Author Archives: Raizen

Is Xbox losing out of consoles?

When it was announced that Halo was coming to Playstation, it didn’t really come as a shock. We’ve been seeing it coming for weeks. What’s more, the news comes weeks after Microsoft announced their new pricing for Game Pass, which faced immense backlash for how high the price was for what was offered in return, and was an obvious attempt to keep the Xbox financially steady.

And through it all, there have been rumors going around of retail outlets no longer stocking Xbox consoles, though it seems that may have been a bit exaggerated.

But still, it seems as though Microsoft is quietly looking for ways to allow Xbox to fail out of the console war, while keeping Xbox alive as a brand. The first not-so-subtle hint was with the “This is an Xbox” ad campaign, which touted the ability of non-Xbox hardware to play Xbox games, which kinda renders an Xbox system itself superfluous.

People are speaking of the console wars as though they’re over, but that’s technically not true, as Sony and Nintendo are still in the race. But the two are so different from one another that they aren’t much seen as direct competitors.

But what’s potentially vexing is that old media, particularly news outlets, might take the Xbox failing out to mean that no one is interested in consoles anymore, even though Playstation 5 has an install base in the tens of millions, and the new Switch 2 is still flying off shelves.

While this can be chalked up to old media being out of touch, the likely reason why corporate media would use Xbox as a bellwether for interest in consoles is because the American company Microsoft is more likely to be a corporate sponsor than Japanese companies such as Sony or Nintendo. It’s another example of the world making more sense when you factor in incentives.

Yet, in the history of video games, a bias against Japanese companies is sadly relevant. When video games were invented, they were an American invention. And for a long while, the American company Atari was the market leader. However, a bunch of poor business decisions on the part of Atari had led to a crash in the video game market, and it was the Japanese company Nintendo, and later the Japanese company Sega, who would step up to the plate.

However, the timing wasn’t altogether great for Nintendo, as Japanese companies, particularly those that made electronics, were widely regarded with suspicion by American lawmakers. The reason? The Japanese economy was thriving, particularly due to Japanese electronics, to the point of Japan briefly becoming the world’s number 2 economy. And there was concern that Japan could have unseated the U.S. as the world’s dominant economy.

This turned out to not be the case. But at the time, it got to the point that American lawmakers expressed their displeasure by publicly destroying Japanese consumer electronics. They also accused Nintendo of price fixing, an accusation which was repeated by the corporate information media, even though the accusation had no weight to it.

By now, you could probably guess it was Democrats.

It was into this environment that Sony came along with their Playstation, further cementing the console market for the Japanese.

By the time Microsoft came along with their Xbox, it was a valid question whether an American company could thrive in a market which was dominated by the Japanese. And, as it turns out, they were able to carve out a niche, for a while. Except in Japan, where Xbox consoles basically just participated.

As far as my opinion of the Xbox goes, it depends on which of their consoles we’re talking about. The first one didn’t interest me. For one thing, it didn’t really have much to play, and while it was consensus that Halo was a great game, it seemed like people said so just because so many other people said so. Microsoft put a lot into Xbox’s X-treme brand image, including partnerships with Mountain Dew and Taco Bell. Coming from any other brand, the cringe would be unreal. But because it’s Microsoft we’re talking about here, the “hello fellow children” vibes were off the charts.

It was against our own better judgment that the original Xbox outsold the GameCube, even if just barely. People really will fall for shallow marketing.

When Microsoft made the Xbox 360, it actually seemed respectable. I still didn’t get one. Putting aside what Nintendo made, which you would go for if you’re a fan of what they do, Microsoft was up against the PS3. Microsoft didn’t do much to differentiate the 360 from the PS3, the latter of which seemed a better choice, even if from the perspective of finding an established brand safer. Also, as much as we picked on the PS3 back in the day, after the slim model was made, it became a great system.

Then there’s Xbox One. It had a great controller, which I’ve used to play PC games up until recently. That’s about it.

And that brings us to the current Xbox consoles, the Xbox Series X/S. I kept forgetting that those ones even existed. Even when talking about video games, it just hardly comes up, even as Xbox failing out of consoles is topical.

As choices, we have Nintendo, who delights us with imaginative interactive worlds and novel hardware features, and we have Sony, whose console is a multimedia powerhouse. Compared to them, Microsoft with their Xbox Series systems are about as fun as an ESG score.

So, what is the future of Xbox? Who knows? Even if it’s hard to imagine them attempting with another console, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t going to do so, anyway. Remember that Microsoft is the company that got rich, not by making something innovative, but because Bill Gates thought like a lawyer and got a big idea from Xerox. As they are now, Microsoft has a lot more money than sense, and there’s no telling just how much more investors are willing to put up with.

