70 Years Ago Today

On June 8, 1949, a visionary science fiction novel was first made available for sale. Now, 7 decades later, our society is finally making that futuristic vision a reality.

Sadly, the book in question is not one of these.

Alas...



Indeed, modern technology has gone one better, allowing today's TruthyMinistries to edit or delete books that citizens already possess. This is just another example of where humanity has exceeded what was even conceived of by our forbears. 

Welcome to the future boys and girls. The world being created is more than just new, so you'd better be brave.

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And Now a Word From Our Sponsors

Actually, they aren't our sponsors.
They're probably not your sponsors either.
If you want your own sponsors, you should get a SubscribeStar account.

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Oh. Well. That Was Embarassing.

In lieu on an explanation, here is a cute wood elf drawn by Houtengeki.

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Yesterday's Future TODAY!

Way back in 1994 KSS released an OAV* series called MIGHTY SPACE MINERS. Because the world is suffering, it was cancelled after 2 episodes. I picked up a VHS** copy when it came out, largely because the character designs were, even in 1994 kind of retro looking. 

However, it impressed me at the time as a remarkably hard sci-fi kids show. Despite a few minor inaccuracies like INhaling rather than EXhaling when anticipating depressurization and a kid so annoying and self absorbed he'd realistically have been thrown out an airlock the shows "hardness" rating is arguably higher than even The Expanse. I particularly like that the hardscrabble  asteroid miners don't live in some nightmare man-camp like Outland, but in a very pleasant Stanford Torus built into their asteroid, and the fact that the kids space helmets are the equivalent to a modern day smartphone/personal assistant and pet...because in their culture, a child's earliest lesson is that one must never be without one's helmet. 

Because space will KILL YOU!
Dead.
They don't shy away from that. This show is like a Heinlein juvie. 

A DVD was eventually released but it's long out of print. Used copies can be purchased on Amazon for $103 US. I've been looking for this thing for years and was surprised to find it complete and dubbed on You Tube. The fact that it...ends... is really annoying, but, pig-headed kids show protagonist notwithstanding, it's a damned good 55 minutes until it leaves you hanging. 

* <sup>Original Video Animation. Shows of odd length or of lower quality than films but higher quality than TV  were once released on tape or disc and rented or sold from "video stores". 

**Video Home System an audiovisual storage medium reminiscent of an audio cassette...wait...you've never heard of that either... OK, it's similar in principle to a DVD or Blue Ray or a gaming cartridge(?)... Um... Anyway it uses ferromagnetic material coating plastic tape as a data storage medium that is magnetically programmed and/or read as it is mechanically indexed via two spools in a manner similar to Egyptian scrolls....uh..you had to play the tape end to end to access the AV data and you'd get charged a fine if you didn't rewind them when you returned them to the video store...
Forget it. It was a different world.</sup>

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And Then There's This...

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75 Years

So much blood spilled to secure liberty. Let it not be in vain.

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A Non-Comprehensive List of Those Involved in in the Great Bit-Chute Advertising Campaign

Explanation here.

My Bitchute referral page is here.

List nicked from here.

Banned:

 

YouKipper

The Great Order

Varg

Cultured Thug

Xurious

Mr Allsop History

Patrick Slattery

 

Demonetised:

 

Sandman

The Red Elephants

Know More News

Andy Warski

Deep Fat Fried Podcast

Martin Sellner

James Allsup

Steven Crowder

Red Ice TV

SinatraSays

Jesse Lee Peterson

Iconoclast

Tailed Feature

Ford Fischer

Dan Dicks

Revenge Of The Cis

 

Videos Deleted:

 

E;R

American Renaissance

Ryan Dawson

E Michael Jones

The Higherside Chats

Bre Faucheux

Owen Benjamin

Count Dankula

Angelo John Gage

Gavin McInnes

Milo

Red Ice TV

Black Pigeon Speaks

Drunken Peasants

Press For Truth

J.F Gariepy

You might notice that some of these people are complete assholes. If so, congratulations, you lack not in perception. If you think that it matters, then I fear you are in want of wisdom.

