Tag: China

Crowdfunding, International Shipping, and Brandon Sanderson

 

Brandon Sanderson launched his crowdfunding campaign today centered around selling leatherbound editions of Words of Radiance. This post isn’t about that book. I’m going to assume that if you care about the book itself this campaign isn’t news to you. This post isn’t about his new Secret Project either. This isn’t the first time Sanderson has said “Surprise! I wrote another book while you weren’t looking!” I doubt it will be the last. Rather, this post is about two epiphenomena of the campaign that I hope will be interesting to the Ricochetti at large.

Eleven Million Dollars

I really hope that Sanderson has some fun negotiations with his publisher and agent. I imagine him sitting across the table like The Bobs from Office Space and asking “What exactly is it you do around here?” The model of the publishing business has been (if you’ll allow me a touch of bitterness here) to beg agents to accept your unworthy manuscripts until you find one desperate enough to take on a new client. The agent then flogs your manuscript to every friend he doesn’t actually have in the publishing business until he catches an editor magnanimous enough to let his assistant summarize your book for him, at which point he consigns it to midlist hell and then blames you when it never earns out. Only with more rejection involved.

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There was an interesting article in the WSJ this week discussing actions the U.S. is taking because of “fears that giant cranes made by a Chinese, state-owned company in use at a number of U.S. ports could present an espionage and disruption risk. Cranes at some ports used by the U.S. military were flagged as […]

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Kindle Consumption: 2023

 

A handful of books were my companions each evening this year as I dozed off, or was wakeful, or inexplicably alert in the wee hours. Some off these I’ll recommend wholeheartedly, while others are not worth your time. 

Menagerie Manor, by Gerald Durrell- Some of us are acquainted with Durrell through his accounts of an idyllic boyhood on the Greek island of Corfu. Durrell continues his obsession with animals in this volume, a collection of stories from Durrell’s years building and maintaining a zoo. The quality of the writing is an echo of My Family and Other Animals; however, in some of the stories, Durrell is inspired again, and I was at times happily transported in his telling of how he acquired and maintained his zoo creatures. Durrell is known for helping to revolutionize the purposes and operations of zoos, yet sometimes I found myself wondering whether a few of his animals would have been more content left alone in the wild. In some ways, perhaps, he never stopped being that ten-year-old kid fighting the odds to maintain his vast collection of specimens. 

That Choking Feeling

 

‘Everything indicates’ Chinese ship damaged Baltic pipeline on purpose, Finland says’, the December 1 headline at Politico announced, and the article then went on to discuss how Finnish authorities believe that the Chinese container ship, the Newnew Polar Bear, intentionally dragged its anchor line across the floor of the Baltic sea.

The results of this incident were the cutting of the Balticconnector 77 gas pipeline between NATO members Finland and Estonia, and the damaging of two telecom cables connecting Sweden with the two NATO members. While not a NATO member itself, Sweden has certainly become a fellow traveler since the start of the Russia-Ukraine War.

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There were a couple of posts yesterday and today about Taiwan, and I came across a story in the New York Post on the same issue (linked from RealClearPolitics).  This appears to be the result of Secretary of State Blinken meeting with Chinese President Xi. My impression is that these are examples of right-wing gaslighting.  […]

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Ricochet Editor-in-Chief Jon Gabriel is in for Jim. Join Jon and Greg as they cheer House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and a bipartisan congressional delegation for meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in defiance of Chinese demands and touting the importance of a free Taiwan. They also react to new allegations that CNN’s Don Lemon harassed former co-anchor Kyra Phillips back in 2008, including ripping up her photos and papers when she got an assignment that he wanted and for texting threatening messages to her. Finally, they roll their eyes as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. throws his hat into the ring for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination.

Emily Jashinsky of The Federalist is in for Jim today. Emily and Greg cheer Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears for powerfully speaking the truth on parenting, guns, and many other issues to Bill Maher on Friday and pretty much every day since she took office last year. They also groan upon hearing the very predictable news that the Chinese spy balloon was actually able to gather intelligence – including signals – despite the Biden administration insisting it prevented that from happening back in February. Finally, they scratch their heads and wonder why former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is running for president in 2024 when it appears he’d have little chance even if Trump and DeSantis weren’t running.

