Book Reviews
My Books
- Harris II, Robert; Smells Like BULL-Shevik to Me!
- Harris II, Robert; Well, THAT Didn't Go According to Plan!
Others
- Applebaum, Anne; Red Famine – Stalin's War Against Ukraine
- Alexievich, Svetlana; Chernobyl Prayer
- Bell, Sir Charles; Portrait of a Dalai Lama – The Life and Times of the Great Thirteenth
- Chen Qingying; A History of Tibet
- Chu, Ben; Chinese Whispers
- Dorjee, Dudjom; Falling Off the Roof of the World
- Fenby, Jonathan; Will China Dominate the 21st Century?
- Friedman, George; The Next Decade
- Galleotti, Mark; A Brief History of Russia – From the Pagans to Putin
- Grey, Ian; Catherine the Great – Autocrat and Empress of Russia
- Gruber, Elmar J; From the Heart of Tibet
- Harrer, Heinrich; Seven Years in Tibet
- Hart, Bradley W; Hitler's American Friends
- Hosking, Geoffrey; Russia and the Russians
- Kilmeade, Brian; Sam Houston and the Alamo Avengers
- Laird, Thomas; The Story of Tibet – Conversations With the Dalai Lama
- Lu Xun; The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Stories of China
- Luo Guanzhong; Three Kingdoms
- Jin Canrong; China's Wisdom
- Massie, Robert K. Catherine the Great – Portrait of a Woman
- Midler, Paul; What's Wrong with China?
- Montefiore, Simon Sebag; Catherine and Potemkin – The Imperial Love Affair
- Mosher, Steven W; Bully of Asia
- Musashi, Miyamoto. Book of Five Rings (Kaufman Translation)
- Norbu, Jamyang; Warriors of Tibet
- Nye, Joseph; Is the American Century Over?
- Park, Yeonmi; In Order to Live
- Rounding, Virginia; Catherine the Great - Love, Sex and Power
- Skalietska, Yeva; You Don't Know What War Is
- Sun Hongnian, Zhang Yongpan & Li Sheng; The 14th Dalai Lama
- Summers, William C.; The Great Manchurian Plague of 1910 – 1911 – The Geopolitics of an Epidemic Disease
- Smith, Douglas; Love and Conquest – The Personal Correspondence of Catherine the Great and Prince Grigory Potemkin
- Smith, Warren J; Tibetan Nation – A History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations
- Soloveytchik, George; Potemkin – A Picture of Catherine's Russia
- Troyat, Henri; Catherine the Great
- Unstated Author; Polish-Ukrainian Cross-Border Cooperation
- Urban, Andrew L. & McLeod, Chris; Zelensky - The Unlikely Hero Who Defied Putin and United the World
- Various Authors; Rule of Law in China
- Xi Jinping; The Governance of China, Volume I
- Xi Jinping; The Governance of China, Volume II
- Yan Jirong; China's Governance
China Intercontinental Press's “Sinopedia” Series
- Part 1: China's History, China's Culture, China's Social Development.
- Part 2: China's Ethnic Groups and Religions, China's Laws, China's Political System
- Part 3: China's Economy, China's Geography, China's Environment
- Part 4: China's National Defense, China's Laws, China's Science, Technology and Education
End Of Year Book Tally
Biographies
Chinese Culture and History
Modern History
- My thoughts back in 2018, about the Xi regime
- China has a superstition about years ending in "9"
- Again and again, America has saved helpless little China
Ancient History
- Contrary to their propaganda, China is not 5,000 years old
- They've been aggressive for their entire existence
- They've also been brutally tyrannical for their entire history
Culture and Society
- Chinese culture is built on ethnocentrism
- Jingoism has always been the root of China's identity, and now they admit that
- The slave trade is alive and well in China (part 1)
- The slave trade is alive and well in China (part 2)
- China's counterfeit credential crisis (C4)
- Chinese tourists are NOTORIOUSLY barbaric
- China's long history of re-writing history
- China's surveillance state bears eerie Biblical similarities
- China's petulant juvenility is on display at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics
- “Wolf Warrior Diplomacy” is nothing new. They've been doing it for centuries
- China's problem isn't the Party; its the People
Chinese Politics and Current Events
Bubonic Plague Returns
- Beijing admits Bubonic Plague outbreak: October, 2020
- Plague update: Thanksgiving, 2019
- The Plague rises again (along with numerous other diseases): Summer, 2019
- There is evidence that China is preparing YET ANOTHER bioweapon; an H2H transmissible hantavirus
Covid-19
- The Chinese government's botched response, and evidence that it is manmade
- The CPC's laughable committee to fight the coronavirus
- China's attempts to portray themselves as heroes of the coronavirus fight
- How being too cozy with China doomed Italy
- America's opportunity to crush Covid-battered China
COVID Aftermath
China's foreign aggression
- An early look at China's "nine dash LIE"
- The Reed Bank incident: the PLA's assault on Filipino fishermen in Philippine waters
- The case of Chemi Lhampo: China's act of war against Canada
- The case of Norman Easy: China's assassination of a US citizen
- China started 2019 by preparing for war (against Taiwan?)
