Tag: trump

The Grifter’s Club: Trump, Mar-a-Lago, and the Selling of the Presidency

Many books have been written, particularly in 2020, United States of America’s election year, about President Donald Trump, but few books have focused on Mar-a-Lago; a fascinating place with a unique history. The President refers to it as his “Winter White House”. Mar-a-Lago was built by cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post in the 1920’s but by the time Donald Trump purchased this property in 1985, this elegant palatial house with tiles from a Cuban mansion and countless statues, was but a shadow of its former self; to restore and maintain it would cost the owner a fortune.

“The Grifter’s Club”, takes the reader behind the scenes of the exclusive club Mar-a-Lago, which after 2019 served as both the Trumps’ permanent residence and as a private club for not only the famous and wealthy, but also political operatives and power-seekers. A group of women members called Trumpettes USA (of which Gina Rinehart is a member) drool over the owner.

In The Grifter’s Club the authors (a team of prize winning, highly regarded Miami Herald journalists) reveal the activities and motivations of an outlandish assortment of charlatans and tycoons, who frequented the halls of Mar-Lago; a bizarre world of extravagance and scandal. They explore how Mar-a-Lago became the palace of the ‘swamp creatures’ soon after 1985 and how it, not Washington, became the real centre of power where the President conducted the nation’s business with foreign leaders, including those from Japan and China.

While the events detailed in this book have been previously reported elsewhere, readers can now read about them in this thoroughly researched, well documented, and factual but condensed version. Readers will find it an unnerving, unsettling and frightening expose of the huge and glaring weakness of this ‘South White House’ to ensure the President’s safety, while at the same time putting at risk national security. Although extensively referenced, the inclusion of an index would assist readers to better grasp the mind boggling scope of plundering of tax payer dollars which occurred at Mar-a-Lago during the time since Donald Trump’s presidency.

November 5, 2020
Trumpedia Alternative facts about a real fake president

During the reign of United States President Donald Trump the world has learned many things, one being that Fake News is indeed a reality and the sale of red trucker style caps in the USA have gone up to unprecedented levels, especially those toting the slogan ‘Make America Great Again’, words Trump believes he has coined, but on closer inspection it has been discovered these words have been used several times in the past, by Ronald Regan and then again by Bill Clinton.

In Trumpedia Dominic Knight has constructed a masterful work by taking a clear, clever and unbiased viewpoint of this novel President, so much so that the material gathered in such a short period of time, needs to be presented in Alphabetical order, rather then sequential order, which does make the reading of these past two years in American politics considerably easier.

With the mid term elections now almost done and dusted, as typically with anything to do with the reign of Trump, the swing to the Democrats has been such that the final numbers are not yet in, at the time of writing this review, it will be an interesting watching brief to see what happens next.

Knight looks at the people who have come and gone in the Whitehouse, the women involved in Trumps life, his children, their business holdings as a family conglomerate and the man most considered to have had a serious influence on American politics, Vladimir Putin.

America has long been a country at the forefront of world politics, for better or worse, and generally for the betterment of the American people, whichever way things are considered, therefor it remains a serious and puzzling issue, what were they thinking about when they elected Trump to become the 45^th President of the United States, a point which is well presented in Trumpedia, and one the rest of the world would like answered.

Dotted throughout the pages are some of the Presidents infamous Tweets, various pictures taken from the scrapbook of publicity photos and most importantly for all people who are NOT American, the presentation of the Bill of Rights, the collective term for the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, the absolute bible of the American system, which have now been reinterpreted, as is presented in the segment.

The work is a fascinating retrospective, which when viewed from a wholistic viewpoint, is wryly funny but also very, very concerning. The next two years, should the 45^th President remain in office, will be years that history will record, and no doubt will make interesting reading some years hence.

Well done Dominic Knight for taking on the challenge of making some sort of order out of the past two years in America politics, the absurd, the ridiculous and the cast of thousands involved in this yet to be concluded snippet in the history of the World as we know it!

November 26, 2018
Bitch Doctrine Essays for Dissenting Adults

For those of you who simply love a dose of tartness in their reading material, Bitch Doctrine will fit the bill very nicely. Laurie Penny pulls no punches when she selected a number of her essays and columns to create this seriously astringent look at the world we live in, through the eyes of a seasoned journalist and political thinker.

Lauded as a bright new voice that needs to be heard, Penny has been around for a number of years, writing her insightful words for those who cared enough to read them. In this selection she has chosen pieces new and not so new, beginning with Bitch Logic, explaining her perspective on life, love and politics, moving on to viewing the madness of the recently held US elections which saw Donald Trump take the role of President of the United States of America, despite a series of indicators to the contrary. Her words on this topic sadly are proving to be prophetic.

Culture is placed under the spotlight from a very different aspect beginning with Star Wars, JK Rowling’s and moving on to stating that James Bond, the hero of many, is a tragedy. Now up to a point many readers may take exception to this, but perhaps in the context of this tale, Penny may, and I say may, have a point. A sad tale is related in The View From Somewhere where she talks about sharing a bus with a load of young activists of to the G20 conference and a young man, a school drop-out living on the streets, and why he chose to burn his last dollar.

Gender makes for interesting reading and what ‘gender’ actually means and to whom. Girls, verses feminism, versus women and transsexuals: what is it that modern day society finds in the struggle for acceptance by so many that may prove to be considered threatening? Gender has become a red hot topic of late with gay rights, same sex marriage and transgender issues strutting across the world headlines on a weekly basis. Perhaps it is a ‘tipping point’ in time where old stereotypes need resigning to the past and a new look at the current situation of ‘gender’ must be undertaken. By the end of this section you may certainly concur with Penny’s viewpoint.

As you would expect the Future is the final section where she looks at a ‘dystopian’ vision of the things to come and wonders where the road will eventually lead; to a more feminist future, one dreaded by the typical male viewpoint, across the areas of business, religion and politics or more of the same style of female repression. That is the question that is still out there waiting to be answered. Only time will hold the answer

Brilliant, witty, flamboyant and divisive, she tackles the hard issue of a society which appears to have lost its way, a place societal norms no longer exist and nothing has been created to fill the gap.

Not to be read in a madcap charge into femineity but savoured, piece by piece.

December 9, 2017