as ive mentioned COUNTLESS TIMES before within this BLOG, ive spent a CONSIDERABLE amount of time overseas.  more than a quarter of my life was spent collectively ABROAD growing up in NIGERIA, SPAIN and KUWAIT as well as later working in countries like MYANMAR, VENEZUELA, ALBANIA and JAPAN.  honorable mention is a summer semester ABROAD in CYPRUS when they first opened up their DIVIDED BORDER in 2003 but that is neither here nor there.  even though ive been back STATESIDE for almost a decade now, i feel that ORIENTATION to see the UNITED STATES through the PRISM of the world has never really left me and is something that unfortunately ACTIVELY ISOLATES me from those without SIMILAR EXPERIENCES.

such is why i appreciate listening to the CROOKED MEDIA-produced POD SAVE THE WORLD PODCAST cohosted by FORMER OBAMA ADMINISTRATION AIDES BEN RHODES (DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR) and TOMMY VIETOR (NATIONAL SECURITY SPOKESMAN) that attempts to REFRAME CURRENT GLOBAL EVENTS and AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY through an INFORMED VIEWPOINT that takes into consideration a MYRIAD of OUTSIDE PERSPECTIVES.  and to tell you the truth, that is what SEPARATES their PODCAST from the other CROOKED MEDIA VEHICLES over the years as FOREIGN POLICY is endlessly COMPLEX and EVER-EVOLVING as it attempts to consider the ECONOMIC, IDEOLOGICAL, CULTURAL, STRUCTURAL, DIPLOMATIC and GEOPOLITICAL STANCES of a whole host of INTERNATIONAL STAKEHOLDERS.  RHODES and VIETOR as much as they can attempt to PROCESS and PRESENT USEFUL INSIGHTS and INFORMATION primarily to a DOMESTIC AMERICAN AUDIENCE, articulating why such is of PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE. 

being OVERSEAS for so long, ive long INTIMATELY UNDERSTOOD how DOMESTIC POLICY DECISIONS affect our standing OVERSEAS as the world looks to us as a PROMINENT EXAMPLE to either MODEL (CULTURAL PLURALISM, MARKET CAPITALISM, INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY, FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS) or avoid (overturning of ROE V. WADE, invasion of IRAQ, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION DALLIANCES with FOREIGN AUTHORITARIAN DICTATORS).  something ive noticed since relocated back STATESIDE is the DISCONNECT between our SELF-PERCEPTION as AMERICANS and how such is received ABROAD.  truthfully i am just thankful that POD SAVE THE WORLD is a VENUE for maintaining that CONNECTION to a BROADER CONTEXT and educating myself about the TRUE IMPLICATIONS of our POLITICAL DECISIONS.  all of this in spite of VIETOR being a total UNREPETANT MASSHOLE with all that implies (CELTICS, RED SOX, PATRIOTS) and even some that i didnt know til quite recently (DUDE is a MILTON ACADEMY ALUMNUS).  its actually painful for me to say i respect the GUY.

definitely a POLITICAL PODCAST worth checking out.

speaking for myself as COMMON LAYPERSON, the CONFUSING labyrinth of ENDLESS LEGAL MANEUVERING and POLITICAL TOMFOOLERY at the heart of the FEDERAL PROSECUTIONS of FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP by consciously PARTISAN ACTORS in the supposedly UNBIASED JUDICIAL SYSTEM has been at best DUMBFOUNDING and at worst completely DEBILITATING.  the fact that just a few months from the election his CYNICAL SHENANIGANS have been startlingly EFFECTIVE in sidestepping ACCOUNTABILITY through PROSECUTIONS for CORRUPT ACTIONS that are of PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE to the republic and its REPUTATION both DOMESTIC and ABROAD is beyond MADDENING and a continued DEEP STAIN on the JUDICIAL SYSTEM as a whole.

and yet ive seen this before having lived in NIGERIA under SANI ABACHA, VENEZUELA under NICOLAS MADURO and ALBANIA under SALI BERISHA.  the cultivated state PROPAGANDA manufactured with DIRECT INTENTION to coerce the population around a CULT OF PERSONALITY of its LEADERSHIP.  the mechanisms of such CORRUPTION are nothing new, but the hope when TRUMP came on the scene was that our FEDERAL INSTITUTIONS would serve as a BULWARK against attempts at such TYRANNY.  the fact that our JUDICIAL SYSTEM seems to be buckling at the pressure due to the WANTON ABANDONMENT of STARE DECISIS at the SUPREME COURT level and the rubber stamping of PERVERSE TRUMP LEGAL MANEUVERING at the FEDERAL LEVEL (via JUDGE CANNON of the southern district of FLORIDA) is giving me flashbacks to past election frauds i witnessed abroad against MOSHOOD ABIOLA and LEOPOLDO LOPEZ.

luckily there is the WEEKLY PROSECUTING DONALD TRUMP (MSNBC, 2024) PODCAST that provides LEGAL and HISTORICAL context to the myriad of PROCEDURES, and LEGAL STRATEGIES at play throughout the PROSECUTIONS of TRUMP over the past year.  hosted by MARY MCCORD and ANDREW WEISSMANN, both FORMER GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS with IMPECCABLE CREDENTIALS and EXTENSIVE LEGAL EXPERIENCE (MCCORD as a FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR with the US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE and WEISSMANN as FORMER GENERAL COUNSEL of the FBI), their conversations at times can get a bit WONKY and OPAQUE to a common, UNINFORMED CITIZEN like myself but i very much appreciate their assumption of INTELLIGENCE from that of their audience.  what i gain from this PODCAST, as well as the SIMILARLY-THEMED STRICT SCRUTINY () PODCAST, is the piece of mind that there are supremely INTELLIGENT and COMMITTED OFFICIALS thinking deeply through the options of the AMERICAN PEOPLE in defending itself against WOULD-BE TYRANTS and WANNABE DESPOTS who seek to overthrow our COLLECTIVE WAY OF LIFE.

i cant recommend the PROSECUTING DONALD TRUMP PODCAST enough, as it no doubt has successfully decreased my BLOOD PRESSURE numerous times over the past year, despite constant efforts to the contrary by the latest never-ending stream of HORRIBLE NEWS regarding LEGAL MALFEASANCE and POLITICAL INTERFERENCE by BIASED ACTORS within the JUDICIARY.

i was a sophomore at a boarding school in NEW ENGLAND when i basically devoured and too to heart the stridently POLITICAL LOS ANGELES ALTERNATIVE METAL BAND SYSTEM OF A DOWN's lyrically and sonically INCENDIARY eponymous debut album SYSTEM OF A DOWN (AMERICAN, 1998), so much so that as part of a WORLD HISTORY class assignment tasked with us researching an UNDERREPORTED CULTURAL EVENT, i wrote about the ARMENIAN GENOCIDE.  looking back it was a POWERFUL EXPERIENCE writing that essay, because some TURKISH EXCHANGE STUDENTS caught wind of my topic and repeatedly, albeit somewhat respectfully, argued forcefully and passionately that such was the stuff of FANTASY, inherently NONFACTUAL and at worst a RACIST lie against TURKS perpetuated by THE WEST.  so of course i included that whole series of exchanges in the paper itself to state how such was still very much a real, living concern and point of EXTREME GEOPOLITICAL CONTROVERSY some 80+ years after its occurrence.

