Friday, January 05, 2018

Well, Kids, It'll Be a Kindle Day - er - Weekend


When I awoke this morning I interrupted my normal routine to fire up my Kindle and, sure enough, there it was, my copy of Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury,"  mine for the reading. I was already aware from the Amazon Echo news briefs delivered before I threw off the covers that the publisher, Holt & Company, had succeeded in releasing the book despite the demands of White House lawyers that it be withdrawn - or else.

Kindle informs me that it's an 8 hour read which, given my limited ability to digest all things rancid, will probably mean days of drifting through the pages (do e-books really have "pages"?). However, given everything I've learned about this creep (full disclosure, I've never watched "The Apprentice") and the number of hours I've spent writing about the ogre Bill Maher calls the "man baby" I'll probably be unable to put it down for very long.

Then by about June, when the market is saturated, I'll head over to Abe Books and pick up a "very good" quality, second-hand copy in hard cover for a few bucks to put on my bookshelf for future reference.

Will "Fire and Fury" be a 'giant killer'? It's hard to imagine but I haven't read the book yet.  It's bound to have repercussions in the world community, among the members of Congress from both parties but especially Republicans, among the American people and, of course, within the Trump White House. Least impacted, I'm guessing, will be Trump's base, the Gullibillies, a group that has shown itself so insensate they'll probably dismiss it as a pack of lies. If Trump told them the sky was the same colour as his spray tan, orange, they would tell you it's orange. That's why he loves them so.

The real question is how the release of this book will affect Donald Trump and his fragile psyche. The man is obviously intellectually and emotionally impaired. He's been exhibiting signs of senility. The best thing Trump has going for him is that he doesn't read. Yet the book is said to be full of candid remarks that to Trump, or perhaps anyone, would smack of disloyalty, betrayal. The guy is already paranoid. He craves adulation and instant gratification.

Trump is in a bind. No, make that a vice. He knows he can't sue Wolff or Holt. That would bring Wolff's tapes into evidence. The best he can do is denounce it as sheer lies. Meanwhile he's got Robert Mueller breathing down his neck and an anxious Republican caucus worried about the mid-term elections and an angry public that loathes their president.

A more seasoned, informed, aware and competent man might weather this storm but Trump is none of those things. He's a balloon waiting to burst and, when that happens, people will discover there's nothing inside except wind. And yet this guy still commands the most powerful and deadly military apparatus in human history. If he does go off his nut we could all be in a world of trouble.

Must run.


15 comments:

Lorne said...

I take some solace, Mound, in the thought (I hope not merely a fond notion) that in the event an increasingly demented Trump goes 'ballistic,' contingency plans to deal with him are in place.

The Mound of Sound said...

Let's hope you're not whistling past the graveyard, Lorne.

Anonymous said...

I'm about to crack my kindle open now. Today's writing productivity will be filed under research and morbid inspiration.

GAB

The Mound of Sound said...


I get that, GAB. Consider it taking one for the team. Oh, the sacrifices we make.

Anonymous said...

Page 3 - editing/proofing fail.
"This was the job Bannon a week later."

GAB

the salamander said...

.. well Mound..

Goodnight n Good Luck eh..

As previously mentioned, my ability to absorb toxic information is lmited. The more important the information, the more I can & will slow down my extremely high speed reader's rate. But the trade off appears very quickly ie the toxin ingestion. One starts to 'think' about what one is reading. Yes, that dreaded phenomena called 'thinking'.. it may involve 'reflection' as well, or extreme curiosity, even wonderment!

I don't know whether to envy you.. or be concerned for you
I know it did not escape you, that the primary three policies that we mirror
and wish Trudeau would jump into..
are the three primary policy areas Trump is already pummeling
Environment, Education, Elections

Within the book, I fear I will read
ian anecdote or description
of how Trump or an ally or minion
is already poisoning or destroying such aspects of society..

