news – Page 4 – REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE

MEDIA SELF-INTEREST

One may question William’s characterization of Facebook’s “Careless People” as more like calculating self-interested managers than careless employees.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Careless People (A Cautionary of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism)

By: Sarah Wynn-Williams

Narrated By: Sarah Wynn-Williams

Sarah Wynn-Williams (Author, Ex-Meta executive, presently barred from criticism of Meta, formally known as Facebook.)

As noted in the sub-title of “Careless People”, Meta (formerly known as Facebook) is criticized as an international influencer of society that has lost its sense of ethics, i.e. the ability to see the difference between right and wrong. Facebook originally intended to be a forum for the connection of people interested in sharing ideas, communicating with others, and building positive social connection. Instead, the author’s experience as a Facebook’ executive found that expansion, profit, and political influence became an unethical pursuit by the major shareholders (particularly Mark Zukerberg) and managers of the corporation. She argues leadership of Facebook recklessly pursued income, expansion, and political influence around the world with little ethical oversight.

New Zealand (The birthplace of Sarah Wynn-Williams)

Ms. Williams was born in New Zealand but went to work for Facebook and became a U.S. citizen. Her work at Facebook led to a promotion that made her the Director of Global Public Policy which provided opportunity to travel the world soliciting business for Facebook in other countries. Her experience informs listeners of what Meta’s corporate goal: “give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together” became something less as a result of careless management oversight.

Williams begins with a story of a harrowing trip to Myanmar, presumably after their revolution in 2021.

The military coup that ousted the democratically elected government appears to have just begun when Williams had an audience to pitch the Facebook platform to its military government. Just getting to the building where the meeting was to be held was a trial but her position as a representative of Facebook ended with her arrival at a headquarters building of the new regime. It is an interesting story because it shows the power of Facebook association in a country that just had a coup d’état that ended civilian rule. Millions of Myanmar citizens were displaced by widespread human rights abuses with civilian arrests and violence. One wonders what “giving people the power to build community” means in what became a military totalitarian state. (When visiting the Baltics last year, our guide expressed a love for Myanmar’s citizens and the country but was told by Myanmar friends it is unsafe to visit since the coup.)

Williams worked directly with Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook.

Later, Williams explains a meeting with a Japanese official where Sandberg and Williams go to promote interest in Facebook which had not been a part of the Japanese media environment. The involvement of Williams was primarily to support Sandberg’s pitch. Williams indicates Sandberg was quite complementary of Williams’ assistance after the meeting which gives context to their relationship. A subsequent description of Sandberg’s strong, sometimes harsh, personality and influence on Facebook employees is given by Williams. The Japan’ meeting was successful because Facebook entered the market in 2010. Its popularity is said to have declined with Instagram and LINE being the dominant platforms, but Facebook maintains a presence in the country.

Societies interconnectedness is a boon and bane for 21st century society.

The pandering of Zukerberg, Bezos, Musk, Cook, and Pichai to world governments is made suspect by William’s experience as an employee of Facebook. Media companies have become too big to fail and too ungovernable to manage. Even though the internet more intimately connects the world, the platforms of today’s giants of information create a forum for control and conflict rather than a place to encourage social comity.

Robert Kaplan (Author of “Waste Land”.)

As noted by Robert Kaplan in “Waste Land”, the growing decline of Russia’s, China’s and America’s governments has been increased with world interconnectedness. It appears from William’s experience at Facebook, there is some truth in Kaplan’s observation. Kaplan’s solution is to dismantle these giants and encourage competition to defray their principal stockholder’s influence.

As the Turkish saying goes, “a fish rots from the head down”. Williams frequent contact with Mark Zuckerberg gives weight to her view of Facebook culture. Mr. Zuckerberg seems to carelessly lead Meta into the arena of politics by promoting Facebook’s media clout to political parties because it raises revenues with political advertising and influences government policy on media’ regulation. Frighteningly, Williams notes Zuckerberg considers running for President with the power of Meta to support his candidacy. One may question William’s characterization of Facebook’s “Careless People” as more like calculating self-interested managers than careless employees.

GOVERNMENT LIFE CYCLE

Robert Kaplan’s inference is that all nation-state governments are being challenged by an increasingly polarized society. The question is whether Trump is a symptom or cure for the decline of America.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Waste Land (A World of Permanent Crises)

By: Robert Kaplan

Narrated By: Robert Petkoff

Robert D. Kaplan (Author, writer for The Atlantic, Washinton Post, New York Times, The New Republic, Foreign Affairs, and the Wall Street Journal)

Robert Kaplan’s book makes one pessimistic about the future of democratic government. The wars in Gaza and Ukraine, along with the re-election of Donald Trump, and the economic retrenchment of Xi in China reinforce some of the themes of Kaplan’s “Waste Land”. One who reads or hears national news understands why Kaplan argues there is a growing decline in Russia’s, China’s and America’s governments. He argues the cause of that decline is increased world interconnectedness, and rising government instability. His biggest concern is what he believes is a nascent parallel to the rise of Naziism.

