Month: May 2020

Every little thing gonna be alright

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

My favourite leftie blogger, the venerable Phil Ebersole, had a rant in which he bemoaned the state of the world.  As our senior, he has every right to do that.  In fact, it’s his duty.

However, in this post I’m going to respectfully outline the positives.  There are problems, but some are not so catastrophic as they seem.

U.S. domestic policy is steered by a selfish financial oligarchy, which we can call the neoliberals.

I would not quite call them neoliberals – crony capitalists have the upper hand – but the point is taken.  No honest person would argue with the term ‘selfish financial oligarchy’.

However, the US and much of the West have always Read More

Word from the Dark Side – lawless California, lockdown origin story, and laying into the Wayback Machine.

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

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Hi, kids.

I’m not in general a fan of David Cole, but this piece is great for clearly outlining where California is on its path to anarcho-tyranny.  Despite all the evidence in the world, authorities refuse to arrest a thief caught on camera.  But if a normally law-abiding person goes to the beach, watch out!

Over in Eritrea, just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, guess what?  Read More

Girl’s-eye view

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

https://montereybayholistic.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/woman-flying.png

What’s a girl to do?

Mostly they don’t really think about it as they’re adapted to make sexual decisions on a limbic level, especially when young.  But let’s say an 18-year-old outlier got red pilled and saw things as they are: a short window of opportunity before smashing into a world of cats.  What would she do?  Put yourself in her shoes.

She has two, competing instincts.  One is to Read More

The anatomy of a bad idea

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

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Don’t get me wrong, I reckon Duterte is one of the best presidents the Philippines has ever had.  He’s not particularly corrupt, and whatever he does, he does for his people.  Crime rates are way down, everywhere.  Until Covid, business was booming.  Bureaucrats were behaving themselves, often too terrified to even demand bribes.  And let’s not forget that it was Duterte’s will that helped the government win back control over Marawi.

The trouble with benevolent dictators is, they start to think they know everything.  Power corrupts in the sense that it makes them overconfident, and unwilling to listen to sound advice or take criticism.

So you get what we had here this week: Read More

The 5 levels of financial freedom

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

https://whytoread.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/financial-independence.jpg

This is an extract from my book, The Poor Man’s Guide to Financial Freedom: A Realistic, 10-Step Manual to Building Liberating Wealth on a Low to Medium Income.

This is not a get-rich-quick guide.  It does not require business genius, crazy risk taking or complicated financial techniques.  It is a step-by-step, layman’s guide for organizing your money, getting ahead and reaching your goals.

This book is not a replacement for getting professional advice.  In fact, there is a whole chapter devoted to how to find a good financial advisor and how to get the most value from that advice.

A word of caution: this book is not a genie in a bottle that, upon reading, will magically grant your wish for financial freedom.  To get any benefit from the book you will need to Read More

Hysteria is fun

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

Image

When I was in Grade 2 at Nillemah North Primary School, a black-clad man walked past the playground at lunchtime.  He was wearing a mask and carrying a gun and a sword.  I didn’t see him myself but many others did, and word spread across the playground like a bushfire – skeptical teachers were checking the bushland banks and the perimeter, kids were all a-flap as they shared their stories, girls were crying in terror – the whole phenomenon went on for weeks, coming and going like malaria.

Fast forward to Grade 6, the boys in my class were having a birthday sleepover.  Long after we were supposed to be asleep but were talking about which girls we fancied and who was the coolest Ninja Turtle, the topic of the Man in Black came up.  For a while we tut-tutted how our teachers didn’t believe us, even though there were so many witnesses.  Then I asked quite innocently, which of you saw him, again, with your own eyes? Read More

Twitocracy

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

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Yes, you all saw the story.  The UK’s Mr Lockdown, Neil Ferguson, resigned from his role as health tyrant after being caught breaking his own rules – by banging a married woman on the sly.

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Ho hum, you thought.  Just another one of our hypocritical overlords making a fool of himself.  But digging deeper, we can learn a lot from this case.

Charles Murray was wrong.  Our overlords are not a cognitive elite.  They are a Twitocracy – ‘rule by twits’, and they are appointed by strange means we shall investigate.

For a while, higher education and the professions really did reflect IQ, and selective breeding among the elite genetically reinforced it.  However, universities now select for Read More

Lady writers

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

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Breathtakingly cheeky book review of several books I have mostly not finished, including To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, and Tirra Lirra by Jessica Anderson.

 

I looked at several ‘greatest books’ compilations in order to get a stack of stuff to read in YouTubeLess Africa, and Virginia Woolf’s name kept popping up.

Orright, orright, says I, and I got a collection of her books for a buck.

The most highly recommended one was To the Lighthouse, so I started there.

I’m about a quarter of the way through and Read More

Messages from exes

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

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Blokes are simple.  If a fellah messages an ex-girlfriend after all the CDs are returned and tearful ‘why did you leave meees’ are done, then either he is reporting an STD diagnosis or he wants a shag – almost always the latter.

Women are also easy to read once you know how, but the options are different.  If it is not an STD or a pregnancy, then she either Read More

Mad Dog Bridge

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

https://i2.wp.com/ih3.redbubble.net/image.6232198.6245/flat,550x550,075,f.jpg

Now for something completely different.  Rather than write a story, I found one.  From open source and archive material.

Police interview transcript obtained under the Victorian Freedom of Information Act 1982 and reproduced here under Public Interest provisions.  Edited for clarity and readability. 

While no details from this transcript are subject to privacy regulations, I have chosen to change some names and locations in order to avoid unwanted attention for those affected.

 

Waratah Police Station, March 19th, 1991, 3:45 p.m.

