Truth and Consequences
Keith Olbermann
2007
Keith Olbermann's Countdown show, weekday
evening hours on
MSNBC, has developed into the counter for Fox's right wing propaganda
lineup during the same general time period. Perhaps in conjunction with
Republican diminished public esteem during the last years of the Bush
presidency it seems to have become more popular and even eclipses The
O'Reilly Factor
sometimes. After hurricane Katrina Olbermann's blood finally boiled
over and out gushed the 1st of his "special comments", nearly 5 minutes
straight of taking apart the administration, generally for perpetually
scaring the public about terrorist attacks and the deceptions and
mismanagement of the Iraq war, which he believes was a colossal blunder
in the 1st place.
24 of those special comments, spanning the time frame from September
2005 to 2 years later, provide the substance of this book. Each is
preceded by a short context piece and the collection is flanked by an
introduction and a conclusion which time lines the Bush efforts to keep
us distracted with questionable terror threats as he grabbed more power
at the expense of our freedoms. All of it in less than 180 pages total.
Olbermann writes forcefully and well. He is apparently moved by
accumulated frustration and outrage to spew out these, perhaps
cathartic, diatribes as they come to him, not on any regular schedule.
He has a knack of exposing hypocrisy, malevolence and stupidity with
the use of history (for uncovering contradictions) and wit which makes
mainstream media look very tepid by contrast. He isn't afraid to call
the president a liar, and worse. He isn't afraid to call for his
resignation or impeachment. He isn't afraid to call out Democrats for
being "me toos". The popularity of these special comments has been
significant enough to get them published--presumably in this 1st
volume.
To pick on a point, one can still argue that however deceptive and
mismanaged the conduct of the war has been, its aims and results might
turn out to be a net benefit. One can argue that premature discussion
about withdrawal of our troops could advantage our adversaries (see
page 147). The full accounting of long term consequences has not even
begun so certainty isn't justified yet.
On TV, Olbermann frequently lights up "BillO the clown", crucifies
Hannity, Murdock, Limbaugh and Bush administration officials and
general bad guys. It is red meat for the left, tired of always being on
the defensive. The sarcastic and ironic humor thrown in make for
riveting, if slanted, viewing. None of this appears in the book,
however. And without his on-air delivery, with all the expressions and
verbal accentuations, the written comments seem pallid by comparison.
October 12, 2008
JBM
GO BACK TO TOP
The Wrecking Crew
Thomas Frank
2008
Frank wrote the surprisingly popular book, What's
the Matter With Kansas?
in 2004 and this work kind of picks up where that one left off. The
nutshell case he makes is that the political right wing of this country
has taken over because small government, deregulation, privatization,
tax cutting (for the well off) and "liberal", social spending cutting
(for the less so) Conservatives have been rewarded for their efforts by
big business and the wealthy class. The book is liberally sprinkled
with supporting examples and persuasive arguments. It joins several
other recent accounts which have finally tallied the horrendous
consequences of our market based, laissez-faire politics.
Hard line Conservatives, exemplified by Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist,
Tom Delay, Milton Freidman, Howard Phillips, Richard Viguerie, Terry
Dolan, Ronald Reagan and GW Bush, just to name some of the worst, have
fulfilled the self fulfilling prophesy--populate the government with
supportive ideologs, hacks and incompetents to demonstrate that it
doesn't work so privatizing can be justified and the favored
contractors can get our tax dollars. Then let the kickbacks roll on in.
Don't do away with regulatory agencies, just render them compliant
and/or dysfunctional. Develop low expectations and cynicism about
government and corruption becomes tolerable, even expected. Just as it
is now.
Remember Reagan's Grace Commission report in 1984? It set the stage for
privatization. Remember David Stockman's revelations that cut taxes,
trickle down economics wouldn't work? You know, the same policy John
McCain tried to sell America on during the fall 2008 campaign? Remember
NCPAC? In the name of unfettered markets, the right has supported
apartheid in South Africa and total business control of labor on
Saipan, to take just 2 examples. The right's nirvana is slavery for the
masses and all wealth and power only for the favored few. Deception and
falsehood are just tactics to that end. Suckering the religious right
and the gullible on social "values" has been a staple strategy.
Right wing radio, Fox, The Wall Street Journal and Washington Times,
various magazines, think tanks and publishing houses pour out a never
ending stream of propaganda to brain wash the unweary. Columnists,
pundits and celebrities find an easier path to prominence, status and
high income. Money buys success.
Norquist's goal is to eliminate the left. This could be effectively
done by stopping trial lawyers with new suffocating laws, using rules
to endlessly reduce labor unions, privatize all schooling, cut off
funds to cities and give Social Security to Wall Street. Campaign on
fiscal responsibility then once in office use tax cuts and lavish
spending to drive the government into starvation so it can't be
effective. As we have seen, Bush has done a magnificent job of that.
Even if the left restores a healthy government and nation, its
foundational policy of inclusion only lets the unscrupulous rise up
again to destroy.
Don't just read the book. Buy and keep the book.
November 21, 2008
JBM
GO BACK TO TOP
The Limits of Power
Andrew Bacevich
2008
This book is devoted to debunking the notion that
America has
sufficient, unlimited power, particularly military power, to control
the world to our likes. In that world we will define and determine
"freedom" and insure our right of continued consumer profligency.
