August 18, 2022

"'Breaking History' is an earnest and soulless — Kushner looks like a mannequin, and he writes like one — and peculiarly selective appraisal..."

"... of Donald J. Trump’s term in office. Kushner almost entirely ignores the chaos, the alienation of allies, the breaking of laws and norms, the flirtations with dictators, the comprehensive loss of America’s moral leadership, and so on, ad infinitum, to speak about his boyish tinkering... with issues he was interested in. This book is like a tour of a once majestic 18th-century wooden house, now burned to its foundations, that focuses solely on, and rejoices in, what’s left amid the ashes: the two singed bathtubs, the gravel driveway and the mailbox. Kushner’s fealty to Trump remains absolute. Reading this book reminded me of watching a cat lick a dog’s eye goo."


"The tone is college admissions essay. Typical sentence: 'In an environment of maximum pressure, I learned to ignore the noise and distractions and instead to push for results that would improve lives.' ... You finish 'Breaking History' wondering: Who is this book for? There’s not enough red meat for the MAGA crowd, and Kushner has never appealed to them anyway. Political wonks will be interested — maybe, to a limited degree — but this material is more thoroughly and reliably covered elsewhere. He’s a pair of dimples without a demographic."

68 comments:

gilbar said...

Kushner almost entirely ignores the chaos, the alienation of allies, the breaking of laws and norms, the flirtations with dictators, the comprehensive loss of America’s moral leadership, and so on, ad infinitum

didn't he ignore that, because that all happened on Biden's watch?

Leland said...

I guess Kushner didn’t invite Dwight to a party in the Hamptons.

Achilles said...

Abraham Accords.

Joe Smith said...

The NYT is much happier when brown people and their families are being blown to bits in godawfulstan...

Fuck that peace-monger Kushner and his non-interventionist orange father-in-law.

ElPresidenteCastro said...

Why do all of these sorts of articles read like they were composed by poorly programmed bots?

These buzz phrases were loaded in years ago and now they are just assembled in random order for the consumption of lefties and NY Times readers. I am genuinely surprised that there is still demand for this sort of thing. MSNBC and CNN have dropped viewers, has the times doubled down on lefty drivel to hold down their base readership?

Elliott A said...

He lost me at breaking of laws TDS patient

MB said...

Does he have dimples? I hadn't noticed.

"Peculiarly selective", unlike all of those other books by people from previous administrations.

AlbertAnonymous said...

What a douchebag. Isn’t every memoir shit?

Why does he have to shit on Jared Kushner? Because it makes him feel like a big man? Part of the “club”?

Classic NYT by the way. Look at how fucking cool we are. Don’t you wish you could sit at the cool kids lunch table too? Losers!

Iman said...

This sort of writing says more about the author than the subject matter.

Poor, unhappy people looking for validation from their idiotic lapdog colleagues.

TreeJoe said...

Garner.

That is all.

Achilles said...

The key takeaway from this post is that status conscious people like Ann now feel safe mocking these people.

The NYT's is becoming an object of ridicule by people who want to be seen as the Beautiful people. The org's like the NYT's re now staffed by young and dumbs who Ann feels comfortable mocking.

These sorts of Regimes of "Elites" can only survive if they are perceived as relatively competent.

Xi is perceived as generally competent. He is evil and vicious, but competent.

Biden is on the same moral level as Xi.

He just isn't competent. Neither are the toadies around him. People in the country are openly mocking them and no longer think they are "Elite" in any way.

This is a key moment in a preference cascade.

Freder Frederson said...

Why does he have to shit on Jared Kushner?

Because he should never have been in a position of power (except maybe as manager at a Target, Kohl's or Home Depot), yet because he had a rich (albeit felon) father and an even richer (and more corrupt) father-in-law, he was able to fuck with the foreign policy of the U.S.

Jared Kushner is everything you hate about the "east coast elite", yet you don't realize that Trump confirms everything you claim to hate.

Misinforminimalism said...

Ah, gentiles calling Jews soulless. Some things never change.

Sebastian said...

"Who is this book for?"

1. Never Trumpers. 2. His own ego.

Freder Frederson said...

Abraham Accords.

So because Trump and Kushner bribed the UAE and SA with promises of F-35s (which of course will not happen) and who knows what the fuck else (maybe even nuclear weapon plans) that they could never deliver on, you are claiming he is some kind of diplomatic genius?

BUMBLE BEE said...

His contract is golden.

realestateacct said...

That pair of dimples negotiated the Abraham Accords.

BUMBLE BEE said...

His contract is golden.

n.n said...

The Abraham Accords undermined the progress of more than a few people... persons with vested interests in waging World War Springs.

Another old lawyer said...

Kushner's book will be read as often as Hillary!'s Hard Choices or What Happened, though I expect that Kushner's won't sell as well due to lack of both virtual signalling purchases by individuals and bulk purchases to "curry favor" by businesses, NGOs, etc.

