Ideas, Opinions, Genealogy, and Book Reviews
The recent vote to vacate the Speaker of the House made me think of “Tyranny of the Minority” which I reviewed a few weeks ago.
In this case a small number of extreme Republicans to vacate the Speaker of the House despite the support of a much larger majority of Republicans.
Just Security has just published a new article on the Senator Menendez national security risk. It starts like this:
The recent indictment of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) reads like the script of a B crime movie: A politician, three New Jersey businessmen, a shady trucking business, and envelopes and a safe deposit box stuffed with cash and gold bars. But the most important thru-line in the narrative isn’t the criminal charges. Rather, it is the national security threat raised by the espionage and counterintelligence concerns which run throughout the 39-page document. In sum, the government of Egypt–with whom the United States has an ostensible “critical defense partnership”–appears to have recruited the powerful Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The indictment explicitly lists five ways Menendez has already compromised U.S. national security, and implicitly reveals one ongoing threat Menendez poses as long as he continues to hold his current position.
If that peaks your interest, you might want to read more-
https://www.justsecurity.org/88890/the-ongoing-national-security-threats-posed-by-senator-bob-menendez/
As the government moves quickly toward a shutdown, House Republicans are keeping wasting time on things that have no chance of becoming law.
It would be funny if it was not so tragic.
For example, reducing the salary of Defense Secretary Austin to $1 as proposed by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Almost funny, but actually just a few more reasons to vote against the Republicans.
It is the right thing to do.
John Fetterman, the first Senator to call for Senator Menendez to resign put it this way:
Senator Menendez is entitled to the presumption of innocence under our system, but he is not entitled to continue to wield influence over national policy, especially given the serious and specific nature of the allegations.
He should choose an honorable exit and resign.
I just finished reading “Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point” .
It is by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt whose earlier book “How Democracies Die” I had reviewed about 4 years ago. They are professors of government at Harvard University. They like many other Americans were shocked by the violent insurrection of January 6, 2020.
Continue reading “Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point”
I live in Pennsylvania. Last year we had a rich guy from New Jersey who wanted to be our Senator. Dr Oz lost. The year we have a rich guy from Connecticut who wants to be our Senator in 2024. We seem to be a popular place for rich out-of-state guys to try to buy a Senate seat.
David McCormick, the Connecticut guy, lost the primary for the Republican nomination for Senate in the 2022 election to Dr. Mehmet Oz, the New Jersey guy, Dr. Oz then lost the race to Democrat John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania guy.
At least part of the reason that McCormack lost to Oz was Trump’s criticism of McCormack as a “liberal Wall Street Republican” .
Bob Casey has a long history of serving Pennsylvania. David McCormick has lots of money. The question arises will the Pennsylvania guy (Bob Casey) again beat the out-of-state guy.
I saw this article in Just Security and it reminded me of things I had just read in ‘Tyranny of the Minority’ .
The Just Security article is Tucker Carlson, Viktor Orbán and the Anti-Democracy Playbook .
The downfall of Hungarian democracy is a cautionary tale for Americans concerned about the future of democracy here.
I just started reading ‘Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point” . So far it seems to be a great book.
It is by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt whose earlier book “How Democracies Die” I had read and reviewed about 4 years ago. I thank Michelle Goldberg whose article The Authors of ‘How Democracies Die’ Overestimated the Republicans” alerted me to this book.
The events of January 6, 2020 came as a shock to many Americans. Coups and violent insurrections happen but most of us thought they would not happen here. This book is an attempt to figure out why and how it happened. It should be very interesting reading. I’ll get back to reading and keep you posted.
Here is a fine opinion article by David French about Kevin McCarthy’s impeachment inquiry-
Where Is the Evidence, Speaker McCarthy?
But as the Speaker’s fellow MAGA Republicans seem to believe: When you have theories, you don’t need evidence.
I liked it but it is very different than anything I had reviewed previously so I am a bit unsure of how of proceed. So I’ll get the easy part out of the way first and them added a short bit on what I thought about the book.
The book is “Abandoned Scotland” by Alastair Horne. I thank Netgalley and Amber Books for allowing me to read the book before publication.
Continue reading “Abandoned Scotland”
The book reviewed is Taming the Street: The Old Guard, the New Deal, and FDR’s Fight to Regulate American Capitalism by Diana B. Henriques. It was a great history of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s struggle to level the playing field for ordinary Americans interested in investing and saving.
Diana B. Henriques is a financial journalist and well qualified to tell this story. I’d like to thank both Netgalley and Random House for allowing me to read Taming the Street before publication.
Continue reading “The Fight to Regulate American Capitalism”
I wrote about this a few years ago but it seem this needs to be repeated. So I’ll copy what I wrote I wrote and add a little bit.
The philosopher George Santayana said that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Wikipedia has an interesting article on Historic recurrence which I ran across as I was thinking about history repeating itself.
I was reading “The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic” by Benjamin Carter Hett and this quote got me thinking about this.
Continue reading “Is history repeating itself, again?”
President Trump–Again? by Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a short book. I read it in one evening. For a short book it does cover a lot of ground. And I should mention that my review copy was very current, covering events that happened just a few weeks ago. I thank Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for the privilege of reading this review copy.
Continue reading “President Trump–Again?”
I liked this book. The book is Eyes That Do Not See by Kent Kearney, I thank Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for letting me read it in return for an honest review.
The story reminds us of the types of things many of our ancestors endured to find a better life for both them and their descendants.
Trump humor from the New Yorker in the last few days. In these dark days for our country, we all need a few laughs.
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/a-once-in-a-lifetime-summer-spectacle
This one is a few weeks old but still funny.