Red Storm Rising

Apologies to the late great Tom Clancy.  One of my beloved and favorite authors who penned the classic alternate history novel; Red Storm Rising.  Get a copy as it has it all; radical Islamists, communists, submarines, nukes, Russians swarming thru the Fulda Gap into eastern Europe and a cold war turned hot.  The first time I picked it up I couldn't put it down.   

Shortly after COVID and early into my retirement I was invited to join a private Face Book group that discussed, argued-about and otherwise carried-on adult-like exchanges covering current affairs.

Regrettably, it seems to have become dominated by one or two particular individuals who have become the masters of cut-and-paste posts.  By that I mean cut and paste social media meme's and other similar material.  On rare occasions some of it might be substantive; but most of it is click bait.  They seem intelligently clever-enough and capable of producing original content so I don't get the emphasis on cut and paste.  But that's none of my business;  C'est la vie.

Early-on in my experience on that particular site much of what one individual had to say had to do with Marxists.  Everyone had to be on guard and extra vigilant about Marxists.  Apparently they lurked everywhere and were out to somehow make mischief, meddle in our governance and otherwise topple American society as we knew it.  

I was extra vigilant to be mindful of their potential to live-up to their reputation as No-goodniks.  The dogs and I looked for them daily while on our walks.  I looked for them in town, at the library and at the grocery.  I searched everywhere for these Marxists; even in the woodpile.  And in the end never found one.  At a minimum you'd think the dogs woulda flushed at least one stinkn' Bolshevik.  I came up with nothing.  Sigh.  

Now it seems I have to be on high alert for Islamists.  Apparently, everyone has to be on guard and vigilant over the creeping spread of radical Islam and the looming imposition of Sharia Law.  Considering the level of hysteria you'd think if I drove to Green Bay to go to Fleet Farm I would pass a forest of minarets on the trip.  

Between you and me the Belgian community I live in is Christian; mostly in the Roman Catholic tradition of the Christian faith. There is one Lutheran church just down the road in neighboring Kolberg; where German immigrants settled.

Yet not a single solitary mosque.

See; the Supremacy Clause guarantees there will never be the imposition of Sharia Law.  Or Catholic Canon Law or Judaic Halakha Law for that matter.  Perhaps they haven't read the Constitution?  But I digress.

Naturally, for my social-media soaked acquaintances there has been the recent rise of Democratic Socialists; who they dismissively refer-to as Communists.  Democrats are thusly Commies.  

I happen to know a great deal about this subject because I am a child of the Cold War.  I  don't scare very easily and and certainly Socialists and Communists don't scare me a bit.  That's because my formative years included a steady diet of the Red Baiting and Red Scare tactics.  So, on top of the clutching of pearls over radical Islam I gotta feeling that between now and the midterms we're gonna hear more and more about communism than normal; most of which will be child's play compared to old school, cold war-style, red-baiting.

For what it's worth, Bernie Sanders and candidate for governor Francesca Hong got nothing on this. And she lost the primary.....    

Uncle Remus And Modern Analogue

One of the most famous of trickster stories in the Uncle Remus collection was written by Joel Chandler Harris and published in 1881, The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story.  

As the story goes, Br'er Fox constructs a sticky doll out of a lump of pine tar and turpentine and dresses it in some clothes.  Along comes Br'er Rabbit who politely addresses the figure but receives no response.  Offended by what he perceives as the tar baby's lack of manners Br'er Rabbit loses his temper and throws a punch resulting in his fist becoming hopelessly stuck in the tar.  Enraged, Br'er Rabbit strikes with his other paw, followed by kicking with both feet and ending with a head butt leaving him completely entangled in the grip of the Tar-Baby.

In a continuation of Harris' tale several stories later there is the ending; How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp For Mr. Fox.   

With his nemesis helplessly stuck, Br'er Fox speculates on how to dispose of Br'er Rabbit.  The powerless, yet cunning rabbit pleads; Do anything you want with me - roast me, hang me, skin me, drown me - but please, Br'er Fox, don't fling me in that briar patch.  The sadistically-inclined Br'er Fox gullibly believes that this will inflict the maximum pain on Br'er Rabbit so he tosses him directly into the briars.

Finding himself in the thorny thicket, the resourceful rabbit easily escapes and taunts the fox with; I was born and raised in the briar patch!  

The roots of this tale likely find their origins in the oral traditions and folklore of enslaved Africans that were collected by Harris during the reconstruction period following the war between the states. 