You'd think that it would have been Bitchute rather than a gunblogger who would have done this video explaing how Bitchute is structurally less likely to go all Ministry of Truth on us, but hey, decentralization helps fill in those gaps.

Bitchute's search function is clunky, but has improved greatly since I've been a member and the super-chat-esque function is a little non-intuitive. It's brand new and much of its clunkieness is due to being a decentralized, platform. However, recent events are convincing me that the decentralization is worth it.

This concludes our free advertising for this evening.

Good Night and Good Luck!

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Perspective

My friend Bob!1!has been mentioned here before. Several readers know who he is. Well, he is in the hospital. He's been deteriorating for some time. It was initially thought that he had a blood clot, then there was an assumption that he had a lymph infection. Now that he's paralyzed from the waste down it turns out to be due to an auto-immune issue.

However, he's in the hospital now and his condition has been arrested. He seems to be regaining some use of his feet. His treatment is ongoing and everyone is hopeful, though the prognosis is unclear.

I've been over there a bit trying to help out with his comic shop (not as much as I'd like, I live nearly an hour away). Those of you who know Bob!1!, he's Catholic, so thoughts and prayers would not be unappreciated.

He's got a huge hill to climb.

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A Less Than Comprehensive Selection of First World Problems...

...lurk below the fold.
For those disinterested in an old fat guy's first world problems here's the exact opposite; a cute girl, walking home from school, carefree in Penang.

.

Anyway: While going through the hurricane box and checking for dates, I noticed that there was DAK ham with an expiration date of 2008. If I've learned anything from wasting time on the internet, it's that expiration dates are meaningless so I figured I'd have it for lunc..... more...

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This Day in History

It's been 30 years .

1989 was an odd year, The U.S.S.R., weakened by its own internal contradictions and with its rot exposed by the Chernobyl disaster of three years prior was undergoing seismic upheavals. There was crazy talk in the west; that the cold War might end without a fight, let alone Armageddon. The faint breeze of hope, long forbidden to those on the other side of the iron curtain was beginning to blow throughout the communist world. Every day, it seemed the news was reporting on how Glasnost was spinning out of control, but in a good way. It's hard to describe the awe, the cautious hope and the elation that 1989 brought us. By the end of the year the Berlin Wall would be rubble, Ceaușescu would be dead and the countries of Eastern Europe would throw off their shackles and begin the long and halting process of rebuilding.

However, in June of that year, the largest of the protests, failed.

In China, one of the largest public spaces in the world was filled with students, packed in like sardines. Emboldened by those heady days when whispers of freedom were spreading like wildfire throughout the communist world, they gathered in Tienanmen Square  to call for reform and civil rights as their ancestors had in 1919 and 1976. For days they marched, they sang, they engaged in hunger strikes. Chinese students around the world joined in. They were overjoyed, and confident. They were going to be free!

And then. It ended. The Chinese Communist Party decided that this could not stand. After a few facsimiles of parlaying, they assessed the situation and came to the conclusion that no negotiation or concessions were necessary.  A billion people is a formidable entity. A billion minds, going in a billion different directions., a billion perspectives, a billion voices, a billion ideas, a billion hopes, a billion dreams, such human capital can create wealth and wonders. However, from the perspective of a leftist, or really any totalitarian, they are cats that must be herded, contradictory views that must be countered, potential disloyalty and a potential threat. The Army was loyal, and with that, even a billion a billion people, if they have been disarmed, are, ultimately little more than a target rich environment.

The CCP decided that thousands in the Square, would no longer be an inspiration, but an example.

The APCs came in that night and were gone by morning, having been routed by thousands with bamboo sticks. 

And so in came the tanks.

...and for a glorious and wondrous moment there was hope.



No one will ever know his name, nor the names of the tank crew who did not follow unlawful orders. But between them these 5 long dead men gave us all a lesson in courage.

It was a brief respite.