and its occurrence, despite AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY to the contrary up through BIDEN ending such in 2021, was and still is an historical fact.

i mention this because SERJ TANKIAN, the ARMENIAN-AMERICAN SONGWRITER / COMPOSER / ACTIVIST and CELEBRATED VOCALIST of SYSTEM OF A DOWN, in his RECENT memoir DOWN WITH THE SYSTEM (HACHETTE, 2024), makes clear the depths of how his MUSIC and POLITICAL ACTIVISM are not separate entities, but INTERTWINED EXPRESSIONS for combatting that are rooted in a self-image that is defined by the GENERATIONAL TRAUMA incurred by his family and the goal of UNIVERSAL RECOGNITION of said PAIN and ANGUISH.  i am almost certain that for most readers of this book, i.e. OBSESSED METALHEADS, there will no doubt be much DISAPPOINTMENT at the amount of ARMENIAN HISTORY imparted at the expense of TRADITIONAL ROCK N ROLL fair about the INTERNAL DYNAMICS of the BAND, their origins and HIDDEN meanings behind FAMOUS tracks.  that is all there but its not the FOCUS in the least.  in fact, his role as an ARTIST is largely an outgrowth of his ACTIVISM, which he has been involved with since his teens in LOS ANGELES as an IMMIGRANT from BEIRUT, where he was born and lived til age seven. 

i feel like for the longest time, especially in the many years since SYSTEM OF A DOWN became a DORMANT entity in favor of ever more UNCOMMERCIAL and AVANT-GARDE releases by TANKIAN, there has been a dearth of information regarding the indefinite hiatus to the fanbase.  there are plenty of examples of prominent CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS starting side projects that scratch an ARTISTIC itch, but such is usually communicated as such to the public.  such MUSICIANS include MAYNARD JAMES KEENAN (TOOL, A PERFECT CIRCLE, PUSCIFER), PHIL ANSELMO (PANTERA, DOWN, SUPERJOINT RITUAL), DAVE GROHL (FOO FIGHTERS, THEM CROOKED VULTURES), CHINO MORENO (DEFTONES, CROSSES, PALMS), TOM MORELLO (RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, AUDIOSLAVE, THE NIGHTWATCHMAN, STREET SWEEPER SOCIAL CLUB), MAX CAVALERA (SOULFLY, KILLER BE KILLED, CAVALERA CONSIRACY), DAMON ALBARN (BLUR, GORILLAZ), SLASH (GUNS N ROSES, THE CONSPIRATORS), THOM YORKE (RADIOHEAD, ATOMS FOR PEACE), JACK WHITE (THE WHITE STRIPES, THE RACONTEURS, THE DEAD WEATHER) and COREY TAYLOR (SLIPKNOT, STONE SOUR).  in those cases the main thing remained the main thing.  with SYSTEM OF A DOWN there was much interest, but no information, just a bunch of random SELF-INVOLVED EXPERIMENTAL albums by TANKIAN and the SCARS ON BROADWAY vehicle for GUITARIST and SONGWRITER DARON MALAKIAN.

what is learned through this memoir is how truly COMPLICATED the INTERNAL DYNAMICS of SYSTEM OF A DOWN truly were, even at the peak of their creative powers in the first half of the 2000s.  most of this was between TANKIAN and MALAKIAN, who each vied for CREATIVE CONTROL of the BAND.  MALAKIAN (and the rest of the band) effectively wanted an UNAMBIGUOUS DELINEATION OF LABOR whereby he wrote the MUSIC and TANKIAN wrote the LYRICS, with some MINIMAL overlap.  over time TANKIAN wanted more CONTROL over the MUSIC, ground MALAKIAN was UNWILLING to cede.  publishing splits also entered the picture but really ARTISTIC CONTROL is what caused TANKIAN to step away from the BAND blaze his own INDEPENDENT path.  in one of the most POTENT admissions in the book TANKIAN accepts that the STRIDENT manner in which he put himself out there politically belied a more INTIMATE INABILITY to effectively confront his own friends in the BAND regarding PROBLEMS he (alone) saw in their CREATIVE PROCESS and DECISION-MAKING PATTERNS.  his subsequent solo career and MYRIAD of outside collaborations thus worked as a means of reclaiming that PROCESS.  that CONTROL.  and thus almost twenty years after the release of MEZMERIZE (AMERICAN, 2005) and HYPNOTIZE (AMERICAN, 2005) there has not been a new SYSTEM OF A DOWN album.  this memoir in part is his explanation of such, as well as introduction to his POLITICS and ACTIVISM for the uninitiated, to a still RABID fanbase waiting for NEW MUSIC.

i get the feeling that the wait will continue UNABATED since TANKIAN is likely to hold the BAND and his audience HOSTAGE indefinitely, EXPLANATIONS notwithstanding.  its not that i dont understand his RATIONALE, its just that BANDS are inherently not DEMOCRACIES, so its CONFUSING and a bit ANNOYING how NAIVE he comes across aspire for SYSTEM OF A DOWN to be one.  BANDS are more than not usually dominated by KEY MEMBERS vying for POWER and RECOGNITION (and often publishing).  see NOTORIOUS examples like OASIS, VAN HALEN, METALLICA, THE SMITHS, FLEETWOOD MAC, GUNS N' ROSES, THE POLICE, BLINK-182, NEW ORDER, PANTERA, THE KINKS, SONIC YOUTH, CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL, THE EAGLES, SMASHING PUMPKINS and even THE BEATLES.  not everyone can be SENSIBLE and COMPASSIONATE like U2, RADIOHEAD, COLDPLAY, REM and RUSH who share royalties evenly.  the norm is the quite the OPPOSITE.  they are the exception.  SYSTEM OF A DOWN is a SINGULAR BAND with a UNIQUE aesthetic and their fans have long suffered through DYSFUNCTION, INACTIVITY and a dearth of NEW MATERIAL.  they lose in the end as they are stuck with these SELF-INDULGENT TANKIAN side trips that arent particularly COMPELLING. 

