Reviews (Books & DVD) – Page 185 – Public Intelligence Blog

Industrial-era directory with little added value, September 27, 2008

Erica Payne

I eagerly anticipated this book's arrival, believing from the title that it might actually contribute to my thinking on how to build a twenty-first century political movement (I support Reuniting American and the Transpartisan Alliance with public intelligence in the public interest).

Nope. This is an industrial-era directory with almost no added value. Seventy nine organizations are profiled in small print in hard copy, followed by snapshot bios of some of the activists.

Organizations that are NOT on the left (which has hijacked the term “progressive”) but rather centrist, postpartisan, transpartisan, or nonpartison are NOT included here, for example, The New America Foundation, World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility, Reuniting America, the Liberty Coalition, and on and on and on.

I checked the website, hoping for an interactive online version of the book that might be useful, but found it to be merely an advertising site.

In brief: a lot of work went into this book, the editor and those involved in the book got a lot of face time with many good people doing important work in isolation from one another and from the rest of us, but the book does NOT advance participatory deliberative democracy in any significant way.

Other books that might be more satisfying:
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Doing Democracy
The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics
The Change Handbook: The Definitive Resource on Today's Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World
How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Updated Edition
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace
Election 2008: Lipstick on the Pig (Substance of Governance; Legitimate Grievances; Candidates on the Issues; Balanced Budget 101; Call to Arms: Fund We Not Them; Annotated Bibliography)

Both of the last two are free online.

I recommend the editor urge every organization listed in this book to join the rest of us at World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility (WISER). That online resource is connnecting dots to dots, dots to people, people to people, and dollars to outcomes.

2009/07/032009/12/04

Review: Global Reach–The Power of the Multinational Corporations

5 Star, Capitalism (Good & Bad)

Seminal Work, Foundation for Studying the Roots of Global Class War, October 11, 2008

Richard J. Barnet and Ronald E. Muller

This was one of the more important books I studied during my first graduate endeavor, and it summed up my earlier undergraduate studies of the multinational corporation and home as well as host country issues with this relatively new post-industrial era construct.

Today we can appreciate the foresight, the wisdom, and the correct value judgements that this earnest author sought to share with us. Where we failed was in attending to his warnings, and allowing these corporations to relegate their human charges to commodity status. From this ensued the fiction of “Free Trade,” and the Global Class War that has broken the back of the American middle class and the upper third of the blue collar workers that are our spine–a spine that has been broken ever since Ronald Reagan made the fundamental mistake of using the military against the Air Traffic Controllers Union.

There are many works that I could link to here, but I will limit myself to a handful:
The Manufacture Of Evil: Ethics, Evolution, and the Industrial System
The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future – and What It Will Take to Win It Back

2009/07/032009/12/31

Review: The Limits to Growth

5 Star, Decision-Making & Decision-Support, Environment (Solutions), Priorities

Amazon Page 2

Fundamental Reference from 1970's When Government Betrayal of the Public Trust Began,

October 11, 2008

Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, Denniss Meadows

Although there are those who remain in denial about the foresight and wisdom of this book, today we are left in no doubt: there *are* limits to growth, and those who refuse to accept such realities accelerate the demise of our planet while also ignoring the depradations upon the public of corporations, religions, crime families and networks, and the “states” whose officials they all bribe and subvert.

The good news is that an entire literature has developed from this one little book, and there is a growing public awareness–as well as growing financial and corporate awareness–of the urgency of harmonizing our human behavior with the larger Earth system of which we are a part.

On the dark side:
Pandora's Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy
The Blue Death: Disease, Disaster, and the Water We Drink
High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health
High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them

A handful of current references that can trace their heritage back to this book, which is still worth reading today:
Ecological Economics: Principles And Applications
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

2009/07/032009/12/04

Review: The Modern State

5 Star, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Public Administration

Seminal Work of Lasting Value, Still the Best Overall, October 11, 2008

R. M. Maciver

I am reliving my first graduate degree as I develop a new book, and when the occasion warrants, coming back into Amazon to comment on especially wonderous books. This is one of them.

MacIver has still not, to my knowledge, been equaled. Here is my summary of his book written in 1975, and still valid.

A pleasure to read, MacIver is the most useful focal point for the study of the modern state. An introduction defines the state as an association characterized by a limiting concept of sovereignty and the rule of law.

