My Amazon Review of Ben Macintyre's "Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy"

Housewife by Day, Spy by Night

 

I gave a rave review to Ben Macintyre’s “The Spy and the Traitor” two years ago and trust me, I was not disappointed with his “Agent Sonya.”  (  See: https://shulmaven.blogspot.com/2018/10/my-amazon-review-of-ben-macintyres-spy.html) Macintyre tells the story of young Weimar Berlin communist who grew up in an upper middle class household who would go on to become one of the Soviet Union’s greatest spies rising to the rank of colonel in the GRU and the posthumous recipient of an award from none other than Vladimir Putin himself.  

 

Macintyre traces Sonya’s (born Ursula Kuczynski) career from street fights with the Nazis in Berlin to following her architect husband to Shanghai, Manchuria and Chunking and then on to Sparrow school (GRU training) in Moscow to Warsaw to Geneva and then to England.  Along the way she gives birth to three children from three separate fathers two of whom she was married to.

 

She is recruited initially by the feminist author and spy Agnes Smedley in Shanghai, but she does not become fully involved until she meets and has an affair with the super spy Richard Sorge  who would go on to become Moscow’s man in Tokyo. (See: shulmaven.blogspot.com/2020/01/my-amazon-review-of-owen-matthews.html )In Chunking she meets the then Soviet military attaché General Vasily Chuikov who would go on to lead the invasion of Berlin in 1945.   

 

In Geneva, now with two children, Sonya sets up a spy ring to penetrate Germany. In fact, her two British spies come upon a Munich restaurant frequented by Hitler. They plot to assassinate Hitler but with the German invasion of Poland they must flee Germany before anything can be done.  One incident in Geneva really stands out is that eight hours after the birth of her second child, she is sending coded short-wave transmissions to Russia. Sonya faced a crisis of confidence with the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact which put a halt on her spying on the hated Nazis. Nevertheless, she ultimately sticks with the GRU likely because she was addicted to risk.

 

Sonya makes her bones in England where she controls the noted atomic spy Klaus Fuchs. From as early as 1940 Sonya is transmitting secrets from Britain’s Tube Alloys atomic program. Fuchs would stay in England until 1943 when the Brits join America’s atomic program in Los Alamos. Sonya sets up the transfer of Fuchs to the KGB operation in America that is running the Rosenberg spy ring. Fuchs’ contact was Harry Gold.

 

All the while Sonya is running Fuchs, she lives the life of normal housewife with three children in the English countryside. By day she takes care of the kids and bakes cakes and scones. By night and with occasional trips to London and bicycle rides to dead drops she is a spy. She is so successful that when the OSS decides to parachute German nationals to spy on Germany, they are all under her indirect control.

 

To be sure Britain’s MI-5 was aware of her, but they could not believe that the mild-mannered housewife was a spy. But then again this was the same MI-5 that missed the notorious Cambridge Five, one of who was Kim Philby who at times aided Sonya.

 

There is much more to the story than what I have discussed above. There is Sonya’s interactions with her father, brother and her three lovers and I have left out how and where she ends up. Macintyre has written a truly engrossing story that reads like a novel.

For the full Amazon review see: https://www.amazon.com/review/R8KA5Y59P69S8/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Biden vs. Trump: Round 2

 Compared to their first debate, last night's debate could be characterized as "normal." Put bluntly Trump was well behaved and he more or less followed the rules of debate and Biden remained largely unflappable. If you came into the debate supporting Trump you thought he won. Similarly if you came into the debate supporting Biden you thought he won. So roughly speaking the debate was close to a draw with Trump beating the very low expectations most people had for him. Although Trump appeared to hold his own on the COVID portion of the debate, the facts on the ground demonstrate his complete ineptitude in handling the pandemic.

Biden made an unforced error in his call for a complete transition away from oil and for an explicit ban on fracking on public lands. This will cost him votes in Texas and perhaps Pennsylvania. My guess is that any hope that Biden had from pulling an upset in Texas went down the drain last night. It also has the potential of hurting Democrats in down ballot races in the oil and gas producing states.

Nevertheless with the Biden in the lead with less then two weeks to go, Trump failed in his major objective to shake up the race. Indeed whatever he gained from his civility last night, will be lost when 60 Minutes runs their interview with him on Sunday night. 

The clear winner in the debate was moderator Kristin Welker. She was in full command and had the whip hand with the ability for the control room to turn off the debate microphones. I called attention her star quality and three of her NBC colleagues three years ago in a blog post. (See https://shulmaven.blogspot.com/2017/09/from-murrows-boys-to-oppenheims-girls.html)

My Amazon Review of Peter Baker's and Susan Glasser's "The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III"

 

The Realist

 

Husband and wife journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser have written tour de force biography Jim Baker who was perhaps the most consequential appointed politician of the past five decades. Baker was consequential because he understood the role of politics is to govern and Baker sure knew how to use the instruments of power to successfully govern in support of Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

 

Baker and Glasser spent eight years on the project and they had the full cooperation of Baker. They not only discuss Baker’s public life, but we get a real sense of his private life as well. The authors had access to Baker’s lover letters to his first wife who bore him four children and died way too young of cancer. We then see Baker marrying one of his wife’s friends who brings three children to the marriage. It truly was a Brady bunch with an eighth child thrown in later. Baker was a devoted husband, but his children suffered from a myriad of problems involving drugs which were not helped by Baker’s absence caused by his very public life.

 

Jim Baker is scion of the Houston establishment. Until his late 30’s he had no interest in politics while he was building a very successful law practice. He enters politics through his tennis buddy, George H.W. Bush who was elected as a congressman from Houston. They essentially become brothers along with the sibling rivalry that entails. As Bush rises in Washington, so too does Baker. So much so that Baker runs Ford’s 1976 campaign for president and he then runs Bush’s primary campaign in 1980. After Reagan’s nomination Baker becomes a key figure in Reagan’s campaign that leads him to becoming his chief of staff.

 

It is generally recognized that Baker set the gold standard for White House chiefs of staff. While working for Reagan he controls the various factions within the White House and puts together a congressional coalition to pass Reagan’s economic package through Congress in 1981. He also keeps a lid on an effort to militarily intervene in Nicaragua during the first term. His absence in Reagan’s second term opened the way to the Iran-Contra scandal that almost brought down the Reagan presidency. His one black mark as chief of staff was his attempted bullying of Fed Chairman Paul Volcker.

 

In 1984 Baker runs Reagan’s successful “Morning in America” reelection campaign and he then moves on to become Secretary of the Treasury. As treasury secretary he pushes through Reagan’s monumental 1986 tax reform act. The authors ignore the key role that Houston’s Rice University economist on leave to the treasury Charles McLure had in fashioning the underlying framework for the new tax law.

 

Baker also was the architect of the 1985 Plaza Accord that orchestrated a global policy to devalue the dollar. That was done without Volcker, a mistake in my opinion. The authors ignore two key side effects of the accord. First it created a sea of global liquidity that created the Japan stock bubble and led to a flood of money into the global real estate market. Both Japanese stocks and global real estate would crash in 1990. Second the weaker dollar led to a temporary renaissance in Midwest manufacturing which would become of great help to H.W. Bush’s election in 1988. Baker then resigned as Treasury Secretary and ran Bush’s presidential campaign.

 

In 1989 Baker becomes Secretary of State where he orchestrates a successful end of the Cold War and German reunification. We also see Baker hiring Democrats on his staff including Dennis Ross. Along the way makes friends with Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze. While dealing with German reunification issues Iraq invaded Kuwait triggering the first Gulf War. Baker organizes an international coalition and gets Russia to go along and China to abstain at a critical U.N. meeting. With the Gulf War over Baker tried to broker a peace between Israel and the Palestinians. This led to the Madrid Conference of 1992 which ultimately paved the way to the 1993 Rabin-Arafat meeting in 1993. To me his strong arming of Israel was a bit much, but it did get results.

 

With the 1992 Bush campaign in disarray Baker returns to the White House. His efforts were to no avail as Bush lost to Clinton. He then goes back to private life where he spends much time working for private equity giant Carlyle Group relaxing at his primitive Wyoming ranch.

 

With the Florida recount jeopardizing the 2000 election of George W. Bush, Baker is called back into action to aid the Bush family. He organizes the Bush efforts and puts together an all-star legal pick up team consisting of now Senator Ted Cruz, now Chief Justice John Roberts and now Justice Brett Kavanaugh. They win in the Supreme Court with Republican super-lawyer Ted Olson arguing the case.

 

After that Baker returns to private life, but he still finds the time to co-head an Iraq study commission in 2007. He his now 90 and Baker and Glasser shine a light on his personality and his service to our country.

For the full Amazon URL see: https://www.amazon.com/review/R3NOZ2CCBLTG9M/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Some Thoughts on Four Controversial California Ballot Measures

 Although I haven't lived in California for decades, I remain close to the state through my research efforts and the many friends who live there. Further, because California has historically led the Nation with its legislative approaches, the results of this year's election could very well have nationwide consequences. Below you will find my views on four of the ballot propositions.

Proposition 15 - Vote NO

This proposition would overturn Proposition 13 by stepping the property tax basis for commercial and industrial property to current market values. The measure would raise about $10 billion a year. In the middle of a pandemic recession it hardly makes sense to raise taxes whose burden would especially hit the devastated retail, restaurant and office tenant sectors with a substantial increase in tax pass-throughs. The money raised would go to inflate the state's already bloated public sector bureaucracies. I would feel much better about the measure if its proceeds were used to lower income and sales taxes.

Proposition 16 - Vote NO

This proposition would repeal the 1996 Proposition 209 which eliminated the use of affirmative action in college admissions. Simply put, given the high Asian enrollment at the University of California, the measure would, in effect, be a 21st Century version of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.