​just get the BAND back together already.

when the NBA rebounding LEGEND and ALL-AROUND CONTRARIAN DENNIS RODMAN somehow forged the most UNLIKELY of FRIENDSHIPS a decade ago during the OBAMA ADMINISTRATION with NORTH KOREAN DICTATOR KIM JONG UN, it seemed BIZARRE and something from an outright SURREAL PARALLEL UNIVERSE / ALTERNATIVE REALITY / FEVER DREAM.  the HERMIT KINGDOM and the CULT surrounding its REPRESSIVE REGIME has been something of INTERNATIONAL PARIAH since its inception in 1948, with the RULING KIM FAMILY DYNASTY solely responsible for being the ARCHITECTS of EXTREME OPPRESSION against its own people with countless INTERNAL CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY subjected on such.  without a doubt, the closed off society of NORTH KOREA is one of the LEAST-UNDERSTOOD civilizations on EARTH.

and that is where this INTRIGUING DYNAMIC initiated by RODMAN comes into focus.  as part of a birthday celebration for the AUTHORITARIAN, who is known to be a MAJOR BASKETBALL AFICIONADO, RODMAN organized a game in PYONGYANG between the NORTH KOREAN NATIONAL TEAM and a group of RETIRED NBA PLAYERS.  the OBVIOUS TENSION comes from the fact that the UNITED STATES does not have FORMAL TIES with the DPRK and that what RODMAN, despite his NAIVE ASSERTIONS to the contrary, is operating in a form of UNAUTHORIZED DIPLOMACY.  this CONSCIOUS utilization of SPORTS to foment WARMER RELATIONS between COMMITTED ADVERSARIES is nothing new, as PRESIDENT NIXON did something similar with the CHINESE TABLE TENNIS national team before his arrival in BEIJING back in the 1970s. 

for all of RODMAN's BUFFOONERY and seemingly JUVENILE antics, deep down it is DIFFICULT to not see his LOGIC in how helping turn down the temperature in terms of INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS benefits everyone.  on the other hand, his involvement and UNCRITICAL eye towards the REALITY of the situation in NORTH KOREA, where he stayed at LUXURY hotels and resorts and was constantly directed by MINDERS who tightly controlled all INTERACTIONS in a TRUMAN SHOW-like fashion, RODMAN made himself a PAWN for DOMESTIC PROPAGANDA purposes CRITICS attest.  remember that NORTH KOREA is fast becoming a NUCLEAR POWER with potential INTERCONTINENTAL BALLISTIC MISSILES that could leave the UNITED STATES homeland VULNERABLE.  the stakes could not be higher in terms of that NONEXISTENT BILATERAL RELATIONSHIP for the security of the world.

probably the most IMPACTFUL aspect of DENNIS RODMAN'S BIG BANG IN PYONGYANG (JOURNEYMAN, 2015) documentary was how it provided an INSIDER'S PERSPECTIVE from RODMAN's camp of the whole adventure.  much was made in the press about the his trips, but to actually witness such FIRST-HAND as a FLY-ON-THE-WALL VOYEUR is a special thing, especially when you tag on that such took place in NORTH KOREA, one of the most REPRESSIVE and TIGHTLY-GUARDED MEDIA ENVIRONMENTS on the planet.  you really get the sense of how truly naive RODMAN was throughout the SPECTACLE and how that INTERNATIONAL pressure broke him along the way as he fell off the wagon and ended his gains in SOBRIETY that he had fought so hard before to maintain.  obviously RODMAN is an ODD MESSENGER, but the fact remains that DIALOGUE, especially with one's ENEMIES, is of PARAMOUNT importance.  more so when they have NUCLEAR WEAPONS at their disposal.  the consequences of miscalculation are CATASTROPHIC and LONG-LASTING, so any efforts to mitigate such should be applauded, right?

and that quandary stays with you long after the film has ended.  what is the most BENEFICIAL COURSE OF ACTION with NORTH KOREA?  ISOLATION or DIALOGUE?  i dont know the answer but such makes this film beyond POIGNANT a decade later as the WORLD has only become an undoubtedly more VOLATILE, VIOLENT and downright SCARY place in the interim.

im halfway through an MBA program and currently in the midst of a summer course on BUSINESS LAW.  only a week or two in and most of the CONCEPTS ive already become intimately FAMILIAR with being a REGULAR listener to the STRICT SCRUTINY PODCAST via CROOKED MEDIA (i.e. the same FINE folks that brought the world POD SAVE AMERICA).

in today's POLITICAL CLIMATE where there is so much HEARSAY, HALF-TRUTHS, COMPLETE LIES, MISINFORMATION, DISINFORMATION and ALTERNATIVE FACTS on display it is practically a PUBLIC SERVICE that the hosts, all LAW PROFESSORS, in LEAH LITMAN (MICHIGAN), KATE SHAW (UPENN) and MELISSA MURRAY (NYU) cut through the shit and address the heart of the matter, especially when it comes to all things JURISPRUDENCE.  i have to say, the thing i appreciate most about STRICT SCRUTINY is that they do not dumb it down for their audience and are UNFAZED by getting into the weeds on an issue.  by deep diving into the CONFOUNDING MECHANIZATIONS, ARCANE PROCEDURES and OBSCURE LEGAL PRECEDENTS that govern how our society is structured and processed through the JUDICIAL SYSTEM, we all come out with a BROADER and more complete INFORMATIVE appreciation of the COMPLEXITY and intent behind said SYSTEM.  or at least understand with more SPECIFICITY where it all broke down (cough, cough, SAMUEL ALITO, cough).

with all that is up for grabs this november, it is nice to know that at least i have one PODCAST that will help explain to me what the hell is going on, especially with regard to the LEGAL maneuvering by DONALD TRUMP and his acolytes, as well as the SUPREME COURT. 

for that i am eternally APPRECIATIVE.  if anything, it empowers me and keeps my mental health at bay.

as television journalist RACHEL MADDOW transitions away from CABLE NEWS and into more DELIBERATIVE vehicles like BOOKS, DOCUMENTARIES and PODCASTS, she has come to be an arbiter of NUANCED research and an EFFECTIVE presenter of CORROBORATED FACTUAL INFORMATION in an age of HYPE, MEDIOCRITY, and MISINFORMATION.  it is almost like her and her small team of producers are attempting to become PBS in terms of attention to DETAIL.

such is the case with her recent RACHEL MADDOW PRESENTS: DÉJÀ NEWS PODCAST (MSNBC, 2023) that connects HISTORICAL ANALOGUES to the modern-day tactics and conscious AGGRESSION of the AMERICAN RIGHT and the CREEPING and ever DEVOLVING FASCISTIC leanings of the GLOBAL CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT.  its definitely a COGNITIVE BIAS (and probably a bit narcissistic as well) that people feel like today's PROBLEMS are specific to us and our CURRENT historic moment.  what this PODCAST conveys is how we can look to the past to see the thinking behind reactions and strategies to OPPRESSIVE measures by REGRESSIVE governments and political parties in order to inform our decisions in the current political atmosphere.  for me personally, i find it OVERWHELMING and DEPRESSING to watch the NEWS, mostly because it feels beyond the influence of the population. i lived through the IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN wars, even saw some of its cost upfront during my time growing up in KUWAIT, and can palpably remember how the whole affair felt like a predetermined forgone conclusion and the HELPLESSNESS that instilled in me.  with DÉJÀ NEWS it feels EMPOWERING to the individual because there are concrete steps communities employed to combat events like REVERSE FREEOM RIDES in the 1960s, or the eradication of ABORTION RIGHTS in MODERN POLAND or the lack of political (and frankly military) will from NATO to confront RUSSIA head on with its AGGRESSION in UKRAINE.  REGULAR people making a difference in the face of major human events. 

again i found it all incredibly EMPOWERING.  and i definitely encourage everyone to check it out.

