Author: VD

The Monks of the Next Dark Age

John Derbyshire laments the death of the book:

Some years ago New Yorker magazine ran a cover picture of a guy sitting in an armchair working a laptop, with behind him a whole wall full of books. Every one of the books had, on its spine, a little face drawn. The faces were sad, angry, or plaintive.

That came to mind this month when I heard that Book Revue, my village’s independent bookstore, was closing. In their last week, the week of September 6th, they marked down all of their huge inventory. I went in to pick up some bargains, but for some reason felt no urge to buy and left empty-handed.

The following Tuesday, when I passed by, they had already cleared out the whole place. The empty shelves were a melancholy sight.

When we settled here thirty years ago the village had Book Revue and two second-hand bookstores, with a couple of the big chain retailers in nearby shopping centers. Now the nearest place to buy a book, or just browse, is in the mega-mall fifteen miles away. At any rate, there was a Barnes & Noble there when I last went, a couple of years ago …

“Oh, people just buy their books online—lots of books!” That’s what you hear if you raise the topic. I call it whistling through the graveyard, and think of that New Yorker cover. Books are dying a slow death, going the way that cuneiform on clay tablets went when papyrus came up.

It’s geezerish to grumble about it, and anyway futile. History stumbles on, and the old gives way to the new. For someone of my generation, though, for whom books have been a solace and a delight from childhood onward, it is sad, sad.

I feel exactly the opposite way. When I recall my childhood library filled with ephemeral paperbacks, and contrast that with the glorious image of my office library filled with beautiful leatherbound books by Franklin Library, Easton, and, of course, Castalia Library, I feel encouraged and restored.

Anyhow, you’ll definitely want to subscribe just so you can get the Landmark Thucydides at what will almost certainly be a break-even price from us. It’s going to be an incredible edition, unquestionably the best ever published of the 2,000-year-old book, but due to the unusually large width required for the maps and footnotes, it is going to be even more expensive to produce than the Plutarchs were. But nevertheless, it will be a subscription book because we want our subscribers to know that we appreciate them and want them to have the best books we produce.

In any event, the book will not die any century soon. It is considerably more likely that the lights will go out and the ebook will disappear, quite possibly before the end of the 21st century. We are the monks of the next literary Dark Age.

So don’t be sad, sub-scribe.

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“Reunification Must Be Realized”

Xi Xinping doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room for any misinterpretation of his intentions concerning Taiwan.

China harbours ambitions of a ‘peaceful reunification’ with Taiwan, the country’s leader Xi Jinping said ahead of the island’s National Day of celebration on Sunday.

The president’s renewed call for the island to be integrated into China comes amid a rise in aggressive threats and provocative military action over Taiwanese airspace in recent days.

Mr Xi was speaking at an official celebration in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People that focused largely on the need for the ruling Communist Party to continue to lead China as the country rises in power and influence.

‘Reunification of the nation must be realised, and will definitely be realised,’ he warned. ‘Reunification through a peaceful manner is the most in line with the overall interest of the Chinese nation, including Taiwan compatriots.’

I’ve written an analysis of why I don’t believe the US will interfere with Chinese reunification and submitted it for publication. It will be interesting to see if it is published or not. If not, I will publish it here.

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Don’t Blame Russia if Europe Freezes

Even Angela Merkel has admitted that the European natural gas shortage is not Russia’s fault:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected suggestions that the increased price of gas is due to Russian policy. Instead she has pointed the finger at the EU’s own approach asking whether the bloc could have acted differently.
Speaking on Wednesday, Merkel noted that Russia has never refused to deliver gas and has fulfilled its contractual obligations.

“That’s why we should ask the question: was enough gas ordered, or is the high price at the moment maybe the reason for not ordering so much?” Merkel asked, according to London’s Financial Times.

The European Union has sought to move gas trading to the spot market in recent years, whereas Russia has consistently preferred long-term contracts, often as long as 25 years. Russian President Vladimir Putin has pointed at the reluctance of the bloc to sign longer deals as a cause for rising prices.

So, the Europeans didn’t order enough natural gas to meet their needs, shut down their nuclear plants, and chose to rely upon green energy production that has fallen woefully short of requirements. But since Putin refuses to sell them additional gas at contract prices at the same time they are trying to deny Russia’s ability to deliver gas via the new Nordstream 2 pipeline, this is somehow supposed to be all Russia’s fault.

Literally no one is buying it. Which raises the obvious question: what else are they lying about? Other than Covid and the “safe and effective” vaxxes, of course.

US Provides Casus Belli

The US military has now provided China with a legitimate reason to take action in Taiwan. Whether it is intended as bait or whether it’s simply reprehensible stupidity, I cannot say.

Small units of Taiwan’s military ground forces have been trained by a U.S. special operations unit and a contingent of Marines, who have been secretly operating in that country, The Wall Street Journal is reporting.

Some two dozen members of U.S. special-operations and support troops have been conducting the training in an effort to strengthen Taiwan’s defenses in light of concerns about potential aggression by China.

