Dmitri Alperovitch is a member of a national security think tank. He is also cofounder of Crowdstrike, one of the world’s largest cybersecurity companies. Alperovitch believes China is preparing for a 2028 invasion of Taiwan. He provides the data that leads him to this conclusion.
Alperovitch suggests several strategies to prepare for this eventuality…and perhaps dissuade China from taking this world order destabilizing step. But we have to act quickly!
Alperovitch believes China plans the Taiwan invasion as a result of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Alperovitch’s analysis of the U.S. and NATO response to Putin’s actions only gives China incentives to prepare to conquer Taiwan. One way China might be deterred from their Taiwan plans is if Ukraine “wins” against Russia. If the U.S. and NATO can provide the weapons and resources for the Ukrainians to stop the Russian advances into their territory, China may re-think their Taiwan plans.
So far, both the U.S. and NATO have not done a good job providing the Ukrainians with the resources they need to resist Russian aggression. That leads China in believing if they attack Taiwan, the U.S. and its allies in the Pacific won’t support Taiwan enough to stop the Chinese invasion.
My favorite chapter in World on the Brink is Chapter 4: They Are Weaker Than We Think. Alperovitch’s analysis of Chinese politics and culture show significant problems. The major problem is China does not have advanced computer chips that make Western military weapons so sophisticated and and powerful. That could be a turning point in an attack on Taiwan if the island nation has better weaponry. Chinese leaders know that a long war could be a threat to their Government.
Alperovitch calculates that if the U.S. can keep its allies united, China will continue to procrastinate with their military plans. Also, if the U.S. can stay focused and avoid the gaffs committed in the past year with failures to supply Ukraine adequately, disaster might be avoided. What do you think? GRADE: A
Should Biden stay or should he go? The Economist and The New York Times and plenty of other media outlets and pundits–including George Clooney–say Biden should withdraw from the Presidential race. What do you think?
I tend to live in the Past and from time to time I go on a nostalgia kick. This week it was Doc Savage (it was Tarzan a couple of weeks ago). I started reading and collecting Doc Savage paperbacks back in 1964 and I’m nowhere near reading all 182 Doc Savage novels but I have read dozens of them.
Robert Micheal “Bobb” Cotter’s A History of the Doc Savage Adventures presents plenty of information on the series and captures the unique aspects of the character. Doc Savage first appeared in 1933 with the Great Depression and the prospect of a world war affecting the stories. Science is blended with acton as Doc Savage and his band of skilled heroes take on villains and mysterious entities.
The artwork section of A History of the Doc Savage Adventures features illustrations, covers, and original artwork. I enjoyed the chapters on Doc Savage paperbacks, the pulp magazines, the comic books, and various fanzines. Also useful is an appendix that offers biographies of all major contributors to the Doc Savage series.
If you’re a Doc Savage fan, A History of the Doc Savage Adventures is a must-read! Do you have a favorite Doc Savage novel? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction—Who Is Doc Savage? 1
One. A New Deal, a New Hero 11 Two. All This and World War, Too 105 Three. The Bronze Age Meets the Atomic Age 140 Four. The Doc Savage History of Comics 158 Five. Doc Savage on the Air and in the Movie(s) 173 Six. The Fan(zines) of Bronze 190 Seven. The New Adventures of Doc Savage 202
Appendices 1. The People Behind Doc Savage 211 2. The Best of Doc Savage: Novels, Pulp and Paperback Covers 218 3. Street & Smith’s Doc Savage Magazine Issues 221 4. Bantam’s Doc Savage Paperbacks 223 5. Doc Savage Comicography 224 Bibliography 229 Index 231
“She’d left older man Leonard behind in New York and partnered with a series of increasingly boyish catches: hairy David Crosby was soon dumped for wispy Gram Nash, who lost out to lanky James Taylor, now by the world as Sweet Baby James. He was later replaced (though only for an unhappy moment) by wide-eyed Jackson Browne.” (p. 45)
Ann Powers, veteran music critic for National Public Radio and other media outlets, takes a chronological approach to Joni Mitchell’s career. Joni and Chuck Mitchell get married, have a daughter, Kelly Dale, and then split: “one month into the marriage, he checked out, I chickened out.” (p. 86). I was surprised to learn Judy Collins and Mama Cass had the same dilemma Joni Mitchell had with Kelly Dale. It was a rough time for single mothers who wanted to be singers.