Br'er Rabbit is the personification of the West-African trickster; a metaphor of a physically weaker individual who relies-upon quick thinking and psychology to outwit the stronger aggressor.  The Tar-Baby is a euphemism for a sticky and complex problem that worsens the more someone struggles against it. 

My introduction to this tale dates to my early childhood and I really haven't thought much about it since.  

Until recently.

Even after six and a half decades and a fable dating back almost 150 years-ago,  I am mindful of a sticky situation half-way around the world complicated by the impulsive actions of one solitary man, seemingly out-witted by a weaker foe.

I sure hope he extricates himself from this to every American's mutual satisfaction as I want policy that improves your and my prosperity and general lot in life.  

Along with making the world a safer place.

Reading List

From Paved Paradise by Henry Grabar. There is more housing for each car in the United States than there is housing for each person:

Most Americans, of course, do not have to fight for parking. On the contrary, the combination of urban renewal, public lots, and parking requirements for private development were astonishingly successful at creating ample space to park. 

By square footage, there is more housing for each car in the United States than there is housing for each person. 

All this asphalt constitutes a kind of ecology unto itself, changing the way air and water and animals interact with human civilization. It changes the way we behave, too. 

"The effect of the cars reaches far beyond the cars themselves," wrote Christopher Alexander in A Pattern Language, his landmark study of human landscapes. "They create a maze of driveways, garage doors, asphalt, and concrete surfaces, and building elements which people cannot use. When the density goes beyond the limit, we suspect that people feel the social potential of the environment has disappeared." 

Perhaps most importantly, making it easier to park did not get rid of the life-draining experience of traffic. On the contrary, it created traffic. 

Return of the Timberdoodle

While out walking the dog recently she flushed several doodle birds.  I have mixed feelings about this; on one hand I do not care to discourage a flusher retriever’s natural instincts. On the other hand it is nesting season for all birds and I’m loath to allow a dog to trample or otherwise molest an active nest.  So I try to keep her close at all times. 

About those doodle birds, they’re common around here because of the remnant alder and willow thickets in the lowlands and younger reforested uplands.  Nevertheless, outside of the local situation this curious bird is becoming less common every year.

The American woodcock - Scolopax minor - also known as the timberdoodle - is a ground-dwelling shoreland bird species found in young forest and shrublands. Woodcock breed across eastern North America with Wisconsin part of its western range.  This migratory bird winters in lowlands from the Mid-Atlantic south to the Gulf Coast states. 

Like other shorebirds, American woodcocks, also known as timberdoodles, are well adapted to life on the ground. The location of their eyes allow them to be able to look skyward for predators while probing the earth with their beaks.

 

Earth worms are their meal of choice. Their long, flexible ~3 inch beak is great for digging through soft, moist soil. Their beaks function like forceps allowing them to eat their body weight in worms daily.

 Like other ground birds, woodcocks are precocial when they hatch. Meaning they hatch in a more advanced stage of development compared to other nesting birds and are able to leave the nest a few hours after hatching.

Historically, woodcock were found in much larger numbers.  This was a consequence of a landscape that included larger amounts of early successional habitat - the technical nomenclature for younger forest.  Not surprisingly those younger forest have evolved and grown to mature forest where woodcock do not live. Fire is suppressed and logging is in decline so the extent of younger woodland habitat continues to shrink.  Urban development also destroys former habitat and because of all of these factors the woodcock population has fallen by about 1 percent each year since the 1960s. 

Aldo Leopold’s - A Sand County Almanac - describes the courtship display of the male Woodcock.  This is one of the true harbingers of spring around here and a delight to observe before sun-up.  From the chapter titled Sky Dance in this excerpt.

I'm tickled to listen to the courtship ritual.  It is another sure sign of the arrival of spring.

Don't Kiss The Frog

You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your handsome prince.  So goes the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm about the frog prince.  

The version ending with the Princess kissing the frog, who transforms to a handsome prince, is unfaithful to the original in both spirit and content. In the original tale it is the abject rejection of the frog that culminates in the princess violently hurling the hapless amphibian against a wall that transforms him.  The Brothers Grimm sometimes dispensed with nuance.

The version with the kissing is more about doing what you are told - and for women anyway - compliantly accepting their fate.  The original fairy tale is edgier, much more about societal status, the traditional role of women in general and the assertion of free will.  The tale is dripping in allegory and bears little resemblance to a Disney production.  Naturally, all things Disney become fantasized.  Besides, I have the book and have read the tale.  You can fight me over interpretation any time you care.

