Memory Lane: Did You Forget about the Golf?
[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]
It’s a summer Saturday which has always been a golf day in Chez Rayne. Not that I’ve always played golf on this day of the week but I can count on my spouse hitting the links every Saturday from spring to fall.
Likewise you can bet your ass the orange-tinted former bawbag is playing golf.
Just as you could count on him playing golf while he was president, for more than 22% of his days he served in office.
What, you forgot that lard ass mooched off taxpayers this badly? Apparently the media has zero interest in reminding you.
But Joe Biden is old.
Sadly, the Trump Golf Count website has been shuttered; it’s only available now in the Internet Archive. Would an imperial presidency permit a new golf count website if Trump is the imperial president?
Would we be able to learn just how badly Trump fucks taxpayers while cheating on his golf courses?
Will Trump screw with foreign and domestic policy by continuing Trump org’s relationship with LIV Golf, dispatching critics by bone saw as an official act?
Will the media accidentally video Trump saying, “Grab ’em by the wallet. They’ll let you do that if you’re king.”
This is an open thread.
I’ve written before about golf as a means to profiteer including money laundering.
Now imagine all that money laundering being absolutely beyond the DOJ’s ability to investigate because Trump deems golf with anyone an official act.
He’s already demonstrated during his first term how he’ll use his golf resorts, from meetings with foreign dignitaries to a site for collecting classified materials to gathering of shadow groups to carve up our government and tax dollars.
TRUMP’s DOJ will NOT be investigating the King.
Thanks for this open thread, Rayne.
With this reminder of how much time Trump spent playing golf and then the reminder of the amount of “Executive Time” that Trump had on his daily schedule from the Moynihan article Harpie linked to, I’m once again seething about all of the Biden is old, Biden must go BS this week. Think I’ll go make another Fuck the Haters donation to the Biden campaign. And several other democracy saving orgs.
Not about golf, but about the child of Don Black, the founder of Stormfront. Derek’s book was published in May. He used to drive by Mar-a-Lago in a truck:
“The Klansman’s Son — R Derek Black explores a white supremacist past” – 4/30/24
“R Derek Black has been described as the “first child” of American white nationalism. Born in 1989, they — Black now uses they/them pronouns — are the child of Don Black, founder, in 1995, of the neo-Nazi website Stormfront, described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as the first major hate site on the internet.”
“Black’s mother’s first husband was David Duke, the longtime leader of the Ku Klux Klan, and a powerful figure in R Derek Black’s life. The family lived in West Palm Beach, Florida, where as a young adult Black would drive a truck, complete with Confederate flag sticker on the back, past a club called Mar-a-Lago.”
https://www.ft.com/content/fa9ca30d-db33-4091-abd0-a9dd2bf18f8e
A big change in thinking: ‘The Klansman’s Son’ – 7/1/24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMsEi8EDVy0
Trump Tries, Fails to Distance Himself From Project 2025 It’s still his blueprint for governing, no matter what he says. https://newrepublic.com/post/183493/trump-tries-fails-distance-project-2025 Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling July 5, 2024/1:35 p.m. ET
File this whine alongside all of his denials of sex w/a porn star, collusion w/russia, etc, etc, etc anything to do with accountability
https://bsky.app/profile/donmoyn.bsky.social/post/3kwmtxgxeup2c
Jul 6, 2024 at 12:14 PM
Links to:
Troubling Signs of Cognitive Decline as Trump Struggles to Recognize Closest Aides “I know nothing about Project 2025” statement triggers new concerns about his fitness to serve https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/troubling-signs-of-cognitive-decline Don Moynihan Jul 06, 2024
I can’t tell if Moynihan is actually serious about his concern or if he’s essentially trolling Trump by using Trump’s usual bit of denying he knows people who have become troublesome to Trump World. If being linked to Project 2025 brings any kind of criticism on Trump, of course he’s going to deny any knowledge of or involvement with.
IIRC, Trump, early on, claimed not to know Stormy Daniels or E. Jean Carroll. It’s another bit Trump does like Trump’s stories of big men, strong men thanking him with tears in their eyes.
Pretty sure it’s sarcastically poking fun at the MSM’s 200+ “Biden is old” stories, because that headline is EXACTLY the kind of shit the NYT has been running for the past week on the President.
And today, an article with a headline suggesting that Trump is changing the definition of “felon” from a bad thing to a great thing. The article itself says nothing of the sort.
