Another part falls off the "finely tuned machine".

[DKW 86 7,419]

8.4bn/18 years= 460mn / yr

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

9 hours ago, DKW 86 said:

8.4bn/18 years= 460mn / yr

Too vague. You’ll have to offer more than that if this is your basis for him being a bad businessman. Where is this information coming from? 

If a Real Estate company takes depreciation on their properties and there also happens to be a recession, goes belly up to the tune of a $1B, does that mean that the company was controlled by failure businessmen? Or what about all of the investment banks across America that had to close doors after 2008? 

Even losses that are detrimental to the extent they shut down operation, doesn’t necessarily mean the majority interest holder was a bad businessman.

[homersapien 11,362]

20 hours ago, NolaAuTiger said:

That doesn't mean he has failed. In fact, bankruptcy alone doesn't mean he failed. Are you aware often corporations/businessmen declare bankruptcy, strategically. What do you say about all of his ventures that were highly profitable? For example, he completed the renovation of Wollman Rink ahead of schedule and nearly $1M under budget. Or what do you think about the 40 Wall Street building investment?

Yes, some of his ventures didn't do as well as others,  but the fact that he declared bankruptcy (to cover his butt) doesn't really bare on his other ventures where that didn't happen. Looking only at his failures in business severely distorts an objective inquiry re Trump ventures. 

Fair statement, wouldn't you agree? 

Of course it's done "strategically".    It's a way of cutting your losses and getting out of a failed situation by stiffing all of the people you owe, large and small.

Trump is a shyster.  That's exactly why he's in the tank with Russians.  He's been laundering money from the crookedest bunch of oligarchs in the world because legitimate banks finally learned their lesson.

And I can assure you, the banks who provided the unpaid loans and the hundreds of contractors who provided unpaid goods and services think of his bankruptcies as business failures, even if the principle finagles out a way to profit from it (like paying himself a salary of 40 million/year for running it into the ground.) 

Trump is moral scum.  

[homersapien 11,362]

2 hours ago, NolaAuTiger said:

Too vague. You’ll have to offer more than that if this is your basis for him being a bad businessman. Where is this information coming from? 

If a Real Estate company takes depreciation on their properties and there also happens to be a recession, goes belly up to the tune of a $1B, does that mean that the company was controlled by failure businessmen? Or what about all of the investment banks across America that had to close doors after 2008? 

Even losses that are detrimental to the extent they shut down operation, doesn’t necessarily mean the majority interest holder was a bad businessman.

How about the developer who has the great idea of putting a casino in Atlantic City and invests more into the project that it could possibly support in a year's revenue.  (Guess he forgot about that winter thing, huh? Is that what you would call a force majeur.   

And he never really understood the casino business to start with.  He was too busy with the glitz and glamor to analyze the numbers, much less understand the business. And none of this came as surprise.  It was predicted by experts in the industry, including those Trump hired to run the place.

You need to read up on Trump and his history before defending him with these sort of arguments.  He's not a businessman, he is a realty host celebrity who has nothing more to promote than his "brand".  The licensing of his name is his main source of income.  The only ones continuing to desire his "brand" are the nouveau rich in India (for example), and maybe 20% of the country represented by the dispicables.   But the latter do it for different reasons relating to their racism.

[homersapien 11,362]

13 hours ago, NolaAuTiger said:

I'm not even sure what he means by "$460M loss per year." Will need further explanation. Maybe he's seen the tax returns?? Doesn't make much sense. 

Maybe that's why we haven't seen his tax returns.  Bad for the image he tries to project.

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

52 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Of course it's done "strategically".    It's a way of cutting your losses and getting out of a failed situation by stiffing all of the people you owe, large and small.

Trump is a shyster.  That's exactly why he's in the tank with Russians.  He's been laundering money from the crookedest bunch of oligarchs in the world because legitimate banks finally learned their lesson.

And I can assure you, the banks who provided the unpaid loans and the hundreds of contractors who provided unpaid goods and services think of his bankruptcies as business failures, even if the principle finagles out a way to profit from it (like paying himself a salary of 40 million/year for running it into the ground.) 

Trump is moral scum. 

