Is the Louisiana flooding Obama's Katrina?

[thaiboxerken]

Trump did not donate the truck or any money for Louisiana.

Imagine that, another lie from Trump. The man is such a schmuck and cheapskate that he only pretends and lies about donating and helping people.

 

[Foolmewunz]

Trump did not donate the truck or any money for Louisiana.

Imagine that, another lie from Trump. The man is such a schmuck and cheapskate that he only pretends and lies about donating and helping people.

I think I'll wait for better confirmation than "they wouldn't respond so it must be true". There's logic to their argumentation, but it's far from proof.

 

[bonzombiekitty]

I think that qualifies as a torrid obsession.

Let's say he played 310 rounds of golf during to date during his presidency. He's been president for about 7.5 years. There's 52 weeks in a year, so that's 390 weeks he's served. That's less than 1 round of golf a week on average. That's your definition of obsession?

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

They will, they will. (To paraphrase Oscar Wilde James Abbot McNeill Whistler)

I'm surprised you missed that, he was your compatriot after all.

 

[catsmate]

Wow. The ODS is strong in some people. I guess Obama won't get re-elected.

He might get a cabinet position or Supreme Court role.

 

[sunmaster14]

I'm pretty sure they don't plant a brand new golf course every time the president wants to play so you amortize that upfront cost over the expected lifespan of the golf course. And the president probably has a set of clubs he likes rather than demanding new gold plated ones for every hole. And the entire time he's on the course he's arms reach away from whatever important crap comes up.

A typical 18 hole, par 72 golf course is 150 acres of high quality land. Enough land for 150 McMansions if it were put to such use. So even though there is a huge upfront cost, there is a continuing opportunity cost. Furthermore, the maintenance costs are very high, probably running into the $1 million to $2 million per year range for courses which Obama wouldn't even deign to play.

Regardless, it's unnecessary to grind through the calculations because all of the information we need about consumption is contained in the greens fees. Obama has been playing here. The greens fees are $170 per person per round. Not an extravagant cost to be sure, at least relative to the cost of staying on Martha's Vineyard in the summer to begin with, but certainly beyond the means of the vast majority of Americans.

The time it takes is probably the greatest luxury. Yes, some golfers (and usually non-golfer supporters of golfers) claim that they can do business on the golf course, and so it's not a total waste of time. Putting aside the fact that Obama primarily golfs with non-politicians and non-policy makers, so that rationalization rings a little hollow in his case, I can tell you from personal experience that it is not so easy to discuss business on a golf course.

The four-some is together for only two phases of the play: tee-off and final play on the green. Most of the time is spent far away from each other on the fairway, or (usually) looking for balls in the rough. And during the tee-off people are usually discussing how to play the hole, and during putting on the green, people are either discussing how to play the green or are quiet. After the hole is finished, people generally talk about the hole that was just played. The bottom line is that doing business on a golf course is largely a myth. It's a boondoggle for the express purpose of doing fun stuff while pretending to work.

Which is not to say that I begrudge Obama his time on the golf course. I can't imagine that there is a better use of his time anyway, unless there are some drone strikes that need his approval. And, as you point out, his advisers know where to find him if some Presidential decisions are needed. Of course, his decision may turn on whether or not he just missed an easy putt, but I'm sure a lot of Presidential decisions are similarly arbitrary.

 

[sunmaster14]

And what's going to really hurt is when Obama gets ten times the coverage for his trip than Agent Orange got. I mean,... normal people expect that; he's the POTUS, after all. But the "be kind to paleo-conservatives" crew think that the first semi-human thing that Trump's appeared to do in the past year should get more attention.

I'm still laying odds that Drudge and assorted Trump spokesliars will invent a budget figure of ELEVEN QUATRILLION DOLLARS that the Feds "wasted" on Obama's trip.

I'll take that bet. What odds are you laying, and how much do you want to bet?

 

[NoahFence]

A typical 18 hole, par 72 golf course is 150 acres of high quality land. Enough land for 150 McMansions if it were put to such use. So even though there is a huge upfront cost, there is a continuing opportunity cost. Furthermore, the maintenance costs are very high, probably running into the $1 million to $2 million per year range for courses which Obama wouldn't even deign to play.

None of which matters a lick WRT presidential vacations.

