Tag: trainwreck

Too Crazy for Bluesky

Popehat, aka attorney Ken White, has been permanently banned from Bluesky, apparently for a post in which he suggested there was a moral upside to Elon Musk’s death. The Bluesky body politic, meanwhile, is losing its mind over this. Popehat is one of their heroes.

Because Mr. White, once deemed one of Salon’s 25 conservatives worth following on Twitter, is, quite literally, mentally ill, he naturally doesn’t see why he shouldn’t be able to advocate murdering a man who opposes the violent invasion of the UK by foreigners. Also, a correction – he wasn’t permanently banned, he was only suspended for four days.

Elon Musk is the world’s richest man — a trillionaire, briefly, until a market correction. He and his ideology are also supported by the administration of the most powerful nation on Earth. He is immune to normal social, economic, political, or legal limits. He can use his hugely influential platform to encourage pogroms without social, economic, political, or legal consequences.

It’s simply factual to say, as I did, that the only thing that will stop him is dying. Because my medium was a short Bluesky post, I mentioned him being killed. I suppose it would also stop him if he overdosed on Ketamine or choked on a piece of steak or got ass cancer or crashed one of his vehicles or something. But that would make a long post. Though the post has drawn plenty of criticism, nobody has explained to me how I am wrong about the limited circumstances that will stop him from encouraging racial violence.

I wonder if he would apply that logic to other rich people, particularly those who advocate racial genocide in the Middle East?

Regardless, and presumably because Mr. White is mentally ill, he clearly doesn’t understand that he shares what he believes Mr. Musk’s position to be. By his own logic, if there is no way to stop poor, non-white, downtrodden people from invading the UK and victimizing the English people through normal social, economic, political, or legal means, then the only thing that will stop them is the very fate that he is advocating for Mr. Musk.

Of course, Mr. White’s position isn’t the same as Mr. Musk’s position. Mr. Musk wants those poor, non-white, downtrodden people who are invading the UK, and other countries around the world to be repatriated to their home countries, peacefully and legally. And he is warning people, as I have warned people for more than two decades, that every failure to repatriate the immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers will eventually result in large scale violence and war, regardless of whether the country invaded is the UK, Palestine, Germany, Japan, or the United States.

So, ironically, we have a mentally ill individual advocating the killing of someone who is not advocating death for anyone. And, unsurprisingly, Bluesky decided to unsuspend Mr. White after four days, because it is a safe space for mentally ill people who want to be able to publicly advocate the death of public figures on the basis of their positions on social policy in other countries.

Now, I would be remiss if I failed to give Mr. White a chance to defend himself concerning his mental illness.

I’ve made an effort for years to be open and honest about things like depression and anxiety, because I know it’s healthier, and because the social stigma around it should be crushed. This incident resulted, as is often the case, in losers mocking me for being crazy, and slightly more pretentious people obliquely referring to my mental heath. 

Mr. White wishes that we would stop observing that he is, by his own admission, mentally ill, and instead pay attention to the illogical incoherencies and death wishes produced by his mental illness. And, presumably because he is mentally ill, he does not comprehend that doing the latter leads invariably to the former.

DISCUSS ON SG

Convergence in the UK

It’s been a little disappointing to me how the concept of convergence I highlighted in SJWs Always Lie never found any traction, because it’s an extremely useful predictive model for institutional failure. And so people continue being surprised when converged institutions do what they always do, and refrain from taking any precautions whatsoever against convergence.

The UK Treasury quietly scrapped its numeracy test because basic math was a “hurdle” for minority candidates.

The people in charge of the nation’s money, debt, taxes, and economic policy decided that competence in numbers was problematic.

This isn’t diversity.

This is institutional self-sabotage.

It is institutional self-sabotage, which is absolutely inevitable in every converged institution. Not likely, not probable, inevitable.

Every converged institution becomes incapable of performing its primary function due to the fact that its priorities no longer include performing those functions.

I think it may be time to start thinking about putting a crowdfund together for SJWs Always Project to see if there is still a significant demand for that.

