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Dr. Rachel Maddow's best seller, DRIFT


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  • Schmidt
    2012-04-20 08:21:35 AM
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    While many people know of Rachel Maddow through her MSNBC news commentary show, fewer people know that she is a Rhodes scholar with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in politics from Oxford University (2001).

    So it should not have been a surprise that critics have widely acclaimed her recent book Drift.  It has been on top of the New York Times Best Sellers list for two weeks.  From the Amazon review:

    "Written with bracing wit and intelligence, Rachel Maddow's Drift argues that we've drifted away from America's original ideals and become a nation weirdly at peace with perpetual war, with all the financial and human costs that entails. To understand how we've arrived at such a dangerous place, Maddow takes us from the Vietnam War to today's war in Afghanistan, along the way exploring the disturbing rise of executive authority, the gradual outsourcing of our war-making capabilities to private companies, the plummeting percentage of American families whose children fight our constant wars for us, and even the changing fortunes of G.I. Joe. She offers up a fresh, unsparing appraisal of Reagan's radical presidency. Ultimately, she shows us just how much we stand to lose by allowing the priorities of the national security state to overpower our political discourse." -- Amazon

    “Drift never makes the case that war might be necessary. America would be weakened dramatically if we had underreacted to 9/11. However, Rachel Maddow makes valid arguments that our country has been drifting towards questionable wars, draining our resources, without sufficient input and time. People who like Rachel will love the book. People who don’t will get angry, but aggressive debate is good for America. Drift is a book worth reading.” --ROGER AILES, Chairman and CEO, FOX News

    "Written with the flair for scintillating satire that has endeared Rachel Maddow to liberals and moderates alike--and infuriated neo-conservatives, evangelicals, and some tea partiers--Drift is funny, rich, and right. But at its end, when you put it down, you will be troubled. We are losing our republic and Ms. Maddow tells you why." -- LAWRENCE WILKERSON, Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary and former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell

    It's next on my reading list.




  • gymrat22
    2012-04-28 05:24:10 PM
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    Make that two of us.And I am ashamed to say,I neither knew she was a Rhodes scolar.Or that she had even written a book like this.She has the rare ability to bring academia together with facts that people who are not blessed with her IQ,can understand.
  • alias
    2012-04-28 05:38:38 PM
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    She has very low ratings for someone who is supposed to be highly intelligent.  I guess the spin on that would be that only the highly intelligent watch her.
  • gymrat22
    2012-04-28 10:45:31 PM
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    alias Wrote: She has very low ratings for someone who is supposed to be highly intelligent.  I guess the spin on that would be that only the highly intelligent watch her.

    I watch her, and NOBODY has ever accused me of being even intelligent,let alone highly.And full disclosure, I'm straight,at least I was until I hit the age where one no longer has vices,one has memories.  sigh
  • alias
    2012-04-29 10:27:54 AM
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    I tried watching her, but it's too frutrating.  I quickly tired of her method of talking to me like I was a child.
  • that guy in Arizona
    2012-07-21 12:33:14 AM
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    Schmidt:


    Thanks for your post on this one.

    I JUST finished reading it tonight, and found it to be a great read.

    The chapters on Reagan and our nuclear arms stockpile will REALLY  get your ears to wiggling.

    Based on how we've been handling our 5000 nukes so far, I wouldn't increase their budget by more than a dollar for the next 5 years.


    Amazingly, the 2011 budget requires a REDUCTION of $487 billion over the next decade, which should bring a big smile to Rachel's face.

    http://www.defense.gov/news/Defense_Budget_Priorities.pdf
  • R. I. Crawford
    2012-11-08 04:45:06 PM
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    I'm a new Rachel Maddow fan, and that book definitely looks like one for my reading wish list.

  • pr
    2012-11-08 05:06:44 PM
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    I've read it and its well worth the read! Not at all what I expected either.
  • Dutch
    2012-11-11 04:12:20 PM
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    Yes,she's got te right idea.The show on MSNBC I find a bit "push in" as many words as you can in a second, which I find not pleasant to follow.
    Reading what she thinks may be a lot easier. I hope she will slow down if she gets older.
  • Leftofcenter
    2012-11-13 01:21:00 PM
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    My wife loves to watch her. Carmudgeon that I am I have a ittle different spin on her. She certainly is intelligent but , from my perspective, she has put her intelligence to work to reform a system that is not reformable and needs to be drastically changed. She operates within what Noam Chomsky called "the limits of thinkable thought." If you are capable of stepping outside those borders you soon realize that all those talking heads on MSNBC are far short of the mark......I believe you get a lot more food for thought on DemocracyNow.
  • Jaywhiz
    2013-10-08 08:14:44 AM
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    Drift -- I get it. Yep, I do.

