Nonfiction – Page 2 – education and deconstruction.com

Personality – BONUS POST

[Please note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger, but apparently was inserted by WordPress, and it cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.]

Unsurprisingly, this is what American president Donald Trump is singing now.

PERSONALITY

sung to the tune of “Sloop John B” with apologies to the Beach Boys and to whomever else the rights may concern.

We’ve got the same person-al-ITY, Netanyahu and me.

Retaliating, reaping bounties. We can gloat.

We think might makes right. As a team we fight.

Well, WE’RE so stoked up. But no one will help.

So you’ll be sorry for this betrayal.

See how I won’t quit. I’m the captain of the world.

I set the TONE. I set the TONE. The world I own. yeah yeah yeah

Well, WE’RE so stoked up. But no one will help. I set the TONE.

NATO is talking bunk. I got Iran in a funk.

I need to come and take their nukes away.

Sheriff Donald Trump. With my base I fist-bump. yeah yeah

Well, WE’RE so stoked up. But no one will help. I set the TONE.

So you’ll be sorry for this betrayal.

See how I won’t quit. I’m the captain of the world.

I set the TONE. The world I own.

I set the TONE. As I said, I set the TONE.

So you’ll be sorry for this betrayal. So you’ll be sorry for this betrayal.

Well, WE’RE so stoked up. But no one will help. I set the TONE.

The Democrats are in a snit. But they know I won’t quit.

They’re trying to take away all of my power. I set the TONE.

The world I own. Still on top, I make them cower.

So you’ll be sorry for this betrayal. See how I won’t quit.

I’m the captain of the world. I set the TONE…

The Book of the Week is “The Rebels, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (hereinafter referred to as “AOC”) and the Struggle for a New American Politics” by Joshua Green, published in 2024. In this hodgepodge of a volume, the author described some practices of the U.S. government that has led to its currently precarious economic state of affairs.

As of early 1978, president Jimmy Carter had failed to keep three economics-related campaign promises with which he tried to incite the hard-working American masses: income-tax reform (angry at the rich’s business tax-deductions); a stimulus (because stagflation was dogging everyone’s pocketbook); and an energy bill (due to rising oil prices). June 1978 saw California’s voters approve a huge reduction in property tax.

In October 1978, the Carter administration passed a tax-bill– the Revenue Act– that actually favored the rich and Wall Street. The bill cut capital gains taxes; funds were shifted from investing in factories and equipment to gambling in the securities markets. The president could have vetoed the bill, but instead, he sold out because his party would benefit with mere weeks to go before midterm election-day. Ironically, Ralph Nader, who was known for advocating for consumers, urged the government to deregulate airlines and trucking. It turned out that deregulation of these exceptional industries was to hurt consumers (and their employees!) in a few short years.

There also occurred the privatizing of retirement funds in the form of 401(k). As is well known, it was touted as a tax shelter, but it gave Wall Street more control over Americans’ hard-earned money.

After Carter lost his bid for reelection, Democrats such as Paul Tsongas, Mike Dukakis, Bill Bradley and Bill Clinton pivoted toward neoliberalism– appeasing the corporate community with anti-union legislation, deregulation, and allowing monopolistic practices.

Unsurprisingly, the above, and the implementation of a bunch of other unwise economic policies, led to the 2008 financial crash. The American people were understandably very angry to learn that the government bailed out the crash’s institutional perpetrators (whose obscenely paid executives had jobs that weren’t pay-for-performance, and who still got their bonuses); never mind helping hard-working ordinary Americans.

According to the author, the bailout cost U.S. taxpayers $32 billion instead of between $700 billion and $1.5 trillion. It is impossible for laypeople to believe that “experts” can accurately estimate those kinds of numbers, given the pressure on “experts” to propagandize. Ever since, there is almost total disbelief of all economics numbers spouted by those “experts.” It is actually the age-old activity of lying with statistics.

The author wrote that, as a newly elected U.S. senator from New York State, Hillary Clinton paid her dues by playing well with others, making friends with strange bedfellows, while U.S. senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, nearly a decade later, behaved in a confrontational manner that garnered applause from the little people– grassroots supporters.

The author contended that the aforementioned Warren paved the way for the Independent Bernie Sanders’ surprising popularity among the young voters in the 2016 Democrat primary election for president. His presence in the primary affected the choices of voters in the general election, adversely affecting Hillary’s chance to win.

The author explained why AOC achieved what most politicos thought was going to be impossible. “Running as a Democratic Socialist, she [AOC] drew a large, multiracial progressive coalition that overwhelmed an incumbent, in [Joseph] Crowley, who personified the Wall Street-friendly Democrat uninterested in local concerns but assumed to be too powerful to be held to account.”