Officials tell the paper that American forces have been conducting the training for at least a year.

To put it in perspective, imagine what the response from Washington would be if Russian Spetsnaz units were secretly operating in Idaho, training small units of “right wing extremists” and “Christian antivaxxers”. Remember, Taiwan is a Chinese province, and there is almost certainly a higher percentage of Taiwanese that wish to be governed by Beijing than Idahoans that want to be governed by Washington.

The Global Times, which is an English-speaking mouthpiece for the CPC, has made it very clear that this sort of foreign military intervention will not be tolerated:

It is impossible for any foreign force to deter or stop the process of China’s reunification as the mainland is determined to crack down on all kinds of foreign intervention and capable of doing so, and could reunify the island by force if necessary, Yuan Zheng, deputy director of the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday.

“The only thing that matters for the US and its allies is that how big a price they want to pay to test China’s strength and determination on this matter,” Yuan noted.

That the island of Taiwan’s attempts to resist reunification by force cannot succeed, and no matter what weapons the Taiwan secessionists make or buy, they cannot change the fact that the PLA has overwhelming advantages in the Taiwan Straits and surrounding areas, analysts said, stressing that once the mainland decides to solve the Taiwan question by force, no weapon can deter the unshakeable determination of 1.4 billion people to realize national reunification.

“PLA presence around Taiwan ‘targets secessionism, foreign forces’”, Global Times, 7 October 2021

The reason that they’re trying to train the Taiwanese forces is pretty obvious, though, as the island’s military has clearly become incapable of presenting the PLA with a hard target as its capabilities have declined relative to those of the mainland.

Two years back I wrote an article for Foreign Policy with the title “Taiwan Can Win a War With China.” In a recent interview with Jordan Schneider I stated that I can no longer endorse the declaration in that title. While I discuss my change of heart on the podcast, I think it is best if I fully write out why my assessment has changed.

I wrote that article in the early Spring of 2018. Around 70% of its contents reflected research presented in Ian Easton’s book, The Chinese Invasion Threat, another 15% or so was drawn from a journal article published by Michael Beckely in the International Security Review, and the last 15% or so drew from my own analysis. A lot of the writing and research behind Easton’s book comes from 2015-2016. Things have gotten worse, not better, since then, and if Easton’s more recent op-ed pieces are a fair judge of his opinions, he has also grown more pessimistic in the years since.

My pessimism is grounded in the nine months I spent in Taiwan in 2019….

You might divide the challenges Taiwan faces into two parts: problems of military strategy and problems of training, culture and morale. These problems can be laid at the feet of the ROC military (especially the ROC Army), but behind them lies another, more serious layer of dysfunction. This layer is more serious because it infects not the military but the civilian leadership tasked with reforming the defense system. Responsibility for military strategy and morale ultimately lies with Taiwanese politicians, and to a lesser extent, the voters who bring them to office. But Taiwan is marred by a dysfunctional civil-military relationship, destructive partisan infighting, and a spirit of defeatism. These political dynamics make it difficult for Taiwan to make the reforms that might guarantee its safety and autonomy.

The problems with Taiwanese military strategy are well known. The essential issues are these: for the last decade, Taiwanese force procurement has been weighted towards expensive, high-end platforms that are high on prestige but of limited utility in an actual conflict with the PLA. 20 years ago doubling down on the high-tech edge made sense, as it was seen as a force multiplier that might counteract the weight of numbers China could throw into the fight. But the situation has changed: the PLA has parity on just about every system the Taiwanese can field (or buy from us in the future), and for some systems they simply outclass the Taiwanese altogether. The Chinese thus not only have more equipment, but better equipment on top of it.

“Why I Fear For Taiwan”, Tanner Greer, 11 September 2020

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Mailvox: Lockdown II Staff Shortage

An Italian explains that the vaxx restrictions are having a serious effect on Italy’s production capabilities despite the population’s general willingness to ignore the rules:

So I live to the North of Italy and went down Monday night to visit a factory to do some work with them. The hotel was in a small village and didn´t care about the Covid restrictions and told me to remove my mask when I went in. Due to this I ate an expensive meal at their restaurant even though I wasn´t hungry.

Get to the factory. Show my test etc. Temperature test etc… annoying but no big deal. Then we speak to the manager. On the 15th of October it will be law that you need to have the Vaxx or get tested by a doctor twice a week or you need to go on leave without pay. This factory, like most in Europe now is completely sold out until May next year and did not even stop production over summer. But, over 30% of the staff are unvaccinated and apparently refuse to get one.

They are literally going to be f—– unless they break the law and risk gigantic fines, or hire a doctor to “coof” test the 30% two days a week.

Something is going to give. And it’s not going to be the unvaccinated. We know of an entire hospital ward in our area that has shut down due to an inability to find enough vaccinated health care workers.

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This is Anti-Vaxxism

Rural Guatamalans show the rest of the world how it’s done:

Vaccine opposers in a Guatemalan village captured two medical teams that arrived with C0VID-19 vaccines. The wheels were lowered to cars, the exit road was blocked, refrigerators with vaccines were destroyed, and doctors were locked up and threatened to burn.

