Everything Nonfiction

Home Mobile

By Leave a Comment

Review of The Devil Next Door

Directed by Yossi Bloch and Daniel Silvan
Rating *****

Was John Demjanjuk the murderous Ivan the Terrible, who worked the gas chambers at the Nazi death camp Treblinka, or was he a victim of misidentification? That’s the question at the center of this five-part Netflix documentary series.

Demjanjuk was a retired autoworker living in Cleveland, Ohio, when first identified as a former Nazi. American authorities handed him over to Israel to stand trial. The trial itself took a year. There was plenty of evidence both for and against his guilt. But the story doesn’t end with the verdict.

As someone who writes about wrongful convictions, I found myself wavering on Demjanjuk’s guilt or innocence. Treblinka survivors were adamant in their identification. But the defense was able to offer compelling evidence pointing toward his innocence.

Later in the series, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, there is compelling evidence pointing to Demjanjuk’s innocence. But a closer examination of that evidence convinced me that he was indeed Ivan the Terrible. You can make up your mind yourself.

By Leave a Comment

Review of The Children’s Blizzard

Review of The Children’s Blizzard written by David Laskin
Rating *****

As I write this, the first cold blast of the season is affecting half the U.S. I knew it was coming a week ago. The story told in The Children’s Blizzard is about an even more devasting cold blast and blizzard that rushed across the upper U.S. in 1888 with little warning and the loss of life that it caused.

While the devasting blizzard of January 12, 1888, is at the center of this story, the book touches on several other topics: weather forecasting before satelites, life on the great plains in the early 19th century, and weather science.

The author doesn’t discuss climate change, but it was on my mind as I read about record snowfalls and sub-zero temperatures. We still get plenty of snow and cold temperatures, but these events are not nearly as severe as in the past.

To say that these early settlers had a hard time is an understatement. Cheap land and farming was the promise that lured thousands of people from the safe confines of the big cities to the unknown open plains. That rosy picture didn’t last long. Farmers faced three significant hurdles in bringing their crops to market: fires that swept across the land, drought and early cold spells, and insect damage.

As for the blizzard of 1888, it was just one of many that ended in death for both people and livestock. What made this particular blizzard noteworthy was the number of school children that died. The day started sunny and warmer than previous days and weeks. Many school-age children headed off to school for the first time in weeks. The cold, wind, and snow came unexpectedly. Teachers had to decide whether it was better to release the children out into the storm or ride it out in a wood-frame schoolhouse with limited heating.

The author recounts numerous stories of what happened to those teachers and children as they tried to find shelter from the storm. Most of those caught in the blizzard were ill-prepared. They were under-dressed. Limited visibility made it difficult to find familiar landmarks. Many of those that died were found later only feet from safety. Those that did survive the night suffered from severe frostbite. In the end, some 250 people lost their lives.

By Leave a Comment

Republicans: The Party of Stupid

Gun Control – Everyone should have guns. Let’s allow guns everywhere like schools, churches, supermarkets. Let’s pass open carry laws so I can carry my AK47 around when I go out.

Healthcare – We don’t like Obama, so we’re going to deny millions of our constituents healthcare through expanded Medicare benefits under the ACA. We will replace the ACA with junk healthcare policies with limited coverage and high deductibles. We’re also going to take away prenatal healthcare for women by defunding Planned Parenthood. Then we’re going to pass laws that allow us to control women’s rights regarding abortion.

Immigration – We’re all for immigration as long as they are college educated white people. We’re open to taking people from Norway. Everyone else has to show that they have their own healthcare and have a four year degree. If not, we’re going to take your children, deport you, then lose track of everyone.

Environment – We hate regulations! Fracking companies should not have to spend money to monitor methane leaks. Coal companies should be able to dump their coal ash into the rivers. Power plants should not have to reduce their carbon releases. Dirty air, land, and water is the price you have to pay to keep the fossil fuel companies happy.

Climate Change – What a hoax. Where’s the evidence? I watch Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson and they say it isn’t true. I believe them over the science.

Green Energy – That’s a stupid idea. We should be promoting 1950s technology like coal and oil. That’s where the money is.

Foreign Policy – America first. Who cares what the rest of the world is doing. That’s not our problem.

Politics – We’re going to elect dimwitted politicians to promote our crazy policies. People like Jim Jordan, Devin Nunes, Mark Meadows, Lindsey Graham, Matt Gaetz, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Rand Paul, Mike Pence, and Donald Trump.

By Leave a Comment

Review of Dark Money

Review of Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer
Rating *****

My political awakening occurred during the Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld administration. A lot of bad things happened on their watch. Then Barack Obama was elected President, and I really started paying attention. I saw enormous potential for positive change. At the same time, I became aware that not everyone agreed with my rosy outlook. There was a growing chorus of loud voices that opposed everything President Obama did. Then came the 2010 midterm elections, and the promise of significant change was shot down by an onslaught of Republican victories.  

As for Donald Trump’s improbable rise, there was a confluence of events. First, there was Russia’s meddling in the election, as detailed in the Mueller report. Then there was the more targeted meddling by a company called Cambridge Analytics, as described in the documentary The Great American Hack. There was also the formation of FOX News headed by Roger Ailes. Lastly, and the one piece of the puzzle that has alluded me before reading Jane Mayer’s masterpiece, there was the influence of Dark Money.