Shortly thereafter, less reflective tankers were brought in. The total death toll is unknown but exceeded 10,000. The protestors were shot and bayoneted as they begged for help, then tank treads ground up everyone in the square, living and dead into  a mass of long-pork chitterlings that was hosed into the sewers.  

And so ended the act of defiance.

It has been 30 years.

Obviously things have  changed in that time.
Today we manufacture all our stuff over there to take advantage of slave wages, they have huge influence in our media and the IT technology we've given them makes the CCP's job much easier.
So yeah...progress.

That government is still in place. They are just as ruthless.

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So...The Babylon Bee Has Had to Issue a Retraction...

It is here.

I'd heard something about this, but I'd thought people were just being snarky.

No.

Snopes actually Fact-Checked the Babylon Bee.

The world is mad.

_{RETRACTION:
In light of the above noted recent events and the silly post below, let me clarify that it is this blogs position that Canada is to the north of the U.S,, Mecico is to its south and Indonesia is exactly where it should be. We apologize to any elementary school children who may have been misled and suffered a drop in class ranking as a result of our irresponsible blogifcications.}

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I Don't Think That's How Geography Works

This headline is not one I would have expected....

The first large group of 116 migrants from AFRICA are caught on video wading across the Rio Grande to illegally enter the U.S.

...'cause I was under the impression that the place on the other side of the Rio Grande was not Africa. Due to my apparent geographical retardation, I was under the impression that if one crossed the Rio Grande from this direction (and I'm on the East Coast) one would be standing in Old Mexico, New Mexico, or Colorado.

None of those places are Africa.

However,

A group of illegals from Angola, Cameroon and Congo waded across the Rio Grande River and into the United States, video from Customs and Border Protection shows.

 Angola, Cameroon and Congo ARE in Africa!

So we border...Africa?
Good grief. If I could be wrong about this...maybe that girl was right and Mt. Fuji IS in Canada.

And if THAT's wrong, WHERE'S CANADA!?



Oh. So Where's Indonesia, Papua and Timor Leste?

Oh forget it.

I obviously can't geography.

Pixy. The next time you take the ferry over to Mt. Fuji, can you pick up one of those Miia Dakimakuras?  (asking for a friend)

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A Bleg For Perspective

Twitter, which is banned in China, has suspended a bunch of Chinese dissidents, apparently because the anniversary of Tiananmen Square Protests is coming up.

Again, Twitter is BANNED in the PRC, meaning they are doing this not for some callous reason that might be justified from a purely fiduciary perspective.

Sooo...why would they do this?

I'm genuinely confused. all I can come up with is these...

A: Censorious evil is in their nature, they just can't help themselves.
B: They are fanboys of totalitarianism, and want to show solidarity with anyone who oppresses the plebs.
C: China is so deeply embedded in Western academia as well as media in general and holds particular influence over America's tech weasels that they can influence decisions even when they are nominally against interest.
D: Twitter is attempting to get un-banned in China and is doing this to show that they can boot-lick with the best of Quislings.

And as I look over these possibilities, I note that they either someone operating on the emotional level of a high-school mean-girl, or the shallow, mustache-twirling motivations of a cartoon supervillain.

This bothers me. Even taking into account the obvious snark, the list begins to look like the paranoid rantings of a Bircher.

IN GENERAL, in the political realm, when people advocate for stupid/evil stuff, it's not because their worldview is that of Snidely Whiplash. There's often a flawed rationale, or some logic, based, perhaps in a different worldview. For instance, censors on the left and right wish to ban things that they feel are detrimental to society. This is a deeply flawed motivation because it's an instance where the "slippery slope" is not a fallacy (ie: where do you draw the line?) but there is, at least, an internal logic to this argument, that, while horribly flawed, is at least theoretically well intentioned.

I can't see a flawed but well intentioned argument here. I can see NO REASON, business or otherwise, that Twitter would do this at least not one that's isn't some variation of the uncharitable takes listed.

Either:
1: I'm missing something, or...
2: this happened because one or more selections from A through D is true.