I might have made this comparison before, but Xbox is kind of like that guy who stays seated at a poker table for a long time, not because he’s any good at it (because he’s not), but because he approached the table with an immense pile of chips, and the intermittent victory allows him to convince himself to remain around for just a little while more.

When a Halo game was announced for Playstation, it was as though that poker player started to think he was playing Go Fish, and he let another player take the best card in his hand.

Another truck driving illegal immigrant has caused more fatalities.

When it comes to this kind of thing, someone usually asks “are we sick of this yet?” But at this point, the answer is obvious. Yes, we are sick of this.

An illegal immigrant who was employed as a truck driver was driving under the influence in the state of California. He approached an intersection at full speed, without slowing down, rear-ending multiple vehicles, killing multiple people in the process, and injuring a few others.

We have dash cam footage of the incident, which follows.

Content Warning: Snuff film.

The first car that was struck crumpled as fast as an aluminum can under a giant piston. It almost seemed as though it vanished from existence as the truck continued into the next truck in front of it. The poor people inside probably had no idea who or what turned them into boiling strawberry jam.

The driver of the commercial truck, the one person who did not deserve to survive, somehow actually did, in spite of the flaming wreckage that he caused.

Here is the loser, Jashanpreet Singh:

Singh was an illegal immigrant who was apprehended by the Biden administration in 2022. Apparently, they apprehend him for no  reason in particular, because they just released him back into the United States.

Yes, the inside of the United States, after he was apprehended, and it was determined that he should not be here.

“What’s that, Jashanpreet? Your hobbies are commercial truck driving and drinking booze, preferably at the same time? I’m going to pretend that I didn’t hear that. Now go on, you skamp! Right back into our country with you, so you can go on to do whatever the hell it is that you’ll end up doing!”

But instead of cleaning toilets for less than a living wage, Jashanpreet went on to commit multiple vehicular homicides.

Fast fact about driving in India: They do not have the same road rules that we have over here. In India, driving is basically a Battle Royale.

As you may remember, it was only about two months ago that another Indian driver caused a fatal accident when attempting an illegal U-turn in the state of Florida. That driver, named Harjinder Singh, was previously detained for deportation in 2019, but was allowed to stay simply because he was afraid to return to his home country.

Because no one that the left cares about was killed in either incident, they’re going to go right on pretending that there isn’t a problem.

Again, the question isn’t “are we sick of this yet?” Because yes, we are sick of it. The question is, “Are we going to do something about it?” Because until we do, it’s not going to make a difference whether we’ve learned our lesson, because until we send home the people who aren’t supposed to be here, we can expect people to continue getting killed by those very same illegal immigrants who don’t respect our laws or cultures.

For that to be more obvious, more people have to die. We shouldn’t want that, but the people who we take issue with just don’t care. And that’s exactly why they shouldn’t determine policy.

Can we really expect any better out of those who consent to the violent deaths of those who might oppose them?

Joshua Jahn: Remembered For Failure

Today’s subject of ridicule is so inept, that I don’t even know where to begin. I hope that doesn’t mean that his ineptitude is contagious. Though if I’m experiencing the symptoms of my own ineptitude, there’s no need to panic, because caffeine usually helps with that. Also, I couldn’t fail as hard as the ass clown in question if I tried.

Who is he? The attempted “Anti ICE” sniper, Joshua Jahn.

Wow, he’s got the “sits in the back row playing on his MacBook” look down. A spokesman for the University of Texas stated that someone with his name and date of birth briefly attended a decade ago, so it seems he was a one-semester kid, which is consistent with the “the lights are on but nobody’s home” look on his dumb face.

So, what did he do? Notice how I called him the attempted “Anti ICE” sniper above? That wasn’t an accident, because he failed unbelievably fucking hard.

Because people like him try to make a name for themselves, I’m going to do what I have fun doing and take away his name, and replace it with a derisive nickname. The new name for his gravestone is Dim Shot.

Now, Dim Shot is not one of those snipers from your grand-daddy’s generation, he’s one of those new-fangled snipers who would write his entire manifesto on his shell casings if he had the space or the skill. But he didn’t, so he had to settle for writing “ANTI ICE” on just one of the shell casings, in all caps, and just wrote the rest down on notebook paper.

The gun that killed people was an 8mm bolt action rifle which Dim Shot purchased legally in August. The gun was taken into custody.

On Wednesday, September 24, 2025, Dim Shot positioned himself on a rooftop near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office. As ICE agents were unloading detainees from a vehicle, Dim Shot opened fire upon the ICE agents.

