N.L. Brisson's Blog, page 3

How Autocracies Metastasized, Chapter 2, Autocracy, Inc.

From a Google Image Search – Politico

Let’s see what Anne Applebaum means when she compares the spread of autocracy and kleptocracy to the spread of a cancer. As Western nations try to influence nations that intimidate or use violence against their citizens – nations that give power to a few and squelch the human rights of many – by sanctioning them or their banks or institutions, autocratic leaders are creeping in to bypass these sanctions or boycotts. In a way Autocracy, Inc., if it existed as a formal global entity, would be an anti-NATO. These nations seek to undermine democracies and, if they succeed, they create new autocracies. The pilfering of national dollars can cause the nations they “protect” to fail without their assistance (sometimes even with their assistance). The lure of fortunes to be made and sequestered away is creating a pull towards autocracy in nations that are long-established democracies. This has us fearing that the balance of global power is shifting towards autocratic/kleptocratic governance and may give global hegemony to a giant autocracy like China, or a giant, ruthless autocracy like Russia. The 2024 election in America could weaken our democracy, perhaps beyond restoration, if Trump and the Republicans win.

Applebaum uses several examples to illustrate how Autocracy Inc., through mostly unplanned interventions, allows dysfunctional, pillaged national economies to continue to serve as fodder for kleptocrats. These rescuer nations may have once required no quid pro quos, but they have learned to profit as they preserve autocracies in trouble.

This article will summarize her discussion of this dynamic with one example in Venezuela, but there are more examples in Applebaum’s book. President Hugo Chavez rose to power in 1998. Venezuela was an oil state, “nepotistic and corrupt.” Politicians were bribed and deals were offered to friends of the former President. Chavez ran as a leader “who promised to create a more honest “Bavarian Republic of Venezuela”. But as corruption crept in Chavez did not pursue opportunities to end it, in fact he fired the whistleblower, a member of his inner circle. Chavez, like Putin, chose to turn Venezuela into a kleptocracy. “Corrupt officials prove more malleable than clean ones.” (p. 45) 

Chavez eliminated transparency and accountability, he broke democratic institutions like the press, the courts, the civil service. (Sound familiar?) All the while he kept proclaiming his belief in democracy. Applebaum says, “since everyone was breaking the law no one wanted to talk about it.” Meanwhile, officials were hiding millions in oil money in a Portuguese Bank (Banco Espirito Santo). Ten billion dollars went into Swiss banks and 26 billion from a Venezuelan oil company scam was stashed in Andora Banks. A later investigation showed 127 cases of large-scale corruption just in the oil industry. (pg. 46)

A new form of corruption later named currency exchange manipulation offered a way to profit from skimming dollars and exploiting weak laws. For a while students figured out how to game the currency exchange system. It was called the “democratization of kleptocracy” Chavez was able to fool many for a while until the decline of the oil industry began in 2002-3.

“Billions (or maybe tens of billions) of state funds had vanished, the country’s foreign currency had disappeared into private offshore accounts, hyperinflation accelerated and imported goods vanished.” (p. 48-49) 

Chavez died in 2013, and Venezuelans hoped the corruption would end when they elected Nicolás Maduro, but, Applebaum contends, “Autocracy Inc. stepped in to help.” Rogue states surviving under sanctions turned to new sources of funding. They turned to drug trafficking, illegal mining, extortion, kidnapping, and gasoline smuggling. She argues, “[i]f a state is a member of Autocracy Inc. there are other options.” (p. 50) There are friends and trading partners in other sanctioned states. There are companies that are unbothered by corruption – happy to encourage it and to participate in it.

Russian companies stepped in to replace North America, South America, and Europe. Rosneft, Gazprom, Lukoil, TNK-BP all put money into Venezuela. Grain imports from the US and Canada were replaced by Russia along with 4 billion in Russian weapons.

China started loaning money to Venezuela without conditions which bought Chavez and Maduro time before collapse. China eventually added conditions when Venezuela defaulted on the loans. China sold riot gear to the regimes. 

Cuba was linked to Venezuela by an anti-American agenda. Oil moved from Venezuela to Cuba; soldiers, police officers, and security and intelligence experts moved from Cuba to Venezuela (to quell riots and demonstrations). Cuba taught Venezuela how to use food shortages to end dissent (think about it).