Besides gaming about Project 2025, Trump is specifically trying a straddle on the abortion question. It’s now a loser to be hard Christian on it, so change course seems to be his will to weasel. The GOP platform will be set behind closed doors.
https://platformintegrityproject.com/
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/12/politics/trump-rnc-abortion-platform/index.html
https://www.mediamatters.org/project-2025/amidst-intra-party-fight-over-gop-abortion-platform-project-2025-partner-launches
With embedded 6 min video, Tony Perkins noting he’s on the platform committee and wants “prolife” as a plank.
Trump’s Agenda 47 is his staking territory – do a word search there = life
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47
So, not only trying to disavow Project 2025, trying to say states decide, etc. Going squishy on abortion – WHY?
One possible explanation with the MSM obsession w/Biden’s candidacy is that they are making a play to pull in the usual viewership of Fox ‘News”.
I’ve wondered about that, too. I can rationalize it for brief periods of time, but I want to believe I don’t believe that’s correct. Mostly because I believe that w/could be tragically insane, if true.
And we’ve witnessed enough tragically insane.
But if that’s not it, what? I don’t know.
They like at least 8 characters in user name here, but I should probably stay in my lane. Maybe they know you and it’s cool.
Peace.
A.G. Sulzberger has said in an interview that he thinks the biggest untapped market for the NYT is Fox-viewing right wingers, so yeah, that’s part of their motivation for this shit. CNN has also taken a major lurch to the right over the past year.
CNN is a WB-Discovery asset. The difference between that profit slut Sulzberger and CNN’s uppermost management is that the latter is wholly conscious of changing its media assets’ ideological bent without regard to profits.
see: https://www.vox.com/2022/8/26/23322761/cnn-john-malone-david-zaslav-chris-licht-brian-stelter-fox-peter-kafka-column (and fuck John Malone, media parasite)
The merger allowed WB-Discovery to obtain both changes in media ecosystem ideology AND financial benefits by killing in production/awaiting release content which was diverse, ex. the spiking of the latest Wonder Woman movie with a woman lead and a woman director.
If NYT is chasing the Fox audience, they’re making the same mistake cable networks made chasing Fox during the late 1990s/run-up to Iraq War. They’re leaving the left underserved and the left has plenty of money for media.
Yep, but trying to attract the left generally requires doing more actual work; with the right, you just figure out what they’re screaming about this week and jump on the bandwagon. Personally, I think that’s why they’re jumping on THIS bandwagon; it’s the rare situation where they can pull in the left using the lazy tactics that work on the right.
This line came from WaPo’s right wing stable and I had to double-check that I wasn’t on the Fox News website:
“t’s almost hard to believe how comprehensively the hubris and zealotry of anti-Donald Trump lawfare have blown up in their practitioners’ faces.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/07/03/garland-trump-roberts-presidential-immunity
Jason Willick makes George Will look reasonable, sans the thesaurus-enhanced baseball references.
It appeared that WaPo brought in the perpetually aggrieved Stanford libertarian bro from the editorial side of the WSJ in 2022 to further capitalize on the existing angertainment duo of Thiessen and Hewitt.
Willick’s screeds generate thousands of angry comments, some of which reference his mother while also suggesting he engage in acts of physical contortion.
It’s not journalism. It’s monetized pig wrestling.
I cancelled our long-standing subscription to WaPo. The last article I clicked and read was one of their (older) climate stories. Sad, disheartening state: a once stalwart publication now turned into a tabloid.
Brilliantly stated. The angertainment angle is really what the WaPo editorial board has gone all-in on. I have never been a media basher in my younger days, but now I’ve come to realize that “she was right”.
How many bad business deals have been cooked up at the 19th Hole at the Men’s Grill at exclusive country clubs? There is something about a long drive, no matter how errant, that convinces businessmen that hitting the long ball equates to success in business. When I play golf with my young grand nephews, I repeat “Drive for show, putt for dough.”.
Perhaps you can take the measure of a person by looking at how they play golf, because good golf requires more than just power. It also requires physical and emotional control, course management, and, the ability to bounce back after the errant shot. Of course, playing with the guy who takes mulligans on many holes, doesn’t count penalty strokes, calls a 20 ft putt a gimme, and manages to come in first at his own tournament also speaks volumes. But the one event that sticks with me about Trump is when he drove his golf cart on to the green. Such disrespect.
