October 23, 2020
A MESSAGE FOR CERTAIN VERY CREDENTIALED PEOPLE WHO HAVE THOUGHTFULLY CHOSEN TO GRACE US WITH THEIR THOUGHTS ON LAST NIGHT'S DEBATE.
PIC VIA.
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October 21, 2020
C'est la Tempête Qui Arrive.
As part of our ongoing policy of attempting to appear big brained and sophisticated, we at Brickmuppet Blog are going to evaluate the results of having the post title in French, which none of us actually speak.
more...
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October 18, 2020
Incoming Storm?
It may not seem like it, but Brickmuppet Blog does generally try to put the political posts below the fold. There are, of course some exceptions to this in an election year, and in general things like the Chinese Social Credit System or clear and present threats to free speech may not be fastidiously placed below, but we do try to not get struggle sessions in your fluff.
Of course in current year, when everything is crazy and political the policy just not always tenable.
However.....
more...
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October 15, 2020
Why the Uproar?
In the comments to the post before last, a question was asked that about the recent story regarding Biden's E-Mails. It's a question I've seen asked rather a LOT.
What I really don't get is why everyone is freaking out about this. Everyone has KNOWN this.
C: This story is troubling even to those not on the right, and confirms that what we on the right have been saying about media bias for 35 years is true and actually more scary than even we imagined.
Indeed the story is not new, and was reasonably well sourced. But there are solid reasons that this story is causing so much distress on both sides of the aisle right now.
A: The left has been denying the story about VP Biden extorting Ukrania on behalf of his son... but the New York Post article appears to be a smoking gun that not only refutes the denials, but indicates that Biden specifically, and deliberately lied before Congress when questioned about the matter.
B: However, the big reason that this "news" is NEWS is the reaction of Facebook, Twitter and other venues outright banning the story. This is the most blatant and widespread 'Ministry of Truth' crap we've ever seen in the U.S. The media are killing a story that exposes a politician they support. They are cancelling the social-media-accounts (ability to be heard) of anyone who dares LINK to the story on their platforms, and the New York Post's presence on popular social media sites has ended...presumably until they retract. So the Patricians of PaloAlto have their own 50 cent army, the implications of which are terrifying. Note too that Twitter even shut down the president's campaign Twitter feed, an action which is, in effect, a huge-in-kind contribution to the Biden campaign.
B: However, the big reason that this "news" is NEWS is the reaction of Facebook, Twitter and other venues outright banning the story. This is the most blatant and widespread 'Ministry of Truth' crap we've ever seen in the U.S. The media are killing a story that exposes a politician they support. They are cancelling the social-media-accounts (ability to be heard) of anyone who dares LINK to the story on their platforms, and the New York Post's presence on popular social media sites has ended...presumably until they retract. So the Patricians of PaloAlto have their own 50 cent army, the implications of which are terrifying. Note too that Twitter even shut down the president's campaign Twitter feed, an action which is, in effect, a huge-in-kind contribution to the Biden campaign.
C: This story is troubling even to those not on the right, and confirms that what we on the right have been saying about media bias for 35 years is true and actually more scary than even we imagined.
D: Those pictures of Hunter in the tub with the crackpipe, while pathetic, are priceless.
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October 12, 2020
Blasphemer !
I was going to write something on this story, but Pixy found a video that sums up this dumpsterfire nicely.
Makes a not entirely applicable but still non-terrible intro to the previous post.
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It's Good to Learn the Mistakes of Others. It's Better Yet to Not Repeat Their Mistakes
Pete Zaitcev linked to this piece by Hillel Ofek in The New Atlantis that looks at why Islamic countries tend to have such a dearth of scientific achievement today, despite having been the undisputed world leaders in the sciences early on.
The article is well researched and informative. While my history degree did not have islamic society in particular as its main focus, this article certainly comports with what I have researched regarding the matter, and clarifies a few specifics regarding the ascendancy of a particular strain (denomination?) of Sunni thought that is generally considered to be the culprit, but as the article proposes, may well have simply accelerated existing trends within the civilization.
Honest critiques of "The Religion of Peace" are hard to come by in this day and age as they tend to be either the "woke" apologia frequently produced by todays very PC academia or the product of independent researchers who in response to that Islamophillic dynamic....overcompensate to say the least. It's a good article and I suggest you read it in full. Given today's publishing climate and academic realities I'd go so far as to call it brave.
However, the greatest relevance of the article to us today may not be what it says about another society's past, but the implied warnings it holds for our future.
While it is commonplace to assume that the scientific revolution and the progress of technology were inevitable, in fact, the West is the single sustained success story out of many civilizations with periods of scientific flourishing. Like the Muslims, the ancient Chinese and Indian civilizations, both of which were at one time far more advanced than the West, did not produce the scientific revolution.
Humans have been humaning for as much as 300,000 years over those 30 millennia there have been flashes of brilliance and periods of innovation that gave us math geometry and the ability to do engineering feats build aqueducts to bring water 56 miles from Subbiaco to the Capitoline hill and many other innovations that are not to be sneezed at, but the massive cascading tsunami of knowledge building upon itself without regard to where new knowledge came from as long as it was testable, that we've enjoyed since the renaissance and enlightenment....well that's sort of thing has started a couple of places, but such golden ages always petered out after a decade or two, or were strangled in the crib by entrenched interests (as in China and Rome)...except for the two closely linked phenomenae of the Renaissance and Enlightenment begetting the industrial revolution. These bizarre bank shots involving a series of very specific, political, cultural, and religious conditions allowed for something that had not occurred in humanity over its many endeavors over a third of a million years. Using Thomas Newcomb as a completely arbitrary start for the industrial age, we've been in this happy state for about 300 years.
That's a thousandth of the time we know that humanity has walked the earth (and we can be reasonably sure the earliest known remains were not the earliest people). So, going into the past of humanity and picking any one year there is a one in a thousand chance that one will land in a world ruled by tyranny, oppression, superstition, backwardness, malthusian cycles of despair looming over lives brutish and short with little or no hope of it ever getting better. That's the norm....the median state of humanity...the direction in which history bends.
The idea that history and the universe inevitably bends towards progress is a product of 300 years of everything getting better every year. Between 1803 and 1903 we had gone from near feudal agrarian societies of subsistence farmers, to cars, electricity, and airplanes. 66 years later there were human footprints on the moon, shortly after that we were sending rock-&-roll, bagpipe music and porn to the STARS! It is easy to see how, given the short lifespans of humans, some saw this as an inevitable trend, but it is a divergence from the mean that represents only 1/1000th of humanities existence.
Western civilization, and those others that have used its insights to rekindle and build upon their own lost glories are not examples of the arc of history inevitably bending towards progress, they are an example of a middle finger raised against the very norms of the universe. Our societies are like a kayaker fighting heroically against the flow of a maelstrom threatening to drag us down to the foetid depths that humanity will reach by regressing to its mean.
And we've stopped paddling.
Returning to Ofek's article, look what was happening in Islamic universities at about the time that Europe was beginning to leapfrog Islamic civilization.
No one paid much attention to the work of Averroës after he was driven out of Spain to Morocco, for instance — that is, until Europeans rediscovered his work.
Sounds like Averroës got cancelled.
The things that made this wondrous aberration in which we live possible are under attack from multiple quarters. The so-called cancel culture used by the cultural enforcers of "wokeness" is becoming every bit as pernicious and stifling as the ash'erite courts in stifling anything outside the accepted norms. One of the reasons that Ofek points to the Ash'erite school for Islam's fall is the inability of the Islamic leadership to reconcile reason and faith, impericism and theology. Christianity explicitly allows for "rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's" in fact Christ himself (not a prophet or apostle) implored people to do so. There is a very distinct understanding in Christianity, that there is a separation between the secular and the sacred. (The cultural basis for the church /state separation so important to our progress). Sunni theology sees this as another example of how Christians are weak, and that Christianity is the religion of slaves.