Turkey helped because of personal links between Erdogan and Maduro who were bonded by their dislike of democracy and its anti-corruption movements. Venezuela sent gold to Turkey in exchange for food.

Iran seemed the most improbable tie, Applebaum tells us. Oil binds them and anti-Americanism, opposition of democratic movements at home, trading information about how to evade sanctions. Iran got gold, Venezuela got food, gasoline and advice on the repression of dissidents. Iran helped Venezuela build a drone factory and sent money to be laundered for Hezbollah.

There are more examples in Chapter 2. More nations are involved. Applebaum says, “there are hybrid states that are a legitimate part of international financial systems, that normally trade with the democratic world, that are sometimes part of democratic military alliances but are also willing to launder or accept criminal or stolen wealth or to assist people and companies that have been sanctioned.” (p. 50)

My comments – Perhaps you have been very aware of the spread of autocracy and are not surprised by corruption, but it is important to note how autocratic nations are pitching in to get around sanctions that democracies use to try to enforce humanitarian standards both in peace and war. Will Autocracy Inc. become an institutionalized force against democracy instead of providing hit and run assistance to kleptocracies that go too far, whose economies fail, and who have sanctions against them? These nations deliberately try to exert power to prevent humanitarian reforms in the nations that may soon make up a true Autocracy Inc. 

Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum, Chapter 1

From a Google Image Search – The Guardian

Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum

There are reasons why Anne Applebaum’s book Autocracy, Inc. is directly related to the 2024 election. Voters should always have access to issues that will affect their future as Americans. Sometimes there are issues that are flying under the radar, not being given the weight they should bear in our decision-making. Applebaum offers the details that show the roots of our autocratic tendencies. She ties togethers what seems like an economic wet dream with a flirtatious ideological invitation to keep the money train moving by voting. If Americans give Trump autocratic powers, he will guarantee that wealthy people will have pathways to stay wealthy (cutting taxes, cutting government, tariffs, favoritism). Those who support Trump in every way will be allowed to accumulate fortunes, as has been true for the oligarchs in autocratic states. Applebaum is asking us if we really want to give up our democracy so that rich people can turn the American economy into the Cayman Islands and the American government into Hungary (or Russia)? So, I am offering my version of Cliff Notes on Autocracy, Inc.

Anne Applebaum’s book Autocracy, Inc. is dense with statements of fact and proofs for those facts. Attempting to summarize and condense the contents is difficult. The ideas I am offering are not my own ideas. These are the arguments Anne Applebaum makes in her deceptively petite book. However, I do agree with her ideas and the details provided in her proofs make her commentary important. So, some of my summary will paraphrase the author and some will quote her directly. The contents of this book give us explanations for the rise of autocracies and show how America (and Great Britain) have become enmeshed in these kleptocratic practices. Applebaum is showing us our own drift towards autocracy and kleptocracy. Will abandoning human rights work to bring economic equality to all or to just a very few oligarchs? It’s an easy question to answer, but being able to get “down in the weeds” with cogent examples is the gift Anne Applebaum offers us. She has a team helping her with her research summarizing the content of many sources. She then passes what she has learned on to us.

How did America begin to adopt the practices of autocracies and kleptocracies?

“Western political leaders spoke about “democracy” and the “rule of law” in Russia, but Western companies were building autocracies and lawlessness and not only in Russia…By the time Putin became president, he was well acquainted with the double standards of Western democracies, which preached liberal values at home but were very happy to help build illiberal regimes everywhere else.” (p. 33)

Did we reap what we sowed?

Applebaum would say “yes,” I think. Her example takes us to Russia. Russia under Putin was designed to look like a democracy but look closer she suggests.

1. there were “no accidental winners” in Russian elections

2. everything was a front

3. banks that looked like banks were often money-laundering operations

4. “companies were sometimes facades” – what they offered were “ways for the very wealthy to siphon assets away from the state”

Many inhabitants of the Western world profited, ostensibly believing that Putin intended to democratize Russia.