The advent of the internet has been a mixed blessing because it is used to spread false information as well as the truth.

The consequence has been to make societies more polarized. An example is a widespread opinion by Trump appointees that the rise in the number of government employees is wasting taxpayer dollars for public education, science research, foreign aid, veterans’ affairs, the national park service and the IRS. (For example, an estimated 76,000 employees–16% of the work force has been discharged from Veterans Affairs. The VA provides healthcare services for eligible veterans, handles disability compensation, pensions, education assistance, like the GI bill, and home loans to citizens who have honorably served America.) These reductions in workforce are not based on any analysis of work performance but solely to reduce the cost of government. Trump, like Xi and Putin, believe Thucydides’ observation that “The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”.

Trump’s firings are being done by an appointed agent of the President who decimated the work force of Twitter in the same way he is arbitrarily discharging American government employees.

Kaplan argues today’s political atmosphere in America, Russia, and China are similar to the societal condition of Germany before the rise of Hitler. He points to the fragility of authoritarians and the rise of societal polarization in today’s world. He compares economic instability, social discontent, and political extremism of the Weimar Republic to what he implies is a growing condition in both Western democracies and Eastern autocracies. The last chapters of Kaplan’s book focus on urbanization of the world and its consequent polarization of society that is deconstructed governance in a way that reminds him of the Weimar Republic’s deterioration. He infers Trump’s re-election, the dismantling of the American government, and America’s social disruption is similar to what happened in Germany in the early 1930s.

An example of the disruption of which Kaplan writes is the Venezuela immigrants who were flown to El Salvador and frog-walked to an El Salvador prison without adjudication by America’s judicial system.

Kaplan’s argument is that President Trump is destabilizing the American government by violating the Constitution of the United States.

A federal judge ordered a plane full of alleged immigrants (identified as gang members) to be returned to the United States. The plane was in the air when the President in apparent defiance of a direct court order chose to not have the plane turned around. The deported were filmed as they were frog-walked into a foreign jail while being denied any hearing or adjudication of their alleged criminality. The President of the United States appears to have ignored a Federal Court, the Third Branch of American government, designed to balance arbitrary actions of either a President or Congress for denying due process of law.

America re-elected Trump despite his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records for paying “hush money” to Stormy Daniels when first elected in 2016.

Though Trump’s conviction does not rise to the level of Hitler’s high treason in the failed Beer Hall Putsch, willingness to lie under oath is a troubling characteristic for a President, let alone, any citizen of the United States. According to news reports, Trump says he did not know he had been asked to turn the plane around by a Federal Judge. One might ask why should America believe what he says?

Trump is challenging the authority of Congress and the Judiciary by taking actions without consideration of the Constitution of the United States.

This reminds one of human rights violations in the early days of Hitler’s rise in Germany. Hitler gathered sympathizers from disillusioned veterans, business leaders, the middle class, the German youth, and Far-Right Nationalists. Trump appears to have had similar support in his re-election. Trump decides to pardon all January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attackers. Those pardons are a diminishment of American democracy akin to Hitler’s support of Nazi sympathizers.

Attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021–Trump pardons all attackers on 1/20/25, after being re-elected as President of the United States.

Deng led a transformative change in China’s economy after Mao’s death. With a pragmatic judgement that “It doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice”

In the last third of Kaplan’s book, the incredible success of China under Deng Xiaoping is addressed. Kaplan explains Deng became the leader of China between 1978 and 1989. Though Deng was a contemporary leader during the Mao administration, Deng led a transformative change in China’s economy after Mao’s death. With a pragmatic judgement that “It doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice” he opened China to the pursuit of personal, and individual citizen’ prosperity. The result of Deng’s pragmatism was the unprecedented economic growth and wealth of China. Much of what Deng started has been reversed by the Xi administration. In Kaplan’s opinion, the resurgence of the communist party has led to a reversal of economic growth in China. Kaplan infers a return to collectivism is a reflection of societal interconnectedness with a government-controlled internet that denies freedom of thought and action by China’s citizens.

Kaplan refers to Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) and the urbanization of America. He notes Oswald Spengler (1929-1936) recognized the implication of urbanization is government deterioration as a part of the natural lifecycle of every civilization. The point Kaplan makes is that nation-states have become like the early cities Jacobs refers to but with an interconnectedness that accelerates and shortens government lifecycles. Robert Kaplan’s inference is that all nation-state governments are being challenged by an increasingly polarized society caused by internet connectedness. The question is whether Trump is a symptom or cure for the decline of America.