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A Tale of Two Inevitabilities

The USA bowed to the unavoidable.

The US has finally capitulated in its disastrously failed war against Iran, reportedly drafting a memorandum of understanding which is highly favorable to the Islamic Republic, and gains as concession nothing more than the promise that “Iran will not obtain nuclear weapons”—a position Iran had already long held.

Israel, on the other hand, continued with its strategy of denying reality.

Israel violated the ceasefire in Lebanon yesterday, June 16, carrying out a double-tap strike in Mayfadoun. A vehicle was struck, and the subsequent arrival of medical crews and civilians was then bombed three times. First-Responders were reportedly all killed. Iran then issued a warning to Israel: “Stop attacks in Lebanon or face severe response from Iran.”

At this point, it’s hard to imagine Israel making it to 2048, especially if the USA doesn’t make it to 2033 intact. I don’t think most of the comparisons of Netanyahu with Hitler are reasonable, except for this one: they both appear to be leaders who are sociopathically indifferent to the long-term survival of the nations whose interests they ostensibly represent.

UPDATE: Apparently it’s not just Netanyahu that is in the bunker.

  • “Israel reserves the right to act independently against Iran’s nuclear program” and won’t withdraw from occupied Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and the West Bank, Defense Minister Katz declared.
  • “Trump’s agreement does not bind us,” National Security Minister Ben-Gvir assured.
  • “We will have to continue the campaign to topple the regime ourselves and in creative ways,” Finance Minister Smotrich tweeted.

If they want war, I have no doubt that Iran will give them the war they are literally demanding.

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The Demolition of Disclosure Day

TL;DR: The Boomer’s last boom.

It has been a long time since I walked into a theater and been the youngest guy in it.

Seriously my dude, this bleeding edge Gen-Xer with the bionic eyes and knees was the youngest person in a genuinely full (if not packed) theater. Baby Boomers who hadn’t been in theaters for years showed up in droves for this one. You could tell they hadn’t been near a theater in decades. They were appalled by the ticket prices, a few talked about waiting for it to be in the Dollar Theaters, clearly unaware that those died out with Blockbuster Video. One asked for the smallest popcorn available, which was about the size of a medium soft drink, the irritated retiree said for that price he may as well get the large, which was the entire point since a large popcorn costs as much for them to make as a small.

Once they got over the sticker shock the theater geezers sat down for a movie that they truly enjoyed. They absolutely loved every bit of it. They thought that their favorite director had finally made another movie just for them.

He. Did. Not.

The only person this film was made for is Steven Spielberg… This script that was worked on for years by Steven Spielberg and his long time writing partner David Koepp, isn’t telling a story at all. It’s just setting up an unending series of money-shots. Because at the end of the day that is all the Disclosure Day is script that sets up scenes without a story to tell. It is an unending stream of empty if passionate emotionality. The cinematic equivalent of a drunk at a bar who is convinced that his alcohol soaked peroration is the most profound thing the human race has ever experienced.

I wish I was exaggerating.

I’m not.

The movie is presenting emotionally laden images with some dialog that thinks it’s far more profound than it’s remotely capable of being.

“Empathy is the highest state of existence”. It’s a major theme of this movie and probably the most Boomer sentiment to ever Boomer. A belief that is a tribute to its own semantic emptiness.

I have to admit, I would find it very, very funny if Clown World was actually counting on this as the foundation of their fake alien invasion plan.

We’ve prepped them to believe anything now!

DISCUSS AT ARKHAVEN

I Think That’s a No

The short, fake Donald Trump really is a wholly-owned creature whose priorities are completely unrelated to American national interests:

Donald Trump told Arab leaders he will only broker a peace deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if they normalize relations with Israel, according to a leaked phone call.

The most powerful leaders in the Middle East, including those from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, and Egypt, joined the President on a conference call on Saturday to discuss progress toward ending the US-Iran war and reopening the vital oil passageway.

