“The Trial” is a Franz Kafka picture of hell; i.e. a totalitarian nightmare, ruled by bureaucracy and controlled through human despair. “The Trial” is a book to listen to because it mesmerizes when narrated by an artist but numbs when read by an undisciplined mind.
Imagine arbitrary arrests, undefined accusations, and undisclosed trials; i.e. trials operating in obscurity that secretly sentence the accused to mental purgatory or death; add shadows of human beings, dark rooms of judgment, stifling closeness, and oppressive anxiety. This is Kafka’s world in “The Trial”.
There is no lightness in Kafka’s tale; no human redemption. The main character, Ka (in this version of the book), is the only person that seems to seek self-understanding.
All other characters are “other directed”, trying to be what someone else expects them to be by playing whatever role they need to play to survive.
Kafka imagines a country of directionless people, subsumed in a bureaucracy that feeds on itself.
This is a country of directionless people, subsumed in a bureaucracy that feeds on itself. Citizens of this country are either a part of the bureaucracy or they are controlled by its administration.
Control is exercised by creating fear and anxiety. This characterization reminds one of Donald Trump and his current attempt to overthrow over 200 years of American government history.
Trump’s tacit support by the Republican party is a crime against democracy. Patriotic Republicans are diminished by Trump’s abhorrent behavior.
Should Trump be impeached a second time? It’s complicated. On the one hand, incitement by Trump on January 6th is obvious to most Democrats. On the other, Republicans now represent 70,000,000 Americans who think Trump is good for America.
There is no societal objective; there is only bureaucracy’s perpetuation. Lawyers, bankers, judges, business moguls, landlords, artists, servers and assistants of this society, though rarely singled out for terror or torture, are consumed with anxiety from an ever-present threat of arrest. The working public enriches itself by taking bribes to subvert bureaucratic action. The working public’s subversion is not destruction of the bureaucracy but a tacit acceptance of its hegemony.
Ka attempts to break the cycle of bureaucracy’s self-perpetuation. His attempt fails.
The redeeming quality of Kafka’s story is the human desire for freedom that is not extinguished even in the darkest times of a country’s repression. Against all obstacles, Ka insists on freedom. In Ka’s case freedom means death just as it did for many who died in Auschwitz, Dachau, and Treblinka.
Kafka’s hell exists in today’s world just as it did when it was published in 1925.
Narrated by Jesse Boggs Narrated by Scott Brick & Others
Michael Lewis details the collapse of the real estate industry and Harry Markopolos dissects Bernie Madoff’s multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme. Both authors reveal mankind’s inherent incompetence and greed. This is the 21st century but we still live in Thomas Hobbes’ 17th century world.
MICHAEL LEWIS (AUTHOR, JOURNALIST)
HARRY MARKOPOLOS (FINANCIAL FRAUD INVESTIGATOR, AUTHOR)
“The Big Short” and “No One Would Listen” reveal the nuts and bolts of how smart and stupid a free society can be. There is plenty of blame for every person involved; both perpetrator and victim. Human nature is an equal opportunity victimizer. Freedom of opportunity beckons good and bad behavior in man.
Money lenders like Countrywide and Washington Mutual fed bogus “no doc” mortgages to investment house mathematicians (known as “Quants”) that worked for companies like Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch to create derivative (real estate backed) securities. Inept management by Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac offered mortgage insurance for grossly overleveraged mortgages. Companies like AIG removed investor risk by insuring banks against bad investments. All of these foolish actions coalesced to bankrupt companies and families around the world. Individual lies, bungles, and missteps in the real estate industry created the worst recession since the 1929 stock market crash.
QUANTS–Money lenders like Countrywide and Washington Mutual fed bogus “no doc” mortgages to investment house mathematicians (known as “Quants”) that worked for companies like Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch to create derivative (real estate backed) securities.
BERNARD MADOFF (AGE 74) SERVING 150 YEAR PRISON SENTENCE
While this real estate debacle was developing, Bernie Madoff built a 50 to 70 billion dollar empire by making fools of the U.S. Government, European royalty, world wide charities, and working families. Madoff lied, cheated and stole billions of dollars from wealthy investors, charities, and mom and pop businesses with offers of bogus investment returns based on buying from Peter to pay Paul. He paid dividends to earlier investors by taking money from newer investors. As long as people believed in Madoff, or deluded themselves, his wheel of fortune continued to roll. As the real estate market collapsed, old investor money was recalled and new money became unavailable. Madoff’s failure was inevitable.
How could these things happen in a 21st century, democratically elected and governed society? Hobbes would say “how could these things not happen”?
Michael Lewis identifies seers that recognized “Quants” were packaging doomed mortgages into re-saleable financial instruments called derivatives. Victims care little about who the seer heroes were but they were ringing warning bells long before the real estate collapse occurred. Seers by chance and foresight created “The Big Short”; betting on the coming real estate collapse. Seers became rich as the “too clever”, uninformed, or greedy victims became poor.
