Retired deep sea sailor R.E. McDermott spins pretty good yarns:
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I am reading The Secret Book By Ronda Byrne, it is one of the best books you people try to read it. I think this is 3rd time i am reading but still something is there to understand.
Published in 1996 but still relevant although not an easy read.
Controversy has raged around Laschâs targeted attack on the elites, their loss of moral values, and their abandonment of the middle class and poor, for he sets up the media and educational institutions as a large source of the problem.
Itâs a good book from the late 1990s. If updated it would be even more frightening.
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Iâve just started reading âScience Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truthâ by Stuart Ritchie, itâs already out in the UK but will be out in the US in a few days, quite a good book so far, itâs about the bad practices that some scientists have with regards to publishing scientific papers.
Iâve read a bunch of good ones lately. I havenât posted here much as Iâm moderating on another board now. But I read this back in early June.
But this ONE is a real mind blower as it describes conditions in the Trump dynasty that could blow the roof off the White House when the story breaks.
Many have noticed Neo GOP people distancing themselves from the Donald
in past months. (perhaps they have read this book)
Dark Towers by David Enrich. (gets very good reviews) itâs about Deutsche Bank and very questionable (stable) mega mega million dollar loans to Trump & family. What you will read in this book is hard to believe, but it is documented.
Dark Towers, the sad story of Deutsche Bank at the hands of Donald Trump
JUST TODAY 
What is happening is right out of the Dark Towers book.
** Deutsche Bank Investigating Longtime Banker Of Donald Trump And Jared Kushner** Yahoo
Excellent book and well researched. Deutsche Bank and most of the other major banks are organized âtoo big to failâ criminal organizations and should be broken up.
Iâve mentioned some of these books here before but this is a list worth anyoneâs time to read.
Home wreckers by Aaron Glantz (reverse mortgage & other Banker rip offâs)
Dark Money by Jane Mayer (hidden history behind the Billionaires of the rise of the radical right)
Dark Towers by David Enrich (see above post about this book)
The Imposters by Steve Benen (The Clowns we have pretending to be our political leaders)
Mitch Please ! How Mitch McConnell sold out KY & America
Matt Jones (Jones is a sports personality and on air personalityâŚtraveled into every county in Kentucky to consider if he should run against Mitch. He reveals how he was threatened by Mitch and to stay out of politics)
The Power Worshipers, inside the dangerous rise of the christian nationalism by Kathern Masters (there is an overlapâŚas you may guessâŚbetween the
people in Dark Money and a Clergy willing to align with them to wield power to push the political agenda of the uber wealthy. In return that element of the Clergy gains unbelievable wealth while using their tax free 15501.C3 to accept funding for this while at the same time for those uber wealthy their contributions are tax deductibleâŚthe Clergy is exempt of taxesâŚSome would call this a colossal money laundryâŚwhere religious contributions become political contributions
and the Clergy steers the congregation to support the agendas and vote for them)
This website showcases some of these types
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The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
To say this book is eye-opening would be an understatement.
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That same group and their friends plotted a coup against the USA later.
The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking TRUE Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow F.D.R.
Great read.
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Just as an aside, I know not everyone understands TAX Free corporations
and how they work. So in fairness Iâll post this.
How many types of 501c organizations are there?
The IRS recognizes more than 30 types of nonprofit organizations . They are, to one degree or another, exempt from federal taxes and many state taxes. And each type is different when it comes to eligibility, lobbying, electioneering, and tax-deductible contributions.Blockquote
How the IRS Classifies Nonprofit Organizations
But like anything else Crooks can twist these things around without most of the Public even realizing what they are doing.
The Sea & Civilization; A maritime History of the World.
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They arenât crooks. They are obeying the laws congress wrote for them.Congress got their direction from?
