Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

People are weird.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

“woke” is the new caravan.

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Book Club Thoughts

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I don’t know if any decision has been made about Nixonland, but I can assure you that I would rather shower in prison than spend a minute reading or discussing anything written by Ayn Rand. I just bought copies of Griftopia and The Great Derangement
from Amazon (as well as Tom Tomorrow’s Too Much Crazy for my living room table!), so I’d be up for either Griftopia or Nixonland.

I bought Nixonland two years ago in hardback, and it was worth every penny then, so now that it is in paperback, I would really recommend it.

Reader Interactions

121Comments

  1. 1.

    handy

    but I can assure you that I would rather shower in prison than spend a minute reading or discussing anything written by Ayn Rand.

    What? You don’t find the charm in sociopaths droning on for 5,000 pages how they want to destroy all civilization because A=A?

  2. 2.

    BGinCHI

    One chapter of Atlas Shrugged would be all anyone would ever need to judge her pathetic work. Short book club.

    Better to read something interesting and smart. Taibbi is a good choice.

    Maybe fiction for the next go around.

  3. 3.

    suzanne

    I can assure you that I would rather shower in prison than spend a minute reading or discussing anything written by Ayn Rand.

    I’d rather find blood in my urine than read Rand. This is a fun game!

    In all seriousness, I’d be down for Nixonland or either of Taibbi’s books. Or, if y’all want to try something non-political, I’d love to try Ulysses.

  4. 4.

    geg6

    I’d have to get my copy of Nixonland back from my sister, but I’d be up for that. Don’t have the Taibbi book, but I also don’t plan to buy it.

    Personally, I’m also down with whoever suggested Keith Richard’s “Raw.” One of the best books I’ve read in a while and certainly the best celebrity memoir out there. In fact, perhaps the best ever.

  5. 5.

    Mark S.

    After reading that snippet from the New Yorker, I think I’d rather shower with Ayn Rand than read and discuss David Brook’s upcoming book.

  6. 6.

    Butch

    I gave up on trying to finish Larsson’s “The Girl who…” series a while back and instead starting reading Griftopia. I’m about halfway through right now. Not everyone is crazy about Taibbi but it’s hard to fault his research.

  7. 7.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Just the thought of a book club makes me wanna curl up and take a nap. I’d rather perform fellatio on a group of homeless guys down at the bus station than read Ayn Rand, and I’ve already read everything she wrote and still have it all so.. I better get going.

    On the up side, my daughter had Anthem and Animal Farm as required reading for a class last year and I had both books already.

  8. 8.

    morzer

    I’d rather shower with Ben Roethlisberger AND David Brooks in prison than read Ayn Rand.

    Your serve!

  11. 11.

    Loneoak

    I’d rather explain to Ross Douthat where babies come from than read Ayn Rand.

    I bet we could get Taibbi to drop by for a book club …

  12. 12.

    kindness

    Ditto John. I’d have to scour both my corneas and then reach in and scrub my brain if forced to read any more Ayn Rantings than I already am exposed to on the intertubes.

  13. 13.

    tim serbo

    @Mark S.: speaking of which, who was that awful british woman on npr this morning hyping Brooks’ book and calling him, if i recall aright, the “consummate intellectual”? obviously it’s just not our culture that’s been irredeemably debased.

  14. 14.

    freelancer

    I finished Griftopia in December and gave three copies of the book away as gifts to family and friends, it’s that good. However, based on the glowing recommendations in last night’s OT, I bought Nixonland for Kindle just now before lunch. I recommend we do this book.

  17. 17.

    joe from Lowell

    I’ve only ever read The Fountainhead.

    I enjoyed it, in the same manner one might enjoy outsider art. Some genuinely impressive craft, highly original, profoundly amateurish in many ways, and utterly lacking in realism. It’s enjoyable, like these paintings, mainly for the sense it provides of looking into a very talented but profoundly disturbed mind.

  19. 19.

    Nellcote

    @tim serbo:

    who was that awful british woman on npr this morning hyping Brooks’ book and calling him, if i recall aright, the “consummate intellectual”?

