Mailvox: SSH utility

A reader finds the socio-sexual hierarchy to be of use:

Thanks for discussing the very real phenomenon of the socio-sexual hierarchy on your blog and Voxiversity. I'd seen it in the wild occasionally but was never been really aware of it until now. Now that I know, I can spot the gamma right off, especially on message boards.

I encountered one yesterday on Voat and realized I was reading a live specimen after his second preachy, nagging, know-it-all, condescending, and really bizarre wall of text. Not worth your time for me to summarize it -- hell, I wasn't even interested -- but I found it fascinating to see how he reacted like an aggrieved porcupine when I said I wasn't going to read his comments any further.

This will be a very useful tool for me.

I find it's a particularly useful tool for the corporate world or anyone who has to run an organization.

Hoist on their own petard

Some US liberals are reconsidering the wisdom of their advocacy of gun control:

My friend’s father owns a gun range near me and she said he’s seen a huge amount of liberals coming in to purchase weapons in recent weeks.

How does he know they’re liberals?

“They’re shocked to discover they can’t just walk out of the store with a gun.”

We’ve all heard about gun sales skyrocketing recently, but I hadn’t considered some of the tangential effects of the phenomenon until I spoke to my friend. Not only are many liberals suddenly learning to love their Second Amendment rights, many of them are finding out that the gun control narrative in this country — as repeated loudly and often by Hollywood and the mainstream media — is a complete lie.

Even the most slavish eventually discover the need to defend themselves.

Correcting the Fake Narrative

The Fake News has been attempting to retroactively establish a fake narrative about President Trump's robust response to Corona-chan:

One of the repeated lies of the anti-Trump media is that the president failed to do what was necessary to prevent the spread of this disease. We are told, by Democrats and the media, that President Trump “wasted” six weeks during which he should have been . . . Well, doing something more than what he did, which was actually quite a lot.

On Jan. 29, Trump announced the formation of his Coronavirus Task Force, headed by HHS Secretary Alex Azar, and including the CDC director Dr. Redfield, who retired from the Army medical service with the rank of colonel, and whose medical specialty is viruses. On Jan. 31, Trump announced a ban on travel from China, which was controversial at the time. The same day Trump announced the ban, Joe Biden, campaigning in Iowa, accused the president of “hysterical xenophobia,” saying Trump was leading with “fearmongering . . . instead of science.”

The claim that Trump is “anti-science” has become part of the media’s narrative about the COVID-19 outbreak. Supposedly, a bias against science explains why the president didn’t do whatever it was that his critics, with the benefit of hindsight, say he should have done. What he actually did, however, was entirely in keeping with what the medical experts would have advised, given the circumstances. With only six known coronavirus cases in the U.S., five of them were people who had just returned from Wuhan, and the sixth was a household member of one of these travelers. So the first thing to do, obviously, was stop the arrival of more infected people from China, where the pandemic began and at the time had just been recognized as a “global emergency” by the WHO.

OK, so what happened next? As of Feb. 26 — nearly a month after Trump had created the coronavirus task force — there were still only 15 known cases of the disease in the United States. It was on Feb. 28 that Case No. 16 was identified in Santa Clara County, California:

At that point — where the 16th case had just been identified — there was not a single known COVID-19 case in New York or New Jersey. The only known case on the East Coast up to that point, was a man who had recently arrived in Boston from Wuhan, China, in late January. At that time, Boston Public Health Commission director Rita Nieves said, “The risk to the general public remains low.” And this continued to be the case throughout February, so that if you want to cherry-pick quotes by President Trump during that time saying that he believed we had the problem under control, and that the Wuhan coronavirus posed no serious risk to Americans, so what? This was the consensus of the medical community at the time.

Let's not forget that when Trump declared the China travel ban nearly a month before the medical community decided that the virus posed a serious risk to Americans, he was castigated for doing this by the very same people who are criticizing him for not having done enough now.

Deglobalization begins

It won't happen overnight, but people are finally beginning to grasp the vital importance of making things in their own nations, with their own people:

Japan has earmarked hundreds of billions of yen of its coronavirus stimulus relief to go toward helping its manufacturing companies move their production plants out of communist China and back to Japan or to other countries.

