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Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money, and Power

Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money, and Power by Michael Kranish
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I actually had a fear that by listening to this book I'd change my mind about him or even think that he'd be the least bit competent as President. No worries. When I finished I still thought he should never be in the same zip code as the White House. It was helpful to know where he came from and his family history. One thing to me stood out about him that really bothered me was his motivation. Most Presidents, even the awful ones, I've learned about usually feel some kind of higher calling, need or want to serve the public in someway. Throughout Donald's life has been about serving himself satisfying some inner need to be the center of attention. His motivation was always about money, attention and success of his name brand. If it had any benefit to anyone else that was just by chance. Even imperfect presidents at least gave the illusion they serving the people. Trump was just in it to serve his bank account. Even after listening to this I still think his only motivation to be President is to increase value of his brand name. Secondly his business dealings and actual worth have always been overrated. They maybe impressive to those of the middle and lower classes but he certainly blew a lot of money with bankruptcies and bad decisions. His talk is bigger than the reality. God help us if he becomes President.

P.S. This is to the authors and the Washington Post. You did a lot of work and did a great job. Now since you gave all this energy to Donald should we expect a book about Hillary?

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Frida - I Know There's Something Going On

Between Two Ferns with Hillary Clinton

This had me in tears of laughter.

Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis: Hillary Clinton from Funny Or Die

Late Night Politics

Late Night host Seth Meyer lambasted Trump after the circus of his admittance the President Obama was born in the United States after all. This after years of stoking the conspiracy flames of birther movement which sought to delegitimize Obama's Presidency. This is one of the key issues that propelled his popularity to run for President. The thirty second confession was squeezed into Trump Hotel infomercial which also offered no apology and even put forth a new lie that Hillary had started the conspiracy back in 2008 when she originally ran against Obama. 

 

Seth's commentary was a contrast to the Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show interview with Trump which he was heavily criticized for seeming to pal around with Donald and even playing with his hair. I think some of the heat he took was a little over the top. Jimmy Fallon is not a hard core journalist or interviewer. He's a comedian/entertainer and doesn't delve into political commentary much if at all.  Although the hair rub did seem to go over the top a little.

Seth is more of a regular political commentator on his show. This clip had people comparing him to Jon Stewart in his prime which isn't a bad thing. He, and his writers, are good at it this commentary. 

 

 

What is interesting is that we seem to be relying heavily on comedians to do what journalist should do, and haven't done much of, which is to honestly call on bullshit from figures like Donald Trump who have lied so brazenly that it's mind boggling. Television media has just got into the habit of just throwing the camera on Donald and let him spew his latest con artist sales pitch. That's not journalism it's being a cameraman for a free Trump infomercial. 

The media got played big time during Trump's news conference to announce his statement about Obama. It turned out to be not only a free infomercial about his new Washington Hotel there instances of an TV feed of and empty podium waiting for Donald and then some run of the mill stump speech's by some veteran's(another pet peeve of mine). He made his 30 second announcement which then turned into a tour of the hotel. Seriously? This is news? Television news has hit a new low. The took Donald's bait and ate it all up. 

I do enjoy commentary by the likes of Seth Meyer, John Oliver, Bill Maher and so on. The only thing is that in in the end they are entertainers. They are merely filling the void the television news should be doing which is exposing hypocrisy and searching for the truth. Let's make a television news great again.

The Daily Show - Bill Clinton - Hillary Clinton and the Changing Politic...

176 Reasons Donald Trump shouldn't be President

This is the beginning Keith Olbermann's GQ series called "The Closer". He start's off with "176 reason's Donald Trump Shouldn't be President". It a straight forward yet somewhat smart aleck way he lists Trump's offenses. They are not in any particular order. It is so thorough that even I had forgotten some of them. Part of the problem with going against Trump is that as soon as we digest one offense we have another to deal with and we soon forget about what came before. Here we have it in all package but given the time left until the election there will be more added to the list. If your against Trump you'll love it but if you for some reason do like him(although it still puzzles me why) you will hate this and will be soon hurling Hillary insults and so on. So be it.

Take it Keith.....

Ghosts of War by Ryan Smithson

Ghosts of War: The True Story of a 19-Year-Old GI by Ryan Smithson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When talking about books about the American experience in the Iraq War of course everyone thinks about "American Sniper" by Chris Kyle which was a huge success and was made into a hit film by the same name. What can get lost in the hype of a superstar sniper are the stories of the everyday soldier who served his country there. This is that kind of story. He was an ordinary high school kid inspired by 9/11 to join the Army. He did the stuff you rarely read about or see on the TV like build roads, drive convoys and live in an inhospitable environment. I'm sure his story is reminiscent of many soldiers who went over to do their job and serve their country the best they could. I enjoyed the book very much and recommend it to others.

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