i have to say, one of my key coping mechanisms throughout the who TRUMP ADMINISTRATION was listening to the POD SAVE AMERICA podcast.  if you are not familiar with it, the podcast is basically several former OBAMA ADMINISTRATION staffers who share their insights into the mechanisms and insider baseball of AMERICAN politics.  sounds wonky, and at times it can be, but it is these conversational podcasts are done with humor, honesty and a sense of duty in informing the electorate.

they also are not trying to hide the fact that they are all DEMOCRAT operatives who functioned at the highest echelons of power, so take that as you will.  they acknowledge their bias and dont make attempts to shield their perspective.  specifically, the panel is made up of former OBAMA ADMINISTRATION speechwriters JON FAVREAU and JON LOVETT,  spokesperson TOMMY VIETOR and strategist DANIEL PFEIFFER.  regular guests on the program include former DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR BEN RHODES and former DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF ALYSSA MASTROMONACO.  behind the scenes there are also several prominent staffers as well so it very much feels like a family affair.

its funny, whenever i dip my toes into listening to sports commentary on radio or cable television i am keenly aware of what actual athletes (current and former) say.   i always take that experience as being a deeper insight into the processes of preparation and execution that make up being a high-level athlete.  same with politics to an extent.  my experience of the TRUMP ADMINISTRATION consuming media was one where i felt constantly unrelentingly barraged with half-truths, misinformation and disinformation to such an extent that the ground seemed to shifting beneath me.  i could feel myself being gaslighted since, much to my own chagrin, i am not sophisticated or have the intestinal fortitude to wade through all the shit.  what i like about POD SAVE AMERICA is that you get a feel for how a functioning administration works.  not a perfect one.  not an idealized one.  just the hard lessons made from making mistakes in the field.  to me that is the value of listening to their podcast.  you get a sense that there is a series of protocols and procedures and hierarchies and command structures and internal information gathering services created by well-intentioned, competent people attempting to make a positive difference.

i'm telling you, if there was a REPUBLICAN version of this, id listen to it immediately.  no question.  i find it even more intriguing to learn about processes that inform decisions i dont agree with.  but this is all i have as most of the current conservative conversation online is beyond toxic and engulfed in a mindless cult of personality at the moment.

we will see what happens.  there has to be some former BUSH or REAGAN officials that can pull this off.  just saying.  my only real criticism is how prominent the male presence is with the panel, but they are well aware of such and have numerous CROOKED MEDIA-branded affiliated podcasts by comedians and operatives that showcase the diversity and concerns of a wide and complex national electorate, including that of HYSTERIA and POD SAVE THE PEOPLE.  i look forward to seeing where they take the program during the upcoming BIDEN ADMINISTRATION.

i was suggested this book by a history teacher in high school.  it was the end of my sophomore year at a NEW ENGLAND boarding school and i had made the decision to join my parents the next year in KUWAIT.  i had previously attended middle school in NIGERIA and had some familiarity with PAN-AFRICAN politics but none of that prepared me for THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X: AS TOLD TO ALEX HALEY (GROVE PRESS, 1965).

this was a book that pulled no punches and described an upbringing spent in the midwest under the thumb of segregation and overt racism. MALCOLM X, so self-monikered later in life from his birth-name MALCOLM LITTLE as a means of denying the name imposed on his family by a past slave master, was a man constantly in search of an identity which mirrored that of his following and really, AMERICA writ large.  this book describes a leader and intellectual with a singular gift for oration and a sense of well-placed fiery righteous indignation.  he is an interesting counterpoint to MARTIN LUTHER KING JR in his pre-HAJJ period in that he called for revolution. with a more than a hint of MARCUS GARVEY, he called for using all available instruments of persuasion and even coercion, a fight fire with fire  strategy to ensure political rights.  to some he is a patriot and others an insurrectionist.  i side with the former.

again, for me the context of reading this book was my move to a MUSLIM country for the first time.  whats interesting about MALCOLM X is that he belonged to the NATION OF ISLAM, an ISLAMIC-adjacent religious community that followed the controversial teachings of ELIJAH MUHAMMAD.  given his background it makes sense that MALCOLM X would find a home within a community that promoted BLACK NATIONALISM and the political, economic and cultural empowerment of such therein.  now the NATION OF ISLAM is well outside of the mainstream of modern ISLAM, and this book gets into that friction which to me was the most interesting aspect of his life's trajectory.  

when i arrived in KUWAIT in the late summer of 2000, it was around the same time i got to the part of the book when MALCOLM X goes on his HAJJ to MECCA.  for those that are not familiar, a pilgrimage to the holy city of MECCA in SAUDI ARABIA and bearing witness to the KAABA, or "The House of God," is mandatory religious duty of all MUSLIMS that have means and are physically able to do so at least once in a lifetime.  for MALCOLM X this journey was a revelation.  his religious and political belief system was very much intertwined with perceptions rooted in internal AMERICAN politics, attitudes and deep-seated beliefs regarding RACE.  on pilgrimage he was stunned to see MUSLIMS of all ethnicities joining together as one religious community.  like i said, this was a revelation and changed the tone of his politics until his death.  it also marked his second conversion, this time to SUNNI ISLAM.  with that conversion came a more muted political outlook that sought nonviolent means of persuasion in the pursuit of personal and political freedoms which found him more in line with the teachings of KING.  this was his evolution.

for me this book was an introduction to the politics with ISLAM, something that provide a point of empathy in the post 9-11 period as well as my later time spent in MUSLIM-majority communities in ALBANIA and KOSOVO as a PEACE CORPS volunteer.  this book gave me some sense of how religion cane be a deeply unifying and positive force fo connecting with others, even those that wish you harm.  religion cane be a base of empathy.  my time visiting SARAJEVO (BOSNIA) as well as KUKES (ALBANIA), PRIZREN and GJAKOVA (KOSOVO) taught me that in spades.  this book only becomes more prescient and relevant as AMERICA continues to navigate and negotiate a tension within ourselves and our body politic to come to terms with our RACIST and SEGREGATIONIST past.  to me MALCOLM X is a manifestation of that tension and his evolution serves as a reminder of what we can accomplish with a collective sense of moral strength and personal courage to evolve together.

i recommend this book to anyone interested in history that is complicated, counter-intuitive, entangled, passionately debated and highly instructive.  could not recommend it any more strongly.

i think for a lot of AMERICANS, myself included, there has been a desire to understand what happened on election day in 2016 and what led our country to such a precipice that a troglodyte like DONALD TRUMP could even come within striking distance of the reigns of power.