“The extra budget, compiled to try to offset the devastating effects of the pandemic, includes 220 billion yen (US$2 billion) for companies shifting production back to Japan and 23.5 billion yen for those seeking to move production to other countries, according to details of the plan posted online,” Bloomberg News reported. “That has renewed talk of Japanese firms reducing their reliance on China as a manufacturing base. The government’s panel on future investment last month discussed the need for manufacturing of high-added value products to be shifted back to Japan, and for production of other goods to be diversified across Southeast Asia.”

David Ricardo is finally, at long last, being buried for good.

And what we’ve — what we’re learning from that is that no matter how many treaties you have, no matter how many alliances, no matter how many phone calls, when push comes to shove you run the risk, as a nation, of not having what you need.

You won't want to miss this

Unauthorized meets Unauthorized as the Big Bear hosts The Legend Chuck Dixon on his livestream at 9:30 AM Pacific. I am reliably informed they will be discussing Batman, among other things.

In honor of The Legend's appearance, Arkhaven Comics has published the second episode of Chuck Dixon's Avalon #1 The Street Rules: Temptation. You can read it on your computer or your mobile device.

Whatever happened to "America First"

Well, don't worry. I'm sure the IDF will defend America if the US military is too ravaged by Corona-chan to do so.

The US Department of Defense has reportedly supplied 1 million surgical masks to the Israeli regime in order to be distributed among soldiers, despite the fact that the Pentagon has lately introduced a measure requiring personnel to make their own masks to combat the spread of the new coronavirus.

The Israeli English-language Jerusalem Post reported that the masks were procured from China, and a plane carrying the medical stuff intended for Israeli soldiers landed in Ben Gurion Airport on Tuesday night.

“In the past two weeks, we have purchased and flown to Israel tens of thousands of swabs, masks, protective suits for medical staff and more,” Limor Kolishevsky, head of the New York Purchasing and Logistics Division, said. “A million masks, procured in China, were quickly flown to Israel with the intention that the Israeli military will be using them within the next few days,” he added.

The Jerusalem Post had initially published the article headlined “US Department of Defense give 1 million masks to IDF for coronavirus use,” and this is still visible in the article’s hyperlink on Twitter posts.

The newspaper, however, changed the headline shortly afterwards to read, “Israel brings 1 million masks from China for IDF soldiers,” in a possible attempt at downplaying the role of Washington in spite of shortages in protective equipment, including face masks, in the United States.

Perhaps if the Pentagon paid more attention to its soldiers than engaging in bitching about what Jenny said to Debby about Becky having a cold sore, the USA might stand a chance of surviving... no, it's too late anyhow. Pay attention, though. This is what a corrupted Empire looks like in its last decade.

An Israeli military reporter even published on his Twitter page images of the shipment of masks as they arrived in the occupied lands.

On April 5, American weekly news magazine Newsweek reported that the US military had told its personnel to make their own masks to fight coronavirus. The protocols, titled "Department of Defense Guidance on the Use of Cloth Face Coverings," were included in a document released Sunday by the Pentagon and then seen by the magazine.

Protocols? Can you believe that? I think the obvious takeaway from all of this is the reprehensible antisemitism of the Pentagon. The only meaningful atonement for its deplorable choice of words is for the Joint Chiefs of Staff to promptly apologize and promise to send more money to Israel.

SJW shenanigans at Amazon

Mike Cernovich reports that Amazon has been disappearing his documentary HOAXED from Kindle devices:

Hoaxed Movie has been banned by Amazon. When you try buying Hoaxed on Amazon you get this message:

“Our agreements with the content provider don’t allow purchases of this title at this time.”

That’s spin for Amazon banned the film as Amazon has all rights to sell / distribute it. Others have told me that Amazon has begun removing Hoaxed from the devices of purchasers.

There is an obvious anomaly to be observed here as the film is also being reported as being "too disturbing". What these sorts of anomalies indicate, in my experience, is that it is almost certainly NOT Amazon policy that is responsible here, but rather, an SJW or two in the relevant department abusing his position to effectively ban the film.

We've seen this at least nine different times with Castalia ebooks. It's the sort of thing I describe in Corporate Cancer.

Secret King wins again!

