The US military contemplates child soldiers

And here I thought utilizing child soldiers was a sign of an uncivilized society:

The best way to fix the U.S. armed forces’ recruiting challenges may involve dipping further into the nation’s high schools.

As the Army, Navy and other services contend with a thriving economy and a directive to expand their ranks, there is a growing debate over whether the military should consider lowering the minimum enlistment age from 17 to 16. More than a dozen countries, including the United Kingdom, already have adopted the policy.

Critics say the idea is deeply flawed and presents a host of societal problems, but supporters argue that the Pentagon needs to think outside the box if it wants to continually overcome one of the toughest recruiting environments in decades.

One would have thought now that women are permitted to serve in combat roles, the doubling of the potential pool of recruits would prevent any personpower shortages. If, of course, one were a clueless equalitarian who doesn't see sex or color.

Perhaps it would be more efficient to simply declare a warrior caste and require everyone born into those families to serve in the military.

Those diversity-loving millennials

Appear to be just as prone to white flight as their predecessors:

Millennials may not be the “Great Generation,” but they’re the largest group of Americans in the labor force, with the power to reshape industries. So where do they like to live?

They’re attracted to cities with high wages, high home prices and an overall high cost of living that are already popular with those in their age bracket, according to a new study of U.S. census data conducted by insurance agency Haven Life.

The Pacific Northwest, with its natural beauty and legal marijuana, pulled in the top two spots. Millennials account for about a fifth of both the greater Portland and Seattle metropolitan areas, Haven Life found. The region is home to the top four healthiest cities in the U.S., with Seattle and Portland coming in second and fourth, respectively, according to a recent WalletHub study.

Apparently "natural beauty and legal marijuana" are the new "good school district". No matter how much equality they profess to believe, no matter how much diversity they claim to love, whites always prefer to live amongst those who look like them and live like them.

But the diversity never stops coming. And it never will, until it is prevented from doing so.

DC Comics going down

Now two former DC illustrators are predicting the near-term collapse of DC Comics, as Ethan van Sciver recently supported Rob Liefeld's controversial contention that "DC Comics is going to drive off a cliff" on a recent CAPS stream:

I'm a 26-year veteran of this crumbling comic book industry. World's most charming and disarming elegant and eloquent humble because occasionally I fumble man a great big star Wars fan, trusted member of the media, so you know, part of the commentary that I've been offering in on this channel for the past few months is that I fully expect at this point the comic book industry to collapse very soon. I mean you know in a matter of just a handful years it'll be gone, and it's gonna go with a whimper.

What will happen is that Warner Brothers initially will announce that they are shutting down their publishing arm of DC Comics. They will put everything on offer, they will offer all of their back catalogue, digitally they'll be producing, kind of, I don't know, you'll be able to buy a ticket to read all this stuff digitally. I think they already kind of do that, but there will be no more new DC Comics, not really. And then shortly after that, Marvel will linger, but not for very much longer. The comic book stores will further erode, they will go under. Marvel Comics will experiment with other means of distribution, maybe Walmart and Target and all these other things, they're gonna try to bring back the newsstand, but it's not going to work.

Marvel Comics eventually will also fold and that's it. Once DC Comics shutters its doors, that's the end of the comic book industry, and it's going to shut down with a whimper. Just like when Mad Magazine closed down, a few people will shed tears, but on a much bigger scale than Mad Magazine because a lot of people, a lot of creative people, are going to find themselves unemployed, and frankly,  unemployable. It's really bad that people just don't want to buy comics anymore, they don't want the low-quality and high prices. And the fact that these idiots are insulting them on social media and in the pages of the books themselves - when you pick up a copy of Captain America and you have the Red Skull mouthing very sensible Republican talking points, you know that the comic book industry is no longer for you - and you also make up 50% at least 50 percent of the comic buying audience, it's over. From there it's just over.

I think both Liefeld and EVS are correct. The unit sales decline I've been tracking has continued apace even though total reported dollar sales remain relatively flat. When unit sales fall and dollar sales remain flat, that is a reliable sign of an industry on the verge of collapse, as it means the companies are increasing the prices on their products to try to compensate for their lower sales. It also means that production costs are being cut, which indicates that the quality is in decline as well.

That decline is precisely why we chose to keep Arkhaven and Dark Legion comics out of the Diamond distribution system and the comic book stores. We are actively working on improving the quality of our comics, as those who have received the new standard-size comics have noted how much better they are than the similarly-sized DC and Marvel floppies. When the Alt-Hero Vols. 1-6 omnibus ships to backers in a week or two, people will see some of the fruits of that effort. What's interesting is that we haven't even begun exploring the very channels that Marvel is using to keep itself afloat, such as library sales. And beginning with our first foray into film, we're going to be contesting that area of the culture wars as well.

As I've mentioned, comics can be considered movie seeds. And since Disney and Warner a) already possess more seeds than they can possibly produce, b) recognize that the comics now being produced by Marvel and DC are markedly inferior to their predecessors, and, c) prefer to rewrite the stories and characters they are using in their films anyhow, neither conglomerate have much interest in subsidizing what from their perspective is an insignificant, shrinking, and unprofitable industry. The business logic therefore strongly suggests both Disney and Warner will shut down their new-comics-producing operations in the near future.

Speaking of comics, QUANTUM MORTIS: A Man Disrupted #4 is now available in a gold-logo print edition in our new standard size.

A tanker for a tanker

I don't see what Great Britain has to complain about, considering that they quite literally started it.

TWO British oil tankers with dozens of crew on board were seized by Iran's Revolutionary Guards less than an hour apart today in the Gulf.

The Government's Cobra committee is holding an emergency meeting in Whitehall tonight after the Stena Impero and Mesdar were halted by troops in speedboats and helicopters and diverted to Iran.

The raids came exactly two weeks after Royal Marines boarded a supertanker off Gibraltar suspected of carrying Iranian crude oil to Syria - prompting Tehran to threaten "retaliation".

