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)RICHARD NIXON (37TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES)RONALD REAGAN (40TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES)RONALD REAGAN (40TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES)GEORGE WALKER BUSH (43RD PRES. OF THE UNITED STATES)BARACK OBAMA (44TH PRES. 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.
The war in Ukraine will be settled through negotiation. The same can be true in Gaza with the creation of a Palestinian state. It certainly will not eliminate conflict, but it offers a path for peace.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
All Quiet on the Western Front
By: Erich Maria Remarque
Narrated By: Frank Muller
Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970, Author, German born novelist and survivor of WWI.)
Revisiting Erich Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” is a reminder of today’s wars in Ukraine and Gaza. As a former soldier in the German army of WWI, Remarque explains how brutal war is for soldiers and their families. He shows there are no winners in war. The victims of war are the same whether they are aggressors or defenders. Putin’s ambition to restore the empire of Russia appears as foolish as Hamas’s determination to destroy Israel. The result is injury and death for all. Neither Germany nor defending Allied Powers escaped the loss of soldiers and civilians in the two 20th century wars against Germany.
The estimated injury of 109,000 and killing of 46,000 Palestinian citizens is not justified by the atrocity of October 7, 2023, when 1,200 people were killed and 253 were taken hostage by Hamas in Isreal.
Israeli leadership disagrees because of factions in Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon that intend to eliminate Israel from the middle eastern world. Rather than killing and injuring indigenous peoples of the Gaza strip, a diplomatic solution should be pursued to establish a Palestinian State. Every nation-state in the world has militant factions within their borders. Palestine, as a nation-state, would have the responsibility for controlling their militant factions just like every nation-state in the world.
Twentieth century Isreal is formed out of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria after the 1948 Arab Israeli War.
Egypt lost the Gaza Strip, Jordan the West Bank, and Syria the Golan Heights with the formation of Israel. Palestinians, like Israelis, lived in those areas for centuries. With creation of a Palestinian State, International Law and UN Resolutions can aid and diplomatically pressure governments to address nation-state claims.
History of the 20th and now 21st century show war has defeated aggressor governments but at an unconscionable cost to humanity. War’s cost is illustrated by Remarque as injury and death of aggressors, defenders, parents, and children. No one wins and everyone loses. Neither peace nor war have ended human inhumanity. Remarque clearly illustrates the folly of war, but human nature infects peace with a war mentality and ferocity. Diplomacy and negotiation for the creation of a Palestinian state is the only pragmatic solution for peace in the Middle East.
Aggressor nations, as shown by 20th century history, are eventually defeated.
Israel’s military reaction is as dishonorable as the Hamas attack on October 7th. Both are unjustifiable. Creation of a Palestinian state offers a pragmatic solution to the control of Hamas. The need for nation-state control is equally true in Syria’s and Lebanon’s Hezbollah factions. International pressure can only be exerted with nation-state recognition. Only with the creation of ethnically viable nation-states is their hope for peace among peoples of different cultures.
The war in Ukraine will be settled through negotiation. The same can be true in Gaza with the creation of a Palestinian state. It certainly will not eliminate conflict, but it offers a path for peace.
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.
“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.
Truman’s presidential accomplishments were not done alone but he managed highly educated and experienced people who got things done. He had the respect of people who reported to him, and he was tough, pragmatic, and willing to make hard decisions when circumstances required leadership.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Truman
By: David McCullough
David McCullough (1933-2022, Author, historian, winner of a Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and later given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006.)
One of the great historians of the modern age, David McCullough received the National Book Award for “Truman” in 1982. As a biography of an American President, it is among the best ever written about a President whom few regard as being in the category of Washington, Lincoln, or FDR. Every chapter is a pleasure to read because it reminds one of why many consider America the best country in the world in which to live. This portrait of the 33rd President of the United States shows a man of modest means, without a college degree, who grows to become a great manager of others and leader of a post WWII world.
President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972, President from 1945-1953.)
Thrown into the Presidency after 82 days as Vice President of the United States, Truman became President. FDR died April 12, 1945. Germany was near defeat by the Allies. Within a month, on May 8th, the Allies celebrated what is known as V-E Day, Victory in Europe Day. Truman is faced with a decision on how best to end WWII by defeating Japan. Though when he rose to the Presidency, he had not been informed about the Manhattan Project. He was fully briefed on April 25, 1945, by Henry Stimson and General Leslie Groves, leaders of the Manhattan Project. In mid-July of 1945 the first atomic bomb was successfully tested and Truman described it as “the most terrible bomb in the history of the world”.
