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The List: A Week-by-Week Reckoning of Trump’s First Year
The shocking first-draft history of the Trump regime, and its clear authoritarian impulses, based on the viral Internet phenom “The Weekly List.”
In the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump's election as president, Amy Siskind, a former Wall Street executive and the founder of The New Agenda, began compiling a list of actions taken by the Trump regime that pose a threat to our democratic norms. Under the headline: “Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you'll remember,” Siskind's “Weekly List” began as a project she shared with friends, but it soon went viral and now has more than half a million viewers every week.
Compiled in one volume for the first time, The List is a first draft history and a comprehensive accounting of Donald Trump's first year. Beginning with Trump's acceptance of white supremacists the week after the election and concluding a year to the day later, we watch as Trump and his regime chips away at the rights and protections of marginalized communities, of women, of us all, via Twitter storms, unchecked executive action, and shifting rules and standards. The List chronicles not only the scandals that made headlines but just as important, the myriad smaller but still consequential unprecedented acts that otherwise fall through cracks. It is this granular detail that makes The List such a powerful and important book.
For everyone hoping to #resistTrump, The List is a must-have guide to what we as a country have lost in the wake of Trump's election. #Thisisnotnormal
In the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump's election as president, Amy Siskind, a former Wall Street executive and the founder of The New Agenda, began compiling a list of actions taken by the Trump regime that pose a threat to our democratic norms. Under the headline: “Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you'll remember,” Siskind's “Weekly List” began as a project she shared with friends, but it soon went viral and now has more than half a million viewers every week.
Compiled in one volume for the first time, The List is a first draft history and a comprehensive accounting of Donald Trump's first year. Beginning with Trump's acceptance of white supremacists the week after the election and concluding a year to the day later, we watch as Trump and his regime chips away at the rights and protections of marginalized communities, of women, of us all, via Twitter storms, unchecked executive action, and shifting rules and standards. The List chronicles not only the scandals that made headlines but just as important, the myriad smaller but still consequential unprecedented acts that otherwise fall through cracks. It is this granular detail that makes The List such a powerful and important book.
For everyone hoping to #resistTrump, The List is a must-have guide to what we as a country have lost in the wake of Trump's election. #Thisisnotnormal
528 pages, Hardcover
First published March 27, 2018
249 people are currently reading
878 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
April 4, 2018
The List by Amy Siskind is one of the most important books that I have ever come across. I’ve been following Amy on Facebook and Twitter since before the election. It is a must read for anyone who is part of The Resistance to Trump. It’s also a must for anyone who wants our Democracy to survive. Which in my opinion is close to dead.
The book documents all the sudden changes that have taken place week by week since Trump took office. These sudden changes show how Trump is trying to consolidate power. As the weeks go by we are becoming more and more of an autocratic regime.
Another important person who writes the introduction to the The List is Sarah Kendzior who is an expert in authoritarian states. She is also another person who I trust and follow religiously on Twitter. If you are part of The Resistance or just anti Trump and you are not following these two powerful women you are doing it wrong!
I cannot recommend this book highly enough! It’s that important!
The book documents all the sudden changes that have taken place week by week since Trump took office. These sudden changes show how Trump is trying to consolidate power. As the weeks go by we are becoming more and more of an autocratic regime.
Another important person who writes the introduction to the The List is Sarah Kendzior who is an expert in authoritarian states. She is also another person who I trust and follow religiously on Twitter. If you are part of The Resistance or just anti Trump and you are not following these two powerful women you are doing it wrong!
I cannot recommend this book highly enough! It’s that important!
March 25, 2018
Been following Amy’s daily Facebook updates on this book for more than a year. This highly detailed and well-researched book will be required reading in high schools and college in the near future and will give our next generations a day-by-day diary of how this administration perverted democracy, perverted social and political norms, maybe forever.
March 25, 2018
Just one year later and society is wondering how we got here. This book lays it out. One bizarre episode at a time.
I’m praying the sequel will only need to cover a few months.
I’m praying the sequel will only need to cover a few months.
Want to read
March 29, 2018Because I want to send myself completely over the edge. I think this book will have to be an ever changing, living document.
May 11, 2018
Review title: Take the cure
In Fantasyland, Andersen quotes professor Michal Lynch: 'The most disturbing power of contradiction is that it's repeated use can dull our sensitivity to the value of truth itself.' (p. 428) It is this danger of being overwhelmed by and then succumbing to a flood of untrue statements and wrong actions that enabled the fictional states of 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 and the historical states of Nazi Germany and North Korea. And it is this danger that made me pick up The List. Have we gotten so immersed in the flood of internet-driven, Russian-influenced, or White House reported "fake news" that we are unable to distinguish reality from fiction? Siskind began to track what she believes are the most outrageous statements and actions from President-elect Trump the week of his election, with the purpose of documenting a steady curve away from the norm of democracy toward authoritarianism. The list grew as she updated it each week, with readership on social media growing as well, culminating in this book, which takes the list up through the first anniversary of the election.
Unlike Andersen and his aversion to sourcing his content, each item on the list is footnoted to a source. The sources primarily are mainstream media such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and the Associated Press, with a smattering of online sources such as Buzzfeed and Daily Beast. What qualifies an item to make Siskind's list? She was drinking from the firehouse of the "first draft of history", so she had to use some criteria to select the entries worth recording for posterity. Not having access to the author's background and biases, I created my own categorization of the items on the list based on their impact to see if the dire warnings which begin on the book cover and continue in the foreword by an "expert in authoritarianism" and the author's introduction are truly justified.
I ended up with five categories of list entries I found relevant that justify the concerns of Siskind and should concern readers and Americans who are paying attention:
I am neither a lawyer nor a constitutional expert, so I cannot assess the constitutionality or illegality of any one item on the list.
I also found three categories of entries that align to either partisan dislike of Trump and his policies, or are irrelevant or unprovable and likely to muddy the waters of any political or legal discourse about the Trump presidency:
-Politically unpopular (with Siskind, and with most liberals)
-Trump efforts to ignore or agitate media and pundits such as Siskind
-Irrelevant/questionable/unprovable statements
To have a meaningful dialog about Donald Trump's presidency, we need to separate the illegal and truly toxic from the mere political disagreement of the political center/left with Trump's hard-red positions.
Qualifiers:
-This is my own unscientific assessment of the list entries. I did not go back to study the sources to see if they are recorded fairly here, and I did not follow up on any of the list entries to see if and how they were adjudicated or otherwise resolved (or if they remain unresolved).
-I did not vote for President in the last election as I was disappointed and angered by the lack of quality of the major party candidates for President. Politically I skew conservative, but refused to vote for Donald Trump as he fell far short of my standards for President in both his personal conduct and his political platform. I used to identify as Republican, but can no longer do so. I was also astonished at the incompetence of Hillary Clinton and the attempt to retread a 1970s socialist (Bernie Sanders).
