Society & Culture

Book Review: Relentless, By Mark Greaney — A Darn Good Yarn

Book Review: Mark Greaney’s Relentless is a fantastic thriller, one all Tom Clancy fans will love. Go buy it!

Published

3 years ago

February 14, 2021

Nicky Billou

Back in 1984, an insurance salesman from Maryland published a book and invented a new genre, the techno-thriller. That salesman was Tom Clancy, and his book was called The Hunt For Red October. The book was selling modestly, until one well-known fan declared in an interview that he had read it, and pronounced it “a darn good yarn.”

That fan was yours truly’s favourite President, Ronald Wilson Reagan. Sales took off, and Clancy’s career was launched. Tom Clancy became the undisputed king of the patriotic-themed techno-thriller, and sold tens of millions of copies of his books. Near the end of his life, Clancy began collaborating with some young, up-and-coming writers, whereby he would come up with the stories, and the writer would write them, and get co-credit for writing the book. One of these writers, and in my opinion the best of them, was Mark Greaney.

Mark wrote several books with Tom, and after he passed away, wrote a couple more under the Tom Clancy brand about the Jack Ryan Universe. But he also wrote some brilliant thrillers of his own, starting with the book The Gray Man. Greaney created the character of the Gray Man, a super-spy and assassin on the run from his former employers at the CIA, a man who was an assassin-for-hire with a conscience. The character is a unique one in the annals of thriller writers, and the books are very well-written, edge-of-your-seat, can’t-put-it-down type of books. I am a huge fan, and consider Greaney a worthy successor to the great Tom Clancy.

His latest instalment in the Gray Man series is called Relentless. It’s a story ripped from today’s headlines, about a shadowy private intelligence firm that is supposedly working as a deniable asset for Israeli Intelligence, but whose actions seem to be against the interests of Israel and the Unites Statesm and benefiting that of its enemies, most especially the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Courtland Gentry, aka The Gray Man, is convalescing from an infection and other serious injuries sustained during his last op, when he is called upon to get back into action. Why? Because a former NSA operative seems to have gone rogues and the other CIA assets sent to find him are easily identified and neutralized. It seems like someone has hacked into the government intelligence personnel database and created a means of identifying any and all official assets of the CIA. Gentry is an off-books asset, and his boss at the CIA thinks that he is the only one he can send in to figure out what the heck is going on without having his cover blown

Complicating matters is that Gentry’s love interest, Zoya Zakharova, and ex-FSB assassin turned deniable CIA asset, has been tasked with penetrating the private intelligence firm on behalf of the CIA, and in such a way that her identity is blown. Her former employers at the Russian FSB are none too happy about her defection, and have found out where she is and are sending a hit team to neutralize her.

The story unfolds with Gentry fighting off his infection, doing his mission, and attempting to protect the woman he loves from the FSB killers. The cast of characters include Gentry’s love interest, his boss the DDO Operations at the CIA, his former CIA SAB Commander, an ex-Stasi spymaster, a Russian FSB hit team, German intelligence operatives, a shadowy Intelligence chief from an allied Middle Eastern country, US special forces types gone rogue, actual Middle Eastern terrorists, and a US Ambassador to Germany who happens to be the President’s best friend.

There are plenty of twists and turns throughout the story to keep you guessing, and have you riveted to the book. The ending is both predictable and shocking, and that too, is a Greaney hallmark in the Gray Man series. I won’t give you any more details, because I don’t want to spoil the fun of the story for you. If you are a fan of techno-thrillers, you will love this one. Greaney knows his stuff.

And he does tell a darn good yarn.

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Life

Your Days Do Not Have to Race By

Much of what you experience each day, in terms of the passage of time, is based on your perception

Published

1 day ago

September 22, 2023

Jeff Davidson

Whenever you feel you’re racing the clock or trying to tackle too much at once, try this exercise:

Close your eyes for a minute. Imagine a pleasant scene. You might be surrounded by trees or with a loved one. It could be something from childhood. Let the emotions of that place and time pervade you. Get into it! Give yourself more than a minute for the visualization to take hold.

Open your eyes and return to what you’re doing. Whatever care or task you’re working on is not quite so bad and your pace is never quite so feverish. Realistically, much of what you experience each day, in terms of the passage of time, is based on your perception. You can slow down time if you choose.

Pause and Reflect

Imagine you’re flying on an airplane. You have a window seat, and it’s a clear day. As you gaze down to the ground below, what do you see? Life passing by. Cars the size of ants. Miniature baseball diamonds. Rivers the size of streams. There’s something about being at great heights that enables you reflect on your life.

The same phenomenon can take place from the top of a mountain or skyscraper. As often as practical things seem to be racing by too fast, seek higher ground, literally, for a clearer perspective.

If you’re among the lucky, perhaps you regularly allocate time for reflection or meditation. If you don’t, it’s no matter. There are other ways to make it all “slow down.”

After the workday, listen to relaxing music and close your eyes. A half hour of your favorite music with your eyes closed and no disturbances can seem almost endless. When you re-emerge, the rest of the day takes on a different tenor.

An effective method for slowing down time and catching up with today is periodically deleting three items from your “to do list” without doing them at all. Before you shriek, consider that much of what makes your list is arbitrary.

In most cases, eliminating three items won’t impact your career or life, except for freeing up a little time for yourself in the present.

A Change in Medium

I have long used water to reduce stress. For eleven years, I lived in a high-rise condominium in Falls Church, Virginia, complete with its own 25 meter pool. No matter how hard I worked during the day, even if I did a 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. stint, at 6:05 p.m. I was in the pool. After 30 minutes of laps, I had swum out many of the stresses and strains of the day.

Now that I live in North Carolina, more rural by comparison, I have lakes! Here I can swim for a mile in one direction and rarely encounter anyone else. Find the swimming hole nearest you!