I'm reminded of reading about Jewish settlers
simply chopping down Palestinian olive trees or groves
before the bulldozers & backhoes arrive to prep for concrete pours

When your way of living (being) includes caring for olive trees
and the related harvest and product..
that's mind blowing shit..
that's your life.. under attack - destroyed
That's where I feel Donald Trump is already
chopping down olive trees
just fine with starving your chldren

Anonymous said...

Wolff's writing does not come without controversy.
He has been accused of embellishing, if not lying, over the content of previous publications.
I worry that he is feeding not just his own pockets with what will be a bestseller but the misty world of half truths that the world swallows greedily .
No doubt the book will appeal to those that dislike Trump and no doubt some Trump loving Teabaggers will buy the book for the naughty bits such as who did he sleep with and what holds his hair in place.!

Just what is true and what is false; time only will tell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g

TB


The Mound of Sound said...

Hi, TB. Yeah, I'm aware of Wolff's "issues." In the introduction he cautions that some of the claims he presents are contradictory and often hard to reconcile. He does, however, insist that the tapes he has bear out the gist of his observations. And much of what I've read has been the stuff of articles in other mainstream news outlets.

Before ordering the book I checked out Henry Holt and Company, the publisher. They're one of America's oldest surviving book publishers going back to 1866. I have more confidence in Holt than in Wolff, given the nature of the book, to have protected their own reputation.

The Mound of Sound said...

Sal, I'm in the same boat. I can only take this stuff in measured doses.

Anonymous said...

Anyong...there isn't a place to post this so here goes.......
1. Don't use the president's surname.
2. Remember this is a regime and he's not acting alone.
3. Do not argue with those who support him---it doesn't work.
4. Focus on his policies, not his orange-ness and mental state.
5. Keep your message positive; they want the country to be angy and fearful because this is the soil from which their darkest policies grow.
6. No more helpless/hopeless talk.
7. Support artists and the arts.
8. Be careful not to spread fake news. -check it out firs t.
9. Take care of yourselves and
10. Resist.
Monika Schaefer, a German-Canadian Holocaust denier and former Green Party of Canada candidate, has been arrested in Munich. Is this why the leader of the Green Party didn't get anywhere?

Northern PoV said...

I read the online exert with incredulous schadenfreude-ic delight.
Then I moved on and found out that .... while I (and many others) were entertained they announced new coastal ff drilling, war on legal pot, criminal investigations of Trumps accusers etc.

If the dementia gets too obvious Pres. Pence will carry on, and probably be more effective... in many negative ways.

Northern PoV said...

"This is, ultimately, neither an intellectual criticism of Trumpism or a political history of its rise. It is a gossip book, written for a President who generates more of it than any before, and who found fame through his gift for reality shows."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-book-steve-bannon-michael-wolff-review-latest-buy-best-a8144646.html

Northern PoV said...

"To restate it more simply, Wolff marketed the idea that Trump was in control of his alarming persona and probably not dangerous — a notion that at least arguably got Trump elected. Then Wolff turned around, with no apparent self-awareness or sense of historical irony, and told us that Trump was completely out of control, the alarming persona was real and his presidency was uniquely dangerous. Thanks, man. I guess."

https://www.salon.com/2018/01/06/frenemies-a-love-story-michael-wolff-steve-bannon-and-the-great-trump-hunt/

oh and there is this tangential story....
https://www.salon.com/2018/01/06/fueled-by-social-media-americas-news-outlets-have-really-gone-off-the-rails-with-russiagate_partner/

The Mound of Sound said...

Wolff never suggests it's more than it is - lounge interviews. It's odd that some of his detractors imply otherwise. The author is open about the book's limitations in the introduction.

So far I've come across two White House reporters who write that it certainly seems generally authentic to them. I suppose this sort of 'tell all' book will always attract naysayers, even Donald J. Trump hisself.

Anonymous said...

True, false or somewhere between; Trump will explode at criticism and chuckles behind his back.
The Teabaggers will rally around him and they are organised and well funded.
He will likely look for a distraction which will be dangerous.
Iran is looking like a target; North Korea have nukes so they are out.

TB