MUSIC APPRECIATION

Listening to the examples of Professor Greenberg’s views on music make this audiobook an immense pleasure. It is a long audiobook but one who takes long walks will be highly entertained by the Professor’s insight to music of the world.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.

Great Courses-How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition (A Cultural History)

By: Robert Greenberg

Narrated By: Professor Greenberg

Robert Greenberg (Great Courses Professor, historian, composer, pianist, speaker, and author.)

This is a history of Great Music by a remarkable professor who fully utilizes the value of audiobooks in his teaching. Though this is a long audiobook, every lecture is a pleasure for a listener who knows little about the history or styles of music. Professor Greenberg’s enthusiasm and pointed opinions about music and its evolution are informative, clearly explained, and fabulously entertaining, particularly for non-musicians.

The professor’s storytelling is highly entertaining. He reviews the history of music anecdotally, interspersed with musical examples (some of which are his own piano playing) and precise definitions of words used in music that offer clarity and entertainment to his audience.

The span of history which Greenberg covers is from ancient music traditions to the progressive development of Western music. He helps one understand what to listen for when attending musical presentations. He spans Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th-century music. From Bach’s Baroque musical production to Shostakovich’s politically tinged symphonies, one learns how music is exemplified and amplified by history.

Greenberg begins with ancient Greek and Roman music.

He explains the role of music in Greek tragedies and offers examples of Gregorian chant and medieval polyphony (two or more independent melodies that are interconnected). He notes Bach’s fugues as polyphonic hallmarks of Western classical music that rose in the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750, German composer and musician of the late Baroque period.)

Greenberg provides examples of a fugue and concerto. A fugue is a musical composition with a theme that is interwoven with overlapping voices. He offers the example of Bach’s music.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741. Italian composer, virtuoso violinist of Baroque music.)

In contrast, concerto is a solo instrument (or a group of soloists) offering an orchestral presentation infused with dialogue. The Four Seasons by Vivaldi would be an example but the fascinating point is that the dialogue is in music, i.e. no words, but a clear representation of the seasons in an abstract way. You hear the sounds of spring, summer, fall, and winter.

Greenberg offers definitions of musical terms.

Greenberg also defines a number of musical concepts and terms:

Melody: A sequence of musical notes that are perceived as a single entity, often referred to as the “tune.”

Harmony: The combination of different musical notes played or sung simultaneously to produce a pleasing sound.

Polyphony: Multiple independent melodies played or sung simultaneously, creating a complex and interwoven texture.

Sonata Form: A musical structure commonly used in the first movements of symphonies and sonatas, typically consisting of an exposition, development, and recapitulation.

The Professor notes the fundamental difference between German and Italian classical music.

The Italians created opera to illustrate the emotions of life through operatic story telling. Germans highlight intellectual depth and structural complexity. Greenberg notes Italians celebrate the melodic beauty and operatic flair of music. This difference is exemplified by the Catholic church’s sale of indulgences.

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Greenberg recounts the history of the Reformation. He notes the impact of Martin Luther (1483-1546), the key German figure in the Protestant Reformation who posted the 95 Thesis that criticizes the Catholic Church’s practice of selling indulgences for sinners to get into heaven. The 95 Thesis was a direct challenge to the authority of the Pope to use indulgences to raise money for the Catholic Chruch. Luther believed only faith, an emotionally grounded intellectual belief, could pave one’s way to heaven.

Rather than an Italian Rossini or Puccini opera, German operas have complex narratives with composers like Wagner and Straus who are exploring ideas like destiny, heroism, and the human condition. Both German and Italian operas engage emotions, but German operas tend to explore philosophical, mythological, or psychological themes while Italians focus on heart-wrenching human emotions.

TOO LATE

Ideally, public good and ethics will be taught in advance of the melding of technology and government, i.e., not after mistakes are made. However, history suggests humans will blunder down the road of experience with A.I., making mistakes, and trying to correct them after they occur.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.

The Technological Republic (Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West)

By: Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska

Narrated By: Nicholas W. Zamiska

Alex Karp (Founder of software firm Palantir Technologies)

The authors are the founder and operations manager of the American software company, Palantir Technolgies. Palantir has been hired by the U. S. Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, agencies of NATO countries, and Western corporations to provide analytic platforms for defense analysis, healthcare, finance, and manufacturing.

They believe artificial intelligence research and development has lost its way.

They argue Silicon Valley has lost focus on what is important for survival of society and Western values. They suggest A.I. should be focusing on serving humanity in ways that responsibly regulate nuclear weapons and protect society from existential risks like climate change, pandemics, asteroid collisions, etc., that threaten human extinction. The authors provide a powerful criticism of technology and its national purpose.

Karp and Zamiska argue that technology is focusing on consumerism rather nuclear annihilation or existential risk.

