Tag: news

The Failed Counterstrike

Pepe Escobar reports that Israel tried to nuke Iran in response to the massive drone strike, but the F-35 carrying the bomb was shot down by Russian air defenses:

From a very high level intel source.

In Asia.

NOT Russia-China.

Although the strategic partnership, of course, exchanges at the highest level 24-7.

Confirmed and re-confirmed.

It will be great to know what Sy Hersh hears from his Beltway sources.

Here we go.

Israel initially chose to respond with extreme force.

An F-35 loaded with a nuclear bomb was sent east over Jordan.

The mission: cause a high-altitude detonation over Iran that would provoke a surge in the high-capacity power lines, crippling Iran’s electric grid, as well as disabling all electronic devices.

An EMP attack.

However… as the Israeli F-35 was leaving Jordanian airspace it was shot down by the Russian Air Force.

Hence the publicised version of the Israeli counter response was such a travesty.

In the end all sides decided not to publicise the real news – to de-escalate what could well turn into WWIII.

I think it is absolutely foolish to express any opinion at all about the veracity of this report. There is no question that the Netanyahu government is sufficiently daring and/or desperate to risk an EMP attack; Netanyahu is almost certainly also willing to risk trying to nuke the center of Tehran if he thought he could get away with it without fatal consequences for Israel.

While it could just be fiction or disinformation, the nature of the reported attack being more of a restrained warning, a limited escalation, tends to lend to the credibility of the report. And Escobar has been reasonably reliable in the past, so there is no reason to dismiss him simply because the scary n-word happened to be involved. Moreover, this is exactly the end result that I, and other observers, have expected would happen in the event that Israel attempted some sort of air strike against Iran.

Larry Johnson thinks the reported scenario is unlikely, but I don’t find his reasoning to be even remotely compelling. Given the ranges at which Russian air defenses are operating over Ukraine, the idea that Russia could not have tracked a lone Israeli F-35 and shot it down in part of the crowded real estate in the Middle East nominally under U.S. air control does not strike me as even remotely difficult or improbable. That doesn’t mean that he’s not correct; as I said, I refuse to express any opinion at all about the likelihood of an event about which I have literally zero information.

If legitimate, I think this report is very encouraging, as it indicates a) the Israelis are not overconfident about their ability to utilize their nuclear weapons and are not going to go all-in on the first hand, b) the Russians are exerting their superior air defense capabilities to prevent unnecessary escalation in the Middle East, and c) Iran is exhibiting the same sort of patience that is required to see out the inevitable collapse of Clown World that has been demonstrated by Russia and China.

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Diversity or Unrestricted War?

Of course, regardless of the intentionality, it all comes down to immigration and open borders. The Francis Scott Key Bridge was destroyed last night by a container ship from Singapore:

Rescue workers in Baltimore are working furiously in an attempt to save the lives of dozens of people who were plunged into the frigid waters of the Patapsco River when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after being hit by a container ship.

Initial reports indicate that at least a dozen cars hit the 47 degree water in addition to a 20 or so construction workers who were working on the bridge at the time.

There appeared to be an explosion on the container ship as it collided with the bridge sending containers, the concrete that was being poured on to the road and diesel flooding into the water.

The ship involved is the 948 foot long Dali, a Singaporean-flagged container ship which could be seen on ship-tracking websites positioned stationary under the bridge following the crash.

There are a number of factors involved here, from the aging of the US infrastructure, the effects of diversity and social spending on the maintenance of that infrastructure, and even the vaxx status of the ship’s crew. But the observable fact of the matter is that a single foreign-owned, foreign-crewed ship just accomplished what the very best efforts of NATO and the Ukrainian military combined have not been able to accomplish, which is the destruction of a major bridge.

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NYT Confirms Putin’s Accusations

Zerohedge summarizes the genuinely shocking expose by The New York Times concerning 12 secret US military basis inside Ukraine near the Russian border that have been there since 2016:

On Sunday The New York Times published an explosive and very belated full admission that US intelligence has not only been instrumental in Ukraine wartime decision-making, but has established and financed high tech command-and-control spy centers, and was doing so long prior to the Feb. 24 Russian invasion of two years ago.