And remember … after slightly modifying his Bedminster golf course to get a tax deduction for the burial site of an ex-wife and mother to his children,
“A year later, the matter of Ivana’s final resting place is now once again in the news. Over the weekend, the Daily Mail published photos of Ivana‘s plain headstone overgrown with grass, with patches of dirt and weeds nearby. (The section is also reportedly cordoned off, preventing people from approaching it.)”
You’d think her kids would want the grave maintained but nope…unless they know it’s not really just a grave.
What am I saying? It’s already a tax avoidance opportunity.
That’s actually true, because of its current status as a ‘cemetery’ which allows certain property tax breaks. I wonder if the ground was consecrated otherwise or if the officiant exploded in flames for trying.
The MSM courtier press failures are obscene, predictable and another example in a long tedious litany of horse race journamalism. The C-suite will never learn as long as they think they can make a buck.
Stolen secrets may hide in that grave.
Sure seems odd it took so many pallbearers straining to carry that woman’s coffin. But we’ll probably never know the truth.
Excellent piece; love the passion!
The media executives self censor themselves to curry favor with Trump.
They fear being put into the “Trump Penalty Box” and indefinitely excluded from having a seat in the Trump Dining Car on the Trump Gravy Train, all the while knowing the Trump Dining Car is nothing but an overpriced greasy spoon.
IANAL but I grew up playing golf and having fun with my pals.
I stopped playing for various reasons but still watch tournaments on Sunday. I truly admire any incredible shot or putt.
Trump continues to ruin the game. Money laundrying and fraud built into his golf courses and partnering with Saudi oil wealth. I personally hate the LIV and lost respect for all the great players who left the PGA —as Rory Mcilroy said “for boatloads of cash.”
Trump is a tub of lard and cheats. If you do like to play golf he’s the kind of obnoxious distraction you want to avoid playing with. He doesn’t love the skills of the game. He only wants to win.
Nor does he really promote the game itself. I believe any kid should have access to participate. Teach how to aim, swing, and figure out strategic thinking to get out of the results of your shots. Don’t beat yourself up. A good shot really feels good.
Trump poisons the intrinsic value of what golf is like he has ruined one thing after another for personal gain and corrosive oneupmanship.
I hope Scotland keeps him off their sacred soil.
The film the Trump Organization tried to suppress | You’ve Been Trumped Too (2020) | Full Film
Investigative journalist Anthony Baxter travels between the US Presidential race and the Scottish countryside to chronicle the troubling confrontation between Donald Trump and a feisty 92-year-old widow, Molly Forbes, as she refuses to make way for his golf course. This shocking insight to a David and goliath battle is a remarkable document of the disconnect between political rhetoric and the lives of ordinary people.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9RweR9EUSg)
I’m just gobsmacked that the accusations of child rape made against Trump using the Epstein files have made no entry into the national media. You’d think that would be a juicier story than “Joe Biden is old.” You’d think that the former would sell more papers, clicks, eyeballs, whatever than the latter.
I suppose I shouldn’t be gobsmacked.
Marcy had what I perceived to be a warning in that regard on:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/07/05/fridays-with-nicole-sandler-21/
Biden won’t put the news media on an enemies list or shut down a newspaper or station if they incessantly write about him being old. I think a lot of the media are afraid of a Trump victory and the “retribution”.
You would think that the obvious solution to this is not to hide the unfavorable stories so he loses. They have to know that loyalty is a one way street to Trump and that they be on the enemies list in short order if he wins no matter what their coverage looks like.
Sigh. You would think.
Golf courses are the open-air version of the Robber Barons’ smoke-filled rooms. It’s hard to surveil players, who are alone for hours, and who have half a day to quietly make deals, order sanctions and discipline, and engage in the casual but vicious misogyny and racism that often define in-groups and which is inherent in many private golf clubs.
Augusta National Honors Tiger Woods With Own Drinking Fountain
https://www.theonion.com/augusta-national-honors-tiger-woods-with-own-drinking-f-1819564314
I’m certain entities have figured out how to surveil Trump on the course. Given how easily Mar-a-Lago has been compromised it would take little to reach into Trump’s golf courses and place bugs on golf carts, golf bags, other accessories or fly drones into wooded areas above rough adjacent to tees, fairways, and greens — for starters.
Or negotiate deals with Trump org to host golf tournaments or build a resort, both providing ample opportunity to surveil Trump and all his minions.
We’re just not privy to the information obtained.
I meant hard except for professionals, but then they’d be the ones doing it. Probably an overwhelming percentage of them would have interests adverse to the US.