WHY WE'RE POLARIZED (SIMON & SCHUSTER, 2020) is an attempt by former WASHINGTON POST columnist and VOX founder/editor-at-large  EZRA KLEIN, utilizing copious published studies, opinion pieces, political science treatises and statistical and behavioral analysis to answer the basic conceit of what forces have led to our current state as a society and a democracy that appears to be in a state of rapidly unraveling.  it is a multi-pronged analysis but essentially there are two basic ideas that buttress his whole argument. 

the first is the concept that we all have multiple identities (race, gender, sexual orientation, class, geography, education, occupation, sports team preference, etc) that can be activated in order for us to respond in defense.  a benign example is the abuse i get from RED SOX fans who are friends of mine every time the YANKEES lose a consequential game (and oh they know how that irks me).  what is interesting is that many of these identities are stacked with regards to a particular political party.  this wasn't always the case.

pre-CIVIL RIGHTS ACT the AMERICAN electorate was not "sorted" as it is now with regards to these stacked identities.  it used to be that people voted split tickets, meaning that they would vote a REPUBLICAN for senator and a DEMOCRAT for president, or mayor/education board/dogcatcher.  it used to be that some DEMOCRATS were more conservative than some REPUBLICANS and vice versa, the political affiliation not being specific to a set of policy preferences.  in a sense, local concerns ruled their priorities.

while we were not divided as now, this was due largely to the fact that the DEMOCRATIC party allowed the DIXIECRATS to rule unabated with their draconian and racist methods of suppressing the BLACK vote through intimidation and state-sanctioned violence.  the modern era of polarization happened as a result of this agreement ending with the CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1965 and the basic handing of the south to the REPUBLICANS.

ok, enough history.  so what?

basically with the advent of television, then cable news and later the internet and all its omnipresent mobile apps and social media and associated flood of voter information, we are now living an age were the business models of technology promote and actively seek out to activate these stacked identities and manipulate us collectively at scale.  its quite remarkable.

we are essentially polarized by interests that seek to manipulate us for financial and political advantage and the mechanism are these deeply rooted identities that create an atmosphere where you are no longer voting policy, you are voting identity.

he makes other points about structural issues surrounding our democracy that relate to various outmoded parliamentary processes that diminish our ability to compromise and promote instability, but i will save that for interested readers.

needless to say this is a wonky book that i did not do just but recommend fiercely to anyone interested in the mechanisms of government and how they affect how we self-identify as AMERICANS.  this should be required reading in high schools.

my first teaching job was at my old high school in KUWAIT.  while there i taught expatriate kids associated with foreign political, military and petrolemum industries, as well as well-connected and extravagantly wealthy KUWAITIS.  how rich?   like FORBES 100 rich.  but it was interesting because depending on the birth order of the KUWAITIS, you either had kids that were model students or absolute disasters.  it was a total either/or situation.  i remember introducing myself to the kids, telling them that i had previously lived and taught in NYC and one freshman student took me aside later after class and confided in me that she had been to NYC twice, for rehab.  at 14 she was battling a heroin addiction.

what i realized about many of the KUWAIT children was that they were often severely neglected, being raised by nannies, having to live up to the name of absentee parents.  they were in essence traumatized victims.

it was those former KUWAITI students that came to mind repeatedly when reading TOO MUCH AND NEVER ENOUGH (SIMON & SCHUSTER, 2020) by clinical psychologist MARY L. TRUMP about the developmental psychology associated with her uncle and the current UNITED STATES PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP.  it is an incredible perspective she brings as both member of the TRUMP clan (who obviously is knowledgeable of his personal and family history) and that of a trained expert in identifying psychological disorders and psychoses, for which she has taught and collaborated in the writing of textbooks on.

as you may expect, TRUMP's diminished empathy and cognitive deficiencies trace back to his childhood, where like his four siblings he was neglected by his parents.  the TRUMP household in QUEENS was one were FRED was the undisputed patriarch and his hostility towards his family and own children knew no bounds.  his needs and his ego was what need to be satiated and he had no use for his family.  MARY is the daughter of FREDDY, the eldest son of FRED, and he serves as the example of what happens when you don't live up to the expectations of the father.  essentially you are wiped out and forgotten.  his untimely death in his early 40s from the effects of acute alcoholism brought shame on himself and eventually his children being written out of the family will.

it's a merciless, zero-sum, dog-eat-dog world within that household where empathy, love and basic decency are devalued and wealth and greed are conflating with having value.

younger brother DONALD was profoundly affected by these family dynamics and learned never to capitulate or admit you were wrong in anything, as being vulnerable had no use to FRED.  he only respected "killers."  as MARY argues, FRED in essence "short-circuited Donald's ability to develop and experience the entire spectrum of human emotion" leaving him in a state "today [that] is much as he was at three years old: incapable of growing, learning, or evolving, unable to regulate his emotions, moderate his emotions, or take in and synthesize information."  quite literally his need for affirmation is insatiable and such a personality trait leaves us all vulnerable to bad actors manipulating him with false praise and flattery.  for him it doesn't even matter where it comes from, it is "so great that he doesn't seem to notice that the largest group of his supporters are people he wouldn't condescend to be[ing] seen with outside a rally" as MARY astutely points out.

and that is the problem we all face now as the whole national apparatus has enabled him, essentially "the government as it is currently constituted, including the executive branch, half of Congress, and the majority in the Supreme Court, is entirely in the service of protecting Donald's ego."  this is our collective reality now.  we are all in essence the pawns in his attempts to demonstrate value to his long dead father.  to show that he is worthy of his admiration and love.

yes, DONALD is a victim of his father, FRED.  along with his siblings he was the victim of child abuse, especially neglect.  he was raised in a household that traded in sadistic humiliation and soul-crushing isolation.  MARY is not advocating for sympathy on his behalf from the reader, far from it.  she is placing his behavior and histrionics within a psychological and family context as only she can to help inform voters for the upcoming 2020 election.  god bless her for that.

with 200,000 AMERICANS having perished from this EARTH as a result of his daddy issues, it is incumbent on all of us to  heed that warning. 

​go out and vote.

much like its predecessor FEAR (SIMON & SCHUSTER, 2018), legendary WASHINGTON POST journalist BOB WOODWARD's second book on the TRUMP ADMINISTRATION entitled RAGE (SIMON & SCHUSTER, 2020) provides a third-person perspective of events within the WHITE HOUSE based on deep background interviews.  what separates this book from its predecessor, aside from its timeline (as this book covers time up until SUMMER 2020), is the actual participation of PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP himself.  not liking how he was depicted in the first book and confident of his persuasive abilities, TRUMP spoke with WOODWARD seventeen times from DECEMBER 2019 through JULY 2020, many off the cuff with the president initiating the call himself.  it was unprecedented opportunity for both.

that is not to say i learned anything per se reading his words.  as WOODWARD states of his experience, "at times, talking to him meant being talked at."  that comes across in spades throughout the conversations.  WOODWARD asks carefully constructed questions crafted intently for the sake of posterity and TRUMP repeatedly offers a world salad of ramblings and half truths.  it isn't shocking, you just get the sense that he doesn't care about facts or information.  makes perfect sense when you learn that ANTHONY FAUCI, the director of the NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES once stated that "his attention span is like a minus number."  it seems that WOODWARD has infinite patience and endurance throughout the proceedings as he often rephrases his questions multiple times in order to draw out some semblance of a coherent thought from TRUMP, most often to no avail.  in the end he felt that they were essentially "speaking past each other, almost from other universes."

