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Good Calories, Bad Calories, Gary Taubes, 2007, 601 pages, Dewey 613.283 T191g, ISBN 9781400040780 PHYSIOLOGY (p. 454 sums up) When we eat fats, they br Good Calories, Bad Calories, Gary Taubes, 2007, 601 pages, Dewey 613.283 T191g, ISBN 9781400040780 PHYSIOLOGY (p. 454 sums up) When we eat fats, they break down into fatty acids that circulate in the blood; the body's cells burn them for fuel. When we eat carbohydrates, they break down to glucose, triggering the release of insulin into our blood. The fatty acids are whisked into fat cells, sequestered as triglycerides (three fatty acids on a backbone of glycerol phosphate, provided by the carbohydrates). Insulin prompts muscle cells to use the glucose as fuel. If too much insulin stays in our blood too long, our cells become desensitized to it. If muscle cells are desensitized to insulin, they don't burn the glucose. If fat cells are still sensitized to insulin, they still sequester fatty acids. In this condition, the cells aren't getting fuel they can use, to maintain their functions. Cell activity slows. The person is lethargic. And hungry. p. 445. Eating more carbohydrates increases blood sugar the cells aren't using. Eating more fats sequesters them in fat cells. Limiting our food makes us lethargic. Working more makes us hungry. Neither diet nor exercise loses weight long term. pp. 299, 304. Constant-weight people burn more calories when they eat more. Fatten-easily people instead store the excess as fat. p. 301. Excess protein partly burns off. p. 302. High blood sugar damages blood vessels. Avoiding carbohydrates will lower insulin levels, enabling release of fatty acids from fat cells. Rats rendered diabetic voluntarily choose diets devoid of carbohydrates, consuming only protein and fat. Their blood sugar fell to normal, they ate less food and drank only normal amounts of water. p. 430. FRUCTOSE Fructose all goes to the liver, which transforms it into triglycerides. This promotes insulin resistance. p. 200. It is also particularly prone to forming clumps with proteins, promoting vascular diseases. p. 201. Eating fatty steak, lard, and bacon, instead of bread, potatoes, and noodles, would reduce heart-disease risk, though virtually no nutritional authority will say so publicly. p. 169. Without carbohydrates you cannot gain weight. p. 410. Kuo put his patients on a sugar-free diet, with only 500-600 starch calories a day. 1967. p. 159. U.S. Navy physicians prescribed an 800- to 1000-calorie "ketogenic" diet of 70% fat, 20% protein, 10% carbohydrate to fat seamen. All lost weight without hunger, while higher-carb diets had left them hungry. p. 407. A young rat, restricted for the rest of its life to two-thirds its preferred diet, will likely live 30% to 50% longer than had we let it eat to satiation, and age-related diseases will be delayed in their onset and slowed in their progression. p. 218. By the year 2000, Americans were eating 150 pounds of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup a year. pp. 116, 199, 456. And 200 lb. of flour and grain, 130 lb. of potatoes, 27 lb. of corn. p. 458. Sugar is addictive. p. 446. By the mid-1960s, four facts had been established beyond reasonable doubt: (1) carbohydrates are singularly responsible for prompting insulin secretion; (2) insulin is singularly responsible for inducing fat accumulation; (3) dietary carbohydrates are required for excess fat accumulation; (4) both Type 2 diabetics and fat people have high levels of circulating insulin and an exaggerated insulin response to carbohydrates in the diet. p. 394. Insulin inhibits the release of fat from fat cells. p. 426. VEGETABLES' CARBOHYDRATE CONTENT Potatoes 20% (80% water) Peas, artichokes 15% Onions, carrots, beets, okra 10% Lettuce, cucumber, spinach, asparagus, broccoli, kale 5% p. 314 MISSING Missing is any mention of the positive effects of physical activity on metabolism. Frequent intense prolonged exercise may enable a type-2 diabetic to control his blood sugar. Taubes doesn't say so. After a long day of hard work, you may need to eat carbs right away, to restore your glycogen reserves. Taubes doesn't say it. Taubes' advice is for the many of us who are largely-to-completely sedentary, and have been eating more carbs than are good for us. THE FOCUS The focus of the book is on calling out the junk science and dogmatism behind authorities' advocacy of high-carb diets--often even for diabetics. Those who /know/ what the answer is lack the motivation to continue looking for it. p. 377. REFERENCES /Not by Bread Alone/, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, 1946. Fat-and-protein diets, such as the traditional Inuit diet. The Inuit, and the European explorers and traders who shared their plant-free diet, were perfectly healthy, as were the author and an associate who replicated the diet for over a year on return to Europe. They didn't even get scurvy. The all-meat diet provides enough of all the vitamins, /if/ the person doesn't eat carbohydrates. Insulin competes with the vitamins for receptors on cells. In the presence of insulin, a person's need for vitamins is much higher. pp. 320, 324, 328. Ketone bodies, glycerol, and protein-derived glucose suffice to fuel the brain. p. 456. /Obesity and Leanness/, Hugo Romy, 1940, is easily the most thoughtful analysis ever written in English on weight regulation in humans. p. 294. "Children do not grow because they eat voraciously. They eat voraciously because they are growing. For every calorie stored as fat or lean tissue, the body will require that an extra calorie be consumed or conserved." pp. 294-295. /Handbook of Physiology/, American Physiological Society, 1965: 800 page volume dedicated to the latest research on fat metabolism. Albert Renold, coeditor. p. 386. Edgar S. Gordon, 1969, The Metabolic Importance of Obesity, in Symposium on Foods: Carbohydrates and their roles, ed. H.W. Schultz (pp 322-346). pp. 388, 529. Edgar S. Gordon, "A New Concept in the Treatment of Obesity," JAMA, Oct. 5, 1963, 186:50-60. Low-carb. p. 412. ...more |
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| 087286877X
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First Class: The U.S. Postal Service, Democracy, and the Corporate Threat, Christopher W. Shaw, 2021, 229 pp., ISBN 9780872868779, Dewey 383.4973 An ou First Class: The U.S. Postal Service, Democracy, and the Corporate Threat, Christopher W. Shaw, 2021, 229 pp., ISBN 9780872868779, Dewey 383.4973 An outstanding view of what is happening to the US Postal Service and why. BUILD IT UP Rural Free Delivery became nationwide in 1902, despite its cost. p. 16. [Other government departments are likewise not expected to fund themselves.] From the 1850s until Parcel Post began in 1913, a price-gouging cartel monopolized package delivery, providing inadequate service at extortionate rates. In 1910, Wells Fargo paid its stockholders a 300% dividend. Parcel Post delivered 300 million parcels its first 6 months, faster and cheaper than its rivals. pp. 16-17. Rural Free Delivery and Parcel Post were acts of empowerment for rural Americans. p. 18. Public institutions threaten profiteering. p. 18 Eliminating the one federal agency that directly serves citizens daily would go far toward eliminating government services altogether. p. 19. The Republican-majority Postal Board of Governors appointed Republican donor and labor-law-violating trucking-firm owner Louis DeJoy as postmaster general in 2020. DeJoy immediately degraded service. Federal judges, concerned about vote-by-mail, pushed back. pp. 23, 88, 98-99. Airline deregulation led to mergers, frequent bankruptcies, cramped seating, fewer nonstop flights, more charges, less service, nonrefundable tickets, and no more competition. p. 28. More than 300 airports lost commercial airline service altogether. p. 29. After intercity bus deregulation, Greyhound abandoned 1,313 communities, and raised fares 25%. Greyhound acquired its only competitor. Now in North Dakota it stops only in Fargo, on the Minnesota border. p. 30. Now more than 20% of rural Americans have no intercity bus service. The European Union in 1998 required member states to end their postal monopolies. p. 32. New Zealand deregulated post in 1998. 906 post offices were reduced to 103. Sweden ended its mail monopoly in 1993. It now has no post offices. p. 33. Rural delivery is twice a week. Government subsidy will be needed to continue postal service at all. Some rural Norwegians must now travel for hours to pick up their mail. p. 34. A major goal of privatization is to end a successful public institution. p. 35. The United Kingdom's Royal Mail is being deliberately destroyed. It was privatized in 2013, despite opposition by two-thirds of Britons. It was sold for much less than its value. 6,750 post offices were closed. Remaining ones are government-subsidized. Deregulation would be even worse in the U.S. because it is so vast, and urban/rural and rich/poor disparities so great. (The U.K. has about the land area of Oregon.) p. 37. In 1859, the U.S. Post Office Department spent $1.2 million delivering mail by stagecoach to California, and earned only $34,497 for it. p. 37. Before the transcontinental telegraph and railroad, this subsidization linked the Pacific Coast to the rest of the country. In the early 1800s, the Post Office earned most of its revenue from business-to-business letters in the Northeast, subsidizing newspaper and rural mail. Private carriers began skimming some of that lucrative business. Congress reasserted control in 1845 by reaffirming the Post Office's monopoly, and slashing postage rates. p. 38. The Southern gentlemen governing the Confederacy hated taxes and government services as much as today's rich do. They demanded the Confederate postal service be self-sufficient. So rates were high, service was poor, soldiers and civilians had lower morale due to few letters and little reliable news. p. 40. A private company can go out of business. Executives of Montana Power Company in 1997 sold the business, started and failed a telecom, took bankruptcy, and made off with millions of dollars. p. 41. Montanans' utility bills soared. U.S. Government-subsidized magazine postage in the early 1900s helped "muckrakers" reach millions of readers, who clamored for reform, such as of unsanitary meatpacking, and usurious monopoly rail rates. pp. 47-48. SHUT IT DOWN USPS has closed half its post offices, relocated thousands of others away from foot-traffic downtowns to automobile-only outskirts, and reduced window hours. All, ostensibly, to save minuscule amounts of money--violating federal law, which requires that post offices not be closed merely because they sell fewer stamps than their operating costs. Costing customers much more than USPS saves, in driving, waiting, inconvenience, lack of timely delivery. Costing small-town businesses the walk-in traffic they rely on, for which the post office was the anchor. Chapter 4. USPS is selling its impressive, historic downtown post-office buildings to undo the work of the New Deal. These are sold for less than they're worth. Often, USPS then leases space in the building, at excessive rental prices. And, USPS will maintain the building it no longer owns, at its own expense. These are not decisions that would be made by someone who believes in public service. Much of it violates current federal law. p. 75-78, 96-97, 99. USPS removed half its collection boxes. p. 85. FOR WHOM? The big cut-rate mailers, big competitors, and big contractors have a seat at the postal decision-making table. The American people do not. pp. 88, Chapter 8. Valpak Coupons weighs in on every case before the Postal Regulatory Commission, demanding minimum service for everyone, for minimum rates for itself. pp. 89-91, 94-95, 97, Chapter 6. Airlines successfully lobbied Congress to prohibit USPS from operating its own airplanes. Yet airlines focus on passenger service; hauling mail is a low priority. pp. 103-104, 165. USPS ended up giving contracts worth billions of dollars to FedEx and UPS to fly the mail. p. 109. FedEx pays $0 in taxes. FedEx has been granted a monopoly on hauling air cargo between the U.S. and China. FedEx and UPS pushed for the Trans-Pacific partnership, which would outlaw any national law or regulation that has the effect of limiting corporate profit. pp. 105, 107. FedEx spent $42 million successfully lobbying Congress to prevent its workers from unionizing. pp. 105-106. UPS spent $68 million lobbying from 2010-2019, successfully killing ergonomic standards and regulations designed to reduce repetitive-stress injuries. p. 106. UPS and FedEx fight hard and successfully to keep the US Postal Service as noncompetitive as possible. p. 107. UPS is trying to prohibit USPS from providing parcel service at all. FedEx wants USPS to cease to exist. pp. 108-109. Only the US Postal Service delivers to every address. If private oligopolies again capture all the business, they can again gouge their customers and/or reduce service, with impunity. Parcel-mail revenue is necessary to keep USPS in business, now that banks and businesses no longer have to send statements and bills by first-class mail. p. 110. A business lobby got Congress to prohibit USPS from offering coin-operated photocopy machines. p. 113. Private packing stores succeeded in prohibiting USPS from offering packing service at competitive rates. p. 114. NO MAILGRAM Businesses have succeeded since the 1950s in prohibiting USPS from offering an electronic mailgram service: "Want to send a document? Let us electronically transmit it: We'll print it at, and deliver it from, the destination post office." This would be the biggest boon to post since paper. It would have the impact of paper, with 1-day service everywhere. It would be popular and profitable. It would lessen the need to haul paper around the country. Businesses from Western Union to FedEx have made sure it doesn't happen. pp. 114-117. The 2006 law kept USPS from offering new services, period. p. 117. PRIVATIZED PRESORT USPS has already largely privatized mail sorting, creating a low-wage presort industry by offering deep discounts on bulk business mail. By law, discounts cannot exceed costs USPS avoids by accepting presorted mail. In fact, discounts greatly exceed costs avoided. USPS has built the processing plants, bought and installed the equipment, and hired the staff necessary to handle peak volume. When volume is less than peak, the costs of processing the mail have already been paid. To pay Pitney Bowes or United Mailing to sort mail while the USPS processing and distribution center is operating below capacity, avoids few costs. Moreover, the mail USPS receives from the presort houses must then be resorted into carrier-route sequence along with all the rest of the mail. Presort houses are able to work cheaply only by paying less than living wages. pp. 136-137. Public assistance to low-wage, low-benefit Walmart employees costs federal, state, and local governments $6 billion per year. Employees of presort houses are in the same boat. p. 138. GOVERNMENT LIKE A CORPORATION If USPS management succeeds in destroying USPS's ability to process peak volume, more mail will enter the building than can leave; mail will stop moving. It happened in the main Chicago office in 1966. pp. 141-142. The 1966 Chicago mail logjam ostensibly justified a presidential commission, of corporate executives, who said, make the postal service like a corporation. Not beholden to citizens. Decisions dictated by top management, controlled by a board of directors, composed of business executives. The particular logistical problems the Chicago logjam exposed were not addressed by changing the goals and governance of the organization away from public service and toward enriching private corporations. Chapter 8. Postal governance is now expressly political: the nine governors and five commissioners, by law, have up to five and three, respectively, of the same political party. In recent decades, this has meant a Republican majority, which "post-partisan" Obama appointed too. The current (2022) board, including postmaster general and deputy, comprises 5 Republicans, 4 Democrats, and 2 independents, with the fifth Republican having been appointed by Biden. Democratic presidents get their campaign money from, so owe allegiance to, lords of Wall Street, just as Republicans do. Even the Democratic appointees have largely led cheers for using government to help enrich corporate owners. Representatives of citizens and workers have been conspicuously absent. Unelected governors are no less political than congressmen, mostly are no more knowledgeable on, nor interested in, postal issues, but are completely unaccountable to the public, and are even more responsive than Congress is, to the wants of the corporate vultures circling the postal service. pp. 145-158. CONGRESS BOWS OUT Congress was eager to rid itself of responsibility for postal employees. Reorganization did that. p. 149-150. WE NEED A LOBBYIST Ralph Nader recognizes the need for a lobbying organization on postal issues, representing the American people, as distinct from representing the financial interests of big mailers, big competitors, big suppliers. Nader /did not/ organize such a lobbying group. No one else has either. pp. 154-158. Postal leadership serves the advocates of privatization. FEWER PLANTS, SLOW SERVICE USPS ended overnight local-area delivery in 2015, with plans to reduce what were once some 500 processing and distribution facilities to 135. A piece of magazine-size mail sent from El Paso to El Paso now makes a 760-mile round trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Most of the transportation is contracted out, to firms such as Postmaster General DeJoy's. p. 93, 96-98. READ MORE: See also savethepostoffice.com by Steve Hutkins. Christopher W. Shaw also wrote an excellent history of banking in the United States, /Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic/, 2019. Includes the history of postal banking, and why it is still needed. More books in City Kights' Open Media series: https://citylights.com/open-media-ser... ...more |
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/Justice on the Brink: The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Rise of Amy Coney Barrett, and Twelve Months that Transformed the Supreme Court/, Linda G