Bacevich quotes Reinhold Niebuhr frequently to make his point as the
book title reflects. As a former colonel in the U.S. Army, it is not
surprising that much of this work is devoted to our military
overstepping, from Viet Nam up to the current wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. This all started with the Truman administration and Paul
Nitze and NSC68 (1950) which began the doctrine of deferring to a
coterie of wise men, surrounding the president, in the formulation of
foreign policy. Real threats were exaggerated when we were at the
height of our power. Russia was contained. But as it receded as a
threat we began to expand our influence, indulging in unnecessary small
wars and then we finally jumped to preventative warfare under the GW
Bush administration. This expansionist policy is in keeping with former
empires, which all collapsed. Former Secretary of Defense, Donald
Rumsfeld as well as Douglas Feith come in for considerable criticism as
does the "stupefying incompetence and dysfunction in" Washington.
Bacevich describes President Carter's so-called "malaise" speech as the
last honest warning from one of our presidents about the disturbing
direction we were heading and it cost him the election as the Morning
In America man, Ronald Reagan, told the public what it wanted to hear.
This set the stage for exceeding our military, economic and social
limits, something we have persisted in doing until just recently when
the financial bill was presented.
Bacevich analyzes the military draft idea and after giving the pros and
cons, gives it a thumbs down. He cites 3 illusions concerning our armed
forces: full spectrum dominance; adherence to set principles for force
employment; unending public support. Think IEDs, exit strategy and
voluntary enlistment. Additional lessons include the "new war"
necessities of nation building + political adherence, the "speed trap"
and realizing the limits of high-tech equipment. Our fighting forces
have done well but the top military brass has been lacking in providing
winning strategies ever since WWII.
More advisories are listed: war is intractable and it involves
unforeseeable risk. And at the end, Bacevich notes our prescribed
dependency which necessitates a huge military to protect us. If we were
energy independent we wouldn't need Central Command to ensure a
continued flow of foreign oil. So our military-industrial-political
complex could be behind any lagging effort to develop clean, regional
power. That may be the best insight in the book.
Finally, Bacevich concludes that we must lead in nuclear disarmament
and combating global warming. We'll see how the next president deals
with these issues.
Although quite reasonable, this short book lacks a "hook" to hang
memory on. One word might sum up the take away: caution.
November 1, 2008
JBM
GO BACK TO TOP
John Kenneth Galbraith
1996
With close to 20 previous books published, this short,
self
described essay is perhaps a fitting last read of one of the most
prominent economists of the 20th century. It can be aptly described as
a small (in hard bound form), 147 page primer on what constitutes a
society that is a credit to the world. This basic layout for the
casually interested reader is only complicated by Galbraith's typical
convoluted syntax. Parts of this essay are easy to glaze over but the
essentials provide the framework for guidance, something that is sorely
needed in the confusing agendas of today's America. It is at odds with
economist Milton Freidman's philosophy of let the market determine
almost everything, otherwise known as Reaganomics. Freidman won the
contest between the 2 and the country, and much of the world, lost as a
result.
So what are some particulars? Peace and stability stemming from making
sure that no one is left out. Government must provide opportunity for
all and support for those who fall through the cracks. The favored must
contribute commensurately. This means real progressive taxation. It
means government regulation to curb corporate excesses and to maintain
a level playing field in the private sector. It means utmost attention
to unemployment over inflation. It means responsible budgeting without
fear of borrowing for investment purposes, as the technological
innovations from new research and development plus infrastructure
efficiencies will pay off the debt and then some.
Education must be a top priority and high quality instruction must
reach out to all. America is in a self defeating cycle as poor
schooling for the disadvantaged leads to fewer job skills and economic
deprivation which culminates in poor civic mindedness. Resulting low
voter turnout by the poor allows the chosen candidates to ignore them.
Galbraith discusses the 2 types of work; interesting, intrinsically
rewarding and well paid work and repetitive, dull and dangerous
physical work which must be done to keep the society going. The latter
gets too little appreciation. A modern society must keep accepting
migrants to do many of these jobs and they should be treated well.
Perpetual growth will keep most all employed.
When written in '96 some of today's problems weren't as noticeable.
Issue can be taken with the notion of unending growth as the planet
cannot expand. Sooner or later we will have to come to grips with
reducing production to maintenance levels, if not cutting back to save
the environment and nature.
Another issue on which Galbraith differs from current decisions is in
the realm of international responsibilities. Not only must the good
society, particularly America, derive efficacious outcomes for its own
people but it must intervene, through a U.N. type organization to bring
peace, stability and sufficient standards to those countries who are
repressive and threatening. What a contrast to our do nothing stance in
regards to the Sudan and Zimbabwe etc..
Given the target audience, i.e. the relative novice to these matters
who probably doesn't have a better than average command of the
language, this is a tough book to recommend. That is a shame since it
lays out the course we should be taking--and are not.
July 14, 2008
JBM
GO BACK TO TOP
American Theocracy
Kevin Phillips
2006
Phillips divides this book into 3 essential sections in
describing America's plight: our dependence on depleting oil reserves,
our sizable minority of evangelicals and fundamentalists, the beliefs
they hold and the political power they have, and our incomprehensible
public and private debt load.
He goes into some detail about the decline and fall, from preeminence,
of Spain, the Dutch and Great Britain and uses their history to show
how it can happen to us--indeed how it will happen to us, given how bad
trends have gotten.
America has evolved, as did the others, from a manufacturing powerhouse
based on a supply of cheap and available energy and smart investments
into a financialization economy, making money by pushing around money.
The accompanying overconfidence and belief in being the "chosen ones"
for indefinite prosperity makes the comparisons more secure. Indeed,
our so-called prosperity over the last quarter century has, in reality,
been a borrowed prosperity; and the interest and principle payments
have become overwhelming.
