Michael McCormick > Recent Status Updates

I feel compelled to begin "Conflict" now, as it seems that we are drifting into combat strikes on military targets in... Venezuela? I wrote before, perhaps mistakenly, that GWOT was an example of us taking our eyes off the ball. Somehow, I wrote that somewhere important, having failed to check first, in my mind, my own lived experience. We had many plans and opportunities, to change things in Venezuela, not bomb them

What is worthwhile about this Mick Herron book is that Herron writes so well of the human foibles that play such an important role in the lives of even faithful, honorable and just civil servants. The fragility of life is so apparent, even in the lives of men and women who lead such important lives in government, in the service of their fellow citizens and their nations.

This book is cool but relies on 20th Century kind of stuff for a plot, I think. The whole concept is about the BND kind of doing an "Operation Mincemeat" against MI-5. For an American audience, that's the thing: we think it's all innocent stuff because the plot involves BND penetration of UK's MI-5, but, in fact, the US audience is the target.

I want to write here that my critique of Professor Berger's last book might have been too harsh. I am speaking of his "Invisible Influence" book. I write this now after concluding my review of that book, and then realizing, after the fact, that Professor Berger had pointed out something that happened to me personally, only a little while ago, at the US Open. The sunglasses wearing fellow patted me on the shoulder!...

Awfully funny book. I was dreading it because I thought that I couldn't take the dark humor, but in all actuality, the humor is quite refreshing and incredibly human and down to earth. People's blurbs say that they are reminded of Woody Allen by it, but for me, I am reminded of Shalom Auslander by it.

Pretty funny so far. It seems to me that I can really relate to Mr. Auslander's humor.

I'm on chapter eight (8): "States of War." I had a lot of foreboding insofar as the author suggested that there was a particular event on a particular day after the end of WWII in that could be understood as the beginning of what would be 30 years of civil war in the country. The immense suffering of this nation is almost unfathomable to me. I read about 10 pages an hour; that's 25 more hours of reading about pain...

I keep thinking about Katherine Deneuve in "Indochine" the movie as I read this book. I really like this book. It is truly fascinating. I wonder what would have been all these colonizing countries motivations, including ours, if they had known before colonizing how things would end. I think of Bill Morneau, the Canadian, writing, "Where To From Here," about Canadian prosperity. What about for Vietnam's? And by who?

I am amazed by how early modern rulers in Dia Viet made the same shortsighted mistakes that government officials today make, almost always rooted in overconfidence. Minh Ming faced the most discontent in the South, despite being from there, because his Confusist reforms upset things the most in that area. Goscha writes that things got better, helped by Minh Ming's death in 1841. What an epitaph!

I have begun this wonderful journey finally, after so many years. I can remember looking at HSBC banking jobs in Danang and in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) and thinking how incredible it would be to work in such a magnificent place with such incredible people, learn such an amazing language and live such an extraordinary life. I have met such incredible people, like Michel Tuan Pham and now Cindy Trieu.

I used to here my mother complain about "men" generally her whole life. To bad I didn't have her read this book before she died in February 2025: it would have been her dream come true! A plague that kills only men: all those men hating women out there like Stephenie Durski get a chance to see what their hatred of men brought to fruition would be like.

I find Ms. Le Guin's (RIP) "Earthsea" trilogy to be some of the most exciting books that I've ever read, to be allegories for her times, when she published these three novels. But I find myself projecting our own times, right now, onto them, especially this last one, "The Farthest Shore," with its hero wizard Sparrowhawk and his allies versus an insidious evil throughout the "Earthsea," sapping the land of its chi.

Enjoying this book quite a bit! When I was a kid, I read the Tolkien "Ring" trilogy, and thought it was magnificent. As I read Ursula K Le Guin, now I feel this book is even better than the Tolkien.

"Espana" is a fascinating read so far. Of all the characters I've read about in these early chapters, perhaps my favorite, aside from Hannibal, was Saint Isidore of Saville. It's great how he is thought of as the patron saint of the Internet for his 25-volume compendium of knowledge of all topics that he wrote in the early dark ages in Spain. I sit here thinking of it, while eating Darrell Lea Fabulicious Stix. Wow!!

This is another great Yuri Herrera book, and it's quite refreshing to be reading it after having finished a lot of non-fiction books so far this year.

