trump (the former guy, defamer, insurrectionist, and rapist - $83M)

[raison de arizona]

Always Don the Con, from the beginning.

Barbara Walters called out Trump on his lies,... 30 years ago- right to his face on national television:

[raison de arizona]

From the all publicity is good publicity department. THIS IS WHY YOU IGNORE THIS MFER. I know it's hard, but stop giving him publicity for free. Please.

Trump: Jimmy Kimmel’s ratings are terrible. He's not a talented guy…

[pipistrelle]

Always Don the Con, from the beginning.

Barbara Walters called out Trump on his lies,... 30 years ago- right to his face on national television:

“People are saying.” And the same stupid hand gestures.

[AndyinPA]

Well, he wasn't slurring his words.

[Flatpoint High]

Apparently, he has mispronounced Lord Putin's name a few times now.

Well, if he pronounces it correctly, he'll be vaporized

I mean, maybe he's just referring to him as 'Puddin'' like Harley Quinn does to The Joker.

mmmmmmm could be

[Frater I*I]

Always Don the Con, from the beginning.

Barbara Walters called out Trump on his lies,... 30 years ago- right to his face on national television:

“People are saying.” And the same stupid hand gestures.

He makes more prissy gestures than a drag queen....

[AndyinPA]

“The amount of the judgment, with interest, exceeds $464 million, and very few bonding companies will consider a bond of anything approaching that magnitude,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.

That cash crunch made the presumptive Republican presidential nominee a national security risk, according to Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL).

"The presumptive @GOP nominee for President is desperate for $464M (and counting) which he cannot personally access," Casten posted on X. "That fact alone makes him a massive national security risk; any foreign adversary seeking to buy a President knows the price."

The ex-president already secured a $91 million bond earlier this month from the Federal Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Chubb Insurance, while he appeals the defamation case he lost to writer E. Jean Carroll, but Casten said that should also be cause for concern.

"We already lack clarity on what security was provided for the $91M bond he posted in response to the E. Jean Carroll case," Casten said. "That is already a plenty BFD. A guy who wants your trust and wants to be President should disclose his liabilities."

All lawmakers and even congressional candidates are required to post regular reports of their assets and liabilities, but Casten said Trump's finances have never been fully reported to the public and should be more worthy of investigation than President Joe Biden's family members.

"The fact that we don't know this about someone running for the highest office in the land shifts the liability onto our democracy itself," Casten said. "If the @HouseGOP (and in particular, the leadership of the Judiciary Committee) gave a damn about our democracy they would be issuing subpoenas for this instead of their onanistic Hunter [Biden] fetish. The fact that they aren't tells you what they think about democracy too.

"And yes, there is a massive problem that the Senate isn't doing this either," he added. "That problem rhymes with shmilibuster."

[p0rtia]

Where's Elmo?

[MN-Skeptic]

Where's Elmo?

So would he file a gift tax return for the money he gives Donny, or would he try to deduct it as a business expense?

[raison de arizona]

Where's Elmo?

So would he file a gift tax return for the money he gives Donny, or would he try to deduct it as a business expense?

Tax? Never. Business expense.

In other news, I don't know enough about golf to know if this is an incredible shot worthy of such celebration.

It’s a cult.

[raison de arizona]

Agnifilo: How is Trump’s post talking about Cassidy Hutchinson, who is going testify at the January 6th trial.. and I would say essentially threatening her to change her testimony… how is that not a direct violation of that gag order? It absolutely is.

[northland10]

In other news, I don't know enough about golf to know if this is an incredible shot worthy of such celebration.

It’s a cult.

I have not golfed in years but the shot does not appear to be all that difficult. I would goof it up but that would be expected from me. It is rather flat so he did not have to worry about where to aim to much.

IMHO, he actually got lucky which would be reason to cheer, I suppose. It was too hard and nearly skipped over the cup.

[much ado]

IMHO, he actually got lucky which would be reason to cheer, I suppose. It was too hard and nearly skipped over the cup.

I'm not a golfer either, but I did notice that.

The way they are carrying on, you'd think he hardly ever sinks a putt like that.

[northland10]

IMHO, he actually got lucky which would be reason to cheer, I suppose. It was too hard and nearly skipped over the cup.

I'm not a golfer either, but I did notice that.

The way they are carrying on, you'd think he hardly ever sinks a putt like that.

If it were me, I would bet on me missing it, and likely because I hit it too hard. I might carry on briefly if I actually made it but only because it would be a good shot for somebody who has not played since the 90s and whose putting was shit, along his short game, and the long game. I had some beautiful shots but only when I was playing solo, of course.

[much ado]

I really hope Jimmy Kimmel keeps it up.

HuffPost: Trump's Still Raging Over Jimmy Kimmel: 'All He Had To Do Is Keep His Mouth Shut'

Oscars producer Molly McNearney, who is also Kimmel’s wife, said after the show that she tried to talk Kimmel out of reading the Trump message.

After the joke went viral, however, McNearney admitted she was wrong.

“I feel like my instincts are usually right, but I was totally off on that,” she told Variety.

Trump has for years obsessed over his treatment on late night television, and has publicly attacked Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, “Saturday Night Live” and other hosts and shows over their jokes at his expense.

[Ben-Prime]

With all the various suits and countersuits, by the time TFG is done running his mouth, his theme song will go from Lara's remake of Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" to Lara's remake of Maclemore's "Thrift Shop". And I am here for it.

[tek]

I'm still waiting for "Jailhouse Rock"

[Foggy]

I have good days and not-so-good days, but every day I wake up and I know I am going to have a better day than the quadfectee.

[BeastofBourbon]

And every day I wake up looking forward to my daily dose of What's hurting the orange shitgibbon today? schadenfreude thanks to you, Foggy.

[AndyinPA]

My understanding is that he is a good golfer, but far from a great one. Gawd knows he's spent enough time at it. And, or course, he's a well-known cheat, regardless. That was just someone sucking up.

[noblepa]

My understanding is that he is a good golfer, but far from a great one. Gawd knows he's spent enough time at it. And, or course, he's a well-known cheat, regardless. That was just someone sucking up.

Several someones.

They all wanted to be invited to play with him again.

[bill_g]

Amember when Obama was criticized for all the time he spent golfing?

[noblepa]

Amember when Obama was criticized for all the time he spent golfing?

I seem to remember, back in mid-2017, when TFG had only been in office about six months, that someone figured out that TFG had already spent more time on the golf course than Obama did in his entire eight year tenure.

[chancery]

Sadly, no.

According to the Washington Post, Trump played approximately* 261 rounds of golf during his one term, an average of one round every 5.6 days. Obama actually played more rounds of golf, 333 rounds, although spread over two terms, so an average of one round every 8.8 days. So Trump certainly played more frequently than Obama, but the disparity is not as immense as we like to think.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... -property/

______
* You will be surprised to know that "unlike Obama, [Trump's] team often wouldn’t report whether he was playing golf at his properties."

[chancery]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/ho ... f-violence

If you’ve followed the uproar over ex-President Trump’s promise of a “bloodbath” if he’s not elected you’ll see it’s partly been diverted into a kind of textualist grudge match over whether he meant apocalyptic and blood-drenched civil violence or simply stiff competition for the U.S. auto industry. If you look at the actual words it seems clear he initially riffs on his claims about the auto industry but then doubles down on the promise of a bloodbath, suggesting that problems with the economy will be the least of the country’s problems. You can interpret it either way in large part because Trump always expresses himself in the kind of disjointed word salad which always require the words to be reconstructed after the fact, thus giving a fair amount of leeway to whoever wants to do the interpreting and reconstructing.

But that’s a feature, not a bug.

If you’re taking that discussion seriously you’re missing the point. Trump’s consistent schtick, accelerating through a mix of aggression and cognitive degeneration since his 2020 defeat, is to constantly throw out a mix of hyperbole, incitement, threats of violence and retribution and more. He then sits back and let’s his targets interpret what his comments mean, express outrage, demand apologies and do whatever else. If this or that threat of violence turns out to be a touch too hot his acolytes will claim on his behalf that he was joking or speaking figuratively. As that memorable line from most-times-Trump-acolyte Salena Zito had it, we’re supposed to take the man seriously but not literally.

Except when it turns out we are supposed to take him literally. That’s when he says that yes that’s exactly what I threatened and in fact as President or ex-President or candidate or whatever else I am perfectly entitled to do so.

The throughline is always that Donald Trump acts and his targets react, which in itself becomes a kind of spectacle of authority and power. Too often his opponents react in a way which makes Trump himself the arbiter of his intent or meaning. So he may not only claim he can murder political opponents or imprison them on false charges but that he may be perfectly entitled to do so.

Except when it turns out we are supposed to take him literally. That’s when he says that yes that’s exactly what I threatened and in fact as President or ex-President or candidate or whatever else I am perfectly entitled to do so.

The throughline is always that Donald Trump acts and his targets react, which in itself becomes a kind of spectacle of authority and power. Too often his opponents react in a way which makes Trump himself the arbiter of his intent or meaning. So he may not only claim he can murder political opponents or imprison them on false charges but that he may be perfectly entitled to do so.

Now they demand that he admit that he is by no means entitled to do what everyone knows no one is entitled to do. If you know the man you know that telltale body language — arms folded tight under his torso, face tight — which says you have to come to me. I decide.

This of course makes him difficult to deal with because people have a hard time getting out of the mindset that there are some basic rules to civic life or some basic fixity to what words mean or don’t. In wars, in sports, in virtually every competitive domain in life it is a given that the side maintaining the initiative, forcing the other side to react rather than dictate the course of events has an overwhelming advantage. That’s 90% of Trump’s game.

The first step out of that game is not to get gummed up interpreting, reacting. If there may have been some confusion about this one statement that’s because Trump routinely threatens violence, threatens the most brazen abuses of public trust all to frighten and keep his political adversaries off balance and scared. And he does that not only for that reason but because he actually will use violence to hold on to power. It’s no threat. He’s already done it. Trump is a lawless bully who will toss out the Constitution, refuse to accept the results of an election and work with enemy foreign powers all for his own personal power.

I mean, we literally know all of this. It’s not speculation. He’s done all of that.

If a mob boss says someone is going to go sleep with the fishes I’m not going to get into an argument about whether that person has a big aquarium in his bedroom. Because he’s a mob boss and I’m not a chump and murdering people is what he does.

It can be difficult because civic minded people find it a challenge to grapple with lawless degenerates. But it can be done.