Captain Harry Truman November 1918.
As a former veteran and captain in WWI, Truman knew what continuing the war meant to the lives of American soldiers.
As a former veteran and captain in WWI, Truman knew what continuing the war meant to the lives of American soldiers if Japan were conventionally attacked by Allied forces. He ordered the use of two atom bombs, one on August 6, 1945, on Hiroshima and a second on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. There was no official warning. Leaflets were dropped over some Japanese cities on August 6, but one suspects that was just a precedent to instill fear about further destruction if Japan refused to surrender.
TRUMAN’ CABINET IN 1945
President Harry S. Truman meets with Cabinet members in the White House. From left to right: Postmaster General Robert Hannegan; Secretary of War Henry Stimson; Secretary of State James Byrnes; the President; Secretary of the Treasury Fred Vinson; Attorney General Tom Clark; and Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal.
Truman took complete responsibility for the decision to drop the bombs.
As shown in the movie about Truman’s meeting with Oppenheimer after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Truman was put-off by Oppenheimer’s concern over postwar use of nuclear weapons. Presumably, Truman’s feelings were that many lives were saved despite the loss of Japanese citizens from the use of atomic weapons. McCullough’s depiction of Truman is that he was tough, pragmatic, and willing to make hard decisions. He took personal responsibility for the use of atomic bombs to end the war.
Truman’s whistle-stop campaign in 1948.
McCullough goes on to explain Truman’s second term election effort that began when Dewey, his Republican opponent, looked like a sure winner. Truman campaigned across the country by train. Truman’s victory and what seemed an interminable train ride was a testament to the grit and determination of this 5-foot, 9-inch dynamo.
Truman’s character description is reinforced with McCullough’s history of Truman’s relationship with General McArthur. In the early days of the Korean war, McArthur took charge of American forces and made decisions that seemed to bode well for the end of the conflict. McArthur reversed the course of the war by insisting on a risky reinforcement of American forces. It was the right move and Truman admired McArthur’s grit in insisting on the reinforcement. However, McArthur overstepped his position when he insisted on bombing Chinese cities when China escalated the Korea war. McArthur publicly criticized Truman’s administrative opposition to escalation.
Truman relieved McArthur of his command in Korea and pursued a negotiated peace at the 38th parallel. This was another tough, pragmatic, and unpopular decision by Truman. In retrospect, one recognizes it was the right decision, but Truman was markedly criticized by the press and public for his decision.
In the early days of the Korean war, McArthur took charge of American forces and made decisions that seemed to bode well for the end of the conflict. McArthur reversed the course of the war by insisting on a risky reinforcement of American forces.
One can argue McCullough’s history places Truman in the pantheon of the greatest Presidents of the United States since Washington, Lincoln, and FDR. Truman ended WWII, agreed with and supported the Marshall plan that rebuilt Europe, created the Truman Doctrine to contain Soviet Expansion, desegregated the military, established the CIA, NSA, and NSC by signing the National Security Act of 1947, approved the Berlin airlift when the Soviets isolated West Berlin, and banned discrimination in the federal workforce. Truman managed some of the greatest minds of his 20th century administration to make America the preeminent leader of the western world.
Truman’s presidential accomplishments were not done alone but he managed highly educated and experienced people who got things done. He had the respect of people who reported to him, and he was tough, pragmatic, and willing to make hard decisions when circumstances required leadership in the face of public opposition.
Every human being has their own story. Are we free if we choose to be free or are we all just programmed?
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Washinton Black (A Novel)
By: Esi Edugyan
Narrated By: Dion Graham
Esi Edugyan (Canadian novelist, two-time winner of the Giller Prize for “Half-Blood Blues” and “Washington Black”, the Giller Prize is a Canadian literary award of $100,000 for the winner.)
“Washington Black” is about a young slave growing to adulthood in the 19th century. It begins on a Barbados sugar plantation and ends in England and Morrocco after a journey that stretches one’s imagination to its limits.