GOVERNMENT REGULATION-“No One Would Listen” is an indictment of democratic government in free society. His story exposes an inept and failed SEC, an agency created by government to protect investors.
Madoff’s investment lies were exposed in Markopolos’ written “red flag” report to the Security Exchange Commission in the year 2000. The title of the book “No One Would Listen” tells the story. “No One Would Listen” is an indictment of democratic government in free society. His story exposes an inept and failed SEC, an agency created by government to protect investors. The irony is that Madoff did not get caught, he confessed in 2009 because his Ponzi scheme fell apart. along with the collapse of the real estate industry.
Regulation is not a perfect solution for control of bad actors in a free society. However, no regulation is worse. The forensic reports of Michael Lewis and Harry Markopolos show what happens when efforts to regulate human nature are abandoned. Thomas Hobbes’ “Leviathan” lives to wreck havoc on society.
The narrators of these two books, Jesse Boggs and Scott Brick, are easy to listen to and the author’s forensic stories are valuable to hear.
MICHAEL ERIC DYSON (AUTHOR, BAPTIST MINISTER, PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY)
Michael Eric Dyson is a graduate of Princeton who teaches at Georgetown University. “Tears We Cannot Stop” is an indictment of white America. The indictment accuses white Americans of serious crimes stemming from today’s bigotry, neglect, permanent injury, and murder of black Americans.
Jacob Blake’s Paralysis
George Floyd’s Death
Examples of police violence against black Americans, a history of ethnic isolation, forced conformity and denied equal opportunity strongly support Dyson’s accusation.
Each accusation and the evidence gathered by Dyson confront the conscience of every white American. What he writes rings of truth. The more Dyson explains, the greater is white America’s guilt. It is a message missed by white Americans because they do not live the life of black Americans. White privilege is taken for granted in America because money, power, and prestige are held by mostly white American males.
RODNEY KING (APPEARANCE 3 DAYS AFTER BEATING 3.6.92–KING DIES IN JUNE 2012 @ 47 YEARS OF AGE)
The institutionalization of racism makes black Americans afraid. Out of that fear comes distrust, anger, apathy, and isolation. Black mothers and fathers fear for their children whenever they leave home. Regardless of education, fame, or fortune, Dyson notes an honest and law-abiding black American is subject to a different set of social rules. From birth, black Americans are told by their parents not to disagree with police for fear of being beaten, arrested or shot.
Truth does not matter in a black person’s response to accusation. Most black Americans live with fear; most white Americans do not. When stopped by the police, a black American thinks–what can I do; where can I go; what can I say; who can I trust other than myself and my race? When unjustly accused, black Americans have limited recourse. Those limits are tinged with frustration, and/or anger. No wonder some feel disrespected and alone in America.
RUDY GUILIANY (FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY) Dyson attacks pundits who suggest black Americans are their own worst enemy. The white pundit’s argument is they kill each other. The argument ignores two monumental facts. One, the toll that poverty and unemployment play in poor communities; and the truth that whites murder whites nearly as often as blacks kill blacks.
Dyson attacks pundits who suggest black Americans are their own worst enemy. Some white pundit’s argue blacks kill each other more than whites kill blacks. The argument ignores two monumental facts. One, the toll that poverty and unemployment play in poor communities; and two, the truth that whites murder whites nearly as often as blacks kill blacks.
The real difference between black and white victimization is whites have more opportunity in America. White, mostly male, Americans write the history of America and create the rules for “democratic” governance.
Dyson encourages white Americans to become more involved with black Americans. The social disconnect between races promotes ignorance of common goals and aspirations. Who does not want to live in peace, provide for themselves and their families, raise their children to be better off than themselves? Part of the difficulty is that there is little trust between black and white Americans as is noted in the following social experiment.
Leaders in America, consciously or subconsciously, treat non-white Americans as “others”. When humans treat someone as an “other”, they become less human. Minorities and other nation’s populations become “gooks”, “spics”, “towel heads”, “niggers”; i.e. something identified as less than human. This human categorization institutionalizes discrimination. It leads to this American dilemma and to world wars.
Leaders of America, who are mostly white males, ignore the plight of black Americans. One wonders how many white Americans thank their God for not being born black. That is Dyson’s reason for concluding black Americans shed “Tears We Cannot Stop”.
“The Harder They Come” is a novel about another America; not the America of idealized history but the America of three generations coping with loss in the twenty-first century.
T. C. Boyle creates three characters who feel beaten down by American life. Boyle reflects on their disappointments and perceptions of loss. A young man in his twenties loses identity, a fortyish woman loses faith in government, and a seventy year old loses self-confidence.
Boyle’s imagined characters live in America today.
