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Palmer’s Wikipedia page makes no mention. I suppose someone could ask members of his family or other golfers, whom Trump claims were witnesses to the phenomenon. It’s possible there are biographies that include a chapter or two. Or, maybe there’s an archival edition of Golf Digest with insights. But for our purposes, size is not the main issue; it’s the rudeness and Trump's obvious delight in telling the fable. Trump’s rally was in Pennsylvania, the most important of the seven battleground states, specifically in the community of Latrobe, which was Palmer’s hometown. Palmer, who won 62 PGA Tour titles, died in 2016 at age 87. |
Trump spent a good 10 minutes extolling Palmer’s golfing career. But you could tell all of that background was just a long-winded introduction to the story that he really wanted to tell:
So, you know, I've been here before and I've told the story before, not in this kind of detail, because, you know, you have these teleprompters. If I would read it off a teleprompter, it wouldn't be so good, right? And it would be a lot shorter. It wouldn't be as good. And I didn't want to do that. I said when I come here, I'm going to tell the real story of Arnold, but Arnold Palmer was all man. And I say that in all due respect to women and I love women. (Crowd cheers) But this guy, this guy, this is a guy that was all-man. This man was strong and tough, and I refused to say it; but when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said: “Oh, my God, that's unbelievable.” (Laughter). I had to say it. I have to say we have women that are highly sophisticated here. But they used to look at Arnold (garbled). But he was really something special. Arnold was something special. So I just want to tell you, you're very lucky, the people that live in Latrobe. And it's an honor for me to be here, because of him. And he was actually, he was a great man, and I don't think there would be golf to this, to the extent that you have it today. It probably wouldn't be that way without the great Arnold Palmer. So enjoy it. Everybody enjoy it. And I had to tell you the shower part of it because it's, it's true. What can I tell? We want to be honest, we want to be upfront. It's true. |
Did he want the people of Latrobe to know an important historic detail? Certainly, the folks at the rally and maybe the nation watching on TV will never be able to “unhear” it. Did Trump want the world of golf to know? Did he want us to believe that long ago golfers took showers and that they made sure they checked out the size of other people's equipment?
Maybe, it's just that an old man, with the brain of a middle-schooler, likes to talk to talk dirty, so that he'll be noticed.
IT WOULD BE UNFAIR to say that Trump limited his remarks to a supposedly legendary body part. His rally went on for more than an hour, and as usual, Trump zigzagged from topic to topic. Immigrants are drug dealers, murderers and mental patients. Joe Biden has been a foreign policy failure. Recently, “Bibi” Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, phoned Trump. Elon Musk is a genius; tariffs will push the economy into high gear.
At one point, Trump apparently caught a glimpse of himself in a TV monitor, prompting this remark:
I’m looking at my hair up there. Let’s say, “Oh, I don’t like it. I don’t like it. Excuse me. I’m going to recomb my hair.” Do you mind? I’ll leave the stage for five minutes. I’m going to recomb my hair.” |
Lest anyone forget that he has twice escaped assassination attempts, he noted that his Secret Service protection has increased – and he turned that point into another opportunity to reference Palmer.
They give you a little extra security now. It has, you know, hey, I got more machine guns than I've ever seen in my. Look at these guys. Hey, yay, yay. I got more machine guns. I never saw guns like that. I said to my son, Don, he knows a lot about guns and Eric knows – they are great shots; they really understand. I said, “What kind of a gun is that?” They said, “Dad, you don't even want to know.” They are serious guns. We got more guys than … every one of them is like central casting, too. Holy. I'm looking -they look like Arnold Palmer. They look like Arnold; can't look better than Arnold. |
Bernie is radical left and this one, Kamala, is further left than them. So you have to tell Kamala Harris that you've had enough, that you just can't take it anymore. We can't stand you. You're a shit vice president, the worst. You're the worst. Vice President Kamala, you're fired. Get the hell out of here, you're fired. Get out of here, get the hell out of here. |
If she said that Trump had been “a shit President,” that would have been big news and reason for much worry, despair and critical editorials.
I don’t know why Trump gets away with it all. He tried to overthrow an election. He’s been convicted of falsifying records to cover up payments to a porn star. He wants to let global warming destroy the planet. He’s a liar, a business cheat, a misogynist and a bigot. He proposes detaining and expelling millions of immigrants. He sent Russia's Vladimir Putin Covid drug tests during the pandemic.
Here’s the bottom line:
The only way we are going to be free of Trump is to defeat him in the election, which ends just two weeks from now on Nov. 5.
Donald Trump won’t rid America of Donald Trump.
But American voters can.
I'm just waiting for a moon shot by Trump as the crowd calls out for full disclosure. Maybe that's the full measure of it all: Donald bare before the world.
My wife received an America Votes postcard from Tom in VT, non-sectarian. Just cast a ballot. It didn't fool me; I detected the little union label on the card
His moronic peepee remarks were aimed at young bros, who think that's funny. Elon probably thought it was hilarious. Trump has abandoned the idea of convincing normal women to vote for him, and is now doubling down on the incel crowd. As for why none of this takes him out, it's just the firehose effect. Too damned much coming at us, As I write this, the "it doesn't cost $60,000 to bury a Mexican" stuff is coming out. It is a geyser of crap, you can't bat it all down. But most of us are sick of it. I hope.
Seems to me Trump's strategy during the last weeks of the campaign is to get a headline a day by saying something outrageous, knowing many in the media will write a lot of stories about it. This drowns out talk of policy -- what the Republicans are promising to do if elected, or how he is responding to the Democrats proposals and attacks. It drowns out what Harris is saying, too.
I really don't think Trump being outrageous is news anymore by itself. I don't expect the media to ignore this behaviour, but to explain why he is saying it, and to report with restraint. e.g., way down in the story...
"The Republican candidate spoke of the late golf champion Arnold Palmer, in whose hometown he spoke, and made comments that centred on how large his penis was, as reported, Trump said, by other golfers who took a shower with him after playing golf."
But the main story should be about what policy was (or wasn't) in his speech.
However, I guess a factual report like this wouldn't attract as many eyeballs as the reports that took place, and the purpose of commerical media is to build as large an audience as possible for advertisers.
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Mainly, what reporters know comes from asking other people questions and fretting about their answers.
This blog is a successor to one inspired by our dog, Phoebe, who was smart, sweet and the antithesis of Donald Trump. She died Feb. 3, 2022, and I don't see getting over that very soon.
Occasionally, I think about trying to reach her via cell phone.
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