Rage By Bob Woodward By Bob Woodward

I have decided to embark on a mission to read a number of books on subjects that will be of great importance to the upcoming 2020 US Presidential Election. Many of these will focus on actors intricately involved in the process, in hopes that I can understand them better and, perhaps, educate others with the power to cast a ballot. I am, as always, open to serious recommendations from anyone who has a book I might like to include in the process.

This is Book #32 in my 2020 US Election Preparation Challenge.

Analysis of the 45th President of the United States (POTUS) proves to be a sport of conversations, insults, and downright headaches, particularly when scanning the published word. As I have done with the other books in my challenge, I sought to approach reading this text with an open and curious mind, as I did with the first tome on Trump penned by Bob Woodward.

The author remains a highly esteemed journalist in his own right, having been blunt in his assessments, no matter what the subject matter might be. While this may sting the ever-Trumpers, the smears hurled fall on deaf ears and Woodward’s Teflon suit. Eager readers should gather round, as this is yet another stellar piece of work, with more than simply the leaked COVID-19 tidbits to open an eye or two.

Woodward returns to the early time in the Trump presidency to explore some of the key cabinet selections he made. Those mentioned are men who would shape the Administration, but also serve as Trump’s puppets. As would become the case with all those who received special attention in the early chapters, the men were either fired or resigned because of the micromanagement of the president for reasons not entirely clear. It would seem that things would always have to run on the Trump-table, a guideline and timing that baffles many and is fuelled by consumption of Diet Coke.

The book moves between a number of themes throughout, offering the reader a glimpse into all of them on a rotating basis. Woodward explores the the ongoing development of some peace with the North Koreans. While Trump entered the White House with a warning from President Obama about how troubling North Korea and Kim Jong Un would be, the incoming Leader of the Free World was ready to make some noise and turn things into a political pissing contest. Woodward explores how Trump used his Secretary of State to show that America meant business, demanding a scaling back of nuclear weapons in the brashest terms. Only Trump could grab Kim by the proverbial ‘missile’ and not be called a political misogynist.

The warming of relations between these two did eventually occur when Kim agreed to denuclearise. Woodward speaks of a handful of ‘love letters’ (Trump’s words) between the two that were used as background research for the book and helped to promote two key summits. These letters were chivalrous and highly praise-worthy, according to Trump, something that would surely baffle many who see both men on television and how they comport themselves.

Trump also came out swinging on America’s military role in the world. He sought to pull troops from Syria, even though the civil war there was balancing precariously. He also sought to remove America from its NATO commitments, citing a fiscal imbalance, something that Woodward probes in some of his early interviews. The eternal businessman, Trump is so focussed on the ledger and the outcomes that he cannot see the game of political Jenga he’s playing.

When it came to the intelligence community, Trump was ready to dismiss America’s capabilities form the get-go, especially since much of the early (read: first week on the job) messaging sought to show that Russia interfered in the election that Trump won. Those with concrete proof sought to present it and show that there was an issue that needed addressing. However, as many readers will already know, Trump chose to stick his fingers in his ears and sing a loud song, thereby negating the intelligence as being fake and part of a leftist conspiracy.

As I mentioned in my review of Woodward’s last book, if there is a single theme that echoes throughout the pages of all well-documented chapters, it is that Trump wanted to do things his own way, choosing rarely to follow the advice proffered by those tasked with being the representatives or experts. Such renegade behaviour is enough to make anyone rage at such an ignorant leader. As seen above and on more occasions below, it was Trump’s way or no way, going so far as being a narrative that the president believed, with the alternative labelled #fakenews. Woodward challenged him on this numerous times, as appears in the narrative, though Trump always found a way to be boisterous and ignore the topic if it did not suit him.

Woodward explores some of the interesting backstory into the creation of the Special Counsel of Robert S. Mueller III, tasked with exploring Russian meddling and any collusion by the Trump Campaign. While this event was so sensationalised that there is not likely much ‘new’ information, the attentive and curious reader will see the blunt and egotistical responses to the investigation. Trump and his sycophants alike sought to diminish the importance of the process and neuter Mueller from the get-go, at times mulling over firing him. One can only imagine what might have happened had this taken place.

As the country remains in the grip of the COVID-19 crisis, Woodward uses many of his interviews with Trump to hash out what he knew and when. Much of it has been leaked now, but it is eye opening to see just how dismissive Trump was about things, which parallels some of the idiocy shown after he contracted COVID and still downplayed the severity of it. Woodward uses a significant amount of time exploring the needed backstory and reactions around the COVID-19 crisis, dispelling many of the myths that the White House has tried to shove down the throats of the general public. Many of the interviews with Trump for the book took place as things were developing, allowing for a great narrative and ongoing exploration of sentiments in almost real time.