Reportedly he had intended to maximize the damage to the ICE facility, and to its personnel. But just because he was trying, doesn’t mean he knew how. Dim Shot had completely missed ICE agents, and had instead hit detainees, killing one and injuring two.

You know, the very people he was attempting to fight for.

Dim Shot then fired off one last shot, and once again, he missed completely, unless the target was his own face. In which case, he finally managed to not completely fail at something.

Supposedly, Dim Shot did his research beforehand. Which I would have imagined would have involved cranking it to cartoon ponies between looking up ICE facility locations and their hours of operations, but it seems he downloaded a list of ICE facilities, and searched apps that tracked ICE agents, which have been promoted by leftists who deliberately endangered federal agents in so doing.

Also, he looked up video of the murder of Charlie Kirk. Apparently, he admired the handiwork of a furry-adjacent terrorist who got tired of beating off on his own, so he found a male in a dress to do it for him. The left has some shitty heroes.

You ready for the chilling words of a terrorist, straight from his manifesto? Actually, a shitty-ass note he left behind? Fear:

“Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, ‘is there a sniper with AP rounds on that roof?”

Slow clap. The slowest fucking clap. Ain’t no clap slow enough, or sarcastic enough. Dim Shot was so effective at fucking over the people he set out to serve, he may as well have worked in government. At least he would have been paid to fail so hard.

In a stunning exhibition of the Dunning-Kruger effect, Dim Shot attributed his plan to his own genius mind:

“Yes, it was just me and my brain,”

And what a brain it was. I can just imagine scientists lining up to study what of it was left.

Now, ABC News wanted to pass on to us that Dim Shot liked playing video games, like anyone outside of the Amish community. Hey thanks ABC News, we care. Among the games that Dim Shot sucked at were Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Rust. Not the same Rust where [joke redacted so Alec Baldwin doesn’t sue].

He also had a Reddit account, with which he expressed interest in smoking marijuana. And now we know where he got his strategic mind, and how his aim got so sharp.

In closing, he sucked.

Feminists have the opportunity to congratulate Japan’s first ever Female Prime Minister!

Sanae Takaichi

Japan has just officially confirmed a freshly elected Prime Minister. And what’s more, she’s the first ever women to hold the position in Japan’s history!

Now, if you’re wondering why feminists aren’t celebrating, it’s because they don’t actually want women to succeed, they’re just political grifters.

Senae Takaichi is a member of Japan’s Liberal Democratic party. Upon hearing the party name, one in the west might assume that she’s on the left. Not really, because Japan’s Liberal Democratic party is basically similar to the west’s conservatives. She is a predecessor of fellow party member and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in 2022.

Yet another conservative that was assassinated. This really needs to stop happening.

Senae is largely considered to be Japan’s Donald Trump. She has opposed mass migration into Japan, which was intended to bring in cheap labor to help offset the effects of Japan’s aging population. She is considered to be bombastic by Japanese standards, and was previously an avid motorcyclist and heavy metal drummer. Yes, seriously.

It’s pretty clear that Takaichi’s election is the latest expression in a growing global trend that resists mass migration, particularly from cultures that don’t have much respect for the host culture, with some migrants expressing a clear desire to supplant the host culture.

It was only within the last couple days that Ireland had exploded into riots (“the language of the unheard”, right leftists?) because it was discovered that an Islamic migrant, who should have earlier been deported, had raped a 10-year-old special needs girl who wandered too close to the migrant hotel that he was staying at.

Leftists have long called the right sexist, which generally isn’t true, though there are those on the right who can rightly be described as such. But from what we see with the election of Takaichi, conservatives as a whole don’t care whether a woman is their leader, as long as she has their values.

Western leftists are probably going to be especially vexed at Takaichi’s election, particularly the ones who claim a particular kinship with the Japanese, due to popular misconceptions that leftists peddle about Japanese culture because Japan is far enough across the ocean to avoid scrutiny so leftists could avoid being called out for their lies.

The fact is, the prevailing sentiment in Japan is that Japan is for the Japanese. It’s to the point that Japan doesn’t just have nationalists, they have ultra-nationalists. And if a western nationalist were to hear them speak, they’d probably tell them that they need to take it from a 10 to a 4.

As much as I like Japan, as I see it, the Japanese don’t have a obligation to give me a home there if I were to decide I wanted to live there. But if I did, I would leverage my job experience, college education, lack of criminal record, and that I have no desire to change Japan’s culture. I suspect that the typical leftist might have an issue with at least one of those data points. But no, I don’t suspect that one could successfully leverage with their taste anime, or their favorite Pokémon. Even if your favorite being Raichu indicates great taste.

And even if someone were to move there, that wouldn’t make a person Japanese. In fact, unless a person is genetically Japanese, they just won’t be considered Japanese, ever. There are families of Koreans who have lived in Japan for generations, and while they’re residents, they’re still not Japanese.