Adam, a 23-year-old changes his name to Colter, the name of a member of the 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition. Colter explores Yellowstone National Park and the Teton Mountain Range in the 19th century. John Colter is considered by some to be the first American mountain man.
Historically, a mountain man is a hermit-like explorer that exchanges fur for the necessities of life and lives off the land. Adam’s assumption of the Colter name is a trans-formative event for Adam. He uses drugs and alcohol to escape the frustrations of his 21st century life. He uses the Colter identity to give him an anthropomorphic purpose in life. Adam becomes a mountain man.
Sara is a fortyish divorcee who adopts the philosophy of the sovereign citizen movement. She believes the 14th amendment of the constitution proffers absolute freedom to American citizens.
Sara, like Nevada’s Cliven Bundy, believes she is above the law and a federal level of government that interferes with her right to do as she wishes is an infringement on her independent sovereignty.
Though Sara considers herself non-violent, she appreciates actions of domestic terrorists like Timothy McVeigh who murdered 168 men, women, and children in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995 .
Sten Stenson is a veteran of the Vietnam War. He is now 70 years old. As an ex-Marine and former high school principal, he is retired. Sten is a big man; over six feet in height.
Sten dislikes getting old but has a brief turn at fame, as a hero, when he kills a robber in Latin America that is threatening fellow tourists. In looking back at his life, he is reminded of American ridicule of Vietnam vets when he returned from war; he becomes unsure of his purpose in life and regrets having killed anyone either in Vietnam or the recent event in Latin America. Sten realizes every human being has a father and mother. He questions the usefulness and value of his life.
Boyle brings these three characters together. Adam is the son of Sten. Sara becomes Adam’s lover. The extreme behaviors of Adam and Sara are compatible on some level, but Adam’s violence and drug habit compel Adam to completely break from society. Sten loves his son but they have become completely estranged and evidence mounts to show Adam has become a lost boy.
The denouement of the story reveals a great deal about another America; i.e. “another America” that is a consequence of a capitalist culture that breeds psychotic murderers, deluded fringe groups, and psychologically broken seniors.
Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills
Recorded by: Professor Steven Novella
Produced by: The Great Courses
STEVEN NOVELLA (AMERICAN CLINICAL NEUROLOGIST, ASST. PROFESSOR AT YALE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE)
“Your Deceptive Mind” offers lessons for two paradigm shifts occurring in America today. One is gun control; the other is sex discrimination. Professor Steven Novella’s lessons apply to other important issues, but none seem to have the same political momentum for change.
Novella begins by inferring we all deceive ourselves. Novella explains it is caused by the nature of human consciousness. Novella argues that human brains are designed to make coherent sense of remembered experience; not to necessarily recount accurate details of events. We often add facts and change details to improve coherence of our memories.
Memory does not work like a film clip. It is not caste on celluloid that can be replayed as a memory. Memory is re-invented by reconstruction of facts to fit a story that makes sense to the person who remembers.
AR-15 (Type of semi-automatic rifle used in Florida High School shooting.)
As of April 15, 2021 there have been 148 people murdered and 485 injured in mass shootings. The most recent is at the Indianapolis FedEx facility that killed eight people. One is reminded of William Butler Yeats:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
The 17-people murdered in a Florida high school in 2018 raises the issue of gun control in America one more time. Americans see this incident from three views. One, from the perspective of people who heard it on the news; two from the perspective of people who responded to the event; and three from the perspective of victims. Based on Novella’s assessment of critical thinking, all three views distort reality.
The 17-people murdered in a Florida high school 2018 raised the issue of gun control in America one more time.
JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION – Memory does not work like a film clip. It is not caste on celluloid that can be replayed as a memory. Memory is re-invented by reconstruction of facts to fit a story that makes sense to the person who remembers.
Novella tells a story of a woman accompanying the John F. Kennedy trip to Dallas, Texas. Soon after Kennedy’s death, she explains that she did not see anything that happened. As the years pass, she recalls seeing smoke from a grassy knoll near the shooting. Novella explains that each time she tells the story more details are revealed. No evidence is ever found to suggest a shot is fired from anywhere but the Dallas, Texas book-depository. What she is doing is creating facts to improve the coherence of a memory.
Facts of Florida’s murders and other gun-related incidents are remembered differently. All who heard of, responded to, or are victimized by guns tell different stories. There is no singular consensus on what caused it to happen, who is responsible, or what can be done. Facts seem not to matter. In Florida, seventeen human beings are dead. One person killed them. One automatic weapon is used by a troubled high school student who used a gun designed ONLY to kill people.
Victims of the school shooting ask why America cannot protect their children. A flood of responses is given but each person at the school is influenced by a subjective recollection of events. In many cases, facts are ignored because they do not fit the narrative of the person telling his/her story. It has little to do with facts; i.e. except as those facts fit the re-created memory of a horrific event. Like the woman seeing smoke coming from a grassy knoll, some facts just fit a reconstructed story; not the truth.
