Reflection on Abbadon's Gate (The Expanse #3) by James S.A. Corey

    I think this was the best book in the series so far. In this book, the world expands a lot more with new point of view characters converging on a mysterious ring at the far end of the solar system. I'm really mainly into the protomolecule saga with the ring and all that, but the human stories were more interesting in this one. I like that we still get Holden's point of view but that it's just one of a few different ones. I won't write any spoilers here, but things are starting to get very interesting in this book and I'm officially hooked on the series. 

Reflection on Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters-- and How to Get It by Laurie Mintz

 This was kind of a weird book for a man to read, but a female friend of mine was talking about how great it was and it is written by a UF professor so I thought I would give it a try. It's a book for women all about the social problem of heterosexual women not having enough orgasms due to their own ignorance about their bodies as well as their partners' apathy. The book is a really good and detailed guide for women on how to discover what they like and also has a final chapter that is meant for men to read as sort of a summation of the whole book. 

Ultimately, this book is all about communication. The ways that women orgasm are not a secret, but unfortunately women aren't nearly as comfortable as men in expressing their preferences. However, Mintz says that men are generally interested in learning, and that in surveys, most men want to learn how to please their partners but just don't know how. While about half of men are unsatisfied with the size of their penis, their penis is not what gives their (female) partners the most pleasure. In fact, in surveys women tend to say that communication and eagerness are far more important qualities than their partners' endowment.

Really interesting book that covered a lot of otherwise taboo subject and actually referenced Girls and Sex by Peggy Orenstein, another great book. I'll give it a strong recommend, and put some facts from the book below.

Miscellaneous Facts

• Only about 15% of women can have orgasms from thrusting alone
• 95% of women say the most reliable way for them to orgasm is from clitoral stimulation, with about half this group combining clitoral stimulation with penetration
• The vibrator was the fifth appliance to be electrified, acted the sewing machine, fan, teakettle, and toaster (and before the iron and the skillet)
• The inner two-thirds of the vagina have almost no touch-sensitive nerve endings and instead have more pressure-sensitive nerve endings. Surgery can even be performed in those parts of the vagina without anesthetic! 
• Generally, women who can orgasm from penetration alone are still orgasming from clitoral stimulation. This is because they tend to have their clitoris located within about one inch of their vagina, so that intercourse is close enough to stimulate their clitoris.
• The clitoris is actually very large, and has a sort of stem that goes under the mons pubis and two bulbs on either side of the vulva (kind of behind the outer labia) that many women find pleasurable to touch.
• Arousal in women is probably not related to sexual orientation. Studies have found that women who identify as lesbian get excited watching both lesbian and heterosexual sex and the same is true of women who identify as heterosexual.
• Most women require about twenty minutes of "fooling around" (author's words not mine lol) before they are ready for penetration, but in heterosexual couples, the average time is only five minutes.

Reflection on Caliban's War (The Expanse #2)

     I think this book was better than the first expanse book. Cool new characters and interesting new stuff happening with the protomolecule. I didn't really take any notes, so I'm not gonna leave a long review. But I'll just say I liked it even though it had a lot of the problems of the first, mainly being that Holden is just not an interesting character to me. But that doesn't matter. Because I like this book for its plot and the really cool story of the protomolecule. That's what I read it for. Also, why's it called Caliban's War? Did I miss that? Who/what is Caliban?

Reflection on Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy by Adam Jentleson

            In this book, the author puts forth an excellent and short history of the development of the filibuster, from the time of the founding (when no such thing existed) to the modern day, when the minority party has a veto over all legislation the majority tries to pass with a simple majority. The filibuster as we knew it doesn’t even exist anymore. Senators no longer have to give long speeches to keep business from moving on the floor. In fact, floor debate is no longer a feature of what was once America’s greatest deliberative body. By claiming the right to unlimited debate, minorities in Congress can demand that the majority use 60 votes to “end” a nonexistent debate that lacks any significant number of floor speeches. So that means that in the polarized era when everyone votes along party lines, the majority party in the Senate needs 60 votes to pass any legislation, something brand new to our republic.

            In 1806, the Senate created a loophole eliminating the previous question rule, which allowed senators to close debate and vote on a bill. At the time, it seemed unnecessary because gentlemanly norms led to all senators sharing mutual respect and avoiding superfluous debate; they were able to self-regulate for decades without any problems. But in 1841, a half-century after the founding, Senator John C. Calhoun invented the filibuster when he sought to stop a bill regarding the national bank. However, all he could do was unnecessarily delay the bill and annoy his opponents. It surprised the bill’s supporters, who sought to restore the previous question rule but backed down, being satisfied with just passing the original bank bill when Calhoun’s supporters got tired.

            Calhoun’s model allowed senators to cloak themselves in high-minded ideas like minority rights as they obstructed the democratic will of the people. It became especially popular among Southern senators to block civil rights bills. For example, in 1891, when the Senate sought to pass a bill to institute better voting rights for blacks in the South, Southerners filibustered it. For the first time since 1841, the senators in support of the bill sought to restore the previous question rule and had a majority to do so, but Southern senators pounced when they realized one of the supporting senators would be leaving town. They quickly brought one of their own men out of his sick bed to the Senate and another from home to quickly advance the bill to the floor and vote it down.