Likewise, the secular religion that is so sweeping our ruling classes sees itself as fully integrated into the power structure and government, which its adherents see as weapons to be wielded against unbelievers. Certainly that is hyperbolic, but it does not seem to be far from the practical result. A twitter mob is little different from a sharia court, except that it cannot dispense an amputation or direct death penalty yet. It can ensure that someone who commits apostasy, or blasphemy against the received wisdom of those in charge, looses their ability to engage, their banking privileges, and their ability to live in peace. There were, of course, such blacklists, extortions and literal witchunts, in Europe, but given Europe's balkanized nature, one could leave and go somewhere else. Today, the long arm of the blue-check-stassi can reach you anywhere.
And it gets worse.
Unlike Islamic theology, which is based on the Koran, today's transgressions can change minute to minute on the whims of hash tags, and be fiendishly non-intuitive (did you know that understanding that astrology is bollocks is...SEXIST?)
The pernicious influence of Foucault, Derrida, Sarte' and others is attacking the very foundations upon which this civilizational edifice is built, and the implications are terrifying.
I'm not suggesting that there's going to be a collapse like the Greek dark age (where they literally forgot how to write and had to re-invent the alphabet) . Technologies are rarely lost. Even after the fall of Rome only a few closely held trade secrets like the chemical formula for the Roman's better concretes and the methods of hydraulic excavation were lost. The beau monde wine-moms are unlikely to discard the washing machines and microwave ovens that have liberated them from 300,000 years of domesticity. It's worse than that. You see the very technologies that make the Twittermob so effective can, as we've seen in China, enable a panopticon undreamed of in the worst nightmares of Orwell. That's a set of technologies that the beneficiaries of these toxic trends are unlikely to see fall by the wayside. Getting out from under such a system would be nigh impossible, not only because of its capabilities, but its stability. After all, freedom as we understand it has been an alien concept for the vast majority of 300,000 years.
We need to really embrace and promote the values of the enlightenment and push back against those who blame it for our ills. Because if we don't, we will not have cast off our chrysalis, and moved on to greater things in the stars, but, instead, like our many forebears we will regress to the mean...a bad place to be indeed.
This dynamic might have implications for the Fermi Paradox, but it has more urgency at the moment for us.
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September 30, 2020
Why I'm on Team Mask.
A LOT is being said by people I usually agree with and even look up to regarding the oppressive tyranny of having people wear masks, and how this is an unnecessary and useless annoyance, a violation of our civil rights and a sign of submission to a tyrannical state
I disagree.
If we're going to open up (and I think we should have done so before now) we need to do everything in our power to slow the transmission of this bug. It may be less lethal than it was earlier in the year due to improved treatments, but it is still very lethal to the elderly and the vulnerable.
While it is true that masks (other than N-95, N-99 and equivalent) provide very incomplete protection, they do provide some, and if everyone is wearing them their aggregate effect is substantial. We've seen this demonstrated in places like Japan, Korea and Singapore where they have been quite effective.
There is an anti-mask meme going around about a fellow using a chain link fence to stop mosquitoes. This is...flawed.
The virus itself is indeed tiny enough to avoid most facemask fibers, but is generally attached to water droplets and dust particles that are much less so, and thus a significant percentage of viri can be caught by less effective coverings. Also, the purpose of the mask is not necessarily to protect the wearer, but to prevent spread, with lower grade masks this is to prevent the wearer from transmitting the disease and thereby protect those most vulnerable. If an asymptomatic person and a vulnerable person nearby are both wearing masks, the chances of transmission to the vulnerable individual are significantly reduced.
A good analogy is the "Duck and cover!" drill that scared so many of us as children during the cold war. That desk we were hiding under (or a convenient ditch) was not going to provide any great protection against an atomic explosion. However, it was one of the few measures that was demonstrated to work...albeit on a macro scale. Ducking and covering, would, in a statistical sense increase ones chances of avoiding injury by an amount that was statistically significant in the aggregate. A, let's say, arbitrarily, 2 percent increase in chance of survival is of no great significance to an individual. However, in a nation of 300 million, that's six million more people alive than there would be otherwise. These macro trends are how public health decisions have to be made.
I find it amusing that the sneering douchebags who poo poo'd the duck and cover drills as futile are draconian about the masks, and those who understand the grim and desperate calculus behind the old cold war drills and who arm up and prepare for all manner of catastrophe, won't wear them.
Increasingly the retort to this from the right is the libertarian principle of "Why should I give a f**k about the vulnerable?...I don't like it...ain't gonna do it"
Well, there are counterarguments to that, but as a conservative, I'm unpersuasive by association, so I'll let Karl Kasarda, one of the more Libertarian Libertarians that have Libertarian'd on Gun Tube to explain almost exactly how I feel.
This is part of an unrelated Q&A session, if for some reason, it doesn't queue up to the right point, the relevant bit is at 39:50
He is kinda wrong about herd immunity being unachievable without a vaccine. In the early 1600's the Natives of North America achieved herd immunity to chicken pox without a vaccine, (but that was a sub optimal outcome for them). Now, the Chi-Com bat-soup-pestilence is nowhere near as dangerous a disease as that, but it has killed almost half as many people as flu1918 did in about one third the time.
Kasarda also at one point suggests that those not on team mask are sociopaths, but I don't think that is either helpful or even correct. I think most of them are just either autistically oblivious, or fed up with being pushed around. And in fairness, they do have some completely valid points that don't involve masks.
The lockdowns seemed like a good idea with the info that was available (particularly the calamity that was befalling Italy) at the time but the implementation in many locales WAS tyrannical.
The restrictions ARE likely to be a template for any oppressive measures to control the citizenry.
The masks ARE seen by certain of our leaders as a symbol of submission...one which they ditch as soon as they think the cameras are off.
The examples of political targeting with and selective enforcement of the restrictions ARE numerous.
Perhaps the most worrying trend was the snitch lines reminiscent of the East German Stassi. Furthermore, the prosecutions of protestors, in cars, wearing masks who only wanted to open their businesses, and Parishoners in cars, for violating lockdowns which was followed, by the initial waves of the still ongoing riots as not applicable to epidemiological precautions...which were being explicitly endorsed by the same health care providers who had pushed for the lockdowns...well that did not inspire confidence that restrictions are not politically motivated cruelty.
Finally, the devastation wrought on small businesses by the lockdowns and the hyper acceleration of worrying trends in retail and real estate by them have done nothing to alleviate the fears of those who feel (rightly to an extent) that the powers that be hate them and will miss no opportunities to screw with them.
Note though, that those valid points are about the clumsily targeted lockdowns and not the masks, which are lumped in with them by a beleaguered and miserable public.
However, if we are to continue to open up again I REALLY don't think that a mask is the hill to die upon. Indeed, to the extent that it mitigates the spread, it will prevent further devastating lockdowns by making them unnecessary and indefensible even to those who gain a sadistic pleasure in inflicting them upon us.
With regard to those smug nags who look down on those who chafe at the lockdowns as if they were impatient children, I think it was Pete who mentioned in the comments some months back that there are two Americas right now.
There are those like myself who are unaffected or making MORE money than usual, and those whose lives have been absolutely devastated by the lockdowns. I see little difference in empathy levels between the oblivious libertarians who refuse on "principle" the basic civic duty of wearing a mask to prevent the spread of a disease and the contemptuous indifference that those who can continue their jobs via ZOOM have towards those who are loosing everything while those who hold the keys to power keep them imprisoned.
The minor annoyance of wearing a mask when in a store or using public transit seems like a small price to pay for ending both the economic and human nightmare, and seems like an easy way to give some protection to those who are most vulnerable to this gift from the CCP.
This being an election year, there are other practical, though less universally appreciated reasons to wear a mask as well; ones that don't actually involve giving a hoot about anyone else. The vulnerable are largely old people and if they die of the Wu-Flu before November 3rd they will surely (as the dead are wont to do) end up voting Democratic.
