4 Star – Page 4 – Public Intelligence Blog

Ryan Holiday

4.0 out of 5 stars World-Class Integration with Some Flaws, July 2, 2015

This is a brilliantly executed formula book. It was given to me as a gift during a recent trip to Tampa, Florida, and I read it on the airplane flying back — so I do recommend it as a 2 hour airplane read.

The author, whom I know personally and whose book Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator I consider the superior original work — I gave it a rave review and met the author as a result, has done a superb job of combining an original foundation from several ancient philosophers with modern biographies of success, to create a distilled self-help book that focuses on perception, action, and will as the three things that anyone can control in the face of adversity.

Continue reading “Review: The Obstacle is the Way”

2015/05/24

Review: Democracy More or Less – America’s Political Reform Quandry

4 Star, America (Founders, Current Situation), Congress (Failure, Reform), Electoral Reform USA, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform)

Bruce Cain

4.0 out of 5 stars Academic Smoke — Disdain for the Public & Denial Over Two-Party Tyranny, May 24, 2015

I spent some time reviewing the author's history (he's been writing about electoral matters since the 1970's) and what Amazon offers through its superb Inside the Book feature, as I am unemployed and between the book price and what Amazon charges for delivery today this would have been a $40 commitment. My call: not worth it for the electoral reform activist, but useful as the nay-sayer summary for graduate level courses in politics.

The book suffers three strikes:

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2015/03/292015/03/30

Review: The Onboard Medical Guide – First Aid and Emergency Medicine Afloat

4 Star, Sailing

Paul G. Gill

The Best in Its Time, Superceded by Marine Medicine, March 29, 2015

Dated but exceptional.

I have been so unhappy with the “standard” references such as Advanced First Aid Afloat that that I created my own informal study guide for offshore use, one page per item, description/diagnostics, treatment, and photo.

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2015/03/132015/03/13

Review: Guerrilla Politician: The #1 Guide in America for 3rd Party Candidates

4 Star, Democracy

David Lory Vanderbeek

4.0 out of 5 stars Rough around the edges, useful starting point, March 12, 2015

This book is rough around the edges and overlooks prior works by others with the same level of patriotism and hard-earned experience. It is however very timely, very honest, very much on point, and I therefore recommend it without reservation.

Continue reading “Review: Guerrilla Politician: The #1 Guide in America for 3rd Party Candidates”

2015/03/122015/03/09

Review: Unstoppable – The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State

4 Star, America (Founders, Current Situation), Capitalism (Good & Bad), Congress (Failure, Reform), Corruption, Crime (Corporate), Democracy, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization)

Ralph Nader

4.0 out of 5 stars Valentine for the Real Conservatives — Bland and Not Transformative, March 9, 2015

Positive up front: reading a book by another person is like getting a few hours of their time to yourself, so any book by Ralph Nader is a substantive value to anyone interested in ethics and governance. However, this is not the transformative book I was hoping for, and I even have to wonder if all the great minds providing blurbs even read the book. For the long critique of this book, which I totally embrace, see Herbert Calhoun's 3-star review, This is Both an Accurate and a Useful Treatise, But …?, October 25, 2014. I'd like to see it voted up, Mr. Calhoun, whom I have had the privilege of meeting at Amphoras in Vienna, is one of the most intelligent and broadly read individuals I have ever encountered.

Second positive up front: in terms of inspiring generations of independent thinkers some of whom have become thought leaders in their own right, Ralph Nader is special. Jim Turner — co-author with Lawrence Chickering of Voice of the People: The Transpartisan Imperative in American Life and Theresa Amato, whose own book Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny contributed to my radicalization, stand out.

Continue reading “Review: Unstoppable – The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State”

2015/03/092015/03/06

Review: Reform or Revolution and Other Writings

4 Star, Economics, Insurgency & Revolution, Philosophy, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization)

Rosa Luxemburg

4.0 out of 5 stars Tedious, Some Valuable Provocative Original Thinking, March 6, 2015

I bought this book along with On Marx: Revolutionary and Utopian (Liveright Classics) at Powell's in Portland, one of the truly great bookstores in the USA along with the Tattered Cover in Denver (which is a tenth the size of Powell's). I bought it largely because of its focus on the general strike versus the partial strike as a tactic that might or might not be possible depending on the country and where it is in its economic degeneration.

Although I received a very good education in political thought from Charles Bednar at Muhlenberg, I confess that it is only now at 63 that I have realized that most of what our government, media, think tanks, and even universities offer in the way of commentary on “political economy” is ideological crap — they do not do their homework, they really have no clue, and they get away with it because everyone else has no clue either.

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2015/03/072015/03/05

Review (Guest): American Coup – How a Terrified Government Is Destroying the Constitution

4 Star, America (Founders, Current Situation), Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Atrocities & Genocide, Censorship & Denial of Access, Congress (Failure, Reform), Corruption, Crime (Corporate), Crime (Government), Culture, Research, Democracy, Economics, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Impeachment & Treason, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Justice (Failure, Reform), Military & Pentagon Power, Misinformation & Propaganda, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Public Administration, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, True Cost & Toxicity, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized)

William M. Arkin

4 out of 5 Stars. We Live in “Forever-War”

By Amazon Customer on September 22, 2013

Essentially: We now live in a time of “forever-war.”

The worry about the government instituting martial-law is sooo 1990's because we now truly live a martial life. And we've accepted it. There is no “over there” anymore when it comes to the militarization of our lives. Over there is here. We live to assist the government in everything. See something, say something. And the bottom-line of everything that the government does in the name of national security is not to serve, protect, or assist you but to preserve itself. It's all part of the Continuity of Government (COG) and it's been in place for many years but it spectacularly grew into the multi-headed hydra immediately after 911.

Continue reading “Review (Guest): American Coup – How a Terrified Government Is Destroying the Constitution”