Book 678: Blowout – Rachel Maddow

My jaw legit hurt after I was reading this because my mouth kept hanging open at the sheer audacity of the companies, politicians, and countries in this book. Seriously though, let’s just say that, this is one of those books that if I used only emoji’s to review books would just be this one (link to gif of Nick from Big Mouth‘s head blowing up in amazement).

I stumbled across this book after seeing a review in the Washington Post (months after the book and review were published) and I reached out to the publisher for a review copy and they kindly sent one.* What I wasn’t expecting was for this thing to be like a spy/thriller novel. It. Was. Insanity. Just when you think something more ridiculous can’t possibly be done, Maddow gives her smirk and says, “but wait….there’s more.”

Maddow not only connected the dots for the last 40 years (really much more than that, but most of it was in the last 40 years) between big oil (and all other fossil fuels), Russia, and politicians around the globe, but more importantly, she backed it up with documentation and evidence. I had no expectations of blazing through this, I mean it’s oil, it’s environmentalism, it’s politics—none of which are my go to for light reads and none of which I’m super knowledgeable about, but I read this thing in two days. TWO DAYS—who am I even?

Before I get into a few thoughts on the book, I just want to say I am SOOOOOO glad most conspiracy theorists aren’t the brightest, because if they had Maddow’s education I think the misinformation we’re already dealing with on a massive scale would be even worse.

I think the most fascinating piece that Maddow talked about, aside from the interconnection of it all was the idea of resource drain where these multi-billion dollar corporations go into under-developed countries and basically strip them completely of all their natural resources either taking advantage of the lack of a stable (democratic) government or even leaning into the oligarchies, dictatorships, or fascist governments to get things done without rules or regulations.

“The real genius of the oil and gas industry is the magic trick it does—again and again—in which it uses the hugely remunerative prospect of oil and gas profits to hypnotize otherwise sentient landowners and lawmakers and even whole countries into plighting their truth to the drillers. (Remember, the U.S. government willingly supplied the industry with a small arsenal of nuclear bombs at one point.” (347)

Not only is this the case in Russia with Putin, which she talks about A LOT, but the cases she brings about Equatorial Guinea and Guyana was fascinating. The amount of money these companies pay foreign “governments” that is miraculously funneled into the bank accounts of the families and friends of the government officials was ASTOUNDING. And the kicker is they do it basically with the approval of the US Government. The example she used to drive this home was of ExxonMobil and Rex Tillerson working with Putin in Russia to drill the Arctic.

Tillerson and ExxonMobil did everything they could to continue trying to develop the Arctic oil fields when the Russo-American relationship was going to hell. And they ONLY stopped when full sanctions were applied by Congress and even then it was unwillingly. And I can’t emphasize enough the amount of research she did on Russia, by showing how Putin has hamstrung Russia into an oligarchy (I’m being generous) that depends solely on oil and then tied that to how he’s had to basically resort to digital manipulation and interference in the world to try and stay a superpower was ridiculous and scary and horrifying all at the same time.

The last thing I’ll say on Russia is that, all of the stuff that has been uncovered (the extrajudicial killings, the misinformation social media farms, the election hacking, etc.) continues to this day: look at these two from the last two weeks. Like WTF America, how are we being this blind?

An anti-Putin blogger was murdered in a French hotel, and the killing has the hallmarks of the Russian hit squad causing chaos in Europe https://t.co/t6j3SYEUsN via @businessinsider

— Jim Edwards (@Jim_Edwards) February 6, 2020

Russia wants to see President Trump reelected, a senior intelligence official reportedly told House lawmakers. The briefing brought pushback, especially from skeptical Republicans, @washingtonpost's @nakashimae reports. pic.twitter.com/g5OvMdzDj1

— Up First (@UpFirst) February 21, 2020

The other thing I took out of this book aside from the insane amount of political intrigue was the environmental damage and impact of oil companies (and not just big oil).

“The capture of fossil fuels is less like sticking a stray into a Big Gulp schooner and gently drawing it out, and more like sticking that straw into a sponge and having at it. Try them both some time. It’s not too tough to drain the Big Gulp, is it? The extraction from the sponge requires considerably more, well, brutish effort. Things could tend toward violent. And this understanding of the need for near-violent force has driven most of the successful (a.k.a. lucrative) innovations in the oil industry.” (10)

And yet, this doesn’t even begin to cover it, but it does paint a particularly vivid picture and Maddow went down the rabbit hole, not just of the environmental impact which is terrifying, but of the political and economic impact through the case of Oklahoma. She showed explicitly how Oklahoma not only didn’t keep up with other oil producing states from an education stand point and revenue stand point, but how oil companies and magnates and politicians willingly sacrificed their own children’s education and safety to appease the fossil fuel industry. Seriously, this could’ve been its own book.

“But for all the mildly controversial glories of Oklahoma’s home-grown strain of deliberate weirdness, starting round about 2010, things went weird in an altogether different way.” (134)

I particularly enjoyed when I connected the dots from all of this political scandal and corruption to the scientific research focus of Kathryn Miles’ book Quakeland. When Maddow began to talk about the the human-induced earthquakes in Oklahoma and elsewhere caused by fracking and the reinserting of the slush water back into the earth, I was like holy shit I’ve read about this recently. Maddow did go into the science of it, but more so through the impact of politics on the science and the influence of one major donor (an oil magnate) on the university that housed the supposedly impartial scientific research center, whereas Miles connected all the dots around the country of the fracking induced earthquakes and the potential for even more damage in the future. Honestly, these two books are fantastic companions to each other comparing the science and the long term effects on the environment and politics.

And now for the caveat, as crazy as the strands Maddow weaves together about the evils of big oil on the environment and politics and the evils of Russia playing willy-nilly in world politics, she does a good job of balancing the evil with the good that some of the fossil fuel magnates have done with their money. She talks about how one of the titans of natural gas singlehandedly helped drive the revitalization of Oklahoma City into a world-class city (even if it ends in tragedy for him) and the impact of the philanthropy of these people (even if it’s tarnished by how they made the money). She did a really great job of humanizing the players, even the Russians, while simultaneously sounding the alarm on all of it.

Recommendation: READ. THIS. BOOK. Everyone should read this book. I know a lot of people would say this is just more liberal propaganda, but the amount of research, the relatable way Maddow writes, and the sheer scope of everything she covers is terrifying. She’s connected dots across industries, international boarders, political parties, and generations to show how deep the damage the fossil fuel industry (specifically oil and natural gas) goes politically and environmentally around the world. The only way I can see this getting out to “the masses” is if it was turned into some sort of thriller/spy movie and with one of those “surprise—all of this actually happened” cards at the end (I’m looking at you Chernobyl and HBO).

*I received a copy of Blowout from the publisher in return for my honest opinion. No goods or money were exchanged.

Opening Line: “The very idea of it was too implausible, too fantastical, to be believed; it was simply too outlandishly grand even for a grand opening.”

Closing Line: “Powerful enemies make for big, difficult fights. But you can’t win if you don’t play, and in this fight it’s the stakes that should motivate us: Democracy either wins this one or disappears. It oughtta be a blowout.” (Not whited out as this is a work of nonfiction.)