Now, you can settle down with a Japanese spouse. A traditional Japanese thinker might object or at least be begrudging about it, but that’s generally allowed. But you still wouldn’t be Japanese. Your kid would be, but they’d probably get picked on by the other Japanese kids.

I don’t bring all this up to discourage or put anyone in a negative light, but just to give a realistic idea of what life in Japan would be like for a foreigner.

As I see it, Japan has a distinct cultural identity, and they have a right to defend it from cultures which have a proven track record of behaving belligerently towards other cultures.

Muslims. Muslims are the biggest threat to civility. Naturally, a people as heavily civilized as the Japanese would recognize Islam as a problem.

To any leftists reading this: Please don’t shoot her.

The Irish are angrier than usual.

Things are popping in Ireland. Lotsa splodies. People are not very happy. It’s a mess and all that.

Let’s get into why the Irish are more pissed than usual. Actually, let’s see whether you can guess, before reading on.

Were you able to guess that it’s because of a Muslim migrant? Did you guess that it involved the rape of a little girl? If so, you probably didn’t think it was much of a guess. And if you want a prize, too bad. No one gets a prize for getting the free space on a bingo card.

The Irish broke out into protests that quickly turned violent in and around Ireland’s capital of Dublin, and particularly outside of the migrant hotel that housed the migrant.

The phrase “migrant hotel” shouldn’t even be in the vernacular. Those just shouldn’t exist.

The Irish aren’t just pissed because a child was violated by a migrant, but also because the choice was made back in March that he should be deported. But he remained in the country anyway, so the crime should not have even happened. And even after it did, the Irish government decided to continue housing the migrant at a migrant hotel at taxpayer expense, and fund his legal defense, also at taxpayer expense.

I’m pissed, and I’m all the way over here.

Now, if you thought that the Summer of Love riots after George Floyd’s overdose death were bad, the Irish are close to outdoing them in just a few hours. In that time, they have set fires, including to at least one police vehicle, and in at least one case, protesters have succeeded in driving back police in riot gear. A new water cannon was deployed, but reportedly not yet utilized.

The riots are about what you would expect from a people with a history of fighting tooth and nail in entirely hopeless wars of defense.

Notice how the left isn’t giving this any attention, despite its potential to be used as an example of right-wing violence? That’s because this is the kind of thing they’re afraid of. If the people with grievances over their heritage being given away to those with no love for it were to find out that they’re not alone, then the right could end up growing to something more than a controlled token opposition.

And that’s one of the main reasons why I don’t believe that the ultra-wealthy political left is stoking this conflict on purpose as part of a Hegelian manipulation strategy. But if a person thought that, I’d understand why they would. What did the establishment left really think would happen when trafficking in legions of migrants from part of the world where the predominant religion thinks pederasty is okay, and that uncovered women in public are valid targets?

The reason why we have problems like this is because those with the most power to change society are isolated from the consequences of their own policies. They live in their own gated communities, not in cities or neighborhoods near migrant hotels which, in Ireland, have crime rates 30 times higher than what’s typical for most of Ireland.

The obvious thing that one would expect to happen did happen, and it was followed by the obvious response. But as of now, it’s still a developing story.

But it should be obvious that we’re only seeing the beginning of what’s to come. People are getting fed up with the stupid bullshit, including the import of those with no love for our society and culture.

If you’re someone who thought that the mass migration of Muslims was a good idea, you are an absolute moron. You have no capacity for being a positive asset to society. You should be disallowed from voting or otherwise influencing public policy, ever again.

If you bring people in from cultures that believe that its normal for people to do a certain thing, don’t be shocked when those people do that thing.

Let’s be realistic, here. I don’t expect any western politicians to change their policies. It’s fully expected of them to never admit that they were wrong, all while clinging to power for as long as possible, and even doubling down on the policies that are destroying culture and society, not only because they hate these things, but also to spite the people who they govern.

But something has got to give.

People don’t seem to comprehend just how significant it is that the hippie generation is about to pass away.

Yesterday, when commenting on the makeup of the No Kings protest, I pointed out how the vast majority of those in attendance are aging boomers who are just a few years away from not voting anymore.

Since then, I got to thinking about why people joined the hippies, and why people go furry or trans, and as one thought led to another, I began seeing connections, and they seemed to hold up well when considering matters in the broad strokes of recent history.

The recent shooter of Charlie Kirk didn’t surprise anyone when it turned out that he was a leftist. But what was surprising is that he came from a Mormon family, though he turned against his family’s viewpoints, turning hard towards the left. What’s more, he was at least adjacent to the furry community, and was in a homosexual relationship.

