April 28 2020

American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Merger of Money and Power (2020)

By Andrea Bernstein

Journalist Bernstein goes back several generations to show how the Trump and Kushner families started from impoverished immigrant roots to rise to the pinnacles of financial and political power, via tax breaks meant for middle class Americans, borrowing from shady foreign sources when American banks would not loan them money, and using secrecy, intimidation and machine politics to gain their objectives.

Friedrich Trumpf left Germany in the 1890s, heading to Washington state, then to Alaska for the Yukon Gold Rush, making a fortune from taverns and brothels that served the miners.  Returning to Germany to marry, he was unable to stay due to not fulfilling his military duty, so Friedrich and Mary came to Queens, where he started working in real estate development until he died likely of the Spanish flu in 1918 (at age 49).  Mary was industrious and kept the family afloat while young Fred worked, eventually building up his Queens real estate empire.  While not as unscrupulous as his son would become, Fred nonetheless discriminated against black tenants and circumvented estate laws to turn over his holdings to his children.  Donald would move business to Manhattan, bribing officials to get huge tax breaks, hiring non-documented workers but not paying them (and what recourse do they have? [and courting hundreds of lawsuits from disgruntled employees, contractors, and vendors]), lying about occupancy rates to qualify for loans, and building what would be failed hotels in Atlantic City, Toronto, Soho, etc - but he would still profit from the failures; it would be his investors who would lose their money (Bear Stearns being a good example when Trump defaulted on a huge loan).

The Kushners (Jared's grandmother's family) and Berkowitzes (grandfather's family - he took her name) were Polish holocaust survivors who ended up in New Jersey in the late 1940s.  (Thus both Trump and Kushner families benefit from immigration opportunities that Donald Trump would close off to future immigrants.)  Seeing the need for post-war housing, the Kushners brilliantly started building and selling houses, eventually 1000s of single family homes - but money does not buy happiness and Charles (Jared's father) ended up trying to implicate his brother-in-law through taping him with a prostitute, and instead is sent to prison, compliments of federal NJ prosecutor Chris Christie.  Charles made a $2M gift to Harvard, payable when his son is accepted.  As a Harvard grad, Jared buys the New York Observer financial news, using it to take down his enemies and elevate his own agenda.  When Trump is elected (despite a 3M popular vote loss to his opponent), Jared is brought on as his go-to guy.  Chris Christie, whom Trump had tasked with putting together a transition team, is then sacked by the vengeful Jared and his extensive work is literally thrown in a dumpster.  Together, Jared and Ivanka follow in their parents' footsteps, as Ivanka and Don Jr's lawyer (Kascewicz?) makes a huge contribution to DA Cyrus Vance's campaign, and a truth-in-lending suit against them is mysteriously thrown out.  Today's White House is an extension of the Trump-Kushner style of doing business via vendetta [eg, lifting of all environmental protections proposed by perceived Obama], lies [I don't know anything about hush money paid to Stormy Daniels], and corruption [emoluments, emoluments, emoluments].  God help us.

April 25 2020

This is Happiness (2019)
By Niall Williams

Big changes are coming to a quiet Irish village.  Faha, in county Kerry, is one of the last outposts to be wired for electricity in the mid 1960s and young Noel ("Noe") Crowe is there to watch it happen.  In this beautifully written novel, 17-year-old Noe, fresh from disillusionment as a seminary student in Dublin, is spending the spring and summer with his grandparents (Ganga and Doady), and he will be joined by Christy, a 60-something employee of the electric company, who is boarding with the Crowes, spending the nights under the thatched eaves with Noe.  Noe and Christy, despite the disparity in age, form a close bond, exploring the area's night life, and Noe discovers that Christy has taken the job in Faha not just to earn a living, but because a woman he jilted years ago now lives in Faha, widow of the town's pharmacist, and he wants to earn her forgiveness.

As the endeavor plays out, the Fahaens live their lives as they have for centuries, most living off the land "on budgets thin as air".  The church is still a big force in everyones' lives, as is rain, which had suddenly and unexpectedly stopped on Spy Wednesday (2 days before Good Friday), as the story opens.