Example: A steel plant in Warren, Ohio with a history of two explosions and many safety violations was shut down for good in January 2016. Kolomoisky (a Ukrainian oligarch from when the government followed the Russian model) owned the mill and hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of midwestern properties (“as part of a money-laundering operation connected to defrauding PrivatBank – a retail bank in Ukraine”).

“For decades, American real estate agents were not required to examine the source of their client’s funding.” It was okay to buy property anonymously (both in the US and in Europe). (p. 37)

Kolomoisky’s money from PrivatBank flowed through shell companies in Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands, and an American Branch of Deutsche Bank in Delaware.

Applebaum names some names:

Two Americans bought properties for Kolomoisky. Chaim Schochet of Miami and Mordechai Korf, a Miami businessman. Marc Kasowitz (who also represents Donald Trump) was their lawyer.

“These arrangements make no sense as business decisions,” says Applebaum, “but make plenty of sense in the arcane world of international kleptocracy.”

“In such a system, theft is rewarded, taxes are not paid, law enforcement is impotent and underfunded, and regulation is to be dodged,” she reminds us.

What we have learned.

Remember the revelations in the Pandora Papers (October 2021) from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

(Paraphrased) We have learned that financial traffic does not just go through the Caribbean — it also goes through the US and Great Britain. In the US, Delaware, Nevada, South Dakota and Wyoming are open for secretive financial operations.

Applebaum’s Conclusions in Chapter 1

“To stay in power, modern autocrats need to be able to take money and hide it without being bothered by political institutions that encourage transparency, accountability, or public debate.”

“Kleptocracy and autocracy go hand in hand, reinforcing each other but also undermining any other institution they touch. the real estate agents who don’t ask too many questions in Sussex or Hampshire, the factory owners eager to unload failing businesses in Warren, the bankers in Sioux Falls happy to accept mystery deposits from mystery clients — all of them undermine the rule of law in their own countries and around the world. The globalization of finance, the plethora of hiding places, and the benign tolerance that democracies have shown for foreign graft now give autocrats opportunities that few could have imagined a couple of decades ago. (p. 42)

Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum-Book

Personal Photo

Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum – Book

Anne Applebaum is a reporter, an expert on Eastern Europe, Russia, China, Arabic nations and African nations. She is a Pulitzer Prize winner. Her newest book, Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, looks small but it’s an important manual describing the wheeling and dealing of autocrats both at home and abroad. This is a book that should be in your library if you believe that democracy, freedom, and human rights are worth fighting for. If you don’t think that there is a fight, read this book and it just might make you a believer. If you want to hear about strategies that could work in this fight they are on offer. It’s a war unlike the old Cold War we are familiar with. The dynamics are complex and the strategies change. Summarizing this book won’t work as it is a handbook and every word seems to carry weight. It is full of anecdotes that make concepts easy to understand and add value to the author’s arguments.

In the Introduction, Applebaum argues that it is greed that binds these autocrats, that their kleptocracy is metastasizing, that autocrats have learned how to control the narrative and change up the operating system (with a boost from tech advances) and that part of their plan involves smearing the Democrats. Action strategies are discussed in the Epilogue entitled Democrats United.

“Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy, but by sophisticated networks relying on kleptocratic financial structures, a complex of security systems-military, paramilitary, police-and technological experts who provide surveillance, propaganda, and disinformation.” (p. 1)

Members of Autocracy, Inc are connected within a given autocracy, but also with leaders in other autocratic countries, and sometimes with politicians in democracies too. These nations have different historical roots, goals and aesthetics, Applebaum tells us and then lists the nations:

China-Communism

Russia-Nationalism

Venezuela-Bolivarian socialism

North Korea-Juche

Islamic Republic of Iran-Shia radicalism

 Monarchies: not as likely to seek to undermine the democratic world

Saudi Arabia

The Emirates

Vietnam

Softer autocracies (illiberal democracies)-choose allies based on expediency

Turkey

Singapore

India

Phillippines

Hungary

Other autocracies:

Nicaragua

Angola

Myanmar

Cuba

Syria

Zimbabwe

Belarus

Sudan

Azerbaijan 

and 3 dozen others that are not named in the introduction.

