Today’s reader recommended book is:

Chemically Imbalanced: The Making and Unmaking of the Serotonin Myth by Joanna Moncrieff

For decades now the public has been told that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance and that antidepressants work by targeting this mechanism. Millions of people have decided to take antidepressants based on this information.

Chemically Imbalanced tells the story of a scientific myth and its consequences. It traces the history of the serotonin theory of depression from its development in the 1960s, through its inculcation into popular culture in the 1990s, to the recent revelations that it is not supported by evidence.

The story illustrates the power of human interests to shape what passes as scientific knowledge, and provides people with essential information about depression and antidepressants they will not readily find elsewhere. Above all else, Chemically Imbalanced is an invitation to better understand and advocate for our mental health.

You can buy the book here (Amazon link).

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

Great Power Politics in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Geoeconomics of Technological Sovereignty by Glenn Diesen

Why and how will the fourth industrial revolution impact great power politics?

Here, Glenn Diesen utilizes a neoclassical, global approach to great power politics to assess how far the development of AI, national and localized technological ecosystems and cyber-warfare will affect great power politics in the next century.

The reliance of modern economies on technological advances, Diesen argues, also compels states to intervene radically in economics and the lives of citizens, as automation radically alters the economies of tomorrow.

You can buy the book here (Amazon link).

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

THE LIGHT DOCTOR: Using Light to Boost Health, Improve Sleep, and Live Longer by Dr. Martin Moore-Ede

The light we see is as important for our health as the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. For most of human existence, our ancestors lived with the natural 24-hour light-dark cycle, spending each day in natural daylight and sleeping in the dark at night. But since the widespread introduction of electric light, more than 90% of our time is spent indoors, under unhealthful and human-unfriendly electric light, which disrupts our circadian clocks and greatly increases the risk of cancer, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and hundreds of other diseases.

Today’s LED fixtures, light bulbs, and screens are designed to produce cheap light with little regard for human health. Like DDT and asbestos, they are dangerously flawed technologies. THE LIGHT DOCTOR reveals extensive scientific evidence establishing the risks of blue-rich artificial light at night. Furthermore, it provides the practical information you need to counteract these risks at home, and in workplaces, schools, hospitals, and senior care facilities.

Here is how to find and install healthy light bulbs and fixtures for both residential and commercial spaces, how to obtain the lights you need for evening and night use versus daytime, and how to obtain energy-efficient light that is also safe and healthy. You will also learn which outdoor lights to install to avoid harmful effects on wildlife, another inadvertent consequence of the LED revolution.

You can buy the book here (Amazon link).

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

The Fall by Albert Camus

Albert Camus’s The Fall (La Chute, 1956) is a haunting and introspective novel that delves deep into themes of guilt, hypocrisy, judgment, and self-deception.

Structured as a dramatic monologue, the book presents the confessions of Jean-Baptiste Clamence, a former Parisian lawyer who now resides in Amsterdam.

Speaking to an unnamed listener in a dim bar, Clamence recounts his moral decline and his journey toward self-awareness, exposing the contradictions and false virtue that once defined his life.

Unlike Camus’s earlier protagonists, such as Meursault in The Stranger or Dr. Rieux in The Plague, Clamence is a deeply flawed and self-critical character. His confession reveals how a single moment—when he failed to save a woman from drowning—shattered his illusion of moral superiority and exposed his inner emptiness. He comes to see that many so-called virtuous actions are driven by vanity, not altruism.

Through Clamence’s cynical and ironic voice, Camus explores existentialist and absurdist ideas about human fallibility and the impossibility of pure innocence.

The Fall is a powerful psychological and philosophical portrait of a man grappling with the weight of his own conscience, serving as both a critique of modern morality and a mirror held up to the reader's own self-image.

You can buy the book here (Amazon link).