this tic seems to be a rhetorical device aimed at wearing down his perceived adversaries with brute repetition.  it is essentially GASLIGHTING.  and it works.    in FEAR there is a constant theme of TRUMP impulsively and maybe even obsessively bringing up the same topics over and over again with his secretaries.  the repetition of having the same discussion multiple times most definitely word down former cabinet secretaries like GARY COHN, JAMES MATTIS, DAN COATS and REX TILLERSON as well as former CHIEFS OF STAFF REINCE PRIEBUS and JOHN KELLY.  this book showcases how that same tactic plagued his administration into further mismanagement with the rise of CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC and the NATIONAL PROTESTS that erupted in the aftermath of the senseless killing by MINNEAPOLIS police of an innocent unarmed black man, GEORGE FLOYD.  it would be an interesting aside if its consequences were not so dire. 

as i write this our national death toll in the UNITTED STATES from COVID-19 is at 204,000 and continuing unabated.  as WOODWARD soberly states near the end of his interviews in a first-person aside to the reader, "Trump never did seem willing to mobilize the federal government and continually seemed to push problems off on the states.  There was no real management theory of the case or how to organize a massive enterprise to deal with one of the most complex emergencies the United States had ever faced."

it is hard for me to read this book with the proper distance and perspective as its events are still fresh in my mind.  i appreciate the fact that WOODWARD is able to present the administration's perspective effectively, while choosing to  interject only when facts run counter to the narrative being presented by such.  in this manner both books are great tools for gaining insight into their process or lack thereof when creating policy and making important decisions.  i only wish the credo that TRUMP's senior aide and son-in-law JARED KUSHNER presents that "controversy elevates message" wasnt true.  fact-checking means nothing in this post-truth digital hell-scape where social media platforms essentially incentivize disseminating disinformation.

the moral failures of this administration will stain us long after he departs the WHITE HOUSE, whenever that may be.  as SOUTH CAROLINA SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM is reported to have said to TRUMP in the aftermath of his photo op at the nearby ST. JOHN's CHURCH, the president had the opportunity in the wake of the wave of protests to react in the mold of either "George Wallace, Robert Kennedy or Richard Nixon."

it is to what will be our eternal dismay that he chose GEORGE WALLACE.

RAGE is an incredible book that is quite harrowing to read but well worth the effort.  this book will prove to be important for people to read down the road for insight into the mind of our current fearless leader and how we collectively lost our way as a nation.

where to begin.

i guess i should start off by stating that the timeline of events in FEAR: TRUMP IN THE WHITE HOUSE (SIMON & SCHUSTER, 2018) take place from the beginnings of his first ideations of running for president in the 1980s to SPRING 2018 of his first term.

reading any book by legendary journalist BOB WOODWARD is the nonfiction equivalent of watching a movie.   his books are written in third-person for the most part in direct, unadorned prose that allows the reader to achieve a sense of clarity and understanding about the multiple discussions and plot points at hand and ultimately their real-world consequences.  it should be said that rarely chooses to break into first person, and when he does it is usually to present anecdotal evidence or reasons why he omitted specific details for national security reasons.

what is interesting about reading FEAR is that the confusion experienced is not based in his writing style or handle on the relevant facts, but rather the convoluted subject that is the TRUMP ADMINISTRATION and how chaotic and unorganized it is.  many things are happening concurrently and largely secretly in what can only be described as an administration whose organizing principle is that of a free-for-all.  

internally domestic and foreign policy decisions are discussed and litigated (and often relegated ad nauseam) by an ever-changing cast of officials and secretaries with no protocols or scheduling adhered to by anyone.  this seems to be by design from TRUMP himself who sees such a pugilistic bloodbath as a way of discerning which agendas are worth pursuing by how much advocates for such are willing to carpet-bomb their rivals in order to promote.  and even then he doesnt take ownership.  TRUMP even states to his aides that the only real power is fear.  which makes sense both in what he wishes to project and what his antiquated worldview entails regarding modernity.

former REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE chairman and first TRUMP chief of staff REINCE PRIEBUS has a colorful quote describing this melee as "when you put a snake and a rat and a falcon and a rabbit and a shark and a seal in a zoo without walls, things start getting nasty and bloody."  it comes as no suprise that this bloodsport has resulted in policies that are often extremist and morally reprehensible.  a related insight was the fact that the most powerful set of advisors in his orbit where those slightly outside of the ring.  in economic terms the people who served as the opportunity cost: those he could have chosen to be officials and secretaries but didnt.  in TRUMP's mind it was never his fault that he fostered a chaotic, unproductive, hellish work environment.  it was always everyone else that was under scrutiny.  it was them that failed him.  its a shockingly naive and juvenile psychology at play.  again in his mind there was always someone out there with better insights, that was better prepared and more cutthroat, ruthless and unencumbered by morality or common decency that could possibly utilize and discard to his own end.

if you are looking for an author here that ascribes an explicit sense of moral indignation at the subject, this is not that book (for the most part).  largely it is written from the macro perspective of those who collectively participated in the WHITE HOUSE discussions and events related in the book.  the value of such is that you get a useful sense of how TRUMP and his supplicants and web of cronies viewed world events.  anyone paying attention to such over the past few years will know all these events, such as the 2016 ELECTION, CHARLOTTESVILLE, and THE MUELLER INVESTIGATION.  noticeably at the end when his lawyer JOHN DOWD departs his legal team after TRUMP doesnt heed his advice regarding ROBERT MUELLER's investigation, WOODWARD does concede the book's overall thesis that much of the chaos and ensuing acrimony caused by this administration is based on a series of people who couldn't call him out for being he is: a liar.

and we all pay for it.

i recommend this book for all concerned citizenry of the UNITED STATES and the world.

the word fascist is an oddly mercurial term.  it can mean anything in modern-day parlance from a demanding authority figure (boss, parent, teacher) to just someone you vehemently disagree with. 

in her book FASCISM: A WARNING (HARPER, 2018), former CLINTON ADMINISTRATION SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE ALBRIGHT sets the task of defining and articulating what the term means and how it used to describe the philosophies, behaviors and techniques of regressive regimes from the early 20th century to present day. this is not some high-minded academic thought experiment for her as her family were refugees twice having fled CZECHOSLAVAKIA during WWII and during its post-war COMMUNINIST takeover.  she intimately understands scope and dangers of the rising tide of fascism worldwide.  she knows the plight of those under its thumb.

but she is also careful to explain that the term does not denote a particular ideology but rather "someone that who claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is utterly unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use violence or whatever other means are necessary to achieve the goals he or she might have."  in essence this cancer can happen anywhere.  and does.