The first of four books deals with the emergence of the state; its origins, early empire, the emergence of citizenship (including the impact of the cities on associations and on the stratification and organization of society), a nd the formation of the country-state through feudalism and nationality.

Book two discusses the powers and functions of the state; the limits of political control, the residence of authority, might and sovereignty, law and order, and the relations betwseen political government and economic order. An excellent descriptive chart is offered that divides the functions of the state in its internal aspect into order, protection, and conservation & development. Within each category, the role of the state vis-a-vis the physical habits and social structure of the society from which it stems is seen to imply related and elaborative activities.

Book three explores the forms and institutions of the state, the articulation of governmental powers, and the party system.

The fourth and final book, dealing with theories and interpretations of the state, outlines very quickly the evolution of these theories, moving on to focus on two major issues in political thought: the issue of individualism and collectivism, and the attack on sovereignty.

In concluding, MacIver offers a very acceptable and timely reinterpretation of the state as an association among other associations–as an organ of the community and thus an organ whose power must be limited in relation to its functions, which in turn must be constrained by the state's inherent impulse, despite its dependency on its public, to encompass and dominate all that falls within its assigned territory.

MacIver remains utterly brilliant and so very relevant to our condition.

2009/07/032009/12/04

Review: Never Surrender–A Soldier’s Journey to the Crossroads of Faith and Freedom

5 Star, Biography & Memoirs, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, War & Face of Battle

Helpful, Illuminating, and Inspiring, October 12, 2008

Jerry Boykin

I ordered this biography on a whim, as one of a dozen books on irregular warfare that I am using to review the thoughts of others before I publish my own book. When the three boxes from Amazon arrived, this book was buried under others, but was immediately the most attractive for the week-end.

Several important insights are available from this book:

1) Charlie Beckwith, whose book Delta Force: The Army's Elite Counterterrorist Unit I really enjoyed, especially the part where he refused to leave a British field hospital for an American one, learned from the SAS the most important lesson it had to teach, and brought it to DELTA: to be *truly* unconventional, to be *truly* irregular, you must be UNMILITARY. From this page (69) I simply relaxed and enjoyed a great account. I got what I was looking for, sooner than expected.

2) The 12-hour long march from point to point is a time-tested method of screening for individuals who have inherent resolve that cannot be trained for. I quote from page 78: “The Army can train a man to spy, shoot, blow things up, and kill with his bare hands. But it cannot instill in a man the series of two-sided personality coins that cash out as a successful operative: patience and aggression, precision and audacity, the ability to lead or fall in line. Above all, the Army cannot instill resolve beyond physical and mental limits.”

3) In the above context, faith is helpful, and faith cannot be taken for granted. Early on I enjoyed the author's explanation of how he reconciled faith with a profession that wages death (for life), finding that every war is a spiritual battle. The author explicitly identifies America as God's land of faith and tolerance, and I agree with him.

4) On page 130, he concludes that some men are evil and simply need to be killed. I agree with that completely. In the 1990's when I first started advocating the need to shift away from the Soviet Union and toward Third World terrorists and criminals, I used the phrase, “one man, one bullet.” We still cannot do that today, while the Navy and the Air Force continue to buy fewer really big things for more and more money.

I enjoyed every minute with this book. This is not a “shoot 'em book.” This is, as the subtitle communicates, the story of an extraordinary individual, a man born and trained to be the best possible fighter, who found faith and kept faith with God and America. He is “the way it ought to be.”

Here are some side notes.

Rumsfeld created the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence because he was furious that his Special Forces had to be “led” into Afghanistan by the CIA (see my review of Jawbreaker: The Attack on bin Laden and al-Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander.

George Bush Junior betrayed all of us in crucifying and disavowing General Boykin in the face of media lies and exaggerations for which the author was fully exonerated by two Inspector General endeavors.

Media–the out of control largely ignorant media–is the best weapon that terrorists and others who hate America can use. I agree with that, and I am especially concerned at the ignorance of both our current presidential candidates, neither one of whom can talk substance in the context of a balanced budget–and they get away with it because the media has no idea what the substance of governance is (see the free online book, also on Amazon, Election 2008: Lipstick on the Pig (Substance of Governance; Legitimate Grievances; Candidates on the Issues; Balanced Budget 101; Call to Arms: Fund We Not Them; Annotated Bibliography).

