The Mueller Report by Robert S. Mueller III

Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election by Robert S. Mueller III
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The beginning of the report reminds us that all of our intelligence agencies confirmed that the Russians "influenced" our election by 1) buying lots of ads that were pro-Trump and anti-Hillary, 2) posing as Americans in online social media, 3) hacking Democratic and Republican email servers and releasing only Democratic emails, 4) attempting to hack directly into voting machines (but were stopped by the Obama administration on this count). Numerous Russians have also already been prosecuted for this in the US.

Part 1 of the Report: Conspiracy with Russian Interference in U.S. Election

Paul Manafort joined the Trump Campaign on March 2016 and was campaign chairman from June to August 2016. (Manafort has been under investigation by the FBI since 2014 and under investigation by all branches of US intelligence since at least 2017 for communications and financial transactions with the Russian government.)

On August 2, 2016, Paul Manafort met in New York with Konstantin Kilimnik, "who the FBI assesses to have ties to Russian intelligence." Kilimnik delivered "....a peace plan for Ukraine..." (for those of you not following along, Russia has been occupying the Ukraine for some time, "peace" means letting Russia get away with that). "... "Manafort acknowledged to the Special Counsel's Office was a 'backdoor' way for Russia to control part of eastern Ukraine; both men believed the plan would require candidate Trump's ascent to succeed (were he to be elected President)."

"They also discussed the status of the Trump Campaign and Manafort's strategy for winning Democratic votes in Midwestern states. Months before that meeting, Manafort had caused internal polling data to be shared with Kilimnik, and the sharing continued for some period of time after their August meeting." This was not just a one-off event, Manafort was illegally working with the Russian government for years.

He was charged in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia with conspiracy to defraud the United States, money laundering, failing to register as a foreign lobbyist, making false statements to investigators, and witness tampering. He is a F#$#% TRAITOR. He is now a convicted felon.

Michael Flynn began as an adviser to the Trump Campaign in February 2016. 1) Flynn accepted money from foreign entities without the required approval. 2) On Flynn December 29, 2016, he asked Russia's ambassador Sergey Kislyak, "to refrain from escalating ... in response to sanctions that the United States had imposed against Russia that same day." The sanctions were imposed on Russia for their interference in the American elections. [Presumably, Flynn offered them something to avoid retaliation. Maybe lifting of these sanctions once Trump was inaugurated?] 3) Flynn then lied to the FBI about this meeting. Trump appointed Flynn to be National Security Advisor from January 23, 2017, despite warnings from numerous people about his potential crimes.

On December 1, 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to "willfully and knowingly" making "false, fictitious and fraudulent statements" to the FBI regarding conversations with Russia's ambassador. He is now a convicted felon.

Also, on June 9, 2016, Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort met with a Russian lawyer to get opposition research on Hillary Clinton (which is illegal). Trump Jr. keeps claiming it was mostly about adoption but the Mueller Report explains how the Russians offered to help the campaign with information about Hillary in exchange for working to lift the Magnitsky Act. The Magnitsky Act was a 2012 bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress to punish Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian tax accountant Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009. It authorizes the US government to sanction human rights offenders, freeze their assets, and ban them from entering the U.S.

Meanwhile, Trump, through Cohen, was trying to negotiate with Russian authorities to build hotels in Russia. They also lied about how long this continued.

There are many more horrible things in this part but these are the most important I think. We can get lost in the mountains of crimes coming out of this administration, but it's important to see the worst offenses in the Mueller Report clearly as they are an attack on our country and our democracy. On the other hand, note that a lot of evidence is missing because it was encrypted and Donald Trump refused to be deposed for the investigation. So this might just be the tip of the iceberg.

Part 2 of the Report: Obstruction of Justice

Part 2 is basically just a laundry list of the hundreds of times Donald Trump obstructed justice by impeding the investigation into confirmed Russian interference in the election. I may or may not be exaggerating "hundreds," because I lost count but triple digits is not impossible. (Here are the main groupings of his obstructions: https://time.com/5573521/donald-trump. Obviously obstruction of justice is a crime, so if Donald Trump were not currently President he'd be in jail as a convicted felon for these offenses. I realize that many people don't care about this. However, they really should especially care about all the instances where Trump specifically obstructed the investigations into Manafort and Flynn who sold out our country.

Our survival as a democracy depends on enough people mustering up some righteous indignation about not just Russia's acts, but all the traitorous acts against us by US citizens.

Full report available here: https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf.

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The Analects by Confucius

The Analects by Confucius


This is a great translation. I only compared it to one other but it far exceeded the other translation. The language in the Analects is clear and then followed by short paragraphs to explain the missing context or the connotation of particular Chinese words. I enjoyed the number of passages focused on education and respect, though the ones about the historical politicians held less interest for me.

(I don't rate religious or semi-religious texts.)