If only Russian dissident and opposition leader Alexei Navalny had an opportunity to toss his assassins against a wall. 

According to five European governments, recent forensic testing reveals that Navalny was likely murdered with epibatidine, a potent neurotoxin found in South American poison dart frogs.  This finding has resurrected scrutiny over the circumstances of Navalny's 2024 death barely two years ago. 

France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK have reported that independent laboratory analysis detected the rare toxin in preserved tissue samples from Navalny's body.  They argue that inasmuch as there is no credible natural explanation for its presence they have reported the findings to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons as a possible violation of international law.

I am not a biologist, but even I know that poison frogs are not native to Russian Gulags situated above the Arctic circle.  What I do know is that even small amounts of this toxin can disrupt the human nervous system, causing paralysis, respiratory failure and death. 

Navalny died February 16, 2024 imprisoned in a remote and frozen Soviet-era penal colony.  Naturally, the Putin regime denies any involvement insisting that their problematic citizen passed away of natural causes.  

Six years ago I had the opportunity to learn more about South American poison dart frogs on a museum tour.  You can see them here in captivity - duplicating their tropical environment.

 

Got to hand it to Vlad.  It used to be Sudden Russian Death Syndrome; the accidental falling from hotel windows phenomena that has claimed the lives of a mind boggling number of businessmen, bureaucrats, oligarchs and journalists as a mechanism to silence opponents would suffice.  Having dispensed with the messiness of Polonium-210 as the poison of choice the play list now includes a toxin from South American poison frogs. 

If only the Brothers Grimm were alive today to spin a fairy tale with this material.....

Literacy

 

Research shows a “significant and deeply concerning” dip in how much Americans read for pleasure. (Source: Financial Times)

Put Moral Formation At The Centre Of Your Society

Put Moral Formation At The Centre Of Your Society

David Brooks' speech was challenging and thought provoking, calling for us to reassess what we think cultural renewal looks like and to reconnect to our spiritual roots.

David Brooks is a bestselling author, columnist for The New York Times, and a contributor to The Atlantic. He is also a commentator on The PBS Newshour. His latest book is How To Know A Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen.

Go deeper with ARC Research. Read reports, articles, and academic papers underneath our talks - all pointed towards advancing education, promoting research, and developing ideas about the keys to human flourishing and prosperity.  You can learn more here.

Book Club

Ronald Reagan's campaign slogan in 1980 was Let's Make America Great Again.  When he ran for re-election in 1984 it was It's Morning Again in America.  

There is a certain fondness for the decade of the 1980s as a period of renaissance in the United States with President Reagan and Fed Chair Paul Volcker credited with beating inflation into submission.  GDP growth for the period averaged 3.3 percent, unemployment declined to less than 6 percent and the stock and bond markets closed the decade up 228 percent and 253 percent respectively.  

Nevertheless, the decade of the 80s had more than its share of crises.  For the financial sector there was the collapse of the savings and loan sector.  Topped by more than a couple thousand bank failures.  The junk bond crisis, commercial real estate crisis, Latin American debt failures and the largest single day stock market drop in history on October 19, 1987.  I remember.  Not so fondly, either.

Contextually, GDP growth was just as high in the 1960s, 1970s and 1990s.  Unemployment was lower during those same decades.  Stock market gains were more robust in the 1960s and 1990s.

But 1981 marked a watershed moment in US economic history; launching the era of the Great Releveraging. And a historic growth in both private and government debt.  

A Brief History of Doom examines a series of major financial crises over the past 200 years in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, japan and China - including the Great Depression and the Great Recession of 2008.  Author Richard Vague demonstrates how the over-accumulation of private debt does a better job than any other variable of explaining and predicting financial crisis.

Convinced that we have it within our power to break the cycle, Vague provides the tools to enable politicians, bankers and private citizens to recognize and respond to the danger signs before the crisis arrives.

 

Book Club

 In October of 2023 we toured the low country of Charleston, Beaufort and Savannah with a couple of friends and I took the opportunity to tick-off a lifetime bucket list item with a visit to the place that is central to this book.  I wish this had been published beforehand.  Sigh.

Very well researched. I’ve read most of the author's books and enjoyed them all. This book methodically takes you through all the events leading to the start of the Civil War with personal thoughts and accounts of key individuals. Amazing story that provides insight into the beginnings of the bloodiest and most deadly fight ever. 

