There's been some considerable arm-flapping this week in the Prozac Nation over the fate of a Harvard and MIT-educated software engineer named James Damore. Damore was fired from Google today after being exposed as the author of a 10-page Manifesto that was circulated first through Google as an unauthorized and anonymous corporate memo; then later leaked to the Internet at large. Most of the manifesto, which bore the title Google's Ideological Echo Chamber has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with say, designing software.
Instead, this memo was really an exercise in trolling. Not surprisingly, the whackos on the fake Right---with Vox Day and Jack Posobiec at their head---are screaming about censorship. And of course they agree with Damore's premise: that women are unsuited for tech fields. Carly Fiorina and other Conservatives might disagree, however.
Before taking sides in this non-debate, let us examine only a few simple, basic facts:
1. Google is a huge corporation with thousands of employees; and their success as a company rests upon getting these thousands of people to work as a team.
2. An employee circulates an unauthorized memo that causes a disruption in the corporate environment---wholly unrelated to Google's purpose as a Technology company.
3. Someone---probably the same employee---leaks the text of this memo to the press, causing damage to Google's image. It should be noted that Google is currently also involved in a controversy with the US Labor Department over alleged wage disparities between genders.
4. The same memo openly accuses Google management and executives of sabotaging the corporate good and arrogantly makes demands upon them to change.
So what does one suppose that any corporation would do with an employee like that? Give him a medal for speaking out? No, they would fire him, as they did Damore. The bottom line here is that Google is a business. Software engineers don't dictate company policy to CEOs; and they especially don't disrupt the entire organization from within and without. They design software: that's what they're paid to do. As an employee, Damore's actions were completely unacceptable.
And that is really the issue here. This not a censorship or free-speech issue because Damore was fired for his actions, not his words. Vox Day, in his usual dishonest way, ran a poll on Twitter asking whether or not respondents thought there was an problem with Google's diversity policy. That's not even a relevant question to what Damore did.
It's time to get a grip on reality. Damore is no martyr; he did something stupid and got fired for it. Think of this: did Damore face losing his job before he published this manifesto? Of course not. Google didn't care about his opinions as long as he produced software---nor should they have cared. But Damore used his opinions to harm the company and that's another matter.
Anarchists and Communists believe in Labor overthrowing company leadership from within: Conservatives do not.
Jeff Sessions is on the hunt once again. A pair of communiques from DOJ and HHS officials (again ignored by the Corporate Media) announced that their joint task force wiped out a major drug-trafficking ring in Central California.
Seven clinics were raided and shut down and twelve of the ringleaders of the network were taken into custody---including the top man, Encino gangster 'Maserati Mike' Matosyan.
Matosyan was running a particularly brazen scam. He hired corrupt doctors to operate clinics he controlled and write fake Opioid prescriptions to drug dealers. Obamacare got billed and furnished the dope that Matosyan's henchmen turned and sold for a profit on the streets.
As a bonus to this good news, Matosyan's high-priced defense attorney, Fred Minassian of Glendale was also among those arrested. According to the indictment, "After a load of Vicodin was seized from one of the conspiracy's major customers, Matosyan allegedly oversaw the creation of fake paperwork in an effort to make it appear that the drugs were legitimately prescribed. Intercepted conversations between Matosyan and Minassian revealed that they strategized on how to deceive law enforcement, which included a plan to bribe a doctor to lie to investigators."
If there ever was a news story that illustrated the need for swamp-draining this is it. Frederick Manning---a Santa Ana drug-pusher caught in the dragnet---was buying a 1,000 pills a week at taxpayer expense. The gang seems to have operated mostly in the Los Angeles Metro Area. Los Angeles County Supervisors met last week to initiate a new program to deal with the Opioid Crisis. According to testimony given at the meeting, drug overdoses are the 4th leading cause of premature death in Los Angeles County.
Incidentally, public records show that Minassian was a donor to Democrat candidates in 2016. Surprise, surprise.
One of the characteristics of all cults is that they try to isolate their followers from as much interaction with 'outsiders' as possible. They especially target one's connections to religious institutions. Personal faith is a person's last defense against false teachings.
Blogger InsanityBytes had an interesting article today concerning some Manosphere Red Pill cultists and their project to recruit unsuspecting Christian couples into their perverted philosophy. They do this---as many other cults do---by camouflaging their organizations, literature and so forth behind a veneer of being mainstream. But cutting off their disciples from the cultural mainstream is their ultimate intention.
