Democracy and Books
Key themes this week: Fighting for democracy here and aboard, and championing our freedom to write and read.
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Fight for Democracy Abroad: Trump-Putin Meeting in Alaska
The meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to have rewarded Russian aggression over the past decade-and-a-half. A high-level international meeting among presidents, giving Russia stature on the world stage even after being a pariah as a consequence of their attacks on neighbors. This BBC article is a good primer on Russia’s war of aggression and the resultant expansion of NATO to protect Eastern European countries: [1]
When Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered up to 200,000 soldiers into Ukraine, his aim was to sweep into the capital, Kyiv, in days, overthrow its pro-Western government and return Ukraine to Russia's sphere of influence.
Putin failed but, more than three years on, a fifth of Ukrainian territory is in Russian hands.
…
In reality, the war began in 2014, when Putin seized Crimea and Russian proxies grabbed part of eastern Ukraine. Zelensky had not even entered politics by then. Putin then ordered Russia's full-scale invasion eight years later, after months of meticulous co-ordination and denials of any such plan.
…
Putin has for years complained about Nato's eastward expansion as a security threat, and sees any possibility of Ukraine joining the alliance as a major red line.
Before Russia's 2022 invasion he demanded that Nato remove multinational deployments from the Central and Eastern European states that joined the Western alliance after 1997.
But it was Russia that launched military action in Eastern Europe, when it invaded Georgia in 2008 and then Crimea in 2014.
After the Crimea invasion, Nato established a continuous presence on its eastern flank - closest to Russia.
Nato has always stressed the whole purpose of the alliance is to defend territories "with no aggressive intentions". Sweden and Finland have joined Nato in the past two years precisely because of the perceived Russian threat.
It is part of Ukraine's constitution to join the European Union and Nato, but there was no real prospect of this when the full-scale war began.
Image showing NATO expansion since its founding in 1949. From BBC News [1]
Trump appears to have achieved nothing from the Friday meeting, dropping his demand for a cease fire and reportedly now being willing to side with Russia on Ukraine ceding land to the aggressors. [2]
President Donald Trump dropped his demand for a ceasefire in Ukraine and told its president Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine’s eastern Donbas area in exchange for halting the war.
Hours after Trump and Putin met Friday in Alaska, Trump said Ukraine and Russia should go straight to negotiating a settlement, a split with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European allies that aligns the United States with Putin.
Zelensky has rejected Russian demands to cede Ukrainian land. The Ukrainian leader and his European partners, including the leaders of Britain, France and Germany, had lobbied the White House to pressure Moscow into a ceasefire before any negotiations.
Reporters on the scene described a somber mood from Trump officials after the meeting – here’s a video overview from NBC News’s Peter Alexander about what struck him being “the looks on the faces of a lot of the American delegation” - White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt appeared to be “stressed out, anxious” and along with Russian envoy Steve Witkoff, “their eyes almost wide, ashen”: [3]
Post from Threads by The Briefing with Jen Psaki, with NBC News’s Peter Alexander reporting after the Trump-Putin press event. [3]
Protecting the free people of Ukraine to govern themselves became harder this week by not standing up to Russia.
Fight for Democracy at Home: Elections
The attacks on free and fair elections continued here at home with President Trump’s call for Texas to gerrymander their Congressional districts further to seek five more Republican seats. [4]
Texas GOP lawmakers released their first draft of the state’s new congressional map Wednesday, proposing revamped district lines that attempt to flip five Democratic seats in next year’s midterm elections.
The new map targets Democratic U.S. House members in the Austin, Dallas and Houston metro areas and in South Texas. The draft, unveiled by state Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, will likely change before the final map is approved by both chambers and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott. Democrats have said they might try to thwart the process by fleeing the state.
This unusual mid-decade redistricting comes after a pressure campaign waged by President Donald Trump’s political team in the hopes of padding Republicans’ narrow majority in the U.S. House.
Currently, Republicans hold 25 of Texas’ 38 House seats. Trump carried 27 of those districts in 2024, including those won by Democratic U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar of Laredo and Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen.
Texas Democratic legislators fled the state to deny a quorum in the House, preventing the redistricting legislation from being considered [5] and to stay out of the reach of Texas Rangers who the governor activated to bring legislators back to the state capitol. [6]
The Texas House reconvened Friday morning in its sixth attempt to make a quorum, after Democrats left the state to protest a redistricting plan expected to favor Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections.
