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publisher, Holt & Company, had succeeded in releasing the book despite the demands of White House lawyers that it be withdrawn - or else.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.