A reader emailed me this amusing proclamation of victory by a collection of Internet gammas:

Marvelous Milestone in the History of the Sub Dedicated to the Misanthropic Midget

My Fellow Gammericans,

I remember it like it was yesterday. That day several months back, when I lead the bloodless coup to overtake r/VoxDay. After taking and holding the high ground at The Battle for Spaghetti Hill, it quickly became apparent that reinforcements would not be arriving to defend Dork Lord's honor.

On that day, this sub had a paltry 84 members. Our ranks have since swelled to 200 Gammas strong- from all across the Flat Realm. Secret Kings all and chomping at the bit to bite some Unauthorized ankles. Indeed, Kings, I promise you ankles aplenty.

Take pride in this day, GSK. Yet, take heed- the war rages on. I beseech you to not rest on the laurels, for the Unauthorized Empire still looms ahead, albeit battered and greatly bruised. We are still called to man the basements battle-ready.

However, on this day we feast on the bones of Alphas chased down with the tears of Sigmas. Celebrate, for you all have earned it. Troll hard or go home, as our Gamma forbear Marv Albert once said.

Faithfully Yours in Gammahood,

Grand Inquisitor Ipse

It's always amusing when people of whom you know absolutely nothing and care even less are convinced that their actions are of supreme interest to you. Projection, I suppose. We're a bit too busy these days to pay attention to how the anklebiters are occupying themselves these days. But, as long as it keeps them happy and they stay on the right side of the law, I suppose it's harmless enough.

It is mildly surprising that Reddit would even permit the continued existence of an r/VoxDay when even the Wikipedia page about me has less information than it did ten years ago.

Experiments

No blogging today since I've been working on some experiments as well as the Replatforming. You can see one of those experiments here, which is the first episode of Chuck Dixon's Avalon, The Street Rules, Episode 1: Straight-up Cash. We're still sorting out how some sort of comics-related subscription can be structured, but it increasingly appears that one will be viable in one form or another. Feel free to share any ideas you have about support tiers, rewards, and so forth if this is something you want us to do.

This is a very different approach to comics, but it is a very sensible one that accomodates the new interface realities. And this happens to be a very opportune time for Arkhaven to aggressively move forward in light of the chaos consuming the establishment comics industry.

I also have some good news for the Castalia Library / Junior Classics crowd. The first Library book is now scheduled to be bound next week. Only the Library, however, not the Libraria, as the goatskins are still stuck in Italy courtesy of Corona-chan.

Bernie Sanders states the obvious

It certainly took the old socialist long enough to concede:

Bernie Sanders ended his presidential campaign, he announced on Wednesday, leaving former Vice President Joe Biden as the apparent Democratic presidential nominee.

"I have concluded that this battle for the Democratic nomination will not be successful, and so today I am announcing the suspension of my campaign," Sanders told supporters in a livestream, saying he wished he could provide supporters with "better news" but "I think you know the truth."

"We are now some 300 delegates behind Vice President Biden and the path to victory is virtually impossible," he said. Sanders called Biden "a very decent man who I will work with to move our progressive ideas forward."

So Creepy Joe will be the sacrificial lamb ritually offered up to the God-Emperor. The Trumpslide will be epic.

Blown cover as cover

Ellen Degeneres "jokes" about being in jail at home:

Ellen has been slammed for being tone deaf after cracking a joke that being home all the time during the coronavirus pandemic was akin to being behind bars.

'This is like being in jail,' Ellen told her fans during Monday's show as she sat in a spacious living room with windows opening onto a large plant-filled yard. 'Mostly because I’ve been wearing the same clothes for 10 days and everyone in here is gay,' she quipped.

An interesting little quip given the rumors about The Storm. And for those who don't understand why the confirmed guilty aren't simply being rounded up and charged, read The Trial of Roger Stone. There is no point in arresting those who will never be charged by corrupt prosecutors, and if charged, will be released by corrupt judges.

We can't possibly know what's actually happening now, but we can observe that at least some potentially related arrests are continuing to take place despite the lockdowns.

An Urbana teacher and cross country coach is now facing child pornography charges. Douglas O. Mynatt, 56 of Savoy, was arrested Friday, April 3. Mynatt is employed as a physical education teacher at Urbana's University High School and is the coach of the girls' cross country program.

I wonder why they're desperate?

