Personal Account of Journalist or Professor, Miscellaneous – Page 3

Getting Stoned With Savages

[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.]

The Book of the Week is “Getting Stoned With Savages, A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu” by J. Maarten Troost, published in 2006.

According to the book (which appeared to be credible although it lacked an extensive list of detailed sources, and an index), Vanuatu is a nation in the South Pacific that includes about eighty islands. It has nine active volcanoes, and mild earthquakes every day. Between November and April, it gets two to three cyclones (called hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean), annually. Malaria is everywhere on its outer islands. Sharks around its coastal waters are yet another danger about which it can boast.

Vanuatu is a haven for tax cheats and money-launderers, and unsurprisingly has a very, very corrupt government. Its colonial past included the usual exploitation of cheap labor in the sugar and mining industries. In modern times, officials might purchase black-market weaponry from China, and might suffer consequences for trying to assemble their own private militia. They might take bribes in exchange for issuing Vanuatu passports, or lend money to unsavory characters like themselves. If Scotland Yard doesn’t put the kibosh on such activities, Vanuatu’s economy might crash.

Anyway, one can therefore guess correctly that its residents consist of: dark-skinned natives who work in the hospitality / tourism industry, members of the diplomatic-community from its former colonial masters (the British and French), Chinese merchants, Vietnamese laborers, missionaries, Western businessmen, and expatriate consultants in international development.

Vanuatu males spend a large proportion of their leisure time partaking of the mild narcotic called kava. Most westerners would recoil at the repugnant, unsanitary way kava is prepared for consumption. But the author took a liking to it. He and his wife lived on the island of Efate. Radio Vanuatu advised them to prepare for a coming cyclone by acquiring extra water and food. “We’d followed this advice closely and bought a bag of cookies.” The author set out to learn the true nature of Vanuatu’s people by traveling around and talking to them. He wanted to know why they practiced cannibalism.

When the couple moved to Fiji (which had a large population of Indians from India) after waiting for violence to die down after a regime-change— the author subscribed to the deluxe cable TV package. Those three channels featured Bollywood, and sports played mostly in Asia, plus cricket and rugby. “Perhaps I had become corrupted by the ceaseless action of rugby sevens, but [American] football now struck me as an artless spectacle performed by obese men in tights.”

Read the book to learn additional historical and cultural information about Vanuatu and Fiji, what transpired when a centipede stung the author’s feet, and learn the reasons why the couple decided to move yet again.

Speaking of regime change, here’s a little ditty about the current U.S. situation.

SAY GOODBYE TO WASHINGTON

sung to the tune of “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” with apologies to Billy Joel.

Biden’s COVID is much better tonight. He’s all right.
He had a trendy, new var-i-ant.
He’s testing out his-’24, propaganda machine.
It’s a scene of negative sentiment.

Say goodbye to Washington.
Say goodbye, Joe Biden.
Say goodbye to Washington.
Say goodbye, Joe Biden.

He’s been enduring ugly smears for a while
and the Right blames him for IN-flation.
They think he’s senile and in den-i-al and they DON’T, want him to LEAD our na-tion.

Say goodbye to Washington.
Say goodbye, Joe Biden.
Say goodbye to Washington.
Say goodbye, Joe Biden.

Moving ON, is a way, of-life for those political folks, in D.C. whoa, whoa
There’s never e-NOUGH sup-port, to get the things, you want done,
when times-aren’t ea-sy, aren’t ea-ea-sy.

So many leaders come and go in our times,
some we like, some we don’t want back again.
We always ask, what have you done for us LATE-ly?
We’re afraid, the answer’s in-sufficient.

Say goodbye to Washington.
Say goodbye, Joe Biden.
Say goodbye to Washington.
Say goodbye, Joe Biden.

Moving ON, is a way, of-life for those political folks, in D.C. whoa, whoa
There’s never e-NOUGH sup-port, to get the things, you want done,
when times-aren’t ea-sy, aren’t ea-ea-sy.