Anyone who has any interest in the civil war, appreciates American history, startling parallels to current events and a big dose of hubris will enjoy this read.

 

One of my favorite authors... 

 

 

 

How To Win Hearts and Minds

One way to win friends and influence people is to write a book.

Or at least have one ghost-written for you.  

Just make certain it is a book that will attract moderates, independents, right-leaning voters, hunters, and dog lovers.

Kristi Noem, South Dakota governor, and supplicant for the position of Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate has a book:  No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.  

Officially released today, the book has captured the hearts and minds of moderates, independents, right-leaning voters, hunters, and dog lovers; although perhaps not as intended.  This is because in her book Governor Noem describes in grisly detail how she killed a self-described 'untrainable' puppy following a pheasant hunting trip.

According to the governor, a fourteen-month-old, female wirehaired pointer named Cricket 'went out of her mind with excitement, chasing all of those birds and having the time of her life.'  And 'later attacked another family's chickens' during a pheasant hunting trip.  And when the governor made a grab for the dog she got nipped.  According to Noem this was evidence that Cricket was 'less than worthless as a hunting dog.' 

So she shot and killed it.

It has occurred to me that my best friend and all-around champion hunting Lab, Inky, did all of those things too.  At about the same age.  She went out of her mind with excitement, chasing birds and having the time of her life, made a move on someones' barnyard chickens and nipped me.  That's what puppies do until they learn the ropes.  The difference between me and the South Dakota governor is I didn't immediately declare my dog 'worthless'; followed by an execution.  I corrected her, reinforced appropriate behavior, loved her and she matured into a marvelous hunting partner and family member.  I miss her more than you know.

Raising a hunting dog is hard work and can be incredibly frustrating some days.  It might be that the governor doesn't have the patience for this.  Maybe she doesn't have the time; she is a governor after all.  Or perhaps she simply doesn't know how to train a hunting dog.  All of which is anybody's guess.

Or maybe there is an altogether different explanation.  

Noem has said she included this story in her book to demonstrate her readiness in politics and to do what needs to be done, even if it is 'difficult, messy and ugly.'  Might it be that in the MAGA movement your star status rises if you demonstrate you are stone cold enough to shoot and kill your dog for being a puppy?  

I sure hope not.  Just about anyone I know, including some of my Trump supporting friends who hunt with dogs, tell me this is over the top.

I have hunted and killed countless animals in my life.  Same for fishing.  I have raised two hunting dogs and am presently training a third.  The art of raising a hunting dog is difficult, hard work that requires near daily coaching. It demands discipline, patience and love.  High-energy sporting breeds generally don't achieve their peak performance until almost three years of age.  In my world view there are no bad dogs; only bad dog owners.

That Governor Noem did not expend sufficient time training Cricket, and failing that; rehome a likely talented wirehair pointer is appallingly disappointing. Our new pup, Ruby, landed in our household solely because the original owners did not have the skill set, patience and time to commit to the task of raising a hunting dog.

Governor Noem may not have the skill set, patience or time.  However, as a wealthy individual she does have almost limitless resources to make good life choices.  Her derisive commentary about the circumstances, failure to put the pup up for adoption, did not lift a finger to humanely euthanize the dog and finally crow about it in a book calls into account her judgement.  

I see no evidence of love or empathy.

The implication is she might lack impulse control or possibly have a personality disorder.  I'm not an armchair shrink so that's not my call. My normal dog-owning, hunting guy impression of this entire unsavory episode is that it is exceedingly unsettling. It is a bad look. As a consequence, is Kristi Noem a 'less than worthless vice presidential candidate?'  That's not my call either.

While some of Donald Trump's base supporters might applaud and celebrate this sort of behavior, it would be fascinating to observe how it wins hearts and minds in a general election.

Return Of The Timberdoodle

While out walking the dog recently she has flushed several doodle birds.  They're common around here because of the remnant alder and willow thickets in the lowlands and younger reforested uplands.  Nevertheless, outside of the local situation this curious bird is becoming less common every year.

The American woodcock - Scolopax minor - also known as the timberdoodle - is a ground-dwelling shoreland bird species found in young forest and shrublands.  Woodcock breed across eastern North America with Wisconsin part of its western range.  This migratory bird winters in lowlands from the Mid-Atlantic south to the Gulf Coast states. 