The Quartering addresses Patreon's latest thrashing about in a stream entitled "Patreon Is DESPERATE! Sends Ridiculous Tone Deaf Email Begging Creators":

"They make almost zero good points in this, in one of the most tone-deaf articles I've ever read! I can't describe the existence of this other than a desperate and transparent attempt to get creators to reuse their Patreon because, right now, look what's happening. We have millions, three, four, five million people are gonna be on unemployment the next couple of weeks. What do you think is the first thing they're gonna cut?"

THE TRIAL OF ROGER STONE

THE TRIAL OF ROGER STONE by Milo Yiannopoulos.

"Read this book. It's a warning of what can happen when politics infects our justice system."
-- TUCKER CARLSON

“There’s no better guide through the mistrial of Roger Stone than courtroom jester Milo Yiannopoulos. For once, the only thing he leaves naked is the truth.”
-- JACK POSOBIEC

"More than just the trial of Roger Stone, it's the trial of America's basic liberties. An incredible tour de force."
-- ALEX JONES

“The Trial of Roger Stone should be an alarm bell for conservatives. What happened to Mr. Stone happens every day to ordinary Americans. We do not have a rule of law. We do not have fair judges. We have jack-booted thugs kicking down doors with the approval of prosecutors in robes.”
-- MIKE CERNOVICH

“Roger Stone has never sounded so sympathetic and likable. Will he ever forgive Milo for the portrait?”
-- VOX DAY

The Mueller Report was a catastrophe for the malevolent forces desperate to impeach President Donald Trump. It failed to prove any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Since then, many of the President's former advisors and associates have been subjected to vindictive, political prosecutions for a variety of trivial, unrelated offenses. Roger Stone is one of them.

In this moving, eyewitness account of Stone's trial and his decades-long career of political chicanery, author and Stone intimate Milo Yiannopoulos introduces America to the man behind the myth--and explains how the biggest stitch-up in modern judicial history unfolded. He offers a plea to President Trump to step in and do the right thing, and finally, he explains how we can prevent such grotesque injustices from happening ever again.

This book is really good; it is more than a good book, it is an important book that will serve future historians well in understanding the state of the present-day USA. As Milo himself told me, it is one thing to conceptually understand the corruption of the U.S. legal system, it is another to observe that corruption in action, day after day, live and in person. Despite being reasonably well-informed and a confirmed skeptic of the U.S. justice system, until reading this book I had no idea that the trial of Roger Stone was such a charade, to such an extent that the shamelessness of the clowns responsible would have embarrassed the average Communist judge conducting Soviet show trials during the Stalinist era.

EXCERPT: As a former senior editor for Breitbart, a New York Times-bestselling author and an international political celebrity and free speech icon, I’ve heard my share of so-called conspiracy theories. I’ve heard conservatives talk endlessly about double standards and unfair treatment. I’ve listened as Republicans have complained about how they’re regarded versus their Democrat peers. Most of the time, the conservatives are right. Almost all of the things they claim are true! Wait long enough and the things you hear on conservative talk radio generally prove to be pretty much spot-on. These revelations have come thick and fast in the past half-decade, because the Trump presidency has exposed collusion, cronyism and entrenched bureaucracies in the federal government at a scale that has stunned most Americans.

But never in my life have I sat in a courtroom and watched a put-up job unfold before my very eyes, and experienced a chill creeping down my spine as I slowly come to realize the terrifying power of a team of government lawyers determined to take someone down, whether they committed a crime or not, and how the full might of the American jurisprudential system kneels to accommodate them.

In November 2019, Roger Stone was found guilty of one count of obstruction—that is, of lying to Congress during an investigation—five counts of making a false statement to the government, and one count of tampering with a witness. Of all these charges, the last is the most preposterous. But none of them should ever have been brought against him.

THE TRIAL OF ROGER STONE is available in Kindle format on Amazon, in paperback at Castalia Direct, and in EPUB and Kindle format at Arkhaven.

She's onto us!

Somehow, Roseanne Barr figured out the conspiracy behind the Boomer Flu:

Roseanne Barr recently posited a wacky theory that the coronavirus pandemic is an effort to eliminate baby boomers like herself.