This does not speak to his successful ventures. You've obviously no clue how bankruptcy works - sometimes its due in part to poor management, sometimes it's due to unforeseen conditions. Do you have any familiarity with secured transactions and equitable re-characterization in bankruptcy court? To see bankruptcy and cry out, "failure" is extremely irrational and only reflects an elementary perception of these sorts of transactions at large. Are these your thoughts on all who have filed Chapter 11?

46 minutes ago, homersapien said:

How about the developer who has the great idea of putting a casino in Atlantic City and invests more into the project that it could possibly support in a year's revenue.  (Guess he forgot about that winter thing, huh? Is that what you would call a force majeur.   

And he never really understood the casino business to start with.  He was too busy with the glitz and glamor to analyze the numbers, much less understand the business. And none of this came as surprise.  It was predicted by experts in the industry, including those Trump hired to run the place.

You need to read up on Trump and his history before defending him with these sort of arguments.  He's not a businessman, he is a realty host celebrity who has nothing more to promote than his "brand".  The licensing of his name is his main source of income.  The only ones continuing to desire his "brand" are the nouveau rich in India (for example), and maybe 20% of the country represented by the dispicables.   But the latter do it for different reasons relating to their racism.

You need to quit hanging your hat on Atlantic City. If one "failure" here or there is the basis for your assertion, then its indeed faulty. It doesn't get us anywhere. His real-estate licensing business is worth over half a billion dollars. Per your standard, shouldn't that count? The bulk of his success did not come from the casino business, but rather real estate. You don't want to talk about 40 Wall Street or other successful ventures. You just want to talk about the "bad" ones. That's the difference in us... I'll acknowledge the good and the bad. You don't, because if you did, you'd see that the standard you set for the determination of whether or not he was/is a successful businessmen falls flat on its face. 

52 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Maybe that's why we haven't seen his tax returns.  Bad for the image he tries to project.

He's under no obligation to show them. What could be bad about them - he took a big loss and carried it over subsequent years? Nothing unlawful. 

 

[homersapien 11,362]

And the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree....

Ivanka Trump: Born to legitimize corruption and make the shoddy look cute

On July 27, 2017, near the end of the one of the most compelling hearings yet on the Trump-Russia affair, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) offered an extraordinary insight. It shot through the proceedings like a comet.

"Corrupt kleptocrats and international criminals make themselves rich in criminality and corruption," he said. "Then at some point they need the legitimate world in order to protect and account for their stolen proceeds."

What? Whitehouse sketched a new bipolar world order, in which the so-called legitimate world, which includes the United States, is not at war with, but rather deeply enmeshed in, the corrupt one, where governments are built on bribery, kleptocracy, electoral fraud, slush funds, legal plunder and nepotism.

Whitehouse then addressed William F. Browder, the hedge funder turned global finance reformer, who was giving testimony on foreign-agent registry violations. "How good a job is the legitimate world doing about fencing off the corrupt world rather than facilitating it? "

Browder didn't mince words. "The legitimate world, and America in particular, are failing in an absolute way," he said. The corrupt "steal the money, commit their crimes and kill the people, and then come here in the legitimate world with the rule of law, with the property rights, and with all the protections and keep their money."

Crooks seeking legitimacy are not fenced out in America. The U.S. is teeming with enablers champing at the bit to serve rich thugs: lawyers, lobbyists, bankers, security firms, consultants and PR people.

The enabler sector now boasts several household names. Among them are the lobbyist and onetime Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who has been indicted for financial crimes; and Trump's favorite child, Ivanka, who holds an indeterminate public-facing position in the White House — or in real estate, or maybe fashion.

Oh, Ivanka. Her livelihood is as opaque as her full-coverage foundation, but she plays a critical role in her father's administration — and in the broader danse macabre of corruption and legitimacy.

The so-called first daughter proves that "laundering" applies to more than money. She washes and gilds just about everything she touches. Consider her warehouses upon warehouses of petroleum-based separates, many of them sewn for poverty pay in sweatshops. When you call this schmatte smorgasboard the Ivanka Trump Collection it does brisk business — if not on Rodeo Drive, then in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

She has the same magic touch with the multitudes of flesh-and-blood rogues who flock to her for redemption. It's Ivanka who first brought Gen. Michael "Lied to the FBI" Flynn into the administration, according to the New Yorker; she praised him for his "amazing loyalty" and offered him his choice of positions at a transition-team meeting. One person present said, "It was like Princess Ivanka had laid the sword on Flynn's shoulders and said, 'Rise and go forth.'"

