Believe Me-The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump by John Fea

Book after book will be written about Trump and his ascent to the office of President. It is not my position to pick out the one that is truer than any other. All must be taken in context and all must be processed through your thinking process.

This is not the book for that. This book tries to explain the evangelical mindset.  In my opinion, this  is a book for discussion groups.

There seems to be somewhat of an interest in the right-wing evangelical support that has gone Trumps’ way. But historically , it has always been this way. Irrespective of  where you personally stand in that issue, to be fair to people, you should know your facts before you form a lasting opinion on the issue.

Fea attempts to explain the phenomenon.  This is not another book explaining Donald Trump. This is a historical look at evangelism and how it has affected American politics.

Trying to put politics and religion together will never bring about peace. As introduced into politics it has brought about a fear factor. It has even directed preachers to think they can influence politics. Something like that was thought could be so even our founding fathers have placed restrictions on the possible movement to blend the two into the system of government established through the constitution.

It is interesting to trace evangelism as a factor in politics from its’ birth to the present day. Fea does this in chapter three.  He starts with the Puritans who feared the immigration of the French Catholics to show there has always been the mindset.

Rhetoric is important also. The term Make America great divides. For the white American the tendency is to remember days of wealth, nuclear family, The Beaver. There is a lot to celebrate.

For the black American it would tend to make them remember slavery and the civil rights movement and discrimination. They are not prone to a mindset of the past was good. If they are honest, today is the greatest time.

Also, the feeling that we started as a Christian nation historically can’t be sustained. Our founding fathers were religious people as they saw some divine being ruling over men. They even went so far as to state I the Constitution that we have inalienable rights given  by a creator. Our rights come from God.  But they have divergent views of Christianity and the nation they were founding. They even put in the first amendment the freedom  to freely exercise religion and  rejection of a state-sponsored church.

In America at the time of the founding history seems to say we were highly influenced by the Bible. They saw a  God who presided over nature, was the author of human rights would someday judge dead, and  govern the world by His providence, the author points out. Religion was important to them Early state constitutions required officeholders to affirm the inspiration of both the Old and the New Testaments.

Today, not so much.  Chapter five discusses this.

Today  we are a Christian nation as  most American identify with some form of the Christian faith. But the influence has diminished in the last fifty years, Fea points out.it can be said that Article six of the US constitution forbids religious tests for office. We don’t know.

The first amendment does not allow a religious establishment but at the same time secures religious freedom for all Americans. Go figure.

There is so much in this book that people need to read and discuss. I highly recommend this.

William B. Eerdmans’s publishes this. You should be able to find this in your local library, so you won’t to run out and get a copy.

Liars, Leakers, and Liberals by Judge Jeanine Pirro

This is a must-read book. If you have any question what so ever concerning the current presidency, this is the one you should read.

Before you open your mouth and show your one-sided understanding of Trump, and show your lack of proper research, you must secure a copy and read this side of the story.

It is a balance to  a lot of what you hear coming from the ignorant masses.

Pirro bases her book on interviews with top administration officials, family members and insiders. She reveals the dark sources seeking to obstruct and undermine the president.

No one president has had this much trust a him so soon. Obama didn’t. Clinton didn’t. Not right from the start.

Pirro puts forth that there is a plot against the people of the United States and the outcome they seek is to destroy our democratic republic.

And Trump is not the perpetrator.

Pirro explains what the 2016 election was all about. She explains false news and why it is so prevalent.

I find her research to be first rate. She doesn’t make claims and not back them up with facts. She is not an outsider herself having been friends with Trump long before he sought office.

One fact she points out concerning the charge of Russian influence is that as far  back as 2012 while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State , she and then President Obama sold uranium to Russia. That doesn’t sound good.

And Trump was not involved.

 Politics is not a nice game to play and you must respect the gumption of those men and women who seek the position. You must also recognize actions speak loudly. In the future our leaders will be judged by their actions much more than they are now. Pirro offers us a counter balance to what is in the papers and on the television and the radio concerning the present occupant of the office.

What you must do, if you are honest, is research for yourself the facts. This means reading both sides before coming to an opinion. You owe it to yourself.

