Exactly. I would say since at least the early '70s, when he became his father Fred's protégé and heir apparent (because Fred Jr., Donald's elder brother, sensitive, depressed, and eventually alcoholic, and who would die from complications of alcoholism, did not live up to his father's standards of ruthlessness and amorality in being a real estate entrepreneur and landlord). Donald, then in his mid-20s (after dodging the draft FIVE TIMES with "bonespurs" at the height of the American war in Vietnam, which he never protested, although he was a college student at the height of the antiwar movement), joined in his father's racist practices toward nonwhite tenants in buildings owned by the Trumps in NYC, and was sued, along with his father, by the federal government for these practices, not to mention stiffing creditors, contractors, and business partners, and using bankruptcy as a tool to avoid financial accountability while maintaining his gilded lifestyle. I would say Don's early cons date back to that era, and he perfected the art of grifting, conning, and using the law for evil purposes once he found his second mentor, the notorious Roy Cohn, who taught him everything about using the law to dodge consequences and make life difficult for creditors, tenants, business partners, labor unions, and eventually any journalists and media that looked into his disgusting business practices.
And commercial real estate brokers - we had a saying in the office leasing business: "if you want *not* to be paid a commission, take your client to Trump Tower."
“He’s just pain covered with skin.” (John Steinbeck) The agony for me is watching how many living things he’s hurting in his drive to fill that bottomless hole in his soul.
I hear you Steve. Yes, I think he’s a broken soul. Would I want to be in his proximity or offer him my hand? That is way more than I am capable of doing. Do you know the saying, “holding a resentment is like me drinking the poison and expecting the other to drop dead”?
I live each day looking to help where I can, to smile genuinely at my neighbor, and work for a better day. I don’t always succeed at these tasks
I hear you, Mike. I’m not a theologian or heart surgeon. If you’ve seen any of my previous posts the idea that the orange one suddenly became the monstrous creature he is is erroneous. There have been many opportunities to nail his slimy a** to the proverbial barn door. All the New York State AG’s and New York City attorneys who failed in their duty to serve justice are all responsible. All I can say is thank the Lord for Tish James
… or so they tell me. They’ve never seen anything like it, really!
And for once - ONCE! -the SOB is not lying.
Thanks Anne! More people need to see behind the curtain, before we end up with the imperialistic isolationist “curtain” (a.k.a. The Wall) closed on every border. Keep up the good work!!
I've been considering that he just may be the greatest con man of all time, but I can't help thinking he couldn't do it without enough rubes. And that is what worries me, I mean anyone with half a brain can detect his scam(s). Makes you concerned about Ameria's future.
Well, when you have the Senator from Florida lashing out about Medicaid fraud when one of his former companies committed that SAME crime, then there is no detection. The brainless scammers are merely high-fiving each other.
Thing is, our population is what it is. The same gaggle of geese is available to any and every con man, whether they’re called MAGAs, the Tea Party, ditto-heads, or the Silent Majority. They are there for the conning.
You can’t blame the marks for being available, so you then have to give the con man his due.
And as much as I cannot understand how anyone cannot see thru Trump’s pile of lies, deceit, misinformation, false statistics, and general “I could not care any less about anyone who is outside my inner circle … and I’m not even sure about most of the people that are IN that circle” attitude. Ambushing heads of state in the Oval Office - how much more embarrassing can Trump and Vance get??? But I just can’t bring myself to blame these pitiful enablers - they’re going to have to wake up some day and realize it wasn’t the lib****s who were full of 💩 after all! Can you imagine the guilt they’re going to feel? How betrayed by the GOP they’re going to feel? Trump is conning them, but the GOP went from bitter rivals to smiling bag men, and gladly handed everything over to their king - in hopes of getting a few crumbs. It’s not going to be a pretty awakening … nor should it be!! We’ll see which rats go down with the ship and which rats suddenly grow a conscience - they should not get another chance!
Image relfects what I am seeing. He looks ever more orange as time goes by...or is this just me? In appearnaces, he appears to be older, more grim, more orange and more grotesque. Ann seems to capture this.