Iâm not so sure about their obedience. When a contribution is made along with a caveat that something is to be done for it, then it isnât a contribution âIn good faithâ and enters the realm of âillegal brokerageâ. Then if part of that contribution is kicked back to the one making the contribution while all of that contribution is being written of the contributorâs taxesâŚit can be seen as a money laundry. All while hiding these activities behind a 501.C3âŚwhich I donât believe was the original intent of those laws. You have the âletterâ of the law and the âspiritâ of the law. The books, âDark Moneyâ & âThe Power Worshipersâ
are quite enlightening on this subject.
May I suggest the occasional Calvin & Hobbes treasury, or Peanuts collection? Just to brighten things up a smidge⌠
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Iâll see what I can do for some humorous reading next trip to the Library. We donât get nearly enough laughs of late. 
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Oh, I agree completely. But when these same characters cut IRS enforcement funds, capture the FEC, SEC and Justice Department they can get away with anything. If your group has more attorneyâs making more money than government attorneys odds are in your favor. Itâs how oligarchies obtain and maintain power. The USA has a socialistic form of government that benefits the oligarchs.
Yes I agree, and should point out how we are always hearing our better leaders pointing to the importance of an educated citizen
I was just reading today in, âHow Did We Get Here ? From Theodore Roosevelt to Donald Trumpâ by Robert Dallek a quote by H L Mencken in the Woodrow Wilson chapter. (H L Mencken was a writer for the Baltimore Sun newspaper)
This is just the conclusion of the page long observation But in that piece Mencken writes about a literate President (Wilson) with idealistic views who is
replaced by a âGood 'ol Boyâ PresidentâŚWarren G. Harding.
Somewhere around 1920 Mencken penned this observation:
âAs democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heartâs desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.â Blockquote
Today with the internet and POTUS Reagan revoking âThe Fairness Doctrineâ in broadcasting so much âeducationâ of the public as related to political & social matters has been ascribed to the broadcast media pundits (like Rush Limbaugh and others) who offer up what the Plutocrats and Oligarchâs pay them so handsomely to present to the public.
To these ends Mencken was a century ahead of his times.
:
âŚand who âeducatesâ the people in a neutral manner?
During the recent centuries, in old Europe, we had many philosophy-based regimes, in different countries, then trying to educate their populace to fit their ideasâŚ
They never won the education war; after an initial enthusiasm, the folks asked themselves âare we better than beforeâ⌠and the ugly dictatorships were bornâŚ
Are you speaking to what caused the Weimar Republic in Germany (1920âs) to fail, as an example ? Or even in earlier Roman times, âBread & Circusesâ
era ?
I agree that it is a problem of Democracy. A nation has to have a structure of people with the means (education) to actually understand what & how their country is about and to function in it as well as be able to think for themselves.
Many countries which arenât so affluent have resorted to sorting kids by the 7 th year of schooling into three categories. The higher educated who will go into the professions, the general education for those who would work in business/bureaucracies, And the Trades. (the trades learn skills which works well when economic times are good but their education is geared mainly towards their occupation so that when economic times are bad they suffer the most and are more vulnerable to voting their pocketbook, while being lured in by
self serving politicians) This is what happened to Weimer in Germany in the 20âs as the people couldnât grasp the philosophy of Democracy to invest themselves into it. Just turned to the soup & bread lines and joined the putsch.
(and when you are hungry and donât understand anything much beyond thatâŚit is understandable the allure of being seduced by political hackâs working for those of means and greed) And realize how divide and conquer works.
The fall of Rome and itâs story could be a good start without any bias. It is way off in the past but just as relevant today. Notice the role of education.
"If Rome had not engulfed so many men of alien blood in so brief a time,
"if she had passed all these newcomers through her schools instead of her slums, if she had treated them as men with a hundred potential excellences,
"if she had occasionally closed her gates to let assimilation catch up with infiltration,
âshe might have gained new racial and literary vitality from the infusion, and might have remained a Roman Rome, the voice and citadel of the West.â Blockquote
A quick course in why Rome fell
.
.
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