Max Boot:

In Virginia, Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman and counselor to “compassionate conservative” George W. Bush, is attacking his Democratic opponent for governor, Ralph Northam, for being too sympathetic to immigrants and too unsympathetic to Confederate monuments. One particularly incendiary commercial accuses Northam of “increasing the threat of MS-13,” a drug gang from El Salvador that is evoked with pictures of tattooed gang-bangers who actually belong to a rival outfit. Gillespie’s tendentious reasoning? As lieutenant governor, Northam voted against a bill in Virginia’s Senate that would have prohibited the establishment of any “sanctuary cities,” even though Virginia does not have any such cities. MS-13 has long been a favorite Trump target, symbolizing the supposed menace of Latino immigration.

Chip Kidd is a prolific graphic designer and Book Two showcases an extensive collection of his work in the last decade. Most of his works are book jackets and cover designs, but they cover a wide range. From poetry to novel to comic to non-fiction, his designs are impressive and inspiring. I am glad that the rise of e-books has not affected his work.

Dani Shapiro’s part memoir part advice on writing reveals how she became a writer and her writing process. Growing up as the only child of older parents who are observant Jews, she spent most of time in the Sabbath reading or writing. Although I have not read any of Shapiro’s book, I have always interested in learning about a writer’s process. In Shapiro’s case, the level of concentration to just write appeals to me. I don’t plan on becoming a writer either, but I enjoyed reading how writers still writing.

Xuân, being sick, sucks the life out of my wife. He clings to her twenty four seven. He cries and whines and wakes up every hour at night. I have been miserable myself from a cold.

Yesterday we decided to go to Six Flags to get some fresh air. On the way, I asked my wife, “Do you still love us?” Her respond was, “No, I love no one but myself.” Đạo and Đán was a bit sad. Đán said, “That means you hate us.” I said, “No, she loves you guys more than me.” She said to the boys, “I love you more if you don’t make me yell.” I thought to myself, “I don’t make you yell. I just make you scream.”

I held my joke because I didn’t know she was in the right mood for it. I didn’t want to get yell at.

After more than two months without a smartphone, I am now using Google Pixel 2. I have always been an Apple fanatic. Unfortunately the latest iPhones are way too expensive for me. The iPhone 8 is $700 and 8 Plus is $800. The iPhone X is over a grant. It’s not that I can’t effort it—since George Mason gives me a stipend each month for work related usage. I just can’t spend $700 to $1,000 for a phone.

The bigger disappointment for me, however, is Apple’s design. Apple’s user interface and user experience have not been too exciting. With each iOS update, the software sucks up so much battery. Google, on the other hand, has stepped up its design; therefore, I wanted to give it a shot.

The new Pixel 2 with 64GB Memory started out at $650 and Best Buy has a $100 discount. Google also threw in a Google Home Mini, which is $50, so I thought it was a good deal. In addition, I prefer small screen over big screen. $550 or $23 a month is still a lot, but I can live with that.

The switch was quite painless since I already have a Gmail account. With the contacts, I just export them to vCard and import them into my Google Contact. I only use a few apps so re-downloading them was not so bad. Podcast is the only thing that I missed from Apple. I am now using Play Music, but most podcasts, Fresh Air in particular, aren’t on Play Music yet. Google needs to catch up on this. Other than that, I am impressed with Google’s design. The screen is fantastic for reading. Typography is stunning.

The battery is also great. I only used like 25% for an entire day. To be fair, I tried to limit my phone usage as much as possible. Two months without a phone felt great even though at times I did wish I have it to call my mom or my wife. Luckily, I haven’t have any issue at work that required a phone. Our server has been performing well, but I do need to monitor it just in case.

For my limited usage, Pixel 2 does seem like a luxury, but what the heck. As for the Google Home Mini, the kids are having fun with it. They have been asking her all kind of questions. Đạo asked her how many books are there in the world and what is the biggest Lego ever built? She actually had an answer for each of them. He even asked her some mathematic questions and he figured that she could help him do his homework. I don’t think I would have bought Google Home Mini, but it is a nice complementary to the Pixel 2.

Nguyễn Thanh Việt came to the U.S. when he was four. I left Vietnam when I was twelve. We are both refugee. Yet neither of us has any idea about the war. He explored the subject through novels and movies. I learned about it through Asia Entertainment, a Vietnamese music production that released documentary and music video about the war. Its perspective is mostly from the Republic of Vietnam.

In writing this book, Nguyễn returned to the homeland to visit war-related places and museums, which are now mostly tourist attractions. Like him, I went into Vịnh Mốc tunnels and paid Hồ Chí Minh’s body a visit. From a refugee perspective, Nguyễn offers a fair and balance analysis of the war. He draws his studies from literature, film, and art, which are kind of odd for a nonfiction book. I wonder why he hadn’t studied Vietnamese music. We must have thousands of songs about the war. Nguyễn’s assessment on identity resonates with me:

Having carried ourselves over, or been brought over, from the other side—we Gooks, we goo-goos, we slopes, we dinks, we zipperheads, we slant-eyes, we yellow ones, we brown ones, we Japs, we Chinks, we ragheads, we sand niggers, we Orientals, we who cannot be distinguished between ourselves because we all look alike—we know that the condition of our being and our self-representation is that we are both ourselves and others. We are never without identity and never without ideology, whether we like it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not. Those people who believe themselves to be beyond identity and ideology will, sooner or later, charge us with identity and ideology if we dare to commit that most unnatural act of speaking up and out. (p.63)

He was lucky that no one had ever called him these names to his face. As a kid, I was called Ching Chong and chink even though I am not Chinese. Then again, we all look alike.

