Books book review It’s About the Journey, Not the Destination: The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks A review of Sarah Brooks’s new historical fantasy novel. By Mahvesh Murad | Published on July 9, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share 1899, Beijing.  The shortest way to cross the Siberian tundra from China to Russia is via the Trans-Siberian Express, which makes a three thousand mile, fifteen day journey to Moscow, traversing the Great Siberian Wastelands, “spaces so vast and unkind and stories so inimical to our sense of all that is decent and human and good.” The train is a “monument to the ingenuity of man and to his ceaseless striving for mastery over the earth.” At twenty carriages long, and as tall as the gates of a cathedral, it is “‘”a moving fortress of iron and armour… a miracle of engineering that lets us traverse once more these barely imaginable distances.”  The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks is set almost entirely on this train as it makes a journey that has “turned into a story before it has even begun”. Told from the perspective of three major characters, this is an intelligent, sensitive historical fantasy with elements of steampunk and eco-fiction.  A woman who goes by the assumed identity of Marya Petrovna is aboard the train under false pretenses, alone and hiding who she really is so that she can gain insight into her father’s death. “Nothing outside can get in, nothing inside can harm us,” Marya tells herself, though it was her father’s glasswork that was blamed for a potential breach in the train’s last journey, when something strange happened—something that no one on the train remembers. Every passenger has a blank space in their minds, an emptiness that bears no memory of a portion of the trip. Marya’s father, the train’s official glassmaker, came back a changed man, and now Marya is determined to find out who is really to blame for her father’s strange death. Also on the train is Henry Grey, a disgraced naturalist wanting to prove himself, adamant that he find and catalogue as much of the strange Wastelands life as possible—even if it means breaking the train’s strictest rules. He imagines the Wastelands to be a “New Eden,” but his desire to study the fantastical, surreal Siberian tundra landscape stems not from a true love for nature, but a hunger to have ownership of new findings, of previously uncharted territory. Buy the Book The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands Sarah Brooks Buy Book The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands Sarah Brooks Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget Brooks’ third POV character is Zhang Weiwei, a child of the train, born to a passenger who died in childbirth sixteen years ago. Weiwei has been raised by the train staff; they are the only family she has ever known. The train is her entire world. She’s made this trip across Siberia dozens of times in her young life, and knows all the train’s secrets, but she has never before encountered a stowaway like Elena, a “not quite girl” who has an unexpected connection to the Wastelands.  You’d think Elena was the wild card here, but each of the novel’s main characters turn out to be exactly that—crucial, secretive, a little unpredictable yet able to pivot and thrust the narrative further.  The Wastelands themselves are as much of a character as any person in the book. The landscape has become unfit for human habitation and walls have been built at either end to keep the Wastelands separate from Russia and China. There are longer, safer ways to get between Moscow and Beijing, but the Company (a corporation created by both China and Russia) has dedicated itself to providing the safest shortest route via the Trans-Siberian Express. While the train has been built to withstand all the strangeness of the Wastelands, it also provides luxury and adventure to its elite first class clientele, but just basic safety to its third class passengers. That there is no second class at all reminds us of the economic disparities that existed in society—then and now.  The train too is a character, an ecosystem of its own. A purpose built armoured vehicle, the likes of which has never been seen before and developed to travel over specially laid tracks that many lost their lives putting down, it is an insular complete microcosm of its own. Water, air, food—everything is managed onboard. It is only under extreme duress that the train may stop along its journey—something the Captain will do anything to avoid, if she can. The Cautious Traveller’s Guide has the atmospheric tension of a locked room mystery, since most of the story takes place in the sealed off train. We see the Wastelands as the passengers do—via the windows, via the stories read in guide books and via the experience of the train’s staff, especially Weiwei, who knows no other life or world. But something has changed—or has perhaps been changing slowly—as the train has made its repeated journeys through the Wastelands. The iron and glass of the train aren’t as impenetrable as they once seemed: Where previously the passengers were kept mostly safe from the “Wasteland sickness,” which can cause hallucinations, depression, or temporary madness, it now seems that the outside is capable of creeping in. Weiwei can see a “metallic sheen forming, iridescent greens and silvers, as if part of the metal of the wall, but growing pulsing in time with the roar of the engine, with the rhythm of the rails,” just as much as she can “‘”feel the train and the earth and the earth and the train, all connected. She can feel the humming in her bones becoming a roar.” Brooks is able to maintain both mystery and magic, with deftly woven strands connecting the main characters’s stories, and that of the train itself. This isn’t just a story about a trip from one city to another, not just about a trip across dangerous physical territories, but a journey within: These characters must figure out who they are, what they want and what they would give up for a greater cause… and what that cause may be.  