By focusing on convenience and entertainment for financial success, fundamental problems like the threat of nuclear war, homelessness, inequality, and climate change are ignored or relegated to the trash heap of history. (“Trash heap of history” is the belief that what happens, happens and society can do nothing about it.) The west has become complacent with short-term focus on profit and consumer demand. The authors argue that the greater good is no longer thought of as an important societal goal. The primary goal is making money that enriches creators and company owners by making purchases more convenient to and for consumers.

Aldous Huxley (English writer and philosopher, 1894-1963, author of “Brave New World”.)

Their argument is there should be more collaboration between tech and government. Historically, government is only as good as the information it has to make societal decisions. A computer program can be programmed with false information like the error of weapons of mass destruction that led to an invasion of Iraq that was a bad decision. The domino theory input that led to the Vietnam war; so, on and so on. There is also the threat of an elected President that uses the power of technology to do the wrong thing because of his/her incompetence. There is the risk of government gathering personal information and using it to cross the line into a “Brave New World” where innovation, free thought, and independent action are discouraged or legislated against so people can be sent to jail for breaking the law?

Possibly, melding technology with government is an answer, but it is a chicken and egg concern. Education about public good and ethical practices should begin as soon as the egg cracks, not after hatchlings are already old enough to work. Phrases that come to mind are “What’s done is done” or “The die is cast”.

The authors argue the West needs to up-its-game if it wishes to create a peaceful and prosperous future for a society that is founded on the ideal of human freedom.

Without future generations creating policies based on ethical purpose for the public good, one infers western culture will spiral into individual isolation and self-interest that diminishes western culture and ideals.

HOMELESSNESS

The United States is the 7th richest nation in the world on a per capita basis. Why is homelessness a growing problem in outwardly prosperous American cities?

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Seeking Shelter (A Working Mother, Her Children and a Story of Homelessness in America)

By: Jeff Hobbes

Narrated By: Julia Whelan

Jeff Hobbes (Author, graduate of Yale with a BA in English language and literature.)

Homelessness can be seen in most large cities of the world. In personal travels to what look like prosperous cities like Vilnius, Lithuania, Hong Kong, China, and even Scandanavian countries, homelessness exists. However, the scope of homelessness does not compare to what is seen on the streets of Las Vegas, NV. and Seattle, WA, two larger American cities considered prosperous and growing. In 2024, there were an estimated 7,928 homeless in Clark County (the Las Vegas area) and 16,385 in King County (the Seattle area). Walking around these two cities, let alone reading or listening to the news, suggests those numbers are grossly undercounting the homeless. The United States is the 7th richest nation in the world on a per capita basis. Why is homelessness a growing problem in outwardly prosperous American cities?

Trump followers would argue homelessness is because of illegal immigration and laziness.

The real reasons are decades of underbuilding in major American cities, high cost of existing inventory, regulatory barriers for affordable housing, economic inequality, an attitude of “not in my back yard”, investment conglomerates that capture housing for rent, and the decline of federally funded affordable housing.

Jeff Hobbes brings all of these reasons for homelessness to light with the plight of working mothers and their children who are moving from one area of California to another because they cannot afford a place to live, school their children, and feed their family.

Hobbes’ example is of a family on the road with savings of $4,000 in a search for a job, a school for her children, and a place to live that they can afford. What is abundantly clear in Hobbes’ book is women hold broken families together more often than men. Misogyny is a reinforced truth in the world. Men spread their seed, begat children, and leave. Women take on the burden of the world’s future.

Homeless single parents with children to care for must often leave their children alone while seeking work to pay for the basic needs of life.

A woman faces greater obstacles than a homeless man because of unequal opportunities ranging from income for work to their presumed and assumed responsibility for children’s care. The general public often presumes they have their own lives to live and have no responsibility for others who have made foolish decisions in their lives. However, a rational person knows children are the future of the world. A child left on his/her own have diminishing opportunities for success without parental support. A child of a homeless single parent’s support is compromised when that single parent has to work to earn enough for the family to have a home and food to eat.

Having the personal experience of being raised by a single parent with an older brother, Hobbes’ history of a mother, on her own, fairly explains how difficult it is to avoid homelessness while looking for work and caring for her children.

The price paid for homelessness on the emotional and intellectual ability of a mother and her children is immeasurable. The cost to society is partly explained by Jeff Hobbes’ in “Seeking Shelter”. California’s system of caring for the homeless is encouraging but undoubtedly inadequate based on what one reads in the press.

Listening to the stories of homeless families is a harsh lesson for those who have escaped poverty and think if they can do it, why can’t every American do it?

Failure to address homelessness is a societal flaw. Whatever its cause, homelessness makes every citizen of prosperous nations guilty of neglect.

