Inside the Supreme Court

One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History – Ted Cruz – (Regnery Publishing)

Sitting through some of the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearings regarding the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court of the United States, it can become pretty convincing, pretty quickly, that attorneys have created their own language, rules and standards, in some sort of an effort to exclude ordinary working folks as to how the court works.

Over the course of the hearing for the last three nominees the potential justices seem to hold fast to a code of judicial conduct, about tipping their hand on where they might stand and how they might rule on any given issue that may or may not come before them. Try as they might, often asking the same question about 30 or 40 different ways, the mostly lawyers who make up the Senate panel, notably the Democrat members, don’t seem to be bothered by trying to coax the nominees to speak out of turn.

In his new book, One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a former Supreme Court clerk of Justice Antonin Scalia delves into the inner workings of the court and uses a handful often ground breaking cases, that were decided by the push, a single vote to secure a 5-4 decision, to illustrate how those cases have impacted our daily lives. He makes the case that these types of push decisions can be greatly impacted by the courts ever evolving makeup.

He uses his insiders knowledge to make the case that originalists, those justices who utilize the intent of the founding fathers in their decision making process are often what separates us from tyranny. In a crazy year where the word essential has been so over-used, it is the perfect word to describe the book which cuts through all of the legal-eze and hyperbole of the politicization of the Court to explain exactly how the Court was intended to work. It should be required reading for every high school student.

Portrait of a Spy

 Agent Sonya: Moscow’s Most Daring Wartime Spy – Ben Macintyre (Crown)

Author Ben Macintyre’s portfolio includes writer at large for the Times of London, author of numerous historical books covering a range of topics and work as a documentarian for the BBC. It is that experience in the realm of documentaries that Macintyre puts at the forefront of his new book Agent Sonya: Moscow’s Most Daring Wartime Spy.

In compiling the tale of a truly one of a kind spy story, Macintyre had astonishing access to first hand source materials including Sonya’s personal diaries, letters and other correspondence offering unique insights into her life and career as and undercover, clandestine, operator for the U.S.S.R.

In this day and age of Google searches and online sourcing, that this original source information survived and has been preserved in it’s most raw and unencumbered state makes it all the more astonishing.

Early on the story, Macintyre offers a formative glimpse into an event that the young 17 year old Sonya that drove her to become a committed member of the communist party and a fledgling soviet spy, when she participated in a communist workers parade/demonstration that earned year a beat down by the police.

In a time where Antifa protestors are daily news, I couldn’t help but be struck by the fact that the protagonist came from an upper class, well to do, and respected family. A quick examination of the bios of many of the protesters on the streets today will reveal similar backgrounds.

Macintyre has a le Carre like eye for trade craft and successfully weaves an entertaining, thriller-like portrait of this overly zealous spy. Some my find a quibble with some of the commentary and history that Macintyre uses, but one has to be given some license when stringing together decades old storylines into a coherent tale.

A Dose of Reality Thriller

House on Fire - Joseph Finder -(Dutton)

There is an almost perfect parallel to reality, ripped from today’s headlines feel to Joseph Finder’s latest installment in the Nick Heller series, House on Fire. Like many of the prior Heller novels this one has Heller on one case at the start and a very different case as things progress and in this case it becomes a very personal one on a couple of different fronts.

Heller meets one of the daughters of the founder of a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical company as he helps to bury a friend from his days in the military special forces due to the friend’s long running addiction to opioid painkillers. The daughter makes a habit of attending the funerals of those she believes are victims of her family’s best selling medication, the oddly familiar, Oxydone. The daughter ends up engaging Heller’s services to try to track down a long rumored, but hidden study that outlined the drugs highly addictive properties.

The search takes Heller to the family estate for a birthday party for the company founder and family patriarch, under the subterfuge that he is the daughter’s new beau. At the party he encounters another person, a girlfriend from his past and his time in the military, who is also undercover and in the employ of another family member, on the hunt for another set of documents. The pair partner to track down the the paperwork and after ducking and dodging their way out of a hairy situation, Heller’s partner in crime, is found dead of the estate.

