Short Quiz – Composed BEFORE Starting To Read “Blood Money”

[johnkarls]

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OVERALL QUESTIONS

1. Do you find you get more out of a book if before you start, you think about what it will probably say based on the book’s title, its chapter headings, etc., etc.?

2. Is that usually the case with our Quizzes (which are intended to stimulate interest and thought) because the first quiz (which is the only quiz 2/3 of the time with 5-week gaps averaging one per quarter) is featured in our weekly e-mail scheduled for only 9 days after the focus book has been elected at our previous monthly meeting and (A) Amazon probably hasn’t delivered the book until 7 days to go, (B) several days are consumed dredging up book reviews for the “Reference Materials” section of our website, etc., etc., and (C) the process in Q-1 vis-à-vis thinking about the focus book before starting it requires, to be any good, several days to marinate?


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BLOOD MONEY PART 1 – “MURDER WITH A BORROWED KNIFE”

1. Does the title of the first of 3 chapters in this Part (“The New Opium Wars”) imply that the Part deals with fentanyl?

2. What is fentanyl?

3. Was it, like so many other pain relievers, invented for the U.S. military?

4. Does the U.S. military constantly demand pain relievers which are more effective AND FASTER ACTING so that wounded service-members can be relieved of pain IMMEDIATELY and COMPLETELY?

5. As with any pain reliever, does an overdose cause death rather than mere relief from pain?

6. Did the National Institute on Drug Abuse (part of the US Gov’s National Institutes of Health) report on 6/30/2023 that “American deaths from synthetic opioids other than methadone (primarily fentanyl) continued to rise with 70,601 overdose deaths in 2021?

7. Per US News & World Report, were total US Military deaths in World War II only 405,399?

8. Does this mean that Pres. Biden’s Open Southern Border -- assuming that synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl) would not have been smuggled some other way -- with 70,601 overdose deaths in 2021 AND RISING mean that there will be more American overdose deaths than our total U.S. Military deaths in WW-II during Pres. Biden’s current 4-year term?

9. In other words, since the U.S. Gov reported 70,601 overdose deaths in 2021 AND RISING, what would simple math calculate as the RATE OF GROWTH of 70,601 for 2021 have to be to exceed 405,399 by the end of 2024?

10. Is this a fair comparison since the Pearl Harbor attack was 12/7/1941 and V-J Day was 8/14/1945 – only 3 years and 8.25 months later?


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BLOOD MONEY PART II – “WATCH A FIRE FROM ACROSS THE RIVER”

1. Does a quick 5-minute skimming of this part seem to indicate it pertains to illegal weapons brought into the US by China?

2. Have we studied in the past how the UN’s now-24-year-old War on Modern Slavery educated us to the facts that, inter alia, the price of a slave delivered to your residence was only $5,250 as of 2019 and that by 2019 there were TWICE AS MANY slaves as were traded throughout the 350-year Trans-Atlantic slave industry AND SLAVERY IS MORE PROFITABLE FOR ORGANIZED CRIME THAN ILLEGAL DRUGS OR ILLEGAL WEAPONS???

3. BTW, if you want to use your slave for “organ harvesting” rather than working on your farm/vineyard or in your factory, would the price presumably be somewhat higher to cover the cost of ensuring your prospective slave’s DNA is sufficiently similar to yours for successful organ harvesting?

4. But focusing on illegal weapons and organized crime, is it surprising (as seems likely Blood Money is likely to tell us) that China is the ultimate source of illegal weapons trafficked into the U.S. by organized crime?

5. After all, isn’t China the ultimate source of the fentanyl (or fentanyl ingredients) that the “Mexican cartels” manufacture and bring into the U.S.???


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BLOOD MONEY PART III – “HIDE A DAGGER IN A SMILE”

1. Does this Part’s first chapter (“A TikToking Bomb”) and third and last chapter (“The People’s Republic of Hollywood”) suggest Blood Money is likely to tell you anything you don’t already know?

2. After all, hasn’t TikTok dominated the headlines seemingly forever?

3. And didn’t Tom Cruise’s blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick” (released 5/27/2022) create beaucoup headlines because his character wore a Taiwan flag on his flight jacket?

4. What more does one really need to know???


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BLOOD MONEY PART IV – “LOOT A BURNING HOUSE”

1. Do the titles of the 2 chapters in this Part (“Social Engineering a Pandemic” and “A Coverup For China and Themselves”) indicate this Part addresses COVID-19?

2. Is the true villain Anthony Fauci who was the Director of NIAID - the US Gov’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases?

3. Had Fauci been something of a hero in combating America’s AIDS epidemic in the distant past?

4. Had Fauci during the early part of the current century exhibited a morbid curiosity in creating new diseases by creating synthetically-engineered mutant viruses?

5. Was Fauci’s morbid curiosity reined in by U.S. legislation preventing his beloved NIAID from funding such engineering?

6. Did Fauci violate U.S. law by secretly going foreign??? That is, by secretly funneling funds for such illegal research to the Wuhan China Institute of Virology?

7. When COVID-19 escaped from the Wuhan Lab, did Fauci “blackmail” scientists with the threat of loss of US Gov funding for their projects if they did not join his chorus claiming that COVID originated in a Wuhan meat market?

8. Have various US Gov agencies and officials, in the wake of Fauci’s 12/31/2022 retirement, testified regarding Fauci’s “cover up”?

9. Was Fauci precisely the WRONG PERSON to design the American response to COVID?

10. In other words, did his laudatory work with the AIDS virus enjoy the advantage that there were no disastrous side effects to his policies to combat it?

