Yes, While Finally Learning “Eckho Movskii” Is Just Radio -- "Hard Choices", A Memoir by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Hard Choices, H. R. Clinton (2014, Simon and Schuster) in more than 600 pages including the index of the book, covers much of the foreign policy of the Obama administration, enough in its narrative and illustration to crowd out some of the past the former Secretary’s famed career at Yale and thereafter, and some other things she might speak of in another book someday.  This political book, by a well – known U.S. official is for everyone interested in finding out how an efficient and effective U.S. State Department is run based upon Obama policies and the efforts of very capable people starting at the top.  The text examines a number of evident themes in current events today, including the status and development of the Third World as some know it, the role of government in fighting corporatism without being anti – business, the continued important of the “smart power” of the U.S. State Department in a radical if not ever – changing political landscape, and its functioning in a major way in a world where America is not overly – liked nor overly – admired.  The narrative also examines the themes of being a major executive person and a lady at that, and 

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handling personal and professional matters many times with disagreeable (essentially) despots, family and personal life, overall career goals and the way modern politics has a capacity to change not the DNA of our system, but at least somewhat the role politics and policy play everywhere for the U.S., not just at home.  Choices themselves, be they on the executive level or deeply personal, above all do not make themselves and in many cases and despite the urgency and imperatives of modern life at the head of the masses, require a decisive and sharp administrative intellect for anyone and in all events given the importance of the issues presented in the book, extremely weighty and difficult in all their factors and facets, implications and meanings, motivations and ideological and more foundations.

After an introduction, the author briefly explains the overall importance of her 2008 presidential campaign for everyone, not just for the status of achieving people everywhere or as precedent for things to come, or in examining various protocols or other details one might remember.  Maybe the most difficult job the author of this esteemed autobiography had at the time, even before her State Department appointment was the tearless and joyless concession to the man who became the 44^th U.S. president.  Thereafter, another gut – wrenching challenge had to be met on whether or not the author would serve as the 67^th U.S. Secretary of State (2009 – 2013) in an administration having many people contributing to the Clinton 2008 primary election defeats.  The text also speaks of Secretary Clinton’s reliance on the expertise of Richard Holbrooke (d. 2010), Robert Gates, Senator George Mitchell and others for expertise and good counsel, taking the edge off things some etimes and other times adding what luck was possible under the circumstances.  The text goes into detail and explains in cogent language the two major foreign policies of the Obama administration affecting the U.S. internationally at this point outside the Western hemisphere and apart from Europe – the “pivot” with respect to P.R.C. and the Asian continent in general and the “reset” in politics and policy with the Russian Federation that calls for an avoidance of clashes, starting with public language, of the defenses of both U.S. and Russia.  The text does not offer any significant narrative on why the Russian Federation’s leadership does not like the “reset”, though this might be because this would fill an entire volume given it calls upon the responsibilities of the Russians internationally, something that might be difficult to accept for the brusque and brazen image they portray to all.  Part V of the text is a heart rending and complicated narrative pursuit of recalling and examining policies toward Africa, the Middle East and the arab spring especially in Egypt and Libya.  The book also has a number of photos that are greatly captivating of which the very photogenic Clinton family; and associates and friends.  There are sections on the recent polices concerning Iran and Syria, though there does not appear to be in the text an overriding attention to the seemingly independent and divisive ground or grass roots politics and policy in these countries against Israel, and even against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.  The book ends in Part VI and an epilogue that are less labor – intensive in their reading compared to Part V that at its worst illustrates the paradoxes and grand ironies of the areas of concern.  The final chapters of the narrative examine resolvable and consensus issues like world climate change and energy and how this is linked to jobs, productivity and full employment (all this without proposing an economics growth model.)  Other final topics include policy toward Haiti and its recent earthquake, human rights especially in Eastern Europe and P.R.C. and other places as well including Southeast Asia.  There is even a very readable chapter on diplomacy in the age of (information) technology.  Overall a very informative read on current events, extremely well – written and a page – turner at the same time.  How’d she do it? 

An Exercise in the Painful for PRC Authorities and Worse in Its Penalties Than "Graphite".

