Book Review: The Fifth Risk, Michael Lewis, 2018

      Michael Lewis, the noted American author, journalist, reporter, has done it again: he has laid back the curtain on the workings of government institutions.  This book lays back the curtain on the transfer of the Obama government to the Trumps.  It, as you might suspect, is not pretty.  In fact, it is downright scary.  Yes, we've been subjected to the various idiosyncrasies of the Trump family across a few generations; yes we've read the daily quotes from Orange Head; yes we've witnessed the merry-go-round of political appointees; yes, we've been collectively embarrassed by the inclusion of his daughter and son-in-law in White House operations; yes, we have been bombarded by media coverage of the work of his staff members and their personal histories; and we have begged for relief from it all.   Apparently, there's more.
      How inept can a presidency be?  Let Mr. Lewis count the ways.  He focused his investigative journalism on the transition of leadership in two federal departments: the Dept. of Commerce, and the Dept. of Energy.  He walks us through the sad period of transition: a period that actually has a basis in law: Congress encoded the requirement that departments facilitate transition by focusing on information necessary for new leadership of the same department.  When Trump's victory was announced, the department leaders were already prepared to accept the new administration and its inevitable political appointees at the top.
     The departments' leadership staff waited to welcome the new administration/administrators.  And waited, and waited, and waited some more.  Nothing happened.  No inquiries, no meetings, no new faces: just nothing.  How does this happen in the 21st Century?  How does this happen in modern America?  Do we, as a nation, deserve this treatment by a bunch of marauding idiots?   How has this country produced such a tribe?   Where will this tribe lead us over the 4/2 years?  We have become shocked at where we have been taken by this money-grubbing horde of ignorant beasts.   Woe the outcomes of our unconcern.  Woe the result of our lack of voting/voter turnout.  If there ever was a case to be made for imposing fines on those eligible voters who opt out of an election, 2016 was it.
     So, Michael Lewis has exposed the results of the 2016 electoral debacle that we now live with.  2020 cannot come soon enough.
More later,
Happy New Year