|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
my rating |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 046509631X
| 9780465096312
| 046509631X
| 4.24
| 141
| unknown
| Nov 22, 2022
|
it was amazing
|
Zionism, with only minority support within Judaism, was limping in its project to create a homeland for Jews in Palestine prior to WW2. Though anti-se
Zionism, with only minority support within Judaism, was limping in its project to create a homeland for Jews in Palestine prior to WW2. Though anti-semitism remained widespread across the Western world, it took the horror of the holocaust to make the issue undeniable, demanding action. But again across the Western world, no country was willing to open its borders to the surviving Jews stuck in the displaced persons camps. This was the opening that Zionism needed and just the thing to assuage the guilt of countries that wished to be seen doing something and, in the United States in particular, viewed the Arabs as alien whose only importance came from their possession of lots of oil. Why not line up behind Zionism, salving the guilt without any responsibility by placing the unwanted Jews in a distant land lived in by helpless Arabs who had no political standing? Political realism being what it is, the only serious objections came from those who feared the reaction of the oil rich Arab countries, nobody pausing a moment to consider the Palestinians about to be swept from their native land. And so Israel came to be, accompanied by a story every bit as mythological as that of the winning of the American west. In this story, the European Jews were entitled to Palestine due to following the same religion as those who lived there 2000 years ago. The land was essentially empty. God spoke in favor from the pages of the Bible where He had given the land to one people alone, and behold here they were looking for a land! Zionists were portrayed as having to fight the unreasonable Palestinians, but not too many of them since most quickly fled their homes under the command of broadcasts from Arab countries telling them to do so. Mythology. But psychology too. The anti-semitic view of the Jew as a bent over physically weak but conniving genius was replaced by the muscular bronzed Zionist not sniveling but shooting, not hiding but heroically going over the top without fear. We Are Not One is the true story of Israel, an account of exactly how the state came to be by going behind the scenes to examine how Jews, the we of the title, looked at Zionism from its beginning in the 19th century right up to the first term of Joe Biden. In particular it describes the increasing rift between Jews in Israel and those in America. As mentioned, at first Zionism was considered within Judaism to be outrageous with few volunteering to go to Palestine. Then came Zionist terrorism during the British mandate over Palestine with an uncompromising effort to get Jews to Palestine that had a big cheering section in the US regardless of religion and uniformly pro-Zionist reporting in US media. Labor Zionism gained the respect of the world for the hard working Israelis getting their hands dirty in agriculture. Mythology took hold with Leon Uris' book, Exodus, followed by the blockbuster movie starring Paul Newman. America was captured. American Jews gave unquestioning support financially and with lips sealed in public on any questioning of Israel. With the 1967 war that Israel won in six days, admiration turned to awe. There seemed to be nothing Israel could not achieve against any odds. The Israel lobby was starting to roll. Though it had its beginning with just a handful of people in the days of Chaim Weizmann having the ear of Harry Truman, it now began showing real political power. The holocaust being the greatest justification for Israel despite the fact that it was a European phenomenon that had nothing to do with the Palestinian Arabs, went from being something of shame within many Jewish families, now was proclaimed. Holocaust remembrance was heavily promoted in the US, with museums opening and legislation passing in many states requiring holocaust education in public schools before high school, notably without mention of the expulsion of the Palestinians that was a direct result. See Norman Finkelstein's book, The Holocaust Industry. Behind events, Eric Alterman tracks the views of American Jews. They were historically, and remain, liberal in outlook, reliably voting 75% Democratic in presidential contests and, for most of the history of Israel, supporting Israel without question even as that country moved more to the right, cracking down more heavily on the stateless Palestinians while taking more land though settlements, defying the verbal censure of American administrations without consequences and using American weapons to bring war from the air to helpless neighborhoods in Gaza. In response, came more weapons and money from Congress, where support of Israel was all but unanimous and never open to debate. The rift in American Jewish support of Israel finally came between the old and the young, the billionaire donors and the middle class. Israelis throughout continued to expect unquestioning support from all American Jews, retaining the right of the orthodox rabbinate to say who was a Jew, what variations of Judaic practice were acceptable and openly looking down on the Americans for not being authentic Jews by moving to Israel to walk the walk. As I write this review, Israel is in an uproar with thousands taking to the streets in protest. The prime minister is attempting to push legislation through that would allow a vote in the Knesset (Israeli parliament) to overrule any decision of the Israeli High Court by a simple majority vote, neatly in keeping with his intent to avoid prosecution. Though long indifferent to the plight of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation who have no civil rights at all, Israelis are outraged at the prime minister attempting to take the law into his own hands via the Knesset. This hypocrisy is not lost on American Jews, some of whom have been seen demonstrating against a visit to the US by the Israeli finance minister, a promoter of settlements who voices the claim that the Palestinians do not exist as he pushes American purchases of Israeli bonds Nor is it lost on young American Jews that eternal occupation and settlement if not annexation of the West Bank has nothing to do with liberty and justice for all, the credo of a United States that has time and again done Israeli bidding, entirely due to the power of the Israel lobby. Exhibit one for that power is the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem, long a Israeli request, due to the multi-million dollar donations of casino billionaire and fanatical supporter of Israel, Sheldon Adelson, to the Trump presidential campaign. Significantly, no other countries have followed this US move (Australia did, then retracted it) and President Biden has not reversed it. The tail wags the dog. We Are Not One will tell you exactly how this has come about. The author does not leave out the great importance of the evangelical Christian right in the story. He goes into detail on the operation of AIPAC and covers the personal relationships between Israeli prime ministers and presidents, usually chilly if not hostile, that didn't stop Israel getting its way. Of the many books I have read about Israel and the Middle East, this is the one that I would recommend to anyone unfamiliar with the history of Zionism, Palestine and Israel. In no case has it been more evident that ignorance within the electorate can allow the direction of a democracy to be chosen by a few. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
Mar 18, 2023
|
Mar 18, 2023
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0804138214
| 9780804138215
| 0804138214
| 3.95
| 143
| May 24, 2016
| May 24, 2016
|
it was amazing
|
The collapse of the WTC towers on 9/11 was a horrible thing, but the reaction of the United States both immediately and for years afterward was a disa
The collapse of the WTC towers on 9/11 was a horrible thing, but the reaction of the United States both immediately and for years afterward was a disaster for the country with regard to its own laws, one that could only have pleased Osama bin Laden. Karen Greenberg gives us an account of the speed with which the G. W. Bush administration threw out the Constitution, preferring to go to "the dark side" as Vice-President Cheney termed it, going with preposterous legal rulings of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), the executive department agency charged with giving the President legal advice. There, a zealot for increased presidential power, John Yoo, was happy to approve torture by smothering it in euphemisms. Because the CIA had not been informed of the FBI's knowledge of a guy taking flight training with no interest in learning how to land prior to 9/11, there was a frenzy to break down the wall between domestic crime investigations and international intelligence gathering. This wall was in place to prevent Americans from coming under surveillance with the excuse of national security. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) created the FISA court to hold hearings on any request to monitor Americans for national security reasons and the Bush administration set about to defeat this firewall purpose. As a result the FISA court went from rarely holding hearings and denying requests for warrants, to allowing almost anything to result in a warrant (an approval for surveillance). All restraint was dropped. "Special renditions" to CIA black sites for torture opened as people were grabbed, labeled as unlawful combatants and locked away indefinitely. The CIA was more than eager to run the program even though the FBI wanted nothing to do with torture. The prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba allowed the farce of the US doing un-Constitutional things because it was not on US territory, the same reasoning that allowed the torture black sites in Europe and the middle east. Habeas corpus, the requirement that a person not be kept in prison without a hearing on the charges against him/her was fought over in the courts even as the suspects rotted in solitary confinement for years. As for being kept in the dark, so were the American people. The NSA began its wholesale mopping up of personal communications. Denials of this, lies, were made before Congress by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper when he was asked directly if the American people were being monitored. The deception continued until Edward Snowden exposed the truth. Throughout the book, the reader follows the courtroom activities that would generally wave through all the government wanted to do with a few courageous judges providing exceptions. Greenberg shows how powerful fear and government are when combined to push through things that contradict the Constitution. And in the end, all the perpetrators, the violators of the highest law of the land, escaped with the blessing of President Obama. The lesson he learned being that capturing people and bringing them to trial, though far more effective that torture, is messy, potentially embarrassing for the government and far more risky than the simple act of killing by drone that needs only the President's approval, even if is an American being assassinated. Thus, in addition to being commander in chief, the President is now an assassin and this has been accepted with little objection by a Congress happy to avoid its Constitutional responsibilities and defer to the President. I finished this book far better informed of what happened, all laid out clearly by Karen Greenberg. I couldn't help but note that the CIA had been taken to task by the Church Commission back in the 1970's and limitations were placed on what the agency could do. Then came 9/11 and the CIA committed more misdeeds followed by another Congressional investigation showing how the agency had again gone off the rails with nothing to show for it. I can only wonder what good the CIA has done in the 75 years of its existence. And Edward Snowden...has any one individual ever done so much for his country? Yet our government wants to get him behind bars for exposing that government's lies that deceived us all. How many thousands of Americans were content to let the Constitution be subverted without anyone saying a word about it! ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
