Review: The Divider by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser

The Divider

It has become fashionable to criticize Trump and get away with it. Most of the book covers about Trump (and Putin and Xi / China) have a blazing red or blood red cover. This one, for a change, has a more classy white with a sliver of black. This book is hefty, and will take a good amount of time for one to cover, because it is so detailed as to literally have statements in double-quotes on almost every page.

When Trump won in 2016, I was quite happy and still sort of support him because he was an outsider in the sense of being a non-politician. Politicians have milked the system for too long for their own benefits, and hence an outsider, an entrepreneur at that, was a good thing. Of course Trump has an abrasive personality and he did not tone it down when he became the most powerful man on earth. I first saw Trump in the Apprentice show back in 2000s. I loved his style and his signature line “you are fired”. I remember reading in New Yorker in 2015 how paid actors were asked to appear at a Trump rally and the author was sort of happy that they (or whoever) had exposed it. Am sure New Yorker was stunned at the election results.

The book covers the entire period of Trump in White House and does manage to show that there was lot of infighting and chaos behind the scenes. To top it, Trump’s habit of tweeting to the world and then his team getting to know of his decision did not help one bit. But he surely did take lot of strong decisions and rankled up the leftist ecosystem who had led the country astray with their stupid policies. The most powerful nation cannot stop illegal immigrants from crossing over the border? Trump promised the wall, but of course could not complete it because of obvious lack of support in the House.

However, the focus of this book and its authors (they wrote for NYT itself should be a clear indicator) is to show that Trump and his White House never did even one thing correctly. No wonder I don’t take these kinds of books too seriously lest they cloud my thinking. Obama and his administration lied about how Osama bin Laden was killed and then even supplanted their fake theory in Zero Dark Thirty. Whereas Trump got Baghdadi and Soleimani killed, yet never got any credit in NYT or WaPo. Am not getting into the merits or demerits of killing Soleimani, but just bringing forth the point that when you read only NYT and WaPo, you will never read one thing positive about Trump or Republicans. That Trump ordered the pull out from Afghanistan did not merit praise, that he did not start any new military operations anywhere did not merit praise, that he cornered China did not merit praise, that he did as best as could to combat Covid pandemic and the economic fallout did not merit praise.

So with that in mind, you should definitely read this book for understanding how Trump operated and his antics upset many leaders like Merkel and Trudeau.

Review: Spooked by Barry Meier

Spooked

It has become fashionable to appear anti-Trump to sell anything, from t-shirts, to Netflix shows, to books, to magazines, to newspapers, to news shows, to slogans, and even politicians. There only rallying point? Anti-Trump-het. Credence? Anti-Trumpism. Validity? Anti-MAGA. I am surprised that people in US have become so dumb that they can be sold any potion with ‘anti Trump’ properties and it will instantly become a best-seller.

This book is no different, even though it is somewhat balanced in its criticism of newspapers, journalists, even agencies of all kinds. However the cast of central characters in this book is as spooky as it can get: ex-spies working as spies-for-hire, journalists using these spies as sources, weak primary sources being presented as gospel of truth. They say that there are lies and then there is journalism and this book proves that.

The central theme of this book deals with the Steele dossier which was released when the Democrats were trying their best to pull down Trump. All media houses covered it as if that so-called dossier had the ultimate truth within it. Yet none even issued an apology when years later it was discovered that the primary source of the that dossier was unreliable and the author Christopher Steele never even bothered to meet his primary source.

However, this book is not just about that, but covers way more breadth than one can comprehend in one reading. It is astounding to see the underbelly of journalism and I am surprised that this book hasn’t gained that kind of traction it deserves. I have consistently lost confidence in today’s journalism, but after reading this book, there is no way I am ever going to trust all these mainstream newspapers and their so-called “exclusives” and “expose”. It is mind-numbing to read about the politicking that goes behind lobbying and how journalists collaborate with private spies to dig out dirt on politicians and political parties they don’t like. And you thought journalists ought to be neutral? Good luck with that.

This is a must read book for anyone out there who is trying to form an opinion about the kind of world we have created, and especially those who espouse journalists as the beacons of truth (whatever ‘truth’ means). The kind of sordid and murky details that are covered by the author, and the extensive references (in terms of books and articles and even documentaries) make this a great read and no amount of praise would be enough, notwithstanding the fact that Meier was himself associated or maybe still is with New York Times whose bias is as clear as the sky on a starry night. Yet, despite of Meier’s own inclinations, this book will reward you by making you believe in often quoted CIA agents’ supposed famous line: welcome to the real world.

Review: Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener

Uncanny Valley

Complaining about the powers of tech giants is fashionable but also mostly valid. It has also become fashionable to be working in them and then voicing a dissent and when you dont’ get what you want, get fascist liberal whitewashers like New York Time and Washington Post to write an ‘expose’. Anna’s memoir is about the work culture or rather anti-culture that exists amongst the silicon valley startups, the obnoxious salaries they get, and also the bro-culture that exists there. She starts off her career has a ‘help’ in the publishing industry and then gets drawn to the sky-high dollar valuations of the valley. She switches her employer few times and also talks of her struggles in fitting in with the ‘male supremacist’ attitude which the coding companies are awash with. She talks of her struggles with learning coding and her failure to do so, how her role as a ‘customer support’ rep was looked down upon by her bosses and others. She recounts an incident of attending some sort of gathering / party / discussion (not much of a difference between the three of them) where somebody working on AI-driven cars talks her down for her views (her view: are AI-driven cars even possible?)

My view? Read it for understanding the work and the faux culture that exists amongst these startups which mushroom up and die like flies under the boring gaze of venture capitalists.