This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit radixjournal.substack.comIn this exciting new three hour call, Richard and the gang delve into sports, foreign policy, Havana Syndrome, new atheism, and the undying trends of lies, stupidity, and cowardice from the right. Corruption, I think, can now be safely added to that list. Look, Brimelow can buy himself a castle and pay himself over a quarter-mil a year if he damn well l…
Okay, so does anyone know what exactly is going on with VDare?
Everyone knows what VDare is.
It is apparently over.
Although that's at least what I took from the message.
Oh, no, they're taking donations.
Um.
Let's see.
This is just straight...
Oh, here it is.
Yeah. It is finished.
New York AG Letitia James crucifies Vidair.
Communist attorney Letitia James.
So, has anyone been following this?
Do you guys know what's going on?
I haven't been following it myself.
Okay. I've known about Vidair for at least 20 years.
I mean, I remember Back in the early 2000s, this is early internet days, pre-social media days.
I would read Vidair and the American Conservative and things like that.
I felt like Chronicles magazine online, I even subscribed to Chronicles, the hard copy, for a while.
It was an interesting place for people who were critical of the war in Iraq.
It's critical of some sort of pro-corporate libertarianism.
Could you actually find a place that inherited a lot of the Buchanan movement, the campaigns in the 2000s?
It was interesting.
I remember when we watched that video maybe two months ago from the New York Times.
They were discussing the history of immigration.
The video said that Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush were having a sort of empathy competition for who could empathize with the immigrants more back in the 80s.
And so it is an interesting position to take to be an immigration restrictionist and to care about these things.
V-Day, I guess it did start in 1997, and that was a unique position, to have a little webzine where you're talking about immigration restriction and so on.
I began to find V-Day somewhat annoying just in the sense of repetition.
I just didn't find...
The right very intellectually stimulating.
And just, to be frank, endlessly whining about immigrants.
I do disagree with that, actually, in certain ways.
And I also think it's naive in certain ways, like using their own terms.
That being said, it was...
You know, I found myself agreeing with it to a large degree as well.
And there were some interesting people.
I mean, you could find Sam Francis articles.
You could find, you know, Jared Taylor.
You could find Steve Saylor, the whole crew on VDR.
So, you know, it's good.
They were engaging in just kind of this, like, endless fundraising.
Raising hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to put up a webzine, which just...
I don't know.
It's a little bit suspicious or kind of strikes me as a misallocation of resources.
I mean, do we really need yet another article from like...
Down-to-earth American who lost his job to an immigrant.
Like, is this really that important?
The other thing is that I think over the years, other conservatives have kind of taken this issue and really taken ownership of it.
So you definitely could find pro-immigration sentiments in National Review.
And at the very least, they kind of didn't want to go there.
They didn't want to be too restrictionist because that was racist.
And we can't have that.
After all, William F. Buckley supported segregation for a time.
And to the degree that National Review kind of defined the movement for many decades, we've got to move past that.
But now I think the situation has completely changed.
They are even engaging in kind of theories like the Great Replacement and so on that are rather edgier than, I would say, most of the Vidair content.
And it's just been something kind of interesting that's happened in that way.
I guess I've been following not the collapse or the suing or whatever happened, but yeah, Vidair.
I've always been aware of them, but yeah, they've always done a lot of Amaran-adjacent stuff.
But yeah, they're not really that relevant anymore.
I mean, you have Vivek Ramaswamy on the debate stage talking about the Great Replacement is not a conspiracy theory.
I feel like they're kind of outmoded at this point.
Do you think that no one would be talking about immigration if it weren't for Vidair?
Do you think Vidair?
No, I don't think Vidair did at all.
Yeah, I know.
That's the thing.
And I think it definitely inspired Ann Coulter.
I'm sure she read Vidair due to the fact that she read Steve Saylor and Amran or something.
And the degree to which those Jared Taylor or Steve Saylor are kind of playing to her.
She's almost like their audience.
Yeah, I think conservatives.
Yeah. Adios America.
Yeah. Yeah, but people who are adjacent there, I guess.
Yeah, like crypto or quasi-racist.
Also just kind of avoiding the real issue.
I mean, as I've said at an AMREN conference, I guess 12 years ago, even if you shut down all immigration, the demographic issue is...
It's just a reality.
It's just a brutal reality.
But if you're not ultimately accomplishing anything by what you're striving for, you might as well take up gardening.
And the other aspects of this is that like...
The cultural...
First off, Mexicans are not Blacks.