Join Jim and Greg as they cheer former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz for pushing back against Sen. Bernie Sanders and other Democrats for trying to demonize him because he’s a billionaire. Schultz explains how the American dream allowed him to rise from humble beginnings to achieve great wealth – a story Sanders had no interest in hearing of course. They also shudder at multiple reports that the Biden administration’s Navy budget proposal doesn’t even keep up with inflation, we’re retiring vessels critical to deterring Chinese aggression, and within five years China’s navy will have 150 more ships than we do. Finally, they roll their eyes as President Biden acts like he’s an honorary member of another ethnicity – this time it’s the Greeks.

Join Jim and Greg as they welcome a new Associated Press poll showing Americans can clearly see President Biden’s weak performance on the economy and his overall job performance. They also groan as the CEO of TikTok tries to dodge questions about whether the app is spying on users and TikTok’s connection to the Chinese Communist Party. Plus, they hammer the Democrats for glibly opposing the effort to crack down on TikTok after agreeing to ban it on government devices last year. Finally, they break down Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s strategy of cozying up to the right in advance of a likely 2024 re-election bid.

Join Jim and Greg as they enjoy watching Georgia Democrats squirm at the prospect of Stacey Abrams running for high office again soon. They also fume over reports that groups with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party are heavily involved in illegal marijuana production here in the U.S. Between weed and fentanyl, China’s agenda concerning our kids seems pretty clear. Finally, they condemn the comments of a Georgia state lawmaker who contends that people who didn’t finish high school are “not qualified” to make decisions about where their kids go to school.

Join Jim and Greg as they serve up three bad martinis. First, they wince as Chinese dictator Xi Xinping visits Moscow to strengthen ties with Vladimir Putin. They also react to Mexico’s socialist president rejecting any blame for the fentanyl epidemic in the U.S. Instead, he blames American parents for not hugging their children enough. Finally, they assess the legal drama swirling around former President Trump, the far left Manhattan district attorney who may be poised to indict Trump, and how legal experts throughout the political spectrum believe the forthcoming charges are very dubious.

Join Jim and Greg as they welcome stronger ties among the U.S., UK, and Australia, as the U.S. promises to deliver nuclear-powered submarines to the Aussies made with Rolls Royce engines from Great Britain. How much of a check might it be on Chinese ambitions in the region. They also recoil as Moody’s downgrades confidence in our banking system from “stable” to “negative” while the Democrats try to blame the SVB collapse on GOP policies with a very weak argument. Finally, they shake their heads as President Trump asserts that Florida was already great before Gov. Ron DeSantis took office. But it’s his praise of Republican-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist that is raising the most eyebrows. We’ll examine the progress made by multiple Republican governors there and why DeSantis deserves plenty of credit for his time in office.

Join Jim and Greg as they break down the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, and how the financial institution bankrolling many of the nation’s top venture capital-backed firms went into crisis. They also throw a flag on President Biden’s contention that U.S. taxpayers will not be on the hook for bailing out the bank’s depositors. Finally, they shudder at the news of China brokering a restoration of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Why is the restoring of relations a bad thing? In this case, there’s lots of reasons.

You might need something stronger than a martini as Jim and Greg dig into three big stories today. First, they respond to the congressional testimony of former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, who said our top officials knew from the start that COVID likely came from a lab leak and then knowingly pushed a false narrative that the virus naturally occurred. And the maddening truth doesn’t stop there. Then they tackle the gut-wrenching testimony of a U.S. Marine Corps sniper stationed at Abbey Gate on the day of the terrorist attack during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews says he and others had the bomber spotted and were ready to take him out but they never had permission to fire. And his frustration grew even more when no one in our government wanted to hear his story. Finally, Jim dissects California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s condemnation of Walgreen’s for refusing to sell abortion-inducing drugs in states where the retailer might get sued. Jim explains how Newsom frequently ignores the most basic responsibilities of governing and how he tries to distract his constituents from his terrible record.

Join Jim and Greg as they serve up three crazy martinis! First, they note New York City Mayor Eric Adams demanding that people remove their masks before entering stores. It’s an effort to identify shoplifters and looters, which is good, but it wasn’t long ago that that you couldn’t do much of anything in the Big Apple unless you were masked up. They also shake their heads as China makes another overt threat towards Taiwan, mentioning a blacklist of Taiwanese figures to kill during the coming invasion. Finally, there’s less than thrilled that the Republican who lost the Pennsylvania governor’s race last year is thinking about running for U.S. Senate next year.