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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very fun short read. It's a bit spoiled by the fact that everyone knows the surprise before reading the book, but I still enjoyed the story. My other issues are that we never get to hear the juicy bad fun Mr. Hyde is up to and that Mr. Hyde seems to help Dr. Jekyll suppress him which makes no sense since Mr. Hyde is pure evil.

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Nine Minutes by Beth Flynn

Nine Minutes by Beth Flynn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I decided to read this because it was free to download on Amazon and some reviewers on Goodreads were going crazy for it. If you want to read something very different, go for it. It reads like a memoir. It has romance, but it's not successful in that genre. It is good at horror, and I kept mentally screaming GET OUT!!! GET OUT!!! I think it's mostly about Stockholm's Syndrome while denying to be about Stockholm's Syndrome.

The ending is just weird enough that I'm a little tempted to read the sequel. Again, the book is definitely different.

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Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think that as children's books go, this one is exceptionally charming. (Another one I'd consider "exceptionally charming" is Matilda.) I've read a lot of children's books this year because I read some with James and I read some to decide whether or not to read them with James, and many of them are just annoying if you're an adult. Not this one. I love the writing. It's a beautiful love letter to good mothers.

One thing that dates the book in an unfortunate way is that addition to the kids, the lost boys, pirates, and mermaids, the book also has Native Americans called "redskins."

"Peter Pan" was originally the third book in a series called "Peter and Wendy." The first book is "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens" and the second is "the Little White Bird" and I haven't read them though they're both available as free ebooks.

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Henry VI, Part 1 by William Shakespeare

Henry VI, Part One by William Shakespeare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this historical play. I particularly enjoyed how bad ass Joan of Arc was, and the very moving scene between Talbot and his son urging each other to flee from certain death.

I don't usually do summaries of the books I review, but I'm going to do it for this play, mainly to get it straight in my head. It was pretty confusing to me since I didn't remember the chronology of events from studying European history.

England 1422
Henry V died in 1422. His brothers were the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester. His son and heir Henry VI was still a baby. Bedford went to France to command the army, while Gloucester stayed to rule England until Henry VI is crowned.

Meanwhile in France
At this time there were military setbacks in France, where Charles "the Dauphin" was leading a rebellion against the English. Lord Talbot was the Constable of France, and a heroic English fighter. He's taken captive by the French.

Joan la Pucelle, (Joan of Arc!) convinced Charles to put her in charge of the army because she claimed to have religious visions of how to win the war and because she "proved" this by beating Charles in a one-on-one sword fight with him.

Bedford negotiated the release of Talbot. Joan won the next attack. Talbot and Bedford won the next one.

Wars of the Roses
Richard Plantagenet and the Duke of Somerset had a symbolic fight over red or white roses that's really about two houses of the Plantagenet splitting. Somerset is the red rose (of Lancaster), and Richard is the white rose (of York). Richard lost and was super angry forever.

Edmund Mortimer was a great-great-grandson of King Edward III, and was heir to King Richard II, his first cousin twice removed, but Henry the Fourth seized power from Richard II. Mortimer was imprisoned in the Tower of London, and told Richard Plantagenet that King Henry V had Richard Plantagenet's father (Richard of Conisburgh, grandson of King Edward III) executed. Mortimer said that once he dies, Richard Plantagenet will be the rightful heir to the throne, not Henry VI. Richard was pretty angry about this.

Henry VI Crowned
After Mortimer died, Richard petitioned the recently crowned Henry, who reinstated Richard's title, making him Richard 3rd Duke of York.

Henry then leaves for France, with Gloucester, Exeter, Winchester, Richard and Somerset. The French retook and quickly relost cities. Bedford died, and Talbot took control of the army.

Charles was scared, so Joan persuaded the Duke of Burgundy to stop fighting for the English and switch sides to the French. Henry arrived in Paris, heard about Burgundy switching sides, and sent Talbot to speak to him.

Henry asked Richard and Somerset to stop fighting about red and white roses, and and then chooses a red rose, Somerset's side.

Talbot was caught by the French again. Richard and Somerset were too busy fighting about the roses to save him. The English army was destroyed, and Talbot and his bastard son were killed. This part is super sad.

England Wins Anyway?
Joan was captured by Richard, acted like an angry witch, and then was burned at the stake.

Henry sued for peace. The French pretended to agree to the English terms. Charles is to be a viceroy to Henry. They still wanted to expel the English from France.

Suffolk captured a young French princess, Margaret of Anjou. He was into her. He plotted to keep her as a mistress and marry her to Henry so he can control the king through her.

Entire play available here: http://shakespeare.mit.edu/1henryvi/i...

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The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There is a lot misogyny in this play, but it was written at the end of the 16th century so I can forgive it. Here's what I noticed though: the play never says Petruccio strikes Katherina. Katherina, on the other hand, strikes both her very gentle sister Bianca and Petruccio. He never verbally abuses her either, saying only highly positive and romantic things to her. Petruccio does abuse Katherina by not letting her eat or sleep, and I can't defend that manipulation though it might sound like I'm about to try.