So many leaders come and go in our times,
some we like, some we don’t want back again.
We always ask, what have you done for us LATE-ly?
We’re afraid, the answer’s in-sufficient.

Say goodbye to Washington.
Say goodbye, Joe Biden.
Say goodbye to Washington.
Say goodbye, Joe Biden.

(Bye!)

Secrets of the Sprakkar – 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.]

The Bonus Book of the Week is “Secrets of the Sprakkar, Iceland’s Extraordinary Women and How They are Changing the World” by Eliza Reid, published in 2022.

The author, born in the mid-1970’s, grew up in the Ottawa Valley in Canada. She met and married an Icelander, who was later elected president of Iceland. She wrote that numerous studies have shown: gender equality in a society increases happiness, economic prosperity and lifespans in that society. Another interesting factoid: Iceland has no military (translation: NO organized group of mostly males who would be trained to fight and kill Iceland’s enemies– a masculine mentality).

Taxpayers of Iceland fund, among other health and human services: maternity leave for both parents– even for part-timers, and childcare. Even so, in 2016, a female attorney who happened to be a member of Parliament, brought her baby to work with her after taking her six-week paid maternity leave. She happened to be televised breast-feeding her baby while she delivered a speech behind a podium (It was NOT a publicity stunt as it would be in the U.S.!). She also chaired committee meetings while her baby slept in a stroller nearby. No one batted an eye. So far, Iceland is one of the very few countries of the world in which that might happen.

The author interviewed a young mother who listed numerous occasions in the wee hours she was woken up repeatedly by her babies and children, whom she of course, fed or soothed and put back to bed. It appeared that this parent missed reading Julie Andrews’ memoir. For, the book provided a priceless tip on how new parents can minimize their own sleep-deprivation: the mother (or father!) should make the baby conform to their own schedule, with feedings at regular intervals (three or four hours), and if the baby happens to be sleeping when a feeding or diaper-changing is due, wake him or her up.

Anyway, read the book to learn much more about how Iceland’s gender-equality, which is still not yet 100%, is still superior to other countries’ in terms of parenting, family relationships, work, schooling and politics. By the way, the author also did admit to the specific cultural problems Iceland has. So the United States shouldn’t mimic all aspects of Iceland’s culture– but only the ones that result in a better society– for which there is ample scientific evidence (such as gender-equality, and widespread book-reading instead of TV-watching!).

Sand and Blood

[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.]

The Book of the Week is “Sand and Blood, America’s Stealth War on the Mexico Border” by John Carlos Frey, published in 2019. This investigative journalist did his homework. He actually practiced what was known in the 1970’s as New Journalism, experiencing for himself what migrants go through. He hired a people-smuggler, and his account was factual and professional. He did NOT throw a pity-party, did NOT spout the kind of daily, tiresome, self-absorbed minutiae of American reality-shows on the idiot box.

The author pointed out that the major focus of U.S. military action is currently at the Mexico border (rather than in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Central America, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Balkans, Syria, etc., etc., etc.). The twentieth century saw a large increase in demand for farm workers in the southwestern states to provide food for the nation. Between 1942 and 1964, a federal law called the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement allowed Mexican migrants to enter the U.S. to work. They were provided with housing but were ill-treated and exploited. For the next couple of decades, the country was distracted by various military actions around the world.

Finally, in 1986, president Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which conditionally (regardless of smears and lies in sound-bites on the idiot box; as an aside– undocumented immigrants have never been allowed to get welfare services, Social Security or Medicare without identity papers) let illegals earn permanent U.S. residency and eventually, citizenship.

In 1991, president George H.W. Bush signed a bill with a new immigration goal: to use the American military to target drug-smugglers, so Border Patrol could focus on catching illegal-border-crossers.