Tina Trent said...

He's generally despised by Trump voters for trying to get Trump to betray his base on the issue of open borders. Democrats will lick his memoir like an ice cream cone.

Michael said...

“ The breaking of laws and norms”. Say anything. Again and again.

rcocean said...

The NYT is DNC news. Did anyone expect an objective, adult, book review of Kusher's opus? Its just a hate filled rant to thrill the libtard NYT readers.

And I don't even like Kushner.

rcocean said...

Nobody Voted for Kushner, who was/is a liberal Democrat and Trump's son-in-law. That Trump didn't kick him out of the White house, makes me think he's incapable of making good staffing choices.

Even allowing for his love of his daughter, Kushner should have been made ambassador to Israel, and gotten out of the country. And the white house.

Aggie said...

I don't know why Kushner wrote the book, but I saw what he did, there. You can see it from the new embassy in Jerusalem, too.

Interested Bystander said...

Sigh! Broken laws.Which laws in particular?

Boyish tinkering? Like the historic Abraham accords?

What a dope!

Blogger Elliott A said...
He lost me at breaking of laws TDS patient

8/18/22, 11:25 AM


Same here. Same old same old. No sense reading it when you already know what’s coming.

Interested Bystander said...

Achilles said...
The key takeaway from this post is that status conscious people like Ann now feel safe mocking these people.

The NYT's is becoming an object of ridicule by people who want to be seen as the Beautiful people. The org's like the NYT's re now staffed by young and dumbs who Ann feels comfortable mocking.

These sorts of Regimes of "Elites" can only survive if they are perceived as relatively competent.

Xi is perceived as generally competent. He is evil and vicious, but competent.

Biden is on the same moral level as Xi.

He just isn't competent. Neither are the toadies around him. People in the country are openly mocking them and no longer think they are "Elite" in any way.

This is a key moment in a preference cascade.


8/18/22, 11:49 AM


Why would you come here and waste your time insulting the host? Surely there are better ways to spend your time. Besides you are just rude. Now if you had a disagreement and wanted to discuss it that would be another matter but you are just acting like a nasty child.

Readering said...

Garner probably had friends who lost jobs at NY Observer, a fun broadsheet which Kushner ruined.

boatbuilder said...

I really don't know much about Kushner, so I guess I don't really understand the Kushner-hate--from Trump supporters and Ytump haters.

But on reading this I thought: Maybe he isnt concerned about finding "his demographic."

Joe Smith said...

'Nobody Voted for Kushner...'

Nobody voted for Mike Obama either, but she was celebrated for foisting inedible food on millions of school children...

tommyesq said...

the guy that wrote and published "This book is like a tour of a once majestic 18th-century wooden house, now burned to its foundations, that focuses solely on, and rejoices in, what’s left amid the ashes: the two singed bathtubs, the gravel driveway and the mailbox. Kushner’s fealty to Trump remains absolute. Reading this book reminded me of watching a cat lick a dog’s eye goo" has the balls to complain about Kushner's prose?

Inga said...

Was Jared the mole? Maybe he has a lot more to say about his father in law and couldn’t say it in his book, but needed to say it anonymously. To many Democrats Jared and Ivanka are slimy and only got their positions in daddy’s administration due to nepotism. Was Jared some sort of broker between Trump and the Saudis? A two billion dollars deal for secrets? How much are those TS documents worth? Did he make a deal with the Feds, the location of the classified TS documents in exchange for immunity? Who knows.

Just conjecture.

PM said...

Jared's got a lot of catching up to do:

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, one of America's most inspiring political leaders, a book about the core truths that unite us, and the long struggle to discern what those truths are and how best to act upon them, in her own life and across the life of our country.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Biden is such a weak corrupt puppet - the world laughs.

jim5301 said...

Impressive - 400 pages and not a word on all of his corrupt activities - before, during, and after the Trump presidency. I would have though if you take that out at most he could pen 15 pages.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

To normal thinking people - The Bidens are crooks.

Temujin said...

"...his boyish tinkering... with issues he was interested in."

Yeah. Like the Abraham Accords. Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem. Getting rid of ISIS (you know, the JV Team), pushing through a bi-partisan criminal justice reform bill, cutting the flow on our borders, arranging the Remain in Mexico policy, building the wall until they were cut off, raising the labor participation rate to its highest level EVER among Blacks and Hispanics, re-establishing our relations with our allies while asserting the US as the dominant country in those relationships, telling Iran to suck a pipe, and standing up to China.

If that's boyish tinkering, I'd love 8 more years of it. BTW, how's Joe Biden doing these days? We still getting 0% inflation- according to their math?

Tom T. said...

"I don't really understand the Kushner-hate"

There's also the fact that he's Orthodox Jewish. This sets off the latent anti-Semitism among some on the left, and frustrates their ability to project that anti-Semitism onto Trump.