"You know what it is, Norm? I think they're just trying to get rid of all my generation," Barr told Macdonald during the Sunday interview on his informal YouTube talk show "Quarantined with Norm Macdonald," in which he calls up his friends to chat. "The boomer ladies that, you know, that inherited their — you know, are widows. They inherited the money so they got to go wherever the money is and figure out a way to get it away from people."

Macdonald seemed to play along with Barr, commenting that "because there's so many boomers that have money and do no work, so if you got them out of society — yeah, that would be a good thriller."

This is a historic moment, though, as it marks the first time that a Baby Boomer has actually contemplated her generational mortality and the possibility of a world without Boomers.

Boris to ICU

The British Prime Minister has been moved into the ICU:

Boris Johnson has been moved to intensive care after his coronavirus condition worsened, Downing Street announced tonight. He is conscious and has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputise for him. Mr Johnson, 55, has been transferred to intensive care as a precaution should he require a ventilator.

Not to be pessimistic here, but it is generally not a good sign when one's consciousness is deemed newsworthy. The more conspiratorial-minded will, I imagine, be tempted to view this as some sort of revenge for Brexit.

UPDATE: Can't say I'm liking Boris's odds particularly well based on recent developments concerning his possible successors. Although I can't imagine the British electorate is particularly impressed by the new Labour Party leader's top priority in light of the current crisis.

1. Dominic Raab is now the UK's de facto prime minister after Boris Johnson was hospitalised, with the running of the country placed in the hands of a man who has just one year of Cabinet experience.... Mr Raab said karate helped him cope with the premature death of his father, Peter, who had fled to the UK from Czechoslovakia at the age of six in 1938 to escape the Nazis. The Foreign Secretary released pictures during his Tory leadership campaign of his Jewish relatives who were murdered in the Holocaust.
2. New Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has apologised to the Jewish community for anti-Semitism in the party and promised to “tear out this poison by its roots”.... Sir Keir, a QC and former Director of Public Prosecutions, had a surprise for the 750-strong audience. Quizzed on whether he considered himself to be a Zionist — a supporter of the existence of the state of Israel — he answered: "I don't know how many people know this (but) my wife's family are Jewish and we have got extended family in Israel."

A 75 percent cut

But Diamond promises this three-quarters reduction in payment to the comics publishers is only temporary:

Below is the outline of vendor payments from Diamond Comic Distributors and Diamond Book Distributors. Beginning this week, the week of April 6th, you will receive 25% of the weekly amount due under your contract term. Each subsequent week, you will receive a 25% payment of that week's balance due. This reduced payment schedule will continue for 6 weeks. With the remaining 75% due in each of those weeks being deferred. Following that 6-week period, we will begin payment of the deferred balance in equal payments over a 13-week period."

And here I was estimating only a 50 percent reduction. I could be wrong, as only IDW publicly reports results, but I don't think any of the primary players can afford to stay in business at that level for long.

We're still contemplating the right way to go about launching an Arkhaven subscription plan. We probably won't do it very soon, but we have been kicking around some intriguing ideas that I suspect will be of great interest to Arkhaven fans. And speaking of Arkhaven, we expect to release this to the Alt-Hero backers before the end of the month, featuring a new team of superheroes known as The Gods of Peaceful Sleep.

But WHICH god?

This defense of Robespierre is fascinating, illustrating as it does that one of the architects of the French Revolution was very different than he is commonly portrayed today. He was certainly much more sound than the average intellectual today on atheists and atheism. But I am not so certain as the author of the article that the god of which he was speaking was necessarily the Christian God.

Robespierre castigated the irreligion that prevailed in the aristocracy and the high clergy, with bishops like Talleyrand openly boasting of lying every Sunday. A gap had widened between the clerical hierarchy and the country priests. Among the latter, many were responsible for drafting the peasants’ cahiers de doléances. The counter-revolutionary bishop Charles de Coucy, of La Rochelle, said in 1797 that the Revolution was “started by the bad priests.” For Robespierre, they were the “good priests” whom the people of the countryside needed.

Robespierre was inflexible against the priests who submitted to the pope by refusing to take an oath on the Civil Constitution (voted July 12, 1790). But he also opposed, until his last breath, any plan to abolish the funds allocated to Catholic worship under the same Civil Constitution. He also opposed, but in vain, the new Republican calendar, with its ten-day week aimed at “suppressing Sunday,” by the admission of its inventor Charles-Gilbert Romme.