British-flagged Stena Impero was sailing to the Saudi port of Jubail today but ship tracking data shows it veered off course with a sharp turn north at around 4.17pm UK time. Iran's state news agency IRNA said it had been "impounded" and claimed the tanker had turned off its tracker, ignored warnings from the Revolutionary Guards and was sailing in the wrong direction in a shipping lane.

The Impero was surrounded by four vessels and a helicopter. State-controlled TV claimed the ship was seized because it was "violating international maritime rules". Less than an hour later at around 5pm the Mesdar - Liberian-flagged but operated by the UK firm Norbulk Shipping UK - also turned sharply north towards Iran's coast having been surrounded by ten speedboats after passing westward through the Strait on its way to Ras Tanura.

It looks like the neoclowns couldn't get President Trump to bite, so they've got Theresa May doing their bidding in the hopes of enmeshing the US military that way. I suspect they're desperate to start a war in the Gulf in the hopes of creating a distraction from the coming Epstein-related arrests. And I very much doubt that either the President or the U.S. Navy is going to fall for the neoclown antics.

One article on the Daily Mail finally gets around to admitting that the Iranian response was both provoked and measured by the initial British action.

Fears were raised that the Iranian authorities were trying to seize a UK ship in retaliation for the detention of the Grace 1 tanker. The Iranian ship was detained off the coast of Gibraltar on July 4 after it was suspected of violating EU sanctions by carrying a cargo of crude oil destined for Syria. The ship's captain, chief officer and two second officers were arrested and bailed and an investigation is ongoing.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the tanker's seizure an act of 'piracy' on Tuesday and warned the UK to expect a response.

Of course they knew Iran would do something like this. However, I expect they were looking for a more violent escalation. It's a little hard to bang the war drums when the other side is obviously just responding in kind to your own actions.

Epstein - NXIVM - Mega

The Epstein connections range from the Clinton Foundation and the Deep State to the sex cults of NXIVM and FLDS to Hollywood to the world of international high finance, according to Neon Revolt:

“The megabucks call themselves ‘Mega group.’ This name appeared in the media a couple of years ago, as a name for the secret Israeli mole in the upper reaches of the U.S. establishment. It came up in an overheard phone conversation, later denied by the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. The newshounds and spook watchers got it wrong. ‘Mega’ was not an agent, Mega was the boss.”

With some bitterness, Shamir wrote, “Megabucks influence us, even more than they influence the U.S. Our politicians are as weak and corrupt as America’s and they are easier to swing. Even relative small-timers can cause eruption and bloodshed, like the California bingo-parlor owner [Irving] Moskowitz, who pushed our ex-prime minister Netanyahu to open the tunnel under the Haram al Sharif…. The Megabucks can buy Israel with their spare change. If they wish, we would have peace in Palestine today. But they are not interested in Israel per se…. Megabucks care for themselves, and they need Israel in order to keep the American Jews together, supporting them. That is why they do not mind bloodshed in Palestine, and even a bloody regional war does not scare them.”

Shamir concluded: “In my opinion, Megabucks, rather than forces of Caballa, move the events in the Middle East. It is not magic, just money—but a lot of money. They do not rule America or Israel, but they exercise a lot of influence. Fifty multibillionaires united in one framework present a very real force in the world.”

Steinberg concludes:

Of course, Shamir does not have the picture precisely right. The Bronfman-centered Mega Group is but one component of an insane and desperate element within the transatlantic financial establishment that is now pressing for a “Clash of Civilizations,” as a means of responding to the collapse of their global financial empire, and the threat of a new set of Eurasia-centered cooperative arrangements among nations supplanting their power. But, as far as the Mega puzzle is concerned, Shamir has solved the mystery.

No wonder Mossad boss Yatom scolded his Washington-based underling with the warning, “This is not something we use Mega for.”

And what are the odds that a group of Jewish billionaires with ties to Israeli intelligence would now all be caught up in sex abuse scandals?

We’re familiar with the scandals surrounding Wexner (and his protege, Epstein), Spielberg, and the Bronfmans (Edgar was involved alongside Charles, and it’s Edgar’s daughters who got involved with NXIVM), but what about Steinhardt?

Well, wouldn’t you know it, but Steinhardt just happens to be embroiled in a sex scandal of his own right now!

What a remarkable coincidence! All FOUR of these founding families have sexual scandal surrounding them, and they all seem attached to the Israeli deep state, in some way or another!

And remember all those unsealed indictments? R. Kelly's was one of them....

China guards the US border

Yeah, so that's working out about as well as you'd assume it would:

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection watch commander at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has admitted to running an illegal gun operation, authorities said. Wei Xu, 56, of Santa Fe Springs was arrested Feb. 5 after an investigation involving undercover officers to whom Xu sold three guns out of the trunk of his car, including an “off-roster” pistol not certified for sale in California, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

He has been on unpaid administrative leave since his arrest and will be fired, said Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office.

In court Wednesday, Xu pleaded guilty to illegally selling guns on the internet, some of which he obtained by using his power as a law enforcement official, and to creating a fake company to avoid paying taxes, prosecutors said. He also pleaded guilty to illegally possessing unregistered firearms and making false statements to a federal agency about his involvement with a Chinese company to get a secret-level security clearance.

You can warble on about human equality all you like, if you wish. But sooner or later, reality, history, and the observable patterns of human behavior are going to slap you in the face.

UNFORGETTABLE on Unauthorized

Unauthorized.TV is very pleased to announce its second documentary available for viewing on the channel, Unforgettable: The Korean War. This powerful and sobering documentary is comprised of veterans of the Korean War telling of their experiences fighting what has been described as "the forgotten war" on the Korean Peninsula. The documentary is available for all Unauthorized subscribers; non-subscribers can also purchase the documentary or viewing access to it there. If, after watching it, you would like to support the filmmakers as well as the channel, please note that all sales proceeds will be split between them and Unauthorized.

On a related note, subscribers may be interested to know that Unauthorized is filming its first original documentary this weekend. We anticipate releasing it in September.