9/11 struck the author as the opening salvo in a long battle for our own soul. I agree with the soul part, but the battle started when we decided to run the world for 50 years, very badly, while ignoring the spread of violent Islam funded by Saudi Arabia. See these four books:
Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude
The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Vintage)
The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World
Wilson's Ghost: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century

Other tid-bits:
+ 1 of three officers to make cut in creating DELTA. Peter Schoomaker was another.
+ DELTA pool was 118 of whom 25 finished the Long Walk, of whom 19 were selected (in the first class)
+ Boykin's dad was one of five brothers who served in “The Good War,” three in the Army, two in the Navy.
+ He was 6 feet tall and weighed 180 lbs in the eighth grade.
+ Played guitar and wound up playing at World's Fair in 1965 (the thought, “well-rounded” came into my head–not a thug stereotype)
+ Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets
+ Drawn to brotherhood of infantry, inspired by Viet-Nam stories.
+ One of his coaches taught him that faith and reality could go together
+ Once married, his first child drove him to the Dean's List
+ “I really wanted to learn everything the Army had to teach.”
+ Found faith for real in the Army, it filled a void.
+ He LIKED Ham and Lima Beans in C-Rats. That alone makes him strange in an amusing sort of way. I always thought of that C-Ration as one step down from bread and water.
+ He had his failures, in both school and the Army, but they drove him to excel and honors came his way when he bore down.
+ Aide de Camp tour in Korea got him to Viet-Nam for three months, and gave him a strategic understanding of the Army
+ Lost the general's dog, ended up running him down. Very funny.
+ Was one of the originals as paratroopers migrated into air assault.
+ Almost shut out of DELTA by the shrink for “excessive faith in God,” but he connected with Beckwith in the final interview and got in, the clear message being that the faith was not misplaced.
+ Excellent discussion of the time value of instinctive shooting (with the necessary training) over aimed fire–life of a hostage, the first takes one second, the second takes two seconds, time for the hostage to be killed.
+ Beckwith understood the killing nature of bureaucracy
+ I have a note, this book is the anti-thesis to Colin's Powell's biography, My American Journey and a shorter different book-end to Hackworth's About Face: Odyssey of an American Warrior

The author takes us through a number of operations in a manner that does not compromise any tradecraft and is not tedious. I appreciated very much the light once over on Tehran (the students thought they would have to get out in three days, they under-estimated the timidity of the US under President Carter), Sudan, Graneda which was not a surprise and for which CIA had no intelligence of substance for the fighters, Panama, Somalia, and then Bosnia.

Sixteen pages of photos are in the middle of the book, all appropriate and helpful. There is no index.

I thought to end this review with several of the phrases from the Bible that the author quoted in the book. I bought Leadership Lessons of Jesus: A Timeless Model for Today's Leaders because it was on sale in the uniform store at MacDill, and now that I have read this book, believe that our Irregulars of the future will be well-served by being required to understand faith, and to memorize portions of the Bible, the Koran, and other Holy Scriptures (just think of the impact as shown in Lawrence of Arabia, when his completing a reading instantly won over King Faisal and sidelined the conventional colonel).

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 9.4-5

“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40

“For they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings of eagles, they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40.31, faxed from around the world as he struggled to survive a 50 caliber bullet shattering a radio into his body.

Amazon won't let me have more than ten links, but this one, by Navy Capt Doug Johnston, is worth a close look: Faith-Based Diplomacy. There is an intersection of UNMILITARY, faith, and Irregular War: Waging Peace that no one in power seems to understand.

2009/07/032009/12/04

Review: Blue Grit–Making Impossible, Improbable, and Inspirational Political Change in America

4 Star, Democracy, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization)

Wanders, But I Finished It, October 13, 2008

Laura Flanders

I put this book down several times over a week and picked up another, but I finally finished it, and that brings it up from three to four stars.

Here are my notes and some quotes, and I must say, given better organization and editing, this book probably deserve to earn five stars, but not in its current state.

It is important to note that the author, in lamenting the total breakdown of the Democratic Party, did not anticipate the outright purchase of the Party by the Trilateral Commission and the financial industry that fielded both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (a protege of Zbigniew Brzezinski, who also gave us Jimmy Carter). A very exciting “show” is being run, and regardless of which candidate wins, we all lose as the two criminally-corrupt parties remain under the direct control of the financial elite.