In December 1993, president Bill Clinton signed NAFTA, which caused more poverty in Mexico. It is not rocket science to infer that more poverty will lead to stronger motivation in more migrants to seek a better life in a land that is conveniently nearby. In 1996, Clinton helped enact a law that denied any and all immigrants due process if they were convicted of an aggravated felony (i.e., entering the U.S. illegally).

In 1994, California governor Pete Wilson was reelected on the scapegoating-illegals-ticket via the passage of Proposition 187. Up until that year, the childhood residence of the author of the book, in the Tijuana River Valley, just north of the Mexico border– was a demilitarized zone in which Mexicans and Americans could freely (at no-cost and with no harassment) enjoy beautiful nature on either side of the border. By the mid-1990’s, the border was a war zone. For, a U.S. Marines and Green-Berets task force was on the job.

After 9/11, the War on Terror was in full swing, yet the initiative caught zero terrorists who had illegally crossed the border. Bloated bureaucracy soon followed, with the burgeoning of the multiple new sheriffs in town: Homeland Security– the boss of INS, Border Patrol, ICE and Customs and Border Protection. By 2005, the border-protection budget had soared to $40.2 billion. That could have paid for a lot of social and education programs instead. Unsurprisingly, the whole border security apparatus became a Self-Regulatory-Organization (translation: fox guarding the hen house).

An infrastructure, security, aircraft, data-processing and spying extravaganza ensued, what with military contractors jumping on the gravy train in winning business from the U.S. government, as the contractors made the following political donations in 2012 (which included but were not limited to):

Barack Obama: $127,000 from Lockheed Martin and about $191,000 from Boeing;

Senator Charles Schumer: $49,500 from Lockheed Martin; and

Senator Lindsey Graham: $16,500 from Boeing.

That said, every politician begins his or her career with such high hopes and idealistic goals. As one of the most powerful men in the world, the American president begins his first term planning to do a big project or perhaps a bunch of them on the same issue– that brings health, education or social benefits to the American people– for which he will be remembered, he hopes, forever.

However, in recent decades especially, with so many factors out of his control, such as

term-limits;
the lack of time to review proposed and existing policies, legislation and issues– which increases the power of special-interest groups’ financial influence on all elected officials at all levels of government. And those officials’ behavior and votes can affect his popularity;
vicious political enemies; and
previous failed attempts at the same programs that just happened to lose their propaganda wars, etc.,

he ends up playing cheerleader for his agenda in between countering smears and lies against him for every little thing.

Here is a brief rundown of the “legacy lottery” of sorts of the last sixtyish years– accomplishments the president and his supporters argued were beneficial to society– for which each president became best known; the programs that were started or were amended on his watch that endure to this day (a few failures bear mentioning), though they have waxed and waned reputation-wise and funding-wise, through the decades.

PLEASE NOTE: viewing or reading one source of historical info is never sufficient for providing an accurate picture of anyone or any event (not even one book.) This blogger suggests reading at least tens of books (if possible) on one era or events detailed in personal accounts or about one person with historical backdrop, that are clearly labeled non-fiction. Even then, there is propagandizing. The following should be supplemented with further readings.