May 16, 2022
|
May 16, 2022
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0226484572
| 9780226484570
| 0226484572
| 4.13
| 15
| 1970
| Oct 01, 1978
|
it was amazing
|
This gem of a book is a comprehensive and very readable look at extremism on the right in the history of America. With a thorough grounding in data, of This gem of a book is a comprehensive and very readable look at extremism on the right in the history of America. With a thorough grounding in data, often presented in chart form for extremist groups of the 20th century, Lipset gets into the philosophical basis and the characteristics of the membership of groups starting in the early 19th century and continuing to the political support of George Wallace in the 1960's, Wallace surprisingly a strong political liberal who, after defeat by a racist, decided bigotry was the key to electoral success. With each iteration of backlash there is a common theme of anxiety provoked by social change that leaves a established cultural/economic group worrying its position is threatened. A conspiracy is claimed to exist. Early on it is immigration of Catholics alarming Protestants accompanied with the conspiracy of the Illuminati. Then Jews alarm Christians with the concocted Protocols of the Elders of Zion "proving" a conspiracy, southern European immigrants alarm Americans with a northern European background, blacks with newly won freedoms alarm whites (3 distinct period outbreaks of the KKK), then Communists alarm everyone with a core of extremists in the John Birch Society calling none other than Dwight Eisenhower a communist dupe. Throughout, social anxiety picks out a group object upon which to direct anger. As Lipset points out, it isn't necessarily bigotry that starts a movement, but bigotry that naturally follows upon identifying a group as a threat. Today we see pushback against Black Lives Matter and liberalism combined with anger at elites in Trumpism. This combination of rage against some group asserting its place within society along with resentment of the elites (hatred for Hillary) and a nefarious conspiracy (Q-Anon) is a predictable combination. Consider the following quote from Rev. Billy Hargis, a man very popular on radio in the early 1960's and think of Rush Limbaugh more recently... "A giant gangster conspiracy threatens to take away our freedoms and enslave us all...the greatest threat is not so much from the outside as the inside...a powerfully entrenched liberal establishment...that reaches into the fields of education, politics, religion, labor and management - dedicated men determined to abolish the free enterprise system and bring about a world government of socialist nations...with a hatred of the less educated masses". What could be closer to MAGA? Leaving no movement unexamined, Lipset explains the origin, rise and fall of each movement. Father Coughlin (another wildly popular radio rantor), Jack Welsh of the John Birch Society and Joe McCarthy find a key to popularity, ride it for all its worth and then fade. Most interesting is a discussion of how the two party system manages to incorporate aspects of extremism to win victories in elections, as Richard Nixon did with his "Southern strategy" of dog-whistle bigotry that worked very well for the Republican party. The Politics of Unreason is a masterpiece of American history that unfortunately is out of print. I'm very sorry it isn't available as an ebook for the ease of finding material within the text that allows. A follow-up that brings the subject up to the 2020's would be very welcome should anyone be able to fill the very big shoes of Seymour Martin Lipset who died in 2006. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
Apr 27, 2022
|
Apr 27, 2022
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0471678783
| 9780471678786
| 0471678783
| 4.29
| 9,729
| Jul 17, 2003
| Jan 01, 2004
|
it was amazing
|
The United States in the 20th and 21st centuries has been home to American exceptionalism, the idea that the country is the possessor of the best econ
The United States in the 20th and 21st centuries has been home to American exceptionalism, the idea that the country is the possessor of the best economic and political system on the planet and that it has an obligation to spread this best system worldwide, more recently by the unilateral use of armed force than by diplomacy or clandestine operations. It is telling of the power of American exceptionalism that former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney has said that in spite of all that is now known about the disastrous U.S. invasion of Iraq, he would do it again. This push of what is seen by U.S. administrations as good against evil began in earnest after WW2, the "good war" in which the raw aggression of Germany and Japan was crushed in concert with the Soviet Union, the home of communism that soon became enemy number one for the U.S. in the Cold War. But the Cold War was far from cold in the places around the globe where proxy wars were fought and regimes were either supported or opposed by the United States based solely on the American perception of the danger there of a fall to communism. As this book makes clear, President Truman was the last occupant of the office to hold back on United States involvement in Iran. In the face of great pressure by Great Britain to oppose the nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian oil company (today knows as BP), Truman would not side with a colonial power, though such was the case regarding France in Vietnam. Stephen Kinzer recounts a history of Iran, ancient Persia, that chronicles the downfall of a mighty empire to become a playground for other empires, in particular those of Britain and the USSR, thanks to compliant Iranian rulers who eagerly sold out their country for personal wealth. The USSR, not out for capitalist exploitation, was eager to secure its border with Iran while Britain was out to extract any and all wealth that it could in the form of coffee, tobacco and in particular oil. The British built and maintained the refinery complex at Abadan supplying the Royal Navy with fuel. Iranians were not allowed to be trained on any technical work there. Iranian oil was considered necessary to empire just as later on the U.S. was to take the same position regarding Saudi Arabia. On its own, Iran was able to establish a democracy, the peculiar character of Mohammed Mossadegh becoming prime minister on a pledge of nationalizing the nation's oil along with the British infrastructure that extracted and exported it. The highly educated, eloquent and emotional Mossadegh was wildly popular not just in Iran, becoming a symbol of national liberation as the age of European colonialism was ending. He toured the United States to great acclaim and appeared on the cover of Time magazine as its man of the year in 1951. However, the fear of communism in the U.S. was soon to have American democracy bring Iranian democracy to a close, replaced by yet another willing servant of imperialism in return for personal power and glory, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. Immediately upon leaving office, the restraint of Harry Truman regarding Iran was gone, The reluctance of Eisenhower to get involved was soon overcome by the crusading Dulles brothers, John Foster as Secretary of State and Allen as director of the newly created CIA. Anti-communism was the order of the day. The CIA jumped into action eagerly, successfully starting a train of CIA actions after Iran that steadily lowered the very high global reputation of America held at the end of WW2. Undeterred to date, American exceptionalism has eclipsed any respect for international law or the opinions of other nations. All the Shah's Men is an excellent companion to The Shadow Commander which I have also reviewed. The former gives the history that accounts for the Iranian anti-American rage that came to a head with the story told in the latter. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
Apr 03, 2022
|
Apr 03, 2022
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0300243111
| 9780300243116
| 0300243111
| 3.93
| 328
| Aug 03, 2021
| Aug 03, 2021
|
it was amazing
|
It's important to set the stage for understanding this book. As a white child growing up in the 1950's in the United States, the world appeared to be m It's important to set the stage for understanding this book. As a white child growing up in the 1950's in the United States, the world appeared to be made up of people just like me. There were no blacks or ethnic groups even though as I think back I realize many of the last names of friends in my neighborhood had a German origin. Homosexuality did not exist in my world. None of my friends or their parents had funny accents and nobody looked strange. While I knew that there were other people, Chinese, Arabs, Mexicans, etc., they were only to be seen in National Geographic magazine dressed strangely and usually looking poor and primitive; exotics that had nothing to do with the modern world. TV shows extended this impression and though annual travel to the American south to see my grandparents revealed an accent, it was still the same people living the same lives albeit at a slower pace. Genuine poverty and black faces could be seen when traveling through the Ozarks, but discrimination was unimaginable. Everyone I knew accepted everyone else automatically. It was impossible to feel fear of others. I knew I could go to any house if I needed help, that a mom would answer the door and she would not need to unlock it. There were few fences, so yards opened into one large green space for play. Everybody went to church. There were no places that were forbidden and our gang of kids ranged widely. At ten I was put on a long distance bus for my first trip alone and I felt no anxiety at all. The world was safe, secure and open to investigation with not a word about stranger danger. My parents never grilled me on where I had been as long as I showed up for dinner on time. I would have been shocked to hear of anyone having a gun in the house. Growing up this way made us all liberals quite naturally. Of course everyone had equal rights. Of course each of us should do our best because not making an effort was all that could hold one back. Inequality didn't exist. Friendships came easily and trust followed. Cops were seldom seen and, in my experience, never needed. I had no idea I was living in a protected, limited world, shielded from a larger reality that America was about to face starting with the collapse of trust in the government brought on by the Vietnam War in 60's and early 70's. This book explores the thoughts of those who have reacted with fear to the end of the American world I knew. As US administrations have tried hard to force that world on various cultures that find it alien it has