Robespierre’s worst enemies were the militant atheists, the Enragés like Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette or Jacques-René Hébert, who unleashed the movement for dechristianization in November 1793, and started closing the churches in Paris or transforming them into “Temples of Reason”, with the slogan “death is an eternal sleep” posted on the gates of cemeteries. Robespierre condemned “those men who have no other merit than that of adorning themselves with an anti-religious zeal,” and who “throw trouble and discord among us” (Club des Jacobins, November 21 1793). In his speech to the National Convention of December 5, 1793, he accused the dechristianizers of acting secretly for the counter-revolution. Indeed, “hostile foreign powers support the dechristianization of France as a policy pushing rural France into conflict with the Republic for religious reasons and thus recruiting armies against the Republic in Vendée and in Belgium.” By exploiting the violence of militant atheist extremists, these foreign powers have two aims: “the first to recruit the Vendée, to alienate the peoples of the French nation and to use philosophy for the destruction of freedom; the second, to disturb public tranquility in the interior, and to distract all minds, when it is necessary to collect them to lay the unshakable foundations of the Revolution.”

Again in his “Report against Philosophism and for the Freedom of Worship” (November 21, 1793), Robespierre again castigated the grotesque cults of Reason instituted in churches by atheist fanatics:

“By what right do they come to disturb the freedom of worship, in the name of freedom, and attack fanaticism with a new fanaticism? By what right do they degenerate the solemn tributes paid to pure truth, in eternal and ridiculous pranks? Why should they be allowed to play with the dignity of the people in this way, and to tie the bells of madness to the very scepter of philosophy?”

Anyhow, it's a very good article that is well worth reading in its entirety.

A ferocity and intensity

This crisis is not primarily one of disease. There is a very good reason why the spiritually sensitive around the world have been reporting an increase in demonic activity worldwide:

“A great heaviness has entered into my priesthood. This time has been the biggest test of my priesthood, and I guess of my life,” said the priest, known for his cheerfulness, work ethic and devotion to Our Lady. “I do think the Evil One is hitting the priests hardest now. His number one tool is his spirit of discouragement. His M.O. is to make it seem like we’re accomplishing nothing as a priest. Why pray? Why sit by the window [for outdoor confessions] when no one comes. Why make another [senseless] video on the need for prayer during COVID-19 when no one watches? It’s like his voice says, ‘You’re worthless now as a priest - you’re detached from your people, and they aren’t praying or paying attention anyway’....

I phoned an exorcist in Washington D.C. I asked if demonic activity had increased since the Eucharist had been held back and many church doors had been locked.

“Exorcists and those gifted individuals with insights into the spiritual realm have seen more intense demonic activity now. There has been a definite uptick,” he said, “Satan’s taken advantage of this crisis to meet his own ends, It seems demons have been given a free hand now.”

I called a layperson active in the deliverance ministry, who wished to remain anonymous.

“The intensity of the suffering has increased. It’s the spirit and voice of condescension that speaks loudly now,” the individual said. “At the same time, the call to prayer is like a tsunami now. I feel like I don’t need to sleep. I just want to pray throughout the night - this seems to be the same experience of the priests I’ve been working with. There is a ferocity and intensity about what they are seeing now in the spiritual realm.”

But there is no need for despair. Is it not conflict that confirms our purpose? The more the face of evil is revealed, the more it underlines the reality, indeed, the absolute necessity, for our faith in Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

It is not those who are devoted to the Good, the Beautiful, and the True who are breaking down and crying on air. It is not those who worship at the Cross who are cracking under the strain. The demons are raging because they, their master, and his human slaves are all being defeated.

WARDOGS INC #2: HUNTER KILLER

WARDOGS INC. #2: HUNTER KILLER is the April Book of the Month. Since it is the second book in the mil-SF series set in the Quantum Mortis universe, we are including the ebook for WARDOGS INC. #1 with all three levels of replatforming. For those who are not Heroes of the Revolution but would like a paperback edition, all three WARDOGS INC. novels are now available at Castalia Direct. As, for that matter, is QUANTUM MORTIS: A MAN DISRUPTED.

