HISTORY – Page 37 – REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE

BITCOIN

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Digital Gold, Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money

Written by: Nathaniel Popper

Narrated by: Robert Fass

NATHANIEL POPPER (AUTHOR, NYT'S REPORTER) — NATHANIEL POPPER (AUTHOR, NYT’S REPORTER)

Nathaniel Popper writes a book on the history of bitcoin. His history is a “Just the facts Mam” presentation. One will draw their own conclusion about the good and bad qualities of crypto currency.

Just like the dollar, pound, renminbe (yuan), franc, and euro, bitcoin is used for legal and illegal transactions. There are a host of criminals who have gamed currencies. Pepper recounts examples of bitcoin that show it is not exempt from currency manipulation.

BERNARD MADOFF (AGE 74) SERVING 150 YEAR PRISON SENTENCE

However, the manipulation takes the form of coding modification, or criminal hacking, rather than overt Bernie Madoff-like’ deceit. Wealth has been accumulated and lost in every medium of exchange since the beginning of barter between buyers and sellers. Popper shows that the fundamental difference between conventional currencies and bitcoin is how value is determined; who decides on what the value should be, and the transparency of change.

Popper explains bitcoin’s value is a consensus of its owners and users. Bitcoin value rises or falls based on most of its holder’s and merchant’s willingness to sell goods in exchange for bitcoin’ value. In contrast, conventional currencies are based on government fiat and national economic stability.

BITCOIN SYMBOL — Popper explains bitcoin’s value is a consensus of its owners and users. Bitcoin value rises or falls based on most of its holder’s and merchant’s willingness to sell goods in exchange for bitcoin’ value.

CHECKS AND BALANCES — All currencies offer exchange of goods based on willing seller and buyer discretion. However, conventional money does not rely on majority determination of value. Value of conventional currency is an inchoate combination of government decision, and the economic condition of respective nations. http://news.webshots.com/photo/2005825900056011884kLVAuD

All currencies offer exchange of goods based on willing seller and buyer discretion. However, conventional money does not rely on majority determination of value. Value of conventional currency is an inchoate combination of government decision, and the economic condition of respective nations. When aberrant government actions or economic crises occur willing buyers disappear, and currency value falls. However, bitcoin is not dependent on government regulation or the state of one economy. Bitcoin relies on its buyers and sellers and is independent of singular government decisions or any singular national economies.

INFLATION — When aberrant government actions or economic crises (like hyper-inflation) occur willing buyers disappear, and currency value falls. However, bitcoin is not dependent on government regulation or the state of one economy. Bitcoin relies on its buyers and sellers and is independent of singular government decisions or any singular national economies.

What Popper clearly explains is that troubled economic countries can see dramatic conventional currency movements that destroy wealth because of government decisions. However, he equally notes many examples of large devaluations in bitcoin. The difference is that devaluation of bitcoin is based on owners and users who are not tied to any single nation-state economy or government regulation. Bitcoin value is based on the opinion of its owners and users.

One might conclude bitcoin is more egalitarian than conventional currency because it is based on the will of the majority of owners and users. That may be true but the idea of depending on bitcoin’s open system modification of cryptographic code is a threat to the will of the majority.

Only code technologists understand the ramification of code changes in bitcoin. Most users can only vote in ignorance and hope. One may argue that is also true when electing a government; however, the difference is transparency. Bad governments can be judged by the public and eventually defeated. Cryptocurrency is, as its title implies, concealed. It is both secret and incomprehensible to most owners and users. Most bitcoin users can only vote in ignorance and hope that coders are acting in a majorities best interest.

No form of currency guarantees value. Every form of currency has its ups and downs. The difference is in who makes the decision about value. If you live in a highly inflationary country, bitcoin offers some level of stability. If you live in a wealthy and relatively stable country, bitcoin seems less attractive.

The future of bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies seems more utilitarian in a future where nationalism disappears and there is acceptance of a world economy based on equality of opportunity. We seem far from such a Utopian world.

A BRADBURY CLASSIC

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Illustrated Man
By Ray Bradbury

Narrated by Paul Michael Garcia

Flights of imagination sparkle and spin in this updated 1950s Ray Bradbury classic. This compendium of Bradbury’ tales is titled “The Illustrated Man”.

