Francis Mont's Blog, page 7
November 16, 2018
The truth about Hungary and Communism
Now that Hungary is a member of the EU and of NATO, practicing newfound Capitalism, maybe it's time to put the past in perspective. It wasn't all bad and I have very fond memories of the 27 years I lived there before it was time to move on.
Hungary was member of the Warsaw pact and the Eastern economic block (together with Poland, Chehoslovakia, Romania, Albania) and as such it was very closely tied to the USSR. While some local autonomy was allowed to state-owned companies (99.9% of all companies) they were told in no uncertain terms what was expected of them.
Typical large-scale bureaucratic mismanagement at most places, stupid waste and horrible levels of pollution was the norm. Due to that, East Europe’s average life expectancy was about 7-8 years below what we have in Canada and infant mortality rate was about double.
Socially we had nothing to do with the USSR - as long as you were not caught passing political jokes (policeman jokes were brutal) you were pretty well left alone to live your life very much like the average young student in Canada: have fun, chase the opposite sex and party till you dropped.
I left Hungary in 1972 one year after I graduated. I did not leave by legal means (it is a long story) and as a punishment I was sentenced to a 2-year prison term in my absence for defecting. All my possessions (including the condo, furniture, etc) were confiscated. After bumming around in Europe (England, Finland, Sweden) for a while I ended up in Canada where I have been living ever since (interrupted by numerous business trips and extended stays in the US.
Most of land and all the apartment buildings in the cities were state-owned and in very poor repair, but the rent was a joke: my parents paid the equivalent of $30/month for the rent of a one bedroom apt (outhouse shared with three other apts. at the end of the corridor). However, there were lots of family homes owned privately (mostly detached houses with small gardens) in the suburbs and everywhere in the country. The apartment shortage was so acute that 10-15 year waiting lists for rental units were not unusual. Most young people started their marriage in a spare room with one of the parents, or rented a room in somebody else’s. I could tell you horror stories about living conditions.
To resolve this problem, the state started building and selling condo apartments for people with money. The waiting lists for condos (even if you had the money) was still at least 3-5 years. Unless you had connections. You had to know somebody who knew somebody -- that is how I had the privilege of buying a one bedroom condo in the very outskirts of Budapest with a 35% down payment (I always said that, if I invested the energy it took to save up that money in Canada, instead of Budapest, I would be a millionaire now)
The apartment was so far out of town that it took me 2.5 hours to get to work every morning by a bus and three different streetcars. I had to start out in the opposite direction and turn around four stops later at the end of the line, if I wanted to get on the bus at all.
Still, I was envied as one of the privileged, as indeed, I was. Compared to us spoiled Canadians it may sound like a horror story, but I am sure it was absolute Paradise compared to how most of the world lives in Third World countries.
I have been living in Canada for 47 years now. I feel a lot more Canadian than Hungarian in most ways. I had no problem adjusting at all. I already spoke the language when I got here, I had two job offers within a week (computer experience helped) and I was faced with so much goodwill and so many helping hands that I felt I was in Heaven. It took me a few years to see the negative sides and develop a balanced, realistic picture about Canada. I am painfully aware how spoiled we all are and what it costs to the rest of the world but that is not my biggest problem in North America.
My biggest problem is what I see as the consequence of that spoiled status: the blissful ignorance about reality outside our borders. Just take the average person’s understanding of what Communism means. Due to almost a century of one-sided propaganda from mainstream media, the word Communism is synonymous with Evil. It is not that simple.
In theory communism is a social and economic system of total Utopia: humanity is one big family, everybody produces according to their abilities and consumes according to his or her needs. The state withered away, there is no crime, corruption, total fairness and compassion. Jesus would have approved.
In practice, apart from small pockets here and there in History, there has never been a Communist country anywhere on this planet, neither has there been any serious attempt to build one. In the USSR after the first, and in Hungary after the second, world wars, power was grabbed by ruthless opportunists who capitalized on the popular appeal of communist slogans to assure support from the masses until they managed to consolidate power.
Soon after that, it was the true believers in Communism who were murdered first (Stalin’s purges, same in Hungary). The so called communist states had nothing to do with Communism, apart from the slogans they used to justify what was essentially a police state dictatorship with a small elite at the top enjoying obscene luxuries and the masses kept in poverty, fear and ignorance.
