Book Review: Revenge

 

Revenge is essentially a follow-up to Cohen's first book, Disloyal. It expands somewhat on events he discussed in the prior book about why he ended up taking the plea deal, his testimony before Congress, and what happened to him after he was sent to prison. 

In his first book, Cohen gave up a lot of juicy tidbits about t***p and the inner workings of the t***p organization. There is a little bit of that in here (like reiterating that t***p hated Obama, but he hated him before the roasting Obama (and Seth Meyers) gave him at the White House Correspondent's dinner, mainly because he was jealous of Obama, but not as much of that as there was in the first book. This was likely due to the fact that Cohen was persona non-grata by the time he wrote this one. One interesting topic that he does get into, and even vindicates t***p a bit relates to the "Steele Dossier". Cohen asserts that almost everything, including the existence of the pee tape, in the Dossier was bullshit, and that everything Steele detailed about Cohen, which was really what the department of justice used to come after him in order to garner his help to take down t***p, was not true. Cohen excoriates the DOJ, many times naming names, by basically saying that they thought he knew more about what t***p was up to than he actually did, and when that became clear they charged him with bullshit charges and threatened to charge his wife for the tax crimes he was being charged with, which led Cohen to take the plea deal. And once he agreed to rat t***p out, t***p was more than happy to let the DOJ throw him in a hole. 

While in his previous book, Cohen went out of his way to say he did not hate t***p, that is totally out the window in this book. Early on he calls t***p a huge piece of shit and basically alleges that t***p ordered him sent back to prison after he was released early due to the Covid pandemic. Cohen does not spend the whole book bitching about his treatment but more exposing how the DOJ treats people that it is out to get and that if he, a rich, privileged white male, can get treated the way he did, anyone can. He also takes a victory lap when it comes to Michael Avenatti, whom he also calls a huge piece of shit, and relishes in Avenatti's downfall given all the crap Avenatti said about him on TV while pulling shit that would land Avenatti in prison. 

Overall, this book is a good follow-up to the first book. Cohen has to walk a fine line, admitting his faults and the fact that he was not a good guy, but trying to convince readers that he did not deserve what happened to him. And, of all of the "bad guys" that are trying to distance themselves from t***p, Cohen seems to be sincere in his mea-culpa and is genuinely trying to become a better person. He explains why, after getting jerked around at nearly all levels why he still cooperated and said he will continue to cooperate with any investigations of t***p. While I do not think this is necessarily a must-read, I think it is worth reading. 

DVD/TV Series Review: House of Cards: Season 5

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from the prior seasons, but no major season five giveaways+++

The fifth season of House of Cards starts out during the campaign with Frank running for re-election with Claire running to be his Vice President. Their opponent is Will Conway, the republican governor of New York, played by Joel Kinnaman (best known for the series The Killing and the Suicide Squad movies). The season has a mix of storylines that mimic some real-world events and things that would ultimately become prophetic given t***p's attempt to steal the 2020 election a few years later. Thankfully, the dipshits who tried to steal the real election were not as competent as the characters in the show. The plot lines include a war against the show's fictional terrorist group ICO, as well as a storyline that involved Russia and their Putin-Like President, Victor Petrov, played by Lars Mikkelsen. Boris McGiver, who plays Tom Hammerschmidt, the editor of the Washington Herald starts looking into Zoe Barnes' death, which starts bringing heat back on Frank. The season ends setting up what was clearly supposed to be the original season six storyline of Frank versus Claire, but when Kevin Spacey was fired from the show, that ended up being totally abandoned, so the cliffhanger-ish ending to the season never really gets played out.

For those who get the blu-ray set, the 13 episodes are spread across four discs. The A/V quality is very good, with some really nice scenic shots from DC and the surrounding area. The big con for the physical disc set is that there are no extras, and the discs are again in those very tight pockets that make them extremely hard to remove without risking scratching the discs and/or ripping the pocket. 