ROD SERLING (1924-1975, SCREENWRITER, TV PRODUCER, NARRATOR)

Bradbury spins stories; reminding one of late night re-runs of Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone”. Every episode sparkles with stars and planets, habitable by man but riddled with fear, death, and destruction. Bradbury grasps human nature and turns it against itself by writing stories that illustrate man’s selfishness, insecurity, wantonness, and aggression.

Tattoos come alive on rippling skin to act out a series of plays about mankind’s future. Everyone fears the illustrated man because his tattoos expose the worst in man. Belief that nuclear cataclysm will end life on earth blooms like a mushroom cloud. Traveling to other planets changes mankind’s environment but man’s nature remains the same.

THE ILLUSTRATED MAN (PLAYED BY ROD STEIGER) — THE ILLUSTRATED MAN (PLAYED BY ROD STEIGER IN A 1969 MOVIE) Tattoos come alive on rippling skin to act out a series of plays about mankind’s future.

AYN RAND (1905-1982) — AYN RAND (1905-1982, AUTHOR WHO FIRMLY BELIEVED IN THE VIRTUE OF SELF-INTEREST) Unregulated self-interest is a dangled reward stolen by one to keep it from the many; in the end the reward is destroyed by the selfishness of each against the other.)

These are not happy stories but they are great flights of imagination. Bradbury tells a story of human exile and deprivation that exacerbates selfishness when personal reward is dangled in front of exiled and deprived human beings. The dangled reward is stolen by one to keep it from the many; in the end the reward is destroyed by the selfishness of each against the other.

Insecurity is a devouring beast in the story of a planet blessed by an appearance of a Visitor (presumably Jesus) just before a rocket ship lands on the planet that has been visited. The captain disbelieves it has happened and is driven to track down this Visitor rather than settle in the insecure surroundings of a unblessed world. The captain is left to wander the universe, never to arrive in time to actually see the Visitor.

INFIDELITY — Wantonness is illustrated by Bradbury’s story of an unhappily married man.

Wantonness is illustrated by the husband that is unhappily married. He duplicates himself. His duplicate takes his place beside his wife so he can buy a ticket to Rio to exercise his fantasy. The duplicate is so perfect it becomes as human as the husband. The duplicate places the wanton husband in a box to die, and buys a ticket to Rio for his wife to accompany it in its fantasy.

Human kind is aggressive. Humans conquer and destroy civilizations. One world of the future prepares for a second visit from mankind by becoming the image of a City. This image devours the men of the second visit and assumes their bodies; i.e. the City image is transformed into the bodies of the humans from this second visit. The City image plans to return to earth to destroy those who had destroyed them.

NUCLEAR DETONATION ABOVE TEST TARGET 1986 — Human kind is aggressive. When human’s conquer or destroy others, others rise to destroy those who had destroyed them. An endless circle of life where agression eats itself.

Bradbury is a master story-teller. Paul Michael Garcia’s narration is a tribute to Bradbury’s skill.

NUCLEAR WAR

Consider whether “The Last Train from Hiroshima” horrifies more than enlightens. “Last Train from Hiroshima” is not for the faint hearted. It is a gruesome reminder of the horror of war.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough
(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Last Train from Hiroshima
By Charles Pellegrino
Narrated by Arthur Morey

Christopher Nolan’s remarkable performance in the movie “Oppenheimer” re-opens the terror of nuclear war. Consider whether “The Last Train from Hiroshima” horrifies more than enlightens. “Last Train from Hiroshima” is not for the faint hearted. It is a gruesome reminder of the horror of war.

Charles Pellegrino has written a story of Hiroshima and Nagasaki’s bomb survivors. Arthur Morey brings Pellegrino’s words to life. Pellegrino recounts survivor stories; i.e. what they saw, and what happened to them and their families in the aftermath of the world’s first use of a nuclear weapon.

Pellegrino is a wordsmith. He uses words that blow torch images on a listener’s mind. His words capture the horror of nuclear war; the physical and mental effect of a nuclear detonation on human beings.

hiroshima - ant walkers — The aftermath of Japan’s nuclear blasts left thousands of people with few apparent injuries. They wander in a fog of confusion, like ants in long lines following each other, single file to nowhere. They were, as Pellegrino explains, the “ant walkers”.

