Cadence of Conflict: Asia, January 25, 2021

China thinks they own the American president they helped install. Reportedly, a factory was set up in China to create fake ballots, likely as part of the election fraud network Biden boasted about on TV. But, politicians who steal elections stand against the will of the people by definition. Usually, the public doesn’t find out, which allows those politicians to govern to a limited degree. But, when the public knows a politician willfully stands against the people, that leader can only remain in power with an iron fist.

Iron fists don’t gel with America. That’s something China will eventually figure out the hard way. Biden will figure it out the hard way sooner. China believes chaos in America will work to China’s military advantage. It won’t. When the people turn on Biden, he will turn on China like the forked-tongue politician he is. That will be his attempt to gain unity in the American public against a common enemy. He will pound and shame China harder than Trump would have.

So, in a sense, when the Chinese were set up for disappointment, they not only took the bait; they made it even worse for themselves. They don’t like other countries meddling in their goals, yet they reportedly melded in America’s election. Good old-fashioned honesty and respect would have served them well. Instead, the Chinese gambled on trusting an experienced American politician.

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Encore of Revival: America, November 16, 2020

Elections are not decided by news desks. They are decided by the electoral college, which meets in mid December. Electors sent there are chosen by the State based on election results certified by each State. If an election is in doubt, the decision goes to State legislatures, pursuant to the Electoral Count Act (1887) and a Supreme Court interpretation from Bush v Gore (2000).

Judges don’t decide whether election results are certifiable; State legislatures do. The burden is not on the Trump campaign to prove vote fraud to judges. The burden is on the polling stations to prove there was no fraud to State legislatures.

Right now, five key states are in severe doubt concerning polling credibility: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia. Republicans control the legislatures of all five. And, Trump just backed McDaniel to continue as RNC chair. Perhaps she will have some sway over those Republican legislatures.

Republicans don’t have an option. Gross suspicions of election cheating have caused the Republican base to turn away from Fox News to Newsmax. News networks wouldn’t call Georgia or North Carolina, even though it looked long past the time it seemed reasonable. To Republicans, this is a conspiracy to institute nation-wide political machines, which they can’t accept. In their minds, if they let Democrats steal this election, there will be no more fair elections, and the only way to escape would be an armed revolution. There is no scenario in which the Republican base allows Trump to lose. If Trump gave in, they would turn against him also.

Democratic voters aren’t about to tuck tail and turn. Emboldened by a news industry, that insists on its own ability to declare an election outcome, the DNC base only builds for greater disappointment. They don’t have the power to decide disputed elections, but they think they do. They haven’t already won, but they think they have. Note cautiously, the media does not hope to sway the election outcome, but to sway a revolt for when Trump inevitably wins—a revolt from, of all people, the gun haters.

In order for Trump to lose, he would have to bow out, then Republican voters would take up arms and the RNC, seen as an obstruction, would be dissolved by its base. When he does win, Democrats voters will riot. In either scenario, we are looking at martial law in the coming weeks and months.

But, the question remains: Why was there such gross election ambiguity specifically in states with Republican-controlled legislatures? It’s almost as if the entire election controversy were staged. But, the reason remains yet to be seen, unless the answer is: China.

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Encore of Revival: America, July 6, 2020

Happy Independence! Americans celebrated their declaration almost 250 years ago on Saturday. The country has coexisted with unseen freedoms in many ways and unheard deafness to its own oppression in others. It serves as a reminder that we live in a Republic only as long as we keep it. It’s not the job of presidents nor judges nor legislators to preserve our freedoms for us.

Chief Justice Roberts made a decision that baffled some, but not those who remember his deciding vote on Obamacare. Arguably, having voted to keep Obamacare on the books was the bail of hay that broke the camel’s back and elected Trump. Now, this election mover has stirred the electorate once again toward a choice that will move us closer to the inevitable reversal of Roe v. Wade.

As we approach “election solstice”, the Left puts out every argument it can drum up to oppose Trump. It seems overdone for a group that claims to believe they will win November. And, they ignore deeper matters that move Trump votes.

Much more is at stake other than abortion. China is taking over with a force to eclipse Japan’s expansion in the 1940s. No one was willing to not capitulate to China except Trump. If he were not re-elected, we might have no discussion on civil rights because the Chinese would be killing everyone in America who is not Han.

But then, America’s military is spread too thin and neither Republican nor Democratic president has worked to reduce our expanding global presence, none except Trump. There’s also the matter of manufacturing and closing the border to China over a virus when Democrats wanted to keep it open.

While our nation is in no position to decide an election on the social issues when basic needs are at stake, we are thankfully forced to address our neglected past. Intolerance over the atrocities of racism won’t shift the election because those lines have already been drawn. By not being distracted with yet another failed political solution to racial healing, we the People will actually have to deal with the wounds of racism ourselves. Maybe something will finally get done.

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Encore of Revival: America, February 10, 2020

Trump’s acquittal did not come because of party politics or friends in Washington. It came because he stood fast—he held his ground in a party that tried to denounce him early on. He had many good friends helping, but it was Trump himself that empowered their efforts and directed the flow.

The Republican Party is not what it seems. They hated Trump when he didn’t do things in their failing manner, but now they acquit him and act like they have always been BFF from the beginning. Any disagreements in Trump’s early days don’t matter anymore, even though that’s not the tone they used at the time, though a number of those Republicans are out of office.

It’s typical. The Republicans held their noses while Reagan gave them success. They passed Democratic-oriented, anti-Conservative laws during the W. Bush years viz the Patriot Act. They objected to Conservative voices in media during the 2005 “Build a Fence” movement viz Senator Lott. Thanks to Trump’s inability to be railroaded, they are being gifted more success and clout than they ever didn’t earn before.