Critical thinking skills mean addressing facts, using those facts to create a constructive analysis, a plan of action, and implementation. Seventeen people are dead in Florida from one shooter. They are dead at the hand of a troubled teen. The weapon used is only designed to kill people. Everything else is irrelevant. Those are the facts. That is the truth. What is needed now is constructive analysis, a plan of action, and implementation.
The same can be said of sex discrimination. An example is the King’s law that particularly applies to women who speak insolently. They are to have their mouths scoured with salt; i.e. a law applying only to women slaves. Of course, the law begs the question of why women are slaves.
Novella’s argument that every memory is a subjective recollection may mean testimony of women who are abused and/or discriminated against are misreading the facts of their recollection. However, many facts are independent of recollection.
There is overwhelming evidence; i.e. fact-based films, recordings, physical examination records, and statistical studies that show women are abused and discriminated against all over the world. Those are the facts. That is the truth. What is needed is constructive analysis, a plan of action, and implementation.
Gun control and women’s rights: Has America reached the tipping point for acting on critical thinking? Have we finally reached the threshold for a paradigm shift in gun control and women’s rights? Doubtful.
Chinua Achebe explains what happens when civilizations collide in “Things Fall Apart”. Achebe lived a life that reinforces hope. He was born in Nigeria but educated in English at the University of Ibadan, the oldest university in Nigeria (founded in 1948). Achebe wrote “Things Fall Apart” in the 1950s (published in 1958). It sold more than 12 million copies and was translated into more than 50 languages. Sadly, Achebe died on March 21, 2013.
Two thirds of “Things Fall Apart” explains life in an African village that is untouched by a white man’s world or any civilization outside of its clan and their related communities.
Without knowing Achebe’s background, a first reading of “Things Fall Apart” begins in confusion but as the story progresses its meaning becomes clear. The listener is being offered an understanding of a 1950s African village’s culture.
AFRICAN SHAMAN: This clan’s insular existence creates an independent patriarchal culture that believes in many gods, supernatural forces, and rigid rules for life. Being a man means following rules of the culture. Any transgression is considered womanly, a cultural euphemism for cowardice.
Women are respected but only within the context of their duty as the source of tribal growth. Women have restricted roles in this society as maternal caregivers. In all respects women become property of men. They may be beaten and treated with near impunity. Boys are raised to be tough, outwardly unemotional, and obedient. They are expected to revere and emulate their fathers. Wrestling prowess is a measure of male respect in the tribe. Farming productivity and honor of tribal tradition are measures of value to the tribe.
War among the villages is rare because negotiated peace and village interdependence make war too wasteful. Violation of communal laws can be mortal offenses. A story is told of a father murdering his adopted son because he is told it is necessary to please the Clan’s gods. Though this murder troubled the adoptive father, he accepts the Clan’s admonition and rationalizes his grief by knowing he has other sons.
OLDEST HUMAN SACRIFICE DISCOVERED IN CENTRAL AFRICA (A negotiated peace between clans may mean the sacrifice of children to nearby tribes for transgressions of communal laws but overt war between tribes of the same clan is rare.
The most serious consequence to a violator of Clan’ law is banishment from the community. Banishment can be either permanent or for a number of years, depending upon the gravity of the violation. Murder out of anger means permanent banishment. Murder by accident means 7 years banishment.
Achebe explains women having twins are ordered to kill them at birth because twins are unnatural and a curse of the gods. One woman has twins three times; all are murdered.
1950S JEEP (Achebe explains the fear that causes natives of one tribe to murder a white missionary and tie his iron horse to a tree.)
As Achebe explains these local customs, he describes how an intruding civilization is introduced to his village. The intruders are Christian missionaries. The first intruder is a white man riding an iron horse. This is the first white man who native villagers have ever seen. The engendered fear causes natives of one of the tribes to murder the white man and tie his iron horse to a tree. The murder is revenged by returning outsiders that destroy the population of the village. Neighboring villages hear of the massacre. They choose to respond to the next intruder more circumspectly.
New intruders come with plans to build a church on tribal property. They ask for permission and tribal leaders meet to discuss the request. The decision of the tribal leaders is to offer land in the worst part of the village; i.e. land that is used to bury evil shamans, tribal criminals, and diseased bodies. The tribal leaders believe the Christians will die from their location in this forbidden human and mystical dumping ground.
The irony of the tribal leader’s decision is that it strengthens the Christian movement. The Christians do not die and the church begins to attract tribal followers that begin to believe Christian’ beliefs are stronger than Shaman’ beliefs. The woman who had been told to kill her twins joins the church.
One culture is replaced by another culture; first with small steps, and then with generational leaps. The good and bad of one culture is replaced by the good and bad of another. One guardedly hopes cultural change moves humanity toward a better life; not just cosmetic change.