Professor Morris's book is thought provoking. I have been thinking a lot about how to come up with ideas for "new traditions" that I can start for my relatives on both my mother's and father's sides of my family (both of my parents are deceased.) Unfortunately, my recollections of my ancestors don't include too many positive/outstanding examples of any kind of excellence. I thought of "Ancestry.com" to dig into it...

I bought this book and it sat for awhile on my shelf, until, of course, I had the privilege of attending a Washington History Seminar seminar, and spotted this very book, "Spies", on Professor Eric Arneson's shelf, one of the hosts of the WHS, out of the George Washington University. So far, it has been super informative and I have begun to enjoy it more now that I'm not checking every endnote as they come.

So, McMaster points out the Vietnam absurdity of having lawyers in charge of formulating military strategy. I guess I am not one of those reasonable men that would have qualified. I got two words for Cadet basketball player number 2 Ryan Curry: transfer portal. That whole place is skating on thin ice. McMaster complains that Mad Dog wouldn't work with him, then H.R., after my HANDSHAKE disses me as young and stupid.

One of the things that I liked most about what LTG McMaster did for DJT was not to send DJT's letter to Putin, congratulating Putin on another (rigged) election win because it just so happened at the same time that Putin's henchpeople came very close to killing Skirpal and his daughter in the UK with nerve agent. Saving people from themselves is the sign of a true friend.

Sure, I read all three of LTG McMaster's books, first Battlegrounds, then Dereliction of Duty, then At War with Ourselves. It was obvious that LTG McMaster saw an added benefit in remaining on active duty while serving as DJT's national security advisor: to avoid the bastardization of the trusted military uniform like Gen. Taylor did as CJCS leading up to the Vietnam tragedy. We'd get along great: I'm very "groupy."

So, now I have three more books to read based on H.R. McMaster's entry for holiday books in the "Holiday Books" special section of the WSJ. His list is the only one that I have read of them all, all those people's lists, so far. LTG McMaster mentions his father, MG Herbert McMaster in LTG McMaster's memoir, but, quite conspicuously, makes no mention of his mother whatsoever. I can relate! More to follow.

Great read so far as usual for Dean Hubbard, and the bottom-line takeaway for me is that the "wealth of a nation is the standard of living of its people," not its GDP or its current account surplus or anything like that. With this definition of Smith's in mind, it is easy to see the difference between wealthy countries and poor ones. Looking back on my evening here in NYC, at the Met Museum, the USA is truly blessed.

Another very funny novel by Nina Stibbe, but with serious considerations for the protagonist. Lizze Vogel is a really good and bright young woman. I kept thinking to myself: if you can't provide for your children right through their college and even grad school years, they'll take a job like Lizzie and find themselves deterred from a high school path that would have otherwise put them on the road to every success.

My most important takeaways so far, from reading "Battlegrounds" are the ideas that LTG McMaster describes as "strategic narcissism" and "wishful thinking/fantasies." These awful constructs were readily apparent with Obama's thinking about the Afghanistan war, and manifested themselves in stupid behavior such as Obama announcing a timetable for troop withdrawal when signaling an unwavering commitment was called for.

I am very much enjoying LTG H.R. McMaster's "Battlegrounds" as I associate the tenor of his writing with his education at the highest levels in the discipline of history. I appreciate his analogy to Icarus in "flying too high versus flying too low." I also appreciate his detailed take on cyber operations of the Russian GRU run "Internet Research Agency" against US elections in 2016 and 2020, which no doubt continue.

These last chapters that fall under "The Other Mexico" section of the book are quite good insofar as I learned about the events of October 2nd, 1968, as well as about the author's thoughts on the history of Mexican politics since the Revolution of the early 20th Century: "The future is not a time of love: what man truly wants he wants now. Whoever builds a house for future happiness builds a prison for the present."

"But there in our 'open' solitude, transcendence is also waiting: the outstretched hands of other solitary beings. For the first time in our history, we are contemporaries of all mankind." That is from page 194. I remember that diplomat, the US one, talking about how Mexicans are 'obsessed' with us. I am thinking it would be nice to live in peace, so that we can all contribute.

Thank God for Octavio Paz. His book, "The Labyrinth of Solitude" is a revelation. I am excited by and am enjoying every word of it. The most remarkable thing I've discovered about it is how accessible it is: he writes about Mexican history and culture so clearly.