    Tina Brown

  20. 20.

    geg6

    @tim serbo:

    You’re right. I was doing some reading about guitars and computers and some mentions were made about Keith on the site when I clicked over here. Got them all mixed up. “Life” it is.

  21. 21.

    donnah

    I downloaded Griftopia last week for my iPad. I like Taibbi, so I’m looking forward to reading this one.

  22. 22.

    joe from Lowell

    @tim serbo:

    who was that awful british woman on npr this morning hyping Brooks’ book and calling him, if i recall aright, the “consummate intellectual”?

    David Brooks, like George Will before him, is making a fine living out of looking like an uneducated, unintelligent person’s concept of an intellectual.

  23. 23.

    djheru

    I’d rather have a habenero hot sauce enema, etc.

    But Taibbi would be cool. It would be nice to read a real book unrelated to website development.

  24. 24.

    Napoleon

    I have and have read Nixonland, and that is a good book and would be worth doing. I bought Griftopia a few weeks ago and if we do it I will move it to the top of my to read pile.

  25. 25.

    Michael D.

    I’d be up for Griftopia, since I already read it. :-)

    That, or The Two Trillion Dollar Meltdown, although it is not as current. Taibbi’s is very well written. If you liked it, I would also highly recommend “The Big Short by Michael Lewis and Too Big To Fail,.

  26. 26.

    David Hunt

    I bought Nixonland several months ago. I couldn’t finish it. I just found it depressing.

  27. 27.

    SFAW

    suzanne @ 16

    Win.

    But, seriously, how could your line be more offensive than Coulter her/himself?

  28. 28.

    SFAW

    I bought Nixonland several months ago. I couldn’t finish it. I just found it depressing.

    Well, to un-depress yourself, you need to balance it out with the heroic doings in Atlas Shrugged. Stat!

  29. 29.

    General Stuck

    I spend way more time that is healthy reading political stuff, though at some point will read Nixonland.

    If you want a small book that will make you weep with joy, and sadness, then I would recommend Leaving Cheyenne by Larry McMurtry. Absolutely non political. The very antithesis to politics.

  32. 32.

    SFAW

    Hero by Korda.

    About someone who earned the title by means other than destroying civilization as we know it in order to save it.

    (No, I haven’t read it yet. On my list, though.)

  33. 33.

    Damien

    This might be somewhat from left field, but I would really recommend the Panic Virus. If you want to read about the roots of what really ails this country (and the world, frankly), I can’t praise it highly enough.

    But I toss my hat in with Nixonland, only because I’d rather rewind time and reverse puberty than read Ayn Rand.

  34. 34.

    Gin & Tonic

    I case anyone might find Nixonland too cheery, I am currently reading Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands. Probably the only way to top that is to slog through The Gulag Archipelago.

  35. 35.

    SFAW

    Atlas Shrugged.

    I read it to try to find the “hidden” references to the Illuminati and the Tri-Lateral Commission. It’s actually pretty loaded with that stuff.

  36. 36.

    David Hunt

    @SFAW:

    No thanks. I’ve never read anything by Rand and have no intent to start now. If I ever feel the urge to do so I’ll watch actual porn. From what I understand, the dialog is better, the personality of the characters is closer to normal, the situations that draw the characters to their happy endings are more believable, and the interpersonal relationships depicted in porn are healthier, if more sentimental.

    Plus, you know…Porn!

  37. 37.

    MikeJ

    Anything but Taibbi. I mainly can’t stand his fanbois going on and on and on and on and on about how smart and wonderful and cute and loyal and brave and trustworthy that moron is.

    His fans are at least as annoying as Rand’s.

  38. 38.

    burnspbesq

    @suzanne:

    It’s not offensive, but it may be the wrong word choice. Unless you know something about Ms. Coulter’ equipment that is not public knowledge.

  40. 40.

    SFAW

    It’s actually pretty loaded with that stuff.

    Sorry, a couple of typos.

    I meant to write “I’d need to be pretty loaded to consider reading it again”.

  43. 43.

    burnspbesq

    @MikeJ:

    A much better book on the same general topic is “All the Devils Are Here,” by Bethany McLean (ex-Fortune and co-author of the definitive book about Enron, “The Smartest Guys in the Room”) and Joe Nocera of the NYT.

