#she has good intentions but is still in denial about how corrupt the government is (but she is very much starting to learn bc her father is

[non4ry]

just two partners relaxing after a mission <3

[brandossss]

( tommy martinez , 24 , cismale ) i  just  bumped  into  brando  esparza  the  other  day  while  walking  down  east  kingsboro , where  he  lives . i  hear  they  can  be  brave  and  impatient , but  when  i  think  of  them  i  immediately  think  of  ( venezuelan  pride , curly  hair , going  to  the  gym  literally  everyday ) 

tw : communism , corruption , poverty , violence , death  ( suicide )

full  name : brando  nicolas  estefano  esparza

nicknames : just  brando , if  he  really  fucks  with  you  you  can  get  away  with  teasingly  calling  him  brandy , but  not  even  lolol

gender : cismale

height :  6 ′ 2

age : 24

birthday : august  4 , 1996

zodiac : leo  ( aries  moon , capricorn  ascendant )

right  handed  or  left  handed : ambidextrous , but  basically  right  handed 

eye  color : light  brown

hair  color : dark  brown

piercings  &  tattoos : no  piercings , this  tattoo  of  venezuela  right  here , but  on  his  left  wrist 

languages  spoken : spanish ( native  tongue ) and  english

sexuality : pansexual / panromantic

place  of  birth : maracay , venezuela

last  3  songs  listened  to : llueve  sobre  la  ciudad  by  los  bunkers , yo  te  esperare  by  cali  y  el  dandee , soñe  ( unplugged )  by  zoé

so  brando  was  born  to  yessenia  olivares  and  bruno  esparza  in  maracay , venezuela . originally , he  wasn’t  supposed  to  be  named  brando . a  fun  fact  &  random  little  headcanon  is  that  his  mother  &  father  had  the  full  intention  of  naming  him  brandon , after  his  grandfather  ( or  father’s  father ) , who  passed  a  week  before  he  was  born . being  both  parents’  first  born , his  father  got  super  nervous  during  his  mother’s  labor  &  basically ? got  really  wasted  because  he  was  practically  crapping  his  pants  about  his  son  being  born . when  he  went  to  sign  his  birth  certificate , he  was  so  drunk , he  literally  forgot  to  write  the  ‘ n ’  in  brandon . once  they  realized  the  mistake  his  father  had  made , they  didn’t  want  to  go  through  the  annoyance  of  changing  his  name , so , they  went  with  brando , and  surprisingly ? it  really  stuck  &  everyone  loved  it  more  than  brandon  kdjvcndfkcmn

he  was  an  average  kid  tbh . his  family  was  middle  class  &  even  though  his  country  had  been  struggling  ( for  the  lack  of  a  better  word )  for  years  now , he  didn’t  fully  feel  the  economic  fall  at  first , of  course . now  fast  forward  a  few  years  &  shit  is  changing  right  before  his  eyes , and  he’s  really ? just  a  kid

pretty  much  communism  coming  to  it’s  finest  point  tbh . all  these  restaurants , stores , businesses , all  these  places  brando  used  to  go  to  when  he  was  younger ? done  with , or  just  government  owned  &  a  blink  away  from  breaking  completely . it’s  actually  really  sad  because  he’s  literally  watching  it  all  happen , watching  his  country  go  down  the  drain  &  there’s  really  nothing  he  can  do  to  stop  it

his  father  becomes  an  active  protester , along  with  many  other  angry  venezuelans , but  this  does  more  bad  than  good . eventually  his  father  gets  arrested  at  a  protest  when  brando  is  11  years  old . that  was  over  a  decade  ago  &  up  to  this  very  day , present  time , brando  has  no  idea  where  his  father  is , if  he’s  well , or  if  he’s  even  alive  tbh  ( talk  about  trauma ? ) . it’s  like  one  day  he’s  coming  home , giving  his  only  son  a  hug , &  the  next  day , he  completely  vanished  from  planet  earth , as  if  he’s  some  high  profile  serial  killer  when  really , he  was  just  protesting  the  shit  communist  government  they’re  living  in 

it’s  just  brando  &  his  mom  from  that  point  on . of  course , things  just  get  worse  with  time . i’m  not  gonna  get  into  details  but  basic  poverty  &  communism  tbh . they’re  hungry , they’re  broke , the  country  is  just  getting  worse  &  worse  with  each  passing  moment  ( hyper  inflation , food  scarcity , severe  corruption , government  abuse , do  i  even  need  to  go  on ? ) . all  these  things  anger  brando  to  no  extent  &  he  finds  himself  releasing  his  anger  with  his  fists . it’s  getting  into  random  fights  for  no  reason  &  screaming  at  anyone  who  even  looks  at  him  weirdly , pretty  much  becoming  an  angry  ass  kid 