An excerpt from HUNTER KILLER, in which Tommy Falkland and his fellow mercenaries consider the pros and cons of a contract they have been offered by their employer, Wardogs Incorporated.

Jones sipped at a mug of hard coffee as Ward bit his nails.

“It’s good money,” I said, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, but is it too good?” Ward said. After Ulixis, we were all feeling suspicious of anything that looked too easy to be true. Then Captain Marks walked in.

“Looks like the answer is here,” Zelag said as we stood in unison.

“At ease, gentlemen,” the captain said. “Sit down and I’ll fill you in. Three of you were chosen for your excellent performance on Ulixis, and Zelag, I guess they picked you because someone in accounting has a fetish for missing limbs.”

We laughed, then Marks put up a hand to silence us.

“Now,” the Captain continued, “here’s the mission. The Datacon-Verlaag GmbH corporation had a bit of an issue at their Feymanus branch yesterday, so the local CEO of operations needs some bodyguards until things blow over.”

“A bit of an issue, sir?” Ward asked.

“See for yourself,” Marks said, engaging the viewscreen behind him with a motion of his hand. On it appeared a high-resolution security camera image of a stretch of cafes and markets. A small booth with trays of what looked like olives was front and center, an older man sitting behind it in an antigrav chair. Up walked a guy in a suit, sipping a drink through a straw.

“That’s the victim,” Marks said. “Albert Fast.”

The man looked to the side as a woman came up to the booth beside him. He was maybe in his 40s, clean-shaven with good hair. His suit looked tailored. The old man offered both him and the woman a sample of the olives. He accepted, the woman declined. Then the woman reached in her purse as if she were going to pay for something, but instead produced a small cylinder and stabbed it into the victim’s side.

“Stunpen,” Zelag muttered.

The man moved back as if confused by the woman’s actions, then put his arms up as she stabbed him at him again and again, finally landing a clean injection. The guy went down, pulling at the edge of the tablecloth and falling in a mess of upended olive trays. Then the woman made some strange hand movements towards the heavens. It looked like she was trying to make shadow puppets. A second later, she ran out of frame.

The old guy jumped up and looked over the counter, yelling for help. The guy in the suit was motionless. The screen went blank and Marks spoke.

“There’s our incident,” he said. “She stabbed him with a stunpen loaded with cyanide, then made her little hand movement and ran off.”

“They catch her?” Ward asked.

“Yes,” said the captain. “She’s a Chrysalan. Some call them the Sky People.”

“What the hell?” Jones said.

“It’s a cult,” Zelag said. “They believe people are like caterpillars, waiting to enter their cocoons, after which they come out as butterflies full of heavenly energy. It’s supposed to be based on an ancient illustrated manuscript published on Old Earth.”

“You’ve got the gist of it,” said Captain Marks, surprised.

“So why did she kill the guy?” I asked.

“A minor miscalculation on his part,” Marks said. “He was the marketing director who oversaw their latest ad campaign. It featured Mount Xirtis, contained various testimonials to the company’s high level of data security, then the tagline ‘come to the mountain.’”

We listened, confused. Marks saw our looks and tried to explain. “It’s a metaphor, you see.”

“So these caterpillar people hate metaphors?” Ward said, puzzled.

“Or they hate skiing?” Jones volunteered.

“Skiing is actually prohibited on Mount Xirtis,” Marks said. “Along with every other sporting activity. Because it’s considered to be a ‘holy mountain.’” He made quotation marks with his fingers when he said it.

“To the Chrysalans,” I mused.

“Bingo,” Marks said. “The marketing department basically claimed their data protection company was on par with the sacred mountain of the gods. The temple of the sky is at the base of the mountain and there is a massive pilgrimage that travels up the mountain once a year.”

“Oh yeah,” Zelag said. “I watched a documentary. The really serious ones go without oxygen all the way to the top.”

“Sure you’re not one of them, Zelag?” Ward said.

Zelag shook his head. “I hate bugs. And mountain climbing.”

“So that woman killed the head of marketing because of some stupid advertising?” Jones said.

“That’s not the first time,” Zelag said. “A few years back they threw acid in the face of a pop singer for recording a song called ‘Like a Butterfly.’”

“Geez,” Jones said. “That’s pretty hard core.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Ward said. “That assassin did a lousy job of it. She didn’t even get a good stab on him the first time. He could have just pushed her away if he’d known it was coming.”