Several bloggers on the political Left have noticed this same trend, though their Leftist outlook leaves them unable to understand the full ramifications of these trends among the Red Pill leaders. It's not simply a matter of converting from one belief to another. As the author of the project that InsanityBytes says: "There's pretty much zero literature out there now on the Truth about the natures of men and women from the Bible. Dalrock has pretty much exposed every pastor for pandering to and pedestalizing wives in marriage." In other words, they hold that all other churches are in some way corrupted, or converged, to use their terminology.
The point is that this cultish isolationism doesn't stop with organized religion. The Red Pill cultists have been kicked out of nearly every social venue on the Internet: Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, Youtube, Patreon, and many others. Now of course they claim this is censorship by these organizations (or by the Jews) who fear the 'truth' being revealed. The reality is that they've gotten themselves banned for continual violations of Terms of Use. Often this includes things like doxxing, spamming, harassment, etc.
In the most recent flap, Tim Treadstone, an especially obnoxious Red Pill troll who writes under the name Baked Alaska, was banned from Go Fund Me for trying to raise funds to organize a White Supremacist rally. Treadstone was quite indignant that the website owners should object to their resource being employed for such purposes. So Mr. Alaska was running around denouncing them and encouraging his disciples to boycott Go Fund Me in favor of WeSearchr, a Red Pill Cult front posing as a crowdsourcing site.
This is part of the cultish isolationist trend. More and more the Red Pill cultists are not only steering their followers away from Church and Family, but encouraging them to cut off social networking contacts as well. Gab, Hatreon, VOAT, RootBocks, are some of the other front-groups where cultists can interact among themselves; sort of a 'safe space' where 'unbelievers' don't challenge the Red Pill leaders' antisocial beliefs.
They have other front-groups as well: Castalia House and Infogalactic; both projects of Vox Day's to circumvent legitimate publishers. And no doubt many other such schemes are in the works.
Some may argue: yes, but in a free market, haven't the cultists as much right to compete for audiences as everybody else? The answer is: they have, but we have just as great a right---and a responsibility---to expose their scams for what they really are.
The whole flaw in the Red Pill's approach is what they call controlling the narrative. Many Conservatives erroneously believe this is a correct approach as well. The truth is that the 'narrative' is a myth. It's an idea imported from Cultural Marxism and based on their theory that facts are relative concepts. There are facts and there are falsehoods, and the truth doesn't need to be 'redefined' or 'spun'. Facts simply are facts and misinformation is not countered with contrary misinformation. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" is a proverb that rarely works out in actual practice.
Few Americans are familiar with the African nation of Malawi. A landlocked country of 16 million people in subtropical Africa, the country rarely gets much international press. The reason for this is that the Corporate Media only focuses on negative news and not much of this comes from Malawi. The country actually attracts a decent number of tourists; safari hunters and tropical explorers, mostly. Malawi also has beautiful beaches along freshwater Lake Nyasa which is filled with exotic tropical fish.
The news story from that country today has to do with this very issue. Recently, Catholic media began expanding into the country and earlier this week Information Minister Nicholas Dausi visited one of the highest-rated radio studios where he praised Catholic media efforts and pledged continued government support.
Dausi spoke to a crowd at St. Mary's Parish in Karonga. He thanked the local bishops for their efforts to elevate cultural standards and challenged the crowd not to "sink to being brought down by continual negativity" such as the Western Media imports into the nation. Bishop Mtumbuka held a Mass that afternoon, which Dausi attended. During his sermon the Bishop stated that
"I would like to challenge media outlets and those working within them to be more professional. We thank God for the gift of all communication tools. However, we are challenging ourselves to use them more effectively. We can do much better than we are doing with our media. Let us offer the message of Faith for the Glory of God and the development of our nation."
Visiting Bishop George Tambala also spoke at the Mass. "Pope Francis challenges us all to break the vicious cycle of anxiety and stem the spiral of fear that results from a constant focus on bad news such as war, terrorism, scandals, and all sorts of human failures. Francis' recent message challenges that all media practitioners should search for an open and creative style of communication that never seeks to glorify evil. Instead, we should concentrate on solutions and seek to inspire a positive and responsible response on the part of media recipients."
ETWN reported this story but---for obvious reasons---the US Mainstream Media mostly slunk away from it in disgraced shame. And this isn't even the first time that Malawi's cultural elites have made ours look like complete chumps. The difference is simply that Malawi is striving to put the Christian social ideal into actual practice; something that our society used to do. It should be noted that Malawi's crime rate is actually lower than the US, as is their divorce rate. They also have such a insignificant drug abuse problem that WHO doesn't even list Malawi as an 'at-risk' country, unlike the US. This in spite of the fact that their GDP is far lower than ours.
Maybe there's actually something to this whole idea of 'faith-based' government after all.