As finite oil and natural gas supplies have been drawn down since the
Reagan presidency, the U.S. has not seen fit to develop renewable and
independent alternate sources or even curtail demand (like requiring
ever higher CAFE standards). Instead our federal government has been
captured by the giant oil companies, to which the Bush presidents are
particularly fond of. As Republican anti government regulation and tax
cut philosophy has gripped the mentality of the electorate, we have
crippled the middle class and formed a plutocracy with little economic
allegiance to the home land. The Fed., under Greenspan, has formed
stock market and real estate bubbles to temporarily temper the
increasingly visible fault lines in the process.
When the reckoning comes, say with a collapse of the inflated housing
market and speculative mortgages, coupled with unprecedented household
(credit card) debt and tougher bankruptcy laws, many in middle class
will be little more than indentured servants. And all those unregulated
debt instruments (CDOs, CDSs etc.) will be at risk, portending a
multifaced collapse and dollar decline with much higher interest rates
(which may independently come as a result of foreigners getting out of
dollars). The U.S. economic landscape may well look like 8/06 Lebanon
before it is over.
Compounding America's economic and energy problems is the sizable
minority of nut cases, i.e. supernatural believers, who are anti
pragmatic, anti science, faith based ideologs who have captured the
non-economic heart of the Republican party. They are the leading edge
of our political polarity which thwarts constructive legislative
remedies.
Phillips posits China and SE Asia as the coming hegemon, as America
fades into 2nd or 3rd rate status. The comedown will shock most of us
but an upside, given the history of the others, is that religiosity
will dissipate as it will become clear that prayer alone won't provide.
What impresses is the depth and the quality of writing. Many sources
are quoted and cited. Lesser known statistics and factors are
enumerated. Put this book at the top of your "must read" list.
18/August/2006
JBM
The long boom in U.S. financial markets came crashing
down at the
start of this millennium, from $17t (trillion) to $9t before $4t was
recovered. Many should have been shook up enough to take a closer look
at our overall stock investment structure. What they would have found,
what the author has known for many years, is that the system is rotten.
Summed up succinctly, we have devolved from an owners capitalism to a
managers capitalism in which sound, long term investment for
progressive, sustained corporate growth and general economic health has
been replaced by short term speculation (gambling) in which escalated
service costs have robbed investors of billions ($400b a year for the
last 5 years). The ascendence of "form over substance, prestige over
virtue, money over achievement, charisma over character" has
contributed mightily to the concentration of wealth the top 1% owns
from 18% in 1970 to about 40% today. This disparity is polarizing our
politics (according to Paul Krugman) as well as our class divisions.
And Bogle supplies plenty of evidence of malfeasance at top levels of
corporate responsibility and fund management. It isn't just a few bad
apples taking their perp walks, it is the now the way the system works.
Specifics include: outrageous CEO pay and perks for mediocre or poor
performance; creative accounting to accommodate inflated performance
and stock prices in exchange for hefty "advisory" fees; fund trustees
(who are supposed to act to maximize owner returns) which hire managers
at excessive costs, managers who generate fees by creating turnover,
churning that is encouraged by selling fads and "quick buck", high risk
instruments. This management class is untouchable, as our diffuse and
removed stockholders are ignorant and apathetic and congress and
administrations are comfortably "in pocket". Bogle describes how
inflated costs and compound interest robs the average investor of so
much over time.
With 2/3s of corporate America held by financial managers, fund
managers could be a force in bringing about corporate reform--but they
don't. They are as passive as the investing public. Rocking the top
heavy boat could throw many overboard and cause real reform.
And reforms are at hand if the will can be generated to emplace them.
Stockholders must become stockowners again. Corporate boards and
directors must be independent, not dependent on, their CEOs. No
auditors who also provide consulting services. Reduce stock dilution.
Insist on transparency. All-in, sufficiently quantified and publicized
transaction costs could be raised and speculative, hedge fund (see pp
120-121), outfits could be discouraged. Fund management fees could be
renegotiated, their cost per unit should go down, not up, as assets are
enlarged. Raise the importance of dividends over speculation. Bogle
calls for a congressional commission to investigate and propose
encompassing reforms.
With 15% (in 1975) to 29% (in 2003) of all corporate profits going to
the financial industry (the more they take, the less investors make)
our economy is being crippled by maldistribution of wealth and
misplaced investment. The system is as broken as our political system
which tolerates it. Stick with an index fund and hold long term-after
you read this book.
17/July/2006
JBM
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Charles R. Morris
2008
GO BACK TO TOP
Walter Benn Michaels
2006
This is a small, 203 page book and it could have been
usefully
less than that. The title might lead one to believe that this is a
critique of those who support immigration (legal or not) and the
chunking up of our great, assimilating, melting pot. Not so.
Michaels makes his case for the slight of hand going on in America in
which our purported approval of racial, gender and sexual orientation
equality blinds us to real, economic class distinctions. Indeed, the
move is afoot to garner the poor with equal respect with the middle
class and even the rich while ignoring the real injustice and hardship
those at the bottom face. It is easier to proclaim respect for all than
to give back wealth to those in need. Our national blind spot
concerning class is an example of what Daniel Goleman talked about (Vital
Lies, Simple Truths ) in the '80's.
This book probably belongs on the shelf next to What's the Matter
With Kansas?
in that it exposes a national swindle that is going on. In the last
chapter, About the Author, someone describes our national delusion
about class mobility and individual expectation. Very few are going to
move up to the "rich" category and just feeling rich, middle class or
poor doesn't make it so, although apologists for the well off would
like us to think that's true. The point is not that Blacks are poorer
as a percentage but that there are more poor whites (17 out of 37m or
45.6%) than any other category. Class diversity doesn't equate with
race/cultural diversity.
Michaels tackles affirmative action and the illusion of meritocracy. It
does no good to promote racial quotas when inadequate public education
for the under privileged means that they will fail. If we replaced race
based AA with a class based counterpart, half of Harvard's students
would have to go. The deck remains stacked. Reparations get analyzed
too. You can't restore intangibles.