AI REGULATION

As Suleyman and Bhaskar infer, ignoring the threat of AI because of the difficulty of regulation is no reason to abandon the effort.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Coming Wave

By: Mustafa Suleyman with Michael Bhaskar

Narrated By: Mustafa Suleyman

Mustafa Suleyman (British entrepreneur, CEO Microsoft AI)

This is a startling book about AI because it is written by an AI entrepreneur who is the founder and former head of applied AI at DeepMind. He is also the CEO of Microsoft AI. What the authors argue is not understood by many who discount the threat of AI. They explain AI can collate information that creates societal solutions, as well as threats, that are beyond the thought and reasoning ability of human beings.

“The Coming Wave” is startling because it is written by two authors who have an intimate understanding of the science of AI.

They argue it is critically important for AI research and development to be internationally regulated with the same seriousness that accompanied the research and use of the atom bomb.

If AI has the monumental risk Suleyman and Bhaskar describe, it remains the responsibility of humanity to manage it wisely.

Those who have read this blog know the perspective of this writer is that AI, whether it has greater risk than the atom bomb or not is a tool, not a controller, of humanity. The AI’ threat example given by Suleyman and Bhaskar is that AI has the potential for invention of a genetic modification that could as easily destroy as improve humanity. Recognizing AI’s danger is commendable but like the atom bomb, there will always be a threat of miscreant nations or radicals that have the use of a nuclear device or AI to initiate Armagedón. Obviously, if AI is the threat they suggest, there needs to be an antidote. The last chapters of “The Coming Wave” offer their solution. The authors suggest a 10-step program to regulate or ameliorate the threat of AI’s misuse.

Like alcoholism and nuclear bomb deterrence, Suleyman’s program will be as effective as those who choose to follow the rules.

There are no simple solutions for regulation of AI and as history shows neither Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) nor the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) has been completely successful.

Suleyman suggests the first step in regulating AI begins with creating safeguards for the vast LLM capabilities of Artificial Intelligence.

This will require the hiring of technicians to monitor and adjust incorrect or misleading information accumulated and distributed by AI users. The concern of many will be the restriction on “freedom of speech”. Additionally, two concerns are the cost of such a bureaucracy and who monitors the monitors. Who draws the line between fact and fiction? When does information deletion become a distortion of fact? This bureaucracy will be responsible for auditing AI models to understand what their capabilities are and what limitations they have.

A second step is to slow the process of AI development by controlling the sale and distribution of the hardware components of AI to provide more time for reviewing new development impacts.

With lucrative incentives for new AI capabilities in a capitalist system there is likely to be a lot of resistance by aggressive entrepreneurs, free-trade and free-speech believers. Leaders in authoritarian countries will be equally incensed by interference in their right to rule.

Transparency is a critical part of the vetting process for AI development.

Suleyman suggests critics need to be involved in new developments to balance greed and power against utilitarian value. There has to be an ethical examination of AI that goes beyond profitability for individuals or control by governments. The bureaucracies for development, review, and regulation should be designed to adapt, reform, and implement regulations to manage AI technologies responsibly. These regulations should be established through global treaties and alliances among all nations of the world.

Suleyman acknowledges this is a big ask and notes there will be many failures in getting cooperation or adherence to AI regulation.

That is and was true of nuclear armament and so far, there has been no use of nuclear weapons to attack other countries. The authors note there will be failures in trying to institute these guidelines but with the help of public awareness and grassroots support, there is hope for the greater good that can come from AI.

As Suleyman and Bhaskar infer, ignoring the threat of AI because of the difficulty of regulation is no reason to abandon the effort.

BEING OPINIONATED

Trump is threatening government employees with being fired for doing their job and Congress for being the third branch of the American government.

Personal Commentary
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Political Grandstanding

By: Chet Yarbrough

Those who have read book reviews in this blog know some of my political beliefs. The more I read, listen to, and review books written by others, the more I know I do not know what is true and not true. We all get trapped in our own world of experience, belief, and understanding. With concern over that personal trap, this personal opinion is written.

America’s current President is a man of inherited wealth and privilege.

Trump’s popularity comes from attracting attention, impressing followers with strong public stances on issues of which he has little understanding or willingness to educate himself about. His focus is on self-aggrandizement with hyperbolic misrepresentations of facts that appeal to those wishing for definitive answers to multifaceted social issues.

LYNDON JOHNSON (36TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES)

Trump is not the only elected representative or President to oversimplify issues to appeal to voters. Johnson’s war on poverty was used to justify policies that ineffectively addressed needs of the poor. Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” used coded language and policies that indirectly targeted African Americans. Reagan’s “War on Drugs” disproportionately affected minority communities and contributed to mass incarceration. George W. Bush emphasized the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD’s) to justify invasion of Iraq. Obama’s red line rhetoric threatened commitment to military intervention, which never happened when lethal gas was used to kill Syrian citizens. Trump’s rhetoric on immigration inferred most immigrants were criminals and a threat to national security. In all of these examples the common denominator is, at worst a lie or at best, a misrepresentation of truth to gain public support.