Convergence is the corporate cancer

An Australian company intentionally devalues performance:

Atlassian says it will no longer tolerate “brilliant jerks” who deliver results for the company but make life hell for their co-workers as part of a complete overhaul of how the tech firm conducts performance reviews.

The $47 billion Australian software company, which was founded in Sydney in 2002 and floated on the US stock market in 2015, says two-thirds of every performance review will now have nothing to do with job skills.

Instead, equal weighting will be given to how each of its 3000 employees impacts others on their team, and to how they live the company values. Atlassian says the change will “more fairly measure people on how they bring their whole self to work”.

While it's true that teamwork is an important element of success in any organization, establishing feelings as the basis for evaluating performance is assuring rule by the most sensitive. Which in this case means that gamma males and women will soon rule the company and the ability to actually get anything done will become irrelevant.

One need only to look at Apple in the post-Jobs era to see what difference the loss of just one "brilliant jerk" can make to even the most successful corporation. Then contemplate the consequences of eliminating all of them from an organization.

Not going anywhere

Sex trafficker to the stars Jeffrey Epstein is denied bail:

Multimillionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein was denied bail Thursday pending trial on child sex-trafficking charges.

“Starting with my conclusions, the government’s application for continued remand is hereby granted and the defense’s application for pretrial release is respectfully hereby denied,” Manhattan federal Judge Richard Berman said at the start of a hotly anticipated hearing.

“The government has established danger to others and to the community by clear and convincing evidence, and the government has established a risk of flight by a preponderance of evidence.”

It's a sign that they might actually be serious. We won't know, of course, until more arrests of the rich and famous start taking place. Which may be coming sooner than anyone thinks, if Vanity Fair has it right:

“There were other business associates of Mr. Epstein’s who engaged in improper sexual misconduct at one or more of his homes. We do know that,” said Brad Edwards, a lawyer for Courtney Wild, one of the Epstein accusers who gave emotional testimony at Epstein’s bail hearing. “In due time the names are going to start coming out.” (Attorneys for Epstein did not respond to a request for comment.)

Likely within days, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit will release almost 2,000 pages of documents that could reveal sexual abuse by “numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister, and other world leaders,” according to the three-judge panel's ruling. The documents were filed during a civil defamation lawsuit brought by Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a former Mar-a-Lago locker-room attendant, against Epstein’s former girlfriend and alleged madam, Ghislaine Maxwell. “Nobody who was around Epstein a lot is going to have an easy time now. It’s all going to come out,” said Giuffre’s lawyer David Boies. Another person involved with litigation against Epstein told me: “It’s going to be staggering, the amount of names. It’s going to be contagion numbers.”

Shine the light on them. All of them.

The Gatekeeper's Ball

The Z-man infiltrates the neoclowns' attempt to rebrand themselves as "National Conservatives":

The final speaker of the morning session was Yoram Hazony. It was an interesting performance to behold. He started out criticizing neoconservatives, making the absurd claim that the current crop of neocons are not the real neocons. They have strayed from the original into imperialism. Then he let it be known that one of the sponsors for this show was The public Interest, a neocon quarterly founded by Irving Kristol. The fact that he said this without laughing was quite remarkable.

He then moved onto libertarianism. It’s interesting to hear these guys criticize libertarianism, because they don’t really know why they oppose it. They just associate it with the cultural decline, so they assume it is the cause. There’s also a reactionary vibe to their fight with the libertarians. These new nationalists don’t like the libertarians, because libertarians oppose nationalism. For their purposes, maybe that’s enough to dismiss the economic arguments against their brand of nationalism.

The third part of his speech was a trade about white nationalism. He fumbled around trying to say something about biological reality, but that made him sound like a nut from the flat earth society. Then he warned about the threat of white nationalism, especially among young people. Then he made the claim that there is no such thing as tribal loyalty, which is an odd thing, given that he claims a nation is a collection of tribes. As in his book, it’s clear he terrifies himself when he follows his logic to its conclusion....

The funny thing about this event is not a single person has bothered to mention that conservatism, whether neocon or Buckley, managed to conserve nothing.

They managed to derail the Tea Party, but I very much doubt they'll be successful in jumping in front of the nationalist parade. I addressed this very topic in last night's Darkstream.

Medieval History 101: Episode IV

Medieval History 101: Episode 4: Getting Medieval on the English is now available for subscribers on Unauthorized. The Episode Guide is available here.

Gladstone on free trade

A reader sends an informative quote from the great 19th-century British advocate of free trade, Prime Minister William Gladstone:

Advocacy of Free Trade goes back to the United Kingdom of 1846-1860.  However, what William Gladstone actually said as a defense of free trade is "It is a mistake to suppose that the best way of giving benefit to the labouring classes is simply to operate on the articles consumed by them. If you want to do them the maximum of good, you should rather operate on the articles which give them a maximum of employment."

However, in 1846-1860 English manufacturing was the best in the world, though America had surpassed them in some fields. Free trade meant far larger markets abroad for English goods, and cheaper foodstuffs at home, meaning that the English labouring classes had more money to spend on their own manufactures.

For precisely the same reason, the French have rigorous protections of their somewhat inefficient agriculture, namely it creates a maximum of employment.

For the United States of 2019, our labor is relatively expensive, so in many areas our industries are not competitive with places where labor costs little. Gladstone's rationale for free trade thus indicates for us that protectionism, not free trade, is to our advantage.

Translation: it is a fundamental mistake for economists to focus on providing the US population with access to cheap imported goods instead of jobs that permit them to pay for more expensive domestic goods.

Impeachment attempt fails

And it wasn't even close, because "racist, racist" isn't working any better than "Russia, Russia" did:

The House voted on Wednesday to table a resolution from Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, to impeach President Donald Trump over racist comments he made about four Democratic congresswomen of color, effectively killing the measure.

The vote — 332 to 95, with one lawmaker voting "present" — marked the first time the Democratic-controlled chamber had weighed in on impeachment, an issue that has created a widening schism within the party. Progressive newcomers and several 2020 candidates have pushed for impeachment proceedings, but the House leadership, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has been resistant.

