#tulip

The best part of the Alex Jones billion dollar settlement is its profound chilling effect on people's willingness to express their first amendment rights. The way is now cleared for entities to manufacture atrocities without fear that anyone will expose them.

I saw this all coming years ago. It was hard not to miss. But we continue on merrily allowing the foundations of a free society to be ripped to pieces. The silencing of COVID skeptics was the cherry on top. Unless there is a massive overhaul--very soon--we will live in a society guided by people who share the values of NZ's PM, who said about its government, "We will continue to be your single source of truth", and they will enforce it with the gun.

Thought for Friday, 10/14:
"Fear not those who argue but those who dodge." ~ Marie Ebner von Eschenbach

#tulip

Folks, I haven't charged a dime for use of this platform, and the intent is to never do so. The intention, rather, is to support the platform through some other businesses I've been working on. It has been a long haul, some 18-20 months of development, but my online book store is almost ready. I'll be launching officially Nov. 1st. I wanted you to have a look now. The site is fully functional, so if you DID want to start placing orders, you certainly could. It would be helpful to me to identify issues and solve problems.

Please hold off advertising it for another week or so.

I have a special Cornertable coupon code for 15% that I am posting in the new Cornertable page for the site. Join the page, get the code, and in the future, access to any other details, etc.

Here is the link: https://gutenbookpress.com/

China is having its every 5 year congress this week. If Xi is 'elected' president for his third term Taiwan might be targeted soon. From what I've been able to gather, in the spring and Oct/Nov are the best conditions for a cross strait invasion. Plus, Xi will want to do such a thing while we have Brandon in office and won't want to risk having Trump in office at the time. If Xi is smart at all (he is) he knows that drawing the US into a conflict will improve the political position of whoever is in power, as Americans tend to back their leaders during a time of war. This would argue for a pre-2022 election invasion, as Xi certainly knows that Democrats are better for him than Republicans. Ie, an invasion would give Brandon a bump in the polls and possibly the Dems up for election, too.

On this reasoning, Oct 20th - Nov 1ish is the window. Next spring would be the next one.

The 2022 election rationale might be too nuanced for Xi to care about, but the presidential election in 2024 has got to be on his mind.

There are plenty of unknowns. For example, I personally believe that Brandon is fully compromised by China, and is prepared to bend over on command. At the same time, Brandon would face a lot of pressure to intervene, and he has said publicly, several times, that the US would intervene on Taiwan's behalf. I don't know that what China has over Brandon is greater than his ego. When people start thinking about their 'legacies' their analysis changes.

Which brings up Putin, who is also concerned about his legacy. The US has poured resources into Ukraine--making them unavailable to our forces in Taiwan. The US is effectively at war with Russia right now, and everyone knows it except the American public. Can the 'woke' US military fight a 2 front war? Xi might well reason that he's not going to get a better chance to find out.

The last unknown is whether or not there will be a 'Pearl Harbor' first strike. History shows that hitting America only arouses its anger such that eventually it hits back, and keeps on hitting, until the attacker is a bloody pulp. I doubt a direct attack on America, but then, if it was decisive enough... but that still leaves cyber attacks, etc.

You should always have emergency supplies on hand, but if you don't right now, I encourage you to make it an urgent priority.

Thought for Thursday, 10/13:
"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." ~ Leo Buscaglia

#tulip