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June 22, 2020
Oh. So THAT'S What it Means
The protestors in Seattle are annoyed by the moniker that the media has assigned them (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone or C.H.A.Z.). And to be fair, CHAZ is silly. To rectify this public relations problem they have demanded that they be referred to as C.H.O.P. (Capitol Hill Occupied Protest). This did not seem like an improvement to me but it turns out that C.H.O.P. has the advantage of honesty, as this fellow in the embedded video helpfully explains. "Does anybody here know what happened to the people who did not get on board with the French Revolution?†to which the crowd cheers "CHOP!"
Original video source is Shelby Talcott's Twitter :
I've got a degree in History. Trust me when I say that this is bad.
No doubt you are now reading up on The French Revolution, particularly The Terror. However, I suggest you, gentle reader, also read a bit about the Spanish Civil War, the Maoist Cultural Revolution, and Salem Witch Trials. This movement has similarities to each of those manias, which all were catastrophic for the affected populations.
...and for those who think this can't affect those of us in the hinterlands if these people win, here is a Quillette article on what for us is a relevant subset of The Terror...The Rape of the Vendee'.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest that we go ahead and call them what they want to be called here, for clarity's sake.
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March 20, 2020
Tess Ti FAYH
This is a short video that gives voice to what most of us were thinking about "product as service". I wasn't going to link to it as my embedded video to actual content ratio is all out of whack right now. But, there are a couple of things mentioned as asides that really got my goat. First, I had no idea until this brief mention of it just how malignant Google Stadia is. It really is the worst of every awful trend in video games concentrated and wrapped in maliciousness. Likewise the PS-5 looks like it is going to be, well, evil. I had seriously thought about a Tesla pickup in the future though not so much after this. However, the thing that got me so mad that I got up walked out and left the room and had to come back after cooling down was the "letter of concern" at 15:06. Which indicates that whatever firm the individual is working for (probably a bank or investment firm) has a corporate culture that makes them unfit stewards of other people's money. It also speaks how important superficial fashion is becoming in our society and how perniciously powerful it is for enforcing conformity. With the mean girls in high-school one could avoid them or ultimately matriculate. Now that our corporate class are overwhelmingly foppish aristocrats, there is no escape.
One thing that SFO only lightly touches on in the above disquisition is that this isn't just a terrible idea from a consumer standpoint. This blog mentioned how bad this could potentially get when discussing the Patreon situation back in mid-December of 2018, and SFO did a really good, source heavy and long deep dive into the antics of the payment processor about two weeks after that.
About 18 months ago the Chinese social credit system was very topical. "Product as Service" makes that sort of tyranny far worse and much easier to implement.
This is nothing new, but implications of this are terrifying.
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February 04, 2020
I.T. People: I Have Some Questions About the Iowa Carcasses
...er...Caucuses.
They've completely botched the Iowa Caucuses.
Several of my legions of...six or seven readers work in IT and have had experience with applicable app issues.
So.
Here are the facts as I understand them.
The Democrats decided to simplify the chaos that is this caucus thing by using a smartphone app.
A Phone application: you know, one of those esoteric bits of technology that is basically unknown to the general populace that is never used for secure online sales and such in everyday...oh wait.
To that end, the Democrats hired a company called SHADOW to manage the app that counted the votes.
There was a technical problem and as I post this nobody knows who won or lost, aside from the three or four candidates who have claimed victory in the absence of any numbers.
How does this happen?
What incompetence was necessary for this to happen?
I just...
Gurus of technical support just, explain this...
Please.
Note that even assuming nefarious intent with the goal of botching the caucuses does not absolve the participants of failure due to an unprofessional lack of subtlety.
Again; they named the company that ran the AP that lost the votes...SHADOW which is a company partially owned by a firm named A.C.R.O.N.Y.M.which in turn is run by former Clinton staffers and funded by a big Pete Buttigieg backer supporter.
A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. is literally an Umbrella Corporation that owns several companies that...seem to...exist...but have indeterminate specialties other than to be oriented towards left wing politics and...
Wait...
Why would you name your company that makes voting software and has to have trust and transparency as its highest priorities...SHADOW (in all caps)?
And , A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. what the actual hell?
I just have this notion of A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. helping organizations put their mission statements in their name, with results like
Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion,
or perhaps League Of Calamitous Intent
or Vicious Evil Network Of Mayhem.
But this notion; it is crazy.
CRAAhayhayaZZyyyY! I sai
W hat is going oN?
They've completely botched the Iowa Caucuses.
Several of my legions of...six or seven readers work in IT and have had experience with applicable app issues.
So.
Here are the facts as I understand them.
The Democrats decided to simplify the chaos that is this caucus thing by using a smartphone app.
A Phone application: you know, one of those esoteric bits of technology that is basically unknown to the general populace that is never used for secure online sales and such in everyday...oh wait.
To that end, the Democrats hired a company called SHADOW to manage the app that counted the votes.
There was a technical problem and as I post this nobody knows who won or lost, aside from the three or four candidates who have claimed victory in the absence of any numbers.
How does this happen?
What incompetence was necessary for this to happen?
I just...
Gurus of technical support just, explain this...
Please.
Note that even assuming nefarious intent with the goal of botching the caucuses does not absolve the participants of failure due to an unprofessional lack of subtlety.
Again; they named the company that ran the AP that lost the votes...SHADOW which is a company partially owned by a firm named A.C.R.O.N.Y.M.which in turn is run by former Clinton staffers and funded by a big Pete Buttigieg backer supporter.
A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. is literally an Umbrella Corporation that owns several companies that...seem to...exist...but have indeterminate specialties other than to be oriented towards left wing politics and...
Wait...
Why would you name your company that makes voting software and has to have trust and transparency as its highest priorities...SHADOW (in all caps)?
And , A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. what the actual hell?
Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion,
or perhaps League Of Calamitous Intent
or Vicious Evil Network Of Mayhem.
But this notion; it is crazy.
CRAAhayhayaZZyyyY! I sai
W hat is going oN?
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January 31, 2020
Well. They Did it!
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January 29, 2020
Meanwhile, In Puerto Rico
Lost in the confusion over coverage of all the other things that are happening, are a whole bunch of Americans in misery and significant peril.
The territory of Puerto Rico has suffered multiple earthquakes of increasing intensity over the last few weeks and this has wrought havoc upon the island which was already suffering a slow recovery from .
First some background. As many of you may remember the recovery from the monstrous Hurricane, Maria, (which razed the island 3 years ago was agonizingly slow).The previous governor was ousted last year when it was revealed that vast quantities of federal aid for the rebuilding had, in fact, been delivered (despite his claims to the contrary) and was sitting in warehouses, not quite accounted for on the Puerto Rican end. There were also allegations of more general corruption. For instance, last year there was a brief outcry when the H.U.D. under secretary Carson withheld aid on the grounds that it had given the governor money and materials to replace 20,000 roofs and after two years of prodding the governor announced that they'd have the first 180 houses roofed "soon". Thus things stood until the middle of last year when Governor Ricardo Antonio Rosselló Nevares was caught on a hot-mic making unflattering and misogynistic comments about his Secretary of Justice and the Mayor of San Juan, as well as comments that were described as homophobic. In stark contrast to the mere misappropriation of aid to the poor and keeping 20,00 families without power, and roofless for two years in a nation plagued by mosquito-borne illness, being un-woke is quite unforgivable in the eyes of the New Progressive Party and he was forced to resign. There was then some confusion regarding the line of succession as the next in line (the Secretary of State) was serving in an "acting" capacity and had not been confirmed by the territorial senate...which resulted in months of court battles while nothing was done about 20,000 families without roofs a few hundred miles south of the Tropic of Cancer.
Finally, Wanda Vasquez, the Secretary of Justice was appointed by the courts to be governor. The newly appointed Governor then got to work arranging to do jack all with the federal aid which sat in warehouses, just in larger quantities until the recent spate of earthquakes hit. The recovery from which has barely begun.
Which brings us to this.
In which the good citizens of Puerto Rico have built a guillotine outside the governors offices.
"So yeah...The boogaloo can happen where you least expect it"
Good on them. May they use it well.
