New Political Thriller Billionaires and Bagmen from Ray Bourhis Offers Option to Presidential Choices

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The debut novel from attorney Ray Bourhis, Billionaires and Bagmen: What Happens When A Small Town Takes Them On, offers a surprising solution to the question many people are asking since the Conventions: How can we take our lives back from an over-reaching government, Wall Street power brokers, lobbyist-written laws, the billionaires who buy them off and candidates we don't like?

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His answer is for local governments to simply ignore Big Brother's rules and write their own. All across America, town by town, regardless of who is president or who big money controls. It's called Civil Disobedience.  

History is full with examples of people refusing to abide by laws they consider unjust or immoral. In Billionaires and Bagmen, Bourhis explores the possibility of a whole town doing just that.  This entertaining political thriller, described by the Midwest Book Review as "deftly crafted and compelling," is also a blueprint of how it could be done.

The main character in the book, Sean Cogan, is a funny, prickly, charismatic economist turned venture capitalist. He is convinced that the government is no longer "of, by and for the people," and that the President and all three branches of government are bought, paid for, and held in the grip of powerful billionaires, corrupt multinational corporations and their bagmen: the politicians and lobbyists who carry out their agendas.  So Cogan gathers up a few old high school friends in their small town, heads to town hall, plunks down $250 and registers an initiative to be put on the November ballot for his hometown of Fairview to declare its independence from everybody.  Then things start to get really interesting.

From a savvy newspaper reporter to a secretive former CIA agent who knows how the game is played to the idiot alcoholic mayor of the town who tries to sabotage the initiative, events start to spin out of control. Things go from bad to worse when the powers that be in Washington become concerned that this independence movement could take on a life of its own.

Cogan and his team of supporters plow ahead in spite of the collusion of spies, lobbyists, a controversial talk show host and a whole boatload of other unsavory characters. It's an exciting, scary and dangerous ride.

"In a novel that reflects current anxieties, concerns, beliefs, and attitudes of an enormous and growing percentage of the American public, Billionaires and Bagmen: What Happens When A Small Town Takes Them On is a deftly crafted and compelling read that clearly establishes author Ray Bourhis as an exceptionally skilled storyteller. Very highly recommended…" --Midwest Book Review

You can learn more at http://billionairesandbagmen.com or on Facebook.

List $19.95, 6 x 9, 200 pages
ISBN: 978-1-883423-44-5
Published by Blue Point Books

About Ray Bourhis:

Ray Bourhis is uniquely qualified to be a political pundit and an enemy of unbridled corporate and political corruption. A lawyer practicing out of San Francisco and Santa Barbara, California, Bourhis has been at the forefront of the battle against greed and excessive power for most of his life.

Bourhis grew up in the tough neighborhood of Elmhurst in Queens, New York. He credits an attempt by local street gang members to throw him into a blazing bonfire at age twelve with helping him develop the survival skills needed to spend his legal career taking on insurance companies. 

After graduating from Ohio State, where he co-created the school's mascot, he took a job teaching in a rural high school in Appalachia and then became one of Robert Kennedy's key staffers, working with the Senator on his presidential campaign.

Later Bourhis joined the Domestic Peace Corps (VISTA) and was sent to California as a community organizer with the farm workers.  His passion for fighting for the underdog ultimately led him to the UC Berkeley School of Law.  He decided on law as a career because he wanted to make a difference. While at Berkeley he founded a student-funded public interest law firm that was vetoed by the University Board of Regents. It later became CalPirg (California Public Interest Research Group).

Since law school Bourhis has specialized in representing policyholders in cases involving the wrongful denial of long-term disability (LTD) insurance claims. His firm has set legal precedents and obtained record verdicts and settlements in that field.  Again, this reflects his passion for fighting for the underdog.

Bourhis is the author of the nonfiction book Insult to Injury. He also co-authored The Autobiography of Brutus Buckeye: As Told to His Parents Sally Lanyon and Ray Bourhis, published in 2015 for Brutus' 50th birthday.

Author interviews, review copies or a PDF available. Contact Cathy Feldman at email or 805-682-8775

SOURCE Blue Point Books