“Democracy is the worst kind of government except for all the others.” Winston Churchill.
I always appreciate the articles by this American journalist and author in The Atlantic, and learn a lot about international relations. She starts this litany with a long list of increasing countries ruled by autocrats, including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and China, among others, and contrasts them with liberal democracies.
With her rapid-fire staccato voice, and in mostly short dry assertive sentences she first documents a frightening trend with massive money laundering all over the world including Russian oligarchs indirectly buying Trump properties through shadow companies that are difficult to trace.
There is no mention of Malal, nor of Nelson Mandela, but the author documents Alexi Navalni’s, death and the sabotaging and hiding his funeral to avoid protesters, and also mentions the lies about Khashoggi’s death.
Global in scope, this small book seems depressing, but it goes a little way to explain Donald Trump’s friendship and backing of Putin.It is light on means of countering the prevalent increasing damage that autocrats achieve until the Epilogue, and makes one wonder how anyone can ever be confident about any news, given the massive use of not only money laundering but also what the author calls “information laundering.” There are few suggestions about what any one individual can or should do to improve the situation.
A very informative little dry gem, but the overall effect is a bit frightening. With what is coming with Donald Trump is it already too late?
4.5/5
The Passionate Reader 