So, what is the difference? Trump does not care about the impact of his lies.

Trump focuses on self-aggrandizement to promote himself as powerful and important. He is a school-yard bully who scared banks and subcontractors with the fear of handing a financially bankrupt casino back to the bank, and who threatened subcontractors’ pay who worked for him.

Now, Trump is threatening government employees with being fired for doing their job and Congress for being the third branch of the American government. In the end, Trump is threatening the American people who either did or did not vote for him.

WORKER ABANDONMENT

Trump is unlikely to help the middleclass and poor any more than some of America’s past Presidents, but he disrupts the status quo. That is Thomas Frank’s answer to why Trump was re-elected.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Listen Liberal (Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?)

By: Thomas Frank

Narrated By: Thomas Frank

Thomas Carr Frank (Author, political analyst, historian, and journalist)

How could the American people elect a billionaire felon as President of the United States? Thomas Frank offers a compelling answer to that troubling question.

Since WWII, the American people have been misled by the words, policies, and deeds of both Democratic and Republican leaders. No post WWII leader escapes Frank’s frank explanation. Not since Franklin Roosevelt, and Harry Truman have any Presidents effectively reduced income inequality.

Frank embarrasses American voters for complicity in reducing the size of the middle class, ignoring the poor, and making the rich richer. He explains how Presidents of the last 70 years have made the middleclass smaller and the poor poorer. Frank particularly points to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama as examples of Ivy League’ wordsmiths that misled the public and instituted policies that moved America away from the working class and poor.

Clinton and Obama represented education as the primary measure of success in the 21st century. They largely ignored the working class that grew the American economy to be the most successful in the world. With that neglect the Democratic party became adjunct to the Republican party by diminishing the contribution and value of working Americans. Whichever party leads America no longer makes a difference to the middleclass’ and poor. Frank argues there is little difference between a Democratic or Republican President. The middleclass and poor realize those who are elected to lead make little difference in American worker’s lives.

Frank methodically dismantles Clinton and Obama administration’s policies to show how they diminished opportunity for the middleclass and poor. Clinton manages to balance the national governments debt on the backs of working America. Clinton’s welfare reform took many off of welfare by demanding employment as a requirement for any help by the welfare administration. That seems laudable but its impact on single parent households left children home alone and at the mercy of their neighborhoods. A child alone is left to the influence of neighborhoods festooned with gangs, drugs, guns and their societal consequences. In reducing the number of people on welfare, poverty increased.

Clinton’s programs for crime control massively increased prison building and prison populations that disproportionately affected African and Latino American communities.

Clinton repeals the Glass-Stegall Act and allows commercial banks to enter the derivative mortgage business that led to the near future financial collapse of America between 2007 and 2010.

Entry into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) led to manufacturing job losses in America.

Frank admits Obama helped the middleclass and poor with Obama Care but argues he made the same mistakes as Clinton by supporting the rich at the expense of the middleclass and poor. Obama chose to follow the lead of George Bush’s plan to get America out of the economic ditch of the century by bailing out the financial industry while allowing the working class to fend for themselves. Many lost their homes as a result of banker’s lending greed and mortgage derivatives that came from Clinton’s decision to repeal Glass-Stegall. None of the banks were punished by bankruptcy because the federal government made a deal to keep them in business or subject to acquisition by bigger banks that became even larger. Poverty remained at the same level. Surprisingly homelessness was reduced by Obama’s “Opening Doors” initiative in 2010. However, the trend of aiding the rich at the expense of the working class is re-invigorated by emphasis on higher education and creativity rather than the nuts and bolts of economic prosperity that comes from job creation and a working public.

The trend of aiding the rich at the expense of the working class is re-invigorated by emphasis on higher education and creativity rather than the nuts and bolts of economic prosperity that comes from job creation.

The glaring irony of Frank’s observation led to the election of a billionaire who lauds wealth and power and cares little about the middleclass and poor. Donald Trump, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton distorted the truth, partly by lying to themselves but also by purposely lying to the public with political policies and actions that did not make the lives of the middleclass and poor any better.

Trump directly distorts the truth but Obama and Clinton lie to themselves about the value of education as the singular path to improvement for the middleclass and poor. People are not only educated by school.

People are also educated by work and their experiences in life. Not every person in America or the world is interested in having a college degree. Shared economic productivity is the key to reducing income disparity. The brilliant oratorical skills of Obama and Clinton were refined by their intelligence and education but not everyone is blessed with the same skill. Trump is no Obama or Clinton, but he appeals to many who feel they have been left behind or can be benefited by his transactional view of the world.