Regardless, it's unnecessary to grind through the calculations because all of the information we need about consumption is contained in the greens fees. Obama has been playing here. The greens fees are $170 per person per round. Not an extravagant cost to be sure, at least relative to the cost of staying on Martha's Vineyard in the summer to begin with, but certainly beyond the means of the vast majority of Americans.

Your point?

The time it takes is probably the greatest luxury. Yes, some golfers (and usually non-golfer supporters of golfers) claim that they can do business on the golf course, and so it's not a total waste of time. Putting aside the fact that Obama primarily golfs with non-politicians and non-policy makers, so that rationalization rings a little hollow in his case, I can tell you from personal experience that it is not so easy to discuss business on a golf course.

Ignorance in the extreme. You don't think there are at least 10 people within a chipping wedge's distance away from POTUS who can, oh, I dunno. Hand him a phone in a tight spot?

The four-some is together for only two phases of the play: tee-off and final play on the green. Most of the time is spent far away from each other on the fairway, or (usually) looking for balls in the rough. And during the tee-off people are usually discussing how to play the hole, and during putting on the green, people are either discussing how to play the green or are quiet. After the hole is finished, people generally talk about the hole that was just played. The bottom line is that doing business on a golf course is largely a myth. It's a boondoggle for the express purpose of doing fun stuff while pretending to work.

Which is not to say that I begrudge Obama his time on the golf course.

I can't imagine that there is a better use of his time anyway, unless there are some drone strikes that need his approval. And, as you point out, his advisers no where to find him if some Presidential decisions are needed. Of course, his decision may turn on whether or not he just missed an easy putt, but I'm sure a lot of Presidential decisions are similarly arbitrary.

Temperament issues? You really want to go THERE?

Ignorant, manufactured outrage is at the heart of our asinine political landscape right now. Thank you for your contribution.

 

[sunmaster14]

Let's say he played 310 rounds of golf during to date during his presidency. He's been president for about 7.5 years. There's 52 weeks in a year, so that's 390 weeks he's served. That's less than 1 round of golf a week on average. That's your definition of obsession?

Yes. That's a huge commitment of time. Four to five hours each round, not counting travel time. Plus, if you play that much, you're probably spending a lot more time practicing, reading about, talking about, and thinking about golf.

Is it an abnormal amount? For somebody with a full-time job, certainly. For a retired person, probably not.

 

[NoahFence]

Yes. That's a huge commitment of time. Four to five hours each round, not counting travel time. Plus, if you play that much, you're probably spending a lot more time practicing, reading about, talking about, and thinking about golf.

Is it an abnormal amount? For somebody with a full-time job, certainly. For a retired person, probably not.

What about if he thinks about golf on the first tee, and stops thinking about it on the last tee, and while on the course thinks of other things?

I don't know how much golf the average ODS sufferer plays, but in reality, the best piece of advice to the weekend warrior (Which Obama clearly is) is simple - don't think.

 

[thaiboxerken]

I play about 4 hours of video games a week. I don't spend a lot of time practicing, reading about, talking about, and thinking about video games otherwise. Maybe Sunmaster has obsession issues and thinks that is how everyone behaves when it comes to hobbies.

 

[The Don]

Is it an abnormal amount? For somebody with a full-time job, certainly. For a retired person, probably not.

You clearly don't know much about golfers .

Most golfers I knew growing up would play Saturday and Sunday all year round. I grew up in the north of England at nearly 1,000 ft so some of those rounds of golf would have been played in quite inclement weather.

From May to the end of September there'd also be a competition for men members on a Thursday night, most keen golfers would play.

If you were good enough - and I was - you'd get picked to play in one of the club teams which would involve a dozen or so matches a year, on a Wednesday.

So that's close to 150 rounds of golf a year for most keen members.

Then of course there'd be the annual golfing break either in the winter to Spain or Portugal (10 rounds over 6 days) or summer to Scotland (15 rounds over 6 days).

And then there are the practice rounds and the "nine holes here and there" that were grabbed.

If anything Obama is something of a golfing dilettante.

 

[bonzombiekitty]

Yes. That's a huge commitment of time. Four to five hours each round, not counting travel time. Plus, if you play that much, you're probably spending a lot more time practicing, reading about, talking about, and thinking about golf.

Is it an abnormal amount? For somebody with a full-time job, certainly. For a retired person, probably not.

Four to five hours a week on a hobby is not a huge investment of time. As mentioned above, people play video games for well over 4 to 5 hours a week and nobody would consider that an obsession.