Proposition 21 - Vote NO

This proposition would allow local jurisdictions to adopt an extreme form of residential rent control which would allow controlling rents based on the unit, rather than the tenancy. In a time when rents are falling, the measure would actually work to keep rents high because owners would be reluctant to cut rents today in fear that rents could not be increased in the future. Further the measure would place all units more than 15 years old to be covered on a rolling basis, compared to current law which covers only those units build prior to 1995. In a nutshell apartment construction would be reduced and the housing shortage in California would be exacerbated.

Proposition 22 - Vote YES

This proposition would repeal AB-5 that classified Uber, Lyft and Door Dash drivers as employees rather than independent contractors. Since it emergence over a decade ago the the ride hailing platform industry has offered huge convenience for the public and offered income opportunities to hundreds of thousands of contractors. The essence of the platforms requires flexibility for both the contractor and its contractors. By converting contractors to employees, the business model would be stultified at a cost to both the public and the companies. Thus repeal of AB-5 is necessary. 

My Amazon Review of Robert Galbraith's "Troubled Blood (A Cormoran Strike Novel)

 Cold Case

As I write this there are 2,700 reviews on Amazon for J.K. Rowling’s writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith fifth Cormoran Strike novel. Galbraith continues to tell the saga of private As detective Cormoran Strike and his now partner Robin Ellacott in their pursuit of a 40-year-old cold case. A 30-year-old doctor and former Playboy bunny and the mother of a one-year old girl Margot Bamborough disappeared 40 years before in 1974 under very mysterious circumstances. It was assumed that she was murdered by a cross-dressing psychopathic serial killer, but her body was never recovered.

 

Strike and Ellacott are hired by the now 40-year-old daughter to uncover exactly what happened. Along the way have a series of deep character studies of the protagonists, the serial killer, the police detectives who originally investigated the case, and running down assorted suspects from four decades ago. Especially moving is Strike’s relationship with his Aunt Joan who was dying of cancer and her family. Aunt Joan raised Strike as a boy after being abandoned by both his parents. We also are a witness to the increasingly close relationship between Strike and Robin and Galbraith gets you into their heads.

 

The author tells a great story and there is much more here than the primary case, but the book at 944 pages in the print edition is a bit too long for my taste.

For the full Amazon URL see: https://www.amazon.com/review/RDWACXWYCIFOM/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Harris vs. Pence: The Match in the Wasatch

Last night's vice presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris in Salt Lake City was far more civil the the Biden-Trump rumble of a week ago. The way I scored it is that Harris won on points but she failed to meet the lofty expectations of her campaign. Pence with more than a few lies, held his own.

Harris rightly made the debate a referendum on Trump's handling of the COVID-19 debacle and Pence tried to make it choice between Trump and the perceived leftwing inclinations of the Democrats. He made the case for Trump far better than Trump did a week ago, by highlighting Harris' prior anti-fracking and pro-Green New Deal stances. However Pence failed to say the Trump campaign would accept the consequences of a Biden election. And Harris ducked the question of whether a Biden Administration would support packing the Supreme Court.

Both candidates ducked moderator Susan Page's question as to what abortion regime would they support for their respective states should Roe v. Wade be overturned by the Supreme Court. Harris did not want to come out in favor of no restrictions on abortion and Pence did not want to come out in favor of complete restrictions. They do represent the polar opposites on that issue.

As a result I don't think the debate changed any minds and given Trump's statement today that he will not participate in a virtual debate, last night's event was likely the last debate of the campaign, a campaign that Biden is now likely to win.

Biden vs. Trump: Round 1

 Although it was not quite "The Thrilla in Manila" or "The Rumble in the Jungle," the debate had many of the aspects of the prize fights of yore. Trump came out wildly swinging and breaking every debate rule in the book, while Biden tried to maintain a modicum of composure. Although Biden's performance will not put him the presidential debate hall of fame, he held his own and that was enough for him to walk away as the winner. Proof of that came the next day when Trump moved toward Pelosi's position on a large stimulus package. He can't afford the economy and the stock market to weaken in October.

Simply put Trump is running scared and unlike 2016, he now has much to lose. In fact it is not out of the question to see him in an orange jump suit in 2021. Trump's refusal to condemn the racism of the Proud Boys and his green lighting of post-election violence on their part with his "stand back and stand by" comments was chilling.

To me Trump's out of control on stage behavior likely turned off nearly every woman viewer of the debate. The vision of an out of control man is hardly reassuring. Thus the the gender gap this year will be a mile wide.

To those who fear that Trump will not accept defeat in November I would express my faith in America's military where there is a duty NOT to obey an unlawful order.

As to Biden he separated himself from the looney left of his party by standing clear of the Green New Deal, Medicare for All and defunding the police. He should have been firmer on "law and order," but he will have more than a few opportunities to make his views known. 

Finally if Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed, the evangelical right could treat Trump the way he treats them. They are now free to toss him overboard now that they have gotten the Supreme Court they wanted.