There's more here and here.
Of course, this may correct itself now that the citizenry are mobilized and they've got the guillotine involved, but this has gone on for FAR too long. and the general lack of coverage is inexcusable.
In fairness, it's not like this has been a slow news month, what with the impeachment jackassery, Winnie the Flu, The Mideast Peace Effort, The killing of Solomani, Ebola's recent resurgence, the Committee of Public safety Setting up in the Virginia House of Delegates, The death of a basketball player, the coming showdown between the Maoists, the Bolsheviks, The Menchkeviks and the Trotskyites.
However, a lack of media coverage does not affect daily NATSEC briefings. While largely the fault of the Puerto Rican governors, this situation is intolerable, and it needs to be addressed and frankly, the buck stops on Resolute Desk.
These are American Citizens who are suffering mightily. Given that the executive branch of the territorial government appears to be fractally corrupt, the best option may be for the President to invoke the Insurrection Act and bypass the local bureaucracies to get the aid where it needs to go and let the contractors do their jobs.
So, Mr. President, fix this.
The territory of Puerto Rico has suffered multiple earthquakes of increasing intensity over the last few weeks and this has wrought havoc upon the island which was already suffering a slow recovery from .
First some background. As many of you may remember the recovery from the monstrous Hurricane, Maria, (which razed the island 3 years ago was agonizingly slow).The previous governor was ousted last year when it was revealed that vast quantities of federal aid for the rebuilding had, in fact, been delivered (despite his claims to the contrary) and was sitting in warehouses, not quite accounted for on the Puerto Rican end. There were also allegations of more general corruption. For instance, last year there was a brief outcry when the H.U.D. under secretary Carson withheld aid on the grounds that it had given the governor money and materials to replace 20,000 roofs and after two years of prodding the governor announced that they'd have the first 180 houses roofed "soon". Thus things stood until the middle of last year when Governor Ricardo Antonio Rosselló Nevares was caught on a hot-mic making unflattering and misogynistic comments about his Secretary of Justice and the Mayor of San Juan, as well as comments that were described as homophobic. In stark contrast to the mere misappropriation of aid to the poor and keeping 20,00 families without power, and roofless for two years in a nation plagued by mosquito-borne illness, being un-woke is quite unforgivable in the eyes of the New Progressive Party and he was forced to resign. There was then some confusion regarding the line of succession as the next in line (the Secretary of State) was serving in an "acting" capacity and had not been confirmed by the territorial senate...which resulted in months of court battles while nothing was done about 20,000 families without roofs a few hundred miles south of the Tropic of Cancer.
Finally, Wanda Vasquez, the Secretary of Justice was appointed by the courts to be governor. The newly appointed Governor then got to work arranging to do jack all with the federal aid which sat in warehouses, just in larger quantities until the recent spate of earthquakes hit. The recovery from which has barely begun.
Which brings us to this.
In which the good citizens of Puerto Rico have built a guillotine outside the governors offices.
Image via
"So yeah...The boogaloo can happen where you least expect it"
Good on them. May they use it well.
There's more here and here.
Of course, this may correct itself now that the citizenry are mobilized and they've got the guillotine involved, but this has gone on for FAR too long. and the general lack of coverage is inexcusable.
In fairness, it's not like this has been a slow news month, what with the impeachment jackassery, Winnie the Flu, The Mideast Peace Effort, The killing of Solomani, Ebola's recent resurgence, the Committee of Public safety Setting up in the Virginia House of Delegates, The death of a basketball player, the coming showdown between the Maoists, the Bolsheviks, The Menchkeviks and the Trotskyites.
However, a lack of media coverage does not affect daily NATSEC briefings. While largely the fault of the Puerto Rican governors, this situation is intolerable, and it needs to be addressed and frankly, the buck stops on Resolute Desk.
These are American Citizens who are suffering mightily. Given that the executive branch of the territorial government appears to be fractally corrupt, the best option may be for the President to invoke the Insurrection Act and bypass the local bureaucracies to get the aid where it needs to go and let the contractors do their jobs.
So, Mr. President, fix this.
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January 26, 2020
Meanwhile, In Virginia
Not Content with the cornucopia of counter-constitutional gun laws they are passing or the more that 115 laws to rape our electoral system, Democrats have decided that the root cause of all their woes is the first amendment and so have given us Virginia HB1627
The full text is here, and while the bit about true threats is reasonable on its face, THAT'S ALREADY ILLEGAL. It should not be extra grave to do so to an elected official...they aren't royalty.
It gets worse:
Threats and harassment of certain officials and property; venue. Provides that certain crimes relating to threats and harassment may be prosecuted in the City of Richmond if the victim is the Governor, Governor-elect, Lieutenant Governor, Lieutenant Governor-elect, Attorney General, or Attorney General-elect, a member or employee of the General Assembly, a justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, or a judge of the Court of Appeals of Virginia. In addition, threats to damage property may be prosecuted in the City of Richmond if the property is owned by the Commonwealth and located in the Capitol District.
The full text is here, and while the bit about true threats is reasonable on its face, THAT'S ALREADY ILLEGAL. It should not be extra grave to do so to an elected official...they aren't royalty.
It gets worse:
§ 18.2-152.7:1. Harassment by computer; penalty.
If any person, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass any person, shall use a computer or computer network to communicate obscene, vulgar, profane, lewd, lascivious, or indecent language, or make any suggestion or proposal of an obscene nature, or threaten any illegal or immoral act, he shall be is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. A violation of this section may be prosecuted in the jurisdiction in which the communication was made or received or in the City of Richmond if the person subjected to the act is one of the following officials or employees of the Commonwealth: the Governor, Governor-elect, Lieutenant Governor, Lieutenant Governor-elect, Attorney General, or Attorney General-elect, a member or employee of the General Assembly, a justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, or a judge of the Court of Appeals of Virginia
No making fun of the Politburo !
Dank memes are outlawed! That means any mention of blackface is right out!
Oh. Right.
And that little strike through of "shall be" replacing it with "is" is present in several of these bills. I'm not a lawyer, but it worries me.
Now, having removed our ability to defend ourselves or criticize elected officials in a meaningful way, the Democrats are finally able to deal with the greatest threat facing the Commonwealth and its citizens subjects.
No really, 2,500 dollar fine and 10 hours of community service for releasing Balloons.
Kids, your birthday parties will suck from now on.
While this fiasco ranges from the horrifying to the ridiculous, it does provide some object lessons:
1: To those in what are still free states, today's Democrats are stark raving cuckoo for cocoa puffs. And once you get them it's like bedbugs.
2: For those of us trapped between the Patomac and 36° 30′ north, we now know what dread haunts the progressive's nightmares.
They've let slip what it is they most fear....
Art (sans text) is by Dairin, also here, whose NNV channel is here.
(and who is not responsible for the context of her chibi)
(and who is not responsible for the context of her chibi)
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January 20, 2020
Meanwhile, in Richmond Virgina Today
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January 13, 2020
More on the Situation Here in The Commonwealth of Virginia Regarding the Second Amendment (UPDATED)
In a post a few days ago I mentioned how it was that Virginia, which is literally the home of the NRA and was one of the states that initiated a good deal of the rollback of the restrictions on gun rights we've seen over the last 20 years, came to be in this mess.
Well, I forgot something, so let's try that again.
As we mentioned earlier, Virginia went Democrat (Barely, its really a matter of a very few seats in the legislature and the Executive) due to a confluence of factors. There was a huge infusion of outside money from Bloomberg and others, a vast wave of immigration both legal and illegal as well as refugees that were settled here by the Obama administration and a large number of migrants from California and the Northeast who were horrified by what became of their homes...but not so much as to stop voting for the policies that caused it.
