Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America Nancy MacLean Copyright 2107, Penguin Books. The libertarian biographer Charles K. Rowley once said of James McGill Buchanan that he was “perhaps the most hated and feared enemy of left-leaning economists throughout the world.” Not just economists. Buchanan is considered the …
Fear: Trump in the White House Bob Woodward Simon & Schuster September 2018 Yes, I know the title of the book is Fear, and I should have regarded that as fair warning. But FFS, I thought I would at least get through the Prologue without being reduced to mindless, numbing, existential terror! In a well-reported …
Rendezvous With Oblivion: Reports From a Sinking Society Thomas Frank 2018, Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company. “Social scientists have tried for more than a century to understand how class works.” The opening line of Thomas Frank’s “Rendezvous with Oblivion” sets the tone for the entire collection of essays. The theme is that a plutocratic …
Everything Trump Touches Dies by Rick Wilson, 2018 Simon and Schuster. Rick Wilson, Republican political consultant, gets barely a page into his book about the Trump “presidency” before making it fairly clear to the reader that he is not a fan. “Donald Trump, the avatar of our worst instincts and darkest desires as a nation, …
The Squirrel Seller Khalid rubbed the dusty and sunburned bridge of his nose and tried not to glare in disgust. The man before him was aged, and perhaps not quite right in the head. The Prophet taught the virtue of compassion for the aged and the infirm, even if they were assholes. This particular asshole …