I was sitting around my sister's kitchen table, with one of my nieces and a nephew, late this summer. Somewhere in a discussion, I mentioned how a friend, decades ago, had made me a list of ten books to read, labeled Jimmy's Summer Reading List. My nephew sat up and said, "I'd like to have a 'Jimmy's Summer Reading list!" OK, Jon, several months late, but here you go.
Jon's request was to keep it short and to lean toward non-fiction. But, where to start? Where to stop? And I love fiction. Also, I like historical fiction and believe sometimes you learn more there than from volumes of dry scholarship. I made two lists, one fiction and one non-fiction. So, as Rod Serling would have said, "presented, for your consideration... "
FICTION
- 1984 George Orwell
- Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Lincoln Gore Vidal
- Watership Down Richard Adams
- A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens
- Johnny Got His Gun Dalton Trumbo
- Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut
- Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
- Trinity Leon Uris
- The Fountainhead Ayn Rand
NON-FICTION
- Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Dee Brown
- Roots Alex Haley
- Saving Capitalism Robert Reich
- Gulag Archipelago Alexander Solzhenitzen
- Hitler: A Study in Tyranny Allan Bullock
- The Story of the World's Great Thinkers Ernest R. Trattner
- The Brethren Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong
- The Mainspring of Human Progress Henry Grady Weaver
- A People's History of the United States Howard Zinn
- Silent Spring Rachel Carson
Well, this should start some arguments. I've read thousands of books, and was surprised how hard it was to just pull 10-20 to the fore. These are not presented in any order. They are not lists of my favorite books, nor of what I think are the "best" books. Jon asked for books he "should read". I attempted to list books I thought everybody should have as general knowledge. Also, that I could think of, on a Saturday afternoon! Some probably need some explanation.
I didn't read Uncle Tom's Cabin until I was several decades into adulthood. The term "Uncle Tom" has taken on such negative connotations in the last 50 years, that I was surprised at what a powerful story it is. I was angry reading it. No wonder Abe Lincoln, and others, referred to it as the book that started the war. It paints a searing picture of terrorism and of courage under seige.
I have read, and re-read, Lincoln many times. I love Gore Vidal. I read this years before Doris Kearnes Goodman published her non-fiction Team of Rivals. I was startled to realize that I knew the entire story in detail. I learned nothing from her book, that I did not already know from Vidal's novel. And his is more fun!
Watership Down is still my favorite book, of all time. Period.
Leon Uris sometimes gets knocked but I think Trinity is a great introduction to Irish history and the background to The Troubles.
The Fountainhead is not great literature. But, I think Atlas Shrugged is wretched. So, given Ayn Rand's influence over our current ruling party's ideology, this is a window into her philosophy/ideology of Objectivism. At least it's a novel, with a story, as opposed to her non-fiction propaganda.
I haven't read the Trattner book, since I was in grade school. My father had it on our bookshelf. It was my introduction to Copernicus, Malthus, Darwin, Marx and others.
The Mainspring of Human Progress was included with a folder of pamphlets and booklets, that one of my uncles sent me. I never met him. Our only communication, that I remember, was this one mailing that I received, when I was about ten. A folder of free market/capitalist propaganda, from the American Enterprise Institute!
Silent Spring is the one book on the lists I have not read. It's on my winter reading list.
I was asked, last night, what I think of Tom Steyer and NeedToImpeach.com. I don't know anything about Tom Steyer, beyond what I read today on Wikipedia. I'm uncomfortable with the idea that we need a rich guy to save us. It's a pattern: Ross Perot, Michael Bloomberg, Trump and, now in IL, JB Pritzker. All billionaires.
As to impeachment, I'm torn. The Russia stuff leaves me cold. I think it's a fantasy that everyone wants to be true. Hillary Clinton uses a private email server to circumvent freedom of information laws, gets hacked, leaving a trail of evidence that the Democratic Party primary process was a sham and, for a host of other reasons, manages to lose the election to an ignorant reality show host. Wouldn't it be satisfying if he was guilty of treason and the evidence was.... the act of hacking her emails? Vindication! ...Bullshit.
There is no reason to believe that the hacked emails, or attempts to hack, steal and alter voter data in various states, by Russia, had anything to do with Trump or, for that matter, Wikileaks. Did Trump's campaign attempt to obtain info, after the fact, from Russia? It appears so. Is that illegal? Maybe. Did they try to coordinate the timing of the release of info with Wikileaks? Maybe. Is that illegal? No.
The Russians may have been involved in hacking various Democratic accounts. They apparently have also tried to tamper with state electoral commission rolls. That needs investigated and dealt with. If Trump refuses to do that, that should be the crime. Collusion is just a feel good narrative.
I suspect there are financial crimes that he is guilty of too, unrelated to the election. Failure to execute the laws as president and tax evasion are real crimes. That's where any possible impeachment should be focused.
Should he be impeached? Will he be impeached?
I struggle with the first one. I loathe him and want him humiliated. But, let's assume he is impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate and removed from office. That gives us President Pence. Beyond Trump's ignorance and personality disorder (and I recognize how dangerous those are), would we be better off without him? Most of what Trump does on a daily basis is a freak show. Yes, we feel like we need a shower at the end of the day, but the reality is that the major destruction comes from the cabinet he's put in power. Trump is an ignoramus, in over his head. Pence believes in all this bullshit. I don't see an end to an advancing police state, racial strife or environmental destruction in Pence World. Plus, with Trump, people are focused on resisting. If he gets impeached, the attitude will be, 'we overthrew him!' and everybody goes back to being sheep.
I'm not convinced he will be impeached in any circumstance. The Republicans have a majority. They have shown, in both houses of congress, that they no longer have any sense of responsibility. The Republican Party is utterly without conscience. They currently are endorsing a senate candidate that, regardless if one believes the accusations that he likes having 14 year olds touch his Little Roy through his underwear, has publicly said (within the last three months) that his idea of when America was last great was during slavery. They are not going to impeach a guy who does their, and their donors, bidding. That leaves the Democrats. Let's assume they win the House. Nancy Pelosi, who famously declared impeachment "off the table", before the 2006 election, has now essentially done the same for Trump, when recently questioned about the NeedToImpeach campaign.
So, should he be impeached? Probably, just to confirm the rule of law. Will he? I doubt it, as long as our rulers are people like Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell.