collapsed at home. Fear is rampant in the United States and, though crime statistics and reality don't support it, the mixing of different people has brought it on. Matthew Rose presents the thinking of Oswald Spengler, Julius Evola, Francis Parker Yockey, Alain de Benoist, and Samuel Francis that have given rise to the alt-right. The common thread is fear of the decline of the West undermined by liberalism, the very thinking that my upbringing gave me and to which I adhere today. Some of the above put Christianity in the dock as well. How can liberalism be bad? Doesn't proclaiming the equality of all promise a peaceful world where every person is respected as a human being with ethnicity and race disregarded? Those on the far right, drawing from the thoughts expressed in this book, would tell me that the world I knew as a child is the ideal, that I should reflect on the disappearance of that world and realize it has happened because others have been allowed in, that the assumed superiority of my limited world is necessary for life and that instead of welcoming the other as an equal I should know that equality is impossible. Cultures make the person, we are not free to establish our own agency as individuals, but must always and forever be the products a particular culture we are incapable of escaping. The model human being works on developing what his/her culture implants while holding others at a distance. Christianity is at fault because it assumes the family of man. Every member of the family is equally capable of achieving life in the hereafter by treating every other person as a brother or sister in earthly life. Jesus did not accept any person or people as superior to any other, though he recognized that power could be had by some, the Romans, at the expense of others. His council was to accept that power would not be shared equally, but that it was not important. Those who are first in this life shall be last and those who are last shall be first (for eternity). One might be oppressed but the answer was not revolution. Instead one should accept one's situation in life, oppressed though it might be and vow not to oppress others. A World after Liberalism invites the reader to understand how fear can create philosophies, how emotion can generate myopia leading to a fight against a future that offers unprecedented promise to a species with a history of strife and bloodletting in the name of asserting superiority. As a man who can certify his whiteness in all of his ancestry, I put my lot in with liberalism and the courage it requires to let go of one's own background and let in others whose cultures can have things to add to the future of humanity. If the fearful insist on taking the side of cultural purity and assertions of authority, then put me with the blacks, the browns, the yellows without distinction. Most of them know a life the opposite of the one I knew as a child, a life where one is forced to look up from below and about which not one of the people whose philosophies are featured in this book has any awareness. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
Mar 27, 2022
|
Mar 27, 2022
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0802141323
| 9780802141323
| 0802141323
| 4.32
| 27,239
| 1961
| Mar 12, 2005
|
it was amazing
|
There is little to be said of colonization and the effort to be free of it that is not clearly stated in this book. I had heard of it as promoting vio
There is little to be said of colonization and the effort to be free of it that is not clearly stated in this book. I had heard of it as promoting violence, nothing more. This is the most superficial way to see this complete accounting of the material and psychological cost of one people attempting to be masters of another. Fanon discusses the obvious motive of the colonizers, to take the riches of a land, if not the land itself from the natives, but most impressive is his description of the cost in self-concept for the colonized. He rightly sees successful anti-colonial action as having to overcome many things to be successful. Among these are the willingness of some of the colonized to accept their status due to the rewards they get for collaborating. This might be anything from taking a job with pay that brings a person out of poverty, to the undercover alliance with native leaders who council their followers not to make trouble, receiving special treatment as a result. The reader learns of natives who take refuge in historical practices based on tribal myths that pretend things can remain the same in spite of colonization. There are intellectuals who sign on to the progressive program of the West, sometimes glorying in the ancient history of the natives while ignoring their present plight. Fanon's deep experience with the de-colonization of Algeria informs this work, but it is clear that he knows of the leadership and status of many other peoples striving to be free at the time this book was written in 1961. Frantz sees violence as fundamental to gaining freedom and the progress of the individual native from passive servant of the colonizer to one willing to risk his/her life to be free of that colonizer. This fearlessness has to be established in the face of overwhelming military might. History has shown this to be true, though the cost in native lives to follow this path is tremendous as can be seen in the number killed in Algeria and Vietnam. A notable exception to Fanon's prescription, but not to his analysis of the mind of the native, is Israel/Palestine where the colonizer has brought in a population the equal of the natives, and has the backing in funds and weapons of the world's only superpower, the United States. Time and again throughout the book, I noted things I have seen in Israel/Palestine that link it with other colonies. There is the denial that the natives are a real people. There is the arrogant assumption of superiority on the part of the colonists vs the natives, that the natives have no regard for life and are by nature almost beasts. There is the obedience in return for money by natives to police the natives (Abbas and the PA) in contrast to the natives who swear never to submit (HAMAS). There is the infiltration of native society using native collaborators. And more. But unlike all other colonies, the colony that is Israel cannot be eliminated. Jews, like anyone else, have the right to live in what was Palestine, but they do not have an exclusive right. The occupation of the West Bank and Gaza must end as must the state that is for one people only, natives excluded. In this unique colonial case, it is only when the US protection of Israel ends that the colony will become a place for both natives and Jews who choose to move there. Violence on the part of the Palestinians only brings fierce reprisals, typical of colonies, but the sympathy created by the holocaust for the Jews dooms any attempt to get the world to see beyond that, when combined with the guilt Europeans feel for what it did over the centuries to Jews. In this way does the wider world force the Palestinians to be the wretched of the earth. This book is a must read for anyone interested in this history of the 20th century and of the situation of the Palestinians today. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
Mar 25, 2022
|
Mar 25, 2022
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1786079445
| 9781786079442
| 1786079445
| 3.51
| 317
| unknown
| Nov 24, 2020
|
it was amazing
|
This book is the story of a warrior who grew from a childhood in back-country Iran (ear-RON) to a bold, courageous commander loved by his followers fo
This book is the story of a warrior who grew from a childhood in back-country Iran (ear-RON) to a bold, courageous commander loved by his followers for his fearlessness and devotion to the cause. It is also a fascinating account of the years leading up to and following the 1979 overthrow of the Shah, the man put into power and beloved of Washington though hated by his people. Five stars are deserved for both the personal story and the story of a country that Americans are told to hate by their government. Arash Azizi, an Iranian, tells both stories without falling into adulation or denunciation. Soleimani was always eager to be at the center of action, no matter how dangerous that might be. He also had a talent for respecting local people; making them feel appreciated and needed for military support. This was the case throughout the long Iran/Iraq (ear-ROCK)war and continued into the chaotic years of the American invasion of Iraq, the Arab Spring (Iranians are mostly Persian, not Arab) the disintegration of Syria and the rise of ISIS. For all of his fearlessness and ability, Soleimani met his end torn to bits in a situation where his personal traits could not help him; assassinated in Iraq by President Trump. For any American reader, constantly fed with a worshipful account of the invasion of Palestine by Zionists and the hatred called up during the hostage taking of Americans by the Republican Guard in 1979, this book is a treasury of information not slanted by emotion. One learns the details of Ayatollah Khomeini's rise to power and of the man behind the scowling visage. The personalities and programs of Iranian leaders that Americans knew in name only are detailed, all in an intense account that never flags while keeping Soleimani's life the central theme. He was an admirable man, whether or not one agrees with the cause to which he dedicated his life: support of the Islamic revolution that began in Iran and its expansion within the Muslim world. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
Mar 19, 2022
|
Mar 19, 2022
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1406920452
| 9781406920451
| 1406920452
| 4.01
| 338
| 1920
| Aug 02, 2019
|
it was amazing
|
Desire is part of being human. We all know the power of sexual desire which almost everyone feels at some point in life. Another desire is strongly pr