I suspect that the people who voted for him never worked for a union building the Trump casinos as he never paid those construction workers. (Of course, those casinos, among other so called business enterprises, went bankrupt) Nor were they the small vendors whom he never paid. These voters have made victims of us all. A pox on them and their houses. I'm not sure if they're stupid or selfish
Exactly, but it has been tRump’s #1 retail target. The string prior to my comment is listing companies that have not succumbed to his missives, so I just added COSTCO because it has fought back—hard.
Walmart or that scumbag Bezos can offer discounted trash bags for their shattered pieces of their trailers. An additional $5 for a bottle of water. This is what is called poetic justice. MAGA has earned this!!
It would be one thing if he were a con artist, but there is nothing artistic about his con jobs….just basic shit smeared across the canvas of what used to be America.
Except that Trump has been conning America since at least the 1980's.
Exactly. I would say since at least the early '70s, when he became his father Fred's protégé and heir apparent (because Fred Jr., Donald's elder brother, sensitive, depressed, and eventually alcoholic, and who would die from complications of alcoholism, did not live up to his father's standards of ruthlessness and amorality in being a real estate entrepreneur and landlord). Donald, then in his mid-20s (after dodging the draft FIVE TIMES with "bonespurs" at the height of the American war in Vietnam, which he never protested, although he was a college student at the height of the antiwar movement), joined in his father's racist practices toward nonwhite tenants in buildings owned by the Trumps in NYC, and was sued, along with his father, by the federal government for these practices, not to mention stiffing creditors, contractors, and business partners, and using bankruptcy as a tool to avoid financial accountability while maintaining his gilded lifestyle. I would say Don's early cons date back to that era, and he perfected the art of grifting, conning, and using the law for evil purposes once he found his second mentor, the notorious Roy Cohn, who taught him everything about using the law to dodge consequences and make life difficult for creditors, tenants, business partners, labor unions, and eventually any journalists and media that looked into his disgusting business practices.
Absolutely
His book you have been titled "The Art of the con"
Those were just contractors and sub-contractors he screwed over back then.......nobody stopped him then and now it is the whole country getting it!
And commercial real estate brokers - we had a saying in the office leasing business: "if you want *not* to be paid a commission, take your client to Trump Tower."
And no one is stopping him now.
Came here to say exactly this.
“He’s just pain covered with skin.” (John Steinbeck) The agony for me is watching how many living things he’s hurting in his drive to fill that bottomless hole in his soul.
Soul?? Do you honestly think that a Satan surrogate has a soul?
I hear you Steve. Yes, I think he’s a broken soul. Would I want to be in his proximity or offer him my hand? That is way more than I am capable of doing. Do you know the saying, “holding a resentment is like me drinking the poison and expecting the other to drop dead”?
I live each day looking to help where I can, to smile genuinely at my neighbor, and work for a better day. I don’t always succeed at these tasks
I prefer the drop dead myself. LOL!
Snort
I’m with you, Steve—we must keep that hope alive! Not that I think he IS alive, unless a golem can be said to live.
(SNORT)
C. Horst, we seem to be on the same page. Anne Lamott: "Don't let them make you hate them."
I love Annie Lamott. One of my fav books is operating instructions
Indeed, we are on the same page. All the best
Love her. Operating Instructions is one of my fav books
I will look for Operating Instructions.
It’s older. It’s about her early days of sobriety, Sam was a baby and her best friend, I think her name was Pammy.
Whenever I’m going through a tough patch I think of Anne Lamont and asking for my operating instructions 🥸
One minor correction - that bottomless hole - is where his soul (and heart) USED to be!
I hear you, Mike. I’m not a theologian or heart surgeon. If you’ve seen any of my previous posts the idea that the orange one suddenly became the monstrous creature he is is erroneous. There have been many opportunities to nail his slimy a** to the proverbial barn door. All the New York State AG’s and New York City attorneys who failed in their duty to serve justice are all responsible. All I can say is thank the Lord for Tish James
Amen to that!
I keep wondering when is it going to be enough for someone else to stand up and say “WHOA! You can’t do that!”
Yes, the hurt he leaves in his wake.
What soul?
Exactly - where his soul “used to be” … everyone is born with one, some don’t keep it long enough to get attached
I have no idea , and I pray for it every day
Excellent! As always.
The GREATEST con man of all time!
… or so they tell me. They’ve never seen anything like it, really!
And for once - ONCE! -the SOB is not lying.
Thanks Anne! More people need to see behind the curtain, before we end up with the imperialistic isolationist “curtain” (a.k.a. The Wall) closed on every border. Keep up the good work!!
I've been considering that he just may be the greatest con man of all time, but I can't help thinking he couldn't do it without enough rubes. And that is what worries me, I mean anyone with half a brain can detect his scam(s). Makes you concerned about Ameria's future.
Well, when you have the Senator from Florida lashing out about Medicaid fraud when one of his former companies committed that SAME crime, then there is no detection. The brainless scammers are merely high-fiving each other.
Thing is, our population is what it is. The same gaggle of geese is available to any and every con man, whether they’re called MAGAs, the Tea Party, ditto-heads, or the Silent Majority. They are there for the conning.
You can’t blame the marks for being available, so you then have to give the con man his due.
And as much as I cannot understand how anyone cannot see thru Trump’s pile of lies, deceit, misinformation, false statistics, and general “I could not care any less about anyone who is outside my inner circle … and I’m not even sure about most of the people that are IN that circle” attitude. Ambushing heads of state in the Oval Office - how much more embarrassing can Trump and Vance get??? But I just can’t bring myself to blame these pitiful enablers - they’re going to have to wake up some day and realize it wasn’t the lib****s who were full of 💩 after all! Can you imagine the guilt they’re going to feel? How betrayed by the GOP they’re going to feel? Trump is conning them, but the GOP went from bitter rivals to smiling bag men, and gladly handed everything over to their king - in hopes of getting a few crumbs. It’s not going to be a pretty awakening … nor should it be!! We’ll see which rats go down with the ship and which rats suddenly grow a conscience - they should not get another chance!
Spy magazine had his number in the early '80s: "short-fingered vulgarian."
Image relfects what I am seeing. He looks ever more orange as time goes by...or is this just me? In appearnaces, he appears to be older, more grim, more orange and more grotesque. Ann seems to capture this.
I wish this banner was hanging there just like that in real life! Couldn't be more apropos.
Thank you Ann. We need you. Your making such a difference
You made it back in one piece,it appears. There must have been at least two flight controler working.
That's the mug shot, right? Nothing says never surrender like having a photo taken of when you surrendered.
The proximity to Lincoln is blasphemous.
No—it’s the official portrait, which he clearly patterned on the mug shot! https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/donald-j-trump/
I suspect that the people who voted for him never worked for a union building the Trump casinos as he never paid those construction workers. (Of course, those casinos, among other so called business enterprises, went bankrupt) Nor were they the small vendors whom he never paid. These voters have made victims of us all. A pox on them and their houses. I'm not sure if they're stupid or selfish
They’re both - along with cruel.
Never attribute malice to bad decisions that can be explained by stupidity or Sheer ignorance, Rita -- unless it is clearly a conditioned reflex.
I truly hope that tornados and hurricanes wipe them off the face of the earth. And FEMA has nothing but body bags to give them.
But FEMA won't be around. Perhaps CVS will have a coupon on garbage bags.
Walmart
COSTCO
Isn't Costco among the good people?
Exactly, but it has been tRump’s #1 retail target. The string prior to my comment is listing companies that have not succumbed to his missives, so I just added COSTCO because it has fought back—hard.
Walmart or that scumbag Bezos can offer discounted trash bags for their shattered pieces of their trailers. An additional $5 for a bottle of water. This is what is called poetic justice. MAGA has earned this!!
The Commander in Cheat!
Clever wording to match Ann's piercing editorial efforts.
I think it’s been much longer than that, albeit on a smaller scale.
It would be one thing if he were a con artist, but there is nothing artistic about his con jobs….just basic shit smeared across the canvas of what used to be America.
He's all about the art of the con!
He's even wearing orange (instead of red), white and blue!