And if you shut down immigration, it's not like the Blacks are going to vanish into thin air.
It's almost like they're playing this shell game or kind of bait and switch or something.
Or like the gays are not going to go away if you stop immigration.
If anything, Hispanics...
And I'm not even saying this rhetorically, like if anything.
Clearly, man, evidently, Hispanics are a retarding force against the advances of liberalism.
Like, no question about it, actually.
They're increasingly voting Republican, first off.
So the whole sailor strategy or whatever doesn't work.
And I would not be surprised at all if it were 50-50 Hispanic voting and maybe even 60-40 Republican.
Yeah, they get a bigger percentage of the Republican vote each and every election.
It's clear that they're not like, Texas is going to turn blue.
They've been saying Texas is going to turn blue for the past 10 years now or something like that.
I'm not even sure it's really going to happen.
I'm not sure it's going to ever happen.
And the other thing about it is that it's like the Browns have turned red or the Browns have gone to QAnon.
QAnon was blowing up on WhatsApp in Florida.
Yeah. So these Hispanics love this shit.
They're like dumb whites like.
Sorry to be so mean.
No, no.
Keep it up.
The more meanness, the better.
As Saylor pointed out, that's who's typically lining up around the block for the latest Hollywood schlockfest blockbuster.
Lots of Latinos, you know.
So the people in politics see the same phenomenon.
Yes. Intermarriage rates are also Very high.
And they seem to indicate that there's a common culture, in fact.
This just goes against the notion that we're going to do the Southern strategy but for Mexicans.
First off, Hispanic white intermarriage is the most common.
This notion that they're taking over the culture or whatever, no.
They're actually intermarrying it.
In very kind of regular rates.
With Asians, for instance, it's like 80% of interracial marriages are a white man and an Asian woman.
But with Hispanics, it's actually regular.
And what I would suggest is that there's no little fetish going on.
There's no whatever.
It's just happening regularly or normally.
They are increasingly Republican, etc.
And, you know, people kind of like the idea of immigrant crime and taking over a community or whatever, but that's a bit distracting for the reality, which is that there really is a sort of common culture.
Anyway, the other thing why I guess I have trouble taking VDR seriously is that They'll play these self-serving games like we're the only ones talking about this issue or something,
when they're just clearly not.
And maybe you could make the argument, being generous, but not too generous, being realistic, maybe you could make the argument that they were the only ones talking about it in 1999.
That's fair.
Maybe you could also make the argument that it wouldn't have been as popular if...
BDAR hadn't existed.
I'm not sure I'd fully buy that, but in a mood of total generosity, maybe I'd give them that one.
But the notion that it's like doing some unique thing, it's just riding sidecar to Republican populism.
And alternatively...
Claiming that they're the only ones saying this thing, which is immigration equal bad.
Or that they're somehow deeply influential and winning.
I mean, there was a kind of notorious fundraising email of when immigration got shut down during COVID.
And the email said, we've won.
And I remember seeing this.
It's like...
Who's we?
I'm just curious.
Secondly, COVID won.
Clearly, because this is a temporary measure.
It's important.
Maybe even has good effects.
Unintentional, but it is what it is.
You didn't do this.
COVID did it.
Secondly, and most ironically, you were engaging in COVID denial for months up until...
Like, the COVID shutdown immigration.
It's like, you tried to kill the thing that was going to actually accomplish your goal.
Anyway, just a mild irony.
Profoundly ironic.
But I mean, I guess the solution would be to maintain COVID forever.
And then, obviously, everything would be secure.
You should be hyping up COVID.
Everything would be safe, yeah.
And don't mind the...
The birth rate, but yeah, just keep COVID forever.
The China virus is back.
It is killing our kids.
Maybe this is the- My dog caught the China virus.
Maybe this is the final version of the Arctic Alliance that John Garbyshire talked about, right?
So yeah, we got the quote that the China virus enabled V-Dare to win.
There you go.
Yeah, the China virus was brought over.
That's actually a funny joke.
He did suggest that.
Right. We should all marry the Asian chicks and put down the browns or whatever.
Yeah. But it is kind of funny.
There was an erotic version of the Arctic alliance where the China virus stopped the immigrants at last.
That's actually pretty funny.
So, Vidair got a ton of money in like...
2018 or something.
And this is the filing, the people versus VDAC.
It's just kind of funny.
The people of the state of New York by Letitia James, Supreme Court.
So let me just read a little bit of this.
Alleged facts.