While I was at Penn State, “Senior Bush” came through on a campaign stop. I was a student – auxiliary cop (walking the campus at night and directing traffic) and we helped the Secret Service with crowd control while they swept the grounds for three days before his visit. My guess is that all the golf gear is swept regularly. However, “technical surveillance” is developed by really imaginary and patient people. His Palm Beach golf course is across from the Palm Beach airport, while his New Jersey golf club is deep in farm land. The airport gives overlook access with an easy cover for radio frequency activity. Similarly, hills on farmland provide overlook with possible access for optical observation.
An infamous Soviet bug https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)
Scanning technology is only as good as the personnel using it.
The kind of personnel which didn’t see these guys:
White House Secret Service personnel ‘compromised’ by men impersonating DHS agents, prosecutors say April 2022
Four Secret Service agents were disciplined after getting snookered by imposter federal cops February 2024
Not to mention the two Chinese nationals who accessed Mar-a-Lago in late 2019-early 2020.
Sounds like a lot of work when someone could just pick the Mar A Lago storage room lock.
I suspect that there are locker room attendants, caddies, groundskeepers, etc who can be given hefty gratuities for information. Just think about Cassidy Hutchinson. The “help” is invisible to big shot execs. And to the extent that the help is noticed, the big shots assume that the important stuff discussed would not be comprehensible to the help.
Reply to RitaRita
July 7, 2024 at 8:54 am
Reminds me about the Robert Kraft solicitation scandal: the Mar-a-Lago website page for services was changed during the press hullabaloo after Kraft was charged. I wish I’d thought to archive the page then, have always wondered what they were trying to hide.
Reply to RitaRita
7 July 2024, 8:54 a.m.
Especially when the help speaks all those “languages nobody ever heard of.”
1. Convicted Felon’s fake history:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/donald-trump-civil-war-monument/
“How would they know that?” Mr. Trump asked when told that local historians had called his plaque a fiction. “Were they there?”
Mr. Trump repeatedly said that “numerous historians” had told him that the golf club site was known as the River of Blood. But he said he did not remember their names.
Then he said the historians had spoken not to him but to “my people.” But he refused to identify any [employees] who might still possess the historians’ names.
“Write your story the way you want to write it,” Mr. Trump said finally, when pressed unsuccessfully for anything that could corroborate his claim. “You don’t have to talk to anybody. It doesn’t make any difference. But many people were shot. It makes sense.”
2. Biden rides a bike. Convicted Felon rides a cart.
3. Fox News still hasn’t reported Rudy’s disbarment.
I keep wondering whether there is some Election Day option that has opened up, in the wake of the SCOTUS ruling for an Imperial President, that Biden could use for good –such as lowering barriers to register to vote and lowering barriers to voting itself?
I assume Biden now can call the governors of the red states and DEMAND to see their voting booth plans, specifically the plans targeting the communities with larger concentrations of minorities with insufficient polling booths at inconvenient polling stations?
Can Biden demand amendments to their plans and thereby eliminate the 3 hour+ voting lines for minority voters that are often the news headline every presidential election?
November 5, 2024 is a Tuesday as is the case for EVERY presidential election.
Can Biden make a Presidential Decree, declaring THIS year everyone (in America) has that day off from work to vote? Does Biden have the ability now to pay people a tip for voting, after the election, and not be accused of handing out bribes?
Technically a presidential decree (if it is a possibility) would not establish a National Holiday, so Congress would not even need to give its consent.
No doubt the right wing members of SCOTUS would want to trim Biden’s wings, which would still be a win for democracy if it put some restraints on their Imperial President formulation. And if not legally possible, just Biden saying these things out loud, eliminating barriers to all to vote, would cause Mitch ([Democrats] ‘making Election Day a national holiday is a power grab’) McConnell to take a spin on the fainting couch.
No, Biden cannot do these things, nor should he mention them outloud, unless he wants to abdicate all moral high ground and demoralize the Democratic base further. Well, he can ask for what he wants from red-state governors, but they’ll laugh into their phones and do nothing.
Joe Biden is unlikely to abuse his authority. If I were in his position, however, I would be sorely tempted to direct the Department of Justice to prosecute Clarence Thomas for filing false financial disclosures under 18 U.S.C. § 1001 and, if anyone participated with him, for conspiracy to commit an offense under 18 U.S.C. § 371.
Years of not disclosing gifts and Ginni’s income. I wonder what might be found on Alito and Beer Kav?
While I have mixed feelings about Raw Story, Sarah K. Burris covered yesterday’s Ball of Thread:
“ ‘Don’t want Trump to win’: Security expert pinpoints origin of ex-president’s victim gripe”
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-russia-2668691602/
[Rayne,
I apologize in advance for only partially deleting this post on “Fridays” when I realized I meant to post on this open thread. ]
[No biggie. Appropriate either place. :-) /~Rayne]
Golf-smolf. Trump is a convicted felon. Period. That means that, in order to be a convicted felon, he had to have committed some crimes, right? Golf courses, cheating when he plays the game, all that is laundered money and lying. We all know this. The Media know it, and yet, the dramatically-restrained interview of Pres. Biden, led by “Georgie” at ABC, was cringe-producing in its pious, relentless, attack on Biden’s age and mental faculties.
I am in my 80s. I have a few friends, also in their 80s, who range from: brilliant, still, able to think clearly, but physically impaired in some way: Parkinson’s, kidney failure, cancer treatments. Each one of them can still express themselves, coherently. The problems, physical in nature, come with age. The fatigue level is on the surface. They need more rest.
Could any one of them hold up, re: fatigue, under the schedule of a President? No, emphatically, no. Mentally? Well, take it from me as an almost 84 year old, the mind needs rest, but when awake can think acutely, complex thoughts.
Biden needs rest. He is not mentally impaired as far as I could see in that interview on ABC.
But he is more frail in appearance, and his speech reflects that frailty. He is, however, not a one man band. He has a Cabinet, huge agencies who do the work of government, ambassadors, etc., and staff in his immediate circle to help him with the details. Let’s face it,
the presidency is a cooperative venture. It is only as good as the integrity of its leader and his/her intelligence. Birds of a feather flock together. Quality counts. Biden has quality. And so do his “helpers” in the Administration. Contrast that with those terrible years of Trump’s rule: the constant overturn of personnel and Cabinet members, Ambassadors, etc.
When all the self-interested politicians, the ambitious so-called journalists, and the Oligarchy who “own” these folks stop flooding the National dialogue with hand-wringing and ignoring the fact of what a political, social, and business monster Trump is, maybe, we can think about constructive things again. We know what they are: better campaign financing rules;
better Legislation, re-inforcement of the Principles of our Constitutional form of government,
and fair practices in law enforcement, not to mention Justice in the Courts.
Maybe, the Democratic Party needs to spend some money on better PR messaging: contrast the old man, 71, Felon, sex-abuser, rapist, extortionist, Russian Mafia-Putinist accomplice with a loving Father, Grandfather, honest, Church-going, compassionate/empathetic, honest old man who have solved many of the economic, International, social problems created by prior years of Republican malfeasance and criminality. Just focus!
Keep your eyes on the prize! How about, more pictures of Trump in a golf cart vs. Biden on a bicycle.
Don’t blow off golf, Magbeth4. Your “Golf-smolf” attitude toward it explains why it hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves by media.
“It’s just sports,” or “It’s just business.” Nope — this felon has already proven repeatedly he will use business as a means to defraud the people. He is known for his cheating at golf as well, which suggests his golf resort businesses are just that: opportunities to defraud the public using golf as his tool.
Why don’t we know who bought memberships at his courses during his term in office? What an easy way to gain access without the nuisance of inconvenient-to-fence diamonds. What an easy way to traffic humans through service jobs. What an easy way to network with other organized crime members masquerading as public officials.
ADDER: I meant to add that by way of golf Trump denied us Honest Services to the tune of $144,000,000 at a minimum, right under our noses by way of golf. If there’s messaging needed it’s right there — Trump’s gotten away with all kinds of theft from our pockets already. He doesn’t need another chance to do more.
Elite golf courses are less about sport than a dedicated sub-culture. They are a shared expression of wealth and elite status, a place to commit the routine communism of mutual, exclusionary support within a small in-group, and a place to do business privately, notwithstanding formal rules about not discussing business in the clubhouse.
They represent the ability to exclude the peasantry and their concerns about how to earn their daily bread, barring, of course, the guys who shine your shoes, clean your clubs, locker room, and shower, and the many more who keep those lawns and fairways pristine.
As Rayne suggests, owning a club, for Trump, might also be a wonderful way to launder money and continue the grift.
The Australian who talked about Trump telling him about nuclear subs weaponry admitted that he joined Mar A Lago for access to Trump.
Republican fundraisers are held at Mar a Lago – PAC money siphoned off to pay the hefty event fees. Out one pocket and into the other. Trump knows how to get other people’s money.
Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy creditors noted that Trump hasn’t paid Giuliani’s fees despite numerous requests. I suspect that Trump has paid in ways to avoid scrutiny. Unfortunately for him, Bankruptcy Courts will want to see the evidence of payment.
Perceptive essay by Rebecca Solnit, on how the press is, “doing exactly what they did in the 2016 presidential race – providing wildly asymmetrical and inflammatory coverage of the one candidate running against Donald J Trump.”
I would add, without doing much to cover Trump, except to dismiss his increasingly violent and insurrectionist language – and his Project 2025 – with a perfunctory, “Oh, that’s just Trump.” The discrepancy implies we can safely ignore him, which is dead wrong, and has the effect of giving Trump a tollbooth- and radar-free highway to Dictatorship.
“[It] appears to be a journalistic competition to outdo each other in the aggressiveness of the attacks and the unreality of the proposals.” The obvious endgame would be another, subsidized Trump victory. Who benefits from that?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/06/biden-trump-race-rebecca-solnit
They’re thinking like Les Moonves. “This may not be good for the US, but it’s good for CBS!”
Except it won’t be, and they refuse to see it.
“MSNBC in disarray: Biden’s debate crisis meets liberal self-delusion. Democrats’ house network [sic] circles the wagons around Joe Biden, risking its last vestiges of credibility.”
This is the sort of crap I would expect the Heritage Foundation to ghost write. It’s like worms coming out of the woodwork. The author, David Masciotra, doesn’t spare a word for the laundry list of vulnerabilities that are Donald Trump’s. His insults and exaggerated, loaded phrases target only Democrats and substitute for analysis. It mimics Trumpian projection about a cabal of insiders hiding Biden’s frailties, to hoodwink the American people. If Masciotra, is a leftist, he’s joined Yves Smith around the horseshoe bend. The “collective delusion” is not MSNBC’s, it’s Masciotra’s.
Sure, Hollywood central casting might imagine a different pair of Democratic politicians who could shine in the limelight. But we don’t have a clean slate, the primary season is over, and the convention is around the corner. Changing horses in midstream is not recommended, unless you want the horses, wagon, and you to go spinning down the rapids.
https://www.salon.com/2024/07/06/msnbc-in-disarray-bidens-debate-meets-liberal-self-delusion/
I am so tired of this bashing of Biden. The NYT etc. are relentless. But here’s Bloomberg out of the blue tonight:
Politics
The Big Take
Biden Narrows Gap With Trump in Swing States Despite Debate Loss
The incumbent trails his GOP rival by just 2 points across key states, a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult shows, even as three in 10 Democrats say he should leave the race.
By Gregory Korte and Mark Niquette
July 6, 2024 at 9:00 AM EDT
Save
That poll isn’t exactly good news, or maybe it’s the exception that proves the rule. It shows Biden ahead in Michigan and Wisconsin, but he is behind in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. The fact that this is one of the better polling results for Biden shows how bad the numbers have been for him generally. Is it possible that there has been a consistent polling error in Trump’s direction? Yes. But I think just betting that the polls must be wrong, and that 2020’s Biden voters will all turn out again, is a hell of a gamble to make, especially when Democratic Senate candidates consistently poll better than the president.
The question of whether Biden should cede the nomination to Harris should be about which candidate is most likely to be able to make up ground and/or convince undecided voters who are ignorant, pay little attention, and often choose based on surface impressions. Should the threat of Trump, along with Biden’s record, be enough to convince them to vote for Biden? Yes. Will it be? Probably not. Biden deserves a second term based on his accomplishments as president, but that doesn’t mean he’d be a better candidate than Harris in 2024.
Fuck polling. It’s possible Clinton made the wrong moves in 2016 because polling internal and external was bad. Polling can’t explain why Michigan had a record undervote in 2016.
I’d rather pay closer attention to what historian Alan Lichtman said about data, and what we can do to move the data.
I listened to a dialogue on MSNBC between Allan Lichtman, Jackie Alemany of the Washington Post and, Ali Velshi (I think). Jackie Alemany repeated the media’s analogy du jour about Republican Senators telling Nixon to withdraw after Watergate revelations and suggested Democrats could do the same to Biden. Lichtman pointed out that Nixon wasn’t a candidate, he was President, and was about to be impeached and indicted for Watergate crimes, so not analogous at all. And his tone was such that if she were his student, she’d be sure that she wasn’t acing his course. He noted that the closest analogy would be if Democrats had suggested to FDR that he withdraw before he ran for his third term, which they didn’t. She got schooled. But its dubious that that will be sufficient to get her to stop repeating conventional wisdom.