Lurker21 said...

What ruined the Observer for me is that all the politics had to be taken out of it when Trump became president, because NYC was so anti-Trump, but it's a bad time for newspapers and magazines in general, and the Observer was marginal all along.

Garner has been on the left going back to his days at the Village Voice and Salon. It's silly to think that anybody at the NYT has to have a deeper, more personal reason to hate Trump and his son-in-law than the obvious political slant of the paper.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Kushner almost entirely ignores the chaos, the alienation of allies
India is participating in Russia's latest military exercises in the East, along with China.
Talk about your "alienation of allies"

the breaking of laws and norms
Gosh, you mean like the entire Russia collusion hoax? Or sending the FBI to raid the President's home?

the flirtations with dictators
You mean like Biden saying it would be ok for Putin to engage in a "minor incursion" into Ukraine?
Or "fist bumping MBS "?

the comprehensive loss of America’s moral leadership
Gosh, like when he ended the sanctions against Russia's NordStream 2 pipeline?
Or when he sucks up to Iran while they're sending people to murder Salmon Rushed?

The intellectual and moral blindness of the Left really is staggering

Greg The Class Traitor said...

jim5301 said...
Impressive - 400 pages and not a word on all of his corrupt activities - before, during, and after the Trump presidency. I would have though if you take that out at most he could pen 15 pages.

That, Jim, is because you're a ignorant left wing toad

But please do continue showing off your ignorance

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Freder Frederson said...
Abraham Accords.

So because Trump and Kushner bribed the UAE and SA with promises of F-35s (which of course will not happen) and who knows what the fuck else (maybe even nuclear weapon plans) that they could never deliver on, you are claiming he is some kind of diplomatic genius?


Are you saying you're completely ignorant about what the Abraham Accords have accomplished with respect to normalizing relations between Israel and her neighbors?

Or are you saying that you're really pissed that not as many Jews will get murdered?

Because your description of their actions to achieve these accords sounds like major league diplomatic success, to me

Michael K said...

Blogger jim5301 said...

Impressive - 400 pages and not a word on all of his corrupt activities - before, during, and after the Trump presidency. I would have though if you take that out at most he could pen 15 pages.


I'm sure you can provide all those missing "crimes." Here's your chance. Go for it.

Joe Smith said...

'Impressive - 400 pages and not a word on all of his corrupt activities - before, during, and after the Trump presidency. I would have though if you take that out at most he could pen 15 pages.'

Inga?

Michael K said...


Blogger Freder Frederson said...

Abraham Accords.

So because Trump and Kushner bribed the UAE and SA with promises of F-35s (which of course will not happen) and who knows what the fuck else (maybe even nuclear weapon plans) that they could never deliver on, you are claiming he is some kind of diplomatic genius?


Field Marshall Freder returns with his strategic wisdom. Getting the Israelis and Saudis to declare peace is opposed by your strategic genius. You would prefer war in the Middle East and maybe Israel to disappear in an atomic cloud.

Michael K said...

To many Democrats Jared and Ivanka are slimy and only got their positions in daddy’s administration due to nepotism.

Of course ! Hillary was that co-president put in charge of health care because she was such an expert.

I am not a fan or Kushner but Hillary lovers should keep their pie holes shut.

Duke Dan said...

Ben Shapiro Sunday Special with Jared is very interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtIA953Pvuc

narciso said...




as if we've learned nothing:

https://wp-updates.dailywire.com/news/the-extraordinary-smear-of-rob-porter

MikeR said...

Or - just maybe - the book is an honest description of how one person managed to push his way through the chaotic nature of his father-in-law's Administration, to engineer one of the greatest peace treaties in a century.

Lurker21 said...

"I don't really understand the Kushner-hate"

There's the rumor that his father bought Jared's way into Harvard with a big donation. Also, there's a feeling that he really wasn't the most qualified person for a White House job. Of course, Democrats attack him, but many conservatives saw Jared and Ivanka as secret liberals and assumed that they undercut Trump's program.

But of course, no Washington memoir has been any kind of literary masterpiece -- though a case has been made for US Grant's autobiography, and Henry Adams autobiography may also count as a Washington book. That's not why they're written. Most of them are just meant to get royalties for the authors. Every library has to have a copy, but few people actually read them. If Garner actually read through Kushner's book, he probably gave it more attention than Clinton's or Obama's or other Washington books get.

Mikey NTH said...

There must be some rather intellectual "indigestion" that instead of managing the Arab-Israeli conflict some solutions such as individual peace treaties were done. Imagine how many careers based on "managing" that were cut short?

The Vault Dweller said...

Earnest and Soulless? I wonder what his definition of soulfulness is? Should the book be filled with unending moments of hand-wringing angst? Is a life filled with that, the definition of soulfulness? Or is it the definition of an emotional disorder?