    But there is one omission that I have either not found, or is not there. It is the much publicized 1961 portion of then departing President Dwight D. Eisenhower -- "Beware the Military Industrial Complex." Where is it, and if it was not included, Why?

    If not -- then as well researched as Drift is, then I have to say that it becomes part of the "deadlock" problem, not part of the "reaching out" solution (and don't give me any crap about "Well, they're doing it too!"). Without using that remark as a potential bridge to the obvious future -- creating a Department of the Offense to be headed by a Secretary of Peace, the entire work becomes an inflammatory effort designed to taunt rather than to point the way.

    It's damned easy to condemn the past. A lot tougher to craft a meaningful future that addresses the past with positive plans.

    www.thenrgblog.com
  • Dutch
    2013-10-08 09:29:31 AM
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    I guess that regardless of what she wrote; the total essence of what the US has become is lost to the masses here. Since just about every household in this country is one way or the other connected to the military or weapon industry etc. there is no way back to a normal civilized country.
    Looking at all the threads on this site the focus is more on daily issues like Obama care, instead of wanting to see the big picture of what is wrong with this country. The militarism has taken over and drives our economy; the Pentagon budget is only growing; the so called sequestered reduction is a total farce. We are broke because of our wars and military expenditure on which in reality are no limits.
    Our meddling in the world will eventually backfire in a huge way, because every country we invaded will go back to its old ways anyway. As an example take Iraq , it was reported that more than 6000 people were killed this year due to unrest. In Afghanistan Karzai is fighting the US, because the US demanded that certain troops should stay after this war ends hopefully after more than 12 years at an unbelievable cost of material and lives. He says this means his country is still occupied and then is not a sovereign nation. He is right. We have military personel all over the world; in Germany already since WWII (guess what the cost has been until now)
    When is the US going to learn that it can not run the whole world, let alone their own country!!! Stop the military waste!!
  • Schmidt
    2013-10-08 10:41:59 AM
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    Dutch --

    We might disagree on some things, but on this one I agree with you. Our whole culture and economy has become too militarized. We cannot solve every world problem with military solutions. This is not to suggest that we shouldn't be engaged militarily but only as a last resort. And we don't need all those military bases all over the world. President Obama, Secretary Hagel and indeed our Congress seem to oppose any cuts in military spending citing the need to support our troops. The best way to support our troops is to bring them home.

    And we don't need all those expensive military "toys" either...retool those manufacturing plants and spend the money on goods that help society as whole.
  • Dutch
    2013-10-09 09:59:48 AM
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    Schmidt Wrote: Dutch --

    We might disagree on some things, but on this one I agree with you. Our whole culture and economy has become too militarized. We cannot solve every world problem with military solutions. This is not to suggest that we shouldn't be engaged militarily but only as a last resort. And we don't need all those military bases all over the world. President Obama, Secretary Hagel and indeed our Congress seem to oppose any cuts in military spending citing the need to support our troops. The best way to support our troops is to bring them home.

    And we don't need all those expensive military "toys" either...retool those manufacturing plants and spend the money on goods that help society as whole.
    Indeed; you got it right. I'm so amazed that the majority of the population does not understand this. The infra structure in this land is far behind western Europe, like I said before public transportation is close to the stone age; let alone electricity above ground distribution like in Bangla Desh. No we spent our tax money on the total wrong things. No one will attack us, because we are already "imports" ourselves with every household owning a gun !!
    The only wars we had on our soil was the civil war; so I do not understand the "fear" factor which drives us to spent more than 200 million a piece on attack planes, which we likely never use anyway. If this was a democratic country then this would have been voted down , even before it was approved. However this is not a democratic country; it is solely run by the money and lobbyists, as result our present situation. WAKE UP AMERICA!!
  • johnnycee
    2013-10-09 01:18:52 PM
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    I believe President Dwight (Ike) Esinhower, said it best when leaving office, I'll paraphrase because I don't know the exact quote, "Beware of the Military Industrial Complex", and that was back in the fifties, and this complex has grown since to monstrous proportions within both the Armed Forces and the Civilian Defense Industry, and all with a global reach.
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