11. While his seeming laser-focus on preventing EVERY death from COVID “turned a blind eye” to disastrous side effects such as the loss of years of learning by school children who were kept at home in front of computer screens, such as the tremendous losses to the U.S. economy as so many businesses were shut down, etc., etc.???

12. Whose responsibility (Fauci’s or the Chinese Gov”s) was it to insure Fauci’s research at the Wuhan Lab was conducted safely?

13. Is it true that the Chinese Gov, when it realized that COVID had escaped into the general population, immediately prohibited travel from Wuhan to other parts of China, while still permitting travel from Wuhan to the rest of the world?

14. Should Fauci be prosecuted?

15. Under English/American common law, is there NO STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS for murder?

16. Would Fauci’s apparent violation of U.S. law to apparently fund COVID research at the Wuhan Lab constitute a sufficient mens rea for murder???

17. And would Fauci’s “laser focus” on preventing EVERY death from COVID regardless of the disastrous side effects (Ref. Q-11) be circumstantial evidence of a guilty conscience???


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MISSING – CHINA’S “BELT AND ROAD” INITIATIVE

1. Is it surprising that there appears to be no mention of China’s famous “Belt and Road” Initiative in Blood Money? Not even a listing for it in the index?

2. Was Pax Brittanica the century that Britain maintained world order from the fall of Napoleon to WW-I? Usually dated 1815-1914?

3. Has Pax Americana been the Post-WW-II era featuring NATO, alliances in the Indo-Pacific (e.g., with Japan, Australia, South Korea, etc.), etc., etc.?

4. Despite both Pax Brittanica and Pax Americana featuring the hallmark of great-power peace, did both involve “gunboat diplomacy” for their companies operating abroad?

5. In the case of the U.S., didn’t such “gunboat diplomacy” (aka, free usage by American companies of the American military) go out of style some time ago? Permitting nationalizations of US-owned assets without significant repercussions?

6. Does China’s “Belt and Road” Initiative resemble the “gunboat diplomacy” of Pax Brittanica and Pax Americana?

7. Does the BRI typically feature a favorable loan to a third-world country with natural resources, ostensibly for development of those resources?

8. Human nature (aka governmental corruption) being what it is, do many if not most such BRI loans fall into default?

9. Does the PRC then “foreclose” by taking title to the natural resources?

10. Do the PRC’s Navy and other military resources ensure that the PRC’s ownership of the foreign natural resources goes unchallenged despite the fact that many years will be required to remove those natural resources from the foreign country?

11. Since oil was the most important international commodity during the last century (and since Yours Truly had beaucoup first-hand knowledge resulting from serving as Texaco’s Senior Tax Counsel 1974-1987), is Aramco a good point of comparison to the PRC’s BRI?

12. Was oil first discovered in Saudi Arabia in 1936 by Chevron and Texaco?

13. Wasn’t this fortuitous in the sense that prior to the Caltex merger, Chevron had significant production in Bahrain, just offshore Saudi, and the Ruler of Bahrain kept putting pressure on Chevron to explore in Saudi Arabia in order to help his poor relative, Saudi King Abdul Aziz?

14. And by the time of the Chevron-Texaco merger of everything “East of Suez,” Chevron had drilled 13 wells in Saudi Arabia – all dry holes?

15. But the Chevron explorationists who, absent pressure such as from the Ruler of Bahrain, seemed to have a “Midas Touch” -- had become excited and proposed 13 new exploratory wells and deepening the 13 “dry” wells?

16. But since the merger had now gone through, Texaco approval was required – and was granted on condition that the Chevron explorationists would all be fired if nothing was found?

17. And 25 of the 26 were dry, but one came in???!!!

18. And thereafter, it seemed impossible to avoid discovering more at every turn – so much that Chevron and Texaco couldn’t market all of it and, following WW-II, had to permit Exxon to come in for 30% and Mobil for 10% (before Saudi nationalized 40% and sold it themselves to Exxon and Mobil)?

19. After all, wasn’t the Saudi Gov still receiving only a royalty of “one gold shilling per ton” (i.e., 5% of a British Pound Sterling for roughly 7.5 barrels) under the original 1933 agreement with Chevron that also provided an exemption from income tax if one were later invented?

20. But in the 1970’s, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) began to nationalize the in-country oil & gas assets owned by foreign companies?

21. Although Aramco (still owned 30-30-30-10 by Chevron/Texaco/Exxon/Mobil) still “owned” every drop of oil & gas in Saudi Arabia, both on-shore and off-shore, did the U.S. Gov provide no “gunboat diplomacy” to prevent Saudi Arabia and OPEC from nationalizing the assets of international oil companies?

22. SO CHINA’S “BRI” QUESTION – will the hapless third-world countries whose natural resources are being confiscated by China’s BRI, be able to nationalize the Chinese “ownership” of their natural resources like the OPEC countries did vis-à-vis foreign "ownership" 50 years ago?

23. In other words, isn’t there a crucial difference???

24. In still other words, isn’t it the Chinese Gov itself that “owns” the natural resources of these hapless third-world countries??? And the Chinese Gov itself that owns the “gunboats” that would enforce that ownership???

25. Does Pax Americana have any obligation, even moral, to save these idiotic third-world governments from the consequences of making bad deals with China under its BRI???

26. In other words, any moral obligation to the populations of these hapless third-world countries after they have failed to prevent their corrupt pols from “stealing the crown jewels” and splitting them with the PRC’s BRI?