There was also the utter faceplant of the VA Republican party, which, being so close to DC has a huge portion of its administrators bigwigs and decision makers, people who are in the Republican establishment's anti-Trump wing. That group has some decent people in it but mostly they are political pilotfish who mobilized to defend their rice bowels against their constituents with a verve they seldome displayed previously. Many of the DC Republicans have grown to despise their constituents who they feel have betrayed them by voting for reform. For years they talked of securing the border but now openly call anyone who does so racist. The people they are, in theory working for, now feel the same way and the bad blood there that has developed over the last few years is as heatbreaking as it is profound, Thus, the state party is involved in something of a circular firing squad.
There was also the vast increase of the federal civil service under Obama which resulted in suburban sprawl of what became under him the richest counties in the country populated with high level civil servants... people whose lavish lifestyles depend on big government.
Finally, there's something that I'd stupidly forgotten to mention in the earlier post, but is quite significant Northam's predecessor pardoned 200,000 felons which is several times the margin of victory in the last governors race. The 200,000 former felons and the huge amount of immigration into Northern Virginia combined with incumbent advantage DO make any corrective action at the ballot box a very challenging prospect, but it should be noted that even with this perfect storm crashing on the Repoublicans and blowing into the Democrat's sails the Dems only have the slimmest of majorities which may be a factor in their attempt to lock everything down.
Northam for his part, is going all in for this partly because he has two scandals...one he advocated for post partum (post birth) abortion and he has an epic blackface scandal, unlike Canada (apparently) this is serious business here, or was, until it wasn't...and it wasn't when Northam began pushing this so his political future depends on this. Given his stance on 10th month abortion the potential for death is probably not a consideration for him. Now, I don't generally think that people on the other side of the aisle who aren't Antifa adjacent, no matter how wrongheaded they might be, are evil...but I really have doubts regarding Northam. Unlike many provincial urbanites with delusions of cosmopolitanism, Northam is from here and he KNOWS what a powder keg he's lighting the firecrackers on.
I've seen it suggested that the Democrats didn't expect the backlash they are getting. Having a cursory knowledge of the politicians involved, I'm pretty sure that many of the senior VA legislators like Northam understand completely. To us on the right, this is akin to Lexington and Concord, with the caveat that we can still end the oppression at the ballot box. The Dems seem to WANT a standoff to portray gun owners as racist violent hicks a'la WACO and the media is quite firmly on their side. If the Democrats bring this to a head they will have the full cooperation of Bloomberg and the rest of the media to paint the 2nd Amendment people as very much what Antifa actually is.
While the National Guard takes oaths to defend the constitution (which to the shock of many includes the second and fourth amendments) and is made up of the sorts of people who dislike being the baddies if it comes to the rumored (and verified) calls to use the state's military to go door to door, this reluctance will not gain much time for the citizenry. You see, If it comes to that, the governor will fire national guard generals until he gets one who will comply. They'll put together loyal units and after a few bloodbaths will parade the flag draped coffins of any dead soldiers or state troopers as martyrs...Black Lives Matter will, of course, not get a platform for a little while as Bloomberg, CNN and the rest of the media play up the death of these soldiers and cops and the Dems will weep crocodile tears most convincingly. A lot of Republicans based in DC (the opposite of based) would conceivably react to this hypothetical Horst Wessel moment by "heroically" reaching across the aisle in solidarity against "extremism" at which point in this hypothetical things would proceed to go spectacularly pear shaped in a way unlikely to be confined to The Old Dominion.
This how bad it could get. I'm not sure it will and hope it doesn't, but this affair is now a dry run for the progressives regarding what they intend for the country.
We must not loose sight of the fact that unlike at Lexington and Concord, we have the option of fixing this in November and in the 2021 State election. However, there remains the frighteningly real possibility that during the intervening 22 months before Northam is gone*, that this will not only end in blood, but massively advance the goals of those who see the citizenry as an impediment to their ambitions.
Meanwhile:
The Dems just effectively banned shooting ranges.
Map of second amendment sanctuaries as of last Monday .
How crazy are the new rules ? Proposed in paragraph 4 of VA Bill 18.2-308.8 is this bizarre gem of specificity in its vague word salad of what constitutes a prohibited 'assault' pistol.
A semi-automatic center-fire pistol that expels single or multiple projectiles by action of an explosion of a combustible material that has the ability to accept a detachable magazine and has one of the following characteristics: (i) a folding or telescoping stock; (ii) a thumbhole stock; (iii) a second handgrip or a protruding grip that can be held by the non-trigger hand; (iv) the capacity to accept a magazine that attaches to the pistol outside of the pistol grip; (v) a shroud that is attached to, or partially or completely encircles, the barrel and that permits the shooter to hold the pistol with the non-trigger hand without being burned; (vi) a manufactured weight of 50 ounces or more when the pistol is unloaded; (vii) a threaded barrel capable of accepting (a) a silencer, (b) a flash suppressor, (c) a barrel extender, or (d) a forward handgrip; or (viii) any characteristic of like kind as enumerated in clauses (i) through (vii);
Emphasis mine. They are banning guns by weight!?
If it's more than 50 ounces...it's DANGEROUS!
There is an interesting twist on the Second Amendment Sanctuary movement afoot which is being discussed and already has two variations enacted. Tazewell County has announced that it will raise a militia of all citizens without felonies and Cullpepper County's police dept. is saying that they will deputize as reserve police officers, any citizen that wants to concealed carry and takes the currently standard concealed carry course...which they will provide. Note that both of these actions are explicitly allowed by the state constitution (as opposed to the second amendment sanctuaries which are implicitly tolerated under the rubric of law enforcement discretion and the fact that no one has shut down the immigration sanctuaries) . Stopping actions like Cullpepper and Tazewell counties require a full state constitutional amendment disallowing localities to raise local forces for emergencies...such an amendment is unlikely to pass. Note that there really is very little info on the Tazewell and Culpepper situations which is why my citations are a local news channel and a rural paper from Vermont.
UPDATE: In the comments J.Greely links to an excellent piece over at Sacred Cow Slaughterhouse which goes into the weeds of the legalities and logistics of using National Guard weapons (which are federal property, subject to Posse' Comitatus restrictions) here is an excerpt, but read the whole thing.
It's a very good overview, and a welcome bit of good news, but if you'll allow me to put on my little horned Devil's Advocate hat for a moment.......the fact that state legislators brought this up as a first ditch scenario indicates that they are little inhibited by legal propriety or conscience in these matters, and if things go their way in the next federal election there will be no check or balance on their ambitions. Way down the probability curve, there is also the matter of the VDF which is State owned an equipped, though, to be fair it is unlikely to have more than a few hundred ARs (if that). I believe half of it consists of MPs as it is intended to stand in for the VNG when that force is deployed overseas. However, I really don't see the VDF being at all willing or even able to step up to the plate on this. For one thing, they probably don't have more than a couple of hundred AR's in the whole force if that and it is, even more than the VNG, staffed by rural Virginia gun owners.
In any event, Mr. Williamson's overview of what every National Guard Adjunct and J.A.G. officer in the 55 states and territories is contemplating right now and the personal ramifications for them depending on what they decide is certainly food for thought and worthy of a read.
* Virginia governors are term limited to one term.
Well, I forgot something, so let's try that again.
As we mentioned earlier, Virginia went Democrat (Barely, its really a matter of a very few seats in the legislature and the Executive) due to a confluence of factors. There was a huge infusion of outside money from Bloomberg and others, a vast wave of immigration both legal and illegal as well as refugees that were settled here by the Obama administration and a large number of migrants from California and the Northeast who were horrified by what became of their homes...but not so much as to stop voting for the policies that caused it.
There was also the utter faceplant of the VA Republican party, which, being so close to DC has a huge portion of its administrators bigwigs and decision makers, people who are in the Republican establishment's anti-Trump wing. That group has some decent people in it but mostly they are political pilotfish who mobilized to defend their rice bowels against their constituents with a verve they seldome displayed previously. Many of the DC Republicans have grown to despise their constituents who they feel have betrayed them by voting for reform. For years they talked of securing the border but now openly call anyone who does so racist. The people they are, in theory working for, now feel the same way and the bad blood there that has developed over the last few years is as heatbreaking as it is profound, Thus, the state party is involved in something of a circular firing squad.
