Fire and Fury, Michael Wolf - the fog of war and old men talking at MacDonalds

Fire and Fury, by Michael Wolf is an amazing read.  What a truly creative writer.  A great novel.  Whether there’s truth, who can tell. It’s mostly a smattering of facts and a whole bunch of impression but written like a Tom Clancy or Harlen Coban blockbuster.  Truly a great drama.
One of the great compliments of the Trump Clinton campaign was that it was the first time in years that Americans and the rest of the world actually paid attention to American politics sometimes even switching off the NFL games to watch the debate.  After years of closed doors and back room dealings, corruption and cover up with both the Democrat and Republican administrations of late here was definitely something new. The press debate/roast with Donald and Hillary will remain for me one of the best entertainments I’ve seen in years, quite a contrast to the posed regular debates which nonetheless had more appeal than anything happening in Canada and elsewhere in the world.  European politics has long become snooze fests and politics in dictatorships and communists countries and Muslim religious fiats are simply ‘fixed’.  America remains the free world.
Fire and Fury reads like the beach scene of Saving Private Ryan.  It’s all action reaction and happening in real time. I really think Michael Wolf, like the Private Ryan directors and photographers, has transcended the genre of the day to truly capture in his style of writing the reality of politics.  Competing personalities, last minute decisions, reversals, left fielders and end runs, it’s all the fog of war. Who could have guessed the media would be so ‘fake’, or the security agencies so entrenched.  No one, including Donald Trump saw himself as winning.  And Michael Wolf captures this well. The true novelty of the occasion.  It’s Churchill and Kennedy and Breznev.  It’s Mao and Stalin, Napoleon, Disraeli,  all  great leaders of the world , not necessarily admired, nor ones we would choose, but still, there’s that magnificence. History if full of eccentricity and character.  Rivalries and personality. There’s the eccentric and the individual.  It’s an amazing romp.
What I believe is true, is that all the presidents who have gone before have had much more of the chaos and personality that Michael Wolf captures so well, than the decorum and spin doctoring the Bush /Obama years and before demanded.  Prior to Saving Private Ryan’s beach scene, veterans felt that most depiction of war were ‘staged’ and often  ‘sanitized and white washed’.  In the actual conflict there’s body parts and bits of brains flying about,  utter horror and a cacophony of noise and general chaos. It's been dubbed, ‘the fog of war’ because no one knows what is going on literally. Further whatever plans one had are lost the moment they encounter the reality of conflicts.  It's messy.  Elections are the psychological equivalents.
I’ve sat in meetings of doctors where all were equal, more or less, and the arguments took on the flavour of the kitchen table home discussions between parents and teen agers.  Lots of emotion and lots of talking over each other. The contrived 'Robert's Rules of Order' were developed like the regimental parades of 19th century war fare but have no place in the modern day world of ambush and subterfuge.
I’ve also gone to government meetings where everyone has known before what the outcome will be. We’re only invited to confirm the decisions that were made behind closed doors. Watching the Canadian parliament is so much like this. Justin Trudeau poses for a selfie.  Then comes he  out and says his ‘script’ of ‘platitudes’ and meaningless self aggrandizing jabber. Occasionally the leader of the opposition Andrew Scheer jousts with him like a schoolboy in a debating club. There’s something terribly lame about the whole thing.  It’s posed.  Polite. The one reality hit was when a hung over or stoned Justin Trudeau shouted 'get the fuck out of my way in parliament' then titted a pretty NDP lady with his elbow imitating his father's famous 'staged' outrages of 'fuddle duck'.  All rather Canadian soft ball compared to American hard ball politics.
In 1965 Johnson grabbed Liberal Canadian leader by the lapels and shouted, "Don't you come into my living room and piss on my rug!"  American politics has always been 'dancing with the big boys' something that Putin and Xi Jinping know if others forget.
Politics is  normally not at all authentic like the ‘plain speatk’ ‘twitter account’ which is obvious ‘post rational’.  The genius of Mr. Trump the politician is that he is fighting the political war in  the emotional moment by moment reality of a digital age. Trump was on the right side of history to the shock of all the 'losers' who were caught with their pants and skirts down.
The electorate and media have attention spans less than minutes on average.  Obama’s speeches, wonderful for future lawyers and grad students to read, for writing academic dissertations, to be read only by their advisors and families, are seriously ‘boring’ . They were ‘tedious’ and truly ‘contrived’.