In the 17th Century, Greater Siberia was colonised by Tsarist Russia, with much of its natural resources and indigenous people exploited for modern capitalism. Even now, the exploitation of Siberia continues by both Russia and China, whether it be the felling of forests, or the existence of closed secret cities set up to continuously mine and process uranium and plutonium. Brooks is sensitive to the historical exploitation of Siberia, and of the long term consequences of environmental damage that came with this; the Wastelands in the novel have become what they are because of the changes humans have caused, and they continue to change because of the train that travels through them again and again, because the Company keeps doing what it must to succeed financially, at any cost to the environment.  Capitalism is at the root cause of all this, as well as greed and the human desire to know and own and take from nature what was never theirs to take. The horror in The Cautious Traveller’s Guide is more than what may threaten the train from the outside: It is what has been done to the outside, what continues to be done as the Company plunders and places profit over people. Brooks examines capitalist society’s impact on the environment, the industrial revolution’s impact on both society and nature, the potential of sustainable travel as a way for humans to exist in harmony with their surroundings, as well as the impact that true friendship and empathy can have on us as a community.  The writing itself is melodious; poetic without being purple. It is fairly heavy on the descriptions, but never feels like an info dump, which is an achievement in itself, especially for a novel concerned with multiple large ideas. The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands feels very immersive; we are on that train and in that world fully, constantly, empathetically. As much as Brooks is able to remind us that human civilization and nature are permanently intertwined, always evolving together in both good ways and bad, she is also able to leave us with a sense of hope that perhaps we will be able to find a symbiotic way forward.[end-mark] The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands is published by Flatiron Books. The post It’s About the Journey, Not the Destination: <i>The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands</i> by Sarah Brooks appeared first on Reactor.

Three Republican senators spoke Tuesday about the weaponization of government and related problems in Congress on a panel at the National Conservatism Conference in the nation’s capital. The panel, hosted by former Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., featured Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Texas; Mike Lee, R-Utah; and Rick Scott, R-Fla. DeMint began the discussion by saying that the weaponization of government against political opponents has reached an “unprecedented level during the Biden administration.” The former South Carolina senator said the issue has percolated for a long time as the federal bureaucracy has been “taking more power,” but that President Joe Biden’s administration has brought the problem to the level of a Third World country. The Left tries to couch its use of weaponized government as upholding the “rule of law,” Lee said. “But what they mean by the ‘rule of law’ is that they are the rule of law,” Lee said. “And if you run contrary to them, you’re going to find yourself at the opposite end of the rule of law.” The Utah Republican said that in the cases of former President Donald Trump and his advisers who have been prosecuted, their crime was that they opposed Democrats. “They found themselves at the receiving end of this lawfare campaign,” Lee said of Trump and his advisers. But when lawfare campaigns go sideways and are invalidated by courts, he added, they simply denounce the opposition as “against the rule of law.” Lee pointed to the Left’s demand that the Supreme Court be packed with additional liberal justices. What makes the lawfare problem particularly acute, Lee said, is that there are now so many federal laws that can be used against Americans. He cited the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrance Act, or FACE Act, as an example of how laws can become weaponized. The FACE Act “allows the government to prosecute you if you protest at, or engage in violence at, or otherwise disrupt the proceedings of an abortion clinic, a pregnancy center, or a church,” Lee said. But the Biden administration prosecutes only those who engage in pro-life protests outside abortion clinics, not protesters at pro-life pregnancy resource centers, or