The laying on of that princess sword seems to be Ivanka's favorite pastime. In 2006, when she was 25, she toured Moscow with Felix Sater, who in 1998 pleaded guilty to a $40-million stock fraud scheme run by the Russian mafia. She also collaborated with the Soviet-born businessman Tamir Sapir, whose top aide in 2004 pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy with the Gambino crime family.

It's impossible to keep track of all the gangsters Ivanka has palled around with. But what's truly damning are the shady real-estate projects she has made rise and go forth.

In 2006, she oversaw the development of the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower in Panama City. The project was connected to a Brazilian money launderer later arrested for fraud and forgery as well as a Russian investor who'd previously been jailed in Israel for kidnapping. On Wednesday, a dispute between Trump's company and the building's owner turned violent. The journalist Marcy Wheeler has suggested the fight concerns records that may show Ivanka knew the property was laundering money. Police in riot gear stormed the hotel that Ivanka once hyped as "exemplary of the grandeur in which we like to enter a market."

Ivanka was also a ranking official on the Trump SoHo, which has since shed the name Trump. In 2010, as ProPublica and WNYC have reported, the Manhattan District Attorney's office began building a criminal case against Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. for using inflated sales figures to defraud prospective buyers. After receiving a visit from Trump family lawyer and campaign donor Marc Kasowitz, then-DA Cyrus Vance Jr. backed off.

Just Thursday, CNN reported that FBI counterintelligence officials are investigating another Trump real-estate deal, the 63-story Trump International Hotel and Tower in Vancouver, which opened after Trump became president.

Ivanka has been described as "point person" on the development, which features an Ivanka Trump-branded spa. No one yet knows why it caught the FBI's eye, but Ivanka's long-awaited top-secret security clearance may turn on what the agents find out.

When an organization exists not to build buildings but to brand them, its business is optics. And Ivanka has long window-dressed the Trump Organization's deals. She was born to make the shoddy look cute, to legitimize corruption.

And if it's the coverup and not the crime that will ultimately bring down the Trump syndicate, Ivanka may turn out to be the point person for its demise.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-heffernan-ivanka-legitimizing-20180303-story.html

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

Just now, homersapien said:

And the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree....

Ivanka Trump: Born to legitimize corruption and make the shoddy look cute

On July 27, 2017, near the end of the one of the most compelling hearings yet on the Trump-Russia affair, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) offered an extraordinary insight. It shot through the proceedings like a comet.

"Corrupt kleptocrats and international criminals make themselves rich in criminality and corruption," he said. "Then at some point they need the legitimate world in order to protect and account for their stolen proceeds."

What? Whitehouse sketched a new bipolar world order, in which the so-called legitimate world, which includes the United States, is not at war with, but rather deeply enmeshed in, the corrupt one, where governments are built on bribery, kleptocracy, electoral fraud, slush funds, legal plunder and nepotism.

Whitehouse then addressed William F. Browder, the hedge funder turned global finance reformer, who was giving testimony on foreign-agent registry violations. "How good a job is the legitimate world doing about fencing off the corrupt world rather than facilitating it? "

Browder didn't mince words. "The legitimate world, and America in particular, are failing in an absolute way," he said. The corrupt "steal the money, commit their crimes and kill the people, and then come here in the legitimate world with the rule of law, with the property rights, and with all the protections and keep their money."

Crooks seeking legitimacy are not fenced out in America. The U.S. is teeming with enablers champing at the bit to serve rich thugs: lawyers, lobbyists, bankers, security firms, consultants and PR people.

The enabler sector now boasts several household names. Among them are the lobbyist and onetime Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who has been indicted for financial crimes; and Trump's favorite child, Ivanka, who holds an indeterminate public-facing position in the White House — or in real estate, or maybe fashion.

Oh, Ivanka. Her livelihood is as opaque as her full-coverage foundation, but she plays a critical role in her father's administration — and in the broader danse macabre of corruption and legitimacy.