Different Republican Party: some in leadership were willing to do the right thing. Even so, Nixon had committed a laundry list of crimes. The GOP wanted to bury them and avoid the spectacle of public impeachment and trial, which could ruin other members of the party or simply derail for years the party’s chances of holding power.
Absolutely, a poor analogy. As you say, pointing it out won’t dissuade the WaPo and others from pursuing it and similarly bad analogies with gusto.
Yes, it’s true that Clinton may have made campaign errors due to bad polling. But it’s hard to gain a picture of broader voter sentiment without taking polls into account, even though with a grain of salt. My fear is that Democrats performing better than polls predicted in 2022 might lead to too quick a dismissal of warning signs in 2024.
What are the odds that Trump spends campaign cash to ‘correct’ polling results? Perhaps since 2016? No evidence of it, but it would be perfectly on-brand.
I haven’t seen evidence that President Biden is unable to discharge his duties for the remainder of his current term. I have recently developed serious doubts about his ability to defeat Donald Trump in November. I hope that Biden will release his delegates and allow the Democratic National Convention to nominate someone else.
The last national party convention where the nominee was not a foregone conclusion was the 1976 Republican convention. A wide open Democratic convention during August would make for riveting viewing.
In that 1976 contested convention between President Gerald Ford, the unelected incumbent President who secured the nomination by beating Ronald Reagan for the nomination. Ford then lost to Jimmy Carter.
The winner of a contested convention has never won the US Presidency, you can believe history repeats its self or chance it.
Jess Piper, executive director of Blue Missouri, says buck up; rural Americans aren’t easy prey:
https://jesspiper.substack.com/p/the-loudest-pundits-dont-talk-to
Jess Piper’s is always an important voice!
To Magbeth4
Brilliant commentary on what the Democratic Party is all about.
You highlighted all the reasons why
I cannot understand why anyone would embrace the Republican Party
Thanks for your input
Rayne – thank you for reminding us of what a lazy president Trump was the first time! Being four years older now, I’m sure his work ethic hasn’t improved. Trump’s golf game says a lot about his character. He also apparently asks for multiple mulligans every round and drives his golf carts across the greens of his own courses! (Which is considered to be the ultimate breach of golf etiquette):https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/06/22/what-the-hell-trump-president-upsets-golf-fans-after-driving-cart-on-green/
I can’t stress enough Trump wasn’t just lazy by checking out +22% of his time in office, or hypocritical in his accusations about other presidents not being present (ex. his accusations that Obama golfed so much, ha).
Trump was stealing from us every time he spent time on his own golf courses. How many children could have been fed lunches with $144 million? How many masks or vaccinations could have been bought with that money?
We also may never know how else we were shortchanged by his cultivation of cronyism among his resort members. Hope to gods we never have to wonder whether those same cronies will pick up where they left off come 2025.
IMO, Dotard managed the dubious achievement of making GWB and his 1000 vacation days in 8 years seem like a workaholic by comparison.
Golf is just stage dressing. Trump owns the course, so, like Blofeld, he can do what he wants with it: cheat every stroke; make himself club champion for rounds so bad, he could never submit them for a handicap; and admit or deny membership to whomever he pleases. It’s not about the game. It’s about abusing it to enhance his persona.
Owning the club, of course, would allow him to engage in grift and financial fraud, something Trump seems to do with every transaction he engages in.
My favorite golf event of the year will be teeing off later this week. It’s the American Century Golf Championship at Lake Tahoe, and features sports and entertainment celebrities with a wide range of golf skills just having a great time. I’ve been twice. It’s a bunch of fun and a beautiful setting.
Although the format usually has threesomes, my dream foursome from this year’s confirmed celebs would have to be: Aaron Rodgers, Travis Kelce, Colin Jost, and Bret Baier. That is a group I’d surely be following the full 18 holes.
Here is the full list of participants:
https://americancenturychampionship.com/category/celebrities/
There are a few dick heads
In that motley crew.
Fucking golf is a metaphor
for life circa 2024.
Is this the Celebrity Golf Tournament where Stormy Daniels had her Dinner with Trump? I will never be able to watch that tournament without thinking about the liaisons and assignations. Too many “playuhs”.
Years ago I played golf there. I didn’t cover myself in glory that day. But it was a beautiful, sunny day.
