For The Anti-intellectual Party They Sure Buy A Lot Of Books.
Donald Trump, Jr. wrote a book. Well, actually someone else wrote it but listed Jr’s name as the author in exchange for money. In all fairness, the original author probably also kicked in reading the book to Jr.
But tying money to book sales means that other people would pay money to read it. Come on now, people who can read wouldn’t read Jr.’s book, and people who can’t read real good don’t buy books at all. So Jr. is kinda screwed. Unless, of course, the Trump family name is always for sale.
And debuting his book at #1 on the Best Seller list is important to the family name.
Let’s start with the Republican National Committee. Last month they bought $94,800 worth of Jr.’s book and gave them away at some damn Republican reception. I’m betting that most of those are still in the backseat of people’s cars.
Now tracking the other sales was kinda difficult because they are scattered in different places. Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen spent the better part of the weekend hunting these down.
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE BOOKENDS BOOKSTORE NJ DONOR MEMENTOS 11/08/2019 $30,843.18
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE POSMAN BOOKS NY DONOR MEMENTOS 12/18/2019 $24,490.00
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE BOOKSAMILLION.COM AL DONOR MEMENTOS 11/08/2019 $66,360.00
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE BOOKSAMILLION.COM AL DONOR MEMENTOS 10/29/2019 $94,800.00
NRSC BOOKS A MILLION AL PUBLICATIONS/BOOKS 01/15/2020 $57,510.00
AMERICA FIRST ACTION, INC. BOOKS-A-MILLION AL 1ST BANKCARD PMT [SB21B.71646]: CONTRIBUTOR COLLATERAL 11/25/2019 $3,290.10
NRCC BOOKS A MILLION INC. AL DONOR MEMENTOS – BOOKS 11/25/2019 $47,400.00
AMERICA FIRST ACTION, INC. BOOKS-A-MILLION AL 1ST BANKCARD PMT [SB21B.71643]: CONTRIBUTOR COLLATERAL 11/13/2019 $9,970.00
ZELDIN FOR CONGRESS BOOKS-A-MILLION AL BOOKS FOR EVENT 11/06/2019 $6,281.00
FRIENDS OF MATT GAETZ BOOKS A MILLION AL SUPPORTER GIFTS 10/22/2019 $9,970.00
AMERICAN VICTORY PAC BOOKS A MILLION AL PRINTING 09/05/2019 $231.81
REPUBLICAN PARTY OF TEXAS BARNES & NOBLE BOOKSELLERS TX PARTY FUNDRAISING EXPENSE -BOOKS 11/30/2019 $2,005.33
REPUBLICAN PARTY OF TEXAS BARNES & NOBLE BOOKSELLERS TX PARTY FUNDRAISING EXPENSE – BOOKS 11/06/2019 $10,554.38
REPUBLICAN PARTY OF TEXAS BARNES & NOBLE BOOKSELLERS TX PARTY FUNDRAISING EXPENSE – BOOKS 11/06/2019 $10,554.38
But, we’re just getting started …
NRSC POLITICS & PROSE DC PUBLICATIONS/BOOKS 01/15/2020 $38,147.28
NRSC GIVINGTON’S AR PUBLICATIONS/BOOKS 01/15/2020 $25,106.25
NRSC POLITICS & PROSE DC PUBLICATIONS/BOOKS 12/17/2019 $76,277.60
NRCC POLITICS & PROSE DC DONOR MEMENTOS – BOOKS 12/06/2019 $9,536.82
NRCC GIVINGTONS LLC AR DONOR MEMENTOS – BOOKS 11/25/2019 $27,375.00
This one is a cute way to avoid disclosure:
NRCC THE LUKENS COMPANY VA DONOR MEMENTOS – BOOKS 11/01/2019 $58,792.50
Back to boosting the Trump family name.
NRSC POLITICS & PROSE DC PUBLICATIONS/BOOKS 01/15/2020 $38,147.28
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE POLITICS AND PROSE DC DONOR MEMENTOS 12/18/2019 $17,994.00
There’s more, bunches more. So, yeah, his book debuted at #1 on the New York Times best seller list, and maybe all of half a dozen people have already read it. And I can bet you that his Dad was not one of them.
Thanks to Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen.
And if he’s like his dad, he’ll screw the author out of the balance due on the ghost-writing….
1Alfredo is amazing. I don’t know how he does all this, but I am always impressed.
Maybe those nonreaders put the books in their little outbuildings to replace Sears catalogs.
2Ms Juanita Jean Herownself, it’s that ‘quality’ of their purchases that makes them the Anti-intellectual Party. There’s nothing quite like a ‘book’ by Dimwit Junior Mint to say “antidisestablishmentarianism.” Nah. “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” Nope. Something from Green Eggs and Ham? Not quite. “See Spot run.” Getting closer….
3AK Lynne: My grandmother had one of those building on her farm in West Virginia. Maybe the paper from a book isn’t as slick as the Sears catalog pages were?