/Justice on the Brink: The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Rise of Amy Coney Barrett, and Twelve Months that Transformed the Supreme Court/, Linda Greenhouse, 2021, 300 pages, Dewey 347.7326090512, ISBN 9780593447932 Clear, engaging, eye-opening. A year in the Supreme Court, 2020.06.30 through 2021.07.01. And, lots about the legal and political background. A good introduction to the major changes in many laws the Roberts court has made and is making: Require girls and women to bear children against their will. Require the government to give money to churches. Exempt anyone who professes a government-recognized religion from laws everyone must obey. Permit people in power who profess religion, to deny other people's rights, in ways that would be impermissible if the boss, owner, or official did not profess religion. Roll back voting rights, civil rights, and the rights of the accused. Erase restrictions on armed people roaming at large (but not in the Supreme Court building). Roll back environmental protections. Enshrine property rights. Slash government's power to regulate. Further curtail labor rights. Greenhouse gives us some glimpses behind the scenes, the justices' arguments among themselves that they don't share with the public. pp. 128-129. With Ginsburg alive, the court was 5 justices who always want to privilege the privileged and oppress the oppressed (wrongly termed "conservative," including by Greenhouse) to 4 who only sometimes wanted to do so (wrongly termed "liberal.") With Barrett having succeeded Ginsburg, it's 6 to 3. So the outcomes are largely the same. The difference is that Chief Justice John Roberts can no longer insist on a pretense of following precedent. He's now outvoted by 5 extremists openly contemptuous of any principle other than remaking the world as they choose. Roberts is acting to create the same Catholic plutocracy the rest of them are: he just would prefer to do it in a way that he thinks makes him look judicial. pp. 219-220, 233. The 2022 succession of Stephen Breyer by Ketanji Brown Jackson doesn't change the typical 6-3 split. The court was divided 5-4 from the late 1970s until 2020. All the "swing" justices were Republican-appointed, each farther toward "all-for-the-billionaire, nothing-for-the-rest" than the last. p. 234. As of 2022, there are four women on the court: three who compose the typical voice-of-reason dissent (Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan), and one among the radical-right majority (Amy Coney Barrett). All six radical-right justices were appointed by Republican presidents; the three moderates are Democratic appointees. (Among the predecessors of the 2022-current nine also, six were appointed by Republicans and three by Democrats.) 1947 Linda Greenhouse born. (Author of this book. https://law.yale.edu/linda-greenhouse ) 1948 Clarence Thomas born. (G.H.W. Bush appointee, 1991, succeeding LBJ appointee Thurgood Marshall) 1950 Samuel Alito born. (George W. Bush appointee, 2006, succeeding Reagan appointee Sandra Day O'Connor) 1954 Sonia Sotomayor born. (Obama appointee, 2009, succeeding G.H.W. Bush appointee David Souter) 1955 John Roberts born. (George W. Bush appointee, 2005, succeeding Reagan appointee William Rehnquist) 1960 Elena Kagan born. (Obama appointee, 2010, succeeding Gerald Ford appointee John Paul Stevens) 1965 Brett Kavanaugh born. (Trump appointee, 2018, succeeding Reagan appointee Anthony Kennedy) 1967 Neil Gorsuch born. (Trump appointee, 2017, succeeding Reagan appointee Antonin Scalia) 1970 Ketanji Brown Jackson born. (Biden appointee, 2022, succeeding Clinton appointee Stephen Breyer) 1972 Amy Coney Barrett born. (Trump appointee, 2020, succeeding Clinton appointee Ruth Bader Ginsburg) 1981-2021 Reagan and all subsequent Republican presidents plege to appoint federal judges who would overturn the abortion rights of Roe v Wade. Meaning Catholic. p. 19. 1981-1982 John Roberts, then a lawyer in the Reagan administration, tries to end the Voting Rights Act. p. 5, 162, 234. 1988.02 The Senate confirms President Reagan's nominee, Anthony Kennedy, to the Supreme Court. p. xiii. 1991.10.23 Clarence Thomas, appointed by G.H.W. Bush, succeeds Thurgood Marshall. 1996.06.26 Ginsburg, Stevens, O'Connor, Kennedy, Souter, Breyer, Rehnquist decide United States v Virginia: Virginia Military Institute must admit qualified women. Scalia dissents. Thomas, whose son attended the school, recuses himself. pp. 43-44. 2002.06.27 Rehnquist, O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas decide Zelman: public funds can be used for religious schools. Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer dissent. p. 17. 2005.09.29. John Roberts becomes chief justice, appointed by George W. Bush, succeeding Rehnquist. In the Roberts court, nearly 90 percent of religious claims prevail, vs. about half in the previous 52 years. Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, Barrett, all Catholic, and Gorsuch, Episcopalian raised Catholic, all favor the religious side in more than 90% of such cases. p. 19-20. 2006.01.31 Sandra Day O'Connor, the "swing" justice of her time, retires; Samuel Alito, appointed by George W. Bush, succeeds her, wrenching the court to the right on abortion, race, religion, and women's rights. p. 90. O'Connor was the only justice then or later, to have held elective office. p. 238. Before she announced her retirement, she wrote, "When we see around the world the violent consequences of the assumption of religious authority by government, Americans may count themselves fortunate: Our regard for the constitutional boundaries has protected us from similar travails while allowing private religious exercise to flourish. Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must answer: Why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?" No current Republican appointee would say any such thing. They are all busily enshrining religion in law. p. 238. 2007.06.28 Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Alito decide Parents Involved in favor of white parents: integrating schools violated their Constitutional right to equal protection. Stevens, Breyer, Souter, Ginsburg dissent. pp. 5-6, 130-131. 2008.06.26 Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy, Thomas, Alito decide District of Columbia v Heller, creating an individual right to bear arms, where the Constitution grants the right only for state militias. Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer dissent. pp. 170-175. 2009.08.08 Sonia Sotomayor, appointed by Obama, succeeds David Souter. She is the only one on the court to have ever presided over an actual trial. She was a Manhattan assistant district attorney five years, six years as a trial judge in federal district court in New York, and eleven years on the Second Circuit. p. 123. 2010.08.07 Elena Kagan, appointed by Obama, succeeds John Paul Stevens. She had been dean of Harvard Law School (where she hired "conservative" and "liberal" professors), then Obama's solicitor general. p. 228. 2013.06.25 Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Alito decide Shelby County [Alabama] v [Obama's Attorney General Eric] Holder, nullifying part of the Voting Rights Act. In dissent, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan, says that the majority is throwing away our umbrella in a rainstorm because they haven't been getting wet. States rush to impose voting restrictions. pp. 13, 158-164, 224-229, 234. 2014.06.30 Alito, Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas decide Hobby Lobby: corporations don't have to provide legally-mandated healthcare coverage if the owner professes religion. Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Breyer, Kagan dissent. p. 23. 2015.06.26 Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan decide Obergefell: states must grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito dissent. pp. 56-58. 2016.02 Justice Antonin Scalia dies. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell immediately announces he won't permit President Obama to fill the vacancy. Nor to fill numerous other vacant federal judgeships. pp. xiii, xxi. 2016.06.27 Breyer, Ginsburg, Kennedy, Sotomayor, Kagan decide Whole Womens' Health: Texas may not impose undue burdens on abortion providers that would require closing half the abortion clinics in Texas. Roberts, Thomas, Alito dissent. p. 27, 189-191. 2016.11 Hillary Clinton loses to Donald Trump. With appointments by a Democratic president, the court would've upheld the right of the unborn to remain unborn to mothers who don't want and can't care for them; would've upheld voting rights, civil rights, and sometimes the rights of the accused. With a democratic socialist president, the appointed justices would also not have granted personhood rights to concentrations of wealth. p. 4, 89. 2017.01 Trump nominates Neil Gorsuch to fill the Scalia vacancy. Senate Republicans abolish the filibuster for Supreme Court appointments, so Democrats can't stop it. Gorsuch joins the court 2017.04.10. pp. xiii-xiv. 2017.05.08 Trump nominates Amy Barrett to a federal judgeship. p. xxi. 2017.06.26 Roberts, Kennedy, Alito, Kagan, Thomas, Gorsuch, Breyer decide Trinity Lutheran v Comer, requiring the state of Missouri to give money to a church. Only Sotomayor and Ginsburg object. pp. 15-16, 217-221. 2017-2020 Trump picks, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell installs, more than 200 federal judges. p. xi. 2018.10.06 Brett Kavanaugh, appointed by Trump, succeeds Anthony Kennedy. pp. xii-xiii. 2020.05.25 Minneapolis police murder unarmed black man George Floyd. The Roberts court will wait until fall to continue undoing civil rights. p. 4. 2020.06.05 Indiana University professor Winnifred Fallers Sullivan publishes a book, /Church State Corporation/, pointing out that the Roberts court has in numerous decisions privileged "the church," and corporations with power to deny legal rights to individuals. Even though "church" nowhere appears in the Constitution. Instead, the First Amendment grants religious rights to /individuals/ not to be required by the government to participate in a particular religion, nor to be prevented by the government from doing so. p. 21. 2020.06.30 Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, all Catholics, and Gorsuch, Episcopalian raised Catholic, decide Espinoza v Montana: the state is REQUIRED to give money to religious schools. Ginsburg, Kagan, Breyer (three Jews), and Sotomayor (nonpracticing Catholic) dissent. pp. 16-18, 218-221, 233. 2020.07.08 Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Kagan, Breyer decide Our Lady of Guadalupe: Religious schools are allowed to discriminate widely and with impunity for reasons wholly divorced from religious beliefs. Sotomayor and Ginsburg dissent. pp. 21-22, 218-219. 2020.07.08 Thomas, Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanagh, Kagan, Breyer decide Little Sisters of the Poor: Employers which are religious may deny their employees healthcare coverage. This permits such employers to deny coverage to their 2.9 million employees. Ginsburg and Sotomayor dissent. pp. 26, 88, 126-127. 2020.09.18 Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies. p. xv. 2020.09.26 Trump nominates Amy Coney Barrett. The Senate confirms her 2020.10.26; she joins the court 2020.10.27. pp. xii, 65. 2020.07-2021.01 Trump puts thirteen condemned prisoners to death. Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Barrett (2020.11- ) deny all appeals, consistently rejecting inmates' credible claims for relief. They refuse to consider reasons for a stay of execution, nor to give their reasons for denying a stay, or even vacating an existing stay. This is not justice, say Sotomayor and Ginsburg (2020.07), in dissent. Kagan usually dissents; Breyer often dissents. pp. 90-95, 111-112, 118-123, 144-148, 179-182, 198-201. 2020.11.25 Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett decide Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v Cuomo: Whatever anyone gets, religion must get too. If people are allowed to shop for groceries, there must be no limit on the number of congregants at a religious service, at whatever cost to public health, in a pandemic, with deaths at record levels, while the Supreme Court itself is meeting by phone. Roberts, Breyer, Kagan, Sotomayor dissent. pp. 96-99, 105, 106, 175-179, 255. 2021.01.06 Donald Trump incites a riot in the U.S. capitol in which several people die. p. 116. 2021.02.05 Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett decide South Bay United Pentecostal: California must weaken restrictions on public gatherings by making a special exemption for worship services. Kagan, Breyer, Sotomayor dissent. pp. 141-144. 2021.06.17 Roberts, Thomas, Breyer, Alito, Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett (9-0) decide Fulton v Philadelphia: An agency that finds foster parents has a religious right to deny same-sex couples consideration as potential foster parents, in violation of the city's antidiscrimination law. The city cannot refuse to contract with the agency. The government is now no longer neutral on religion. Religious claims now trump all others. "God hates fags" has the force of law. pp. 58, 75, 77-83, 207-221. 2021.06.23 Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett decide Cedar Point Nursery v Hassid: Any entry of a labor-union representative into a workplace is a categorical "taking" of the owner's property that the government cannot mandate without paying the owner. Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan dissent. pp. 221-224. 2021.07.01 Alito, Roberts, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett decide Brnovich v Democratic National Committee: Governments are free to make voting as inconvenient as they choose for racial minorities, Native Americans, people who live in non-affluent neighborhoods, students, anyone likely to vote Democratic. All that the Constitution now requires is that voting be theoretically possible. Kagan, Breyer, Sotomayor dissent. pp. 224-229, 234. 2021.08.13 This book's manuscript finished. 2021.11.09 This book's publication date. 2022.06.23 Thomas, Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett decide New York State Rifle & Pistol v Bruen: to carry a pistol in public (but not in the Supreme Court building) is a constitutional right. The state must not ask why the person wants to. Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan dissent. pp. 170-175. 2022.06.24 Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett, Roberts decide Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health: Roe v Wade and Casey are invalidated. Government officials may now compel a girl or woman to bring an unwanted child into the world against her will, however early in pregnancy she seeks to end it. Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan dissent. pp. 185-198. 2022.06.30 Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett decide West Virginia v Environmental Protection Agency: EPA must not require power companies to shift to solar or wind. Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan dissent. 2022.06.30 Stephen Breyer retires; Ketanji Brown Jackson, appointed by Biden, joins the court. She's the first justice raised Protestant to be appointed since G.H.W. Bush picked Souter (Episcopalian) in 1990. There are now five practicing Catholics (Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, Barrett), one Episcopalian raised Catholic (Gorsuch), one nonpracticing Catholic (Sotomayor) and one Jew (Kagan). Too bad we couldn't've had a Justice Linda Greenhouse. "I had nine months to write this book. It took every one of those months, plus the previous four decades of immersion in the life of the Supreme Court as a journalist, writer, and teacher." Updates: 2022.09.06 Trump's radical-right judges dance to his tune: Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon granted Trump’s request for a special master to review the government documents the FBI recovered from Mar-a-Lago … which could delay the FBI investigation indefinitely ... an appeal would go to the 11th circuit, where Trump appointed 6 of the 11 judges who, if they wished, could further delay the case, and then agree with Cannon. The Department of Justice could then appeal to the Supreme Court: which now has a 6 to 3 Republican majority, three of whom Trump himself appointed. --Heather Cox Richardson https://heathercoxrichardson.substack... 2023.05.25 The Supreme Court deleted wetlands protections from the Clean Water Act. Heather Cox Richardson: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack... The actual Supreme Court opinion: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions... pp. 62-67 is Kagan's dissent, joined by Sotomayor and Jackson. 2023.06.01: Court erodes workers' right to strike, in Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters, 8-1: only Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. Pp. 22-48 of the pdf is her dissent: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions... Workers are not indentured servants, bound to continue laboring until any planned work stoppage would be as painless as possible for their master. They are employees whose collective and peaceful decision to withhold their labor is protected by the NLRA even if economic injury results. pdf p. 47 of 48. Article in The Nation: https://www.thenation.com/article/pol... 2023.06.22 Right-wing justices accept expensive gifts from billionaires with cases before the court: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack... 2023.06.30 The Court reversed the secretary of education's provision of debt relief to student-loan borrowers during COVID. Pages 48-77 of the pdf are Justice Elena Kagan's dissent, joined by Sotomayor and Jackson: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions... Heather Cox Richardson's blog on it: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack... ...more |
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Biography of civil-rights leader John Lewis (1940.02.21-2020.07.17), in comic-book format. Lewis's life seen in flashbacks from Jan. 20, 2009, Barack
Biography of civil-rights leader John Lewis (1940.02.21-2020.07.17), in comic-book format. Lewis's life seen in flashbacks from Jan. 20, 2009, Barack Obama's inauguration day. Part 1 of 3. 121pp. (c) 2013. Dewey 328.73092. ISBN 9781603093002. Lewis's childhood through May 10, 1960, the first day Nashville lunch counters served food to Black customers. And a glimpse of the first march on the Edmund Pettus bridge. Part 2 of 3. 187pp. (c) 2015. Dewey 328.73092. ISBN 9781603094009 This one shows that White mobs would've murdered many more civil-rights protesters if police hadn't protected the protesters. Also shows some of the splintering within the movement, over differing approaches. November 10, 1960, diner sit-in in Nashville, met with White-on-Black violence. May through September 1961 freedom ride, DC to New Orleans by commercial bus. Whites firebombed one bus, and savagely beat the riders, in Alabama. Dr. Bergman suffered permanent brain damage and lifelong paralysis. A White mob would have continued beating the riders to death in Montgomery, Alabama, but Floyd Mann, Alabama's public safety director, fired his sidearm and threatened to shoot attackers. May 21, 1961, a White mob was attacking Dr. King's church, with 1500 people inside. Governor Patterson sent the Alabama National Guard to protect the church from the mob. Mississippi police jailed the freedom riders for 3 weeks. More riders kept coming. In Mississippi, 90% of Black families lived below the poverty line, and only 5% of eligible Blacks were registered to vote. May 3, 1963, Birmingham, AL police chief Bull Connor turned fire hoses and dogs on protestors. Sept. 15, 1963 White bombers murdered four little girls at church in Birmingham. ...more |
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The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, David Graeber (1961-2020) and David Wengrow (1972- ), 2021, 692 pages, Dewey 901, ISBN 978037415735