TW : SUICIDE , READ  WITH  CAUTION !! things  are  bad  but  they  really  hit  rock  bottom  when  his  mother , surprisingly , commits  suicide . brando  finds  her  foaming  at  the  mouth , a  clear  overdose , but  by  the  time  they  make  it  to  the  hospital , she’s  pronounced  dead . literally  a  15  year  old  boy , alone , in  venezuela .... honestly  terrifying . brando  literally  doesn’t   know  where  to  go ? on  top  of  the  trauma  he’s  holding  he’s  worried  about  his  living  arrangements  as  well . luckily , a  friend  of  his  allows  him  to  stay  at  his  house  a  few  nights  but  this  is  just  temporary

he  just  really  wants  to  leave  his  country  but  he  feels  completely  stuck . he’s  depressed  &  angry  as  fuck  but  he’s  determined  to  get  out  somehow . brando  eventually  contacts  a  family  friend  on  facebook  ( aka  claudia’s  mom ? ) &  tells  them  his  situation . it  seems  to  touch  this  woman’s  heart  so  much , she , wait  for  it , brings  him  over  to  the  states . he  spends  his  16th  birthday  in  america , with  claudia  &  her  family . the  year  is  2012 

very  slowly , but  things  begin  getting  better  for  him . he’s  enrolled  into  school  &  pretty  much  gets  guided  through  everything  thanks  to  claudia . they  are  not  blood  related , but  their  families  were  so  close  at  one  point  that  they’re  pretty  much ? cousins  tbh ! literally  not  blood  related  but  still  family

with  his  dedication  &  ambition  he  pretty  much  catches  on  completely  in  less  than  3  years  ( learning  english  of  course ) , he  loses  his  accent  completely  after  4 . he  goes  through  a  whole  adoption  thing  with  claudia’s  family  until  he  thankfully  gains  american  residency  thanks  to  them , which  of  course , eventually  leads  him  to  citizenship . instead  of  picking  fights  with  people  for  no  reason , brando  takes  out  his  anger  with  physical  activity , becoming  very  much  involved  in  going  to  the  gym , or  even  just  exercising  by  himself . whether  it’s  leg  day , boxing , whatever  it  is , he  loves  any  type  of  physical  work , since  it  keeps  his  mind  distracted 

this  has  pretty  much  lead  him  to  have  quite  a  #body  tbh . like .... it’s  hella  obvious  he  works  out  kdndjndjvnfd

he  also  developed  a  hobby  for  piano , after  taking  piano  classes  in  high  school , beginning  of  freshman  year . he’s  been  playing  since  he  was  16 , eventually  buying  a  crap  keyboard  when  he  was  17 . he  does  piano  covers  on  youtube , but  again , this  is  really  just  a  hobby  of  his 

DEATH  TW !! after  the  passing  of  claudia’s  parents , her  &  brando  move  to  kingsboro  when  they’re  both  19 ! they  share  an  apartment  with  lemon

on  top  of  that , he’s  a  bartender  @  blue ! he’s  also  a  personal  trainer . literally  lifting  24/7  for  him .... bless

he  enjoys  drinking  on  weekends  &  letting  loose  every  once  in  a  while  but  i  don’t  think  he’s  crazy  about  weed  tbh . he  thinks  the  feeling  is  nice , but  he  hates  how  it  makes  you  hungry . would  never  go  out  of  his  way  to  buy  weed  &  basically  only  smokes  it  if  he’s  offered , preferring  alcohol , but  again , he  mostly  just  exercises  &  eats  right , not  really  having  any  addictions  of  any  kind , just  little  hobbies  every  one  in  a  while

brando  honestly ? considers  himself  lucky , despite  all  the  terrible  things  he’s  been  through . he  feels  lucky  that  he  left  before  things  got  really , really bad , even  though  they  were  already  pretty  awful  tbh . anyone  who  hears  his  story  would  think  he’s  anything  but  fortunate  but  the  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  he’s  one  of  the  lucky  ones . not  every  venezuelan  has  had  the  opportunity  to  leave  &  he  just  feels  very  fortunate  that  he  was  one  of  the  few  that  did 

he’s  not  the  type  to  take  anything  for  granted  tbh , very  much  the  type  of  person  who  appreciates  everything  he  has , no  matter  how  small . you  could  literally  get  him  a  present  from  the  dollar  store  for  christmas  &  he  would  still  be  super  happy  about  it . for  him , it’s  the  thought  &  time  put  into  something  that  counts , not  the  price , or  the  brand 

he  very  much  struggled  with  his  sexuality  for  years . not  because  he  was  in  denial  or  ashamed  or  anything , but  for  the  longest  time , he  kind  of  just  didn’t  know  what  he  was ? sometimes  he  thought  he  was  straight  but  undergoing  a  phase , other  times  he  wondered  if  he  was  gay , then  he  considered  himself  bi  for  a  really  long  time . the  truth  is  that  he  didn’t  fully  understand  his  sexuality  up  until  not  too  long  ago , when  he  began  hanging  with  an  lgbtq+  crowd . eventually , he  realizes  society  basically  labels  him  as  ‘ pansexual ’ , but  he  doesn’t  even  really  like  to  label  himself ? brando  just  falls  in  love  with  the  person , with  their  soul , &  he  doesn’t  care  what  they  have  underneath  tbh 

i  haven’t  fully  figured  him  out  yet  because  he’s  a  new  character  but  i  picture  he  can  be  such  a  stereotypical  leo  sometimes , but , his  whole  #capricorn  ascendant  really  does  take  place  for  him , in  the  sense  that  he  can  be  a  very  difficult  person  to  read  sometimes . like  is  he  happy ? is  he  upset ? is  that  just  his  face ? is  he  planning  something ? you  will  rarely  ever  know  tbh 

he’s  a  very  humble  person , probably  because  of  his  childhood . he  hates  show  offs  tbh , or  very  rich  people  with  no  consideration  for  anyone . literally .... miss  him  with  that  bullshit  lmfao . he  finds  the  entire  snobby  or  ‘ i’m  better  than  you ’ attitudes  to  be  so  unattractive  tbh ? you  could  be  the  hottest  person  on  the  planet  but  if  he  hates  your  attitude  you  really  just  don’t  matter  to  him  lolol

