Permanent Record By: Edward Snowden

This is a long awaited book for me.  Some people may disagree with him.  IMHO I consider him a true hero.  He outed the corruption at the very top.  This has not stopped and has actually increased.  The saddest thing about the entire situation as that we all know the NSA is watching everything we do and we the people have done nothing.  We have become a bunch of complaisant drones of the government.

This book covers more of his upbringing and what brought him to the point where he blew the whistle on the government than the information he released.  I think Snowden is a brave man and should really be pardoned, although not sure he can be if he has not been convicted yet.   Snowden was on the money regarding the Internet of the 90's. Not the crazy victimization world we live in today where a post you made at the zenith of your acne outbreak comes back to haunt you well into your adult days. This why I agree with GDPR to some degree.

I am glad that his then girlfriend flew out with him and they were able to get married.  It is a great story of a great guy.  He blows the lid off of the government mass surveillance which they call "Bulk Collection".   Based on the recent call to sue Snowden for the proceeds of this book, I do not see this government slowing down.  Government production is bipartisan.



Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Metropolitan Books (September 17, 2019)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1250237238
ISBN-13: 978-1250237231

Solitary By: Albert Woodfox

This was an amazing book. Although I disagree with the political views of the Black Panthers, since they are a Marxist organization,  I must remove my hat and commend Albert Woldfox for the way he carried himself in prison. He was a convict but not a thug. What they did to Robert King, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox is unrcontionable.  Woodfox, Wallace and King where held in solitary confinement in sub-human conditions for an extended period of time.  In Woodfox's case, over 40 Years.

This book shows the racism experienced during the 60's and how it continued well into the 2000's.  The Angola 3 as they were know as, had a huge following and a amazing legal team of mostly volunteers.  Two portions of the book hit me especially hard.  One of them was how Woodfox would take his hour to help bathe and clean the cells of the mentally ill in his cell block.  The second was the testimony given by Teenie Miller's, the widow of Bent Miller.  Brent Miller was a guard at Angola Prison and was murdered.  Albert, Wallace and even King (which was not even in Angola during the murder) were accused and held for over 40 years for a crime they did not commit.  This is a travesty of justice.  I recommend this book highly.  It will change your views on prison, prisoners and the legal system.  I cannot wait for the movie to be made.  I will be there.


Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Grove Press (March 5, 2019)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0802129080
ISBN-13: 978-0802129086

Prince of Thieves By Chuck Hogan

This book takes place in the mid 1990's in Charleston, Boston; the oldest neighborhood in Boston. I watched the Ben Affleck's adaptation film of this book "The Town" before I read the book.  Because of that, as I was reading the book, Doug MacRay WAS Ben Affleck.

The author writes about a group of childhood firends that commit heists when they are older.  Doug screwed up his chance to get out of the Town after being drafted by the Bruins.  He is a recovering alcoholic.  James Coughlin, another member of the "gang" is a hot-headed, degenerate but pulled 9 years in prison for defending Doug.  His sister is Doug's former lover.

The gang pulls a bank heist.  They are extremely detailed oriented and in doing so, they investigate the workers of the bank.  One of those employees is Claire Keesey, the Assistant Bank Manager.  Doug falls for her and after a successful bank robbery, Doug finds a way to meet her, unbeknownst to her, she does not realize that he was one of the bank robbers.

The FBI is obviously investigating the crime and the agent in charge, Fraweley, is also into Claire and  as the story unravels, you can see the battle for Claire's affection.

The movie was excellent but the book was too.  I recommend it.

Agent Frawley, Doug MacRay, James Coughlin, Krista Coughlin from the movie "The Town"

Hardcover: 364 pages
Publisher: Scribner; First Edition edition (August 10, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 074326455X
ISBN-13: 978-0743264556

The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture By: Heather Mac Donald

** Trigger Warning: contains sexual content that might offend the non adults **

This book is geared mostly to our colleges and universities. Mac Donald calls out the insanity that exists today in colleges and university. From "micro aggression" to "rape" and everything in between.

When writing about rape, MAC Donald writes about how the colleges and universities have changed what they consider rape and as such, there numbers are skewed. Also interesting is how a woman is not responsible for her actions while intoxicated but rather the male has to be responsible for HIS actions while drunk or high as well as the female's action. Soon you will see contracts such as this made up contract below:

I do hereby authorize to insert at least one finger, but not to exceed three finger in the vagina of . I also authorize to penetrate said vagina with penis. This Interaction will last at least 15 min but not to exceed one hour. Oral sex is optional but highly recommended. For oral including touching with hands, please see finger section above.

