Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Everybody saw this coming.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

It’s a doggy dog world.

Republicans in disarray!

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

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

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

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

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Book Clubs / Adam Schiff Midnight in Washington Book Club / Interest in a Weekly Book Club to Read & Discuss Adam Schiff’s Book Midnight In Washington?

Interest in a Weekly Book Club to Read & Discuss Adam Schiff’s Book Midnight In Washington?

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Interest in a Weekly Book Club to Read & Discuss Adam Schiff's Book Midnight In Washington?

Is there any interest in having a book club to talk about Adam Schiff’s book: Midnight in Washington?

Maybe a chapter a week?

I typically never read these political books, but this is definitely one I want to read.

I’m thinking maybe a different person could lead the conversation every week, or at least write up a little something to get the conversation started.  Of course, if you hate that idea, it doesn’t have to go that way.

If you’re interested in reading / discussing this book, let me know in the comments?

If not, open thread!

Reader Interactions

79Comments

  2. 2.

    debbie

    I’d be interested. I’m not a leader of anything, but I’d love to hear others’ thoughts.

  3. 3.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I might be interested, I’m interested in the book but pretty busy in the next few weeks, and also still have pandemic scatter-brain– for what was probably a split second but seemed longer, I couldn’t remember what month it was earlier today.

    At one point, there was talk of a doing something with Obama’s memoir, which I listened to and bought a hard copy of, both to be able to refer back to and to bump up the numbers. In the Bush years, I bought a lot of books out of spite, more or less. Every once in a while I’ll stumble across one and think, “What’s this? Oh yeah, that guy whose blog I used to read in 2005….”

  4. 4.

    Justin W

    I’m a lurker 98% of the time but I’m very interested in this book. Schiff has a measured but powerful take on most of the issues we’re facing and I’d like to know more about what he knows.

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    @Benw: That’s how I feel about most of the political books, but that’s not how I feel about this one.

    I feel like his purpose is to educate us, not make as many bucks off the books as he can by scaring the shit out of us.

    I would guess his book has a constructive bent to it, with him talking about what we need to do.  That appeals to me.

  11. 11.

    germy

    Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in!

    I’m taking a break from books by lawmakers.

    I’ve been reading novels and short story collections.  I just finished a Shirley Jackson book, and now I’m reading a book of short stories by Chekhov.

  13. 13.

    bluegirlfromwyo

    I’ve bought too many of these books only to read a chapter and get too angry or depressed to continue. Maybe a club would force me to get passed that. I’m in.

  15. 15.

    germy

    I read “The Cry of the Sloth” by Sam Savage and enjoyed it immensely.  I have a pile of books on my nightstand to get me through the winter.

  18. 18.

    germy

    @WaterGirl:

    No, if anyone tried complaining here that Garland wasn’t doing enough to prosecute the trumpers.

    I had no opinion on the subject until I saw Schiff’s concerns.  I was always in the “wheels of justice move slowly” camp, and assumed Garland was moving forward.

  19. 19.

    germy

    The Jan. 6 select committee is planning for ex-DOJ official Jeffrey Clark, who willingly pushed Trump's election lies, to testify next Friday — teeing him up to be the first Trump admin official to comply with a subpoena for an interview with the panel. https://t.co/veualKBfTK

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 23, 2021

  20. 20.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Absolutely in on the book chat idea, and I might even put up my hand to lead a chapter discussion when the time comes. I only started it a couple of days ago, though, and haven’t read very far (through no fault of Schiff’s writing; just, I am busy with classes and some family stuff and a large-ish project of my own which I will share soon). Anyhow, for sure put my name in the “Definitely Interested” column!

  21. 21.

    Leto

    @germy: I’ll just save everyone the trouble and quote the standard BJ mantra: “Don’t you think X knows that? Don’t you think X is working on it?” Substitute X for whoever.

  22. 22.

    germy

    @Leto:

    I usually agree, but then I see Schiff (who knows more than I do about what’s going on) express concern…

    And then I get indigestion.

  25. 25.