And ideology, as with religion for instance, does not comport with race
or culture diversity. It is not prejudice to disagree with those who
would force us to live their way. Color has nothing to do with beliefs
but religion has everything to do with them. This nation needs to focus
on real differences, not inconsequential ones.
"The trouble with diversity, then, is not just that it won't solve the
problem of economic inequality; it's that it makes it hard for us to
even see the problem." Conservatives ignore the economic problem (or
feel the poor deserve their status and hardship) and liberals treat the
poor as minorities who deserve equal respect rather than concentrate on
redistribution.
Coming from an English professor it is not surprising that there is a
fair amount of confusing and repetitive argument in this book but the
central thesis is noteworthy and ancillary points deserve our
attention. It will be interesting to see how often this work is
referred to in the coming years.
19/January/2007
JBM
The premise, and its corollaries are sound and deserve
to be
explored. Loosely regulated, market capitalism and corporate America
(and other large corporations) have turned us from productive citizens
into infantalized, all consuming adults. We have become increasingly
identified not by who we are but by what we own. Private life has
replaced civic involvement. The so-called "free market" actually
undermines democracy and real freedom.
Capitalist markets go after those that have enough and neglect those in
real need of material resources (advertisers spend over $200b a year in
the U.S. to get us to buy what we don't usually need). Barber asserts
that north America and western Europe, with 11.5% of the world's
population, controls 60% of consumer spending while Africa, with 11% of
the world's population, controls only 1.2% of consumer expenditures.
/Not only is there this imbalance but the consuming citizens have been
rendered feckless and undiscriminating in their buying habits as world
wide mass marketers try and cut costs. Ubiquitous advertising persuades
us to buy "brands". Fast food franchises, which eliminate distinctive,
local restaurants, are a prime example of this. And our enculturated
addiction to shopping is not leaving us happier as our lives seem
increasingly hollow. Evermore distractions (and/or medications) are
needed to relieve accumulating stress, alienation and depression.
The 18 item list of infantilazion examples on page 83 is worth
examining. Reduced, they involve going from HARD to EASY, COMPLEX to
SIMPLE and SLOW to FAST. Media examples abound.
"Privatization also places inviable costs on taxpayers and allows
market institutions to appear more cost efficient and inexpensive then
they are." When quality, not just quantity, is factored into
measurements, truer reality is exposed. And "Inequality is not
incidental to privatization, it is its very premise." The well off try
and shed the public sector, reducing or eliminating redistribution, in
favor of their own private "commons". Currently, "...the federal
government 'spends about $100 billion more annually for outside
contracts than it does on employee salaries,'...". Hiring on the basis
of connections and favors rather than abilities (read FEMA) "justifies"
outsourcing. It is harder to hold private contractors accountable.
The American consuming cultural pathology is rendering the country
incapable of repairing itself. Sacrifice for the common good and civic
involvement are so alien to most that only a deep national shock is
likely to alter current priorities. When congress cedes control and
presidential candidates are marketed like products the public
withdraws. Our debt now cripples any huge investment in change.
In terms of remedy approaches for the poor, 2 of 3 make sense. Small
loans and legal property ownership would get more people out of
poverty. /For all its good points, Consumed wastes a lot of
pages
extensively fortifying peripheral ideas in an obscure lingual
presentation. Lots of readers will put this convoluted work down before
absorbing the embedded gems of illumination. Too bad.
Two final notes to also ponder: We can't be competent citizens and
obsessive consumers at once and "...the earth's biological capacity
stands at 42 acres per person, on average we use 57 acres per person."
August 17, 2008
JBM
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December Surprise
James K. Galbraith
Mother Jones 7&8/2008
Foreclosure Phil
Davis Corn
Mother Jones 7&8/2008
Two insightful articles concerning America's economic
predicament and housing crisis appeared in the July/August MJ
magazine along with a running time line (by Nomi Prins) recounting the
steps that got us to the housing bubble and collapse. If you care about
either and are under informed, pages 38-43 will be worth your while.
Galbraith posits that interest rate cuts by the Republicans to goose
the economy before an election hasn't had the desired effect, this time
even when the stimulus checks were added. Too many unsold houses remain
in the market and there is still too much distrust in the lending
world, given all the packaged sub-prime potential defaults still to be
uncovered. Even prompt paying home owners are getting financially hurt
by their declining housing values. With decreased property values,
state and local governments will have to raise taxes or decrease
services. Interest rates can't fall without fueling inflation.
Consumers will consume less, driving up unemployment.
Galbraith is concerned about the stability of the dollar. Will
foreigners rush to get out before they lose even more due to its
decline? The economic turmoil of such a rush could well cause a world
economic nightmare. And we're in enough trouble as it is.
During the presidential campaign, attention has been paid
to the
candidate's associations. But there are associations, like reverend
Wright and there are advisors. And until Phil Gramm was taped
complaining about "whining Americans" he was an out front, leading
economic advisor for John McCain. And even after he was supposedly let
go, Gramm has appeared again nearby. Gramm was a Senator who was
primarily responsible for the housing market deregulation that has led
to the sub-prime mess. He made his money flacking for big business
which wants to rape and run our economy into the ground. Corn
specifically refers to the Commodity Futures Modernization Act which
opened up all kinds of trading schemes for business. The Fed was either
over its head in understanding these new deals or didn't care enough to
investigate and rub Gramm the wrong way. Tax payers are now doing the
bailing.
The time line runs from 1913 to the present. 72 dates describe how we
got from there to here. Senators Garn and St. Germain got us the
savings and loan mess with their Depository Institutions Act in 1982.
