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As was the case with the Ukraine narrative leading up to Russia’s invasion, the American narrative regarding Taiwan points to China’s provocative actions around Taiwan while waving off the possibility that Washington’s weapons deliveries and military buildup in that part of the Indo-Pacific region would be perceived as provocative from Beijing’s viewpoint.

Earlier this year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated Island in Between in the Best Documentary Short Film category at the ninety-sixth Academy Awards.

Although it didn’t end up taking home the Oscar, the documentary drew attention to the little-known Kinmen Island and its precarious position as an inflection point in the relationship between Taiwan, mainland China, and the continuing involvement of the United States. Taiwanese American director S. Leo Chiang narrates scenes of the tranquil lives of locals on the island juxtaposed against the dreaded possibility of war that looms larger there than in the rest of Taiwan as the shores of the mainland lay in visible distance.

In the film, a massive concrete loudspeaker pointed across Xiamen Bay wafts the voice of classic Taiwanese pop singer Teresa Teng as she sweetly sings her hits and delivers political taunts to the nearest mainland city, proclaiming that “I just hope all of you on the mainland will enjoy the same democracy and freedom that we have.” Chiang noted in an interview that

from there, you probably can see and hear things and feel things that you cannot from Taipei, or from the rest of the main Taiwan Island. A lot of them have the attitude [that] we’ve always been really friendly with the folks in China, and we support closer relationships [with China].

The nuance of the Taiwanese people in managing relations with China seems utterly lost on Americans, and it shows in Washington’s policy.

Green Berets Confirmed Stationed Just Miles from China’s Shores

The main island of Kinmen is situated just six miles away from the mainland Chinese city of Xiamen, and some parts of the island group are just 2.5 miles away. While Taiwan and its key role in US-China tensions has been gaining attention, far fewer people have heard of Kinmen. That might be changing as the US raises its level of engagement, sending military advisers and US Army Special Forces, better known as the Green Berets, there.

Just a couple weeks after Island in Between was nominated for an Oscar, it was announced that US military advisers had begun long-term deployments to the island to assist in the training at the Taiwanese military’s amphibious camps to enhance their capabilities in countering enemy incursions. The deployments were planned along with various other types of support for Taiwan’s military under the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. These include the Green Berets of the 1st Special Forces Group, which are permanently stationed at two bases of the 101st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion. The presence of Green Berets in Kinmen and another outlying island group called Penghu was recently confirmed by Taiwanese defense minister Chiu Kuo-cheng.

Another aspect of the cooperation under the National Defense Authorization Act includes the Green Berets’ training of their counterparts in Taiwan on the use of the Black Hornet Nano, a small unmanned aerial vehicle that assists with portable surveillance and intelligence gathering. The Taiwanese Aviation and Special Forces Command has shown interest in buying these microdrones, which the US will likely oblige. Nobody actually believes that a group of US Army Special Forces stationed in Kinmen with small observation drones would make any difference if China launched an invasion. It would appear that this move serves as posturing against China, especially as a signal that America will brazenly and openly station special forces just miles from the mainland. It is nothing short of provocative, laying a tripwire for a miscalculation that could bring about the cross-strait conflict.

Flare-Ups over Taiwan

A few weeks after that revelation, tensions flared up around Kinmen when two Chinese fishermen drowned when their boat capsized following a chase by the Taiwanese coast guard under accusations of trespassing to which the Chinese coast guard responded by boarding a sightseeing boat and escorting it back to the island. The next day, the Taiwanese said that they drove off Chinese coast guard vessels that had entered the waters near the island. While these incidents did not result in more serious consequences, the increased attention on Kinmen is raising red flags that the island is once again becoming a hotspot for cross-strait tensions.

Taiwan has been proclaimed an integral part of China by the People’s Republic with claims that extend much further back in time than before the end of the Chinese Civil War. Xi Jinping has staked his reputation and legacy on reunifying the island with the mainland. Top American intelligence officials say Xi has ordered his military to be ready to invade the island by 2027. Against this backdrop, the Chinese military has increased its deployment of air forces that cross into Taiwanese air identification zones, implemented maritime demonstrations, and thrown its weight around in the South China Sea as the world anticipates the worst for the self-governing island.