There was also the vast increase of the federal civil service under Obama which resulted in suburban sprawl of what became under him the richest counties in the country populated with high level civil servants... people whose lavish lifestyles depend on big government.
Finally, there's something that I'd stupidly forgotten to mention in the earlier post, but is quite significant Northam's predecessor pardoned 200,000 felons which is several times the margin of victory in the last governors race. The 200,000 former felons and the huge amount of immigration into Northern Virginia combined with incumbent advantage DO make any corrective action at the ballot box a very challenging prospect, but it should be noted that even with this perfect storm crashing on the Repoublicans and blowing into the Democrat's sails the Dems only have the slimmest of majorities which may be a factor in their attempt to lock everything down.
Northam for his part, is going all in for this partly because he has two scandals...one he advocated for post partum (post birth) abortion and he has an epic blackface scandal, unlike Canada (apparently) this is serious business here, or was, until it wasn't...and it wasn't when Northam began pushing this so his political future depends on this. Given his stance on 10th month abortion the potential for death is probably not a consideration for him. Now, I don't generally think that people on the other side of the aisle who aren't Antifa adjacent, no matter how wrongheaded they might be, are evil...but I really have doubts regarding Northam. Unlike many provincial urbanites with delusions of cosmopolitanism, Northam is from here and he KNOWS what a powder keg he's lighting the firecrackers on.
I've seen it suggested that the Democrats didn't expect the backlash they are getting. Having a cursory knowledge of the politicians involved, I'm pretty sure that many of the senior VA legislators like Northam understand completely. To us on the right, this is akin to Lexington and Concord, with the caveat that we can still end the oppression at the ballot box. The Dems seem to WANT a standoff to portray gun owners as racist violent hicks a'la WACO and the media is quite firmly on their side. If the Democrats bring this to a head they will have the full cooperation of Bloomberg and the rest of the media to paint the 2nd Amendment people as very much what Antifa actually is.
While the National Guard takes oaths to defend the constitution (which to the shock of many includes the second and fourth amendments) and is made up of the sorts of people who dislike being the baddies if it comes to the rumored (and verified) calls to use the state's military to go door to door, this reluctance will not gain much time for the citizenry. You see, If it comes to that, the governor will fire national guard generals until he gets one who will comply. They'll put together loyal units and after a few bloodbaths will parade the flag draped coffins of any dead soldiers or state troopers as martyrs...Black Lives Matter will, of course, not get a platform for a little while as Bloomberg, CNN and the rest of the media play up the death of these soldiers and cops and the Dems will weep crocodile tears most convincingly. A lot of Republicans based in DC (the opposite of based) would conceivably react to this hypothetical Horst Wessel moment by "heroically" reaching across the aisle in solidarity against "extremism" at which point in this hypothetical things would proceed to go spectacularly pear shaped in a way unlikely to be confined to The Old Dominion.
This how bad it could get. I'm not sure it will and hope it doesn't, but this affair is now a dry run for the progressives regarding what they intend for the country.
We must not loose sight of the fact that unlike at Lexington and Concord, we have the option of fixing this in November and in the 2021 State election. However, there remains the frighteningly real possibility that during the intervening 22 months before Northam is gone*, that this will not only end in blood, but massively advance the goals of those who see the citizenry as an impediment to their ambitions.
Meanwhile:
The Dems just effectively banned shooting ranges.
Map of second amendment sanctuaries as of last Monday .
How crazy are the new rules ? Proposed in paragraph 4 of VA Bill 18.2-308.8 is this bizarre gem of specificity in its vague word salad of what constitutes a prohibited 'assault' pistol.
A semi-automatic center-fire pistol that expels single or multiple projectiles by action of an explosion of a combustible material that has the ability to accept a detachable magazine and has one of the following characteristics: (i) a folding or telescoping stock; (ii) a thumbhole stock; (iii) a second handgrip or a protruding grip that can be held by the non-trigger hand; (iv) the capacity to accept a magazine that attaches to the pistol outside of the pistol grip; (v) a shroud that is attached to, or partially or completely encircles, the barrel and that permits the shooter to hold the pistol with the non-trigger hand without being burned; (vi) a manufactured weight of 50 ounces or more when the pistol is unloaded; (vii) a threaded barrel capable of accepting (a) a silencer, (b) a flash suppressor, (c) a barrel extender, or (d) a forward handgrip; or (viii) any characteristic of like kind as enumerated in clauses (i) through (vii);
Emphasis mine. They are banning guns by weight!?
If it's more than 50 ounces...it's DANGEROUS!
There is an interesting twist on the Second Amendment Sanctuary movement afoot which is being discussed and already has two variations enacted. Tazewell County has announced that it will raise a militia of all citizens without felonies and Cullpepper County's police dept. is saying that they will deputize as reserve police officers, any citizen that wants to concealed carry and takes the currently standard concealed carry course...which they will provide. Note that both of these actions are explicitly allowed by the state constitution (as opposed to the second amendment sanctuaries which are implicitly tolerated under the rubric of law enforcement discretion and the fact that no one has shut down the immigration sanctuaries) . Stopping actions like Cullpepper and Tazewell counties require a full state constitutional amendment disallowing localities to raise local forces for emergencies...such an amendment is unlikely to pass. Note that there really is very little info on the Tazewell and Culpepper situations which is why my citations are a local news channel and a rural paper from Vermont.
UPDATE: In the comments J.Greely links to an excellent piece over at Sacred Cow Slaughterhouse which goes into the weeds of the legalities and logistics of using National Guard weapons (which are federal property, subject to Posse' Comitatus restrictions) here is an excerpt, but read the whole thing.
The National Guard does not keep ammo on hand in any relevant quantities. A small amount for training is it.
Per US Constitution and federal law, the governor CANNOT arm the NATIONAL Guard with federally owned weapons and ammo. He'd have to provide that.
Nor can he arm them without consent of the feds anyway. There are reasons for this. This is one of those reasons. It is not a bona fide emergency that does not permit of delay.
And the threat to do so is LITERALLY WHY WE HAVE THE SECOND AMENDMENT. Congrats, jerkwad! You've actually threatened to have the military repress people, and you're surprised that they're going to oppose you? EVERYONE should be opposing you. It's outrageous of itself, and outrageous precedent if allowed.
It's a very good overview, and a welcome bit of good news, but if you'll allow me to put on my little horned Devil's Advocate hat for a moment.......the fact that state legislators brought this up as a first ditch scenario indicates that they are little inhibited by legal propriety or conscience in these matters, and if things go their way in the next federal election there will be no check or balance on their ambitions. Way down the probability curve, there is also the matter of the VDF which is State owned an equipped, though, to be fair it is unlikely to have more than a few hundred ARs (if that). I believe half of it consists of MPs as it is intended to stand in for the VNG when that force is deployed overseas. However, I really don't see the VDF being at all willing or even able to step up to the plate on this. For one thing, they probably don't have more than a couple of hundred AR's in the whole force if that and it is, even more than the VNG, staffed by rural Virginia gun owners.
In any event, Mr. Williamson's overview of what every National Guard Adjunct and J.A.G. officer in the 55 states and territories is contemplating right now and the personal ramifications for them depending on what they decide is certainly food for thought and worthy of a read.
* Virginia governors are term limited to one term.
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October 12, 2019
Answering Readers Questions: Reactionism
In the comments to an earlier post someone ( I think it was Borchardt?) asked the following question...
Well, after several hours over a couple of days I find myself devoid of any hyperlinkable citations aside from this one, linked in an old post.
This is vexing, as I KNOW they exist, or existed because I've personally read them. They were "a thing" about 12-18 months ago.
Anyway...
Essentially, "reactionism" is a word that exists in the English language but is scarcely used. It shows up in the Terms Of Service for companies that have recently been bought by or received large investments from Chinese companies.
Generally a reactionism clause will appear in the following context:
' word salad of things that one should not engage in' any publication, information or document with content of reactionism.