Hiroshima - Burnt to Ashes — Hiroshima – Burnt to Ashes

After Nagasaki’s bomb, a young girl walks out of a tubular bomb shelter and sees a shadowy figure that she presumes is an escaped zoo animal. It has rough, blackened, mottled skin, and is crawling on four limbs. It is a human being, exposed to the flash and burn (pika don) of the bomb.

Pellegrino describes the aforementioned crawling man as one of the “alligator people”, a classification that repeats itself on the skins of anyone that survives direct exposure to the bomb’s flash and burn. He tells the story of a “tap dancer” running down a street in Hiroshima; tap, tap, tapping the hard-surfaced street because he has no feet. Pellegrino recounts the story of a father greeting his lost daughter by asking “…do you have feet” because a Japanese aphorism believed ghosts are recognized as apparitions with no feet.

nagasaki bombing aftermath — Nagasaki bombing aftermath. Survivors are the “ant walkers”. Days later, the “ant walkers” are stricken with fever, vomiting, loss of appetite, and internal bleeding. Some survive to go through the same symptoms weeks or months later.

The aftermath of Japan’s nuclear blasts left thousands of people with few apparent injuries. They wander in a fog of confusion, like ants in long lines following each other, single file to nowhere. They were, as Pellegrino explains, the “ant walkers”. Days later, the “ant walkers” are stricken with fever, vomiting, loss of appetite, and internal bleeding; some survive to go through the same symptoms weeks or months later; some become crippled for the remainder of their lives; some die after the first onset of sickness; some die years later from leukemia or other maladies traced back to those two fateful August days in 1945.

RADIATION EXPOSURE DAMAGE FROM CHERNOBYL DISASTER IN THE FORMER U.S.S.R.

The survivor stories in Pellegrino’s book are so vivid that one wonders where real history ends and his imagination begins. Regardless of the veracity of Pellegrino’s survivor facts, his description of nuclear weapon damage and radioactive exposure is verified by later scientific experiments and accidents.

Once again–Iran, Russia, and North Korea threaten peaceful coexistence. “Never again” has been said before. One is left with thought and fear.

Addendum: I am writing this from the Vista Hotel in Hiroshima today. I will post an essay of the trip sometime later this year but this addendum is to reveal a comment from a survivor of the bomb blast in 1945.

Something not mentioned in Pellegrino’s excellent book is that those who survived the bomb were discriminated against because of the fear they had of contamination from those who were victims of the event. It is a reminder of the tragedy of the bombing but more importantly the ignorance of humanity’s discrimination.

COMMUNICATION SUPERSIZING

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough
(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Master Switch
By Tim Wu
Narrated by Marc Vietor

Tim Wu writes about the capitalist drive to acquire a master switch that controls how the public receives information. President Biden has chosen Wu to serve on the White House National Economic Council. It will be interesting to see what influence Wu will have on American technology companies.

TIM WU (AUTHOR, PROFESSOR OF LAW AT COLUMBIA

The first section of “The Master Switch” sets a table for understanding 21st century communication technology. Wu doggedly recounts a history of the communication industry. It will turn some listeners off but stick with it, Wu does have something to say.

“The Master Switch” is written before Huawei technology company became a perceived security and privacy threat. Instead of corporate domination of the internet, Huawei might be a nation-state security and privacy threat. Huawei’s break-through 5g internet system is coveted by many countries in the world.

Some of what Wu reveals is counter intuitive. Steve Jobs’ genius is not as a technical wizard but as a deal maker.

None of these revelations denigrate the spectacular achievements of Jobs and Wozniak or the success of any of the companies mentioned. Jobs is a marketing genius that envisions what the market doesn’t know they want and demands perfection in a product that will serve that market.

STEVE WOZNIAK (Wozniak, is characterized as the real wizard of “Menlo Park” –a few doors down from a similar laboratory occupied by Bill Gates.)

In their early days, one suspects neither genius cared about the power and influence of the internet and the potential of a “Master Switch” controlled by a government, or corporation. A prospect that is both troubling and (probably) inevitable.