churches, he said. “That’s how you end up with guys like Mark Houck, this father of young children, who was prosecuted under the FACE Act for praying at an abortion clinic [and] was pulled out by a SWAT team in the middle of the night in front of his young children,” Lee said. The Utah senator said that weaponization of government won’t stop with Trump and his advisers because the Left will go after all opponents. The Senate must be a bulwark against this abuse, he said. Johnson argued that the Senate needs to start doing a better job of being that bulwark against weaponized government. “Conservatives have to recognize what is happening to our country. We have to open our eyes [to see] that the radical Left, the progressive Democrats, are literally destroying this country. So our first task is to fight and defeat them,” Johnson said. The issue for the Senate, Scott said, is that “two dictatorships” exist. On one side is Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and on the other is Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Fla., Scott said. The Senate is structured in a way that gives leadership too much power, the Florida Republican said. Bills simply are presented to senators and they are asked to vote “yes” or “no” without input or the ability to propose amendments, he said. “This has got to change,” Scott said. The post 3 Republican Senators Talk Weaponization of Government appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Meta, the owner of both Facebook and Instagram, has taken a further stance in censoring content that uses the term “Zionists,” particularly in a way that conflates the term with Jewish or Israeli identities. Previously, the term was tightly regulated only in very explicit instances. However, the revised guidelines now include a broader array of phrases where neither “Jew” nor “Israeli” are specifically mentioned, signaling a significant shift in policy. The impetus for this policy enhancement came in the aftermath of the attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023. This event has catalyzed several changes in Meta’s content moderation practices. In defining “Zionist” usage, Meta acknowledges the complexity of the term, which is often employed in political discourse about Israel and its policies. While Zionism is historically linked to the Jewish movement advocating for a sovereign state in the Middle East, Meta is arguing that its current usage on social platforms can sometimes extend to implicit or explicit antisemitism and has expanded its censorship policies. According to a blog post from Meta, content that attacks “Zionists” under antisemitic pretenses will now be removed. This includes insinuations of global control or comparisons to animals. Meta announced that it is also waiting on its Oversight Board to offer guidance on whether to allow comparisons between proxy terms for nationality (including Zionists) and criminals (e.g., “Zionists are war criminals.”). The World Jewish Congress (WJC) has applauded Meta for its decision to treat the inappropriate usage of the term “Zionist” as a substitute for “Jews” as antisemitic Tier 1 “hate speech.” World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder stated, “Meta’s decision is a much-needed advancement in our ongoing fight against online antisemitism and hatred. By recognizing and addressing the misuse of the term ‘Zionist,’ Meta is taking a bold stand against those who seek to mask their hatred of Jews.” “We appreciate that Meta has truly listened to the voices of Jewish communities that we work with. This policy change will help create a safer, more respectful online environment for everyone. I hope all other platforms will follow Meta’s leadership and take similar action,” added Lauder. Prior to the policy revision, 73 groups formally expressed their concerns to Meta through a letter. They argued that expanding the policy could improperly label discussions on Zionists—and consequently, Zionism—as inherently antisemitic. They emphasized that equating “Zionist” with antisemitism could mistakenly merge legitimate critiques of Israeli government actions with hate speech. “This move will prohibit Palestinians from sharing their daily experiences and histories with the world, be it a photo of the keys to their grandparents’ house lost when attacked by Zionist militias in 1948, or documentation and evidence of genocidal acts in Gaza over the past few months, authorized by the Israeli Cabinet, which includes members of the Religious Zionist Party,” the letter read. “And it would prevent Jewish users from discussing their relationships to Zionist political ideology.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Meta Tightens the Reins on Anti-“Zionist” Terminology appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Democrats Are Moving to Shut Down Pregnancy Resource Centers

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In a heartwarming and captivating video, a pair of birds find and transform a simple birdhouse into a cozy home. The footage, recorded by Chikady, showcases the emotional and tender journey of these avian parents as they prepare their new dwelling. With over 1 million views, this video has resonated deeply with viewers, offering a... The post Woman places camera inside birdhouse and captures ‘incredible’ footage of growing bird family appeared first on Animal Channel.

