Sahel Drama part N of part N^N

Chad's president died. So dies another dictator, but now for the instability in an already increasing unstable part of the world. Shit ain't gonna be pretty, son. Like I said, when bad-faith morons tell me climate change isn't man made or happening, I usually ask what's their plan for dealing with a warmed up world (and places like the Sahel) and you hear crickets. As my old DS said, do pushups until you get some blood in your brain. 
Meanwhile, over in the freespeech for me and not for thee wars:

Not sure who he's talking about, are you? Maybe there are some left younguns who don't know how "offensive speech" is used to corral anyone on the left into submission, but I doubt it. The argument hasn't been does free speech matter, it's that there is the right and they (the ones to complain about free speech are on the right, and only when it affects those on the right, and those people aren't actually silenced, but given books deals etc to the max) use it in more insidious ways and it rarely gets covered. Period (read this from me). Also please define cancel culture. Is it merely the yelling you hear (with little other consequences for the powerful in the status quo)? That's not it. 
And again, I'm actually for free speech, but to carry out a test ask people where they stand on Ward Churchill. The likes of Chomsky say, yeah it was wrong to fire him (and I agree), but most on the right merely scream cancel culture because of how they don't like people below them (or minorities) speaking up. 
*change my mind pic*

Anyhow, over at reddit, I asked about people's best books of this century and here is what they're saying:
All the Light You Cannot See (quite a few liked this one)
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (gonna have to read this as so many people like it and even my wife claims it's brilliant and mulls over the meaning of a life well lived).

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward. Read this. Thought it was great and will read her other stuff, but I'm not sure it makes it to my own list. 

The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

Gilead by Marilynn Robinson.(yeah so many people I know love this story. But no, it's hardly that great, even though I see that subtlety that she's going for. Furthermore, hearing her speak, and her borderline reactionary ways, things I could sense from her writing [1] Only made me like her less. I know, I know, trust the story not the author, but here I don't trust either)

Empire Falls, (Huh, seems interesting.) 

The Dutch House, (Not sure I'd check this out any time soon. Not a fan of some of her other work.) 

Transcendent Kingdom (Yeah this looks good, I'll have to see it.) 

The Fifth Season bt N.K. Jemisin (already on my to read pile, I'm going to have to check it out and soon). 

Daisy Jones and the six, normal people

"Shogun" by James Clavell

Shuggie Bain and Please Look After Mom

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead Anxious People by Fredrik Backman Beartown by Fredrik Backman The Midnight Library by Matt HaigGone Girl by Gillian Flynn The Martian by Andy WeirLincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan EvisonAll the Light We Cannot See by Anthony DoerrLittle Children by Tom Perrotta
Zombie fallout by Mark tufo

Seiobo There Below by László Krasznahorkai

Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon

Flights by Olga Tokarczuk

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Remembrance of Earth's Past by Cixin Liu

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

The Sea by John Banville

City of Thieves by David Benioff

the giant Indian novel- "Sacred Games

[1] How can I, the man who hates being tied into his novels (oh you wrote about this, so you must be living it out or thinking it or it's autobiographical in some sense and all I can think is naw...

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