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

Stealth Power and the Illusion of Democracy: Using AI to understand the Puppet Masters by Peter G Duke

Reveal the Untold Secrets of Stealth Power and the Illusion of Democracy. This groundbreaking work peels back the layers of deception that shroud the world of government and media, offering you unprecedented insights into the forces that have shaped history from the shadows. Through the transformative power of AI and the removal of cognitive and cultural bias, this book exposes the hidden principles that have governed nations, inviting you to see the world through a new, unfiltered lens.

Prepare to embark on an extraordinary intellectual odyssey as Stealth Power promises to illuminate the darkest corners of power. This book commits to unveiling the well-guarded secrets that have influenced historical events, employing cutting-edge AI technology to ensure a bias-free exploration of the hidden realm of governance. It pledges to empower you with knowledge, free from the constraints of cognitive and cultural preconceptions.

Stealth Power beckons you into a world of intrigue, where the line between reality and illusion blurs. What if everything you thought you knew about the world’s most pivotal moments was only the tip of the iceberg? This book invites you to journey into the shadows, where the true nature of governance awaits. With each page, you’ll descend further into a realm where the conventional narrative dissolves, replaced by an unfiltered truth.

In an age of misinformation and half-truths, Stealth Power fulfills an essential need for clarity and understanding. It addresses the pervasive desire for insights into the hidden dynamics that shape our societies, serving as a beacon of truth in a sea of deception. This book equips you with the tools to discern reality from illusion, shedding light on the concealed forces that dictate our world.

Stealth Power delves deep into the heart of the matter: the covert principles that have orchestrated history’s defining moments. Employing advanced AI analysis, it decrypts enigmatic texts, laying bare the threads that connect ancient wisdom to contemporary events. This book bridges the chasm between the past and present, shedding light on the strategies favored by those in the shadows. Each chapter unravels the labyrinthine world of power and control, offering fresh perspectives on well-known historical narratives.

Stealth Power is not merely a book; it’s a revelation. It strips away the layers of secrecy and distortion that have obscured our comprehension of governance. It transforms intricate ideas into clear, unbiased insights by harnessing AI’s transformative capabilities to remove cognitive and cultural biases. This is not a conventional translation; it’s a bridge that links the past to the present, unveiling the timeless principles that persistently influence our world.

In an era of manipulated information and skewed narratives, Stealth Power provides a distinctive viewpoint anchored in historical scrutiny and technological innovation. It is a call to action for those who yearn to uncover the hidden patterns of control that have governed our world for centuries. Are you prepared to unravel the truth behind the illusion of government? Join us on this extraordinary journey and unlock the power of unbiased knowledge.

You can buy the book here (Amazon link).

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World by Douglas Valentine

Author of three books on CIA operations, Valentine’s research into CIA activities began when CIA Director William Colby gave him free access to interview CIA officials who had been involved in various aspects of the Phoenix program in South Vietnam. It was a permission Colby was to regret.

The CIA would rescind it, making every effort to impede publication of The Phoenix Program, which documented the CIA’s elaborate system of population surveillance, control, entrapment, imprisonment, torture and assassination in Vietnam.

While researching Phoenix, Valentine learned that the CIA allowed opium and heroin to flow from its secret bases in Laos, to generals and politicians on its payroll in South Vietnam. His investigations into this illegal activity focused on the CIA’s relationship with the federal drugs agencies mandated by Congress to stop illegal drugs from entering the United States.

Based on interviews with senior officials, Valentine wrote two subsequent books, The Strength of the Wolf and The Strength of the Pack, showing how the CIA infiltrated federal drug law enforcement agencies and commandeered their executive management, intelligence and foreign operations staffs in order to ensure that the flow of drugs continues unimpeded to traffickers and foreign officials in its employ.

Ultimately, portions of his research materials would be archived at the National Security Archive, Texas Tech University’s Vietnam Center, and John Jay College.

This book includes excerpts from the above titles along with subsequent articles and transcripts of interviews on a range of current topics, with a view to shedding light on the systemic dimensions of the CIA’s ongoing illegal and extra-legal activities. These terrorism and drug law enforcement articles and interviews illustrate how the CIA’s activities impact social and political movements abroad and in the United States.