Applebaum tells us that these nations do not act like a “bloc” but rather like “an agglomeration of companies bound not by ideology but rather a ruthless single-minded determination to preserve wealth and power). (which Applebaum and others call Autocracy, Inc.) (p. 4)

“They share a determination to deprive their citizens of any real influence or public voice, to push back against all forms of transparency or accountability, and to repress anyone, at home or abroad, who challenges them. (p. 3)

She tells us that their bonds are “cemented not through ideals, but through deals.” (p. 3)

Autocracy, Inc. nations collaborate to keep members in power and create a new world order (to replace the liberal world order). (p. 17) 

“The autocracies believe they are winning. That belief-where it came from, why it persists, how the democratic world originally helped consolidate it, and how we can defeat it-is the subject of this book.) (p. 17)

It’s difficult to write about Applebaum’s book in my own words because she has done her due diligence, she is the expert we all need to consult, and every point she makes resonates if you have been watching and feeling anxious about the spread of autocracy. The book is full of anecdotes that we will recognize from news feeds although, perhaps, we were not able to put them into an organized framework to explain how powerful these concerted and often selfish efforts have been in creating changes in the world. If we don’t want to give up on the ideals of freedom of speech and freedom of thought and transparency; all the democratic principles we admire, then we will need better strategies to fight nations that do not mind fighting dirty. Demonstrations are not the best option. Applebaum explains why.

If you are an activist this is an important book to read and study. If you think governments are too corrupt and that you will ignore politics and live your life, you also need to read and study this book. Autocracy, Inc. is counting on ambivalence as an important weapon in this war on democracy.

This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud – Book

From a Google Image Search – NPR

Claire Messud’s book This Strange Eventful History tells the fictionalized life of her extended family. Not quite a memoir, it resembles an Ancestry test result, fleshed out with familial and historical details, that resurrects the essences of a family’s life. Gaston and Lucienne live in Algeria, a colony of France which promises residents that they are French citizens, equal in every way to Frenchmen. As the Nazi’s are beginning their occupation of France, Gaston, a civil servant climbing the ranks, thinks about volunteering for the French navy. He ends up going to Beirut where his bosses direct him, which is not into the French navy. His family, living in France at the time, leaves France to return to Algeria. There are two young children in the fleeing family of Gaston and Lucienne; François and Denise. When the war ends, the Cassar family is still living in Algeria. Messud describes Gaston’s decision and his relationship with his wife in her elegant prose:

“Back and forth, Gaston had argued all possible permutations in his head in the forty-eight hours since hearing the broadcast. He’d considered the choice before him while walking, while packing, while lunching with Cotigny, though he didn’t speak of it to his adjunct. He wished above all that he could speak to Lucienne; in the night he spoke aloud to her untouched pillow, as if she lay beside him, though it smelled only of laundering. How could he know what to do without knowing her mind? He thought of them as joined by an invisible thread, always united, one heart in two bodies. The two halves of Plato’s Symposium, who had found each other and their life’s purpose.” (p. 58)

In possession of her grandfather’s notes (all 1000 pages), Messud offers us views of a man’s life and his inner thoughts as he moves from the public sector back to the private sector and becomes as successful as he will become. Then we follow his son François to school in America and to his life with his wife, Barbara. Denise’s life is portrayed just as believably. The Cassar family expands as family members age and have children. 

Messud describes a time after WWII when Algeria wins its independence from France and the family has to leave the country they know best to return to France. Many countries gave or were forced to give independence to their colonies in the twentieth century. Gaston’s upheaval was experienced by plenty of others and led us all to many discussions about the colonizing motivations of our forebears. Despite our negative judgements, if we go to space, I think we will be colonizers once again.

Although this book may be considered too literary for some readers, Messud creates for us the various places where these characters reside and immerses us in lives that we can comprehend but which are most likely dissimilar to our own lives. It reminded me of the biography of Winston Churchill, although without the degree of historical significance of Churchill. Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts shows us Churchill living through some of the same historical eras as the Cassars, and similarly takes us to geographic locations we may never have visited with much discussion of Britain’s colonies.