The so-called first daughter proves that "laundering" applies to more than money. She washes and gilds just about everything she touches. Consider her warehouses upon warehouses of petroleum-based separates, many of them sewn for poverty pay in sweatshops. When you call this schmatte smorgasboard the Ivanka Trump Collection it does brisk business — if not on Rodeo Drive, then in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

She has the same magic touch with the multitudes of flesh-and-blood rogues who flock to her for redemption. It's Ivanka who first brought Gen. Michael "Lied to the FBI" Flynn into the administration, according to the New Yorker; she praised him for his "amazing loyalty" and offered him his choice of positions at a transition-team meeting. One person present said, "It was like Princess Ivanka had laid the sword on Flynn's shoulders and said, 'Rise and go forth.'"

The laying on of that princess sword seems to be Ivanka's favorite pastime. In 2006, when she was 25, she toured Moscow with Felix Sater, who in 1998 pleaded guilty to a $40-million stock fraud scheme run by the Russian mafia. She also collaborated with the Soviet-born businessman Tamir Sapir, whose top aide in 2004 pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy with the Gambino crime family.

It's impossible to keep track of all the gangsters Ivanka has palled around with. But what's truly damning are the shady real-estate projects she has made rise and go forth.

In 2006, she oversaw the development of the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower in Panama City. The project was connected to a Brazilian money launderer later arrested for fraud and forgery as well as a Russian investor who'd previously been jailed in Israel for kidnapping. On Wednesday, a dispute between Trump's company and the building's owner turned violent. The journalist Marcy Wheeler has suggested the fight concerns records that may show Ivanka knew the property was laundering money. Police in riot gear stormed the hotel that Ivanka once hyped as "exemplary of the grandeur in which we like to enter a market."

Ivanka was also a ranking official on the Trump SoHo, which has since shed the name Trump. In 2010, as ProPublica and WNYC have reported, the Manhattan District Attorney's office began building a criminal case against Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. for using inflated sales figures to defraud prospective buyers. After receiving a visit from Trump family lawyer and campaign donor Marc Kasowitz, then-DA Cyrus Vance Jr. backed off.

Just Thursday, CNN reported that FBI counterintelligence officials are investigating another Trump real-estate deal, the 63-story Trump International Hotel and Tower in Vancouver, which opened after Trump became president.

Ivanka has been described as "point person" on the development, which features an Ivanka Trump-branded spa. No one yet knows why it caught the FBI's eye, but Ivanka's long-awaited top-secret security clearance may turn on what the agents find out.

When an organization exists not to build buildings but to brand them, its business is optics. And Ivanka has long window-dressed the Trump Organization's deals. She was born to make the shoddy look cute, to legitimize corruption.

And if it's the coverup and not the crime that will ultimately bring down the Trump syndicate, Ivanka may turn out to be the point person for its demise.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-heffernan-ivanka-legitimizing-20180303-story.html

You're delusional. 

[WDavE 332]

Let's talk about a bastion of liberalism Ted Turner.

Do you know how many failures Ted had in his business life?

 

Long ago, I watched Ted on the air begging for donations to keep one of his tv stations on the air. 

 

Some of these business heroes just happened to have more successes then they did failures. Ted is an example.

[homersapien 11,362]

1 minute ago, NolaAuTiger said:

This does not speak to his successful ventures. You've obviously no clue how bankruptcy works - sometimes its due in part to poor management, sometimes it's due to unforeseen conditions. Do you have any familiarity with secured transactions and equitable re-characterization in bankruptcy court? To see bankruptcy and cry out, "failure" is extremely irrational and only reflects an elementary perception of these sorts of transactions at large. Are these your thoughts on all who have filed Chapter 11?

You need to quit hanging your hat on Atlantic City. If one "failure" here or there is the basis for your assertion, then its indeed faulty. It doesn't get us anywhere. His real-estate licensing business is worth over half a billion dollars. Per your standard, shouldn't that count? The bulk of his success did not come from the casino business, but rather real estate. You don't want to talk about 40 Wall Street or other successful ventures. You just want to talk about the "bad" ones. That's the difference in us... I'll acknowledge the good and the bad. You don't, because if you did, you'd see that the standard you set for the determination of whether or not he was/is a successful businessmen falls flat on its face. 

He's under no obligation to show them. What could be bad about them - he took a big loss and carried it over subsequent years? Nothing unlawful. 

 

Puleeze, the old "you obviously know little about bankruptcy - or whatever" is getting old.  

And I am not "hanging my hat" on Atlantic City.  It just happens to be the deal I happen to know the most about.  Here's a short summary of the complete record:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jun/21/hillary-clinton/yep-donald-trumps-companies-have-declared-bankrupt/ 

You are such an apologist for this scum bag. It's going to make you appear foolish when the entire truth finally emerges. 

[homersapien 11,362]

4 minutes ago, NolaAuTiger said:

You're delusional. 

Brilliant response!

At least it's succinct. For a change.  

 

[homersapien 11,362]

The "art of the deal":

.....“We need a leader that wrote ‘The Art of the Deal,’ ” Trump declared during his presidential campaign announcement in June, and he has repeatedly cited that 1987 book in other appearances. In it, Trump, then 41, explains the power of psychology and deception — he calls it “bravado” or “truthful hyperbole” — in his early real estate acquisitions. Before he was a brand name, he had to convince people that he was worth their time. It was small things here and there. Like asking his architect to gussy up the sketches for a hotel so it seemed like they spent huge sums on the plans, boosting interest in his proposal. Or having a construction crew drive machinery back and forth on a site in Atlantic City so that the visiting board of directors would be duped into thinking the work was far along. “If necessary,” he instructed a supervisor, “have the bulldozers dig up dirt on one side of the site and dump it on the other.”

“I play to people’s fantasies,” Trump explains. “. . .­­ It’s an innocent form of exaggeration — and a very effective form of promotion.” Perception is reality, he writes, and achieving an “aura” (a recurring word in his writings) around his projects, his ideas and himself is essential.

From: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/book-party/wp/2015/07/30/i-just-binge-read-eight-books-by-donald-trump-heres-what-i-learned/?utm_term=.166421780418

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

29 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Puleeze, the old "you obviously know little about bankruptcy - or whatever" is getting old.  

And I am not "hanging my hat" on Atlantic City.  It just happens to be the deal I happen to know the most about.  Here's a short summary of the complete record:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jun/21/hillary-clinton/yep-donald-trumps-companies-have-declared-bankrupt/ 

You are such an apologist for this scum bag. It's going to make you appear foolish when the entire truth finally emerges. 

Why can't you offer a comment re his successful ventures based on the same standard you employ for his "bad" ones, son?

29 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Brilliant response!

At least it's succinct. For a change

You've no basis for the disdain. You literally have to scramble to find Trump deals that either went under or were not immensely profitable. As for the transactions that flourished, you act as if they don't exist. Alternatively, you construct an incompetent and unverified excuse. 

[SaltyTiger 7,789]

18 minutes ago, homersapien said:

The "art of the deal":

.....“We need a leader that wrote ‘The Art of the Deal,’ ” Trump declared during his presidential campaign announcement in June, and he has repeatedly cited that 1987 book in other appearances. In it, Trump, then 41, explains the power of psychology and deception — he calls it “bravado” or “truthful hyperbole” — in his early real estate acquisitions. Before he was a brand name, he had to convince people that he was worth their time. It was small things here and there. Like asking his architect to gussy up the sketches for a hotel so it seemed like they spent huge sums on the plans, boosting interest in his proposal. Or having a construction crew drive machinery back and forth on a site in Atlantic City so that the visiting board of directors would be duped into thinking the work was far along. “If necessary,” he instructed a supervisor, “have the bulldozers dig up dirt on one side of the site and dump it on the other.”

“I play to people’s fantasies,” Trump explains. “. . .­­ It’s an innocent form of exaggeration — and a very effective form of promotion.” Perception is reality, he writes, and achieving an “aura” (a recurring word in his writings) around his projects, his ideas and himself is essential.

From: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/book-party/wp/2015/07/30/i-just-binge-read-eight-books-by-donald-trump-heres-what-i-learned/?utm_term=.166421780418

Brilliant ploy by Trump. Pulled that one myself a time or so to impress visiting owners back in the day. Works well when inclement weather conditions exist and owners are not understanding. Also helps get the payrequest approved with relative ease.

[SaltyTiger 7,789]

59 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Puleeze, the old "you obviously know little about bankruptcy - or whatever" is getting old.  

And I am not "hanging my hat" on Atlantic City.  It just happens to be the deal I happen to know the most about.  Here's a short summary of the complete record:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jun/21/hillary-clinton/yep-donald-trumps-companies-have-declared-bankrupt/ 

You are such an apologist for this scum bag. It's going to make you appear foolish when the entire truth finally emerges. 