Traditional thinking goes that people who are raised in a religious household will maintain said household’s religious beliefs into their adulthood. But in many cases, such as the case of Bulge Rat (Tyler Robinson), they turn against the culture they were raised in.

If you were to study certain communities, such as the trans community and other left-wing communities, you may notice an unusual number of people who grew up in religious households. And, not only that, the households tended to be strict to the point of suffocating the child’s individuality.

For example, Jews can be heavily legalistic, to the point that some refuse to keep beef and cheese in the same refrigerator. The Mormons tend to be strict in their own way. They tend to stock up on non-perishible food, in case the end-time tribulation were to begin tomorrow. I’ve heard of kids who weren’t allowed to watch cartoons or play sports during the Sabbath.

When these kids become old enough to decide for themselves, they often tend towards communities that permit them to express their individualities, sometimes towards communities that are extremely liberal. And whats more, they tend to harbor extreme resentment for their respective families, and for the religions which they saw as stifling their childhoods.

Now, consider the boomer generation, which gave us hippies. Do you suppose that they came from a religious background? I think that’s natural to guess. The generation that preceeded them saw two world wars, and the development of atomic weapons. Considering this, the WW2 generation would have likely believed that the world was about to end. That’s understandable considering that those two world wars saw the deployment of the worst weapons that were available at the time, and shortly afterwards, nuclear weapon stockpiles grew to the point that all of humanity could be wiped out multiple times.

In the face of such annihilation, it’s natural to expect people to lean into their religions. But as parents became overly strict, there would come to be a backlash.

It should be understood that not everyone in a generational group lives up to the stereotypes associated with their respective groups. I see people eschew these stereotypes all the time. But it seems as though the boomer generational group has a disproportionate amount of people who have a distaste for religion, Christianity in particular. In light of this, it’s easy to see why the boomers gave us hippies, and a disproportionate amount of them are sexual libertines.

Their influence on society is difficult to understate. It’s largely due to them that children in the western world today tend to be viewed as an inconvenience rather than a treasure. What’s more, you’d have to search pretty hard to find western made entertainment media which portrays marriage and family in a positive light.

As a consequence of the choices of boomer era liberals, families were broken, communities became more dangerous, societies more dysfunctional, and nations on the verge of falling apart. But while this is obvious to just about everyone else, the liberal boomers obstinately refuse to admit that they were wrong, because they don’t want to go anywhere close to admitting that their religious parents were right.

But what they’re refusing to admit, subsequent generations are learning, resulting in a shift to the right. This shift will become more pronounced as the hippie generation passes away. That is guaranteed.

For those who need to know, parents without a religion tend to be far worse than those with one, by a considerable amount. Not only do they view their children as an inconvenience, there is no moral check on their narcissism, and they’ll only grudgingly show kindness towards their children, usually because they feel an obligation (birthdays, Christmas, etc.). And go ahead and pity the child in such a household when it’s time to punish them. In corporal punishment, the parents tend to go ape shit, and outside of that, their tendency to run their household like a dictator becomes more pronounced.

It’s in light of the left’s tendency to oppose Christianity that their simultaneous advocacy for homosexuality and Islam is easier to comprehend. When left to its own devices, Muslims will kill gays, because they view homosexuality as a sin that merits capital punishment. Obviously, the groups involved cannot be reconciled in the long term. However, each has at least a slight opposition to Christianity.

If it sounds like leftism is a huge anti-Christian club, that’s because it pretty much is. Remember that the term “left” as relates to political affiliation goes back to enlightenment era France, where those who were more traditional and more pro-Christian tended to sit on the right side of the house of representatives, while those who opposed them tended to seat themselves to the left. The political battle that we see today is part of a war that’s been going on for centuries.

As I see it, though, the war might finally be coming to an end, and it looks like conservatives are definitely going to win. Not only is a hugely left-wing generation on the verge of passing away, they’ve shown the obvious outcomes of their experimental ideas, and have left an example that inspires disgust.

And if the hippies are seen in a negative light today, they are definitely not going to be viewed favorably by future generations who will view the record of them with hindsight.

Did the No Kings protest indicate a shift in the political tide?

To get right to the answer to the question in the title, yes, the No Kings protest does indeed indicate a shift in the political zeitgeist. But not in the way that people expect.

To understand what I’m getting at, here’s a pic from the protest just a couple days ago:

Do you see it? Here’s another:

See it yet? But we’re not done yet:

And another:

There’s more:

Wait, how’d that get in there? My mistake. Here’s another:

And more:

That one was a little on-the-nose, but you probably get the point. But for those who think I might be cherry picking, here’s one with a lot of people in frame, which you can save to your device and zoom in on, examining at your leisure:

The overwhelming majority of these crowds are retirement age leftists, which, in some cases, turned out in large numbers.