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IMAGES HERE, AND OTHER CONTENT -- BETTER THAN I COULD PRODUCE AND COMMENT ON MYSELF :  EDITORIALS, ETC., TODAY ARE THOSE OF OTHERS.

The Height of Paranoia :  Chinese Leadership and More Hong Kong Arrests (not for doing this at home).

 From the Internet Today (November 28, 2014):  News about Hong Kong Protests November …

bing.com/news

Hong Kong protest site in Mong Kok cleared

Market Watch · 1 day ago

... baton as he confronts pro-democracy protesters at Mongkok shopping district in Hong Kong November 26,2014. HONG KONG—Police cleared the most volatile… -- Making Sense Of Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Protests – Analysis

Eurasia Review · 2 days ago -- Hong Kong Protest Leaders Call for Rally at Government Offices

Bloomberg · 14 hours ago -- More news about Hong Kong Protests November 2014

Stay up-to-date on this news topic

 

A Word from blogger Professor Alvin Rabushka (click here) … .

 

 

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Something I do not get (current consensus on U.S. Immigration Policy).

After hearing the speech by the U.S. president yesterday, it is important for people like me, for example, to not be so concerned as to "blow a gasket" as a good friend and attorney mentions when things like this come up for people.  Now that the U.S. immigration issues along with its customs and homeland security bureau issues have really come of age, probably more for kids than for adults given the rights of newborn of foreign parents, for example, within the borders of the U.S. right now, or what the president wants to make them, there is a difficulty staring us all down, and that is a full - fledge immigration issues crisis.  This might be brought upon the country by, again, more and more so - called immigrants arriving in jet flights to places like Seattle and Los Angeles, or Atlanta, New York, or any major coastal area airport and then mainly just sitting - in at the air facilities either waiting for transport to a new assumed domicile or waiting for other things such as detention by U.S. immigration authorities -- distasteful and insufferable for some, but for others a no - brainer solution to their own issues as immigrants everywhere.  These sorts of shenanigans are unavoidable given the talk as broadcast yesterday as well as the oft - spoken phrase of responsible parties under the circumstances at times :  "It would happen anyway", and its variants.  What happened to the sage proverbs and courage, fortitude and morale fibre concerning the destruction of the world and related political self - destruction of some of its peoples and the U.S. "It didn't happen here" in the spoken words of our leaders who had, in days not so far in the past, guaranteed a safe homeland that discouraged hooligans and the acting out of various groups and individuals who from the get - go with feet in the airframe bound for the U.S. already demand entitlements in intractable ways included the cursing out of those of us who've lived here long enough to know not to curse and swear at others, not as a moral or ethical rule primarily, but that it smacks of the wholly irrational and unreasonable and is by far and away alienating for the literate and educated among the many honest and forthright,

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common - sense people who abound here to begin with.  Why, given the complications of the world at this point, be in the business of canning that and selling it to those who might scrape together half and loan the other half of the cost for it, if that; and of course there will always be some who can loan the entire cost of anything and same will have to loan moneys to complete the angry tasks of learning and internalizing American ways. 