JFK-Peace Corps (ironic, because young Americans are serving other countries), EEOC. A lot happened in less than three years; though he did inherit oodles of family-power and money.
Lyndon B. Johnson– Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare, Medicaid, Project Head Start; five years crowded with incident.
Richard Nixon-First Term: EPA, Clean Air Act of 1970. Was always angry, resentful and vengeful for NOT inheriting immense family-power and money. Second Term: Insisted he was not a crook!
Gerald Ford-??? Too short a tenure to do much on short notice, and didn’t inherit huge family-power and money.
Jimmy Carter-Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (Superfund program)– almost completely gutted in recent years; his administration was taken hostage in various ways.
Ronald Reagan-First Term: Renewed Voting Rights Act and made MLK Day a federal holiday, but only under grass-roots political pressure from civil rights groups. Second Term: Enriched profiteers in the criminal justice industry by signing a drug-enforcement bill, but did raise awareness of the high costs of drug and alcohol-related problems.
George H.W. Bush-Passed the Americans with Disabilities Act, and an amendment to the Clean Air Act and yet, oil-profiteered for himself; this was one cause of his propaganda-war loss on his reelection bid.
Bill Clinton-First Term: Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993; tried to implement a national-healthcare plan, which turned out to be a dress rehearsal; grade “A” for effort. Second Term: Signed some laws that helped children and families with healthcare, foster care and adoption, but he lost the propaganda war historically.
George W. Bush-First Term: Unfortunately succeeded in passing the No Child Left Behind Act– but did raise awareness of the high costs of running education like a business. Enriched medical-industry profiteers by partially privatizing Medicare in a massive overhaul. Second Term: proposed privatizing Social Security, and proposed immigration reform while advocating for more funding for beefing up military presence at the Mexican border (igniting all sorts of controversies), but it was his entire disaster, military-conflict, and oil profiteering-oriented tenure that caused him to lose his propaganda war historically, big-time.
Barack Obama–First Term: While putting out fires of his immediate predecessor, signed an amendment to an anti-hate-crime law and repealed DADT. Signed the Affordable Care Act, whose way was paved for him in the mid-1990’s; tenuous win thus far and needs lots of modifications– but a major feat. And need it be said? Didn’t inherit family hegemony and ginormous wealth. Second Term: Signed an amendment to the Affordable Care Act.
Donald Trump-Proposed building a Mexican-border wall! No one knows its current status. Did wonders for profiteers (his family and cronies) in health, labor and the environment by signing numerous Executive Orders. Inherited massive family-power and money.
Joseph Biden-Spent his first year putting out fires of his immediate predecessor. He’s a transition president like Ford, and also didn’t inherit superlative family-power and money.

All of the above presidents have had to make serious ethical compromises in order to try to secure their legacies; pursuant to the amount of power wielded over them by the opposition-party during their time in office. Those who won the “profiteering lottery” favored money over people without a second thought. And, ALL of them felt they needed to do politically expedient military spending, or else their impact on history might suffer.

Incidentally, one turning point in the history of the McCarthy Era occurred when the Republican U.S. senator from Wisconsin, criticized the military. After that, it was downhill for him. One turning point in the history of the Trump administration occurred when the Republican U.S. president from New York State, criticized the military. After that, it was a faster downfall for him.

Anyway, notwithstanding the humungous amount of taxpayer money diverted to militarization of the border, “A weakening [U.S.] economy helped slow migration more than fences did.”

Read the book to learn: about Boeing’s epic fail; why certain areas have no deterrents to migrants; why the government can’t even say how ineffective its militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border has been; how migrants risk their lives; about the smuggling cartels; about a Native American reservation and a church near the border; about how frustrating the U.S. border’s complaint-processing system is; and much more about recent conditions / deaths at the border.

Here We Are

[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.]

The Book of the Week is “Here We Are, American Dreams, American Nightmares” by Aarti Shahani, published in 2019.

In the mid-1990’s, according to New York State, the Manhattan electronics store co-owned by Shahani’s father, was a front for Colombia’s Cali drug cartel. The indictment had thirteen counts.

After 9/11, the U.S. federal government agency Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) was established for the purpose of finding and deporting immigrants, both illegal and those in special circumstances, with no statute of limitations.

Shahani’s uncle Ratan (in the latter category– he had a green card) “… missed his [ICE deportation] flight and spent more nights in detention, on the taxpayer dime…” The financial institution with which he had an account– Broadway National Bank– had laundered $123 million through various accounts. It “…paid a fine of $4 million, and no bank executive served a single day in jail.”

One question Americans might want to ask, however, is how much IS the “taxpayer dime” when it comes to funding illegal immigrants? Is the actual dollar value a nickel a month per American?? Or a thousand dollars a day per American??