+ Progressive ideas have been defeated by dirty tricks and fraud
+ “mainstream” Dems are dead, the best action is happening on the margins and bottom up
+ New word for me: optiholic
+ Democratic Party not listening to youth or foot-soliders, “give us your money, we'll tell you when we want to hear from you.”
+ Liberals long for the past, progressives certain the future is bright.
+ League of Independent Voters rising in influence
+ Labor has dropped out [I would say more bluntly, labor leaders have been bought off and completely betrayed the labor rank and file]
+ Democrats close their local offices after the funding dries up, not organized for year-round operations
+ Need new ways to empower new networks (young, new immigrants, color)
+ Democratic Party is NOT the Progressive Coalition–some overlap
+ Red is not Red, Blue is not Blue
+ Cities are fighting federal efforts to retard wages, demanding and imposing living wages
+ Democrats not taking cities seriously
+ People across the Nation are against draconian drug laws and huge prison populations with attendant costs
+ Author believes that conservatives have locked down the national policy process while progressives are finding their voice in cities
+ I am introduced to the term “losing forward”
+ Local democrats are succeeding when they ignore the lack of support from the national party and go local, do what the party won't do
+ LIBERAL FOUNDATIONS SPEND TEN PERCENT OF WHAT CONSERVATIVE FOUNDATIONS SPEND ON ELECTION MESSAGES
+ Democratic Party is losing revenue from contributions to an increasing preference for grass root local organizations
+ Progressive activitists are focusing on “movement” instead of the national party focus on “getting out the vote.” [As I write this ACORN is under multiple investigations while the media has not noticed or chosen not to cover fraud on the right]
+ KEY POINT: DEMOCRATS CAN NO LONGER COUNT ON BLACK CHURCHES AND LABOR UNIONS
+ Will take ten more years to create viable grass roots coalition
+ Too much focus on electing Democrats instead of achieving outcomes
+ PARTY AGENDA IS FIXED, IGNORES SOCIAL NETWORKS AND LOCALIZED GRIEVANCES
+ Democratic Party is still focused on top-down and direct mail instead of bottom up local empowerment.
+ BLISTERING ON “LIP-SYNCH LIBERALISM”
+ Citing Charon Asetoyer, “one size fits all slogans do not work”
+ Democrats losing it on Language, networks, credibility
+ Right has BOTH the dollars AND the captive idological media that carries entire populations from cradle to grave (talk radio, think tanks, national organs) [I have a note, Left just has MSNBC & NYT]
+ Dump Lieberman was a bottom up citizens movement that recognized his betrayal of Democratic interests and took matters into their own hands–this is reported to have freaked out the Democratic leadership
+ Disc jockeys have more political power today than most realize, and they can “deliver” thousands to the streets at any given time and place
+ 62% of the Democratic state committees do not have permanent communications directors (or an annual campaign)
+ NEW ORLEANS ONE YEAR AFTER KATRINA: ONE THIRD STILL WITHOUT ELECTRICITY

Ends with comments on campaign fraud, and I have a final note, crummy sources and crummy endnotes.

A couple of quotes that I felt should be shared here:

“The United States more closely resembles a purplish smorgasbord than a blue-red sandwich.” (p. 35)

“People are craving leadership that is real.” (p. 124)

This book is more of a personal essay, the result of a personal “walk-about” that pays little heed to other books in the democracy and progressive domain, other than the first one in the list below, that is cited several times by the author. See these other books for a left-oriented take on what needs to be done to restore democracy in the USA. I MUST EMPHASIZE MY VIEW: THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS REPUBLICAN LITE–THEY ARE BOTH CORRUPT AND BOTH HAVE BETRAYED THE PEOPLE'S TRUST.

Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics
Crashing the Party: Taking on the Corporate Government in an Age of Surrender
The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics
Left Hand of God, The: Healing America's Political and Spiritual Crisis
The Two Percent Solution: Fixing America's Problems in Ways Liberals and Conservatives Can Love
State of the Unions: How Labor Can Strengthen the Middle Class, Improve Our Economy, and Regain Political Influence
The Working Poor: Invisible in America
Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor
Doing Democracy
The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World

2009/07/032011/10/22

Review: The New Paradigm for Financial Markets–The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means

2 Star, Capitalism (Good & Bad)

Huge Mountain of Moose Manure, October 14, 2008

George Soros

I have lost patience for this kind of book. I recommend the other ten books instead (and the last two, which I wrote, are free online, so I am not pushing them for purchase)

1) Our economy went into the gutter when Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX), then Chair for Banking, slipped a 200+ page bill written by lobbyists into a must fund larger bill, with the result that no senators read it (as they did not read the Patriot Act), and it deregulated–completely–the financial marketplace, ending the walls between banking (which lends on tangibles) and investment (which speculates on intangibles).