Historically, woodcock were found in much larger numbers.  This was a consequence of a landscape that included larger amounts of early successional habitat - the technical nomenclature for younger forest.  Not surprisingly those younger forest have evolved and grown to mature forest where woodcock do not live. Fire is suppressed and logging is in decline so the extent of younger woodland habitat continues to shrink.  Urban development also destroys former habitat and because of all of these factors the woodcock population has fallen by about 1 percent each year since the 1960s. 

Aldo Leopold’s - A Sand County Almanac - describes the courtship display of the male Woodcock.  This is one of the true harbingers of spring around here and a delight to observe before sun-up.  From the chapter titled Sky Dance in this excerpt.

I'm tickled to listen to the courtship ritual.  It is another sure sign of the arrival of spring.

 

Threats

Last January I published some observations and statistics covering the rise in censorship and book bans in recent years.  At the time I figured I'd revisit the subject following sufficient passage of time.

According to the American Library Association 2023 delivered 4,240 books targeted for removal from libraries.  A new record high.  This is up from 2,571 titles in 2022.  It is likely these figures are understated as not every library, local school, college or university is scrutinized.

Nevertheless, now that last year's numbers are in, challenges targeting public libraries were up 92 percent in 2023 and challenges to school libraries were up 11 percent.  

The culture war has grown from a smoldering insurrection to all-out total war.

How do I know this?  The challenges are coming from well-funded and better organized groups with national reputations.  Well-funded and better organized groups with national reputations is nothing new.  The civil rights movement is evidence of that.  

However, in their quest for limiting your and my intellectual freedom and taking control away from local communities and school boards these groups have chosen to single-out individual librarians for harassment with threats of legal action, job loss or even arrest. 

I am mindful of similar attacks targeting local election officials and poll workers with threats of violence over the last four years.  All of these people are good and decent folks.  They are our friends and neighbors and live amongst us.  Violence is not right.

Has civil society lost its collective mind?

Snow Falling On Cedars

The title of this post is after a 1994 novel by David Guterson; winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the American Booksellers' Book of the Year Award, among others.  For reasons of sexual content and profanity this title is frequently banned in the United States.  It's a good book - I might even have a copy on my bookshelf if you care to borrow it.  But I digress.

The snow falling on the cedars in my woods triggered the trail camera.  It's maddening if you're downloading fifteen second silent video vignettes.

But it is pretty..... 

Jihad On The Written Word

In case you missed this ongoing skirmish in the larger culture war there's plenty of folks working overtime to make sure they control what you and your children or grandchildren read. 

Beginning in July of 2021 PEN America began tracking public school book bans and has documented nearly 6,000 instances of banned books including 3,362 bans affecting 1,557 unique titles covering the 2022-23 school year.  This included 1,480 authors, illustrators and translators.

New Christmas Ornament for 2023

This represents an increase of 33% from the 2021-22 school year.  Having wrested the title from Texas, Florida now leads the nation in book bans.  

Drivers of these trends include vaguely-worded legislation, national advocacy groups pressuring local school boards with the threat of penalties, lawsuits and criminal prosecution escalating the book bans to record levels.

In the first nine months of 2023 the American Library Association reported more than 1,900 titles challenged, a 20% increase over the same period in 2022. 

Singled-out for particular attention are people of color or anything associated with the LGBTQ community.  When the final three months of 2023 are included the total will certainly rise.

Major findings:

• More than 40 percent of all book bans occurred in school districts in Florida.   Across 33 school districts, PEN America recorded 1,406 book bans cases in the sunshine state, followed by 652 bans in Texas, 333 bans in Missouri, 281 in Utah and 186 bans in Pennsylvania.

• Overwhelmingly, book bans target subject matter on race or racism or featuring characters of color as well as books with LGBTQ characters.  Banned books also include books on physical abuse, health and well-being and themes of grief and death. Notably, most instances impact young adult books, middle grades, chapter books, or picture books specifically written and selected for younger readers. 

• Punitive state laws, combined with pressure from vocal citizens and local and national organizations have created difficulties for local school districts forcing them to either restrict access to books or risk legal and financial penalties for educators and librarians.

In the face of this there is a small measure of poetic justice to be found between the pages of banned books.  Bridget Ziegler, book ban queen and Moms for Liberty member from Florida, and her husband Christian Ziegler, now former Florida Republican Party Chairman, have found themselves embroiled in the fallout from a police report of a consensual sexual threesome including sexual battery allegations against the deposed GOP chairman.

Sniff Sniff.  Do you smell what I smell?  I suspect it's a whiff of schadenfreude in the Florida air. 

A free people do not censor speech or ban books.

Book Club

Summer reading list (among others) included the log and storied history of Alabama BBQ...

And a book by a guy that went to my high school...

Book Club

There is a universal truth about authoritarians.  

They are incapable of succeeding independently. They do not take power; they are given it.  

Successful authoritarians always adopt a preexisting political party.  

And establishment parties are populated by political figures who may outwardly profess disdain for aspiring authoritarians yet will eventually bend to their will.  

In the beginning they will oppose him.

Then they accept him.

They share a belief that they can manage him.

They find themselves defending him. 

At the end they become his sycophants. 

If you are looking for an old, but good read get yourself a copy of Diary of a Man in Despair.

Written between 1936 and 1944 by a conservative German who struggles to do the right thing all the while living in a depraved world.  It is prophetic.

He died at Dachau in 1945.

Book Club

One of my pals, with knowledge of my interest in military history, recommended this book.  He cautioned that it wouldn't inspire any warm feelings about the Russians.

Based-upon hours of oral history shared by his father, Lee Trimble and British historian Jeremy Dronfield corroborated the events compiled in this true story of veteran Eighth Air Force bomber Captain Robert Trimble's efforts to save the lives of allied POWs and refugees in eastern Europe.

As the Soviet army advanced across Poland in 1945 they freed thousands of POWs, slave laborers and concentration camp survivors.  The Red army reserved a particular contempt for the allied POWs considering them cowards or spies.  Denying them shelter, food and medical care they were left to die.  Violent atrocities were committed.  From an airbase in Ukraine Trimble's task was to locate survivors sheltered by Polish and Ukrainian civilians and bring them safely home.

Working for the OSS and with virtually no covert training Trimble secretly survived by canniness, courage and perseverance, outwitting the Soviet secret police to exfiltrate an estimated thousand individuals in less than two months.

Post-Yalta the relationship between the USSR and the US was exceedingly strained.  Roosevelt understood all too clearly that when word of Russian barbarism inflicted upon their allies was revealed public sentiment would turn against them.

Lordy, I didn't need another reason to dislike the Russkies.  Then, as today, insofar as war crimes go it appears some things haven't changed.  This book was as difficult to put down as it was to read.  It is inspiring.

Book Club

A couple of weeks ago I finished Captain Metz’s first book - Sea Stories. 

This week I completed this compilation of short stories.  

Written in a rambling  conversational style; in no particular chronological fashion Metz shares tales about his time on the Great Lakes from the routine to the tragic.  He began his career as a deckhand and rose through the ranks to Shipmaster. 

Born in Milwaukee he sailed more than a half million miles in his Great Lakes career at a breakneck speed of 10 to 12 knots. 

The book from the library was a signed copy. 

Bonus. 

 

 

 

Reading List

If you’re looking for a good read this is worth a look. 

It’s got a lot to unpack - the immigrant experience, family drama, the Muslim-Americans in a post 9/11 world, sex, financial deal-making, revenge and a local connection. Donald Trump figures in the story too. 

I will admit to difficulties trying to ascertain where the novel ended and the memoir began.  Same for separating fact from fiction.  This conspired to make it a fun read. 

Homeland Elegies - Ayad Akhtar

 

Book Review

Author David Priess served during the Clinton and Bush administration as an intelligence officer, manager and daily intelligence briefer at the CIA as well as a desk officer at the Department of State. He earned his PhD in political science from Duke University. 

Recently I read his book: How To Get Rid Of A President which led to The President's Book of Secrets: The Untold Story of Intelligence Briefings to America's Presidents from Kennedy to Obama. 

Every president has had a complicated relationship with the intelligence community.  Some Chief Executives have embraced the intelligence community while some have been distrustful.  Others have been adversarial.  With roots in the Truman and Eisenhower administrations beginning with Kennedy a short summary of what the intelligence apparatus considers the most crucial information for the president to know that day about global threats and opportunities has evolved into a top-secret document which has become known as the President's Daily Brief – or PDB. 

The contents of the PDB are classified so you won’t learn of any secrets in this book.   And, as the author points out, how much difference has the PDB really made? After all, the book left Richard Nixon unprepared for the 1973 October War, failed to predict for Jimmy Carter the Iranian Revolution in 1978-79 and missed the al Qaeda plot that led to the attacks on September 11, 2001, during George W. Bush’s administration. 

This isn’t a quick read as it’s heavy on facts and historical content. If you are presidential history nerd and want to learn more about the evolution of the intelligence services (specifically the CIA) over the last 50 years – this is a good read.