Secret Empires

Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends by Peter Schweizer, 225 pages

In 2019, it became front page news that Joe Biden's son, Hunter, had been paid millions of dollars to sit on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, despite having no experience in the energy industry and not speaking Ukrainian, at the same time that his father, then Vice President, had taken charge of US relations with the Ukraine.  Interestingly, Peter Schweizer had already reported the story in this 2018 book, connecting it to other business dealings involving the Bidens, the Kerrys, and the Chinese, Mitch McConnell's in-laws and the Chinese, Rep Danny Rehburg's family and the Mongolians, George W Bush's uncle and the Chinese, the Daley family and the Chinese, the Kushners and Qatar, the Trump sons and Indonesia, and more, establishing an undeniable pattern of attempts by foreign businesses - many of them with strong connections to their own governments - to influence American political figures by channeling substantial amounts of money to their families.  Although, as he points out repeatedly, such behavior by US companies towards the families of foreign leaders is illegal, there are no restrictions in the other direction.

It is worth noting that there are no smoking guns here.  Schweizer charts the flow of cash into the pockets of politically connected individuals, but he cannot prove that this money bought anything - even though it seems naive to believe that it did not.  There is a suggestion of another kind of naivete, however.  In the West, modernity has advanced an ideal of the bloodless, "rational" individual, but the Rest is dominated by more humane, family-centered cultures, hence the clash between the fashionable Western vision of a family as a collection of autonomous individuals and the belief shared throughout much of the non-Western world that all business is ultimately family business.  The author seems to assume that the Western view is both correct and stronger.  At one point, he quotes Chicago dynast Richard J Daley's response to a question about favorable treatment his children allegedly received from the city, "If a man can't put his arms around his sons then what kind of world are we living in?"  Despite Schweizer's intentions, this question resonates throughout the book - is such a world even desirable, much less possible?

Winter Is Coming

Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped by Garry Kasparov and Mig Greenguard, 267 pages

Garry Kasparov is indisputably one of the greatest chess players in history - he become the youngest ever World Champion at the age of 22 and held the title for fifteen years, during which he set a record for consecutive tournament victories.  Since his retirement from competitive chess in 2005, he has divided his time between coaching, charitable work with his Kasparov Chess Foundation, and political activism.  It is to the last category that this book belongs.

Much of the book is taken up by an extended expose of Putin's crimes against democracy and peace, his victimization of the Russian people and their neighbors.  This is not an objective report, but a passionate denunciation of what Kasparov describes as a "mafia state", a lawless regime run solely for the benefit of those at the top.  But the real heart of the book is Kasparov's scathing indictment of decades of indifference and enabling by a toothless international community.  In Kasparov's view, this has been caused less by the increasing strength of economic ties due to globalization than by a general deterioration of civilizational confidence throughout the West.  

Kasparov's case is thoroughly convincing even if his presentation is disorganized, jumping around chronologically in a manner that is sometimes confusing, but held together by his personal experience and passion.  Unfortunately, in the final chapter, when the time comes to present a positive program for change, all he can muster is empty cliches about the importance of education, a fizzle of an end to an explosive book.

Governor's Wife

The Governor's Wife by Michael Harvey
237 Pages

"When Illinois Gov. Raymond Perry is sentenced to prison for fraud and racketeering, he enters an elevator in Chicago's Dirksen Building and disappears. Soon afterward, PI and ex-cop Michael Kelly gets an anonymous email offering him $200,000 to find Perry, no questions asked. Naturally, he begins with Mrs. Perry, an enigma who fears that her husband is dead. Further probing, with help from a cop friend, leads to a mysterious construction conglomerate where Kelly is violently warned off. It appears that a shadowy political cabal is behind a decades-long skimming of road construction funds with the governor so much involved that $60 million has gone missing with him. The ruthless pols are eliminating anyone involved while they pressure Kelly to find the money."

Harvey's books are similar to Michael Connelly and early Robert Parker.  I highly recommend any in his series.  The only fault I have with the book is that it is too short.