Summary: This is a review of Andrew McCarthy’s Ball of Collusion, the definitive guide to RussiaGate. It is almost certainly the most important book of the year. If it influences us to act, it will be more than that.
Reviewing Ball of Collusion:
The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency
(2019).
By Andrew McCarthy.
Three things were obvious about RussiaGate from its early days. None of the explanations made sense (details here and here). This story was large beyond imagining (see here and here). And eventually, someone would assemble the pieces into a coherent picture. Now Andrew McCarthy has completed the puzzle in his magnum opus, Ball of Collusion (BofC).
McCarthy is not an objective observer. There are few such people in these polarized times, and few of them would devote the massive time and energy to investigate, document, and describe the three-year circus funhouse that is RussiaGate. But he is, on the whole, a fair guide. He points to the shady dealings of both Republicans (and Democrats), and at length to Trump’s lies and terrible judgment (although this isn’t a book about Trump).
BofC tells a gripping story, told by someone capable of adroitly managing this vast complex of data. McCarthy’s years of experience as an investigator and prosecutor gave him the necessary experience – and the tenacity to dig to the roots of RussiaGate. The columns produced in three years of work were the bricks that built BoC. Each thoroughly documented.
McCarthy is pretty far-right. See his books below. They have not aged well. His far-right beliefs send much of the first third of the book into the weeds chasing Hillary and Obama. For example, he tells us about “the Obama Justice Department’s corruption of the 2010 prosecution of seven New Orleans police officers.” Unfortunately, many not-conservative readers will drop off during this digression from the plot – and they are the ones who most need to read BoC. More focus would have made the book shorter and stronger.
But once McCarthy gets going, he skillfully takes readers through one of the most complex political events in US history. BoC begins with the small but mysterious beginnings of RussiaGate (there are still many unknowns) and leads us through the long chain leading to the Mueller report. It is like Wonderland in Hell, or politics in ClownWorld. Everybody lies. Nothing is what it seems.
- People have unexpected relations to one another.
- People described as pawns of Russia sometimes have long connections to US intelligence agencies.
- RussiaGate is about Russian efforts to elect Trump. Unless it was about Russian disinformation to hurt Trump. Foreign efforts to influence our elections are bad. Unless our allies do it and we don’t know about it.
- It was clear by early 2017 that there was no collusion between Team Trump and Russia, but leaks from the FBI and DoJ kept the hysteria hot while the investigation fiddled along for another two years.
- The RussiaGate festival required uncritical support from the major news media, for whom it provided fame and profits.
- Getting Trump was always the objective. Either preventing his election or crippling his administration. RussiaGate was a success.
The core message of this book is that there is some kind of Deep State. We learned a little about it from the Church Committee. Now we have learned more.
Most important: RussiaGate is not over. Many questions remain unanswered (BoC is just the first draft). Sorting through the lies will require years of investigations. Last, lt will take years for the public to absorb what we have learned – and decide how to react. Knowledge means nothing if it is not used.
Excerpts from the book
- The introduction.
- “Hillary Ruins the Plan.“
- “A Brief History of Election Meddling.“
- “The Election Is Legitimate Only If the Democrats Win.“
- “The Bogus Story That Launched a ‘Collusion’ Probe.“
My series about this important book
- The final act of RussiaGate – in which we’re the stars.
- Some revelations from RussiaGate that can change America.
- Unmentioned dark lessons from RussiaGate.
- Reviewing Ball of Collusion.
About the author
After graduating from Columbia, Andrew C. McCarthy became a Deputy United States Marshal in the Federal Witness Protection Program. While working there, he studied law at New York Law School. In 1986 he became a prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, later becoming an Assistant US Attorney. He led several major terrorist investigations. In 2003 he resigned in 2003; in 2004, he served at the Pentagon as a Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense. See his bios at Wikipedia and the American Freedom Law Center.
McCarthy is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He is also a columnist for National Review and appears on Fox News (he wrote for Commentary 1998-2008). He has written six other books (2 of which were New York Times bestsellers).
- Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad
(2008).
- The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America
(2010).
- How the Obama Administration has Politicized Justice: Reflections on Politics, Liberty, and the State
(2010).
- How Obama Embraces Islam’s Sharia Agenda
(2010).
- Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama’s Impeachment
(2014).
- Islam and Free Speech
(2015).
(2008).
(2010).
(2010).
(2010).
(2014).
(2015).For More Information
Ideas! For some shopping ideas, see my recommended books and films at Amazon.
Please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. For more information see all posts about RussiaGate, about the Mueller report, about ways to reform America’s politics, and especially these …
- A review of Russiagate, its propaganda and the hysteria.
- Secrets untold about the DNC hack, the core of RussiaGate.
- Debunking RussiaGate, attempts to stop the new Cold War.
- RussiaGate: fragments of a story large beyond imagining.
- The RussiaGate story implodes. The Left burns with it – by Glen Ford at the Black Agenda Report.
- Peter van Buren shows the path to RussiaGate.
- The best analysis of RussiaGate: its effects & results – By Emmet T. Flood, special counsel to the President.
- Craig Murray reveals the mysteries of Mueller’s investigation.
- The next step: finding the origins of the RussiaGate op.
Books revealing the Deep State
I strongly recommend reading The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government
The American Deep State: Big Money, Big Oil, and the Struggle for U.S. Democracy
Good post. I will have to read the book.
Small repeat typo in mccarthys other works. Any of them worth anything.
Of potential interest. The title is clickbait but the rest of the article is informative: “Trump’s Base Fooled by Phony Populism? Hardly” by Alan Tonelson at TAC – “New data shows the president’s battleground state voters have done very well economically since he took office.”
Isaac,
(1) Thank you for catching that error. Fixed!
(2) Re: TAC article
It is quite bogus, on many grounds.
FM, when you correctly predicted back in 2016, that the Presidential race was actually about the administrative state vs the people, did you see the possibility of what is becoming in effect worldwide coups run by the oligarchs and bureaucrats?
Do you have insights on how to unwind this before some significant thresholds are crossed?
hunter,
Think of causes. It’s not a coup run by the oligarchs. America was designed to be run by its citizens, and many Americans have found that burden too great to bear. This happened to the Roman Republic, too.
America will be governed. If we don’t, others will step up and do so – in their own interests, of course.
“Do you have insights on how to unwind this before some significant thresholds are crossed?”
It is, as said in the Matrix films, all about choice. We will decide what Ameria becomes. The question you ask appears on the masthead of the FM website: how to “reignite the spirit of a nation grown cold.” We don’t want to make the effort to regain control, let alone risk “our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”
Here you will see 130 posts with suggestions. These are the least popular posts of the 4800 here. Americans want simple morality tales about the good people (us) and the bad people (them), so we can cheer and boo. So these posts are for the tiny minority interested in taking first steps on a long road with an uncertain end.