At many points in this book I found myself laughing out loud because of the stupidity our society has devolved into. Other times I found myself in tears because of the same. I cannot fathom our country being run by these professional victims that find fault in anything and everything. How can these people operate in the real world where rejection is a daily issue, relationships where people argue, jobs where bosses do not coddle you. They cannot. These people in my opinion are not prepared to enter into society as adults.

Shame on the colleges and universities for capitulating to these coddled, imbecilic, entitled, professional victims babies. Sadly these kids are paying enormous amounts of money and jumping through hoops to get accepted only to be taught that if they do not like their surroundings, they can accuse and fabricate whatever they want to force those not acting the way they want into submission.

The Oscars, Emmy awards, Golden Globes et al have become unwatchable. They have turned into a political opportunity and a race/sex/LGBTQ quota fest. I would like to watch entertainers entertain. I wouldn't mind those institutions go away altogether. The fact that we need to pass over artists that are deserving of an award simply because another is a female, black, short, tall, LGBTQ, or any other group that has decided to complain.

I used to want my kids to go to a great Ivy League school but after reading this book, I think to myself "Why?" Why would I spend all that money to have my kids take semester after semester on meaningless "education" about fabricated things. What a waste of time and money.

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (September 4, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1250200911
ISBN-13: 978-1250200914

The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech By: Kirsten Powers

Trigger warnings, safe spaces, micro aggression, cultural appropriation, white privilege and other moronic views is a huge problem today.  I normally ask people "Where are you from originally", this is considered micro aggression?  Powers, a Liberal, blew the lid off of what Conservatives and independents like myself have seen for years. "Free speech for me, not for thee" and "Tolerance for me but not for thee" is apparently the new new-liberal motto.

Conservatives have been denied speaking at universities because of their beliefs or political affiliation.  In other words, we need to practice exclusion to attain inclusion.  This is insane.  Universities used to be a place were freedom of speech was not only encouraged but many of the battles for the same were fraught. Today it's the complete opposite.

So the illiberal oppose Christianity but support Islam which we know is anti-LGBT and have zero respect for women. I guess enemy of my enemy is my friend.  Selective Outrage much?   The new left has even gone after Bill Maher for not following lockstep with their new illiberalism.  Maher?  He is ultra liberal but it only shows to what level the new left has gone.

In my opinion anyone who requires to have trigger warnings, and are offended by anyone that does not agree with them are not ready to be part of society and honestly require severe mental health help. We have failed our future generations. We have been bad stewards of freedoms and rights. We have been able to unravel what has been a beacon for the world for centuries.  I will address the typical triggered response, I do not want to go back to slavery or Jim Crow. I live by a strict motto; "no groups, no colors, no hyphenations and no labels". ~me.

This book was written during the Obama administration.  Ironically, she writes about how Obama was attacked by negative stories from Fox. Wow. Fast forward to today and Trump, Obama has a honeymoon for 8 years.

I commend Powers for taking on a subject considered a third-rail in her circles. She has laid out a concise, well documented, and honest book sure to rock the snowflakes that have corrupted society and have contaminated the future of this country. I can only hope that a miracle occurs and these drones realize how wrong they are. Not only is it bad for the country but the future of other countries looking at us, will be emboldened to attack us because they will know that the people here would fold like a cheap suite.

If this continues, the new left will live in an echo chamber.  The irony is that just because you use force and intimidation to stifle the speech, you do NOT change the belief. For instance if you have a person that is a racist, you would never know where this person stands. Given the right situation and opportunity, that racist would act on their true feeling. Not only that but the inability to speak your mind and your thoughts as offensive as they may be, I believe multiplies those thoughts.  Those thoughts coupled with ridiculous snowflake antics could be devastating.

Powers decimates the media and whistleblowers. Ironically she is now working for CNN.  She states that Obama's was the most closed WH thertofor.  Probably different today with Trump although not sure. Obama has his own videographer that spins the message. He gave far less interviews than Bush and Clinton.  She is rightfully critical of Obama's narcissism and he lack of transparency. Anyone with a pulse would have seen that.   With regards to whistleblowers, Powers writes about the aggression with the whistleblowers while leaking other information for political gains.