-As I said above, this is Siskind's selective outline of a first draft of history, and as far as I can tell she has not followed up on the list entries to determine their outcomes after the initial reporting. This longitudinal study would be essential and will need to be undertaken by those who either have legal and constitutional responsibility for adjudication or are preparing the next draft of history of this strange period in history.
-As we knew going into this, and as Donald Trump himself proudly and loudly proclaimed, he was not an experienced politician and did not know nor did he desire to live and govern by standard processes and guiding principles of American politics. Through both his ignorance and intention he was going to be the bull in the china shop, which is much of what we see in these list entries. As long as they are not unconstitutional, illegal, morally and ethically questionable, or racist and xenophobic, we may not like Donald Trump's actions and words (a responsible adult needs to shut down his Twitter account) but they reflect the man who was elected President of the United States. We have the government we deserve.
-The list covers the year dating from his election and the first 9 months of his term. Much of what we see here is the normal churn in transition of the government to a new president and from a president of one party to a president of the other party. And given Trump's ignorance and intention of breaking the political patterns this churn is even worse than normal. A more reasonable first year assessment might have run from the week after the inauguration, to eliminate the transition period, although having observed the months since the end of the book I doubt there would be any change in the trend lines of the entries.
-Just because a list entry is classified in the partison or irrelevant categories doesn't mean it is not detrimental to American democracy and values. It may very well be, but I have classified it here as it is not a provable action by Trump or directly caused by a Trump action.
-Conversely just because an item is categorized as impeachable or illegal doesn't mean that Trump could be impeached or convicted based on any individual list entry. As I said above, I am neither a lawyer nor a constitutional expert.
OK, enough stage setting: what about my analysis of the list? There are 4,021 entries over 52 weeks, an average of about 80 per week, with a peak of 133 entries in week 51 (October 29 to November 4, 2017). Of that total I assessed 1,044 in categories relevant to demonstrating the unconstitutional, illegal, unethical, xenophobic, or dishonest behavior of President Trump and his administration. This means that 75% of Siskind's entries are partisonly political or unprovable, and the gap between relevant and irrelevant grew over the course of the year as Trump's words and actions provide more grist for the political mill.
In a court of law, these would be ruled out of court. But the battlegrounds of politics and history are not bound by rules of evidence and legal procedures. Siskind has a political, not a legal, point to prove, but even in this guerrilla war, having 75% of her shots miss the mark doesn't help her. In Fantasyland Andersen wrote of the often observed practice of conspiracy theorists to list every possible random unassociated fact or rumor in the hope that one corroborated fact in the vicinity of an unsubstantiated rumor gives the rumor the credence of truth, and that the mere juxtaposition functions as proof of causal relationship. This kind of conspiracy thinking raises a red flag with reasonable thinkers that calls all of the data into question, so let's set these 3, 000 entries aside and focus on the 1,000 that I marked relevant.
Of these 1,000 entries, about 20% were Trump lies that Siskind's sources had refuted (when the lie was listed in multiple entries, I only counted it once, marking the others as irrelevant, so as not to be accused of double counting). The percentage stayed pretty consistent throughout the year, reflecting the character of a man who is not only comfortable with his dishonesty, but acknowledges and uses it as a weapon. Unlike the usual "shady politician" who attempts to shade the truth and acts repentant when caught, Donald Trump knows he's lying, knows we know he's lying, and instead of mock tears uses Twitter to double down on his dishonesty.
The illegal and racist/xenophobic categories totalled about 20% as well, and remained consistent through the year, with spikes when Trump announced his Muslim travel bans and border wall. Siskind included many entries on these topics in the list which I marked irrelevant because they were reports of reactions to those policies. So, for example, Siskind included many entries referencing anti-Semitism and violent racism such as the Charlottesville white supremist violence, but I marked those as irrelevant: while Trump's words and policies may create an environment that enables those events (as Siskind clearly believes), Trump does not cause those events to happen.
Most of the illegal entries were violations of conflict of interest rules by Trump, his family, and his appointees to high offices. Here Siskind's list fulfilled her purpose of making sure we don't forget how much bad behavior we have come to accept and expect; before reading and analyzing the list, I had not realized just how casually corrupt the Trump family and administration has been when seen in sequence in this list. In response to apologists for Trump who will claim that his administration is no worse than others, i will point out that because of Trump's background as a deal maker in business and entertainment, his involvement of his wives and children in his many businesses, and his penchant for nominating his business associates for offices regardless of their qualifications, the opportunities for conflict of interest are much higher for this administration than for any in the past, and Donald Trump has never had a reputation for missing an opportunity.
The two most numerous categories (together about 650 of the 1000 relevant entries) are the most damaging, as moral and ethical behavior is at the core of the character of an effective and qualified leader, and unconstitutional or treasonous acts are indefensible in the performance of a President's duties. As I said earlier, President Trump or an associate could not be impeached or convicted based on any individual list entry. However, what these entries do establish is a pattern of behavior that we would not expect of a president, whether it is behavior that is morally reprehensible such as condoning racism or attacking individual liberties, or failing to uphold the President's sworn obligation to defend his country. In response to apologists for Trump who will claim that he has fulfilled the duties of the Presidential oath of office, I will let his own ambassador to the United Nations speak in this reference Item 67 on the list for the week of October 15-21, 2017:
Is treason too strong of a word? If the Russian intervention in American elections is warfare, than a president who may have invited the intervention, or encouraged it, or stood by while knowing it occurred, would be guilty of treason. Here Siskind's list has fulfilled her purpose, as she lists entry after entry (again I classified multiple and questionable entries as irrelevant) documenting the President's relationship with Russia, his associates' relationships with Russia, and the mounting evidence of Russian tampering with American elections in 2016 through Facebook, Twitter, and other channels of true "fake news". And whether he was culpable in inviting or encouraging it, the repeated revelations show that at least he knew of it and took no action to stop it. If Haley is correct, and I believe she is, this issue is too important for playing politics, and needs to be addressed by both political parties at all levels. This needs to be addressed by more than grandstanding to impeach Trump or investigate Hillary, depending on whose ox you think needs to be gored.
I approached The List with suspicion, expecting to disagree with the author based in her role as a mainstream liberal pundit and journalist, and her obvious animus towards President Trump. While I did not vote for Trump, and have no respect for him as a person or as a leader, I also did not vote for Hillary Clinton and do not agree with her and her party on most issues. But in reading through the 400 pages and 4, 000 entries on the list, I found myself understanding the importance of Siskind's mission even while not agreeing with all of her content. Even though I haven't paid as much attention as I should to events in Washington, and while events there may not have an impact on my daily life, I now see how much damage is being done to our culture, our politics, and our government. For example, we all know now about the misuse of millions of users' Facebook data by Cambridge Analytica, an obscure data mining company, but Siskind lists several entries over the last year documenting that company's role in manipulating Facebook and registered voter data to influence the 2016 elections; Cambridge Analytica has ties to Donald Trump and to associates in his administration who are being investigated in relation to Russian tampering.