    WaterGirl

    So far…

    Interested:

    debbie
    JustinW
    bluegirlfromwyo
    SiubhanDuinne
    elie
    WaterGirl
    sam
    Kalakal
    CasieL
    HRA
    Ruckus ($)

    ?

    Maybe:

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

  28. 28.

    CaseyL

    I just read a snippet of the book on the public library site, and put a hold on it. I’m definitely interested, but it looks to be at least a couple of months before the book will be available to me.

  31. 31.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I hope the discussion on the Schiff book continues, and I certainly don’t want to derail the conversation, but since it’s an Open Thread, I must ask: Did any one else go to see Fire Shut Up in My Bones (today’s Met Opera Live in HD production)? If so, what did you think? I’ll start: I was blown away. It’s beautiful, wrenching, funny in spots, spectacular, and one of the best things the Metropolitan Opera has staged in years. I’m still reeling.

    And that little kid. Sheesh. He got a (well-deserved) standing O and a confetti bomb during his curtain call, and his reaction was one for the ages.

  34. 34.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Leto: It is a little different if it comes from someone who is in a position know rather than an angsty and impatient blog commenter.

  37. 37.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MomSense:

    It was simply extraordinary. I don’t know what your weeknight schedule is like, but many of the cinemas that carry the Live in HD transmissions also have an encore screening on the following Wednesday. You might want to check with your local movie palace. Otherwise, I could almost guarantee it’s going to be a “Summer Encores” selection in July 2022.

  40. 40.

    Ruckus

    I would like to participate but.

    I looked, it’s early, no paperback of course, cheapest hardcover I’ve seen is amazon at $20.99, kindle is $14.99. I’m not skint but I have to watch my pennies, or I will be.

  43. 43.

    Another Scott

    @germy: Garland is probably still working without his full team because of people blocking them in the Senate.

    Joyce White Vance at WaPo (from June)

    […]

    Garland has tasked his deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, with “surfacing potentially problematic matters deserving high level review,” and he has enlisted the department’s inspector general to investigate the subpoena [of Apple for account information, etc., on House members and their families] incident. But he will have to go well beyond that, ensuring a comprehensive, painstaking review, if he wants to find any other land mines before they, too, explode on the front pages of the nation’s newspapers — and if he wants to have a hope of restoring trust in the institution.

    The inspector general’s investigation is an important step toward understanding whether and how the Justice Department was twisted into a weapon for use against Americans whom the former president viewed as his enemies. But IG probes take time, and this department doesn’t have a lot of it. The longer questions and concerns go unaddressed, the more difficult the department’s mission becomes. It’s not just this most recent disclosure. Everything awful is additive, and Americans’ reservoir of trust for the Justice Department is running low. The process of replenishing it can’t be shunted aside while the new team assesses the damage. This is a moment for rebuilding the airplane while you’re flying it.

    […]

    It’s a huge task.

    One of Schiff’s jobs as a Congressman is to tell the Administration what to do. That’s fine.

    I, personally, still have complete confidence in Garland. He knows how to run investigations. He knows what it takes to win in federal court. Few things would be as bad as to rush prosecutions of TFG and his monsters and lose. Remember what happened with Ollie North. It makes sense for the various investigations to be done sensibly and carefully and yes that takes time.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  44. 44.

    debbie

    @germy:

    In an interview on NPR flogging his book (as they say), Schiff acknowledged he knew going in that Mueller’s testimony would be torn apart by the GOP as that of a feeble mind. That aggravates me more than Garland. If they knew there could be cognitive issues, they should have had someone from his team testify instead.

  45. 45.

    Leto

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’ll simply say other people with knowledge of the issue have been saying this for months. This has been a known issue. It’s not just angsty people on a blog who’ve spoken about this. But whenever it’s brought up, it’s always met with my reference tweet. /shrug

    Edit: and right on cue, here’s Another Scott simply giving another version of it.

  48. 48.

    Leto

    @debbie: He was on Maddow speaking about that issue, and he spoke about not sewing/speaking to Mueller in a few years. He remembered Mueller from years ago as a much more mentally there, more agile/sharp. I agree though, wish they had someone else from the team there. Though, honestly, I don’t think that was ever going to happen. They would’ve always demanded the main person in charge be there to talk about the investigation. If he didn’t show, that would’ve had its own political implications.