2) DERIVATIVES is code for fantasy cash. I was not smart enough to see this myself, but Bogle, Soros, Buffet, Perot, Nader, they all saw it, they tried to brief it, and in the case of Nader, got laughed off the Hill. Sub-prime mortgages were the match that lit the fire, not the straw itself.

3) Goldman Sachs is forever, Washington's two criminal parties have been bought and paid for. Rubin did not bail out Mexico. He bailed out Wall Street's bad investments in Mexico. and Bill Clinton for sure understood this, and leveraged the whole thing the whole time with placement of his friends in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae where they enriched themselves and contributed heavily to Clinton's Library and other endeavors.

The market did not fail. Congress failed. BOTH parties are criminal parties, and I am personally outraged that Americans are not burning tires in the streets demanding that at a minimum three other parties be heard by the public in these debates. Most of America is utterly clueless about the FACT that the League of Women Voters was replaced by a Republican-Democratic Presidential Debate Commission precisely to exclude Independent, Green, Reform, Libertarian, and other candidates.

With all due respect for their accomplishments, the two candidates for President today are relative puppets being managed by *clowns* who are owned by Wall Street carpetbaggers and the crooked parties that have effectively killed democracy in this once-great Republic.

I am, to be utterly candid, sick and tired of Soros telling us how smart he is when he actually does not care at all about the public interest. This is the last book written by Soros that I will waste my time on.

Other much more relevant books to our situation:
The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism
Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders
The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy)
Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story
The Informant: A True Story
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future – and What It Will Take to Win It Back
Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War
THE SMART NATION ACT: Public Intelligence in the Public Interest
Election 2008: Lipstick on the Pig (Substance of Governance; Legitimate Grievances; Candidates on the Issues; Balanced Budget 101; Call to Arms: Fund We Not Them; Annotated Bibliography)

I am ANGRY. Soros is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Simiarly, Buffet means well, but he is working this for himself, not us. It was idiocy to approve the bail-out. That should have been a freeze, a moratorium on all foreclosures (10,000 a day) as well as all evictions, a capping of interest at 10%, an emergency fund focusing on INDIVIDUALS, and a mandated public forum post-election with ALL relevant documents posted online for scrutiny (“put enough eyeballs on it, no bug is invisible”).

This election is so fraught with fraud on so many levels, that the financial crisis, in my judgement is the third and least of our problems. Electoral fraud and the criminal misbehavior of BOTH Republicans and Democrats is problem #1. The two dozen plus secessionist movements being led by Kirkpatrick Sale are problem #2 because they have LEGITIMATE GRIEVANCES. I was reflecting on this today, and realized that an honest man today has three choices:

1. Refuse to support our dysfunctional government and support secession.

2. Join a crime family and drop out of the fraudulent “legal” economy.

3. Be a gerbil, a farm animal, and let Wall Street–including the author of this book–enjoy life on our backs for a few more years.

I did not read this book, nor buy it. I do not do this often, but this seems as good a place to denounce Soros, the horse that brought him (Wall Street), and the morons in Congress that let these thieves run wild.

I expect plenty of reflexive negative votes but for those of you with an open mind, take the time to read the varied reviews of the ten books I recommend instead of this one, and trust your own judgment.

Mark Lewis had it right: these folks think nothing of “exploding the client.” That's us. This author was right up there with them, step by step, and did nothing for We the People–his best shot was to support the “least evil” (in his mind) party and to be silent as Bush-Cheney destroyed our military, our economy, and most grieviously, our global moral standing.

It's time we drop kick Wall Street into the ocean, introduce Open Money, and invest only in local tangible hard-money options. Ron Paul has it right–everyone else is a traitor to the Constitution and to the Republic–Paulson means well but he and all of these folks live in a “closed society” that is completely out of touch with OUR reality.

Category: Reviews (Books & DVD)

Review: The Practical Progressive–How to Build a Twenty-first Century Political Movement

Review: Global Reach–The Power of the Multinational Corporations

Review: The Limits to Growth

Review: The Modern State

Review: Never Surrender–A Soldier’s Journey to the Crossroads of Faith and Freedom

Review: Blue Grit–Making Impossible, Improbable, and Inspirational Political Change in America

Review: The New Paradigm for Financial Markets–The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means