After failing to reach a quorum Tuesday morning for the fifth time in more than a week, Republican leaders announced that if they can’t reach a quorum again this Friday at 10 a.m. Friday, both the House and Senate will wrap up the special session. There were 95 lawmakers present, failing to make a quorum.
California entered the national political fray to counter Texas’s partisan move. California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed a ballot measure to be considered by California voters this November to allow for redrawing California’s Congressional district maps to counter Texas, if they end up following through with President Trump’s and Governor Abbott’s plans. From NBC News reporting: [7]
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday called on California lawmakers to approve a November ballot measure that would allow them to redraw the state's congressional map to fight back against Republicans' mid-decade redistricting plans in Texas and elsewhere.
Newsom's proposal, called the “Election Rigging Response Act,” would pave the way for California Democrats to circumvent the independent commission that controls the map-drawing process in the state and pass new congressional lines that would be more favorable to their party.
Republicans in Texas, with President Donald Trump's backing, are pursuing a new congressional map that would allow them to gain up to five more House seats.
"It's not complicated. We're doing this in reaction to a president of the United States that called a sitting governor of the state of Texas and said, 'Find me five seats,'" Newsom said. "We're doing it in reaction to that act. We're doing it mindful of our higher angels and better angels. We're doing it mindful that we want to model better behavior, as we've been doing for 15 years in the state of California with our independent redistricting commission. But we cannot unilaterally disarm."
Newsom has also been taunting President Trump on social media, where posts from his press office mimic President Trump’s all-caps styling and phrasing such as “BEAUTIFUL MAPS” from “YOUR FAVORITE GOVERNOR” [8]
Newsom, through his press office social media account, recently took a new public relations tack in the ongoing salvos between him and the White House. In a series of posts on X, Newsom posted all-caps declarations, directly mocking Trump's style of messaging as he worked to drive attention to his efforts.
“DONALD ‘TACO’ TRUMP, AS MANY CALL HIM, ‘MISSED’ THE DEADLINE!!!" Newsom's press office wrote on X. "CALIFORNIA WILL NOW DRAW NEW, MORE ‘BEAUTIFUL MAPS,’ THEY WILL BE HISTORIC AS THEY WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY (DEMS TAKE BACK THE HOUSE!). BIG PRESS CONFERENCE THIS WEEK WITH POWERFUL DEMS AND GAVIN NEWSOM — YOUR FAVORITE GOVERNOR — THAT WILL BE DEVASTATING FOR ‘MAGA.’ THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!"
Politicians drawing the boundaries should not be selecting them in ways to keep power - the decisions about who is elected should be ours, not those currently in power. Here in Thousand Oaks, I’ve called for and supported fair districting when we moved from at-large citywide elections to district elections. I wrote that: [9]
[i]t can strengthen our democracy, make campaigns less expensive for candidates, and build stronger connections with constituents, furthering our self-governance journey.
That said, it’s critical for voters to keep watch on the Council’s actions, ensuring that district boundaries serve our longer-term “communities of interest,” not the short-term “communities of special interest.”
But I also recognize that we’re in an uncivil war, [10] where the battlefields on which these are being waged are political. To me, one side is clearly an aggressor, and another side is standing up to that aggression. And in times where we need to stand up and fight for our constitution and our self-governance, we can’t afford to “unilaterally disarm.” [11].
Being fair sometimes means countering unfairness.
Victory Against Book Banning
A victory for the First Amendment, freedom of speech, and the freedom to learn happened this week. In an attempt to ban books in Florida, a federal judge declared the ban illegal. From MSNBC reporting: [12]
A federal judge has closed the chapter on key parts of Florida’s censorious ban on school library books that conservatives deem “pornographic” and harmful to children.
Amid a broader assault on diversity in the state, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law in 2023, known as House Bill 1069, that set up a process for parents to challenge books for removal from school libraries that they feel are unsuitable for young readers. The repressive law requires that schools remove books within five days of a parents’ complaint and make them unavailable while they’re reviewed. The process, broadly targeting books with “pornographic” content or that “describe sexual conduct,” has ensnared many titles by nonwhite and LGBTQ authors over purported obscenity.
Last year, multiple publishing companies, Florida parents and authors filed a lawsuit seeking to thwart the bill, naming as defendants various members of the state education board and school boards in Orange and Volusia counties. And the suit appears to have succeeded, in large part.
