“Get up get up get down. 911’s a joke in your town.” — Public Enemy

The political, social, and sports world collided on Friday morning when Masters champion Scottie Scheffler was arrested and charged with second degree assault of a police officer. This came about because he didn’t follow instructions when they asked him not to pull into the parking lot at Valhalla (where the PGA Championship is taking place). Scheffler says it was blown out of proportion. The detective says he was dragged and had his 80 dollar pants ruined.

Thus we have the conundrum of the modern age. Are police generally good guys with tough jobs that have been trodden upon by an unappreciative public or are they dangerous to certain communities and abusive of their own power? I know where I cast my lot, but that is based on personal experience.

About three or four years ago I was picking up my daughter at the skating rink. The officer on duty politely asked me if I noticed anyone in the parking lot looking inside cars. I said no and went inside to look for my daughter. A couple of minutes later he confronted me and asked me why I was looking inside of cars.

I explained that I was just there to pick up my daughter and go home. He yanked me by the arm and drug me out of the premises. This happened in front of my daughter. He obviously discovered that I was there to pick her up and not vandalize cars, but he couldn’t leave well enough alone. He decided I must be drunk.

I offered to take a breathalyzer test, but he said none was unavailable. Instead I went through a field sobriety test. I am diabetic and have horrible balance. I couldn’t pass one under any circumstances. He refused to let my daughter come home with me. So, I called my wife (who had been drinking) to come and drive her. He finally admitted that he could not hold me, so he let me drive on my own “if I felt safe to do so.”

A half hour ordeal could have gone much worse under a few circumstances. He could have tried to bust me for driving under the influence on absolutely zero evidence outside of a field sobriety test. I had not had anything to drink that day, but that didn’t seem to matter. I suppose he could have put handcuffs on me on suspicion of vandalism on zero evidence.

We had a teacher this year that resigned following a DUI arrest. It boggles the mind how close I could have come to career ruin based on the actions of an overzealous cop. I did complain to his department, but I didn’t keep up with the case. I’m guessing he and his supervisors laughed it off as just one of those things to happen on the job. They certainly didn’t think about what it must of have been like for my daughter to see her father yanked out of a skating rink like some criminal.

Those who defend police will say they have a difficult job. They absolutely have a difficult job. They will say there are just a few bad apples. I think there is more to it than that. There are some systemic issues we see everywhere and that is particularly true when dealing with minority communities.

Do we back the blue or are we one of those communists that want to defund the police? Progressives don’t do themselves any favors with these labels, but policing does need to be revamped. There are just too many personal and national stories for it to be a few bad apples. It is a training issue. It is an issue of how they seem themselves within the community. It is an issue of how they view disparate communities. It also is a case of a job that attracts people with certain personalities that lend itself to this sort of thing. Scheffler might have done something wrong, but I seriously doubt that all of this needed to happen. Now, imagine if he were black, Hispanic, or obviously lower class.

I am normally against fat shaming people. Ultimately, in a real sense no one should care that much. Obviously, body issues play a lot in our own lives and goodness knows many of us have enough self-esteem issues to worry about. However, I enjoy playing amateur psychologist. What does this whopper mean?

Trump’s behavior reminds me of a golfer I played against in high school. No one keeps their own score in competitive golf. So, I kept his. On the first hole he dribbled it a few feet in front of the tee box, snap hooked the next one out of bounds, and then proceeded to dribble it up the fairway in an agonizingly slow pace. He was lying about six by the green. He chilly dipped his chip, then dribbled it on the green. He finished with a three putt which put him at 11 by my count.

When I asked him what he got he told me a five. That was a non-starter, so we kept bartering up. I think we settled on a nine. Something inside told me to just accept an approximation. He was in no danger of beating me and his team would be in dire trouble if they actually used his score. This was my day. He would throw out a number as if it were a negotiation. We’d haggle for a few minutes until we settled on a score that loosely resembled what he had actually done.

There are tales from the golf course involving Trump that sound equally infuriating. On one occasion he browbeat someone and bulldozed a fellow player into accepting that their ball on the green was actually Trump’s and their ball had in fact gone in the water. The reverse was the real truth but I can imagine the emotional fatigue.

