{"id":6700,"date":"2011-05-18T10:56:52","date_gmt":"2011-05-18T18:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=6700"},"modified":"2020-07-29T05:46:23","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T13:46:23","slug":"trumpd-and-skunked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/trumpd-and-skunked\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’d and skunked"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having predicted from Moment One that Donald Trump<\/strong>‘s TV ratings stunt masquerading as a presidential campaign was a traveshamockery and nothing less, please forgive me if I take one more victory lap, courtesy of Lawrence O’Donnell<\/strong>. The MSNBC<\/strong> pundit, who also knows his way around showbiz, was among those not fooled by The Trumpster’s cap-and-bells act, which seems to have the typically Trumpian purpose of fattening his teevee deal<\/a>. (The relevant O’Donnell material is in the first few minutes, involving the NBC-TV<\/strong> upfronts.) That skeptical camp wouldn’t include Treasure %*@%ing Island<\/strong> owner Phil Ruffin<\/strong>, Trump’d twice over. He comped Trump a venue and endorsed the “candidacy” in the pages of the Los Angeles Times<\/em>. If you see Ruffin down at the track, don’t take any racing tips from him.<\/p>\n

\"\"Then again …<\/strong> at a time when people are cashing out of the Las Vegas real estate market at enormous losses, Ruffin’s trying to flip a 9.5-bathroom mansion at a $10 million markup. Shrewd or simply audacious? Everything about this palace<\/a> screams, Grand!<\/em> (Not least the industrial-size kitchen.) It should be, considering that it used to be the crib<\/a> of the Sultan of Brunei<\/strong>‘s brother. Ruffin’s purchase was recorded on April 29 and he had the mini-Xanadu<\/strong> back on the market within a fortnight. Even at $15 million (plus tax), that’s a big bet on Vegas real estate making a rip-roaring comeback.<\/p>\n

\"\"If Ruffin fetches<\/strong> that $25 million, it will help him recoup 300 grand that went down the tubes in an attempt to loosen gambling rules<\/a> at Florida<\/strong> dog tracks, turning them into de facto<\/em> casinos. Also left high and dry by the adjournment of the Florida Lege was Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>, who poured $135,000 (and a free Venelazzo<\/strong> room night) into wooing Gov. Rick Scott<\/strong> (R) and lawmakers with his vision of multi-billion-dollar resorts, spread around the Sunshine State inside state-created protectorates. Unfortunately for both Ruffin and Adelson, lawmakers were too busy chipping away at other personal freedoms<\/a> to bring either measure to an up-or-down vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having predicted from Moment One that Donald Trump‘s TV ratings stunt masquerading as a presidential campaign was a traveshamockery and nothing less, please forgive me if I take one more victory lap, courtesy of Lawrence O’Donnell. The MSNBC pundit, who … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[42,14,26,36,22,119,33,111,12,9,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6700"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6700"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27635,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6700\/revisions\/27635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}