I'm a Z-list blogger so 1 is on no great importance to anyone and is potentially correctable with more information.

2 however, is truly scary.

Absent some very unlikely new information* I'm going to stick by my initial assessment that this action is bad and wrong and actually evil.

However, I'm very interested to see if anyone can come up with a motivation for this action that could be reasonably defended as stupid but well-meaning.

If you have such suggestions, share them in the comments please.



_{*As an example of what might change my mind, if it turned out that all those accounts banned were actually being operated by Schaver's Detrimental Robots as part of a plan to enslave humanity by broadcasting their Ray Machine directly through computer monitors, well, then, it might be defensible. But that is...rather unlikely to be the case.}

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A Little Story That's Getting Little Coverage That's About Little Things

This is a little troubling as the little things are nuclear warheads.

Little ones.

Russia has likely been secretly carrying out nuclear tests with very low explosive power to help it upgrade its nuclear arsenal, according to a new U.S. intelligence assessment that challenges Moscow’s claims that it is faithfully adhering to an international treaty banning nuclear tests.

There's more here, here and here as well as a little skepticism expressed here.

While a little worrying, it is also an excellent opportunity to post video of a little nuke, in this case 1 kiloton, which is a little big for a little thing.

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They're on the March.

Be Afraid.

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Some Unsolicited Advice

I'm not a Catholic, but let me just suggest that the Holy See should not hire Baptists as architects for their repair work.



Come ON people.

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A Fish Out of Water Has Not so Much Escaped His Problems as Found New and More Challenging Ones

Rising of the Shield Hero is approaching its 21st episode and frankly deserves more than the laconic mentions this blog has given it thus far. It is a show that has generated quite a bit of "talk" because its story tends to go down the less traveled paths of its genre.

This is a isekai show, a genre that generally involves a social outcast getting yanked/summoned/reincarnated/teleported/excreted into another world which just happens to have remarkable similarities to a video game, role playing game, or light novel series that the introverted, maladroit audience insert had obsessed with to the detriment of their standing in polite society. With a few exceptions, these shows generally have the protagonist come to an insight along the lines of , "All those years of playing D&D have prepared me for this very moment!". This epiphany is usually followed by 13 to 26 episodes of geek wish fulfillment as all the important people (and especially the attractive members of the opposite sex) in the new world learn to respect, adore or fear (but NEVER ignore) this now most consequential of human beings who has been groomed by years of geekery and avoidance of obligations to be the hero the world needs and wants to have children with.



Aaaand then there is Iwatani Naofumi,  a reasonably well adjusted graduate student who has some geeky habits among his hobbies. However, he's not a hard core gamer, and most significantly for his well being hasn't played a particular multiplayer game about 4 legendary heroes.  When he notices an anomalous leather-bound parchment-paged antique-looking book among the light novels in the library, he opens it and gets bamfed into a summoning circle with 3 other Japanese men of about his age Each of them has attached to them a weapon, Spear, Sword, Bow....and OK Naofumi has not a weapon but a shield.


They are surrounded by a bunch of wizards and priest types who provide exposition.



They are told that they are the 4 legendary heroes who have been summoned from other worlds to deal with "The Wave", a demonic incursion into this high fantasy D&D type world.
Some years prior, (I think about a decade, its not entirely clear) the four legendary heroes of that age were summoned and successfully kept this monster spewing phenomenon at bay, though over half the population of the world is believed to have died. Once these things start, they come about once a month and each one is exponentially stronger than the last. The first wave, was barely defeated (with heavy losses) by the kingdom's regular forces and some adventurers a few days prior to this summoning.

Now the other three fellows are all expert players in an online video-game that is essentially identical to this world.  Nayofumi has no idea what he's doing, furthermore in a brief cram session with the other three, he learns that while shield characters are marginally harder to kill in the game, they are basically useless as they can't use weapons and can't easily level up. The shield is almost never played except by children.