“By enacting HB 1069, the Florida legislature sought to prohibit material from entering or remaining in school libraries that is not obscene for minors,” District Court Judge Carlos Mendoza said in his ruling on Wednesday, which found the section that targets descriptions of sexual conduct to be unconstitutional.
In the Judge Mendoza’s ruling, [13] he described what high school students experienced when trying to check out books:
When J.H., a junior at an Orange County public high school, went to the school library to check out On the Road by Jack Kerouac, it was nowhere to be found. It was not checked out; it had been removed from the shelves. The same thing happened to R.K., a senior at a Volusia County public high school, who tried to check out The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Other removed books include Looking for Alaska by John Green, Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, How the García Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, and Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson. These books were removed from the shelves—not because school librarians had, using their expertise, deemed them unsuitable for children but because fragments of their content were prohibited under HB 1069. [citations removed for readability]
Judge Mendoza highlighted some of the books Florida attempted to ban from school libraries, including: [14]
The Color Purple
Half of a Yellow Sun
Cloud Atlas
The Splendid and the Vile
I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them
On the Road
Nineteen Minutes
Paper Towns
Looking for Alaska
How the García Girls Lost Their Accents
The Kite Runner
Slaughterhouse-Five
Shout
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
The Handmaid’s Tale
Native Son
Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa
Water for Elephants
Beloved
Song of Solomon
The Bluest Eye
Homegoing
A reminder – Thousand Oaks had its own episode of trying to ban books. I write about it in my book Local Democracy in America [16] and the original 2023 version of that essay is available here [17].
Speaking of Books: Update on Local Democracy in America
I wanted to send an update on my book Local Democracy in America.
Thanks to early supporters, the Kindle release of the book reached #1 in its New Release categories on Amazon: [18]
A #1 New Release in the Two-Hour History Short Reads category
A #1 New Release in the Two-Hour Politics and Social Sciences Short Reads category
A top New Release (#4) in Campaigns & Elections category
A top New Release (#6) in Elections & Political Process category
We also got some nice coverage by the local media with a write-up in the Thousand Oaks Acorn. [19]
Here’s a link to the Kindle version – I’ll have a new link to the paperback version once it’s available…
In this time of national awareness on our democracy, it’s important to reflect on just how critical elections are in our self-governance, and something of which we cannot take for granted.
This short set of essays describes those recent events, relating them to key American democratic principles:
The integrity of elections
The right to vote
The meaning of representation
To promote these principles to broader audiences, I’m arranging to publish a version of Local Democracy in America in paperback.
I’ve spoken with professors at California State University – Channel Islands (CSUCI), and I’m arranging for paperback copies to be donated to their libraries and students.
I am also working to do the same for other local universities, libraries, and high schools.
My goals:
Have donated copies available for people who attend the book signing event later this fall.
Support donations of copies to local universities, high schools, and libraries.
So, I’m asking…
Can I count on you to be a sponsor and help make the book launch a success?
I’m excited to say that our top tier of sponsorship – California Sycamore tier – is already sold out! More to come on our sponsors and when the book will be available for sale.
[For those familiar with Thousand Oaks, you’ll recognize that the top tiers are named after several species of oak trees protected by our local Oak Tree and Landmark Tree Preservation and Protection Ordinances, originally approved in 1970.]
I’ve made sure that paperback versions of Local Democracy in America are only $5 per copy, so as an example, a sponsorship at the California Bay Laurel tier (pledging purchase and donation of 40 copies, or a $200 pledge) will help support the donation to local universities.
And by even pledging one or a few copies, this will help support wider visibility for these messages of the importance of free, fair, and open elections.
If you are open to being a sponsor, please reach out to me directly at mic@micfarris.com!
I just got done rewatching The Wizard of Lies, HBO’s movie about the fall of Bernie Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme robbed $85 billion from unsuspecting victims – the largest fraud in American history. [20][21]
Robert DeNiro and Michelle Pfeiffer received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for their portrayals of Bernie and Ruth Madoff. It’s a sad and frustrating tale, but amazingly well played by DeNiro, Pfeiffer, and the rest of the cast with direction by Barry Levinson.
The movie was based on the 2011 book The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust by Diana B. Henriques. From the Amazon overview of the book: [22]
"An impressive, meticulously reported postmortem. . . . The Wizard of Lies is the definitive book on what Madoff did and how he did it." ―Bloomberg Businessweek
Who was Bernie Madoff, and how did he pull off the biggest Ponzi scheme in history?