Desire is part of being human. We all know the power of sexual desire which almost everyone feels at some point in life. Another desire is strongly present in only a fraction of our species, the love of power. Americans complain, rightly, that political parties become powerful and then stop answering to the voters. Congress has been captured by capital and responds to the needs of lobbies before that of the people. When someone is running for president, is it out of a desire to be the top public servant or to be "the decider" as George W. Bush put it? The trick of the few holding power over the many is, in a democracy, the ability to maintain appearances, to give the impression that the many are important even when it is the interests of the few that find expression in legislative action (remember Glass-Steagall?). Inaction is also important as seen in America when the "banksters" who brought on the housing collapse in 2008 were protected from prosecution by President Obama, a man who rode to power on the image of hope. This brings me to the important case of the Russian Bolsheviks and Bertrand Russell's penetrating analysis of their position of power in 1920. This book is a joy to read as Russell's keen mind is put to examining the immediate aftermath of revolution during a visit to Russia that even included an hour of conversation with Lenin. As usual, Russell wants his readers to gain understanding so he writes with clarity and simplicity, taking topics by chapter, who are the leading personalities? What is the philosophy behind Bolshevism? What is the state of industry in the country? Russell states that he went on the visit as a confirmed communist, but left realizing that Bolshevism had little to do with communism and everything to do with holding power. He was confirmed in his belief that for communism to succeed it had to win approval in a democracy where it was the will of the majority expressed through uncoerced voting. Only so would capitalism be dethroned. As we know, this has never happened and after the bleak example of the USSR, never will. Though no fan of the gross maldistribution of wealth under capitalism, Russell preferred it to anything that communism could achieve through violence. And violence through terror was the freely admitted basis of control under Bolshevism. Russell is quick to admit that under the chaos produced by being a loser in the Great War followed by civil war, establishing order was the top priority. That demanded harsh methods that did not respect individual rights but required compliance in getting the new system on its feet. But violence was clearly endemic with Bolshevism and the one hour interview with Lenin confirmed to Russell that the Bolsheviks saw violent revolution as the one and only way that communism could come to the other countries of Europe. I recall a wonderful quip from The Economist magazine years ago. It stated that the Nazis said, "we are better than you" while the Soviets said, "we know better than you." All leaders can easily feel they know best, but in the case of Bolshevism, the people were conceived as the material upon which the right thinking and practice had to be forced without apology. If things should be shared, then just go out and confiscate the crops of the peasants. If industry was needed then people would be assigned to make it work. If things did not work out as planned then it could only be the fault of the people, not the unrealistic goals assigned them. Because ideology could not be wrong, people could be terrorized and then blamed when plans failed. Russell notes that at no time was communism the choice of the Russian people, but the philosophy of a small minority who held power. One can't say that the USSR was devoid of real accomplishments. It did bring full literacy to an almost entirely illiterate population in a matter of decades. It did achieve impressive industrialization. It was blind to sexual discrimination except at the top level of political power. But in keeping with the foundation in terror, Stalin perpetrated a horror that stands out in all of history and the life of the Soviet citizen was, apart from individual social relationships, one of drudgery and obedience to authority. While the title of this book is off-putting, raising the expectation of a dull, overly long technical dissertation, the name Russell upon it should let anyone know to expect an informative read. The man has done it again with this relatively short work, bringing what most would call a high-brow topic down to earth. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
Jan 17, 2022
|
Jan 17, 2022
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0440080274
| 9780440080275
| 0440080274
| 4.19
| 69,742
| 1968
| Aug 28, 1980
|
liked it
|
None
|
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
not set
|
Jan 06, 2022
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0743270673
| 9780743270670
| 0743270673
| 3.76
| 816
| Jan 01, 2006
| Oct 24, 2006
|
really liked it
|
None
|
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
not set
|
Sep 04, 2021
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 9781935928
| 3.41
| 330
| May 01, 2012
| May 2012
|
liked it
|
Media Benjamin is a well known activist who for years has been speaking out boldly and acting in person against injustice. She is probably best known
Media Benjamin is a well known activist who for years has been speaking out boldly and acting in person against injustice. She is probably best known for her association with CODEPINK, the group she cofounded back in the days of the absurd national terrorism alert system that used colors to indicate the supposed danger to the US from terrorists. She has a habit of popping up unexpectedly to embarrass the powerful. I recall her standing up and calling out Henry Kissinger, quite properly, as a war criminal bringing a denunciation as "low life scum" from Senator John McCain. She is a tireless campaigner against war and injustice, be it the US interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq or US support of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. I attended one of her many talks around the country and had her autograph this book that I purchased at the event. Not being a fan of sarcasm, I found this book a bit heavy on it in the early chapters, but otherwise Benjamin provides a very good background on armed drones. Though she doesn't mention it, before 9/11 the US with Clinton as President was extremely hesitant to and did not launch a drone attack on the compound in which Osama bin Laden resided in Afghanistan for fear of killing innocent people including his wives and children. That hesitation is long gone and Benjamin documents the use of drones armed with Hellfire missiles becoming routine. With seemingly endless Pentagon announcements of a top person in Al-Qaeda or the Taliban having been executed by drone it was remarked that nobody should be left to take the job. After telling the history of drone development and describing the job of the drone pilot who kills someone thousands of miles away from his control console, Benjamin goes into the legal aspects of drone warfare, the morality of it and finally the actions that have been taken to oppose the practice. Though she doesn't mention it, crews stationed in ICBM silos pioneered the role of one or two people having the ability to kill hundreds of thousands upon command. The big difference is that the idea of ICBM launches is abhorrent while killing by drone is so routine that the President is, from one administration to the next, an assassin by drone and the subject isn't even discussed by the media. As she reports, Obama increased the number of drone strikes ten times over what GW Bush had ordered. Trump continued it and there's no reason to believe any change has come with Joe Biden. The policy of the President as assassin is not even worth debate. Power on high is clearly at ease with this killing by drone regardless of a host of questions that surround it. Where is any responsibility for the killing of innocents that almost always accompanies a drone strike? If there is such a thing as international law, how can one country, the US, completely disregard the sovereignty of another such as Pakistan and launch drone strikes without permission from the country where the killing takes place? When there is no declared war, how can individuals be executed with no trial, including American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki killed by an American drone in Yemen? The appeal of drone strikes to power is great. Why go to the trouble and possible embarrassment of capturing and bringing to trial some person who can simply be eliminated? Why risk even one American life to get a wanted man? Why send in troops when surveillance can be maintained 24 hours a day from the sky? There is no down side to drone strikes for US administrations, or to Israel which engages in exactly the same thing, when no counterstrikes are possible. I do think GW Bush was missing the mark when remarking that "they hate us for our freedoms." This privilege of only two militaries in the world will not continue indefinitely. Harry Truman once said that the Golden Rule should be the standard of foreign policy, but the reality at present is that great power may do things that it would not tolerate coming from the another country. Media Benjamin has written an easy to read and short account that can inform the American public on a very questionable practice done in the name of that public. There is a more recent edition than the 2012 edition I read. When I encountered the name of this or that organization that was either pro or anti-drone I looked it up on the net. I found that more often than not the groups either no longer existed or had websites that were years out of date. Clearly there is little concern with the routine killing done by our Presidents and that in itself is alarming if not surprising. I think many may think that if troops can be kept at home then go right ahead and execute in distant lands, forgetting the horror of being on the receiving end of drone strikes and the anxiety for everyone on the ground who must hear the sound of drones constantly without knowing where or when another attack will come. Americans do not want a Big Brother watching us. People in distant lands do not want Uncle Sam watching either, particularly with the additional ability to kill instantly and unpredictably without appeal. In 2021, 9 years after the publication of this book, on it goes. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
Aug 29, 2021
|
Aug 29, 2021
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0671869205
| 9780671869205
| 0671869205
| 4.16
| 88,206
| Jun 15, 1992
| Jun 14, 1993
|
it was amazing
|
In a democracy such as we have in America, the chief executive is elected largely on the basis of the image seen on TV. Few people know the candidate
In a democracy such as we have in America, the chief executive is elected largely on the basis of the image seen on TV. Few people know the candidate well enough to vote on character. As a result, the quality of presidents varies greatly and what you get may well be far different from what you see. We know human beings are a complex mix of strengths and weaknesses, psychological as well as physical. Insecurity is common, vanity is common, false bravado and overestimation of oneself is very common in those whose ambition gets them to the top. Knowing all of the above makes it a marvel that Harry Truman became president. He was down to earth amid giant egos. He was self confident in the best way, sure of himself without thinking he was the best or brightest. He rose through politics by being picked rather than by promoting himself. In whatever situation he found himself, he knew he could face the task and accomplish things through dedication and work but never believed he was uniquely gifted to do something others could not. He was always concerned that he could make enough money to live comfortably but never sought wealth for status. He was perfectly comfortable in his own skin and because of that very open and eager to engage others since he had nothing to prove. He was considerate, never walking over others though he had the power to do so. He solicited and took advice. He had his political opponents, of course, who did all they could to defeat his plans as president, but everyone found it hard to dislike him personally. He was a man of character who loved his country, felt a deep obligation to the common people and made decisions based on a cool analysis of problems without considering how it would look or play out on election day. Of course this biography covers the major events of the Truman presidency such as the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, the Korean war and the firing of McArthur, the handling of the epidemic of labor strikes, the Berlin airlift, but there is one part of the man's history that I did not know about which reveals him more than any other and that is his month long railroad trip around the United States in an effort to win the 1948 presidential election over Republican Thomas Dewey. Riding in a private 7 car train, Truman went from the east to the west coast and then back making 150 stops that included small towns as well as large cities. Enjoying himself thoroughly, he was eager to see everyone and they