Left-wing social media personalities are pointing at the numbers, and are making them out to be some victory. Because of course they would. If the left’s cheerleaders aren’t making their following feel good, then their following will find someone who does.

But those numbers are not the victory that the left is making it out to be, especially in light of the fact that, however many leftists  mobilized when summoned, they were still outnumbered by the people who voted in the current president, by popular vote no less.

But that they’re currently outnumbered is not my point. And if you still don’t get it, then consider the following question: Where were all the young people?

It’s an important question, considering that the political zeitgeist is already swinging to the right, and quite heavily in some regards. How much more momentum do you suppose the right is going to gain when all those retirement age leftists age out, not just from working, but also from voting?

We all know the joke: that the dead vote Democrat. But to get serious, we might be on the verge of a major swing to the right, much greater than what we’ve been seeing recently, what with people coming to understand the second order consequences of left-wing policies. If all the people who show up to protests in an attempt to relive their pasts are an indication, a previous generation of leftists are going to leave a bunch of younger right-wingers to determine policy, and a swing to the right that we’ve been seeing in recent times is going to gain a lot more momentum.

To further drive the point home, traffic to sites of corporate media outlets, which tend to have a left-wing bias, is continuing their plunge:

Which makes sense considering that the people who trust them are hugely from the generation that is currently dying out. If there’s a characteristic fallacy of the boomer generation, it would be appeal to authority, though it’s selectively applied, as fallacies often are. It’s their tendency to be less skeptical of the things the people on the TV say.

While there are exceptions, people in the boomer generation haven’t done much to exhibit skepticism. To be fair, that seems to happen when people age. If you’ve had to tell someone not to open strange links or email attachments from people they don’t know, it was probably someone from that generational group.

And when you know that people tend to be more gullible as they age, it’s easy to see why legions and legions of old people have shown up in droves to express the delusional belief that the president that was voted in by electoral college and popular vote is actually a monarch.

That these people influence public policy says a lot about the state of the left.

Collargate

One of the things women learn about dating is to pay attention to how their suitor behaves with those whom they perceive as having an advantage over.

This includes wait staff, the family that they already have, and, of course, animals.

The reason for this is because any indication of abuse from a man would be a strong indication of the abuse a woman would look forward to if she were to enter into a committed relationship with him.

I bring this up because Hasan Piker, one of the biggest breadtubers, is now facing accusations of using a shock collar on his dog live on stream, for the mere crime of fidgeting.

Here’s the footage associated with the accusation:

As Hamas… I mean, Hasan… is talking about violence, his dog gets up, and begins to walk off. Hamas… uh, Hasan… begins to yell at the dog.

Even without the shock collar, this pisses me off. Dogs move around. That’s what they naturally do, and it comes as naturally for them as barking at squirrels. There’s nothing wrong with this. In fact, dog owners have a duty to frequently walk them. That’s a normal part of having a dog.

If you own a dog and don’t even allow it to be a dog, what are you even doing?

Notice how Hamas… You know what? I’m tired of correcting myself when I accidentally call Hasan “Hamas”. He’s a Hamas supporter, so the shoe fits. Let’s get comfortable with calling him “Hamas Piker”.

Notice how Hamas reaches for something just off-camera, then the dog lets out a loud yelp. Hamas’ motion is consistent with pressing a button on a remote device as the dog yelped.

In a subsequent video that Hamas made in his defense, he pointed out that the dog yelped because it clipped its paw on the edge of a table. But we can see the footage. At the instant the dog yelped, we saw its paws, and they were not being injured by anything.

In my opinion, shock collars should be banned, which they are in some countries. The idea of exercising precise control over a small animal with the threat of torture at any given instant is messed up.

And what upset Hamas so much that he yelled at his dog and zapped it? It wouldn’t sit still in-frame, like the good little set piece that he probably viewed it as.

Then, to drive the point home how messed up Hamas is, he then went on a rant about how spoiled the dog is, and how it wants to roam about the house. Like I said before, dogs need to move. Walking the dog is a thing for that reason. But apparently what Hamas thinks his dog needs instead is “structured, regimented” discipline so the poor thing would know to sit still so it wouldn’t ignite his peevishness.

This is the kind of thing that tends to be lethal to streaming careers. You might remember Rich of ReviewTechUSA, and how he fell off. His own daughter wanted to be put to bed while he was streaming. The right thing to do would have been to leave his chair empty in the time it took for him to do his duty as a parent, and his viewers would have understood, and may have even found it heartwarming.

But Rich was not a good dad. He shooed his daughter away, so he could keep right on streaming. This pissed off his viewers.