over  all  he’s  a  lot  calmer  than  he  was  before  tbh . he  still  has  his  moments  but  he’s  a  pretty  stable  guy  in  the  sense  that  he  no  longer  wants  to  beat  up  everything  or  anyone  he  see’s . he  still  has  a  ton  of  issues  to  work  on  but  basically  just  doesn’t  wanna  go  to  therapy  &  doesn’t  really  talk  about  his  past  at  all , preferring  to  ‘ live  in  the  present ’  even  though  talking  about  his  issues  &  sharing  his  pretty  shitty  story  would  definitely  help  him  clear  out  his  head  but  🥴 it  honestly  probably  won’t  happen  &  he’ll  probs  just  keep  burying  shit  LMFAOOOO

very  very  hard  working  guy , ambition  like  crazy , always  gives  his  all  in  anything  he  feels  strongly  about , he’s  very  good  at  persuading  people  tbh , usually  gets  told  he’d  make  a  ‘ great  lawyer ’  because  he  just  has  this  way  of  convincing  you  like ? he  would  never  become  a  lawyer  but  the  truth  is  that  he  would  make  a  great  one , persuasion  skills  like  a  MF 

this  is  all  i  can  think  of  now  but  i  did  his  birth  chart  ting  🖤 

[thecomicsnexus]

UNCLE SAM #1-2 1997 BY STEVE DARNALL, ALEX ROSS AND TODD KLEIN

SYNOPSIS

The story centers around Sam, an obviously distressed homeless man, who wanders the streets of an unnamed city speaking mostly in odd quotes and sound bites. As he wanders, he has disturbing visions of events of injustice in American history (dealing with Indian Wars, slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, and others). Throughout his wanderings, he occasionally encounters a woman named Bea, and has conversations with Britannia. Eventually, Sam has a profoundly disillusioning vision of himself participating in the bloody crushing of Shays' Rebellion, which suggested to him that America's ideals were never seriously respected from the beginning.

Eventually, he comes to the remains of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, where he sees Bea once more, now recognizing her as Columbia. She helps Sam gain a more nuanced perspective of his visions of America's negative moments of its history, such as how Shay's Rebellion prompted the writing of the Constitution of the United States to help create a more stable government. He has further encounters with Britannia, Marianne and the Russian Bear, before he confronts a dark, corrupt, overtly capitalist shadow version of himself. He eventually defeats this figure by accepting all its blows, recognizing and accepting his mistakes, and learning from them.

Towards the end of the tale he thinks to himself: "It's a strange and frightening thing — to see yourself at your worst."

In the end we see him again as a homeless man, but instead of wildly hallucinating, he's now chipper and optimistic with his traditional hat, ready to face the future.

REVIEW

“Ask not what your country’s done for you. Ask what your country’s done to you.”

This is a very powerful story about denial and revisionism. And in the end, that you only hear history from the winning side.

If you are not “American”, you can still identify with this story. It talks about “American” problems, but you can easily see how it fits the history of your country as well. Even more if you are in the third world.

This story touches on many issues “Americans” had throughout their history and how they chose to deny some truths in order to believe in the fantasy that they were the best country in the world (this of course, is always subjective). While some parts of the population were enjoying the good old times, other parts of the population were second class citizens or not citizens at all.

One of the best moments in this story is when Uncle Sam goes to a political rally for a winning senator, and while he does his speech, Uncle Sam hears what the senator is really saying. It’s impossible not to compare the speech to our present days, and this also means that today’s problems are pretty much the same from 20 years ago. And 60 years ago. And 80 years ago.

And that is the point of the story. How can you fix a problem that you don’t want to admit exists? How can you fix a problem you don’t want to admit you helped create or continue?

I’ve seen some reviews from people saying this story is anti-patriotic. Well, they didn’t understand the story then. Or they didn’t understand the message. Uncle Sam represents a dream. An idea of a country. And in that intention to fulfill a dream, bad things were done. A country was built on those bad things that justified the means to an end. But instead of looking at the bad things with the good things (like Columbia suggests), people prefer to only see the good things as if the bad things had to be done, and the moment someone brings up the truth of the past, that someone is a traitor.

Now, this is not “America”’s fault, as it is clearly explained in this story. It is mostly corruption. Propaganda used to keep people in power. Big Corporations influencing laws. This is not an “american” problem. This happens all over the world. What makes the “American” case more jarring is the fact that a lot of people seem happy to ignore these facts. And being the U.S. one of the most powerful countries in the world, usually looked at some mythical land of dreams, well, that makes the lie stronger.

But less powerful countries have similar problems (when not the same). Maybe racism is against a different race, perhaps the corporations influencing laws are different, perhaps the government is not exactly a democracy... but no matter what, all countries have skeletons in their closets. And while it is a good thing that Americans every now and then expose them, people around the world should do the same, so we can all understand that denying the past will not make the problems go away.

I give this story a score of 10

[god-hunter]

Secret Empire: Omega #1

This was an epilogue that was necessary.  But in a way, it still didn’t resolve anything.  And it sort of leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  Yet I do find it interesting as well.

[SPOILERS]

So if you haven’t been reading Secret Empire at all, good for you man.  It was an event that explored what would happen if Captain America was evil.  Like, truly corrupted.  Except, it wasn’t a what-if.  And it didn’t end in him coming to his senses.  No.  Instead, a good “Memory” of him came to life and was made whole.  That’s right.  The Ideal Version of Cap in all his wholesome glory went against the real-life, corrupted Steve Rogers, and when good came out on top, we were left with 2 Steve Rogers’.

Yes.  You read that correctly.  THERE’S TWO STEVE’S NOW!

What the Hell?

So now what?