How did we get into this mess? There are three things at work here each reinforcing the others in a negative synergy that has gotten us to where Siskind has shown us in the list:
1. A rotten core of assumptions about governing, politics, and democracy. For too long our democracy has operated with minimal input from its owners--the "we the people" (us) are too ignorant, too distracted or too trusting to care how and what our government is doing. Voter turnout for the last century has steadily declined so that a fraction of registered voters, which means a tiny fraction of the total population, is making decisions for all of us, a system which works if those who do vote are well educated in our history, culture, and government, and if are leaders are equally wise and trustworthy. But when those assumptions are wrong, then that rotten core exposes us to real danger. When Donald Trump was first elected, I thought that the legislative and judicial checks on his authority would rein in his worst impulses, but I was shocked when I would read news stories about decisions that he made unilaterally, often by executive order. I would think "He can't do that!" But it turns out he could, and many of his decisions were taken to reverse unilateral decisions made by his Democratic predecessor. Not that I agreed with President Obama's unilateral actions either; I awoke to the realization of the rotten core that we have allowed too much power to be placed in the hands of any one leader regardless of their politics and whether I agree with them.
2. A groundswell of voters with legitimate political, ideological, cultural and religious differences from the core. From Richard Nixon's "silent majority" to "flyover country" to Hillary Clinton's "vast right-wing conspiracy", a huge part of our population has been ignored by the political process, either of their own volition (see number 1 above) or by the dismissal of those who consider themselves the elite, the ruling class, the "inside the Beltway" crowd. Ronald Reagan gave them a voice and a vote, but in the decades since they have mostly been left alone and forgotten as the culture and government veered farther away from them. But these voters are waking up, galvanized by declining economic fortunes, dying local industries, and shrinking home towns, and confused and angered by changing cultural norms, coarsened public discourse, and closed political parties. The mainstream may have labeled them as racist, misogynistic, religious, anti-progress and anti-science, and many undoubtedly are one or more of those things, but labeling them does not change the validity of their beliefs and their right to have a political voice.
3. A combination of conman/hustler and egotistical TV star that was able to co-opt the groundswell in service to throwing out the old rotten core and creating a new core. Donald Trump became the catalyst for engaging this groundswell to create a new core. A failed businessman whose only success was as a reality TV star, his presidential campaign was for him just the next season of the reality TV show that is his life. Nominally a Republican, and notionally the candidate representing the Christian vote, his actions before and since the election prove he neither truly believes any conservative philosophy nor cares for any religious principles or doctrines. But like the consummate deal maker he has always been (even though most of his deals have ended in failure and bankruptcy; he is smart enough to gamble with someone else's money, not his own) he was able to make the deal to combine his incompetence and ego with the disenfranchised voters and the vulnerable rotten political core and win the election, perhaps with the aid of Russian tampering and certainly with no intention of doing other than enriching himself and his business partners.
How do we get out of this mess? Six months after the last entry in the book, Donald Trump remains President and today's headlines remain the same as then:
-AT&T confirms it paid Michael Cohen for consulting on Time Warner deal
-CNN Poll: Republicans shifting negative on Mueller's investigation
-Why Donald Trump talked about 'ratings' standing next to 3 recently freed prisoners
The fundamentals haven't changed: Influence peddling, Russian tampering, and Trump fixation on his "reality TV" ratings (for his photo-op with released North Korean prisoners, in one of the few successes he can fairly claim for his 16-month tenure).
Politically, the judicial and legislative branches must continue to exercise their checks and balances to control the rotten core of power. The investigators looking into the Russian tampering must get to the rotten core of that legal and constitutional mess and sooner than later determine what, if any, legal or impeachment proceedings are justified, and initiate those proceedings with all due speed. But more important than adjudicating the past is preparing for the future. We must understand how Russian influence took place, and take the political, technical, and legal steps to make sure it can't happen in elections starting in 2018 and beyond.
And we as citizens who have been too ignorant, too disengaged, too trusting, for too long need to wake up, listen up, learn up, and catch up to our runaway government. We must insist on a strong Congress that exercises its obligations and opportunities to veto bad laws or reverse bad executive orders, and takes action to ensure that the Presidential powers do not become a dictatorship. We must fulfill our obligations to be educated, informed, wise. Left or right, conservative or liberal, Democrat or Republican, red state or blue state, none of those labels matter. What matters is what we know, what we believe, and how we live it. Vote informed, or don't vote at all.
I am glad to be done with The List and can't wait to have it out of the house and back in the library. It is no pleasure to read and to devote the time it took to write this review. But it is also like unpleasant medicine that must be taken to cure a disease. When the bad taste is gone, I can recover. If the thought of this book makes you sick, you need to take the cure.
In Fantasyland, Andersen quotes professor Michal Lynch: 'The most disturbing power of contradiction is that it's repeated use can dull our sensitivity to the value of truth itself.' (p. 428) It is this danger of being overwhelmed by and then succumbing to a flood of untrue statements and wrong actions that enabled the fictional states of 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 and the historical states of Nazi Germany and North Korea. And it is this danger that made me pick up The List. Have we gotten so immersed in the flood of internet-driven, Russian-influenced, or White House reported "fake news" that we are unable to distinguish reality from fiction? Siskind began to track what she believes are the most outrageous statements and actions from President-elect Trump the week of his election, with the purpose of documenting a steady curve away from the norm of democracy toward authoritarianism. The list grew as she updated it each week, with readership on social media growing as well, culminating in this book, which takes the list up through the first anniversary of the election.
Unlike Andersen and his aversion to sourcing his content, each item on the list is footnoted to a source. The sources primarily are mainstream media such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and the Associated Press, with a smattering of online sources such as Buzzfeed and Daily Beast. What qualifies an item to make Siskind's list? She was drinking from the firehouse of the "first draft of history", so she had to use some criteria to select the entries worth recording for posterity. Not having access to the author's background and biases, I created my own categorization of the items on the list based on their impact to see if the dire warnings which begin on the book cover and continue in the foreword by an "expert in authoritarianism" and the author's introduction are truly justified.
I ended up with five categories of list entries I found relevant that justify the concerns of Siskind and should concern readers and Americans who are paying attention:
Impeachable/treasonous [primarily Russian election tampering]
Illegal [typically conflict of interest/nepotism]
Morally or ethically questionable [undesirable behavior in our President]
Racist/xenophobic [Travel ban/the Wall]
Just plain lies by Trump
I am neither a lawyer nor a constitutional expert, so I cannot assess the constitutionality or illegality of any one item on the list.