While Woodward does offer praise where needed, especially when Trump agreed to a country-wide shutdown in March, he also explores how the president would not push for stronger safety measures and precautions. Interest to see how Trump felt it would not be good for POTUS to wear a mask ‘when greeting heads of state, queens, kings, and ambassadors’, as though this would show weakness. Fast forward to the autumn, as an infected president refuses to follow the guidelines, showing that there was likely some cerebral infection in the part of the brain where reasoning occurs (my sentiments, not Woodward’s). I suppose we should applaud him for being consistent (and reckless?)!

It would seem that Trump was scorned by other world leaders for his practices, as Woodward cites numerous examples within the text. Things were said to his face and then the opposite done thereafter. While perhaps not the laughing stock of the world, his bombast proved to be more than enough for some, who could not take his blowhard approach. Much of this can be attributed to his Trump-table approach, immovable and unwilling to accept that he could be wrong. This doesn’t to bode well for a political leader, particularly one representing a large population on the world scene.

Woodward should be applauded again for this second book, seeking to offer insights through the eyes of others, rather than rallying his own personal attacks with little substantive proof. While he does seek to challenge Trump to think and explore what he’s saying (as any good journalist would do), he permits the president to dig his own grave with a presidential shovel. This is not a book of ‘gotcha’ moments, unless the reader chooses to label such writing as one where direct quotes in open interviews serve to entrap the speaker.

I sought to secure my copy of this book the day it was announced as being ready for pre-order. This interest only grew when the leaked tapes emerged, so I could see the context in which Trump and others would box themselves into corners or speak frankly. From what I have seen and heard, some love the book for being open and exploring many topics, while others hate it for its few ‘aha’ moments. Still others are critical because it knocks POTUS down a peg or two at a time when we ought to rally around him (maskless and Proud Boy shirt visible) during this crisis. It is this latter group for whom I have the most pity, as someone has surely been lacing your Kool-Aid with ignorance powder!

The book opened my eyes in many ways and I felt as though much could be taken away from it by the dedicated reader. While I have read a fair number of books on the Trump presidency over the last month (all in preparation for the election), there are themes that come out in all of them. These include: obsession with television portrayals, refusal to read background materials for essential decisions, preconceived notions of effective governance, and a hatred for all who oppose him. Woodward explored this in the first book and revisits them again, showing that nothing has changed. Billy club in hand (in the form of his Twitter account), Trump forges on.

All of these and other perspectives were further solidified through the interviews Woodward undertook with those closest to Trump and the president himself. This was not Woodward dusting off the soap box and issuing criticism dreamed up in his own mind, though some will spin it as such. Woodward used the words and sentiments of many who were ‘in the trenches’ to garner a better understanding for the reader and to show that things were not always peachy behind the velvet curtain. These type of books are likely the best, as they provide truths that are hidden from the general public, or discounted on a regular basis.

Call me naive again, but I cannot see Bob Woodward using weak information to build his arguments, having written about nine presidents in his career. Woodward has shown time and again that he asks the tough questions, but seeks to be fair in his delivery. First hand accounts serve as the foundation of this book’s narrative momentum, which I applaud. As I mentioned above, he went so far as to document that he held Trump accountable, even when the man refused to see his ignorance wafting around his coiffed head.

There are moments of praise for Trump and others of complete mockery, but when they come from within, can be really call it a smear campaign by liberal media sources? I have never hidden my sentiments on this topic and have built up a foundation of understanding through reading and trying to better understand the situation. Of note, no one once approached me with any recommendations for great tomes on the right (see disclaimer at the top of the review), which leads me to wonder if there are any. I may be an outsider, hailing from Canada, but I do love my politics.

Should we, as citizens of the world, have lived in fear up to the 2020 elections, as many Republican senators did? Might the type of behaviour exemplified in this book lead to horrible things if the Russians collude again and skew the results? There is that possibility, but this book could also be a rallying cry for American voters to turn out to cast their ballots, while Intelligence agencies work to plug some of the gaping holes that permitted outsider influences in elections past. We’re almost there people and if you have not cast your ballot yet, I’ve spent a lot of time summarising a ton of information for you to consider (as well as countless others)!

Kudos, Mr. Woodward, for giving me something about which to think yet again. While this is not the final book in my challenge, I am glad I left it as one of the last!

Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/... Bob Woodward An automatic buy for me.

