One Man Against the World takes aim at Richard Nixon and fires off damning details about the 37th US President's moves on Watergate and the Vietnam War. The author, former New York Times national security reporter Tim Weiner, is not kind to Nixon. In these pages we follow the words and actions of a man who is as ruthless, secretive, and calculating when negotiating his own government as he was bombing Southeast Asia. The usual suspects populate the narrative: Nixon's assistant John Ehrlichman, Attorney General John N. Mitchell, Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, White House Counsel John Dean, and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger.
Although many of these events have already been chronicled, Weiner adds to the canon of Nixon-oriented literature details and quotes derived from newly available sources, including Nixon's infamous White House tapes. I enjoyed reading this fast-paced account.
Notes:
The list of convictions and sentencing terms at the end of the book was an effective way of punctuating the narrative.
Democrats controlled both houses of Congress during Nixon's tenure.
I hate everything about the way this guy looks: the golf shirt tucked into his "nice jeans," leaving just enough give to hip-swivel 20 degrees (engineered and tested before leaving the house); his low-profile sunglasses; and his perma-shape pompadour, three shades above black, a bubble blown from a sharp part. This turd aspires to fitness without strain. Jeremy. Jeremy thinks calling his boss "boss" boosts his ego, and Jeremy likes exercising that little bit of control over his superior's emotions. Doing so also, he thinks, curries favor.
In August 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump said the following at a campaign rally:
Hillary wants to essentially abolish the Second Amendment. If she gets to pick her judges, there's nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people--maybe there is. I don't know.
Many people accused Trump of implying that "Second Amendment people" could react with violence if Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party candidate, won the election. Clinton acknowledged and condemned the allegedly veiled threat, using the phrase "words matter." (Trump, of course, denied he was making any allusion to violence; he claimed he was referring to the National Rifle Association's considerable lobbying power.)
In August Trump accused President Barack Obama of being the founder of ISIS. These words drew criticism because they were, interpreted literally, untrue. Trump later said that if Obama had not mishandled foreign policy in the Middle East, then ISIS would not exist. So, for Trump, calling Obama the founder of ISIS is an incendiary way of saying the President, because he withdrew American forces and left a vacuum in the region, bears responsibility for the terrorist group's genesis.
In the second example, the problem seems to be that others might only hear what Trump said and would not infer any meaning beyond his words. In the first example, the problem seems to be that the language Trump used was too open to interpretation. What mattered was the words he did not use but others possibly could hear.
In one example, words matter because people take Trump literally. In the other, words matter because people might not take Trump literally enough.
Notes:
This post is sophistry.
The phrase "words matter" seems to be popping up a lot lately. Is it?
The bit about Hillary wanting to abolish the Second Amendment drew no criticism even though that statement, interpreted literally, is also untrue.
Explore how the phrase "words matter" relates to the concept of "political correctness."
Explore the example of using the term "illegal" versus "undocumented immigrant" when discussing immigration.
Chronicles, Volume One is a Bob Dylan memoir. Dylan's reflections pass quickly through these 300-plus pages. His prose is loose; he ends his sentences with a comma so that he can tag on an afterthought or rephrasing.
Not a traditional memoir, Chronicles, Volume One offers only bites from the living legend's five-course career. The original idea was to release three volumes. This first one was published in 2004, and there is no sign that the other two are imminent.
Of the bites chronicled here, the best moments come when Dylan documents the people he has known, the songs that shaped him, and the frames of mind he has that have endured. The man is multiplicitous. The people he describes are scene makers rather than scene stealers or celebrities. There is no gossip here. His favorite songs have all aged well. And his states of mind are, as expected, always at odds with the world.
Notes: Chronicles, Volume One is worth reading if you are a Dylan fan.
The blonde-headed young man slides self-consciously into frame. His eyes twice pulled to the camera, furtively each time, he nods hair away from his face. Knowing being seen but not acknowledging the seer. Until he does acknowledge with a casually intentioned look toward the camera's eye--mutually frank, unwise, and uninvested eyes.