Responded as a New York charitable not-for-profit corporation.
That incorporated in New York in 1999.
In 2000, a respondent, then known as the Lexington Research Institute, applied for and received recognition of its tax attempt status, 501c3, blah, blah, blah.
Primary purpose is creating a publication, a web page, a magazine with editorial content focusing on foreign domestic policy issues.
In 2009, Respondent reported a six-fold increase in revenue from $700,000 in 2018 to approximately $4.3 million in 2019, and including a $1.5 million lump donation from a donor-advised fund.
In early 2020, Respondent spent $1.4 million of these newly received funds on the purchase of the Berkeley Springs Castle, a medieval-style castle located in West Virginia.
Okay. First off, I mean, I don't want to, like, what are they doing with $700,000, not to mention $4.3 million?
I mean, it doesn't cost that much to run a website.
Right. And, you know, another thing is if they're running out of money, if I were Peter Brimlow, I'd probably look at the tax statements and I'd say, hmm, $60 for coffee, $50 for...
Running this website server.
And, oh yeah, all this money we spent on this castle.
What's the first thing we should do to fix the money problem?
Maybe sell the castle?
But that's the last thing they'll do.
Exactly. Although, $1.5 million.
Now, did they pay for the castle in total?
Or did they put that down as a down payment?
You know, real estate's crazy.
I don't know what it's like in Berkeley, West Virginia, but, you know, there are a lot of, like, condominiums that are selling for $1.5 million.
I don't know the answer.
Public postings by respondent chairman Peter Brimelow and others indicate that he and his family have used the castle as their primary residence since at least March 20th.
Well, I understand the temptation, although, yeah, you're basically just buying yourself a new castle in suburban West Virginia.
Yeah. I don't know.
Maybe it could be used as a medieval times business where you could have jousting or whatever.
Oh, yeah.
They could rent it out for reenactments.
Yeah. Yeah.
Totally. During the same period, Respondent also substantially increased payments to Brimolo and to third-party for-profit companies he controls.
In 2019, Brimolo's reported salary was more than doubled and comprised roughly one-third of Respondent's operating expenditures.
Is Peter paying himself, like, a quarter of a million dollars a year to run a webpage?
Sounds like it.
I mean, that is really grotesque.
Yeah. And, like, he's less relevant than, like, Jared Taylor, I would say.
Like, he's about as, like, he must be good at fundraising or whatever.
But it's like, what are you doing?
Why? I also kind of have a sense that Lydia is behind this, his wife.
That will come on as we go down.
So he doubled his salary.
Respondents separately reported as spending tens of thousands of dollars on office expenses in 2019, as well as paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to a third-party LLC controlled by Brimelow that was based at Brimelow's residential home address.
It sounds like he's just using VDare as a personal bank account at this point.
It's just a piggy bank at this point.
If he was doing anything with it before.
Exactly. So, you know, you see stuff like this about being crucified and, like, Letitia James hates you and she's a communist and whatever.
And then you read this, like, okay, this is the plaintiff's opening statement.
I mean...
I mean, they're not, look, they can't just, this is also factual stuff.
Like, this is not, this is not, like, rhetorical flourishes.
They can back this up.
And, like, seriously, I mean, I understand you have to live, and I'm not against paying people, but, like, you're creating a for-profit LLC.
That you are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to?
For what reason?
It would be like you raise all this money and then you hire yourself to organize the conference.
You pay yourself a $200,000 fee.
Just give me a break.
I'm sorry.
This sounds utterly, utterly fraudulent.
There's just no other way of putting it.
Respondent conveyed...
Okay. In December 2020, respondent conveyed the entirety of the Berkeley Springs Castle property to two West Virginia corporations incorporated by Lydia Brimelow, Peter's wife and a respondent director.
Five months...
So she now owns the castle.
I mean...
Yeah, I don't know what to say.
It's like, all of this stuff is so kind of irrelevant in that I don't care, and I understand that there's kind of grift everywhere, and you can call me a grifter, you could say that all of this is useless, you could go on and on,
but this is pretty outrageous.
And the notion that they're constantly talking about how They're the only ones standing for the real American nation.
Do you know what this reminds me of, actually?
This reminds me of evangelical preachers.
Oh, yeah, like Ken Copeland.
Exactly. Buying themselves private jets and all this shit.
And it is the same kind of pitch.
It's like, let's just save the people.
The working class is being harmed by this.
The communists want to take us down.
I need my private jet.
I need my castle in order to speak the truth to the masses.