All Republicans joined with 137 Democrats and the lone independent, Justin Amash, to table the resolution.

Meanwhile, Americans are chanting "send her back" about the Somali woman squatting in the US Congress who allegedly married her own brother:

President Donald Trump slammed Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the members of 'squad' at his campaign rally Wednesday night with supporters responding with shouts of 'send her back, send her back.'

While the president raged against all four lawmakers who make up the squad individually - and railed against several of the Democratic presidential contenders - it was Omar, who is a frequent target of his ire, who bore the brunt of his criticism.

Trump accused Omar of blaming terrorists attacks on our country just hours after igniting a debate over rumors she was married to her brother.

'She smeared U.S. Service members involved in Black Hawk Down,' he said referring to the failed 1993 raid in Mogadishu by the U.S. military. 'In other words, she slandered the brave Americans were trying to keep peace in Somalia. Omar minimized the September 11th attacks on our homeland saying some people did something,' he added.

Outside the White House earlier that day he had said, 'I hear that she was married to her brother,' repeating claims which have swirled around Omar since her 2016 campaign.

A Somali blog first accused her of marrying her brother and of being a bigamist. It prompted her to issue statements which have not helped in disproving the claims.

That sound you're hearing is the Overton Window shattering again. And I do so enjoy the delicate phrasing of the term "prompted her to issue statements which have not helped in disproving the claims" which is considerably more accurate than the false US narrative of the claims being "baseless".

National Cuckservatives

It's a totally new and hip movement! Never mind the neoclowns behind the curtain:

Politics in America, Britain, and other Western nations have taken a sharp turn toward nationalism—a commitment to a world of independent nations. This has been disorienting to many, not least the American conservative movement, which has, since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, grown increasingly attached to a vision of a global “rules-based liberal order” that would bring peace and prosperity to the entire world while attenuating the independence of nations. 

The return of nationalism has created a much-discussed “crisis of conservatism” that may be unprecedented since modern Anglo-American conservatism was formulated by Russell Kirk, William Buckley, and their colleagues in the 1950s. At the heart of this crisis is a question: Is the new American and British nationalism a hostile usurper that has arrived on the scene to displace political conservatism? Or is nationalism an essential, if neglected, part of the Anglo-American conservative tradition at its best?

The conference on “National Conservatism” will bring together public figures, journalists, scholars, and students who understand that the past and future of conservatism are inextricably tied to the idea of the nation, to the principle of national independence, and to the revival of the unique national traditions that alone have the power to bind a people together and bring about their flourishing.

We see this public conference as the kick off for a protracted effort to recover and reconsolidate the rich tradition of national conservative thought as an intellectually serious alternative to the excesses of purist libertarianism, and in stark opposition to political theories grounded in race. Our aim is to solidify and energize national conservatives, offering them a much-needed institutional base, substantial ideas in the areas of public policy, political theory, and economics, and an extensive support network across the country.

Conservatives couldn't conserve the ladies room. Don't count on them to save the American nation. They're not nationalists, they're Neoclowns 2.0.

The illogic of atheism

Miles Mathis explains why he finds atheism to be illogical:

A modern skeptic is like an agnostic, and he or she is likely to lean to a “no” answer every time. Are there gods? Probably not. Are there unicorns? Probably not. Is there a Bigfoot? Probably not. And so on. I resist this “skeptic” tag because leaning toward a “no” answer is a prejudice itself. It is unscientific. Beyond that, the so-called skeptic societies are stiff with atheists and agnostics and cynics and other faux-scientists, and I prefer to remain as far away from all that as possible.

Of course, with the existence of Bigfoot and unicorns and so on we do have a great deal of information. We have made searches. The Earth is a limited environment and we have populated it widely and heavily and long. Even so, the mountain gorilla was not discovered until 1902, and huge populations of lowland gorillas were only recently discovered in the Congo (this very decade). Which is to say that we may lean a bit to a “no” answer for existence of larger beings in smaller areas we have scoured quite thoroughly, but even then we may be wrong.

But in looking for proof of gods, our search is pathetically limited. By definition, a god is a being whose powers are far greater than ours, who we cannot comprehend, and whose form we cannot predict. This would make our failure to locate a god quite understandable. A very large or small god would be above or below our notice, and a distant god would also evade our sensors. Not to mention we only have five senses. If we are manipulated by gods, as the hypothesis goes, then it would be quite easy for them to deny us the eyes to see them. Only a god of near-human size in the near environs would be possible to detect.

Again, this does not mean I believe in gods, any more than I believe in aliens or unicorns. I only point out that, as a matter of logic and science, a hypothesis that has not been proved is not the same as a hypothesis that has been disproved. I agree with the atheists and agnostics that the existence of gods has not been proved, but I do not agree that the existence of gods has been disproved. It would require a much more thorough search of the universe than has so far been completed to even begin to lean. As it is, our data is near-zero.

For this reason, I find atheists to be just as sanctimonious, illogical, and tiresome as the deists and theists, if not moreso. Because the atheists are often more highly educated and often better able to argue (in limited ways), they use this education and argument to prop themselves up in the ugliest ways. They blow apart the beliefs of religious people and imagine this solidifies their own beliefs in some way. But it never does. People of faith are actually more consistent in their views, since they never claim to believe in science anyway. They are not immediately hypocritical, at least, since it is possible for them create a closed system of illogic that circles back in a self-affirming way. The search for truth is no part of their system, so it is no failure when they find none. But atheists cannot say the same. They base their system on science, so that the very first instant they fail to act scientifically, they are back to zero. Yes, it is the same zero as the theists' zero, but the theists aren't measuring and the atheists are. A theist at zero is just a theist, and no harm done. But an atheist at zero has had a fall, and must be damaged.

I would go farther, of course, as I observe most atheists to be not only illogical, but irrational. And thank God for that! It's the rational atheists who are by far the most problematic.

Support for the President rises

A poll shockingly discovers that Americans don't like being ruled over by invaders who hate them:

Support for U.S. President Donald Trump increased slightly among Republicans after he lashed out on Twitter over the weekend in a racially charged attack on four minority Democratic congresswomen, a Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll shows.