- Xi Jinping has rather openly claimed the Philippines and Brunei
- China's drug war against the U.S.
- China's drug war against the Philippines
- China's attempts to control the media in Australia
- The Confucius Institute has been a weaponized propaganda tool from the beginning
- China's Eco-Piracy and Mass Plundering of the Seas
- China's fake sympathizers (Laurene Beaumond and Wilson Edwards
- China tried to pretend Russia's “US bio-weapons in Ukraine” story made sense. (Also listed under “Russia”)
- The etymology of Xi Jinping's name tells you all you will ever need to know about China's worldview
- The Sino-Russian “#dragonbear” alliance is really the Chinese vassalization of Russia (Also published under “Russia”)
- While Russia was trying (and failing) to annex Ukraine, China annexed part of Russia. (Also listed under “Russia”)
China's weaknesses
- My early examination of China's weak status
- China has covered its weaknesses using bluster for a long time
- They were already having a food shortage in 2019
- China's disastrous air safety record
- The Wenchuan Quake cover-up
- Why I'm not the slightest bit worried about China's DF-41 (if they even have it)
- The fallacy of China's laughable claim of "victory over poverty"
The world is waking up to China
- China is making more enemies than they can handle
- The Party is actually trying to make the world hate China, and here's why
- The Hong Kong protests have galvanized Taiwan
- The Pacific Islands Forum told China to kick rocks in 2018
- And ASEAN followed suit
- China's humiliation at Apec 2019
- After his defeat at APEC, Xi prepared for a showdown in Buenos Aires
- The 2019 BRI Summit humiliated China in their own capital city
- It was China that started a "New Cold War," and they did it in 1991
- The "Quad-Alliance"
Regarding Tibet
- Contrary to China's propaganda, the Tang Dynasty did NOT conquer Tibet
- China's claim of sovereignty over Tibet based on the Yuan Dynasty is equally idiotic
- China's claim of Ming Sovereignty is perhaps the thinnest of all
Regarding Russia
Politics
- The Trump/Putin summit in Helsinki
- The day Biden swore Russia would invade Ukraine
- Biden's second attempt to predict a Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Okay, NOW Russia invaded Ukraine (Also posted under “Personal Journal”)
- The US's inaction in Ukraine disillusioned Ukraine about ever joining NATO (Also published under “Personal Journal)
- China tried to pretend Russia's “US bio-weapons in Ukraine” story made sense. (Also published under “China's Foreign Aggression”)
- And Russia's failure in Ukraine has now left them as a Chinese client-state
- Russia's “there are Nazis in Ukraine” narrative is a stale and rehashed line from Josef Stalin
- If you think ordinary Russians don't support Russia's war crimes, read what they themselves say
- Russia's humiliating losses as of “Victory Day (May 9),” 2022
- Russia's invasion of Ukraine happened on China's orders, and here is the proof
- The Sino-Russian “#dragonbear” alliance is really the Chinese annexation of Russia (Also published under “China's Politics and Current Events”)
- It's glaringly obvious that it was Russia, not Ukraine, who blew up the Khakovka dam
- It makes no sense to claim NATO expansion is the reason for Russia's war in Ukraine, and here's why
- Russia is trying to recruit Westerners to move there for one simple reason: Russia's population is dying
- If you're stupid enough to think Ukraine was behind the Crocus Hall shooting, here's a list of questions you can't answer
- Havana syndrome
- If you think “Russia's not commiting genocide,” here's Russia's confession: They are
- Russia is actively recruting pedophiles, and they got one from the US Air Force!
