Note:
Those who can harken back to 2014 when I published the original reading list, remember that a week or so later, it was accompanied by a lengthy screed justifying why I chose the titles on the list. It became apparent over the past 20 months that the list was even more germane now than when I put it out. So, without further ado, here is the justification for the original list and an addendum for those titles that followed.
All,
I had just planned on putting out that reading list and calling it a day. Problem is, during a bike ride yesterday, I came across a funeral for a victim of a gang related killing and thought that this was such a waste of life. This dovetails in with the various reasons that I put together the list in the first place, so I figured that I’d take the time and explain the “wherefores and whys” behind what I did.
Don’t Know Much about History- This is US history the way it should have been taught. No revisionist history, no glossing over aspects we find uncomfortable to discuss, just the facts. Something that has been sorely missing in school textbooks. If you only read two books on the list, this should be one of them.
The Five Thousand Year leap- What made this country so great? Well according to Dr Skousen, it was 28 ideas, some of which had been tried separately with varying degrees of success elsewhere but had never been tried together. The founding fathers decided to take a gamble and proceed with a grand experiment that resulted in the country we now live in. This should be the second title that you need to make a must read.
At the edge of the Precipice, Henry Clay and the Compromise that Saved the Union- At the end of the Mexican American War, the country was faced with a major dilemma: what to do with all of the land ceded to it. The slave states wanted a one for one deal where for any free state that was admitted, there had to be a corresponding slave state that was admitted. This nearly tore the country apart and given the current state of things, the Northern states did not yet have the industrial or logistical capacity to support a protracted conflict should there have been a schism that resulted in a civil war. Senator Henry Clay proposed an omnibus bill that would result in a compromise that all of the states should have been able to live with. Problem was that there were so many interrelated parts of this proposed legislation that no one could go along with anything because doing so would have meant having to go along with things that they were vehemently opposed to. It took Stephen Douglas (yes THAT Stephen Douglas) to separate the bill into individual components that could be voted upon by legislators. If 160 years ago they figured out that all-encompassing legislation wasn’t the way to go, then why are some members of our current Congress still trying to foist the same thing on the citizenry? This definitely fits Dr Einstein’s definition of insanity.
Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln’s Legacy- On the insistence of Northern Democrats, Abraham Lincoln took one of their own (Andrew Johnson) as his running mate for VP. Upon Lincoln’s death, Johnson ascended to the presidency. One of the things he did was to wait until Congress was in recess and appoint former Confederate officials to posts in the south. This effectively brought reconstruction to a grinding, screeching halt. The rise of the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow segregation can be directly tied to his actions. Congressman Thaddeus Stevens was the prime mover who got the ball rolling on Johnson’s impeachment proceedings, but due to his advanced age and feebleness was unable to see things through without assistance. The folks assisting him though, were a bunch of grandstanding, self-promoting fops whose efforts definitely hurt the case against Johnson. Worse yet, the Senate was one of the most corrupt legislative bodies on the planet. Prior to the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, Senators were “elected” by state legislatures. Back then, it was a game of spoils when it came to divvying up things like appointments to federal customs houses and other agencies, and they and their patrons in the state legislatures played it well. It has long been suspected that the one vote that kept Johnson from being convicted was bought and paid for by business interests who had a lot to lose in the south if labor costs on goods produced there dramatically spiked upwards. We’re seeing a similar debate play out on immigration reform and why these folks need to be allowed to stay. Hint: It’s not for humanitarian reasons.
The Road to Serfdom- Ever wonder what would happen if this country tried to go to a centralized economy? Well Frederick Hayek already knew and tried to warn the British back in the early forties that they were about to make the same mistake that Germany (and the Soviet Union) had made. Although not as severe as either the Germans or Soviets, what would have happened to Britain may well have turned it into a corporatist society where you had an unholy trinity of big government, big business/industry, and big labor. There would have been no place for the little guy (i.e., small to medium sized businesses) which is where the lion’s share of job growth usually comes from.