The tail end of Secret Empire #10 had a very short epilogue that wasn’t very satisfying for me.  This one served as a true aftermath, and sort of a re-evaluation period.  ‘Where do we go from here?’

In the first pages, you can see that the world is rebuilding.  The first blue and white narration says, “The war is over.”  Right away, you can tell this is ‘Ideal Memory Steve’ talking.  For all intents and purposes, this is the true Cap, but the problem is.. he isn’t.

He goes and visits the Real Cap, who is now placed in a holding facility called “Shadow Pillar”.  “It’s housed some of the most wanted men in the World--International Terrorists, perpetrators of genocide, despots...”  but now it only holds one person.  And that is the corrupted, Hydra Steve.

This entire issue is a great conversation between both Steves.  And what’s really interesting from Hydra Cap’s standpoint is that, he really didn’t do anything illegal. [I’m not gonna use the word ‘Wrong’, I’m going to say illegal.]  {btw the art throughout this entire issue is Amazing!  It’s from Sorrentino, the same guy who did Old Man Logan.

But yeah.

Steve brings up how he never overthrew the government or anything.  He was appointed the position of trust to run S.H.I.E.L.D. again.  The Government also created the Shield Act, which decreed that “In the event of an emergency, the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D could take absolute control of the country.”

He brings up that he never built the Planetary Defense shield.  “Maria Hill and Carol Danvers did.”

“I didn’t cause the mess in Pleasant Hill. Or allow the Red Skull’s perverted version of Hydra to recruit so many, so easily.”

[That’s what’s the most interesting to me.  Despite being corrupted, he still hated Red Skull and decided to run Hydra his way rather than work together with Red Skull.]

So yeah.  For the most part, according to Steve, he did nothing wrong.

But Ideal Steve still says that they’ll find a way to punish him, to which Hydra Steve retorts, “These so-called laws were never put in place to protect anyone you didn’t want protected.”

That’s a super high-brow statement about our Justice system today.

Good Steve won’t hear it.  “You leveled a city. You tortured and imprisoned thousands. You killed people I cared about very much.”

We cut out of their conversation and get to see a little more of Natasha Romanov’s funeral.  Clint can’t take it, and Logan steps in, offering to take him home.

Bucky Barnes watches this on TV, elsewhere, and I don’t fully understand it, but he grabs a suspicious looking person in a hood and asks, “Who is it?! Who’s the target?!”

The guy is all, “I told you-- I DON’T KNOW!”

Then we see a random Military General who apparently made a name for himself by allying with Hydra.

Before this can go anywhere else, he gets shot.

Bucky looks up at the building from where the shot came from.

He narrates, “...as soon as I see it, I know.  All the rumors, all the whispers-- they checked out.  I recognize everything--the shot, the placement, the time. Nobody know the Black Widow like I do, after all.  I know it’s you, Natasha.”

The target is on him, but then we cut back to Steve’s conversation with himself.

[So...  Wait.  How?  Is this a hopeful denial on Buck’s part, or is Natasha really back.  And if she is?  How on earth did she recover that fast from a broken neck?  Did Kobik put her back after all?  Rick Jones too, for that manner??  Last we checked in Issue #10, we were only told that the scars remained.  But was it put that they were to just believe that they’re dead??  Why do that?  It’s too convoluted.]  - But either way.  I’m partly happy that Natasha might be back.  After all, her death was an absolute cop out and served no purpose.

Hydra Steve actually apologizes for the losses.  “You probably don’t believe this, but I really didn’t want anyone to get hurt.”

That’s when we see that he’s clearly crazy though.  He really truly believes that he was always Hydra.  That Hydra was always meant to rule.  And that, he was this close to actually making it happen.

We get to see that on New Tian, the Mutants are demolishing the place like it never happened.  [Because why would anything change in the X Books?]  Honestly, I don’t understand why they didn’t keep it.  Beast and Emma have a little talk about their “Negotiated Surrender”.

Beast is mostly concerned with the idea that, despite the good guys winning, Mutants are given the side-eye and not trusted.  That they will again have to face a day when the government is against them.  He does congratulate her though for the short time it lasted that they did have their Utopia.

“Yes, and when those history books are written, I won’t be mentioned-- except as the villain.  They’ll never know what I did here.”

[It’s so weird, how we go from one event to the next, where Emma is so hated, and then so immediately loved.  Now it’s almost like Spencer noticed that, and wants to bring the IvX era back, so that way the X-Books can keep up grudges in their continuity or something.  But maybe that’s just me, reading too far between the lines.]

Bla bla bla, the Steves yammer on.

I liked it when Hydra Steve points the finger at the other one and asks, “...when will You be held accountable?”  This in regards to the idea of Super Heroes altogether, who are just completely above the law, because they say so.

We get to see Punisher redeem himself a little bit in his thinking.

He narrates that following Steve’s Hydra was probably his biggest mistake ever.  And now his sole mission is to crush what’s left of Hydra.

From afar, Nick Fury Jr. watches him and says, “He’s ready.”

[This makes me the most excited, because the previews books gave a hint at what’s next for Frank Castle.  Can anyone say War Machine armor?]

Back to the conversation, Good Steve brings up something that is very disheartening to the current state of the World.  Despite the World watching Steve overthrow his corrupt self, they still didn’t trust him during the clean up.  Steve offered to help a kid up from the rubble, and he was about to take his hand until he pulled away.

This sort of shattered Good Steve in a way, since it was all because of Hydra Cap.  He’s ruined his good image.  Tainted it beyond repair.  He wears the face of a Criminal, or if not that.. of the most wanted/hated man in the World.  When it used to clearly be, the exact opposite.