Of course, it is impossible to fully account for the qualitative impacts, good and bad, that illegals have on society as a whole. More specifically, they might make undocumented (excuse the pun) positive economic, cultural, social or athletic contributions, but partake of limited resources such as healthcare and education that diminish quality thereof for citizens. (For more info, see this blog’s posts: The Opposite of Woe, Call Me American, full circle (sic), Patriot Number One, The Snakehead, Where the Wind Leads, The Fox Hunt, and Scorpions For Breakfast.)

Anyway, this suspenseful story recounted a series of traumatic events of an immigrant family from India, interspersed with vignettes of the family’s hardships (due to the author’s father’s naivete; plus swindlers, errors and bad luck) that led the author to become an activist. She ended up delivering lectures to audiences consisting of “lawyers, journalists, social workers, congressional staffers, city council members and families in crisis.”

Read the book to learn all about it.

A Dedicated Life – 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.]

The Bonus Book of the Week is “A Dedicated Life, Journalism, Justice, and a Chance for Every Child” by David Lawrence, Jr., published in 2018.

“More money is almost never the right first response. Rather, we need to begin by figuring out how well we are doing with the money we already have.”

-the author, on embarking on a quest to improve the lives of preschool children, beginning in 1999 in Miami-Dade County, Florida.

Born in March 1942 in New York City, the author was raised Catholic in a wealthy family of eventually, nine children. His father was a journalist covering politics in New York. In 1948, the family moved to a residence that was a six-hour drive north of the city to tend to a farm that had animals and food-crops.

The author retired as a newspaper executive at the end of 1998, to take on a new career as an advocate for young children. There were two possible ways to institute “high quality” (the author never exactly defined what he meant by that) pre-kindergarten for all, regardless of need, in the entire state of Florida:

Lobbying the Florida state legislature to pass a bill, or
Propose a Constitutional amendment, voted on by the people, during an election for state officials.

The latter required: that hundreds of thousands of Floridians sign a petition; that an expensive campaign be launched in order to raise awareness and promote the initiative and get people to vote for the amendment. Unfortunately, the opposition always launches a campaign to smear such an initiative (or oppose it in order to smear a prospective candidate for office or an incumbent who would run for reelection– in planning for the next election; for example, currently– 2022 and 2024).

Anyway, read the book to learn whether the author and millions of others, in November 2002, actually achieved their ultimate goal (Hint: over the course of decades, through the cumbersome political process that is democracy– such radical, widespread change happens in baby steps; with the aid of the trick of telling voters that funding for the new program wouldn’t come from raising taxes!), and learn much more about his philosophy, careers, and fundraising successes for good causes (for which, it appears, he deserves bragging rights.)

Life’s A Campaign – BONUS POST

The Bonus Book of the Week is “Life’s A Campaign, What Politics Has Taught Me About Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success” by Chris Matthews, published in 2007. This quick, lighthearted read gave a few tips, through a series of specific examples– some autobiographical– on how to develop, manage and maintain political relationships. Incidentally, thirteen years after the book’s writing, the author– a journalist and TV-show host– had become psychologically burnt out from the political shenanigans he covered.

The author advised the reader who attended a political event to always stand on the far right side in a group photo. That way, the reader’s name would appear first in the photo’s caption in the news article. He also briefly described the exploits of Theodore Roosevelt, Churchill and JFK, saying they were all war heroes before becoming politicians. However, he neglected to mention that each man had a crack public relations team that glorified their histories and papered over their past failures, to help them get elected. Read the book to learn more about the author’s and others’ political adventures.

“The sad truth we learn from all of this is that it’s one thing to call your critics ‘liars,’ but to regain the political edge you must prove they are.” The author was referring to John Kerry’s unsuccessful 2004 presidential bid, but such dishonesty is part and parcel of politics, egged on by the media. Both politicians and the media have gotten wily messaging and optics down to a science (but right now, NOT literally!).