  51. 51.

    WaterGirl

    It seems to me that there are enough people who are interested to go ahead with it.

    So far…

    Interested:

    debbie
    JustinW
    bluegirlfromwyo
    SiubhanDuinne
    elie
    WaterGirl
    sam
    Kalakal
    CasieL (library, timing)
    HRA
    Ruckus
    Ajabu
    Alison Rose (library, timing)
    grandmabear
    Middlelee (summary)
    Narya (+1 book)
    bemused senior
    Jack the Cold Warrior

    ?

    Maybe:

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I will put up one more post about it tomorrow or Monday to catch more people.  Then we’ll need to decide on a day and time.

    Please start thinking about day and time, or at least evening vs. weekend, Saturday vs. Sunday, etc.

    If you’re interested, please say so in the comments.  I will be checking back through the weekend.

  52. 52.

    Ruckus

    @Leto:

    So, what would a normal timeframe be for investigating an attempted overthrow of the federal government – by a defeated presidential candidate, 4 yrs of total fucking incompetence of said president, a political party that is trying it’s damnest to go back in time about 300 yrs and throwing up roadblocks and a pandemic that the last president fucked up any response to? A week and a half?

    This is not a one and done situation, it’s still on going and yes it takes time to sort out, to get the ducks in a row, to sort out who in the federal government is on the side of TLG and who cannot be put in charge of anything.

  54. 54.

    WaterGirl

    @Ruckus: I suspect that Leto knows all of that, that things take time.  It seems to me that Leto is  disturbed at the apparently lack of investigating Trump.

    Leto, is that a fair statement?

    I am on team “give Garland time to do this right”.

    Hearing Adam Schiff say something that sure sounds like he believes that Garland is not willing to investigate Trump is disturbing/disappointing to me.  Even as I know it takes time to build a case.

    T**** basically tried to overthrow our democracy and there should be consequences.

  55. 55.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Another Scott:

    He knows what it takes to win in federal court.

    This is the part– one of the parts– that keeps me from criticizing Garland too much. The DoJ investigates in order to bring criminal charges that lead to criminal conviction. Investigating broader political malfeasance is the job of Congress. IMHO.

  56. 56.

    Alison Rose

    @CaseyL: Same, right now it shows a 10 week wait on Libby

    ETA: But I am interested! Libraries may work to get more copies too, so it might not take that long. But if others don’t want to wait, I understand.

  57. 57.

    RevRick

    Our Penn Northeast Conference of the United Church of Christ is currently doing a racial justice film series. Last month’s was “Twelve Years a Slave.” Tuesday we’ll Zoom a discussion of “If Beale Street Could Talk” based on the James Baldwin novel of the same title.

  59. 59.

    Middlelee

    @Ruckus: I just ordered the summary, free on Kindle Unlimited–2.99 without Kindle Unlimited.  My library is closed for repairs until Nov. 6.  I’m #1 on the hold list so if they have it in by then I can check it out for 3 weeks.  I think I can make it work.

     

    So, I’m in.

  61. 61.

    Narya

    I’m interested, and I’ll also purchase for an additional jackal. I’ll do iBooks but I will do whatever works for someone else. I’d prefer zoom only because I think it’s easier than a comments thread

  63. 63.

    dexwood

    Great respect for Schiff, but I’d rather eat bugs than read any book a politician publishes.

  64. 64.

    Jack the Cold Warrior

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: During the reign of W I collected a small library of “I Hate W and His Insane Iraq War”  books as well as books cracking on crazy conservatives, with authors like Carvel and Al Franken.

  65. 65.

    Jack the Cold Warrior

    Add my name to the list, I’m actually reading the book (from Kindle) and it is good so far.

  66. 66.

    Ruckus

    @WaterGirl:

    A number of people have written “summaries” about the book. So you don’t have to read the whole book and you can get someone else’s version instead of Adam’s. They seemed to come out about the same time as the book. I’m not impressed.

    So I passed on that. I’ll go over to the city library on Tuesday when they open, get a card and see if they have the Kindle version to check out.

  68. 68.

    WaterGirl

    As of noon on Sunday:

    Interested:

    debbie
    JustinW (+1 book)
    bluegirlfromwyo
    SiubhanDuinne
    elie
    WaterGirl
    sam
    Kalakal
    CasieL (library, timing)
    HRA
    Ruckus
    Ajabu
    Alison Rose (library, timing)
    grandmabear
    Middlelee (summary)
    Narya (+1 book)
    bemused senior
    Jack the Cold Warrior
    Jess
    Peggy

    ?

    Maybe:

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    ?

    If there’s anyone else who is interested, please chime in below – I will check back.

    And if anyone is interested but doesn’t have library copies available or funds for the book, please chime in, too.  I bet we can find a way to get you a book.  Narya has offered to buy one copy, and I can buy one also.  Guessing there might be more who are willing to do that.  Those of us who have been there are always happy to help people who are there now.  I haven’t forgotten than one summer years ago I pretty much lived on the tomatoes from my neighbor’s garden!

  69. 69.

    Alison Rose

    @WaterGirl: Yeah, I was realizing that a library copy wouldn’t really work, since I’d have to return it within in 21 days and wouldn’t be able to immediately renew since there will be a waiting list. I mean, I could always just read the whole thing and take notes for the weekly discussions (I read a lot and quickly, a book of this category and length I’d typically get through in 3-4 days). But hey…if someone wanted to gift me a copy, I wouldn’t say no :P

  70. 70.

    Ruckus

    @WaterGirl:

    TFG wasn’t basically doing it, he was absolutely trying to overthrow the government. He had/has support from those who seem to think that a democracy is only white, male, useless, assholes who have no regard for people that don’t look, act, not think, like them.

    The depth and breadth of democracy is a hard thing to understand if one thinks all humans should look and think the same. Thankfully not all humans are that stupid. Democracy is for everyone, there is a place for everyone, and the concept that we all have to be the same useless lumps of flesh and bone is ridiculous. Thinking that way brings on wars and hate, over and over and over. The world is an amazing place of differences and life and joy and yes sorrow. Of history great and small. Of lives given and lives taken. Of progress and despair. The current concept de jour is money is everything. This is not a new concept and has been repeated over and over and over, and it gets lives wasted and lost, for something that is ridiculous. It does not make one a better person, it makes one worse 99% of the time. It creates a world of crap, sold to people who don’t know better. It creates a world of groups, defined by wealth, which ridicules humanity. The concept of democracy is we are all equal. The concept of monetary fame is that we are absolutely not. Money does not equal democracy and democracy does not equal money.

    We pay federal elected officials well so they won’t accept bribes and seemingly it doesn’t work at all, as it appears that one party has sold itself out to the concept of money is everything, their god to worship. They seem to be religious but their definition of religion seems to be that money is the end all, be all. The supporters of this party seem to be made up of wealthy at the top and people who think violence is the only way to win and that winning is the point of life. They have zero understanding of life, of liberty, humanity. They are so nearsighted that they can’t see reality right in front of them. That their side is screwing them royally for monetary gain over everything else. That the people they think are their leaders actually despise them. They are ignoring history that shows that this behavior has been repeated over and over and over and has always failed in the end. Always. Because it is about monetary gain, not life. Life in this scenario has no value, the only value is money.

    Money is the means in life, it is not the end.

  74. 74.

    Justin W

    @WaterGirl: I have audible credits available and would be happy to contribute a book to someone who cannot get one. I know there’s a way to “gift” an audible credit so just let me know if someone needs the book….

  76. 76.

    Betty

    @WaterGirl:  My question has been why there is not enough in the public sphere to warrant appointment of a special counsel to lead such an investigation? No one expects the DOJ to have a case ready to prosecute yet but think there should be an aggressive investigation.

  77. 77.

    Betty

    Oh, they keep telling me I am entitled to an audible book, and I keep ignoring  them. This sounds like a perfect use of it. Thanks for mentioning it. Count me in one way or the other. Sunday seems like a better day for the chat.

  78. 78.

    Krakengonewild

    I am interested, depending on the timing, for me to get the audiobook and finish. Is there a time frame?

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