Most of us that play golf accept a certain amount of cheating. We are fond of saying that the USGA rules are really just a suggestion. We allow bumping to improve the lie. We allow one mulligan per round. We allow two shots off the first tee. Putts within a certain distance of the hole are considered good. Most people that play golf are familiar with this kind of setup.  Others of us omit strokes every now and then. As long as this practice is occasional and not routine our playing partners don’t seem to mind. Golf can be a great allegory for life.

This is the same as the height and weight. What we know is that neither of those numbers are anywhere close to accurate. Trump is somewhere between 6’0” and 6’1”. There have been enough people that have met him that we know the 6’3” isn’t accurate.  The estimation by most that have met him is that Trump is likely closer to 300 pounds. That would throw him into the obese category and would make his frequent insults of other people (say Chris Christie) to be hilariously hypocritical. Yet, this is the golf thing all over again. If I ambush you with a slew of whoppers in one sitting you will become mentally and psychologically exhausted before the round (or activity) is through.

No one is really fooled by any of it. No one really believes that all of these people came up with tears in their eyes to beg him for anything. Yet, he has millions defending each of these things. They rationalize it in their mind somehow. Meanwhile, the rest of us have to make a calculation of which lies we will contest and which ones we will just let go. After all, what is the difference between an 8 and 10 on the scorecard at the end of the round?

Robert Trump, Donald’s younger brother, died last night after have health problems.  Cause of death has not been announced (at least yet).  Apparently Trump had visited him in New York on Friday.  Taking the helm for the family, Trump led a family vigil at the hospital with his children and wife to comfort the rest of the family… I’m just kidding.  Trump played golf with retired football player Jay Freely (whoever that is).  That’s right, Trump was so overcome by grief about his dying brother that he played golf.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

Remember when Trump said there would be no time for vacations or golf?  Remember when he said he would never leave the White House because he would be so busy making America great again?  Devotees cheered him.  The rest of us knew better, and we were correct.

This morning, USA Today published an interview with director of the Secret Service, “Tex” Alles who told the paper that the service has already run through its annual budget and his agents have hit their annual compensation cap.  Trump’s extravagant lifestyle, which includes travel to one of his properties virtually every weekend, has driven the agency to its knees.  Veteran agents are quitting, and there’s no money left for them to get paid.  According to federal law, the president’s family must be protected which includes 42 members.

Some estimates have Trump’s travel so far at $55 million since January.  By contrast, the Obama’s spent $97 million OVER 8 YEARS or about $12 million per year.  At Trump’s current pace of blowing taxpayer money so he can chase a little white ball will total over $94 million PER YEAR.

Trump is making America great again by spending faster than any president since GWB, and I never dreamed that would be possible.

Trump hit a new milestone yesterday, which is still climbing at a rapid pace – he’s now spent 50 days on vacation at his golf resorts in 202 days of infesting the White House.  That’s 25% of his time playing golf and hanging out with sycophants. Let’s compare the vacation records of recent presidents:

Barack Obama – 217 vacation days – 7%

George W. Bush – 553 vacation days – 19%

So – The Tweeter in Chief who now holds the record for percent of time on vacation since they started keeping track relentlessly hounded President Obama about golf and vacations while lying that he would never have time for golf.  He’s now on record pace as the laziest president in US history as well as the biggest liar.

For the record, the next closest to Trump for vacation time was FDR at 22%.  Of course, that was 7 decades ago when travel wasn’t so easy.

Okay, so Donald Trump got himself worked into a raging lather of sassy this weekend and announced in the Financial Times (sorry, subscription only so you’ll just have to trust me) that he has a plan for North Korea.

He says that during the upcoming Great China Golf Tournament and Talks About Trump Investments, he will ….

“Yes, we will talk about North Korea. And China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t. And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don’t it won’t be good for anyone.”

That’s a lot of little words meaning, “North Korea will be a subject for discussion.”

Then with a little twinkle in his eye, he added …

Well, if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you.

Somehow, that doesn’t make me feel better.