Senator McConnell stayed true to the colors he flew, which is more than can be said for the late Senator McCain or Senator Romney, who took his unofficial place as “Republican Senate maverick”. Senator Romney’s departure from the fold could make him a one-term Senator—and not from lack of RNC backing. Senator Graham and many others took their stand for law, order, facts, evidence, process, and truth. The Republican Party stood behind their president, this time. Had former House Republicans not been card-carrying members of the metaphorical “never Trumper” movement, Republicans might still hold the House and none of this ugly impeachment would have happened.

Justice came from Republicans this time; don’t get used to it. While Democrats are the party of hate and failed “we wanna’ help you” platitudes, the Republicans are the party of treachery. Democrats stand together while Republicans usually don’t. It was a strange week in Washington. Things will be fine through the Trump years because they will depend on him. But after that, buckle up.

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Cadence of Conflict: Asia, December 2, 2019

Opinions on Asia aren’t just flying, but swarming the Pacific. Hong Kongers vote against China in an unmistakable slap to Beijing’s face, then Beijing blames the US—because Beijing still thinks that voters only vote how the government tells them to. And, everything is all America’s fault anyway, right?

It took a day of silence for Beijing’s media machine to figure out how to spin the election. Beijing accused Hong Kong’s dissent on violence. But, that doesn’t hold since last week’s election went uninterrupted. Yet, Beijing sticks to the same script.

A commentator predicts that Hong Kongers don’t want independence—even though they already declared independence on October 4. Perhaps Doris Lam’s article on Channel News Asia was an attempt to tell Hong Kongers what they should want. Or, it could have been an attempt to tell Beijing to think that Hong Kongers don’t want what they want. Either way, it is a delusional olive branch in the form of a typical long-worded think piece. There is a growing trend of commentators who make their articles longer when they know that few readers will accept their opinions.

After Trump signs two laws about Hong Kong—one to define an autonomous region as autonomous, the other to stop exporting police tools for riot-control—Beijing calls it “interference”. Then, Trump drops tariffs on China because good ole Benjamin is hard to argue with. Yet, Beijing wants more. Now, as in Chinese business negotiation, China wants to change the deal after everything has been agreed to. They want even lower tariffs in Phase One.

Great Britain wants UN access to Xinjiang.  China wants the world to believe Xinjiang is happy, an Islamic utopia; new documents prove otherwise. China also faces a food shortage, but a good marketing effort is underway for investment in Chinese farming. Stopping any possible abuse of Uyghurs in Xinjiang is interference in Beijing’s opinion, but accepting foreign money to build better farms isn’t. Perhaps Beijing will call it interference if the rest of the world does not invest in Chinese farms.

Taiwan’s election is fast approaching. Though Tsai Ing-Wen, the pro-democracy incumbent president, leads in the polls, many Taiwanese are scared that there are too many voters in the old, beaten-down generation for her to win a second time. Older Taiwanese, like many Chinese, have been so dominated by East Asia’s shame culture that they truly believe that “bigness” always wins and therefore they must vote for politicians who will surrender to China. Younger Taiwanese have seen this older generation get its way so many times, even polls can’t keep them from being scared. But, as John Maynard Keynes said, “Men will not always die quietly.” Few things drive voters to the polls like fear of dying at the hands of politicians who want to surrender. Tsai Ing-Wen is set to win by an even greater margin than she did in her first term—and everyone has something to say about it.

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Cadence of Conflict: Asia, November 18, 2019

America and China are getting fed up with China and America being fed up with each other. Americans tried patience and negotiations; that didn’t work. China hid its agenda for global domination, denouncing so-called “interference” except when China did the interfering. Now, China’s true colors are showing and it looks like a lot of debt. Municipalities and local governments are buried in debt, which is eating at China’s central economy like Asian ants on a morning worm.

Amid riots and threats, encroachments by police on university campuses and by China upon Hong Kong rule, the primary issue in Hong Kong is the upcoming revolution election in March. On October 4, Hong Kongers declared the current government already nullified and that interim government elections would take place in March. That election is not the primary concern for most reports coming out of Hong Kong, if it gets mentioned at all. But, that election should be the primary concern of China, the United States, and the current—and denounced—Hong Kong government. Perhaps those upcoming elections have not been taken seriously, and, if so, that would be perhaps the most serious miscalculation.

But, rather than carefully calculating the right way forward, China is more concerned with optics—not with causing good optics, but with countering bad optics with more mere optics.

The same Plague from the Black Death has re-emerged in China’s Inner Mongolia province. Historically, whether in 541, 1347, or 1894, the Plague always had its origins in the Far East. Rather than promptly confronting the source, the Chinese are basically doing what the San Francisco government did in the early 1900s: covering it up.

Even Chinese soldiers play the optics game. Chinese Communist PLA soldiers are not allowed to leave their garrisons in Hong Kong without a formal request from Hong Kong’s government. But, they did anyway—to clear streets blocked by protestors. They didn’t clash with protestors, they simply picked up stuff in the street, mostly bricks. They weren’t armed nor did they wear fatigues; they wore running shorts and OD-green T-shirts, the same that they exercise in on a daily basis. But, they weren’t invited by the Hong Kong government. As a result, their presence was technically illegal, though seemingly helpful in the minds of some residents who want to drive down the street.

Interestingly, the unarmed, seemingly-harmless soldiers were accompanied by cameras; it was a publicity stunt. Voices in the British Commonwealth are especially concerned because this beautiful, warm, kindhearted photo-op sets a precedent of PLA soldiers breaching Hong Kong illegally. Chinese thinking puts logic before law, which feels like justice at first, but then operates with no standard of conduct, deciding right and wrong from one moment to the next. In other words, Beijing thinks that China’s soldiers must not enter Hong Kong uninvited—unless they want to.

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