And the best use for those pages would be what someone would do in a “little outbuilding”.
Oh, and Alfredo is superlative.
4Helpful suggestions for those ‘gifted’ with Juniors’ book.
You can use it as a wheel chock.
You can throw it at the teevee when you see ‘fake news’.
You can use it as a booster in your toddlers’ chair.
You can use it to weigh down the blankets you put over your plants when a late frost is expected.
You can use it as an emergency substitute when all toilet tissue supplies are in the garages of panicked hoarders.
Feel free to add more uses that I haven’t thought of…..
5Origami practice?
Happy to see they spent so much at Politics & Prose, an independent bookstore in DC whose author events I have enjoyed on C-SPAN and YouTube. And nothing from Amazon — take that, Jeff Bezos!
6I roughly calculated about $768,000 in the listed Rethug org purchases [plus those others mentioned] of Donnei Jr’s screed.
At [?] $25 a copy that’s about 31,000+ subsidized books bought by ‘official’ Thug organizations. The semi-literate MAGAot minions probably doubled that at their masters’ bidding.
That quantity seems more than enough to warp the ‘bestseller’ metrics.
A lot of co-ordinated covert activity to make a member of the Trump Crime Family look good to the public [and pocket some coin].
These sorry bastards can’t do anything ‘fair and square’, can they? Lie, cheat, steal, swindle, bribe, collude, cover up, it’s what they do, all that they do.
7I thought that I read somewhere that books purchased in bulk were flagged somehow on the best seller list so that people would know that the number of sales might reflect an attempt to get on the list rather than the actual popularity of the book in question. Do I remember wrong or did that attempt at honesty get thwarted somehow?
8PS: I’d bet Jr’s crappy book was printed in China [as are many today]. They may have lead-containing inks, so using the pages in the outhouse might have some low-end risk…
[BTW, how many of y’all have actually used a real ‘hole-in-the-ground’ outhouse?]
9Bob @ 8, it looks that way:
“Sales are defined as completed transactions by vendors and individual end users during the period on or after the official publication date of a title. Institutional, special interest, group or bulk purchases, if and when they are included, are at the discretion of The New York Times Best-Seller List Desk editors based on standards for inclusion that encompass proprietary vetting and audit protocols, corroborative reporting and other statistical determinations. When included, such bulk purchases appear with a dagger (†).”
https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/methodology/
10Sandridge, I have used some literal holes in the ground in the backyard of Mexico friends’ homes that would make an actual outhouse qualify as a luxury item.
11I looked it up on Amazon; it’s 304 pages and weighs 1.2 pounds. The print would probably smear if used in an outhouse, at 304 pages it’s no good as a booster seat and at 1.2 pounds, it wouldn’t hold open the door for daddy to move out of the White House. I can’t find a use for it!
12Grandma Ada, we have a wood stove. It might make reasonably decent fire starter. There is still plenty of of cold weather to deal with in my part of NC. Yes, I’m advocating a book burning. I really doubt it’s worthy of being called a book. A bound propaganda booklet more like.
13“maybe all of half a dozen people have already read it. And I can bet you that his Dad was not one of them.”
Bill Barr could write a summary for everyone.
14My local public library has 3 copies in the new book section. I asked a friendly librarian last week and while they won’t give out names, they do give circulation data for individual books. So far, NOBODY has checked this one out.
So why did the library buy 3? It did not, those were “donated” by someone. So it looks y’all are bang on: not even Republicans are interested in reading this book-like object.
15Triggered is a good title for the book though. Don Jr. ain’t no Roy Rodgers. But he’s probably trained to do what the guy sitting on him tells him to do.
16Sandridge, yes, my grandmother had an outhouse, with a real hole in the ground. There were Sears catalogues, newspapers, corn cobs? This edition could find itself at home there.
17Great job, Alfredo @ the Dairy Queen, on finding a Million-dollar book sale aimed at the NYT Book list.
Being #1 is their only real family goal. I hope the ghost writer has been paid!
AK Lynne @11, Yep, me too, down there; here in S. TX you can still find a few regular ohs too.
Pamela @17, One of my grans too, at their lake place long ago; think we had TP though. Heck, I run four septic systems, which are sort of similar; and a PITA sometimes.
18I’ve decided to try a ‘composting head’ to replace one of the boat heads, if it works out I’ll get a second one [and they’re much simpler, no pumps, motors, through-hulls, no holding tank/pumpouts, etc].
Just another way for the RNC to launder money . Someone (Repub) writes a book , and the Repubs *buys*them , money is then passed over to be laundered .
19Sigh! And I am still looking for a literary agent for my book! Guess I was born into the wrong family!
20Sandridge–Our local Girl Scout camp is “primitive” (running water, but only faucets), with “hole-in-the-ground” latrines throughout. So a lot of little girls are getting the “outhouse” experience, although we do furnish toilet paper.
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