It looks like Joe Scarborough isn’t the only ex-GOP official now employed by MSNBC who is denouncing those Democrats who dare to question 81-year-old Joe Biden’s ability to run a successful re-election campaign. Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele, now a weekend host on MSNBC, on Tuesday told Democrats to “shut the hell up and get behind” Biden, claiming the President “is being bullied by some in his party because of one event.” Steele also claimed, without any evidence, that the newly-unveiled Republican platform is a “lie,” saying the party is secretly still committed to a national ban on abortion (it’s not, to the chagrin of many pro-lifers) and wildly proclaimed that Republicans would push “an expansion of the Supreme Court under Donald Trump to solidify that conservative majority.”     Republicans have no such plan, but Democrats do. It’s called the Judiciary Act, and would add four Justices to the Court (bringing the total to 13) as a heavy-handed way to shift the balance of power without having to wait for new vacancies to arise. Yet if it’s thuggish and extreme for Republicans to pack the Court (which they’re not doing), how is it not thuggish and extreme for Democrats to want to do the same exact thing? Making the case for Biden, the ex-Republican scoffed that Biden’s inability to complete sentences at the debate “should have been no more than a weekend story” except for “media and political elites” finding other examples of Biden’s failures “that they now just want to sort of vomit on top of Joe.” Mitchell asked Steele, “What do you think Joe Biden can do to rescue this situation?” Steele replied: “Have Democrats shut the hell up and get behind him. The man said he is not going anywhere. All right? So take him at his word....When I was at the Moynihan train station coming back from our show on Saturday, I ran into an elderly Irish gentleman, who looked at me and said, ‘I just want to tell you something. Joe Biden is not anywhere. He is that 11-year-old kid with the stutter on the playground that was being bullied, and he is going to fight.’ That made me really kind of look at this situation a little bit different. Because in many respects, that’s what’s happening. He is being bullied by some in his party because of one event.” “I think he is being ill-served right now by his party,” Steele continued. “I have my profound differences with Joe Biden on policy. But up against Donald Trump, 34 time serial sexual predator, convicted felon, give me the old guy. Because I think the country is pretty much kind of said that, as you see the fallout from this not registering the way it has with voters, as it has with the Democrats inside the party.” Here’s the transcript of the relevant section of the July 9 edition of MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports (click expand to read the full transcript): July 9, 2024; 12:42pm ET ANDREA MITCHELL: Michael, you were, of course, former head of the Republican National Committee, so what do you expect from the Republican convention, with the Democratic Party divided over its own, you know, the competence of its standard bearer. MICHAEL STEELE: They [Republicans] are not divided over the incompetence of their standard bearer. They are all in. They have formalized and will make even more formal the elevation of a 34-time convicted felon, serial sexual predator and fraudster. Okay, that’s the nominee of my party. I do not support that individual, nor do I support the direction that this platform purportedly lays out for the wholesale, you know, sort of rounding up of immigrants and without any due process, putting them in concentration camps and shipping them out of the country. They are lying to the country, Donald Trump is, about where we are on women’s rights in the party. We are not backing off of a national ban. That’s very much what Project 2025, you know, as Kimberly noted; the Comstock Act and other elements will be in play. So it’s all a lie, right down to — as Donald Trump said, ‘I gotta win! I gotta win! So I’m gonna lie to you, and you’re gonna buy it.’ So that’s the expectation. And so I think you will see that play out in full color next week, Andrea, and how Americans consume that in the face of the Democrats’ circling their fire on Joe Biden, taking what should have been no more than a weekend story on the debate and turning it into a full-throated existential crisis within the Democratic Party, this storyline with Trump is going to play out in the, as a backdrop to that. And so it’s really an interesting twist going into this convention that the Republicans have sort of set up this sort of soft landing narrative on their platform, trying to play it off as not Project 2025, which it is; playing down abortion which, we know, they are going to go for a national ban when that’s presented; and even elements of the Supreme Court, Andrea — I fully anticipate Republicans to propose an expansion of the Supreme Court under Donald Trump to solidify that conservative majority. MITCHELL: Michael, what do you think Joe Biden can do to rescue this situation? STEELE: Have Democrats shut the hell up and get behind him. The man said he is not going anywhere. All right? So take him at his word. If you know anything about -- just put it this way. When I was at the Moynihan train station coming back from our show on Saturday, I ran into an elderly Irish gentleman, who looked at me and said, ‘I just want to tell you something. Joe Biden is not anywhere. He is that 11-year-old kid with the stutter on the playground that was being bullied, and he is going to fight.’ That made me really kind of look at this situation a little bit different. Because in many respects, that’s what’s happening. He is being bullied by some in his party because of one event. And if you thought it was all that bad, why didn’t a committee go to him in October of last year and say, ‘Sir, you need to stand down because we do not think you can win this race?’ They didn’t. They let 14 million Americans go through a primary process with him and others on the ballot and vote for him. And now these media and political elites have decided after one event, ‘Oh my God, there are all of these other events that no one talked about or put out in public,’ that they now just want to sort of vomit on top of Joe and think that those 14 million voters are just going to go, ‘Okay, we will swap him out.’ So I think he is being ill-served right now by his party. I have my profound differences with Joe Biden on policy. But up against Donald Trump, 34 time serial sexual predator, convicted felon, give me the old guy. because I think the country is pretty much kind of said that, as you see the fallout from this not registering the way it has with voters, as it has with the Democrats inside the party.