I cannot do it without this castle.
The corruption, it's astounding.
It's really, really astounding.
It really is.
I know everyone, you could always say, oh, you're just jealous.
That's fair enough.
But it's like, these are just the facts.
And then the way it's just described, they're doing this because they oppose free speech or whatever.
And they're paying lawyers.
So again, I think I know the lawyers who are doing this.
Lawyers are getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight these.
We have fought Letitia James at the cost of $1 million for nearly $3 million.
I mean, what?
This is such a fucking waste.
I guess the social Darwinist view would be to say a fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place.
So, I mean, good on him for paying for his castle, but yeah, he's clearly not going anywhere.
Yeah, I just, I don't know what to say.
And then just not, like, the way it's described, it's as if it's this, like...
Attack on them.
Think of all these other organizations that are more impactful for good or for ill.
Why doesn't Gavin Newsom go after the Claremont Institute?
I mean, they were directly involved in the attempt to overthrow the government.
Why don't the communists go after those institutions?
The reason is that I imagine they're not run as a personal charity.
And then just comparing yourself to Christ, I mean, this is like, I don't know.
I can't even.
This, I remember, when they got money, they got all this money, and then they were basically using it on lawyers.
So all these lawyers got paid.
So in 2020, Peter Bremelow sued the New York Times for a 2019 article that accused him of being a white nationalist.
Just think about this for a little bit.
So you're suing the New York Times for libel.
You're claiming that they accused, they called you a white nationalist, and that that is just utterly damaging to your reputation, and thus you deserve damages, you know, to the tune of millions.
Okay, first off, like, white nationalist is a fairly I know it's salacious, but it's almost as reasonable as you could get.
It's certainly more reasonable or neutral than white supremacist or evil racist or something.
It's basically saying you're a racial nationalist and you're white, you're a white nationalist.
Secondly, Peter Brimelow has spoken At Amran events, he's spoken at alt-right events.
He clearly...
I mean, he does stuff...
I won't go into this, but if you just look at his article on the Buffalo tragedy, did the Great Replacement cause the Buffalo shooter?
And then he shows a graph of the white percentage in Buffalo going down, and thus the shooter is...
Sorta, kinda justified.
I mean, it's just terrible.
It's the worst way of talking about these issues.
And, like, yeah, it's not that surprising that people are going to accuse you of being a white nationalist.
And... If you're a public figure, they can call you a white nationalist.
Not the New York Times, but I'm sure tons of places like the Daily Beast have called Tucker Carlson or Vivek Ramashwamy a white nationalist.
So when you're a public figure, it's kind of fair game.
Like, you've got to really...
Prove something to win a libel or slander suit.
The New York Times would have had to accuse him of being a child molester or involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
You would have to go really far to justify that against a public figure.
But thirdly, do you see the demoralizing way in which Getting uppity about this is very bad for their own movement.
There's nothing worse than being called a white nationalist.
Well, most all of your writers are white nationalists.
A ton of your readers are white nationalists.
A ton of your readers are just racist, if we're just being blunt about it.
And you're afraid of your own shadow.
You're demoralizing.
The very notion of racial nationalism by suing the New York Times for libel.
You don't sue someone for libel who call you handsome and intelligent.
You're like, no, I'm not.
This is an outrage.
It's simply incorrect.
You don't sue for libel over that.
You sue for libel over this horrible, vicious smear.
First off...
Peter is a white nationalist.
It's just obvious.
Secondly, why does that offend you?
Why are you suing someone over something like that?
You're surrendering the past before the battle is even fought.
You're giving in to that notion.
You're demoralizing the very concept of racial nationalism going forward.
And again, you have all this money.
You're paying lawyers hundreds of thousands of dollars to do Lawsuits that are obviously hopeless and that do lose, and then you get slapped with an anti-slap lawsuit.
That is, what is it, civil?
No, it's litigation against public participation, basically.
I forgot what the S stands for.
I just don't know what to fucking say.
I'll stop being this bitchy.
For lack of a better word about this issue.
But, like, it's just...
What a waste.
And just lawyers get paid a ton of money.
Lydia Bremelow, who's just this, like, marries Peter.
And Peter's old.
I mean, he's pushing 80. So she's going to have a castle in West Virginia.
Like, good for you.
And I hope it's fun or whatever.
But, like...
Lydia is irrelevant.
Why is the movement doing this?
Why does it always do this kind of shit?
Paying this much money to lawyers to do hopeless lawsuits that blow up in your face?