There’s authenticity here in the Trump home that really reminds me of all the gatherings of old men I’ve known sitting about MacDonald’s restaurants.  They're there  early in the morning or late in the day, discussing politics, poking fun at each other, knowing each other’s stories, knowing where each other is coming from,  yet having coffee together and meeting and talking together.  I have the sense that there’s a lot of women meeting in the kitchens too with Ivanka and Conway. Out of all this  there’s the groups getting together and working together. It's a time of barn raising.   It's what's attractive about retirement conversations. Yet that's how the real world works  too. Michael Wolf captures that quality of relationships, the harmonies and disharmonies, the compromises.
Somehow it works.  It’s an amazing dance.  Dictatorships, especially the pseudo committee dictatorships of socialism look so much more ‘professional’ on the outside. With their back door dealing before the public presentations.  There's the illusion of consent and agreement.  Everyone is together in a dictatorship. The opposition is removed as often as not by assassination.
In the US the opposition is right there in every party, in the family, in the media. It’s a ‘free for all’ fight to the finish.  Michael Wolf, probably better than anyone before him, has captured just how downright human democracies are with all their personality, ego, emotionality and insanity.  The humor too is this administration with Kushner and Trump and family and friends like Guiliano and Murdock is so reminiscent of the Kennedy family and friends in power.  What a riot a Michael Wolf writer of that era of  scandals and bed jumping brothers and wheeler dealer father would have made.  All the same dynamics of dysfunction and function.
President Trump's Washington is definitely a new Camelot.  However Trump is both King Lear and King Arthur.  There are Quinvere’s galore though.  Melania and Ivanka are incomparable beauties while Conway and Haley are brilliant stars.  So far thankfully there are no dead ladies.
I like that Michael Wolf has given me some back grounds on the individual players. There are cheat notes on  characters like one would want for a  Tolstoy novel.  It helps.  The action and events certainly transcend the characters. Everything in Trump Tower and Washington is bigger than life.
The reformer is the enemy of anyone who benefits from the status quo. Whereas Obama was teflon , Trump is the master of dodge and duck.   Every sniper in the world is taking pot shots at him. The bets were on that he wouldn't literally survive the first hundred days in office before being assassinated.  It's no wonder he’s eating at MacDonald’s afraid of being poisoned. This really is too rich. There was a time when no one wanted to be Czar in Russia because of the hostility against leadership. Japan went through such a horrible time too.  These are the days of terrorism, drug epidemics and general anti social and anti authoritarianism. Mr. Trump is amazing.
He reminds me of my grandfather and the other cattlemen who sat about arguing cattle prices, wheeling dealing in farms and real estate, complaining about harvests and regulations.  Michael Wolf has caught America in a way that no other government in the world could be portrayed.  Only in America today is there still such ‘freedom of speech" and 'freedom of press".
This is a story of a man, his family and friends, a nation, that truly is great, and the immensity of forces of envy and jealousy that circle the presidency likes sharks in a feeding frenzy.  It’s amazing anyone survives. I'm amazed anyone would dare or want the job.  You have to give American presidents credit, despite the excellence of the Secret Service, they are truly courageous men. Anyone who stands up makes themselves a target!  It's obvious Mr. Trump is very brave like Mr. Obama before him.
A great novel.  Whether true or not. Who knows?  I do think it’s probably more true in it's way than all the ‘scholarship’ that has been ‘concocted" before. This is the first 'You Tube Take"  of a digital presidency. This is a post rational world. This is an ultra modern time. A multi ethnic world seeking a new culture.  This is competing realities.  This is what Conway called ‘alternative facts’.  Hollywood versus New York. Beijing versus London.  Truth is somewhere in the mix.
There’s a succulent dish being made.  It has a  great flavour.  The smells are tantalizing.  But who knows yet if it’s a soup, a curry or a chilli It’s certainly spicy.  There’s equally great substance.  America is great.
Michael Wolf has done well to capture the dynamism and fluidity that is so far removed from the heavy handed entrenched power of insufferable pompous European and Asian politics.  No such great writer or great book could survive in the middle east where ignorance is the norm and slavery reigns.
As usual, even America's old men and old women are still full of the youth of this still young nation.  It is vibrant and full of surprises. It is has such vast potential and the flexibility to capitalize on it..
Thank you Michael Wolf for showing us some insight into the fog of war.  The beach that is Washington looks like a beach scene,  Saving Private America.  I believe veterans will thank you for getting some of it right.  No doubt like Mr. Trump you're get as much flack on every side. Which will also mean in some same sense you got it right.