“So I came here to see you--to look into your eyes and take the measure of the man who cost me all this.  ...But looking at you doesn’t feel much different from looking at a Skull or an L.M.D.”

Hydra Cap almost laughs at him and says that he should be worrying about the flag he represents.  The people don’t exactly fall into all the ideals that this Steve thinks it does.

[It’s almost as if he’s schooling him on the corrupt/jaded stance of most American Citizens.]  

“I offered them power, and they took it.  What do you offer them?  A chance to go back to being afraid of their own neighbors? To being left behind...while they grovel in the dirt?”

[I really enjoyed this.]

“Right now there’s the Euphoria. You’re telling them the heroes won, and maybe some are getting swept up in it.  And you’re promising that things will be different this time--  But they won’t be.  And that’s when they’ll start to remember.”

He’s basically saying that he ran America better when Hydra was in control, and that despite losing, the people will look back, and compare.  And probably be even harder to defeat if their is an uprising.

“So who do you really think they’ll side with next time? Who do you think they’re more like-- You? or Me?”

That’s a great place to end this conversation.  It goes a little further, but basically Steve leaves him to his cell.  And it becomes clear as day that “This is a War that never ends.”

-End Omega Issue-

...So there’s two Steve’s now.  Absolutely and completely.  We have a Good one and an Evil one.  And the Evil one is the ORIGINAL.

That’s probably the thing that gets me the most.  No way to retcon out of that.

Unless another strange event occurs where the two become one...

UUUUrrrhuaihghurewfrhuruhi.

But yeah.  This commentary was SUPER interesting.  I really enjoyed it.

Despite the fact that I hate having 2 Steves now.

He will absolutely escape or be ‘rescued’ from that facility one day.  And we’re gonna see Evil Steve again.  I’m sure of it.

And who knows.  Maybe people will gravitate toward him, because now he’s the edgy original with a darker edge than the Naive Copycat that wants to live in the 40′s.

...I just don’t know.  It’s unsettling.  And a little sad.

But Marvel is about to change everything again.  So...

I really don’t know how I feel.  I know that after this event though, and with all the constant changes...  I’ve kinda lost my muse on reviews.

I’m only going to review the ones I love the most.  (Or maybe hate the most.)

But the books have just gotten so different lately, that I’m not into it any more.

I am THRILLED to be finishing these Secret Empire reviews late.

But the sad fact is, that I’m always late now.  So I’m seriously gonna have to cut back.  I can’t review everything any more.

...I don’t know what Marvel Legacy has in store for us.  Part of this issue almost felt like a warning.  That Marvel is telling us it’ll be different this time, but when it’s not, we’re all going to get upset.  Who knows?

Anyway, I’m looking forward to comics becoming fun again.  And not frustrating.

I guess the next thing to go to is these quick Marvel Generations issues.  That’s where the “Vanishing Point” gift is given from Kobik to a select few heroes.  (Of which I’m only collecting 3 issues of.  Not all.)

The first one of interest to me was Jean Grey meeting the Phoenix!!

So...  I guess that one’s next.

[businessliveme]

Book Recommendations to Turn the Page From 2019 to 2020

(Bloomberg Opinion) –It’s natural this time of year to take a look back at the months past and forward to the days ahead, to think about what made the news and what might shape the future. In that spirit, we asked the columnists of Bloomberg Opinion about the books they read in 2019: What was their favorite? What’s a must-read before 2020 arrives? What would they buy as a gift from their local bookshop? Here’s what they said.

A Must-Read If You Hope to See 2120

Bush fires in Australia caused unprecedented pollution. Europe suffered a record-setting heat wave. Cyclones displaced more than 2 million people in Bangladesh. Venice was flooded by the highest tides since the 1960s. California’s power outages became the new normal. All of which concluded the hottest decade in history, according to the United Nations.

That’s why “The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming” by David Wallace-Wells should be everyone’s must-read in 2020. Wallace-Wells provides overwhelming evidence that climate change is the existential threat to humanity. The planet is warming so much, so fast that it will increasingly reduce gross domestic product as much of the Earth becomes unlivable.

Neither despair nor denials are appropriate at this point. “We have all the tools we need, today, to stop it all,” writes Wallace-Wells. — Matthew A. Winkler

Wallace-Wells’s book is a haunting preview of what’s in store for our children and grandchildren if we don’t very rapidly wean ourselves off hydrocarbons. Severe drought, intense heatwaves and coastal flooding will force tens of millions of people to move. And there will be “much more fire, much more often, burning much of the land,” he writes.

Wallace-Wells is clear about who is chiefly to blame. More than half of fossil-fuel-related emissions have occurred in the past 30 years, meaning the planet “was brought to the brink of climate catastrophe within the lifetime of a single generation”

But he’s hopeful, not fatalistic. The task of “unplugging the entire industrial world from fossil fuels” also falls to a single generation. That generation is us. — Chris Bryant

A Must-Read for Embattled Presidents

Since 2019 has been an impeachment year, for me, that means reading about Watergate. There are actually four essential books: Fred Emery’s “Watergate” is the best telling of the story, from President Richard Nixon’s first dabbling with breaking the law all the way through his resignation. The two primary sources absolutely worth reading are the Nixon tapes collected in “Abuse of Power” and the chief of staff’s notes published as “The Haldeman Diaries.” What I’ll recommend, however, is Elizabeth Drew’s wonderful account of what it was like to live through the unraveling of a presidency, reissued as “Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixon’s Downfall.” That’s the one I’m going to revisit before the Senate trial starts. And, if there’s time, the best Watergate movie, with apologies to the excellent “All the President’s Men,” is the 1999 comedy “Dick.” — Jonathan Bernstein