Recording themselves downtown, the boys were making memories, however forgettable in the grand scheme. It is that association between memory and place, time and space, that now leaves me missing home. My hometown: flawed grids of city streets; tree-heavy suburban neighborhoods where kids get excited about spending the night at friends'; where it began and the ending lasts until I die.
The political divide in America is frustrating the public and hurting the already low approval ratings of most politicians. Instead of wading into the bog of partisanship, Donald Trump should have adopted some version of the following pitch:
Yes, by some measures we are a little better off now than we were eight years ago after the great recession hit. We are worse off by some measures, too. So, now, if you want the economy to keep moving incrementally, vote for Hillary Clinton. And if you want to remain a tentative actor on the world stage, vote for Hillary Clinton. But if you want change, if you want bold action on the economy and decisive leadership abroad, vote for Donald Trump. I am the bold candidate, and together we will make America great again.
In January 2016, US presidential candidate Donald Trump famously boasted that he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue (a major thoroughfare in Manhattan, New York City) and not lose any voters. Whatever one thinks of his phrasing, the realization he was expressing was powerful: he was a candidate who could take chances. His detractors should view Donald Trump as a missed opportunity rather than a political black swan.
The conventional title of Andrew Roberts' Napoleon: A Life underscores the unconventional greatness of its subject. Napoleon's was not just any life.
With this, Roberts takes a stab at claiming the privilege of having written the definitive Napoleon biography. And though it weighs in at 800 pages, this is an efficient document. Napoleon's rise and fall are chronicled with context. The French political landscape; the international theater; and the military maneuvers of Napoleon, his collaborators, and his adversaries--all of this is included. (The only supplemental reading I would suggest is a decent book on the entirety of the French Revolution.) I especially enjoyed reading about Napoleon's leadership. I had always assumed that leadership was about the makeup of the leader: his charisma, confidence, courage, and competence. Napoleon had all of that in spades, to be sure. But after reading about how Napoleon treated his men, it seems clear that one can demonstrate leadership by recognizing and celebrating the personality of the team (as opposed to drawing on his own personality and character).
James Thurber worked as a writer, editor, and cartoonist at high-brow American magazine The New Yorker. Harold Ross was the publication's founder and served as its managing editor from 1925 to 1951. In the role of managing editor, Ross let loose his perfectionist's drive, relentlessly scrutinizing each cartoon and bit of text (sometimes to the point of over-editing).
The Years with Ross was published in 1957. James Thurber wrote the book as an affectionate remembrance of the profane, temperamental, eccentric, anti-intellectual prude whose fickleness and editing genius wrought frustration on the staff and contributors. Despite the hair-pulling Ross caused, he had many devotees. Thurber, who was in his 60s when he wrote this, was chief among them.
James Thurber was an accomplished writer and cartoonist. This portrait of Ross is charming, and the prose chuckles and rolls off the page.I highly recommend The Years with Ross (especially if you know a good editor).
The image of the most decorated Olympian of all time has shifted.
Michael Phelps arrived on the world stage after winning six gold medals at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. The spotlight on him intensified as he won a record eight gold medals in Beijing in 2008.
The image of Phelps formed at these games was filtered through the all-American-making lens of Olympic US media coverage. But the caricature folded into the coverage inadvertently mirrored the contentious view of America--that of a voracious consumer (commentators marveled at Phelps' caloric intake--they almost celebrated it) and a spectacle of industrial scale and dumb dominance, owing much of its success (measured in number of medals accrued) more to physicality than character.
Obviously
people in the publicspotlight will get covered and depicted in
a variety of ways in different venues. But I have been finding rhetoric in
media coverage and the formation of conventional views extremely
interesting lately.
The
"contentious" perception of America described aboveis sometimes voiced by people in politically left-leaning circles. The
attributes listed are only interpretive.
A conclusion many pundits draw and share is that the plurality of votes for Donald Trump--and the groundswell of support for Bernie Sanders--is a reaction from people who are sick of politics as usual. In other words, most people probably do not actually understand and support the views, ideology, and policy positions of these candidates; people just opt for these guys because they do not like anything else.
