Book Review: The Divider: t***p in the White House, 2017-2021

 

The Divider is a book about the orange genital wart's administration, that basically chronicles events from beginning to end before it was elected to after it was finally "gone". Pretty much all of the main topics in the book had been widely reported, but the authors include new details some of which, chances are, even if you are a regular consumer of reputable news sources (basically anything that is not FOX, Newsmax, or OANN), will still probably be new. 

The authors of the book are a husband and wife team of journalists, which would not be a thing except for the MAGAt butthurt crybabies using it as a reason to say the book they have never read (and a lot probably cannot read) is full of lies. It is not the first book that they have co-written, and of course, it is only the topic of the book that even remotely makes that a thing. Unlike some of the other books by currently active journalists that tend to stick to a strict retelling of the facts without editorializing, the authors make their opinions of the former guy abundantly clear. They do not explicitly call him batshit crazy like Michael Wolff does, but they certainly make it clear that they think he is a pathological liar (which he is) and should never have any kind of power again (which he shouldn't). But, they back up their factual contentions by citing to hundreds of sources. There are a ton of endnotes that mostly just point to where they gathered information from. Some of the notes also flesh out material in the text, but mostly they just cite a source and move on. The source material they cite includes earlier books written about the prior administration, news and magazine articles, TV interviews, court, and/or congressional testimony, and a lot of original interviews that the authors conducted when researching the book, including with the chief crybaby itself.

One thing that really stood out is just how much almost everyone who worked in the administration early on hated t***p and thought he was stupid, crazy, and dangerous. Yet, of course, many of them never said anything when it still would have mattered. 

Realistically, whether you are likely to like (or even read) the book will depend on your politics and/or opinion of the former guy. The book is fairly long (about 650 pages) and pretty dense. It is not a book that can be read in detail in a day or less. So, I would be very wary of any early reviews. The last handful of chapters that discusses the post-election events probably has the newest not-previously-reported material, which is also some of the most overall revealing material. It is definitely worth reading.

Book Review: It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald T***p

 

This book provides a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the Republican party spanning decades (from the 1980s to the orange genital wart's election) from someone who helped craft a lot of the conservative narrative and helped get Republicans elected. Stevens draws a straight line from things that were being done and said in the 1980s and 1990s to the culture that embraced the shitgibbon. 

Stevens does a bit of a mea culpa admitting his role in things but also indicts himself a bit by implying (and sometimes outright saying) that many of the policies and talking points were trash, half-truths, or just total bullshit when they were things that he helped foster and willingly pushed. He absolutely backs up what he says in the book by bringing receipts in the form of hundreds of endnotes. Yes, some of what is in the book are his opinion, but he backs it up with citations to many sources. Personally, I think he should have used footnotes instead of endnotes to make it easier to see what he was citing, but the book is not just full of his unsubstantiated opinions. 

The book is a very revealing look at the difference between what was being said by Republicans versus what was actually meant when they used buzz words and phrases such as "family values", "welfare state", and the like, by someone who was in a position to know. He also calls out some of the biggest bullshit artists by name (e.g., Newt Gingrich who went after Bill Clinton for an affair with a White House intern while Newt was cheating on his dying wife with a congressional intern). He also goes into detail about how the idea of "small government" which is what many Republicans still try to cling to even if they can't stand t***p to justify their party loyalty, was complete and utter crap, and not anything that the Republicans really ever cared about (unless a Democrat was president, in which case they were all about fiscal responsibility and small government).

Book Review: Everything T***p Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever

 

The subject of the book is evident from the title. It is one of the most accurately titled books ever. Wilson, who was a behind-the-scenes Republican strategist who never got on the t***p train, either at the beginning or after he won the nomination, excoriates everyone involved in the former administration and everyone who supported the prior administration. He goes scorched earth on t***p and anyone who supported him, for whatever reason they did so, and definitely does not wear kid gloves as he criticizes anyone. For the MAGATs out there excoriates basically means to verbally bitch-slap, and verbally means using words. 