An engrossing deep dive into the Presidency and mind of DJT. Bob Woodward Rage
By: Bob Woodward
Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
We all know just about everything about the large orange guy that lives in the White House. We know about his daily vomit of lies, tweet storms, his continual chest pounding and patting himself on the back. We know he loves his base, Proud Boys, nice fellows like the Nazis, and the white supremacist groups. He claims to love his trumpers too. He gave himself an A on his response on the pandemic he ignored but behind the scenes, what is really happening? That's where the author gives us a real look!
The fat orange guy is just as rotten, or worse, behind the scene! I really didn't think it possible! He almost got us in a war. He could have save 140,000 lives. The economy crashed due to the pandemic he couldn't and wouldn't control! He knew months before! The other tidbits of inside info tells how he can't stand the Christians and his fans! Of course he called them names!
He is not mentally fit to watch my animals yet he is in charge of the lives of all of America! It is such a scary thought! May he lose in November before we lose our democracy. He is dangerous. He knew about the killing of the journalist by the Saudi government. He doesn't care!
That is his motto, I don't care! Bob Woodward How stupid can you get? Really! HOW STUPID CAN YOU GET?!?

Imagine you are the President of the United States and you sit down with a journalist to give him interviews for a book—interviews that YOU WANTED and gave him permission to record!—and you keep telling this journalist how great you are and what a wonderful job you have done with whatever you touched, what do you expect this journalist to write?

Do you really think that he will write how great you are and what a wonderful job you have done? Or is he more likely to quote you praising yourself endlessly? Remember, this journalist has all of it on tape—recorded with your permission.

And it is not only the continuous self-adulation. You also told this journalist that you have known all along that this coronavirus was deadly, while you had touted on tv numerous times that it was a nothing, a hoax, and would be gone soon. And because you always have trouble keeping your mouth in check and tend to ramble on with whatever is on your mind, holding endless and rather senseless monologues, you have told this journalist so many more things that prove your dishonesty and incompetence—and all of it on tape!

So I can only repeat: HOW STUPID CAN YOU GET?!?

Had Trump ever read a book, he should have known what an accomplished journalist and author of political/historical books would do with such information. So why did Trump hand this “real gift for the press” to Woodward on a plate? My answer: Trump’s pathological need for feeding his ego with boasting and bragging is so big that he disregards and forgets everything else. It must be something like a food-addicted morbidly obese person gulping down a huge layer cake. That’s about the only explanation I have.

Bob Woodward’s book is not only about 17 interviews (plus another phone call), during which Trump blew up his ego, it also provides a lot of “behind the curtain” talks by people of Trump’s orbit; some of these talks given directly to Woodward, others leaked to him.

All in all, Woodward’s book comes to the conclusion: — — —. Sorry, I just changed my mind. No, I won’t tell you the last sentence of the book, as this book really and truly is worth reading. So go and buy it and read it yourself. Bob Woodward deserves this. Just imagine how the poor man must have suffered listening to all this bullshit while desperately trying to hold Trump focussed on whatever was the topic of the conversation, which, of course, proved to be mission impossible. Bob Woodward Seriously, I am done with Trump tell-all books. Wait, Woodward is writing one more? Oh, well. Pre-ordered.

Update: October 2nd 2020. Read it!

Woodward is no longer only a reporter. He is so frustrated with the lack of plan that he tries to push Trump to have a plan and put some people in charge of the various parts of battle against the corona virus.

The first chapters focuses on Tillerson and Mattis. Mattis pondering “if a war came and the best person was not in the chairmanship?” He is thinking about the military leaders during WWII and now, and Woodward leaves it to the reader to connect to the war against Covid.

Just to be safe: There is nothing subtle about the conclusion: “Trump is the wrong man for the job.”. (Last line of the book). Bob Woodward

FREE READ Rage By Bob Woodward

An unprecedented and intimate tour de force of original reporting on the Trump presidency from Bob Woodward.

Rage goes behind the scenes like never before, with stunning new details about early national security decisions and operations and Trump’s moves as he faces a global pandemic, economic disaster and racial unrest.

Woodward, the #1 internationally bestselling author of 13 #1 bestsellers, including Fear: Trump in the White House, shows Trump up close in his entirety before the 2020 presidential election.

President Trump has said publicly that Woodward has interviewed him. What is not known is that Trump provided Woodward a window into his mind through a series of exclusive interviews.

At key decision points, Rage shows how Trump’s responses to the crises of 2020 were rooted in the instincts, habits and style he developed during his first three years as president.

Rage draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand witnesses, as well as participants’ notes, emails, diaries, calendars and confidential documents.

Woodward obtained 25 personal letters exchanged between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that have not been public before. Kim describes the bond between the two leaders as out of a “fantasy film,” as the two leaders engage in an extraordinary diplomatic minuet.

Rage will be the foundational account of the Trump presidency, its turmoil, contradictions and risks. It is an essential document for any voter seeking an accurate inside view of the Trump years—volatile and vivid. Rage By Bob Woodward

[According to Jared Kushner] “In the beginning…20 percent of the people we had thought Trump was saving the world, and 80 percent thought they were saving the world from Trump. Now, I think we have the inverse. I think 80 percent of the people working for him think he’s saving the world, and 20 percent—maybe less now—think they’re saving the world from Trump.”
Let that analysis sink in. Twenty percent of the president’s staff think they are “saving the world” from the president.