leaders she profiles in this book include that of textbook examples like BENITO MUSSOLINI (ITALY), ADOLF HITLER (GERMANY), JOSEPH STALIN (USSR) and the KIM JONG-UN/KIM JONG-IL/KIM IL-SUNG lineage (NORTH KOREA) as well as recent examples that exhibit fascist tendencies such as NICOLAS MADURO/HUGO CHAVEZ (VENEZUELA), SLOBODON MILOSEVIC (SERBIA), RECEP ERDOGAN (TURKEY), ROBERT MUGABE (ZIMBABWE), GURBANGULY BERDIMUHAMEDOW (TURKMENISTAN), VICTOR ORBAN (HUNGARY), ABDEL FATTAH EL-SISI (EGYPT), HUN SEN (CAMBODIA), JAROSLAW KACZYNSKI (POLAND), VLADIMIR PUTIN (RUSSIA), YOWERI MUSEVENI (UGANDA), ILHAM ALIYEV (AZERBAIJAN), DANIEL ORTEGA (NICARAGUA), RODRIGO DUTERTE (PHILIPPINES), ROBERT KAGAME (RWANDA) and, yes, DONALD TRUMP (UNITED STATES), the first "anti-democratic President in modern U.S. history." 

what comes across forcefully is that term fascism covers a wide spectrum of socioeconomic, religious and political philosophies, yet its effect of limiting individual expression is the same.

part of the book addresses the set of circumstances that led to societies being susceptible to the message of despots and totalitarians.  ultimately week economies where major short-term challenges and long-term structural issues went unaddressed by an inept system flooded with incompetent politicians led to an opportunity for the public to seek alternatives.  also, often issues regarding immigration and national identity, as most countries are based initially on the bonds ethnic groups, come to further heighten an already explosive political environment.  NATIONALISM here is not the cause but rather a tool used to manipulate.

essentially the mass psychology involved in supporting fascism is pretty straightforward: this leader will do what needs to be done.  in a democracy there is a deliberate effort to guard and protect the interests of the political minority, which often is forgotten by most.  it is this key constituency that is lost in the shuffle when the masses make the turn towards a dictatorship.  the process is often gradual and similar to that of plucking a duck as MUSSOLINI once explained.  unfortunately i have seen such a process in progress during my stints in NIGERIA under SANI ABACHA, VENEZUELA under NICOLAS MADURO, ALBANIA under SANI BERISHA and now the UNITED STATES under DONALD TRUMP.

for me it is easy to pass judgements on pat and current supporters of these movements, especially the ones  i have encountered during my lifetime, whether they be CHAVISTAS or TRUMPISTAS.  what is more difficult is to look inside and consider how i am adding to the situation.   for me this is the most damning anecdote in the whole book: ALBRIGHT makes the argument that our modern digital on-demand culture has created a situation where we expect more from our government than at any point in the past.  we  expect results without paying the cost.  locally-sourced food produced cheaply and ethically.  security without loss of privacy.  government services without taxation.  essentially we are spoiled.  we expect simple answers to complicated questions.  and that tendency leads us to become cynical and ultimately disengage.  this disengagement is an opportunity for change.  and change can go both ways. 

the path to fighting fascism, especially here in AMERICA is being mindful of others and becoming active in CIVIC ENGAGEMENT: VOTING, VOLUNTEERING, BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS and INVESTING in our communities.  complacency and adopting a myopic mindset focused on your self-interest is what will collectively do us in as a nation.  we need to reestablish our sense of mutual connection and responsibility to each other as AMERICANS.

if you don't know how to get engaged look here for ways:

• register to vote (votesaveamerica.com)
• become a poll-worker (morethanvote.org)
• volunteer (newyorkcares.org)

FASCISM: A WARNING is definitely a worthwhile read and an excellent introduction to the topic that is straightforward with unadorned language that is easily understood and deftly constructed for maximum impact.

for some reason out of all the falls from grace that have occurred over the years during the TRUMP ADMINISTRATION, the recent late-JULY photo opportunity with legendary NEW YORK YANKEES pitcher MARIANO RIVERA really hit me hard.  yes i am a YANKEES fan, but this goes so far beyond that.

when i was living in VENEZUELA, i brought with me a pinstriped, nameless (as is the tradition), home YANKEES jersey emblazoned with the number 42.  baseball is a religion in VENEZUELA and they are fanatical about it like the rest of the continent is about futbol.  even though RIVERA was from PANAMA, VENEZUELANS took pride that a LATIN AMERICAN pitcher was so dominant on such a big stage.  to say the guy was respected is putting it lightly, he was more folk hero.

i remember when RIVERA was set to retire.  unlike his equally legendary teammate DEREK JETER, who made his announcement before his last season and thereby was showered with praise and gifts at every game (yes, even BOSTON), RIVERA opted to avoid such an award tour and if my memory serves me correctly made that decision before the all-star game of his final season (roughly the midway point).  rather than meeting with owners and media members at each stop, it was reported at the time that RIVERA sought out the people that worked at the stadiums like  the janitors and food prep workers. 

he met with these people and thanked them individually by name for their years of service making the game possible.  he did this away from the cameras and the media.  reports were that he made lots of people cry.  just the thought of having an unskilled, under-appreciated worker being thanked for doing a thankless job for many, many years by arguably the greatest pitcher of all-time on his final visit to their stadium... i mean how could you not love the guy.

MARIANO RIVERA was my favorite YANKEE and arguably one of my favorite athletes ever partly because of such undisclosed efforts and charitable work.  and now to learn that he supports TRUMP, someone who has done such damage to the rich fabric of AMERICAN SOCIETY, including LATIN AMERICANS.  it just sucks.  it really does.

ugh.

maybe PEDRO MARTINEZ really wasn't that bad after all.

THE ROAD TO UNFREEDOM: RUSSIA, EUROPE, AMERICA (TIM DUGGAN BOOKS, 2018) by YALE HISTORY PROFESSOR and celebrated writer of ON TYRANNY (review linked HERE), TIMOTHY SNYDER is without doubt one of the most consequential and depressing books I have ever read.  at its core it deals with the philosophical underpinnings that have guided the development and exportation of the concept of UNREALITY as a weapon by the RUSSIAN government on their geopolitical foes the EUROPEAN UNION and the UNITED STATES.

the two main concepts SNYDER utilizes to explain this scenario are the politics of both INEVITABILITY and ETERNITY. 

essentially the post-WWII period has seen the UNITED STATES believe implicitly that market capitalism leads to institutions that secure democracy.  this belief was beyond reproach and essentially gospel to which resulted in the assumption that such was inevitable.  provide new markets and the corresponding political infrastructure will organically appear given time, it was inevitable.  the politics of inevitability basically follow a narrative that a nation tells itself about how it got to where it is, that "the future is just more of the present, that the laws of progress are known, that there are no alternatives, and therefore nothing really to be done" according to SNYDER.