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Tom T,

Of course his Orthodox Judaism is a huge part of this. You can tell by the way everyone is studiously not mentioning it. I would think that his getting Ivanka to convert (not remotely an easy process) made it worse.

DJT is the only President in US history with Jewish grandchildren. Think about that.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Mikey NTH,

Oh, yes, that's another one. Kushner had the audacity to declare that there was no reason for the Palestinians to take precedence over all else in the Middle East. So he went to individual countries, and persuaded them to establish relations with Israel. Which, mirabile dictu,, a number of them were happy to do. I'd hazard a guess that the Arab world is even more tired of the Palestinians than we are.

gadfly said...

So he didn't discuss his secret nuclear deal with Saudi Prince Bin Salman that got him $2 billion for his new private equity business venture or the Kushner-sponsored lifting of the Saudi blockade of Qatar which resulted in the billion-dollar bailout by the Qatari government of 666 Fifth Avenue which was about to bankrupt the Kushner Family real estate business.

Surprise! Surprise!

Robert Cook said...

"The NYT is much happier when brown people and their families are being blown to bits in godawfulstan...."

Which they continued to be during Trump's term.

Tina Trent said...

Sorry Temujin. The "criminal justice reform bill" is one reason why Democrat cities are burning. It was both a disaster and a fraud. I don't know where you get the idea he was for border control: he and the pair of rich boobs he married are against it. However I agree he did good things for Israel, our special ally.

Too bad he didn't do good thing for Americans.

Robert Cook said...

"...re-establishing our relations with our allies while asserting the US as the dominant country in those relationships...."

Heh!

That's always America's way: seduce, force or lie other nations into "alliances" that aren't really alliances at all, but one-sided coerced dominant/subordinate relationships of opportunism. We really make it very easy for the rest of the world to hate us.

Robert Cook said...

"Or are you saying that you're really pissed that not as many Jews will get murdered?"

How many Jews were being murdered before, and how many fewer now?

Bill R said...

Yeah that stupid Kushner. All he ever did was bring about peace between the Arabs and Israel.

The Abraham accords are likely to last because they are firmly based on mutual self interest. Israel is a much better friend than enemy and the Arabs face far greater dangers than people celebrating Passover in Tel Aviv.

Contrast that with Clinton's ridiculous "Oslo Accords" that were based on the premise that Yasir Arafat, like Darth Vader, would turn out to be a good guy after all.

Paddy O said...

One of my favorite art subplots, and awakening of artistic sensibility, in recent television.

From Parks and Recreation:

Tom loves art

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Robert Cook said...
Me: "Or are you saying that you're really pissed that not as many Jews will get murdered?"

How many Jews were being murdered before, and how many fewer now?


The goal of the Palestinians is to murder every single Jew in Israel (you'll know this might have changed when they stop sending money to the families of Palestinian terrorists who try to attack Jews).

The Abraham Accords are a path for peace between Israel and almost all the locals funding the Palestinians. Getting those funders ti reign in the Palestinians is the only long term approach to a peace that isn't the "peace of the grave" for the Jews

You're upset about it, which indicates your long term desire is for all those Jews to get killed

Achilles said...

Interested Bystander said...

Why would you come here and waste your time insulting the host? Surely there are better ways to spend your time. Besides you are just rude. Now if you had a disagreement and wanted to discuss it that would be another matter but you are just acting like a nasty child.

It is not an insult. It is an observation.

Everyone wants to be part of a group. A tribe. It is instinctual. There is nothing wrong with that.

You should be worried about people who don't want to be a part of a tribe.

The point is what tribe do people want to be a part of?

Posts complaining about insults that delve straight into insults are cute too.

You seem rather snappish for an interested bystander. What tribe do you want to be a part of?

Robert Cook said...

@Greg the Class Traitor:

You didn't answer my question.

Robert Cook said...

@Achilles:

Tribalism has been the death of all prior civilizations in history and will be the death of our current civilization, (helped along by human despoliation of the the planet).

Narr said...

OK, we've reached the stage where "Tribalism" evanesces, like "Racism" and "Fascism" have done.

Not that they don't exist, but even if Cook is right that Tribalism has been the death of all prior civilizations, other things are true also: it can build as well as destroy, and if it's that ubiquitous it may also be inevitable.

As an outsider my view is that the world is safer overall if the richer and more powerful Semitic tribes get along.



Greg The Class Traitor said...

Robert Cook said...
@Greg the Class Traitor:

You didn't answer my question.


yes, I did. Your bitching about the Abraham Accords comes from a place of "I want the Jews wiped out."

Because anyone who doesn't want that is happy with the Accords

Robert Cook said...

Class Traitor Greg:

You did not answer my question. Saying something is so does not make it so. As your commentary demonstrates.