Over many generations, some tribal members have become outcasts from the tribe. Their outcast position draws them to the Christian movement because they wish to become part of a community again. Some women turn to Christianity because it offers a refuge from the violence of their husbands. Some sons turn to Christianity because it offers escape from the iron rule of their fathers and the tribes’ cultural laws.
Donald Trump is a rule breaker, a main stream outsider.
From the perspective of any individuated culture “Things Fall Apart” when change comes from the outside. Has Trump changed America into two tribes–one Republican and another Democrat?
In “Ponzi Supernova”, Audible offers recorded interviews with Bernie Madoff and other perpetrators of the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Steve Fishman conducts several telephone interviews with Madoff while he serves a life sentence for fraud. Steve Fishman gets the telephone interviews after wheedling his way into Madoff’s confidence through a fellow prisoner. To round out Fishman’s story, he captures telephone conversations with several other crooks, investigators, and victims of Madoff’s crime.
BERNARD MADOFF (AGE 74) SERVING 150 YEAR PRISON SENTENCE (Madoff died in prison on 4/14/21 at the age of 82).
Fishman shows how a sixty billion-dollar Ponzi scheme is created and how it escapes detection for over twenty years. Supplemented by audio books like “The Big Short”, and “No One Would Listen”, Fisher amplifies Madoff’s unconscionable crime with recordings of victims who lost their life savings. Fisher explores the perfidy of banks and investment companies that mindfully ignored Madoff’s impossible investment returns; all the while, being financially benefited from Madoff’s lies.
“Ponzi Supernova” reveals how Madoff created an empire of greed. Madoff comes off as an average intellect with a big ego, meager technological skill, and zero empathy. He hid behind the shadow of prestige.
Madoff refuses to take responsibility for his crimes and exhibits no remorse for the grief and death of others effected by his crimes. As a person, Madoff reminds one of a sociopath
Madoff manages to appeal to the greed of human beings and blames others for their greed. He manufactures investment data that hides the truth of his investment skill and his organizations’ portfolio. He takes investor’s money and uses new investor’s money to pay earlier investor’s returns. Few real trades support Madoff’s extraordinary portfolio performance.
“Ponzi Supernova” implies most of the investment firms; investment firms that knew of Madoff’s firm should have and could have exposed his lies. However, they were paid a fee for their service. Rather than investigate Madoff’s investment methodology, most investment firms gathered fees and left investors to fend for themselves.
Fisher notes how one analyst is sidelined by his investment company because he asked too many questions. The questions would have exposed Madoff’s scheme. Fisher also interviews an independent analyst that tells a client not to invest in Madoff’s company because she saw too many red flags. For instance, Madoff would not provide examples of his past investments to show how he made such remarkably steady returns; even in a falling market. Madoff’s standard refrain was “trust me”.
Like stories in “The Big Short” and “No One Would Listen”, Fisher’s recordings show institutional incompetence by government regulators, and greed from the private sector.
The SEC interviews Madoff on numerous occasions. Often the SEC representative is young and inexperienced. When reports are requested, Madoff’s back-office team manufactures whatever information is requested. The reports have no basis in truth. The reports are manufactured to satisfy whatever question is asked. If the SEC had called to confirm whether the trades had really been made, they would have exposed Madoff for fraud. Rather than check specific trade transactions, the SEC settled for a simple report that said Madoff had a trade account.
Nearly eleven billion dollars of the sixty billion-dollar Ponzi scheme is recovered. However, the recovery is largely limited to American investors by what are called “claw backs”. The “claw back” is from investors who had taken their money out before Madoff’s collapse in 2008. Other countries had no “claw back” provisions which meant many non-Americans lost everything.
Madoff and a few of his employees went to jail, but many escaped with fines and admonishment. “Ponzi Supernova” clearly implies both the government and private sector were guilty for losses by many small investors. These investors relied on government regulation and private sector financial advice.
If there is a lesson in this story, it is that every person should closely monitor their own investments. Most, if not all, human beings are seduced by money, power, and/or prestige. It is every investor’s responsibility to know how their investment adviser is benefited by your investments in their recommendations. Better to make your own investment mistakes, rather than rely on others who have a financial interest in your trading decisions.
The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War
Written by: A.J. Baime
Narration by: Peter Berkrot
A. J. BAIME (AUTHOR, WRITER AT LARGE)
“The Arsenal of Democracy” takes a retrospective look at an epic quest by America to build an arsenal of weapons before entry to World War II. Some surprising names are shown to have Nazi sympathies and anti-Semitic beliefs. Those abhorrent sympathies and beliefs are cloaked by pacifist and capitalist credos.
There is the capitalist credo that unregulated self-interest is the most important determinant of success. There is the pacifist credo that someone else’s tragedy is an opportunity for economic gain. Some pre-WWII movers and shakers are tainted by capitalist greed and prejudice. A. J. Baime shows there are two sides to the story of “The Arsenal of Democracy”.