Now I will apologize in advance for expressing maudlin thoughts, but I am at an age where my demise could be imminent. Messud not only covers the lives of these family members; she also covers their deaths. She doesn’t dwell on biological details, just on the way a full life dwindles and becomes circumscribed as we age, or if we have a fatal illness. We die alone, she does not pull her punches about this, but our deaths do affect those who love us. The details of the care we receive as life leaves us (or we leave it) may not resemble those enjoyed by the Cassar’s who lived in different times and who did not have to worry about financial matters, but still Messud has us contemplating the possible details of our own dying moments. I appreciated time spent with Claire Messud’s family, fictionalized or real. Good stuff. In fact, Messud’s book is shortlisted for the Booker Prize, 2024.

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio – Book

From a Google Image Search – Holly Gramazio’s author website

Lauren, Lauren, Lauren. OMG. Or should I say Holly, Holly, Holly because Holly Gramazio wrote the very bizarre book, The Husbands. Her book is unique, a real trip to modern culture, to reality – to somewhere. Lauren and her sister Nat own a pair of flats in London. Lauren lives in one and her sister, mother of Magda lives elsewhere. When the bulb in Lauren’s attic is replaced, it triggers some kind of electric wormhole in the universe or an anomaly in the space-time continuum. From that time on Lauren’s attic seems to offer her an endless supply of husbands.

Lauren is single, but one day when she comes home from work and finds a guy in her flat who says he is her husband, Michael. Lauren plays along. She even finds pictures of their wedding in her phone. Her apartment is painted in different colors. There are other changes – furniture and layout. One day she sends Michael into the attic, and he disappears. But a new husband climbs down. Who remembers husband’s names? We are simply fascinated as Lauren temporarily lives with each new husband or sends him immediately back to the attic. While it’s interesting to meet some of the 200 plus husbands Lauren meets and discards, it becomes somewhat repetitive and then unnerving. How many examples does one need to learn a life lesson? Is there such a thing as a perfect husband? 

Lauren gets attached to a couple of these guys. She falls for Carter, but he does not fall for her. She learns, eventually, that these are real guys who exist in her world. She sees what happens in some of their lives after she discards them. Lauren decides to fly to Denver, Colorado when she learns that Carter lives there. She also meets someone (the name is unusual so it’s hard to grasp it on Audible – perhaps Vorhees) who is experiencing the same anomaly, only with wives. They correspond. 

The great thing about discarding husbands (not always great) is that her financial circumstances, her jobs, her decor all change with each new husband. Sometimes these circumstantial changes help her decide whether a husband should be instantly discarded or kept around for a while. One really useful change is that debts disappear with each new adventure in husbands.

The book is too long. There are a few too many husbands. But it is entertaining and in the end there is a point, which I will leave it for you to figure out. If someone tells you there is nothing new under the sun, Holly Gramazio will make you rethink.

The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy by Michael Lewis-Book

From a Google image Search – Facts.net

Michael Lewis’ book The Fifth Risk is nonfiction. It examines what happened in several government agencies when Trump won the 2016 election. Presidents usually put their own people in as heads of our government agencies, and they tend to do it quickly and strategically. A team is generally sent in to make a smooth transition in services that benefit key groups which in turn benefit American citizens.

When Trump took office several department/agencies saw no transition team arrive and if a new head of agency had been appointed, they tended to arrive alone and late and to ignore the transition materials prepared by outgoing staff.

By now Americans have heard plenty about the Heritage Foundation’s agenda for the RNC if Trump wins in 2024 in the nearly 1000-page Project 2025 pdf. Lewis in his book The Fifth Risk takes a deep dive on a few areas where Republicans already showed us what changes they plan to make in programs that Americans rely on, programs that Republicans want to shut down. Trump, in his first term as President, tended to replace career people who were experts in their fields with loyalists who planned to deconstruct the departments they led.

One of these departments was the Department of Energy. Trump and Republicans are climate deniers. They do not want to implement alternative energies; they would rather rely even more heavily on fossil fuels. Employees in the Department of Energy expected people to be sent by the new administration to the department for the transition. They had all the transition notebooks ready to bring the new staff up to date on things like how to stop a virus, how to take a census, how to tell if a foreign nation has nuclear capability. No one showed. A man named Pyle finally showed up but would not listen to experts in the department. He suggested weekly meetings but never attended them. He sent a list of 24 questions which asked for lists of attendees to energy meetings. All DOE scientific experts were told to leave despite the need for national nuclear security.

Chapter II tells the story of Ali Zaidis whose parents moved him from Karachi to a small American town with no Muslims. Ali became a Republican until he traveled with the America’s Promise Board to help in New Orleans after Katrina. He was shocked by the poverty he saw. He asked himself how anyone could “lift themselves up by their own bootstraps” when there were no bootstraps. This question also came up – “If you’re a store owner after a weather crisis, should you hike up the cost of flashlights.” Members of the Republican Club said yes. Ali said no. So, Ali joined the Obama campaign and took a job at the White House. He was using data from the Department of Agriculture. It was a month before anyone showed up in 2016 from the Trump administration. The appointee was a hunter and gun enthusiast. He wanted a list of employees who worked on climate change. The Trump administration sent in employees with little or no agriculture experience and everyone was instructed not to say “climate change”. Sonny Purdue finally arrived in April.

The USDA had a particularly complicated budget. They oversaw food services and school lunch programs and WIC. Trump cut food stamps over 25%. People are convinced that food stamp recipients buy things that are not acceptable and sell their food stamps for cash. Since the EBT cards were put into use cheating was rare. Hungry people are not always fed. The states get the money, but they don’t have to use it to feed people. “We are proud to do the absolute minimum,” said one state leader. I haven’t told you all the sad anecdotes. It’s the Department of Agriculture after all and we haven’t even talked about farms yet. Changes in ag-science drive changes in society.

The third department discussed by Lewis is the department that keeps track of the weather. Before the technology developed and computers were able to handle complex data, there was very little data available about the weather. After a deadly hurricane hit Joplin, Missouri it was noted that tornado warnings often came too late. We have seen the improvement in weather data since early days. When the Trump team came in to the agency employees were not allowed to say the word “tornado”, because I guess if you don’t say it then it won’t happen? (Ridiculous) Since the arrival of weather channels like AccuWeather people tend to think that their weather reports come from private endeavors, and they don’t realize the role of government and science in supporting the collection of weather data. Republicans want to stop sending out weather data for free and to sell it to private enterprises that will then sell it to us.

Although this book is about the first Trump administration the author warns us of what might happen in a second Trump term. Michael Lewis covers information that many citizens don’t have access to in his book The Fifth Risk. Be informed.

All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby – Book

From a Google Image Search – LitStack

Listening to All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby comes with the bonus of the reader’s accents, all Southern dialects that vary according to which character is speaking. The accents all share similarities since one reader is speaking but it works and adds flavor to the story. I am listening to books again temporarily because I saved up credits from before my cataract surgery when I couldn’t read print books easily. After briefly subscribing to Audible + I ended up with 6 credits to spend – a dream scenario for a reader.

Charon County (Virginia) has been associated for decades with dark deeds and evil events, perhaps a negative karmic gift that resulted from the mythical reference it was saddled with, and because it was founded in bloodshed against indigenous people, “sown with generations of tears.” “The South doesn’t change” says the author.

Titus is, by some miracle, the first black sheriff of Charon County. Dressing for his day is described with ritualistic echoes of warriors preparing for battle. It’s a good thing Titus is prepared because this is no ordinary day in Charon County. Just as he finishes dressing with his bulletproof vest underneath and his gun belt strapped to his waist, his radio squawks and the news is that there is a school shooting in progress at the high school.

Although mass shootings are right out of the headlines of the moment, it turns out that only one person has been killed. This was a targeted hit. The shooter is a local guy, Latrell (hard to get spelling right from listening to a book). He has killed a very popular teacher of 9th grade geography who has a reputation for going out of his way to help needy students, Mr. Spearman. Why? Titus had hoped to find out by questioning Latrell, but Latrell committed suicide. 

What follows is an investigation that uncovers some grisly, hateful, and secretive actions that will weigh heavily on this town for many years to come. These activities do not speak kindly of the darkest bits of human nature, but the author addresses legitimate concerns about real world events. However, this is a mystery novel and not a book that attempts to sort out the human dilemma.

