Sound The TRUMPets! A Thread for Presidential Pondering 2016-2020(?)

[SimonNZ]

Thank you for demonstrating the limits of your understanding.

A devistating counter-argument.

Go on, then: what's your definition of "business genius"? And how does Crooked Donnie fit it?

[Todd]

A devistating counter-argument.

First, I do so enjoy when people are obviously so flustered that they cannot spell a basic word properly because they so hastily post.  (It's "devastating".)

Second, I had no need to offer a counter-argument because you did not offer an argument.

Third, I'm interested in seeing what the righteous folk at GMG think a "business genius" is or might be.  It has formed the foundation for many a post - maybe even an argument - so someone here ought to be able to scribble a definition down.

[SimonNZ]

People might take the time if it was going to be the basis of a serious conversation, not just fuel for your jolly japes.

meanwhile:

'I like them very much:' Trump has long-standing business ties with Saudis, who have boosted his hotels since he took office

"For President Trump, Saudi Arabia is not just a political ally. It has also been a customer.

Trump's business relationships with the Saudi government — and rich Saudi business executives — go back to at least the 1990s. In Trump's hard times, a Saudi prince bought a superyacht and hotel from him. The Saudi government paid him $4.5 million for an apartment near the United Nations.

Business from Saudi-connected customers continued to be important after Trump won the presidency. Saudi lobbyists spent $270,000 last year to reserve rooms at Trump's hotel in Washington. Just this year, Trump's hotels in New York and Chicago reported significant upticks in bookings from Saudi visitors.

Now, Trump's administration is trying to get answers from Saudi leaders about the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi — a critic of the Saudi regime who was allegedly abducted, and possibly killed, inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last week. The crisis has brought scrutiny to Trump's business ties with the Saudis — and the complexity they add to an already complicated U.S. relationship with the kingdom.

"Saudi Arabia, I get along with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million," Trump told a crowd at an Alabama campaign rally in 2015. "Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much."

[SimonNZ]

Come on, Todd, lead by example: what's your definition of "business genius"? And how does Crooked Donnie fit it?

[Todd]

Come on, Todd, lead by example: what's your definition of "business genius"? And how does Crooked Donnie fit it?

I must insist that Karl answer first.  You can take a stab at it if you wish. 

[SimonNZ]

But I don't have just one definition. There are a great many people and businesses I admire who all work in very different ways, though all share characteristics of transparency and demonstrably treating their customers, contractors, employees and partners with honesty and respect, and the desire to see all of the above rise together, not treat success like a zero-sum game - even among competitors.

None of whom resemble Crooked Donnie.

[BasilValentine]

I must insist that Karl answer first.  You can take a stab at it if you wish.

Why are we talking about genius? That pretty much puts Trump out of the running from the start. Trump has been a toilet for wealth his whole career. Had he invested every dollar he siphoned from Daddy's empire in an index fund and played golf every day of his life he would be about four times as wealthy as he is now. The only money he has made on his own was by laundering for the Russian mob. My mom is a better businessman than Trump. 

[zamyrabyrd]

People might take the time if it was going to be the basis of a serious conversation, not just fuel for your jolly japes.

'I like them very much:' Trump has long-standing business ties with Saudis, who have boosted his hotels since he took office

"Saudi Arabia, I get along with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million," Trump told a crowd at an Alabama campaign rally in 2015. "Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much."

There is a yuge difference between having business partners or clients and political graft.  If Saudi Arabia was a friendly enough nation during Obama's presidency, what is to stop Trump or anyone else doing business with them?

https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/arms-sales-ok-d-by-hillary-clinton-s-state-department-raise-questions

Outright donations are something else, rewards for getting governmental deals which the Clinton's were up to their ears in as with making money from the Haiti disaster, for which they should really burn in hell.

In the years before Clinton became secretary of state, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia contributed at least $10 million to the Clinton Foundation, while Boeing contributed $900,000 to the foundation just two months before the deal was finalized.

Separately, the State Department approved Pentagon-brokered arms sales totaling $151 billion in FY 2010-12 to sixteen countries whose governments had donated to the foundation, a 143 percent increase in completed sales to those nations in FY 2006-08 — compared with an 80 percent increase in weapons sales to all countries.

According to the analysis, governments and corporations involved in the arms deals approved by the State Department have contributed between $54 million and $141 million to the Clinton Foundation, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to the Clinton family in the form of speaking fees. Donations also were made to the foundation by the governments of Algeria, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Qatar, all of which were cleared to buy American-made weapons even as the department faulted endemic corruption.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

I think maybe Trump is a business genius, and his particular genius is enriching himself from projects that fail, leaving his business partners holding the bag. In Atlantic City he invested in a group of casinos which all went bankrupt with a loss upwards of a billion dollars. He still collected colossal management fees, defaulted on the loans that he used to finance his stake, and declared a loss the freed him of paying any income tax for the next decade even though he didn't actually lose any money (his billion dollar stake disappeared, but since he defaulted on the loans he wasn't the one that lost the money).