It’s a sad day in American history when Guatamalan villagers demonstrate that they are much more willing to stand up for their health, freedom, and human rights than anyone in the USA. Meanwhile, in Canada, the Vaxx Preacher-in-Chief is publicly demonstrating why the Guatamalan response is the correct one:

Fauci boldly told Canadians who oppose vaccine mandates that they have “no right to make their own decision about what goes into their body” during the presentation, which outlined how the world continues to battle with the Covid pandemic. He said: “there comes a time when you do have to give up what you consider your individual right of making your own decision.”

That hissing sound you hear is the West’s ownership of the rhetorical high ground deflating like a balloon with a hole snipped out of it. A cartoonishly dystopian future when scientists, doctors, and pharmacists are hunted down like rabid dogs by vengeful victims and angry parents suddenly appears to considerably more probable than even a pessimist would have ever imagined just one year ago.

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Puppets in Politics

In this excerpt from Lee Kuan Yew’s second memoir, covering the period 1965 to 2000, the great founder of Singapore relates an account of foreign interference in Singapore’s domestic politics that shows why it is incumbent upon Americans to be very, very skeptical of all “pro-democracy opposition leaders” and “political dissidents” in countries that are not under the thumb of the neo-liberal world order:

When dealing with the opposition, I had two preoccupations: Were they being used by the communists? And was this a “black operation”, one funded and run by a foreign intelligence agency to cause mischief? It was this latter concern which led to our investigation of Francis Seow, a former solicitor-general. The Marxist group described earlier had gained influence in the Law Society. They canvassed for him and got him elected as president. With Seow as president, the Law Society became politicised, criticising and attacking government legislation not on professional but on political grounds, something it had never done as a professional organisation constituted by law to maintain discipline and standards in the legal profession.

Around that time, in 1987, a counsellor in the US embassy called Hendrickson met Seow to encourage him to lead an opposition group at the next election. The ISD recommended that we detain and interrogate Seow to get to the bottom of the matter. I agreed. We had to put a stop to this foreign interference in Singapore’s domestic politics and show that it was off-limits to all, including the United States. Under interrogation, Seow admitted in a sworn affidavit that he had been asked by Hendrickson to lead a group of lawyers to contest the elections against the PAP. He also admitted that he had been to Washington to meet Hendrickson’s superior in the US State Department, who had assured him of refuge in America were he to run into difficulties with the government. We published his admissions made in the sworn affidavit. Then we released Seow, two months before the general elections. He contested but lost.

He was on a charge for fraudulent income tax returns at that time but we gave him permission to travel to the United States to consult a cardiologist in New York and to attend a human rights conference. He did not return for his trial. Instead his lawyers submitted several medical reports from two doctors: the first, Dr Jonathan E. Fine, who signed himself as “Executive Director” on letter paper headed “Physicians for Human Rights”, stated that it was inadvisable for Seow to travel internationally; the second doctor stated that Seow was unable to undertake any air travel until treated for his heart condition. When the prosecution produced evidence that Seow had made at least seven air trips from December through January, the court directed that Seow submit more detailed medical reports. When Seow failed to provide further medical reports, his lawyers, an English Queen’s Counsel (QC) and a Singapore advocate, asked the court to discharge them. One doctor later admitted that in fact he had not examined him and that he had not renewed his medical licence to practise. Seow had no standing at the Bar, having been disciplined by the Law Society for financial misconduct. What was left of his credibility in Singapore was destroyed.

When human rights groups in America puffed him up as a major dissident figure, Singaporeans were not impressed. Several years later we learnt that the US government had indeed given Seow political asylum.

We had good reason for wanting to investigate Francis Seow. We knew he owed a Singapore bank some S$350,000. The loan was not repaid for many years. In 1986, as the date for election approached, the bank demanded payment. He was able to pay. Where did the money come from? We had seized his books to check for income tax and it was clear that he did not have the funds to settle this loan. He swore in an affidavit that it was paid by his girlfriend, or his fiancée as he called her, Mei Siah. She told Keng Swee in Bangkok in 1989, after Seow had fled from Singapore, that she was asked to lend Seow the money by a Singapore businessman. A CEO of a major company who kept Mei Siah as his mistress for a number of years told us that she was a grasping sort, extremely tight with money, and would never have parted with S$350,000 for anyone, and that she still had not paid him more than the sum of S$350,000 she owed him. This suggested that the money came from some interested agency.

From Third World to First The Singapore Story: 1965–2000, Lee Kuan Yew

Note that this operation was almost certainly funded by the CIA and targeted the very friendly country of Singapore. There should be no question at all that “pro-democracy” and “human rights” figures such as Alexei Navalny in Russia, Chen Guangcheng and Yang Maodong in China, and Roman Protasevich in Belarus should be regarded with extreme skepticism. They are not modern-day Solzhenitsyns, but rather puppets funded and controlled by the US Deep State intended to disrupt and destabilize the forces that stand against Babel.

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