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, David Graeber (1961-2020) and David Wengrow (1972- ), 2021, 692 pages, Dewey 901, ISBN 9780374157357 The authors set out to write a history of inequality. They learned that there was never an original natural state of human society. People have been organizing themselves in a variety of political ways for 200,000 years. The current organization into states can't be thought of as inevitable. Homo sapiens 200,000 BCE- p. 1. No better way to get anthropologists denouncing each other than to mention Napoleon Chagnon. p. 16. (Chagnon said the Yanomami of Amazonia are violent, and that their case may indicate that so are we all. According to Steven Pinker, if not for Voltaire and police, academics would be actually stabbing each other in this debate.) European missionaries to Native Americans in the 1600s struggled to translate concepts like "lord," "commandment," or "obedience" into indegenous languages. p. 44. Robert Lowie and Pierre Clastres tell of Native American chiefs whose roles were to mediate quarrels, provide for the needy, and entertain with beautiful speeches. They weren't lawgivers, executives, or judges. Robert Lowie (1883-1957 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rober... https://www.goodreads.com/author/list... and Pierre Clastres (1934-1977 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierr... https://www.goodreads.com/author/list... , p. 114, 130). Native Americans said, Europeans wouldn't need to coerce each other to behave well, if not for their system of money and property rights, that encourages them to behave badly. p. 54. The political "right" and "left" originally referred to seating positions of aristocratic and popular factions in the French National Assembly of 1789. p. 69. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natio... A few powerful people are wrecking the world. How'd that happen? p. 76. Egalitarianism can exist only if there's no possibility of accumulating any sort of surplus.--anthropologist James Woodburn p. 128. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... Americans are free from having to obey the arbitrary orders of superiors--unless, of course, they have to get a job. p. 131. When someone else's purpose in life is to interfere with you, he must be stopped, lest you become his slave, his pet. --an indigenous Californian, 1800s. p. 203. We make our own history, but not under conditions of our own choosing. --Karl Marx. p. 206. Çatalhöyük, Turkey, was first settled c. 7400 BCE. 13 hectares (32 acres, .05 sq mi, .13 sq km), 5,000 population. (100,000/sq mi, 156/acre). p. 212. https://www.google.com/maps/place/K%C... Practised flood-retreat farming. p. 235. Harvesting wild plants and turning them into food, medicine and complex structures like baskets or clothing is almost everywhere a female activity. p. 237. Settlements inhabited by tens of thousands of people make their first appearance in human history around 6000 years ago, on almost every continent, at first in isolation. p. 283. The largest early cities were in Mesoamerica. p. 285. Teotihuacan reached 100,000 largely of refugees of volcanic and seismic disasters, 100 BCE to 600 CE. pp. 286, 329, 336, 341-344. River floodplains settled in their courses, and sea level stabilized, around 7,000 years ago. Ukrainian and Moldovan cities of over 1,000 500-square-foot houses, in a 750-acre built area, were inhabited 4100 - 3300 BCE. pp. 290-291. No evidence of social stratification. From around 2800 BCE onward, monarchy starts popping up everywhere. p. 298. Uruk is the first city for which we have extensive written records. p. 306. Aristocracies, and maybe monarchy, first arose in opposition to the egalitarian cities of the Mesopotamian plains. Compare Alaric vs. Rome, Genghis Khan vs. Samarkand, Timur vs. Delhi. p. 313. Argives vs. Troy, Attila vs. Europe p. 445, Vikings vs. Europe, whoever brought the war chariot there vs. India. p. 311. [Let's continue the list: British East India Company vs. India. British Petroleum vs. Mosaddegh. Chiquita vs. Árbenz. Michelin vs. Vietnam. Allen Dulles vs. JFK. Kennecott Copper vs. Allende. Al-Qaeda vs. US. Putin vs. Ukraine.] At Taosi, China, 2000 BCE, aristocracy was apparently overthrown; the city then increased in size over the next 200-300 years. pp. 325-326. At least 100,000 people lived in Teotihuacan, which covered 8 square miles, 100 BCE to 600 CE. pp. 286, 329, 336, 341-344. No overlords nor kings. Cortés in 1519 found no kings in Tlaxcala, a city of 150,000. p. 348. Governed by consensus of a city council. p. 353. Elections often choose charismatic leaders with tyrannical pretensions. p. 356. Control of violence, control of information, and individual charisma are the three possible bases of social power. p. 365. As late as the 1780s, as Max Weber liked to point out, Frederick the Great of Prussia found that his repeated efforts to free the country's serfs came to nothing because bureaucrats would simply ignore the decrees or, if challenged by his legates, insisted the words of the decree should be interpreted as saying the exact opposite of what was obviously intended. p. 394. People have an unfortunate tendency to see the successful prosecution of arbitrary violence as in some sense divine. p. 395. Three freedoms: to relocate, to disobey, to make and break social alliances. p. 426, 503. Minoan Crete, 1700-1450 BCE. No evidence of monarchy. Female political rule. Palaces unfortified. [The eruption of Thera (Santorini) has been estimated at around 1642 BCE, from Greenland ice cores.] Linear A writing hasn't been deciphered. p. 434-438. Greek mainland: walled citadels 1400 BCE, soon overtook Crete. p. 436. Linear B is Greek. p. 437. 3000 BCE - 1600 CE: miserable for farmers, great for barbarians. --James C. Scott. p. 445. Karl Jaspers' "Axial Age," 800-201 BCE, Greek/Indian/Chinese philosophy appears in the wake of coinage. p. 450. Also the spread of chattel slavery. Which then declined as axial empires dissolved. Cahokia, Illinois, 1050-1350 CE. City of 15,000, 6 square miles. Ritual mass killings and burials. Entire area abandoned. pp. 452, 465, 481-482. Hopewell Interaction Sphere, 100 BCE to 500 CE, network tying nearly all parts of North America together, centered near Chillicothe, Ohio. p. 457. Osage Missouri River trading empire, 1678-1803. p.476. /Gayanashagowa/, Iroquois League of Five Nations' founding epic: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... p. 483. To get a sense of a society's values, see what they consider the worst behavior. For the Haudenosaunee (League Iroquois: Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Mohawk), giving orders is almost as bad as cannibalism. pp. 483, 485. 1230 - 1375, Iroquois began to give up seasonal mobility, settle in palisaded towns of up to 2,000. p. 487. Patriarchic rule may have originated as orphans, widows, and others in need relied on the hospitality of the chief. pp. 520-521. Societies lacking both slavery and war were common outside the Eurasian Iron Age. p. 523. [1300 BCE, Caucasus foothills, Hittites first used iron weapons, so says Isaac Asimov, Asimov's Chronology of the World, p. 43. "Iron has been discovered for the evil of mankind." --Lichas the Lacedemonian, quoted in Herodotus' History, Volume 1.] New truths replace old when old theorists die. --Max Planck. p. 525. Quiz: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... Graeber wikipedia page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David... Wengrow wikipedia page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David... "Try to take over the world." https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GBkT19u... ERRATA "around the year 0" p. 337. There was no year 0. Should say, "around the years 1 BCE / 1 CE." ...more |
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Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic, Christopher W. Shaw, 2019, 410 pages, ISBN 9780226636337, Library-of-C
Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic, Christopher W. Shaw, 2019, 410 pages, ISBN 9780226636337, Library-of-Congress HG.2481.S49.2019 College Library. Dewey 332.10973 An excerpt here: https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roun... Publisher: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/... About the book, including chapter synopses: https://www.bibliovault.org/BV.landin... Author's website https://chriswshaw.com/ Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/chris_w_sh... "The nation must own the banks, or the banks will own the nation." p. 156. Some will rob you with a six gun, and some with a fountain pen. --Woody Guthrie, 1939, "The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd." p. 1. Before World War II, workers and farmers demanded, and achieved, some carveouts from the overarching all-for-the-rich narrative. Postwar complacency let the hoarders of wealth increasingly again get their way. p. 12. There were financial panics in 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1893, 1907, and 1921. The Panic of 1907 led to public demand for banking reform. p. 14. [See also James Livingston's /Origins of the Federal Reserve System: Money, Class, and Corporate Capitalism, 1890-1913/, detailing the post-1893 debate. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ] The 1907 panic was precipitated by bad bets by the Heinze brothers in copper stock, which brought down the Knickerbocker Trust. pp. 16-18. National City Bank had $201 million in deposits in 1905. More than half of the 33 national banks with more than $20 million in deposits were in New York. pp. 20, 193. J.P. Morgan used the 1907 panic to prey on the holders of distressed assets. p. 23. Workers felt the yoke of debt servitude, p. 25, and saw grasping, parasitic, domineering bankers running the country to their own profit. pp. 37, 107, 201. A 1913 Congressional investigation found that 180 men held 746 directorships in 134 corporations capitalized at over $25 billion. p. 88. In 1933, the directors of the eight largest New York banks held a total of 3,741 corporate directorships. p. 174. 5 million workers were unemployed in the winter of 1907-1908, many with no food or fuel. Production was 28% of its pre-panic level. p. 45. Banker J.P. Morgan gloated that workers would have to take pay cuts or starve. p. 45. Senate Majority Leader Nelson W. Aldrich https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... got rich from trolley stock bought for him by bankers who benefited from his legislative efforts. pp. 41, 55. His son became chairman of Chase National Bank. p. 192. Permitting people to deposit money with the U.S Post Office Department had wide support among the public and immense opposition from bankers. Bankers kept Congress from establishing postal banking in 1908 or 1909, p. 61. A postal banking law passed in 1910, permitting deposits of up to $500, earning the depositor 2% interest, when banks were paying 3%. p. 72. By 1912, people were depositing $1 million per week in the 5,185 savings-depository post offices. p. 89. "There is no more excuse for a private bank than for a private post office." Bankers were also rabidly hostile to deposit insurance, considering it a threat to private ownership. pp. 62-64. Bankers wanted a (privately-owned) central bank. pp. 44, 250. They hatched a plan in secret, then aggressively lobbied Congress and courted newspaper editors. p. 80. The Federal Reserve Act, 1913, was a victory for bankers. p. 87. [See America's Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve, Roger Lowenstein, 2015, for how the bankers got the law passed. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . See The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve, Peter Conti-Brown, 2016, for a bit on the structure and governance of the Fed. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .] President Taft (R, 1909-1913) had followed bankers' lead on banking questions. p. 90. President Wilson (D, 1913-1921) had hoped regional reserve banks would decrease Wall Street's control over credit. p. 92. All national banks were required to join the Federal Reserve System. p. 103. The Federal Reserve banks are private corporations, owned and managed by the member banks, who receive dividends [set at 6% per year, by law]. p. 103. But at least the Federal Reserve Board members in Washington were to be appointed by the U.S. president. p. 95. Federal Land Banks were established in 1916, to loan farmers money at lower interest and longer terms than banks had provided. President Wilson supported it, trying (successfully) to win re-election. p. 106. Crop prices fell 57% in 1920. p. 111. Labor unions opened their own banks, but bank clearinghouses refused them loans when runs threatened, so, though they were solvent, they went out of business. pp. 116, 214. The Banking Act of 1927 permitted banks to buy and sell securities. p. 119. Andrew Mellon, one of the richest men in the U.S., was U.S. secretary of the treasury, 1921-1932. He advocated, and achieved, cutting public spending and lowering taxes on corporate profits, inherited wealth, and personal incomes. p. 120. His prescription for the Depression: "liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate." p. 121. He thwarted a plan to keep banks from failing: at least 16 of his Pittsburgh-area competitors' banks failed. Congressman Wright Patman sought to impeach Mellon for financial dealing as U.S. treasury secretary. Mellon resigned in 1932. [image] The money supply fell 33%, 1929-1933. Farmers' net income fell 70%. At one grain elevator in South Dakota, corn was listed at minus 3¢/bushel. p. 122. Banks would not lend, demanded loan-repayment at pre-Depression terms, and foreclosed. Farmers and workers got the House of Representatives to pass a bill directing the Fed to increase the money supply to reflate commodity prices. But bankers' friend Senator Carter Glass killed it in the Senate. p. 127. Glass also killed deposit guaranty, from 1930 through 1932. pp. 143, 145-146. By 1932, even Glass introduced bills to put mild curbs on bankers' irresponsible speculation with other peoples' money. Bankers opposed even those: setting the stage for greater reforms when Democrats took over in 1933. p. 149. President Hoover (1929-1933) bailed out banks ($2 billion), but not people. pp. 130, 144-145. New York banks demanded, and got, the city of New York to cut spending, including teacher and other employee pay, as a condition of (high-interest) loans. Banks began assessing fees on depositors in the Depression. p 132. All but about 60 of Chicago's 229 banks failed, October 1929-July 1932. p. 135. 4,500 banks failed in the U.S. Theft by bankers was a large part of the problem. Large depositors with inside information removed their funds first. p. 136. Radical banking-reform candidates for president in 1932 started well, ran out of money, and supported FDR. p. 152. By 1933, 25% of all labor union members were unemployed. 70%, in the building trades. p. 165. 1932 motor vehicle production was 25% of 1929. p. 166. Even FDR took bankers' advice on banking policy. He passed up the opportunity for government ownership of banks. Proving to America that, "he who owns, controls." p. 173. The New Deal made people enough better off that they stopped clamoring for the government to own all the banks. pp. 219, 222, 225. The "Glass-Steagall" Banking Act of 1933 separated commercial banking and investment banking, but permitted branch banks. pp. 181, 192. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation guaranteed deposits. p. 182. The U.S. Government bailed out the Bank of America in 1933 (recently renamed from the Bank of Italy): with 1 million depositors, it was considered "too big to fail." p. 193. "2-3 billion dollars of purchasing power is destroyed each year by excessive interest rates." --Senator Wright Pattman, 1934, in favor of federal credit unions. p. 218. FDR in 1935 wanted to reestablish public confidence in private banking. p. 237. The Federal Reserve Bank governors furthered the interests of bankers (which they were), thwarting the Federal Reserve Board from advancing the public interest. pp. 240, 250. Senator Glass tried to restore investment banking powers to commercial banks. FDR refused. p. 253. The Banking Act of 1935 put the Fed's open-market operations under political control. p. 254. Now the Fed could adjust the money supply to stabilize the economy. p. 255. The public had wanted government-owned banks. No joy. We got regulators who /could/ act in the public interest--or, if the public isn't vigilant and vocal, could instead quietly act to enrich bankers. p. 256. The Fed drastically cut the money supply in the 1980s, increasing interest rates bankers could charge; agricultural exports fell by more than 40%, 1983 to 1986. Farm values fell; farmers had to pay more for credit. p. 291. Deindustrialization accelerated. By 2003, U.S. GDP was only 12% from manufacturing; over 20% to the financial sector. p. 292. People supported credit unions, and stopped agitating for government-owned banks, in the 1940s. p. 270. End of postal banking: Eisenhower's appointee as Postmaster General appointed a banker recommended by the American Banking Association to head the Postal Savings bureau. p. 282. He called for the end of postal banking, and instructed postmasters to remove its only publicity, a poster in the lobby. Interest on postal savings was capped by law at 2%; banks were then paying 4%. Bankers finally succeeded in killing the program in 1966. p. 284. New York banks' campaign contributions had financed Richard Nixon's election to Congress (R-CA). p. 286. In 1973, trading of national currencies as commodities in foreign-exchange markets began. This facilitated a race to the bottom in wages, working conditions, and environmental protections. p. 287. International financial transactions changed from 90% for long-term investment and trade, to 90% speculation. p. 290. By 1975, Chase Manhattan bank president David Rockefeller Sr. was able to demand that the mayor of New York City reduce public expenses in order to get access to the bond market. p. 288. The city eliminated 20% of its police, almost half of its sanitation workers, and 19,000 school teachers. Financial deregulation spawned the savings and loan crisis and the 2008 financial crisis. p. 292. The Financial Services Act of 1999 authorized a single institution to act as a bank, a securities firm, and an insurance company. p. 295. The Clinton administration let industry lobbyists approve the legislation before it was introduced in Congress. The resulting too-big-to-fail banks made risky home loans, and sold them as bonds to unsuspecting investors. In the ensuing 2007-2008 crash, homeowners lost $8 trillion of wealth. Unemployment and recession followed. The bankers were bailed out with a $16 trillion blank check. After the bailout, the six largest banking corporations held assets equal to 63 percent of U.S. GDP. p. 300. Homeowners were not bailed out. p. 296. Average wage and benefit costs per employee at Goldman Sachs were $661,490 in 2007. The upshot: spoiler alert: money and power are winning. Author's July 2020 article on post-office banking: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outloo... Other articles by the author: https://muckrack.com/christopher-shaw... Shaw's November 2021 book on corporate efforts to dismantle the U.S. Postal Service: https://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/first-... Banking books: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list... ...more |
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Moonflower Murders (sequel to Magpie Murders), Anthony Horowitz (1955-, “living in twilight between this world and the one he creates,” “Nightcaps” ch