This book is published by Hachette Book Group, Inc and retails for $29.00. I am sure you can find it on Amazon or your local library. You must secure a copy and read this side of the story.

Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff

 
Here we go again. But wait, are we picking on President Trump or trying to explain him? It would seem this author, Michael Wolff, is writing a book to explain Trump.
  Wolff spent some time tracing Trump and observing the activity around him.
 Up to this point Wolff seems to have been writing books exposing other great figures. And with this book, Fire and Fury, he may have hot a jackpot. But you have to ask yourself, how much of this is true? It comes down to how much can you trust the media? Forget the rant and raving Trump makes about the media. Just how much truth does the media actually put out?
   The left has for along time been allowed to infiltrate the news media both in print and on the air. It just sells better. And since our schools no longer as a whole are training students to think but to accept without questioning what some grownup at the front of the room or who writes a book says as proven truth, how are we to know just how much of what Wolff discloses is true truth.
   How are we to know which details disclosed are true and which ones are bias?
   The answer is , we can't
   But the first step is to discern.
   If what Wolff has written is true we have a person in the White House now who doesn't know what he got himself into. If that is the case we need Christian to pray for him and for the vice president to get us through the next few years without destroying America and its' foundation.
    I would be very careful about accepting the facts presented in this book as true truth. Read with an open mind.
   Try to get this at a library and read it. I am not sure it is worth having in your personal library as something to keep.
   Should you decide to buy it at your local book store it is your money. Save yourself the cost.

A Higher Loyalty by James Comey

Now that Comey is no longer with the FBI he is free to tell the truth as he perceived it. What happened that Trump decided to fire him? How much truth is there in the last election? What was it like working under Obama?

Why did he decide to get into politics?

Back in 1992 he was the U.S. Attorney in New York City. He was confronting Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano as a federal witness. Because of what Gravano told him then about the life of lies “Men of honor may only lie about the most important things.”  Comey felt he had made the right career choice.

“I once questioned another government witness, Sicilian Mafia Killer Francesco Marino Mannoia about this rule.

“Franco,” I said, “that means you can trust me unless we are about to kill you.”

“Yes,” he replied.

No one is about to kill Comey. So, there is no reason for him to lie. I get the feeling no one can push Comey around.

He joined the United States Attorney’s office in Manhattan in 1987, so he has quite a history as a lawyer.

He was put in the place as FBI Director by Obama who he reports saying, “I don’t want help from the FBI on policy. I need competence and independence. I need to sleep at night knowing the place is well run and the American people protected.”

As a writer, Comey is okay. Not a powerful wordsmith, but when you are dealing with a slice of history you just must be adequate. In this respect he passes.

Since no doubt he had to keep quiet while in government this is a welcome look at the facts. Years from now when the historian looks back he will have a document that will help them parse the details.

The book is published by Flatiron books and retails for  $29.99.

Trump's War by Michael Savage

A war is going on for America. This war, a type of world war 3, is presently taking place not with guns and bombs but with traitors in the ranks. It seems a nation is defined by its borders and language and culture. Such is the premise of this book.

Every president enters the office with the unpaid bills of the administration before. Obstacles stand in the way that must be worked with and conquered.

Each administration needs to make game plans and march forward to implement them. Such is what we have with Trump and his years in the White House.

He was placed in the White House because his vision resounded with enough people to get the votes. Now we must see that he is able to do that. Trump must carry out his promises made that got him elected. And he must watch out for the hidden traps. One such trap was the advice he got from Senator Dole to contact Taiwan, which made China mad and didn’t succeed in getting America any points in foreign policy.

We need to know what landmines have been planted and help navigate him through them. Savage calls it a war. In this book he names each obstacle laid by the previous administrations one by one. He doesn’t sweeten the list. What he does is lay out a guide to the mine fields, so we can choose to aid the President in the future war.

He is not a politician and will make some political blunders, but he seems to be a promise keeper. We should allow him the space. I am sure we shouldn’t expect one hundred percent of what he promised but even if he can fulfill a good amount of the promises it is more than others have done.

He needs to build the wall. Something we can see and touch and regulate. This can cut down on the diseases that are brought in by our illegal immigrants.

