Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Book Review: The Plot to Destroy Democracy: How Putin and His Spies Are Undermining America and Dismantling the West

 


The Plot to Destroy Democracy is a book written by former US Intelligence Officer, Malcolm Nance. The substantive portion of the book (if you have it in paperback) is about 300 pages, and the rest consists of endnotes and an index. 

The focus of the book is on Russia's efforts to undermine Western Democracy, even going back to when the Soviet Union was formed under Lenin, and continuing to the present day. Nance interspersed events that occurred leading up to and including the 2016 election cycle, arguing that Putin's cronies in Russia basically groomed the orange genital wart for a run for President, offering to do everything they could to help him win, which he knew about and absolutely accepted. The focus of the book was not so much what t***p and his dipshits were doing, but what the hackers in Russia were doing, not only interfering in the US elections but the shit they were doing to interfere in elections (and the political processes) in other countries as well. Specifically, while the various hacking groups were definitely trying to help t***p get elected, their main interest was sowing discord and distrust in the US political system among the American population.

The book is in part a history lesson and in part a warning. Nance was definitely one of those that seemed to think that Robert Mueller was going to swoop in and take t***p down (the book was written while the investigation was still ongoing), which, of course, is absolutely not what happened. But, Nance does a good job laying out what Russia was up to and what they would likely try as they got even bolder in subsequent elections. It is definitely worth reading.

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