CHARLES LINDBERGH’S 9/11/1941 SPEECH IN DES MOINES, IOWA;
HENRY FORD (1863- 1947, AMERICAN INDUSTRIALIST, FOUNDER OF FORD MOTOR CO.)
Henry Ford, the “god” of America’s industrial revolution, is awarded the “Grand Cross of the German Eagle” by Nazi officials in 1938. He is 75 years old. The Grand Cross is the highest honor that can be given to a foreigner by the Nazi government. (The only other American recipient is Charles Lindbergh.)
Baime accusatorially notes that Ford is the only American named in Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”; i.e. the most well-known anti-Semitic book ever written. Ford did not wish to enter WWII. One may draw their own conclusion, but it stretches credulity to believe it is unrelated to Ford’s personal prejudice and presumed economic gain.
JOSEPH KENNEDY (1888-1969)
Ford is not the only self-made millionaire who believes America should not enter the war. Joseph Kennedy is equally opposed. Of course, before Pearl Harbor, the majority of Americans were against entering the war. However, Ford and Kennedy share a capitalist entrepreneur’s amoral belief that everything is negotiable, including peace with Hitler.
This amoral belief is characteristic of an idealized business model reflected by writers like Ayn Rand; i.e. it is a belief that the strong survive. and the weak deserve their fate. (This is an amoral belief evident in today’s American President, and a number of congressional representatives.)
Though Kennedy is not as clearly tainted by anti-Semitism as Henry Ford, both believe war is not a solution to Hitler’s aggression. Business men like Kennedy and Ford believe political leaders, like prudent business leaders, will fail if they do not benefit their country’s citizens and employees by staying out of war and making a profit. They, like most Americans, could not believe holocaust rumors could be true. Baime suggests the stark evidence of Jewish slaughter after the war shakes Henry Ford’s conscience. (One is inclined to doubt Baime’s conclusion considering Ford’s history of anti-Semitism.)
WW2 CONSPIRACY—FORD BUILDS TRUCKS FOR NAZIS, B-24S FOR USAAF,
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT (1882-1945, 32ND PRES. OF U.S.,1933-1945)
Baime primarily focuses on how “The Arsenal of Democracy” came into being. Baime recounts “The Arsenal of Democracy” speech given by FDR on December 29, 1940. The year before Pearl Harbor, Henry Ford reluctantly agrees to join the automobile industry mavens in re-tooling car manufacturing for the defense of America.
WILLOW RUN ASSEMBLY PLANT,
Ford’s brilliant innovation in assembly line manufacturing is recognized as key to FDR’s vision of “The Arsenal of Democracy”. Ironically, Ford despises FDR and explains that Ford Corporation’s contribution is based on defense of America and not intervention in a European’ war. The leader of the Corporation, on paper, is Edsel Ford but Henry, until Edsel’s death in 1943, retains veto power over any corporate decisions.
THE ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY SPEECH BY FDR:
EDSEL BRYANT FORD (1893-1943, SON OF HENRY FORD, PRESIDENT OF FORD MOTOR CO.)
Edsel and Ford Corporation’s managers finally convince Henry to build Willow Run, the largest assembly plant of its time, to produce American bombers. The goal is to produce a completed airplane bomber at a rate of one per hour. Baime argues that the goal is achieved through Edsel’s leadership; complemented by innovations created by Ford Corporation’s experienced managers; e. g. men like Charles Sorenson, the lead engineer and designer of the company.
In a muddled side story, the role of Harry Bennett is explored by Baime. The story is muddled because it is shrouded in mystery involving rumors of Bennett’s mob-informant role for the FBI; his contacts with foreign interests, and his strong-arm tactics against union sympathizers. Henry Ford expresses great confidence in Bennett’s ability.
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF HARRY BENNETT : <iframe width=”640″ height=”390″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z0jyOfSg0P8″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen> Baime suggests Henry Ford treats Bennett like more of a son than Edsel. When Edsel dies, Baime writes that Edsel’s wife accuses Henry of being the proximate cause of Edsel’s death because of Henry’s constant criticism (Edsel dies in 1943 with a diagnosis of stomach cancer).
This is an interesting story but one has to remember the context of the time to have a fair perspective of villains in sheep’s clothing. Henry Ford is an anti-Semite but he joins a vast number of Americans that were equally anti-Semitic.
5 CORPORATIONS THAT HELPED CARRY OUT THE HOLOCAUST: <iframe width=”640″ height=”390″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/RXh7HfEFhik” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>German anti-Semitism did not suddenly spring from one demented leader. Henry Ford came from the same primordial swamp that all human beings came from.
THE TWO FACES OF HENRY FORD:
Baime notes that Edsel Ford had contact with Hitler’s French puppet government leaders. Edsel is accused of aiding Ford Corporations’ manufacturing capability in occupied France. Intertwining relationships often distort truth but there is a conflict-of-interest odor surrounding Ford Corporation’s actions before and during the war.