Still our hero understands the basics of video game RPGs, is reasonably genre savvy, and, after all, has been summoned to a magical realm to do hero stuff, so he's handling this reasonably well.



The four are granted an audience before the king, who asks something along the lines of "Why did you waste spell points on summoning a shield guy?"


It's then explained to our heroes that they must go on adventures to level up and hone their skills. They are all basically level 0 and the next wave is arriving in a month. Also, it is noted they need to train separately from one another because...



...reasons. 

They are expected to have retinues and all the local adventurers are allowed to join up with the 'Legendary Hero^tm' of their choice. This is especially important for the shield hero as he can't wield weapons, and the shield has no offensive capabilities until the wielder is at a much higher level.


No one picks Naofumi, because shield heroes are like the nerds of Middle Earth and well no one wants to be associated with him.

However,  one comely redhead named Malty has a change of heart at the last minute and  the two of them set off to have a glorious and fun adventure!



As clever readers will have guessed from the presence of the spoiler tag, things go sideways quickly, but not in any way I expected. After helping him amass a respectable amount of loot and equipment, Malty, falsely accuses him of rape, steals all of his kit that is not magically bound to him, (save his pants and tunic) and...in a completely bizarre twist, when he's brought to the castle she turns out to be the princess*.



The other heroes have no reason to believe him, and due process is hard to come by in totalitarian societies,  absolute monarchies, or when you're accused by a redhead associated with an anime.
 
The only reason he isn't executed on the spot is because its absolutely forbidden for the state to kill a legendary hero... he is, however rendered a pariah, and if he dies of starvation or at the hands of brigands no sin will have been committed.

There are a few things that Nayofumi's shield will do that allow him to slowly level up, mostly involving crafting healing potions. However, he is physically unable to even touch a weapon. In order to level up he must quest and gather ingredients, and if attacked, he can only bash things with the shield. Furthermore, crafting and deflecting blows give very little in the way of "experience points". Even slaying a relatively harmless beast like a carnivorous pumpkin (don't ask) grants a vast improvement in the speed he can level up. So he's in the pumpkin bashing business.

No one will help openly help him,  few will even do business with him. The only exceptions to this are people who pose as being interested in joining his party, only to attempt to murder and rob him.

After a series of reversals that would try the sanity of anyone, Nayofumi, on his last legs and desperate, bumps into a very sketchy and incongruously dressed merchant.





more...

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Do Take a Moment To Remember The Reason So Many of Us Are Off Today

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It's Just Like Chocolate and Peanut Butter...But in a Bad Way

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Dis-topia or Dat-topia?

A very brief video from Bloomberg on the most disturbing aspect of the current Chinese payment system.



Now, being Bloomberg reporting on a tech issue, they are completely and utterly wrong. However, in an unusual twist, their facts seem to be correct. It's their analysis that's 180 degrees off course.

The most terrifying thing about the basically cashless society in China is (contra Bloomberg) not that the banks are being cut out of their lucrative middle-man fees. It's that every transaction shows up in your social credit score and if Tencent is told by the government that you don't need your money, well, then you starve.

Of course, being Bloomberg, they miss the schadenfreude of companies that have behaved like like Mastercard loosing their middleman privileges. 

Also, I don't think there's any reason for this to be of terrible concern for the Big Banks in the U.S.. I think they're going to loose some market share to companies processing their own payments, but the banks already have e-payment infrastructure in place and many of their ricebowls are protected by S.E.C. regulation.

I do wonder if even a very decentralized system would really help bypass the worst of this social credit system. I'm skeptical. Even today in the U.S. there are scary stories. The attempted defenestration of Subscribe Star late last year has already been noted here, and the system is fairly decentralized now in theory. In practice, the payment processors go to the same parties and hate the same people (us).

Perhaps the best near term solution is the opposite of the bitcoin utopians propose. Make it illegal to refuse actual cash that is a countries legal tender if offered in lieu of a card or ap. This wouldn't work for online payments, but it would at least allow people a chance to eat.

I just don't know.

Does anyone actual IT knowledge have any suggestions?

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