One may agree that economic productivity comes from creativity, education, and work. However, it does not come from emphasis on one thing but on equality of opportunity for all to be employed.

Franks’ cynicism is overwhelming. By the end of his book, which is published before Hilliary Clinton’s political defeat by Trump, one is depressed by the truth of what he writes. The second election of Trump is proof of the failure of the Democratic party, and the Republican party, to live up to a belief in social equality and equal opportunity.

Creativity is an innate human quality. Education comes in many forms which are both formal and informal.

Being employed is a government, private enterprise, and personal responsibility. It is the job of governance to create public policies that support equality of opportunity for people to be creative, educated, and employed. Equality of opportunity ensures national economic growth and prosperity.

Trump is unlikely to help the middleclass and poor any more than some of America’s past Presidents, but he disrupts the status quo. That is Thomas Frank’s answer to why Trump was re-elected.

NO EASY SOLUTION

“Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here” is an indictment of American foreign policy. There are no easy solutions for immigration, deportation, or human rights in the world.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here (The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crises)

By: Johnathan Blitzer

Narrated By: Jonathan Blitzer, Andre Santana

Johnathan Blitzer (Author, American journalist, staff writer for The New Yorker.)

“Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here” is an indictment of American foreign policy. There seems a loss of a moral center in America with its support of other governments based solely on government type, national security, or economic interest. That is not to suggest national security and economic interest are not critically important but Blitzer’s history of America’s support of Central American governments is appalling. El Salvado, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua are democracies in title but not in reality.

Blitzer tells the story of migrants from El Salvadore and Guatemala who are imprisoned, tortured, and sometimes raped or murdered by their government’s functionaries.

El Salvadoran and Guatemalan governments purport to be representative democratic republics. They are not. They have been dictatorial and punitive victimizers of their citizens. The picture drawn by Blitzer is that both are highly autocratic and riven with exploitation and arbitrary treatment of their Latino populations.

Some immigrants came to roil American communities with the only tools they were familiar with in their native countries.

Many immigrants came to America to escape arbitrary treatment by their governments. America has benefited from its immigrant labor, but some turned to street drugs and violence because of their poverty and the experience their families lived with in their native countries. Driven by self-interest, a survival instinct, and ignorance, America has deported many Latino immigrants who chose the gang life in the California suburbs. Gang life offered identity and income. Gangs like MS-13, the 18th Street Gang and other street name gangs terrorized L.A. and Southern California. The police reacted with violence by rounding up Latinos based on gathered photographs and lists of their families and friends. Some who had proven records of crime were imprisoned or deported to their families’ countries even though they may have been born in America.

America has financially and militarily supported Central America without regard to human rights.

There is a taint of McCarthyism in America’s communist categorization of Central American countries because false categorizations hides the truth. The truth is that democratic countries like El Salvadore and Guatemala have treated citizens as harshly as yesterday’s Stalin, today’s Ayatollah in Iran, and the two Assads in Syria. Reagan’s willingness to sell arms to Iran in the 1980s for money to send to Nicaragua because communism was allegedly opposed by those in power is an example of America’s political blindness. Nicaraguan, Salvadorian, and Guatemalan leadership was as corrupt as many communist countries that practiced violence, imprisonment, torture, and murder of their citizens. Whether one’s government is communist or democratic, the important issue is how its citizens are treated, not its form of government. Bad forms of government will eventually fall from the weight of their citizens’ unequal treatment, just as Syria fell in 2024. The sufferers are always the oppressed citizens and, as interestingly noted by the author, the government perpetrators who live with the guilt they feel when they retire from their military or government jobs.

What Blitzer infers in his history of Central America is that human rights of citizens should be the primary criteria for American financial and/or military support for foreign governments whether democratic, communist, socialist, or other.

National stability comes from citizens’ support of their government. Stability is compromised when human rights are denied. Blitzer implies–America should only financially or militarily support another country only if the nativist nation and culture is working toward equal human rights for its citizens. The immigrant crises in America and the world is caused by nations that do not work toward equal human rights for their citizens.

One is somewhat conflicted by Blitzers’ argument. The conflict is in an outsiders’ understanding of a foreign countries’ culture.

Human rights may be universal, but culture is made of beliefs, values, norms, customs, language, art, literature, food, fashion, social institutions, and unique symbols and artifacts of particular nation-states. This great host of characteristics is not easily quantifiable. No nation can justify rape, torture, or murder but they do exist in all cultures. Ignorance of culture is at the heart of why any country that invades, or militarily and financially supports another country, risks failure.

There are no easy solutions for immigration, deportation, or human rights in the world.

SOCIAL BLINDNESS

Criminal imprisonment, gun control, and drug addiction solutions are elusive, just as America’s eradication of discrimination is, at best, only a work in progress.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Locking Up Our Own (Crime and Punishment in Black America)

By: James Forman Jr.