The facts are that creation of “The Arsenal of Democracy” would have been a pipe dream without Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, Charles Sorenson, the industrial capability of the auto industry, and the American people. Truth and history do not forgive anti-Semitism, manager’s exploitation of workers, human greed, illegal dealings with the underworld, or nasty treatment of a sons by fathers. The truth is and always will be–human beings are good and bad. Baime’s story of “The Arsenal of Democracy” joins a pile of books affirming the moral duality of humankind.
America’s Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System
Written by: Steven Brill
Narrated by: Dan Woren
STEVEN BRILL (AMERICAN LAWYER, JOURNALIST, AUTHOR)
“America’s Bitter Pill” is a policy wonk’s dream and an American citizen’s nightmare. It reveals the role of money and politics in American government. Steven Brill overwhelms readers, which are not policy wonks, with disgusting political backroom deals and entrenched private and non-profit interests. The disgust comes from the distortion of the most important legislation passed by the American’ Federal Government since the New Deal. Government leaders, private industry, and non-profit corporations worry more about being re-elected or having their pockets lined than providing basic health coverage to the American’ public.
Even the “god” of conservative economics, Friedrich von Hayek, believed government had a responsibility to provide “…a comprehensive system of social insurance in providing for those common hazards of life against which few can make adequate provision.”
Brill indicts a political process that seems freighted with more venal self-interest than good will. How can one argue that the private sector through an “invisible hand” is adequately providing health care to a general public in the richest country in the world? Too many Americans have no health coverage because they cannot afford it. All one has to do is ask how many Americans do not go to the doctor because they cannot afford the visit and do not have insurance against catastrophic illness. Even the “god” of conservative economics, Friedrich von Hayek, believed government had a responsibility to provide “…a comprehensive system of social insurance in providing for those common hazards of life against which few can make adequate provision.”
What Brill shows is that the value of high profits to private and non-profit insurance and medical facilities is more important than offering reasonably priced health care to the general public. What every special interest lobbied for in the Affordable Care Act depended on improving or maintaining profit. “America’s Bitter Pill”, the Affordable Care Act, is laced with greed. The Affordable Care Act has extended insurance to more people in the United States than ever before, but it continues to rankle knowledgeable Americans because it is based on the false belief that it will cure an incurable disease, human greed.
ADAM SMITH (1723-1790, AUTHOR OF -THE WEALTH OF NATIONS-Many politicians hid behind the mythic part of an “invisible hand” to rationalize their cave-in to special interests.)
Many politicians hid behind the mythic part of an “invisible hand” to rationalize their cave-in to special interests. Hiding is shown to be non-partisan by Brill because it includes both Democrats and Republicans. The mythic part of the “invisible hand” is the belief that self-interest is always in the best interest of the public.
President Obama chose the only path he could see to have any chance of passing an Affordable Care Act. The only voting majority in America’s bicameral Congress that had any chance of success is shown by Brill to be dependent on acceptance by insurance companies, hospitals, the pharmaceutical industry, and ancillary medical service equipment manufacturers.
An optimist chooses to believe America’s flawed legislative system will, in the long run, serve its public better than any other known form of government. The optimist believes the Affordable Care Act will be improved over time and will mitigate increased health care costs. The pessimist believes the Affordable Care Act is a boondoggle. The pessimist believes American government is accelerating its move toward tyranny. A realist suggests the Affordable Care Act is Democracy in action.
Even in these troubled times, the messiness of American Democracy bends toward a resolution of intractable social ills.
The momentum for health reform, ecological balance, and equal rights is unstoppable. No singularly elected American politician will change the direction of that momentum.
JEAN EDWARD SMITH (AUTHOR, JOHN MARSHALL PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AT MARSHALL UNIVERSITY & PROFESSOR EMERITUS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO)
Jean Edward Smith’s biography of Dwight Eisenhower defines the meaning of political leadership. Smith does not show Eisenhower to be a great intellect or military genius. Smith suggests Eisenhower is similar to Ulysses Grant in having come from a modest family to rise to the office of President of the United States.
Like Grant, Eisenhower is shown to be a consummate leader who politically manages and develops people who understand how to get things done. Unlike Grant, Smith shows Eisenhower to be a better President than battlefield commander.
The newly revealed Eisenhower monument in Washington D.C. shows Eisenhower in command of others. It correctly infers Eisenhower is a leader who trusts others to be the best they can be. Eisenhower is not a doer but a manager of others who do.
Eisenhower leads Allied forces on D-Day by using the best battlefield generals of WWII. Smith implies–without the Allied generals’ experience in battle, Eisenhower would likely have failed on D-Day.
Smith notes that Eisenhower had minimal combat experience. The one time Eisenhower directly manages a battle is in Sicily. If it had not been for superior manpower and material, Smith argues Eisenhower would have been defeated. Smith goes on to suggest that British Field General Montgomery is unjustly scapegoated for Eisenhower’s Italian campaign mistakes.