This question has long fascinated people, about the New York financier who swindled his friends, relatives, and other investors out of $65 billion. And in The Wizard of Lies, Diana B. Henriques of the New York Times has written the definitive and bestselling account of the man and his scheme, drawing on unprecedented access and more than one hundred interviews, including Madoff’s first interviews for publication following his arrest. Henriques provides vivid details from the lawsuits and government investigations that explode the myths that have come to surround the story, and in a revised and expanded epilogue, she unravels the latest legal developments.
A true-life financial thriller―and now a major HBO film starring Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer―The Wizard of Lies contrasts Madoff’s remarkable rise on Wall Street with dramatic scenes from his accelerating slide toward self-destruction. It is also the most complete account of the heartbreaking personal disasters and landmark legal battles triggered by Madoff’s downfall―the suicides, business failures, fractured families, shuttered charities―and the clear lessons this timeless scandal offers to Washington, Wall Street, and Main Street.
GIF Game
Notes and Sources
[1] Paul Kirby, “Why did Putin's Russia invade Ukraine?” BBC, August 13, 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj0q964851po
[2] Ellen Francis, Siobhán O'Grady, Catherine Belton, and David L. Stern, “Trump drops ceasefire demand for Ukraine war, tells allies Putin wants land,” Washington Post, August 16, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/08/16/ukraine-washington-zelensky-russia-trump/
[3] The Briefing with Jen Psaki [@thebriefingwithpsaki], Threads, August 15, 2025, https://www.threads.com/@thebriefingwithpsaki/post/DNZVotOuElI
[4] Gabby Birenbaum and Eleanor Klibanoff, “Texas House Republicans unveil new congressional map that looks to pick up five GOP seats,” Texas Tribune, July 30, 2025, https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/30/texas-redistricting-congressional-maps-house-republicans/
[5] “Texas House fails to make a quorum on 6th attempt as Democrats continue holdout, second special session looms,” CBS News Texas, August 15, 2025, https://www.kwtx.com/2025/08/15/texas-house-faces-6th-quorum-attempt-democrats-continue-holdout-second-special-session-looms/
[6] Governor Greg Abbott, “Governor Abbott Orders Texas Department Of Public Safety To Arrest Delinquent House Democrats,” Office of the Texas Governor, press release, August 4, 2025, https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-orders-texas-department-of-public-safety-to-arrest-delinquent-house-democrats
[7] Natasha Korecki and Ben Kamisar, “Gov. Gavin Newsom calls for a special election to allow for a new congressional map in California,” NBC News, August 14, 2025, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/gov-gavin-newsom-calls-special-election-allow-new-congressional-map-ca-rcna224981
[8] Ibid.
[9] Mic Farris, “Participate in self-governance,” Thousand Oaks Acorn, June 30, 2023, https://www.toacorn.com/articles/participate-in-self-governance/
[10] Mic Farris, “Battles in an Uncivil War,” June 7, 2025, https://www.micfarris.com/articles/battles-in-an-uncivil-war
[11] Natasha Korecki and Ben Kamisar, “Gov. Newsom calls for a special election”
[12] Ja'han Jones, “Federal judge guts major portion of Florida’s book ban, in a blow to DeSantis,” MSNBC, August 15, 2025, https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/florida-book-ban-illegal-desantis-rcna225288
[13] Penguin Random House LLC v. Gibson, 6:24-cv-01573, (M.D. Fla.), Document 129, August 13, 2025, https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flmd.431689/gov.uscourts.flmd.431689.129.0.pdf
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Mic Farris, Local Democracy in America, Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, 2025.
[17] Mic Farris, “Democracy in Thousand Oaks: The Meaning of Representation,” February 12, 2023, https://www.micfarris.com/articles/democracy-in-thousand-oaks-the-meaning-of-representation
[18] Mic Farris, “Leading Indicators,” May 4, 2025, https://www.micfarris.com/articles/leading-indicators
[19] Makena Huey, “Planning commissioner pens ‘Local Democracy’ book,” May 10, 2025, Thousand Oaks Acorn, https://www.toacorn.com/articles/planning-commissioner-pens-local-democracy-book/
[20] The Wizard of Lies, Barry Levinson et al., Home Box Office, 2017.
[21] “The Wizard of Lies,” IMDb, retrieved August 17, 2025, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1933667/
[22] Diana B. Henriques, The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust, Times Books/Henry Holt, 2011.
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