There is no doubt about Wilson's feelings toward any person or group of people he discusses in the book. Wilson openly mocks anyone who supported the orange shitgibbon, whether they were the inbred hillbillies with three teeth and even fewer IQ points, the opportunists like Paul Ryan and Bitch McConnell who only supported t***p to get the tax breaks they wanted to pass signed into law and/or to stack the courts with conservative judges, or the evangelicals who actually seem to believe that ol' pussy-grabber is anything close to a good Christian (despite not being able to quote one bible verse or properly pronounce 2 Corinthians). Wilson blends satire in the form of a five-part tragedy of being a White House staffer with comments on real events (like Tillerson calling the orange genital wart a "fucking moron") and uses a lot of snark. And, he backs up his assertions with over 200 footnotes citing different sources.

Wison does not shy away from the fact that he did a lot to stoke the fire under what ultimately became of the t***p base, and fully admits he did a job to make them believe in much of the crazy shit they believe. He also slams the Democrats and their strategists for being so bad at politics as a reason he was able to do what he did as effectively as he did it. He basically says, rightly in my opinion, that Democrats have no idea how to punch back and as a result, the Republicans just roll over them. Refreshingly, he does not try to do some bullshit pandering or mea-culpa trying to claim that he was wrong the entire time, sees the error of his ways, and is now a tree-hugging liberal. He admits that he is still a small-government conservative, and makes no apologies for it. Although he interestingly admits that a lot of the lines and talking points that small-government conservatives have been spewing for decades it total bullshit, so he kinda-sorta admits he was wrong about some things (or just went along with making some shit up). At any rate, he is not exactly a liberal darling and does not want to be one, but he makes no bones about the fact that the Republicans are a threat to democracy. And this was all before the whole January 6th riot and the attempt to steal the election came out. The book was actually released before even the Mueller report was issued. So, hopefully, there will be a follow-up that gets into the even more batshit crazy stuff that came out after this book was released. 

It has a much different tone than other books written about the former administration, but I think that is a good thing because he does not sugarcoat his opinions or try to spare anyone's feelings.

Book Review: The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11

 

The Only Plane in the Sky is a book by Jared Graff that details the events of 9/11 using quotes from different people that were involved in the events of that day. The author has used quotes from survivors, people who talked to people on the planes before they crashed, government officials, and even just people who lived through the day. The book is divided into chapters, and then in each chapter, there are quotes from people discussing the topic of the chapter. So, it does not quite read like a traditional book. Each quote identifies the person giving it and where they were (if they were in the buildings). If you have watched any of the documentaries on 9/11 you will know that some of the quotes the author uses are lifted from interviews that people have previously given about 9/11, but the author also conducted quite a few first-hand interviews. Because the book was written in 2019 some of the material he included was from a modern-day perspective on how a person's life had changed since that day.

Overall, the book is very good. It is very emotional in parts and does include some material that I had never heard about despite watching many of the 9/11 documentaries and reading a lot of books about 9/11. It can be very jarring getting a first-hand account of what happened by the people who lived it, and you get a sense of just how lucky some people got where literally being able to turn a corner was the difference between living and dying. I highly recommend this for people who experienced 9/11 or are just into history, current events, etc. 

Book Review: Siege: T**** Under Fire

 

Siege is the follow up to Michael Wolff's first book about the t**** administration, Fire and Fury, which chronicled the first year of t****'s "presidency". This book is based on interviews with (and has direct quotes from) people in his inner circle (mostly Steve Bannon) about events that occurred during the second year of the administration up to the release of the Mueller Report.

Since Wolff is not a journalist, he does not really feel the need to stick to the journalistic norms of presenting the facts and not interjecting his personal opinion into things. Wolff makes it clear that he thinks t****p is batshit crazy and deeply stupid, and that most of the people around him feel that way too. And, he has no qualms about putting gossip in the book (such as that t***p allegedly said that Nikki Hailey gave him a blowjob) that no mainstream media outlet or traditional journalist would touch with a ten-foot pole.  He does give what he claims are exact quotes from his sources, although most (aside from Bannon) are unnamed. It does seem that Wolff got a lot more information from people than others who wrote books about t***p during its time in office because it is not just a rehash of news stories with a few details filled in that some of the other books out there give you. 

The book is what I would call an intermediate length, about 315 pages, and a fairly quick read. If you are a fast reader and have a lot of time to read it, then you can easily finish it in a day or two. If you are someone, who like me, tends to read for a bit before bed, then it can be finished in about 10-15 days (again depending on how fast you read and/or how much time you devote to reading each night). T***p cult members and Q nutjobs (which are basically a circle on a Venn Diagram) will hate it and call it fake news, but anyone with a brain who saw t***p for what it was, will probably enjoy it immensely.

Book Review: Here, Right Matters

 

"Here, Right Matters" is a memoir by Alexander Vindman, who was the only person who was actually listening in on the phone call between t***p and the President of Ukraine which led to the first impeachment to publically testify. The title of the book comes from what is probably the most famous line of his opening statement telling his father not to worry about the fact that he is testifying in the impeachment case. It alternates back and forth between Vindman's early life, first growing up as an immigrant in America with his father, twin brother, and older brother, and then detailing his military career, meeting his wife, and having his own child, with the events that would thrust him into the national spotlight. It details his reaction to the call, why he felt he had to report it (and that he never thought it would become public), and why he testified even over the objections of his own father (who was an ardent t***p supporter at the time). The book also provides some behind-the-scenes details of both Vindman's closed-door and public testimony and finishes with a recounting of the end of his military career.

The book is fairly short (less than 250 pages) and is a fairly quick read. I like that it gives some insight into who Vindman is as a person and what caused him to do what he felt was right in reporting to his superiors what he believed to be misconduct on the part of t***p. While it is clear that he was no fan of t***p even before the impeachment mess and the fallout that stemmed from it, he saw himself as apolitical when it came to his job and his duty and unlike the boot-licking toadies that ran rampant in the t***p administration, Vindman was going to do what he felt was right regardless of his personal politics (which seemingly did have a more conservative bent, at least until t***p came along). 

Overall, the book is a good read. It can be a bit dry, but not overly so, and I, for one, was happy to support a guy who did what was right for his country. I definitely recommend it.

Book Review: The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and How to Fix It

 

The Reckoning is a book by Mary Trump, the niece of the former "president", whom she only refers to by his first name. It is, in part, a follow up to her book "Too Much and Never Enough" that gave an inside look at life in her family, at least as she experienced it, and explained a lot about why the members of the family, including her uncle, are the way they are. And, it is, in part, a history lesson that rarely, if ever gets taught in America. 

This book looks at the history of the United States as a whole, especially the period after the Civil War, to explain why the country got to a point where a person like t***p ever got anywhere near the White House. She specifically points to the failure of the United States to hold the traitorous confederates like Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis accountable for their crimes as a through-line to not holding Nixon accountable for his, and allowing t***p to skate by (at least so far) for his. She does a very good job breaking down actual American history (what the RWNJs call critical race theory) and how the slaves were freed with no assistance afterward, and then held down by what became a fascist state in the south and ignored by Northerners who did not care what came of them after being freed. She kind of bounces back and forth between a history lesson and the trump administration policies that ultimately flowed from the ashes of that history.

While she does discuss specific aspects of the t***p administration (with a heavy emphasis on the final year or so) and t***p himself (again exposing just how big a fraud he actually is) the focus is more on the system that allowed him to come to power and the hold he has over the republican party and his drooling fans (most of whom he does not give two shits about). She, of course heavily criticizes her uncle, but also criticizes past leaders, democrat and republican, for fostering a system that allowed the country to get to the ultra-polarized and dangerous state that it is in. And, she is very blunt in her criticism and does not sugarcoat or sanitize it.

It is a very short book (about 178 pages) and is a fairly quick read. If you read fairly quickly it can easily be read in a day. Readability-wise, the only comment I have is that the font they used is pretty small, so if you are at the reading glasses stage of your life, it may not be easy on your eyes. But, it is definitely worth reading. 

Book Review: I Alone Can Fix It

 

This book is the follow-up to the book A Very Stable Genius by the same authors which detailed the first couple of years of t***p's presidency. Like that book, this one adds details to widely reported stories and fleshes out (mainly through accounts of people who were "in the room" as things happened) behind-the-scenes details. It picks up right after the first impeachment and goes through to January 20th, focusing a lot on the Covid response and events leading up to, including, and then following the 2020 election. The authors generally keep their personal feelings and opinions out of the book, just presenting what they were told, and leaving readers to make up their own minds about the people involved.

Really this could be titled "The Shit Show" part 2. If the first book detailed how stupid and unqualified t***p was to do anything, this one really hammers that point home. It details just how "shit for brains" (t***povid (he asked multiple people "they do?" when told masks actually do work). The book also details how it (t***p) always wanted to go back to relitigate the 2020 election and basically ignore Covid. And by relitigate, it really means bitch about the election to anyone in earshot instead of focusing on Covid. The book also details how t***p would be told one thing during meetings and then go out in front of cameras and say the exact opposite. 

Then, of course, there was all the crap that surrounded the election, and how t***p was lying about how the election would be fraudulent months before when he was told by almost everyone around him (aside from a few of the lickspittle toadies) that he was going to lose. There were some that were insisting, even to the bitter end, that t***p was going to win in a landslide despite what the polling showed, which of course t***p maintains happened even to this day, but most people around t***p knew he was going to lose, mainly because of his inept response to Covid.

Overall, the book provides a very detailed look at just how inept, stupid, uncaring, and unqualified t***p and the people around him were. There were a few, such as General Milley, who would stand up to him and say no to him and who hung in there to the bitter end to keep him from doing even more crazy shit than he did. The fact that a lot of people from the administration were willing to tell the truth about, and even badmouth t***p, mostly, anonymously, shows that there were not a lot of profiles in courage in that administration. It really does show that the country dodged a bullet, barely, by getting rid of his ass, and underscores how t***p should never be allowed anywhere near the office of the Presidency again.

Book Review: Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship With the First Lady

Melania and Me, written by Stephanie Winston Wolkoff is an interesting look behind the curtain of the lead-up to, and the first couple of years of, the 2017-2021 presidential administration from the perspective of someone who was a senior advisor/special advisor/friend of the former first lady. Wolkoff details how she met and became friends with the former first lady (she met her when she was working in the fashion industry, helping to plan and organize events like the Met Gala), and how that transitioned to working on the inauguration planning and trying to set up the staff for the first lady once the former president was in the White House. 

The book details a lot of the infighting and backbiting between the West Wing of the White House and the East Wing (i.e., the president's staff vs the first lady's staff; aka Ivanka vs. Melania), and how the former was doing everything the undermine the latter (at least from Wolkoff's point of view). The book definitely gives the impression that Ivanka and Melania have a chilly (at best) relationship, or outright hate each other. The book goes on to detail how, as the finances of the inauguration came to light, Wolkoff was thrown under the bus for the overcharges and missing money and was painted as a friend of Melania who got 26 million dollars for planning a handful of events. The Author's version is that she only made $400k (roughly) and put out so much of her own money between the inauguration, her time in the White House, and attorney fees for various things, that she ended up a million dollars in the hole.  