Of course, it doesn’t help his daughter that there’s footage of her dad floating around on the internet wherein he was playing with his own nipples because people were paying him to do so.

To get back to talking about Hamas, I doubt I would have otherwise remembered him in a few years. For one thing, because I’m already getting his name wrong. But also because I have blended memories of him and another streamer named Density… I mean, Destiny. Okay, maybe I’ll call him Density. Hamas and Density are functionally identical in that they are leftist ideologues and champagne socialists, both breadtubers that are practically indistinguishable and superfluous in respect to one another. It was as though they were identical clones, spit out of the same machine.

But now, Hamas has something that sets him apart, which makes him distinct from his ideological mitosis siblings, but the image of mistreating dogs is not a good look. He was better off being virtually indistinguishable from any other overpaid cheerleader for the left-wing violence machine.

If he’s your hero, then just what are you doing?

Pokémon’s latest shiny distribution is being grossly mishandled.

Image from eBay, sadly.

Let’s hear it for the highest grossing intellectual property in all of human history, because they have really done it this time.

Starting Friday, September 26th, a special distribution event for special characters for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet was to commence. This event made shiny variants of special legendary Pokémon available to players, and which one they got depended on the version of the game that they played. It was Koraidon on Scarlet version, and Miraidon on Violet version.

For most of the world, the event went well. But for the distribution in the US at GameStop locations, the distribution ran into problems, quickly. Really quickly.

I have my own experience, but I’ll save it for the end, because it might be infuriating, depending on who you are.

Here’s how the event was supposed to work: players who visited GameStop could request a scratch-off code card, which they got for free, no purchase necessary. Then, the code could be redeemed on a Scarlet or Violet game, and the shiny legendary that the player got depended on which version they were playing on. And GameStop benefitted from increased foot traffic, which is great for retail outlets. Everybody happy, except for those who hate Pokémon and the people who play it, but life has always sucked for the haters.

Now, for how it really went. I probably only need to tell you the limiting factor, and you’ll probably figure it out from there.

There was a strict allocation of only 50 code cards per store.

Yeah. To put that into perspective, there are GameStop locations that sold over a thousand combined copies of Scarlet and Violet.

Many stores ran out of code cards in the first hour, which is ridiculous considering that the distribution was intended to last for weeks. If you weren’t among those who were in as soon as the store opened, you probably had to do without.

And this is in spite of some stores limiting the distribution of codes to one per customer. Remember how I said that more than one legendary was made, and which one you got depended on which version the code was redeemed on? A limit of one per customer means that many players only got one, even if they got both versions, like many of the huge fans do. That would really suck for players who wanted both legendaries, because they’d only get one, assuming they got a code at all.

As was the case with scalpers who swooped in and hoovered up the code cards for shiny variants of the Sword and Shield legendaries, so it was this time, but worse. They proceeded to hock them on eBay for a quick buck, while screwing over the hobby that’s enjoyed by many millions of fans. Currently, the codes are going for around $30. To put that into perspective, a new copy of Scarlet or Violet is $60 (prior to the DLC package, which might bring it to $95).

As far as I could tell, the US is the only country that has this problem, which suggests that the problem is with GameStop. In other countries, the method of distribution may vary, but based on what I’ve heard, it generally goes that players could request a code, it gets printed on a receipt, and there’s no limit to how many codes can be printed.

Which is a far better way to handle the distribution, even if a little clunky. But why do codes, at all? Why not do it through geolocated distributing through the mobile version of Pokémon Home? Did The Pokémon Company forget that one of their biggest mobile apps has this feature? Or, why not use Pokémon Pass? Did The Pokémon Company forget that they developed a mobile app specifically to handle this kind of situation?

There is some good news, however. GameStop has announced on X that they are getting more codes to aid in the distribution. And this time, they will be printed on receipts, like the distribution is handled in some other countries.

That’s great, right? That means an unlimited number of codes, ensuring that players who make it to GameStop before the event ends can get at least one code, right?

Except no, because the codes are once again limited to 50 per store. Even though the codes are printed, and therefore, should be without limit.

So, with 100 total codes per store, and 2325 GameStop locations in the US, this means that there are only 232500 codes distributed. Which sounds like a lot, until you consider what the sales numbers for the games likely are. I don’t know what the US sales numbers are, but the global sales for the Scarlet and Violet versions are over 26 million. Using that number, less than 1% of players got at least one code. But considering only US sales, I imagine the number is closer to 5%. But 1 in 20 doesn’t sound like satisfying demand.

It actually gets worse. The first day of the distribution, September 26th, just so happened to be the release date for 3 different TCG expansions. One of which was for the Pokémon TCG, so scalpers were already doing what they were gonna do, the code cards would have been a little extra money in the bank.