  44. 44.

    WoodyNYC

    I bought Nixonland when it came out in paperback and it has languished on my bookshelf unread since then. I welcome the opportunity. And yeah, I really wouldn’t want to waste my time with Ayn Rand.

  46. 46.

    Cat Lady

    I vote for Griftopia since I bought it for someone else for Christmas and then thought “fuck ’em, I’m keeping it”, and gave them The Big Short instead. I’d rather sandpaper my hemmorhoids than revisit that objectivist crap I hated when I was reading it for the first time, and frankly, I never cared for either Patricia Neal or Gary Cooper. Also.

  47. 47.

    kdaug

    Taibbi is a pugalistic, hyperbolic, and pathologically profane writer who acts like the dog who’s finally caught the car and is going to shake it until the world changes.

    I love him.

  48. 48.

    Nicole

    I been Norman Mailered, Maxwell Taylored.
    I been John O’Hara’d, McNamara’d.
    I been Rolling Stoned and Beatled till I’m blind.
    I been Ayn Randed, nearly branded
    Communist, ’cause I’m left-handed.
    That’s the hand I use, well, never mind!
    – Paul Simon

    And I’m having a fine time reading True Grit.

  50. 50.

    Mike in NC

    FYI, hardcover copies of “Nixonland” are available from Amazon for under six bucks. I paid close to full price back when it came out, but still a great book and a keeper.

  51. 51.

    singfoom

    @Cat Lady: I enjoyed the Big Short as well. 13 Bankers was really good. The thing that drives me crazy is the commonalities between those and Griftopia, fact-wise. When I try to bring that stuff up to friends/relatives/coworkers, I’m met with a blank stare. Then someone usually says something about Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac ruining the economy and I want to self-immolate.

  52. 52.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I case anyone might find Nixonland too cheery, I am currently reading Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands

    IMHO anybody who spices up their discussion of contemporary US politics with inappropriate analogies to Nazis and Communists should be required to read Bloodlands from cover to cover, with their eyelids propped open by toothpicks, A Clockwork Orange style.

  53. 53.

    S. cerevisiae

    I recommend The Shadow Over Innsmouth because you will learn the origin of the teabaggers.

  54. 54.

    tim serbo

    @Nellcote: you know, i thought it was her, but then i thought, naw, she’s gotta be smarter than that. which means that newsbeast will probably be freakin’ huge. the horror!

  55. 55.

    MikeJ

    @kdaug: This is exactly what I hate about him. He’s oh so very angry and doesn’t give a shit about whether anything he’s saying is true or not. He is Frankfurt’s definition of Bullshit with a capital B.

  58. 58.

    Tim

    Showering in prison rather appeals to me, actually. In the porn films I’ve seen, things always go rather well…

  59. 59.

    freelancer

    OT – Jesus wept, the Beast’s 50 most loathsome people of 2010 is awesome.

    42) Haley Barbour
    Charges: Looks like William Shatner if William Shatner ate a racist butter sculpture of William Shatner. As the oil and death washed ashore in the Gulf, the Mississippi Gov wooed tourists to “[c]ome on down” and “enjoy the beach.” The man was a tobacco lobbyist. He thinks the White Citizens Council is an upstanding organization. He doesn’t give a shit about you or anyone you know.
    Aggravating factor: “I just don’t remember [overt racism] as being that bad.”
    Sentence: Denied service at his favorite restaurant, blasted with fire hose, attacked by police dogs.

  61. 61.

    MikeJ

    @JGabriel: Hly shit! I thought I was the only person on earth who remebered
    Cezanne Cezanne
    The father of Cubism

    (which I kept humming to myself during Pablo’s show at the SAM.)

  62. 62.

    fraught

    I actually met Ayn Rand years ago. A most disagreeable experience. I didn’t shower with her though.

  63. 63.

    MikeJ

    @morzer: Cost of TARP was not $27 trillion. It was never going to be $27 Trillion. To say it would you would have to be:
    1) a liar
    2) a moron or
    3) just completely unconcerned with the difference between truth and lies

    I think he’s #3.