In return, Trump pressed the leaders to normalize ties with Israel, a demand aimed at nations that have opposed the Jewish state since its founding in 1948.

Arab leaders were so stunned by the demand that they refused to respond, remaining entirely silent on the call, according to Axios.

After a prolonged silence, Trump nervously joked, ‘Are they still there?’

With the silence unbroken, Trump ended the call by announcing that his envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff would follow up on Israel normalization in the weeks ahead.

Interesting and informative priorities, to say the least. After the Gazacaust,normalization is obviously a complete political non-starter; 9x more people have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli government than were reported to have been killed by the white South African government for the totality of its rule there.

At this point, I suspect the only reason Iran hasn’t proactively resumed the war is because they know the ceasefire is to their advantage with regards to rearming.

DISCUSS ON SG

Rethinking University

Now even women are beginning to realize that a college degree is a terrible investment of time and money that accomplishes little more than put a young person into lifelong debt. And this is in the UK, where the degrees are less expensive and the debt can be eliminated after 30 years.

I was 18, full of hope and expectation, with three years ahead of me studying English Literature and the authors I loved, from Chaucer and Shakespeare to Virginia Woolf.Seven years on, though, and life looks very different.
Yes, I had a great time. I read a lot of books, made lifelong friends and played masses of sport. But was any of it truly worth it? Financially, professionally, socially and even in terms of ‘real’ education – would I have been better off turning around, dumping my gown on the floor of my halls, heading back down the M1 and buckling down to a proper job?
Let’s take the money first. By the time I’d finished my undergraduate degree in 2022 – followed by a one-year Masters in English Literature at Bristol University then a journalism qualification – I’d borrowed nearly £60,000, despite doing part-time jobs throughout.
Two years on from finishing my further education, and now that I’m earning a fairly typical graduate salary, thanks to the appalling interest rate my student loan balance stands at £76,227.49. In the past five months, I’ve contributed £335 towards the loan, yet the total amount has risen by £627.49.
I’m essentially paying a ‘graduate tax’ of nine per cent of my gross income for the course of my working life. I may never pay the loan back – 44 per cent of graduates won’t, according to the Government’s own figures – and it’s only scant comfort that the debt will be wiped after 30 years.
Durham is generally seen as one of Britain’s better universities, perhaps second only to Oxbridge. So if I feel like this, what about the 2.86 million other students currently enrolled in other universities across the country?

Only ten percent of men used to attend university back in the time when a university degree actually meant something, and that was largely because only the true cognitive elite attended. There is absolutely no reason for most men and virtually all women to pursue a university degree, as doing so virtually guarantees a suboptimal life track compared to not wasting 4-5 years out of the workforce, gaining no experience, being ideologically indoctrinated by wicked retards, and ending up saddled with lifelong debt.

UPDATE: Here is a comprehensive return-on-investment calculator for virtually every institution of post-high school learning in the USA, but keep in mind that the return-on-investment doesn’t include debt, so the debt calculations need to be compared to the hypothetical ROI.

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The Stupidity of Greed

According to the court documents, in approximately 2014, David TR wanted to give his sister-in-law, who was working for the company, a big raise. But he felt that his wife and son who sat on the board, wouldn’t approve it. So, David Tran came up with an idea that he was going to make a new company and just give the company to the sister-in-law as a way to get her to make more money. And that new company was going to be called Chili Co. And Chili Co.’s entire job was going to be acquiring red jalapeno peppers and ingredients for Hoyong Foods. And that was going to be that that’s how he was going to pay his sister more money.

Okay, I’m going to say that again, but slower so we’re on the same page. Uh David TR has just elected to hire somebody who presumably is not qualified to take over the operation of acquiring Red Jalapeno Peppers, which is not even a job that needs to exist because he has one guy that gets him all the peppers that he needs on a handshake agreement. But for some reason, we’re gonna interject this person that doesn’t know what the fuck they’re doing to try to acquire the peppers that they already fucking have.