VLADIMIR PUTIN and basically all totalitarian dictators deal with the politics of eternity, where "eternity places one nation at the centre of a cyclical story of victimhood. Time is no longer a line into the future, but a circle that endlessly returns the same threats from the past."  in this situation there is no history.  icons and events of the past are merely collapsed into the present at the behest of the leader.  the body politic is infallible and pure, all problems are the result of foreign influence.  

this is book is basically the history of how PUTIN took his particular brand of RUSSIAN politics of eternity based on the writings of IVAN ILYIN and imposed them first on his people before testing it on the UKRAINE and later WESTERN EUROPE and the UNITED STATES.

for me the most captivating takeaway of this book is just the brazen disregard for factuality in the lies RUSSIAN propagated worldwide during their invasion of UKRAINE.  its dizzying to keep up with them which is essentially the point.  the success of the RUSSIAN media echo chamber to define the situation to such an extent that foreign journalists from both the left (THE NATION, THE GUARDIAN) and the extreme right (FRENCH NATIONAL FRONT) bought in is truly devastating.  the truth is that the UKRAINE was a democratically-elected sovereign nation that was seeking entry into the EUROPEAN UNION as a way of modernizing its infrastructure and ridding its body politic of corruption, but RUSSIA was able to convince governments and though-leaders worldwide that this was a regional civil war.

domestically there was the lie that broadcast on state media that they were fighting fascism, when in fact they were fighting on behalf of a fascist.  that UKRAINE wasn't a nation but part of a mythological NOVOROSSIYA, a "NEW RUSSIA.  that foreigners were behind the deaths of RUSSIAN children and sought to promote their decadent values on the RUSSIAN populace.

the weaponization of a fictional UNREALITY was later used in AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, FRANCE and ITALY to varying degrees but found its next prime target in the BREXIT referendum.  it is still ironic that regions in the UNITED KINGDOM that garnered the most financial assistance from EUROPEAN UNION were the ones that voted to leave it, but that is the power of cyber-warfare and the creation of narratives to people that don't know their own history.  its tragic.  the weakening of the EUROPEAN UNION is a continuing geopolitical goal of RUSSIA and the UNITED KINGDOM played right into it.

which bring us to TRUMP and the 2016 election.  the story from here on out is familiar to anyone that paid attention to the MUELLER REPORT, but again what interested me was how this idea of promoting UNREALITY worked so well.  that sense of purity and eternal victimhood played seamlessly into the conservative GOP worldview in the wake of a GLOBALIZED ECONOMY.  it almost worked too well relative to other countries.  our "exceptionalism" being defined by our own hubris at believing our own hype.  and our collective gullibility in a weakened, corporate, un-diversified media culture that has been overturned by FACEBOOK and its lack of editorial principles.  essentially in both form and function, our collective experience as AMERICANS has devolved more and more to the level of RUSSIA each of the past three years since TRUMP came to office.  white rural TRUMP voters are okay with shorter, worse lives given that a minority somewhere in he country has it worse.  its a shame what he has achieved by stoking AMERICA's unchecked legacies regarding inequality and racism.

and speaking of which, this book puts the anti-historical and anti-science histrionics and narrative  manipulations of TRUMP into a useful, comprehendible context.  i recommend his book whole-heartedly as a must-read for any concerned citizen of western civilization.  my hope is that it isn't too late and that we vote the bastard out.

please vote.

in the proud tradition of THOMAS PAINE's influential late 18th-century think-piece "COMMON SENSE," TIMOTHY SNYDER, a HISTORY professor at YALE and member of the COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, offers offers twenty insights with historical context from last century into staying vigilant now in the age of TRUMP in his thoughtful call to action ON TYRANNY (TIM DUGGAN BOOKS, 2017).

now being a period where our political and civic guardrails are continually debased, diminished and dismissed by a homegrown FASCIST leader, these lessons provide hope and a game plan of sorts for how to go about as MARIO SAVIO once term it, "put[ting] your body upon the gears" of the machine.

these lessons include (from the book):

1. do not obey in advance
2. defend institutions
3. beware the one-party state
4. take responsibility for the face of the world
5. remember professional ethics
6. be wary of paramilitaries
7. be reflective if you must be armed
8. stand out
9. be kind to our language
10. believe in truth
11. investigate. 
12. make eye contact and small talk. 
13. practice corporeal politics. 
14. establish a private life. 
15. contribute to good causes. 
16. learn from peers in other countries. 
17. listen for dangerous words
18. be calm when the unthinkable arrives
19. be a patriot
20. be as courageous as you can

my sense of this publication is that yes, as individuals we can be manipulated.  yes we can be gaslit and primed through language, symbols and other mass media techniques at the disposal of the state. 

but what we can do as individuals is TAKE RESPONSIBILITY and EMPOWER OURSELVES AS INDIVIDUALS by not rely on others (talking heads on TV, far right-wing politicians) to determine what we feel and think when confronted with fascism.

  make no mistake, that is what we are living through right now.  as SNYDER put it "post-truth is proto-fascism."  read books, inform yourself, be critical of your news diet and where it comes from, engage in your community, talk to people, make connections with your neighbors, support print journalism, learn new words and challenge yourself.  TAKE RESPONSIBILITY.  the time of disaffected hipsterism is dead or we all will bear its wrath when others step in and think and make decisions on your behalf.

and for fuck's sake, register to vote.  if you don't know how click HERE to a website (vote.gov) that will guide your through the process in your state.  let's vote this bastard out.

no, this book has nothing to do with that criminal ALEX JONES and INFO WARS.  sorry BILLY CORGAN.

INFORMATION WARS (ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS, 2019) is a recent offering by RICHARD STENGEL, former UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS under BARACK OBAMA from 2013-2016, that addresses the weaponized DISINFORMATION methods used by our adversaries in recent years.  specifically the RUSSIAN FEDERATION and ISIS.  STENGEL also outlines the US STATE DEPARTMENT's efforts to combat this new hybrid threat and how ultimately TRUMP and his allies mirrored these tactics to gain power.

you know, some light weekend reading.

i guess first it is useful to define what DISINFORMATION actually means, which is the deliberate use of false information in order to manipulate a subject.  this is different then MISINFORMATION, which is wrong information provided by mistake with no ill will involved and PROPAGANDA, which is the use of information in general to manipulate a subject.

as you can see, DISINFORMATION is another thing entirely from PROPAGANDA, which STENGEL argues is a more neutral entity on par with RHETORIC that can be used for good or evil.  DISINFORMATION is meant entirely to obfuscate objective truth and question the nature of information itself, leading someone ultimately to determine that everything is relative and not worth fighting for.  essentially that is the end goal of a DISINFORMATION campaign.  it is essentially an attack on INFORMATION.

and that is the world we live in currently, where REPUBLICANS mirror DISINFORMATION tactics to the point that most AMERICANS have shut out the pursuit of truth entirely.

when this book is at its strongest is when it illustrates succinctly why DISINFORMATION is so effective using numerous case studies.  you really get the sense that AMERICA is just entering into a new reality that much of EUROPE has already dealt with through these RUSSIAN HYBRID ATTACKS in places like GERMANY, UKRAINE, UNITED KINGDOM and THE BALTIC STATES.

how do we combat this threat?  stay vigilant and question the veracity of your information diet.  do some research.  don't be a passive consumer and don't trust what you see on FACEBOOK.

it all seems hopeless.  as a former ENGLISH teacher i feel hopeless given how bad our collective MEDIA LITERACY skills are given the state of public education today.  who knows? maybe next generation.

great book.  depressing as all hell, but eye-opening and impressive in its scope and focus.  definitely worth reading if you get the opportunity.