Wu is arguing that communication businesses have expanded and contracted like rubber bands; i.e. pulled and snapped by inventors, governments, and business moguls.

From what Wu reports, history favors the likelihood of a “Master Switch” controlled by one of these rubber band pullers.

Wu’s stories of the communication industry suggest that a closed system is more likely to prevail in the shake-out of the internet; i.e. one “switcher” that will control the medium. The Trump administration endorses that philosophy by suggesting the private sector is a better arbiter of control than the government. Wu shows that a closed system tends to perpetuate itself and retard innovation because of a monopolist’s fear of competition.

In today’s political climate, the potential of a closed system looms large. Wu recounts the history of telephony, radio, movie, and television communication businesses that started as open systems but evolved into closed systems due to the acquisitive and greedy nature of mankind.

Wu argues that vertical integration (a closed system) of the communication industry can be discouraged with a check and balance system.

He suggests inventors, manufacturers and government regulators should remain independent (integrated horizontally rather than vertically) to check and balance human nature’s drive for one entity’s control of a “Master Switch”. This seems unlikely in light of an autocratic government like China. China’s outsize involvement and influence on the financing and regulation of a company like Huawei is an unlikely check and balance on sovereign security or privacy.

Wu lauds Google for preaching and practicing open system management of the internet but the history of communication companies reminds the listener that founders and their philosophies mutate. Private industry history of corporate greed in a capitalist society makes one suspect.

A check and balance system for communication or any industry is unlikely to grow based on past experience and human nature.

Free societies over-regulate and then under-regulate. America has always practiced rubber band management. Separation of powers is a temporary construct; not a permanent condition. When conflict begins, human nature takes charge. Mankind is acquisitive, greedy, and human.

Wu is a naive free enterprise philosophizer. History, Ayn Rand, and human nature tell us that the internet will become a closed system.

The public doesn’t understand technology and could care less. “Show me the product and what it can do”. “Show me the money” are humankind’s arbiters of who gets the “Master Switch”.

Ignorance of communication technology is everywhere. Consumers are more interested in what they can get than what they can change.

The general public would rather let someone else make product decisions and vote with their pocketbook when they are dissatisfied. That seems an even greater threat with a company like Huawei that is integrated with an autocratic government.

Wu opens one’s mind but fails to come up with a plan that will change the internet’s future.

INCOMPETENCE & GREED

Audio-book Review

By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)

Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Big Short & No One Would Listen

By Michael Lewis By Harry Markopolos

Narrated by Jesse Boggs Narrated by Scott Brick & Others

the big short no one would listen

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 21^st century but we still live in Thomas Hobbes’ 17^th century world.

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.

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 21^st 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.

INDICTMENT

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Tears We Cannot Stop-A Sermon to White America

Written by: Michael Eric Dyson

Narrated by: Michael Eric Dyson

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.

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 GIULIANI (FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY)

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.

Dyson notes that victimization is a community problem; not a black or white issue; i.e. if you live in a black community, blacks murder blacks; if you live in a white community, whites murder whites.

Blacks victimize blacks because alternative ways of taking care of their families are limited by socio/economic isolation. Blacks become invisible to white America.

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”.

PARADIGM SHIFT

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

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.

As far back as the oldest laws of government written by a Sumerian King in 2,050 BC, women have been singled out with human rights’ violations.

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.

WHEN CIVILIZATIONS COLLIDE

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Things Fall Apart

By Chinua Achebe

Narrated by Peter Francis James

NIGERIAN NOVELIST, POET, AND CRITIC (1930-2013)

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.

african society — 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.

V0016256 An African shaman or medicine man dressed in ritual mask and

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?

MADOFF’S PERPETRATORS

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Ponzi Supernova—Madoff Speaks

Recorded by: Audible Original

Produced by: Steve Fishman

STEVE FISHMAN (NEW YORK MAGAZINE REPORTER)

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.

WEAPONS OF WAR

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

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

“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.

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).

FOOTAGE OF THE 1941 STRIKE WITH A GLIMPSE OF HARRY BENNETT: <iframe width=”640″ height=”390″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/PLN1svpbPBA” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>

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.

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