After that debacle he realized the playing a successful businessman on TV is just as good as being a successful businessman. By that time no bank would load him a nickel, but he mainly makes money by licensing his name to various ventures, a name which is built mainly on various "apprentice" program where he plays a successful businessman.

Anyway, he seems to be doing a version of this now, trading the presidency as though it is a reality TV show, and doing whatever damage to the country is expedient to increasing the value of his "personal brand."

So, if we are to have a business genius running the country, I would like to be be one the enriched himself by creating something that succeeded. Like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Maybe even Mitt Romney.

[Karl Henning]

I think Todd may be a rhetorical geeenius in the way that President Toadstool is a business geeenius.

[Karl Henning]

All trolls, both great and small . . . .

[zamyrabyrd]

In Atlantic City he invested in a group of casinos which all went bankrupt with a loss upwards of a billion dollars.

...So, if we are to have a business genius running the country, I would like to be be one the enriched himself by creating something that succeeded. Like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Maybe even Mitt Romney.

Anyone who buys and runs casinos deserves to lose a billion dollars as incredible as it sounds. The old Atlantic City was trashed by get rich quick entrepreneurs and hangers on who went in there and lost their shirts. I don't feel sorry for any of them, including Trump. Investing in property and renovating existing buildings seems like a better and more honest, money making venture.

[BasilValentine]

Anyone who buys and runs casinos deserves to lose a billion dollars as incredible as it sounds. The old Atlantic City was trashed by get rich quick entrepreneurs and hangers on who went in there and lost their shirts. I don't feel sorry for any of them, including Trump. Investing in property and renovating existing buildings seems like a better and more honest, money making venture.

Deserve has got nothing to do with it. All Trump had to do to make money on his casinos was not build an enormous new one (Taj Mahal) between the other two and by so doing competing himself out of business in triplicate.

As for the second bit: One of the Trumps' major scams was perpetrated through renovating existing buildings. Fred grossly overcharged himself by purchasing new plant and improvements through "All County Building Supply & Maintenance," a dummy corporation set up to funnel money to his children without paying taxes on it. Then they doubled up on the crime by using the fraudulently inflated costs of these improvements to justify rent increases in rent controlled apartments. So much for.honest ventures.

[Todd]

But I don't have just one definition.

So you don't have one.  Noted.

Why are we talking about genius?

Precisely my point.  As I posted before, it means nothing.  Yet some members (eg, Karl) prattle on about it with some regularity.

I think Todd may be a rhetorical geeenius in the way that President Toadstool is a business geeenius.

A PhD put to powerful use.

[SimonNZ]

Precisely my point.  As I posted before, it means nothing.  Yet some members (eg, Karl) prattle on about it with some regularity.

No, its Crooked Donnie who calls himself a Genius. A Very Stable Genius, in fact. Along with many other grandiose claims about his business acumen. Its fair to consider the yawning gap between the claims and the reality.

[SimonNZ]

Mob of white nationalist 'Proud Boys' brutally beat several men: 'Are you brave now, faggot?!'

[BasilValentine]

No, its Crooked Donnie who calls himself a Genius. A Very Stable Genius, in fact. Along with many other grandiose claims about his business acumen. Its fair to consider the yawning gap between the claims and the reality.

Yes, here is video of Trump claiming it, in the midst of a Gilbert & Sullivan parody: "He is the very model of a very stable genius." Enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-LTRwZb35A

[JBS]

Along with that
https://mobile.twitter.com/NYCityAlerts/status/1051560278037602306
The man's name (I can't find the tweet which gives it) suggests a Turkic or Persian ethnicity.

[SimonNZ]

'It'll change back': Trump says climate change not a hoax, but denies lasting impact

"Donald Trump is doubling down on his doubts about climate change, suggesting that the climate could "change back again," and that climate scientists are politically motivated."


Donald Trump's 60 Minutes interview: eight takeaways

"His biggest regret:

Finally, the president revealed his capacity for self-reflection and humility when Stahl asked him if there was anything he wished he hadn't said or done in his almost two years in office.

One regret sprang quickly to mind: the press's treatment of him.

"So when I won the presidency – the press treats me terribly – I thought very strongly that, you know, the one great thing will happen is the press will start treating me great. Lesley, they treat me worse. They got worse instead of better. Very dishonest."

Stahl pressed: but is there anything you regret?

"I regret that the press treats me so badly," he said.

[71 dB]

"Donald Trump is doubling down on his doubts about climate change, suggesting that the climate could "change back again," and that climate scientists are politically motivated."

Very stable genius is correct. There will be another ice age in the distant future and scientists ARE politically motivated: They want science to be taken more seriously in political decisions.