I also found three categories of entries that align to either partisan dislike of Trump and his policies, or are irrelevant or unprovable and likely to muddy the waters of any political or legal discourse about the Trump presidency:
-Politically unpopular (with Siskind, and with most liberals)
-Trump efforts to ignore or agitate media and pundits such as Siskind
-Irrelevant/questionable/unprovable statements
To have a meaningful dialog about Donald Trump's presidency, we need to separate the illegal and truly toxic from the mere political disagreement of the political center/left with Trump's hard-red positions.
Qualifiers:
-This is my own unscientific assessment of the list entries. I did not go back to study the sources to see if they are recorded fairly here, and I did not follow up on any of the list entries to see if and how they were adjudicated or otherwise resolved (or if they remain unresolved).
-I did not vote for President in the last election as I was disappointed and angered by the lack of quality of the major party candidates for President. Politically I skew conservative, but refused to vote for Donald Trump as he fell far short of my standards for President in both his personal conduct and his political platform. I used to identify as Republican, but can no longer do so. I was also astonished at the incompetence of Hillary Clinton and the attempt to retread a 1970s socialist (Bernie Sanders).
-As I said above, this is Siskind's selective outline of a first draft of history, and as far as I can tell she has not followed up on the list entries to determine their outcomes after the initial reporting. This longitudinal study would be essential and will need to be undertaken by those who either have legal and constitutional responsibility for adjudication or are preparing the next draft of history of this strange period in history.
-As we knew going into this, and as Donald Trump himself proudly and loudly proclaimed, he was not an experienced politician and did not know nor did he desire to live and govern by standard processes and guiding principles of American politics. Through both his ignorance and intention he was going to be the bull in the china shop, which is much of what we see in these list entries. As long as they are not unconstitutional, illegal, morally and ethically questionable, or racist and xenophobic, we may not like Donald Trump's actions and words (a responsible adult needs to shut down his Twitter account) but they reflect the man who was elected President of the United States. We have the government we deserve.
-The list covers the year dating from his election and the first 9 months of his term. Much of what we see here is the normal churn in transition of the government to a new president and from a president of one party to a president of the other party. And given Trump's ignorance and intention of breaking the political patterns this churn is even worse than normal. A more reasonable first year assessment might have run from the week after the inauguration, to eliminate the transition period, although having observed the months since the end of the book I doubt there would be any change in the trend lines of the entries.
-Just because a list entry is classified in the partison or irrelevant categories doesn't mean it is not detrimental to American democracy and values. It may very well be, but I have classified it here as it is not a provable action by Trump or directly caused by a Trump action.
-Conversely just because an item is categorized as impeachable or illegal doesn't mean that Trump could be impeached or convicted based on any individual list entry. As I said above, I am neither a lawyer nor a constitutional expert.
OK, enough stage setting: what about my analysis of the list? There are 4,021 entries over 52 weeks, an average of about 80 per week, with a peak of 133 entries in week 51 (October 29 to November 4, 2017). Of that total I assessed 1,044 in categories relevant to demonstrating the unconstitutional, illegal, unethical, xenophobic, or dishonest behavior of President Trump and his administration. This means that 75% of Siskind's entries are partisonly political or unprovable, and the gap between relevant and irrelevant grew over the course of the year as Trump's words and actions provide more grist for the political mill.
In a court of law, these would be ruled out of court. But the battlegrounds of politics and history are not bound by rules of evidence and legal procedures. Siskind has a political, not a legal, point to prove, but even in this guerrilla war, having 75% of her shots miss the mark doesn't help her. In Fantasyland Andersen wrote of the often observed practice of conspiracy theorists to list every possible random unassociated fact or rumor in the hope that one corroborated fact in the vicinity of an unsubstantiated rumor gives the rumor the credence of truth, and that the mere juxtaposition functions as proof of causal relationship. This kind of conspiracy thinking raises a red flag with reasonable thinkers that calls all of the data into question, so let's set these 3, 000 entries aside and focus on the 1,000 that I marked relevant.
Of these 1,000 entries, about 20% were Trump lies that Siskind's sources had refuted (when the lie was listed in multiple entries, I only counted it once, marking the others as irrelevant, so as not to be accused of double counting). The percentage stayed pretty consistent throughout the year, reflecting the character of a man who is not only comfortable with his dishonesty, but acknowledges and uses it as a weapon. Unlike the usual "shady politician" who attempts to shade the truth and acts repentant when caught, Donald Trump knows he's lying, knows we know he's lying, and instead of mock tears uses Twitter to double down on his dishonesty.
The illegal and racist/xenophobic categories totalled about 20% as well, and remained consistent through the year, with spikes when Trump announced his Muslim travel bans and border wall. Siskind included many entries on these topics in the list which I marked irrelevant because they were reports of reactions to those policies. So, for example, Siskind included many entries referencing anti-Semitism and violent racism such as the Charlottesville white supremist violence, but I marked those as irrelevant: while Trump's words and policies may create an environment that enables those events (as Siskind clearly believes), Trump does not cause those events to happen.
Most of the illegal entries were violations of conflict of interest rules by Trump, his family, and his appointees to high offices. Here Siskind's list fulfilled her purpose of making sure we don't forget how much bad behavior we have come to accept and expect; before reading and analyzing the list, I had not realized just how casually corrupt the Trump family and administration has been when seen in sequence in this list. In response to apologists for Trump who will claim that his administration is no worse than others, i will point out that because of Trump's background as a deal maker in business and entertainment, his involvement of his wives and children in his many businesses, and his penchant for nominating his business associates for offices regardless of their qualifications, the opportunities for conflict of interest are much higher for this administration than for any in the past, and Donald Trump has never had a reputation for missing an opportunity.
The two most numerous categories (together about 650 of the 1000 relevant entries) are the most damaging, as moral and ethical behavior is at the core of the character of an effective and qualified leader, and unconstitutional or treasonous acts are indefensible in the performance of a President's duties. As I said earlier, President Trump or an associate could not be impeached or convicted based on any individual list entry. However, what these entries do establish is a pattern of behavior that we would not expect of a president, whether it is behavior that is morally reprehensible such as condoning racism or attacking individual liberties, or failing to uphold the President's sworn obligation to defend his country. In response to apologists for Trump who will claim that he has fulfilled the duties of the Presidential oath of office, I will let his own ambassador to the United Nations speak in this reference Item 67 on the list for the week of October 15-21, 2017:
During a panel hosted by the George W. Bush Institute, UN ambassador Nikki Haley called Russia's interference in the 2016 election "warfare," and added, "We've got to fix it." (p. 353)
Is treason too strong of a word? If the Russian intervention in American elections is warfare, than a president who may have invited the intervention, or encouraged it, or stood by while knowing it occurred, would be guilty of treason. Here Siskind's list has fulfilled her purpose, as she lists entry after entry (again I classified multiple and questionable entries as irrelevant) documenting the President's relationship with Russia, his associates' relationships with Russia, and the mounting evidence of Russian tampering with American elections in 2016 through Facebook, Twitter, and other channels of true "fake news". And whether he was culpable in inviting or encouraging it, the repeated revelations show that at least he knew of it and took no action to stop it. If Haley is correct, and I believe she is, this issue is too important for playing politics, and needs to be addressed by both political parties at all levels. This needs to be addressed by more than grandstanding to impeach Trump or investigate Hillary, depending on whose ox you think needs to be gored.