The dilemma of being a mother weighed on Joni Mitchell. “She might have still gone back to art school. She could have stayed in one place and raised her child. Joni Mitchell, having burned those roads behind her, knew something most people her age didn’t know about commitment: its allure, but also its costs.” (p. 88)
The big career break came in 1968 when Judy Collins heard “Both Sides Now” and knew it was the perfect song for her. “She recored it, and recored it again. She knew her version could be a hit, with its distinctive woodwind-driven arrangement by Joshua Rifkin, but at first the mix was wrong.” “…So David Anderle–one of Collins’s main producers… remixed it and remixed it, and remixed it and remixed it. And finally he got a mix that worked and suddenly got really big.” (97-98)
Ann Powers also points out influences on Joni Mitchell’s work. In 1959, Miles Davis brought out Kind of Blue which became an instant classic. Joni Mitchell loved Kind of Blue and that influence shows up on her Blue album in 1971. Powers’s analysis of Blue (p. 178-191) is one of the high points of Traveling.
I also enjoyed the chapter on how Court and Spark came together. But as the 1970s tail off, so does Joni Mitchell’s career. New musical styles dominate the airwaves and Mitchell’s style of music is relegated to Easy Listen stations.
The 1980s and 1990s featured another marriage (which ended in 1994) and more jazzy recordings that received mixed reviews and weak sales. In 2015, Joni Mitchell suffered a brain aneurysm. She was unable to speak clearly at first and could no longer walk. Today, Joni Mitchell is celebrated as a brilliant songwriter and performer. If you’re a Joni Mitchell fan, you’ll learn a lot that you didn’t know about this iconic figure in Ann Powers’s Traveling. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
A Note On Naming IX
Introduction: Drawing the Maps 1
1 Childish Things 35
2 The Humming of the Wheels 60
3 The Boys 113
4 The Sorrow 161
5 Freedom through Fusion 193
6 Hejira Means Pilgrimage 235
7 For Art’s Sake 265
8 The Marriage 289
9 Weaving Garlands 337
10 Emissaries 367
ViVa: A Moving Conclusion 399
Acknowledgments 406
Notes 409
Index 424
Terrific music, 5 CDs worth! Joni Mitchell was at the top of her game during this period of time! GRADE: A
One of my favorite stories in Murder Is My Business is Max Allan Collins’s “Guest Service” featuring his well known killer, Quarry. Quarry has semi-retired and is working as a manager at a resort. Circumstances eventuate that bring Quarry back to his killing ways.
My other favorite story is Lawrence Block’s “Keller on Horseback” where Block’s professional hit-man, Keller, is sent on an assignment to a small town in Wyoming. Keller doesn’t know who hired him to kill a popular, wealthy resident of the town. The assignment is fraught mystery and Keller makes some unusual decisions in this unconventional tale.
There are many solid stories in Murder Is My Business by a number of “name” writers. If you’re in the mood for murder, this book is the place to find it. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION: MURDER WAS HIS BUSINESS By Max Allan Collins — 7
The bishop and the hit man / by Andrew Greeley — 13
The man who shot Trinity Valance / by Paul Bishop. — 29
With anchovies / by John Lutz — 47
Guest services / by Max Allan Collins — 65
The matchstick and the rubber band / by Lynn F. Myers, Jr. — 89
Hitback / by Wayne D. Dundee — 101
Undercover / by Carolyn Wheat — 125
Angel face / by Daniel Helpingstine — 141
Improvident excess / by Barry N. Malzberg –153
The king of horror / by Stephen Mertz — 165
A nice save / by Edward Wellen –183
Without a trace / by Warren Murphy — 187
Runner and the deathbringer / by Teri White — 211
The operation / by Henry Slesar — 223
Surrogate / by Ed Gorman — 235
Keller on horseback / by Lawrence Block — 245
Everybody’s watching me / by Mickey Spillane — 275
Hurricane Beryl, after ravaging the Caribbean, is now poised to dump a lot of rain on Western New York tomorrow. The storm track takes Beryl up the Ohio Valley and into the Buffalo area. It’s rare that hurricane/tropical storm remnants make it all the way from the Caribbean to Canada! What wacky weather!