As is well known, the media are currently whipping up a frenzy over– not a presidential campaign– but over a highly contagious, potentially fatal virus-pandemic that has variants. As is now the norm, the messengers and their bosses’ utterances have been characterized by lack of transparency. Obviously, they benefit vaccine makers, mask sellers, COVID drug peddlers etc.; most of those messengers and bosses are failing to disclose their financial interests in the profit-seeking aspects of the whole kit and caboodle. Ho hum.

A Long Way From Home – BONUS POST

The Bonus Book of the Week is “A Long Way From Home, Growing Up In the American Heartland” by Tom Brokaw, published in 2002.

Born in February 1940 in Webster South Dakota, Brokaw wrote of his first 22 years. He described the 1940’s and 1950’s Missouri-River infrastructure projects, among others, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, whom his father assisted. Previously, all kinds of fish could be caught in the river.

Particularly noteworthy was the literal and figurative power the U.S. president possessed upon the 1953 completion of the flow-altering, water-corralling, energy-generating achievement: “President Eisenhower flipped a switch in the Oval Office to activate the eight turbines that, when powered by the focused force of the water, would transmit electricity to seven states.”

Additional curious information that represented the tenor of the times included the 1950’s South Dakota test of manhood handed down from father to son: pheasant hunting in wetlands, tall prairie grass, sorghum and cornfields.

Read the book to learn about many other cultural aspects of Brokaw’s childhood; a bygone era.

Loyalties – BONUS POST

The Bonus Book of the Week is “Loyalties, A Son’s Memoir” by Carl Bernstein, published in 1989.

Born in 1944 in the D.C. area, the author suffered the anguish of having parents who believed in Communism and were punished for it. They celebrated the following holidays: Passover, May Day, Paris Commune Day, July Fourth, and the anniversary of the Russian Revolution– October Division.

In March 1947, president Harry Truman signed the “Loyalty Order” which was a law that required all government employees take the Loyalty Oath. The Oath treated people as though they were already guilty, for starters.

FBI head J. Edgar Hoover was secretly feeding Truman information (which would help him get reelected in 1948) on his political enemies in exchange for enforcing the Loyalty Order. As is well known, Hoover and Senator Joseph McCarthy had whipped up a false frenzy of fear that lots of people who believed in Communism were plotting to overthrow the American government. So part of the excuse Truman could use for terrorizing (mostly wrongly accused) Americans, was that they were members of a political party (Communist) that was illegal.

The author asserted that Hoover’s real motive in holding hearings (from 1948 to 1950) in connection with people who refused to take the Loyalty Oath (different and separate from HUAC’s hearings) was to eliminate the government union– whose members were the accused. Such progressive community organizers were fighting for civil rights, etc. They were a bee in Hoover’s bonnet. The hearings trampled on due process in a variety of ways, a few of which included:

the accused weren’t told whom their accusers were (the finger-pointers remained anonymous) and the latter weren’t allowed to be confronted, either;

the accused weren’t allowed to have an attorney present; and

the accusation alone served as evidence (!)– no proof was needed for the accused to be subjected to punishment meted out by the Loyalty Review Board, an FBI committee.

Read the book to learn of the ideological tenor of the times that shaped the social circles of the author’s parents–their trials and tribulations, and the emotional trouble these caused the author.

Ranger Games

The Book of the Week is “Ranger Games, A Story of Soldiers, Family and an Inexplicable Crime” by Ben Blum, published in 2017.

Alex Blum discovered his calling early in life: becoming a soldier in the Rangers, an elite fighting force of the U.S. military. Beginning in 2001, he attended high school in the Denver area, with a few others who trained with him after graduating.

Rangers training was fraught with the usual extremes: sleep and nutrition deprivation for days; at irregular intervals for no reason– expletive-laden tirades by commanders; team-oriented missions that, for an individual’s smallest infraction– punished the entire group with prolonged, exhausting physical activity in wet, dirty, painful conditions, etc., etc., etc.

