Jerry > Recent Status Updates

Some author quirks like overuse of names in conversation.

Got some twists and turns now.

And now it’s taken an interesting twist.

Opal wants to enroll Jasper in Stonewood Academy but hasn’t talked about it with him yet.

And Jasper seems to know what Opal does about Starling House.

Evolution: making ends meet

Stalin’s death: why mourn a tyrant?
Led during the Great Patriotic War
Made Russia a world power
“a new era of uncertainty had begun.”

It’s a bit like”A Man Called Ove” or “The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared”. Or Forrest Gump. Except it doesn’t include meeting any famous people so far. Or specific consequences. But that’s how it feels.

Seems somewhat repetitive in the dominant caste needs to be superior and ensure lower castes are kept/put in their place.

Despite calling it caste, the book is really about racism, either overt or covert. While there seems some basis, all her anecdotes serve to support her viewpoint even if some of them seem to be stretched to make that connection.

“The issue of caste was, to my mind, the basis of every other ism.”

Pillars of caste merit consideration. Starts w/ justification from religious texts & continues to “separate but equal”.

Wilkerson uses anecdotes of famous black embarrassments as justification for casteism.

Attends caste conference in UK & surprised most attendees UK or Indian. But sees parallels as an “American Untouchable”.

Wilkerson is laying out a structured case. She notes the Nazis studied US anti-myscegenation laws which were only overturned by scotus in 1967! A number of anecdotes are hard to understand today. Some date as recently as the civil rights era. Casteism is not as “in the past” as we might think even if its not as prevalent as its victims might perceive.

This book is problematic for me. I thought it was about class, but it’s about race, which it claims is a social construct, but also the basis for who has or doesn’t have agency in the US.

I’d hoped the book’s claimed anecdotal nature would provide context. So far the few presented seem oriented on proving a US racial hierarchy. There does seem to be some credibility in the caste system concept.

While interesting, it’s just a hodgepodge of anecdotes about FDR’s presidency and some events impacting it during WW2. Many, but not all, are espionage-related, but some are political, some personal, and some just events. It seems to generally be following the timeline of the war but it also jumps back and forth a lot, often without clarity as to the date currently being discussed.

Author mentions werewolf tales in Canada being brought by the French: rougarou. But that’s Cajun; should have been loupgarou.

Walked into a witch’s house with jars of ground coyote bones, ground obsidian, powdered grasshoppers. How does Alba know what they are?

Random minor continuity problems.

“Run. If you run far away perhaps it will not follow.” Contrary to hope is not a method.

We’re bouncing between 1908, 1998, and 1934. Some characters overlap and some don’t. I’m not sure if it feels disjointed and convoluting or somehow tying it together.

The author mentions supernatural folklore and how it’s connected, citing French colonists bringing rougarou to Canada. Except I know from Jonny Quest it was loupgarou. Turns out Rougarou is Cajun.

Murderbot is performing contracted security services for a planetary survey team at the moment.

There are a lot of anecdotal stories that aren’t espionage-related. It’s also a little hard to follow as the dates seem all jumbled and unclear. It jumps back and forth and all around.

Interesting to see Operation Torch mentioned in view of having just read “An Army at Dawn” about the North African campaign.

Seems FDR has a flair for the fantastical, preferring independent, rambunctious actors over more conventional intelligence. This, despite proven benefits of interceptions and decrypts.

May 42, 8 Germans apprehended for “attempted sabotage” (Operation Pastorius). FDR called for treason against 2 US citizens & death for others even tho hadn’t done anything but land in US. He argued they’d crossed battle lines, including naval coastal patrols. FDR moved cases to military tribunals. 7 GOs convicted 8 defendants, sentenced to death. So Bush’s “enemy combatants” isn’t so novel after all.