A common theme is the CIA’s ability to deceive and propagandize the American public through its impenetrable government-sanctioned shield of official secrecy and plausible deniability.

Though investigated by the Church Committee in 1975, CIA praxis then continues to inform CIA praxis now. Valentine tracks its steady infiltration into practices targeting the last population to be subjected to the exigencies of the American empire: the American people.

You can buy the book here (Amazon link).

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

Zone 23: A Novel by C. J. Hopkins

A darkly comic dystopian satire about being human—all too human.

In a post-catastrophic dystopian future—peaceful, prosperous, and corporate-controlled—non-conformity is a diagnosable disorder, and the human race is being genetically "corrected" to establish peace on Earth.

However, Taylor, a Class 3 Anti-Social Person confined to Quarantine Zone 23, and Valentina, a Variant-Positive Normal from the upscale Residential Communities, have other plans for their future. Their rebellion against the forces of Normality is a hilarious, heartbreaking affirmation of the anarchic human spirit and a defiant departure from the norms of both the genre sci-fi and literary novel.

You can buy the book here (Amazon link).

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

Trump: The Art of the Deal by Donald J. Trump

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • President Donald J. Trump lays out his professional and personal worldview in this classic work—a firsthand account of the rise of America’s foremost businessman.

“Donald Trump is a deal maker. He is a deal maker the way lions are carnivores and water is wet.”—Chicago Tribune

“I like thinking big. I always have. To me it’s very simple: If you’re going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big.”—Donald J. Trump

Here is Trump in action—how he runs his organization and how he runs his life—as he meets the people he needs to meet, chats with family and friends, clashes with enemies, and challenges conventional thinking. But even a maverick plays by rules, and Trump has formulated time-tested guidelines for success.

He isolates the common elements in his greatest accomplishments; he shatters myths; he names names, spells out the zeros, and fully reveals the deal-maker’s art. And throughout, Trump talks—really talks—about how he does it.

Trump: The Art of the Deal is an unguarded look at the mind of a brilliant entrepreneur—the ultimate read for anyone interested in the man behind the spotlight.

You can buy the book here (Amazon link).

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

Chokepoints: How the Global Economy Became a Weapon of War by Edward Fishman

If you want to understand what’s happening to the world economy, start right here.

It used to take blockades and sieges to ravage a rival’s economy. Now, a single statement posted online by the US government can bring a nation to its knees.

Chokepoints is a gripping behind-the-scenes account of one of the most pivotal geopolitical shifts of our time. Drawing on extensive research, personal experience and interviews with key players, Edward Fishman, a former top US State Department official, takes us deep into the back rooms of power around the world. He reveals how sanctions, tariffs and control over modern-day chokepoints – such as the US dollar, advanced microchip technology and critical energy supply chains – have become the primary weapons of twenty-first-century geopolitics.

This is the epic story of how America turned economics into a weapon – and how China, Europe and Britain are now doing the same. Urgent and brimming with rare insight, Chokepoints is the definitive guide to the Age of Economic Warfare.

You can buy the book here (Amazon link).

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy’s most famous novella is an intense and moving examination of death and the possibilities of redemption.

Ivan Ilyich is a middle-aged man who has spent his life focused on his career as a bureaucrat and emotionally detached from his wife and children. After an accident he finds himself on the brink of an untimely death, which he sees as a terrible injustice. Face to face with his mortality, Ivan begins to question everything he has believed about the meaning of life. The Death of Ivan Ilyich is a masterpiece of psychological realism and philosophical profundity that has inspired generations of readers.

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer

This national bestseller brings to life the 1953 CIA coup in Iran that ousted the country’s elected prime minister and features a brand new preface by the author on the folly of attacking Iran.