A Must-Read for Fugitive Financiers

“Billion Dollar Whale,” by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, is a belter of a financial scandal takedown won’t take you long to read. It’s great fun — more Jackie Collins than forensic Michael Lewis analysis. It can be your guilty secret as you plow through the ever-more unbelievable scams of Jho Low, an ultra-aspiring Malaysian financier who sucks in the great and the (not so) good while ripping off his own country’s sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, with some big assists from Wall Street. A breathless collation of excellent investigative reporting, it shows real life really can be stranger than fiction. With the drama still unfolding in court, you can take a ringside seat as the authorities try to track down our antihero and get Goldman Sachs on the hook. Just try not to snigger at all the Hollywood flakes. — Marcus Ashworth

A Must-Read on the Protest Barricades

The words “Gilets Jaunes” never appear in “La France Qui Gronde” (The France That Grumbles, or Scolds), but the pages of this French volume are filled by the kind of ordinary people who made up the Yellow Vests movement that swept France a year ago.

Ahead of France’s presidential elections in 2017, journalists Jean-Marie Godard and Antoine Dreyfus visited a countryside grappling with suicides by farmers who couldn’t keep going, workers in one-industry backwaters whose jobs went to China, and parents and teachers who had given up on bureaucrats and were fixing their crumbling public school. Their frustration caught Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron unaware when his government tried to raise fuel taxes, sending mobs wearing roadside safety vests to occupy French traffic circles. Since then, protests against overbearing, corrupt or indifferent governments have lit up Algeria, Chile, Hong Kong, Iraq, Lebanon and more (the details differ, of course). This book helps understand the discontent in a country that knows something about inspiring revolutions. — Patrick McDowell

A Must-Read for Ruling the Boardroom

My pick: All five “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels by George R.R. Martin as well as the Dunk and Egg novellas and the Fire and Blood prequel. (Technically, they’re one body of work!)

Martin once asked in a Rolling Stone interview, “What was Aragorn’s tax policy?” It wasn’t entirely rhetorical: His point was that “Lord of the Rings” author J.R.R. Tolkien had “a very medieval philosophy: that if the king was a good man, the land would prosper.”

It’s not that simple, of course. Good leaders need more than good intentions. Charismatic heroes aren’t always (or even often) great administrators. Regardless of whether you watched the “Game of Thrones” HBO finale in 2019, if you’re a management geek like me you’ll enjoy reading about Martin’s power-hungry queens and honor-bound knights not only making decisions about love and duty, or dragons and White Walkers, but also about trade embargoes, luxury taxes and the Iron Bank’s singularly aggressive approach to recouping bad loans. The books are also enormously fun, which can’t be said of every leadership tome. And who knows? We may finally get the long-awaited sixth book in 2020. — Sarah Green Carmichael

A Must-Read for the Extremely Ambitious

“Our Man,” a biography of the late American diplomat Richard Holbrooke by George Packer, is a true page-turner, even at more than 600 pages. It is divided into three principal sections, each reflecting a chapter of Holbrooke’s eventful life and America’s geopolitical journey from the 1970s to the early 21st century.

I knew Holbrooke well in his days as a presidential envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. I was serving as supreme allied commander at NATO, in charge of the overall mission of some 150,000 troops, when he came often to Afghanistan. I found Holbrooke highly energetic, full of ideas (both good and bad), extremely self-confident (his abiding characteristic) and utterly ambitious. Until I read “Our Man” and was able to put his vast talent and vaster ego in perspective, I didn’t appreciate how the arc of his career tracked the peak to the essential end of what some have called the American Century. — James Stavridis

A Must-Read for Those Tired of Truthiness

Seymour M. Hersh’s memoir, “Reporter,” takes us back to the golden era of American newspapers, following Hersh’s rise from lowly copyboy to world-renowned investigative journalist. Hersh exposed hypocrisy and deceit throughout the U.S. government — from the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam to Watergate to the Iraq wars — proving that an unrelenting drive for truth can overcome even the deepest duplicity. And as remarkable as Hersh himself is, the book reveals the everyday heroism of his sources, many of them military officers or civil servants who shared information at great risk to their livelihoods and careers. They, as Hersh teaches us, knew that their true responsibility was “to uphold and defend the Constitution […] not the President, or an immediate superior.” — Scott Duke Kominers

A Must-Read for Women Making History, Part 1

It’s 1962, and a young Washington Post reporter is sent to cover the fight for integration at the University of Mississippi. But there’s a problem: She’s black, and no white hoteliers in Oxford will put her up for the night. No matter. She finds a black-owned funeral home — funeral directors make great sources, she notes — and beds down in the mortuary. The result: a page one story spotlighting black Mississippians’ response to James Meredith’s heroism.

Dorothy Butler Gilliam’s memoir “Trailblazer: A Pioneering Journalist’s Fight to Make the Media Look More Like America” is a story filled with insults and triumphs like these. And it couldn’t have come at a better time. As the U.S. heads into an election year with racial justice and women’s rights high on the agenda, our newsrooms remain disproportionately white and male (with predictable consequences for coverage). The media still doesn’t look like America. But history shows that change is possible, with trailblazers like Gilliam leading the way. — Tracy Walsh

A Must-Read for Women Making History, Part 2

Those of us who cover the Middle East — in my case, for two decades, first as a correspondent, now as a commentator — have long known that the finest journalism from the region is the handiwork of the women who work there. That this is not more widely recognized is a travesty that “Our Women on the Ground,” edited by Zahra Hankir begins, at last, to remedy.