Gramm had his hand in gutting the Glass-Steagall Act so that banks and
security companies could merge. And so it went.
Keeping Gramm around should, by itself, be sufficient to reject McCain.
August 15, 2008
JBM
GO BACK TO TOP
This book follows up on Phillip's previous work, American
Theocracy
but confines itself to updating the financialization of our economy and
the recent fallout. It is a bland, abstract subject involving numbers
and Phillips' syntax isn't the easiest to get through so only a few
won't dodge this analysis. But since economics is the back bone of any
culture, understanding it and making course corrections is vital to
long run prosperity if not survival.
The thesis is that empires have fallen as a result of, or concomitant
with, the conversion to financialization. Phillips chronically compares
our situation with the down fall of the Spanish, Dutch and British
empires. It is a subject that is getting no attention amidst all the
cited causes for America's economic bubbles (dot.com, credit and
housing), the gulf between the rich and the rest and the onset of
stagflation.
Insufficient attention has been paid to the role of the Republican
administration's (including Clinton's) treasury secretary and Federal
Reserve in propping up a sagging economy by deceptive means over the
last 30 years. This has assuaged our concern over the export of
manufacturing jobs in order to capture international corporate market
share and maximize short term profits (and let's not forget the
associated top executive compensation increases). What we have turned
to is using our wealth to invest in buyouts, using too much leverage
and debt in the process of churning ownership. Taxpayer bailouts have
increased risk and undermined the credibility of the economist Milton
Freidman's mantra that the unregulated marketplace will solve all of
our problems. New debt instruments have made understanding risk almost
unpenetrable. Securitized Debt Obligations, (the packaged sub prime
mortgages etc.) have loaded the financial world with booby traps that
are not only causing lenders to restrict loans, compounding recession,
but have damaged America's financial credibility. Throw in the falling
dollar which has robbed foreign investors of billions and it isn't any
wonder that oil prices here have skyrocketed and that this country is
unpopular.
Phillips discloses that a Financial Working Group was set up by Reagan
which was to act as a Plunge Protection Team in order to maintain
investor confidence and limit any stock market run. It is unclear how
intrusive the Team has been in manipulating the futures market but with
all the concern about speculation in oil futures, there is need for
investigation. However, it is likely that the subject is too
politically sensitive even for a Democratic congress.
Phillips contends that real (M3) statistics would reveal a runaway
inflation over the last year so the CPI understates the problem. He
concludes that "American financial capitalism...[has]...financialized a
[formally] more diversified economy...using massive quantities of
debt..follow[ed] up a stock market bubble with an even larger mortgage
credit bubble...roughly quadrupling U.S. credit market debt [over the
last 20 years], a scale of excess that historically
unwinds...consummating these events with a mixed performance of
dishonesty, incompetence and quantitative negligence."
If you want to really understand the underpinnings of our economic
problems then check into this book and wade through it.
June 30, 2008
JBM
The Age of American Unreason
Susan Jacoby
2008
Susan Jacoby fires a shot at a vital, almost entirely
ignored
target but for the most part, she just grazes the rim. Too much space
is wasted on personal and anecdotal cases when broader evidence is
required. Too much space is given to our 20th century history when the
same point could be delivered more concisely. Too much emphasis is
given to the importance of learning about old fiction as a measure of
intelligence. Today's "intellectual" must spend more time and attention
on the real, non-fiction world because it is so much more complex.
Having said that, this is a book that takes on the scope of our
ignorance and the stupidity it spawns. The problem is so wide and deep
that she isn't sanguine about recovery, and there is plenty to support
that contention. TV driven "infotainment" and "junk thought" lead a
credulous public to uncritically accept whatever is shouted the loudest
and longest. Fundamentalist religion, an uneven but at best a mediocre
education system and the disappearance of fair minded intellectuals
with access to the general public share in the causal decline of
dissemination of important knowledge. Even a growing body of scientists
are being compromised by corporate sponsors while they are being
discredited by ideologs.
There are bright spots here also. Jacoby isn't afraid to link
diminished understanding to the accent of fundamentalist religion. She
traces how, particularly in the South and Midwest, this plays out in
acceptance of creationism, which denies scientific method and in some
cases even causes belief in an impending Armageddon. Poor schooling
results in low math and science grades even as state standards are
dumbed down. TV and computer games and entertainment sites sap precious
reading time. This isn't new material but many don't recognize it. And
which political leader(s) will step up and tell us the truth about this
crisis when a huge segment of the population resents anyone even
seemingly intelligent?
There are a number of enlightening passages: "When the dumbing down of
culture is seen as a collection of largely unrelated problems,
concerned leaders...can only offer solutions that nibble at the edges."
"Americans must recognize that we are living through an over arching
crisis of memory and knowledge involving everything about the way we
learn and think. Such a recognition would have to come from ordinary
citizens as well as their elected representatives, from
nonintellectuals and intellectuals alike. ...we must give up the
delusion that technology can supply a fix for a condition that,...is
essentially nontechnological." Finally, "The nation's memory and
attention span may have already sustained so much damage that they
cannot be revived by the best efforts of America's best minds." "There
is little evidence to indicate that Americans have either the desire or
the will to lessen their dependency on the easy satisfactions held out
by the video and digital world..." The dumbing down is ingrained. It
leads to bad economic, political and social decisions. We'd rather have
a beer with our president than spend time with one that has a much
better command of the issues. Real learning, and communicating, is
work, and we aren't up to it. Our fat bodies are being matched by our
fat heads.
You can pass by this book but not the message it delivers.
June 1, 2008
JBM
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Eric Brende
2004
Subtitled Flipping the Switch On Technology,
this 233 page
book, with no index, is a narrative of the author's journey (with his
wife Mary) from the Boston region to an undisclosed Amish type
community somewhere in the Northeast. It is also a journey back in
time, to when farmers were more self sufficient. The experiment lasted
something more than a year.