showed their appreciation by turning out in large numbers. Though his wife and daughter were not enthused with the trip, they dutifully came out on the rear platform of the train to be introduced to the crowds. In his whistle stop speeches, Truman would go all out against the Republicans and Dewey, shake hands and revel to the sound of "give 'em hell, Harry!" Then in the evening as the train sped along at 80mph a good game of poker could be enjoyed. Always cheerful, always in trim physical shape from daily walks and careful eating, almost always able to get a good night's sleep, the office of the president was challenging, stimulating and the perfect fit for this man intensely curious not only about the world at large but about the next person he might meet. I can't think of any other president except Jimmy Carter who has taken the concerns of the ordinary citizen to heart as did Truman. He wanted to have national health care, he wanted a minimum wage, he had to take on the unions at the peak of their power but appreciated their value to working people, vetoing Taft/Hartley. He was suspicious of corporate wealth. His did not want the government (read FBI) spying on the citizenry. He integrated the armed forces and recognized the plight of black Americans. Fearless and dedicated, his attitude was that while he might not be the best man for the job, the job was his and he was going to do it. The following paragraph from the book tells of the effect Truman had on others with his open, friendly and respectful treatment of everyone around him. "The loyalty of those around Truman was total and would never falter. In years to come not one member of the Truman White House would ever speak or write scathingly of him or belittle him in any fashion. There would be no vindictive "inside" books or articles written about this President by those who worked closest to him. They all thought the world of Harry Truman then and for the rest of their lives, and would welcome the chance to say so." Could we please have another such in the White House? ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
Aug 26, 2021
|
Aug 26, 2021
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1541742400
| 9781541742406
| 1541742400
| 4.61
| 10,652
| May 19, 2020
| May 19, 2020
|
really liked it
|
Like most Americans well into my adulthood, in fact well into middle age, I was completely ignorant of what my country was doing abroad. I easily acce
Like most Americans well into my adulthood, in fact well into middle age, I was completely ignorant of what my country was doing abroad. I easily accepted the story of good vs evil that explained the Cold War in a phrase. People who lived under communism were captives and those who lived under capitalism were free. We who were free had a noble obligation to see that communism was contained if not ended so that all people could enjoy the life we lived. Such a simple outlook never considered that other people in other places might have their own ideas about how to live. The Berlin wall and the tight rein that the USSR kept on the countries of eastern Europe provided a foundation for fear and loathing of communism. But this ignored the fact that communism was not monolithic and conditions varied greatly among countries that called themselves communist. After all, colonialism was thoroughly capitalist and it should not have been surprising that those victimized under it should look for a different way. There was an effort called the Third World Movement that sought a middle pathway between the communism of the USSR and the capitalism of the United States. This effort was represented by India and Indonesia, in the latter by Sukarno, a gifted speaker who energized the people in countries newly emerged from colonialism. JFK toured the world while a member of Congress educating himself on the way other countries desired to tread their own paths, but he was exceptional and for almost all others in our government, the United States had a duty to push others our way, regardless of the cost to them and with no middle way tolerated. The Jakarta Method tells the sad story of how this effort by the U.S. had tragic consequences for many foreign countries and it is personalized by the accounts of individuals who were witnesses and victims of programs influenced if not directed by the CIA in cold calculation that communism should be destroyed wherever found. The reader interested in a concise country-by-country summary of CIA efforts should read Killing Hope by William Blum. Vincent Bevins concentrates on Indonesia and Brazil. In Indonesia in the 1950's the U.S. first tried supporting a war by proxy to overthrow Sukarno, but was caught in the act when a CIA agent/bomber pilot with full identification was shot down and held captive. The Indonesian military sided with Sukarno and the effort failed, but with over one hundred million people in this nation of ten thousand islands the U.S. was determined not to lose the most populous country in SE Asia to communism, a county considered far more important than Vietnam on the international chessboard. Continuing to thread a line, Sukarno deftly kept communists from gaining political control while allowing them participation, but a mysterious movement kidnapped and killed several generals of the Indonesian military. While it is not known if this was engineered by the CIA, the reaction of the military was swift and had full CIA backing. A campaign of mass killing of anyone associated with communism in Indonesia began with lists of names provided by the CIA. The result was hundreds of thousands of deaths and a nation cleansed of communism to the delight of the United States. Thus was born the Jakarta Method: team up with a national military and employ death squads to get the desired result by direct terror. By the way, if seeing is believing the reader is directed to the movie, The Act of Killing, which interviews those who willingly, even eagerly, executed their fellow citizens in Indonesia. What worked in Indonesia was an action plan for South America where Brazil and Chile were at risk of not following the U.S. line. The CIA, with a successful 1956 coup in Guatemala under its belt and the added success of Indonesia in 1965 then supported similar action in Brazil and Chile. Posters began appearing "Jakarta is coming" to terrorize the left. Salvadore Allende, a socialist elected democratically in Chile was overthrown, killing himself before capture. It was another success for the United States. This book is a horror story that has even greater impact for the fact that it took place during the time when America was rocking to Elvis Presley and enjoying the surf music of The Beach Boys. It involved the deaths of many innocent people at the direction of the country proclaiming liberty and justice for all. It is a history that should be known by all Americans, disturbing though it is, and quite distinct in the truth it tells from the mythology presented about the Cold War, not cold by any means for those hundreds of thousands murdered in an effort to extinguish communism. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
Jun 14, 2021
|
Jun 14, 2021
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0679752064
| 9780679752066
| 0679752064
| 3.98
| 1,639
| 2005
| Feb 14, 2006
|
it was amazing
|
A novelist writes with the eye of god because he/she is the creator and animator of all the characters in the story. It's impossible for the non-ficti
A novelist writes with the eye of god because he/she is the creator and animator of all the characters in the story. It's impossible for the non-fiction writer to have that eye, but Steve Bogira thanks to his thorough interviews with and observation of all the people involved in a courtroom comes quite close with this fascinating, informative, emotionally moving and at many points funny book. I don't hesitate to award it five stars. Bogira spends over a year examining all that goes on in one courtroom in Cook County, Illinois (Chicago). The central character is the judge, Dan Locallo, who presides over this particular courtroom sitting in authority over literally thousands of cases that come before him. But the judge is only one of a large cast of characters that range from the defendants through the attorneys for the prosecution and defense, the sheriff's deputies, and the family members and friends of the accused. Throughout the book we are tutored on every aspect of the highly flawed judicial system about which most Americans are either ignorant or misinformed by movies and TV dramatizations. The tutorials are short and easily digested, seamlessly placed in the ongoing story. For example, a grand jury sits to determine if charges should be brought against someone. Why do we have grand juries and how do they work? Two or three paragraphs follow to get you up to speed on this feature of our justice system that has been abandoned by almost all other countries. A person cannot make bail. Why do we have bail and how does it work? Bogira masterfully educates as he tells his stories of those paraded before the court. And what of the system as a whole? The bible tells us that god says justice is his alone and after reading this book you may find that perhaps it should be left to Him. Nothing human can be without flaws. Law enforcement is made up of people inescapably subject to the interests, the grudges, the preferences, the prejudices, the emotions that make us human. Who among us doesn't want to advance in a career? Who doesn't get bored? Who fails to follow up on all the details? Who doesn't like or dislike someone on first sight and then act accordingly? As for the truth being discovered in court, the saying is mentioned that there are always three sides to any question...my side, your side and what really happened. Of course the courts have developed to try to minimize all of the human factors I've mentioned but Bogira will leave you wondering if all that work has produced only modest gains. We can all agree that a trial is superior to a king summarily executing or imprisoning someone, but prosecuting and defending attorneys have their agendas. The judges themselves have a desire to dispose of as many cases as possible with the minimum of effort. Trials are highly discouraged. Plea bargaining is always preferred. Just get the case through the system, whether or not the accused is innocent of the crime. Bogira does a wonderful job of building up excitement in the reader. He starts with the routine assembly line processing of the have-nots, almost entirely black, with which the Cook County system is deluged. Move 'em through, get them to plead guilty then give them probation or short time to avoid loading the already over-loaded prison system. Yes, they may demand a trial, but do all you can to discourage that by suggesting a trial will bring a long sentence, then bargain a guaranteed short sentence right now for a guilty plea. This works and cases are closed in mere minutes. Innocent unless proven guilty is forgotten in favor of not stopping the conveyor belt. Bogira proceeds to more complex cases while telling the abbreviated life stories of the many helpless and hopeless people continually passing through the courts as the careers of judges and attorneys advance on the efficiency of the processing. The climax of the book comes with the murder trial of a kid from racist Bridgeport, the home of the mayors Daley, whose mob connected father is able to spend for a full trial complete with a team of defense attorneys, not the public defenders that the poor must rely on. It is this kind of trial, known as a heater for all the public attention it brings that gets juices flowing in judges and attorneys because of the way it brings their performance into the spotlight. We know from movies and TV that trials can be entertaining, but do they establish the truth? I'm always impressed with how a movie can present a person in any light. Make a character a protagonist and the audience leaves with a good feeling about that character. Leni Riefenstahl did wonders with Hitler, though we now know the truth about him. In just this way there is a prosecution movie and a defense movie. The jury decides which movie it likes better. Truth may or may not be involved. As a man I much admired once said, it is a court of law, not of justice. This book says amen to that. It was written twenty years ago and just now (to take effect in 2023) Illinois has finally passed a bill that addresses several of the problems the book exposes. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