It has been many years since I have, at the end of a book, felt compelled immediately to start again from the beginning. On second reading of this superb compendium of reporting by Arab woman, a spasm of envy led me to speculate that the gender of the writers was germane to their excellence: surely my own work could have approached these heights had I, a man, not been denied access to half the population of the region?

Spare yourself such unworthy thoughts and instead partake in the intelligence and depth of insight that radiate from these brilliant journalists. — Bobby Ghosh

A Must-Read for Orwellian Times

The defining book of 2019 focuses on 1984, or more properly, on “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” by George Orwell. Dorian Lynskey’s “The Ministry of Truth,” a biography of the novel, has the zest and momentum of a Stephen King novel, and the piercing clarity and dark sensibility of Orwell himself. It demonstrates that Orwell’s novel, published shortly before his death, is a synthesis of ideas that he had been developing for decades — about human nature, authoritarianism, rage, power, eroticism, memory and, above all, truth.

In the U.S. (and not only there), 2019 was a year in which palpable falsehoods have been stated so boldly, and by such prominent leaders, that it has been difficult to maintain one’s bearings. When tens of millions of people believe things that tens of millions of other people believe to be flatly false, truth has a tough time getting traction. Lynskey ends his book with Orwell’s explanation of why he wrote his novel: “The moral to be drawn from this dangerous nightmare situation is a simple one. Don’t let it happen. It depends on you.” — Cass Sunstein

A Must-Read Along With a History Tome

Historians never tire of insisting that policy makers need to learn more history. Yet they are not, typically, very good at explaining how an understanding of history can make for better choices. That was the great contribution of Michael Howard, the recently deceased British military historian, whose two classic volumes of essays, “The Causes of Wars and Other Essays” and “The Lessons of History,” are my must-read books as 2019 comes to an end.

Howard’s key insight is that history provides no specific answers to particular policy problems. What worked before, in one set of circumstances, may backfire catastrophically when transferred across time and space to a very different context. The value of history is broader. It can expand our knowledge beyond our personal experiences, educate us in the complexity of human affairs and the importance of understanding other cultures, and help us recognize the connections between choices and consequences, between causes and effects.

“The true use of history,” Howard wrote, is “not to make men clever for next time; it is to make them wise for ever.” At a time when the U.S. faces no shortage of disorienting global challenges, that’s a lesson worth remembering. — Hal Brands

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Ayushman Bharat's Declared Measures Seem Neither Adequate Nor Practical

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Ayushman Bharat's Declared Measures Seem Neither Adequate Nor Practical

“Humans are individuals simply because of their particular person. The loaded have a entire body and so do I. Why, then, need to I have to endure without having treatment method when they get pleasure from all achievable facilities? Why really should our healthcare expenditure be only Rs 30,000?” requested Manju, a person of the members in a examine I performed for my master’s thesis at the Department of International Health and fitness and Social Medicine, Harvard Professional medical College.

The analyze was on the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), a health coverage scheme for the lousy introduced by the authorities of India in 2008. It entitled ‘targeted’ families to hospitalised treatment up to Rs 30,000 yearly in an institution of their selection, to be chosen from a record of accredited hospitals and health and fitness centers – personal and public.

As a member of a underneath poverty line (BPL) family, Manju was entitled to the “benefits” of RSBY. That the scheme did not get the job done well is a general public knowledge. Certainly, informed organizations have constantly been asserting that the Indian health method needs a thorough overhauling – no cosmetic transform can make improvements to its condition of affairs. Yet, the classes of RSBY and other ornamental wellness strategies has not experienced any effects on community coverage. The RSBY is again, in an albeit amplified variation and with a new identify: the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) underneath the Ayushman Bharat National Health Safety Scheme (ABNPHS).

The ABNPHS and the PMJAY look really bold. They claim to ‘build a new India by 2022’ with “two much-reaching initiatives beneath Ayushman Bharat”. It will be carried out at an “unprecedented scale”, and will support India capitalise its demographic dividend, guarantee increased productivity, properly-becoming and avert wage reduction and impoverishment, the federal government statements.

The to start with of the two initiatives pertains to creation of 150,000 health and wellness centres, which will convey wellness treatment “closer to the households of the people”. The 2nd is the PMJAY, which gives overall health defense protect to poor and susceptible family members.

The federal government statements that the Ayushman Bharat plan will be executed at an unparalleled tempo. Credit rating: Reuters

Has the authorities discovered a treasure of assets?

How does one particular understand this miraculous declare? In India, the distance in between the proclamation of policies and their implementation is vast and pervasive. The claim of reversing the seven many years of wellbeing failure in fewer than 50 percent a decade, therefore, ‘dictates’ us to think that the Union govt has found out a treasure home of methods to carry about this transform and will make India free of charge of inadequate and unwell well being, halt impoverishment owing to wellness expenses and enrich efficiency manifold with enhanced wellness capacity.

Even though it is claimed that the wellness centres “will present Extensive Main Health Treatment (CPHC), covering both equally maternal and youngster wellbeing products and services and non-communicable disorders, together with absolutely free vital medication and diagnostic services”, no details has been built available as to how this intention will be satisfied.

Initially, no roadmap has been given regarding the creation of 150,000 wellness facilities for most important care. Will they be freshly produced or will the current most important treatment procedure (sub-centers), Most important Wellness Centers (PHCs) and Group Wellbeing Centers (CHCs) be transformed to serve the purpose? If it is the 1st, what necessitated the creation of a new entity and how will this be various from the existing centers?

Initial, no roadmap has been specified relating to the creation of 150,000 wellness centers for major care.

