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Re:Anthony Levandowski Pardoned by mywittyname on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @10:47AM (#25847779)
Thankfully, he end up being the first presidential candidate bankrupted by the position. The dude's primary asset, his brand, is not completely toxic and can no longer be used to prop up his other failed ventures. And the only bankers wiling to finance him will the the predatory ones, who will all extract every penny left then leave him with nothing.
Re:Anthony Levandowski Pardoned by dgellow on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @10:59AM (#25847959)
I’m not so sure about that. With his crazy following if he creates his own online presence, à la infowars, he can make a lot of money.
Re:Anthony Levandowski Pardoned by rtkwe on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @11:00AM (#25847972)
That kind of remains to be seen there's a lot of people out there that are still very on board with Trump, it may not be a luxury lifestyle brand much going forward but it'll almost definitely still be a brand.
Re:Anthony Levandowski Pardoned by itsoktocry on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @11:41AM (#25848524)
>And the only bankers wiling to finance him will the the predatory ones, who will all extract every penny left then leave him with nothing.

Oh boy, are you going to be in for a nasty surprise. Trump is going to get more powerful after this mess, but it will likely tear the GOP apart. And don't kid yourself that the Democrats love the idea of having him as an enemy if he ever runs again. Most of what you're watching is political theatre.

Re:Anthony Levandowski Pardoned by pbhjpbhj on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @12:35PM (#25849261)
He seems, as an outsider (UK), to be fomenting racial divisions - around the World - just so he can play at being a big cheese. His motivation appears to be purely money, but he and those who voted for him don't appear to have a problem with the cost of that being democracy and racial unity.

If he stays out of prison then the message is 'USA's political establishment endorses white power, and oligarchy' and given many nations rely on USA having at least a little morality as the greatest military superpower on Earth ...

USA seemingly can't be trusted to keep even a semblance of Rule of Law, any country lead by those who don't themselves pretend towards megalomania has to find this problematic. Your (USA's) democracy is very broken.

Re:Anthony Levandowski Pardoned by itsoktocry on Thursday January 21, 2021 @10:35AM (#25859927)
>He seems, as an outsider (UK), to be fomenting racial divisions - around the World - just so he can play at being a big cheese. His motivation appears to be purely money, but he and those who voted for him don't appear to have a problem with the cost of that being democracy and racial unity.

No offense, but this seems like a narrative straight out of the left-wing playbook. Fomenting racial divisions around the World? Seems a bit of a stretch.

As far as the motivation being "purely money", I'd say his presidency cost him a bunch of scrilla, though I bet he earns it back in the long run. Is that any different than, say, Bill Clinton, who has made millions of dollars doing speeches around the world after his presidency? I'm not sure.

>USA seemingly can't be trusted to keep even a semblance of Rule of Law

Turn off the TV. The US is still great. Again, what you are watching is mostly theatre.

>If he stays out of prison then the message is 'USA's political establishment endorses white power, and oligarchy'

Wait, you say the US can't be trusted to keep the law, but then say that Trump needs to go to prison? For what crime?

Re:Anthony Levandowski Pardoned by mywittyname on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @04:36PM (#25852312)
Honestly, I get the impression that he's easily outflanked by smart people. And that something about his personality drives people to take advantage of him. That impression comes from his apparent business incompetence. He is capable of screwing up "sure things" such as casinos and hotels. Best I can tell, he ends up getting a raw deal, then proceeds to make the shit roll down hill by screwing over people down stream of him (i.e., not paying contractors).

He's clearly a capable actor. He pretends, rather convincingly, to be this amazing, confident, shrewd businessman. And I think a lot of people idolize him because he embodies what they think of when they think of a smart, successful business person. But I think real smart, successful business people spend two minutes with him, and paint him as a rube.

Re:Anthony Levandowski Pardoned by itsoktocry on Thursday January 21, 2021 @10:40AM (#25859980)
>And I think a lot of people idolize him because he embodies what they think of when they think of a smart, successful business person. But I think real smart, successful business people spend two minutes with him, and paint him as a rube.

I agree, but, uh, everyone with half-a-brain knew that this about Donald Trump long before he was elected president. He's been playing this character for 40 years.

Re:Anthony Levandowski Pardoned by SV_BubbleTime on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @11:17AM (#25848201)
> is [now] completely toxic and can no longer be used to prop up his other failed ventures

You are underestimating something. I remember how Bush was literally Hitler and Cheney was an impossibly evil name.

But now Bush is a lovable cook, Biden admin was taking with Dick Cheney about foreign affairs and Liz Cheney was just celebrated by the left/media for dumping on Trump.

Trump brand won’t be what it was, but it’s something different now. I think the political left did themselves a great disservice by not giving in to election fraud investigations, when people were asking for signature matching, observer access, proving compliance with Article2, scanned ballot uploads, whatever else was reasonable and we should expect our election system to provide without question. Even the most rabid TrumpHater5000 should have supported that because it would have proved he was wrong. Now in some people’s eyes we will never truly know. For practically half the country Biden has an asterix by his name. That doesn’t seem like a great start and it didn’t actually tarnish Trump Brand except to the people who hated him already including the establishment GOP. His approval among supporters is not lower since Jan 6th, as difficult as it may be to understand.

Re:Anthony Levandowski Pardoned by CountSessine on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @11:03AM (#25848004)
If there’s anything that Trump is actually good at, other than carnival barking, it’s shielding assets and wealth from bankruptcy, and remaining rich after “insolvency”. Don’t expect him to show up homeless on Venice Beach any time soon.