Speaking to the Washington Post, Tom Shugart, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said that “these drills keep getting bigger and bigger. As the number and frequency continues to grow, it naturally becomes that much harder to know whether next time is the real thing.” The US government’s stances and policies that openly place it in opposition to China in a geopolitical rivalry has pushed relations to ever-worse depths.

Whose Doorstep?

Chiang ends his documentary by asking, “When these young men arrive in Kinmen, will they be surprised, like I am, of the peaceful sunsets? The same ones that my father must have seen when he served here all those years ago? And by the kindness of the people here who are forever caught in between?” His words ring as true for the young Taiwanese men who go to Kinmen for their mandatory military service as it does for the American troops that are now stationed there. At the big picture level, Kinmen, Taiwan, and all of the inhabitants there are tragically in the crosshairs of the greater rivalry between the US and China.

As was the case with the Ukraine narrative leading up to Russia’s invasion, the American narrative regarding Taiwan points to China’s provocative actions around Taiwan while waving off the possibility that Washington’s weapons deliveries and military buildup in that part of the Indo-Pacific region would be perceived as provocative from Beijing’s viewpoint. In a 2016 campaign speech, Hillary Clinton said that “Moscow has taken aggressive military action in Ukraine, right on NATO’s [the North Atlantic Treaty Organization] doorstep.” Whose doorstep now? A quick look at a map of where eastern Ukraine and Taiwan are in relation to the US, Russia, and China should give a sufficient impression of who’s on whose doorstep.

It’s a shining example of Ron Paul’s “imagine” speech where the former Congressman preached the kind of strategic empathy that asks to put the shoe on the other foot, to see what things look like for the other side. What does it look like to China, then, when the superpower almost seven thousand miles across the Pacific openly places its special forces in viewing distance from China’s shores on an island in between the mainland and Taiwan? Who’s on whose doorstep?

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Learn Why The Globalists Are Killing Their Own Monetary System

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Many products commonly found in pantries in American households contain chemical additives linked to cancer.

Several US states are considering legislation to outlaw common snack foods following revelations these products contain chemical additives linked to cancer.

Among the cancer-causing foods are many products commonly found in pantries in American households, including Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, General Mills’ Lucky Charms cereal, Oreo cookies and and Gatorade.

Some of the artificial dyes targeted by lawmakers have been associated with serious health complications, including Yellow 6, found in Lucky Charms, which has reportedly been linked to adrenal tumors in rats, as well as DNA mutations, while Blue 1 – found in Oreo’s – has raised concerns over potential kidney tumors and nerve cell damage.

According to the Daily Mail, in addition to California’s “Skittles Ban” going into effect in 2027, states such as New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey and Missouri are also poised to enact some type of ban on carcinogenic food ingredients, which could force sweeping changes in the way the processed foods are produced.

“But some are seeking to go even further than the Golden State,” the Mail notes.

From the Daily Mail:

New York’s bill calls for the ban of azodicarbinamide, used in breads and other baked goods, and butylated hydroxyanisole, a preservative used in processed meats.

And lawmakers in Pennsylvania are calling for multiple food colorings — Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1 and Blue 2 — to be outlawed, due to their links to hyperactivity in children. 

Pennsylvania’s ban is the most far-reaching because it targets five of the food coloring agents that are commonly used to give candies bright, attractive colors or to change the hues of processed foods to make them more appealing. 

This infographic from the Mail lists various problematic snack food items, the chemical additives they contain, and the health complications they can cause.

Consumer Reports food safety director Brian Ronholm noted, “The Food and Drug Administration’s system for ensuring that food additives are safe is broken.”

“There is no consumer confusion on this issue—they want these chemicals out of foods. But when they see that the FDA has not been able to keep up with the latest research, and also see that the industry is already using substitutes in other countries, they recognize that the states are the only ones trying to protect them from toxic food chemicals right now.”

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Bonus — FLASHBACK SPECIAL REPORT — Food: The Ultimate Secret Exposed – Alex Jones’ Special Report

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The gold market is currently characterized by unusual demand driven by foreign central banks, not individual investors.

Peter recently appeared on Fox Business to discuss Bitcoin’s recent performance. In this segment, he takes on Natalie Brunell, host of the podcast Coin Stories, in a friendly debate on the merits of crypto and precious metals.