The Brendes rented a small farm and proceeded to plant with the
generous help of the landlord and many in the area. The narrative
details the adjustment to less technology and how the community coped
with doing without electricity and mechanization. What comes through is
the correlation between downscaling and increased cooperation. Every
one pitched in with the plowing, the planting, the harvesting, the
manufacture of goods, the barn raisings and so forth. All seemed to be
out of debt. Brende also found out that despite the apparent dawn to
dusk manual labor there seemed to be more free time than working
urbanites have. He also got in good physical shape even while there
were temporary concerns about his laziness.
Much of the book dwelt on relationships with neighbors and more distant
"Minimite" community members. Some were more religious than others,
some more strict than others. This was not an Amish community.
Outsiders, like Brende himself, who wanted to get away from the rat
race brought their priorities and beliefs with them.
The Brendes became more converted as they meshed with the others and
gave up their last amenities, finally trading in their car for a horse
and wagon. This didn't work out too well as Mary was allergic to horse
dander. She had a home birthed baby after lots of preparation but such
deliveries are scary as something can occasionally go wrong. But they
go wrong in hospitals too.
The Brendes eventually bought a farm on the other side of the region
but didn't keep it long. Suddenly they were gone--back to the Boston
area where he drove a cab then bought a rickshaw. He converted his new
house to a low cost B&B for added income. More children were added
to the family. They home schooled the kids but the parents spend less
time together. They barter their home made soap.
Brende's findings: it is generally better to find a simpler, less
technological solution for accomplishing objectives. 3 reasons: a
machine costs more, machines atrophy human capacities, a mechanical
entity readily overwhelms or subverts its purpose. Exceptions occur
when mechanization saves labor, transports more efficiently, especially
over longer distances and telephones are necessary (but TVs, computers
etc. apparently are not).
There is not much to take away from this book and with so many more
important ones out there to read, this one can be consigned to
frivolous escape. Brende found another way to make some income.
May 5, 2008
JBM
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Chalmers Johnson
2007
Nemesis is the 3rd book in the Chalmers trilogy
dealing with the rise of the U.S. to empire status. Blowback
and The Sorrows of Empire
preceded it. "Nemesis" is the goddess of retribution and we are in the
process of being paid back for our ill considered expansion, military
and otherwise.
Chalmers describes our addiction to bases around the world (over 700
Main Operating Bases, Forward Operating Sites and Cooperative Security
Locations) and the "Morale, Welfare & Recreation" (MWR) facilities
which often accompany them. He documents some the abuses perpetrated by
our overseas personnel on foreign populations and our high handed
attitude which is part of the reason that they hate us. Okinawa is a
prime example. Given that we have no foreign bases here, Americans have
little appreciation for what others have to put up with. And since we
can get other nations to pay at least part of our over seas bases
costs, there is little incentive to bring our boys home to annoy our
own populations at our expense.
A chapter is devoted to describing and comparing our status with that
of the Roman and British empires. A distinction is that Rome became a
dictatorship and still couldn't hang on to its holdings while the
British gave up their empire to save their democracy. We still don't
know which way America will go but with more power being accumulated by
the President in the face of a fully corrupted and compromised,
moribund congress, the outlook isn't good.
CIA black ops, renditions, torture, indefinite detention, invasions
such as Iraq, space control (missile defense systems don't work and
just waste $billions), executive secrecy, domestic spying and
"privatization" are all heading us down the dictatorship path. Spending
to create billionaires and indebtedness to foreign lenders will
inexorably determine decline if not implosion. The multiplicity of
problems and demands for redress will overwhelm our "representative"
government. In a triage situation the only question is who will be hurt
most, and how will they react.
Not much of this should come as a surprise to those paying attention to
what is going on. It is worse than most Americans realize, or want to
understand. However, our head in the sand response will only insure the
unwelcomed outcome.
October 15, 2007
JBM
Free Lunch
David Cay Johnston
2007
Deer Hunting With Jesus
Joe Bageant
2007
Unlike other authors who describe the American
condition, Bageant
comes from a working class background in a Western Virginia small town
and he isn't afraid to characterize the locals, and at times himself,
in a very unflattering way. And using published figures (e.g. almost
1/2 of the US population is functionally illiterate, our median credit
rating is supposedly 678, 41m US voters but 70m gun owners, 80% of our
hospitals are non-profit but they are a leading cause of bankruptcies
etc.) he extends his descriptions to red county, rural America in
general. This is a portrait of our under class done in a way that
conventional media never mentions.
Bageant defines working
class as those without the power to control their own work; 60% of us.
This contrasts with the illusion of a material based, middle class
status perpetuated by the media. But Bageant's description of our
majority is more like that of an under class composed of ignorant,
passive, hate filled, escapist, self defeating, Christianity bewitched,
work driven debtors who will keep voting against their own best
interests--and ours. He defines the real middle class as the "catering"
class of professionals and semi pros which serve the demands of the
rich at the expense of the majority and comprise about 20% of us. This
definitional perspective should be given our full attention, as it
aligns with the realities which our promoted "hologram" does not.
Chapters include outsourcing, mortgages, guns, theocracy, the
Scots-Irish Borderers and Lynddie England of Abu Graib infamy, our
health care system and the control of our lives by TV and oil. Through
it all the downgrading of a meaningful educational system is between
the lines if not in type. One result is that "economic conscription"
fills our military ranks. The infiltration of home schooled Christians
into our political system is another cause for alarm. It is also
furthering the militancy of our foreign policy.