Donald Trump's success in these months leading up to the 2016 US presidential election has inspired lots of journalistic hand-wringing. This hand-wringing has taken form in more than a few articles as an analysis of Trump supporters. The unstated premise of these articles is that supporting Trump is beyond the norm, a phenomenon in need of explanation. This leaves Trump support nearly in the category of a neuroses. George Saunders wrote one such piece for The New Yorker. This one features the following keen description of the confounding candidate:
His right shoulder thrusts out as he makes the pinched-finger mudra with downswinging arm. His trademark double-eye squint evokes that group of beanie-hatted street-tough Munchkin kids; you expect him to kick gruffly at an imaginary stone.
Notes: David Axelrod has a theory about presidential elections. In his own words:
Open-seat presidential elections are shaped by perceptions of the style
and personality of the outgoing incumbent. Voters rarely seek the
replica of what they have. They almost always seek the remedy, the
candidate who has the personal qualities the public finds lacking in the
departing executive.
It's a good theory. But I would suggest that Trump is not the anti-Barrack Obama so much as he is the anti-John Kerry.
Pundits often refer to a national conversation. However, the dominant voices in that conversation still come out of the mouths of elites who codify the perspectives that ultimately form the conventions of American thought.For the most part, the public is only listening in on conversations recorded and aired during news radio andtelevision shows and podcasts. Aren't you sick of hearing yourself talk? Note: This may be a tiny note that is part of a larger story, which is still under investigation.
"Rich Girl" and "You Make My Dreams Come True"? Both great songs. But "She's Gone" is my favorite.
Written by Daryl Hall and John Oates, "She's Gone" appeared on the duo's 1973 album, Abandoned Luncheonette. This video captures them playing it in early 1976.
The Double Cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945 is a report on an anti-espionage program run by the British intelligence and security service MI5 during World War II; MI5 recruited and employed Nazi agents in Britain to disseminate disinformation back to the German Government. (Bits of legitimate intelligence were mixed in to lend the double agents credibility with the regime.) This nonfiction work relates methods, the anonymous people who used them, and various operations, successes, and failures.
The author of this report, John Cecil Masterman, was integral to the program. Masterman, an academic who was drafted into clandestine government service, reports that the program was mostly a success. Masterman's writing is also a success, albeit a modest one. Dry in its telling, the narrative does not require a lot of chewing; it's mercifully brief.
In the 2014 film Top Five, Chris Rock is Andre, an actor attempting to transition from hammy comedies to drama. Andre played a smart-alec live-action bear in a comedy franchise; now, in a maudlin historical film, he attempts to play a Haitian slave revolting against European colonialists. In this casting, we get the message that black characters in media are often minstrel-like entertainers or suffering caricatures.
In the 1975 masterpiece One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a similar point is made (albeit indirectly) about women in media. In this film, Nurse Ratched, played by Louise Fletcher, is contemptible because she appears to be neither of the things women typically are expected to be: sexual or nurturing. Notes: Admittedly not a perfect theory, and not a perfect pairing. Rock also wrote and directed the film.
Sunlight churns this day through, generating a good breeze in the doing. We stalled on the durable iron chairs--my elbows on the mesh tabletop, and you, adjacent, cycle through phases in umbrella shade. Do you feel this tension? Do you feel the reason why I can't think of anything to say? Or, for you, maybe this fine slice of day is enough. The umbrella blooming over the nearby table stutters; ours holds. I imagine a wild iris flower: grows so heavy it tips over.
One Man Against the World takes aim at Richard Nixon and fires off damning details about the 37th US President's moves on Watergate and the Vietnam War. The author, former New York Times national security reporter Tim Weiner, is not kind to Nixon. In these pages we follow the words and actions of a man who is as ruthless, secretive, and calculating when negotiating his own government as he was bombing Southeast Asia. The usual suspects populate the narrative: Nixon's assistant John Ehrlichman, Attorney General John N. Mitchell, Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, White House Counsel John Dean, and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger.
