President Trump: Making America Great Again...

[Commando]

His true crime was being too dumb to get away with it.

I mean, he's clearly done many many dumb things. I'm sure he paid those back taxes on the advice of very competent counsel, too. In fact, it was sound advice because those charges were initially declined as part of a plea deal, as per the normal course of these types of proceedings under these circumstances. I'm guessing his prior counsel didn't anticipate a Special Counsel being appointed to this matter e to satiate MAGA, though.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Too bad he can't go to jail for taking all that money from Ukraine and China to peddle influence. That's the real crime.

[PaloAltoCougar]

I acknowledge this should go in the "What Are You Reading Now Thread," or probably straight to trash because of its prolixity, but I really want to get this off my chest, so feel free to move on. The hot take tl;dr: Trump is a contemptible person of astonishingly low character.

Although I’d read Who’s Your Caddy? (including the chapter on Trump) and other Rick Reilly statements about Trump and his cheating, I decided to read Commander in Cheat over the past couple of wet afternoons. It is at once hilarious, informative, and depressing and I very strongly recommend it, if only to confirm all the negative thoughts and suspicions one has about Trump. As the lead-off quote (P.G. Wodehouse) declares, “To find a man’s true character, play golf with him.” Just a few of the hundreds of irrefutable examples:

Trump has often told his playing partners in a two-team match that the other team cheats, so they’ll have to do so as well. Related to that principle, when his teammate, former Lakers coach Mike Dunleavy, hit his ball to the front left edge of a kidney-shaped green with the flag on the back left edge (meaning that Dunleavy didn’t have a straight putt to the hole), before the other team got to the green, Trump moved Dunleavy’s ball up and to the center of the green, setting him up for a potentially makeable putt. Dunleavy shook his head, picked up his ball and put it back to the original spot, leading Trump to say, “That’s why you’re an unemployed coach and I’m worth $13 Billion.” Trump has convinced himself nearly everyone cheats and that only losers play by the rules.

He claims to have won at least 20 club championships, despite never having really done so, including a couple where he didn’t even play the course on the day of the tournament.

When shown overwhelming evidence that he is loathed by the people of Scotland, he shrugged and said, “they envy me because I f__ supermodels.”

Multiple caddies have reported that Trump has them carry extra-long tees so they can tee up his ball in the rough before others get near. He always speeds off from the tee to get to his ball before others can draw catch up (“The guy with the fastest cart never has a bad lie.”). Trump’s carts are equipped to go much faster than the standard models.

In the chapter entitled “EWWWW”, Reilly writes about Trump’s (perversely impressive) libido during golf tournaments, including sleeping with both a porn star and a Playboy playmate (and getting rebuffed by a second porn star), while his bride of six months and baby boy were back in NY. Writes Reilly, “Someday, at the Smithsonian Museum, they should have an exhibit on the 2006 weekend Trump spent at the American Century Celebrity Challenge in Lake Tahoe, California, perhaps with a vat of Purell for afterward.”

Again, there are many dozens (even hundreds) of other examples of Trump’s cheating and low character.

Reilly concludes with:

You might be thinking, “What does golf have to do with being president? Why does it matter that he cheats at it? What’s it got to do with leading the country?”

Everything.

If you’ll cheat to win at golf, is it that much further to cheat to win an election? To turn a Congressional vote? To stop an investigation?

If you’ll lie about every aspect of the game, is it that much further to lie about your taxes, your relationship with Russians, your groping of women?

…

I feel sorry for Donald Trump. I feel sorry for someone who has to juggle that many spinning lies, who has to fight that many endless feuds, who has to cheat and lie and insult so many good people, just to stand on a rickety first-place podium that never stops needing rebuilding. How exhausting must that be?

The truth is, the person in golf Donald Trump cheats the most is himself. He’s cheating himself of the joy, the endless challenge, golf brings. Every golfer who loves the game loves it for the battle it brings within himself—Can I rise up to be as good as I want to be today? In life, we’re defined by the obstacles we overcome. That’s the stuff we hang on our inner wall. But if you cheat to get around those obstacles, you never know the thrill of actually beating them.

It's like buying a trophy in a pawn shop, you can shine it up and show it off and pretend you won it, but when you get close to it, it only reflects the face of a loser,

Again, I highly recommend the book. I do not understand how anyone can vote for Trump to represent our nation and to be the leader of the free world. Shame on them.

[Jeff Lebowski]

You guys catch this hilarious news from yesterday? Trump's doofus attorney (Habba) told the judge in the Jean Carroll case that she couldn't be in court for a few days because her parents had covid and she herself was sick. Elise Stefanik and other MAGA idiots accused the judge of delaying the hearing to hurt trump in NH which was quickly debunked because Habba herself requested the delay.

Anyway, it turns out she blatantly lied about her sickness and just wanted to be in NH with trump. Some dumb MAGA kid takes a picture with her and publishes it, thus exposing the lie:

Embedded Tweet

Then the kid gets booted from the event by trump security.

Embedded Tweet

Absolute clown show.