While not for the squeamish, readers will read on to find out the identity of a man who wears a wolf mask to commit heinous acts that act out his deep psychological pain. Titus, an ex-FBI agent, has a warm relationship with his father Albert and his brother Marquis. He has a current girlfriend (Darlene) and an ex-girlfriend (Kelly). These are the core characters showing us a sheriff who is well-adjusted, dedicated to justice, and a bit clueless when it comes to women. Good characters make good books better. If you like mysteries this one is well worth reading.

Lucky by Jane Smiley – Book

From a Google Image Search – New York Times

In Lucky, a novel by Jane Smiley, the author gives us a whole life – the life of fictional folk singer Jodie Rattler. Sadly, Smiley, describes what sounds like an exciting life in a rather monotone and unemotional way. Written all in first person, Jodie rattles off what she did first and what she did then, offering up the tick-tock of her life.

She’s an adventurous character who takes money from a successful day at the races and squirrels it away as a good luck talisman. She writes songs, tours with bands, cuts records but never reaches rock star status, seemingly by choice. Jodie lives in New York City, London, in a cabin she buys in the Hudson Valley, and on and off in St. Louis. Her Uncle Drew helps her recording royalties grow from one to 8 million dollars. Lucky. Jodie, like many women who are freed by the pill has sexual adventures. Unlike many a brokenhearted real live girl, she chooses her men wisely. Although left with many fond memories she decides to stay single and not have children. She meets many people at her concerts, at her gigs, and as she travels but does not keep them as close friends, something she comes to regret and works to change.

Smiley also offers us a love story to a city, the city of St. Louis. Jodie loves to walk around the neighborhoods she admires in St. Louis and repeats the names these neighborhoods are known by. She stops her musical travels and comes back to St. Louis to take up parental caregiving duties as many of us have been called on to do. Caregiving teaches many lessons. In the end Jodie weighs in on current political anxieties and her own gratitude and regrets.

It’s a slow book, but Jodie lived through times familiar to many of Jane Smiley’s readers. Jodie’s lyrics did not connect with me, but it seems there could be many worse lives than that of a musician. I liked the novel but didn’t love it. (OK, perhaps spending too much time on Facebook.)

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann – Book

From a Google Image Search – West Vancouver Memorial Library

The movie is streaming online, and I am just getting around to reading Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann. This is not a literary book. Indeed, it’s a bit dry in style and involves many names, mostly of men. And not for the most part good men. However, the content is anything but dry; it’s still shocking even if you believe that recent events have made you unshockable. 

The story begins with the Osage Indians, continues with oil and gas discoveries, and ends with plots, murders, greed, theft, and the formation of the modern FBI under J. Edgar Hoover. The US government had treaties with indigenous people which they frequently ignored. That’s how the Osage tribe ended up far away from Kansas and found themselves in Oklahoma. (Next stop Pacific Ocean?) Each family was given allotments of land that depended on the size of the family. When oil and gas were discovered, it turned out that the Osage did not own their allotments, but they owned the mineral rights under them. Each member of the family was given a “headright” to profits from any wells on his/her property.

Although the Osage had those headrights, the government (in its infinite wisdom) sought to “protect” the naïve owners of these headrights. They assigned white folks to act as guardians. That, rather than offering protection, opened the door to human predators who had no moral boundaries. The greedy guys did not even stop at killing someone or paying someone to do it for them. To make sure the headrights came to a white person, marriage was required. 

The story begins when two members of the tribe have been killed by a bullet in the back of the head. Charles Whithorn had been missing for a while and Annie Brown’s body was found quickly due to pressure from Annie’s sister Molly. Annie and Molly were quite different. Annie liked to party and so she was given short shrift by the authorities, her life undervalued and disrespected. Molly lost her sister Minnie who seemed to get progressively sicker for no discernible reason, as did Mollie’s mother Lizzie. For the time being, Mollie’s married sister Rita seemed fine. Mollie was married to Ernest Burkhart, a white man. He was related to William Hale, a man who seemed overly present in the lives of certain members of the Osage.

The machinations of bad actors are what makes this tale both shocking and engrossing. Can you guess which characters are the slimiest? Remember, these are all real people.