“Washington Black” is an imaginative journey but it steps a bit too far when the author writes of a steerable airship carrying its two passengers into an Atlantic Ocean storm that luckily lands on a slave trader’s vessel instead of plunging into the ocean.
Despite Edugyan’s implausible rescue of Washington Black and his white English protector, there is enough interest in the main characters to keep listeners listening and readers reading. At five years of age, Washington Black who is called Wash, is rescued by a tall black slave named “Big Kit”. None of the slaves on the Barbados sugar plantation mess with Big Kit. Only the “big boss”, the manager of the plantation is powerful enough to bloody her nose without being intimidated. Big Kit becomes Wash’s protector. Wash has no idea who His real mother is, but Big Kit becomes his early guide through life.
When Wash reaches the age of 10 or 11, the plantation is visited by Christopher “Titch” Wilde who is the brother of Erasmus Wilde, both of which are the sons of John Wilde, a famous explorer-scientist who travels the world. “Titch is somewhat of a scientist himself. He meets with Wash and decides it would be good to have Wash as his aide while he pursues his scientific research.
Erasmus Wilde has responsibility for running the plantation which he dislikes but is ordered to because it supports the Wilde wealth for their father’s research. Erasmus and Titch have an older brother named Phillip that comes to the plantation to see his brothers. Phillip kills himself in front of Wash, presumably so Wash can show the brothers where his body can be found. Wash is devastated by the suicide and brings “Titch” to the site where it occurred. “Titch” realizes Wash will be accused of murdering the brother. “Titch” has found Wash to be a natural artist and can produce documentation for some of his science research. He does not want Erasmus to take Wash away and makes plans to escape. The escape is in the dirigible mentioned earlier.
The adventures of Wash accelerate from here.
As “Titch” had expected, Erasmus accuses Wash of murdering their older brother.
Both Wash and “Titch” become fugitives. The suicide of Phillip is a “red flag” that suggests the Wilde family is, at the very least, psychologically troubled. Those troubles revisit the Wilde family with events of the father, mother, Erasmus and “Titch”.
Titch’s father is declared dead because of a mistaken belief that a storm in Alaska killed him. He was not dead but chose to stay in Alaska despite the public reports of his death.
The father makes no effort to correct the mistake of his reported death. “Titch” finds that out and travels with Wash to find his father. His father is glad to see his son but is not inclined to return to civilization because of a comfort he feels in his new environment. “Titch” is pushed over the edge by his father’s lack of concern about others, including “Titch”, his mother, and remaining brother. “Titch” abandons Wash just like his father abandoned everyone in the family. “Titch” disappears in a storm and presumably dies. The father actually dies while Wash is there. Wash chooses to return to civilization and becomes a free man or at least a man who is free of slavery.
More surprises come toward the end of Edugyan’s story as Wash grows to manhood, but the author stretches one’s imagination a little too far for those who will be entertained by her creativity but disappointed by its implausibility.
Edugyan makes one wonder if anyone is truly free. Are we only programed by genetics and our experiences in life?
Every human being has their own story. Are we free if we choose to be free or are we simply programmed?
“Say Nothing” is an attempt to give listener/readers an understanding of Ireland’s “Troubles”. Patrick Radden Keefe helps one understand but it remains a complicated and confusing history because of its mix of religion and national sovereignty.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Say Nothing (A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland)
By: Patrick Radden Keefe
Narrated By: Mathew Blaney
Patrick Radden Keefe (Author, American writer and investigative journalist.)
“Say Nothing” is an attempt to give listener/readers an understanding of Ireland’s “Troubles”. Patrick Radden Keefe helps one understand but it remains a complicated and confusing history because of its mix of religion and national sovereignty. From the 1960s to the late 1980s, there were violent clashes between unionist/loyalists, who were largely protestant and wanted to be part of Great Britain; while Unionist/loyalists, who were largely Catholic wanted independence as the Republic of Ireland.
Bombings, sniper attacks, and violent confrontations caused an estimated 3600 deaths and tens-of-thousands injuries during the “Troubles”.
Not until 1998, with the “Good Friday Agreement” did the deadly conflicts cease. However, Great Britain’s Brexit, periods of political deadlock with the Northern Ireland Assembly, and debates over details of the “…Agreement” have occurred. Keefe tells a story of the build-up to the “…Agreement” in “Say Nothing”.