CORCORAN:

This interview is being tape recorded.  I am Detective Seargant James Corcoran from the Homicide Squad.  Present are my colleague Senior Constable Sarah Baker, based at Waratah Police Station, Person of Interest Trevor Barnum, and his solicitor, Ms Jane Huld.

I remind Mr Barnum that he is here voluntarily, and has the right to remain silent.  Mr. Barnum, do you understand?

HULD:

My client understands.

CORCORAN:

We are interviewing all persons connected with your wife, Mrs Tracy Barnum, in order to determine why she has gone missing and her present safety and whereabouts.  Local officers have already spoken to you, but now that she’s been missing for some days, the Homicide Squad has been brought in to conduct further investigation, and we’ll need to ask you some questions that you may have already been asked.  Please tell us the whole story of your wife’s disappearance, starting wherever you think most appropriate.

HULD:

My client has no comment at this time.

BARNUM:

Yes, I bloody well do.

HULD:

No, he does not.  I instruct my client to make no comment.

CORCORAN:

Ms. Huld, do you need more time to confer with your client?

BARNUM:

No, she doesn’t.  I told her Read More

Peaceful sites of slaughter

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

https://refreshingginger.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/killing-fields-lake.png

I have always liked cemeteries.  Aside from the historical interest, I find them peaceful and calming places.  They are of course quiet.  The trees are tall and one can hear them in the breeze.  In outback, you’ll occasionally see dinosaur-like goannas disappearing into broken tombstones at the approach of a stranger.  I like that.

I’ve encountered the same phenomenon in Read More

Can you depend on a government pension?

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

https://www.dailydot.com/wp-content/uploads/a51/2a/5cb8bc331ed30c19fc7b5911d236a1d4.jpg

This is an extract from my book, The Poor Man’s Guide to Financial Freedom: A Realistic, 10-Step Manual to Building Liberating Wealth on a Low to Medium Income.

Some people assume they don’t need to save for retirement because their country has a national pension system.  They might also be expecting a pension from a government agency like the police department, fire service or board of education.  In addition, some people think they’ll never need an emergency fund because the government can help out with unemployment benefits, public health coverage, and anything else they may need.  Let’s see what The Poor Man’s Guide to Financial Freedom has to say about that:

But won’t the government look after you?

Don’t bank on it.

We’ll come back to social security in a moment, but first consider this:

Imagine there’s a tiny island nation in the Pacific.  Let’s call it Bananastan.  It being a very quiet place, with most people meeting their economic needs through fishing and subsistence farming, not much trade takes place.  In fact, over the whole of 2019 the only goods and services paid for were: Read More

The evolutionary impact of modernity

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2000/0*dOB0m-ejm_MFPyXw.

The evolution of Homo Sapiens is still taking place.  It will not end until we are extinct.

That almost everybody now survives to adulthood does not alter the fact of evolution, though it does change the way that it happens.  Unless every man and woman has exactly 2.1 children, the species will be pulled in one direction or another.  And even under that unlikely scenario, genetic drift would occur.

Not everybody is breeding, and those that are, are having different numbers of children.  Much has been made of such continental differences, and high immigrant fertility rates, but less consideration has been given to in-group reproductive phenomena.

First, who is not dying in their infancy these days, who previously would have?

People like Read More

12 Covid Questions

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

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There are too many commentators pontificating about what we should or shouldn’t be doing with Corona-chan.  These are much smarter people than I am, but unfortunately they don’t agree with each other.

If I didn’t know better, I’d conclude that no one knows nuffin.

A mid-wit like me should stay out of the debate.  Rather, here are some issues I’ve been pondering that I haven’t seen any clear answers to.  Perhaps these might help focus the debate between you clever people:

1.  Sure, North Asian countries like Taiwan and South Korea seem to be limiting infections very well.  Corona’s just about wiped out in Australia and New Zealand.  However, my question is: what next?

These countries can’t close their borders forever.  Won’t they just get infected in a year or two after other countries have buried their dead and become immune?

2.  Perhaps the ‘exterminationist’ countries are waiting for herd immunity to be achieved everywhere else, kind of like how Bill Gates Read More

How does Tedros manipulate the WHO?

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

https://www.unseenopp.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/who.jpg

Part 1: Trust WHO?

Part 2: Who the hell is Tedros?

Part 3: How did China wrest control of the WHO?

Enter Tedros

As you know from Part 2, Tedros was a high-ranking member of the brutal TPLF junta that ruled Ethiopia for many years.  He was largely backed by African nations, while his main British rival was backed by the West.

There are reports that Chinese officials lobbied on Tedros’ behalf, largely using the carrot of aid.  They leveraged their African votes to get him elected. These efforts were probably essential, because his interview for the job was so embarrassing that it was treated as a joke in his home country.  YouTube, would you believe, has taken the clip down – but I found it!  One of the questions is hard to hear but the others are straightforward.  I’ve seen this before: Third World apparatchiks are terrible at answering questions because Read More

How China wrested control of the WHO

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

https://www.epsilontheory.com/wp-content/uploads/tedros-and-xi-2.jpg

Part 1: Trust WHO?

Part 2: Who the hell is Tedros?

Background

There is nothing new about nations or groups of nations gaining control of UN bodies in order to further their own interests.  For example, the US has tried to exercise control over the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to ensure it finds in Syria just what America wants it to find.  They managed to kick out a former OPCW director general when his approach conflicted with US plans to invade Iraq.

The US once dominated the WHO to such an extent that controversies led the Soviet Union to walk out, from 1949 to 1956.  When it rejoined, it cooperated with the US and the WHO to help eradicate smallpox.

With its growing power, China has been seeking to extend its own influence across many domains, and part of this effort has included a push to increase its control over traditionally Western-dominated, international agencies.  One of those it targeted was the World Health Organization.

Why the WHO?  This is asking the wrong question.  China is pushing its soft power Read More