Among the biggest revelations is that the program was established a decade ago and spans three different American presidents. The Times says the CIA program to modernize Ukraine’s intelligence services has “transformed” the former Soviet state and its capabilities into “Washington’s most important intelligence partners against the Kremlin today.”

This has included the agency having secretly trained and equipped Ukrainian intelligence officers spanning back to just after the 2014 Maidan coup events, as well constructing a network of 12 secret bases along the Russian border—work which began eight years ago. These intelligence bases, from which Russian commanders’ communications can be swept up and Russian spy satellites monitored, are being used launch and track cross-border drone and missile attacks on Russian territory.

This means that with the disclosure of the longtime “closely guarded secret” the world just got a big step closer to WW3, given it means the CIA is largely responsible for the effectiveness of the recent spate of attacks which have included direct drone hits on key oil refineries and energy infrastructure.

“Without them [the CIA and elite commandoes it’s trained], there would have been no way for us to resist the Russians, or to beat them,” according to Ivan Bakanov, former head of the SBU, which is Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency.

A main source of the NYT revelations—disclosures which might come as no surprise to those never willing to so easily swallow the mainstream ‘official’ narrative of events—is identified as a top intelligence commander named Gen. Serhii Dvoretskiy.

Clearly, Kiev and Washington now want world to know of the deep intelligence relationship they tried to conceal for over the past decade. It is perhaps a kind of warning to Moscow at a moment Ukraine’s forces are in retreat: the US is fighting hand in glove with the Ukrainians. And yet the revelations contained in the NY Times report also confirm what President Putin has precisely accused Washington of all along.

The Russians obviously know about these bases since they presumably have had control of them for most of the last two years. So, why is Washington suddenly admitting to them now? Are the neoclowns attempting to establish some basis for arguing that since the USA has been actively waging war on Russia for a long time, more aid and even direct military support for Ukraine is justified?

At some point, the anti-Russian Narrative is going to collapse, as one lie after another is exposed, and it eventually turns out that the Russians were doing nothing but telling the truth about The Empire of Lies and its activities in Ukraine all along.

It also documents how the CIA not only kept President Trump in the dark with regards to its anti-Russian activities, but consistently undermined him and his policies.

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A Bizarre Headline

Iran declares Antarctica its property in direct challenge to Biden, global treaty. Iranian Navy commander announces planned military base in South Pole.

Okay… so that’s strange. Aside from the penguins, who really cares about the South Pole? What is the reason for the expressed Iranian interest there, and how would that be of any concern to the USA?

The Kurgan suggests this could be an implied threat by the Iranian government to expose some of Clown World’s unsettling historical secrets to the world.

If you have read any of my Overlords of Mars series of books, or even the complete collection, Nazi Moon, the seemingly bizarre headline takes on a potentially quite interesting outlook.

Although my series is science fiction in the traditional style of the genre, the fact is that if I had to bet money on it one way or the other, I would absolutely bet that the Nazis did have at least one and possibly more bases in Antarctica, aside from the semi-mythological Base 211, and it is absolutely possible they also had a submarine base there that permitted them to develop the technology that allowed them to keep the Americans away during Operation Highjump. And that the subsequent operation Argus of dropping nukes in Antarctica in the 1958s was a continuation of the secret war between the antigravity owning Nazis in Antarctica and the American creation of the deep state.

If any of the above speculations hold any truth at all, and there is very good evidence to suggest this is at least partially the case, then what Iran is really doing, is a gentle threat of exposure to America. Putin did a similar thing a few times, threatening to release all the relevant satellite data concerning the 9/11 attacks… Russia also did a much subtler gameplay on the Moon landings, not quite threatening to expose them as fake, but simply implying Russia knew the truth about them, which I think they do.

At any rate, exposing even just an old Nazi base in Antarctica would, in the end bring down the whole WWII narrative.