The Irish Republican Army that wished for Irish independence murdered Jean McConville, a mother of ten, in 1972.
The murder is puzzling because McConville is Catholic which suggests her death was either a mistake or that some Catholics were union/loyalists. Some in the IRA suggested she acted as a spy for the UK. That is a mystery Keefe fails to unravel while giving listener/readers some historical perspective on Ireland’s Troubles. Some say Marian Price was the murderer, but Keefe demurs and argues there is no concrete evidence.
Northern Ireland is over 40% Catholic while the Republic of Ireland is over 60% Catholic.
Ireland’s troubles date back to the 16th and 17th centuries when English and Scottish Protestant settlers chose Ireland as their new home. The native population of Ireland was Catholic and religious differences and land acquisition by Protestants set the table for conflict. In 1921, Ireland was split in two with Northern Ireland remaining a part of the UK but with a 40% minority who remained Catholic. A Catholic movement for civil rights in Northern Ireland began in the 1960s. Violence and political conflict ensued with the formation of paramilitary groups like the IRA (Irish Republican Army) that began bombing and shooting Protestant followers. The IRA wished to end British rule, unify Ireland, accommodate religious difference, and create an independent nation.
Over the years, there were several leaders of the IRA. Michael Collins, Cathal Brugha, Liam Lynch, Sean Stiofain, Gerry Adams, and Martin McGuinness. Gerry Adams is the leader most often referred to in Keefe’s book.
The IRA never admitted to ordering the abduction and murder of Jean McConville. The author directly asks Adams if he ordered the murder, and his response is that he has no blood on his hands. Some suggest, her murder was a collective decision by leaders of the IRA.
Both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland were ambivalent about Brexit and chose to neither entirely agree with separation from the EU nor entirely agree with the UK in its rejection of membership.
There remains a great deal of ambivalence about unification of Ireland as an independent nation but “The Good Friday Agreement” allows for a referendum on unification because of what appears to be a majority wishing to create one nation. However, Northern Ireland’s majority wishes to remain part of the UK while the Republic of Ireland wishes to remain independent. Unification seems unlikely because of their differences about being part of the UK.
It is interesting to note that the Catholic religion is the largest religious group in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, but that Northern Ireland Catholics constitute 42.3% while the Republic of Ireland is 69.1% Catholic. Keefe’s story triggers an interest in understanding the history of Ireland, but it is too long in its telling to offer clarity.
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.
Homelessness, illegal immigration, and America’s budget deficit will not be cured by reducing taxes on the rich or by tariffs that artificially increase the cost of living, or by cutting the labor force of farmers through mass deportations, or by making it easier to do business in the U.S.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Reagan (His Life and Legend)
By: Max Boot
Narrated By: Graham Winton
Max Boot (Russian-born naturalized American author, editorialist, lecturer, and military historian, writer and editor for The Christian Science Monitor.)
Not being a fan of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, there is some reluctance in reviewing Max Boot’s biography of the man. However, Boot’s writing and research offer an understanding that makes one separate Reagan’s political life from his experienced life. Boot explains Reagan’s life during the years before and after the depression.
Reagan’s father was an alcoholic which reminds one of how one’s childhood is rarely idyllic. Boot’s biography of Reagan shows one becomes who they are–despite the human faults of their parents. The way a child matures is only partly defined by parents’ influence. Reagan’s father’s alcoholism did not carry through to his son.
Boot’s biography shows Reagan to be an affable, well-adjusted, teenager and young adult who has a strong sense of what he believes is right and wrong.
Reagan is a football athlete in high school that grows to become a 6′ 1″ handsome young man from a relatively poor middle-class family. He aspires to college and works to have enough money to attend Eureka College in Illinois. He graduates in 1932 with a BA in Economics and Sociology. Reagan is remembered by classmates and teachers as a smart student and determined football player that gave him the grit and experience to become a movie star in the 1940s.
The first chapters of Boot’s biography of Reagan are about his break into the entertainment industry as a sports caster.
Reagan had a nearly photographic memory. He used that skill to recall a football game he played in college to impress a radio station manager with broadcast details of a game. He recalls a game he played in college and purposefully embellishes his role in the game. Reagan’s skill as a radio announcer led to a screen test with Warner Brothers in 1937 that launched his film career.