Overall, the series is still very good. While some of the backbiting, political maneuvering, and crimes that are portrayed in the show are dramatized for the show, I think that, unfortunately, what is depicted in the show is not always that far off from reality. The show continues to be very well-written and acted, with a strong supporting cast including Michael Kelly, Neve Campbell, Campbell Scott, Paul Sparks, and Jayne Atkinson, to name a few. 

For some, what has been revealed about Spacey's alleged behavior over the years, including while he was working on the show, may taint their perceptions of and enjoyment of the show. While Spacey is clearly the series lead, it is not just his portrayal of Frank that makes the show great, and I look at it as supporting the entire cast and crew and not just him. So, if you can separate that, and have liked the prior seasons of the show, then you will probably like this one.

DVD/TV Series Review: Designated Survivor: Season 1

 

Designated Survivor was a show about a HUD Secretary named Tom Kirkman, played by Kiefer Sutherland, Kirkman is named the Designated Survivor (the one cabinet member that does not attend the State of the Union) and becomes President when a terrorist attack wipes out the entire government (almost) on an attack on the Capitol during the State of the Union address. 

The first season of the show intertwines two storylines. The first was trying to figure out who was behind the attack on the Capitol. The second storyline involved Kirkman figuring out how to be President, and trying to rebuild the government, as well as trying to run the country with the majority of the government gone. The two storylines largely remained parallel to each other, only intersecting at certain times. Maggie Q, arguably the second lead of the series, plays FBI agent Hannah Wells, who was the lead agent trying to figure out the conspiracy. The White House Staff included Adan Canto (playing the Chief of Staff Aaron Shore), Italia Ricci (playing Advisor Emily Rhodes), LaMonica Garret, (who played lead Secret Service Agent Mike Ritter), and Kal Penn (who played Press Secretary Seth Wright). Penn was also a consultant on the show and provided knowledge of his time working in the White House.  The rest of the cast was rounded out by character actors including Natascha McElhone as the first lady, McKenna Grace and Tanner Buchanan as Kirkman's son and daughter, Malik Yoba as FBI Deputy Director Jason Atwood, Reed Diamond as the FBI's version of the head of Internal Affairs, and Virginia Madsen as Congresswoman Virginal Hookstraten, who was the Republican Designated Survivor.

For those who get the DVD set, the 21 episodes are spread across five discs. There are only a handful of extras including the entire first speech Kirkman makes after being sworn in, a set tour hosted by LaMonica Garret, and a making-of featurette that features interviews with the cast and the showrunners.

Overall, the first season is very good, and in some ways was very prophetic in the storyline about the conspiracy to overthrow the government. Fortunately, the dipshits that tried it in real life were not as good at it as those in the series. My only real complaint about the first season is that they revealed too much too soon. Much of the conspiracy storyline is revealed by the end of the season, and I think that could have been saved a bit for season two. Otherwise, though, Sutherland does a great job as the series lead. This is really his first major role since his time as Jack Bauer ended, and it is always hard to see (and hear) him without thinking of Jack Bauer. But, he does a good job not playing the part of Kirkman as Jack Bauer as President. So, if you like political dramas with some action and suspense mixed in, this is definitely worth watching.

Book Review: Disloyal: A Memoir

 

Disloyal is a must-read behind-the-curtain look at the orange genital wart and his company as seen through the eyes of his attorney/thug/executive vice president (which was really just a paper title), Michael Cohen. Cohen details how he ended up in the dipshit's orbit, discusses what he did in the company (or "for the boss"), and provides an insider's view of the things he saw and did. Most importantly, does not pretend to know things he was not privy to. Cohen does not portray himself as a hero in any way, shape, or form, which lends credibility to the claims he makes. 

The book talks about Cohen's early life in NY, his role as a hanger-on to anyone with power, criminal status or not, the life he had carved out for himself before he was pulled into the orbit of t***p, what he did for t***p, and how everything fell apart for him when the hammer of the DOJ came down on him, and how he was essentially left out to dry. Some of the interesting things from the book is how working for t***p, even before it was widely known what scum he actually was, drove a wedge between Cohen and his family. Cohen does a bit of a mea-culpa in the book saying he did things for t***p that he knows is wrong, and that he knew was wrong as he did them, but he was so enamored with proximity to power that he did not care, and totally ignored the fact that it was taking a toll on his family life, especially during the presidential campaign. 

Cohen describes his role as not just a fixer, cleaning up t***p's messes like hiding the fact that he fucked Stormy Daniels and had an ongoing affair with former Playmate, Karen McDougal, but he also played a much larger role in t***p's run for President than is widely known. While you do have to take what Cohen says with a bit of a grain of salt, because there was not ever much of a paper trail in t***pworld, he does admit that he did not know everything he was speculated to know and clearly states what he was and more importantly was not privy to and provides receipts in the form of email chains, including emails that were printed out that t***p clearly wrote notes on in sharpie, which lends credence to his allegations.

While Cohen does explain why he ultimately decided to cooperate with the DOJ and plead guilty to the crimes he was indicted for, (which according to Cohen was supposed to be three counts when he was offered the deal and then was bumped up to eight counts the day he was to plead), which was to save his wife from being charged with tax fraud as well, he never explains why he went all-in and called out t***p for being a racist, a xenophobe, and all of the things that he has said about him since he testified publically before Congress.

As I said above, you do have to take what Cohen says with a bit of a grain of salt, as he clearly has reason to be bitter with t***p. Cohen does admit that he was not a good guy in the story, which is clear when he admits to being more pissed off about t***p stiffing him on his year-end bonus after he covered up the Stormy Daniels story by paying her off with his own money than he was when t***p would say racist shit. He admits that he was working to get a t***p tower in Moscow built during the presidential run, but denies that he was ever meeting with the Russians to help them interfere in the 2016 election. He admits that everyone, including t***p, expected to lose the election and he 100% believes it was Comey's interference more than anything Russia was able to do that swung what was always going to be a close election t***p's way. He also fully admitted to being a member of t***p's cult long before the legions of MAGATs jumped on board, and provides a very prophetic warning that t***p would never willingly give up power if he lost the 2020 election, which, of course, we know was absolutely true. 

The book is 368 pages with an appendix that has images of various documents that runs another 60 pages, give or take. It can easily be read in a week or so, depending on how fast you read and how much time you have to read.

Book Review: American Psychosis

 

You might think American Psychosis is just another book detailing the actions of the former (2017-2021) administration. It is not. That administration is discussed at the beginning of the book and then again in the last handful of chapters. What the book really provides is a must-read historical breakdown of the Republican party from the time of Lincoln to the present day.

The book basically chronicles how the Republican and Democratic parties shifted after the Civil War, during the reconstruction era through to the Jim Crow and Civil Rights era, and the internal strife of the party with the (at the time) more powerful moderates having to keep the right-wing nut jobs like Joseph McCarthy and Barry Goldwater in check. However, through the formation of the John Birch Society, the Heritage Foundation, and the Federalist Society, the nutjobs slowly gained more and more power in the party and eventually led to the takeover of the party by t***p, who was not afraid to spout the racist, xenophobic, and homophobic nonsense that the wingnuts were espousing for years. The author, David Corn, describes how Dwight Eisenhower had to essentially put up with McCarthy because he was afraid of losing his base (sound familiar), and Nixon fully embraced the "southern strategy" which basically is how the GOP keeps a hold of the bible-belt states, and how Ronald Regan (who was actually one of the worst Presidents in history if you were poor and/or a minority) was more than willing to play footsie with the racists in the party while keeping his inclusive persona. Corn's argument is that t***p did not change the GOP, but was a product of what was a long time coming because of the likes of those mentioned along with people like Pat Buchanan, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, and their ilk.

The one thing I personally would have liked Corn to devote more time to was how, after the Civil War up through the 1960s, some prominent Dixiecrats (southern democrats, many of whom were ex-confederates who were somehow allowed into the government after the Civil War) switched from the Democratic party to the Republican party, and really started the wingnut portion of the GOP caucus. He talks around the subject but does not really go into a lot of detail about how that shaped what we have now.

Overall, the book is a very good history lesson that chronicles how the modern-day GOP arrived at the place it is. Corn backs up his assertions by citing multiple sources and/or providing examples (e.g., interviews, records of speeches, etc.) of the events he writes about. If you are at all interested in history or politics, this is a must-read.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: House of Cards: Season 4

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from prior seasons, but no major season four giveaways+++

Season 4 of House of Cards is really all about Frank setting things up to be re-elected, along with putting out political fires and avoiding being caught for his criminal activity. One of the big storylines this season is about who is going to replace the Vice President on the ticket. Claire and Frank, trying to bolster their reputations, bring Yates back on staff to let him finish his book and provide speech writing advice. Goodwin is out of prison and in witness protection, but is still trying to figure out what happened to Zoe, convinced she did not commit suicide, and gets closer to discovering her connection to Frank. There are also storylines involving Russia, China, and the show's fictional version of the ISIS terrorist group, that would eerily predict real-life events. One new addition to the cast is Scream's Neve Campbell being brought on as LeAnn Harvey, a political consultant Claire hires as she mulls getting into politics.

For those who get the blu-ray, the A/V quality is again very good, but the extras are non-existent. Not that prior seasons had much in the way of extras, but this, like season one, has nothing. So, really, the only reasons to get the blu-ray set is if you really prefer the physical discs over streaming or to keep a collection complete.

Overall, the season is very good. It continues to be well-written and very well-acted. Of course, watching the series now, knowing what has come out about Kevin Spacey is a little weird, and some people may avoid the show altogether. Even though he was certainly the main character, the show was about more than just him so I look at it as supporting everyone else who worked to make the show as good as it was. This season definitely sets up Claire to have a much larger role in the series and Robin Wright does a great job with that. And, Michael Kelly again shines as the very troubled and morally gray Chief of Staff, Doug Stamper. It is definitely worth watching.

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.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: House of Cards: Season 3

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from the prior seasons, but no major season three giveaways+++

Season three of House of Cards starts with Frank having successfully maneuvered his way into the Presidency after either killing or framing and/or sabotaging anyone who could stand in his way or take him down. Doug is recovering from the blow to the head he took when Rachel knocked him out and ran off at the end of season two, and there is friction between Frank and Claire that boils over by the season's end. The big political theme this season is Frank's America Works (or "AmWorks") program, which he initiates in an effort to show that his administration is making progress in helping the American people, and Claire becomes UN ambassador trying to amass power of her own. We also see some of the potential candidates to run against Frank, whom he of course tries to undermine in one way or the other.

For those who get the blu-ray set, the show looks and sounds great in HD as it always has. The packaging is still awful, using the tight pockets to store the discs in that make them extremely hard to remove. For extras, there are two behind-the-scenes features, one that is generally about the season, and the second is about Doug's particular storyline.

Overall, the season is great and the series continues to be wonderful. While the acting is great all around, the standouts this season are really Michael Kelly (playing Doug Stamper) and Rachel Brosnahan (playing Rachel Posner). Their storyline is dark and crazy and they both do a great job. Robin Wright also knocks it out of the park with her ever-expanding role in the series. Of course, Spacy is a catch-22 these days. His portrayal of Frank is awesome, but it is hard to separate the allegations against him personally from his work on the show. But, if you can put that aside, his portrayal of this character is probably his best acting work ever. The series continues to be one that you hope is entirely fictional in its portrayal of the Washington political scene, but fear that more of it is true than it should be. I think it is still one of the best dramas ever, and definitely worth the time to watch.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: House of Cards: Season 2