This Key Lime Pie is no-bake and so good! The homemade crust takes it to the next level. If you love this pie, you will also love this classic Atlantic Beach Pie! It’s lemon and lime with a saltine cracker crust. It’s great for any gathering and always a hit. Scroll down for more no...

Oakland, California, residents are moving to oust the city's progressive leaders who have overseen a significant increase in crime and homelessness.Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao (D), currently battling a recall effort, is entangled in an FBI investigation. Several city staffers were recently forced to turn over records to the bureau in response to a federal grand jury subpoena.'Oakland is in a crisis.'For the first time last week, Thao addressed the news that law enforcement agents raided her home in June, repeatedly noting that she could not share much information due to the "ongoing investigation."Thao will face a recall election in November after Oakland United to Recall Sheng Thao secured over 25,000 verified signatures ahead of the July 22 deadline. Those behind the recall effort have slammed Thao for firing former Oakland Police Department Chief LeRonne Armstrong and allowing a "surge of serious and violent crimes" that prompted a number of businesses to close. After Thao's home was raided, her attorney and chief spokesperson abruptly resigned. She has not been charged with any crime.Loren Taylor, a Democratic mayoral candidate running to replace Thao, told the San Francisco Chronicle, "To say that this is the worst compilation of troubling, challenging situations that I've seen is an understatement.""A fiscal crisis, hundreds of millions of dollars, compounded with a public safety crisis that has folks fearful of moving around the city, and businesses leaving town, combined with homelessness crisis that continues to expand despite things getting better in neighboring cities. … This storm of events is the opposite of what Oakland needs right now when we're trying to rebound as a city, post-pandemic," Taylor stated.J.J. Jenkins, a local bartender, described Oakland's current conditions as "chaos.""Every time I think the pendulum has swung, something like Juneteenth [shooting] happens. And I don't think it's done yet. It's going to get worse before it gets better," Jenkins told the Chronicle.Former Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris (D) stated, "Oakland is in a crisis."Harris told the Chronicle, "Many of these problems are not new. They continue to evolve. They require ideas and renewed commitment to a plan of execution. The city must get beyond finger-pointing and the blame game as soon as possible."West Oakland Pastor Dr. Ken Chambers, who provides homeless services through his church, told the news outlet that crime, homelessness, human trafficking, and prostitution have become a big issue in the city."I've been in Oakland 58 years. I've never seen anything like this before. It's a multitask, problematic, complicated situation," Chambers told the news outlet. Thao is not the only progressive politician who will face an upcoming recall election. George Soros-funded Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price (D), who has gained a soft-on-crime reputation, also made it onto the ballot after a recall effort, which only needed 73,000 verified signatures, submitted roughly 123,000 signatures to election officials. Those behind the recall torched Price for failing public safety and creating a "doom loop" with her "progressive policies and failed leadership."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

It's been a good time lately to be a fan of throwback RPG games. Over the last few years alone, we've seen nostalgia focused launches like Sea of Stars, Chained Echoes, Octopath Traveler, and Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes hit PC. This trend doesn't appear to be winding down anytime soon, with a new, retro themed, Zelda and Golden Sun style RPG game called Veritus announcing a launch date for later this month and offering up a free demo to try out right now. Continue reading Veritus is a nostalgic Zelda style RPG game, and you can try it now