As WWII approaches, Reagan enlists as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Force. (The Air Force in these early days were not a separate branch of the service.)
Reagan’s experience in the entertainment industry led to producing training and propaganda films for the Army Air Force. Boot explains Reagan had significant vision problems with nearsightedness in his youth and presbyopia (difficulty of focusing on close objects) as he got older. Reagan never served in a combat role. He eventually adopted contact lenses to correct his vision; partly to please film producers who disliked the “coke bottle” lenses he needed to see properly.
Four issues that are interesting and informative in the first chapters of Boot’s biography of Reagan are 1) how affable, and well liked Reagan was to people who met him, 2) that he was well-read, 3) very handsome with a respect for women that carried through to several relationships, and 4) that though he had a sense of right and wrong, his moral center seemed to waiver between concern and indifference.
During the depression, Reagan was a strong supporter of Franklin Roosevelt’s efforts to resurrect the American economy.
Reagan seemed more like a liberal Democrat than the conservative Republican he came to be as Governor of California and President of the United States. The remainder of the book shows how that change came about. Boot notes several factors that influenced Reagan to change from a Roosevelt to Goldwater supporter. The movie industry and the growing anti-communist era of the fifties influenced many former liberals. Reagan’s experience in Hollywood reinforced conservativism.
Reagan became rich from his relationship with Gerneral Electric. The corporate culture of GE in the 1950s and 60s was decidedly conservative. When Reagan became the host of “General Electric Theater” that culture seeped into his consciousness.
In 1962, Reagan switched from the Democratic party to the Republican party. He supported the election of Goldwater who ran against President Lyndon Johnson who was mired in the Vietnam war while promoting big government social welfare programs. The influence of Goldwater and the liberalism of the Johnson polices drove Reagan to believe big government was ruining the wealth and opportunity of Americans. He adopted conservative beliefs for economic deregulation, tax cuts that largely benefited the rich, and promoted anti-communist foreign policies. Reagan’s support for conservative policies is exemplified by his “A Time for Choosing” speech supporting Barry Goldwater’s campaign for President in 1964.
In the political climate of the 1960s, Reagan, with the support of GE, runs for Govenor of California. His position as president of the Screen Actors Guild, support of Goldwater, and the public’s perception of inefficiency of state government provided a platform for Reagan to run. The civil rights movement, Vietnam protests, the free speech movement, the Watts riots in LA, and the hippie movement in San Francisco created an environment ripe for conservative reaction. Reagan is elected Governor of California twice, to serve from 1967 to 1975.
Reagan as the Governor of California.
Reagan described his time with GE as a “postgraduate course in political science”.
Reagan’s experience as Governor of California, his Hollywood image, the support of big companies like GE, and the economic issues confronting Carter, give him a platform to run for President of the United States. Todays’ Republicans hold Reagan in high regard. Some view Reagan as one of the best recent presidents of the United States. Those who hold him in high regard cite his economic policies, strong national defense and leadership during the cold war. He believed in small government, lower taxes, and conservative values. Some suggest Trump is Reaganomics second coming.
Reagan runs for President of the United States in 1976. He wins and is re-elected in 1980.
What is not fully understood by some Americans, is the accomplishments of Reagan held some very negative consequences. Some argue he was the prime mover in nuclear weapons reduction. The biography of Gorbachev suggests the prime mover was Gorbachev and his support of glasnost with an opening of Russia to western ideals.
Some, like me, would argue Reagan accelerated economic inequality by giving tax cuts to the wealthy and deregulating the economy.
The federal deficit increased from $70 billion dollars to 152.6 billion dollars during the Reagan presidential years. In comparison to Carter’s administration, the deficit was less than half of Reagan’s at $74 billion dollars. Today’s deficit has grown to 1.83 trillion dollars. Four out of seven presidents (including Trump’s second term) since Reagan have been Republican. The deficit lays at the feet of both parties.
With the election of Trump, who emulates Reagan’s policies, one wonders–how much greater the deficit will be with reduced taxes for the rich and a renewal of economic deregulation.
Homelessness, illegal immigration, and America’s budget deficit will not be cured by reducing taxes on the rich or by tariffs that artificially increase the cost of living, or by cutting the labor force of farmers through mass deportations, or by making it easier to do business in the U.S.
