MarysLibrary

Red Notice

I just finished reading this book. The author is the grandson of one-time American communist leader Earl Browder. Bill Browder, on the other hand , became an ardent capitalist and made a fortune investing in post-Soviet Russia.

But when his activities exposed high-level corruption, he and his colleagues became targets of the oligarchs who control Russia. After his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was imprisoned, tortured, and murdered, Bill Browder started a relentless campaign for human rights.

This is a chilling story of life in a nation where the rule of law simply does not exist insofar as the rulers are concerned. Very highly recommended.

-- review by Bill Drew

Democracy is not your plaything

"Mr. Trump’s longtime foes, especially Democrats and progressives, are in the throes of a kind of obsessive delight. Every new blunder, every suggestion of an illegality, gives them pleasure. “He’ll be gone by autumn.”

"But he was duly and legally elected by tens of millions of Americans who had legitimate reasons to support him, who knew they were throwing the long ball, and who, polls suggest, continue to support him. They believe the press is trying to kill him. “He’s new, not a politician, give him a chance.” What would it do to them, what would it say to them, to have him brusquely removed by his enemies after so little time? Would it tell them democracy is a con, the swamp always wins, you nobodies can make your little choices but we’re in control? What will that do to their faith in our institutions, in democracy itself?

"These are wrenching questions.

"But if Mr. Trump is truly unfit—if he has demonstrated already, so quickly, that he cannot competently perform the role, and that his drama will only get more dangerous and chaotic, how much time should pass to let him prove it? And how dangerous will the proving get?

"Again, wrenching questions. So this is no time for blood lust and delight. Because democracy is not your plaything."

-- Peggy Noonan

The Lifestylization of Politics

Everywhere you look, people are mistaking inconvenient facts for insults. Every single day, people are taking offense at disagreement and confusing rights (and presidential prerogatives) and science for moral authority. It’s a hothouse where the air is thick with hypocrisy because arguments are downstream of feelings — and where facts are so much flair to don or discard depending on what lifestyle you want to adopt and what virtues you want to signal. In short, it’s a very stupid time.  -- J Goldberg