Moonflower Murders (sequel to Magpie Murders), Anthony Horowitz (1955-, “living in twilight between this world and the one he creates,” “Nightcaps” chapter), © 2020 but set in June 2016 (in the book, 6/20/2016 is a Friday; actually it was a Monday: Agatha Christie, but not Anthony Horowitz, takes trouble to get such details right), 9780062955470 ebook A bit grim. Enough characters that you'll want to make a list: Atticus Pünd, fictional character, detective, in nine books-within-the-book, by Alan Conway, including /Atticus Pünd Takes the Case/ (#3, the entire 72,000 words of which is included in, and constitutes about a third of, /Moonflower Murders/, set in 1953, written in 2008, published 2009. Atticus Pünd is 62 years old in 1953.) The full list: 1. Atticus Pünd Investigates 2. No Rest for the Wicked 3. Atticus Pünd Takes the Case 4. Night Comes Calling 5. Atticus Pünd’s Christmas 6. Gin & Cyanide 7. Red Roses for Atticus 8. Atticus Pünd Abroad 9. Magpie Murders Alan Conway, gay, deceased author of Atticus Pünd mysteries, including Magpie Murders (the book-within-the-book-of-the-same-name). Murdered 2014. Melissa Johnson, Alan Conway’s ex-wife of 8 years, mother of their son. They separated in 2007. She lived next door to Branlow Hall at the time of the 2008 murder there. Madeline Cain, Atticus Pünd’s assistant in Atticus Pünd Takes the Case, is modeled on Melissa Conway. Freddy Conway, their son, born 1996. James Taylor, Alan Conway’s partner and heir. James Fraser, Atticus Pünd’s assistant in the fourth Atticus Pünd novel, is modeled on James Taylor. Ian, James Taylor’s current partner. Sajid Kahn, solicitor, living in Framlingham, Suffolk, discovered Alan Conway’s body in 2014. (The Trehernes, the MacNeils, the Williamses, and Katie Leith, see below, are clients, as were Frank Parris, and Alan Conway.) Craig Andrews, age 44, author. Susan Ryeland had published his first novel. Had been a successful banker for 20 years before retiring as head of Goldman Sachs’ UK Shares division and beginning his writing career in 2012 at age 40. “Who in their right mind would want to marry a writer?” John Andrews, Craig Andrews’ brother, former chief executive of a bank, imprisoned for 3 years for illegal financial dealings in 2008. Michael J. Bealey, Orion Books. Susan Ryeland, age 48, part owner (for the past 2 years) of the Polydorous, a 12-room hotel on the island of Crete, former (2003-2014) editor at Cloverleaf Books. Katie Leith, age 46, Susan Ryeland's sister, lives near Woodbridge, Suffolk. Gordon Leith, accountant, Katie’s husband. Jack Leith, age 21, their son. Daisy Leith, age 19, their daughter. Andreas Patakis, Susan Ryeland’s partner, part owner of the Polydorous Panos, chef at the Polydorus Vangelis, waiter, guitarist, at the Polydorus Lawrence and Pauline Treherne, owners of a luxury hotel, Branlow Hall, near Woodbridge, Suffolk. Offered Susan Ryeland £10,000 to find their missing daughter. (Branlow Hall has a "Moonflower wing." The fictional book, /Atticus Pünd Takes the Case/, is set in the "Moonflower Hotel." Lance and Maureen Gardener are characters in /Atticus Pünd Takes the Case/, modeled on Lawrence and Pauline Treherne.) Cecily MacNeil, age 34, one of the Trehernes’ two daughters, worked as general manager of Branlow Hall at the time of Frank Parris’s murder, interviewed Stefan Codrescu and hired him. Disappeared June 11, 2016. Samantha Collins, the doctor’s wife in /Atticus Pünd Takes the Case/, is modeled on Cecily Treherne. Aidan MacNeil, age 32, Cecily’s husband. Does public relations at the hotel. Moved from Glasgow to London in 2001. Met Cecily in August 2005. They moved into Branlow Cottage together in December 2007. Algernon Marsh, swindler, doctor’s brother-in-law in /Atticus Pünd Takes the Case/, is modeled on Aidan MacNeil. Jodie MacNeil, Aidan’s sister, caretaker of their mother. Roxana, 7-yr-old daughter of Cecily and Aidan, born January 2009. Eloise Radmani, widowed, from Marseille, Roxana’s nanny since March 2009. Bear, Cecily's shaggy dog (it's that kind of story!), a golden retriever. Kimba, chow, in /Atticus Pünd Takes the Case/, is modeled on Bear! Lisa Treherne, age 36, the Trehernes’ other daughter, does the accounts, contracts, human resources, and stock control at Branlow Hall. p. 51, location 671. Melissa James, actress, in /Atticus Pünd Takes the Case/, is modeled on Lisa Treherne. Derek Endicott, night manager at Branlow Hall, on duty the night Frank Parris was murdered. Eric Chandler, actress’s butler in /Atticus Pünd Takes the Case/, is modeled on Derek. Gwyneth Endicott, Derek’s mother. Phyllis Chandler, actress’s housekeeper in /Atticus Pünd Takes the Case/, is modeled on Gwyneth Endicott. Inga, Danish, works reception at Branlow Hall; helps with Roxana sometimes Lars, Danish, bellman and barman at Branlow Hall Stefan Codrescu, Romanian, maintenance guy at Branlow Hall, convicted of murdering Frank Parris, sentenced to life in prison. Age 22 on his arrest, June 19, 2008. Pled guilty. Simon Cox (Sīmanis Čaks), would-be film producer in /Atticus Pünd Takes the Case/, is modeled on Stefan Codrescu. Helen, head of housekeeping in 2008 at Branlow Hall, died 2014. Natasha Mälk, Estonian, maid at Branlow Hall in 2008 who discovered the body. Nancy Mitchell, receptionist in /Atticus Pünd Takes the Case/, is modeled on Natasha Mälk. Marcus, runs the spa at Branlow Hall in 2016. Lionel Corby, Australian. Born 1985. Relocated to England 2005. Branlow Hall spa manager in 2008. Dr. Leonard Collins, character in /Atticus Pünd Takes the Case/, is modeled on Lionel Corby. Anton, chef at Branlow Hall in 2008. William, groundsman at Branlow Hall in 2008. Stavia, volunteer in a charity shop in Framlingham, Suffolk. Frank Parris, flamboyantly gay, was murdered ~8 yrs ago ("Friday," June 15, 2008, which was a Sunday) at Branlow Hall on the same day (Saturday) Cecily Treherne and Aidan MacNeil were married (at Branlow Hall). He checked in Thursday. Was age 53 when he died. His Australian advertising agency, Sundowner, failed, May 2008. Frank had gone to Australia in 2005. Francis Pendleton, actress Melissa James’ husband in /Atticus Pünd Takes the Case/, is modeled on Frank Parris. Martin Williams, lives at Heath House in Westleton (since 1998); Frank Parris visited the Williamses the day he was killed. Joanne Williams, Martin's wife, Frank Parris's sister. George Saunders, retired headmaster, was originally booked into the room Frank Parris was murdered in, was shifted to a different room before he checked in. Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Locke, headed the investigations into Frank Parris's murder in 2008 and Alan Conway’s murder in 2014. Is investigating the disappearance of Cecily in 2016. Detective Inspector Jane Cregan, first cop on the scene of Frank Parris’s murder in 2008. ...more |
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The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve, Peter Conti-Brown, 2016, 347pp, ISBN 9780691164007. Library-of-Congress HG.2563.C596.2016 College L
The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve, Peter Conti-Brown, 2016, 347pp, ISBN 9780691164007. Library-of-Congress HG.2563.C596.2016 College Library. Dewey 332.110973 A glimpse behind the curtain of an institution of power, secrecy, and proximity to private bankers in New York. pp. 203, 256, 262. "If the people will keep their money in the banks everything will be all right." --J. Pierpont Morgan, 1907. p. 17. "Will one of you gentlemen tell me in what civilized country of the earth there are important government boards of control on which private interests are represented?" --Woodrow Wilson, 1913. p. 21. "Hard work means more production, but thrift and economy mean less consumption. Now reconcile those forces, will you?" --Marriner S. Eccles, 1932. p. 26. "The airline safety board shouldn't be in charge of protecting the financial viability of the airlines." --Larry Summers, 2010. p. 243. "It is impossible to buy a toaster that has a one-in-five chance of bursting into flames and burning down your house. But it is possible to refinance an existing home with a mortgage that has a one-in-five chance of putting the family out on the street." --Elizabeth Warren, 2007. p. 243. https://democracyjournal.org/magazine... Interest rates climbed above 22% in 1981 and came permanently below 10% only in 1984, causing a recession, millions of jobs lost, businesses closed, ending inflation. p. 55. The author considers this way of ending inflation a "success" of Paul Volcker. p. 137. Volcker reduced the money supply, as Milton Friedman wanted. p. 234. The Fed has bailed out "too-big-to-fail" banks since 1984. p. 57. "Since I've become a central banker, I've learned to mumble with great incoherence. If I seem unduly clear to you, you must have misunderstood what I said." --Alan Greenspan, 1987. pp. 61-62. Alan Greenspan was a devotee of Ayn Rand. p. 63. "By the time I joined Nixon's campaign in 1968, I had long since decided to advance free-market capitalism as an insider." p. 64. The benefits of risk taking in the market were for the participants; the costs were for the public. p. 67. Paul Krugman was excluded for 10 years from the Fed's annual conference because of his criticisms of Alan Greenspan. p. 92. The banks that join the Federal Reserve System must buy stock in the Reserve Banks, and receive a dividend set by statute at 6%. p. 104. Obama failed to appoint three of the seven Fed governors--leaving private bankers' representatives with a five-to-four majority on the Open Market Committee. And he didn't appoint a vice chair for bank supervision. pp. 116-117, 247-251, 256. Biden is doing it too: https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/wh... Reserve Bank presidents make federal policy without conforming to the constitutional requirements of presidential appointment and Senate confirmation. pp. 117-118, 255-256. Federal courts refuse to hear challenges to the constitutionality of the Fed, "out of respect for Congress." p. 119. Courts refuse to review even those Fed decisions based on "novel interpretations of law." p. 253. Bankers' political power has thwarted congressional attempts to reduce their authority. pp. 123-125. Economics exams' questions don't change, but the answers do. p. 129. To raise the interest rate banks charge each other for overnight loans, the Fed sells short-term government debt, at the market price. To lower interest rates, the Fed buys short-term government debt, at the market price: pp. 131-134. By affecting the availability of money, the Fed changes the price of money. This interest rate is called the "federal funds rate." You'd think these are mostly money-losing transactions that add to the public debt. However, the Fed says it earned a net $88 billion in 2020 in interest on debt it held, most of which it transferred to the U.S. Treasury. p. 207 & https://www.federalreserve.gov/public... Table G.9. Senator Rand Paul in 2015 claimed, nonsensically, that the Fed was nearly bankrupt. p. 263. The Fed creates from nothing the money it loans. p. 207. The U.S. dollar has been a fiat currency since 1973. p. 210. Although the Constitution gives Congress power over money creation, few members found the details interesting enough to learn about the process. p. 215. The Fed lends directly to banks at an interest rate called the "discount rate." p. 134. The Fed loaned $1.6 trillion in 2008. https://www.federalreserve.gov/public... The Fed sets banks' "reserve requirements:" how much cash the bank must keep on hand: as of 2012, the largest banks had to keep 10% of "assets" in cash (smaller banks less). pp. 134-135. It's to meet these requirements that banks borrow money from each other over night. https://www.federalreserve.gov/public... As of 2020, the reserve requirements are zero: https://www.federalreserve.gov/public... (Table G.3) In January 2009 we were in a recession, yet the Fed had lowered the interest on short-term debt so near to zero that there was no reason to lend; no reason not to borrow--yet it didn't help. Still, 20-year and 30-year debt was getting about 3% interest. The Fed bought that debt too, to reduce long-term interest rates: in March 2009, it held nearly $2 trillion of it: still recession. The Fed bought mortgage-backed securities. By October 2014 it held nearly $5 trillion of debt (up from 0.8 trillion in 2008, still 4.6 trillion as of the writing of this book in 2016). This was called, "quantitative easing." pp. 140-145. The Fed had promised it would continue its free-money policy until inflation rose or unemployment came down. This promise was called, "forward guidance." pp. 143, 235. [The book says not a word about it, but, though consumer savings-account interest went to and stayed at essentially zero, credit-card interest rates stayed up at usurious rates. Rents stayed high. Market-dominating corporations sat on and still sit on semi-infinite piles of cash, with no need to part with any of it; small businesses close, unable to compete with the gorilla. When the housing bubble burst, financial institutions that claimed to own mortgages, called the sheriff to put borrowers out of their homes, then tried in vain to sell those houses at much lower prices at lower interest rates. The original borrowers were never offered to refinance at the now-market price and the now-market interest rate. The jobs that eventually came back were worse jobs, at lower pay. https://www.federalreserve.gov/public... Funny how flooding big banks with public money didn't fix any of that. What banker would've proposed limiting mortgage debt to the now-current market value of the house, at the now-current interest rate? (That's all the bank can hope to recover after foreclosing.) Or, requiring a financial institution to prove it owns the mortgage, before foreclosing? What banker would propose a remedy other than giving banks money?] A bank's "assets" include the loans it is owed by homeowners; its "liabilities" include the deposits that savers can demand at any time. p. 152. The Fed and the Bush & Obama administrations picked winners and losers in the financial markets, in and after 2008. p. 157. By 1932, 25% of all U.S. banks had failed. p. 160. The Fed is supposed to examine banks and ensure their compliance with laws and regulations. In fact, a Fed bank-supervisor who doesn't act as the private bank's lap dog, is fired. pp. 164-170. The Fed failed to police the risky mortgage-backed-securities trading that led to the 2008 crisis. p. 228. New York Fed president William Dudley was a managing director at Goldman Sachs for more than 20 years. p. 228. "The line between paying attention and taking direction is hard to draw." pp. 230, 256. Clinton cut government spending at Greenspan's instructions. pp. 195-197. The Fed releases transcripts of its meetings--/five years later/! p. 205. It gives /minutes/, with limited information, 3 weeks after the meetings. p. 231. The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent. p. 221. A banker lends an umbrella when it's sunny, and demands it back at sight of rain. p. 223. In 1998, hedge fund Long Term Capital Management made bad bets, threatening to collapse the financial system. New York Fed president William McDonough persuaded banks and brokers to lend LTCM money. pp. 220-224. The total value of all the contracts in the global derivatives market in June 2007 was $516 trillion. Global GDP that year was about $50 trillion. Contracts were scrawled on scraps of paper by traders talking over the phone. What could go wrong? Then-New-York-Fed-president Timothy Geithner rounded the major traders up and persuaded them to upgrade to electronic trading. pp. 224-225. The 2008 crisis would've otherwise been worse. p. 229. If the Taylor Rule is the best policy, don't amend the Federal Reserve Act; appoint John Taylor to the Open Market Committee. p. 265. (John B. Taylor, /Getting off Track/, 2009. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6... ) ...more |
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God's equation : Einstein, relativity, and the expanding universe Amir D. Aczel, 1999 236 pp. ISBN 1568581378 Library-of-Congress QB981 A35 1999 worldcat God's equation : Einstein, relativity, and the expanding universe Amir D. Aczel, 1999 236 pp. ISBN 1568581378 Library-of-Congress QB981 A35 1999 worldcat: https://www.worldcat.org/title/gods-e... https://search.library.wisc.edu/catal... If the universe was much smaller 10 billion years ago, why didn't photons emitted then from quasars reach the edge of the then-much-smaller universe long ago? How did they keep coming all this time, and reach us only now? This book has a partial answer: We observe light that left its galaxy seven billion years ago. When the light left its source, the galaxy that emitted it was actually about five billion light years from us. When its light arrives here, that same galaxy is at a distance of about twelve billion light years from us. [The distance increased about 7 billion light years in 7 billion years: the distance has been increasing at about the speed of light. How, then, did the light arrive at all? The book doesn't say.] The redshift we see is due to the stretching of space during the 7 billion years the photons were in flight. p. 8. The most distant object yet seen is a galaxy 13 billion light years away, receding at .956 the speed of light. p. xiii. Galaxies whose light has travelled 7 billion years to reach us are receding at about .5c (c = speed of light) pp. 5-6. Closer galaxies are receding /faster/. This means the rate of expansion is accelerating. p. 7. But wait. p. xiii says a 13-billion-light-year-distant galaxy recedes at .956c . Moreover, this is the opposite of the Hubble observation that recession speed is proportional to distance: the evidence of an expanding universe. The book doesn't address the disconnect. The universe has perhaps 20% of the mass density it would need to stop universal expansion. pp. xiii, 11. The brightest type of supernova brightens for about 18 days, then fades over the following month. p. 6. Einstein looked for a way to describe gravitation that would: Make Newton's laws the same under acceleration as in a gravitational field. p. 32. Redshift light in a gravitational field. p. 32. Deflect light in a gravitational field. p. 34. A circle spinning in its plane about its center experiences length-foreshortening of its circumference, by special relativity; its diameter is unchanged. Circumference < pi*diameter. Space is non-Euclidean. p. 59. Einstein's equation describing gravitational curvature of spacetime: where: g_mu,nu is Riemann metric tensor: distance in curved space T is energy-momentum tensor R is Ricci curved-spacetime tensor G is Newton's gravitational constant: R_mu,nu - 1/2 g_mu,nu*R = - 8 pi G T_mu,nu p. 117. The book is mostly nontechnical biography of Einstein and some of his colleagues. The equations are inadequately explained. The author had a Ph.D. in statistics. He wasn't a physicist. He claims to understand general relativity, but this book isn't really an attempt to explain it. Author's wikipedia page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amir_... Proof that sqrt(2) is irrational: If rational, then there are integers a, b, with no common factor, where a^2 = 2*b^2. If a is odd, a^2 is odd: but 2*b^2 is even. So a can't be odd. If a is even, then for some c, a = 2*c; 4*c^2 = 2*b^2; b^2 = 2*c^2. So b is even: a and b have the common factor 2. So there are /no/ a, b with no common factor whose ratio is sqrt(2). Quod erat demonstrandum. p. 49. Also answers trivial questions like this: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... ERRATA P. 144 gives (Newtonian) element of distance as ds^2 = dr^2 - r^2 dTheta^2 Surely he means /plus/. "On a sphere, there are no nonintersecting lines." p. 51. Sure there are: parallels of latitude, for example. Or small circles generally. There are no nonintersecting pairs of great circles. Hermann Minkowski lived 1864-1909, not 1909-1964 as on p. 18. ...more |
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Coup d'Etat: A Practical Handbook, revised edition 2016, Edward N. Luttwak, 264 pp., ISBN 9780674737266, Library-of-Congress JC.494.L88.2016. Author's
Coup d'Etat: A Practical Handbook, revised edition 2016, Edward N. Luttwak, 264 pp., ISBN 9780674737266, Library-of-Congress JC.494.L88.2016. Author's wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_... worldcat https://www.worldcat.org/title/coup-d... https://search.library.wisc.edu/catal... Although written in a "here's what we're gonna do" tone, the book is an attempt to understand the political life of the less-developed countries. p. xxix. As of 1978, "the coup d'etat is now the normal mode of political change in most member states of the United Nations." p. xxxiii. 1963-1978, there have been some 120 military coups. p. xxxv. Since 1776, governments have been overthrown at an increasing pace. p. 5. 1946-2010, there were 616 coup attempts: 299 succeeded, 317 failed. p. 253. There were 60+ coup attempts per year from about 1967-1982; 30+ coup attempts per year 1960-2006; 24+ coup attempts per year, 1950-2010. p. 256. Use at your own risk: "a heavily annotated and blood-spattered copy of the French edition of this book was found" near the body of one unsuccessful plotter. p. xxii. Two generations after independence, African countries are indeed democratizing; genuine political communities are emerging. But: Post-colonial new African leaders were given control over the army, police, tax collectors and administrators who had worked for the colonial government. p. xxiv. Lack of political community left the populace passive, and the new leaders unconstrained by any rule of law. Idi Amin's brutalities briefly attracted Western attention; other autocrats quietly plundered and repressed. p. xxvi-xxvii. The cultural hegemony of Islam seems to be an insurmountable obstacle to democratic governance. God Himself has already given the law in its entirety in the Qur'an, which none may debate nor dispute: legislators can do only harm, as by permitting choice of religion, women's equality, or wine. pp. xxii, xxvii-xxviii, 151-153. A successful coup uses the /threat/ of violence to oust one set of rulers and install another set. But actually /using/ much violence makes success unlikely, rather plunges the country into civil war. pp. xv-xvi, 168. For there to be sufficient incentive to justify the risks of a coup, large-scale corruption opportunities must exist, for the would-be new rulers to milk the country and become billionaires. p. xvi. A coup requires that the armed forces, bureaucracy, and police not be personally loyal to the current dictator. p. 2. The generals who tried in April 1961 to overthrow Charles de Gaulle failed to appreciate de Gaulle's popularity with the French people, labor unions, and political parties. pp. 116-119. For your coup to succeed, you need resources enough to neutralize every effective center of power. The young officers who staged the January 1966 coup in Nigeria succeeded in killing the prime minister in the federal capital, and the boss of the Northern Region who dominated most of the country. But they were overextended, so the senior army officer, acting with the police and bureaucracy, staged a counter-coup and seized power on his own account. pp. 48-49. Strong regional forces may make a coup impossible. There's never been a coup in Lebanon: Shi'a, Maronite Christian, Sunni Muslim, and Druze blocs are all mutually hostile, but no one group can dominate--not even Hezbollah, now strongest by far (sustained by Iran. p. 84). Any coup would likely capture only Beirut, the other groups seizing power in their own areas. pp. 49-51. If Wall Street controlled the United States--the president and Congress acting as its stooges--then power could not be seized in Washington. p. 51. [image] Hitler rose to power politically, not by the power of the brownshirts. p. 55. Hitler is a popular figure with Arabs. p. 85. As of 2015, India, Kenya, Mali, Myanmar, Pakistan, and China are all experiencing violent conflicts with separatist elements. p. 48. If a country wants to acquire jet fighters, it has to be reasonably friendly with one of six countries: Sweden, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, China, or Russia. p. 31. The initial purchase is followed by years of dependence. As of 2015, the U.S. has 1.4 million personnel in military uniform. p. 58. And at least 21 intelligence agencies, enumerated pp. 60-62. "That more /is/ less when it comes to intelligence will no doubt be recognized some day." It's important to control or disable radio and TV stations, phone relays and exchanges, to silence our enemies and cement our control. pp. xv, 131-136, 174, 195. We'll take over the principal broadcasting station, and co-opt technicians to sabotage the others. "We're in control. There is no longer any resistance. Law and order have been restored." pp. 196-198. Few things grow as easily as state bureaucracies. p. xxiv. The best investment of taxpayer money ever was Britain's government buying 50% of British Petroleum (Anglo-Persian, then Anglo-Iranian Oil Company). p. 43. Answers questions like this: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... ...more |
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When God Stops Fighting: How Religious Violence Ends, Mark Juergensmeyer (1940- ), 2022, 179 pages, ISBN 9780520384736, Library-of-Congress BP190.5.V5
When God Stops Fighting: How Religious Violence Ends, Mark Juergensmeyer (1940- ), 2022, 179 pages, ISBN 9780520384736, Library-of-Congress BP190.5.V56 Clear, insightful, succinct. Distilled from thirty years studying religious violence (and a lifetime studying religion, society, and conflict). p. xi. Excerpt from the preface here http://juergensmeyer.org/how-religiou... Three religiously-motivated wars, now ended: Juergensmeyer interviewed participants who did, and who did not, recant their militancy. The rebels, and the authorities, each entered into a state of imagined war in treating their opponents as extreme enemies, as less than human. p. 139. After the war ends, the image of cosmic war may live on symbolically, perhaps someday to rise again. p. 148. Juergensmeyer on Iraq, 20 years after the U.S. invasion: http://juergensmeyer.org/twenty-years... Islamic State, Iraq and Syria, 2003-2019, militarily provoked, militarily defeated. pp. ix, 2-3, 5, 7, 17-54. "We Sunni are second-class citizens under Shi'a rule. ISIS may or may not kill you; the Shi'a surely will. ISIS? Maybe it's a political movement dressed up like religion." p. 25. The inability of the US-occupied country to find a role for former soldiers in Saddam's huge military was a reason that many of them joined ISIS. p. 138. ISIS used extreme violence to control its enemies and its own population. p. 30. ISIS installed its own imams: few traditional Muslim leaders supported ISIS. p. 43. "A band of vicious men collecting cars and women." p. 51. Iraqi jihadists called the American prison camp "Jihadi University." Prisoners held classes on Islamic theology, jihadi ideology, militant organization, and strategy. Ex-convicts emerge as hardened, well-trained militant zealots. pp. 34-35, 39. Jihadi recruiters painted anti-government slogans on walls at night in Sunni areas. Security forces next day would arrest lots of young Sunni men who had nothing to do with it, and send them to prison, where the jihadi workshops are. The arrests turned their families anti-government, too. p. 41. Everyone in the American prison confessed to anything, to stop the torture. p. 39. Most suicide bombers were young boys or non-Arabic-speaking foreigners, recruited online. p. 47. Some 30,000 recruits came from outside the Arabic-speaking Sunni-majority Middle-Eastern region. p. 46. Many were sons of migrants from the Middle East, alienated and marginalized in the West. p. 49. "I estimate the online community declined 20% to 40% after 2018, lower by 2021. Much communication has shifted to the encrypted dark web." p. 50. "I was seldom able to speak with women since they were more hesitant about interacting with foreigners, though often I found that when they did begin to speak it was hard to stop them." p. 23. ISIS was militarily defeated, but Sunnis in Iraq still feel disrespected: conditions are ripe for renewed militancy. pp. 142-143. "When Muhammad said he would willingly kill Americans, my nervousness turned to apprehension. Seeing me, he smiled and said, 'not you, Professor.'" p. 144. Ten thousand ISIS fighters remained in Iraq and Syria, and attacked hundreds of times, long after ISIS lost all its territory. p. 147. Moro Movement for a Muslim Mindanao, Philippines, 1969-2019. Ended by negotiation. pp. ix, 1-2, 7, 55-85, 109. In 1972 President Marcos instituted martial law to quell the unrest. The result was the opposite. p. 57. There were about 1,000 fighters in the peak year, 2000. p. 59. Guerrilla attacks failed to force the government to create the militants' desired autonomous Muslim homeland. p. 63. Splinter group Abu Sayyaf degenerated into a criminal gang, kidnapping and extorting millions of dollars from victims' families, beheading if ransom wasn't paid. By 2020, a few hundred militants remained. p. 67. Inaction on negotiations with moderate militant groups lent credibility to extremists. p. 69. In 2017, the criminal-gang faction took an entire city hostage. p. 70. The army bombed the city to rubble. p. 71. More young men joined the militants. After years of inaction, the Philippine legislature finally ratified the agreement granting autonomous status to Muslim parts of southern Mindanao. The army's negotiator with the rebels was a general who had been a rebel himself. "He respected us." p. 139. Khalistan movement for Sikh separatism, Punjab, India, 1976-1995. p. 113. The Sikh majority felt they were treated as second-class citizens in their own territory, robbed of their water rights and mistreated by police. p. 140. Reasons for end include an all-out assault by the Indian police, and collapse of popular support. pp. ix-x, 3, 7, 86-115. Eventually the people became sick of all the killings. p. 113, 133. "When the villagers turned against us, we knew it was over." --Wassan Singh Zaffarwal. p. 115. Guerrillas are fish who need the water of popular support. p. 135. The Indian army killed 2,000 Sikhs, including militant leader Bhindranwale, in 1984, in the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar. pp. 88, 97, 124, 130. Indira Gandhi was then assassinated 1984.10.31. p. 97. Two Sikhs in 1986 assassinated the army officer who had ordered the temple attack. p. 91. The guerrillas got their weapons by looting police stations. p. 92. All told, 20,000+ people were killed in the uprising, including 6,000+ In 1991. pp. 98-99, 112. Many militants were killed by rival factions. p. 101. They ended up like street gangs. p. 112. Militant violence prompted police to exterminate the movement, which they did. pp. 92, 102. Some 80% of the militants (and many innocent people) were killed. pp. 107, 111. "A greater sin than murder is to not seek justice." --Bhindranwale. p. 98. "Anyone who complies with an oppressive regime is never a Sikh." --Bhai Dhanna Singh. p. 103. In each case, aspects of the struggle linger on. pp. x, 114. The end is a cessation of hostilities, not friendly mutual tolerance. p. 15. "When do you say, 'He's not a threat anymore?'" p. 52. Peripheral members put militancy behind them and get on with their lives. True believers may accept the end of the battle, but await the restart of the war. pp. 53-54. Negotiation is not possible until both sides have lost the will to fight. Military conquest works only if survivors give up, rather than continuing guerrilla war or terrorism. Hostilities end with abandoning the idea of war--the idea of a do-or-die struggle between good and evil. The idea springs from fear. pp. 4-6, 16. Enemies may be real and/or imagined. "Those people aren't like us. They don't even follow our religion. Satan is acting through them. God is on our side. This is God's war. We cannot lose. Fighting serves God." pp. 7-8, 12-14. Permalink: worldcat.org: https://www.worldcat.org/profiles/Tom... goodreads.com: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... (As of 3/29/2022, goodreads.com user reviews were inaccessible except by logged-in goodreads members. As of 5/14/2022, all of the following goodreads pages were accessible without being logged into goodreads.) There will be a quiz at the end of the hour: goodreads.com trivia questions from Mark Juergensmeyer's works: Religion as Social Vision: The Movement against Untouchability in 20th Century Punjab: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... Radhasoami Reality: The Logic of a Modern Faith: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... Imagining India: Essays on Indian History: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... Songs of the Saints of India: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... Gandhi's Way: A Handbook of Conflict Resolution: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... All of the above, and others: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/auth... (It's much more fun to set questions than to take them. Professors should pay their students.) Mark Juergensmeyer quotes on goodreads.com: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quot... Juergensmeyer's articles in religiondispatches.org: https://religiondispatches.org/author... Juergensmeyer's essays and web posts: http://juergensmeyer.org/ Juergensmeyer's tweets: https://mobile.twitter.com/juergensmeyer Juergensmeyer's articles in UCSB Orafalea Center's globalejournal: https://globalejournal.org/contributo... Juergensmeyer's podcasts on religiousstudiesproject.com: https://www.religiousstudiesproject.c... Professor emeritus, University of California-Santa Barbara: https://global.ucsb.edu/people/mark-j... Juergensmeyer's Wikipedia page, including selected books: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_... Juergensmeyer's books on amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Juergensm... Juergensmeyer's books on goodreads.com: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... Juergensmeyer's books on librarything.com: https://www.librarything.com/author/j... Articles in thewire.in: https://m.thewire.in/byline/mark-juer... Videos at berkleycenter.georgetown.edu: https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/... My Juergensmeyer bookshelf on goodreads.com: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list... My Juergensmeyer book list on worldcat.org: https://www.worldcat.org/profiles/Tom... ...more |
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Sherlock Holmes with his new partner, Mary Russell. Good stories. Likeable characters. Each book is distinct: set in many and varied physical, social,
Sherlock Holmes with his new partner, Mary Russell. Good stories. Likeable characters. Each book is distinct: set in many and varied physical, social, religious, linguistic, and literary environments. WWI, anti-colonial struggles, natural disasters; prominent real people, occasional fictional characters of other authors. Insightful and fun! Seventeen novels plus short stories, and they keep getting more compelling: Later books build on, and have spoilers for, earlier ones. Read them in this order: 1 background, optional. A Study in Scarlet (novel, 1887, introduces Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr. John Watson), The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter (short story, 1893, introduces Mycroft Holmes), The Adventure of the Final Problem (short story, 1893, introduces Professor James Moriarty), The Adventure of the Empty House (short story, 1903, set in 1894, explains Holmes' doings 1891–1894), and The Adventure of the Lion's Mane (short story, 1926, Holmes has retired to Sussex), by Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930). Some familiarity with the Conan Doyle stories makes the Holmes-and-Russell books more enjoyable. 1. The Beekeeper's Apprentice (1994. Events 1915.04.08–1919.07, England, Wales, Palestine). Sherlock Holmes (b. early 1861), retired to the East Sussex Downs, meets young Mary Russell (b. 1900.01.02), who becomes his apprentice. Purported to have been written by Mary Russell in the late 1980s. Holmes on 1915.04.08 says he's 54, and on 1920.12.26 that he's 59. Holmes lives half a mile from the sea (book 9, The Language of Bees, chapters 1 & 8) near Birling Gap, in East Sussex, https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8,0.0... northeast of the mouth of the Cuckmere river: puts him about at the end of Crowlink Lane, southwest of Friston. 5. O Jerusalem (1999. Events 1918.12.30–1919.02, Palestine). Fifth-written and fifth-published Mary Russel/Sherlock Holmes novel, fleshes out an interlude in book one. It's also a prequel for book six. If you're reading the Kindle edition of /O Jerusalem/, start at the cover. Before the table of contents are: Map of Jerusalem and of Palestine; Arabic Words and Phrases; A Note about Chapter Headings; "Editor's Remarks," "Author's Prologue." Quiz for O Jerusalem: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... 2. A Monstrous Regiment of Women (1995. Events 1920.12.26–1921.06, England.) Mary Russel's War (2016. Events 1906–1925. Ten short stories. Stories #1–9 can be read after book 2, A Monstrous Regiment of Women. Story #10, Stately Holmes, should be read after book 12, Garment of Shadows.) "The Marriage of Mary Russell" (2016. Events 1921.02), short story #4 of 10 in /Mary Russell's War/ (2016). Ozymandias (1818, Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792–1822): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymand... Quiz for The Marriage of Mary Russell: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... "Mary's Christmas" (2014), short story #1 of 10 in /Mary Russell's War/, (2016). Mary reminisces about her childhood (1906–1913.12) Background for "Mary Russell's War," very optional. The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist (short story, 1903), and The Valley of Fear (novel, 1915), Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930); Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (1899), E.W. Hornung (1866–1921) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4... "Mary Russell's War" or "My War Journal" (2015. Events of 1914.08.04–1915.04.08), short story #2 of 10 in the collection, /Mary Russell's War/ (2016). Includes spoilers for The Valley of Fear. "Beekeeping for Beginners" (2011. Events 1915.04.08–1915.05), short story #3 of 10 in /Mary Russell's War/ (2016). Quiz for Beekeeping for Beginners: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... "Mrs. Hudson's Case" (1997. Events 1918.09–1918.10), short story #5 of 10 in /Mary Russell's War/ (2016). "A Venomous Death" (2009. Set in October, in or after 1921), very short story #6 in /Mary Russell's War/ (2016). "Birth of a Green Man" (2010. Set sometime between June 1917--see book 10, The God of the Hive, chapter 52--and September 1924), very short story #7 in /Mary Russell's War/ (2016). "My Story, or, The Case of the Ravening Sherlockians" (2009, Events of 1989–2009--note that Sherlock Holmes, born early in 1861, is 148 years old in 2009, and still alive. He must still be alive, as his obituary hasn't appeared in The Times of London. Conan Doyle tried to kill him in 1891, and his fans wouldn't have it.), short story #8 in /Mary Russell's War/ (2016). "A Case in Correspondence" (2010, Events of 1992.05.03–1992.05.19), short story #9 in /Mary Russell's War/ (2016). 3 background, very optional. Almost any Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) mystery. 3. A Letter of Mary (1996. Events of 1923.08.14–1923.09.08, England.) 4 background, optional. The Hound of the Baskervilles (novel, 1902), Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930). 4. The Moor (1998. Events of 1923.10–1923.11, Dartmoor, Devon, England.) Includes spoilers for The Hound of the Baskervilles. The moor is Dartmoor, in southwest England, setting of The Hound of the Baskervilles: (view spoiler)["a high, wide bowl of granite, some 350 square miles covered with a thin, peaty soil and scattered with outcrops of stone. ... The floor of the moor is a thousand feet above the surrounding Devonshire countryside, from which it rises abruptly." [p. 23 of 307, chapter 2.] Parts of Dartmoor get up to 80 inches (2 meters) of rain per year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmoor Here's a photo of Aune Mire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmoo... A map of Dartmoor is at the front of the print book, but at the back of the Kindle version, just before the "praise for other Mary Russell mysteries." Here's google maps: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Dar... Effects of acidic bog water: Holmes says few skeletons have been found in the bogs, and speculates that the acid dissolves them [21%, Chapter 5]. Could be. However: Acidic bog water destroys plants but preserves animal skin and leather, hair and wool, horn and fingernails. Alkaline lake mud destroys animal remains, but preserves plant material such as wood and flaxen thread. —Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times, Elizabeth Wayland Barber, pp. 86, 90. We learn that Holmes' friend Dr. John Watson is 5 years older than Holmes. (hide spoiler)] Quiz for The Moor: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... 