When Nonfiction Becomes Fictitious -- And Dangerous to the Republic
Israeli interesting, Mr. Tapper! Endorse Palestine now, President Biden. Or President Trump should.
One of the more distressing things lately is how many books seem to pull their punches while others make it all up entirely. These books are largely fiction—and not in the fun kind of way like Michael Wolff’s Trumpian opus.
In the last few years that’s been Walter Isaacson’s book on Musk and Michael Lewis’s book on Sam Bankman-Fried. Both writers seemingly traded access for honesty and it shows in the final product. Do you really think Isaacson’s Musk or Lewis’s Sam Bankman-Fried gave you a real sense of what was going on inside the head’s of those seemingly mercurial conmen?
And if both of those books were in some sense fake might other books by Isaacson and Lewis be fiction too? You somewhat wonder if Larry Ellison had been right to criticize Isaacson’s portrayal of his friend, Steve Jobs, and if, perhaps, Ellison understood that Isaacson wrote fiction and that it would be better for all concerned if he didn’t participate. What kind of author fails to get the best friend of the subject to talk? A pretty bad one.
And Lewis’s career collapsed with the news that he had been involved in spinning a yarn about the Truohy family against the well wishes of Michael Oher, the NFL tackle who had been the subject of Lewis’s 2006 book, The Blind Side. Oher was, in point of fact, almost enslaved by the Truohy family and Lewis had taken advantage of Oher’s story for maximal profit. Not a good look.
You get the sense that much of what modern book publishing puts out is pabulum — a warm ball of mush — and that it’s really a way of monopolists to preserve their mythology than any serious introspection.
These sorts of books don’t really work for a rather obvious reason: They say nothing because they are mush. I sometimes imagine the anti-book — what I’ve elsewhere called the hidden book — and I suspect that’s something that happens much more in the British system than our own. You have the book for the public and the book for the private lecture. The monopolistic nature of book publishing undoubtedly protected the excess of the monopolists.
And so there are so few renegades these days. Everything is tightly controlled. It’s a bit like the food, really, which is seemingly and increasingly without nutrients. A serious observation might ask if this is why so many of the conspiracies are unfolding as they are. We believe in conspiracies because we know the truth tellers aren’t delivering.
And worse yet the would be truth tellers are spinning their own conspiracies — this time, a conspiracy of silence. Were they themselves complicit? Of course. Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book, Original Sin, about Joe Biden smacks of just such an op. The title is rather funny. Aren’t Thompson and Tapper both Jews? And don’t Jews not really believe in original sin? And isn’t that cultural appropriation? Gross stuff indeed. (Edit at 1400 on 06/01/2025: A friend of mine helpfully points out that Thompson was raised in a devout Mormon family. Interestingly enough Mormons also don’t recognize original sin…)
President Joe Biden, who I supported and continue to support notwithstanding his weakness on the Middle East, had an original sin indeed. He was way too close to the Israelis. Despite this rather dangerous flaw, I would have voted for Joe Biden for President in 2024. And I do believe that Joe Biden could have beaten Donald Trump in ‘24. I remain a Bidenista except for his real flaw — an overly fawning support for Israel — and that will undoubtedly be how he is remembered.
You get the sense that Tapper and Thompson are attempting to dispose of an Israeli asset. His name, in this formulation, is President Joe Biden and for many years he was a steadfast supporter of Israel. He was, in fact, one of AIPAC’s biggest recipients of campaign cash. Jacobin had a rather incredible assessment of Joe Biden’s sycophantic support of Israel which went way further back than previously thought.
That Tapper and Thompson had to do this is the tell that it won’t work. Generation X is obsessed with ageing, probably because they have done so little. . The middle children of history, they haven’t really lived up to all that they might become. The industries they control — finance, tech — are in total disarray. They are critics and critics don’t really create, do they?
Jake Tapper works very closely with the Anti-defamation League, which has become captive to some very Likud influences. I’ve covered Tapper’s bad behavior before.
If Joe Biden was senile and losing his mind you have to believe that he was losing his mind since October 7th, 2023. After all, maybe the Israelis were using his lack of mental acuity to push for the genocide of the Palestinians.
And if it’s true, that Joe Biden had a truncated schedule starting on October 3rd, as Thompson and Tapper suggest, might Likud have taken advantage of it to allow their allies in Hamas — and oh yes, we now know that Netanyahu was allied with Hamas — to rampage into Israel? How convenient that Biden was on it when it comes to a pro-Israel Middle East policy!
Let’s not forget that Jake Tapper had his own resentments that his friend and classmate Governor Josh Shapiro — who wore the IDF uniform as a high school student — was not chosen to run alongside Kamala Harris.
Biden seems to have fallen for the trap: “I can beat the hell out of both of them,” he says. OK. But why didn’t you, Mr. President?
Why couldn’t you defend your son from an obviously Israeli disinformation operation? President Biden’s inability to protect his son looks tragic but it’s actually quite revealing. The error was that Biden should have pardoned his son Hunter right away, without allowing the Israeli disinformation campaign to fester. No, Joe Biden couldn’t protect himself or his family from the Netanyahu threat. He should have arrested Netanyahu for all of that criminal’s perversion of our justice system — all the bribery, all the human trafficking, all the drug trafficking.
But if you are serious about taking on the Tapper and Thompson, let me suggest to how you can do it now: Endorse the creation of a state of Palestine.
You should say that your greatest regret is not creating Palestine.
And if Biden fails, Trump can take up the slack and recognize Palestinian statehood. The details can be worked out, of course, but they should take place immediately. Only Nixon could go to China and only Trump could endorse Palestine.
Trump’s instincts are largely correct — avoiding Netanyahu while on his trip to the Middle East, for example. It warmed my heart to see Trump sound off against Chisraeli asset Leonard Leo and to get rid of Elon Musk. Well done, Mr. President.
You can think a lot about President Trump by putting this thought out there.
“Oh, you aren’t going to asset disposal me, Bibi,” Trump could have said. “Not after what you did to me in 2020.”
Of course merely floating the idea that Trump is going to recognize Palestine could collapse Netanyahu’s government. Trump should make Israeli aid conditional on whether or not Netanyahu remains in power.
What if that’s the real Art of the Deal? That Trump has to jettison the Israeli disinformation machine that helped elect him?
Joe Biden is not senile.
He did protect his son by acting so though.