  64. 64.

    singfoom

    @MikeJ: Your mileage may vary, but I get the exact opposite when I read Taibbi. It seems like he cares a hell of a lot more about what he’s writing about than most journalists that cover that sector.

    I don’t think he’s Herman Melville, but I really appreciate someone calling the oligarchs out as they describe their abuses.

    True, I can read about the same abuses in The Big Short, 13 Bankers et al, but I also enjoy the cursing.

  65. 65.

    morzer

    @freelancer:

    25) David Brooks
    Charges: The Bernie Madoff of American letters, every tortured construct and inaccurate assumption ever set to print by this annoyingly self-described “Bourgeoisie Bohemian” is a fraudulent attempt to justify why his house is more expensive than yours. Brooks couldn’t even wait for the bodies to cool after the Haiti earthquake before writing about how useless it is to send money because those voodoo-lovin’ savages simply can’t be helped.
    Aggravating factor: “It’s time to find self-confident local leaders who will create No Excuses countercultures in places like Haiti, surrounding people—maybe just in a neighborhood or a school—with middle-class assumptions, an achievement ethos and tough, measurable demands.”
    Sentence: Buried under rubble; cholera.

  66. 66.

    Gin & Tonic

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ: And here I read the title of the thread as “Book Club Thoughts” and not “US Domestic Political Book Club Thoughts.” An easy error to make, I admit.

  68. 68.

    S. cerevisiae

    @singfoom: That would work as well. I just had this vision of “a limitless stream – flopping, hopping, croaking, bleating – surging inhumanly through the spectral moonlight in a grotesque, malignant saraband of fantastic nightmare.”

  69. 69.

    Sad But True

    I read nixonland last year and loved it. I read Griftopia last week and loved it even more. Griftopia was much, much better than I thought it would be (and I had reasonably high expectations). It’s a quicker read, and it deals with issues that are much more current and that don’t get enough discussion even on the left-leaning blogs. As far as which is better for a discussion group, Griftopia is the better choice and it’s not even close. And this is coming from someone who would give Nixonland a 10/10 and recommends it to everyone I can.

  72. 72.

    morzer

    @nancydarling:

    Speaking as a man, I object. We’ve been guilty of many, probably most of the miseries inflicted on the planet, but we ain’t guilty of having Coulter in our ranks.

  73. 73.

    hueyplong

    I’d rather fellate Ann Coulter…

    Is that offensive?

    —–

    Not unless you’re good at it.

  75. 75.

    suzanne

    @hueyplong: I *am* good at it, but I’d gulp something with habaneros beforehand if I ever found myself unlucky enough to provide Ann with sexual favors.

  76. 76.

    JGabriel

    @MikeJ:

    Holy shit! I thought I was the only person on earth who remembered …

    I used to play the 7″ single on college radio back in the mid-80’s. I’d almost forgotten who had recorded it until a girl I liked took me to one of the Guest’s shows at the Rodeo Bar, about a decade ago.

    Anyway, when I saw today’s Google banner , I searched youtube to see if anyone had posted it, and, wallah, here we are.

    Great song, innit?

    .

  77. 77.

    JWL

    What amazed me about Nixonland is that author Rick Perstein was born (during or after) slippery Dick’s administration, yet drew a unerring bead on his life and those times. Definitely a 4-star political read.

  78. 78.

    MikeJ

    @morzer: http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2009/12/11/matt_taibbi_barack_obama

    Also note that he’s wrong when he uses the number $13 trillion in his book, The Great Derangement.

    With the $13-plus trillion we are estimated to ultimately spend on the bailouts, we could not only have bought and paid off every single subprime mortgage in the country (that would only have cost $1.4 trillion), we could have paid off every remaining mortgage of any kind in this country — and still have had enough money left over to buy a new house for every American who does not already have one.

    He’s just full of shit. Sure, he’s angry. He’s vaguely angry about the right sort of stuff. He is also so fact free that you’re much, much, much better off never reading him than trying to separate the wheat from the chaff.

    When you read Taibbi you wind up stupider than when you began. Nobody should do it.