Blum successfully completed his training, but was subjected to undue influence by a particular spellbinding commander who was also a pathological liar, who later led Blum and several other impressionable young men to commit a bank robbery in Tacoma, Washington.

Even though most members of the group were in the military, the ringleader acquired the following black-market weapons to do the crime: two AK-47’s, a Springfield XD 9mm pistol bearing an underslung flashlight, and a 9mm Glock 19 with a red laser light. These were used to terrorize the bank employees, and unsurprisingly, the employees all exhibited symptoms of PTSD after the robbery. The volume of black-market firearms can only grow bigger and bigger if left unchecked, spurring more and more episodes such as this one.

A high-profile court case resulted, that raised numerous issues regarding military training, law, criminal justice, psychology and sociology in the United States. In the aftermath, the author– Blum’s cousin– a mathematician turned journalist, took an interest in the case for various reasons. His extended family’s reputation was harmed, he was curious as to how his cousin (a good boy from a good family, of course) could do such evil, and he sought to help his cousin turn his life around.

A huge body of knowledge has been gleaned on the major aspects of why Blum did as he was told, without questioning its morality, let alone criminality. In the American criminal justice system, there have been endless debates over insanity, brainwashing, and how to test whether a criminal defendant knows the difference between right and wrong.

Throw in the fact that the defendant underwent special-operations military training, and the debates never end. Only after years of extensive, frank discussions between and among the author, other family members, fellow defendants and attorneys was Blum himself able to make shameful, honest admissions about specific aspects of his behavior.

Blum’s story is reminiscent of numerous pop-cultural stories; his legal defense is similar to that in the 1995 movie, “Murder in the First” in that society played a role in Blum’s situation. But there have been plenty of documented real-life episodes too, similar to his in some ways. Tara Westover’s wasn’t, but her book “Educated” pondered how people can ascertain and agree on the Truth. It isn’t easy.

The following quote from Bertrand Russell can never be repeated too often: “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.”

There was the real-life case of the man who called himself Clark Rockefeller– spellbinder and pathological liar– a similar character to Blum’s commander. The author also brought up Donald Trump, whose behavior was excused with the cliches “boys will be boys” and “that’s just the way he is” at the book’s writing. Yet “…past demagogues across the world had been greeted at first as clowns.”

Anyway, a government sending people to fight a war wants to win it, of course. The author wrote that after WWII, a psychological study showed the following:

Combatants fight for their buddies– the psychological bonding between them prompts them to sacrifice their lives for others on the team, not their country. They don’t really care about teaching the enemy about their own country’s values.

Petitionary prayer is perceived to work.

Hating the enemy doesn’t work– it’s hard to harm people one doesn’t know, even if one has been taught to hate specific ethnic groups. And individuals who harbor so much anger that they don’t care whether they harm innocent strangers of any ethnicity– one would hope would be weeded out in the military application process.

Without question, Blum’s military training involved the first idea in the above list. Blum appeared as a guest on Dr. Phil McGraw’s TV show, which suggested two different reasons why Blum helped commit the crime. Perhaps he had a genetic predisposition (it runs in families– an internal cause) for engaging in evil behavior that is triggered in certain situations; or brainwashing or peer pressure (societal, external stimuli alone) made him do it.

Read the book to learn of the psychological growth experienced by the author and his cousin, the fallout for family members, and about the former’s detailed research results on the whole traumatic episode.

A Fighting Chance – BONUS POST

The death toll is rising among all kinds of Americans in connection with illegally acquired firearms. See ENDNOTE at the bottom of this post.

And now, a non sequitur: The Bonus Book of the Week is “A Fighting Chance” by Elizabeth Warren, published in 2014.

Born in 1949, Warren spent her childhood in Oklahoma, but later lived in Texas, and various cities on the Eastern Seaboard.

