Whatcha reading?

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Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Marky Dread wrote:
10 Oct 2018, 8:24am
Dr. Medulla wrote:
10 Oct 2018, 6:31am
Silent Majority wrote:
10 Oct 2018, 2:43am
Now my nerdy completist side won't be soothed till I've read Matlock's stupid looking bloody book.
I've read it but it made very little impression on my memory. Pretty bland stuff, like the recollections of a minor regional civil servant.
I liked Glen's book but then I read it the day it was released and he was the first Pistol to get a book out (1990). It's obviously only a brief part of the Pistols story and goes for facts over sensationalism but Glen was there from the start and the book has some early detail not mentioned in Rottens : No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs. I'm always interested in the early days of the Pistols before the rot set in. Some of Rottens claims in his book are false like Glen going back in the studio after he left to help out on Bollocks.
Sure it's informative and offers one insider's view, and Glen may be a decent feller, but he's pretty boring. Not a crime, but not enticing either.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

Finished Steve's book, good fun read.

Russia In Revolution: An Empire In Crisis - S A Smith. Audiobook. A fair, balanced, well sourced book about the revolution from 1890 to 1926. It l concludes that Stalinism has a foundation in Lenin's structure, but that if Trotsky or someone else had taken over after the leader died then things would have been better.
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Fear - Bob Woodward. Audiobook. A better book than Fire & Fury, if an equally massively depressing book. A husk fails continually. Could not stand working for that self satisfied dissembling piece of shit. Luckily, anyone who chooses to be in that White House deserves their terrible experience and their brown tongues.
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eumaas
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by eumaas »

Silent Majority wrote:
13 Oct 2018, 9:02am
Finished Steve's book, good fun read.

Russia In Revolution: An Empire In Crisis - S A Smith. Audiobook. A fair, balanced, well sourced book about the revolution from 1890 to 1926. It l concludes that Stalinism has a foundation in Lenin's structure, but that if Trotsky or someone else had taken over after the leader died then things would have been better.
I tend to think it would have turned out about the same under Trotsky. At least for a while. Maybe they would have gone into WW2 a bit stronger given the Red Army was Trotsky’s baby. But he was a bit of a Napoleon himself.
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Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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eumaas wrote:
14 Oct 2018, 8:40am
Silent Majority wrote:
13 Oct 2018, 9:02am
Finished Steve's book, good fun read.

Russia In Revolution: An Empire In Crisis - S A Smith. Audiobook. A fair, balanced, well sourced book about the revolution from 1890 to 1926. It l concludes that Stalinism has a foundation in Lenin's structure, but that if Trotsky or someone else had taken over after the leader died then things would have been better.
I tend to think it would have turned out about the same under Trotsky. At least for a while. Maybe they would have gone into WW2 a bit stronger given the Red Army was Trotsky’s baby. But he was a bit of a Napoleon himself.
Different groups of people being exiled or killed, but a totalitarian is going to kill and control regardless.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
14 Oct 2018, 9:03am
eumaas wrote:
14 Oct 2018, 8:40am
Silent Majority wrote:
13 Oct 2018, 9:02am
Finished Steve's book, good fun read.

Russia In Revolution: An Empire In Crisis - S A Smith. Audiobook. A fair, balanced, well sourced book about the revolution from 1890 to 1926. It l concludes that Stalinism has a foundation in Lenin's structure, but that if Trotsky or someone else had taken over after the leader died then things would have been better.
I tend to think it would have turned out about the same under Trotsky. At least for a while. Maybe they would have gone into WW2 a bit stronger given the Red Army was Trotsky’s baby. But he was a bit of a Napoleon himself.
Different groups of people being exiled or killed, but a totalitarian is going to kill and control regardless.
The bolsheviks were elitist and authoritarian from the off, and made more so by having to fight a very bloody set of international capitalist invasions at the same time of vicious forces of reaction with the whites. While they were brilliant gravediggers of the old order, circumstances didn't allow them to empower the people enough to lay safe foundations for the future.
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Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Silent Majority wrote:
14 Oct 2018, 2:02pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
14 Oct 2018, 9:03am
eumaas wrote:
14 Oct 2018, 8:40am
Silent Majority wrote:
13 Oct 2018, 9:02am
Finished Steve's book, good fun read.

Russia In Revolution: An Empire In Crisis - S A Smith. Audiobook. A fair, balanced, well sourced book about the revolution from 1890 to 1926. It l concludes that Stalinism has a foundation in Lenin's structure, but that if Trotsky or someone else had taken over after the leader died then things would have been better.
I tend to think it would have turned out about the same under Trotsky. At least for a while. Maybe they would have gone into WW2 a bit stronger given the Red Army was Trotsky’s baby. But he was a bit of a Napoleon himself.
Different groups of people being exiled or killed, but a totalitarian is going to kill and control regardless.
The bolsheviks were elitist and authoritarian from the off, and made more so by having to fight a very bloody set of international capitalist invasions at the same time of vicious forces of reaction with the whites. While they were brilliant gravediggers of the old order, circumstances didn't allow them to empower the people enough to lay safe foundations for the future.
Which is to say that circumstances forced them to be monsters. But any ideology that requires ideal circumstances to fulfill its promise is too precious a flower to survive. Communists and libertarians alike tend to pull out the "[blank] has never really been tried because of [reasons]" as for why their nonsense doesn't work in reality.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Wolter
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Wolter »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
14 Oct 2018, 2:32pm
Silent Majority wrote:
14 Oct 2018, 2:02pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
14 Oct 2018, 9:03am
eumaas wrote:
14 Oct 2018, 8:40am
Silent Majority wrote:
13 Oct 2018, 9:02am
Finished Steve's book, good fun read.

