Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre
Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal
More entertaining than the fiction of Graham Greene, Ian Fleming, or John Le Carré.
In the case of Philby, truth stranger than fiction.
I can see how Kim Philby evaded detection for so long — but not Guy Burgess. He was a hopeless alcoholic looking for trouble, yet kept getting promoted.
Those closest to him—like his fellow MI6 officer and best friend since childhood, Nicholas Elliot, and the CIA’s head of counterintelligence, James Jesus Angleton—knew him as a loyal confidant and an unshakeable patriot.
Philby was a brilliant and charming man who rose to head Britain’s counterintelligence against the Soviet Union. Together with Elliott and Angleton he stood on the front lines of the Cold War, holding Communism at bay. But he was secretly betraying them both: He was working for the Russians the entire time.
Amazon
Audible Originals
I’ve sent plenty of money to Amazon via my subscription to Audible.com.
This is probably my last year.
The IOS app is lousy.
Books are overpriced in my opinion. I pay about US $10 each by taking advantage of special deals.
In 2020 almost every audio book I want is available through my library — so long as I’m willing to wait a few weeks.
Like every subscription service, Audible has tried since 2016 to keep my business by including original content unavailable elsewhere. Podcasts. Novellas. Much of that is free for subscribers. Two books / month, for example.
But it’s not enough to keep me.
The Getaway by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen, for example.
2 hours long. Not a bad little psychological thriller. But not enough to motivate me to stay on with Audible.
Star of the North by D.B. John
Not a great book.
BUT the most insight I’ve ever gotten into the weird world of North Korea.
Star of the North opens in 1998, when a Korean American teenager is kidnapped from a South Korean beach by North Korean operatives.
Twelve years later, her brilliant twin sister, Jenna, is still searching for her, and ends up on the radar of the CIA. When evidence that her sister may still be alive in North Korea comes to light, Jenna will do anything possible to rescue her–including undertaking a daring mission into the heart of the regime.
… braided together with two other narrative threads.
In one, a North Korean peasant woman finds a forbidden international aid balloon and uses the valuables inside to launch a dangerously lucrative black-market business.
In the other, a high-ranking North Korean official discovers, to his horror, that he may be descended from a traitor, a fact that could mean his death if it is revealed. …
Amazon
In praise of Jeff Bezos
82% of American households buy from Amazon.
It’s easy to argue that Jeff Bezos is the greatest entrepreneur of all time.
My life is better because of Amazon Canada. Every other company was forced to compete.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Palmer with Justin Timberlake
Quite good.
Justin Timberlake is a former college football star, now an ex-convict, who starts to mentor a flamboyant young boy named Sam.
Actually, the kid steals the show in most scenes.
It’s an important film. Many important issues 2021 addressed in a serious way.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Redemption by David Baldacci
- Memory Man (2015)
- The Last Mile (2016)
- The Fix (2017)
- The Fallen (2018)
- Redemption (2019)
The 5th book in the series was best so far, for me.
Amos Decker is the obese genius with perfect memory.
In this one, our hero returns ‘home‘ to Burlington, Ohio, where his wife, Cassie, daughter, Molly and brother in law, Johnny, were killed.
He is there to commemorate what would have been Molly’s 14th birthday.
Unexpectedly, the first killer Decker ever put behind bars turns up. Released from prison because of terminal cancer.
It’s his dying wish that Decker clear his name.
Superstore seasons 3-5
Though I tried to switch to serious shows on Netflix and Prime, Dina Fox made me flip back to Superstore.
YES … it’s junk food TV. 😀
My favourite TV character since Sue Sylvester in Glee.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I’ll watch final season 6 too, I’m sure. Superstore during the COVID pandemic.
America Ferrera as Amy Sosa departs.
Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
HUGE Best Seller published September 2020.
And an excellent book. Uplifting and amusing.
Pay close attention as the plot is far more complex than you’d first guess.
The Thursday Murder Club is the debut novel by … Richard Osman.
A group of pensioners … set about solving the mystery of the murder of a property developer. …
The Guardian hailed it as the “fastest selling adult crime debut” in recorded history.
The planned Seven Spielberg movie should be better. Something like the charming old Brits of Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) — in a whodunnit.
A sequel is already written with many of the same characters. I’m keen to see what happens to all 4 in the Murder Club — plus Bogdan, my favourite.
Smartmatic sues FOX for $2.7 billion
FOX just might lose this court case. That would really reduce future deliberate propaganda campaigns.
There are a number of other court cases against the same FOX bad actors already dropped and yet to come.
Smartmatic is a multinational company that builds and implements electronic voting systems.
BUT during the 2020 election their product was used only in one California county.
FOX and the the Four Seasons Total Landscaping lawyer knew this — yet deliberately waged a “disinformation campaign” blaming Smartmatic for election fraud.
Damages were done to the company. Perhaps $600 million. It should be easy to prove their case.
On February 4, 2021, Smartmatic sued Fox Corporation, Fox News Network, and its anchors Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanine Pirro for $2.7 billion in the New York State Supreme Court as well as Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who spread baseless claims of election fraud on Fox.
The 276-page complaint alleges that Fox, its anchors, Guiliani, and Powell spread a “conspiracy to defame and disparage Smartmatic and its election technology and software” by making new business opportunities increasingly scarce.
wikipedia
Here’s a FOX host talking to Giuliani, for example.
Rick McCharles 