Katherina isn't just a general representative "woman." She's especially contrary, belligerent, and violent. All of this being rich, spoiled, and having very kidn family members. Petruccio is mostly interested in her money, but he seems to suspect that if her sister Beatrice is a great beauty and a gentle lady that Katherina also has this in her power. When Petruccio meets her, it seems clear that he appreciates her wit and intelligence but that he means to outmatch her. And he does woo her with his craziness even if this is mostly after their wedding instead of before.

The worst part of the play is Katherina's final speech which is really a lot to stomach. It's difficult to tell if she's deeply in love with Petruccio or suffering from some kind of Stockholm's syndrome. I suspect it's just a happy ending for the men in the audience that want the story to play out like a male fantasy.

Despite the terrible ending, I did enjoy this comedy. I think it was funny and kind of romantic and sexy. I'd be lying if I pretended my feelings about art-- or even real life-- are primarily based on feminism.

Entire play available here: http://shakespeare.mit.edu/taming_shrew/index.html

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Lady Susan by Jane Austen

Lady Susan by Jane Austen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This novel is a very different style than the other Jane Austen novels. It's a set of letters between various people in the novel. It's also just a light comedy. I didn't love it because it's difficult to develop the characters when the perspective is so limited even if the letters reveal the duplicity of Lady Susan. There's no depth to the characters because the letter writers wouldn't account for subtle actions or conversation. I saw the movie with Sarah T. and I think the movie was a little better.

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Emma by Jane Austen

Emma by Jane Austen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A little bit more exciting than the other Austen books I've read so far. Though not as totally awesome as Pride and Prejudice or as moving as Sense and Sensibility, it might be my current third favorite of hers. The snootiness in the book is not as throughly punished and eradicated as it should be, but it is somewhat condemned. It was very enjoyable. My idea of a cheerful summer book.

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Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of the best explorations of principals and the basis of love by Jane Austen but -- first the entire love story between cousins is difficult to enjoy in this day and age. (With all due respect to One Hundred Years of Solitude which is on a different level.) The entire novel should have been edited down quite a bit and the ended expanded a lot. She left out the best part of the story where love is declared and won. Mixed feelings about this one.

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Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I recently read Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, but this is not nearly as enjoyable. All the discussion about the value of novels as a new art form is not that interesting to me as a modern reader and takes me outside the story too much. The story itself wasn't as romantic or thrilling as the other two.

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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh, I love it. I can't help it. Even better than Sense and Sensibility. Tortured love!! Yes, please.

I love the characters especially the main heroine Lizzie. I love the relationships that develop. Also I love Lizzie's father's speech about respecting your partner in marriage.

What this novel does so much better than the other Jane Austen novels is make you feel Lizzie's feelings completely, her shame as much as her longing. I want to read this book a million times.

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Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sisters Elinor and Marianne debate their views on love and then experience them in real life. It's not the deepest book I've read, but it has some truthful observations about people who believe themselves to be superior (hint: you're not) and true love springing from respect. Elinor's love story is charming.

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Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read in July of 2010, but it's one of my favorites so I wanted to share. I originally read this book because Kevin referenced it while making fun of me in Things My Wife Complains About #14: Stairs. It's a lovely allegory about a stairless world! It's also interesting from a mathematical and scientific perspective.

*The digital version is available for free on Amazon for Kindle (and other places online): Flatland: a romance of many dimensions. But warning: this version is missing the illustrations and those are pretty awesome.

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The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's totally absurd for me to give this book the same number of stars as I gave The Magicians but I'm not using the stars to compare the books to each other. This is an important book full of history and life lessons, but it stops before the American Revolution, which is arguably the most important period both for his life and for the times in which he lived.

*The digital version is available for free on Amazon for Kindle (and other places online): The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

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How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett

How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a nice quick read and the Kindle version is free on Amazon. It was written in 1910 to solve the same problem we face today: how to make valuable use of the time we have alive. I have no doubt that following the author's advice would lead to a happier and more fulfilling life, but it falls shy of helping a person develop meaning in their lives.

*The digital version is available for free on Amazon for Kindle (and other places online): How to Live on 24 Hours a Day

The Odyssey by Homer

The Odyssey by Homer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think I've read this 2 or three times in high school and in college and I've always loved it. It's a great adventure, with wonderful language, and I've always thought that the real hero of the story is Penelope. She's more clever as her husband- able to keep her suitors at arms-length without starting a war, more loyal to Odysseus than he is to her, and not prone to violence as he is.

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Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a fun pulp read. It's a perfect beach read with adventure, strange characters, and almost-but-not-quite Jane Austin-style romance.

A lot of reviewers are annoyed because, being a product of its time, the story was sexist and racist, which is true. Really though, it was also really just misanthropic. If you examine it carefully, the most moral, kind-hearted, and brave character is Kala, the great ape female that adopted Tarzan. The other animals are the most moral because they kill to eat or for dominance, but never for torture or pleasure as the humans do.

I'm trying to decide whether to read the second one in the series because there is a bit of a question at the end of the first.

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