Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt; by Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco

Joe Sacco illustrates and enhances this book with graphic storytelling.

Native Americans in Pine Ridge, SD. Prisoner of War camp. Alcoholism, deprivation, destruction of a civilization.

Camden, NJ: a sacrifice zone.

Florida: slavery persists.

We...have undergone a coup d'etat ... by our largely anonymous corporate overlords... We have now entered the era of naked force. The internal security and surveillance state, justified in the name of the war on terror, will be the instrument used against us. ...[W]e can all be denied habeas corpus. The warrantless wiretapping, eavesdropping, and monitoring of tens of millions of citizens, once illegal, is now legal. The state has given itself the power to unilaterally declare U. S. citizens as enemy combatants and torture or assassinate them, as Barack Obama did when he in September 2011 ordered the killing of the American-born Islamist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen. [footnote] The state can deny U. S. citizens suspected of what it vaguely defines as 'terrorist' activities the right to a trial. It can turn these citizens over to the military, which can hold them without charges indefinitely. ...[The U. S.] will be no different from other totalitarian regimes throughout history. Police forces ... have been transformed into paramilitary units ...[I]f the pressure mounts...these...forces will become ubiquitous and people will be killed.  (Page 240)

Hedges & Sacco have written an effective and inspiring indictment of the current socioeconomic repression in the "First World." 

Lincoln, by Gore Vidal

OK, the truth: I got tired of this book and abandoned it after reading about two-thirds of it.

I recall that I liked Gore Vidal when last I read his stuff, so maybe this was just my problem, or maybe this just wasn't his best book.

I recently heard a Lincoln biographer interviewed on NPR say that there have been something like 14,000 books written about Lincoln. Whew.

I grew tired of what seemed like stilted, unreal dialogue. I also became aware of a consistent use of segue to move from one scene to another. This is a legitimate and useful tool in storytelling, but it should (in my humble opinion) be transparent, or at least hardly noticeable, when used skillfully.

I did learn a few interesting things about Lincoln -- unfortunately in the context of fiction, so I'll have to do more research before I can truly "believe."