The story of the CIA’s 1953 coup—with its many cautionary lessons—is more urgently relevant than ever. All the Shah’s Men brings to life the cloak-and-dagger operation that deposed the only democratic regime Iran ever had.

The coup ushered in a quarter-century of repressive rule under the Shah, stimulated the rise of Muslim fundamentalism and anti-Americanism throughout the Middle East, and exposed the folly of using violence to try to reshape Iran. It’s essential reading if you want to place the American invasion of Iraq in context—and prepare for what comes next.

You can buy the book here (Amazon link).

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

Shadowland: From Jeffrey Epstein to the Clintons, from Obama and Biden to the Occult Elite: Exposing the Deep-State Actors at War with Christianity, Donald Trump, and America’s Destiny by Thomas Horn

Shadowland soberly and frighteningly exposes occult influences hidden especially within Washington’s Deep State and modern culture. From Jeffrey Epstein to the Clintons from Obama and Biden to the Occult Elite, Dr. Thomas Horn uncovers terrifying realities behind today’s polarizing culture war and the energies operating behind the contest for dominance over values, beliefs, and religious practices.

Now, for the first time ever, readers will discover:
- Occult practices and enthroned Egregores over the mysterious shadow empire
- Diabolical body count lists and sacrificed whistleblowers
- Jeffrey Epstein and Shadowland’s deals with the Devil
- Hillary Clinton and the bizarre effort to summon Antichrist
- Whether some in Christianity have joined Luciferian objectives
- What really was behind the Russia Hoax and Trump impeachment effort
- Shocking facts about Obama and his so-called Birth Certificate
- Contrasting visions for America Progressives vs. Conservatives and much more!

You can buy the book here (Amazon link).

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud

Freud’s seminal volume of twentieth-century cultural thought grounded in psychoanalytic theory, now with an introduction by Christopher Hitchens.

Written in the decade before Freud’s death, Civilization and Its Discontents may be his most famous and most brilliant work. It has been praised, dissected, lambasted, interpreted, and reinterpreted.

Originally published in 1930, it seeks to answer several questions fundamental to human society and its organization: What influences led to the creation of civilization? Why and how did it come to be? What determines civilization’s trajectory?

Freud’s theories on the effect of the knowledge of death on human existence and the birth of art are central to his work.

Of the various English translations of Freud’s major works to appear in his lifetime, only Norton’s Standard Edition, under the general editorship of James Strachey, was authorized by Freud himself. This edition includes both an introduction by the renowned cultural critic and writer Christopher Hitchens as well as Peter Gay’s classic biographical note on Freud.

You can buy the book here (Amazon link).

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

The Phoenix Program by Douglas Valentine

"This shocking expose of the CIA operation aimed at destroying the Vietcong infrastructure thoroughly conveys the hideousness of the Vietnam War" (Publishers Weekly).

In the darkest days of the Vietnam War, America's Central Intelligence Agency secretly initiated a sweeping program of kidnap, torture, and assassination devised to destabilize the infrastructure of the National Liberation Front (NLF) of South Vietnam, commonly known as the "Viet Cong."

The victims of the Phoenix Program were Vietnamese civilians, male and female, suspected of harboring information about the enemy—though many on the blacklist were targeted by corrupt South Vietnamese security personnel looking to extort money or remove a rival.

Between 1965 and 1972, more than eighty thousand noncombatants were "neutralized," as men and women alike were subjected to extended imprisonment without trial, horrific torture, brutal rape, and in many cases execution, all under the watchful eyes of US government agencies.

Based on extensive research and in-depth interviews with former participants and observers, Douglas Valentine's startling exposé blows the lid off of what was possibly the bloodiest and most inhumane covert operation in the CIA's history.

“An important work.” —John Prados, author of President’s Secret Wars

“This definitive account of the Phoenix program, the US attempt to destroy the Viet Cong through torture and summary execution, remains sobering reading for all those trying to understand the Vietnam War and the moral ambiguities of America’s Cold War victory. Though carefully documented, the book is written in an accessible style that makes it ideal for readers at all levels, from undergraduates to professional historians.” —Alfred W. McCoy, author of The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade

You can buy the book here (Amazon link).

