Silent Invasion

In 2008 Clive Hamilton was at Parliament House in Canberra when the Beijing Olympic torch relay passed through. He watched in bewilderment as a small pro-Tibet protest was overrun by thousands of angry Chinese students. Where did they come from? Why were they so aggressive? And what gave them the right to shut down others exercising their democratic right to protest? The authorities did nothing about it, and what he saw stayed with him. In 2016 it was revealed that wealthy Chinese businessmen linked to the Chinese Communist Party had become the largest donors to both major political parties. Hamilton realised something big was happening, and decided to investigate the Chinese government’s influence in Australia. What he found shocked him. From politics to culture, real estate to agriculture, universities to unions, and even in our primary schools, he uncovered compelling evidence of the Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration of Australia. Sophisticated influence operations target Australia’s elites, and parts of the large Chinese-Australian diaspora have been mobilised to buy access to politicians, limit academic freedom, intimidate critics, collect information for Chinese intelligence agencies, and protest in the streets against Australian government policy. It’s no exaggeration to say the Chinese Communist Party and Australian democracy are on a collision course. The CCP is determined to win, while Australia looks the other way. Thoroughly researched and powerfully argued, Silent Invasionis a sobering examination of the mounting threats to democratic freedoms Australians have for too long taken for granted. Yes, China is important to our economic prosperity; but, Hamilton asks, how much is our sovereignty as a nation worth? ‘Anyone keen to understand how China draws other countries into its sphere of influence should start with Silent Invasion. This is an important book for the future of Australia. But tug on the threads of China’s influence networks in Australia and its global network of influence operations starts to unravel.’ –Professor John Fitzgerald, author of Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia

"The most revealing pandemic book yet."—The Atlantic The definitive, inside account of the Trump Administration’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic from White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator and Coronavirus Task Force member, Dr. Deborah Birx. In late February 2020, Dr. Deborah Birx—a lifelong federal health official who had worked at the CDC, the State Department, and the US Army across multiple presidential administrations—was asked to join the Trump White House Coronavirus Task Force and assist the already faltering federal response to the Covid-19 pandemic. For weeks, she’d been raising the alarm behind the scenes about what she saw happening in public—from the apparent lack of urgency at the White House to the routine downplaying of the risks to Americans. Once in the White House, she was tasked with helping fix the broken federal approach and making President Trump see the danger this virus posed to all of us. Silent Invasion is the story of what she witnessed and lived for the next year—an eye-opening, inside account, detailed here for the first time, of the Trump Administration’s response to the greatest public health crisis in modern times. Regarded with suspicion in the West Wing from day one, Dr. Birx goes beyond the media speculation and political maneuvering to show what she was really up against in the Trump White House. Digging into the hard-fought victories, the costly mistakes, and the human drama surrounding the administration’s efforts, she examines the forces that crippled efforts to control the virus and explores why these blunders continue to haunt us today. And yet amid the agonizing missteps were bright spots that point the way forward—the fastest vaccine creation in history, governors that put their citizens’ health first, and Tribal Nations that demonstrated the powerful role of community in curbing spread, despite their criminally underfunded healthcare systems. Collectively these successes reveal the valiant work of many who were committed to saving lives, as well as highlighting the dire need to reform our public health institutions, so they are nimble and resilient enough to confront the next pandemic. With the pandemic now moving into its third year confounding two presidential administrations, Dr. Birx presents a story at once urgent and frustratingly unfinished, as Covid-19 continues to put thousands of American lives at risk. The end result is the most comprehensive and extensive accounting to date of the Trump Administration’s struggle to control the biggest health crisis in generations—a revelatory look at how we can learn from our mistakes and prevent this from happening again.

Matt Sinkage, a reporter in the Fifties, is sure aliens are taking over people's bodies and our society. Others aren't so sure... Mixes humor and an involving suspenseful yarn.

It's 2027 and the human race is dying. Plants, animals and humans have been infected by spores from space and become part of a vast alien intelligence. When 16-year-old Callie discovers her little sister Gracie has been infected, she flees with Gracie to the Zone to avoid termination by the ruthless officers of Quarantine. What Callie finds in the Zone will alter her irrevocably, and send her on a journey to the stars and beyond.

Vanessa Kellerman sees her parents drown when a Nazi U-Boat torpedoes the British ocean liner, Athenia. She returns to Mobile and steels herself to step into her fathers position, learning to run a shipping company in partnership with her uncle. Two years later, in her hometown on the Gulf Coast, Vanessa faces the terror once again. It is in December of 1941, soon after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, that the FBI sends agent Jack Conway to Mobile to ferret out espionage activity. Alabamas port city is vulnerable, teeming with critical defense industries and one of those is Kellerman Steamship Company. At the glittering Strikers Ball on New Years Eve, Jack meets the beautiful Vanessa, while a German sub slides into Mobile Bay. Two Nazi saboteurs make shore, bury their explosives and merge into the unsuspecting community. In the next few days, it becomes apparent to Jack, Vanessa, and old salt, Scotty McKee, that there is a sinister force operating in their midst. With time running out and a significant portion of Americas defense at stake, they must peel away the layers of camouflage to expose the danger and stop this silent invasion.

The United States is invaded by thousands of immigrants each year, who arrive by air, boat and by individuals crossing our very porous borders. Most are illegal. Every effort by the government to create protective legislation or to bolster the coast guard, border patrols and visa controls is stopped by politicians who need the votes and contributions from business who value the illegal workers' cheap production. This story follows the lives of several immigrants, legal and illegal, living in Texas and California. Carl Casquale, a young dentist, and his shady brother, Eddy, have a dark secret. Bill Caleho is a rising architect building Carl's dream home. Bill is in love with the breathtakingly beautiful Dallas Diez, a smart young lawyer. Their lives, loves, businesses and political involvements could come crashing down around them all if the secret is revealed.

Several years after his fateful final encounter with would-be presidential assassin Matt Sinkage, private detective Phil Housley finds himself reluctantly protecting a paranoid lawyer from alien abductions, sinister government agents, and mad scientists. At the same time Housley is battling demons from his past that threaten to unravel his own fragile sanity.

Gordon began his journey in field investigations of UFOs and other paranormal encounters in Pennsylvania in 1965. Here he covers many of the mysterious incidents from that period which continued into 1974, including illustrations and photos.