Whether Trump or Biden (or someone else) wins, the Future is already programmed for the next decade. In his Foreword, Niall Ferguson summarizes Larry McDonald’s prophesies: “a new era of persistent inflation, an escalation in global conflict, a multipolar world teaming up against the United States, the horror of a weakening dollar, a series of sovereign debt crises, and a thundering of capital out of fiscal assets into hard assets, not to mention catastrophic shortages of natural resources.” (p. xiii)
Sure, scary finance books are a dime a dozen, but McDonald’s book provides examples and statistics to back up his positions. McDonald has a long history in financial markets. He was a Lehman Brothers VP when the firm ignored warning signs and collapsed. Since then, McDonald founded the economic research platform,The Bear Traps Report, that tracks all this alarming economic activity.
Inflation is back. The world will soon be facing catastrophic shortages in natural resources. The U.S. dollar will lose its status as the world’s reserve currency as China, Saudi Arabia and Russia lead a move away from the American-led financial system. And rising government deficits are increasing the risk of a U.S. default especially if Trump and his MAGA are in control. Things look bleak! How to Listen When Markets Speak: RISKS, MYTHS, AND INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN A RADICALLY RESHAPED ECONOMY provides a roadmap to the monetary disasters ahead so you can prepare for the worst! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Author’s Note — xi
Foreword by Niall Ferguson — xiii
Introduction — xvii
The End of an Era — 3
America Crosses the Rubicon — 22
The Dazzling Obamas–and the Dying of the Light — 43
The New Washington Consensus — 59
Fossil Fuels Paving the Way to the Green Meadow — 84
The Dark Side of Passive Investing — 117
The Psychology of Bubbles and the Mania of Crypto — 140
The Decline of the U.S. Dollar — 166
Cold, Hard Assets–the Portfolio for the Next Decade — 197
As I continue to fight to recover from Covid-19 (Diane has already tested negative and is close to 100%), I’ve been eating plenty of veggies and fruits. While most of my Covid-19 symptoms are more respiration related–cough, sneezes, runny nose–many of my friends who’ve survived Covid-19 warned me that gastro-intestinal problems could be part of the recovery. So I stopped eating meat and focused on a daily regimen of grains and vegetables and fruits–the cherry season produced some delicious crops!
Jess Damuck’s Salad Freak also provided some helpful advice in choosing vegetables and preparing them carefully to avoid most tummy issues. Are you a fan of salads? Do you have a favorite? So far, Covid-19 hasn’t caused any “lower body” problems for me with this approach. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Foreword 8
Well, hello 10
Light, fresh, and truly delicious, or about this book 12
A note on mindfulness 14
What to have on hand, always 17
Setting yourself up for salad success 22
Questions to ask yourself when shopping for salads 26
Washing and storing greens: a guide 27
Music to make salads by 28
Winter 33
Spring 83
Summer 129
Fall 207
All about dressings 252
Condiments, crunchy stuff & other things that go with salad 256
“Gaslighting is the manipulation of someone using psychological methods to induce them to question their own sanity or powers of reasoning.” Kate Abramson’s On Gaslighting analyzes the strategy and tactics of gaslighting. Abramson breaks down the various means used in gaslighting and shows how the methods can induce confusion and madness.
Gaslighting got its name from the 1944 film, Gaslight, where Ingrid Bergman’s Paula is told by a detective: “You’re slowly and systematically being driven out of your mind.”
Abramson shows how gaslighting is done, step-by-step: “What do the eight central tools of gaslighters that I’ve mentioned in this chapter–trust, human sociability (and its dangerous counterpart, isolation), working presumptions of deliberative fallibility, love, empathy, practical considerations, authority and purported authority, and oppressive tropes and stereotypes–all have in common? They are all fundamental ways of organizing and orienting ourselves…” (p. 87-88) The gaslighter uses these tools to disorganize and disorient the target in order to get what they want.
Have you ever been gaslighted? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Acknowledgements — ix
Introduction to Our Topic — 1
What Is Gaslighting? A First Pass — 9
What Gaslighting Looks Like — 25
Gaslighters and Their Aims — 37
The Methods and Means of Gaslighting — 61
Social Structures, Subjugation, and Gaslighting — 89
The Multidimensional Moral Horror Show of Gaslighting — 117