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Mattis summarized, “When I was basically directed to do something that I thought went beyond stupid to felony stupid, strategically jeopardizing our place in the world and everything else, that’s when I quit.”

Bob Woodward has been reporting on American presidents for a long time. He and Carl Bernstein, reporters at The Washington Post, broke into public consciousness with their coverage of the Watergate scandal back in the early 1970s, culminating with their book, All the Presidents Men, one of the great political books of all time. In the intervening years Bob Woodward has continued covering politics in DC. He still holds the title of Associate Editor at the Post, but his production these days tends toward the long form. He has written 19 books since that first one.


Bob Woodward- image from The Guardian - photo by Christopher Lane

In another collaboration with Carl Bernstsein, The Final Days, he wrote about Richard Nixon’s last year in power. Rage covers seven months of Donald Trump’s last year in office (unless the Donald manages to pull a coup out of a MAGA hat), so maybe The Penultimate Months, as of this writing. (November 2020, after Trump lost to Joe Biden) No talking to the presidential portraits this time. No excess consumption of liquid spirits. But, of course, one must always wonder what pharmaceuticals have been propping up the 45th president during the entirety of his term, so maybe. At least it is not something that is reported on or speculated about here. I am sure there will be more than a few reports, whether leaked to the press or included in memoirs, of Trump’s antics and gracious concession in the months after his electoral loss.

Woodward had seventeen on-the-record conversations with Trump (that is what it says in the book flap, but on 60 minutes he says 18 and in the Axios interview he says 19) for this book, some in person, some by phone.

“I call him the night prowler. I think it’s true. He doesn’t drink. He has this kind of savage energy and it comes through in some of the recordings I’ve released. It comes through in his rallies. So for me, it’s a window into his mind. It’s much like, as somebody said, the Nixon tapes where you see what he’s actually thinking and doing.” - from the Guardian interview

He also had access to a vast range of official documents, and spoke with many others in the administration. While those conversations were conducted as “deep background,” it is pretty clear who made themselves available. Primary among these are Dan Coats, the erstwhile Director of National Intelligence, James Mattis, Trump’s first Secretary of Defense, Rex Tillerson, the former Secretary of State, even Jared Kushner, still the son-in-law. One can expect that they all want to portray themselves in the best possible light. I rolled my eyes a lot, particularly, when Jared was handed the mike. Woodward concentrates on their interactions with Trump, leaving aside many other issues relevant for each.

Woodward shows the extreme degree of disorganization in the administration governed by impulse, the chaos that is the Trumpian way. It had Mattis sleeping at the job, terrified of an imminent nuclear war with North Korea during the period when the boss was joyfully taunting Kim Jung Un as “Little Rocket Man.” Most impressive is the tracking of Trump’s reaction to the Corona Virus Pandemic from January to July 2020. This permeates the book, which opens with Trump being informed by his National Security Advisor, Robert O’Brien, on January 28, 2020, that Corona would be the largest national security threat of his presidency. Matt Pottinger, the deputy National Security Advisor, a China expert, had done some research with his contacts in China, and reported to the president about having been told by a Chinese expert ”Don’t think SARS 2003…Think influenza pandemic of 2018”, which killed 675,000 Americans. Trump waited three days to close travel from China, and continued to downplay the disease in public in the months ahead.

Most of the outrages emanating from this book have had their time in the media. Playing down the significance of the Corona Virus is first among these, as Trump claims that he did not want to panic the public. Utter nonsense, of course. He was more than happy to panic the public with apocryphal reports of an invasive caravan of immigrants approaching our southern border, for example. More recently he has tried panicking suburban women by claiming that their nice, safe, white burbs would soon be overrun by “those people,” were Joe Biden to be elected. The public is nothing more to Donald Trump than a collection of marks waiting to be conned. The only things Trump cared about re the pandemic were how an increase in C-19 cases would make him look, and its potential impact on the stock market. Maybe co-first was the game Trump played with North Korea, noted above, that brought the nation to the brink of nuclear war.

In talking about the BLM movement, Woodward points out to Trump that they are both privileged, older white men who have, in a way, lived in a cave, with limited ability to understand the experience of people outside their group.

“No,” Trump said. “You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to you,” he said, his voice mocking and incredulous. “Wow, I don’t feel that at all.”

The establishment of the Mueller Investigation in May 2017 was hailed as a triumph of institutional integrity over venal self-dealing. Turns out, not so much, despite the holy aura vested in the probe by the mainstream media. In fact, it was a dodge. There was a real investigation that had begun in the FBI, led by Andrew McCabe, a die-hard Republican, looking into the connections between Trump, his campaign, and Vladimir Putin. McCabe was seen as being too straight a shooter to be trusted with this, so establishing the probe was a way to push him to the side.

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on June 28, 2018, Republican representative from Florida Ron DeSantis…remarked to [Rod] Rosenstein, “They talk about the Mueller investigation—it’s really the Rosenstein investigation. You appointed Mueller. You’re supervising Mueller.”

And Rosenstein made sure, by establishing a rigid chain of command, that McCabe would be kept well out of the loop.

One of the more interesting items in the book, one not covered much in media, was the notion of controversy as an accelerant for policy positions.

”Controversy elevates message,” Kushner said. This was his core understanding of communications strategy in the age of the internet and Trump.

And Trump is certainly a genius (however unstable) at creating and sustaining controversy. Michael Cohen, in his book Disloyal, makes the related point that Trump has always had a genius for manipulating the media.

One does not think of Bob Woodward as being a particularly funny guy, but one of the things I enjoyed about the book was Woodward’s wry commentaries after reporting. There are many of these. Here is a small example:

I told him people I talked to were saying the presidential race between him and Biden was now a coin toss.
“You know, maybe,” he said. “and maybe not.”
That sounded like a good description of a coin toss.

another

“It’s funny, the relationships I have, the tougher and meaner they are, the better I get along with them. You know? Explain that to me someday, okay?”
That might not be difficult, I thought, but I didn’t say anything.

Woodward is indeed a master at getting people to talk, not that Donald Trump needs much prompting, particularly when the subject matter is his personal favorite. But Woodward demonstrates impressive patience and perseverance in coping with an interviewee who seemed to have the attention span of a goldfish. This talent is one that former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appreciated, in an interview with Mike Allen for Politico.

I think he's obviously a very astute journalist, Gates said to POLITICO's Mike Allen…I would have really liked to recruit him for the CIA because he has an extraordinary ability to get otherwise responsible adults to spill [their] guts to him, on background, nothing there for the historians, but his ability to get people to talk about stuff they shouldn't be talking about is extraordinary and maybe unique. - from the Politico article

Donald Trump is an angry person. Always aggrieved, always looking to blame others for his failures, hurling invective and employing demagoguery to rouse an unanalytical base to support rank foolishness. Woodward opens the book with a couple of quotes by Trump about his capacity for inducing rage in people. It is certainly something at which he excels. But he remains clueless about how that works, which is no surprise, as Trump is clearly one of the least self-aware leaders we have ever had, hell, maybe one of the least self-aware people of his time. Here in November, 2020, as Trump does all he can to poison the democracy that elected him in 2016, as he does all he can to sow chaos in America’s foreign policy, as he does everything he can to seek revenge on government employees he deems insufficiently loyal, as he lies at an automatic firing rate that is impressive even for him, it is clear that along with disgust, the proper response to Trump is the one Woodward focuses on here. Rage will leave you more informed than you were before, but it will also leave you seething. If it does not, you are part of the problem.

Review posted – 11/20/20

Publication date – 9/15/20


=============================EXTRA STUFF

Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages

Interviews
-----The Guardian - The right man for the job: how Bob Woodward pinned Trump to the page by David Smith
-----NPR - Interview With Bob Woodward, Part 1 by Mary Louise Kelly audio + transcript
----------Part 2
-----60 Minutes - Inside Donald Trump's 18 recorded interviews with Bob Woodward for his book Rage by Scott Pelley
-----Axios on HBO - Bob Woodward: Full interview, Part 1 by Jonathan Swan

My reviews of other books by the author
-----2018 - Fear
-----2010 - Obamas’s Wars
-----2008 - The War Within

Other books on Trump
-----Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump
-----Disloyal by Michael Cohen
-----A Warning by Anonymous
-----Tyrannical Minds by Anonymous
-----Fascism by Madeleine K. Albright
-----Trumpocracy by David Frum
-----Unbelievable by Katy Tur

There have been many books written about Trump and Trumpism, enough to warrant a shelf of their own. More particularly, there are two recent books, in addition to Rage, that have a lot to offer re getting a close, personal look at the man, Too Much and Never Enough, by Mary Trump, and Disloyal, by Michael Cohen. Both are well worth checking out.

