Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, by Michael Wolff

[RussBLib]

My wife bought the online version of the book and I am starting to read it.

It's painful. I'm not sure I'll be able to finish it.

It struck me that Wolff paints the picture that no one on Team Trump, including Trump himself, thought that he was going to win the election against Clinton. They were certain of it. And then, when he wins, his response is not humility but to rub it in everyone's face, as if he was totally deserving of winning.

And then we have this: "Trump liked to say that one of the things that made life worth living was getting your friends' wives into bed." What. A. Guy.

It's nauseating stuff. I'm not sure if I have the stomach for it.

[MLAA]

1. Even if you dont read it I am glad you bought it.

I will do the same to see it be a best seller.

[underthematrix]

2. Trump didn't win the pres election. The biggest

hint is that in November 2017 Mueller added a cyber security prosecutor to his team. He's not the only Republican who did not win his or her race.

[lkinwi]

3. Im reading it also.

I put it down frequently because it’s hard to take in all the stupidity in one sitting.

[samnsara]

4. mine arrived today....i hope i can get thru it as well!

[Mike Nelson]

5. Trump Team...

...did get the Electoral College, though they did not win the vote. I think they played to win... I thought they could win earlier than most, but didn't proclaimed it here. Michael Moore said it, too. Their internal polls must've showed the EC states wobbling - in the end, remember Obama, Michelle & Hillary went to "shore up" states rather than the original plan - to get some likely Trump states to flip. The Comey thing took away her positive closing. It's possible Trump didn't want to win, but the Republicans and those leeches around him smelled that Supreme Court pick and their money grab.

[BigmanPigman]

6. A lot of people vote down ballot. I do.

The reason why we lost Congress is due to this fact in my opinion. The GOP congress didn't win legitimately either! Comey is what did it. FUCK him as much as the Fucking Moron and Putin!

[Mike Nelson]

7. Also...

...gerrymandering. Considering the votes, overall, Democrats won Congress, too. When you divide the raw votes into states and districts, Republicans win - but they did not get the most votes.... similar to the Electoral College in that you take votes and use them to make Republicans win. And, to top it off, they try to keep brown, black and poor white people from even voting. So, I don't think they won Congress legitimately, either. Also, 2014 - the "Ebola Senate" - maybe they used Russians there, too.

[Neoma]

8. I just got it today from my local bookstore.

Can’t wait to gobble it up.

[DeminPennswoods]

9. Bought the audio book

I'm about halfway through. It's fascinating, both hilarious and appalling.

[RussBLib]

11. I'm guessing they ironed out the many typos that I am seeing in the digital edition?

Publishing a book used to be ... publishing.

Now, there is an audio edition, a digital edition, multiple translations, formats to sync, lots of work.

BTW, who is doing the reading? Michael Wolff?

[DeminPennswoods]

12. Read by Holter Graham

He even does passable voice imitations of Trump, Bannon and a few others.

Thankfully there are audio books for those who can no longer see well enough to read print (not me).

[RussBLib]

10. up to about 53%

Wolff is writing about how malleable Trump is in the hands of someone (like Paul Ryan or Tom Price) that seems to know what they are talking about, especially if it is on a topic that Trump doesn't really care about, like health care.

about how easy it is to 'bullshit a bullshitter' or to be able to 'sell the salesman'

Ugh. Wolff paints a picture of a really disengaged golf maniac who can't focus on anything for more than a few seconds. How easy it would seem to be to manipulate this guy. As Wolff has said, the last person Trump has talked to is what Trump goes with. Geez. The idea that our government and democracy in the hands of a fucking narcissistic, near-senile adolescent is a pretty chilling thought.

The book had gotten pretty boring, actually, until this Chapter 12: Repeal and Replace

which reminds me.....remember how Trump would frequently ridicule Obama for Barack's pledge that 'if you want to keep your doctor, you can keep your doctor' under the ACA? Turns out you could not. I have heard this repeated by several Trump voters. We have to remind Trump and his voters that Trump promised that 'no one will lose health insurance' and that 'it will be cheaper, better, and cover everyone.' Obviously big, fat, brazen lies. The guy didn't know what the hell he was even talking about, but he's promising his ass off.

Weather has been so rotten lately, even in deep south Texas, that it's the perfect time to pick up a book.

[DeminPennswoods]

13. There's a few people besides the protagonists not coming off well

Tony Blair and Joe Scarborough among them.

[RussBLib]

14. Finished the book

It was rather anti-climactic, after hearing so many excerpts and discussions about the book.

One thing is certain; our current president is vicious, dangerously unstable, and a racist. Ok, thats three things. But it only scratches the surface of the ugliness that pervades the White House.

This is a sad time for America and its influence in the world, but there are signs of hope. The rise of women countering the Trump sewer is a promising development. To paraphrase Maria Hinojosa, "even from the worst events, good can emerge." And it looks like the Democrats have finally said, "Enough!"

Stand firm, America. Lets work toward brighter days.

[DeminPennswoods]

15. Josh Marshall has a long ed blog post about Wolff

and the book. He says Wolff is exactly the biographer Trump deserved.

[RealityChik]

16. To be honest...

This is one of the most boring and uninspiring literary slogs I've wasted time on in decades. I don't know if it was because the characters were (are) so uninteresting and stupid, or that the author's writing style was so gossipy, but it took me longer than usual to plow through it. Prone to reading whole books "in one gulp", I had to pause and read another book before I could eventually finish it.

Against my nature, I even considered not bothering to finish it because Wolfe's uninformed ignorance of the critical current events surrounding Trump's ineptitude completely undermined his credibility with me.

It never rose above smut magazine yellow journalism, hardly delivering anything close to what I would qualify as a biographical literary work. Salacious, yes. But the worst of all Trump biographies to date that I have either read or sampled excerpts from, at least in my opinion.