In a rare achievement for a female of her generation, she earned a law degree. With her daughter, she wrote a book about how Americans’ spending habits changed between 1971 and 2001. After meticulous research and numerical analyses, the authors explained why Americans are actually getting poorer with every generation. The answer is that even with accounting for inflation– wages haven’t risen in value; and housing, healthcare and education costs have soared.

Warren was appointed to a task force that investigated the big-bank bailout of 2008. She thought of the task force’s mission as bipartisan, but early on, Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R.-TX), had an us-versus-them mentality and wanted to make sure the Republicans on the task force got the same resources that the Democrats did in their investigation.

The task force hired expert auditors to check and re-check whether taxpayers got their money’s worth, since taxpayers were the ones fronting the money. But for the task forces’ calling the financial institutions’ bluff on their claims, taxpayers would have been financially punished even worse.

Warren wrote that it was fortunate that in 2011 the media helped publicize the lies of the big financial institutions (the credit unions and community banks weren’t to blame) in the mortgage and foreclosure scandals– because regulators were, out of willful ignorance or incompetence, not doing their jobs.

Warren recounted her stressful experiences running for a U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts in the 2012 election. Here is a parody that sums it up:

ELECTION BLUES

sung to the tune of “Electric Blue” with apologies to Icehouse.

If I had a chance

to run for office like you,

are you gonna hate from the start,

smear and lie with your crew?

Are you spying somewhere behind my lines?
I just cringe with every wrong that you do me.
You get away with it, too.
Election blues.

No privacy. I need to raise money.

Tell me what can I do?

Election blues.

Oh, you dealt me a low blow.

Voters believed it was true.

Oh, I would give anything just to defeat you.

Are you spying somewhere behind my lines?
I just cringe with every wrong that you do me.
You get away with it, too.
Election blues.

At great expense,

traveling all over as I’m briefed on issues.

Election blues.

I can sense, sense that the media

are plugging for you.

Election blues.

I’m so tense, I need to get votes.

Tell me, what can I do?

Election blues.

ENDNOTE: Warren told an anecdote in which she met with a religious minister to pray for victims of gun violence (after the fact!), instead of suggesting a way to prevent it. Her areas of expertise are obviously law, economics and finance, but it appeared that she was told not to talk about “gun control” because her mouth had gotten her in trouble on another issue earlier in her campaign.

It seems America’s current leaders think GUN CONTROL is a dirty phrase, pandora’s box, not worth fighting for, or for some, it is too lucrative to even mention.

As is well known, Third World countries (!) have black markets in firearms. The United States likes to think it is more civilized than them. But in recent decades, that point has become more debatable.

In the second half of the 1970’s, the nation suffered both psychological and physical “malaise” of various kinds. Forty years or so ago, even though there was no political lockdown imposed to try to stop the spread of severe flu– there was intense political pressure put on president Gerald Ford to do something. So a swine flu vaccine was developed in 1976. There were also two (!) assassination attempts via firearms on president Ford.

Then, in March 1981, president Ronald Reagan was shot by someone who had acquired a gun illegally. Fortunately, he survived to turn the country around psychologically. No one wants shootings to ever happen again. But the ones involving illegally acquired guns are a reasonably preventable occurrence!

Further, Americans’ First-Amendment right to peaceably assemble has been severely restricted as an alleged COVID prevention measure. It is also obvious that keeping large numbers of people from gathering in one place, makes deaths from gun violence less likely. The fact that professional athletes, some politicians and VIPs have had their right to assemble restored with no disease-prevention measures, shows that keeping people apart was not actually a disease-prevention measure.

It seems America’s leaders should pass federal legislation on ILLEGAL-gun control, in order to restore the rights of ordinary Americans to peaceably assemble, as assembly is a Constitutional (federal) matter. If they have the courage. One last thing– a question for the ages: After all he’s been through, how can Steve Scalise live with himself?