That was probably the tournament. If so, Trump seems to have captured the “Closest to the Hole” competition.
Fcuk Aaron Rodgers.
Why do these things always come out via bent media like the NY Post? Its supposed scoop from a purported review of WH visitor logs claims that a Walter Reed neurologist has visited the WH eight times since August 2023. The article is replete with questions about why Biden refuses to take an independent cognitive test and release its findings publicly.
I don’t remember any of these demands or attention concerning the endless gaffs, hesitant gait, and lack of coordination exhibited by Trump in and out of office. When he was president, we were supposed to believe without question Ronny Jackson’s facially absurd claims about Trump’s superhuman mental and physical health, including laughable self-asserted claims about his height and weight. Oh, and we’re still waiting, among other things, for Trump’s latest financial disclosure forms. What else about Trump is this distracting us from?
Since the article offers no guidance about what routine preventive medical care for an eighty-year-old man – with probably the hardest job in the world – would look like, I assume this is another coordinated right wing hit piece, intended to sow doubt and chaos.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/06/joe-biden-neurologist-doctor-meeting
Pure speculation on my part, but the Portugese Bend landslide complex in Palos Verdes has been moving at an astonishing rate of 13 inches per week, doing significant damage to houses located in the zone and even creating new beaches:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-07-07/rancho-palos-verdes-uplifting-sea-floor-creating-new-beach
Mentioning this because the Trump National golf course is right next door to the Portugese Bend area and must be affected in some way. I’ve seen major water drainage diversion work on the edge of the Trump property (where the driving range is) recently when biking past it. Now bikes are prohibited from the main roadway in the area for at least 6 months because it’s too dangerous with major cracks appearing all the time. Let’s hope the the Trump National falls into the sea – c’mon mother nature!
IIRC, he got that course at a discount because one of its holes had already gone downhill, literally.
It’s the rain last winter, mostly, but the area has been slipping since forever, and grading the area for streets and houses made it worse. Plus the landscaping needing water… (They had to close Wayfarer’s Chapel because it had slide problems; they’re not sure if it can be stabilized.)
Yeah, I do recall hearing about the golf course’s previous owners going out of business because the hole closest to the ocean had sunk.
Trump also had to agree to allow public access from the main road, onto the property, through his parking lots, past the clubhouse, in between holes and onto a dirt pedestrian path that winds up at a small rocky beach.
The only time public access to the property has actually been blocked was on 6/6/20, when local millenials staged a protest and the sherriff’s department blocked the public road in. I think they occasionally opened the blockades that day whenever a club member arrived to play golf. Here’s a picture I took from that day:
https://truby.com/xzq/tng_060620.jpg
It’s the sort of thing for which Trump would have insurance. If not, a complete collapse would generate a whopping tax deduction. He’ll need it if ever he hopes to collect a windfall from his DJT shares. He owns so many that even if they were worth only $5-10/share (currently trading at about $29/share), he’d make a lot of money.
If Trump was able to get earth movement insurance, it would come with a high premium.
There are various workarounds, business interruption insurance, for example, if you can remove the exceptions.
Not only did orange “lard ass” play golf on the tax payer’s dime, he charged the secret service exorbitant prices to rent golf carts and feed the secret service at his documented roach-infested “resort” kitchens. Trump also charged the secret service outrageous prices to stay at his documented bed bug-infested resorts. In charging the secret service exorbitant prices, Trump stole from the American treasure and violated the Emoluments Clause, but Republicans say: Meh
Had a Democrat done this, there were be subpoenas flying and Gym Jordan and Comer Pyle would be holding hearings.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/17/trump-organization-excessively-charged-secret-service-for-hotel-stays-house-panel-00062101
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/17/1129491352/trump-hotels-overcharged-secret-service-agents
https://apnews.com/article/travel-business-donald-trump-carolyn-maloney-137ff64160fa894ac8c0821bb5f0e7f8
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2019/08/27/bed-bug-victim-outraged-trump-blames-radical-left-rumors-doral-miami-resort/2134410001/
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-roach-infested-restaurants-are-vile-compared-to-the-red-hen
Anyone seen the Lincoln Project’s latest ad, “Aftermath” any thoughts?
On a recent trip to Scotland I made arrangements to subject a classic links course to my very mediocre level of play. You can bet I made sure it wasn’t a Trump course. (Gullane #3 east of Edinburgh). Bonus pilgrimage points for visiting St. Andrews on a different day and walking across a fairway on a public path.