6. background, very optional. The Purloined Letter (1844), Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) 6. Justice Hall. (2002. Events 1923.11.05–1923.12.26, England, France, Canada.) Includes spoilers for O Jerusalem, as does this: Introduces (view spoiler)[ William Maurice (Lord Marsh) Hughenfort, b. 1876, and Alistair Gordon St. John Hughenfort, b. 1881. (hide spoiler)] Quiz for Justice Hall: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... 7 background, optional, but good. Kim (novel, 1901), Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Online: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Kim 7 background, optional. Hind Swaraj (1901), Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948). Online: https://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/hind_sw... 7. The Game. (2004. Events 1924.01.01–1924.02, Northern India: Simla in Himchal Pradesh; Khalka in Haryana; Khanpur in the Punjab.) The game is international espionage, called the Great Game by Kipling in Kim. Introduces Kimball O'Hara, b. 1875. (view spoiler)[The text tells us that our border kingdom is north of Pathankot, Punjab--which would put it in Jammu and Kashmir, maybe in the direction of Srinagar. But the map in the book shows it in the vicinity of Mingora, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. https://www.google.com/maps/@33.4,74,... (hide spoiler)] Quiz for The Game: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... 8 background, very optional. The Maltese Falcon (novel, 1930), Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961). Sam Spade short stories: "A Man Called Spade," 1932, "Too Many Have Lived," 1932, "They Can Only Hang you Once," 1932, all collected in A Man Called Spade and Other Stories, 1944, and in Nightmare Town, 1994; and "A Knife Will Cut for Anybody," published 2013. Continental Op stories: The Big Book of the Continental Op, 2017, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... 8 background, optional. Entry Denied: Exclusion and the Chinese Community in America, 1882–1943 (1994), Sucheng Chan (1941–). 8 background, entirely optional but well worth reading: Right Ho, Jeeves (novel, 1934), P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975), online at: http://www.online-literature.com/pg-w... Or any similar Wodehouse--Right Ho, Jeeves, is particularly good. 8. Locked Rooms (2005. Events 1924.03–1924.05, San Francisco.) Eighteen years after the San Francisco earthquake and fires, April 18, 1906. (view spoiler)[The police feared riot and disorder so much, it was ordered that any person caught looting would be shot on sight--with no suggestion as to how the soldier or policeman might tell if the person in his sights was a looter or a rightful home-owner. (chapter 8.) (hide spoiler)] Quiz for Locked Rooms: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... 9 background, optional. A Scandal in Bohemia (short story, 1891) and The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter (short story, 1893), Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930). 9 background, very optional. The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1902, William James (1842–1910). 9. The Language of Bees (2009. Events 1924.08–1924.08.30 and 1919.08–1920.03, England, Scotland.) ends "to be continued" in 10. The God of the Hive (2010. Events 1924.08.29–1924.10.31, England, Scotland). Includes spoilers for A Scandal in Bohemia (1891) and The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter (1893). (view spoiler)[Introduces Damian Adler, b. 1894.09.09. Lyrics of John Barleycorn, as collected by Robert Burns, 1782: http://www.robertburns.org/works/27.s... Meaning of einen Vogel haben: https://www.expath.de/useful-german-i... Richard Lionheart and Blondel: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... Tawny owl: https://ebird.org/wi/species/tawowl1 (hide spoiler)] Quiz for The Language of Bees: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... Quiz for The God of the Hive: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... 11 background, optional. The Pirates of Penzance (comic opera, 1879), W.S. Gilbert (1836–1911) 11. Pirate King (2011. Events 1924.11.06–1924.11.30, Lisbon; Morocco.) Heath Robinson (a kind of British Rube Goldberg): https://www.pinterest.com/drumseddie5... 12. Garment of Shadows (2012. Events 1924.12–1925.01, Morocco.) Quiz for Garment of Shadows: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... 13. Dreaming Spies. (2015. Events 1925.03–1925.04, 1924.04, Japan & Oxfordshire). This one ends in confusion: it's unclear what happens. Thomas Carlyle: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... 14 NECESSARY background for The Murder of Mary Russell: THE GLORIA SCOTT (1893): online here, in print and audio, https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/40/the-mem... 8400-word short story in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle. The story, its characters and events, are the foundation of the Mary Russell book, which gives a different perspective on them. Holmes says it's his first case. (In Conan Doyle's telling it's set in about 1885; yet he's been in Baker Street since about 1881. Conan Doyle is careless about dates. Laurie R. King takes trouble to make them as self-consistent as she can.) 14 background, optional. His Last Bow (1917), The Five Orange Pips (1891), A Scandal in Bohemia (1891), The Man with the Twisted Lip (1891), The Sign of the Four (1890), The Adventure of the Final Problem (1893), Arthur Conan Doyle. (Events and/or characters of these stories are mentioned in The Murder of Mary Russell.) 14 background, entirely optional, but good stories: the Horatio Hornblower stories by C. S. Forester: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio... 14 background, optional. Oliver Twist (1838 novel), Charles Dickens (1812–1870) 14 background, optional. The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) 14. The Murder of Mary Russell. (2016. Events 1925.05.13–1925.05.18 and backstory 1852–1915.04.08 Britain, Atlantic, Australia.) Has spoilers for The Gloria Scott and The Five Orange Pips by Conan Doyle, and for The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe. We find out more about Holmes' housekeeper, Clara Hudson, b. 1856.05.09 (chapter 39), and Billy Mudd, b. about 1872 (chapter 27: age 8 in October 1880), and (view spoiler)[Sam Hudson, b. 1879.08.20. (hide spoiler)] Clara Hudson meets Sherlock Holmes 1879.09.29 Sunday (chapter 19). Dr. John Watson comes to Baker Street, 1881.01. 1891.04 Holmes disappears at the Reichenbach Falls. 1894.04 Holmes reappears. 1901.01.22 Queen Victoria dies. 1903 Holmes relocates to East Sussex. 14. Quiz for The Murder of Mary Russell: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... 15 background, optional. The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax (1911), Arthur Conan Doyle. 15 background, optional. Ten Days in a Mad-House (1887), Nellie Bly (1864–1922) 15 background, optional. The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), H.G. Wells (1866–1946) 15. The Island of the Mad. (2018. Events 1925.06 Venice, and backstory 1922–) Pierrot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierrot Julian and Maddalo (1818, Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792–1822): https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem... 16 background, optional. The Purloined Letter (1844), Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) 16. Riviera Gold. (2020. Events 1925.05–1925.08; backstory 1877.04) Has spoilers for The Gloria Scott by Arthur Conan Doyle and The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe. Continues the story of Mrs. Hudson from novel 14, The Murder of Mary Russell. *** 15,000-character limit. Continues in comments: *** ...more |
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History of the World Map by Map, DK/Smithsonian, 2018, ISBN 9781465475855, Dewey 911, 440pp. Bland: Farming presented as progress--no admission that it History of the World Map by Map, DK/Smithsonian, 2018, ISBN 9781465475855, Dewey 911, 440pp. Bland: Farming presented as progress--no admission that it was resorted to only when the abundant game was gone. Equates socialism with the USSR. p. 234. (In fact, socialism is public schools, and all other government-provided public services. The USSR was autocracy.) Says slavery "contributed" to the Industrial Revolution. Actually, the Industrial Revolution was /founded/ on slavery: chattel slavery and wage-slavery. p. 212. Tells us slaves were emancipated after the U.S. Civil War--but doesn't say how little changed, after the end of Reconstruction, under the sharecropping system, Jim Crow, and a Southerner-dominated Supreme Court. p. 257. No admission that the U.S. /forced/ Japan into WWII by using the U.S. Pacific fleet to prevent fuel from reaching Japan. Pretends that, had Japan not attacked Pearl Harbor, the U.S. might have accepted Japanese domination of Asia. p. 301. No mention of Zionist terrorism leading to the formation of Israel. Understates U.S. crimes in Latin America and Southeast Asia. No mention that /half/ of the world's plant and animal species became extinct since 1950. Prehistory 7 million years ago - 3000 BCE (before written records) The Ancient World 3000 BCE - 500 CE (before the collapse of Rome) The Middle Ages 500 CE - 1450 CE (before Gutenberg printing press) The Early Modern World 1450 - 1700 (before the Industrial Revolution) Revolution and Industry 1700 - 1850 (before peak of British Empire) Progress and Empire 1850 - 1914 (before WWI) The Modern World 1914 - Present (before peak of U.S. empire) Earliest known evidence of fire use 1 million years ago in southern Africa. ...more |
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The Theory of Almost Everything, Robert Oerter, 2006, 327pp. ISBN 0132366789. In an atom, photon exchange binds electrons to the nucleus. Quantum Elect The Theory of Almost Everything, Robert Oerter, 2006, 327pp. ISBN 0132366789. In an atom, photon exchange binds electrons to the nucleus. Quantum Electrodynamics tells how (QED). In a nucleus, pion (quark-antiquark pair) exchange binds protons to neutrons. Within a proton or neutron, gluon exchange binds quarks together. Quantum Chromodynamics tells how (QCD). p. 179. Ordinary matter is made of half-integer-spin fermions: quarks and leptons, including electrons and neutrinos. p. 205. Force-carrying particles such as photons, pions, gluons, W, Z, and Higgs, are whole-number-spin bosons. Any number of bosons, but only one fermion, can be in one place in one quantum state. p. 156. Photons can't interact with each other, but gluons and Higgs can. pp. 177, 206. The Standard model explains everything. Except gravity. Wait: this just in: neutrinos have mass. Back to the drawing board. p. 221. Oh, and: 85% of the matter in the universe is undetectable dark matter. We'll have to detect it to find out what's up with that. p. 224. Also, the muon's magnetic moment isn't quite as predicted. p. 232. Writing in 2005: the Higgs particle had not yet been found; its mass was expected to be around 130 GeV. pp. 201, 221, 235, 239. [It was found in 2012, and its mass measured as(view spoiler)[ 125.35 GeV, according to https://newatlas.com/physics/higgs-bo.... as of 2019. (hide spoiler)]] Commits the unforgivable sin of giving equations without defining the variables or operators. Especially in the last chapter, his explanations are inadequate. ...more |
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The Compleat Strategyst Being a Primer on the Theory of Games of Strategy by John D. Williams Free download pdf: https://www.rand.org/pubs/commercial_... The Compleat Strategyst Being a Primer on the Theory of Games of Strategy by John D. Williams Free download pdf: https://www.rand.org/pubs/commercial_... pdf is 286 pages. 18 + book page = pdf page. 1954, Chapter 6 added 1966, RAND Corporation. Library-of-Congress QA270 Dewey 519.3 ISBN 0486251012 RAND Corporation and the many collaborating universities were contracted by the US Air Force, intending to use game theory to win wars. Games are stated in terms of maximizing Blue bombers' chances of evading Red fighters, with various strategies on each side. pp. 48, 51-52. The games are all, "Suppose Blue has a mission-critical bomber and an identical-looking support plane. Suppose, if the bomber leads, and is attacked, it has an 80% chance of surviving a Red fighter pass, with cover from the support plane's guns. Suppose the following plane, if attacked, has a 60% chance of surviving, thanks to the less-effective cover the leading plane can provide. The game is to get the mission-critical bomber past the Red fighter. If Blue /always/ leads with the bomber, and Red knows it, Blue wins 80%. But if Blue mixes it up, so Red doesn't know which to attack, and Blue leads with the bomber 2/3 of the time and follows with it 1/3 of the time, and Red attacks the leader 2/3 of the time and attacks the follower 1/3 of the time, then Blue wins (.8*4 + .6*1 + 1*4)/9 = 7.8/9 = .8667" And similar. The book is all about how to determine the optimal mix of strategies given the stated presumptions. The stated presumptions have all been so immensely oversimplified as to have zero relation to the real world. So it's a pure intellectual exercise. One interesting idea is: since Blue doesn't want Red to know what Blue will do, it's important that Blue not decide until the last minute what to do, and then make that decision based on the random-number tables in the back of the book. Cites /Theory of Games and Economic Behavior/, John von Neuman, 1944. PROBABILITY In ten Prussian army corps, in the 20 years 1875-1894, 122 soldiers were kicked to death by horses. The number of these deaths in a given corps, in a single year, year was
The expected number of the 200 corps-years in which k of the 122 deaths occurred is (122!/(k!*(122 - k)!))*200*(1 - 1/200)^(122 - k)*(1/200)^k But the author doesn't tell us this. We can ask Wolfram Alpha to remind us how to compute binomial coefficients: (click "more details" for the formula) https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i... Here's the table: Table[(122!/(k!*(122 - k)!))*200.*(1 - 1/200.)^(122. - k)*(1/200.)^k, {k, 0, 8}] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i... Because the author has a sense of humor, he also tells us that in these years no horses were kicked to death by Prussian soldiers. ...more |
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How the South Won The Civil War, Heather Cox Richardson, 2020, 240pp., ISBN 9780190900908, Library-of-Congress JK1717, Dewey 306.20973 This is history How the South Won The Civil War, Heather Cox Richardson, 2020, 240pp., ISBN 9780190900908, Library-of-Congress JK1717, Dewey 306.20973 This is history as current events: not just what happened but the scheming behind it. It's not exactly that the South won. It's the everything-for-the-overlord, nothing-for-the-rest-of-us ideology that has triumphed. With help from fanning white American fears of losing to blacks, women, foreigners: divide and conquer. Rich men convinced voters that extending the right of self-determination to people of color, women, and poor Americans would destroy it for white men. p. 203. Heather Cox Richardson writes a wonderful summary of today's news (she's been posting at about 2am Chicago time every day; about once a week she takes a day off: "Today was an absolutely perfect July day and I'm not going to ruin it by looking at the news."--https://heathercoxrichardson.substack... ) at https://heathercoxrichardson.substack... Except, bizarrely, she doesn't know that (view spoiler)[the Clinton-Clinton-Obama-Biden-Harris party /always/ serves the investor class, to our cost. Clinton quietly sent bankers to arrange world trade deals that race to the bottom in environmental and worker protections, to enrich bankers and multinationals. Clinton quietly exploded the prison population. Obama quietly took /no/ action on climate change, quietly rolled out a lobbyist-written medical-insurance plan that authorizes insurers to charge us 25% more than they pay providers: they're on cost-plus, for the first time ever. Obama quietly amplified the Asian wars, and vastly expanded drone warfare. Obama quietly bailed out Wall Street and left the rest of us to fend for ourselves. We can have Wall Street's left-hand puppet quietly serving up the world to the rich, saying, "yes we can!" or, "I'm the change agent!" Or we can have Wall Street's right-hand puppet doing the exact same things, loudly railing against "illegals," "socialists," "liberals", "Eurocrats." To read Heather Cox Richardson, that choice is enough. It is not. Democrats have proven they will do nothing to curb climate change, will not tax the rich, will continue to enact lobbyist-written laws they haven't read. Sure, Republicans are even worse. Democrats do not deserve the free pass Richardson gives them, merely for not being Republicans. [image] Even FDR, who did more than any other president to make the playing field between the rich and the rest of us less vertical, did so largely by using our Pacific fleet to embargo fossil fuels from entering Japan, to force Japan to go to war with us, so U.S. corporations, not Japan, would control the former European Pacific and Southeast Asian colonies. (hide spoiler)] Here's Heather Cox Richardson's post on the first labor day: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack... On voter intimidation: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack... "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible." --billionaire Peter Thiel. Meaning, "My freedom to do as I will, to your cost, is infringed by your governing me." p. xxviii. "Man is selfish and lawless and must be kept in line by a ruler." --Thomas Hobbes, /Leviathan/, 1651. p. 4 "No! Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses!" --John Locke, /Two Treatises on Government/, 1690. p. 5 "No taxation without representation!" --John Adams, 1769. p. 9 Freedom of elites such as Jefferson, required slavery. pp. 13, 20-22. Democracy was attainable only so long as it was exclusive. p. 125. Men owned their women and children. p. 14. "All men would be tyrants if they could." --Abigail Adams, 1776. p. 22 1793 cotton gin: suddenly cotton is king. pp. 27, 34 Southern elites insisted that government do nothing except protect property. p. 35 1850: fewer than 1,800 slaveholders owned more than 100 people apiece; U.S. population 23 million, 3 million enslaved. p. 36 1857 Dred Scott decision: Negroes have no rights which the white man is bound to respect. And, Congress cannot prohibit slavery. p. 39 Land-Grant College Act, 1862, "so a poor man's son and a rich man's son had the same access to education." p. 46. [This was much truer in the 1970s, when the state of Illinois paid $12 of University of Illinois expenses for every dollar of student tuition, than in 2022, when the state paid only thirty cents of University expenses per dollar of tuition. Here's Heather Cox Richardson on student debt: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack... ] Lincoln said, "I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty--to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy." p. 68. Bad idea. The language, "all men are created equal," if we believe it, prods us to make it so. We get what we expect. Give me hypocritical equality rather than hopeless acquiescence to despotism. The Texas cattle rush lasted from 1866 to 1886. During the Civil War, Texans couldn't get cattle to market: they multiplied and overgrazed. After the war, they sold for $4, or could simply be collected, on the hoof in Texas; they brought $40 in Chicago, or, the Army would pay 8 cents a pound if they were driven to a fort. White southerners moved west. p. 87. Cowboys were peons: the money went to the owners. p. 88. The federal government gave settlers land, gave railroad owners land and money, provided a market for western cattle and crops, protected settlers from natives. p. 88. Chinese Exclusion, 1882–1943. p. 98. (See /Entry Denied: Exclusion and the Chinese Community in America, 1882–1943/, Sucheng Chan, 1991. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... ) Western and southern politicians all wanted to keep nonwhites from power. Not until 1965 would Congress attempt to protect Black voting. p. 101. A few extractive industries dominated the West, and a few tycoons dominated life and politics. p. 103. "It took a gold mine to develop a silver mine." p. 104. Work was low-paid and dangerous. p. 105. Western towns and cities supported a power structure that favored the concentration of wealth--even after Populists put Democrats in power in 1892. p. 108. Cattle barons hired gunmen to murder their small competitors. The Wyoming governor and President Harrison sided with the cattle barons, who got away with murder. 1892. pp. 108–109. The Idaho governor and President Harrison also sided with mine owners over strikers; the army removed the local sheriff, who was on the strikers' side. p. 109. Tycoons believed democracy a perversion of government, as had plantation owners: Civilization depends on "the sacredness of property." The alternative is "Communism," which kills initiative and destroys prosperity. "The best interests of the race are promoted" by the system of individualism, "which inevitably gives wealth to the few."--Andrew Carnegie, /The Gospel of Wealth/, 1889. pp. 109–110. Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field wrote more opinions than almost any justice in history, insisting that the primary law in America was protection of property. p. 110. 1897, Assistant Secretary to the Navy Teddy Roosevelt wanted to go to war with Spain, which was trying to put down a rebellion in its colony of Cuba. U.S. Business interests did not want to go to war for starving Cubans. They wanted Spain to retake control and keep the sugar and tobacco coming. p. 117–118. The U.S. quickly beat the Spanish in Cuba--and in the Philippines, which Spain also owned. Spain ceded the Philippines to the U.S. for $20 million. Filipinos were excluded from the peace negotiations. The Sugar Trust, which had 95% of the U.S. sugar market, loved it. The Philippines produced 200,000 tons of sugar in 1897. The Trust had staged a coup against the queen of Hawaii. Bringing sugar-growing areas into the U.S. meant the Trust would pay no tariffs. pp. 120–121. The U.S. also got Puerto Rico and Guam. The islands became quasi-American: no tariffs for the Trust, no citizenship for the natives. pp. 122–123. Teddy Roosevelt became governor of New York in 1898, promising to take government out of the hands of corporations. Republican party operatives convinced him to take the vice presidency under William McKinley instead. p. 125. An unemployed steelworker who believed the Republican Party was instituting oligarchy assassinated McKinley in 1901 and, "that damned cowboy is president." p. 125. Roosevelt wanted everyone--EXCEPT people of color, union organizers, independent women, or the poor--treated equally. p. 126. /Those/ people are "special interests" wanting handouts. The underclass. Without an underclass, there can be no equality for deserving people like us. p. 128. Roosevelt broke up industrial trusts. p. 126. His Progressives wanted worker safety, reasonable hours, fair pay, childhood education, food safety, and NO UNIONS. They wanted to prevent monopolies and tax corporations, but leave them alone. p. 127. Richardson would have us believe the "gold bugs" who put McKinley in the presidency in 1896 wanted to "advance democracy," while the "free silver" proponents of the South and West were the antidemocratic force. In fact, the gold men were the bankers, who knew that control of currency kept them in interest income and power. p. 134. See /Origins of the Federal Reserve System: Money, Class, and Corporate Capitalism, 1890-1913/, James Livingston, 1986. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... To people of color, the New Deal looked pretty much like the old deal. p. 138. Social Security deliberately excluded farm work and domestic work--where black workers predominated. See /There is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America/, Philip Dray, 2010. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8... In 1943, Congress finally ended Chinese Exclusion, in effect since 1882. p. 149. William F. Buckley, in his plutocrat-funded /National Review/ magazine, insisted that government do nothing but protect life, liberty, and property--just as slaveholders had insisted a century earlier. p. 155. Americans' incomes, across the economic spectrum, doubled between 1945 and 1970, thanks to wage laws and tax laws. p. 156. In the 1950s, 62% of the federal budget went for war industries, many of them in California. p. 157. By 1961 the military-industrial complex employed more than 3.5 million Americans directly, and many more indirectly. Its beneficiaries beat the war drum, claiming the "liberal elite" had gone soft on communism. And that the government--the source of their prosperity--should not tax nor regulate them. p. 160. Westerners and southerners agreed that desegregation, which gave black Americans benefits paid for by tax dollars, offered prime evidence of a communist conspiracy. In Arizona, the Hoover Dam and fifty other federal agencies brought $342 million into the state, while the federal government took less than $16 million in taxes. That money was the source of the Goldwater family fortune. He claimed instead that it was solely due to his family's hard work. p. 162. He resented labor law and taxes, and insisted that the government had no business in "social welfare programs, education, public power, agriculture, public housing, or urban renewal." p. 163. Never mind that he would never have been rich without it. Nor that without public education the age would be dark. Reagan, too, ignored the utter dependence of the West on government contracts. p. 167. He won the California governorship in 1966, promising to "send the welfare bums back to work," and "clean up the mess in Berkeley," where students were protesting the Vietnam War. p. 169. Milton Friedman claimed tax cuts for the rich would pay for themselves. p. 177. Didn't work out that way. In 1978, California passed Proposition 13, limiting property tax to 1% of the value of the property, and required a two-thirds majority of the legislature to raise taxes. p. 178. Reagan said, "Government is not the solution. Government is the problem." Reagan, as president, slashed taxes of the rich and cut protections for the rest of us. Unfettered rule-by-the-rich. p. 180. He nearly tripled the national debt, from $1 trillion to $2.8 trillion. p. 183. From Thomas Piketty's Wealth and Incomes Database: http://wid.world In the U.S., for only forty years, from 1942 through 1981, was the average income of the top .01% less than 165 times the average family income. These were the years when the federal government effectively wielded political power – through labor law, antitrust law, and progressive taxation – to lessen the slope of the playing field. The top .01% take many hundreds of times the average income now. By 2015, the top 1% of families had as much wealth as the bottom 90%. p. 186. Newt Gingrich, as speaker of the House in 1995, eliminated House of Representatives committees and staff. Bewildered representatives turned to lobbyists to explain issues and write bills. pp. 184-185. 2011 median income & wealth by race, p. 186: White $50,400 income, $111,000 wealth Latino $36,840 income, $8,300 wealth Black $32,000 income, $7,000 wealth Pine Ridge Lakota (40,000 people) $3,000 income. Reagan's Federal Communications Commission in 1987 ended the Fairness Doctrine requiring fact-based reporting and equal time for candidates. p. 188. Rupert Murdoch started Fox News in 1996, Roger Ailes, CEO. p. 192. Other channels began spewing Fox's opinions, after Fox called them, "biased." p. 193. Fringe ideas became mainstream through incessant repetition: government is socialism. Minorities and women attack American freedom. Bill Clinton accepted many of the Republican austerity and deregulatory policies. p. 194. Florida purged up to 100,000 legitimate voters, presumed Democrats, from the rolls before 2000. George W. Bush won Florida by 537 votes, and with it the presidency. p. 195. Republican redistricting after the 2010 census guaranteed Republican majorities in House delegations of states with a minority of Republican votes. p. 197. Especially Florida, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ohio, and Michigan. In 2012, Democrats won the presidency and the senate; Democrats had 1.4 million more votes for their House candidates than Republicans had, but Republicans won a 33-seat majority in the House. p. 197. [Of course, Democrats, when /they/ had majorities in state legislatures, /could have/ instituted nonpartisan redistricting laws. They didn't. They wanted to draw maps to their advantage when they were in power.] Reagan appointed more judges than any other president ever. p. 197. By 2016, Republicans sounded like slaveholders defending oligarchy. p. 198. They claimed poor whites, too, had only themselves to blame. A speech from 1860 sounds like it was said in 2016. p. 201. Trump virtually eliminated the estate tax. p. 199. Other books on similar lines: The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, Edward E. Baptist, 2013. The Industrial Revolution was a revolution in textile manufacture, made from cotton grown, cultivated and picked by enslaved people. Slavery was brutal. Slavery was far more profitable than free labor. Slaveholders would /never/ voluntarily have freed slaves. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, Jane Mayer, 2016. How extractive-industry billionaires captured control of American thought and politics. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky, Noam Chomsky, 2002. Real power is not in the political system. It’s in the private economy: that’s where the decisions are made about what’s produced, how much is produced, what’s consumed, where investment takes place, who has jobs. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty, 2013 in French, 2014 in English. Wealth inequality is self-amplifying. Only a global tax on wealth itself, not just an income tax, can prevent a re-descent into a lords-and-serfs world. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... A People's History of the Supreme Court: The Men and Women Whose Cases and Decisions Have Shaped Our Constitution, Peter Irons, 1999. Pre-Civil-War decisions such as Dred Scott helped make the Civil War necessary, by refusing to impose judicial limits, nor even honor political limits, to slavery. Post-Civil-War decisions consistently helped make the Civil War meaningless by refusing to enforce blacks' rights to life and citizenship. The first chief justice, John Jay, felt that, "Those who own the country ought to govern it." Judges furthered the interests of the social and financial elite. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 adopted the Constitution largely because it would increase their own personal wealth in public securities, land speculation, mercantile, manufacturing and shipping businesses, and ownership of slaves. The Constitution was a victory for slavery, aristocracy, and elitism. The Massachusetts Bay Colony /Body of Liberties/, 1641, said, "Every person shall enjoy the same justice and law." That is, every person except not religious dissenters, women, African slaves, and Indians. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... There Is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America, Philip Dray, 2010. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today, Kevin Bales, 2009. The U.S. government is complicit in the abuse of workers, bringing them into the country on A-3, G-5, B-1, and J-1 visas, that tie workers to individual employers, and give the workers few rights and fewer protections. Agriculture, domestic work, any low wage occupation traps thousands of people in slavery. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... A Living Death: Life without Parole for Nonviolent Prisoners, Jennifer Turner, ACLU, 2013. Blacks are sentenced to life without parole in U.S. federal prison for nonviolent offenses at 20 times the rate of whites. The U.S. has less than 5% of world population, but 25% of world prison population. One out of every four Americans has a criminal record. The U.S. orgy of life-without-parole sentences began after the supreme court temporarily stopped the death penalty. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... More at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ...more |
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The Flynn Effect: Chess as a real-life example Kari S. Carstairs and Manny Rayner Nice. Online https://www.issco.unige.ch/en/researc... Shows today's top The Flynn Effect: Chess as a real-life example Kari S. Carstairs and Manny Rayner Nice. Online https://www.issco.unige.ch/en/researc... Shows today's top chessplayers play better than past masters. Defines "Flynn Effect" as a population's gain in IQ scores with time. [Standardized tests, including IQ tests, measure membership in the privileged group. Wealth, whiteness, and maleness. If the numbers are changing, it can be the test changing, and/or the test-takers. To explore reasons for a change, it would be necessary to know /which/ people are scoring which numbers. See Deborah Meier, In Schools We Trust: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ] "the game has remained constant" "improvements in performance at the top level in the world of chess, this is likely to reflect increases in intelligence rather than motivation and practice." [Explosion in science & technology: moon shot, decoding the alphabet of DNA, artificial intelligence, … not because today's scientists & technologists are smarter than Newton, but there are vast armies of them, well funded, equipped, and trained. Likewise chess: past masters didn't have new chess knowledge blasting them through a fire hose, as is now the case. Now, chess prize money is higher than ever: motivates & enables full-time study. And, except for this year, it seems the number of tournaments and players is higher than ever. The tallest iceberg is a big one. If you have a million players, the natural spread will include some who start with more aptitude. And, when there are only few players, they haven't opportunity to meet strong opponents, and improve. (There are also vastly more very low-rated players now. A big pool.) The world under-age-eight championship is now won by tykes who devote many hours a day to chess, coached by very dedicated top masters. ] "chess players are acquiring GM titles at increasingly early ages" [Here's a taste of the immense effort on the part of little kids and their parents and coaches to win a title: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... That's new. Lasker, say, wouldn't've had a grandmaster coaching him to win a world under-age-eight championship. Awonder Liang, born 2003, wasn't born knowing how to play chess. He went from USCF 577 in 2008 to USCF 2691 in 2019: http://www.uschess.org/datapage/ratin... http://www.uschess.org/msa/MbrDtlTnmt... https://ratings.fide.com/profile/2056... The computer analysis of top-player games in the past is convincing: today's top players are better. That's not to say that people generally are more clever. The average person has more knowledge. High-school kids understand conservation of energy. Newton didn't. No one did before Helmholtz. Another way of looking at it is, motivation and practice /is/ intelligence: it's the thing that creates the ability. A non-chess example of, "effort and perseverance /is/ intelligence:" When we took our Lorge-Thorndike IQ tests in second grade, there was a multiplication question. None of us knew how to multiply. We knew what multiplication /was/, but not how to do it. One kid turned it into an addition problem, added up six sevens, and got the answer. Oh. Yeah. We could all have done that. That kid took the trouble to /do/ it. He now owns a telecom company in Silicon Valley. (I /still/ say it's not the answer to life, the universe, and everything. --Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe, Douglas Adams) That test determined which of us would be in the "accelerated," "average," and "slow" class. It worked: /none/ of the bussed-in Black kids were in the accelerated class. Back at chess: David, the captain of our high school team, could play us simultaneous blindfold games, and wipe the board with us. He'd see more not looking than we would, each staring at our own board. David said Tom (not me) had more chess potential than David himself: but Tom wasn't interested. He never developed his talent. Also, one could conjecture that Fischer after 1972, Morphy after 1859, and Steinitz after 1876, might have continued to dominate, had the champ continued to compete. But since they did /not/ compete, it's just conjecture. We can seek the best player only among those who play. (view spoiler)[Mark Twain, in Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven, speculates that in the Hereafter, we'll be recognized for what we /could've/ been. Also conjecture. (hide spoiler)] László Polgár, father and teacher of chess prodigies Susan, Sofia, and Judit Polgar, set out to prove, "geniuses are made, not born." His result, 2 GMs and an IM in three daughters, is impressive. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... Professor Arpad Elo numerically estimated relative strengths of top players from Morphy to Karpov in his 1978 book, The Rating of Chessplayers, Past and Present. The upshot is, whoever the current world champion is, is always at or near the strongest player ever. They are products of increasingly-strong competition, and have absorbed ever more of the increasing body of chess knowledge. (Where the current champ becomes current champ by beating the then-current champ, who has himself recently proved his dominance, it's slightly by definition that the current champ is the best ever. The other possibility is, the old champ is past his prime. 21-year-old Garry Kasparov in 1984 used his greater stamina to wear down 33-year-old Anatoly Karpov in a 48-game world championship match, after Karpov pulled to an early lead. Wikipedia has a table of the ages of chess world champions or presumed best players in the world at the time, from Ruy Lopez, 1559-1575 through Magnus Carlsen, as of 2020. If we tabulate these ages, we can see in how many years the top player was each age. We see that the typical age for a reigning world chess champion is 30 to 40: The average total reign of the 32 champions was 9.3 years (as listed by Wikipedia, with adjustments noted below). Sixteen have reigned a total of 8 years or more each; 16 reigned 1 to 6 years. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World... about 2/3 of the way down the page.