            The modern filibuster is a product of Senate Rule 22, originally created in 1917 with the intent to curb obstructionist debate, but perverted into a tool of obstructionists against the majority. It allowed senators to vote on “cloture,” ending debate; however, unlike the previous question rule that allowed a simple majority to end debate, Rule 22 set the requirement at two-thirds (later amended to three-fifths). The majority of senators who created the rule wanted to set it at a majority, but they compromised, as the Senate still held onto certain norms that are gone today that made it seem unthinkable that a third of the Senate would obstruct the rest. Rule 22 backfired, and now that it existed, it became expected that the majority would have to use it. So instead of the minority giving in when it seemed reasonable, it became more common in the twentieth century for the minority to only give in when defeated by Rule 22.

            When reformers tried to change Rule 22, Senator Richard Russell of Georgia seized the opportunity to grants some ultimately meaningless changes, but to also peg the two-thirds cloture requirement to the total number of senators, not to the total number present, making it even easier for a minority to block a bill. He also added new requirements to make it nearly impossible to alter Rule 22 in the future. From 1949 onward, there was a constant struggle to defeat Rule 22 by reformers but they were defeated again and again. Eventually, changes were made in the 1970’s. One was the “tracking” of legislation, so that a filibuster could block one bill, but still allow Senate business to continue. However, this meant that filibusters were easier because a senator could block a bill and other senators wouldn’t be as annoyed with him because Senate business would continue. Then, the cloture rule was amended in 1975 to require only three-fifths of the chamber to invoke cloture, but that number became harder and harder to reach as Senators became more partisan.

            The Senate used to be a more chaotic place that was leaderless, as individual senators could become influential, but the role of “Majority Leader” was not a powerful one until Lyndon Johnson occupied it in the late 1950’s. Until then, committee leaders were decided by seniority, but Johnson convinced older members of the senate to step away and let newer, younger faces take over to save the Democratic party. With the backing of his mentor and close ally, Richard Russell, Johnson was successful in changing the committee assignments from a seniority-based equation to one where he had significant control. Johnson was considered to be an aberration as a powerful majority leader, as once he left to become Vice President and eventually President, the Senate reverted back to its old ways somewhat. However, in the 1980’s and 90’s that started to change.

            Democrats in the 1980’s started issuing a report, the first opposition document, that sought to draw differences between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, something that had not been done before when the Senate was an institution more of individuals than of parties. It still hadn’t become systematic though, and after the Democrats retook the majority in 1986, they stopped publishing the document. But Senate Majority and Minority leaders began to take more control in ways not seen since Lyndon Johnson, especially in fundraising, where they started defending incumbents in primaries. Soon, because the leaders in the Senate could indirectly control funds to other senators’ campaigns, party leadership took control of the filibuster and in the 21st century, party leaders have used it to essentially create a requirement that every bill have three-fifths support to pass, not the original majority. Thanks to partisanship, few senators defect, and it is incredibly difficult for any one party to win three-fifths of the Senate.

The filibuster got completely out of control during the Obama administration, as Republicans filibustered against nominees they were still voting for. Under Clinton, nominees waited an average of 17 days for a vote and under George W. Bush it was 29 days. Under Obama, nominees waited an average of 125 days. Eventually, Democrats got fed up and executed what was dramatically called the “nuclear option” in 2013, abolishing the filibuster for non-Supreme Court judicial nominees. It was the biggest filibuster reform since the creation of Rule 22 in 1917. When the Democrats eliminated the filibuster for all judicial nominees except for the Supreme Court, they exempted the highest court in the land because they thought it would serve as a way to keep SCOTUS as the last line of defense for abortion and the filibuster would stop anti-abortion nominees. But within months of Trump becoming president Senate Majority Leader and Republican Mitch McConnell eliminated it, and put Justice Gorsuch on the court with 54 votes, one of the lowest vote-earning justices in modern times.

In the end of the book, Jentleson advocates for several change to Senate procedure to restore debate and make it more democratic. The biggest and best one is to require a minimum number of Senators to be on the floor for a minimum number of hours (more than half for five hours) before it can adjourn overnight or more than 16 hours. In practice, that would result in Senators being forces to spend at least some time on the floor together debating issues, which they no longer do. He also says that we should simply eliminate the filibuster. While budget reconciliation gives us a once-a-year exception to the filibuster, it is time to get rid of it and restore majority rule to the Senate. Additionally, he argues that the Democratic and Republican Parties should stop participating in primaries. It is not fair that they direct funds to incumbent Senators and stop new voices from joining politics.

All in all, this was a great and very readable book. It draws a lot from Robert Caro and Doris Kearns Goodwin on Lyndon Johnson as well as on Zephyr Teachout’s Corruption in America. I thought it was great and offered solid solutions. I would recommend all Democrats read it (it’s definitely written by a Democrat for Democrats).

 

Miscellaneous Facts:

• All other presidents combined endured 82 filibusters against their judicial nominees, but from 2009 to 2013, President Obama alone faced 86.