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President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Moderator1, Jan 20, 2021.

Page 3664 of 8863
  1. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    In 1987, a broke Billy Sullivan and a broke outsider, Fran Murray were engaged in a legal battle for control of the Patriots. Each employed one of the two best lawyers in Boston, Joel Kozol for Sullivan, Robert Popeo for Murray. Early on, the two attorneys realized their clients didn't have enough money to pay them, let alone to control an NFL franchise. So in between entertaining courtroom jousts, there was a backstage hunt for a new, more solvent buyer. One morning the two approached the bench and asked the judge for a day's recess so their clients could meet with, dramatic pause, DONALD TRUMP! The judge immediately granted it and everyone, press included, flew down to New York. Nothing came of the meeting, but I cite it only to say that two supersharp lawyers and a judge were totally into the idea Trump was super rich. It wasn't just a New York myth.
     
    Michael_ Gee, Sep 22, 2022
    #43957
    OscarMadison, sgreenwell, wicked and 5 others like this.
  2. Jake from State Farm

    Jake from State Farm Well-Known Member

    Fox & Friends is at The Villages this morning
    God help us all
     
    Jake from State Farm, Sep 22, 2022
    #43958
  3. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Agreed.

    This. Isn’t. Hard.
     
    Baron Scicluna, Sep 22, 2022
    #43959
    OscarMadison likes this.
  4. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    Both you and @Azrael raise good points. And one (i.e., me) must keep in mind that it was the go-go '80s, when there was a LOT of lendable money out there looking for borrowers.
     
    doctorquant, Sep 22, 2022
    #43960
    OscarMadison, Azrael and dixiehack like this.
  5. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    Here's the thing and most here who don't need things explained to them like they're 5 will understand it: Trump is a mad genius.
     
    Songbird, Sep 22, 2022
    #43961
  6. dixiehack

    dixiehack Well-Known Member

    Is that how Victor Kiam wound up with the team? Did they just scout daytime TV looking for a guy who seemed sufficiently rich?
     
    dixiehack, Sep 22, 2022
    #43962
  7. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Obama should come out and say that he mentally declassified all the info on Hillary’s server.

    Make the GQP’s heads explode even more.
     
    Baron Scicluna, Sep 22, 2022
    #43963
    HanSenSE, garrow and Inky_Wretch like this.
  8. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I think sometimes people conflate Donald Trump being a con man with him not having had any wealth. His dad gave him a lot of money.

    Victor Kiam bought the Patriots for about $85 million. Donald Trump certainly could have afforded the team in 1987, and it wasn't that absurd that they talked to him. They were talking to just about anyone who had any amount of interest, because Billy Sullivan was in a dire financial position. From what I know about that episode, it was actually Donald Trump who wasn't interested, because the team was carrying a ton of debt.

    As for the media playing a role in Trump's confidence games, yeah, they did. Not in an overt way, but Trump operates from the standpoint of perception being reality. So he would try to get things written that would inflate his wealth and importance (usually in gossip columns, not by any serious media). I think this was as much about Trump being a narcissist as it was about Trump running a long con of any sort.

    To the extent banks were loaning him money without due diligence, I'm not sure how much the media contributed to those banks behaving that way. It was an era of cheapening money; it's no coincidence that they blew a stock market bubble that nearly dragged eveything down in 1987 with a crash. That led to money getting even cheaper and that is the environment that Donald Trump thrived in (so to speak, because like lots of idiots playing with leverage, he bankrupted a bunch of casinos that were drowning in the debt he played with). It wasn't just Trump being extended a lot of credit. It was becoming a hallmark of the American economy. I don't think the media really dug into it much -- Kurt Andersen and Spy, notwithstanding, and that was more to goof on Trump than anything. There was no reason to dig into it, though, he was a circus freak, not someone anyone took all that seriously yet.
     
    Last edited: Sep 22, 2022
    The Big Ragu, Sep 22, 2022
    #43964
    wicked and Azrael like this.
  9. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    @doctorquant to the white courtesy phone.
     
    Baron Scicluna, Sep 22, 2022
    #43965
    Azrael likes this.
  10. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    Long have I fought the good fight on that one, and myriad have been my defeats. My sword is, for now, sheathed.
     
    doctorquant, Sep 22, 2022
    #43966
    OscarMadison, MileHigh, TigerVols and 3 others like this.
  11. Cosmo

    Cosmo Well-Known Member

    I do appreciate the proper use of myriad here, though.
     
    Cosmo, Sep 22, 2022
    #43967
    MileHigh, Jake from State Farm and maumann like this.
  12. DanielSimpsonDay

    DanielSimpsonDay Well-Known Member

    -Ime Udoka
     
    DanielSimpsonDay, Sep 22, 2022
    #43968
    Michael_ Gee, UPChip, Slacker and 7 others like this.
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