Actually, many of the Wikipedia ages overlap: for example, Boris Spassky, 1969-1972, age 32-35; Bobby Fischer, 1972-1975, age 29-32: counts both outgoing and incoming champion for 1972. Instead, for the year of a change of champions, I record only the new champion, and record his age as the year of his win minus the year of his birth (regardless of what time of year either event happened). I don't count the former champion's age the year he loses the title or dies. This gives only one champion per year, and only one age per year. For disputed years: I count 1996 as the year FIDE champion Karpov takes back over from PCA champion Kasparov. I count 1878 as Zukertort's eclipse of Steinitz; Steinitz recaptured 1886. For 1575 I count di Bona. Yes, it's always, "he." Judit Polgar was one of the eight contenders in the 2005 title tournament--but she scored only 4.5/14; the title went to Topalov with 10/14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIDE_Wo... )] ...more |
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Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings, Neil Price (professor of archeology, Uppsala [means "the high halls," evidence of which can still b
Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings, Neil Price (professor of archeology, Uppsala [means "the high halls," evidence of which can still be seen there. p. 98] University, Sweden: https://www.arkeologi.uu.se/staff/Pre... 46 miles = 74 km north of Stockholm), 2020, 599 pp., ISBN 9780465096989, Library-of-Congress DL65, Dewey 948.022 Maps 1. Eastern Roman Empire, 565 CE at death of Justinian: limited to Greece, Italy, Balkans south of the Danube, western Turkey; none of France, Germany, or England; only the southernmost part of Spain. p. ix 2. Kingdoms in what is now Norway and Sweden, 500–1350 CE. p. x 3. Sites of first-phase Viking raids, 750–833 CE: most are on Irish coast; English monasteries and ports; French coastal towns. p. xi 4. Sites of Viking raids 834–999 CE: throughout France, Ireland, southern England. p. xii 5. Mediterranean raid 859–862 CE: from Loire mouth, coasting France, Spain, France, Italy, and back: p. xiii 6. Viking diaspora to Russia and Asia: p. xiv 7. Empire of Knut, 1035 CE: Denmark, south Sweden, Norway, England: p. xv 8. Iceland, Greenland, Canada, 870–1000 CE: p. xvi Pronunciation pp. xvii–xviii Þ, þ (thorn) th as in thin Ð, ð (eth) th as in then Æ, æ sounds like eye á pronounced ow é pronounced ay as in yay í pronounced ee as in thee ó pronounced owe ú as the u in sure "with a rolling Scots accent" y sounds like ew meaning yuck ý longer, eww å like oar ä/æ like air ö/ø like err Óðinn OWEthinn Odin Þórr Thor The gods make the first man, Askr, the ash tree, and woman, Embla, the elm, from stumps of driftwood. p. 2. The Old Norse sagas were written in Iceland from the late 1100s through the 1500s. The Viking Age was from around 750 to 1050 CE. pp. 17, 66. The sagas are Icelandic family sagas, tracing family history back to their Scandinavian ancestors; and, legendary sagas, including real events back to the early 400s with Attila the Hun, along with the supernatural. There's an Ektors saga, which is the Iliad translated into Old Norse, focusing on Hector, the doomed prince of Troy. p. 19. Old Norse poetry is older than the prose sagas. The /Prose Edda/, by Snorri Sturluson, circa 1230 CE, is a handbook for poets, and includes lots of poetry. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8... The /Poetic Edda/ is older poems collected in the 1200s. pp. 21, 513. The earliest poems date from the early 1000s, building on more ancient models. The /Poetic Edda/ is /the/ source of Norse mythology. Read Carolyne Larrington's English translation https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6... Read the Poetic Edda! Norse myths, p. 517, 519: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9... For a modern Icelander, reading the Old Norse of the sagas has about the same level of difficulty as Shakespearean prose for an English speaker. p. 479. "Please, read the sagas." p. 480. All the surviving texts were written by Christians long after the Viking Age. p. 21. [Except: the eyewitness account of Ahmad ibn Fadlan of a Viking boat burial, in 922. It included the human sacrifice of a teenage slave girl, after she was used for sex by all the men. One-third of the dead chief's wealth went to supplying alcohol to keep the men drunk for the 10 days of funeral preparation; one-third for burial clothing; one-third to his heirs. Many Viking-era graves have been found containing a large male skeleton with an apparently teenage female skeleton. pp. 246–253, 260, 436. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... ] The Christians misunderstood the Viking story-world, and codified their misconceptions into the retrospective pagan orthodoxy they created. p. 208. [There's a Latin history of Norway older than Snorri's. p. 279. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles of the Wessex kings give contemporary accounts of Viking raids by surviving victims, late 700s– , pp. 275, 279–285, 515. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... The Royal Frankish Annals of Charlemagne's empire record Danish raids. pp. 289–290, 515. The 861-CE Annals of St. Bertin describe a Viking fleet as a coalition of independent bands. pp. 313, 515. Christian missionaries (unsuccessful to Sweden in 829) left contemporary records. p. 290. A Byzantine chronicle describes Viking berserkers. p. 325. One skaldic poem dates from around 900 CE. p. 325.] "There is no fully comprehensible geography of the Norse cosmos." p. 32. [But see Rick Riordan's Magnus Chase books—he does a pretty good job!] At the center was Yggdrasill, /the/ tree, a great ash. In the beginning there had been nothing but the void of Ginnungagap, an infinite emptiness—yet not quite empty, for deep within it lay a sleeping potential, a power and presence inside the absence, waiting to be awakened. [Modern physics knows that empty space is far from empty: virtual processes are going on everywhere at all times: particles and their antiparticles spontaneously popping into and out of existence, moving forward and backward in time.] The first being in creation was the frost giant, Ymir. The first god was Búri, ancestor of the Aesir. Odin and his brothers began to shape the worlds. They kill Ymir, and make Midgard, the Middle Earth that is our world, from his corpse. pp. 33–39. The goddess Freyja was the sort of sexually-independent woman that terrified the Church. pp. 41–42. Days of the week: p. 46. Sunday Moonday Týrsday Wodensday Thorsday Freyrsday Lördag—from the Old Norse for a hot thermal spring: bath night. The Roman Empire sold weapons to Danes, hoping to keep the Germans in check. p. 70. In the years 536 and 539/540, were two or more immense volcanic eruptions. p. 75 The second was Lake Ilopango, El Salvador. There may have been a third in 547. Dust veil curtailed plant growth. Endless winter. Famine, riots, civil unrest. p. 76. Worse in Scandinavia. Mean temperature fell 3.5ºC (6.3ºF). No crops in Norway & Sweden. Worst effects lasted 3 years. Impact lasted 80 years. p. 77. Survivors fought each other for what was left. Justinian plague 541 CE might have reached Scandinavia. Scandinavian population loss 50%. Many settlements abandoned. Snorri's Edda describes Ragnarök: "First a winter will come. Great frosts, keen winds. The sun will do no good. There will be three of these winters together and no summer in between." p. 78. The sun blackens, the moon dims, the stars fall into the sea, steam covers the sky. "An axe age, a sword age—shields are riven—a wind age, a wolf age." p. 80. Militarized elites arose in Scandinavia. p. 82. Land in the north was several meters lower 1000 years ago: the land is still springing back from the disappearance of the immense weight of the ice-age icepack. Rivers, lakes, and harbors were deeper in the Viking Age than they are today. p. 83. The largest mead-hall known was 80 meters (260 feet) long, at Borg in the Lofoten Islands of arctic Norway. p. 99. Gems, ivory, and lizard skins from Sri Lanka, India, and Bengal, were imported to Scandinavia, 550–750 CE. p. 102. Scandinavia was the end of the Silk Road. Silk from China has been found in Scandinavian graves. p. 442. A sixth-century bronze Buddha from Afghanistan was brought to Sweden. p. 446. The Viking world rested on slavery. pp. 140, 392. Viking raids were largely to gain slaves, most to sell. p. 141. A poem praising Harald Finehair (c. 850–932), greatest of the pirate sea-kings of Norway, says he gave his warriors gold and slave girls. pp. 145, 301–302, 316–317. Up to 7% of men and up to 37% of women had been malnourished as children, in central Sweden in the Viking Age. p. 159. Unwanted children were thrown into the sea. p. 316. Round trip, Denmark to England, 14 days by Viking longship, weather permitting. A 24-meter (79-foot)-long, 5-meter (16-foot)-wide 32-oar funeral longship, circa 890, in Harald Finehair's reign, was found in 1880. A 30-meter (98-foot)-long warship for an 80-man crew, with a draft of just 1 meter, from the 11th century, was found in Denmark. The largest Viking warship yet found is from the early 11th century, 32 meters (105 feet) long, for a single-watch crew of 80, that could've been doubled for war. Warships with sails from as early as 750 CE have been found. pp. 197–201. In winter, people and their animals used iron crampons on shoes or hooves. The new elites who rose to power in the 5th and 6th centuries claimed descent from Odin, Freyr, and the other gods. pp. 208–210. Remains of a temple at Uppåkra, Sweden, date from the 3rd through 11th centuries CE. pp. 211–213. Circa 550–750 CE, endemic warfare among petty Scandinavian kingdoms. p. 274. Polygyny, concubinage, and perhaps female infanticide left an underclass of young men without inheritance or marriage prospects. pp. 316–317. Circa 750 CE, (pp. 275–) Swedes raid Estonia. Late 700s–800s, Britain, Scotland, Ireland, France, Netherlands swarm with Vikings. Locals build bridges as river blockades. pp. 284, 335–. Beginning in 834, Vikings regularly raided in fleets of hundreds of ships. p. 338. The first raiders of Britain were from southwestern Norway. p. 284. Circa 753, Swedes set up a "Wild East" trading post at Staraya Ladoga, by the mouth of the Volkhov river at Lake Ladoga, 100 miles (160 km) upstream (east) of where 1000 years later would be St. Petersburg. https://www.google.com/maps/place/59%... pp. 296–299 and glossy photo. The currencies were furs, silver, and slaves. p. 298. From here, one could go upriver through Lake Ilmen, up the Lovat River, then portage to the Dniepr, down to the Black Sea and Constantinople. pp. 366, 425, 428. But that's a long portage, from around what's now Velikiye Luki to Smolensk, 238 km (148 miles). https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Velik... By the 8th century, Constantinople had over 500,000 population. p. 367. In the 9th century, Baghdad had up to 900,000 people. p. 439. A runestone in Sweden commemorates a son who died in Uzbekistan. p. 440. Swedes who traded via the river routes were known in Constantinople as Rus, by 839 CE. p. 368. The name may have come from Roslagen, Sweden. p. 369. Rus also plied the Don and Volga rivers toward the Islamic, Khazar, Magyar, and Bulgar worlds. pp. 424–425, 438. By the 10th century, the Russian state begins to form, centered on Kiev and Novgorod. p. 431, 437 Pirate "sea-kings" with their armies arise in southwest Norway in the 8th century. pp. 299–. Some of the agricultural-elite Norwegians settled Iceland, beginning around 870 CE, to escape pirate rule. Harald Finehair (circa 850–932) ruled Norway circa 872–930. pp. 303, 378. The first generation of Iceland settlers cut down the forests that had covered the island. It's been barren and treeless since. p. 476. Iceland was wracked by blood-feuds. Norway reasserted control in the 13th century. p. 478. The act of acquiring silver was as important as the silver. p. 309. Reputation. The main export of Viking-age Scandinavia was violence. p. 314. Every year from 834 through 838, Danes sacked and burned the wealthy Dorestad emporium, on the Rhine in Holland, killing, taking shiploads of slaves. https://www.google.com/maps/place/51%... pp. 340–. Also Utrecht and Antwerp repeatedly, and the Thames. They scourged Ireland, mid-830s to 850. Monasteries, markets, settlements. 840–860, Viking attacks increased, penetrating deep into France, thanks to civil war among Charlemagne's grandsons. 843, Vikings set up a year-round base at the Loire mouth. 845, 120 ships attack Paris. Parisians pay Ragnar lothbrok's followers 7,000 pounds of silver and gold to leave. The first of many payments. Attacks of 100 to 260+ ships in France, Frisia and Brittany in the 850s and 860s. 851, year-round in England. p. 343. Also at mouths of the Seine and Somme. Vikings sack, slaughter, burn towns throughout France. 862, Charles the Bald, Charlemagne's grandson, has fortified bridges erected. This cramps the Vikings' style. p. 345. By 865, only 40 and 50 ships on the Loire and Seine, not hundreds. 865–880, the "great heathen army" goes en masse to England. Starting on the Thames and East Anglia. p. 346. 866, Vikings take York: their stronghold for the next century. p. 347. 871, Vikings attack Wessex. By 874, only Wessex is in English hands. In 876 the Vikings began to settle down in Northumbria: farming. 878, English cede north and east of England to the Vikings. p. 349. 877–886, Vikings again attack France, which was again in civil war over succession to the throne. They're eventually bought off. By 890, France is again politically stable and effectively defending against Vikings. p. 351. In the 800s, Vikings extorted 30,000 pounds of silver from France: one-seventh of the entire coinage of the century. Plus grain, livestock, produce, horses, wine, cider, … for doing nothing. Between 830 and 890, 120 named settlements in France were destroyed. Danish king Harald Bluetooth was baptized circa 965. p. 452. After his overthrow, the Odin cult revived. p. 457. Christianity spread in Norway in the 990s. Christianization of Sweden took until the 1220s. p. 458. Rus kings in Kiev were baptized in the mid-900s. Scandinavians were pilgrimaging to Jerusalem in the 11th century. p. 463. Iceland officially converted to Christianity around 1000 CE. p. 481. Greenland was colonized in the 980s. p. 482. Twenty-five ships left Iceland bound for Greenland: 14 arrived. Greenlanders eventually starved to death after overexploiting the soil, and several bad years. pp. 485–486. The Norse toehold in Newfoundland was repelled by natives. p. 490. Very short quiz: https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work... ...more |
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Here's Kas Kennedy: I’m 14 and I’m struggling in Algebra class. When I ask for help, the male teacher says ‘I’m not surprised, girls aren’t that good a Here's Kas Kennedy: I’m 14 and I’m struggling in Algebra class. When I ask for help, the male teacher says ‘I’m not surprised, girls aren’t that good at Algebra.’ I’m 18 and go to my first fraternity parties with girlfriends. We don’t ever say it out loud but it’s understood that we need to stick together at these parties and not get separated, for our own safety. I’m 20 and I’m working as a hostess at the Red Lion Inn in San Jose, near the airport. Men in suits come in to eat after their meetings during the day and I see them take off their wedding rings before heading into the bar next to the restaurant. Every girl who works there learns quickly not to bend too far over because of the short skirts of our uniforms. I’m 22 and it’s my first day on a new job. My male supervisor gets me into a room alone and I think he’s going to tell me about the job but instead he tells me about how much he likes sex and how he needs to have it every day. I get up and walk out of the room and avoid him after that, but I don’t tell anyone because I’m one of the only women there and I don’t know what to do. I’m 24 and I’m watching Anita Hill on TV, testifying about a man who wants to be on the Supreme Court. I don’t understand everything I’m watching but I understand that she’s a black woman facing down a panel of white men and she is going to lose because, at 24, I do understand who has power and who does not. I’m any age in my 20s and I’m walking on the street, in a park, in a city, in a suburb, anywhere. Men tell me to smile, to wait a minute, to slow down what’s my hurry, can I ask you a question, can I stand too close to you, can I demand your space, your time, your attention, hey where you going bitch? I’m 25. I’m buying my first car and the salesman offers a price I know is way too high. I bring my stepdad to the showroom and the same car is now $3000 less. I smile and buy the car but inside, I’m seething. I’m any age in my 30’s and I think about where I park, where I go, whether I should get in that elevator that only has one man in it and how I should make sure not to make eye contact with men in the streets. All of this is normal to me and I don’t question any of it. I’m 35. I’m buying my second car and the salesman says we should wait for my husband to get there before talking about the price but would I like to see the makeup mirror? I tell him I’m a lesbian and, if he’s waiting for my husband, he’s going to be waiting a long time. I leave because I’m learning. I’m 40 and a woman, Hillary Clinton, is taking a serious run at the Democratic presidential nomination. She’s smart, tough and qualified but she endures endless anger, viciousness, and misogyny and she eventually loses in the primary. Male friends tell me it’s probably for the best because there’s just something they don’t like about her, you know? I’m 49 and a man who said he grabs women by the pussy is elected as the 45th President of the United States. The night of the election, I feel physically ill and my first conscious thought is ‘my God, the Supreme Court.’ The next morning, I overhear two men laughing and congratulating each other about the election and I feel unsafe in my own country. I’m 51 and another man who stands credibly accused of sexual assault has just been confirmed to serve on the Supreme Court. I see women on television sobbing, screaming, protesting, crying out in their anguish and their fear. I am so angry. I think of every woman I know and I am so angry. I am any age, every age. I am a woman. I am a daughter. I am discounted. I am underrepresented. I am underestimated. But I am a voter. Today, that has to be enough. https://m.facebook.com/criticalthinki... ...more |
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