Monthly Archives: June 2025

06.25.25
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CARELESS PEOPLE/SARAH WYNN WILLIAMS

Followers of Gordon’s Good Reads know that I am not a big fan of tell all memoirs, political or otherwise. However, if you are not a fan of Mark Zuckerberg, Sara Wynn -Williams Careless People will likely confirm your feelings about the man and his company.

Here is one of the most revealing takeaways from William’s front row seat as Director of Global Public Policy for Facebook.

Facebook basically handed the election to Donald Trump. It’s pretty ( expletive) convincing and pretty( expletive) concerning Facebook embedded staff in Trump’s campaign team in San Antiono for months along side Trump campaign programmers, ad copywriters,media buyersd and data scientists. A Trump operative named Brad Parscale ran the operation together with the embedded Facebook staff, and he basically invented a new way for a political campaign.

THERE’S MORE:

Now I’m consumed by the worst of it. How facebook is helping some of the worst people in the world do terrible things. How its an astonishingly effective machine to turn people against each other and monitor people on a scale that was never possible before.

That’s what this company is and I was part of it. I failed when I tried to change it, and I carry that with me. (Williams)

It is no surprise Facebook tried to prevent publication. For what it is worth, this blogger cancelled his Facebook account several years ago.

06.25.25
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THE FATE OF THE DAY/ATKINSON

So much more to understand! That is my takeaway from Rick Atkinson’s THE FATE OF THE DAY. This is volume two of his THE REVOLUTION TRILOGY, the first being THE BRITISH ARE COMING. ( see gordons goodreads).

Volume two traces the Revolutionary War action from Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, hardly a triumphant period for the Patriots and the Continental Army. With the exception of the astounding success at Saratoga the reader witnesses a war of attrition with insights into obscure battles, the intrigue within the British Parliament and the Crown, and the absolute inadequacy of political generals under Washington’s command.

Atkinson reveals the abject tragedy of the prolonged war. It is the very detail of Atkinson’s brilliant research that comes alive in this 618 page narrative that demands A Trilogy to tell the truth of the tale.

This reader came away with a previously unknown dimension of the Revolutionary War and volume two only builds a desire to reach for the conclusion and to understand how close we came to having no democracy at all.

The timing of THE FATE 0F THE DAY is perfect as we approach the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. However, this volume is not a one off and is much more meaningful and relevant following THE BRITISH ARE COMING !

Reading these pages gives understanding the to enormity of the sacrifices made by those who preserved our democracy.