The national survey, conducted on Monday and Tuesday after Trump told the lawmakers they should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” showed his net approval among members of his Republican Party rose by 5 percentage points to 72%, compared with a similar poll that ran last week.

On the imaginary downside, the paper citizens who didn't vote for him and would never, ever vote for him under any circumstances now double-dog won't vote for him.

They have to go back.

Naturally, the Republican establishment professional politicos got it all wrong:

President Donald Trump's advisers are concerned that his attack on four Democratic congresswomen Sunday may have backfired, Politico reported. The advisers reportedly think that Trump veered wildly off his campaign message and helped unite a Democratic Party that the week before was split by infighting.

Fire those idiot advisers, Mr. President. Listening to them will not help you win re-election in 2020.

Red flags in Germany

But the German political class just keeps doubling down on immigration:

Mayor of Hockenheim, a city in southwest Germany, was left bloodied and hospitalized after an unknown assailant punched him. One politician has already died, and reports suggest that such attacks are becoming more common.

Dieter Gummer, a member of the left-wing Social Democratic Party, answered his door on Monday evening to find an unfamiliar face outside. The visitor punched the 67-year-old politician in the face, according to police in nearby Ludwigshafen. Gummer fell on the floor and hit his head, requiring treatment in hospital. The culprit fled the scene. The attacker was unknown to the mayor, and is described by police as a man of slim build, around 40 years old, with dark skin. More puzzling is the fact that Gummer is set to retire in August, and anyone disagreeing with his policies will get a chance to vote for his successor.

Police in the southern German town say they’re baffled as to the motive, and are “investigating in all directions.”

However, across Germany, anger and violence against public officials is on the rise. Last year, more than 1,200 threats, criminal insults, and acts of physical violence were committed against officials, Leipzig Mayor Burkhard Jung – who also chairs the German Association of Cities – told a meeting of concerned mayors last week. Nearly all German states have reported yearly increases in violence since at least 2017.

At the meeting, the mayors described how rude comments in public and on social media would progress to action. They told of finding the wheel nuts loosened on their cars, discovering rifle cartridges on their doorsteps, and receiving death threats in their mailboxes.

“The people in my administration are afraid to open their doors,” said one Bavarian mayor, quoted by Der Tagesspiegel. “This cannot be.”

I'm amused by the way they are all affecting to be surprised by the inevitable. What could possibly be the motive when the mayors are aiding and abetting the invasion of the country? It is, indeed, a mystery.

If Deutsche Bank goes down and the Germany economy implodes, all bets are off.

America is for everyone

“America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them; and every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.”
– George W. Bush

“America is not only for the whites, but it is for all. Who is the America? The American is you, me, and that. When we go to America we will become Americans and there is no a race or nationalism called America and the Americans are those Africans, Indians, Chinese, and Europeans and whoever goes to America will become American…. American is for all of us and the whole world had made and created America. All the people all over the world had made America and it shall accordingly be for all of us.” 
— Col. Muammar Gaddafi of Libya

Both men are liars. Civic nationalism is a lie. The proposition nation is a lie. The nation of immigrants is a lie. Immigrants, and their descendants, are not, and will never be American any more than the original settlers have become Indians over time by virtue of their possession of the Magic Dirt.

Nations are not soil, they are blood and birth. Because nations are people, extended families that share genetics, language, religion, culture, and traditions.

If America is for everyone, if anyone can become American, then America does not exist. Which, of course, is the insidious objective of the entire exercise in redefining it.

Deutsche Bank in trouble

Those massive layoffs weren't the only sign that Germany's largest bank appears to be in difficulty:

Here are the dynamics in a nutshell: Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing is pulling back from catering to risky hedge-fund clients, i.e. running a prime brokerage, as he attempts to radically overhaul the troubled German lender while BNP CEO Jean-Laurent Bonnafe wants to expand in the industry. A deal of this magnitude would be a stark example of the German firm’s retreat from global investment banking while potentially transforming its French rival from a small player in the so-called prime-brokerage industry to one of Europe’s biggest.

Of course, publicly telegraphing that DB is in dire liquidity straits and needs an in-kind transfer of its prime brokerage book would spark an outright panic, and so instead the story has been spun far more palatably, i.e., "BNP is providing “continuity of service” to Deutsche Bank’s prime-brokerage and electronic-equity clients as the two companies discuss transferring over technology and staff", according to a July 7 statement. The ultimate goal of the talks is for BNP to take over the vast majority of client balances, which are slightly less than $200 billion currently.

There is just one problem: nothing is preventing those clients who would be forcibly moved from a German banking giant to a French banking giant from redeeming their funds. And that's just what they are doing. Or rather, nothing is preventing them from moving their exposure for now, which is why they are suddenly scrambling to do it before they are suddenly gated.

And the stock price comparison below is not the most encouraging thing I've ever seen, particularly given that we are currently at the height of a bull market.

Turkey chooses Russia

A major crack in the NATO wall:

President Donald Trump has said Washington will not sell Turkey its next-generation F-35 jet fighter, after Turkey took delivery of the Russian-made S-400 air defense system. Turkey has been a partner in the F-35 program.

“The situation with Turkey is very complex and tough. We are in contact with Turkish officials,” Trump said. US officials had long threatened to exclude Turkey from the F-35 program, claiming that operating the jet alongside the S-400 would allow Moscow to learn its secrets.

As Trump made the announcement to reporters on Tuesday, his nominee for Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, reiterated the president’s position during his Senate confirmation hearing. Turkey “can either have the S-400 or...the F-35,” Esper said. “You cannot have both.”

At a speech in Ankara one day earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed the arrival of his newly acquired S-400 batteries from Russia. Erdogan promised to go “much further” and set up “joint production with Russia” in future.