- If you think Russia is “PrOtEcTiNg ChRiStIaNiTy,” you're a complete moron and probably a Satanist
- No, Ukraine isn't a “Nazi State.” Russia, however, is.
- While Russia was trying (and failing) to annex Ukraine, China annexed part of Russia. (Also listed under “China”)
History
American Politics
- Henry Kissinger is a stain on America's record
- The 2018 "mail bomb" hoax the Democrats hoped people would fall for
- The 2020 rioters in America don't have a damned clue what they're protesting about
- Reflections on the end of the Trump presidency
- The American Left's actions after their January 2021 coup are a mirror image of the “Culture Revolution” in China
- After Ukraine, it's time for American conservatives to give up on Putin and Russia
- Until VERY recently, Democrats were the pro-Kremlin party. Now it's the Republicans
- Americans who complain about the money sent to Ukraine are whining over pennies
- Americans who don't support Ukraine have clearly forgotten 9/11
- My fellow Republicans, I know we used to like Trump, but it's time to move on
World Politics
Japan's Resurgence
North Korea
- China's threats to North Korea in the weeks leading up to the Singapore Summit
- The Trump/Kim summit: what was accomplished and what was not
- China's media panic after the Singapore Trump/Kim summit
Other
- The end of the US-Pakistan alliance was a trap for China
- Rodi Duterte, the Tsina Makipili ng Malacanang
- Hamas's attack on Israel and Russia's genocide in Ukraine are part of the same war, and China's behind them both
My Travel Map
Personal Journal
- My introduction
- Early experiences with China's crooked cops
- Thoughts from a vacation to Bali
- Recollections on my last night in Bali
- Wondering if Shanghai is losing its magic
- When a Chinese school administrator told me "let them fail; they don't matter"
- One of my students (Maizy Zhao) shows she's cleverer than her countrymen
- The 306th PLA hospital crisis (part 1)
- The 306th PLA hospital crisis (part 2)
- The 306th PLA hospital crisis (part 3)
- Trapped in Beijing (April, 2019)
- The 30th anniversary of Tiananmen Square, seen from Beijing
- Learning the hard way that in China, proving your innocence is a crime
- Independence Day reflections amid the Hong Kong riots
- Escape from China (and reluctant return)
- Looking back on 2019 after returning, reluctantly, to China
- Thanksgiving reflections in China
- A teller at a Chinese bank tried to steal my passport; and the cops didn't help
- My final, miserable Christmas in China
- The week I left China once and for all
- Shedding my "secret identity" upon leaving China
- Final reflections (and closure) on my nightmarish time in Beijing
- Why did I shift from China commentary to book reviews?
- Reflecting on 9/11, in the wake of the Chinavirus-19 crisis: What if it happened today?
- My first Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. since 2013
- Rewriting Chely Wright's “Shut Up and Drive:” the end of the last dream of 2020
- Moving to Ukraine (and getting back to the front lines of the war against China's propaganda)
- I tried to get my belongings shipped out of China, and Chinese incompetence made it a nightmare
- Recalling a fateful day at the end of 2019
- An entry comparing my 38th birthday to the day I was born
- Last days in Kharkiv (under Russian guns) (Also listed under “Russia”)
- The long trip from war-stricken Kharkiv to Warsaw
- Watching the West (especially the US) do NOTHING to help Ukraine (Also listed under “Russia”)
- Leaving Poland, and flying to England...
- And then, Romania
- Then on to Germany...
- And finally, making plans to return home to Texas
- Final reflections on my travels through Europe
- The songs that helped me survive 2022
- What Memorial Day means now, as a Ukraine survivor
- The meaning of my new avatar
- Unsurprisingly, coming back to the US was a bad move
- First 4th of July after returning from Ukraine (and thoughts on a Bruce Springsteen song)
- Confessions of a former Russophile