As I understand it (or did before the articles, posts, and tweets I read a year or so ago went away)when one sees those boldfaced words, one is screwed! One had best get very big padded snow shoes because from that point on one is walking on very thin ice.
Because the word can mean "conservatism or rightism" it's a odd choice for a legal document, but it is perfectly at home in a Communist Diktat outlawing anything that might be perceived as 'counterrevolutionary'.
These particular TOSs encumbered with this peculiar word (which seems to have come into existence around 2008 ) seemed to have been a big deal in the tech industry about 18 months ago as there was a surfeit of these TOS changes especially in development circles. Reactionism is the word that stood out, but the troubling bit here is what it generally foreshadows...a very restrictive Terms Of Service document that has broad guidelines for off-platform behavior, or speech that can be considered reactionism.
Similar TOS issues started cropping up the same time involving any faux-pas involving the constantly changing minefield that is the ever shrinking verbiage allowed by social justice culture. In the SJW case the correlation with Chinese investment is not 1:1 but it does seem to exist. Note that one of the definitions is "the condition of being reactionary or resistant to change" which serves the purposes of the SJW crowd in a sublime fashion.
Regardless, the clauses are a strong indicator of Chinese influence and tend to be both broad and nonspecific, ensnaring any employee (and increasingly customers) in something akin to a morality clause for a Hollywood actress during the early Hayes Code.
It was one of these clauses that was cited by Blizzard in the recent unpleasantness and they are used with merciless effect to coerce and hurt people who don't tow the party line, many of whom who do not enjoy the limelight. Additionally the problem with terms of service from a legal standpoint is that one has agreed to them.
This is a big issue and has been coming to a head for several years. However, because it's buried LITERALLY in the walls of text that constitute Terms of Service it isn't covered much, and it seems to be covered less now than it was 18 months ago.
I may update this post considerably when and if I find the articles and discussions in question.
In the meantime: regarding the related and more visible issue of companies doing the Kow-Tow, here is a very non-comprehensive list shamelessly nicked from an as-of-now continuously updated document at Github.
"Reactionism Clauses"? first I've heard the term. What's that?
Well, after several hours over a couple of days I find myself devoid of any hyperlinkable citations aside from this one, linked in an old post.
This is vexing, as I KNOW they exist, or existed because I've personally read them. They were "a thing" about 12-18 months ago.
Anyway...
Essentially, "reactionism" is a word that exists in the English language but is scarcely used. It shows up in the Terms Of Service for companies that have recently been bought by or received large investments from Chinese companies.
Generally a reactionism clause will appear in the following context:
' word salad of things that one should not engage in' any publication, information or document with content of reactionism.
As I understand it (or did before the articles, posts, and tweets I read a year or so ago went away)when one sees those boldfaced words, one is screwed! One had best get very big padded snow shoes because from that point on one is walking on very thin ice.
Because the word can mean "conservatism or rightism" it's a odd choice for a legal document, but it is perfectly at home in a Communist Diktat outlawing anything that might be perceived as 'counterrevolutionary'.
These particular TOSs encumbered with this peculiar word (which seems to have come into existence around 2008 ) seemed to have been a big deal in the tech industry about 18 months ago as there was a surfeit of these TOS changes especially in development circles. Reactionism is the word that stood out, but the troubling bit here is what it generally foreshadows...a very restrictive Terms Of Service document that has broad guidelines for off-platform behavior, or speech that can be considered reactionism.
Similar TOS issues started cropping up the same time involving any faux-pas involving the constantly changing minefield that is the ever shrinking verbiage allowed by social justice culture. In the SJW case the correlation with Chinese investment is not 1:1 but it does seem to exist. Note that one of the definitions is "the condition of being reactionary or resistant to change" which serves the purposes of the SJW crowd in a sublime fashion.
Regardless, the clauses are a strong indicator of Chinese influence and tend to be both broad and nonspecific, ensnaring any employee (and increasingly customers) in something akin to a morality clause for a Hollywood actress during the early Hayes Code.
It was one of these clauses that was cited by Blizzard in the recent unpleasantness and they are used with merciless effect to coerce and hurt people who don't tow the party line, many of whom who do not enjoy the limelight. Additionally the problem with terms of service from a legal standpoint is that one has agreed to them.
This is a big issue and has been coming to a head for several years. However, because it's buried LITERALLY in the walls of text that constitute Terms of Service it isn't covered much, and it seems to be covered less now than it was 18 months ago.
I may update this post considerably when and if I find the articles and discussions in question.
In the meantime: regarding the related and more visible issue of companies doing the Kow-Tow, here is a very non-comprehensive list shamelessly nicked from an as-of-now continuously updated document at Github.
| Blizzard Entertainment | 2019-10-05 | 2019-10-08 | Banned a player who voiced support for the HK protests, rescinded his prize money and fired the 2 casters that were with him on air | |
| Apple | 2019-10-03 | 2019-10-08 | Removed HK police tracking app from the HK app store after pressure from the CCP; Removed Taiwan flag emoji in Hong Kong | |
| NBA | 2019-10-04 | 2019-10-08 | After Daryl Morey, manager of the Houston Rockets, published a tweet supportive of the HK protests, NBA issued an apology, calling the tweet "inappropriate". NBA Commissioner Adam Silver later contradicted this stance and said "We are not apologizing for Daryl exercising his freedom of expression" | |
| Marriott | 2018-01-12 | 2019-10-08 | Fired an employee after he "liked" an online post about Tibet; De-listed Taiwan as a nation, listed it instead as part of China after Chinese pressure; Released a statement reading "Marriott International respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China. We don’t support separatist groups that subvert the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China" | |
| Vans | 2019-10-05 | 2019-10-08 | Removed contest submission depicting the protests in Hong Kong | |
| Gap Inc. | 2018-05-14 | 2019-10-08 | Apologized after a T-Shirt depicting China without Taiwan was sold at a store in Canada, issuing the statement "Gap Inc. respects China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. We've learned that a Gap brand T-shirt sold in some overseas markets failed to reflect the correct map of China in the design" | |
| Tiffany and Co | 2019-10-07 | 2019-10-08 | Removed tweet showing model covering her right eye (angry Chinese netizens believed it to be a reference to the woman who lost her eye after being hit by a police projectile) | |
| Nike | 2019-10-09 | 2019-10-09 | Removed all Houston Rockets merch from their China stores (web and physical) | |
| ESPN | 2019-10-08 | 2019-10-09 | Chuck Salituro, the senior news director of ESPN, sent a memo to shows mandating that any discussion of the Daryl Morey story avoid any political discussions about China and Hong Kong; ESPN displayed a Chinese map complete with 9 dash line, Taiwan, and also Arunachal Pradesh, which is a part of India that China claims is part of China | |
| Viacom / Paramount | 2019-07-18 | 2019-10-09 | Removed Taiwan flag from Maverick's jacket | |
| Disney / Marvel | 2016-11-04 | 2019-10-09 | Censored Tibetan monk from "Doctor Strange" and turned him into a white woman: the "Ancient One" was Tibetan in the comics, but white in the film. Statement from C. Robert Cargill, screenwriter: "If you acknowledge that Tibet is a place and that he’s Tibetan, you risk alienating one billion people who think that that’s bullshit" | |
| Cathay Pacific | 2019-08-09 | 2019-10-09 | Fired staff members who expressed support for the HK protests | |
| Mercedes | 2018-02-06 | 2019-10-09 | Apologised to China after quoting the Dalai Lama in an Instagram post, also deleting the post | |
| Delta Airlines | N/A | 2019-10-09 | De-listed Taiwan as a country on their website, instead listing it as part of China | |
| American Airlines | N/A | 2019-10-09 | De-listed Taiwan as a country on their website | |
| United Airlines | N/A | 2019-10-09 | De-listed Taiwan as a country on their website | |
| Qantas | N/A | 2019-10-09 | De-listed Taiwan as a country on their website, instead listing it as a province of China | |
| Air France | N/A | 2019-10-09 | De-listed Taiwan as a country on their website, instead listing it as a province of China | |
| Lufthansa | N/A | 2019-10-09 | De-listed Taiwan as a country on their website, instead listing it as a province of China | |
| Air Canada | N/A | 2019-10-09 | De-listed Taiwan as a country on their website, instead listing it as a province of China | |
| British Airways | N/A | 2019-10-09 | De-listed Taiwan as a country on their website, instead listing it as a province of China | |
| Malaysia Airlines | N/A | 2019-10-09 | De-listed Taiwan as a country on their website, instead listing it as a province of China | |
| Audi | N/A | 2019-10-09 | Apologised after using a map of China that didn't include Taiwan | |
| Muji | N/A | 2019-10-09 | Apologised after featuring a map of China in a store catalog that didn't include the Senkaku islands, destroyed the catalogs | |
| Zara | N/A | 2019-10-09 | Apologised for listing Taiwan as a country on their website | |
| Ray-Ban | N/A | 2019-10-09 | De-listed Taiwan as a country on their website | |
| Sheraton Hotels and Resorts | N/A | 2019-10-09 | Barred a Taiwan National Day reception from taking place at their Stockholm hotel, at the request of the Chinese ambassador | |
| Rockhampton Council, Queensland, Australia | N/A | 2019-10-09 | Removed Taiwan flags from public artwork | |
| Global Blue | N/A | 2019-10-09 | Fired a member of staff for calling Taiwan a country | |
| Lancome (L'Oreal) | N/A | 2019-10-09 | Canceled Denise Ho concert after Denise Ho expressed support for 2014 Hong Kong protests | |
| Givenchy | N/A | 2019-10-10 | Apologized for identifying Hong Kong and Taiwan as an independent country on their T-Shirts. | |
| Coach | N/A | 2019-10-10 | Apologized for identifying Hong Kong and Taiwan as an independent country on their T-Shirts. | |
| Versace | N/A | 2019-10-10 | Apologized for identifying Hong Kong and Taiwan as an independent country on their T-Shirts. | |
| JYP Entertainment | 2016-01-16 | 2019-10-11 | Forced Taiwanese kpop idol Chou Tzu-yu to release an apology video after she was seen waving a Taiwan flag | |
| Tiktok | 2019-09 | 2019-10-11 | Instructed moderators to censor videos that would upset Beijing |
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
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Post contains 1480 words, total size 51 kb.