Read the book to learn much more about how the individuals named in the book’s title have influenced American politics in a major way in the last fifteen years.

ENDNOTE: In sum, American voters would like to see their government return to rule of law, civility and transparency! They would also like to see political workers and candidates: answer the questions asked of them, and clarify what they mean. Various terms of late have been given emotionally-charged interpretations to incite people who easily get upset at political news. For example, climate change and woke mean different things to different people. Instantaneous communication among Americans has made them hyper-aware of shenanigans in the staged and scripted reality show that is currently American politics.

This Historic Moment – BONUS POST

Please note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger, but apparently was inserted by WordPress, and it cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.

This is what all the people who are saying, “I told you so” and “I called it” are singing now.

THIS HISTORIC MOMENT

sung to the tune of “This Magic Moment” with apologies to The Drifters, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

This histORic moment,

a little-different but not NEW, just like any other.

Haha. Trump dissed you.

With all that’s happened,

he-still took you by surprise.

I almost fell for him too, with dollar signs in my eyes.

I know his ki-ind, always spoiling for a fight.

Everything he wants, he has.

His theme is might makes right.

This histORic moment, while the US is in decline,

won’t last for-eh-ever. However, entitled men cover-up and lie.

whoa, whoa [histORic] whoa, whoa [histORic] hmm, histORic

I know his ki-ind, always spoiling for a fight.

Everything he wants, he has.

His theme is might makes right.

This histORic moment, while the US is in decline,

won’t last for-eh-ever. However, entitled men cover-up and lie.

whoa, whoa [histORic] whoa, whoa [histORic] hmm, histORic

The Long Walk

The Book of the Week is “The Long Walk, The True Story of A Trek to Freedom” by Slavomir Rawicz with Ronald Downing, originally published in 1956. The author told a suspenseful story of how he stayed alive after having been sentenced to twenty-five years’ hard labor in Siberia.

In the nineteen-teens, Rawicz was born into a family who owned an estate in Pinsk. His mother was Russian, so he became fluent in the Russian language. In autumn 1939, he was a lieutenant in the Polish Cavalry fighting against the Nazis. He was arrested by the Russians, accused of spying, and sent to Siberia. He and some other men plotted to escape from their work-camp, which was encircled by three barbed-wire fences, guards and guard-dogs. They left in a snowstorm in April 1941.

The escapees endured countless life-threatening conditions during their walk of thousands of miles through rough terrain, meteorological extremes, and deteriorating health. Their food along the way included fish, hare, deer and snakes (in the Gobi desert). The one American in the group told them that beheading a snake would remove the sac containing its poison (if it was poisonous), and then skinning the body and cooking it would make it edible. When they reached Mongolia and Tibet, they were served tea with yak butter, oat cakes, gruel and mutton by herders whose culture required showing hospitality to strangers.

At the end of their ordeal, the author and the other survivors happened to meet members of the Allies who nursed them back to health. Doctors and nurses knew they would have what is now called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for the rest of their lives.

Read the book to learn the details.

Shutdown – BONUS POST

“Promises were broken, debt was imposed, dictatorships were supported and natural resources were depleted.”

–The United States. Or, according to Paul Farmer, Haiti.

The US Congress has been working intermittently but receiving full pay from 2020 to date. It seems there is taxation without representation here, what with Congress’s absence. This is an insult to all Americans who are not tax cheats.

In 2020, there was a lockdown due to a pandemic. Now the excuse is the disputes over funding of militaries under the president’s command. However, as should be well known, there are a total of five hundred thirty-five (535) elected officials in the US House and Senate, who have the power to impeach one (1!) president and also remove him from office altogether. He has been impeached twice before.

What might be the reasons for Congress’s failing to curb the president’s abuses of power in the past year alone?

Greed (profiteering) of powerful members of Congress?
Power hunger? (desire for reelection)
Fear of doxing or death threats? (Congress members are allocated taxpayer dollars for security.)
Lack of time? (If it’s important, you make time; if not, you make excuses.)
Fear that the vice president who replaces the president would lack the talents and skills required to lead the country? (With his dementia, the president is becoming a useful idiot to his handlers, so that argument is invalid.) Anyway, it’s debatable whether it matters, who’s in charge of the country– this capitalist tool, or that capitalist tool.

How about, all of the above? The solution: Vote these slackers out of office, if they’re running again!

Here’s what most Democrat Congress members are singing now.

SHUTDOWN

sung to the tune of “Small Town” with apologies to John Cougar Mellencamp, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Of-course I love the shutdown. I get full pay during the shutdown. We know why there’s a shutdown. Oh, there are secret unities.