FIELD MARSHAL BERNARD MONTGOMERY (1887-1976, ENGLISH FIELD MARSHAL THAT MATCHED WITS WITH GERMAN FIELD MARSHAL ERWIN ROMMEL)
Smith also notes Montgomery’s role in D-Day is unfairly characterized. Montgomery argues for concentrated forces at critical points in German defenses; while Eisenhower demands a broad frontal attack along the entire front. Eisenhower’s tactics, in some generals’ opinions, prolong the end of the war by six months; i.e. increasing the casualty count and stalling Montgomery’s advance on Omaha Beach.
However, Smith’s biography of Eisenhower shows that military successes and failures make him a perfect political leader.
Smith reveals an inner moral compass that defines Eisenhower’s beliefs and decisions. Eisenhower uses that moral compass to become Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in WWII; and later, President of the United States.
Smith infers, despite tactical failures as a battlefield commander, Eisenhower’s innate ability to get things done through other people make him one of the great twentieth century American Presidents.
Eisenhower is no saint. His power as Allied forces’ general leads to the Somersby affair even as Eisenhower professes a deep need and affection for his wife, Mamie.
Smith offers a comprehensive picture of Eisenhower. Eisenhower is no moral saint. His power as Allied forces’ general leads to the Somersby affair even as Eisenhower professes a deep need and affection for his wife, Mamie.
Somersby appears to have been loved by Eisenhower, but she is unceremoniously dumped in a “Dear John” letter when Eisenhower is ordered back to the United States. On the one hand, Smith is showing Eisenhower is human; on the other, Smith is showing the perfidy of men in power positions.
Smith explains Eisenhower’s path to the presidency. A part of that trail is festooned with Eisenhower’s sense of duty, but it is also tainted by the power and glory of high office. Eisenhower is solicited by both Democratic and Republican parties. In the end, the Republican platform more closely adheres to Eisenhower’s belief in fiscal conservatism.
However, Smith shows Eisenhower to be a domestic social liberal. Eisenhower is no ideologue. The inner compass that directs Eisenhower’s life recognizes the cruelty of poverty, the shallowness of red-baiting exemplified by Joseph McCarthy, and the importance of patience when dealing with international and domestic affairs.
Eisenhower resists the hawkish tendencies of his Republican colleagues. He insists on withdrawal from the Korean conflict. Eisenhower abjures any suggestion that nuclear bombs should be used to attack American enemies. He forthrightly confronts Governor Faubus when the governor refuses to integrate schools in Little Rock, Arkansas.
MOHAMMAD MOSADDEGH Though Eisenhower initially rejects a British assassination plot against Mosadegh in Iran, he changes his mind when he begins to believe oil availability is more important than one human life. (1882-1967)
On the other hand, Eisenhower succumbs to the machinations of his defense department and several covert plans to overthrow foreign governments. Though Eisenhower initially rejects a British assassination plot against Mossadegh in Iran, he changes his mind when he begins to believe oil availability is more important than one human life.
Though Mossadegh dies from natural causes, America supports a military junta that overthrows Iran’s government. Eisenhower’s support of the overthrow is based on British settlement of an Iranian oil agreement with Iran, and Iranian oil availability in the United States.
Eisenhower also mistakenly establishes the domino theory of communist infiltration. Though he refuses to support the French in Indochina, he believes the fall of Vietnam will expand communism in Southeast Asia. Eisenhower sets the table for Kennedy’s and Johnson’s mistakes in Vietnam.
Eisenhower is well-known for his opposition to the military/industrial complex growing in America. He insists on balancing the budget by reducing military expenditure. He reduces financing for American military forces while strengthening Air Force capability as a more modern military deterrent. Eisenhower faces down numerous military commanders that insist on expanding conventional forces that can intercede in foreign conflicts without employing weapons of mass destruction (an argument that is being made by today’s military establishment).
Eisenhower mistakenly establishes the domino theory of communist infiltration.Eisenhower faces down numerous military commanders that insist on expanding conventional forces that can intercede in foreign conflicts without employing weapons of mass destruction (an argument that is being made by today’s military establishment).
Smith shows that Eisenhower refuses to balance the budget by cutting domestic programs that serve the poor and aged. Eisenhower presses unsuccessfully for increases in medical services for the American public (quite different from today’s Republican President).
Smith offers a balanced picture of Dwight Eisenhower. America benefited from Eisenhower’s political acumen. He may not rank with Washington and Lincoln, but he drew from an inner moral compass that makes human beings as good as they are capable of being.
In contrast to America’s current President, Eisenhower made one proud to be an American. (This review was written when Trump was President of the United States.)
Even in these troubled times, the messiness of American Democracy bends toward a resolution of intractable social ills.
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