  81. 81.

    David in NY

    My doctor handed me Griftopia in the waiting room because he had to take someone before me. The first 20 pages were great. Wasn’t sure I would end up agreeing with everything in it (but when do I? and why would that matter?), but I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be bored.

  82. 82.

    kdaug

    In case ya’ll missed it, Rick Perlstein hisself popped in to the earlier thread with this:

    Balloon Juicers, I’d be glad to participate in the book group on my NIXONLAND in some way. RP

    Let’s get this party started.

  83. 83.

    kindness

    Damn people….most of us spend a good deal of the day reading other peoples blogs & posts. Most of it is political and current.

    Can’t we read some Science Fiction or something? Does every moment have to be based in reality? I mean, look at Republicans….they live in a fantasy world 24-7. Can’t we at least allow ourselves a little peek of something bigger than us and quite possibly not real? I promise I won’t vote for Sarah Palin if I read something along the line of one of the Dune books or what ever current (or past) fantasy stuff is chosen.

  84. 84.

    mikefromArlington

    Founding Fathers Book Club

    Start with Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography since I just read it recently. :P

    We could discuss how each of the founding fathers ideas shatter the myths pushed by the tea party and how their lifestyles would most likely be cast in a negative light in today’s Republican party.

  85. 85.

    cbear

    I’m down with the book club idea and would love to participate, unless it’s Ayn Rand and the day of the week ends with a “y”.

    I save that day for shaving my balls with a cheese grater– followed by a nice relaxing bath in rubbing alcohol.

  87. 87.

    David in NY

    @David Hunt: Nixonland, depressing. Yes, I think that’s why it’s still on my shelf. And why I can’t finish the great Garry Wills’s, Nixon Agonistes. Depressing. God, Will’s description of the terrible Pat Buchanan as a young operative, and we’re still saddled with his putrid near corpse … Depressing.

  89. 89.

    kdaug

    @kindness: Frakin’ awesome – in fact, let’s push this into the non-print media:

    Opening bid: What was Starbuck after she died?

    Speculation both welcomed and warranted. Research, if necessary, is permitted.

    Do note the pronoun.

  90. 90.

    singfoom

    @kindness: I’ve been enjoying Iain M. Banks Culture series when I’m reading fiction.

    Charles Stross has some awesome stuff as well. Though, reading about post-necessity societies is depressing in its own way.

  92. 92.

    Comrade Baron Elmo

    Great as Nixonland is, you also must read Perlstein’s earlier book Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus. (Nixonland picks up where this book leaves off.) If you want to better understand the roots of modern conservatism and the Tea Party, Before the Storm is essential.

    Seems like I read somewhere that Rick Perlstein is working on a third book in this set, one that covers the American political landscape from Watergate to Reagan’s ’80 win. If so, I’ll be picking that one up the day it hits the shelves.

  93. 93.

    kindness

    @singfoom: I got Colbert’s book for Christmas (fittingly I gave the spousal unit Jon Stewarts new one). It’s great bathroom reading and is in there as we speak. Mind you I think bathroom reading material isn’t quite what the bookclub idea was all about…but.

  94. 94.

    Waldo

    If I read just one book this year, and I probably will, it will be ‘Griftopia,’ which I got for Xmas.

  95. 95.

    ed drone

    @kdaug:

    Opening bid: What was Starbuck after she died?

    Dead? From the question, I assume not, but still, “after she died?”

    Ed

  96. 96.

    Joseph Nobles

    @kdaug: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA SPOILER ALERT: Starbuck became what Caprica Six and Baltar were in each other’s heads – an angel employed by God to work out his plan for the humans and the Cylons. In other words, a device for scriptwriters to make sure things in the story happened the way they wanted it to.

  98. 98.

    Elizabelle

    @kdaug:

    Rick Perlstein participating?

    How cool is that.

    Another vote for Nixonland.

    Has anyone mentioned reading Barry Goldwater’s Conscience of a Conservative?

    We could really hit some of the conservatives where they live by quoting and discussing that one.

    Much as I look forward to Nixonland, that’s probably Olbermann territory for your average tea partier.

  100. 100.