So much money had gone into defeating Barack Obama in 2008, that when he won, the Dark Money groups were forced to try another strategy. That strategy involved an image makeover. Rather than portray themselves as the “money guys,’ they decided to repackage themselves as the fairness guys. They formed political action committees with safe sounding names like Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works. They convinced many people, including the media, that they were a grassroots phenomenon representing millions of every-day citizens. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

Before the 2010 midterms, large financial donors like the Kochs had to mask their donations through charitable organizations and other deceptive means. That all changed, however, when the Supreme Court ruled favorably in the Citizen’s United case, and the floodgates were opened wide. Large political donors no longer had to jump through hoops to hide their clandestine activities. They could do it out in the open with the blessings of the Supreme Court.

The new super PACs spent millions supporting candidates who would promote their agendas. Once in office, those same bought-and-paid-for legislators and governors used gerrymandering to keep out democratic opponents. Next, the newly elected Republicans set about carrying out a laundry list of conservative policy goals: undermine the ACA, lowering of corporate tax rates, maintaining or expanding tax loopholes that benefited the wealthy, gay rights, voting rights, abortion rights, immigration, environmental regulations, and labor.

Republicans adopted the theory that climate change was a hoax. They continue to ridicule anyone who claims otherwise. Yet the real hoax is how people like the Kochs promoted climate change denial because of the harm carbon taxes and environmental regulations would have on their bottom line.

The only way to fix the problem of Dark Money is campaign finance reform. Read this book. Vote for candidates who understand the problem. Overturn Citizens United. Our democracy depends on it.

By Leave a Comment

Review of Inside Bill’s Brain

Review of Inside Bill’s Brain Neflix *****

I’m currently reading a book called Dark Money, which is about how a few wealthy individuals have used their money to promote their nefarious self-interests. This documentary shows how Bill Gates, one of the wealthiest people in the world, has used his money and the money of other like-minded individuals to promote benefits to humanity.

It all starts with an article about children dying of diarrhea. That is the launching point for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill first identifies the problem, then he sets out to find solutions. Since this is an area that Bill has no expertise in, he enlists the help of others to find the answers. He creates a competition that will eventually lead to improved toilets and water treatment plants.

The next episode in this three-episode Netflix docuseries deals with Bill and Melinda’s time at Microsoft and their efforts to eradicate polio. I grew up during the dawn of computers. I watched Microsoft grow and dominate. I also witnessed Microsoft make one of the biggest marketing blunders of all time. It happened under Bill and Steve Ballmer’s tenure. And that is the failure of Windows Mobile Phone. There is absolutely no reason that there aren’t three mobile operating systems: Apple, Android, and Windows. But that story is for another day, and it’s not a subject covered in this documentary.

I found the last episode to be the most impactful. I’m a green energy promoter. We need to move away from fossil fuels as soon as possible. One solution that hasn’t received enough attention is nuclear power. Bill Gates uses his money and influence to enlist the help of others to rethink nuclear energy. They tackle the major obstacles – old technology, public perception, risk, waste – and come up with a new reactor that addresses all of the perceived problems. Their plans go awry due to the trade war with China, which was to be the launching point of their first full-scale reactor. It’s such a great solution that I don’t understand why they can’t find partners here in the U.S. or elsewhere like France.

I admire the work Bill and Melinda are doing through their foundation. I have just one word of advice for Bill Gates. You don’t have to carry around a shopping bag full of books everywhere you go. They’ve come up with this new technology called eBooks. Give it some thought.

By Leave a Comment

The Stock Market Crash of 2019

The day after Trump was elected, I sold 90% of my stock holdings. The Dow Jones was hovering just under 20,000. Since then, the stock market has been on a mostly upward trend with DOW 27,000 in view. Had I stayed in, I would have earned more than what I made through other investment such as CD’s, money market funds, cash, and bonds. Still, I made some positive moves. I sold half of my American Airlines stock at $42 a share. The stock today is at $29. More importantly, I slept well, knowing that my retirement savings were safe.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no stock expert. Over the last two-and-a-half years, I have slowly gone in and out of the market, with lousy timing each time. Even the experts will tell you that you can’t time the market. But I’m about to do just that. I predict a decline in the market of 30% to 40%. I also predict that this decline will begin in October of this year.

I talked about some of my reasoning in the post The Coming Economic Storm. In that post, I gave a few reasons for my skepticism: The historic stock market run, the fact that there has been a recession in the first term of every Republican President going back to Theodore Rosevelt, and most significantly an ineffective government. The latter being the gravest concern. Now that Trump is behind in the polls and has a dismal approval rating, his worst instincts will be on full display. Trump will take any short term gain if he thinks it will help his reelection chances regardless of the long term consequences. Just look at our ballooning debt crisis.

Why October? Next month we will learn from third-quarter numbers that the economy is slowing and on a downward trend. Investigations into Trump’s many misdeeds will begin in earnest next month, and the details of obstruction, tax dodges, money laundering, campaign finance violations, and other criminal acts will be exposed. October has also been a bad month for stocks historically. Some of the worst downturns have begun in October – 1929, 1987, 1997, 2002, 2007. And then there is Trump himself. He wants so badly to get something positive under his belt that he will do or say just about anything to turn the tide, such as making a bad deal with Iran or China or stealing military money to build a few miles of a useless border wall.

So here is my prediction. By early October the stock market may rise to 29,000 or higher due to temporary moves by team Trump to manipulate the market, such as announcing a deal with China, that will later turn out to be untrue or overhyped. By late October the storm clouds will be gathering, and we will be well on our way to DOW 17,000 or lower.