The Armor of Light by Ken Follett-Book

From a Google Image Search – Lit Stack

Ken Follett’s fifth book in the Kingsbridge series is The Armor of Light. The Pillars of Earth is the most famous book in the series covering the era when the cathedral was built in Kingsbridge in fascinating, if fictional, detail. Reading this book enticed me to finish the rest of the books. Although not quite as good as The Pillars of Earth, all the books in this series tackle different eras in British history. The Evening and the Morning tells a story of the Middle Ages. World Without End brings readers to Kingsbridge two centuries after the building of the cathedral. A Column of Fire immerses us in the period of the Reformation. The Armor of Light focuses on the ways progress in the textiles trade affected the residents of Kingsbridge along with the involvement of England in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte. 

In each case Follett writes about the injustices that arise from having only two classes, the wealthy who control government, laws, and the courts, and the worker class at the mercy of the rich who show little or no compassion. He uses real historical moments and peoples them with fictional characters we can relate to. In Part I, The Spinning Engine, 1792-1793 we meet Sal Clitheroe, her unfortunate and beloved husband, Harry, and their son Kit. They are picking turnips and loading a cart under the watchful eyes of the Squire’s son Will Riddick, a coldly entitled and incompetent overseer. They are serfs who are paid tiny wages for hard physical labor. The workers can see that the cart is overloaded and not safe, so they are not surprised when a wheel breaks and Harry is trapped underneath. When Harry dies a distraught Sal has to fight for Poor Relief, she has to let her six-year-old son go to work polishing boots at the Manor House. Sal’s challenges are unending because she must stick up for herself and Kit, usually unsuccessfully as employers would rather fire injured workers than pay them, and the courts are manned of the powerful aristocrats or church officials. One church official says, “I’m not in the business of feeding other people’s children.” (An Anglican church leader talking of Methodists) (p. 49) 

Here we have the moment when cottage industries must give way to machines, in this case a spinning jenny that spins 8 threads at a time, and right on its heels, a machine that spins 48 threads at a time. Housewives in cottages tend to produce 3 threads per day.

In Part 2, The Revolt of the Housewives, 1705, when inflation arrives because of war with France bread becomes very expensive. Eventually, the housewives who don’t have enough grain to make their own bread become an angry crowd when they find that Kingsbridge has not bid high enough to stop their grain from going to another town. Local bread will be costly, and supplies will run out quickly. The housewives do not want the flour to go to another town when they will be left with no grain. Again, there is Poor Relief, but it is difficult to get enough to live on as Harry’s widowed wife Sal learns. Bread has become unaffordable just as people are losing jobs because of the new machines at the mills, a conjunction of events that can lead to social pandemonium. The militia is called to stop the insurrection of the housewives, but these local boys won’t fire on their neighbors. Steam machines are more reliable than those that run on the water from the river so workers must adjust to new methods and new job insecurities once again.

In Part 3, when workers try to form groups to be able to force owners and gentry to inform workers when more efficient machines continue to replace workers Parliament passes The Combination Act in 1799 which makes it illegal for workers to gather to try to get protections from owners who tend to keep advances in technology secret (to unionize). One owner imported “scab” workers from Ireland when workers tried a strike. In Part 4 we meet The Press Gang, 1804-5. As the war escalates England needs more and more soldiers. “My guess is that about fifty thousand men have been forced into it (the military),” Spade (David Shoveller) said. “According to the Morning Chronicle there are about one hundred thousand men in the Royal Navy and something like half of them were impressed. Part 5 finds Britain at war with the French led by Napoleon Bonaparte and most of the men and older boys from Kingsbridge go off to war. Wars are often social levelers. When the war is won Parliament passes workers’ rights reforms begin to create fairer conditions.

There are plenty of characters whose lives intertwine with the events related to the workers’ rights battles exposed in Follett’s book. Some marry, have affairs, have children, and form same-sex pairs which must be kept secret. Some run afoul of the gentry or the factory owners and suffer out-sized consequences because the same people that own and run the factories also control the courts. If you like to learn history while enjoying the literary presentation of fictional characters affected by that history, Ken Follett is someone who does a great job with both.