When it comes to climate change, the fact that a media organization is allowed to block opposing talk, letters or articles is such a scary situation. It is a double-edged sword. I was utterly shocked when I read "Kentucky Professor northern pro life.  Any violence perpetrated against that silly display was minor to how I felt when I saw it" WTH is this crap?  The more I read about these things the more I believe that political party or affiliation should be a protected class. Furthermore if a women's group grossly discriminate against a conservative woman and does not fight for the Conservative woman in the same vigor as a liberal, those groups should lose their tax exemption as should any group purporting to protect a group of general users.  If the women's or Hispanic or black or whatever else is ONLY for a particular party, they should be called out and shutdown as a racist organization. Although that attacks their 1st amendment, I do not see another way.


Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Regnery Publishing; First Edition edition (May 11, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1621573702
ISBN-13: 978-1621573708

Kochland by Christopher Leonard

The pro-EPA, anti-Capitalist, and anti-Koch position of the author is palpable.  However, with that said, the book is well written and obviously well researched.  Some of his assertions are off though in my opinion.

Leonard writes about how breaking the Labor Unions is tied to the divide between management and the workers.  However if you look at the Union structure, and the salaries of the Labor Union Bosses you will see that they too are off from the standard worker.  There was a time when Labor Unions were necessary and created value for the worker.  However today, with the Government intervention in EVERYTHING we do, the Unions are a thing of the past.  The Left, the ones who support Labor Unions, will tell you that the "Citizen's United' decision should be reversed because it gives corporations the ability to "interfere" in political elections and that the corporations are NOT people and should not be allowed to participate in funding campaigns.  Although I somewhat agree with that stance, I also think that Labor Unions should also NOT be allowed to mingle in elections.  Today, you have Labor Unions that are allowed to pull workers out of their "regular work" to assist in "Labor Union Business" which in many, many cases is electioneering for a pro-union candidate.  Not to mentions the disparate salaries of

2017 Labor Leaders Salaries and Compensation

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 464
(UFCW)
John Niccolai
Salary - $589,439.00
Compensation - $594,193.00

Air Line Pilots Association
Timothy Canoll
Salary - $526,292.00
Compensation - $775,829.00

Laborers International Union of North America
(LiUNA)
Terrence O'Sullivan
Salary - $516,698.00
Compensation - $717,992.00

International Longshoremen's Association
Harold Dagget
Salary - $488,008.00
Compensation - $533,222.00

International Brotherhoos of Trade Unions Local 713
Peter Hasho
Salary - $477,500.00
Compensation - $756,973.00

Source: https://laborpains.org/2017/05/17/union-president-pay-watch-2017/

I am sure that the respective Labor Union members are not pulling in those numbers.  I am sure if you look at the percentage the bosses are making over the standard worker, the number would ALSO be staggering.  And these do not include the really big ones like Teamsters and AFL CIO.


Leonard also writes about the Charles Koch not wanting to take the company public because it would open up the company to scrutiny and shareholders would be able to demand information.  I make one observations, the Labor Union are also NOT public.  And they too, as you saw above, have all kinds of information they do not want revealed.

Charles Koch is a business genius. He has grown his company based on strategies he has devised and lessons learned. Their success was not based on shareholders and wall street or even government intervention. This speaks to the Freemarket and how some win and some lose.  Obviously in this book we see that Koch Industries failed at many points in their time.  They pushed through and were able to protect themselves for the "bad times".  The Kochs were very liberal with their money from a philanthropy perspective.  They gave to multiple causes that should meet the approbation  of the author, however he points out that the 100 Million dollars donated was over 10 years.  I am curious what donations the author supports?

 Democrats "create jobs" by enforcing arduous regulatory efforts that require full time teams to try to comply. This is not organic and cost companies profits that stifle internal growth.  The Democratic policies and regulations coupled with labor unions would destroy this economy. Although not specified in her book, Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged lays out the current Liberal agenda.

I think the best thing to happen to the "climate change" movement was also the worse; arguably, Gore's movie/commercial "Inconvenient Truth".  After Gore states that carbon credit was the path to take, he followed it up by saying his company was the only one that could sell you said credits.   Any racional person could see right through it. I believe there is climate change but I do not believe it is as cataclysmic as some make it out to be.  Nor do I think that we need to regress back to the horse and buggy days while the reset of the world ignores and pushes on.  It is a suicide pact.