When asked why gold is performing so well, Peter replies,

“Gold’s probably going to close at a new record high close today. It’s only a few dollars off it now, above $2370. Gold is rising because the dollar, the euro, the yen, and fiat currencies are losing value. Inflation is real. It’s here to stay. It’s not going anywhere near the Fed’s 2% target. We’re headed in the wrong direction. We’ll probably be in double digits by next year, and eventually, the first digit isn’t going to be a one.”

The gold market is currently characterized by unusual demand driven by foreign central banks, not individual investors:

“Central banks are out in front of this. They’re the main buyers. A lot of Americans have been foolishly selling their gold to buy these Bitcoin ETFs. There’s nothing elegant about losing your money in Bitcoin. Bitcoin is not going up.”

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When Brunell criticizes gold for being “analog” and falling behind Bitcoin, a “digital sound money,” Peter points out gold’s historic track record as real money:

“There’s nothing sound about Bitcoin. It’s losing the race right now! Take a look at your screen. Gold is up 25—26 dollars— and Bitcoin is getting clobbered. There is no flaw in gold. Gold worked great for 5000 years. The problem is the flaws with governments— the flaws with human beings— not with gold. But Bitcoin is really flawed because it doesn’t have any actual value. Gold is the most useful metal on the periodic table. That’s why it’s money!”

Investing in Bitcoin is akin to betting on a horse race. You can make money, but it’s all luck:

“Wall Street didn’t embrace it [Bitcoin]. They’re just trying to make a buck off it. These big Wall Street firms aren’t buying any Bitcoin with their own money. This is their customers’ money that are dumb enough to buy it. They’re just booking the bets. They’re operating the casino.”

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Learn Why The Globalists Are Killing Their Own Monetary System

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The feds are intentionally ripping off US taxpayers

On Wednesday, Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) presented a physical example of how the U.S. government wastes taxpayer money by overpaying military contractors.

Rep. Waltz displayed on the House floor a plastic bag of metal bushings that the U.S. Air Force pays $90,000 for when the average price is around $100.

Internet users slammed the ridiculous money laundering operation:

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Biden made lackluster trip to convenience store in Pittsburgh, where absolutely no one was excited to see him.

Joe Biden received a loser’s welcome as he toured a gas station in Pennsylvania, a stark contrast from the enthusiastic reaction former President Donald Trump got when he visited a Bodega in New York City.

Campaigning in Pennsylvania while his opponent is effectively sidelined with lawfare court cases, Biden made a lackluster trip to a Sheetz convenience store in Pittsburgh, where absolutely no one was excited to see him.

Here he is looking confused as a bag is handed to him.

Embed from Getty Images

It’s unclear whether he was asked, but Biden somehow made his way behind a food line for a photo-op with Sheetz workers.

Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images

The disastrous visit was intended to counter the tremendous optics of Trump’s trip to a bodega in Harlem earlier this week, where he was greeted by a fired-up crowd of cheering supporters.

However, much like the economy amid his tenure, Biden’s effort to match Trump’s star power fell flat.

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17-year-old Mexican smuggler apprehended in U.S. for 97th time

A Mexican teen who has been apprehended by U.S. authorities nearly 100 times was caught smuggling illegal aliens into Texas over the weekend.

The latest arrest of Luis Alberto Torres, a 17-year-old ‘coyote’ from Matamoros, Mexico, unfolded on Saturday in Brownsville, TX.

Texas Department of Public Safety (TxDPS) troopers detected a group of illegal aliens crossing the Rio Grande.

TxDPS drone operators helped a brush team on the ground locate Torres, who found hiding in a shed.

“Luis Alberto Torres, from Matamoros, Mexico, was charged with felony human smuggling & transported to county jail,” TxDPS spokesman Lt. Chris Olivarez explained in a statement released on Tuesday alongside a video of Torres’ arrest.

“Torres has a history of 96 apprehensions for drug, human, & exotic monkey smuggling.”

Cartels and smuggling organizations often employ minors as guides – or ‘coyotes’ – because U.S. authorities are more likely to release them quickly back into Mexico if they are caught, as immigration news outlet Border Hawk explained in a recent report.

Chaos unfolds constantly along the U.S.-Mexico border, as Infowars regularly reports.

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Penn Station was slammed by hundreds of illegal aliens arriving to New York City this week.

Dan Lyman on X | Gab