Especially if you were to consider that on vacation, Obama would probably play multiple rounds of golf throughout the week. So that limits the time spent outside of vacation playing golf. Back in january, obama had taken roughly 200 days of vacation throughout his presidenct to that point.

If we assume that by that point, he had played 300 rounds of golf, and played a round of golf on one out of three vacation days (a conservative amount for someone who is supposed to be "obsessed" with playing golf) that means out of the 300 rounds of golf, about 66 of them were played while on vacation. So that leaves 244 rounds to be distributed through the rest of his presidency. He'd been in office about 7 years at that point, so thats 2555 days. Minus the 200 days of vacation, so that's 2355 days. That's just over 336 weeks. 336/244=.726 rounds of golf per week. If we assume it takes him roughly four hours per round*, that's under 3 hours per average non-vacation week spent playing golf.

That's an obsession?

*Which also assumes every round is a full 18 holes, rather than just playing a 9 hole round now and then.

ETA: This also assumes every round was purely for personal pleasure, rather than using some rounds to hob nob with other government officials.

 

[NoahFence]

That's an obsession?

I think the real obsession in this thread is perfectly clear.

 

[Foolmewunz]

I'll take that bet. What odds are you laying, and how much do you want to bet?

A baht. It was a figure of speech. Calm down.

 

[sunmaster14]

Four to five hours a week on a hobby is not a huge investment of time. As mentioned above, people play video games for well over 4 to 5 hours a week and nobody would consider that an obsession.

Especially if you were to consider that on vacation, Obama would probably play multiple rounds of golf throughout the week. So that limits the time spent outside of vacation playing golf. Back in january, obama had taken roughly 200 days of vacation throughout his presidenct to that point.

If we assume that by that point, he had played 300 rounds of golf, and played a round of golf on one out of three vacation days (a conservative amount for someone who is supposed to be "obsessed" with playing golf) that means out of the 300 rounds of golf, about 66 of them were played while on vacation. So that leaves 244 rounds to be distributed through the rest of his presidency. He'd been in office about 7 years at that point, so thats 2555 days. Minus the 200 days of vacation, so that's 2355 days. That's just over 336 weeks. 336/244=.726 rounds of golf per week. If we assume it takes him roughly four hours per round*, that's under 3 hours per average non-vacation week spent playing golf.

That's an obsession?

*Which also assumes every round is a full 18 holes, rather than just playing a 9 hole round now and then.

ETA: This also assumes every round was purely for personal pleasure, rather than using some rounds to hob nob with other government officials.

One thing missing from your analysis is that golf is something that can only be played during daylight hours, when the course is dry, and when the weather is warm (which is not the case a significant fraction of the year in the DC area). Furthermore, most jobs, and the Presidency is no exception, concentrate their workload during daylight hours. So, the President's golf habit is actually taking up a sizable fraction of his off-hours time (or perhaps some of his on-hours time) when playing golf is actually a realistic option. That doesn't even count the time he spends traveling to foreign countries where golf might not be an option (and certainly he can't play golf while he's actually in transit, which I estimate as taking roughly 2,500 hours of his Presidency so far).

In my book, that's an obsession because for a President and a family man (a father of two pre-teen and then teenage daughters), it's a bit much. I certainly couldn't keep my family happy if I spent such a large fraction of my good weather, free-time doing something apart from them.

 

[TheGoldcountry]

Let go of that bone, my friend. Obama is becoming something of a torrid obsession with you.

 

[sunmaster14]

Let go of that bone, my friend. Obama is becoming something of a torrid obsession with you.

Well, it's not Obama specifically, but arguing politics here has definitely become a torrid obsession for me. Maybe one that I should work to cut back on actually.

 

[NoahFence]

Well, it's not Obama specifically, but arguing politics here has definitely become a torrid obsession for me. Maybe one that I should work to cut back on actually.

Less hypocrisy and more honest reflection may help out a bit.

 

[sunmaster14]

Less hypocrisy and more honest reflection may help out a bit.

Yes, I suggest the Obama supporters in this thread try that. I'm genuinely surprised at the inability of even one of them here to admit that Obama has done anything wrong with respect to the Louisiana flooding. Quite remarkable. I do imagine that some Obama supporters have been reading this thread and have declined to wade in to defend him (which they would do if they actually thought he was being unfairly attacked), so I guess that's a hopeful sign.