It does put a rather sinister spin on one of my favorite memes. What if penguins aren’t just cute little flightless waterfowl, but miniature Nazi icetroopers in service to the newly-awakened elder gods?

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The End of Sports Illustrated

You would have thought that a business that relied upon sports, plus an occasional splash of beautiful women in bikinis, would be bullet-proof. And you’d be wrong:

Much of the staff of Sports Illustrated, and possibly all remaining writers and editors, received layoff notices Friday, which essentially could spell the end of a publication that for decades was the gold standard of sports journalism.

The union of the staff tweeted Friday that it would continue to fight for the publication of the magazine but that its future is now in the hands of the magazine’s owner, Authentic Brands Group.

ABG has owned the magazine since 2019 and sold the publishing rights to a company called the Arena Group. The Arena Group missed a recent payment for those publishing rights, prompting ABG to pull the publishing license and putting the future of Sports Illustrated in jeopardy.

“As a result of this license revocation, we will be laying off staff that work on the SI brand,” the note to staff read, adding that some employees would be terminated immediately, while others would work through the end of a 90-day notice period.

Sports Illustrated lays off most of its staff, threatening iconic brand’s future, WASHINGTON POST, 19 January 2024

Those sounds you hear in the distance are Fox executives celebrating their prescient purchase of Outkick the Coverage.

This is why we will never sell off any of our core projects. As we’ve seen with Football Outsiders and now Sports Illustrated, there is no faster way to ensure a debt-related implosion short of taking the entire payroll to Vegas and betting it on black.

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Traffic Report 2023

At last, this blog appears to be, like its author, clearly past its peak. As I mentioned last year, the torch has been effectively passed to the community as a whole, and to other platforms and media. It’s neither frustrating nor to be lamented that the ideas can be transmitted so efficiently now that they reach people who have absolutely no direct contact with VP, the Darkstream, or any other traditional communications vehicle. See: Sigma Male. To the contrary, the current situation is to be viewed as an accomplishment and as a relief.

This is not an elegy or a farewell note for Vox Popoli. It’s simply a clear-eyed observation of how things have been playing out of late. Whether we like it or not, everything has a lifespan, time is limited, and it therefore behooves us to be realistic and practical about where things are, so that we can focus our efforts and energy appropriately. That’s why I track these numbers and write these summaries.

In 2023, Vox Popoli had 10,593,334 WordPress pageviews, down 11.9 percent from last year. The blog is now running at an average rate of 29,023 daily pageviews, down 10.1 percent from an average 32,926 last year. Total historic blog views closed out the year at 275,166,140. The running annual pageview totals are as follows:

2008: 3,496,757

2009: 4,414,801

2010: 4,827,183

2011: 5,422,628

2012: 6,098,774

2013: 9,340,663

2014: 11,236,085

2015: 16,211,875

2016: 25,817,343

2017: 31,216,357

2018: 32,260,094

2019: 32,757,068

2020: 41,338,037

2021: 38,884,355

2022: 12,018,040

2023: 10,593,334

The big news for 2023 was that I finally finished, and published, the complete edition of A SEA OF SKULLS. It appears to have been received well by the Selenoth fans as a worthy successor to A THRONE OF BONES, and since it is not available for review on Amazon, I will post the first mini-review that I have received from a reader here later today. I have already started working on the final book in the Arts of Dark and Light series, which will be called A GRAVE OF GODS, and which I plan to publish in 2026.

Last year I said that “the Bindery, Selenoth, and a revival of Castalia’s traditional publishing are my top priorities for the new year.” We made excellent progress on all three fronts, and we have improved the infrastructure to the point that we can expect to publish one or more conventional books a month in 2024. We also expect to print, bind, and ship The Iliad and The Odyssey to the Bindery backers this year; those who missed the crowdfund but wish to support the Bindery will be given the opportunity to purchase copies before we start printing them.

The biggest new development in 2023 was the launch of the Castalia History subscription. This was a massive success, as it is already two-thirds as large as the Castalia Library subscription. Books 2 and 3 are scheduled to be bound the first week of February and Book 1 will be bound soon after. Book 4 will be announced tomorrow, both here, on LibraryThing, and via the mailing list tomorrow. With regards to 2024, we recently signed deals with two major publishers and acquired the rights to two significant series, one fiction, one history, so we will be introducing two special limited edition subscriptions later this year.

THE CAMBRIDGE MEDIEVAL HISTORY Vols. I and II

Both Castalia and Unauthorized are extremely healthy and technologically sound. Arkhaven remains strong despite the ongoing collapse of the comics industry, and has even introduced a new and improved frontend. While we are, as usual, behind on a number of our projects, and while we face a variety of challenges, the infrastructure is more solid than it has ever been, and for the first time, we are not reliant upon any cloud services of any kind for any of our various projects. In general, 2023 was a solid year and I believe it has laid the a foundation for a 2024 that promises to be both interesting and a strong step forward.

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Pizzagate Was Always Real

Another elite media debunker is arrested for molesting children:

A mainstream journalist and close friend of John Podesta, who bragged about ‘debunking’ Pizzagate, has been arrested on a sickening slew of child rape charges. Slade Sohmer, editor-in-chief at The Recount and friend of former Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, was arrested last month for raping multiple toddlers and babies.

For those who missed the most the most explosive pedophilia exposé to-date, The People’s Voice broke the news back in 2016 that there was evidence of pedophile “code words” used in emails from John Podesta released by WikiLeaks. Numerous emails from the Chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign incongruously referred to food items such as pasta, cheese pizza, and ice cream in ways the FBI warned are used as code-words by pedophiles.

Since then, despite the mainstream media attempting to downplay the story as a “conspiracy theory”, numerous mainstream journalists and figures connected to elite pedophiles have been arrested for the very crime they attempted to “debunk.”

At this point, any public claim that Pizzagate has been “debunked” should suffice to serve as prima facie cause to be arrested and have one’s digital devices searched. And in other news, another elite member of the (((corpocracy))) was just jettisoned from his position after his little sister publicly accused him of sexually abusing her from the age of four.

OpenAI, the company behind the viral chatbot ChatGPT, fired its CEO and founder, Sam Altman, on Friday. His stunning departure sent shockwaves through the budding AI industry.

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Corruption in High Places

It is alleged that former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was working as an informant for the FBI against Donald Trump… while President Trump was in office!

BREAKING: Allegedly Mark Meadows worked for the FBI as an informant and wore a wire to record all conversations with President Trump, while he was the Chief of Staff to him. This is not only unconstitutional, but it’s criminal. This is the government we live with. It’s up to us to change that.

I’ve received confirmation from multiple members of Congress and Confidential Informants that this is true. Not only have I received calls from current members of Congress, I received calls from media, who know that I know about this information. I’ve received calls from former members of Congress, who have also explained the same thing to me. This is worse than Watergate. This is going to be the destruction of the FBI.

Ryan Fournier, 26 October 2023

I’m a very skeptical individual, and while I had no doubt that the Surveillance State was spying on President Trump for decades, including while he was in office, the allegation that it even suborned his Chief of Staff is incredible.

If this is confirmed, it means that the worst suspicions of the most paranoid conspiracy theorists may actually be on the conservative side of the truth. It means that literally nothing in Washington can be taken at face value. Republican, Democrat, democracy, representation, none of these things are real. None of these things can be taken seriously.

It means all American politics are simply theatre for the masses. And while it doesn’t seem likely, if these revelations actually did eventually lead to the end of the FBI, that would almost certainly be a good thing.

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Kicking Out McCarthy

The traitorous Republican Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, was just ejected from the leadership position to which he never should have been elected.

First time in American history a motion to vacate has succeeded. Shortest serving speaker, clocking in at just 269 days.

It’s a little rich to complain about Republicans siding with the Democrats to give him the boot when the reason they did so was because of McCarthy striking a secret deal with Democrats to provide yet more funding for Ukraine.

If leaders won’t lead, get rid of them and find better ones.

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