In the recent (and evidently ongoing) controversy between Manosophere Red Pill Cult writer Dalrock and Protestant minister and apologist Doug Wilson, it has been enlightening to read the commentaries following each exchange. There is an unbelievable amount of spiritual confusion among the various writers over issues that shouldn't be of any controversy at all.
Whom Pastor Wilson terms the Dalrockians,---though Dalrock actually represents a wider cult and its teachings---should not be taken as spiritual authorities on anything. Their doctrines are deeply Gnostic and anti-Christian. Now in the current controversy, which has to do with Biblical gender roles, the Red Pills make their position clear. Dalrock himself has written that a husband's 'obligation' to love his wife involves neither faith nor the heart. He has also written that the cruel tactics of PUA/Game should be employed by husbands to enforce submission. He has also written that wives must submit even to the will of sinful husbands.
The problem here is that Dalrock and the other Red Pills have taken on the Feminist position of 'gender roles' whereas what the Church actually teaches is Gender Polarity. Feminine submission is a not a negative thing in Christianity---it's part of complimentary system of equals. As Pope John Paul II taught: "Aquinas offers a very simple yet profound truth: we humans, who need fulfillment simply because we are limited, needy, deficient in our very being can find fulfillment only with that which is other than ourselves. And that union can come in only one way: through a very special kind of Love which is based in self-giving."
John Paul's words are completely repugnant to those who fetishize the 'Alpha' male and who define gender relations strictly upon physical sexuality. The 'Dalrockian' position can lead only to abuse: and many of these Red Pills have sunk to such depths of blasphemy that they've begun speaking of White Sharia as Christian social policy. Not only is it a grave error to import Islamic theology into Christianity, the Red Pills' writings on the subject seem to draw heavily on teachings of the Wahhabi and Salafist cults who are considered heretics, or Takfiri, by Islamic religious leaders.
Andrew Anglin, of The Daily Stormer---whom I believed actually coined the 'White Sharia' term wrote a piece recently illustrating the depths to which Dalrockian Theology will sink if drawn to its logical conclusions. Anglin is considered a Christian by these types, yet he praises the vicious murder of Celine Dookrhan, an Indian woman killed in Britain by Arab immigrants for dating an Arab man.
"The men who did it were defending their race, and as extreme and as gross as the act was you have to feel some respect for them." Anglin expounds, "So I'm just going to throw this out there: Imagine if White men cared this much about their own women race-mixing."
Celine Dookrhan, aged 19, was literally butchered by these two thugs. Anglin fantasizes that Christian men should demonstrate the same level of barbarity.
"I'm certainly not implying that White men should be kidnapping White female race-mixers, raping them and chopping them up and shoving them in freezers for f------g Niggers. Although, honestly, I wouldn't feel bad if that happened, it is more than our women would require to get back in line."
Fine Christian stuff, this. No wonder at least three recent infamous murderers were readers of Anglin's blog. Anglin, though, says he doesn't recommend such violence, but does give specific advice to his disciples on "how to shame these whores in public." We'll spare our readers the details; but the point is that a Christian relationship without polarity is not a Biblical relationship at all. It can only lead to abuse---either domestically as Dalrock promotes or socially as Anglin does. Or more likely, both.
Six months have now elapsed since President Trump took office in late January. The US Media and the phony 'Resistance' has done its best to cloud as many issues as possible. But what about an objective assessment of things?
For those of us who had some reservations about Trump's character during the Election, the Administration has turned out to be a pleasant surprise. In general, Trump has done exceptionally well on domestic and social issues. Economic issues are being stalled by RINOs in Congress, but are going in the right direction. Foreign policy has been problematic. Still, that's a 66% improvement over the last four Administrations combined.
Even in Foreign Policy, it would be wrong to say that Trump has been a failure. Though he's made several mistakes, he seems to be learning from them. He won major trade agreements with Mexico and with China that will boost enormously US agriculture. Setting up the CED Summits with China was a diplomatic master-stroke. His greatest challenge in the future vis-Ã -vis other countries will come from the Neocons and Cultural Imperialists within his own party.
On domestic issues, we've seen great strides, with several new commissions set up to address specific problems. At the beginning of last month, we wrote of an advisory board commissioned to advice on rebuilding our space program. We concluded with an article reviewing another commission's report on fighting the Opioid Epidemic. Those are two examples of national issues that our past leaders long ignored.
'Swamp Draining' is making some definite progress. Except in the State Department, CIA, and Pentagon, the Administration has been sweeping out useless bureaucrats and jailing corrupt ones at a fairly respectable rate. And among the general public, criminal gangs have been getting ferreted out---especially foreign-run ones like MS-13 and Al-Qaeda. Medicare, VA, and Social Security fraud are facing crackdowns. Several shady NGOs---some funded by arch-criminal George Soros---have had their government subsidies and contracts suspended.