Leonard is critical about Koch and the "astroturf" of him funding protest movements and so on.  This is nothing new here.  Soros has been doing this for quite some time.  Leonard also blast Glenn Beck, which I am not a fan of BTW, for peddling in fear.  Yet today you see every media outlet talking about Trump being a Russian Spy, racist, et al.  I am not saying that peddling in fear is good, but for God's sake, look at your team and at least make reference to what is going on around YOU.  You are basically doing the same thing you accuse Beck of doing.

Chase Koch chapters were very interesting. Even if you do not like Koch, you must admit he did some very difficult things with his son.  He instilled good work ethic and although Chase did not assume the "thrown" of Koch Industries, aside from the terrible tragedy he was at fault for, he did pretty good.  I mean, Ted Kennedy did great things arguably after his issues with cars and deaths.

I think the funniest portion of the book is the policies that were thousands of pages long and difficult to follow and undertand.  Take a look at our tax code, our laws, the ACA with over 20,000 pages for just health care.  The author is obviously on the side of big government and more regulation, what does that look like in pages?  It was funny to read that section.

Charles Koch

David Koch

William "Bill" Koch

Hardcover: 704 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd (Aug. 13 2019)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1471186970
ISBN-13: 978-1471186974

The Secret Life of Kim Dotcom: Spies, Lies and the War for the Internet by David Fisher, Kim Dotcom

This book covers Kim Dotcom's early life (born Kim Schmitz) in Germany to an alcoholic and abusive father.  He is a good student and is smart for his age.  His mother struggled to purchase young Kim his first computer. He is arrested as a young man which gives him street cred to open a security consulting company. He later starts Megaupload which arguably is the dawn of cloud storage today and becomes incredibly rich.

It's funny because I used to use his Kimble.org (another one of his alias’) site to test Internet speed before the speed test sites started popping up. It was so loaded with Flash and had a countdown when it loaded. Depending on how fast the countdown cycled through, the better the Internet connection was. He was already grossly successful with his MegaYacht, MegaCar and all his pictures and videos of his adventures were posted on this site.  He would post pictures with famous people, parties with 100’s of people on yachts, private jets and cars.  I have to admit, in my early days, I thought of following his security consulting ways, and eventually I did but obviously not to his level of success.

Kim meets and subsequently marries his wife in the Philippines and has 3 kids and twins on the way during his arrest.  In January of 2012, on the day before Kim's birthday, his life gets turned upside down. The New Zealand police, in an unprecedented raid on a geek’s home in the early hours, hit his mansion with a military force raid where they subsequently arrest him on charges of Copyright infringement and even states "terrorism" and "child pornography".   Dotcom would eventually divorce his beautiful wife and mother of five to what is said is the strain with the case.  Many accused her of being interested in his money.  I guess no one will know.

What ensued next was a whirlwind court case where Kim is fighting for his life and his family which you can argue that he loses both. Dotcom challenges the validity of the warrants and those that allowed it. Kim not only challenges the courts to avoid extradition to the US, but also throws his hat into the political arena only to lose to the incumbent John Key, who some call his nemesis.

It is a shame that a person, a visionary, has been silenced.  I understand that US Laws are probably the strictest in the world.  I also realize that the US lobby system and the over-reach of government is pervasive and every day, it seems we the citizens of the US are losing more of our rights not only from government, but from political parties.  We have lost “TRUE” freedom of speech, the 4th amendment is all but gone and a particular group is hard at work to take our 2nd amendment as well.  I am sure Dotcom did some criminal stuff to amass his wealth, but like I used to tell my Scouts when I was a leader, “When you point your finger at someone, you have three fingers pointing back at you”.  We see our government and the politicians constantly use money, power and influence to get out of all sorts of crimes they have committed that regular people would surely go to prison for.

Good book, could have been great but nonetheless a great read especially if you are part of the "scene" and were part of his rise to fame.

Dotcom's Mansion in New Zealand

The Megacar from his kimble.org site

Dotcom's first wife and kids

The NEW Mrs. Dotcom

File Size: 2346 KB
Print Length: 238 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: Paul Little Books; 1 edition (November 17, 2013)
Publication Date: November 17, 2013
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0473267152
ISBN-13: 978-0473267155
ASIN: B00GR7AF46