There was some Magic: the Gathering crossover with Spider-Man. I haven’t played the game in decades, so I don’t know what is up with some of these crossovers, some of which don’t seem thematically appropriate.

There was also some flipping Yu-Gi-Oh! expansion that at least one person hypothetically cares about.

GameStop basically spent an hour or two being a Disneyland for TCG scalpers, and code cards for distribution of shiny Pokémon were getting swept up in the hurricane.

So how it ended up going is that a distribution of characters that are digital, and could therefore be limitlessly multiplied, had arbitrarily low allocations placed upon them for no apparent reason, except maybe to spite players.

I said that I’d share my own experience, so here we go. On September the 26th, at about the time GameStop was opening, I was already out for something else. So, knowing about the distribution, I went to a GameStop. There was only a handful of people there.

I shopped around for a bit, thinking that if I were to buy something, that would be a little something extra to come away with. As I was shopping, I overheard someone asking for a code card. He got one. So, I asked for one, too. I got one. Then, I asked if I could get one more. I got a second. Cool!

I kept shopping, but none of the anime toys marketed to grown-ups caught my eye. So I left, two code cards in hand.

After I got home, I redeemed them, one for Violet, and one for Scarlet. After that, I found out on YouTube just how rare those code cards are.

Please don’t hate me. I had no idea the distribution would turn into such a fiasco.

Jake Sanford: From a Foolish Choice To a Final Outcome

The dust is settling over the LDS church attack that occurred on Sunday. With what’s known about the attacker, I’ll go ahead and make some sounds about it.

But before getting into it, there’s something that I sometimes do when it comes to people who commit particularly infamous crimes: strip them of their old name and brand them with a new one. The guilty party behind the Michigan LDS church attack was previously known as Jake Sanford.

His new name is Dork Dynasty.

On Sunday morning, Dork Dynasty, a 40-year-old Iraq War veteran, rammed his pickup truck into an LDS church, and afterwards got out and began firing on church attendees, while setting fire to the building with the aid of an accellerant. Police showed up and put an end to the rampage, as well as Dork Dynasty himself.

Currently, there are four known fatalities, eight injured, and the LDS building itself was a total loss. Because the LDS is rich, they probably don’t care much about the building.

As for what could have motivated the attacker, leftists behaved predictably. The moment that a MAGA sign was spotted in his yard, and American flags were spotted on his truck, they were all like, “Look! Right-wing violence! That’s gotta be it!” They then plugged their ears and hummed loudly, insisting on hearing no more. Because after incident followed by incident of recent left-wing violence, in their minds, they needed a singular incident of right-wing violence to convince themselves that the other side does it, too.

I could easily debunk them, but who would I really be convincing? No one believes that this was political violence, including the people who say it was. Except the ones who do, who would probably max all their credit cards for NFTs, if left unsupervised.

Interestingly, a politician recalled meeting Dork Dynasty prior to the attack while canvassing. He said that he recalled that his conversation with Dork Dynasty started mundane, but Dork Dynasty pivoted to the Mormon church and what he saw as wrong with them. The politician said that at that point in the conversation, he didn’t know how to answer in a way that was safe, knowing that with this kind of person, it can be difficult to tell what response can set them off.

When I heard this, I felt glad that I no longer work in grocery or retail, or with the general public.

He went on to say that when he saw the attacker’s face on TV, he recognized him as the person he had spoken to, days prior.

Here’s the video:

While the actions of Dork Dynasty were messed up, let’s be honest about the Mormon religion. Mormonism is messed up. But there’s a wrong way to deal with it, and there’s a right way.

Dork Dynasty showed us the wrong way, which enables the victimizing ideology to position itself as the victim, which they can use to present themselves as martyrs, with all the optics that comes with an ideology of martyrs. Considering the huge boost that conservatism got from the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk, Dork Dynasty should have known better.

At this point, even people whose primary source of information is state media are hearing about who Charlie Kirk was.

A better way of defeating Mormonism is by telling people what they really believe, and not just the sugar-coated version that’s presented by Mormons themselves.

For example, I heard about a guy who was considering Mormonism, but then took his own life. When his father asked whether they believed his son was in Heaven, they told him no, but that he was burning in Hell because he took his own life. That may be a belief that they sincerely have, but it’s a messed up thing to tell a grieving family.

I suspect that if Mormonism didn’t tell their members such a thing, that may have become one of the main reasons that the Mormons would have lost members. Because death is better than being in that cult.

If people were more discerning, the writings of Joseph Smith would have all the theological significance of Sonichu.

But as for Dork Dynasty, he’s dead now.