Mar 13, 2021
|
Mar 13, 2021
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1620975270
| 9781620975275
| 1620975270
| 4.39
| 709
| Oct 29, 2019
| Oct 29, 2019
|
it was amazing
|
Do you believe we have a true justice system in America that conforms to rules laid out in the Constitution and to Supreme Court rulings? If so, you c
Do you believe we have a true justice system in America that conforms to rules laid out in the Constitution and to Supreme Court rulings? If so, you could not be more wrong and this very short book should be on your reading list. There is good news from Illinois. It has become the first state to pass a law that, among several other good provisions, is ending the practice of money bail which has resulted in poor people going to jail because they could not afford to pay the bail amount. This is incarceration before trial, which should be impossible under our system that assumes innocence until guilt is proven, but throughout the states it is common practice. Karakatsanis relates the case of a woman jailed in this way who remained there for three years as the "justice" system took its time analyzing the small quantity of marijuana she had been arrested for carrying. He tells us that several hundred thousand people are in jail every day before they have gone to trial and for the same inability to make bail. Incredibly, there is a Supreme Court ruling that prohibits this, but it is ignored. The author of Usual Cruelty, Alec Karakatsanis, is a lawyer who seeing the title of this book as an inherent part of the court system in the United States, set out to change it by confronting the courts with the glaring contradiction between standard practice and the true justice they claim to provide. His organization, the Civil Rights Corps, has challenged pre-trial incarceration using the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, winning the case in seven southern states and Kansas, setting the stage for what Illinois has just done. The issue is a prosecutorial system the feeds on the bodies of the poor with no restraints while defense for the indigent comes down to underfunded and manpower strapped public defender offices giving their lawyers far too many cases to handle with regard to justice for clients that society finds no trouble ignoring. How bad are things? Consider the following information from the book about the so-called reform in the offices of prosecutors of which Kamala Harris was said to be one. (Italics mine.) "It is remarkable how little these prosecutors have tried to do so far considering that we would need eighty percent reductions in human caging to return to historical U.S . levels and to those of other comparable countries. None of them have reported reducing prosecutions by more than a few percentage points , and most of them have not reported any reductions at all. > None of them are calling for smaller prosecutor offices or fewer police. > None of them are seeking a massive shift in investigative resources away from investigating the crimes of the poor to investigating the crimes of the rich. > None of them have prosecuted a single one of their own employees for withholding evidence or obstruction of justice. > None of them have announced a policy of declining to prosecute all drug possession. > None of them have stopped prosecuting children as adults. > None of them have sought to eliminate fines and fees for the indigent. > None of them have opened a systemic civil rights investigation into the brutality, neglect, and crimes against confined people that are rampant in their local jails. > None of them have set up a truth and reconciliation commission to confront the past racism and barbarism of their offices and local police. > None of them have taken serious steps to transition their approach to a restorative justice model." The author's most telling claim is that there is no proof that what we do in the United States regarding "law enforcement" has positive effects either in reducing crime or preventing recidivism while the conditions in prisons are inhumane and yet not changed. In short, what is being accomplished for the good of society? Prosecutors make the decision on who to go after and from the very top, from President Obama, came the statement upon looking at what was done during the G. W. Bush years by that administration and by the big banks that "we must look forward, not backward." As Karakatsanis remarks, the statement has never been addressed to anyone who has committed a low level crime and it never will be. Our justice system daily tells us by who it goes after that some people will be relentlessly pursued for minor crimes and deprived of their liberty even before trial while others who commit major crimes will not even be questioned, nor will any investigation be started. We have a grotesque income disparity that is matched by a justice disparity and they both run smoothly when looked at by those whose lives are not touched by them. How far this is from liberty and justice for all. Read this book. Get outraged by exposure to the truth. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
Mar 02, 2021
|
Mar 01, 2021
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1594202761
| 9781594202766
| 1594202761
| 4.01
| 4,072
| 2010
| Mar 18, 2010
|
liked it
|
Rush Limbaugh is dead. Tony Judt might be the man most opposite to Limbaugh in philosophy and certainly is so in terms of education and erudition. A B
Rush Limbaugh is dead. Tony Judt might be the man most opposite to Limbaugh in philosophy and certainly is so in terms of education and erudition. A British historian, Judt has written outstanding, thoughtful material rather than loudly talking off the top of his head. It will be interesting to see how history will see these two men, opposite poles that they are. Ill Fares the Land is a very short and easy read. It makes many good points but none that struck me as new (2010 publication date). Judt advocates what has been tried and proven successful in the past, capitalism modified by democratic socialism as was the case in the US during the 1950's and 60's and still remains in effect in large parts of Europe. Judt distinguishes socialism, the top down disaster that was the USSR, with democratic socialism in which the people have a say, but that nevertheless provides a way for government to intervene either in running certain industries such as the railroads or regulating industries. He denies that the free market is always and everywhere superior to government in providing services, using the railroads of Europe as an example where a decision is made to provide a national resource that people use and have shown that they need regardless of whether it could make money if privately owned. This is the book in a nutshell - provide for people before profit. The growth of income inequality Judt sees as directly connected to letting the market rule, with no end in sight short of social unrest of government intervention. He joins the chorus of those citing the United States private profit making health care system as a disaster. The book draws many good arguments into a compact read. I give it three stars only because I have heard it all before. What's needed now is action to change the one railroad in America that really works and that has expanded over the entire world: the Billionaire Express. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
Feb 20, 2021
|
Feb 20, 2021
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1501125486
| 9781501125485
| 1501125486
| 4.34
| 2,036
| Sep 29, 2020
| Sep 29, 2020
|
really liked it
|
To succeed as a politician, image can go a long way. But if image is all there is, performance will not follow expectations. In 2016 there was a react
To succeed as a politician, image can go a long way. But if image is all there is, performance will not follow expectations. In 2016 there was a reaction to image and a man no one could deny was an outsider to Washington was elected, yet far from doing the right things, from draining the swamp, the new president got busy tearing things apart. Jimmy Carter was indeed an outsider to Washington, elected in 1976 over Gerald Ford who had pardoned the disgraced Richard Nixon. Though Carter's campaign did push the image of a hard working farmer/businessman, there was substance to it. Carter has what is seldom mentioned about anyone now, character. With a strong sense of self, a determination to do what he thought was right regardless of the political consequences, a powerful intellect with an insatiable curiosity and an unwillingness to do anything less than his best, Americans had elected an outstanding public servant to the highest office. In this biography, Jonathan Alter follows the course of a Georgia farm boy with a strict, emotionally distant father and a humanitarian mother, a boy who grown to manhood found his full partner in a girl also from Plains, Georgia, Rosalynn Smith. Though Carter served in the Navy just after WW2, I could not help thinking of the phrase the Army has used, "be all you can be" as this is a story of someone with that idea always in mind. He could easily be compared to the founding fathers in his constant desire to know and understand the world whether it be about farming practices, woodworking or international relations. This is not a book of flattery. It doesn't hesitate to portray traits that would get Carter into trouble. Stubbornness and the refusal to see how his way of going about getting things done might alienate the people whose support he needed would create barriers to his plans. He could be very chilly in person and tended to be arrogant given that he often knew more about a subject than the person to whom he was speaking. Yet he could be embarrassingly critical of himself in public. For his inability to project an appealing image, his one presidential debate with Ronald Reagan tells all. The legislative accomplishments of his four years in office are remarkable, exceeded only by those of LBJ. Interestingly, both men had minds for detail. In LBJ's case it was knowledge of how Congress works and how to personally work legislators that sped bills to passage. For Carter is was the ability to study a subject and quickly take in the facts that would make him hard to beat debating the merits of a case. As he was pushing through the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, Ted Stevens, the Alaskan senator who opposed the legislation, left a meeting with Carter saying, "that son of a bitch knows more about my state than I do!" And what troubling times were the four years of Carter's one term as president. A second gasoline shortage came, the USSR invaded Afghanistan, the Shah was overthrown in Iran and the American embassy hostages were held for 444 days. Inflation raged, the