing the microchips for future smartphones, computers, and other smart electronics.

In an interview with Nikkei Asia at the event, Chang likened the plant to the first plant TSMC ever built in the US, in 1995 in Carnas, Washington.

Chang said, “Twenty-seven years have passed and [the semiconductor industry] witnessed a big change in the world, a big geopolitical situation change in the world. Globalization is almost dead and free trade is almost dead. A lot of people still wish they would come back, but I don’t think they will be back.”

The death of globalization and free trade is not only a good thing, it is absolutely necessary if Mankind is going to survive, and eventually, thrive. We’ve seen the best that globalism has to offer, and it is nothing more than idiocracy, debt slavery, and a relentlessly ugly monoculture.

It only took 30 years for 300 years of economic theory to be conclusively disproven by reality. But it was always false and totally incompatible with the existence of nations, as my critique of free trade on mathematical grounds demonstrated.

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We Will Raise Wolves

Among the many Boomer philosophical concepts that Generation X rejects, the so-called social contract is prominent. We have no social contract with Clown World. We didn’t choose it, we aren’t part of it, and we reject it entirely.

Some people out there believe we can vote our way out of this. These optimistic folks have been under a rock for the past few years or haven’t noticed clown world.

If you are one of those people who keeps on voting, that’s your business. I am not going to convince you voting is pointless anymore than you’re going to convince me that I should get off my ass and vote for a different douchebag this time.

The happy-fun reason we aren’t voting our way out of this is because a self-perpetuating failure cycle has already been established. I’m not sure if this was deliberately achieved by earthly powers, or whether they took advantage of it.

I struggled articulating my thoughts about the self-perpetuating cycle into something coherent and finally gave up because it doesn’t matter. And it doesn’t matter for a very chilling reason. After thinking through the implications, dread about immigration, rising crime, and more inflation took a backseat to the insight. Yes, a self-destructive country that slowly decays is the optimistic alternative.

The problems we face now, and they are real and considerable, will be taken care of. Of that I have no doubt. We will not like the solution at all.

The reason we aren’t voting our way out of this hit me in a flash, like all the best (and worst) ideas do. After it did, I sat and thought for a long while. Then I closed this draft and didn’t open it for 10 days.

The old American social contract has been completely and utterly broken….

Among Gen Xers, a huge percentage are ready to burn this mother fucker to the ground. We’re not happy about it, it just seems inevitable. As much as we’d like to save our beautiful country for our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, I don’t see it happening.

But we honor the old social contract: we sacrifice ourselves so younger generations have a better life, and have a chance to be born.

We have to destroy clown world so those still capable of having children can build back better. Not political posturing bullshit better, but a fundamental change in the way we all live.

Preach, preacher. This comment, in particular, sums up my generation: Our first authorities betrayed us and it colors our view of all authority.

Especially our view of illegitimate, self-appointed, predatory foreign authorities.

They tried to make us sheep. But we will raise wolves.

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