That’s when things get really personal and Heller loses his client, but starts the hunt not only for a killer, but for revenge for his late, drug addicted friend and his family. Before embarking on the Heller series, Finder really made his bones as a bestselling author, by writing corporate based thrillers and with House on Fire he returns to the best traditions of those high intrigue, pressure cooker thrills. He is a master of drawing multi-dimensional characters and weaving in returning players,like Heller’s Bernie Madoff-like, convict father who ratchet up the action with their own set of motivations.

The Kimball klan bares a striking resemblance to the real-life Stackler family behind the Purdue Pharmaceutical corporation, manufacturers of OxyContin and those most often blamed for the very real world opioid addiction problem, which just add the dose of reality to this storyline.

Debauchery 101

Raising Hell: Backstage Tales From the Lives of Metal Legends – Jon Weiderhorn (Diversion Books)

I love these kinds of books because the short snippets and pick up the reading anywhere the book opens makes for perfect bathroom reading. I know…T. M. I. In all seriousness, this make for an entertaining read because it is the exact opposite of that…completely not serious.

Broken down into 17 chapters or if you prefer, 17 topic headings, Raising Hell: Backstage Tales From the Lives of Metal Legends by veteran metal music writer, Jon Weiderhorn covers the full spectrum from breaking the law (with a nod to Judas Priest) to girls girls girls (Motley Crue) and even highway to hell (AC/DC) and everything in between.

I couldn’t help but marvel at the musical similarities with Weiderhorn detailing what amounts to the equivalent of country music’s, smoking weed with Willie (Nelson) being drinking with Lemmy! Apparently it was a bit of a sport for metal artists who crossed paths with the late, legendary Motorhead front man, Lemmy Kilmeister to try to match him drink for drink, often with disastrous results. You might display some sympathy hangover pain just reading about Anthrax’s Scott Ian toe to toe drinking with infamous guzzler.

From the outside the world of metal may seem like an outsized place full of scores of bands all plying their loud trade, but Weiderhorn’s collection of stories really highlights exactly how small that universe really is. These bands interconnect, crisscross and cover so much of the same ground that’s it’s not surprising that so many legendary tales spring forth from these guys. The brawls the battles the hard feelings and the knock down drag out of it, all make up a healthy chunk of this collection.

The grudges take on a life of their own and so do the women, the tour stops and life on the road. Whether you’re a metal fan or just a music fan, Raising Hell: Backstage Tales From the Lives of Metal Legends, makes for an entertaining, often laugh out loud read.

Clapback Against Anti-gun Types

First They Came for the Gun Owners: The Campaign to Disarm You and Take Away Your Freedoms – Mark W. Smith (Bombadier)

“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” - Second Amendment - Constitution of United States of America 1789

“Hell yes we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK 47,” Robert Francis O’Rouke, then Democrat, Presidential candidate.

I for one am not sure what “Blowhole” O’Rouke (sorry I refuse to call this empty suit, dipshit Beto) doesn’t seem to grasp about “shall not be infringed.” It is from this brain-dead position, completely devoid of any scintilla of knowledge about guns and or gun owners, that the anti-gun gun types attack the rights of law-abiding gun owners. It is on that point that I find bestselling author Mark W. Smith writing so refreshing.

Smith writes with a clarity, depth of knowledge of not only guns but the Constitution, with a subject matter expertise that few, writing on the subject, can even remotely muster. Much of what he details in First They Came for the Gun Owners: The Campaign to Disarm You and Take Away Your Freedoms, falls into the slippery slope arguments that rips apart the seemingly “reasonable” packaging that anti-gunners wrap their arguments in.

After all who could possibly be against “universal background checks” and “closing the gun show loophole”? The problem is much of what is pawned off as “harmless” or innocent is based on a load of crap sold by liberals who lie and a complicit media who wouldn’t know a muzzle loader from a pea shooter.

Like seemingly all gun control proposals, they don’t really do anything to solve the gun ‘problems” they were supposed to fix. They will however, create problems for law abiding gun owners. Liberals can’t seem to grasp even the basic concept that bad guys don’t procure their guns through legal means or from licensed firearms dealers. Newsflash- bad guys either steal guns or obtain stolen guns.

Smith makes the cogent argument and urgent case, that this attack on gun rights can lead to a continuing erosion of individual liberties and freedoms that go beyond the right to bear arms.   

Has the Sun Set on Renko?