[Bo Diddley]

Absolute clown show.

[Northwestcoug]

Habba's law practice is tainted, so now she runs with the grift.

[Commando]

lol this is going to do wonders for the judge's patience with Team Trump...

[YOhio]

Again, I highly recommend the book. I do not understand how anyone can vote for Trump to represent our nation and to be the leader of the free world. Shame on them.

PAC I love you so I'm going to speak to you directly. I beseech you to minimize your consumption of Trump content. It will do nothing but frustrate you and bring you despair. It will make you less tolerant and loving of your fellow man. I've been there and it was miserable with little to gain. I couldn't dislike him even more than I already did. It was as if I was performing a reverse 13th Article of Faith and seeking any and all criticism of a man I despised. It caused riff between me and friends/family who supported him. Life is much better since I decided to passively dislike him and recognize that there are some very good people who, for reasons I can't fathom, still support him.

There are thousands of books out there that will uplift and inspire you. There are thousands of books that will entertain, intrigue, provoke thought, or just make you laugh. Read or listen to those. You don't need anything else

[PaloAltoCougar]

PAC I love you so I'm going to speak to you directly. I beseech you to minimize your consumption of Trump content. It will do nothing but frustrate you and bring you despair. It will make you less tolerant and loving of your fellow man. I've been there and it was miserable with little to gain. I couldn't dislike him even more than I already did. It was as if I was performing a reverse 13th Article of Faith and seeking any and all criticism of a man I despised. It caused riff between me and friends/family who supported him. Life is much better since I decided to passively dislike him and recognize that there are some very good people who, for reasons I can't fathom, still support him.

There are thousands of books out there that will uplift and inspire you. There are thousands of books that will entertain, intrigue, provoke thought, or just make you laugh. Read or listen to those. You don't need anything else

Thank you, my brother. I know this to be true, and yet... I was in the middle of three other books: Nabokov's autobiography (Speak, Memory), 1493, and The Anarchy (an old HappyOne recommendation, and it's very good), and felt I needed a quick, amusing read. So I turned to Rick Reilly. He delivered. But I recognize that reading the seemingly limitless volumes proving Trump is our era's greatest snake oil salesman is akin to the Turkish Delight that the White Witch in The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe uses to attract Edmund to a life filled with despair. It's delicious at first, but the more one eats. the less satisfying it becomes and one must consume ever more to achieve the first-time pleasure. Truly I need help. Will you be my sponsor?

[YOhio]

Thank you, my brother. I know this to be true, and yet... I was in the middle of three other books: Nabokov's autobiography (Speak, Memory), 1493, and The Anarchy (an old HappyOne recommendation, and it's very good), and felt I needed a quick, amusing read. So I turned to Rick Reilly. He delivered. But I recognize that reading the seemingly limitless volumes proving Trump is our era's greatest snake oil salesman is akin to the Turkish Delight that the White Witch in The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe uses to attract Edmund to a life filled with despair. It's delicious at first, but the more one eats. the less satisfying it becomes and one must consume ever more to achieve the first-time pleasure. Truly I need help. Will you be my sponsor?

I'm pretty busy maybe see if Uncle Ted is free.

[Jeff Lebowski]

PAC I love you so I'm going to speak to you directly. I beseech you to minimize your consumption of Trump content. It will do nothing but frustrate you and bring you despair. It will make you less tolerant and loving of your fellow man. I've been there and it was miserable with little to gain. I couldn't dislike him even more than I already did. It was as if I was performing a reverse 13th Article of Faith and seeking any and all criticism of a man I despised. It caused riff between me and friends/family who supported him. Life is much better since I decided to passively dislike him and recognize that there are some very good people who, for reasons I can't fathom, still support him.

There are thousands of books out there that will uplift and inspire you. There are thousands of books that will entertain, intrigue, provoke thought, or just make you laugh. Read or listen to those. You don't need anything else

I have mentioned this before, but my wife and I are the only ones in her family or mine that aren't trump fans. If politics come up in conversation, we just politely change the topic.

My mother (may she rest in peace) considered me her lost son because of my "liberal" beliefs. Ha.

[PaloAltoCougar]

I'm pretty busy maybe see if Uncle Ted is free.

Thanks for the rec. I've been missing Ted, although asking him to help me overcome my issues is a bit like Boris Yeltsin sponsoring an alcoholic.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Trump ordered to pay $83M in the Jean Carroll case. Far beyond what they were asking for. I guess continuing to go after the poor woman in the middle of the trial did not win over the jury.

[Bo Diddley]

Trump ordered to pay $83M in the Jean Carroll case. Far beyond what they were asking for. I guess continuing to go after the poor woman in the middle of the trial did not win over the jury.

Yowzers! How much of that do you think she'll see?

[fusnik]

Trump ordered to pay $83M in the Jean Carroll case. Far beyond what they were asking for. I guess continuing to go after the poor woman in the middle of the trial did not win over the jury.

I’m sure, if he ever pays, he’ll find a way to get the GOP to pay for it like they pay for his legal counsel.