Okay, I’ve said this a million times. If it’s not broke, don’t try to fix it. Everybody’s making literally billions of dollars selling hot sauce and growing chili peppers. Just don’t touch it. Leave it alone. Continue making money. But that’s that’s not what somebody that’s a new hire that doesn’t know what the hell they’re talking about is going to do. Absolutely not. Chili Co. starts looking at the numbers and they’re like, “Well, you know, actually, we could buy these dehydrated chilies from China and they would only be $300 a ton.” So, I think that Underwood Farms should try to compete with these dehydrated chilies from overseas while he’s supposed to also deliver brand new fresh chilies that are picked and then turned into hot sauce in 6 hours while he’s growing them in California of all places.

What you just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard.

So, Chili Co. goes to Craig Underwood and is like, “Hey, we could get this competitor’s chilies for $300 a ton. We want you to be able to sell your brand new fresh chilies and deliver them to us with your semis for $500 a ton. To which Craig Underwood is like, “Absolutely not. It literally cost me almost $700 a
ton just to grow these things. That’s not possible.”

At which point the appropriate response would have been, “Oh, that actually makes a lot of sense. I’m an idiot. Forget I said anything. Is that what they did?”

Absolutely not. The next year, in 2015, Chili Co. pulls Roberts, aka Craig Underwood’s right-hand man that helps him run his entire farming operation aside and tries to hire him away from Craig Underwood. Roberts declines and kind of attributes the entire thing to a miscommunication.

He’s absolutely right.

Around the same time, David TR gets a hold of Craig Underwood and is like, “Hey, can we fly a drone over your farming operation? We just want to, you know, look at the crops that are growing.” Which is weird. He’s never done that before, but also like drones are new. I’ve been working with this guy for 20 some odd years. Fuck it. Why not?

Yeah, as long as it’s for like your personal use or you just want to look at it like that’s fine. Go ahead.

So, Hoyong Foods, David Tran flies a drone over, records all this footage of their farming operation and then nothing seemingly ever comes of it. Then, 2016, Craig Underwood is on vacation out of the country. They know that. So, they have Roberts come to the Hoyong Foods factory where the Chili Co head and David TR basically sit Roberts down and say, “Hey, we’re starting this new company, Chili Co., you’re gonna work for us. Not asking him to work for them. Pretty much telling him, “You work for me now.” To which Roberts is like, “No, I don’t. I’ve been working for Craig Underwood for two decades. That’s my guy. I’m not leaving him.” They get super pissed. They then turn around and they’re like, “Okay, well, we could still buy this stuff from China for $300 a ton. You’re going to sell us your stuff at $500 a ton or we’re going to go elsewhere.” They literally can’t sell it to you at $500 a ton. It costs them almost $700 a ton to grow this shit. So, not only is demanding that price delusional, this also breaks the entire thing just by going from paying by the ton to the original agreement of we’re going to pay you for every acre that you plant because it shifts all the risk back onto Underwood Farms and now they’re screwed because they only grow jalapenos at this point and they’re stuck. So, in the coming months, Underwood Farms tries to negotiate a new price with them, but it doesn’t really go anywhere. So, by the 2017 season, he’s not able to plant any jalapenos. So, there’s no jalapenos in the ground, there is now a massive gap in the supply chain that’s going to have to be filled somehow. So, Chili Co goes about trying to buy peppers from everybody else that they possibly can because you’re never going to believe this. Um, nobody has a 100 million pounds of fucking jalapenos lying around and it’s really hard to find that many.

I am stunned. Just stunned.

So, in an effort to help find that, they give all the drone footage of all the proprietary techniques and technology and all the intel that they had gathered through espionage to all the other jalapeno farmers without Underwood knowing. So, essentially, Underwood Farms is basically dead in the water and they’re on the hook for all these thousands of acres of farmland that they leased for the next like 20 to 30 years. Like, they’re going to go out of business. While that’s going on, Chili Co and Hoyong Foods are getting jalapenos from anywhere and everywhere else that they can, which means the quality isn’t that great. Some of the peppers are picked too early. Some of them are dehydrated. They’re having to use green chilies instead of red jalapenos. It’s a giant fucking nightmare, which leads to the hot sauce tasting different, looking different. It’s like a burnt orange color. People are mad that the Sriracha doesn’t taste like Sriracha. Nobody knows what’s going on. So now, presumably, Hoyong Foods is also financially hurting. So they just start digging through all their accounting and they’re like actually we think a couple years back I think we overpaid Underwood Farms like $1.5 million. We’re going to take them to court and sue them. So they have to give us $1.5 million and that’s going to help with our financial burden.