A compelling and beautiful read if you don’t mind Nguyễn’s academic writing style.

Hôm nọ thằng Đạo ngồi ăn cơm không để ý (vì ham chơi Lego) nên làm đổ ly nước. Đán la lên, “Thấy chưa”? Chắc nó nghe tôi nói nhiều lần nên đã nhớ.

Hôm qua Đán đem hộp lunchbox về đồ ăn vẫn chưa đụng tới nên bị mẹ la. Tối đến Đạo hỏi Đán, “Why didn’t you eat your lunch”? Đán trả lời, “Because my friends kept scratching my nách”. Đạo hỏi lại, “Your nut”? Tôi cũng hơi ngạc nhiên nhưng Đán trả lời, “No, my nách. My armpit”. Nó chỉ vào nách của nó.

Tối qua kiểm tra lại 24 chữ cái cho Đán nhưng nó vẫn không nhận ra được một số chữ. Tôi chỉ đi chỉ lại chữ s nhiều lần mà nó cứ nói chữ c hoặc chữ q mà không nói chữ s. Không biết thằng này có bị dyslexia hay không nữa. Hơn cả năm rồi mà nó vẫn chưa thuộc hết 24 chữ cái. Chắc phải nói chuyện với cô nó xem coi có cần đi kiểm tra hay không.

Hôm thứ Bảy cả nhà đưa bà ngoại ra phi trường đi vacation ở Nhật Bản và Nam Hàn. Sau đó kéo quá DC chơi. Tụi nhỏ thấy chỗ phun nước nên nhảy vào chơi ướt hết cả người. Chủ Nhật thằng Đạo và thằng Xuân bị sốt và ói mửa đầy nhà. Thứ Hai tôi cũng phải ở nhà với tụi nó. Cả hai vợ chồng đều mệt mỏi cả. Tôi thì bị nhức đầu cả ngày. Thứ Ba đi làm có một chuyện nhỏ không đáng kể nhưng làm tôi bực bội.

Khi đón thằng Xuân về lại thêm một chuyện nhỏ không đáng kể nhưng tôi đã trút cái giận lên bà xã. Nói vài câu lớn tiếng thế là vợ giận lại. Biết mình hơi quá đáng nên đã xin lỗi nhưng vẫn chưa được tha. Tôi biết mình thật vô cớ và không biết từ lúc nào tôi đã dễ bị kích thích. Chuyện không đáng để ý tới cũng khiến tôi bực bội rồi đâm ra quạu quọ.

Tôi cần lấy lại sự điềm tĩnh cho chính bản thân. Ngủ không đủ đã kiến tôi mất đi sự kiềm chế tính tình. Tôi không thể để cho những sự nhỏ nhặt làm tôi trở nên cọc cằn và mất thăng bằng. Vì đám nhỏ tôi cần phải tự kiểm điểm lại chính mình.

I like to read. I prefer books over social media. Reading books keep me offline. I check out a couple of books from our local libraries. I want to get through them all as quickly as I can. I ended up losing my concentration. If I am 20 or 30 pages into the book and I am not feeling it, I grow impatience and just want to move on to the next one. Now I just check out one book at a time. I have to finish it first before I could check out another one. It has been working so far until I forgot to take my book with me. Now I have nothing to read during my lunch break.

In her profile of Mike Pence, Jane Mayer points out that the Moron in Chief filled his administration with Koch suckers:

Trump began to appoint an extraordinary number of officials with ties to the Kochs and to Pence, especially in positions that affected Koch Industries financially, such as those dealing with regulatory, environmental, and fiscal policy. Short, who a few months earlier had tried to enlist the Kochs to stop Trump, joined the White House as its director of legislative affairs. Scott Pruitt, the militantly anti-regulatory attorney general of Oklahoma, who had been heavily supported by the Kochs, was appointed director of the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt, in turn, placed Patrick Traylor, a lawyer for Koch Industries and other fossil-fuel companies, in charge of the E.P.A.’s enforcement of key anti-pollution laws. As the Times has reported, a document called “A Roadmap to Repeal,” written by Koch operatives, has guided the E.P.A.’s reversal of Obama Administration clean-air and climate regulations. Don McGahn, who had done legal work for Freedom Partners, became White House counsel. Betsy DeVos, a billionaire heiress, who had been a major member of the Kochs’ donor network and a supporter of Pence, was named Secretary of Education. The new director of the C.I.A. was Mike Pompeo, the congressman who represented Charles Koch’s district, in Wichita, Kansas; before Pompeo ran for office, the Kochs had invested in his aerospace business. Pompeo, the former transition-team member said, “wasn’t even on Trump’s radar, but he was brought in to meet him and got appointed, like, the next day.” A recent analysis by the Checks & Balances Project found that sixteen high-ranking officials in the Trump White House had ties to the Kochs. The pattern continued among lower-level political appointees, including in Pence’s office, which was stocked with Koch alumni. Pence reportedly consulted with Charles Koch before hiring his speechwriter, Stephen Ford, who previously worked at Freedom Partners.

Once Pence replaces Trump, this country will be ruled by the Koch brothers.