Trump’s purposefully uninformed knowledge of history will become a greater source of conflict in the world because he has a second term’ understanding of how the American government works and how it can be subverted with loyal followers.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Underground Empire (How America Weaponized the World Economy)
By: Henry Farrell, Abraham Newman
Narrated By: L. J. Ganser
Henry Farrell (Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, editor at the Washington Post.)Abraham L. Newman (Professor, School of Foreign Service and Government Dept. at Georgetown University.)
“Underground Empire” is not a surprising revelation in today’s media-savvy era. Every person in the world is being surveilled by someone because of the power and influence of government. Whether a democracy that believes in freedom or an autocracy that believes in absolute control, Farrell and Newman explain how “Big Brother” is watching and acting in ways that affect your life.
The potential for ubiquitous surveillance was known and wished for by some government bureaucrats. Wide social surveillance was resisted by many in the American government until 9/11. After 9/11 that resistance weakened and surveillance of the world, more fully including American citizens, became indispensable. The creation of an “Underground Empire” has weaponized privacy and the fuel of money that can heat, cool, burn or freeze national economies.
The empire’s objective is to be in charge of the future. One may take issue with the word “…Empire”. The scale of an “Underground Empire” varies from nations like America, China, the UK, the EU, Russia, and others to a group of Al Qaeda’ terrorists, or a disparate group of Syrian freedom fighters. The common denominator is technological connection, i.e. the basis of “Underground…” organization for coordinated action that changes the world.
Ferrell and Newman’s primary focus becomes the use of surveillance to influence world policy.
Particularly, the surveillance of money, the source of power and prestige, is shown by the authors to be key to understanding what other countries and interests are planning and doing that affects society. They speculate that 9/11 could have been exposed before it happened with more surveillance of the money that was being accumulated by Al Qaeda and used by the terrorists who attacked the world trade center in New York. That might be true but there is a wider consequence of that level of surveillance. Surveillance has become a weapon in the hands of political leaders. Surveillance of the flow of money, the source of power and prestige, may make “America Great” as inferred by the pending second term President. The EU, NATO, and other international organizations are looked at differently by Trump than by former post-world war’ Presidents. Trump views the EU and NATO as users of American wealth without equivalent contribution to world defense.
On the one hand, Trump objects to NATO because of its disproportionate financial burden to the United States which pleases Putin and changes the perspective of America’s role in the world. On the other hand, the authors note Trump opposed Putin when it came to the Nord Stream 2 oil pipeline to the E.U. The difference has to do with the Trump’s transactional view of the world. Because of America’s vast gas supplies from fracking, Trump sided with Texas politicians who vociferously objected to the second Nord stream pipeline to Europe.
The “Underground Empire” is not exclusively focused on money, but the use of money is based on knowledge of what people are thinking, doing, and wanting. Accumulating information becomes actionable with money. The inference by the authors is that the government’s decision to track money, as well as private information, informs one of what will happen in the future. The problem with this narrow reasoning is that national interests of countries do not always line up with each other. The formation of the EU with its own currency becomes a competitor for America, not just a useful tool for exchange of goods between nations.
Today’s playing field is not limited to major powers. As the spread of technology is mastered by the public, anyone as small as an interest group or as large as an international alliance can influence and potentially change the world. Farrell and Newman offer important understanding of that invisible war. Obvious examples are 9/11, Ukraine’s invasion, and most recently, the overthrow and exile of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. But they also reveal another front for conflict between the U.S. and countries that have traditionally been allied with America.
Histories carriers of belief in information transparency are people like Edward Snowden, Daniel Ellsberg, Chelsea Manning, Mark Felt, and Reality Winner. Snowden, a former NSA contractor, leaked classified information about global surveillance, Ellsberg exposed the lies of Vietnam, Manning exposed the WikiLeaks, Felt exposed the Watergate scandal, and Winner exposed presidential election interference in 2016. Secrets frequently kill the truth.
Ferrell’s and Newman’s book will make many even more concerned about the Trump presidency. Trump’s purposefully uninformed knowledge of history will become a greater source of conflict in the world because he has a second term’ understanding of how the American government works and how it can be subverted with loyal followers.
To make the point clearer, Trump views the world transactionally. The measure of value is most easily understood as wealth and the influence of money. Appointing wealthy sycophants to the government ensure victimization of the poor.
REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE 