Discussion: Trump’s Inauguration Paid Trump’s Company — With Ivanka In The Middle

This is a good idea, but I’m concerned there may not be enough room for all of them.

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Whereupon they cynically said no to the war hero and voted for the guy who said he just was against dumb wars solely to throw naive people like me off their trail. And then they voted for the Tea Party because they’re all racist fucks and then they voted for the black guy with funny ears again just to confuse the naive ones like me again and then they voted for Trump and then they voted against him and God I’m exhausted with these overarching explanations and feel inclined to give them up. Maybe there’s simply not a one-size-fits-all explanation sufficient to explain a given outcome in a complex society? Call me crazy!

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That’s probably true. My introduction to people like that was via a small start-up in 1996 – shortly before the internet boom. Their developers were so smart they had social media, chat keywords linked to targeted advertising, a sales funnel that included free email and free voicemail, an eager and untapped market segment, and interested advertisers. They’d developed text-to-speech and even had rudimentary voice-to-text software. All they had to do was run with this and they’d become rich beyond imagination. But that held little interest for them. What interested and excited them was an illegal con they’d come up with to trick their customer base. That was what management saw as their silver bullet for success.

I was involved with this company for two years and every time they had the choice, they always chose the illegal way. Every. Time.

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They are so bad at this because they didn’t need to be better at it in their native habitat.

In that habitat, they were obviously good enough to (more than) survive for generations.

Think of it in terms of evolutionary biology.

And maybe ask what kept their native habitat so … safe and amenable.

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No.

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Interesting. I haven’t seen it in my professional life too much, but certainly I’ve known a number of manipulative people who’d do it pretty compulsively even when it wasn’t to their advantage. The psychological term “Machiavellianism” hasn’t filtered out into general parlance as much as a term like sociopath has, but it’s certainly a profile you encounter.

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Draining the swamp…of integrity, morality, honesty, prudence, good intentions…and on and on and on and on and on…

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Trump is bad at it IMHO because mental illness tells him he’s smarter than everyone else and his own mental dullness prevents him from imagining the ways he could get in trouble by being so obviously crooked. Cohen was bad at it because he’s a weak man who wouldn’t say “This is unethical” and walk away.

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Yes, and many, many other counter-examples, including almost any cult anywhere in the world.

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Maybe it’s Machiavellianism. I expect a closer examination would reveal a deep sense of anxiety and insecurity.

Navajo religion expresses something profound in its understanding of what we translate to “witch”. To become a Navajo “witch”, one must commit a deep transgression against society’s rules – such as murder. That gives the transgressor power. There might be something similar going on for these types. If it’s forbidden, it must be powerful…maybe something like that.

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That was EXACTLY my thought, too! I mean, really:roll_eyes:

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Seems as if Trump was a little ahead of this analysis with the inauguration investigation but YEP !.

"“Trump loves playing the martyr. If we arrive at that juncture where his ouster by the Senate looks like a lock, Trump will do what he would have done if he’d lost in 2016: Take his impossibly loyal following and monetize the hell out of it.”

https://www.politicususa.com/2018/12/15/ny-daily-news-trump-is-toast-this-really-is-the-beginning-of-the-end.html

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Whao. The grifting is even worse than I thought. Even after the email to Ivanka, who cut the hotel price, the Inauguration committee still complained, saying they could get space elsewhere for free.

““Please take into consideration that when this is audited it will become public knowledge,” [inaugural event planner Stephanie Winston Wolkoff] wrote, noting that other locations would be provided to the inaugural committee for free. … “I understand that compared to the original pricing this is great but we should look at the whole context,” Wolkoff wrote, suggesting a day rate of $85,000, less than half of the Trump hotel’s offer.”

ProPublica notes that it’s a violation of IRS rules for a private business (the Trump Organization is privately held, mostly by Donald Trump himself) to overcharge a non-profit with which it’s affiliated.

(Slate)

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Dude, you read my mind! :smiley: This is exactly the question. You know there’s gonna be crooked people in high places, and greedy ones too. But Individual 1 and his family are SO FUCKING STOOPID that it takes my breath away.

IOW, not JUST that they’re corrupt, not JUST that they’re greedy, but that they do such OBVIOUSLY ILLEGAL shit and do it in PLAIN SIGHT. They are literally fooling NO ONE and yet (he and) they have done it for years.

Is there any credence to the thought that rich people get away with more stuff, because…you know…they’re RICH? That’s all I can think of, but please correct me if I’m wrong…

Honestly, most criminals TRY to be subtle so as, you know, NOT to get caught? These people are totally fucking obvious and not even trying to hide it. So they’re not only greedy and corrupt…they are also STOOPID to an amazing degree.

Perhaps you’re able to be that way when you inherit such wealth? Although, I would contend that if you’re THAT DAMN DUMB…you’re not gonna be rich for long because the SMART crooks will rob you blind. Right? Or am I missing something?

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YES!!’ EXACTLY!!! But not THESE fuckin people!!!
I mean, how bad IS IT when you look THIS BAD…
Compared to other criminals!!! :flushed: Wtf???

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That is a fascinating concept. Never heard of Machiavellianism either, but that also is interesting. There has to be something that compels people to do the illicit thing, even (maybe especially) when they don’t have to. :thinking:

[ETA: I know who Machiavelli is, just have not heard the term Matt mentioned.]

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Not that you aren’t giving it plenty of thought, nor will my answer salve what obviously irks you…but I think the answer is the sea (not swamp) of corruption. More like a suffocating and thickening LAYER over everything. We have deregulated and defanged every viable agency.

These folks are everywhere in every industry and military and our government, and then there are hidden ones in every industry, then hidden ones for every country in the world, hidden US assets/agencies/skillsets/, hidden military, hidden diplomacy-collusion, arms sales. Hell that escaped tax evader Ted Malloch made a fortune just giving speeches to hidden wingnut orgs and pablum on thrift and generosity.

There is sneaky deals between county boards and landowners…roads, bridges etc and right up the food chain to international embezzlery and selling secrets. No matter where you sent out a probe from any Republican you hit banking or realty or insurance or military or energy or pharma pork and the people who keep the channels and conduits open. These forces are constantly swirling around Dems too…always managing to woo a few. Republicans are already in bed when they take office. The forces are formidable and have punishment mechanisms (like you will never be hired anywhere ever again)…far more in the short run than the forces and punishments that the Dems command (you might not get re-elected to this thankless grinding task of fighting the Grifter Horde)

These people swim in a sea of corruption and start to assume everyone is doing it, they justify why they do it, and they see very few people getting caught. No doubt our HUGE relaxation of policing white collar crime, cyber attacks, IRS, shell companies, money laundering, lobbying, FARA, banking, and all the international Oilygarch swamp is going to need reversing or it will all happen again.

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and dn’t forget JARED…Its the quiet ones, sneaking about, you need to be concerned about…what is HE doing/

@dicktater
Very well said. And I agree. I think your post gives some added texture to the situation and current environment of corruption.

Someone else posted further up the comment thread about how they didn’t NEED to be smarter or more covert in the environment that they inhabited. That’s a scary thought…because their environment is New York City. :flushed:

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Yes and I failed to bring it back around to Trump and NY. I said on another thread how amazingly FAST that Chump and his whole entourage were inundated in scandal and dirtbags. Not that they weren’t always. But now on a bigger stage, it is like a dam burst. Somehow, the old R regimes were able to keep a lid on some of the corruption and graft. The old lobbyists and players had some tact. Chump and his old network plus a flood of new players equaled chaos. And yet, almost every single instance of all this villainy was going to go unreported or overlooked if Mueller hadn’t happened.

So how dumb and brazen are these people? I think you need a really well oiled machine to keep this stuff bubbling without the public seeing it. You need some sophistication and things to run pretty smooth if you are going to pull it off. I don’t think Chump’s team ever had that kind of competence and was overwhelmed. Doomed from the start surely, but way way over their heads.

Manafort may have looked like the most accomplished of these folks…and look how easy it was to nail him to the wall once someone with authority went looking. And I suppose if there were a true mastermind THAT person is probably a genius and thus stays out of the news. But for most of this Rogue’s Gallery since 2015…like most of the Republican party and voters…no brains at all. A Genius, to be sure, for destruction and deception and justifying…and going after every human weakness.

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