I approached The List with suspicion, expecting to disagree with the author based in her role as a mainstream liberal pundit and journalist, and her obvious animus towards President Trump. While I did not vote for Trump, and have no respect for him as a person or as a leader, I also did not vote for Hillary Clinton and do not agree with her and her party on most issues. But in reading through the 400 pages and 4, 000 entries on the list, I found myself understanding the importance of Siskind's mission even while not agreeing with all of her content. Even though I haven't paid as much attention as I should to events in Washington, and while events there may not have an impact on my daily life, I now see how much damage is being done to our culture, our politics, and our government. For example, we all know now about the misuse of millions of users' Facebook data by Cambridge Analytica, an obscure data mining company, but Siskind lists several entries over the last year documenting that company's role in manipulating Facebook and registered voter data to influence the 2016 elections; Cambridge Analytica has ties to Donald Trump and to associates in his administration who are being investigated in relation to Russian tampering.
How did we get into this mess? There are three things at work here each reinforcing the others in a negative synergy that has gotten us to where Siskind has shown us in the list:
1. A rotten core of assumptions about governing, politics, and democracy. For too long our democracy has operated with minimal input from its owners--the "we the people" (us) are too ignorant, too distracted or too trusting to care how and what our government is doing. Voter turnout for the last century has steadily declined so that a fraction of registered voters, which means a tiny fraction of the total population, is making decisions for all of us, a system which works if those who do vote are well educated in our history, culture, and government, and if are leaders are equally wise and trustworthy. But when those assumptions are wrong, then that rotten core exposes us to real danger. When Donald Trump was first elected, I thought that the legislative and judicial checks on his authority would rein in his worst impulses, but I was shocked when I would read news stories about decisions that he made unilaterally, often by executive order. I would think "He can't do that!" But it turns out he could, and many of his decisions were taken to reverse unilateral decisions made by his Democratic predecessor. Not that I agreed with President Obama's unilateral actions either; I awoke to the realization of the rotten core that we have allowed too much power to be placed in the hands of any one leader regardless of their politics and whether I agree with them.
2. A groundswell of voters with legitimate political, ideological, cultural and religious differences from the core. From Richard Nixon's "silent majority" to "flyover country" to Hillary Clinton's "vast right-wing conspiracy", a huge part of our population has been ignored by the political process, either of their own volition (see number 1 above) or by the dismissal of those who consider themselves the elite, the ruling class, the "inside the Beltway" crowd. Ronald Reagan gave them a voice and a vote, but in the decades since they have mostly been left alone and forgotten as the culture and government veered farther away from them. But these voters are waking up, galvanized by declining economic fortunes, dying local industries, and shrinking home towns, and confused and angered by changing cultural norms, coarsened public discourse, and closed political parties. The mainstream may have labeled them as racist, misogynistic, religious, anti-progress and anti-science, and many undoubtedly are one or more of those things, but labeling them does not change the validity of their beliefs and their right to have a political voice.
3. A combination of conman/hustler and egotistical TV star that was able to co-opt the groundswell in service to throwing out the old rotten core and creating a new core. Donald Trump became the catalyst for engaging this groundswell to create a new core. A failed businessman whose only success was as a reality TV star, his presidential campaign was for him just the next season of the reality TV show that is his life. Nominally a Republican, and notionally the candidate representing the Christian vote, his actions before and since the election prove he neither truly believes any conservative philosophy nor cares for any religious principles or doctrines. But like the consummate deal maker he has always been (even though most of his deals have ended in failure and bankruptcy; he is smart enough to gamble with someone else's money, not his own) he was able to make the deal to combine his incompetence and ego with the disenfranchised voters and the vulnerable rotten political core and win the election, perhaps with the aid of Russian tampering and certainly with no intention of doing other than enriching himself and his business partners.
How do we get out of this mess? Six months after the last entry in the book, Donald Trump remains President and today's headlines remain the same as then:
-AT&T confirms it paid Michael Cohen for consulting on Time Warner deal
-CNN Poll: Republicans shifting negative on Mueller's investigation
-Why Donald Trump talked about 'ratings' standing next to 3 recently freed prisoners
The fundamentals haven't changed: Influence peddling, Russian tampering, and Trump fixation on his "reality TV" ratings (for his photo-op with released North Korean prisoners, in one of the few successes he can fairly claim for his 16-month tenure).
Politically, the judicial and legislative branches must continue to exercise their checks and balances to control the rotten core of power. The investigators looking into the Russian tampering must get to the rotten core of that legal and constitutional mess and sooner than later determine what, if any, legal or impeachment proceedings are justified, and initiate those proceedings with all due speed. But more important than adjudicating the past is preparing for the future. We must understand how Russian influence took place, and take the political, technical, and legal steps to make sure it can't happen in elections starting in 2018 and beyond.
And we as citizens who have been too ignorant, too disengaged, too trusting, for too long need to wake up, listen up, learn up, and catch up to our runaway government. We must insist on a strong Congress that exercises its obligations and opportunities to veto bad laws or reverse bad executive orders, and takes action to ensure that the Presidential powers do not become a dictatorship. We must fulfill our obligations to be educated, informed, wise. Left or right, conservative or liberal, Democrat or Republican, red state or blue state, none of those labels matter. What matters is what we know, what we believe, and how we live it. Vote informed, or don't vote at all.
I am glad to be done with The List and can't wait to have it out of the house and back in the library. It is no pleasure to read and to devote the time it took to write this review. But it is also like unpleasant medicine that must be taken to cure a disease. When the bad taste is gone, I can recover. If the thought of this book makes you sick, you need to take the cure.
March 29, 2018
I've read Amy Siskind's weekly list of items that show a weakening of the country's democracy online since Trump's inauguration, so I mostly purchased this book as a way to throw a little financial support her way for the work she's doing, which I think is important.
It is disheartening to read the lists each week -- and even more so to read a full year's worth at once. But it's also interesting to go back, at this point, a remember that some issues arose in November 2016 that are still at play today.
I don't always agree with Siskind's conclusions but I very much appreciate her work. Politics is not business as usual right now... and Siskind's work really documents a concerning slide toward authoritarianism.
It is disheartening to read the lists each week -- and even more so to read a full year's worth at once. But it's also interesting to go back, at this point, a remember that some issues arose in November 2016 that are still at play today.
I don't always agree with Siskind's conclusions but I very much appreciate her work. Politics is not business as usual right now... and Siskind's work really documents a concerning slide toward authoritarianism.
August 14, 2018
Sarah Kendzior writes in her foreword: " The lists don't editorialize; they simply document. That is one of this book's advantages in an era of hyperpartisanship and information silos - it's up to the reader to make sense of the material...".
I profoundly disagree. I follow Amy Siskind on twitter and I like her but tbh, to a regular reader, especially one not even in the US (thank goodness lol) this book is useless. I mean, great that all of Trump's crap is documented for posterity but for a €20 book, this is no help. "The List" puts nothing in context, it's really just the lists she posted to twitter on 400 pages with ca. 100 pages of notes at the end of the book with linked sources.
Imo this is incredibly useless as a regular book and maybe it's on me that I didn't research in advance what this would be. But imo this is a typical case of making a profit off Trump.
P.S.: Turns out Amy Siskind isn't a nice person at all. I wish I could give zero stars and again I'm incredibly sorry to have wasted money on this crap. She needs to live what she preaches. Unfollowed. Unliked.
I profoundly disagree. I follow Amy Siskind on twitter and I like her but tbh, to a regular reader, especially one not even in the US (thank goodness lol) this book is useless. I mean, great that all of Trump's crap is documented for posterity but for a €20 book, this is no help. "The List" puts nothing in context, it's really just the lists she posted to twitter on 400 pages with ca. 100 pages of notes at the end of the book with linked sources.
Imo this is incredibly useless as a regular book and maybe it's on me that I didn't research in advance what this would be. But imo this is a typical case of making a profit off Trump.
P.S.: Turns out Amy Siskind isn't a nice person at all. I wish I could give zero stars and again I'm incredibly sorry to have wasted money on this crap. She needs to live what she preaches. Unfollowed. Unliked.
April 10, 2018
I have been reading The Weekly List for a long time now (feels like decades), so I did not and could not reread them all in this book. However, if you have been following along, the book is necessary and vital for knowing how we get back to what we were, and it is worth getting your hands on it, even if you think you already know it all. Sarah Kendzior's foreword alone is worth it. As someone who (long ago) majored in history and political science, I am convinced that we will one day look back on the author's work as some of the most important of this time. It is painful and horrible to see this journey in print, but it is necessary - the trail of breadcrumbs to help us find our way back. This is the most important publication of 2018. I hope there is only one more volume to come.
June 2, 2018
I gave this book 5 stars not because it is a masterpiece of writing but because it is a truly important reference book. Consisting of what started as a blog and morphed into this book, it is a comprehensive list, culled from all sorts of media, of the lies, conflicts of interest and just plan venal acts perpetuated by Donald Trump and his sycophants since winning the election in 2016. I got to
March 2017. I could feel my blood pressure rising and decided I wasn’t going to read any more. Since the book was published in 2018 and the last list is for the week of November 11 2017, it boggles my mind how much worse things have become in 6 more months. I can’t even think about it anymore.
March 2017. I could feel my blood pressure rising and decided I wasn’t going to read any more. Since the book was published in 2018 and the last list is for the week of November 11 2017, it boggles my mind how much worse things have become in 6 more months. I can’t even think about it anymore.
April 28, 2020
A real President of the United States once referenced ' a date which will which will live in infamy'. Such is the fate of the man who was elected President in 2016. The List is a compendium of lies, incompetence and flat out corruption by one of the most infamous liars in history. What an appalling read; definitely not for the faint at heart.
May 19, 2018
This is not a book; it's a map. A treasure map. For if we follow it all the way home, we'll reinstate democracy for all.
April 30, 2019
“Robert Kelner tweeted on November 12, 2016, “A prediction: Donald Trump will make novel and unusual use of the President’s pardon power. An under-utilized tool of political power.”
― Amy Siskind, The List: A Week-by-Week Reckoning of Trump’s First Year
This is a really useful book that could almost be used as a reference. Author must have worked her heart out and I salute her. It goes through literally everything Donald Trump has said that is not true. If you really want to get a look into truth versus reality it is a must read for political junkies.
I must admit I could not get through it all. There was to much. So much! I mean I do not know how anyone could even write something like this but my hat's off to them. This book will appeal most to political junkies like myself so go ahead and dig in.
― Amy Siskind, The List: A Week-by-Week Reckoning of Trump’s First Year
This is a really useful book that could almost be used as a reference. Author must have worked her heart out and I salute her. It goes through literally everything Donald Trump has said that is not true. If you really want to get a look into truth versus reality it is a must read for political junkies.
I must admit I could not get through it all. There was to much. So much! I mean I do not know how anyone could even write something like this but my hat's off to them. This book will appeal most to political junkies like myself so go ahead and dig in.
July 18, 2018
Fascinating book. You will be amazed at what you have already forgotten in the first year and equally amazed at what you never knew was happening. Keep alert.... it's all happening in broad daylight right in front of us.
November 13, 2018
I wanted to like this book. It claimed to be a non partisan view of things Trump had done. That was stated in the introduction. Then within the first page it started with slander and unnecessary insults. I'm no fan of this president and his actions, but it should stick to content.
November 8, 2020
This ladies friends had to write these 5 star reviews... If you want to read a book that’s one sided about the Trump family, one that’s bias and full of conspiracies, well this is the book for you. This is brainwashing at its finest. Did you gain followers and money for tweeting I hate Trumps?
July 9, 2019
A living nightmare relived in veritable real time, reading The List in 2019 is like reading the obituary of a nation while its democracy is being yanked, violently, from its only glimmers of life support. Like Siskind, I remember, in early 2017, wondering how anyone could “keep up” with all the things that were happening in the Trump Administration at warp speed. The most shocking news on Wednesday was always outmatched and forgotten by more terrifying, grotesque, and heartless news on Thursday, and so on.
While most Americans are capable of accepting narcissism, arrogance, and ignorance in the White House, what I and so many others find to be so repulsive is the diabolically evil and intentionally harmful actions of this administration on both Americans and human beings around the world, from the wildly aggressive efforts to unhinge citizens from their existing health care under the ACA to the disgustingly ruthless disregard for Puerto Rico in its most vulnerable moments of health and safety in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Perhaps most overlooked, but repeatedly addressed by Siskind as reports came in during that first year, are the ongoing vacancies of diplomacy throughout this administration, a gap in public service akin to operating a hospital or a school with one or two doctors or teachers, respectively. Until The List, I also had not realized the levels to which Mr. Trump has sought to and successfully enriched his own pocketbook, perhaps more than at any time in his prior life as a mere brand name.
To read through The List is to subject yourself to truths most of us would prefer either to ignore or suppress. It took me a month to work through every page, but I made a point of reading through every number of every week of that first year. And much as I need to vomit, I also find myself more compelled to speak out on the need for not only a responsible impeachment, but for an urgent return to competent, fulfilled, and steady governance lost and arguably irreparable by this administration.
While most Americans are capable of accepting narcissism, arrogance, and ignorance in the White House, what I and so many others find to be so repulsive is the diabolically evil and intentionally harmful actions of this administration on both Americans and human beings around the world, from the wildly aggressive efforts to unhinge citizens from their existing health care under the ACA to the disgustingly ruthless disregard for Puerto Rico in its most vulnerable moments of health and safety in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Perhaps most overlooked, but repeatedly addressed by Siskind as reports came in during that first year, are the ongoing vacancies of diplomacy throughout this administration, a gap in public service akin to operating a hospital or a school with one or two doctors or teachers, respectively. Until The List, I also had not realized the levels to which Mr. Trump has sought to and successfully enriched his own pocketbook, perhaps more than at any time in his prior life as a mere brand name.
To read through The List is to subject yourself to truths most of us would prefer either to ignore or suppress. It took me a month to work through every page, but I made a point of reading through every number of every week of that first year. And much as I need to vomit, I also find myself more compelled to speak out on the need for not only a responsible impeachment, but for an urgent return to competent, fulfilled, and steady governance lost and arguably irreparable by this administration.
July 28, 2019
Week 1: 9 entries, Week 12: 57 entries, Week 29: 80 entries, Week 40: 106 entires Week 50: 130 entries...
Amy Siskind offers us an up-close look at Donald Trump’s first year in the White House. Simply by keeping a list of Trump’s tweets and public comments we see a trend. A trend that moves this country further away from its democratic values and closer to an authoritarian state. All it took to see what was happening before our very eyes was someone with the foresight to record the events and comments as they occurred and, in doing so, present for all to see - the truth. Each item in The List is footnoted, this is a book of fact. As the facts pile up daily we tend to become inure to them and it becomes easy to look the other way. But look we must. To look away is a disservice to all and to our country. After all, what is the Constitution but a piece of paper if no one is willing to step forward and enforce its meaning. “Checks and balances are only as good as the people willing to enforce them."
"No, you were not imagining things—that really did happen, he really did say that, and the only reason this particular atrocity is no longer discussed is because it was dwarfed by something even more outrageous.” Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you'll remember, says Siskind. And this she has done for us. Now it is up to us to determine what we are going to do with the information.
“...a real-time record of the Trump era, one fallen norm at a time.” (#politico) A book to be read a little at a time. A book to remind us of what we’ve lost and what we’re at risk of losing more of. As we close in on the next presidential election it is critical to keep this administration’s infringements on our liberties and values in mind.
Amy Siskind offers us an up-close look at Donald Trump’s first year in the White House. Simply by keeping a list of Trump’s tweets and public comments we see a trend. A trend that moves this country further away from its democratic values and closer to an authoritarian state. All it took to see what was happening before our very eyes was someone with the foresight to record the events and comments as they occurred and, in doing so, present for all to see - the truth. Each item in The List is footnoted, this is a book of fact. As the facts pile up daily we tend to become inure to them and it becomes easy to look the other way. But look we must. To look away is a disservice to all and to our country. After all, what is the Constitution but a piece of paper if no one is willing to step forward and enforce its meaning. “Checks and balances are only as good as the people willing to enforce them."
"No, you were not imagining things—that really did happen, he really did say that, and the only reason this particular atrocity is no longer discussed is because it was dwarfed by something even more outrageous.” Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you'll remember, says Siskind. And this she has done for us. Now it is up to us to determine what we are going to do with the information.
“...a real-time record of the Trump era, one fallen norm at a time.” (#politico) A book to be read a little at a time. A book to remind us of what we’ve lost and what we’re at risk of losing more of. As we close in on the next presidential election it is critical to keep this administration’s infringements on our liberties and values in mind.
June 2, 2018
The List is not so much a book, but a blog dumped out into a book form. This is not to say it is boring or unsuited to read, just do no go into this book with the understanding of high or systematic telling of history. Also its thinking is not set up to be fair and impartial. Instead the idea is to record how far away President Trump is away from the author’s worldview. My confession, I read only about a tenth of the chronology before realizing that I knew what the book was going to say and that I probably would not be getting much more out of it.
The Forward and Introduction lays out the author’s agenda. The basis for the book is the President Trump is a liar and manipulator. Consequently he will bend and create his own history of his Presidency. The author’s objective is to document what happens during the Trump Presidency. In Siskind’s case, she is leaning towards documenting the history she is documenting leans toward the outrageous, potentially illegal, and fanatical. Siskind does reference her sources for each entry back in the notes chapter.
If you are a President Trump supporter, you will hate the book; a Trump hater, you will love it, Either way, your blood pressure will go up.
If you want to read a bit more of my thoughts on this book, see my blog.
The Forward and Introduction lays out the author’s agenda. The basis for the book is the President Trump is a liar and manipulator. Consequently he will bend and create his own history of his Presidency. The author’s objective is to document what happens during the Trump Presidency. In Siskind’s case, she is leaning towards documenting the history she is documenting leans toward the outrageous, potentially illegal, and fanatical. Siskind does reference her sources for each entry back in the notes chapter.
If you are a President Trump supporter, you will hate the book; a Trump hater, you will love it, Either way, your blood pressure will go up.
If you want to read a bit more of my thoughts on this book, see my blog.
August 14, 2019
The List will be a hugely important document some time in the future, if the humanity still exists in some 20 to 100 years, and I really hope Amy Siskind and her publisher will publish a volume for the second and third years as well. I know there is an electronic version online at https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/, but a paper version is important as well, in case theweeklylist site goes down for some reason.
You can't read The List in one sitting, and only emotionally indifferent people, or perhaps foreigners, could read lengthy parts of the list at a time, without getting angry as they read about the well-established norms and traditions being chipped away. Norms such as actually adhering to the Hatch Act that forbids executive branch employees from taking part in political activities while engaged in their official duties. Or traditions that the President attend the White House Correspondents Dinner.
Looking at the list from the perspective of 2019 the initial violations seem somewhat quaint, since in 2019 we know violating the Hatch Act brings no consequences whatsoever and the White House Press Secretary hasn't held a press briefing in months. The List goes on, and is getting lengthier and more alarming on the time.
You can't read The List in one sitting, and only emotionally indifferent people, or perhaps foreigners, could read lengthy parts of the list at a time, without getting angry as they read about the well-established norms and traditions being chipped away. Norms such as actually adhering to the Hatch Act that forbids executive branch employees from taking part in political activities while engaged in their official duties. Or traditions that the President attend the White House Correspondents Dinner.
Looking at the list from the perspective of 2019 the initial violations seem somewhat quaint, since in 2019 we know violating the Hatch Act brings no consequences whatsoever and the White House Press Secretary hasn't held a press briefing in months. The List goes on, and is getting lengthier and more alarming on the time.
April 14, 2018
It was a bit exhausting to read sentence after sentence about trump, pence, and all their cronies continuously. I had to take breaks often while reading this book but it was worth it because it engraved into my mind what has happened (and gives one a lot to think about in terms of what can be done legally, politically, and economically). I remembered a lot of stuff while reading the book as some of the material was indeed familiar from reading about it before in past media reports. Like Michael Isikoff/David Corn in the book "Russian Roulette"--author Amy Siskind of "The List" does a good job of chronicling when the intelligence circles stepped up and DoJ/FBI started investigating the numerous instances of treason. It's not just facts about Russia interference though. Siskind covers many subjects in this book using the time span during which they unfolded to sometimes report on minutia, along the way. The little details are fascinating. She writes about Puerto Rico, health care politics, and DACA. These topics and others all get ample attention. The first year of this GOP Administration was bad, the second year is even worse than it appears!
May 4, 2018
I admit it, I'm a Trump junkie. The daily outrages of this national nightmare hit us in a never ending firehose. And if that's not enough, re-reading those outrages to re-live them in the week by week format offered by The List, is like connecting that firehose to an IV to mainline the horror.
Yeah, you can count me in those majorities.
I appreciate the task of cataloguing these outrages. Some were relived like old bad dreams, and there were more than a few that had escaped by notice at the time they happened. And that's my biggest fear. The overwhelming stream of outrage, corruption, crime... it comes so hard and fast, that somethings that would previously have been career enders for any politician, can escape notice completely as we all turn to the next, more headline grabbing outrage.
141 weeks to go. The list will fill a shelf before this is all over.
Week 51, #67
The American Psychological Association Stress in America Survey found that 59 percent of Americans say this is the lowest point in U.S. History. Two-thirds say the future of the nation is a very or somewhat significant source of stress.
Yeah, you can count me in those majorities.
I appreciate the task of cataloguing these outrages. Some were relived like old bad dreams, and there were more than a few that had escaped by notice at the time they happened. And that's my biggest fear. The overwhelming stream of outrage, corruption, crime... it comes so hard and fast, that somethings that would previously have been career enders for any politician, can escape notice completely as we all turn to the next, more headline grabbing outrage.
141 weeks to go. The list will fill a shelf before this is all over.
June 20, 2018
I read every page of this book, which is just what it claims to be a list of the Trump assaults on democracy. It is not in narrative form. There are summaries of each of the 52 weeks in year one of the Trump regime. I will probably reread the book when I have time this fall. It is not pleasant reading. It is not easy prose, but like "Eichmann in Jerusalem," this brick of a book catalogues the fall of our Republic. It's not very judgmental. The author simply forces us to look at the daily and often hourly salvos that the Trump White House has fired at the Ship of State. When we are looking at the smoking ruins of the edifice that Tom Jefferson and Ben Franklin built, we can remember that we let it happen, and we let the men in the Congress bow to this want-to-be strongman while he pillaged our democratic riches.
February 7, 2021
Wow. The premise and execution of this book are both difficult. However, it was nerve-fraying to read this list.
I can't say that I enjoyed this book, because of the content. The author really hit home with the simplicity. It is an effective medium.
This book tracks one, particular challenging, year in the popular culture.I would like to see more news/history in this format because I do not have a basis on which to compare.
I read this book after reading What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era which reviewed hundreds of books during the era. It is one piece of a surprisingly large body of literature.
I can't say that I enjoyed this book, because of the content. The author really hit home with the simplicity. It is an effective medium.
This book tracks one, particular challenging, year in the popular culture.I would like to see more news/history in this format because I do not have a basis on which to compare.
I read this book after reading What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era which reviewed hundreds of books during the era. It is one piece of a surprisingly large body of literature.
March 11, 2021
An incredibly valuable record of every authoritarian and outrageous action during the first year of the Trump administration. Even when I read it right after it was published, so soon after these things had happened, there were already so many things that just slid by unpublished, unnoticed and too easily forgotten. Ms. Siskind did the public service of keeping track of these things for the entire four years. I wish the next three years would be published too. Twitter records aren't enough, this is a public service than needs to be recorded for history.
March 31, 2024
One liners for each week of the first year of Trumps presidency. It thought it would have been more interesting but it wasnt. "Its been 8 weeks since Trumps accusation of Obama wiretapping Trump Towers. He has yet to produce evidence." Doesnt sound that interesting. A summary of events is important but when they are just a few words and you move on to the next thing with no context, its boring. It was worse than reading Twitter but its just someone telling you this little thing happened and thats it. Go read Tweets. More entertaining.
December 11, 2018
This book blew me away. Amy started out doing this book for one year, but she now has a weekly email list and weekly podcast. This is one dedicated woman, and thank God for her. There is so much that we miss on a day-to-day basis that affects our tottering democracy. She recaps each week and reminds us how precarious our form of government is during this nightmare called the Trump era. Amy is my hero!
September 8, 2019
To be perfectly honest, regarding a book about lies, I did not read every single page! I mean the enormity of Trumps ever expanding lies goes on and on and several authorities are now documenting this. The latest fiasco re Alabama being in the path of Hurricane Dorien and Trumps reactions to the public challenging of this only serving to underpin the utter ignorance, selfishness and dangerous nature of this president.
December 14, 2020
This is definitly someone who lives in a bubble and has never visited a place outside of their ideology. They should watch a few Jordan B. Peterson videos and see that their arguments are based on fiction. I recently seen a post where this author was threatening to burn people in their homes. Good luck with the approach to sell more books. It is virtue signalers like this that will cause a loss of life in protests and hate crimes.
June 6, 2018
I'm sorry I couldn't get through this book. It's too horrifying. I was shocked at how much I forgot, because scandal after horror just keeps coming. A few things I don't think I even knew about and wanted to research further, but didn't allow myself to go down that rabbit hole.
It's an amazing resource.
It's an amazing resource.
June 17, 2018
This is the ultimate people's guide to the Trump presidency. It captures each heartbreaking, incomprehensible, criminal or downright moronic moment of this administration. I believe this will be viewed as the Samuel Pepys' diary of this piece of American history. Ms. Siskind's dedication to this List project earns her the title of Hero of the Resistance.
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