 

[alexava 6,973]

For T-rump to win, other people have to lose and lose big. We are those other people now. Hold on tight.

[Mikey 16,576]

2 hours ago, NolaAuTiger said:

You're delusional. 

I think his problem is that he's optimistic enough to link to op-ed pieces in the LA Times as he did above, present them as fact and think people won't pay any attention to how questionable the source is. They do need straws to grasp, as daily Trump's successes make the future appear more and more dismal for the Left.

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

42 minutes ago, alexava said:

For T-rump to win, other people have to lose and lose big. We are those other people now. Hold on tight.

Then you must not like successful business in general - Amazon, Apple, and... Alabama Crimson Tide. 

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

43 minutes ago, Mikey said:

I think his problem is that he's optimistic enough to link to op-ed pieces in the LA Times as he did above, present them as fact and think people won't pay any attention to how questionable the source is. They do need straws to grasp, as daily Trump's successes make the future appear more and more dismal for the Left.

I think it's even more simple than that. Homer and others afford the filing of bankruptcy probative value re business success, notwithstanding subsequent profitable ventures. It's a foolish claim. 

[Mikey 16,576]

Just looking at the title of this thread tells us that their desperation is palpable. You'd think no other administration in history had people leave and others hired. They are a hoot!

[augolf1716 21,103]

6 hours ago, SaltyTiger said:

Brilliant ploy by Trump. Pulled that one myself a time or so to impress visiting owners back in the day. Works well when inclement weather conditions exist and owners are not understanding. Also helps get the payrequest approved with relative ease.

Everyone uses what ever they can to help there business. Always admired the Home Depot guys but this is a story not many people know about.

1. THE FIRST STORES WERE FILLED WITH EMPTY BOXES.

When Bernie Marcus (left) and Arthur Blank (right) were abruptly fired from their managerial spots at the Atlanta-area Handy Dan hardware chain, they decided to experiment with discount, bulk-volume pricing under their own banner: the Home Depot. While the first few stores to open in Georgia were up to 60,000 square feet, the two didn’t necessarily have enough stock on hand to fill them up. Instead of looking at empty rafters, employees stacked empty boxes and paint cans on the upper-tier of shelves, where no customer could reach them. To drive home the warehouse aesthetic, Marcus and Blank also sped around stores on forklifts after hours, slamming on the brakes to create skid marks.   

[alexava 6,973]

1 hour ago, Mikey said:

Just looking at the title of this thread tells us that their desperation is palpable. You'd think no other administration in history had people leave and others hired. They are a hoot!

Perhaps you could point out one on par....

[SaltyTiger 7,789]

46 minutes ago, alexava said:

Perhaps you could point out one on par....

Alex, can you point out another administration that has been in the "cross hairs" like this one? Commencing pre- inauguration.  These people are under extreme pressure listening to you guys whine and lie. Can you blame anyone for jumping overboard? 

    

[homersapien 11,362]

5 hours ago, NolaAuTiger said:

I think it's even more simple than that. Homer and others afford the filing of bankruptcy probative value re business success, notwithstanding subsequent profitable ventures. It's a foolish claim. 

Yeah right.  And trade wars are good too.

We're talking about Trump's character, not how successful he's been in swindling others and then marketing his fame for doing so.

[homersapien 11,362]

2 hours ago, augolf1716 said:

Everyone uses what ever they can to help there business. Always admired the Home Depot guys but this is a story not many people know about.

1. THE FIRST STORES WERE FILLED WITH EMPTY BOXES.

When Bernie Marcus (left) and Arthur Blank (right) were abruptly fired from their managerial spots at the Atlanta-area Handy Dan hardware chain, they decided to experiment with discount, bulk-volume pricing under their own banner: the Home Depot. While the first few stores to open in Georgia were up to 60,000 square feet, the two didn’t necessarily have enough stock on hand to fill them up. Instead of looking at empty rafters, employees stacked empty boxes and paint cans on the upper-tier of shelves, where no customer could reach them. To drive home the warehouse aesthetic, Marcus and Blank also sped around stores on forklifts after hours, slamming on the brakes to create skid marks.   

At least they didn't wind up stiffing their investors and creditors.  

And were they trying to fool their board of directors - as Trump was doing -  or simply putting on a good face for the public?