If it is the next, how does the authorities strategy to accommodate the current technique with enough personnel, services and room? The hole amongst demanded and existing figures of SCs, PHCs, and CHCs are 19%, 22% and 30% respectively. There are big vacancies for grassroots-level workers and physicians at PHCs: 8% of the PHCs are operating devoid of physicians. The shortage was specially acute at the CHC degree: 82% of the posts of medical professionals (surgeon, obstetrician gynecologists, pediatricians, and medical professionals) at the CHC stage are vacant.

The ABNHPS promises that “the governing administration of India is committed to making sure that its populace has universal accessibility to good quality health and fitness treatment companies with no any person getting to confront economic hardship as a consequence”. The evaluate taken is the PMJAY, a well being insurance policy plan which, “will supply economic safety (Swasthya Suraksha) to 10.74 crore very poor, deprived rural people and recognized occupational types of urban workers’ people as for every the latest Socio–Economic Caste Census (SECC) facts (approx. 50 crore beneficiaries). It will give a benefit go over of Rs. 500,000 for each loved ones for each yr (on a loved ones floater basis).”

Declared measures are neither simple nor satisfactory

However, the declared actions appear to be rarely functional or sufficient. Even though it identifies that 62.58% of the inhabitants “are not protected through any sort of wellness protection”, the population protected less than PMJAY is only 38% (50 crore of the present complete inhabitants, i.e, 132.42 crore). There still remains 32.87 crore of the population (or 25%) uncovered by any wellness defense scheme.

Health and fitness, finance minister Arun Jaitley in his spending plan speech asks us to consider, is an issue of financial expansion and poverty alleviation. Tellingly, the speech did not dedicate a separate paragraph on health instead, it appeared less than the sub-head ‘poverty alleviation’. Even if we pressure ourselves into tandem with the prevailing trend and preserve the intrinsic price of health aside, fitting it into the narrow box of instrumental priorities of wellness and very well-remaining, we can’t escape the question of what occurs to these whose annual catastrophic wellness expenditure (PMJAY addresses only hospitalised treatment) exceed Rs 5 lakh, the higher cap of the health and fitness insurance policies to be furnished to the lousy and susceptible?

There however stays 32.87 crore of the population (or 25%) uncovered by any health and fitness defense scheme.

In September 2018, I returned to Manju and reported, “You should be delighted now. The authorities has lifted the cure price tag coverage to Rs 5 lakh. It’s no far more a paltry Rs 30,000.” She wasn’t content. She was indignant. “We will be satisfied only when we die. You say, extra dollars, that suggests much more loot by the [private] hospitals. Go away, and give this information to the hospitals,” she said. Just about all scientific studies on RSBY, which include the RSBY’s very own evaluation, have pointed out the gross healthcare abuse, plunder by personal hospitals and people’s exclusion from the scheme owing to non-availability of any wellbeing facility in their vicinity.

Apart from corruption, the RSBY experience showed that the utilisation of wellness insurance policy is contingent to the robustness of publicly delivered health facilities. For instance, although the ordinary variety of hospitalisations less than RSBY in Kerala is .15 for each domestic, the corresponding determine for Jharkhand is a meager .03 per residence. Interestingly, the regular worth per hospitalisation (expense understood less than RSBY) is substantially higher in Jharkhand (Rs 5,919) than in Kerala (Rs 3,731).

In Jharkhand, a substantial number of public amenities, which include the PHCs with out indoor facilities have been accredited under RSBY. Men and women in these locations, so, have no facility to vacation resort to, no matter whether general public or private. The constrained variety of private nursing houses are likely to delight in monopoly of remedy. Conversely, in Kerala, community delivery of health care and a regulatory system do the job in tandem to act as a examine for the personal health and fitness market place.

Practically all studies on RSBY have pointed out the gross health care abuse, plunder by private hospitals and people’s exclusion from the scheme. Agent picture. Credit: Reuters

Chance of wellbeing coverage abuse

Economist Kenneth Arrow warned in his popular paper ‘Uncertainty and the Welfare Economics of Healthcare Care’ that the pretty expression ‘profit’ denies belief relations and “…hospitalization and surgical treatment [which only are covered under PM-JAY, as also in its earlier incarnation RSBY] are additional below the informal inspection of other”. This implies that the probability of wellbeing insurance policies abuse through plundering of the community exchequer and also by encouraging a lot of other unethical techniques, is a great deal larger in states with poorer well being shipping mechanisms, which direct to an unregulated health and fitness sector.

The probable fertile floor for revenue earning by way of coverage techniques, feeble – if not not possible – public supervision of the precise professional medical treatment [given especially in the private hospitals] and denial of have confidence in romantic relationship created Arrow argue for redistribution by govt of direct health and fitness providers, as a substitute of redistribution of purchasing ability by the authorities. This probability is significantly significant in states with fragile publicly delivered wellness care system.

In contrast, states with much better general public shipping of healthcare and other social providers are greater equipped to provide the professional medical practices beneath public inspection. This also generates a check for the personal marketplace in two methods: (1) by supplying the populace a sizeable aggressive decision and (2) through a powerful social support community that improves the capacity of the individuals to pick.

Since men and women are already socialised to entry health and fitness companies in these states, the elevated socio-economic status of the population might direct to their utilisation of the private current market as very well, as has been the situation in Kerala.

Alas, the governing administration of India is stubbornly resistant to discovering from working experience, both from household or from away.

Kumar Rana works with the Pratichi Institute of the Pratichi India Belief, launched by Amartya Sen. He lives in Kolkata.

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