Bageant is brutal in a way that should shake the reader up. The class
he discusses won't read this book because they don't read any books, if
they can read anything substantial at all. The real middle (catering)
class won't want to be called out for their complicity in our "show me
the money" obsessed culture. Those that have managed to climb up
believe in the free market ideal of every man for himself. They wind up
callous if not down right cruel. All live in a falsely unthreatening,
conservative "zone of ignorance". Liberals are generally too passive
and diverse to form a counter movement against the incessant
conservative media pitch which has warped so many. So we are all
trading real freedom and privacy for comforts and perceived security.
We trade captivation by corporate America for a hollow, temporary,
material boost. And we are handing off a country more bereft than the
one we got.
THIS IS A MUST READ BOOK for anyone trying to understand what went
wrong with this country. And more and more are beginning to realize
that our system isn't working any more, if it ever did. Deer
Hunting With Jesus is the new De Tocqueville's Democracy In
America.
March 8, 2008
JBM
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god Is Not Great
Christopher Hitchens
2007
The subtitle, "How Religion Poisons Everything", and
purposely
using the lower case g, gives the reader a strong hint at what's
coming. And Hitchens runs the gamut of castigations. No major religion
is spared although special vituperation is reserved for the Christian
and Moslem faiths. Presumably, Jews haven't had a large enough
following to be as abusive.
The familiar critiques are laid out in a rather jumbled fashion. The
history of fundamentalist military atrocities and the depths of
depravity carried out even to this day in the middle east, and
elsewhere, are described. The social repression, the preying on
innocents, the promotion of needless fear, the corruption, are all
highlighted. It is clear that Hitchens has gotten around and seen a lot
of the subject matter first hand and he has mined the Internet for
further support.
The Bible and Koran are shown to be heavily revised works which makes
true, literal believers look ridiculous even without dismissing their
common sense in the face of self contradictions and empirical
impossibilities. Stories about Abraham and Moses are taken apart.
Hitchens asserts that there is no provable record of Jesus (nor any
direct quotations by him in the Bible). The hadith, which many Muslims
take stock in, are merely anecdotes passed along without factual
confirmation. The Mormon foundation is based on a self promoter who had
convenient "revelations" to suit his immediate needs. [Mitt Romney
might be questioned more closely on this. If he is that gullible, how
can he be trusted to govern the U.S.?] Hinduism and Buddhism are
touched on and cited for their ridiculous beliefs. It is all
embarrassing to human kind.
Hitchens takes on creationists and so-called intelligent design. All
the evidence favors adaptation and survival of the fittest. There is no
credible evidence for the alternative. Through the ages, religion has
offered explanations for the unknown. As science has found the answers,
belief has had to roll back further and further and this continuing
process makes its importance increasingly untenable. Consequently,
those who can't stand the thought of human mortality, with no after
life, are even more desperate--and repressive.
From Catholic promotion of Nazi fascism and other violent regimes to
the more recent capitulation to Muslim hoards, religion has never come
in for its just condemnation. Here it does. However, there are 2 faults
to find. First, a linear case, building to a climax is not made. It is
as if Hitchens just put his notes together without any connective
tissue. But, more importantly, the prose is more obscure than need be.
If the target audience are the less well educated, religious fence
sitters, this writing will put them off and the book down, unfinished,
its message unabsorbed. Hitchens does write like this and it is likely
it has hurt his popularity. Some will dismiss this book as a tirade. It
should be viewed as--about time.
August 27, 2007
JBM
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The Big Con
Jonathan Chait
2007
Bill Moyers, on his PBS' Journal show, invited readers
to suggest
the book that the new president should take with him to the Oval
Office. This is the book. It is the book that every voter
should read before casting his ballot this year. It is the book that
everyone who wants to know what has been going on and cares about this
country's future should be familiar with. In this book Chait lays out
how the radical right has taken over the Republican party and made
America's former political center into the definition of leftist (and
therefor a demon) politics. Although there may be policy oscillations,
the economic Conservatives keep moving the overall economy their way.
This is why the middle class finally feels so strained and why the
right fights ever harder to keep the majority from deciding its future.
William Buckley and Barry Goldwater implanted the seeds which Ronald
Reagan eventually promoted with the advent of supply side economics
which were preposterous for a healthy society. But with stagflation in
the Nixon years, win-win gimmickry, rich support and general ignorance
this idea crept into mainstream thinking because the traditional media
didn't do its job of denouncing it. Instead it let critics from the
left battle the advances of the right as if both had an equally good
case to make. In the process, Reagan's tax hikes, after his cuts for
the rich weren't matched by spending cuts, were walled of from public
awareness and all manner of attributes were given to him in order to
sell the right's debilitating hokum. An obvious example of deviousness
was the GW Bush tax cuts for the rich to rebate government surpluses in
2000, then to stimulate the economy even though Clinton's denounced tax
hikes resulted in debt reducing revenues as the economy prospered. As
all this transpired, K street took over Tom Delay's Republican congress
of '92 and controlled economic legislation. Until their overthrow in
2006, they ruled with an iron hand, freezing out Democratic input and
bipartisan accommodation. New lows were reached in congressional
conduct in order to achieve their minority enriching goals.
Given that the right wing controlled Republican agenda is an issue
loser, the right has campaigned on character and has been successful in
defining Gore as an exaggerating and dull "intellectual" and Kerry as a
flip-flopping patrician. Both men were unable to overcome the swift
boat type smear tactics and neither was John McCain in the 2000 South
Carolina primary. Gore and Kerry retreated from the field and McCain
joined up with his back stabbers in a classic case of "if you can't
beat them, join them".
The media, particularly the 3 major networks, defending their image of
objectivity, have passively let all this happen with nary a protest,
which would be labeled partisan by the Fox types who admit up front
that they back the right.