Still, and this is what is not known, recognized and acknowledged by almost anyone: the so called communist countries did have a human face. During the 27 years I lived there, I had never seen anyone who could not get an education (totally free all the way to the top), could not get free medical help, including dental, had to sleep on the streets and freeze to death on winter nights.
Pension was automatic at 60 for men, 55 for women. There was no unemployment (actually it was a crime not to have a job) and no inflation (prices were kept the same by state subsidies). Whatever their evil (and there were lots) of the leaders, some efforts were made to provide for basic necessities for everyone in the country. I wish we could say the same in North America.
On the negative side: there was brain-numbing propaganda, no free press, literature or even speech, no political organization was allowed (one party system), no travel to the West for most people, but travel in the East bloc was allowed. Everything in western culture critical of communism or USSR was banned and History was completely rewritten in schools (The Hitler-Stalin pact never happened, The Berlin air-lift never took place, etc..) If you wanted to get promoted in your job, you had to join the Communist Party, spout the slogans and suck up to your boss.
As you see, it was not slavery in every aspect and I have always given my thanks to god for choosing Hungary for my birthplace as opposed to many other parts of the world. The only time anyone was shooting at me was during the 1956 uprising and that was a very short period in Hungary’s post-war history. And, thanks god again, nobody was dropping 10,000lbs bombs on me from 40,000 feet high up.
Hungary was member of the Warsaw pact and the Eastern economic block (together with Poland, Chehoslovakia, Romania, Albania) and as such it was very closely tied to the USSR. While some local autonomy was allowed to state-owned companies (99.9% of all companies) they were told in no uncertain terms what was expected of them.
Typical large-scale bureaucratic mismanagement at most places, stupid waste and horrible levels of pollution was the norm. Due to that, East Europe’s average life expectancy was about 7-8 years below what we have in Canada and infant mortality rate was about double.
Socially we had nothing to do with the USSR - as long as you were not caught passing political jokes (policeman jokes were brutal) you were pretty well left alone to live your life very much like the average young student in Canada: have fun, chase the opposite sex and party till you dropped.
I left Hungary in 1972 one year after I graduated. I did not leave by legal means (it is a long story) and as a punishment I was sentenced to a 2-year prison term in my absence for defecting. All my possessions (including the condo, furniture, etc) were confiscated. After bumming around in Europe (England, Finland, Sweden) for a while I ended up in Canada where I have been living ever since (interrupted by numerous business trips and extended stays in the US.
Most of land and all the apartment buildings in the cities were state-owned and in very poor repair, but the rent was a joke: my parents paid the equivalent of $30/month for the rent of a one bedroom apt (outhouse shared with three other apts. at the end of the corridor). However, there were lots of family homes owned privately (mostly detached houses with small gardens) in the suburbs and everywhere in the country. The apartment shortage was so acute that 10-15 year waiting lists for rental units were not unusual. Most young people started their marriage in a spare room with one of the parents, or rented a room in somebody else’s. I could tell you horror stories about living conditions.
To resolve this problem, the state started building and selling condo apartments for people with money. The waiting lists for condos (even if you had the money) was still at least 3-5 years. Unless you had connections. You had to know somebody who knew somebody -- that is how I had the privilege of buying a one bedroom condo in the very outskirts of Budapest with a 35% down payment (I always said that, if I invested the energy it took to save up that money in Canada, instead of Budapest, I would be a millionaire now)
The apartment was so far out of town that it took me 2.5 hours to get to work every morning by a bus and three different streetcars. I had to start out in the opposite direction and turn around four stops later at the end of the line, if I wanted to get on the bus at all.
Still, I was envied as one of the privileged, as indeed, I was. Compared to us spoiled Canadians it may sound like a horror story, but I am sure it was absolute Paradise compared to how most of the world lives in Third World countries.
I have been living in Canada for 47 years now. I feel a lot more Canadian than Hungarian in most ways. I had no problem adjusting at all. I already spoke the language when I got here, I had two job offers within a week (computer experience helped) and I was faced with so much goodwill and so many helping hands that I felt I was in Heaven. It took me a few years to see the negative sides and develop a balanced, realistic picture about Canada. I am painfully aware how spoiled we all are and what it costs to the rest of the world but that is not my biggest problem in North America.
My biggest problem is what I see as the consequence of that spoiled status: the blissful ignorance about reality outside our borders. Just take the average person’s understanding of what Communism means. Due to almost a century of one-sided propaganda from mainstream media, the word Communism is synonymous with Evil. It is not that simple.
In theory communism is a social and economic system of total Utopia: humanity is one big family, everybody produces according to their abilities and consumes according to his or her needs. The state withered away, there is no crime, corruption, total fairness and compassion. Jesus would have approved.
In practice, apart from small pockets here and there in History, there has never been a Communist country anywhere on this planet, neither has there been any serious attempt to build one. In the USSR after the first, and in Hungary after the second, world wars, power was grabbed by ruthless opportunists who capitalized on the popular appeal of communist slogans to assure support from the masses until they managed to consolidate power.
Soon after that, it was the true believers in Communism who were murdered first (Stalin’s purges, same in Hungary). The so called communist states had nothing to do with Communism, apart from the slogans they used to justify what was essentially a police state dictatorship with a small elite at the top enjoying obscene luxuries and the masses kept in poverty, fear and ignorance.
Still, and this is what is not known, recognized and acknowledged by almost anyone: the so called communist countries did have a human face. During the 27 years I lived there, I had never seen anyone who could not get an education (totally free all the way to the top), could not get free medical help, including dental, had to sleep on the streets and freeze to death on winter nights.
Pension was automatic at 60 for men, 55 for women. There was no unemployment (actually it was a crime not to have a job) and no inflation (prices were kept the same by state subsidies). Whatever their evil (and there were lots) of the leaders, some efforts were made to provide for basic necessities for everyone in the country. I wish we could say the same in North America.
On the negative side: there was brain-numbing propaganda, no free press, literature or even speech, no political organization was allowed (one party system), no travel to the West for most people, but travel in the East bloc was allowed. Everything in western culture critical of communism or USSR was banned and History was completely rewritten in schools (The Hitler-Stalin pact never happened, The Berlin air-lift never took place, etc..) If you wanted to get promoted in your job, you had to join the Communist Party, spout the slogans and suck up to your boss.
As you see, it was not slavery in every aspect and I have always given my thanks to god for choosing Hungary for my birthplace as opposed to many other parts of the world. The only time anyone was shooting at me was during the 1956 uprising and that was a very short period in Hungary’s post-war history. And, thanks god again, nobody was dropping 10,000lbs bombs on me from 40,000 feet high up.
November 6, 2018
To vote or not to vote?
For many years I didn't bother to vote because logic told me that the probability of my single individual vote making a difference was zero for all practical purposes. So why bother?
I have been told that "if everyone thought like this, we could not have democracy." Which is true, but I can't influence everyone (or even anyone), so this argument doesn't apply to my own, individual action, or lack of it.
Then, when the political landscape got so polarized, with so many bastards running for office, I found my motivation to go out and vote, even though I did not expect my vote to make difference.
I went to vote for one simple reason: the bastards I hated so much, busy destroying my world, wouldn't want me to, so I had to stick it to them by my one, futile gesture of defiance.
I find this reason so compelling that I'll keep voting from now on every chance I have. Each act of defiance will be one tiny personal victory for me and, as such, it is precious.
I have been told that "if everyone thought like this, we could not have democracy." Which is true, but I can't influence everyone (or even anyone), so this argument doesn't apply to my own, individual action, or lack of it.
Then, when the political landscape got so polarized, with so many bastards running for office, I found my motivation to go out and vote, even though I did not expect my vote to make difference.
I went to vote for one simple reason: the bastards I hated so much, busy destroying my world, wouldn't want me to, so I had to stick it to them by my one, futile gesture of defiance.
I find this reason so compelling that I'll keep voting from now on every chance I have. Each act of defiance will be one tiny personal victory for me and, as such, it is precious.
October 25, 2018
Requiem for Sanity #3
• All the mail bombs were sent to Mr. Trump’s enemies.
• Presumably they were sent by Trump supporter(s).
• Therefore it is ‘logical’ to blame the media (one of the victims).
Why not the abominable snowman?
• Presumably they were sent by Trump supporter(s).
• Therefore it is ‘logical’ to blame the media (one of the victims).
Why not the abominable snowman?
October 20, 2018
Requiem for Sanity #2
From a Gwynne Dyer article:
He (Trump) has no intention of cancelling the $110 billion in contracts Saudi Arabia has signed to buy American-made weapons, because “we’d be punishing ourselves if we did that. If they don’t buy it from us, they’re going to buy it from Russia or… China.”
Let me translate:
“We won’t punish a killer, so it wouldn’t stop buying killing machines from us that they could use for mass killing in Yemen and other places.”
I think this is pretty accurate translation.
PS. There is a very appropriate Hungarian aphorism: "Money talks, dogs bark."
He (Trump) has no intention of cancelling the $110 billion in contracts Saudi Arabia has signed to buy American-made weapons, because “we’d be punishing ourselves if we did that. If they don’t buy it from us, they’re going to buy it from Russia or… China.”
Let me translate:
“We won’t punish a killer, so it wouldn’t stop buying killing machines from us that they could use for mass killing in Yemen and other places.”
I think this is pretty accurate translation.
PS. There is a very appropriate Hungarian aphorism: "Money talks, dogs bark."
October 15, 2018
New adventure
When I retired as a Physicist in 2014, I started my writing ‘career’ with a textbook on Physics, (“Humane Physics – No Student was Harmed in Writing this Book”) and that kept me busy for a year. I enjoyed the process of writing and publishing, but it was over and I had to try something else. Next, I published my poetry collection (“The Prism of my Mind”) and that was fun too, but didn’t use up much of the liberated time, so I experimented with writing short stories. A few got published and one, eventually, morphed into a novella. The reviews I received for one of the short stories (“House Arrest”) and the novella (“Time Scope”) got positive reviews and many of the critics suggested that I should develop both into a novel because there was so much more story to tell based on the original idea and characters. I have now published my first novel based on the short story and vowed never again to write another long tale. It’s just too much work. However, sitting in the car at the parking lot, waiting for my wife, it suddenly occurred to me how the novella could be turned into a novel in a way that would be a direct continuation of the story, without having to change anything. Once I had this idea, it just wouldn’t go away and now, in spite of my determination of never doing it again, I am caught up with the fever of creating another world. It will be an escape story from our dismal planet (without leaving Earth) into a sane environment. It will still be sci-fi, using the Time Scope as its catalyst and the same characters (plus a few new ones) but it won’t be a cake-walk for these people. There will be lots of drama and suspense, but, as always, it will have a positive ending. That’s all I am prepared to reveal at the moment and now back to the keyboard and to my coffee and red-wine soaked universe.
October 9, 2018
Quid Pro Quo
The perfect arrangement in American democracy.
The President can now pardon a Supreme Court Judge for attempted rape, and the Supreme Court Judge will be in position to pardon the President for high treason (collusion with Russia).
There is a symmetry to the arrangement that should appeal to the Republican sense of aesthetics.
Of course, I should have used the adjective 'alleged' twice in this blog. Maybe you can plug them in where you think they would be appropriate.
The President can now pardon a Supreme Court Judge for attempted rape, and the Supreme Court Judge will be in position to pardon the President for high treason (collusion with Russia).
There is a symmetry to the arrangement that should appeal to the Republican sense of aesthetics.
Of course, I should have used the adjective 'alleged' twice in this blog. Maybe you can plug them in where you think they would be appropriate.
September 30, 2018
Requiem for Sanity
What’s interesting about the newest episode in the White House comedy-drama is the disappearance of all pretense of sanity. Take the newest so called FBI investigation into sexual misconduct by a Trump nominee to the highest court. The FBI’s mandate is: “you have a week to do whatever you can, except interview key witnesses and anyone else we forbid you to talk to.”
This is such an obvious farce that one wonders why they even bothered to perform in it. Who, other than the permanently mentally handicapped, could give credence to this newest mockery of justice?
However, the juicy details of attempted rape is not the most important issue here. The most important spectacle was the accused, who is supposed to be a legal scholar, earmarked for the highest legal office of he US government, unmasking himself, in his defense, as a party hack. Not intent on upholding the law, defending the constitution, being an impartial champion of truth, but attacking his party’s critics and opponents in the most vituperative, hateful, poisonous manner you would expect from a fundamentalist preacher frothing at the mouth, invoking his fear and loathing against the devil.
Are you sure this is the person, appointed for life, you want to have a sway in legal matters, affecting the future of your country?
This is such an obvious farce that one wonders why they even bothered to perform in it. Who, other than the permanently mentally handicapped, could give credence to this newest mockery of justice?
However, the juicy details of attempted rape is not the most important issue here. The most important spectacle was the accused, who is supposed to be a legal scholar, earmarked for the highest legal office of he US government, unmasking himself, in his defense, as a party hack. Not intent on upholding the law, defending the constitution, being an impartial champion of truth, but attacking his party’s critics and opponents in the most vituperative, hateful, poisonous manner you would expect from a fundamentalist preacher frothing at the mouth, invoking his fear and loathing against the devil.
Are you sure this is the person, appointed for life, you want to have a sway in legal matters, affecting the future of your country?
September 24, 2018
My Sci-Fi novel published on Kindle - 100 copies giveaway on Goodreads
Giveaway starts tomorrow.
Take a look at https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
An optimistic post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel, dealing with recovery and restart. Portrays different options for social organization and examines the fundamental requirements for human happiness. Describes a healthy community's struggle against human greed and stupidity that led to the war, and examines the conditions under which it can never happen again.
To promote interest in the event, here is a link to a blog post discussing my novel:
https://blog.homeforfiction.com/2018/...
A short quote:
"Fans of the genre, rejoice. There are a lot of genre markers to keep you happy. More specifically, from artificial intelligence and the breakdown of society to team effort and building anew, there is something every fan of science fiction will feel familiar with...
One thing that readers should notice is the optimism infusing the story. Despite its bleak setting, House Arrest is not devoid of humanity. Indeed, if anything, Francis Mont seems to focus on finding the best in everything. A truly commendable effort indeed."
Take a look at https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
An optimistic post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel, dealing with recovery and restart. Portrays different options for social organization and examines the fundamental requirements for human happiness. Describes a healthy community's struggle against human greed and stupidity that led to the war, and examines the conditions under which it can never happen again.
To promote interest in the event, here is a link to a blog post discussing my novel:
https://blog.homeforfiction.com/2018/...
A short quote:
"Fans of the genre, rejoice. There are a lot of genre markers to keep you happy. More specifically, from artificial intelligence and the breakdown of society to team effort and building anew, there is something every fan of science fiction will feel familiar with...
One thing that readers should notice is the optimism infusing the story. Despite its bleak setting, House Arrest is not devoid of humanity. Indeed, if anything, Francis Mont seems to focus on finding the best in everything. A truly commendable effort indeed."
September 21, 2018
My first novel is now published
This is a story of post-nuclear-war America in 2098.
The country is in ruin. Three cities in the Sacramento Valley, with relatively intact infrastructure, are trying to survive in drastically different ways. One is organized by its AI quantum computer and its sophisticated robots. It automates everything for maximum efficiency and human beings are left with no role in their city’s welfare. That leads to problems - without jobs to keep them occupied, people get bored, restless and destructive. Omega 1500, their computer, has to temporarily lock them up to protect them from each other. Once their problems are solved, they’ll have to deal with the other two cities. The big question is whether they learned from the past and understand what human happiness depends on.
“High-quality science fiction has always had the disturbing characteristic of appearing increasingly less like fiction and more like projected reality. The readers of Francis Mont’s House Arrest will taste this aspect first-hand, in a narrative that describes a future the outskirts of which are already present. The descriptions are top-class, rendering highly realistic settings, and the characters often appear disturbingly much like people you already know. A highly recommended novel for fans of science fiction, and a must-read for anyone concerned with the future of our societies.”
- Chris Angelis PhD in English literature..
See at: https://www.amazon.ca/House-Arrest-Li...
The country is in ruin. Three cities in the Sacramento Valley, with relatively intact infrastructure, are trying to survive in drastically different ways. One is organized by its AI quantum computer and its sophisticated robots. It automates everything for maximum efficiency and human beings are left with no role in their city’s welfare. That leads to problems - without jobs to keep them occupied, people get bored, restless and destructive. Omega 1500, their computer, has to temporarily lock them up to protect them from each other. Once their problems are solved, they’ll have to deal with the other two cities. The big question is whether they learned from the past and understand what human happiness depends on.
“High-quality science fiction has always had the disturbing characteristic of appearing increasingly less like fiction and more like projected reality. The readers of Francis Mont’s House Arrest will taste this aspect first-hand, in a narrative that describes a future the outskirts of which are already present. The descriptions are top-class, rendering highly realistic settings, and the characters often appear disturbingly much like people you already know. A highly recommended novel for fans of science fiction, and a must-read for anyone concerned with the future of our societies.”
- Chris Angelis PhD in English literature..
See at: https://www.amazon.ca/House-Arrest-Li...
September 13, 2018
Bob Woodward’s “Fear: Trump in the White House.”
I have finished reading Bob Woodward’s “Fear: Trump in the White House” and I found it an enlightening experience.
I had always looked at Trump as a blowhard in a clown suit - at the same time a catalyst of a disgruntled segment of the American population, but I had never seen him as a human being before.
Woodward’s book illuminates that aspect of the man’s personality: a deep insecurity, coupled with an irresistible desire to dominate others, mostly to prove his own worth in his own, and in the world’s, eyes. I guess the two go hand in hand. His two obsessions seem to be: his preoccupation with how he is perceived by others, and his determination to have his way, no matter what.
What surprised me is that he does have deeply held convictions that are based on, as someone said: a Rockwell’s view of America, at least 50 years out of date.
He wants Americans to go back to the times of the coal mines and blast furnaces of the steel industry and the huge industrial manufacturing plants, not realizing that nobody wants to work there anymore. Besides, those jobs have been eliminated by automation and the robotics of high tech companies.
Today it’s all about high tech and service and that’s what Americans are good at: not sweating at the assembly lines. That’s what he means when he says: “Make America Great again!” in the 1930s sense, not in today’s reality.
Coupled with this unrealistic view of the world, he adds his paranoia about everybody in the whole world out to take advantage of him and the USA, robbing them blind, stealing their jobs, ripping them off with unfavourable trade deals, so everyone on the whole planet is a potential and actual enemy.
So, if you remove the outer layer of bravado, you see a deeply flawed tragic figure, who was tossed into an unaccustomed position of power and conflicting, mostly imagined threats.
Comparisons with the last months in office of Richard Nixon, and the last ten days of Hitler, emerge throughout the book, not without justification. At every setback, it wasn’t his own fault: he was betrayed by those he had trusted.
Most of the sensational lines in the book have been already quoted in the media: his disorganized, unfocused and erratic ways of dealing with important issues of the world; his driving everyone around him in the White House crazy; his tendency of telling shameless lies, often one contradicting the others. This aspect was best summarized by his lawyer who represented him with the Mueller investigation: he thought he couldn't allow Trump to testify because Trump was "fucking liar".
One damning thing that nothing can excuse: he seems to have zero empathy and compassion for those he is hurting (immigrant children forcibly separated from their parents being prime example.)
PS: about 37% of the book is taken up by meticulously detailed references to source material he based the narrative on.
I had always looked at Trump as a blowhard in a clown suit - at the same time a catalyst of a disgruntled segment of the American population, but I had never seen him as a human being before.
Woodward’s book illuminates that aspect of the man’s personality: a deep insecurity, coupled with an irresistible desire to dominate others, mostly to prove his own worth in his own, and in the world’s, eyes. I guess the two go hand in hand. His two obsessions seem to be: his preoccupation with how he is perceived by others, and his determination to have his way, no matter what.
What surprised me is that he does have deeply held convictions that are based on, as someone said: a Rockwell’s view of America, at least 50 years out of date.
He wants Americans to go back to the times of the coal mines and blast furnaces of the steel industry and the huge industrial manufacturing plants, not realizing that nobody wants to work there anymore. Besides, those jobs have been eliminated by automation and the robotics of high tech companies.
Today it’s all about high tech and service and that’s what Americans are good at: not sweating at the assembly lines. That’s what he means when he says: “Make America Great again!” in the 1930s sense, not in today’s reality.
Coupled with this unrealistic view of the world, he adds his paranoia about everybody in the whole world out to take advantage of him and the USA, robbing them blind, stealing their jobs, ripping them off with unfavourable trade deals, so everyone on the whole planet is a potential and actual enemy.
So, if you remove the outer layer of bravado, you see a deeply flawed tragic figure, who was tossed into an unaccustomed position of power and conflicting, mostly imagined threats.
Comparisons with the last months in office of Richard Nixon, and the last ten days of Hitler, emerge throughout the book, not without justification. At every setback, it wasn’t his own fault: he was betrayed by those he had trusted.
Most of the sensational lines in the book have been already quoted in the media: his disorganized, unfocused and erratic ways of dealing with important issues of the world; his driving everyone around him in the White House crazy; his tendency of telling shameless lies, often one contradicting the others. This aspect was best summarized by his lawyer who represented him with the Mueller investigation: he thought he couldn't allow Trump to testify because Trump was "fucking liar".
One damning thing that nothing can excuse: he seems to have zero empathy and compassion for those he is hurting (immigrant children forcibly separated from their parents being prime example.)
PS: about 37% of the book is taken up by meticulously detailed references to source material he based the narrative on.