Narrated By: Kevin R. Free

James Forman Jr. (Author, professor of law and education at Yale Law School)

James Forman Jr. argues Washington D.C. is a multi-ethnic democratic example of what is wrong with the American penal system, gun control, and an addiction crisis. Forman offers an eye-opening recognition of America’s social blindness. The 2019 estimated population of Black residents in D.C. is approximately 44%. Forman suggests D.C. constitutes a representative sample of what has happened and is happening to Black Americans in “Locking Up Our Own”.

Forman addresses three social issues with Washington D.C.s’ effort to legislate against the consequences of crime associated with a Black population’s gun possession, and drug addiction. America’s history of Black discrimination is well documented. The issues of gun control and drug addiction are top-of-mind issues in all American communities. What makes Forman’s book interesting is his analysis of what he argues is a nascent conservative movement in Black American society.

Forman’s argument is based on statistics and the history of Black discrimination. The American incarceration rates for Black citizens are six times higher than for white citizens. Today’s statistics show 33% percent of the prison population is Black when it is only 12% of the U.S. adult population. White prisoners account for 30% of America’s prisoners but amount to 64% of the adult population.

The fundamental issue of Forman’s book is that more Black Americans are being imprisoned for crimes of addiction and theft than those committed by white Americans.

Forman uses Washington D.C. as evidence for a Black conservative movement because of its high percentage of Black residents. He notes D.C.’s effort to legislate gun control and regulate drug addiction are arguably more restrictive than other parts of the country. Firearms must be registered with the police department. A permit is required to purchase a firearm. Concealed weapons require a license. Assault weapons are banned. Magazine capacities are limited. Safe storage requirements are mandated. In the case of addiction, the “Office of National Drug Control Policy”, ONDCP is established in D.C. The program is instituted to provide funding to support communities heavily impacted by drug trafficking. A “Drug-Free Communities Program” offers grants to community coalitions to prevent youth substance abuse. The city expands Naloxone access to citizens to reverse opioid overdose.

Forman explains these policies are supported by D.C. residents in the face of national opposition to gun control. Forman notes the proactive drug control programs of D.C.

The obvious irony of D.C.’s policies is that they do not reflect what white America promotes but suggests Black America is likely more victimized by lax gun controls and drug regulation. White America needs to get on board.

Several chapters of Forman’s book explain the difficulties of integrating minorities into local police forces.

Police department managers opened their hiring practices to Blacks based on growing Black neighborhoods and belief that police services would be improved with officers who would be more racially and culturally suited to understand policing in minority neighborhoods. Forman recounts 1940s through the 1960s police force integration. He notes police department integration is fraught with discriminatory treatment of Black recruits.

Of course, the idea of crime in a Black neighborhood being better understood by Black officers is just another form of discrimination.

Crime is crime, whether in a minority neighborhood or not. Relegating Black police to Black neighborhoods only reinforces racial discrimination. Integrating the police only became another example of racial discrimination in America. Paring white and Black policemen on petrol became difficult. Getting white and Black policemen to work together becomes even more problematic when promotions are denied qualified Black officers. As with all organizations, police promotions were based on experience and standardized testing. What police departments would typically do is promote white officers over Black officers whether their experience rating or test scores were better or not.

The irony of white resistance to gun control and ineffective drug addiction policies has had an adverse impact on Black-on-Black crime.

The culture created in formally white police departments adversely condones harsh treatment of minorities. Black officers buy into a police department’s culture and begin discriminating against Black residents in the same way as white policemen.

The 2003 brutal beating and killing of Tyre Nichols by 5 Black Police Officers.

Drug addiction is the scourge of our time. Its causes range from the greed of drug company executives to poor policy decisions by the government to escapist and addictive desires of the public. Addictive drugs are the boon and bane of society. On the one hand, they reduce uncontrollable pain and anxiety; on the other they are often addictive, causing incapacity or death.

Discrimination can only be ameliorated with education, understanding, and governmental regulations that are consistent with the rights written in the American Constitution.

Criminal imprisonment, gun control, and drug addiction solutions are elusive, just as America’s eradication of discrimination is, at best, only a work in progress. Guns in the hands of American citizens are not guaranteed except as noted in the Constitution which infers “A well-regulated Militia…” is the only reason for “…people to keep and bear Arms…” How many more school children have to be killed by guns before the lie of American gun rights is dispelled.

The last chapters of Forman’s book address his experience as a public defender in Washington D.C. This is the weakest part of his story, but it points to the theme of an incarceration system in America that is broken. Prisons are not meant to reform criminals. They are overcrowded, violent, understaffed and, most damagingly, lack rehabilitative programs for re-education and vocational training that could reduce recidivism and return former prisoners to a socially productive society.

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