The Christian view on Diversity

Archcuck David French on why he imported an Ethiopian to the USA:

I’m an evangelical Christian, and ever since I was a young man, two Bible verses have tugged at my soul. The first comes from the Book of James, and defines “pure” religious practice in part as looking after “widows and orphans in their distress.” The second, from the Book of Galatians, declares an eternal truth: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” As a result, my wife and I not only felt called to adopt, but we believed that race was no barrier to unity for a family of genuine faith.

And so, in the summer of 2010, we journeyed to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to pick up our youngest child. Then we chopped off his penis, gave him a girl's name, and brought him to America where there is neither male nor female, for we are all one in Diversity.

"Ashkelon shall see it, and be afraid; Gaza too, and shall writhe in anguish; Ekron also, because it's hopes are confounded. The king shall perish in Gaza; Askelon shall be uninhabited, a mixed people shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut of the pride of Philistia."
(Zech. 9:5-6)

Reader Matt notes: In the Bible, the destruction of national identity is a clear sign of the judgement of God, therefore it is very bad for a nation. This speaks volumes about what is happening in the West; multiculturalism is literally a sign that we have been very, very bad. As you said in a recent Darkstream, we need to stop tolerating those who are tempting God to smite them. 

Immigration, diversity, and assimilation are God's collective curse on a nation, because it is a way of destroying a nation even more completely than war. Just ask your nearest American Indian who belongs to one of the 562 tribes that haven't been completely extinguished yet.

And I can't help but wonder how long it will take Churchians to declare transgenderism to be proper theology on the basis of that verse from Galatians.

The party of open borders

Hey, America is just an idea held by immigrants, right? How are "borders" even relevant these days? They're just an arbitrary line on a map, right? They don't even exist!

Elizabeth Warren has an immigration plan. Here are the highlights:

• Decriminalizes unauthorized immigration and returns to the civil enforcement we had before George Bush began Operation Streamline.
• Eliminates abusive immigration enforcement and keeps law enforcement at arms length from CBP and ICE.
• Reduces and reforms immigrant detention.
• Reforms immigration courts.
• Raises the refugee cap to 125,000 and affirms refugee protections.
• Reforms legal immigration and creates a path to citizenship.

This is a curious plan. As near as I can tell, it recommends no actions to improve border law enforcement in any way. There’s nothing about either a wall or a “virtual wall.” There’s nothing about E-Verify. There’s nothing about “smarter” or “more efficient” enforcement. No one will ever be deported—except, presumably, for serious felons, though Warren doesn’t even say that explicitly. Expedited removal will be ended. The Border Patrol will be reshaped from “top to bottom,” and will focus their efforts on “homeland security efforts like screening cargo, identifying counterfeit goods, and preventing smuggling and trafficking.” The whole thing is very similar to Julian Castro’s plan.

I have previously criticized Republicans who accused liberals of wanting “open borders.” President Trump tweets about this endlessly. But I have to admit that it’s hard to see much daylight between Warren’s plan and de facto open borders.

The Trumpslide cometh.

Definitely not Americans

If they were, these "congresswomen" would understand that President Trump correctly identifying them as people who should go back is not an impeachable offense:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her 'squad' fired back at Donald Trump on Monday, calling on House Democratic leadership to bring impeachment proceedings against him. But despite a sizable backlash against the President's earlier rant against the four congresswoman, he unleashed a flurry of tweets during their joint conference to double down on his call for them 'leave' the US if they weren't happy.

While the left-leaning lawmakers addressed reporters, Trump declared that the United States would never bow to socialism and - in a clear swipe - said that 'certain people hate our country.' 

Yet Rep. Ilhan Omar, a frequent target of Trump's twitter fury, said: 'We can either continue to enable this president and report on the bile of garbage that comes out of his mouth.

'Or we can hold him accountable for his crimes. It is time for us to stop allowing this president to make a mockery out of our constitution. It is time for us to impeach this president.'

'This is the agenda of white nationalist,' she charged. 'He would love nothing more than to divide our country based on race, religion, gender orientation or immigration status, because this is the only way he knows he can prevent the solidarity of us working together across all of our differences.'

Looks like these Fake Americans are desperate to save the pedos... President Trump's approval rating hasn't budget one little bit. What are the odds at least one of them is involved with sex trafficking into the United States?

The 2020 Trumpslide is building strength.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any alien, being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof, on application to any common law court of record, in any one of the states wherein he shall have resided for the term of one year at least, and making proof to the satisfaction of such court, that he is a person of good character, and taking the oath or affirmation prescribed by law, to support the constitution of the United States, which oath or affirmation such court shall administer; and the clerk of such court shall record such application, and the proceedings thereon; and thereupon such person shall be considered as a citizen of the United States. And the children of such persons so naturalized, dwelling within the United States, being under the age of twenty-one years at the time of such naturalization, shall also be considered as citizens of the United States.  Also, children of citizens born beyond sea, &c. or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens: Provided, That the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States: Exceptions. Provided also, That no person heretofore proscribed by any state, shall be admitted a citizen as aforesaid, except by an act of the legislature of the state in which such person was proscribed.
- the Naturalization Act of 1791

The first naturalization act, by the way, further settles the Posterity issue: "the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States." Speaking of fathers, the Founding Fathers would have done much better to put that line directly in the Constitution and left it at that.

By the way, this is what it now takes to be just as American as the President: 9 years and setting aside $500k for four years. Or, alternatively, have your illegal immigrant mother sneak across the border and give birth on the Magic Dirt.

• Investment of $500,000 in a rural area, or area with high unemployment into a new commercial enterprise to create 10 new full-time jobs, or;
• Direct investment of $1 million in an American commercial enterprise.
• Funds may stay invested until permanent resident status is granted (usually 4 years).
• Five years of permanent residence status.
• Scoring 70 percent on a seventh-grade civics test.

Not a target

Ehud Barak attempts to explain to the media why he was meeting with Jeffrey Epstein, without actually explaining the nature of his relationship with Epstein:

In an exclusive interview, Barak told The Daily Beast his dealings with Epstein were entirely on the level.

“The man who introduced me to Epstein about 17 years ago was Shimon Peres,” Barak said, uncertain if the event took place in New York or Washington, but recalling it was at an event where “there were many famous and important people, including, if I recall, both Clintons and hundreds of others.”