In the law, and I mention this as a person who is not a jurist, there are some things that allow for various interpretations of statute including various semantic devices the U.S. president as a law professor and his colleagues and associates, themselves as jurists and well - educated legal people who have been honorably placed at their posts through elections and appointment confirmations, ... , are familiar with and are apparently using to avoid the immigration crucible that more than ever will impact American homes in the future, and everyone's.  The sort of crucible the U.S. presidential policies right now in a simple way are attempting to avoid will cheapen the U.S. / American commonweal and will give cause for those informed and provoking such a thing to question, even from the great heights of their proud towers, the value of life itself, and not just for the unborn, but for babies all the way up through the stages of growth and maturity to adults and the elderly.  The U.S. presidential policies have seen such a crisis looming since the idea of the war on terror began, even the idea of population control under Roe vs. Wade presented themselves in private and scientific journals our current leaders now read:  That was a long time ago, mind you.  Our democratic leadership attempts to address, and somewhat successfully to date, the macabre and sinister, creepy issues of immigration as they unfold in the modern world to hold the "door open" for at least a while until the commonweal is satisfied for a while with current status quo and ratings are up, and then in all appearances the door is slammed shut with those hairy consequences as well.  This simple politic has to stop as practiced by the current administration and that of most of the 1990's insofar as our people are motivated one way or the other to face a very complicated immigration problem set and to decide upon necessary restrictions, and not the uncalled for "mass" changes and psychology, very weighty might I add here, this features today.  How can this be done?  It can be done as simply and creatively as the writing of policies that keep people cramming into airframes in flights to La Guardia, etc., and other major air hubs:  Restrict air traffic and access to exit visas, and if one starts on this today, the airline industry will suffer to cancel eventually a few flights only, and overall profitability will ne'er really have been affected compared to the consequences of flying those initial one - way tickets and those of other immigration schemes.  The exit visa issues require cross - border agreements and U.S. monitoring, undoubtedly, and this might initially cause more gridlock in the capitol, but our representatives and the like, and the U.S. chief executive, stand to realize eventually the immigration problem we currently have is systemic and can be solved systemically.  What is applicable to air traffic and immigration might also and simply find application to ocean and land traffic, including foot traffic as well for illegals and those in immigration, too.  With this kind of "blanket" and systemic solving of what one knows to be the actual societal feature in the U.S. as a country to which one is able to immigrate easily, one can completely avoid, not postpone but completely avoid the massed gatherings and foreign movements, the terrorist movement as an undercurrent here, that are the curse of our current system of immigration in America; and that incidentally have many prospective immigrants in their football stadium gatherings calling for our deaths and for a supplanting of American society and its future with one envisioned, i.e., by the Marxists of old (as reformed by the end of the cold war, yet sadly still Marxist), some Islamo - political deity, or other power lacking a real constitution and the like -- all sad and sorrowful avenues, yet ones people outside our "village" wish for right now.  There are indeed others, and legitimate people, who make immigration attempts to enter U.S. territories, and honestly, besides terrorists and hooligans, criminals and destructive radicals; and the thing is to find them in the immigration crowd and allow their petitions, and to discourage the destructive, criminal types from trafficking our borders.  To wit, given the issues here around exit visas and the like, there is trafficking in counterfeit travel documents and seals, etc., everywhere:  The thing to do about that is to centralize exit visa activities not in some bureau in town, but to center them at air facilities, especially for those with one way or open ended tickets.  There are analog processes and rules for the same practices and other transport channels.  How about an executive order along these lines, and one that when well thought out and composed might trump the impending crisis, and one that is earmarked and predictable for "sooner or later".

An Excellent Portrayal of "No Happy Reward" (If This Review Is Not Innovative and Original, I Apologize).

THE INNOVATORS, by Walter Isaacson (2014, Simon & Schuster)

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INFORMALLY: Though this text is an excellent one and one that makes the attempt, it is impossible to capture the spirit of what one might call the character and genius (read geniuses) of what has come to be known as Silicon Valley, CA. There is an entire set of circumstances and confluence of events and other factors that led, and has and had led to every single inch of technological discovery over the years, and in reading this valuable book one gathers the sense of this and the criticality and indeed the overall gravity and seriousness of modern consumer and other technological discovery and implementation. All this despite the apparent clowning and colorful carrying on (read again, irreverence) of different personalities at various places including at Apple, Pixar, ORACLE and others. Walter Isaacson, in this well – prepared and researched text does make an outstanding effort to capture in a comprehensible image, with all the implications of that, the history of the different figures that are memorable and worth commemorating about the place.

Though there are literally dozens upon dozens of people who contributed to what the author of this text proposes as a chain or cascading and crowding of brilliant people oriented toward technological innovation and invention, themselves, their families, their honorable associates, and their extended families and friends, all sometimes even inching their way through things, individually or in groups, or making leaps and bounds as has been done over the years with IC's and the like, each of the major people one might propose by this narrative has been and is simply larger than life and in all evidence and obviously of greater mind and spirit, sometimes than is imaginable by the line and rank and file. For some this book is like a who's who or even a dogged and informative summary only of what could have started out as a ten thousand – page text. For others, the story is simple enough and captures the tone and aura of the place or places that are Silicon Valley, indeed quite nicely, and as yet leaving much of the technical and complicated jargon, the acronyms, even the buzz words of the day out of the writing in order to adequately portray these uncommon and very capable business and technology leaders as they need to appear. Despite the dozens and dozens of people mentioned here, all noteworthy, and not just the prize – winners, the following really stand out for the time being, and you might beg to differ, of which comments and other words invited: Hopper, von Neumann, Terman, Shockley, the Intel founders, the ARPA and related projects, the Hayes modem, the Apple Company, Inc., founders; the Microsoft founders and their team(s,) and many, many others, and certainly including those over the years who have notably left the door open to all whereas in such places often the connotation of such things is the exit door remains always open as derivative of this in most cases.



