...And Everyone Is Writing a Book: UPDATE

From a quote that was conjured out of a few word fragments which someone sorta remembered reading on an ancient Assyrian tablet.  Words which were then passed around many times, reworded several times, and then, finally, misattributed to Marcus Tullius Cicero:  

"Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book." 

Still, nice quote.  And today the book in question is this.

Author: Salina Zito.

If you are unfamiliar with the genre in which Zito made her fortune, I have a short explainer here: Today in Magic Ruralism (tm): Salena Zito

Publisher: Hachette Press.

From the publisher's blurb

Hachette Nashville is comprised of three imprints—Faithwords, a publisher of the world’s best voices in the growing inspirational market; Center Street, an imprint publishing Nonfiction books in such categories as Conservative Political and Military; and Worthy, an inspirational adult and children’s book publisher specializing in Christian authors and bestselling nonfiction and fiction books.

The Faithworks imprint specializes in cranking out slabs of empty Christian calories by god-botherers like Joel Osteen.

The Center Street imprint, well, see if you can deduce what brand of slop they specialize in based on a selection from their list authors.  In addition to Zito, they pay money to publish a lot of propaganda by Newt Gingrich.  Then there's Rob Schneider, Donald Trump, Jr., Whiskey Pete Hegseth, Tom Homan and Vivek Ramaswamy. There are also some of the lesser lights of the American fascist party such as right-wing troll Andy Ngo's "Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy" (oh crap, they're on to us!) and a couple of Conservative potato bugs you've never heard of named Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter who collaborated on "Fool’s Gold: The Radicals, Con Artists, and Traitors Who Killed the California Dream and Now Threaten Us All" because sharting out deathless prose like that would be too much for just one person.

Hachette's business plan is painfully clear, and at least some of the people who work there (well, used to work there) have a (had a) serious enough problem with their company throwing in with the fascists to quit.  

From The Guardian:

Hachette employees protest and quit over launch of conservative imprint

Basic Liberty, a publishing imprint launched in the wake of Trump’s election win, will be helmed by Thomas Spence, an editor associated with Project 2025 thinktank The Heritage Foundation

Staff are protesting against a new US imprint of global publisher Hachette Book Group (HBG) specialising in conservative books, launched in the wake of Donald Trump’s election win.

A letter from an anonymous group of HBG employees has been published on social media, criticising the launch of Basic Liberty. It also expresses concern at the hiring of executive editor Thomas Spence. Spence is the former president of conservative publisher Regnery and a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, the rightwing thinktank that coordinated the Project 2025 initiative, which sets out plans to reshape the US government and strip minorities of legal protections...

Good on 'em.

Sadly, there are also people who we thought knew better -- who were voted into office based on the presumption that they knew better -- who clearly have no problem schmoozing with the fascists.  

One of them appears to be first-term Senator John Fetterman, shown here rubbing elbows with the dregs of American democracy at (checks notes) Salina Zito's book launch party.  

Ah crap.

From The New Republic:

John Fetterman Seems Like a Risk to Himself and Everyone Around Him

A damning new report reveals how the Democratic senator appears to be endangering his own life, and those around him.

Senator John Fetterman isn’t in good shape—and could be a danger to himself and those around him.

New York magazine reports that Fetterman, who suffered a stroke in 2022 one month before being elected to the Senate, is unrecognizable to his past and present staff, prone to “conspiratorial thinking” and “megalomania.” His former chief of staff, Adam Jentleson, wrote his concerns in a May 2024 letter to Dr. David Williamson, the neuropsychiatrist who oversaw Fetterman’s treatment at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C....

With friends like these...

You know, after 20 years at this blogging thing with an archive of +12,000 posts to draw from, maybe it's time for me to go for some of that easy book money.  Just bolt together a couple of dozens posts, kintsugi them together with All!New! intros an outros, and ship them off to...uh...

Remind me again, what's the name of that publishing house that pays top dollar for scathing Liberal deconstructions of the Republican party?  

The one that embraces and promotes books by dirty hippy newcomers who, when it comes to references from media and publishing industries, arrive with "neither chick nor child"?  

The one that treats its stable of dirty hippy writers with the care and attention that Hachette publishing provides to, say, a Rob Schneider or the dynamic duo of Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter?

UPDATE:  Sharp-eyed area blogger Charles Pierce notes "The cover of Zito's book is a dead-on copy of two books about authentic American tragedies".  These two books.  

Behold, a Tip Jar!