An area that still need some work is in Public Education. Betsey DeVos has some good ideas, but we've really seen little activity from the Department of Education.
On economic issues, most of these like repealing Obamacare, tax reform, and rebuilding infrastructure are moving forward, but slowly. This isn't wholly the Administration's fault: the Congress controls spending and the RINOs have been blocking reform. One thing that Administration should be doing in the meantime is curbing inflation by strengthening the dollar. That's been happening to an extent, but the dollar needs to rise substantially and sustainably.
The Pentagon is still a disaster-area. This is probably really going to take a new Defense Secretary who has the innovation and courage to reform the Military. The TG ban was a good start.
The Trump Administration also deserves credit for raising public awareness on a number of issues---most notably exposing the true character of the Mainstream Media. He's also brought attention to issues like international Christian persecution, and the social crimes of euthanasia and abortion.
It's difficult to gauge accurately the public mood because of Media bias. However, there has been a noticeable rise in confidence among working-class Americans, both blue and white collar. This is the group that really matters.
Finally, a word should be said for MAWGA. Melania, Ivanka, and Tiffany have been making femininity chic again. The atmosphere around White House women is refreshing to see again---after years of having feminism and rainbow-flags shoved in our faces. Again, because of media bias, it's hard to gauge their influence. But Melania has gained a very large popular following in North America and Europe. Ivanka is very popular in Asia; especially in China where she's gained celebrity status among young Chinese women.
Definitely, things have improved since 2016. The Elites, the permanent malcontents on the Far Left, and the four-flushers on the Whacko Right will continue to stir up problems. We're not out of the woods yet, by any means. But things are looking up for a change. We need to stay the course and keep pushing forward.
Since its establishment last March, the White House Commission on the Opioid Crisis has been working on an official report which was sent to President Trump today. The findings were more severe than many originally believed: they were bad enough that the Commission's top recommendation is declare a National Health Emergency.
Statics from 2016 found that Opioid overdoses kill an average of 91 Americans per day. The Commission found that this number is averaging 142 per day already for 2017. This is over 4,000 casualties per month; and if the current numbers hold, nearly as many Americans this year will die from Opioid Narcosis as were killed during the entirety of the Vietnam War.
The report also didn't mince words about the culpability of Big Pharma in this epidemic. They noted that Opioid prescription rates and the rates of addiction are directly proportional. Two-thirds of Opioid deaths are from commercially manufactured narcotics--- Fentanyl, Percodan, and Oxycodone---along with the synthetic street-drug Heroin. "We have an enormous problem that is not beginning on street-corners; but often in the doctor's office and hospitals." the report read.
In its natural state, Opium is not (relatively speaking) an especially dangerous substance. It has strong medicinal properties as a sedative, pain-killer, and curative for respiratory diseases. But when concentrated into these synthetic compounds, it is extremely dangerous.
One of the reasons that Opioids are particularly prone to causing death by overdose is because they gradually build tolerance while not alleviating the addiction. For example, regular use of Heroin builds a need for stronger and stronger doses with continued use. Opioid addicts will literally go insane if deprived of the drug and will not stop even at murder to obtain it. Last week a doctor in Indiana was gunned down by an addict for refusing to write an Opioid prescription.
Opioid addiction also causes long-term physical damage, especially to the respiratory and digestive organs. In the latter, internal hemorrhaging is not uncommon. Opioid overdose is not a pleasant way to die. It generally results in pulmonary-respiratory collapse wherein the victim literally suffocates from the inside out. The drug Naloxone is an antidote for Opioid poisoning, and the Commission recommended funding for all EMT units and police departments to have access to it in an emergency.
The Commission called upon President Trump to declare a national emergency under the Public Health Service Act or the Stafford Act. The former of these was signed into law by President Roosevelt in 1944 and would give the Federal Government greater powers of coordination with states to fight the epidemic. The latter would extend Federal powers to states similar to those in disaster relief situations.
This is an example of why we really needed to end the rule of the Deep State. Until Trump's Administration, government at every level was in complete denial about this problem. Now it's become a legitimate national crisis. The casualty rate is bad enough; but often what's not told in statistics are the numbers of collateral victims. Thefts and assaults committed to sustain the habit; families hurt by an addicted relative; the taxpayer cost in social welfare programs; diseases spread by addicts' lifestyles; and the general drain of community livability standards---none of this can be calculated.
But Big Pharma does a lot of calculating---all the way to the bank. And the cash they flood into political campaigns will ensure that Congress will never act. Hence the need for Trump to follow the Commission's recommendation and declare a State of Emergency.
