Requiem for the American Dream, Noam Chomsky

Requiem for the American Dream:  The 10 principles of concentration of wealth and power by Noam Chomsky.  I cannot remember why I picked this book to read.

Started: 4/12/2019

Completed: 4/12/2019

Recommendation: Recommended for people who do not know the reasons why wealth discrepancy is important

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

I like that Chomsky is able to put together a concise set of opinions.  I like that he takes the time to back up those opinions with references to source material.  This book is a very clear statement of how I feel about the economy.  It is written better than I could write it.  It is a quick and easy read.

Devil's Bargain, Joshua Green

Devil's Bargain:  Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising by Joshua Green.  Yeah, I'm still trying to get my arms around how Trump became president.

Started:  3/30/2019

Completed: 4/11/2019

Recommendation: Slightly Recommended

Recommended By:  Nobody

Words for which I sought help:

argot--the jargon or slang of a particular group or class.

Review:

"Like Trump, Bannon had cycled through multiple marriages and was rich, brash, charismatic, volcanic, opinionated, and never ruffled by doubt."  Interesting correlations between the two men.  To have such a long list of unflattering adjectives (and I particularly enjoyed, "never ruffled by doubt") applicable to both men as good ways to describe each draws interesting parallels that one would normally expect to cause clashes between them.

Bannon comes off as one would expect.  Hyper-partisan and remarkably cruel.  If that is your expectation walking in, then this book simply validates that.  If you expected the book to humanize Bannon, it does.  It is just that the humanization is pastel and the ugly is neon.

The Wizard and the Prophet, Charles Mann

The Wizard and the Prophet:  Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World by Charles C. Mann is a book that I read about in one of several liberal magazines I read (maybe, Mother Jones?).

Started: 3/6/2019

Completed: 4/8/2019

Recommendation: Recommended

Recommended By:  A book Review

Review:

A scientific look at how to handle finite resources of the Earth.  One (the wizard) argues that technology can lead to more efficient use, the other (the prophet) argues that what we have must be conserved and the Earth must be protected.  Both came to these conclusions at the same place looking at the same data.  Amazing.  Both have become prominent in environmentalism (from high technology approaches to organizations that strive to conserve resources).  Both are viewed as fundamental to the different approaches they envisioned.

It was fascinating to get the stories of these men's lives and the work that they did.  How they both effectively destroyed their personal lives trying to make the world a better place.  How each thought the other a fool.  Yet, there is so much to learn from both of them and while there are true believers on both sides, there is a space where both ideas overlap and it feels like both will be needed.  What a great book.

Battles for Freedom, Eric Foner

Battles for Freedom:  The use and abuse of American history by Eric Foner is a collection of his essays from The Nation.  I enjoyed his essays which are a stand out in the publication.

Started:  3/25/2019

Completed: 3/30/2019

Recommendation: Not Recommended

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

In many ways and on many issues, I agree with Eric Foner.  Several of these essays are very dated.  Some were prescient.  His writing style is fairly smooth and the message is so familiar, it is easy to anticipate the following sentence while still finishing the leading sentence.  I did not particularly enjoy the book, although I did find some of the writing funny (it was intentionally humorous).

Can You Hear Me?, Nick Morgan

Can you Hear Me?  How to connect with people in a virtual world by Nick Morgan is a book recommended to me by my wife who thought I might find it helpful while teleworking.

Started: 3/21/2019

Completed: 3/25/2019

Recommendation: Not Recommended

Recommended By:  My wife

Review:

Nick Morgan might be a genius.  He might not.  His recommendations on how to run a virtual meeting cannot possibly work.  I'm lousy with people, but even I can see that pressing people to answer how they are feeling at the beginning of every meeting cannot possibly be a good idea.  I wonder if people who work with Mr. Morgan feels he comes off creepy, but just can't tell him directly.  Alternatively, maybe he is so incredibly charismatic that he can personally say anything and his meetings run fine.  I'm quite certain, however, that if I implemented his suggestions mine would not.  Not recommended.

The Threat, Andrew McCabe

The Threat:  How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump by Andrew G. McCabe is a natural book to read after having read Comey's A Higher Loyalty.

Started: 2/23/2019

Completed: 3/20/2019

Recommendation: Highly Recommended

Recommended By:  Stephen Power (he posted that he was reading it on his Twitter account and told me that it "holds up")

Review:

I really like the balance and understanding of this book: "...[The Clinton Administration] wanted so badly to see [democracy and free-market capitalism take root in Russia] that they failed to understand how firmly organized crime had taken hold in all of the former Soviet republics...You have to wonder what might have happened if the US government had taken Russian organized crime more seriously during those years--but beyond a certain point, it's also pointless to wonder.  Nobody can see everything."

"The job of working counterterrorism [sic] is to...foil plans of attack which meant to pitch the world into a black hole of anxiety and fear..." seems obvious.  Nonetheless, it is simply not stated.  Nobody thinks of this who isn't involved in the details of counter terrorism.  Terrorism seeks to cause terror, so, of course, counter terrorism works to stop things that might cause terror.  Makes sense.  Counter intuitive in a weird way.  It is certainly worth remembering that this is the goal of counter terrorism.

"[I] [s]hould have understood that whatever we concluded about [Hillary Clinton's email server investigation] was not going to be thoughtfully considered but rather ground to powder for political warfare....When is the right time to act from skepticism and cynicism, rather than from faith in a society you have always believed in?"  Shows a man who works hard to think things through.  He appears to be someone who considers past decisions and tries to learn from them.  These are both good qualities and the qualities we hope for in executive positions within the government.

As a whole McCabe did a good job of explaining himself and showing how and why he made the choices he did.  It definitely holds up!

The World As It Is, Ben Rhodes

The World As It Is:  A Memoir of the Obama White House by Ben Rhodes tells the story of the Obama white house.  I heard about this on National Public Radio.

Started:  1/31/2019

Completed: 3/5/2019

Recommendation: Highly recommended

Recommended By: NPR

Review:

I listened to this book during my commute while I was reading Cliff Simms book (Team of Vipers).  Both Ben Rhodes and Cliff Simms held similar positions at the White House and the difference is stark.  It is truly amazing.  The contrast is so intense, it is worth reading both together and alternating chapters or something like that.  Highly recommended.