Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House

Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House by Rachel Maddow

Spiro Agnew had to resign the Vice Presidency due to a bribery scandal. However, his story has become nothing more than the answer to a trivia question due to Nixon's Watergate downfall a few months later. The irony was that Agnew was the more serious crook. He was receiving envelopes of money in return for Maryland government contracts. These bribes continued even when he was in the white house. He used this to help sustain a lifestyle beyond his means. Nixon downfall, on the other hand, was caused primarily by actions to cover up the bad activities of those around him.

In this book, Agnew is portrayed as somebody that would make Trump look like an upstanding citizen. He was tapped as Nixon's VP to help get the vote of racist southerners. He did not have a huge amount of political experience and was willing to speak his mind in any uncouth manner. He was not in Nixon's inner circle, and not much involved in the administration. He was caught up in a Maryland bribery investigation. Initially the administration tried to call off the investigation. Agnew's camp went on the offensive and tried to attack the press and Department of Justice leakers. He also tried to use the constitution to prevent an investigation while he was a sitting VP. Eventually, it became too much. He pleaded no contest, though continued to maintain his innocence.

Was Agnew the prototype for Trump? I wonder if a lot could be traced back to Nixon's TV debate with Kennedy. Had Nixon become too paranoid after losing the election due to bad TV performance? He surrounded himself with many people for the purpose of getting elected rather than actually governing. Agnew was one of those "bad decisions."

Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power

Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power by Rachel Madd

The draft and deployment of reserves but a check on the use of military in conflict. That along with the need for congress to declare war, made presidents reluctant to commit troops overseas. However, leave it to politicians to find end runs around it. Vietnam really got things going with a long running "non-war". Other have taken place all over the world. Government contractors have been brought in to do increasingly large amounts of the work. These private contractors have limited accountability, and often ended up costing much more, rather than saving money. 

The book is filled with anecdotes of badness to bolster the case. Were these the rule or the exception? There are also many parts tied together. What is the appropriate use of US power abroad? The desolation and civil war in former Yugoslavia ended up being a long deployment with limited clarity in mission. Should the US be helping out overseas? What countries are the best place to help? The book throws out a lot of stories, but is short on conclusions.

Pegasus: How a Spy in Your Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy

Phones have become a personal part of our lives today. They have a great deal of technology and connectivity that is not well understand by users. Things are fairly opaque and "secure". This makes the phones vulnerable to attacks. Software can theoretically use the microphone to listen, camera to see and scan any activity from the phone. Via the network, this can all be sent back to others to view. NSO group took advantage of this "theory" and implemented spyware that it sold to states. Once installed, a person could be tracked in detail.

This book has two parts. The title parts is a look at modern computer security, the NSO Group and the Pegasus Spyware. However, a big part of the book is spent on the second part: the process of journalism. There is discussion of how different journalists work together, and the concerns they have when breaking a story. They want to balance giving people a chance to defend themselves with the alerting bad players of the investigation. They also don't want to hurt people's feelings by breaking news.

The Pegasus spyware was supported by a large computer system. They focussed on selling it to state actors. It had been used to infiltrate Mexican Drug Lords and other criminal operations. However, it had also been illicitly used to spy on opposition parties and journalists. There are many people that could be viewed as "bad" by those with the power of spyware. With great power comes great responsibility. Openness and privacy each have benefits and drawbacks.