This short (265 page) reprise of why we have gone off the rails of
economic sanity is must reading for anyone who really cares about this
country and their children's future. Unfortunately, that isn't many of
us. 5 stars and a bravo.
February 15, 2008
JBM
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Against All Hope
Aramando Valladares
2001
It is no wonder that Cuban exiles in Miami and
elsewhere have
never dissipated their hatred for Fidel Castro and his regime in Cuba.
Not if even half of this book is true. It is a wonder that he hasn't
been universally vilified for the mass political murders and torture
that has reigned in Cuba during the latter half of the 20th century. It
is a disgrace that he hasn't been tried in absentia. The fact that the
UN and the Catholic church not only looked the other way but acted as
enablers brings more shame and disgrace on those organizations and
their leaders.
Valladares was arrested in 1959 for denouncing Communism, even as
Castro himself was doing the same on Meet the Press;
before he admitted to being a Marxist after all. Many of those who
supported the overthrow of the Batista dictatorship were arrested as
counterrevolutionaries by Castro's political police if they criticized
the direction the new regime was taking. Guilty until proven innocent,
many were shot at La Cabana prison and others were given long prison
sentences in Castro's gulag on the Isle of Pines. And many of the
living under those conditions would envy the dead.
The horrors are portrayed in meticulous detail. The constant beatings,
the confiscation of clothing, the semi-starvation, the humiliations,
the infested and blacked out punishment cells, the horrid heat and
terrible cold, the lack of medical attention, the lack of basic
sanitation, the forced hard labor and the constant lies used to coerce
men into joining Political Rehabilitation Program are spread out before
the reader as the decades went by.
Still in all, a core of resisters endured. Valladares (and others) went
on hunger strikes and were deprived of sustenance until they were
almost dead. However, there grew to be just enough outside support in
other countries to keep Castro from commanding the murder of the author
and a few others because Valladares was able to keep smuggling out
notes and poems to his mother, sister and eventual wife. After
surviving scurvy, pellagra and edema due to starvation and severe
confinement, Valladares was physically rehabilitated for public
relations purposes before being deported. Eventually, he moved to
Florida after some world renown.
What some people are capable of will shock the naive. The brutality was
monstrous and makes our GITMO facility seem like a vacation resort. Yet
the double standard is still in place because we fail to make our case
adequately. Also surprising is the resolve of the tortured. A few never
broke and some died instead. Valladares used his faith for support, a
trust in God which a godless regime couldn't penetrate.
The only question is how the author could recall so much over so long a
time. Smuggled notes, forming a diary, probably helped. And some people
have "total" recall. In any case there is enough to indict Castro for
the monster he has been and abstain from any cooperation with his
tyranny and any successors. The US is right to stand firm and should
promulgate, more forcefully, these reasons why.
August 3, 2007
JBM
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Welcome to the Homeland
Brian Mann
2006
If you read What's the Matter With Kansas
(reviewed in
2005) you'll be familiar with the contents and assertions contained
within this book. For those who haven't, Mann describes the conversion
of American rural voters from the Democrats (albeit conservative
Democrats) to a solidly conservative, religiously dominated Republican
party after the FDR revolution in mid 20th century. While Thomas Frank
describes rural rubes as self defeating, no nothings, wallowing in
victimhood, Mann make the case that these cultural reactionaries,
comprising only 20% of the population, are actually the tail wagging
the political dog. Since the Reagan presidency they have accumulated
power by solidifying behind Republican candidates while the "metros",
those within the urban boundaries and surrounding enclaves, have been
more likely to split their allegiances. Coupled with our built in
structural favoritism such as the 2 Senators per state regardless of
population, the gerrymandering of the House districts and hand picking
of Conservatives in our courts, let alone electing 4 Republican
presidents (remember Clinton governed as a moderate Republican) in the
last quarter century, rurals have not only held their own on cultural
issues, they have garnered more than their share of federal largess
(e.g. $440 per person in Montana, $350 per person in the Dakotas as
compared to $40 per person in Texas and Florida). And it doesn't take a
political scholar to understand that the rural dominated Senate can put
a stop to any one-man-one-vote reform.
Mann takes his Conservative brother on a tour to rural America and they
debate philosophies and priorities through much of the book. There are
a few interviews of other social repressives and lots of author
speculation about how they came to their positions but no
confrontations with important, right wing leaders. This makes for a
less scholarly work than say Kevin Phillips' American Theocracy
(reviewed in 2007) but it hones in on the real and growing divide
between the rural and metro mentalities rather than the spilt between
conservative and moderate religious factions. Each side thinks it is
right and looks down on the other.
There does seem to be a contradiction when Mann asserts that rural
power is waning due to continued migration into metro areas (ever
narrowing the margins in gerrymandered House) and the alienation of the
increasing Hispanic population by supporting tighter border controls
and sanctions against illegal immigrants, and this book came out before
Dems swept back into office in November. But even with a narrow margin
in the Senate, nothing will be accomplished when Republican Senators
band together and filibuster.
If you are a liberal, or just someone who wants to change America's
direction, this book should make you mad. The priorities of ruling
class corruption, our debt, the obscene distribution of income and
wealth, global warming, universal health care and better education
should come before banning gay marriage, controlling abortion,
minimizing gun control, prayer in schools and banning flag burning.
Carl Rove dictated playing to the base and divisiveness and it has
worked while left side apathy reigned. Now the results are coming in
and the big majorities don't like what they see. The divide is still
there but will the rural mentality be put back in the closet? We'll
have a good idea in the next 2 years.
May 1, 2007
JBM
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All the Money in the World
Peter W. Bernstein & Annalyn Swan
2007