The author is a bit of a contradiction. She admits up front that she was apolitical and never voted in her life before the 2016 election, and felt it was better not to vote because she could not tell you the difference between the economic policies of Obama and Romney, yet voted for t***p solely because she was friends with his wife, and despite the fact that she disagreed with most of his policies. Wolkoff spends about 2/3 of the book fangirling over Melania then ends up saying she wishes she never met her. It is clear that she felt more and more betrayed by Melania over the course of time and, even though she thought she was different because she had a real friendship with Melania when it came down to it, she was expendable just like all the other people she had seen thrown under the bus and cast to the side by the trump family. The book does not talk much about the former president, although Wolkoff does take some shots at the things he said, paints Ivanka as a spoiled princess, and intimates that Jared was basically worthless and nobody knew why he had any responsibility in the administration. 

Overall, the book is a somewhat interesting and fairly quick read. If you are a fast reader you can get through it in a few days (or less), but it is not what I would call a page-turner that most people would read in one sitting. It portrays pretty much everyone in that White House as very petty (including the author herself) and most of the group out for themselves. The author is definitely more sympathetic than some of the other people detailed in the book, and it does seem that she was trying to make Melania look as good as possible as the first lady (despite Ivanka and Melania herself who had a "why should I give a shit about anything" attitude about damn near everything), and even put her health in jeopardy by overworking herself for Melania's benefit. Even so, it is hard to feel extremely sorry for her because she had certainly seen enough before she was thrown under the bus to know what was likely coming her way, which, in the long run, makes it different from a lot of the other tell-all books out there about trump. 

Book Review: The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson

The Run Of His Life gives a detailed view of the O.J. Simpson murder trial from a quasi-insider's view. Toobin was a reporter, not a member of the prosecution or defense, nor did he personally know any of the people involved. But what he had was a ton of access to both sides. On the defense side, largely because of the article he wrote in the New Yorker detailing what at that point was merely a troubling past and a lot of red flags about detective Mark Fuhrman surrounding a possible racist past, and in the prosecution, because he was around the courthouse constantly and knew whom to talk to. As a result, he was able to provide a lot of narrative in the book about what was going on in both camps, and because he is a Harvard-trained lawyer, was able to provide a lot of insight into the (mainly poor) job that both sides did. So you find out things like what O.J. was really like behind the scenes (according to Toobin he was not involved in his defense strategy at all), Toobin also claims that Simpson's lawyers all knew he was guilty and did not care, not necessarily because they through every defendant deserved a zealous defense, but because they wanted to stick it to the cops, make money, or both, and that many of the defense attorneys could not stand working with each other. He presents the prosecution as being almost an equal mix of incompetence and arrogance, which, along with a jury that was mostly pre-disposed to acquit Simpson no matter what, made the outcome almost a foregone conclusion. He also presented a lot of inside knowledge on what was going on with the jury while they were sequestered as well as detailing a lot of behind-the-scenes details of what he saw as Judge Ito's utter incompetence and worrying as much about his reputation in the media as making correct legal rulings.

Overall, the book is very well written and sourced. While Toobin makes it clear that the evidence is overwhelming that Simpson committed the crimes, he is not biassed toward either side remaining neutral in his criticism and praise. He praised the few things that anyone on either side did well and excoriated the things they messed up. Unlike many who wrote books after the conclusion of the trial, he did not have a vested interest in presenting a 'side" or defending any action or decision. It has a lot of good information that even people who watched the trial from beginning to end and read some of the other books may not be aware of (or have forgotten over the course of time). It is definitely worth the read for those of us who lived through the trial, or people who are just fans of true crime books.

Book Review: Too Much and Never Enough

The book can be summed up like this: It. Explains. A. Lot. 

Mary Trump is the niece of the now (thankfully) former president donald t***p (whom she just refers to as donald, both throughout the book and in interviews). It is a book that really explains a lot about why he is the way he is, shedding light on the fact that his father, Mary's grandfather, was very much like donald (with a bit better business acumen and at least somewhat smarter). It details how Fred t***p basically saw donald as the heir apparent to his real-estate empire, yet constantly had to keep bailing donald out of one bad financial deal after another because, frankly, donald was too damn stupid to run a successful business on his own. And, this, basically, instilled in donald that he would always fail upward as long as he could blame his failures on anyone else and take credit for any success. She details a lot of information about how the family members interact with (or don't interact with) each other, and that nearly all the relationships are transactional-based, and not based on a loving, tight-knit family unit. 