He will need to bring jobs back that have been outsourced. “It is Bill Clinton and NAFTA that put most middle Americans out of work.” Savage says. We need to bring jobs back.  

We need to interface with Russia.  Savage suggests some ways we can do that.

These are just a few of the ideas taken up in this book.

This is an important book and should be read by as many people as possible. It doesn’t matter what political party you claim.

This book is dangerous as it might expand your mind and you may start thinking. And when that happens—watch out.

The last chapter gives you solutions or bullet points to work with in formulating a battle plan. This book should be on every true patriot’s bookshelf. Read it often and apply it.

Shattered by Jonathan Allen & Amie Parnes

Shattered is aptly named because this is the story of what turned out to be the Clinton run for president in 2016.

Trump is in. Hillary somehow missed the mark. What happened and why?

Critics saw her reluctance to use “we” --like Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump and so many other candidates did—as evidence that her campaign was all about her, the book says. She would tend to speak about “I’ and “you” but almost never “we”

Also, she never took the blame for what happened. The email problem was not because she disclosed classified information on a non-government server. Oh, no. It was a private server, she says.  For a smart woman, she must have known that any cyber-message becomes cyber-junk. Anyone can read it.

 And her opponent in Bernie Sanders drew her away from her message.

The major problem was that Hillary couldn’t flex. She felt the rules of what worked in the past would work today. She also had a temper that is unbecoming of a candidate.

Allen and Parnes write a chronological structured account of the campaign run by Hillary. It is a book for those who want a report of just how Hillary ran her race.

I felt satisfied. I think if you were to read this book you would be also.

This book was sent to me gratis from Blogging for Books to be reviewed.

The book is published by Crown and retails for $28.00.

A Doctor In The House By Candy Carson

I found this to be a very good biography from the viewpoint of the wife of Ben Carson. We saw his life story in  Gifted Hands yet if you really want the true picture of who a person is you need a ask a person who is close to him. A wife is.
Carson, the wife, knows the struggles of being married to a gifted pioneer in the area of  neurosurgery.
 At least from the view of having to support a strong man.
  You need to know is he a humble man? How does he deal with his children? How does he deal with those he works with? How does he treat his family?
 It may not be a complete unbiased picture. But it is a look at a man who has had struggles and worked through them.
  I decided to read this book because Carson was for a while one of the Republican candidates running for a chance to be in the 2016 election for United States President, or at least to be considered. He was attacked by Donald Trump and no one heard from him again or even knew anything about him. I just don't think it fair to him.
   It really doesn't matter what  your view of politics is. This is not that type of book.
   It has pictures from the family album.
   I consider it a book people should read to get a picture of  current black history. There are still people to look up to.

HRC by Jonathan Allen & Amie Parnes

She may try for the nomination again in 2016. Therefore you should know what you are going to be voting for.

Reading this book you come away with the feeling Hillary has a vindictive streak.  She keeps records of wrongs done her and seeks to repay.

 She is a type A personality and a choleric. She can make quick decisions and stick with them.  She will listen to you but her mind is already made up.

 “None can predict the future, and promises in Washington have a way of vanishing into the humid air, but to a remarkable degree, throughout her tenure at State, Hillary would stick to the philosophy and agenda she outlined in her confirmation hearing. Whether that’s a sign of a sound strategy or stubbornness, the continuity is undependable.” The authors point out.

She has accomplished great things in her years in politics that will portend her future activities.

The authors major on Hillary’s term as Secretary of State under Obama. They detail the decisions she make working with him and how she handled herself under pressure. After all, she may run in 2014 and you want to know what she may be like if elected to office

What drew me to this book is firstly that it isn’t written by Hillary. Therefore the facts can’t be bent to whitewash reality. Secondly the writers, Allen and Parnes, are newspaper reporters who cover this area normally. They can present facts that can be verified.  

I recommend this book for the general information it gives.

This book was sent to me gratis from bloggingforbooks.org for the purpose of review. I was not required to give a positive review. The opinions offered are those of the reviewer and do not reflect those of the publisher.

For copies of this book please use the link below.

HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton