The Trump Presidency Ocho :: It Can't Go On. A.K.A. We All Gotta Duck / When The Shit Hits the Fan

No, she was a victim of Jade Helm.

 

"would like" is doing a ton of work in that sentence. I would like a lot of things - the Earthquakes to be a competitive soccer team in MLS, another season of Firefly, less rain and fewer fires in Northern California, ... but at some point we have to be realistic about what is possible.

 

I think analysts have already made the point that the answer to the Fox question varies between candidates

Putting aside the moral question which Warren validly raises, if you are a fringe candidate like Mayor Pete, this generated him a lot of media attention he otherwise doesn't get. It's also possible that if he does well on Fox, he can get a lot of airtime there as they astroturf the Dem primary (they need content after all).

For Biden, i think going on Fox is stupid.

 

I have this theory about Trump gaming the system for his personal gain. It kind of relies on him being a petty-ass grifter, but anyone who has followed his career over the last thirty or forty years knows that he is, in fact, a petty-ass grifter. My theory is about Donald Trump playing golf.

When Donald Trump, the President of the United States of America, plays golf, he always plays at a golf course that is owned by the Trump Organization. Seriously - news organizations keep track of how many days Trump plays golf, and it is always at a Trump owned golf course. He doesn't go and play at one of the military-owned courses like Obama used to. He plays, one hundred percent, at Trump-owned courses.

Why does this matter? The short answer is, Trump is a petty-ass grifter, and regardless of whether he was making deals with Russia or Saudi Arabia or whoever for future building branding rights, he makes money right now by playing golf at his own courses.

The full costs of what taxpayers pay when Trump plays golf are not published. It's not clear if some future FOIA (freedom of information act) requests will get that information - Trump doesn't have to publish it according to current law, so he doesn't. But, every time Trump plays golf, here's what happens.

1. Trump has to "pay" for a round of golf. (This might be free or discounted because he is a "member" of whatever golf club he's playing at, but given that he is a petty-ass grifter, he is probably paying full price, with taxpayer dollars. Or maybe not. This may be the one part that taxpayers don't pay for, because it's totally overwhelmed by the next part.)

2. Trump's security team / Secret Service has to provide security on the golf course. The easiest way to secure the golf course is to STOP EVERYONE ELSE FROM PLAYING GOLF AT THAT TIME. Seriously, you avoid all those pesky background checks and all that stuff, and just say, nobody else can use the course while Mr. President is out there. What's that, sir? You had a reservation? I'm sorry, we can't honor that today due to security concerns, we'll refund your money. But the key, and this is where Trump being a petty-ass grifter comes in, is that the Trump Organization-owned golf course gets to charge the President's security team - aka, the taxpayers - all of the lost income from having to cancel every other golfer's round while the fat ass President is duffing it up out there.

Really, if you were to go to a private golf course and say, "I want to play golf, and nobody else can play while I am out there", they will laugh in your face, but if you insist (and if you have the money), they will charge you for every other potential round of golf they had to cancel in order for you to play privately. You're essentially renting out the entire course for your private event. This is what President Trump does every time he plays golf. Sure, he may have a guest he plays with sometimes, but his courses are for sure cancelling everyone else's reservations and charging the government - you, me, taxpayers everywhere - for the President to be able to play privately and securely.

Is there documentation to prove this? No, there is not. The President's security costs are not subject to review. It's a loophole which previous Presidents could have taken advantage of, but didn't, because they weren't petty-ass grifters.

Obama played the majority of his golf at military courses. Security at those courses is built-in - it's straightforward for a military course to shut out any potential security risks when the President plays a round, because the course is on a goddamn military base.

Trump always - always! - plays at a Trump Organization owned course. Why is this? Because he's a petty-ass grifter.

I hope that someday, the laws are changed and the records of how much taxpayers paid to the Trump Organization every time Trump played golf can be published. It's going to be a shocker to every fiscal conservative who thought that the tax cuts last year were a good idea. Trump is a petty-ass grifter and his main grift is not trying to get Trump Towers built in third world kleptocracies, but transferring taxpayer dollars to his golf courses on a weekly basis.

 

It's also incredible the extent of self dealing from his campaign and allied PACs into Trump properties

 

This is why I don't understand why average conservative voters support him

Why do they want a president who is grifting? If a dem did this they would (justifiably) be outraged.

But now the path has been laid open for a dem potus to do the same stuff.