economy limped. But far from being paralyzed, Carter passed civil service reform, negotiated the SALT II arms limitation agreement with the USSR, brought significantly more women and minorities into government and championed human rights worldwide. His Very Best leaves none of the colorful Carter family out such as his mother Lillian and younger brother Billy. One couldn't ask for a more detailed accounting of the campaigns Carter ran. Though only a fraction of the book tells of what has happened since he left office, it shows his dogged determination to keep making a difference whether building houses with Habitat for Humanity, observing elections, negotiating with dictators for peace or working to eliminate the horror of Guinea worm in Africa. He saw that disease go from over a million cases to only 130 as he and Rosalynn tirelessly advocated for the powerless sufferers to obtain clean water and drug treatment. There are a couple of photo sections, one of the earlier years in black and white and one of presidential and later years in color. Most interesting is a shot of former presidents in Obama's Oval Office. Bush I and II, Obama and Clinton are joking together and off by himself is Jimmy Carter, the guy who was last to socialize but first to think about the job to be done. Now 96, Carter will not be with us for much longer. Of all the presidents I have known, that would include those from Eisenhower on, Carter is the only one that has so impressed me with his personal life that I would seriously consider traveling to DC when he dies. He has shown by his actions his concern for his fellow men and women. In the history of the United States there have only been 16 years when this country has not been in a military engagement somewhere in the world. 4 of those 16 were the years of Carter's presidency of which his is justifiably proud. Yes, he reached the height of power, but behind that is an admirable man who has worked to be his very best for the good of others. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
2
|
not set
not set
|
Feb 06, 2021
not set
|
Feb 06, 2021
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0805094970
| 9780805094978
| 0805094970
| 4.12
| 3,722
| Oct 01, 2013
| Oct 01, 2013
|
really liked it
|
The Cold War is thankfully over. For the US and the USSR it was a time of mutual suspicion where agreement was almost impossible and the lands of smal
The Cold War is thankfully over. For the US and the USSR it was a time of mutual suspicion where agreement was almost impossible and the lands of small nations were battlefields by proxy. John Foster and Allen Dulles were rock solid Anglo-Saxon Protestants whose shared vision of the world as the scene for conflict between good and evil was not disturbed by any facts to the contrary. The widespread outbreak of nationalism in the many countries liberated from European colonialism could not in the view of the Dulles brothers be anything other than an occasion for the malign power in Moscow to spread influence in hope of world domination. Nikita Krushchev's often outrageous statements helped support this view. The American people were continually advised to be both afraid and resolute in confronting communism. John Foster Dulles, known as Foster Dulles, as Eisenhower's Secretary of State toured the world giving speech after speech preaching that the good people of the United States needed to face down the evil behind the Iron Curtain. Long before George W. Bush used the phrase, Foster Dulles told the world it could only be with or against the US; no middle ground, no compromise was possible. At the same time, Allen Dulles headed the CIA, an organization that he was instrumental in establishing on the basis of his WW2 experience in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) that employed espionage against Nazi Germany. Foster and Allen were in constant contact and each took the advice of the other with far greater weight than that of anyone else. It was an echo chamber. Both had been in the Sullivan and Cromwell law firm (it still exists) that specialized in business mergers and foreign investment and that had made them rich. As might be said on Wall Street, their outlook on the world accorded with their book. The new intelligence agency was made up of Allen Dulles' network of the elite; graduates of prestigious US universities with intellect and income to spare and a common worldview, but little understanding of foreign peoples and politics. It was an agency of cronies in big business with far too much ignorance of the real world not inhibiting an enthusiasm to mold it. Inducing chaos in distant lands could be easily planned in a large home outside of Washington DC while enjoying a pipe after a hearty dinner with friends. In personality the brothers were quite different. Foster was the cold, adamant preacher without doubts quite ready to tell others they were wrong. Winston Churchill said that Foster was "the only bull I know that carries his china shop around with him." Allies could expect lengthy and tiresome lectures. If things appeared to Foster to be likely, then they were factual. In sharp contrast, Allen was easy-going, personable, delighted in conversation and was always on the lookout for a new sexual conquest not excluding the queen of Greece. His long suffering wife, Clover, settled for this to the point of befriending at least two of Allen's lovers. Behind both brothers was President Eisenhower who was determined that the United States not get into another world war or break the federal budget over defense. Ike saw covert action as a suitable partner for nuclear weaponry in his "New Look" defense posture that rejected large numbers of armed men in response to the immense Red Army that stood ready in eastern Europe. Ike presented a mild mannered face to the American people, but Stephen Kinzer leaves no doubt that the president was fully behind all of the operations of the CIA and agreed with the Dulles view of the USSR as a menace to be contained if not rolled back. This explains how covert operations in third world countries could be aggressively pursued even as direct challenges such as occurred in Czechoslovakia and Hungary were not opposed. Early success for the CIA in Guatemala and Iran that overthrew Arbenz and Mossadegh respectively were hardly kept secret and won admiration for Allen Dulles who delighted in the details, secrecy and daring-do of such operations; an arm-chair spy who loved his job. What we now call blowback was never a consideration. That the seeds of resentment of the US were being firmly planted by these deeds even as they were denied by Eisenhower at the exact time that they were underway seemed beyond the grasp of Ike and his operatives. Readers should take this history into consideration as we witness the current bad relationship between Tehran and Washington. US support for insurgencies had nothing to do with the promotion of democracy. Dictators could be just as easily backed as an elected president or prime minister. All that counted was that a government supported private enterprise and respect for religion. The case of Indonesia is quite poignantly related. Prime Minister Sukarno was a big fan of the United States, visiting it and receiving a ticker tape parade in NYC only to be undermined by the United States shortly thereafter when a CIA operation supporting rebel forces attempted to overthrow Sukarno in a civil war simply because Sukarno allowed a communist party to participate in Indonesian politics. The CIA effort failed and was exposed by way of a CIA pilot, an American, who was captured along with full documentation of his bombing runs. Sukarno was outraged and called out US involvement while at the same time expressing bewilderment that his friendship should be so easily snubbed. The Dulles brothers and Ike have passed into history, but the CIA only went on to become an ever larger agency taking on further operations that brought condemnation and quite legitimate charges of hypocrisy against the US, not to mention going beyond control in the Iran-Contra operation during the Reagan years. A comprehensive account of CIA deeds is in the book Killing Hope by William Blum. Stephen Kinzer wraps up the book by telling us that the Dulles brothers were not significantly different from the majority of Americans in their views during the 1950's. It's worth noting the similarities as follows: >We know what is best >We are unique >We are the instrument of destiny >We are civilized and moral and in a position to judge others accordingly >We are champions of liberty >Private enterprise is unquestionably good and should be spread everywhere >Prompt action is superior to cautious analysis >The world for its own good is to be shaped as we see fit >Good and evil are easily defined, simplifying the world >There are good people and bad people, a good world comes from getting rid of the bad people >Determination can overcome any obstacle As someone who was born in 1950, this accords very well with the America I knew growing up and far too much of this thinking that is both arrogant and ignorant remains today. If all Americans knew the contents of the book, at least some ignorance could be reduced. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
Dec 26, 2020
|
Dec 26, 2020
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1469649608
| 9781469649603
| B07H51BWBL
| 4.43
| 89
| Apr 22, 2019
| Mar 05, 2019
|
really liked it
|
Some white Americans have objected to the phrase "black lives matter." They say that all lives matter and, of course, that is true. Yet only someone i
Some white Americans have objected to the phrase "black lives matter." They say that all lives matter and, of course, that is true. Yet only someone ignorant of the history of blacks in America could question the phrase as all of that history cries out for it to be stated. Policing is a frustrating and difficult job. It would be appealing for there to be an easy way to identify and go after criminals. Race, in itself no cause for criminal behavior, has provided a flag for law enforcement in America for centuries now. From the days of slavery through emancipation, the Great Migrations north that with white flight resulted in the ghettos, through the days of the Civil Rights Movement right up to the murder of George Floyd the plight of blacks in the United States has had a constant theme. That theme has been the labeling and dismissal of people with black skin to inferior status, one that makes them guilty until proven innocent, subject to constant scrutiny and abuse by law enforcement and, in general, a problem to be contained with little regard to civil rights. Simon Balto's book chronicles this theme as it developed in Chicago, a city one of whose earliest settlers was black. Starting from the early days of the city when blacks were a very small proportion of the population, the areas where they lived were targeted for different treatment. From the 19th century into the 20th, black Chicago was the place where the law allowed organized criminal behavior to flourish, culminating in the days of Prohibition. Police themselves could profit from payoffs to look the other way. Then came the punitive turn. Crack down and lock them up. But police corruption and violence against black Americans in Chicago did not change. Instead blacks were incarcerated for petty crimes that were never pursued in white areas. The reader is taken through the terms of many Chicago police superintendents and mayors when slight changes occur but nothing significant is altered, it is all variation on the theme. Balto's history ends in the 1970's, not a drawback because it is makes clear to the