Items of Interest
-----Washington Post - Woodward book: Trump says he knew coronavirus was ‘deadly’ and worse than the flu while intentionally misleading Americans by Robert Costa and Phil Rucker – This article includes links to tapes of some of Woodward’s conversations with Trump
-----The Lincoln Project - Bloodlines Bob Woodward I was not going to read this. Not another Trump book. Alas, my friends, I am weak. I won't get too much into the details, because, honestly, the book contains little that would surprise you at this point. What is astonishing, however, is that Trump allowed Woodward to record all the imbecilic, narcissistic things he said in all manner of crises. He made time to chat with a journalist for hours on end to pump up his ego, while a war with Iran was not out of the question, people were protesting racial injustice outside the White House, people were dying by the thousands from a disease that could have been controlled, etc. A further recurring theme of the interviews is that he is NUMBER ONE! On Twitter, on Facebook, number one for African Americans, number one in planning for Covid, number one for the economy, and on and on it goes. More than once, I thought he sounded like a spoilt child that always has to win, and who has indulgent parents (in form of cowardly senators) who give him a lot of merit trophies to avoid having to deal with too bad a tantrum. I can't comment much on whether Woodward should have come forward with his information sooner, because as far as I could judge, it wouldn't have changed much. I could go on, but all that I can say that really matters is VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! We can do better than this.

Find my book reviews and more at http://www.princessandpen.com Bob Woodward SPOILER ALERT: WORST PRESIDENT EVER

Back when I was a younger man, protesting the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, there was no one on Earth I hated more than George W. Bush. These days, I would take him back in a heartbeat, but I guess I'll settle for Biden this fall instead. And I wonder why more Republicans don't agree, because there are ways in which the Obama administration made even Reagan's seem liberal by comparison. I guess it's like Chomsky said, how politics in this country is sort of like a football game where the entire thing is being played on the right side of the field. Discuss. Bob Woodward The immortality Trump is desperately searching for has already been created by wantonly helping to unleash a plague after nearly causing a WW3 style nuclear escalation that could have lead to a major war while downplaying racism, hate, and misogyny.

Like a child, he can take no criticism, never finished the deviant phase. This is certainly psychologically fascinating, especially regarding the latent and clinical pathology, but shouldn´t there be any mechanisms to maybe make sure that the psyche of presidents, ministers, and members of important cornerstones of democracy is stable? Not uncertain, not breaking easily, built on solid logic, not on drivel and false accusations?

Trump's relationship with Kim is a prime example of a narcissistic, social media obsessed hedonist without any conscience regarding the fact that he is having a bromance with a dictator, more keen on showing Woodward pictures of him and Kim than talking about the geopolitical and macroeconomic consequences of the historic event. Not as if he would have been able to spontaneously answer the simplest questions about these topics without preparation, maybe also one of the reasons why most of these interviews are about him, his attitudes, and people loving him because he is he. Me me me, again, child behavior.

That Trump wants to make himself immortal can´t just be seen in the historic milestone of talking a walk with Kim, but in trying to give Woodward a poster, arranging the White house desk like a PR table, and generally being obsessed about how cable news and social media react to him. Not serious books, not serious news channels, not magazines, the president watches TV and frenetically and obsessively scrolls social media timelines to decide what´s the best for his reputation, sometimes for the country. It´s not as if there would be enough monuments, world wonders, and megalomaniac buildings that show the desperate search for honor of mighty men by demonstrating their importance. Strange and telling that they never got or get the idea of doing it with reforms and pushing positive social and cultural evolution.

Why not talking about a secret nuclear weapons program? Would be even cooler if it would have happened live on a press conference while his generals are facepalming and eye rolling in the background.Would have made a great meme. Possibly he would have even mentioned where it´s researched. That´s just one of these points, nuclear war threat, that lets one ask if there isn´t still too much power concentrated in too few hands, especially because I naively tended to think that there are so many consultants, assistants, and lobbyists that help any high ranking member of the government to make decisions. It terrifyingly seems to me as if leaders still have some, potentially fatal, power left to just do anything they deem funny, I mean, how Mutually Assured Destruction is this?

One must imagine that leading employees were highly alarmed and stated that they deem the President unfit, dangerous, and generally completely incompetent without real attention span, the ability to reflect and understand, and many other problems. Nobody knows if this is just perfectly normal for Trump or if it is his age, but is again opens the question of how it´s possible that in a democracy, where a representative function such as a President should be under control by the other elected members of the government or any similar strange control instance entities, he can act just as he wishes to. That´s not really what one understands and imagines when thinking about democratic elections, that´s more of an
authoritarian government style, so how is it possible that there is still so much power in the hands of some strange people without any control instances?

I know that I am redundant in the last 2 paragraphs, but especially regarding that the danger of a Covid19 pandemic was known since the early days of February and nobody reacted in an appropriate way, nowhere, not in Europe, not in the US, just Korea and Japan going into an intelligent direction, let´s one wonder about how, why, and especially, when again? What´s the next surprise government knows about for months but, because the King or chancellor or leader or whatever is in a bad mood or disinterested, is simply hidden.