On one occasion during this several days of sunny weather, Noe has joined the electric workers, installing poles around the district.  When a pole falls on him, he ends up at the local surgery, awaking to see the doctor's beautiful young daughter Sophie keeping watch over him, and suddenly Noe - for the first time - is smitten.  As he tries to "accidentally" run into Sophie, Christy is hoping his old love, Annie, will give him the time of day.

The story opens just before Easter weekend, and that's when I happened to read it, which perhaps made me feel closer to the story.  I was in Ireland in 1970 (at the end of a junior semester abroad in Wroxton, England) and could feel the ambience of Ireland before the days of the Celtic tiger.

While the novel is fairly long (380 pp) and slow moving, it unfolds gently.  The writing is simply exquisite  and the love and respect for one another in the village is a beautiful testament to forgiveness, respect, and a former time.

April 15 2020

"Dark Money" (2018) Big Sky Film Productions, Directed by Kimberly Reed

This documentary film examines the influence of untraceable corporate money on our elections.  The film opens in Montana, which was an early leader (over a century ago) in limiting campaign contributions from corporations, following the buyout of officials by Anaconda Copper, which led to gross environmental damage.  Today our government has given corporations unlimited power over our elections by removing all regulations of donations to political campaigns, virtually giving them bribe power over officials at all levels.  After the federal government removed the regulations, Citizens United, for example, became one of the big 103 c4 orgs to collect money from megadonors without revealing its source; the money could (most likely) be from foreign donors seeking to influence US elections to leverage outcomes to their country's (or their personal) benefit.  On a state level, Montana became vulnerable under the liberalized ruling when a group called ATF started mailing out damaging and false political ads targeting John Ward, running for reelection to the MT House of Representatives.  This was a new org but was actually a shell company serving as a front for an effort for corporations to hide their donation from the government and therefore influence the election. Because it is a covert org, it's not clear who is actually sending out this damaging information.  Hours of journalistic and legal research finally uncovered the sham, and truth and justice were finally served in MT.  But Montana is just one of many examples, though it serves as an urgent catalyst that we work to bar corporations from controlling our elections, and thus our laws.

April 4 2020

Your Heart, My Hands: An Immigrant's Remarkable Journey to Become One of America's Preeminent Cardiac Surgeons (2019)
By Arun K Singh, MD

A close friend needed open heart surgery a few years ago, and she was thrilled (and relieved) when Dr Arun Singh accepted her as a patient.  She was actually among over 15,000 patients who put their hearts into Dr Singh's hands. By the time he retired from RI Hospital in 2016, Dr Singh was a legend.  But his early life gave little clue to the career to which he would one day aspire.

A physically challenged, poor boy in India, Arun also had to overcome a learning disability.  He was born in rural India in 1944.  His father was well-educated (though sometimes unemployed), but his maternal grandfather had been a surgeon.  "Nana" was educated in the UK and found his pro-UK views were not always popular in newly free India.  Arun, who suffered two accidents resulting in broken limbs, followed by years of in-home, makeshift rehab, as well as learning issues related to dyslexia, was not a typical pre-Med student.  But his mother and grandmother believed in him and encouraged him to follow his heart.  Learning the basics at Darbhanga Medical College, he was encouraged to seek admission to a residence program in the US. He was eventually accepted into a program at Columbia, working at 3 different NYC hospitals (at one of which a young Jewish nurse, Barbara Schacter, caught his eye and became Arun's wife).  Finishing the program at Columbia, Arun was then accepted to a 2-year fellowship at RIH, followed by a 1-year program at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, where Arun honed his cardiac surgical skills.  He was then offered positions at both Harvard and Brown/RIH.  Having established a working relationship at RIH, Arun chose that offer, only to learn afterward that funding was withdrawn.  But luckily for RIH, he stuck with it, supporting himself through his own burgeoning practice, and built up the new cardiothoracic dept at RIH.

Dr Singh gives a heart-wrenching account of his struggles, living in a developing country, coming to the US as a dark-skinned immigrant, arriving at his first US post with fifty cents in his pocket, and residing at the YMCA at just about every new position, because it was all he could afford.  Humble and honest about his struggles, whether physical, academic, or recalling a patient (very few) who did not survive surgery.  After his last operation, he reflects, "It had gone well.  The surgery.  The career.  And, on balance, the life."