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios by Dionysios Farasiotis

This powerful memoir tells the story of a Greek youth who, out of a desire to know the truth empirically, began to experiment in yoga, hypnotism, and various occult techniques.

Eventually drawn back to the Faith of his forefathers Orthodox Christianity he visited the ancient monastic republic of Mount Athos in his native Greece, where he was brought to a knowledge of the Truth of Jesus Christ by the saintly Elder Paisios (1924 1994).

Nevertheless, believing he had only found part of the truth on the Holy Mountain, he chose to give the same opportunity to Hindu yogis that he had given to Elder Paisios and other Orthodox monks. Thus, at the age of twenty-five, he embarked on a trip to India, where he undertook his search in the ashrams of three famous gurus, one of whom was worshipped as a god.

His experiences in India, along with his subsequent encounters with Elder Paisios on Mount Athos, are recounted in the present book in vivid detail.

Popular in Greece since its first publication there in 2001, The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios is a page-turning narrative of both outward adventures and inward struggles. What stands out most in this book, however, is the radiant image of Elder Paisios, possessed of divine gifts, laboring in prayer for his fellow man, and overflowing with unconditional love. Through this, one sees the uncreated Source of the elder’s love and of the author’s spiritual transformation: the true God-man Jesus Christ, Who honors man’s personal freedom while drawing him, through love, into everlasting union with Himself.

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

The Intelligence Intellectuals: Social Scientists and the Making of the CIA by Peter C. Grace

The untold story of how America's brightest academic minds revolutionized intelligence analysis at the CIA

In the early days of the Cold War, the United States faced a crisis in intelligence analysis. A series of intelligence failures in 1949 and 1950, including the failure to warn about the North Korean invasion of South Korea, made it clear that gut instinct and traditional practices were no longer sufficient for intelligence analysis in the nuclear age. The new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Walter Bedell Smith, had a mandate to reform it.

Based on new archival research in declassified documents and the participants' personal papers, The Intelligence Intellectuals reveals the neglected history of how America's brightest academic minds were recruited by the CIA to revolutionize intelligence analysis during this critical period. Peter C. Grace describes how the scientifically sound analysis methods that they introduced significantly helped the United States gain an advantage in the Cold War, and these new analysts legitimized the role of the recently created CIA in the national security community. Grace demonstrates how these professors―such as William Langer from Harvard, Sherman Kent from Yale, and Max Millikan from MIT―developed systematic approaches to intelligence analysis that shaped the CIA's methodology for decades to come.

Readers interested in the history of the Cold War and in intelligence, scholars of intelligence studies, Cold War historians, and intelligence practitioners seeking to understand their craft's foundations will all value this insightful history about the place of social science in national security.

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

RIOT DIET: One Man’s Radical Ride Through America in Chaos by Richie McGinniss

This is an account of some of the most chaotic and polarizing protests in American history, told by a man who was in the middle of the mayhem—from the George Floyd protests/riots during the summer of 2020 through January 6th, 2021. In RIOT DIET, Richie McGinniss leads a Washington, DC–based news team to Black Lives Matter demonstrations around the country. Armed with nothing but a cell phone, a hockey helmet, a gas mask, cans of alcohol, and smokes, McGinniss sets forth on a simple but dangerous mission: Use the power of internet video to place viewers directly among the demonstrators and police.

As the team travels through empty airports during the height of the “postpandemaliptic” world, the ragtag Riot Squad dons “black bloc” to embed in the power vacuums that inevitably descend into chaos. Whether the protests are fiery or mostly peaceful, Richie and his team relay raw video—not biased commentary—to the viewers locked down at home. These riot reporters are not your run-of-the-mill modern-day journalists. This book goes deeper than the surface-level whataboutism of the times. With illustrations and hundreds of photos, the reader will have no shortage of content to dive into with this stranger-than-fiction true story.