All the Devils are here- Ever wonder just who or what was responsible for the financial meltdown in 2008? Depending on what side of the political aisle you’re on, it was usually the other guys who caused it. This book proves once and for all that it was a bipartisan effort (something of a rarity in present day Washington) that drove us off the proverbial cliff. This book explains who, what, where, when, why, and how things happened, but does not seek to apportion blame. That is left up to the reader, but I’m sure you’ll be able to figure things out for yourselves after reading this. Warning!! This is the one book you do not want to read before going to bed at night. It will have you so wound up it will prove difficult to get to sleep. I would also suggest that pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers stay away as well.
End the Fed- Just what is the Federal Reserve Bank’s purpose in life? Initially it was to provide for a stable money supply, but during the Carter Administration, it was also assigned the task of managing the country’s employment rate. How these two things go together, I really don’t know, and I suspect neither does the Fed. The “boom and bust” cycles that we have been subject to since its’ founding have been deeper and more pronounced. The current “recovery” we are experiencing has seen a stock market going great guns with no corresponding job growth, why? Because the Fed has been making cheap and easy money available to investors in the market. They have been enriched but no one else has seen much of an improvement in their standard of living or income. Then there are the trillions of dollars that are sitting on the sidelines because the custodians of these funds see this as just another bubble and are waiting for the proper time to invest capital back into the economy. They won’t do anything until they see some sort of positive sign on the horizon, but the Fed has yet to make that happen.
Showdown- What happened on 9/11 was a failure of government to do its primary job of keeping its citizenry safe. This book delves into just what went wrong, how the special interests in Washington and elsewhere plan on trying to profit from what happened and what is currently going on. It also looks at the divisive nature of politics and how we are being kept apart, not as Americans but as disparate groups, be it due to ideology, race, religion, gender, you name it.
Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America- Joseph McCarthy may have been a grandstanding opportunist, but he did have one thing right. There were communist influences within our government and in other industries here. In the run-up to World War Two, the Soviets made sure that every member of the Communist Party of the USA was doing his or her utmost to infiltrate every level of government and industry. The US military set up a signals intelligence unit codenamed Arlington Hall that monitored Soviet diplomatic cables (the only form of international communications at the time) and along with FBI programs that complimented their efforts, were able identify many Soviet agents (American and Russian) by their code names and real names. In terms of being able to prosecute a lot of these folks, the feds decided that it was better not to divulge methods and sources. This gave a lot of folks on the left the idea that the government really didn’t have a case against many of these people and that this was just a witch hunt. It wasn’t until a liberal Senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, got the program declassified in the 1990’s, that we came to see the scope and breadth of Soviet efforts here in this country. Most liberals will never admit that one of their own basically gave away the keys to the kingdom, but that’s what happened.
Hell to Pay: Operation Downfall and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947- Ever have a time when you get into a political discussion that turns to the US dropping of atomic bombs on Japan and why this was either wrong or racist? Well wonder no more. The author, a military historian, gained access to US and Japanese military records to piece together a rather disturbing narrative about what would have happened had we invaded the main islands of Japan. By all accounts, the plans that Imperial General HQ had for the allies would have made the battle for Okinawa look like a Sunday picnic. Worse yet, they were willing to suffer through civilian casualties into the tens of millions if enough damage could be inflicted on the invading force that would have led to more favorable terms of surrender. James A Michener was stationed in the Pacific and had orders to mobilize for the coming invasion. Neither he nor anyone else gave their chances of making it through the war an even shot if Japan was going to be invaded. When they finally got word that the bombs had been dropped and Japan had finally surrendered (what sealed the deal was the emperor retaining his status as titular head of state), they all breathed a sigh of relief. Michener could never bring himself to admit to this given the social circles he ran in after he became famous. It wasn’t until after his death that a friend of his published a letter detailing how he really felt.