Since then, Barak says, he has met Epstein “more than 10 times and much less than a hundred times, but I can’t tell you exactly how many. I don’t keep count. Over the years, I’ve seen him on occasion.”

“I never attended a party with him,” Barak told The Daily Beast. “I never met Epstein in the company of women or young girls.”

Barak recalls having visited Epstein at two of his Manhattan residences and said he did visit Epstein’s private Caribbean island “once, for several hours—and years after the publications about sex parties or orgies there.” But, Barak says, “I've never been there at a party.”

“To the contrary,” Barak says, “at his home, I met many very respected people, scientists, Nobel Prize winners, and I met him also in Boston, at MIT or the Harvard labs he supports.”

At these events, Barak says, he “unequivocally” never met any women or girls. Asked if any compromising pictures of him could yet surface, he responded “there is no chance whatsoever.”

Of course not. Barak wasn't there to party. It's considerably more likely that he was there to receive the compromising pictures of all those famous, important, and very respected people directly from Epstein. Remember, Barak wasn't just a politician and a much-decorated soldier, he was military intelligence.

The Thucydidean trap closes

China is beginning to wield its economic power:

The Chinese foreign ministry has warned that American firms would be banned from doing business in China if they are involved in any arms deals with Taiwan.

“In order to safeguard national interests, China will impose sanctions on US companies involved in arms sales to Taiwan,” foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters on Monday. “The Chinese government and Chinese companies will not cooperate and do business with these US firms,” he added.

Answering reporters’ questions, Geng said the details about such companies and the timeline of any penalties against them will not be disclosed at present.

As the world's sole economic superpower, the USA has been throwing its weight around this way for decades. But now China has the ability to do so as well, and due to its much larger population and larger economy (in PPP terms), it will likely be able to wield this power more effectively than the USA in the future.

Backing REBEL'S RUN

The Alt-Hero Cinematic Revolution begins with REBEL'S RUN

We continue to ramp up preparations for the production of Rebel’s Run.  For those of you who have not yet heard the news, a group of Arkhaven backers have set up a new film production company, Viral Films Media, which will be producing a live-action superhero film based on characters from the Alt-Hero comic book series.  The Legend Chuck Dixon and I are writing the script. Viral Films Media will be working together with Galatia Films, a Georgia-based production company, to develop, produce and market Rebel’s Run.  The movie is based upon an entirely new story that expands upon the existing comics and will not simply be a movie version of them.

If you want to be a part of it, there are a number of ways you can support this project:

Invest in REBEL'S RUN

First, if you are interested in investing in Rebel’s Run, Viral Films Media is running a crowd-investing campaign.  The campaign is already successful, but there are still some slots available for those who are interested in joining it. You can also visit Viral Films Media’s website to learn more about the film project.

Support REBEL'S RUN

We will be putting together other ways to support the movie and get involved in supporting it besides the crowd-investing campaign.  We plan to provide supporters with a range of products, including early release access to the film. Here are some of the ideas that have been kicked around.

• digital download of the movie
• collector's edition DVD of the movie
• soundtrack (digital and CD)
• cameo appearances in the film
• a graphic novelization of the movie
• a novelization of the movie
• movie posters
• t-shirts, caps, and other merchandise
• exclusive access to video discussions with the producer, director and cast as well as back-stage footage

Feel free to let us know what other products and perks might be of interest to you.

Macrocorruption in California

Ron Unz provides a genuinely eye-opening look at the history of macrocorruption in the state of California and its relationship to the Chicago Mob. It's a long and detailed article that is absolutely worth reading in its entirety.

Money was undoubtedly the mother’s milk of postwar California politics. But the speed with which these recent Chicago transplants transformed themselves into powerful financial figures in their new state was greatly assisted by their participation in a particular financial windfall. They were leading beneficiaries of one of the worst governmental violations of constitutional rights in our national history, and Russo devotes an entire chapter to this dark tale.

Like all other Asians, California’s ethnic Japanese population had long suffered under the harshest sort of racial discrimination, being denied naturalized citizenship and therefore prohibited from owning land, while nearly all additional immigration from their homeland had been banned in the 1920s. Yet although they had arrived as penniless farm laborers mostly around the turn of the century, their intense work-ethnic and diligent savings had established them as a small but reasonably prosperous community by the late 1930s. The Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to their American-born children, thus allowing their families to eventually acquire large amounts of farmland and other properties, with their visible success sometimes provoking considerable envy from their white neighbors and competitors.

As I have discussed elsewhere, FDR’s desperate attempt to circumvent overwhelming public opposition America’s involvement in World War II eventually led to his endless 1941 provocations against Japan, which successfully culminated in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Soon afterward, demagogic appeals by politicians and media pundits led much of the public to begin demanding the incarceration of all ethnic Japanese, U.S. citizens or not, and by early 1942 FDR signed an executive order shipping some 120,000 Japanese-Americans off to grim concentration camps, with those individuals sometimes being forced to leave their homes on very short notice. As a result, they lost nearly all the property they had steadily accumulated over two generations, most of which was either seized or otherwise ended up in government hands. Similar government edicts led to the confiscation of numerous German-owned businesses throughout America, many of which had enormously valuable assets.

Within a couple of years, these federal holdings has swelled to include half a million acres of the state’s best farmland, some 1,265 small Japanese-owned hotels, and numerous urban parcels throughout Los Angeles, San Jose, and other cities. In 1942 the federal government estimated the value of these former Japanese-American properties at around $3 billion in present day dollars, but the huge postwar California economic and population boom would surely have greatly increased the value of this real estate portfolio by the early 1950s. The business assets and patent holdings of the seized German companies were worth additional billions.