Completely without ageism, one has to ask, just as with certain jobs or maybe one day driving, if there shouldn´t be tests and/ or age limits for certain jobs. Strangely, it´s logical for a surgeon or a pilot who could hurt or kill just one or a few hundred people, while world leaders able to harm and injure hundreds of millions in their own countries and globally, are free to act as long as they wish, although it´s biological logic that at a certain, highly individual stage, the effect of age influence the ability to function. It´s ridiculous in each country with politicians that are far beyond 65, but the US is actually breaking the record, it might be impossible to spin doctor such candidates in other countries or, said with the wiseness of kids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0ZTK...
certain candidates wouldn´t be elected by enlightened citizens.
Which sophisticated adult would ever dare to react by asking why this very old, seemingly not so healthy and mentally fit great great grandfather should be a president, asking how long he will live, etc.
Subjective note: That´s why I am astonished, motivated, and still hopeful, but extremely misanthropic regarding mostly anyone above the age of 25 to 30.

It´s forbidden to think that by the stupidity of adult´s political correctness and misunderstood courtesy, but as wrong as it just can be. Of course also a sign of a dysfunctional, mad, wrong neoliberal economic paradigm, where just superrich, white, old men can effort becoming president with programs continuing the completely wrong social direction most of the world is heading towards for soon over half a century. 74 and 77 years old, Trump vs Biden, honestly? That´s not really what one is imagining as a living, active democracy, more the caricature of a gerontocracy.

To be fair, I deem all, except of the Scandinavian countries, Swiss, and the Netherlands, industrial northern democracies the same messes, just with different grades of suffering and pain for the citizens. Social evolution has stagnated and lead to a dead, ridiculous democratic system, completely controlled by lobbyism, not to be taken seriously anymore, leading to a situation where comedy shows and websites such as
The daily show with Trevor Noah
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWh...
The onion
https://www.theonion.com/
The late show with Stephen Colbert
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtF...
etc.
bring more depth, insight, and truth than all education in schools, newspapers, news networks, and, lol, the representatives themselves. If it wouldn´t be so sad, destroy the planet, and harm so many innocent people, especially in the Southern hemisphere, the laughs wouldn´t be that bitter.

A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preside...
History of madness
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neocolo...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolibe...

Establishing the lunacy using
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaga...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_m...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychol...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychol...

The lenses it will be seen with
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_His...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrohi...

I´ve, in other reviews, said before that I wanted to avoid soft humanities such as politics, economics, homeopathy whose inventor was totally nuts too, etc., but I just couldn´t resist, sorry for that, relapse is my second name after procrastination.



Because of much talk and discussion about the replication crisis, I will add these thoughts to all following nonfiction books dealing with humanities in the future, so you might have already seen it.

One could call the replication crisis the viral fake news epidemic of many fields of science that was a hidden, chronic disease over decades and centuries and has become extremely widespread during the last years, since the first critics began vaccinating against it, provoking virulent counterarguments. I don´t know how else this could end than with nothing else than paradigm shifts, discovering many anachronisms, and a better, fact- and number based research with many control instances before something of an impact on the social policy gets accepted.

Some soft science books are nothing more than fairytales for adults who never had the chance to built a free opinion because most of the media they consume to stay informed and get educated avoids any criticism of the current economic system.

Without having read or heard ideas by Chomsky, Monbiot, Klein, Ken Robinson, Monbiot, Peter Singer, William McDonough, Ziegler, Colin Crouch, Jeremy Rifkin, David Graeber, John Perkins, and others, humans will always react to people like me, condemning the manipulation practiced everywhere with terrifying success, with anger and refusal.

These authors don´t hide aspects of the truth and describe the real state of the world, don´t predict the future and preach the one only, the true way, ignoring anything like black swans, coincidences, or the, for each small child logical, fact that nobody knows what will happen, and collect exactly the free available data people such indoctrinated people to ignore forever.

A few points that led to the replication crisis:

I had an intuitive feeling regarding this for years, but the replication crisis proofed that there are too many interconnections of not strictly scientific fields such as economics and politics with many humanities. Look, already some of the titles are biased towards a more positive or negative attitude, but thinking too optimistic is the same mistake as being too pessimistic, it isn´t objective anymore and one can be instrumentalized without even recognizing it.

In natural sciences, theoretical physicists, astrophysicists, physicians… that were friends of a certain idea will always say that there is the option of change, that a discovery may lead to a new revolution, and that their old work has to be reexamined. So in science regarding the real world the specialists are much more open to change than in some humanities, isn´t that strange?

It would be as if one would say that all humans are representative, similar, that there are no differences. But it´s not, each time a study is made there are different people, opinions, so many coincidences, and unique happenings that it´s impossible to reproduce it.
Scandinavia vs the normal world. The society people live in makes happiness, not theoretical, not definitive concepts.
One can manipulate so many parameters in those studies that the result can be extremely positive or negative, just depending on what who funds the study and does the study wants as results.