“Amateur hour,” Marks agreed. “Nevertheless, DVG is concerned about the safety of their local CEO on Feymanus, a gentleman by the name of Brixton Heiermach. They have contracted with WDI to keep him safe. As you know, there are few things that put the righteous fear of God into evil-minded folks like a team of Wardogs bodyguards.”

“How long does he need hand-holding?” I asked. It looked like a pretty damn easy job to me.

“Good question,” Marks replied. “It could take a while, but DVG is actively working on damage control already. Heiermach plans to offer a sincere corporate apology to the Chrysalans, as well as pledge funds to refurbish the ancient temple at the base of the mountain. Still—the longer it takes, the more money you make. Glorified babysitting.”

“Wait a minute,” Jones said. “The CEO is going to apologize to these caterpillar cultists after they murdered his marketing director?”

Marks shrugged. “Apparently an angry mob has also scrawled pictures of butterflies on multiple DVG office buildings and spent three days beating drums, chanting, and pissing sacred streams of their holy urine on the steps to claim the infidel’s earthly property for the sky.”

“Judeo-Christ,” I muttered.

“Can we nuke them?” Jones asked.

I thought Marks’ mouth almost twitched towards a grin at the suggestion, but I might have been wrong. He was good at being serious. “No,” Marks said. “We’re not launching a crusade against these people, we’re just protecting a businessman. Unlike you bastards, DVG has to deal with the public on a regular basis. It’s an old and well-respected religion on the planet, and they have some highly connected members on Feymanus. And their extremists have been implicated in just enough acts of terror that no one wants to set them off unnecessarily.”

“And so we play bodyguard to Mr. Heiermach,” Jones said. “No big deal. Crazy chicks with stunpens don’t keep me awake at night.”

Marks nodded. “Tommy, you’ll be in charge this time out. Think you can handle it?”

“Yessir,” I said. “Though I’m not as qualified as Sergeant Hanley.”

“He’s on leave. And this is cake—the experience will be good for you. You did well on Ulixis and I think you have a bright future.”

“Who’s my boss on Feymanus?” I asked.

“Captain Elrich Williams. System VP. He’s a busy man so don’t waste his time if you don’t have to. We’ll be able to supply you in New Patras from a branch office. Check in when you get there and we’ll make sure you have everything you need.”

He stood and opened the door. “Now go sign your docs in HR. You leave within the hour.”

Bill Gates did not vaccinate his children

In case you're not absolutely certain about a) the evil of the global elite or b) the evil of mass vaccination campaigns, you should note that the world's foremost champion of forced vaccination reportedly DID NOT VACCINATE his own children:

Bill Gates refused to allow his own children to be vaccinated.

This admission came from the Gates family’s personal physician in Seattle, who was speaking behind closed doors with other doctors at a symposium last year (someone at the conference leaked the conversation, so the doctor himself technically did not violate doctor-patient confidentiality rules).

The doctor reportedly told his colleagues, “I don’t know if he (Gates) had them vaccinated as adults, but I can tell you he point blank refused to vaccinate them as children.”

Some vaccines are effective in some situations. But there is no question that the forced vaccination schedule that the Prometheans are attempting to impose on humanity is dangerous and detrimental to children.

If the media was even remotely honest, or relevant, it would demand proof that Bill Gates had his own children vaccinated according to the current Washington state schedule. Of course, we all know it won't.

NFL should start on time

The President expects the NFL season to begin as scheduled:

The President conducted a conference call with sports commissioners on Saturday, and as to one sport in particular he expressed an opinion.

Via ESPN.com, Donald Trump said that he believes the NFL’s regular season should begin on time in September. Trump also added that he hopes to have fans in stadiums and arenas by August and September.

The question you should be asking yourself in response to this is not "doesn't the President understand epidemiology?", but "what does the President know about the situation that you do not?"

Let's face it, he's already gone two-for-two in the face of the media narrative, first with regards to flights from China and second about the efficacity of Hydroxychloroquine against the coronavirus. I'd be willing to bet he'll go three-for-three contra the establishment media narrative concerning sex-trafficking once that news finally breaks.

At this point, only a wilfully-ignorant fool bets against the God-Emperor.