Juggling the role of homicide witness, video news director, riot surfer, and citizen, McGinniss is simultaneously sprayed, beaten, and maligned for the sake of showing the public the truth behind the politicized corporate narratives. This is the tragically poetic tale of how the younger generation can build something new, even in the wake of widely perceived institutional doom.

According to Editorial Advisor Anthony Swofford, author of the critically acclaimed book-turned blockbuster movie Jarhead, “It’s the ‘Jarhead’ of the Riots!”

You can buy the book here (Amazon link).

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet by Nina Teicholz

In The Big Fat Surprise, investigative journalist Nina Teicholz reveals the unthinkable: that everything we thought we knew about dietary fat is wrong. She documents how the low-fat nutrition advice of the past sixty years has amounted to a vast uncontrolled experiment on the entire population, with disastrous consequences for our health.

For decades, we have been told that the best possible diet involves cutting back on fat, especially saturated fat, and that if we are not getting healthier or thinner it must be because we are not trying hard enough. But what if the low-fat diet is itself the problem? What if the very foods we’ve been denying ourselves—the creamy cheeses, the sizzling steaks—are themselves the key to reversing the epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease?

In this captivating, vibrant, and convincing narrative, based on a nine-year-long investigation, Teicholz shows how the misinformation about saturated fats took hold in the scientific community and the public imagination, and how recent findings have overturned these beliefs. She explains why the Mediterranean Diet is not the healthiest, and how we might be replacing trans fats with something even worse. This startling history demonstrates how nutrition science has gotten it so wrong: how overzealous researchers, through a combination of ego, bias, and premature institutional consensus, have allowed dangerous misrepresentations to become dietary dogma.

With eye-opening scientific rigor, The Big Fat Surprise upends the conventional wisdom about all fats with the groundbreaking claim that more, not less, dietary fat—including saturated fat—is what leads to better health and wellness. Science shows that we have been needlessly avoiding meat, cheese, whole milk, and eggs for decades and that we can now, guilt-free, welcome these delicious foods back into our lives.

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

Covert Regime Change: America’s Secret Cold War by Lindsey A. O’Rourke

O’Rourke’s book offers a onestop shop for understanding foreign-imposed regime change. Covert Regime Change is an impressive book and required reading for anyone interested in understanding hidden power in world politics.― Political Science Quarterly

States seldom resort to war to overthrow their adversaries. They are more likely to attempt to covertly change the opposing regime, by assassinating a foreign leader, sponsoring a coup d’état, meddling in a democratic election, or secretly aiding foreign dissident groups.

In Covert Regime Change, Lindsey A. O’Rourke shows us how states really act when trying to overthrow another state. She argues that conventional focus on overt cases misses the basic causes of regime change. O’Rourke provides substantive evidence of types of security interests that drive states to intervene. Offensive operations aim to overthrow a current military rival or break up a rival alliance. Preventive operations seek to stop a state from taking certain actions, such as joining a rival alliance, that may make them a future security threat. Hegemonic operations try to maintain a hierarchical relationship between the intervening state and the target government. Despite the prevalence of covert attempts at regime change, most operations fail to remain covert and spark blowback in unanticipated ways.

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Today’s reader recommended book is:

The Aeneid by Virgil

Fleeing the ashes of Troy, Aeneas, Achilles’ mighty foe in the Iliad, begins an incredible journey to fulfill his destiny as the founder of Rome.

His voyage will take him through stormy seas, entangle him in a tragic love affair, and lure him into the world of the dead itself--all the way tormented by the vengeful Juno, Queen of the Gods.

Ultimately, he reaches the promised land of Italy where, after bloody battles and with high hopes, he founds what will become the Roman empire.

An unsparing portrait of a man caught between love, duty, and fate, the Aeneid redefines passion, nobility, and courage for our times.

You can buy the book here (Amazon link).

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