What a stupid son of a bitch. Okay. And I cannot stress to you enough that this is probably the dumbest fucking idea imaginable. I’ve been threatened with quite a few lawsuits in my day and I have avoided all of them by saying one simple statement back to their lawyers. And that statement is, “Okay, sue me. I would love to go to discovery with you.” Because discovery is this magical part of the judicial process where both parties have to come to the table with all of their evidence and you can subpoena and get all of their internal records and figure out exactly what was going on, which presumably is exactly what happens.

And when Chili Co and Hoyong Foods have to turn over all of their shit, oh, it becomes very apparent that they have been plotting for at least three years to screw over Underwood Farms. At which point it goes from them suing Underwood Farms for $1.5 million to Underwood Farm suing them for $23 million and winning in court. It was perfect.

Perfect.

And this is what caused that magical time like 10 years ago, 2016, 2017, where nobody could find Sriracha on any shelves anywhere. And if you could, it was like this weird different color. It didn’t taste the same. It was all because it wasn’t the same. The whole thing with Sriracha was they had fresh red jalapeno peppers that were grown in California in a particular part of the world that were plucked, transferred to the factory, and turned into hot sauce in 6 hours flat. It was literally a multi-billion dollar money printing machine with a beautiful backstory with two hard-ass working men on a handshake agreement that built a fucking empire together. And the entire thing was harpooned by one stupid bitch.

It’s greed. It’s pure greed. Like why? Everybody was winning. It wasn’t broke. Why would you try to fix it?

You’ve got some bitch that didn’t build this company whispering in your ear like, “Oh yeah, we all have mansions. We’re all rich as shit.” But you could have a little bit bigger mansion and be a little bit more rich if you fuck over all your friends.

And then you blew up the entire thing. Congratulations.

So yeah, that’s why you couldn’t find Sriracha on the shelves 10 years ago. And that’s why the Sriracha today tastes a little bit different. Oh, but you know the funny part. You know what Underwood Farms did after they won the $23 million lawsuit with Sriracha? They turned around and started making their own Sriracha. And guess what they called it? Sriracha because you can’t trademark the word Sriracha. So now made with Underwood Farms with the actual chili peppers. You can get Underwood Farms Sriracha. And I’m going to be honest, it tastes very similar to the original Sriracha, but it’s a little bit spicier and I kind of like it more.

DISCUSS ON SG

All Indicators

Andrei Martyanov, whose track record has been very good for more than a decade, believes Russia is going to strike Europe, specifically Germany, soon in retaliation for manufacturing the drones used by Ukraine to attack Russian territory.

Now, per strikes–all indicators are that Russia will strike Europe. Russia doesn’t need to use nukes because she has more than enough conventional means for both destruction of a critical industrial infrastructure involved in support of 404 and, if it comes down to it, decapitating governments of hostile countries.

Russia has enough conventional means to strike at any facility in Europe and the US IS NOT coming for a simple reason–it has no resources. Demilitarizing NATO was one of the key strategic aims of the Special Military Operation once it became clear that the US sabotaged Istanbul talks and Iran has demonstrated it fully. Who will be hit first? Yeah, I am inclined to see Germany “getting the message”–it is long overdue.

And Russia will be perfectly justified in attacking any of the belligerent parties. It would be very difficult for the leaders of the EU, the UK, Germany, and even Switzerland to have more incompetently mishandled their various relations with Russia in futile attempts to appease Clown World and keep the US military in Europe. All they had to do was stay neutral and keep out of what was never any of their business in the first place.