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from season one, but no major season two giveaways+++

The second season of House of Cards picks up shortly after the events that ended season three, with Frank having maneuvered his way into the vice presidency, from where, unsurprisingly he keeps up the effort to take down President Walker, all while acting as an ally. Yet, he has his own loose ends from the setup and murder of Peter Russo while Zoe, with whom he was having an affair starts to piece together how crooked he is. The season has episodes that hit on several real-life themes, including entitlement reform, state-sponsored cyberespionage, money laundering in campaign finance, anthrax scares, sexual assault in the United States military, abortion, and Federal government shutdowns. Some of those would end up actually being prophetic a few years after the season aired (in 2013). But, the main plot throughout the season continued to be Frank's power grab and just how ruthlessly he would execute it.

For those who get the Blu-Ray set, this season actually does have extras. There are five featurettes that range in length from four minutes to just under twenty. The longest one is basically a making-of documentary that goes through the process of producing an episode and how the series gets plotted out. The A/V quality of the Blu-Ray set is very good, with a lot of great visuals of the Washington DC area. The only negative to the set is again the horrible way in which the discs are stored in the case (in very tightly packed slip pockets). It is very hard to get the discs out without either tearing the pocket or risking scratching one of the discs.

Overall, the season is great. It is a mixed bag given the allegations that have come out against Kevin Spacey since he was fired from the series. Even so, his is not the only contribution to the series. This season, Robin Wright, Michael Kelly, and Rachel Brosnahan all turned in wonderful performances, as did Sebastian Arcelus, who plays Zoe's coworker at the Washington Herald. It was absolutely one of the best dramas of its time and is still worth watching.

DVD/TV Series Review: House of Cards: Season 1

 

House of Cards is an American Adaptation of a British series of the same name that aired in the late 1980s/early 1990s. It stars Kevin Spacy as Francis ("Frank") Underwood, who is the Democratic whip in the US House of Representatives. When a promise by the newly elected President to make Frank Secretary of State is reneged on, Frank decides (along with his wife Claire, played by Robin Wright) to get revenge and maneuver his way into gaining more power. The series included a wonderful supporting cast, some of whom received their big break on the show and have gone on to become A-listers themselves. They include Kate Mara as Zoe Barnes, an ambitious young journalist working for the Washington Herald, Corey Stoll as Peter Russo, a U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania, Michael Kelly as Doug Stamper, Frank's Chief of Staff who does a lot of Frank's dirty work, Rachel Brosnahan as Rachel Posner, a DC prostitute, and Mahershala Ali as Remy Danton, a powerful lobbyist. The series is definitely rooted in some reality (probably even more than it should be) detailing the kinds of back-room dealing and phoniness that have become a staple of how things operate in Washington. Spacey, who of course has now pretty much been blacklisted because of his behavior, including on the House of Cards set, did a great job with the character of Frank, playing him as both ruthless and willing to do anything to get ahead, yet also vulnerable at times, and Wright does a great job as the equally ruthless Claire Underwood who is basically in a marriage of convenience with Frank.

For those who get the DVD set, there are no extras, just the episodes spread over three discs. The packaging is god-awful with each disc jammed very tightly into a slipcase, so you definitely risk scratching the discs as you take them out.

Overall, the series is very good. For those who have even a little inside inkling as to how congressional politics work, it is a little too eerily accurate, even if it is fictional. If you have seen the BBC series, this does borrow heavily from the first season of that series but adapts them a lot to fit not only the US political system but to just draw out some of the story arcs. It is a very dark series that is mostly a drama but does have some dark comedy included here and there. Even though many of the characters have little or no redeeming values, you still get invested in them, if nothing else to see how their arcs will turn out, and the writers do a great job weaving the various plot threads together in a limited number of episodes.

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: 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: 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.