Blame the GOP for the shutdown. My power is nil in this insane shutdown. My job’s easy in shutdown, while others work for free.

We’re-manipulative in the shutdown. Taught to fear DHS in the shutdown. I keep Instagramming, IN the shutdown, another social media fanatic, that’s me.

But I’ve seen the US fall in the shutdown. Having myself a ball in the shutdown. Arrogant Trump’s gall brought on THIS shutdown, he loves the shutdown, just like me.

No, I cannot forget where my votes and money come from. I get upset by the people who judge me. I’M not the one who’s prolonging the shutdown. People won’t let me be. They keep HOUNDing me.

We are against DHS in the shutdown. My paid vacation’s enough to say, let’s continue this shutdown. Senior leaders say shutdown, until we get back, democracy.

Well, of-course I love the shutdown. We all have phony outrage in the shutdown. People are dying in the shutdown. All I care about is me.

Perpetual War / A Mysterious Country – BONUS POST

“To be fair, one cannot entirely blame the current Oval One for our incoherence. Though his predecessors have generally had rather higher IQ’s than his, they too, assiduously served the 1 percent that owns the country while allowing everyone else to drift.”

-written NOT about American “president” Donald Trump, but about George W. Bush, by Gore Vidal

The first Bonus Book of the Week is “Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, How We Got to be so Hated” by Gore Vidal, published in 2002. America’s arrogance and international meddling obviously play a role in why it is hated by most of the rest of the world.

In this hodgepodge of a short volume, Vidal lamented over how the Bill of Rights was slowly becoming violated by American presidents’ signing of freedom-curbing legislation over decades. Just one current manifestation of that is the ever-present, ubiquitous government’s spying on Americans without their consent.

In 1996, president Bill Clinton signed the Anti Terrorism Act and in 2002, president George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act. The contents of both laws smack of Hitler’s 1933 Enabling Act. Clinton and Bush at least involved Congress in most of their actions. Trump has not. His goal is to outdo all presidents who came before him, in terms of abusing his powers in war, profiteering and political retaliation while evading punishment. He will not stop until he dies.

Anyway, to the date of the book’s writing, Vidal listed all military actions in which US troops were sent overseas to do “peace keeping” in regions of conflict from 1990 onward (but there may have been numerous other operations that are classified). Needless deaths, ruined lives, no doubt.

Asia: at least through the 1990’s, 607,600 troops;
Africa: 1992-1995, 1998-1999, 32,752 troops;
the Balkans: 1992-1996, 1998 at least through the book’s writing, 21,600 troops;
Central America: 1998-1999, 5,700 troops;
Haiti: 1994-1995, 21,000 troops

…not to mention 4,500 troops sent to Los Angeles, CA in 1992.

Read the book to learn additional information about how the United States is becoming a dictatorship, and on when and why the author started to feel this way.

The second Bonus Book of the Week is “A Mysterious Country, the Grace and Fragility of American Democracy” by Norman Mailer [his previous writings], edited by J. Michael Lennon and John Buffalo Mailer, published in 2023. This hodgepodge of a volume showed that decades after Mailer described political, cultural and social affairs in the United States– the old cliche still applies– The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Mailer reviewed LBJ’s book, My Hope For America in 1964. He wrote that 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater proposed there be a federal police force to protect ordinary Americans (especially young ladies) from “hate groups and bigots, Southern bullies and oil pirates.” In the 2020’s, the latter are alive and well.

Behind George W. Bush’s war, was the goal of eventual world domination. His supporters, who insecurely waved around the American flag as a way of showing they were patriotic, might not have even been aware how power-hungry Bush was. Mailer also thought Bush attacked Iraq to send a message to China that the U.S. was hegemonically superior.

According to Mailer’s description– “Terrorism is not attracted to negotiation. Rather, it would insist on no termination short of victory.”– Trump is a terrorist.

Read the book to learn much more information about the tenor of the times of Mailer’s generation, and how there has occurred more of same, in spades.

ENDNOTE: One Bertrand Russell quote in connection herewith bears repeating:

“There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dare not face this thought! Moreover, since he is aware, however dimly, that his opinions are not rational, he becomes furious when they are disputed.”

Such is the situation with Trump and his henchmen. Here’s a song Trump is singing now. [To avoid a spit-take, do not drink anything while singing this.]

I OWN THE WORLD

sung to the tune of “We Are the World” with apologies to USA For Africa, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

This is the time, when I maximize my gall, when the world must come under my rule.

There are people dying, and it’s time to force your hand.

My life’s the greatest of them all.

I will go on, spending every day, bossing everyone, everywhere.

My globe is making a change.

You are all part of helping my family, and the truth,

you know the world is all I need.