Russia In Revolution: An Empire In Crisis - S A Smith. Audiobook. A fair, balanced, well sourced book about the revolution from 1890 to 1926. It l concludes that Stalinism has a foundation in Lenin's structure, but that if Trotsky or someone else had taken over after the leader died then things would have been better.
I tend to think it would have turned out about the same under Trotsky. At least for a while. Maybe they would have gone into WW2 a bit stronger given the Red Army was Trotsky’s baby. But he was a bit of a Napoleon himself.
Different groups of people being exiled or killed, but a totalitarian is going to kill and control regardless.
The bolsheviks were elitist and authoritarian from the off, and made more so by having to fight a very bloody set of international capitalist invasions at the same time of vicious forces of reaction with the whites. While they were brilliant gravediggers of the old order, circumstances didn't allow them to empower the people enough to lay safe foundations for the future.
Which is to say that circumstances forced them to be monsters. But any ideology that requires ideal circumstances to fulfill its promise is too precious a flower to survive. Communists and libertarians alike tend to pull out the "[blank] has never really been tried because of [reasons]" as for why their nonsense doesn't work in reality.
I tend to still believe as long as your system has authoritarianism of a central minority party at its core, it will go off the rails. And even 'Libertarianism' has that, it just puts the unspoken authoritarianism into the boardrooms of private institutions.
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Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Wolter wrote:
14 Oct 2018, 3:11pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
14 Oct 2018, 2:32pm
Silent Majority wrote:
14 Oct 2018, 2:02pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
14 Oct 2018, 9:03am
eumaas wrote:
14 Oct 2018, 8:40am

I tend to think it would have turned out about the same under Trotsky. At least for a while. Maybe they would have gone into WW2 a bit stronger given the Red Army was Trotsky’s baby. But he was a bit of a Napoleon himself.
Different groups of people being exiled or killed, but a totalitarian is going to kill and control regardless.
The bolsheviks were elitist and authoritarian from the off, and made more so by having to fight a very bloody set of international capitalist invasions at the same time of vicious forces of reaction with the whites. While they were brilliant gravediggers of the old order, circumstances didn't allow them to empower the people enough to lay safe foundations for the future.
Which is to say that circumstances forced them to be monsters. But any ideology that requires ideal circumstances to fulfill its promise is too precious a flower to survive. Communists and libertarians alike tend to pull out the "[blank] has never really been tried because of [reasons]" as for why their nonsense doesn't work in reality.
I tend to still believe as long as your system has authoritarianism of a central minority party at its core, it will go off the rails. And even 'Libertarianism' has that, it just puts the unspoken authoritarianism into the boardrooms of private institutions.
It's not a coincidence that libertarians regard democracy—in terms of elections and public institutions, where all citizens have equal say—with great suspicion. They'll couch it in terms of tyranny of the state, but it's really a rejection of the idea that those without capital should be able to hold any kind of power over those with capital. So, certainly, libertarianism's authoritarian impulse is an expression of it seeing real power in capital not some airy-fairy idea of representative government. Public monopoly makes a slave of us all, but private monopoly is just natural truth as expressed in the market. I honestly fail to appreciate meaningful difference between Communists and libertarians when it comes to their attitude to public good.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

Zachary Taylor - Johnny Boy Eisenhower. I expect dullness from my Presidents between Jackson and Lincoln. It's a truism that in that period the energy and drama was in the senate with Henry Clay, John C Calhoun and Daniel Webster. Ah, boy but was this boring fucking story. The Mexican War, at least as presented from the top-down, is one of the most uniquely unengaging events in world history - one that my be devoid of scintillating personalities. When Winfield Scott is providing charcater, you're in ta-rouble. And that's what dominates this short book about an unremarkable man. Old Rough and Ready, they called him, more out of an acknowledgment that a nineteenth century American General had to have a nickname like that than as any descriptor of who he was. He died shortly into term, kicking the issues of the day into the hands of people even less prepared to do good than himself. I don't get those who cheerfully wonder if the civil war could have been prevented or delayed. That was a revolution that should have happened sooner and the forces at work made it inevitable. Leaving it any later would only have made it bloodier and longer, most likely. The author, Ike's son, is perfectly servicable.
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Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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If I haven't mentioned it before, I love your insane masochistic project to read a bio of every American president. I like the completeness of the goal, but having to plow thru the likes of Millard Fillmore and Benjamin Harrison to do it is hilarious.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
15 Oct 2018, 6:22am
If I haven't mentioned it before, I love your insane masochistic project to read a bio of every American president. I like the completeness of the goal, but having to plow thru the likes of Millard Fillmore and Benjamin Harrison to do it is hilarious.
Millard Fillmore next, son. I also find it very funny and stupid. Luckily, Arthur Schlesinger's American President series that I'm using for a lot of these no-marks rarely maxes out beyond 200 pages.
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Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Audiobook:
Image

I read it when it came out but came across the audio version and decided to engage in something light, tho still senses-shattering for a bit.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Silent Majority
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
15 Oct 2018, 6:10pm
Audiobook:
Image

I read it when it came out but came across the audio version and decided to engage in something light, tho still senses-shattering for a bit.
If you rate that l, I'll probably check it out.
a lifetime serving one machine
Is ten times worse than prison


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Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Silent Majority wrote:
16 Oct 2018, 1:34am
Dr. Medulla wrote:
15 Oct 2018, 6:10pm
Audiobook:
Image

I read it when it came out but came across the audio version and decided to engage in something light, tho still senses-shattering for a bit.
If you rate that l, I'll probably check it out.
Oh yeah, it's a fun little narrative, definitely of the celebratory type.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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