Their collective lunacy is only exceeded by that of Finland and Sweden, who were perfectly safe as neutral parties, but have now unnecessarily painted targets on their national chests by joining NATO and declaring themselves enemy of the Russian Federation.

And now, ironically, they all find themselves falling afoul of both the USA and China as well. The last four years have been marked by some of the most incompetent national diplomacy in the history of international relations.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Real Reason

Ben Shapiro is observably over. But the media can’t admit the real reason his audience “has abandoned him”.

There was a time, not very long ago, when Ben Shapiro could reasonably call himself the king of all conservative media.

His company, the Daily Wire, dominated social-media feeds and podcast apps; in the run-up to the 2020 election, it was ranked as Facebook’s top English-language publisher for three straight months. Virality seemed to be the Daily Wire’s birthright: Scathing news items on Nancy Pelosi’s salon visits during the pandemic racked up millions more views than the websites of Fox News, CNN, and the New York Times. Shapiro himself was ubiquitous, a right-wing star who had risen to fame before Donald Trump and seamlessly adapted to the MAGA takeover of the Republican Party. He was a digital battering ram against the Democrats and the progressive left. He seemed guaranteed, like Fox itself, for an indefinite run at the top of the media heap.

That’s all over now. The Daily Wire is instituting significant layoffs. Its YouTube channel’s subscriber base is starting to shrink, and its website has emerged as one of the great traffic losers in conservative media. There are Daily Wire YouTube videos that now, after a few days online, have less than 10,000 views, a catastrophically small number for a channel with more than 3 million subscribers. The top comments all mock the low view counts.

If a variety of poor business decisions can be blamed, in part, for the Daily Wire’s fall from grace — ill-fated investments in feature films, an epic fantasy series, and peculiar merchandise — the greater story is the collapse of Shapiro’s constituency, especially among the young media consumers who once fueled the Daily Wire’s runaway growth.

His audience didn’t abandon him. It never existed in the first place. All the numbers were fake from the start, with the exception of the times he was handed existing audiences, such as those who were accustomed to listening to Michael Savage’s radio show.

Money can be used to fake a lot of things, but the moment it stops flowing, the charade becomes apparent. The way his history of Never-Trump is artfully ignored is particularly amusing.

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Distrust the Science

A partial chronicle of how trusting the science will reliably kill you.

If you trusted “settled science” throughout history, you’d have:

  • Taken heroin for your child’s cough (1890s)
  • Had your healthy teeth pulled to cure mental illness (1910s)
  • Drunk radioactive water for vitality (1920s)
  • Smoked cigarettes for your throat, on doctor’s orders (1940s)
  • Eaten lead paint chips as a calcium supplement (1940s)
  • Lobotomised your sister for being unhappy (1940s)
  • Sprayed DDT on the children in the playground (1950s)
  • Used asbestos to insulate your child’s bedroom (1950s)
  • Taken thalidomide for morning sickness (1960s)
  • Eaten margarine for your heart (1970s)
  • Avoided all fat and eaten carbohydrates to lose weight (1990s)
  • Replaced butter with trans-fat spreads on the doctor’s recommendation (1990s)

Every generation has its medical catastrophe dressed up as health advice. Endorsed by the experts. Printed in the textbooks. Recommended by your doctor. Featured on the front of the magazines in the waiting room. Future generations will look back in horror. Just like we look back at radioactive tonics and cigarette prescriptions and wonder how anyone fell for it.

Now we are told to take statins, vaccinate our children, inject experimental RNA-modifying spike protein factories into our bodies, avoid nicotine and alcohol, and cure cancer with chemotherapy.

One guess how the probabilities are going to turn out over time. Never forget that peer-reviewed published science from reputable journals has proven to be less reliable than a coin toss.

DISTRUST THE SCIENCE. Because scientists and doctors are not only fallible, but their primary incentives are intrinsically corrupt.

Remember, we have a word for science that is reliable. And that word is “engineering”.

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