    Elizabelle

    @mikefromArlington:

    Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography … We could discuss how each of the founding fathers ideas shatter the myths pushed by the tea party and how their lifestyles would most likely be cast in a negative light in today’s Republican party.

    Yes. More of this.

    Time to honest up our political discussion.

  102. 102.

    kdaug

    Ah-HA! I knew there were some toaster sympathizers in this crowd.

    And for Athenae (because her geek-cred will compel her to show up), this.

  103. 103.

    eponymous

    Griftopia was better than I expected, but just made me depressed. I’ve also read the Big Short (Lewis), No One Would Listen (Markopolos), and Econned (Smith), so much of what Matt wrote about was no big surprise. However, the chapter on commodities manipulation was something I hadn’t heard about in great detail.

  104. 104.

    Jules

    Late to this thread too but:
    I’m in whenever we decide for sure which book we will be reading (poll maybe?) AND whichever book is picked I have a couple of credits with Audible if there is a way to either pass them on to someone who needs them or pass on the downloaded audio.

    and if the author is willing to take part, well that makes the choice of Nixonland a great idea.

  105. 105.

    catclub

    @suzanne: “I’d love to try Ulysses.”

    Yes, … yes and yes.
    I am assuming you meant the James Joyce version. Do not wait for the book club.

  106. 106.

    geg6

    @kdaug:

    Holy shit. I’d give anything to participate in a book club with the author of “Nixonland.” I admire all of his work and would love to discuss it with him.

    I DEMAND “NIXONLAND”!

  108. 108.

    suzanne

    @catclub:

    I am assuming you meant the James Joyce version.

    Yep.

    Do not wait for the book club.

    I won’t, if no one else is down. I would, however, like the newborn to allow me more than four hours of sleep at night before I attempt it.

  110. 110.

    Steeplejack

    @kindness:

    Just started China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station. Not recommending it for the book club, but it is science fiction (or fantasy), and I’ve been meaning to read something by him for a while.

    Also just started The Longest War, Peter Bergen’s new (and very favorably reviewed) book about America and Al Qaeda over the last decade. That might be book club material.

  111. 111.

    Steeplejack

    @singfoom:

    Though, reading about post-necessity societies is depressing in its own way.

    LOL. I just finished Banks’s Surface Detail, which I didn’t like as well as the other Culture novels I have read, but since reading it I have found myself having recurring reveries about living in a Culture environment, i.e., an exceedingly post-necessity society.

  112. 112.

    Samnell

    I’m a nobody (I think ten comments here in two years) but I’m absolutely up for Nixonland, especially with the author involved.

  113. 113.

    cckids

    @Michael D.: I’ve been reading The Big Short & have to keep taking breaks because it is so infuriating. Also I start ranting to the family & they start avoiding me.

  115. 115.

    singfoom

    @Steeplejack: Perdido Street Station is a masterpiece. I’ve read everything Mielville has ever put out since then. I’ve never seen someone with such amazing descriptions of craziness.

    FYI, I’m sure you don’t care, but it stacks up like this
    Perdido Street Station > The Scar > The City & The City > Kraken > Iron Council.

  116. 116.

    Steeplejack

    @singfoom:

    I do care. I’m a freak for chronological order. Although I have to admit there are a few previous Culture novels I haven’t read, but I couldn’t pass up Surface Detail when I saw it in the store.

  117. 117.

    cckids

    @Elizabelle: I like this idea too. In 2009, my son was in the hospital for 3 + weeks, & I read 1776, The First American (about Franklin), and Team of Rivals. (I was on a history kick). None of these people would be accepted in politics today. When the tea partiers dote on the Founders, they are either completely ignorant or mythologizing.

  120. 120.

    booda

    John, I can’t wait to see your posts after you crack Griftopia. I finished it in about 3 sittings in December. If it weren’t for Taibbi’s crass and funny descriptions it would have given me rage-induced indigestion for a month. I have recommended it to every sentient being I’ve come across since then. Buckle up.

  121. 121.

    fasteddie

    griftopia is the most infuriating and depressing book I ever read. It makes my stomach hurt just to think about it. It NEEDS to be read.

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