September 21, 2019
Our society...
...has something of a problem.
A great darkness is coming.
The individual that proudly tweeted this horror is the lead of the English dept in a New Jersey school-system.
God what a waste. Obviously books need to be rotated and replaced periodically, but even IF this particular turnover is an unalloyed good, (doubtful IMHO) it's a spectacular waste of resources.
If this school ever has a bake sale, they can choke on their brownies, because they just threw away stuff that could have gotten them much more money.
There are any number of options that they had besides this, (booksale anyone!?) but they don't care about that. It's not enough to rid themselves of that which they dislike; the offending ideas must be purged from society.
What chills me to the core about this tweet though, is that there is no excuse, however flimsy, being given. This isn't happening in the dead of night. No they're bragging about it.
This is fanaticism.
This is a mad priest burning the herisies, It is reminiscent of Cromwell, the Red Guards, GODWIN VIOLATION DELETED, The Taliban, Killjoy Baptists, and what the ChiComs do with Bibles and Korans. It is the modus operandi of every villain in a juvie prior to 2004.
And yet, she proudly tweets about this as it serves to bear witness to her faith.
This is very serious business. We are in profound trouble as a society.
Those who remember are dying. most of those who are young will never learn.
The enlightenment values of Western Civilization represent an anomalous 300 year aberration in the history of humanity. If we do not arrest this cancerous trend, then like the Greek City States before us, this wondrous aberration will disappear into the 300,000 year+ history of humanity as merely one of a few short lived deviations from the mean.
A great darkness is coming.
The individual that proudly tweeted this horror is the lead of the English dept in a New Jersey school-system.
God what a waste. Obviously books need to be rotated and replaced periodically, but even IF this particular turnover is an unalloyed good, (doubtful IMHO) it's a spectacular waste of resources.
If this school ever has a bake sale, they can choke on their brownies, because they just threw away stuff that could have gotten them much more money.
There are any number of options that they had besides this, (booksale anyone!?) but they don't care about that. It's not enough to rid themselves of that which they dislike; the offending ideas must be purged from society.
What chills me to the core about this tweet though, is that there is no excuse, however flimsy, being given. This isn't happening in the dead of night. No they're bragging about it.
This is fanaticism.
This is a mad priest burning the herisies, It is reminiscent of Cromwell, the Red Guards, GODWIN VIOLATION DELETED, The Taliban, Killjoy Baptists, and what the ChiComs do with Bibles and Korans. It is the modus operandi of every villain in a juvie prior to 2004.
And yet, she proudly tweets about this as it serves to bear witness to her faith.
This is very serious business. We are in profound trouble as a society.
Those who remember are dying. most of those who are young will never learn.
The enlightenment values of Western Civilization represent an anomalous 300 year aberration in the history of humanity. If we do not arrest this cancerous trend, then like the Greek City States before us, this wondrous aberration will disappear into the 300,000 year+ history of humanity as merely one of a few short lived deviations from the mean.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
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Post contains 310 words, total size 3 kb.
September 16, 2019
Brexit Briefs
We here at Brickmuppet Blog have been looking at the current constitutional crisis in the U.K. with utter bewilderment and incomprehension of the workings of their 800 year old system (which we in the States figuratively gnawed our leg off to get away from). If you're interested in this dumpster fire or just want reassurance that we aren't the only people being run by degenerate numbnuts, then these two videos may be of interest.
First; a brief brief which gives a basic but enlightening overview of the implications of what's going on in six minutes that, as a bonus, is easy on the eyes.
This second brief is not at all brief, clocking in at almost exactly an hour. However, it's very interesting and involves a deep explanation of the historical context as well as a detailed overview of the current situation by David Starkey, a very animated and passionate legal historian.
This interview is both edifying, and rather scary, particularly the bit about the motivations of the Remainers, who are, in fact a subset of a social clique that torments many nations.
First; a brief brief which gives a basic but enlightening overview of the implications of what's going on in six minutes that, as a bonus, is easy on the eyes.
This second brief is not at all brief, clocking in at almost exactly an hour. However, it's very interesting and involves a deep explanation of the historical context as well as a detailed overview of the current situation by David Starkey, a very animated and passionate legal historian.
This interview is both edifying, and rather scary, particularly the bit about the motivations of the Remainers, who are, in fact a subset of a social clique that torments many nations.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
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September 12, 2019
I Do Not Vape
Vaping annoys me.
However, this moral panic is stupid.
I was into my third paragraph explaining why this is, when I noted that someone had managed to debunk the whole retarded@ proposition in 45 words.
@ Another reason, besides my jarring lack of pithiness, for my parsimonious participation on Twitter.
However, this moral panic is stupid.
I was into my third paragraph explaining why this is, when I noted that someone had managed to debunk the whole retarded@ proposition in 45 words.
@ Another reason, besides my jarring lack of pithiness, for my parsimonious participation on Twitter.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
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September 09, 2019
More on Brexit
I have NO idea what's happening with regards to the situation in the British parliament, but it seems quite consequential.
There is what appears to be a good overview here at Claremont.
I'm not sure Sargon knows whats going on either, but (bear with me here) he IS a citizen of the U.K. and he gives a layman's overview of what he's seeing in this, his most recent video on the subject.
A slightly earlier and much longer video where he interviews a legal analyst on the matter is here.
This does seem to be a colossal mess.
There is what appears to be a good overview here at Claremont.
I'm not sure Sargon knows whats going on either, but (bear with me here) he IS a citizen of the U.K. and he gives a layman's overview of what he's seeing in this, his most recent video on the subject.
A slightly earlier and much longer video where he interviews a legal analyst on the matter is here.
This does seem to be a colossal mess.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
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