reader that the issues black Chicagoans deal with today regarding the police have not changed. Stop and frisk, disproportionate arrests by race, police presence in great numbers with no relief from danger amid general harassment by the law is a constant. It is an occupation that is remarkably similar to what Arab Palestinians endure in the West Bank. For a while Chicago police would set up checkpoints forcing everyone in a car or even walking on the sidewalk to be interrogated. Gang violence began in the mid 20th century to add to the woe with no effective response to date. Even the current call for uniformed policing to be accompanied by social workers is nothing new. Efforts have not been lacking by the residents, including the Black Panthers who at one point were working to get gangs to come together to help the people. A very significant change came when Ralph Metcalfe was able to rally the people to vote against the Democratic machine of Mayor Daley resulting in the recognition of black Chicago as a political constituency that had to be addressed. I was shocked when Balto relates the fact that the 1968 police riot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago lives in history, but few know that though that event resulted in no serious injuries or deaths, during that year nearly a dozen blacks were killed by police and in the two years that followed the Chicago police killed 58 blacks, none of these lives having a notable place in history. I checked and found that in 2020, 753 murders have occurred in Chicago, the majority of the victims being black. This appalling number results from the gang violence that continues to plague black Chicago as the overall population of the city continues to drop and the budgets of both the city and Illinois have become buried in debt, in Chicago primarily for police pensions. Crowded tenements have been replaced by open lots owned by the city. Anyone can see the result by walking though areas of the west and south sides of the city on Streetview. Like other white people in the Chicago area, throughout my life I have had the luxury of choosing where I wish to live and ignoring the plight of so many people with dark skin who have been trapped, exploited and victimized. The case has always been the same one and should be put in capital letters: BLACK LIVES MATTER. It is the modern technology of video cameras that has made the situation clear to all Americans. We can now see for ourselves what has always been the case of police abuse of helpless people. It can no longer be denied or ignored and is a source of national shame that Simon Balto lets us know is nothing new. You might investigate Mothers/Men Against Senseless Killings (MASK), a group to which I contribute. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
Dec 21, 2020
|
Dec 21, 2020
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| 0801857481
| 9780801857485
| 0801857481
| 4.06
| 205
| Dec 15, 2013
| Oct 24, 1997
|
it was amazing
|
In the 19th century railroads covered the United States assisted with land grants from the federal government but all constructed by private companies
In the 19th century railroads covered the United States assisted with land grants from the federal government but all constructed by private companies each with its own idea of how and where to build. Capitalist competition, with a significant amount of corruption, laced the states with steel rails. In the 20th century, the economic collapse that brought the Depression stimulated desperate experiments in government direction of the economy during FDR's first terms. The free market had failed and many admired the rapid advance of industry in the USSR. Some of the New Deal programs were successful, many weren't, but the thought that it might be desirable to have direction from the top, a technocracy of experts and specialists, was spectacularly put to the test with the explosive expansion of US industry at the command of the government during WW2. When Dwight Eisenhower won the presidency in 1952, his thinking heralded a return to the idea that government should be limited in power and the free market should decide on the course the country should follow. He had been in the perfect position to see the operation of technocracy and feared what it would do to the traditional personal values held by Americans. Despite strong pressure to put government at the head of an effort to counter the military might of the USSR, Ike was determined to have a balanced budget while avoiding a welfare state for the military. His military background made his decisions difficult to question and the country enjoyed a strong economy and the general feeling that all was well. Then in 1957 came Sputnik and everything changed. Walter McDougall has written an excellent account of the effects of the resulting American panic that the USSR was ahead in technology and that all standing in the way of a technocratic push by the United States should be swept aside. The can-do top-down approach that had proven so successful in WW2 now was to be renewed not just in weaponry but in education and technology in general. McDougall alternates between reporting on what was actually taking place in the USSR and what an overexcited US was doing based on false assumptions of USSR might. The Space Race, closing the supposed "missile gap", the pouring of money into higher education resulting in universities becoming R&D labs for Uncle Sam are all explained with the personalities and policies that drove the nation to do all it could to convince not just Americans and Russians, but the developing world that capitalism in managed form was superior to communism. The edition that I read, the first, came out in the late 1980's, the first opportunity to have access to much formerly secret information, though not as much from the still functioning USSR as from the US. In the 80's the first generation of ICBM's were either history (Atlas) or being retired (Titan I and II) and the moon landing was well over ten years in the past. As McDougall documents, the fears that Ike tried so hard to contain were truly unwarranted. There was never a missile gap favoring the USSR. Ike knew this because of U2 reconnaissance flights that showed no significant missile building program in the USSR, yet he could not reveal the U2 program as national sovereignty in space was at issue. Even at the time of the Cuban missile crisis, the USSR had only two or three ICBM's. As for Sputnik, the US was planning on launching a satellite and could have been first in space but for the desire to make it a non-military effort (Vanguard) rather than use a military missile (Redstone) that was proven and ready to go. Werner von Braun, the famous German missile engineer captured from defeated Nazi Germany, had his pleas to go ahead with a launch ignored. The USSR had only one advantage and that was in having larger missiles that could lift heavier payloads into orbit. In all other areas, it was decidedly behind and the lag only increased with time as the US developed not just more ICBM's but a huge B52 bomber force and missiles that could be launched from submarines. In short, the space race was an American race against fear and for prestige in the eyes of the world. This didn't mean that Nikita Krushchev wasn't giving fuel to the fire, boasting, declaring at every opportunity how socialism was victorious over capitalism and pulling away. The USSR was clearly a technocracy where all that was done came on order from above. The irony is that the fear of a lead by Russia brought the US all in on technocracy and left the USSR increasingly in the dust. In the final two chapters of the book McDougall leaves history and begins a most powerful critique of technocracy, presenting ideas about our modern way of life that had not occurred to me and in such a stimulating read that I scanned the 26 final pages of the book to pass around to others. These pages alone make the book worth reading, putting aside the excellent history to which most of it is devoted. McDougall examines all the claims for technocracy, seeing the flaws in systems analysis, the impossibility of applying technologies to social problems (as in the Great Society), the distortion of scientific research and higher education when technocracy dictates what will be done. He relates how the man-to-the-moon program was a dead end, producing the giant Saturn 5 booster and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules that are retired and worthless for any other purpose. The Space Shuttle is dismissed as a program looking for a purpose and one that while claiming to save money on space flights ended up costing a fortune and, as we know, is now dumped. He doesn't discount the amazing technological feat of the moon landing, but argues that money was thrown to the winds with NASA with space program money creeping into areas that had nothing to do with the mission but got industry hooked on government contracts and got government hooked on providing jobs for PhD's, engineers and technicians. Readers in 2020 may well note how the end of the USSR brought only a short hiatus before an endless war against terror moved in comfortably as the new excuse for federal spending. One bright side that the author could not have known about in the 80's was the entrance of private companies into the exploitation of space based on selling something that consumers (wealthy though they will have to be) would willingly pay for. If you want to understand how the military-industrial complex came to be and how it manages to preserve itself making and doing things of no real use to the American taxpayer, this is the book to read. I am very grateful to Walter McDougall for the application of his very capable mind to a fascinating subject that should be of interest to us all. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
2
|
not set
not set
|
Dec 15, 2020
not set
|
Dec 15, 2020
|
Paperback
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
my rating |
|
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| 4.24
|
it was amazing
|
Mar 18, 2023
|
Mar 18, 2023
|
|||||
|
| 3.95
|
it was amazing
|
May 16, 2022
|
May 16, 2022
|
|||||
|
| 4.13
|
it was amazing
|
Apr 27, 2022
|
Apr 27, 2022
|
|||||
|
| 4.29
|
it was amazing
|
Apr 03, 2022
|
Apr 03, 2022
|
|||||
|
| 3.93
|
it was amazing
|
Mar 27, 2022
|
Mar 27, 2022
|
|||||
|
| 4.32
|
it was amazing
|
Mar 25, 2022
|
Mar 25, 2022
|
|||||
|
| 3.51
|
it was amazing
|
Mar 19, 2022
|
Mar 19, 2022
|
|||||
|
| 4.01
|
it was amazing
|
Jan 17, 2022
|
Jan 17, 2022
|
|||||
|
| 4.19
|
liked it
|
not set
|
Jan 06, 2022
|
|||||
|
| 3.76
|
really liked it
|
not set
|
Sep 04, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.41
|
liked it
|
Aug 29, 2021
|
Aug 29, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 4.16
|
it was amazing
|
Aug 26, 2021
|
Aug 26, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 4.61
|
really liked it
|
Jun 14, 2021
|
Jun 14, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 3.98
|
it was amazing
|
Mar 13, 2021
|
Mar 13, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 4.39
|
it was amazing
|
Mar 02, 2021
|
Mar 01, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 4.01
|
liked it
|
Feb 20, 2021
|
Feb 20, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 4.34
|
really liked it
|
Feb 06, 2021
not set
|
Feb 06, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 4.12
|
really liked it
|
Dec 26, 2020
|
Dec 26, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 4.43
|
really liked it
|
Dec 21, 2020
|
Dec 21, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 4.06
|
it was amazing
|
Dec 15, 2020
not set
|
Dec 15, 2020
|
Loading...
