“Now the disease of Trumpism has consumed the Republican Party and put the entire conservative movement at risk. It has been hijacked by a bellowing, statist billionaire with poor impulse control and a profoundly superficial understanding of the world. The blazing, white-hot embrace of actual, honest-to-God stupidity has been as contagious as small pox and as fatal as Ebola.” (p.6)

Rick Wilson’s Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever doesn’t pull any punches. As a political operative for decades, Rick Wilson knows the political score. He shows how the Republican Party–chiefly Reince Priebus, Paul Ryan, Roger Ailes of FOX New–failed to stop Trump early in the 2016 campaign. Wilson provides the flawed logic that eliminated all of Trump’s Republican rivals with the help of donors and FOX News stacking the deck in favor of Trump.

Wilson also gives a penetrating analysis of the strong Evangelical support of Trump: “Being a goddamned degenerate pussy-grabber with a lifetime of adultery, venality, and dishonesty is not, to my knowledge, one of the core tenets of the Christian faith. I can’t find it in either the Old or New Testament, and I’m not sure which book of the Apocrypha the ‘pussy-grabber’ exception comes in, but as noted earlier, I’m no biblical scholar.” (p 63)

With Paul Manafort flipping and the November Elections looming, life in Trump World is likely to get a lot more dicey. If you’re looking for an insightful and funny book about the Trump Presidency, I urge you to seek out Everything Trump Touches Dies. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction; Everything Trump Touches Dies 1
Part 1 The Road To This Shitshow
What to Expect When You’re Working for Trump I
1 Vichy Republicans 17
What to Expect When You’re Working for Trump II
2 Furrowed Brows and Deep Concern 45
What to Expect When You’re Working for Trump III
3 Running with the Devil 61
What to Expect When You’re Working for Trump IV
4 That’s Why You Got Trump 69
What to Expect When You’re Working for Trump V
Part 2 Victims Of The Curse
Inside the Oval Office I
5 What We Lost with Trump 83
Inside the Oval Office II
6 The Media 95
Inside the Oval Office III
7 The Trump Base 101
Inside the Oval Office IV
8 Limited Government 125
Inside the Oval Office V
9 The Grown-ups All Die Too 143
Part 3 Surrounded By Villains
Top Secret Intercept I
10 Welcome to Hell 161
Top Secret Intercept II
11 The Trump Family Syndicate 175
Top Secret Intercept III
12 Team Crony 191
Top Secret Intercept IV
13 Clown Princes of the Trump Media 199
Top Secret Intercept V
14 Trump’s Island of Misfit Toys 225
Top Secret Intercept VI
15 The Alt-Reich 249
Part 4 After Trump
16 But Gorsuch 261
17 Trump Is Electoral Poison 269
18 My Party After Trump 289
Epilogue: Post-Trump America 301
Notes 313
Acknowledgments 327

After the 47-3 beatdown in Baltimore last Sunday, the Buffalo Bills Brain Trust decided to bench QB Nathan Peterman (5 for 18, 24 yards, 2 interceptions) and start rookie quarterback Josh Allen against the mighty L.A. Chargers. I say “mighty” because last year the Chargers pummeled the Bills 54-24. Of course, Nathan Peterman’s FIVE INTERCEPTIONS in the First Half of that game contributed to the outcome of that game. The Bills Defense didn’t show up in Baltimore so today is their chance for Redemption. The Bills are 7 1/2 point underdogs at home. How will your favorite NFL team fare today?

Of all the members of the Justice League, Aquaman has always been considered the weakest link. But in Aquaman: Rage of Atlantis, Aquaman loses his beloved Queen Mera and his half-brother Orm. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and rookie Green Lantern Jessica Cruz confront an interstellar threat where Aquaman is the key to solving the mysteries. I’m a fan of these DC Animation/LEGO mashups. I enjoy the humor and the clever characterizations of these iconic superheroes. If you’re a fan of the Justice League, you’ll enjoy this off-beat adventure. Are you a fan of Aquaman? GRADE: B+

Mike Ashley’s latest volume in the Science Fiction Classics series, Moonrise, follows the pattern Ashley set in his previous anthology, Lost Mars: Stories From the Golden Age of the Red Planet (you can read my review here). Ashley includes early stories about the Moon like H. G. Wells’s “First Men In the Moon” and George Griffith’s “A Visit to the Moon” just to give the reader the flavor of speculation about the Moon a hundred years ago. Judith Merril’s “Dead Centre” and Edmond Hamilton’s “After Judgement Day” are likely to be more familiar stories. Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Sentinel,” although published in 1951, led to 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you’re a fan of theme SF anthologies, you’ll enjoy these mostly forgotten stories about the Moon. And Mike Ashley’s excellent introductions to the stories inform and delight! GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION 7
Dead Centre – Judith Merril 31
A Visit to the Moon – George Griffith 67
Sunrise on the Moon – John Munro 93
First Men in the Moon – H.G. Wells 105
Sub-Satellite – Charles Cloukey 151
Lunar Lilliput – William F. Temple 175
Nothing Happens on the Moon – Paul Ernst 221
Whatever Gods There Be – Gordon R. Dickson 247
Idiot’s Delight – John Wyndham 269
After a Judgement Day – Edmond Hamilton 317
The Sentinel – Arthur C. Clarke 335

Megan Abbott’s blurb exclaims “Bracing and blazingly smart…could hardly be more needed or more timely” on the cover of Dead Girls. Alice Bolin explores the theme of dead girls in crime fiction, movies, and TV. From the death of Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks to the mysteries of Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald, Alice Bolin traces the American obsession with missing and dead girls. The perfect example of this phenomenon is the late Summer media domination of the search for missing (and then dead) Molly Tibbitts in Iowa. FOX News showed its obsession with Molly Tibbitts while ignoring the more provocative happenings in Trump World. Dead Girls is strongest when Alice Bolin deals with crime and mysteries rather than her hypochondria and witchcraft. I enjoyed Bolin’s perspective in these essays. GRADE: A-
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: Girls, Girls, Girls 1
Part 1 The Dead Girl Show
Toward a Theory of a Dead Girl Show 13
Black Hole 25
The Husband Did It 47
The Daughter as Detective 57
Part 2 Lost in Los Angeles
There There 89
Los Angeles Diary 99
Lonely Heart 109
The Place Makes Everyone a Gambler 117
The Dream 137
Part 3 Weird Sisters
A Teen Witch’s Guide to Staying Alive 159
And So It Is 177
My Hypochondria 187
Just Us Girls 199
Part 4 A Sentimental Education
Accomplices 215
Acknowledgments 275

A couple weeks ago Jeff Meyerson mentioned a Lovecraft/Jeeves mashup. It took a spirited search to find P. H. Cannon’s Scream for Jeeves (Wodecraft Press, 1994) but I finally tracked it down and reread it. P. H. Cannon is a Lovecraft expert. Cannon’s H. P. Lovecraft (Twayne, 1989) provides a survey of Lovecraft’s stories and discusses key aspects of Lovecraft’s short life. Scream for Jeeves consists of three short stories. The first, “Cats, Rats, and Bertie Wooster,” involves Bertie and Jeeves in a mission to help Bertie’s old friend, Tubby Norrys. Underground horrors and strangeness abound. In “Something Foetid,” Bertie and Jeeves confront a stinky situation involving a reclusive Spanish doctor with a passion for cool air. My favorite story in this book is “The Rummy Affair of Young Charlie” where Aunt Agatha dispatches Bertie and Jeeves to aid a family friend, Charles Dexter Ward, who has met up with Erich Zann in a room on Rue d’Auseuil (a place on no known map). Also included in Scream for Jeeves is P. H. Cannon’s essay, “The Adventure of the Three Anglo-American Authors: Some Reflections on Conan Doyle, P. G. Wodehouse, and H. P. Lovecraft.” Cannon gives the reader plenty to think about with these three unique writers. GRADE: B+

Imagine that Germany and Japan won World War II and are crushing the Resistance in the United States. That’s the premise of Freedom Fighters: The Ray. This Alternative Earth is called Earth-X. A band of meta-humans including The Ray fight the Nazis and support the Resistance. When The Ray is wounded during a fight with Nazi meta-humans, he’s sent to our Earth. The Ray passes his powers over to 22-year-old civil servant, Ray Terrill. Ray Terrill finds having superpowers both fun and scary.

With the help of The Flash and Green Arrow, The Ray learns how to master his powers. But Big Decisions–in Ray Terrill’s personal and superhero life–loom large. I’m a fan of these DC Animated movies. If you’re in the mood for a adventure in Infinite Earths, give Freedom Fighters: The Ray a try. GRADE: B+

“A transplant trades one set of problems for another set of problems.” That’s what O. H. “Bud” Frazier, one of the world’s best heart surgeons, believes. Immune system problems, organ rejections, and infections make transplanting hearts a flawed solution to heart failure at best. Frazier believes the real answer is to develop an artificial heart. Mimi Swartz’s story includes vivid descriptions of Michael DeBakey and Denton Cooley, two of the ground-breaking heart surgeons. The surgeons were rivals, but their competition produced innovations that saved lives. Christiaan Barnard shocked the world by performing the first heart transplant. That triggered a rush to develop the techniques to make heart transplants saFe and successful. Robert Jarvik’s artificial heart kept Barney Clark alive and pointed the way to the future.

Bud Frazier’s quest for a fully functioning and reliable artificial heart attracted Billy Cohn, a heart surgeon and inventor. Daniel Timms, an Australian biomedical engineer, introduces Frazier and Cohn to a radical new concept: an artificial heart that spins the blood instead of pulsing it. You will learn a lot about medical innovation, heart surgery, surgeons, and the medical bureaucracy in Ticker. Riveting! A-
TABEL OF CONTENTS:
Prologue: THE TIN MAN 1
1. THE WIZARD: 2015 13
2. HOW HARD COULD IT BE? 21
3. THE MAKINGS OF A SURGEON 31
4. A TOUR OF HELL 51
5. THE WAR AT HOME 61
6. THE PURLOINED HEART 81
7. EXPERIMENTS 97
8. BARNEY WHO? 115
9. THE PRISONER 141
10. THE WILDERNESS 147
11. SYNCHRONICITY 165
12. THE KING OF DISTRACTION 177
13. HEARTMATES 195
14. THE AUSTRALIAN GUY 209
15. MATILDA 223
16. THE OCCUPATION 243
17. THE POWER SOURCE 257
18. THE DEAM OF ETERNAL LIFE 271
Acknowledgements 279
Notes 283
Selected Bibliography 297
Index 307

Many “experts” and sports pundits have named the Buffalo Bills as the Worst Team in the NFL this season. The reasons: an inexperienced quarterback–Nathan Peterman–and a shaky offensive line. Nathan Peterman famously threw FIVE interceptions in the First Half his first NFL start last year against the L.A. Chargers. Two of the starters in last year’s offensive line are gone. Even the most ardent Bills fans are worried. The Bills are 7 1/2 point underdogs to the Ravens today. How will your favorite NFL team perform today?

Rose Byrne plays a woman whose professor boyfriend (Chris O’Dowd) is obsessed with an American singer/songwriter, Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke). Yes O’Dowd’s character actually has a whole room with walls covered with Tucker Crowe posters and photos. Tucker Crowe released an album titled Juliet, Naked 25 years ago and dropped out of the music scene. O’Dowd’s character and hundreds of “fans” like him spend hours in chat rooms and tweaking their web sites with the latest nugget of news (or gossip) about Tucker Crowe. Crowe, meanwhile, has been busy making babies with various women. Now, on the verge of becoming a grandfather, Crowe decides to reconnect with his children, especially a pregnant one in London, England. Rose Byrne’s character, feeling that she’s wasted the last 15 years with her obsessed boyfriend, leaves a message in the Tucker Crowe chat room and guess what? Tucker Crowe answers! The relationship starts out with texts, but develops into Something More. If you’re in the mood for a quirky comedy, give Juliet, Naked a try. This movie is based on Nick Hornby’s book of the same name. You can read my review of Hornby’s book here. GRADE: B+
SOUNDTRACK:
Sunday Never Comes
LAX
What to Do When You’ve Wasted 15 Years of Your Life
We’re in Trouble
Juliet
20th Call of the Day
Waterloo Sunset
The Reality
I Know Annie
War & Peace
LAX
Sunday Never Comes
Juliet
20th Call of the Day
LAX