In the Animal Kingdom

If you have a dog or cat and do not consider it a drain on your time, here’s a little something about Rover or Mittens that you may not have known. In recent years, as reported by U.S. News & World Report, scientists have found proof for what was only once suspected: Contact with animals has specific and measurable effects on both your body and mind.

The mere presence of animals can increase a sick person’s chances of survival, and has been shown to lower heart rate, calm disturbed children, and induce incommunicative people to initiate conversation!

The exact mechanisms that animals exert to affect your health and well-being are still largely mysterious. Scientists suspect that animal companionship is beneficial because, unlike human interaction (!), it is uncomplicated.

Animals are nonjudgmental, accepting and attentive; they don’t talk back, criticize, or give orders. Animals have a unique capacity to draw people out.

Even if you only have goldfish, sometimes simply staring at them in their silent world can help deaden your hectic pace.

Catching up with Today

1. Constantly read your list of priorities and goals.
2. Challenge and defeat your own ritual behavior.
3. Consider the outcome of not handling something.
4. Convincingly, but politely, say no.
5. Call rather than visit.

6. Clear your desk of all but the task at hand.
7. Clear your files of everything that can be recycled.
8. Cancel something you had already scheduled.
9. Choose from what you already have.
10. Choose to get a good night’s sleep every night.

When you consider all of the ways you add unnecessary pressures to your day, you begin to see many ways to catch up with today or, at least, with this week.

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Elections

Lawfare, Coercion, and Intimidation at the U.S Department of Injustice

Th DOJ fraudulently claims this mission: “Uphold the rule of law, to keep our country safe, and to protect civil rights”

Published

5 days ago

September 18, 2023

Jeff Davidson

Lawfare is impacting society in horrendous ways, many of which ultimately impact your life and your experiences. What is lawfare? Derived from combining the words “law” and “warfare,” it is the employment of legal approaches to delegitimize, damage, or destroy an opposing party or to hinder their ability to employ their own legal rights.

While lawfare has been used among nations seeking to resolve military conflicts, hamper an opponent’s strategies and tactics, or accuse others of serious crimes, here I am only focusing on domestic issues.

The U.S. system of justice has become overtly contentious, straying from the original mission and objective of our legal system. Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Justice adopted lawfare tactics en mass during the Obama Administration, under the sordid leadership of Attorney General Eric Holder.

Long Term Damage

Lawfare was employed against individuals whom the DOJ had targeted, to damage or disparage their character, waste their money and time, or triumph over them for public relations purposes. Today the DOJ persecutes, coerces, badgers, and prosecutes Americans, mainly conservatives, time after time.

The agency’s conviction rate is 93%, or 14 out of 15 cases. Yet, in countless instances, DOJ lawyers pursuing cases do not have sufficient evidence or even legal grounds. How do they prevail? Repeatedly, these government attorneys intimidate defendants to confess to “process” crimes, much like what the special prosecutors under Robert Mueller did with many of Donald Trump’s associates.

If no real crimes existed, DOJ attorneys, well-versed in lawfare, pushed for prosecution in one way or another, HUNDREDS of times. Conviction represents career bonus points for eager DOJ attorneys.

Garland: Corrupt Beyond Belief

Bill Barr, appointed by Donald Trump, was utterly corrupt – a swamp creature of the highest order. He sat on the Hunter Biden revelations. He ignored voluminous evidence of worldwide bribes taken by Joe Biden. He covered for Jeffrey Epstein’s clients, and likely lied about Epstein’s demise. He had insider knowledge of the numerous bogus plots against Trump and said and did nothing.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, now head of the DOJ, has raised lawfare to justice-destroying heights. The DOJ has become the chief agency of injustice. Under Garland, Catholics, parents concerned about the education and welfare of their children, peaceful protesters, and legions of others have had their rights violated.

We know that both the FBI and DOJ have sought to lay heavy crap on Rudy Giuliani, Matt Gaetz, Don Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner, many of Trump’s advisors, and so many others.

Injustice on Demand

Garland’s DOJ implements lawfare in virtually everything it does. The agency has no qualms about incarcerating people for indeterminate lengths, staging show trials, bleeding defendants financially dry, and threatening them with jail sentences unless they capitulate. These are perilous times, especially for anyone who is opposed to the Biden Administration or speaks up in ways that the DOJ does not approve.

It is not difficult with the vast databases to undertake intense snooping and other nefarious methods. In record time, the “Department of Injustice” can ruin a person’s reputation, even after a lifetime of accuracy in their work, in their claims, and in how they comport themselves.

The DOJ can destroy reputations in less than 24 hours, particularly if that person is vulnerable with relatives or children. They raid homes with guns drawn when a simple knock on the door would suffice. The Democrats of today, can get to anyone they want, and will shake their targets to the core.

The GOP Must Win in 2024 or We’re Doomed

Everything described above should have no place within the U.S. Department of Justice. Lawfare should have no place. Meanwhile, the DOJ fraudulently claims that its mission is to “Uphold the rule of law, to keep our country safe, and to protect civil rights.” In actuality, it fails miserably on all three counts.

Claiming independence and impartiality, the agency states, “We work each day to earn the public’s trust by following the facts and the law wherever they may lead, without prejudice or improper influence.” Yes, Hunter Biden will verify that. The DOJ claims, “Our employees value differences in people and in ideas and treat everyone with fairness, dignity, and compassion.” Not exactly.

The only tenable solution to vanquish the runaway DOJ and their insidious practice of lawfare, intimidation, and coercion is for a Republican to win the 2024 presidential election, replace Garland, and quickly reverse the serious damage that has been done to our nation.

If Democrats successfully re-cheat their way to victory, may God help us all.

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