The Siberian Dilemma – Martin Cruz Smith – (Simon and Schuster)

Martin Cruz Smith is one of those rare writing craftsmen, who can hone a story to a smooth edge and deliver descriptive insights into not only the setting of his stories, but into the characters he utilizes to tell the tale. Smith’s go to character is detective Arkady Renko, a crusty, hardboiled creation that gives off just a touch of Sherlock Holmes with his ability to piece together details unseen by the common person and always seems to be a step ahead.

For long time fans, Smith’s ninth installment in the Arkady Renko series, The Siberian Dilemma, may be more than a bit perplexing. While Smith can skillfully weave together a seemingly disparate storylines into a seamless final product, The Siberian Dilemma, creates a real dilemma, with its choppy story, that tends to ramble in a number of directions without ever quite hanging together as a complete tale.

The characters are, sometimes quirky and different, and at others downright confounding because you aren’t quite sure how they fit or move the story forward. There are some familiar pieces at play here; the vivid renderings of setting; you can feel the bite of the Siberian cold, the inherent, stoic Russian nature and Renko’s ability to wield sarcasm with a razors edge. But, even half way through the rather generously paginated book, I was left scratching my head and wondering where this was all going and quite frankly, what it was really all about.

Sadly, it may be the crippling effects of Smith’s battle Parkinson’s disease that is having an impact on his abilities. While I commend him for trying wage a battle with that terrible disease and simultaneously continue to write, I can’t help but wonder if it has reached the point to allow Arkady Renko to retire to the lovely Russian, Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Newsflash: No Labels is a Label

The Ultimate Guide to the 2020 Election: 101 Nonpartisan Solutions to All the Issues that Matter – Ryan Clancy and Margaret White (Diversion Books)

Let me be perfectly clear right up front; I am an unabashed, unapologetic Conservative. So, I have always been amused by people who claim some sort of special status, because they take no firm stances on any issue, because they are just so darn intelligent and thoughtful. They famously laid claim to being mavericks or moderates, but due to the higher thinking of political/media consultant Mark McKinnon, he of the annoying hipster fedoras and scarves, they now prefer the tag, No Labels.

While McKinnon co-founded the organization, Ryan Clancy and Margaret White have spent the past few years leading the growth charge for the group. Now the pair serve up the new book, The Ultimate Guide to the 2020 Election: 101 Nonpartisan Solutions to All the Issues that Matter.

For me, Clancy and White stumble right out of the box, when they attempt to make the No Labels case by citing a poll by the group More in Common; gee, am I the only one who thinks this might be a poll geared to get the exact result they were seeking when they set out? The book offers up a selection of issues that we face that the authors deem are critical like; healthcare, climate change, guns, immigration, big tech and more. I’m not sure why healthcare is on that list, I thought Obamacare had solved that one?

GUNS  

On the issue of gun control, Clancy and White once again cite flawed polling. In an era when Hilary Clinton, the clear, hands down winner of every 2016 presidential poll – does not reside in the White House should tell you all you need to know about polling. It’s impossible to have a legitimate discussion on the issue of guns when one side refuses to educate themselves on guns and describe semi-automatic rifles as “assault weapons” or “weapons of war.” The seemingly singular focus on the AR-15 rifle frame style, that has been around since the 1950s fascinates me. That’s right, the AR has been around for six decades, and yet is suddenly public enemy number one for gun grabbers. Just a small tidbit of education; AR stands for Armalite Rifle, after the company who invented it, not “automatic rifle” or “assault rifle” as some claim.

NO SOLUTIONS

The Ultimate Guide to the 2020 Election, doesn’t offer anything in the way of answers or solutions to the problems and issues that they outline in the book; which I get since they claim by their nature, they don’t really do. Where this approach fails is that as much as the like to beat their chest and proclaim themselves higher thinkers, they don’t even attempt to offer new of compromise positions on the issue. To me that makes them uniquely suited for the Swamp, the deep state bureaucrats who perpetuate only their own existence and never really solve any problems.

Not that either party really wants to solve problems or deliver workable solutions and that’s not due to any intransigence on their part, other than the problems are what they use as grist to grind down their opponents, election after election. That is in the long run what created voter frustration that lead to the election of Donald Trump and the unholy upheaval that launched in Washington.