The Unmaking of Americans: How Multiculturalism has Undermined the Assimilation Ethic- Why do we have so many languages spoken here in the US? Why isn’t English the official language? Why is everyone some sort of ethnically hyphenated American and not just an American? Blame it on multiculturalism. If you’re wondering why identity politics has become in vogue as well as big business, then look no further. Rather than preach the tried-and-true virtues of assimilation, the creators of this pseudo social science tried to take a lighter to the very fabric that made this nation of immigrants the greatest in the history of humankind.
Rules for Radicals- How do the “have nots”, who are being squeezed from every direction get to have their day in the sun? Well, according to the original community organizer, you follow his simple steps to make sure that the establishment or “haves” understand that you’re a force to be reckoned with. A lot of us have heard about these Alinsky style tactics, but what doesn’t get mentioned is the fact that there was also a group called the “have somes” that resembled the middle class. This group, Alinsky stated, would also start feeling squeezed and would wind up taking some sort of action to push back on those doing the squeezing (read the “haves”). What Alinsky hadn’t counted on was the form that pushback would take. Can anyone say Tea Party?
The Naked Communist- This work by Dr Skousen goes into the pathology that makes someone who believes in Communism tick (add Socialism, while we’re at it). Not one to believe in tin foil hat type conspiracies, I looked at the goals that were listed in the book and compared them to events in modern day America, as well as the world. What I discovered was that since its’ publishing in 1958, this book has been fairly prescient, given the fact that between two thirds to three quarters of the items on the list have come to fruition. Throw in the revelations from the declassification of Venona and this makes for quite an interesting piece of work.
The Naked Capitalist- This was a response/review to a work titled Tragedy and Hope by Dr Carroll Quigley published in 1966. In it, Quigley basically espoused the virtues of a single cabal controlling all of what happens in the world (think Soros, Gates, Besos, the Kochs, and others). Not that they were bent on world domination for purely selfish reasons, but they figured that all of the world’s problems could be resolved if only the right people were in charge. Dr Skousen alleged that “the right people” in Quigley’s claims were nothing more than a modern-day aristocracy trying to seize the reins of power in an attempt to bring about their misguided agenda. Party affiliation had nothing to do with what was happening since these folks could be found on both sides of the aisle.
And now for the tie-in.
We live in a world that seems to be spinning out of control with each passing day. We deal with a presidential administration that despite claims to wanting to follow the rule of law, appears to be breaking said law with virtual impunity all while most major media outlets give scant, if any coverage, unless things really blow up and they’re forced to do so. A recent poll showed that broadcast media in this country has an 18 percent credibility rating. That’s on a par with what people think of Congress, which is no small feat.
Then there’s the Congress itself, the object of much of America’s ire and derision. With a few exceptions, rather than conducting the business of this country and tending to the needs of their constituencies where applicable, they come across as being a bunch of self-promoting, junket-taking, special interest catering group of dolts who are a bad gene splice between a petulant four-year-old and know-it-all sixteen year old. Witness the defeat of Representative Eric Cantor in his home district in a primary race that supposedly had him up on his challenger by a double-digit lead.
We’re told that we have a shrinking middle class which is a sure sign of this country’s decline. What’s causing this decline is why the debate rages on. On one hand we’ve been told that it’s because good paying manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas by greedy corporations. On the other side we’ve been told overregulation and taxation forced these functions to go elsewhere lest those costs get passed on to the American consumer. What’s forgotten in the debate is how economies of scale in a globally connected world will cause industries to migrate to where they will gain the most benefit. Rather than chase down something that has already flown the coop, we should be concentrating on preparing our citizens for the next economy and the one after that, which will ensure our economic leadership in the global commons in the years to come. The Trump era has proven this assessment partially inaccurate.
We have been divided among socio-economic, cultural, religious, gender, and even geographic lines. Rather than treat Americans as a homogenous entity (remember E Pluribus Unum?), we are told by the media, politicians and others who see profit and advantage in keeping us divided that this is the right thing to do. Somehow, somewhere along the line we have been aggrieved by someone and need to have the score settled. Think George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, think Occupy Wall Street with its’ mantra of the ninety nine percent versus the one percent, think a woman’s right to choose and contraception. The more one looks, the more of these things one will find being played out on a routine basis.
