A Very Stable Special Counsel

"A Very Stable Genius" by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig is a very unstable book. Robert Mueller is not "The Mueller Report", but "The Mueller Report" is Robert Mueller.

I just finished reading "A Very Stable Genius". I strongly recommend it, even if it blows itself up at the end, which I think it does.

The book is about people's first hand experiences with Donald Trump. It's written well and gives you a clear and terrifying picture of Donny. He's clearly insane.

The people around him are well aware of this. Yet, they do nothing. They cover for him and protect him. They sit back while he destroys our country and our alliances.

This is all told in an easy to follow chronological order. The book is all about Trump. Trump is always the focus of everything.

The book is about Trump until it isn't. In the final chapter the book is suddenly, mysteriously about Robert Mueller.

And then, the focus isn't the only thing on Mueller. The blame for Trump is on Mueller as well.

"If Mueller believed Congress ought to pursue impeachment, he almost did nothing to help achieve that outcome.

By refusing to answer questions about his findings until his July 24 House testimony, by offering up a 448-page report and expecting the public or even members of Congress would have the attention span to absorb its lawyerly analysis, Mueller fumbled the moment."

This incredible statement is found in the second paragraph on pg. 409.

On pages 405 and 406 we learned that Trump's own legal team was "stuck on the fourth page".

My copy of "The Mueller Report" was 498 pages, but hey, what's 50 pages more or less.

The one person I know who absolutely didn't fumble was Robert Mueller. We're all in his debt. He completed his report under constant fire. It was a thorough report. He even testified while he was ill.

I have so much trouble with this. It would normally be a deal breaker for me. However "A Very Stable Genius" gives the clearest picture of Donald Trump and his administration to date and that's important.

The people who "fumbled the moment" are first and foremost the House Democrats who steadfastly refused to launch an Impeachment hearing. Imagine expecting them to "absorb its lawyerly analysis" or, for that matter, even read it. I mean they're just lawmakers with large legal staffs.

Next comes the press. The press should have reported on this and educated us on it while holding House member's feet to the fire for not starting the Impeachment process.

Of course the House Republicans and the entire Senate share in all this, but the only people authorized under our Constitution to investigate and Impeach a President are the members of the House.

"The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment." United States Constitution, Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5

In summation I think I'll quote Terry Southern, "Fuckashitpiss! Fuckashitpiss! Rubadub, rubadub!".

Holy Moly!

Goodbye, Roth - Goodbye, America?

Goodbye, Roth. Thank you.

There are 30 books listed below. These are the non-fiction "political" books I've read since Trump was elected. They're all excellent.

A Higher Loyalty by James Comey

A Very Stable Genius by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig
American Carnage by Tim Alberta
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Blowout by Rachel Maddow
Collusion by Luke Harding
Dark Money by Jane Mayer
Dark Towers by David Enrich
Democracy In Chains by Nancy MacLean
Everything Trump Touches Dies by Rick Wilson
Facts And Fears by James R. Clapper
Fascism A Warning by Madeline Albright
Fear by Bob Woodward
Fire And Fury by Michael Wolff
Friendly Fascism by Bertram Gross
House Of Trump – House Of Putin by Craig Unger
How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
Kushner Inc. - Greed. Ambition. Corruption. By Vicky Ward
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
Plutocrats by Chrystia Freeland
Proof Of Collusion by Seth Abramson
Red Notice by Bill Browder
Russian Roulette by Michael Isikoff and David Corn
The Case For Impeaching Trump by Elizabeth Holtzman
The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis
The Mueller Report  by The Washington Post
The Only Game In Town by Mohamed A. El-Erian
The Threat by Andrew McCabe

This Fight Is Our Fight by Elizabeth Warren

Tough Love by Susan Rice

For the first time in almost 4 years, there are no books on my night table waiting patiently/persistently for me to get to them. I actually feel a sense of relief, but it'll be short lived as I plan on ordering at least 2 new books this month.

Donald Trump v. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President by Michael S. Schmidt
The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris

Before I do that, I'll read "The Plot Against America", a novel by Philip Roth. I kept this as a treat for myself - a reward for completing my list - a list that kept growing.

This book was first published in 2004. It's an alternative history of the United States premised upon Charles Lindberg defeating FDR in 1940.

This seems most appropriate since we are living in an alternative reality - an unreal America - an America where a Russian Asset has become President and we are in the throes of fascism.

The first Philip Roth book I read was "Goodbye, Columbus". It was published in 1959, I was a teenager when I read it. Ten years later I read "Portnoy's Complaint". Now, over half a century later, I'm reading Philip again.

Philip died in 2018, before the midterm elections.

In a 2017 email, he wrote, "As for how Trump threatens us, I would say that, like the anxious and fear-ridden families in my book, what is most terrifying is that he makes any and everything possible, including, of course, the nuclear catastrophe."

In the same email he describes Trump: "is ignorant of government, of history, of science, of philosophy, of art, incapable of expressing or recognizing subtlety or nuance, destitute of all decency, and wielding a vocabulary of seventy-seven words that is better called Jerkish than English."

This article by Pat Ralph is worth reading.

https://www.businessinsider.com/philip-roth-trump-and-plot-against-america-2018-5

Philip didn't live to see us take back the House. He didn't live to see us bury "The Mueller Report" either.

Holy Moly!