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BOOK REVIEW: Bob Woodward (and Robert Costa's) The Third Trump Trilogy "Peril" after Fear and Rage

We've been waiting for this new book ". . . "Written with Robert Costa, another Washington Post reporter, Peril caps a Trump trilogy by one half of the team that took down Richard Nixon. As was the case with Fear and Rage, Peril is meticulously researched. Quotes fly off the page. The prose, however, stays dry.

This is a curated narrative of events and people but it comes with a point of view. The authors recall Trump’s admission that “real power [is] fear”, and that he evokes “rage”. . ."

Behind the headlines about Gen Milley, China and the threat of nuclear war lies a sobering read about democracy in danger

Peril review: Bob Woodward Trump trilogy ends on note of dire warning

‘Were there any limits to what he and his supporters might do to put him back in power?’ Woodward and Costa wrote. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Lloyd Green

Sat 18 Sep 2021 01.00 EDT

Last modified on Sat 18 Sep 2021 08.09 EDT

 

 "Donald Trump is out of a job but far from gone and forgotten. The 45th president stokes the lie of a rigged election while his rallies pack more wallop than a Sunday sermon and a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.

“We won the election twice!” Trump shouts. His base has come to believe. They see themselves in him and are ready to die for him – literally. Covid vaccines? Let the liberals take them.

Deep red Mississippi leads in Covid deaths per capita. Florida’s death toll has risen above 50,000. This week alone, the Sunshine State lost more than 2,500. Then again, a century and a half ago, about 258,000 men died for the Confederacy rather than end slavery. “Freedom?” Whatever.

One thing is certain: against this carnage-filled backdrop Bob Woodward’s latest book is aptly titled indeed. . .The book 'Peril' quotes Brad Parscale, a discarded campaign manager, about Trump’s return to the stage after his ejection from the White House. “I don’t think he sees it as a comeback,” Parscale says. “He sees it as vengeance.”

> ". . .Woodward and Costa show Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, the goddess of alternative facts, reminding Trump that he turned voters off in his second election. In 2020, Trump underperformed among white voters without a college degree and ran behind congressional Republicans. “Get back to basics,” Conway tells him. Stop with the grievances and obsessing over the election. From the looks of things, Trump has discounted her advice.

> Conway has a book of her own due out in 2022. Score-settling awaits. . .

Ending somewhere near the political present, Woodward and Costa shed light on the withdrawal from Afghanistan and Senator Lindsey Graham with it. . .

Fittingly, in their closing sentence, Woodward and Costa ponder the fate of the American experiment itself.

“Could Trump work his will again? Were there any limits to what he and his supporters might do to put him back in power?

“Peril remains.” 

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READ MORE DETAILS: Lloyd Green the Guardian

• Peril is published by Simon & Schuster

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Only in Tucson: The “Taco Lover’s Pass"

From The Atlantic

It Has Come to Subscription Tacos

Even Taco Bell is a tech company now.

(Animated Image Credit: Adam Maida / The Atlantic)

By Saahil Desai

"I like to think of America’s fast-food chains as a bunch of dysfunctional family members. McDonald’s is the golden boy, the kid who’s good at everything and won’t shut up about it. Burger King is the jealous younger brother. KFC is perhaps the cousin who still wears cargo shorts. And then, there’s Taco Bell: fast food’s problem child.  

The purveyor of fluorescent nacho cheese is just plain weird. I’m not simply talking about those tacos with Doritos for shells. This is a brand that reportedly spent $500 million on an ad campaign featuring Gidget, a talking chihuahua with the catchphrase “Yo quiero Taco Bell!” A completely real tagline on Taco Bell’s webpage for its fountain drinks reads: “Taco Bell Cups, Matryoshka Dolls, and the Multiplicity of Human Existence.” (It only gets weirder from there.)

Alas, Taco Bell is at it again. This month, the brand announced the “Taco Lover’s Pass,” which lets you get exactly one taco every single day for 30 days with a subscription that costs $5 to $10, depending on the store. Right now, Taco Bell is trial-running the service in 17 locations in Tucson, Arizona, and there are lots of caveats: The only way to become a certified Taco Lover is by buying the pass through the Taco Bell app; no, sorry, the Chalupa Supreme is not part of the deal. A company spokesperson told me that “there’s no guarantee” the subscription service will become available nationwide, “but when it comes to Taco Bell innovation, we never say never.”

READ MORE: By Saahil Desai The Atlantic