Following the end of the war, all this property needed to be sold off, and powerful Chicago interests recognized this tremendous opportunity. The 1946 elections had produced a crushing national defeat for the ruling Democrats, with the Republicans regaining control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1932. Thus, President Truman faced an desperate battle for reelection, and Chicago’s powerful political machine deployed its considerable political clout to place the sales process in the hands of David L. Bazelon, a young Chicago lawyer and leading Democratic fund-raiser with deep Syndicate ties. Bazelon had taken a pay cut of 80% to enter government service, but he soon boasted to the Washington Post that he had become “one of the largest businessmen in the country.” His motive quickly became apparent as he arranged the sale of assets for a fraction of their real value to his circle of Chicago friends and associates, sometimes apparently receiving a secret slice of the lucrative ownership stakes in return.

As an extreme example, Bazelon almost immediately sold Chicago’s Henry Crown a twenty-six thousand acre California mine site, containing tens of millions of dollars worth of coal, for a mere $150,000. A private $1 million sale of seized German property in 1948 to a group formed by his lifelong best friend and former law partner Paul Ziffren was worth $40 million by 1954, and Ziffern soon rewarded Bazelon with a 9.2% share of his multimillion-dollar real estate holding company. Another major beneficiary of Bazelon’s unusual sales practices later told a Congressional investigating committee that he gave Bazelon a 25% share of his large hotel holding company because he “was just feeling good and generous and was grateful.”

These particular hidden gifts to Bazelon only later came to light through happenstance references that were eventually uncovered by diligent researchers, so we may assume that such transactions probably represented just the tip of an enormous iceberg. It seems plausible that Bazelon received quiet kickbacks totaling many millions or perhaps even tens of millions in present-day dollars in exchange for his very favorable distribution of billions in government assets to the network of beneficiaries who shared his roots in the Chicago Syndicate.

This vast transfer of wealth in the early postwar years from the plundered Nisei gave all these mobbed-up Chicago newcomers the financial wherewithal to soon gain substantial control of California’s money-based political system.

One of the things I quickly noticed upon moving to Europe was that while the corruption in the European countries was very open and obvious, it wasn't anywhere nearly as systematic and structural as in the United States.

A crack in the civnattery

Has President Trump noticed the Magic Dirt isn't working?

Donald Trump told progressive representatives Sunday morning to go fix the countries they are originally from before getting involved with American politics.

The president is likely referencing a group of four freshmen congresswomen who have recently been at odds with Democratic House leadership, which includes Rep. Ilhan Omar, who was born in Somalia.

'So interesting to see 'Progressive' Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run,' Trump posted to Twitter Sunday.

'Why don't they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,' he suggested. 'Then come back and show us how it is done.'

For all his flaws and shortcomings, he is still the greatest president of the last 179 years.

"You can’t leave fast enough."

Amazing rhetoric. The President has spoken. They have to go back. And that crashing sound you just heard was the Overton Window being shattered into pieces.

Bill Kristol@BillKristol
The president has once again (but even more obviously than usual) made clear his unapologetic bigotry, nativism and racism. Are GOP leaders, donors and voters still fine with re-nominating Donald Trump for president? Do they really believe the Republican Party can do no better?

You have to go back too, Bill.

Zero interest in the drama

As you've probably heard me say on occasion, I genuinely don't care what Suzy said to Jenny about Sara. Or about me, for that matter. This Internet drama is literally never-ending and there is always something at which one can decide to take offense if one chooses.

So, from this point on, I'm going to do my best to completely ignore literally everyone else who isn't an active enemy of Western civilization and refuse to answer any questions about what I happen to think about anyone else. For example, I think it was a mistake to answer questions about Jared Taylor no matter how idiotic I might happen to believe his decision to engage with CNN was, just as I think it would be a mistake to weigh in publicly regarding the bitter dispute between Owen Benjamin and Mike Cernovich.* I should have just kept my mouth shut and refused to answer the question.

So, please keep this in mind when you are asking me questions in the future. Don't even bother asking "what do you think about X" if X is a public figure, however petty. The answer to all such questions is: "I probably don't, at all, but in the unlikely event that I do, I'm not going to tell you."

I will, of course, continue to express my opinions of the various enemies of Western civilization, especially those who fraudulently pose as its defenders. By which I mean the likes of Jordan Peterson, Dennis Prager, and Ben Shapiro.

* There isn't any such dispute. I'm making a general point here.

You don't even protect the border

I don't see any reason alien enthusiasts shouldn't storm Area 51. Since the US military doesn't shoot foreign invaders actually invading the country by crossing the border, it isn't going to shoot US citizens exercising their rights to life, liberty, and happiness inside the country either.

With the number of UFO enthusiasts volunteering to raid Area 51 growing uncontrollably amid an avalanche of memes on Twitter, the Pentagon seems to be worried that some might actually show up to try and break ‘them aliens’ free.

The #Area51memes hashtag has gone viral on Twitter, indicating that the majority of the 750,000+ ‘going to’ and 700,000 ‘interested’ in staging a mass raid on the secretive US government base probably understand that the event planned for September 20 is just a joke.

However, the US Air Force apparently took the potential threat to the Nevada base seriously, with spokeswoman Laura McAndrews saying she would like to “discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces.”

Seriously, they should just do it and underline what a complete paper tiger the US military is.

007, converged

It was only a matter of time before James Bond became a gay black woman.

Since Daniel Craig announced he was standing down as James Bond, debate has raged whether the next 007 should be a woman, or black.

Now The Mail on Sunday can reveal that she will be both – thanks to the intervention of feminist TV writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

In what's been called a 'popcorn-dropping moment', British star Lashana Lynch, will be given Bond's licence to kill in the 25th movie in the franchise, currently being shot in Italy and the UK.

They're just teasing it now with replacing the number. But they're obviously hoping they can get away with making the actual substitution once Craig is actually done for good. While they're at it, why don't they really shake things up and give him Downs Syndrome and put him in a wheelchair?

This is a Bond for the modern era who will appeal to a younger generation while sticking true to what we all expect in a Bond film,' the source added. 'There are spectacular chase sequences and fights, and Bond is still Bond but he's having to learn to deal with the world of #MeToo.

I'm guessing it probably won't appeal as much to the younger generations as they think. Perhaps we'll have to start thinking about writing a script for Roland Dane....