The book is not long at all, just over a couple of hundred pages, and is a fairly easy read. Mary portrays donald as a guy who is deeply stupid yet thinks he knows more about any subject than anyone else walking the face of the earth and lies like a rug constantly. The impression she gives is that he sometimes knows he is lying and does it on purpose, and sometimes believes what he is actually saying and just spouts off and riffs and does not know what is the truth and what is a lie. This definitely comports to how he was as a Presidential candidate and as President, when, if you really listened to what he said, he would contradict himself, sometimes in the same sentence. 

Overall, if you are a trump cult member or Q-nutjob, nothing she says in this book will ever change your mind about your orange messiah. For anyone else who has ever listened to it ramble on nonsensically and wonders what the hell made it the way it is, this provides a lot of insight. It is definitely worth the read.

Book Review: A Very Stable Genius

A must-read book covering the former administration from the beginning up through the events that led to the first impeachment.

This book covers t***p's presidency up to the point of the first impeachment. It starts pretty much on day 1, talking about Spicer's rant about inauguration size, and covers some things from before t***p was sworn in (basically his fawning over Putin and wanting a meeting between the two set up ASAP). The end of the book details the Ukraine call and the fallout from it with reactions by people who listened to the call, or people who talked to those people. Pretty much everything in between, with a heavy focus on the Mueller investigation and report is included. 

The authors pretty much stuck to a "facts only" presentation of material, relating first or second-hand accounts of how various meetings, conversations, and the like, played out. There was not a lot (although there was some) commentary on t***p himself by the authors. Every here and there, they did make comments, but for the most part, they were quoting others. The sum total of the material in the book portrayed t***p to be a stupid, lazy, arrogant, self-centered, brat. Basically, a toddler in a 73-year-old's body, who never wanted to do the job of President, just to have the title. Some of the things that make me say it is a bit scary are the details of how the national security team had to dumb down the briefing material for the Orange Shitgibbon because he was too lazy to read it and too stupid to understand anything when they were written as a report like every other President had received them. He basically needed flashcards and was too lazy to even look at those. Also, he thought he knew everything about every topic better than any expert, which resulted in Tillerson calling him a "fucking moron". You get the impression that pretty much everyone hated working for him, but felt things would be worse if they resigned (which is why Mattis held on as long as he did). 

The last third of the book really delves into the Mueller investigation and report, and the fallout from Mueller not making a prosecution recommendation. Apparently, it was Mueller's call to present just the facts and leave it to others to decide what should be done going forward. According to their reporting, even Barr was amazed that Mueller punted on the issue of obstruction of justice, and Barr then sauntered through that wide-open door to mischaracterize the report's conclusions, which ticked off Mueller, so much so that he wrote a letter to Barr (and then a follow-up phone call) complaining about his summary. It is clear that the authors had someone from the Mueller team providing them information since they detailed the in-fighting between members of the team who thought that they should spell out that t***p obstructed justice and recommend prosecution and those that wanted to just present a factual narrative and not take a position one way or the other. 

Overall, the book is well-written and sourced. Of course, many of the sources did not want their names used, although, with some hindsight and reading between the lines, it is easy to figure out who some of them could be. Many of t***p's cult members decry the use of unnamed sources despite the fact that t***p himself has been an unnamed source when he wants to put out information that is good (the book includes at least one example of this), not to mention his multiple rants that start "many people are saying" followed by a stream of made-up nonsense. So, the book will not be something that the MAGAT cult members and Q nuts will be interested in reading, but for anyone else, it shows just how ill-prepared, ill-equipped, and out of his depth the Orange Genital Wart was, and that he should not have ever been, nor should he ever again be, near the office of the Presidency.