Andrew P. Napolitano
7 Stars — Documents Presidential Perfidy – Life Transformative for This Reason
I broke with the Republican Party over Iran-Contra and belatedly, the one trillion a year that Reagan started shamelessly borrowing to fund the dual welfare system — a dysfunctional military-espionage-industrial complex for the right, and a dysfunctional regulatory myopic and equally toxic individual welfare system for the left, all while ignoring banking and corporate predation. Fox News broke with me when I said, on live Fox, that the Global War on Terror was a fraud. Fox may be getting smarter, certainly this book causes me to reconsider where the right might be. I like the book very much. Although an Op-Ed book that lacks the eye candy (the Constitution as an appendix, and charts showing the specifics of Roosevelt's and Wilson's violations, maps of global and domestic depravities carried out in the public name and at the public's expense), this is a superb primer, a superb eye-opener, not just for the normal American with little time to read, but also, absolutely, for those like myself who read a great deal but may not have been well grounded in the areas where Judge Napolitano has spent hard time in the trenches.
I notice immediately that among his many books are two that resonate with everything that I and others do at Phi Beta Iota the Public Intelligence Blog (“The truth at any cost lowers all other costs”):
Constitutional Chaos: What Happens When the Government Breaks Its Own Laws
Lies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History
This book is a measured and hence valuable overview of thirteen unconstitutional turns in our last century and a half. I thought, with all the other excellent reviews already up, that the best contribution I could make is single out the one where I learned the most, and then offer an additional recommended reading in each of eight other areas where the author has sharpened my understanding and heightened my patriotic anger.
EYE OPENER: I never gave much thought to the 17th amendment that took states' right away by taking away the role of the Senators as representatives of the State, instead turning them into the standard mob mouthpieces of the two-party tyranny. Now I am in Afghanistan, where a federal system has made corruption the central fact of life, destroyed the diversity and integrity of the provinces, and set the stage for another civil war when the US limps out. The older I get and the more I learn, the more I treasure grass-roots diversity down to municipal and county rights — NO from the bottom must trump “because I say so” from the top. I am adding reversal of 17th Amendment to my “to do” list at We the People Reform Coalition, joining my view that secession is the right of every state, and nullification in the public interest is the OBLIGATION of every Governor and state legislature.
Now here are eight of the thirteen chapters, each a lesson plan on its own, my only contribution here is to add a short blurb and one recommended additional reading for each of these chapters (I have reviewed each, my reviews are summary in nature for those who do not have the time or do not wish to purchase the books).
Compulsory Education — factory model, rote learning, lowest common denominator.
Philosophy and the Social Problem: The Annotated Edition
Regulatory State — micro-managing doing the wrong thing righter
Redesigning Society (Stanford Business Books)
Federal Reserve — Neither federal nor a reserve. Front for crooked banks sucking the blood out of the Republic
Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History
Conscription — I support universal service as a nation-unifying toughening up measure, but rooted in the Guard, not a standing Army with corrupt ignorant flag officers and senior civil servants who violate their oath to defend the Constitution every single day, confusing loyalty to the two-party tyranny with integrity. Colin Powell is very high on my list of traitors, Henry Kissinger is the poster child: “The illegal we do immediately, the unconstitutional takes a little longer.”
The Search for Security: A U.S. Grand Strategy for the Twenty-First Century
Mismanagement, Waste, and Hypocrisy — when two parties block all Independents and the other six parties (especially the Libertarian, Reform, and Green parties), then we are not being managed, we are being looted.
Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny
Roosevelt & War — the arrogance and ignorance of the US Government is clear both at home and abroad. I am a disciple of John Boyd and an admirer of Pierre Spray, Chuck Spinney, Winslow Wheeler, and David Swanson. We have created a monster, good people trapped in bad system that is inherently corrupt at all levels across all functions.
War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier
Wilson — Expansionist and Interventionist — racist as well, believing everyone else to be “little people” whose indigenous ways are retarded and the rightful domain of the “exceptionalist” Americans.
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent
Propaganda & Espionage — I've published nine books in this particular area, and continue to be dismayed at the waste — over $80 billion a year on garbage that General Tony Zinni, USMC (then CINCCENT) is on record as saying it provided him with “at best” 4% of what he needed to know, to which I would add, “and nothing for everyone else — see my free online article,”Intelligence for the President — AND Everyone Else.” We have become a police state. This started with the assassination of JFK by a a CIA-LBJ-FBI team led by Papa Bush, then a non-official cover officer for the CIA with Zapata Oil as his front company, and was rapidly followed up by FBI, Army, and CIA atrocities against dissidents across the USA, including the assassination of Martin Luther King.
Naturally I agree with the author of personal income taxes, I am reminded of Davy Crocket's lesson learned when he voted for $20K for a charitable organization and one of his constituents shouted out to him something along the lines of “that is not your money to give.” The Libertarian Party has potential, but it must break with the traitor who made them a sideshow and refused to actually run for President in 2012 with a coalition ticket focused on the ONE THING that can restore the Constitution, the sovereignty of the public, and the integrity of the government: electoral reform (look up Electoral Reform Act at We the People Reform Coalition).
The conclusion of the book is rewarding, and I also find a little nugget in the final Acknowledgements. The conclusion is Jeffersonian, as am I (“A Nation's best defense is an educated people”). The author emphasizes that our struggle has one of individual freedom versus monopoly of force. Today in the USA we have an utterly insane Department of Homeland Security arming local police against We the People (fortunately Oath Keepers and other measures are proving effective but the shut-down of Boston and the door to door Gestapo tactics used there are the canary in the coal mine).
Two quotes from the author that capture the essence of the book, which I certainly recommend to one and all:
QUOTE (250): “…Constitution is only as valid as the fiedlity to it of the human beings in whose hands it is reposed for safekeeping.”
QUOTE (277): “The past 100 years of American history, with exceptions in the areas of civil rights for minorities and equal rights for women, have been good for the growth of government and bad for the freedom of individuals.”
I agree. Government is an artifact not to be confused with America the Beautiful, the Constitution, or the Republic. We are long overdue for cleaning house, but I fear that Fox News, the Tea Party, the Libertarian Party, and of course the grossly oblivious party (gop) are all on the wrong track. If we do not unify on the ONE THING that can bring us all together and put We the People back into politics (in theory, the art of achieving the greatest good for the greatest number) — I speak of Electoral Reform and the 11 point Electoral Reform Act — then we will continue to be as Lawrence of Arabia described the Arabs, “So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people. Greedy, barbarous and cruel, as you are.” NO PARTIES — ONE PEOPLE.”
From Afghanistan, Semper Fidelis,
Robert David STEELE Vivas
INTELLIGENCE for EARTH: Clarity, Diversity, Integrity & Sustainability