The government knows what’s best for you, just ask it. I’d just as soon have someone else stay out of my personal affairs, especially know-it-all bureaucrats and politicians. You don’t know how bad certain foods and beverages are for you, your children aren’t being properly nourished at school, your health care plan is substandard, guns are dangerous and can kill. Michelle, Mike, Zeke, and the rest of you nanny staters, I don’t need you to tell me what I already know. I’ve got my big boy pants on and can figure things out for myself, thank you very much.
Speaking of our kids, they will be the ones inheriting the mess we are trying to muddle our way through now but, listening to some of these politicos and pundits you’d think that there was really nothing going on. We spend more on education than at any other time in our history but have crumbling school infrastructures and flat lining test scores. We’re told that teaching to a test is no way to educate a child, but the last time I checked, weren’t tests supposed to be a measure of what people learned (i.e., a rubric or specified set of standards)? When schools are failing our kids, isn’t it time to find alternatives to the traditional educational route? If that is the case, then why are roadblocks being thrown up when it comes to school choice? If our children are this country’s future, then it’s time those entrusted with their education started acting like it or go seek employment elsewhere.
The family. The basic unit of our society. It doesn’t matter what form it may take or who its members are. Without it we are nothing but a collection of individuals with a few common parochial interests. Family is where you first feel that sense of belonging, but far too often we witness children coming from broken or troubled homes who will never experience that feeling or wind up doing so within the ranks of a street gang, which is what spurred me to write this rambling explanation in the first place.
Despite the numerous problems we face present day, there is always hope. Since this is a government of, by, and for the people, it only stands to reason that if we are willing to take back our government from those who feel that they’re the only ones who know what’s going on, then we’ll be in much better shape in the years to come. Mind you, this will be no cake walk. It will require all of us to commit to some combination of the following along the way:
1. Have a working knowledge of this country’s history, both the good and the bad.
2. Be knowledgeable about how our government functions and is supposed to function.
3. Pay attention to current events with an eye towards political skullduggery and journalistic malpractice.
4. Hold local, state, and federal officials accountable both at town hall meetings and at the polls.
5. Foster a sense of community in our neighborhoods and schools.
It’s often been said that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom, but it’s so much more. It’s the price we pay for living in a country we can all be proud to call our own.
Have a great weekend.
Stan
Addendum
Liberty’s last stand by Stephen Coonts. I picked up the term mind candy from a Captain I flew with. He described any literary work of fiction as mind candy. Coonts’ novel was set in 2016 and revolved around a plot by the incumbent president to plunge the nation into a state of crisis during an election year, where he and his cronies could declare martial law and do away with their political opponents under the guise of maintaining law and order. It’s uncanny how events in real life have played out with eerie similarities.
The Benghazi Investigation. Although many in conservative circles wanted to heap all the blame of that debacle on the Obama Administration, this investigation uncovered the fact that the administration had in-briefed members of both parties in both the House and Senate on what its intentions for Libya were. This is one of the reasons that then House Majority Whip McCarthy notoriously claimed the investigation was nothing more than a way to discredit Hillary Clinton if she chose to run for president in 2016. The administration stonewalled the committee when it came to making individuals and documents available to the committee, so nothing substantive came out of the findings.
Skygods. The Fall of Pan Am. This is a cautionary tale about the sort of things that befall those engaged in what can only be described as imperial hubris. At the start of the book, the author introduces us to a new hire pilot class at “the world’s most experienced airline” and the promises made about how bright their futures were. We are then taken down a winding path where we get to witness some incredibly flawed decisions that eventually led to the airline’s downfall. Pan Am was one of many iconic brands during that era that suffered from a managed decline over the course of time.
Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court. This book details how the Democrats seized upon an old formula in the politics of personal destruction, to set up a narrative that made now Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh look like a sexual predator with a drinking problem. The authors detail how a bunch of unrelated events were strung together in an attempt at character assassination against an honorable man. Central to all of this was a book written by Mark Judge, a boyhood friend of Cavanaugh’s, detailing his personal struggles with substance abuse. This was the basis of Dr. Blasey-Ford’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the ensuing media firestorm.
Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized our Elections. This is more of a cautionary tale about what can happen when we allow the very safeguards of our electoral process to be pushed aside because of exigent/special circumstances. Norms like voter identification/verification, signature matching, poll watchers, and chain of custody which are supposed to give the electorate confidence in the process, were turned on their heads. Then there was the infiltration of private politically partisan groups into the ranks of local election authorities, without any sort of vetting occurring to check out their bona-fides or true intentions. Worse yet, were the concerted efforts by the legacy media and big tech to squelch stories that cast Democrats in a negative light and Republicans in a positive one. Stories with no discernable basis in the truth, facts, or reality, were given legs, while stories that accurately portrayed events were either completely squelched or sat on, only to be released when they could no longer adversely impact a particular set of circumstances (i.e., the Hunter Biden Laptop). Objectivity, which had at one time been a hallmark of our media, became a casualty amongst a group of folks who could no longer hide their personal biases for one party over another. They decided to brazenly put their thumbs on the scale to help sway an election for the candidate of their choice. The origin of the “let’s go Brandon” chant (an anti-Joe Biden meme), is the most recent example of this.
The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health. While I am not the biggest RFK Jr fan out there, I will agree with him on the premise of this book and the information contained therein. I decided to read what others had to say on Amazon before pulling the trigger myself. Upon reading initial reviews, one stood out. The writer claimed that only about a quarter of the information was factually accurate. The writer also stated even that small percentage warranted Fauci, and other miscreants be made to answer for their malfeasance. The book spends more time covering his pre-pandemic days at the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) than it does his time dealing with our present-day crisis. That’s a good thing though, since it sets the stage for what we are now having to suffer through. The developing plotline introduces us to characters we are now familiar with, including Dr. Robert Redfield of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Dr. Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Dr. Deborah Birx, the actual leader of the medical contingent of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. More about her is revealed in the next book recommendation. Based upon having closely followed this pandemic since February of 2020, I am now convinced that the truth telling percentage is somewhere north of sixty percent, especially when you throw in revelations about the attempted Globalist takeover better known as the Great Reset.
A Plague Upon our House: My fight at the Trump White House to stop COVID from destroying America. Having committed to reading the Kennedy book, I decided to use this book as a sanity check. Dr. Atlas, contrary to the demonization he endured in the media, was an expert on public health policy long before most of these hacks had even heard of the field (seventeen years). In fact, he had published Op-eds in various publications dealing with the pandemic response prior to signing on to work at the White House in a temporary capacity with nary a peep from these same people. Drs Birx, Fauci, and Redfield were basically the “Three Amigos”, and had a standing agreement that if one was let go from the task force, the others would walk as well. It was Birx and Fauci who advocated for lockdowns and masks for the general populace, even though the data that Dr. Atlas kept producing (through rigorous research and communications with contacts who were experts in the field), suggested that the only folks we should have been protecting, were the most vulnerable among us. Neither of them liked Atlas’ work since it undermined their messaging. Worse yet, were some of the advisors to the President, and the Vice President himself, who although they agreed with what Atlas was disseminating, were very cautious not to “rock the boat” during an election year. This review from The Blaze says it all. Throughout the book, Atlas questioned the rationale behind what Birx and Fauci were doing. You need not look any further than the Kennedy book for answers. Both of these books are must-reads for anyone interested in what really happened.
The Terminal List. This novel was turned into a hugely successful series on Amazon’s video streaming service. It revolves around a SEAL officer who has lost most of his platoon during a raid on a terrorist target, in what can only be described as a setup. Things go from bad to worse when one of the surviving team members purportedly takes his own life under suspicious circumstances and he himself starts to doubt his take on events surrounding the raid. Rather than continue to give away the plot, I will say that the underlying theme is about as timely as it gets, especially given the plight of US military personnel being forced to take a yet unproven vaccine with no controls being put in place to protect them. Can anyone say violation of the Waiver of Informed Consent process?