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Isaacson gives very adequate and detailed explanations and narratives, again, of how the innovators here recall their work and the cut – and – try methods and processes used in addition to the breakthroughs of equal, or lesser import that included not only variations and improvements to technologies but to the cost structure of delivering these at a reasonable price to business and consumer end – users. In the end, and even for most people who know of and who have read this text, there might be one or two, maybe more, businesses that stand out as excellent in the technology hotbed itself, and for me this is companies like Varian, VersaTec, Cray, and then Pixar Studios, even ORACLE and Lockheed as well among the all in all. An excellent read even for the "just curious", and worth the price in time and place of reading to any level of detail. Great!

Blog mini - entry : Progress of Hong Kong Protests -- Mid - November 2014.

Select coverage (please read):

Yahoo! News - recent.

Article and another article from Guardian, U.K.

Recently from C.N.N. -- and more from C.N.N.

See here!  People of our mind subject to insidious ignominy of their authorities now day and night (pictures below).



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Armistice Day -- Again, Not Far Away (Far from Me).

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New York Times Article - previous.
Wall Street Journal Article.
World War I - imagery in stills.
FlandersHouse - New York.
Recent blog entry - ... .
 

Berlin, 2014.

Twenty - five years ago, almost to this day, the Berlin Wall as constructed in the early 1960's and fortified many times thereafter was rendered moot as symbol of soviet / Marxist dominion in Western Europe and dismantled, though not overnight:  As a finality that rings in the ears of every soviet person attentive in the day, sections of the wall were taken down and taken away by people with ordinary sledgehammers, jackhammers, and then with cranes and other machines to clear the way for the 40,000 or so refugees from the east that would come over to West Germany in the first month after the wall fell, and then more after that.  The initial responses of the East German authorities at the time first to the burgeoning demonstrations and then to the dismantling of that physical barrier between East and West are well documented and most people by now have seen at least some of them on the television and heard of the great big party at the dismantling of the Berlin Wall was at the time.  Today, and chiefly the area of the Potsdamer Platz, Checkpoint Charlie and associated bridge and other places so dramatically portrayed in the media in the past are simply memories that are kept in small museums at different points along the former path of the wall.  On this day, as one awaits the official anniversary of the dismantling of the wall, in Berlin, the former location of the wall and its path through that town is marked by approximately seven thousand lit balloons that will be released upward into the sky upon official commemoration.

The monetary costs of re - unification, unforeseeably, have been quite high and many parts of East

Germany, especially in Saxony and Thuringia, are permanently economically depressed and no rent can even be made from the land there, apparently.  The burden however, of the challenges that capitalism and freedom suggest and then propose to society, as promised originally in the regimes of Bush, Helmut Kohl, and Gorbachev, have allowed for a brighter future for Central Europe as it is now less of a political pawn to the soviets as then constantly uprooted and even poisoned, and allowed as well for Western Europe is a departure of the politics of buffer states and again a greater socio - economic promise for all.  This has not been nor will it be without its issues as the guarantees of free society to all, everywhere, and not just at this point as commemorated in Central Europe, at first incipient in places and then more prominent are not reified without the efforts of all contributing people on every rung of the social ladder.  It is seemingly greatly easier to change the actions of a person with rewarding incentives, and as is the case with Berlin, much more difficult and as has been done here, to change the mindset of centralizing and enriching the paternalistic state, for one, into an attitude of one and all as to the greater potentialities presented by definition in the economic activity of capital and the overall benefits of this to everyone; even to those on the coattails of those who originally allowed for and then have made possible the Berlin of today. 

New York Times Article - November 7, 2014.
One Berlin Refugee Center.
One Berlin Wall commemorative museum.