One could use the studies she/ he needs to create an optimistic or a pessimistic book and many studies about human nature are redundant, repetitive, or biased towards a certain result, often an optimistic outcome or spectacular, groundbreaking results. Do you know who does that too? Statistics, economics, politics, and faith.

I wish I could be a bit more optimistic than realistic, but not hard evidence based stuff is a bit of a no go if it involves practical applications, especially if there is the danger of not working against big problems by doing as if they weren´t there.

A few points that lead away from it:

1. Tech
2. Nordic model
3. Open data, open government,
4. Blockchains, cryptocurrencies, quantum computing, to make each financial transaction transparent and traceable.
5. Points mentioned in the Wiki article
6. It must be horrible for the poor scientists who work in those fields and are now suffering because the founding fathers used theories and concepts that have nothing to do with real science. They worked hard to build a career to just find out that the predecessors integrated methods that couldn´t work in other systems, let's say an evolving computer program or a machine or a human body or anywhere except in ones´ imagination. They are truly courageous to risk criticism because of the humanities bashing wave that won´t end soon. As in so many fields, it are a few black sheep who ruin everything for many others and the more progressive a young scientist is, the more he is in danger of getting smashed between a hyper sensible public awareness and the old anachronism shepherds, avoiding anything progressive with the danger of a paradigm shift or even a relativization of the field they dedicated their career to. There has to be strict segregation between theories and ideas and applications in real life, so that anything can be researched, but not used to do crazy things.

The worst bad science practice includes, from Wikipedia:

1. The replication crisis (or replicability crisis or reproducibility crisis) is, as of 2020, an ongoing methodological crisis in which it has been found that many scientific studies are difficult or impossible to replicate or reproduce. The replication crisis affects the social sciences and medicine most severely.[
2. The inability to replicate the studies of others has potentially grave consequences for many fields of science in which significant theories are grounded on unreproducible experimental work. The replication crisis has been particularly widely discussed in the field of psychology and in medicine, where a number of efforts have been made to re-investigate classic results
3. A 2016 poll of 1,500 scientists reported that 70% of them had failed to reproduce at least one other scientist's experiment (50% had failed to reproduce one of their own experiments).[8] In 2009, 2% of scientists admitted to falsifying studies at least once and 14% admitted to personally knowing someone who did.
4. „Psychological research is, on average, afflicted with low statistical power.

Continued in comments Bob Woodward This year -2020 - has turned me into a political junkie: books, TV, Radio, podcasts, and a little social media ....I haven’t been able to stay away. The ongoing devastations of this year changes people.
So... I read another Trump book.

Bob Woodward’s, RAGE, is comprehensive, and up-to-date....
....a truthful unfolding on Trump’s Presidency.
A very honorable book resulting from scrupulous journalistic ultracareful fastidious fact-checking.

The November 3rd election is counting down— only 46 more days to go.
The important issues remain: the coronavirus pandemic, health care, the economy, race and ethnic inequality, Supreme Court appointments,
*[BLESSINGS RBG....RIP*]
Foreign Policy, immigration, global climate change, violent crime, gun policy, abortion.

Bob Woodward’s “RAGE” ....[44 chapters, 391 pages, 19 visits between Trump and Woodward with documented recorded taped conversations], left the veteran journalist depleted, disturbed, and seriously concern for our country. Woodward has interviewed nine presidents and this is the first time he ever made an editorial comment at the end of ‘any’ of his books.
Woodward wrote: “When his performance as president is taken in it’s entirety, I can reach one conclusion. Trump is the wrong man for the job”.

WRONG MAN FOR THE JOB!!!! A DANGER TO OUR COUNTRY!!!!

This book is filled with the inner workings of Trump.....
.....along with conversations about Covid, China, Foreign Policy and National security, the economy, domestic current issues, criminal justice reform, North Korea, Russia,Jarad Kushner, Lindsey Graham, Kim Jong, Jim Mattis, Rex Tillerson, Dan Coats, Mike Pompeo, and Trump’s loyal Republican supporters, and those who don’t support him.

Throughout this book we see Woodward constantly wanting to focus on the coronavirus...but Trump dodges the topic - by talking about his grand A+ achievements ....( haha)....
reminding us that the economy was “BETTER THAN EVER BEFORE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD”.....before the “China Virus”....
OH MAN!!!!

This was one of the best books - of all the political books I’ve read this year about Trump, his administration, Trump’s cognitive skills, and the IMPORTANT ISSUES AT HAND....

WRONG MAN FOR THE JOB......
....excellent detailed and documented book-of-RAGE!

A+ for Bob Woodrow
F- for Trump Bob Woodward