# A Perfectly Reasonable Amount of Schadenfreude about Things Happening to Trump & His Enablers (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 14, 2020, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537 "2020-11-14T00:09:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 106
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2105 "2021-07-15T13:26:38Z")
It’s being discussed here: > [@A Thread for the Mueller Investigation Results and Outcomes (Part 2)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-2/946549): > > Continuing the discussion from [A Thread for the Mueller Investigation Results and Outcomes (Part 1) - #12240 by JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093/12240). Previous discussions: [A Thread for the Mueller Investigation Results and Outcomes (Part 1)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-for-the-mueller-investigation-results-and-outcomes-part-1/800093) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2106 "2021-07-15T13:26:50Z")
> [@solost](#): > > I don’t know if this news is best in this thread, but I would love to be a fly on the wall when trump finds out about this latest report, especially the mental evaluation stuff. He’ll probably be flattered. After all, he was selected personally by Putin as the only man who could help him with his plan. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2107 "2021-07-15T13:33:26Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > He’ll probably be flattered. Putin came up to him, with tears in his eyes, and said “Mr Trump, you are the only man who can make this plan work”. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2108 "2021-07-15T14:11:44Z")
“Mr. Trump, sir,…” ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2109 "2021-07-15T16:45:38Z")
> [@solost](#): > > who they described as an “impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex”. Nailed it. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2110 "2021-07-15T16:52:13Z")
> [@solost](#): > > “impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex”. May that be his Epitaph. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2111 "2021-07-15T17:01:44Z")
Too bad the FSB had a keener appreciation of the man than 63 million American voters. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2112 "2021-07-15T17:02:15Z")
Let’s just shorten it to “inferior”. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2113 "2021-07-15T17:06:00Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > > [@solost](#): > > > > described as an “impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex”. > > Nailed it. Nailed it a little too closely for my taste. I’m getting a strong Dan Rather/Bush AWOL-vibe from this one. Release a fake that “proves” what the left already believes, watch the media feeding frenzy, then expose it as a fake and shut down discussion of the issue forever. Remember 2004? The Bush AWOL story was deader than dead after Rather ran with the fake documents, even though there was still plenty of other evidence supporting the AWOL stories. (And yes, that’s a conspiracy theory I actually believe without any concrete proof. Dan Rather was set up by a Bush supporter, possibly even someone with ties to the Bush campaign.) ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2114 "2021-07-15T17:08:37Z")
This. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2115 "2021-07-15T17:11:29Z")
All depends whether you think Russia thinks that Trump can still be useful, or at least useful enough to go to the trouble. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2116 "2021-07-16T07:21:25Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > (And yes, that’s a conspiracy theory I actually believe without any concrete proof. Dan Rather was set up by a Bush supporter, possibly even someone with ties to the Bush campaign.) There was speculation at the time (though no evidence ever came out that I recall) that Karl Rove was behind it. The incident didn’t only put a nail in the coffin of the AWOL story. It also put the nail in the coffin of Dan Rather. That was quite possibly the primary goal. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2117 "2021-07-16T16:42:55Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > There was speculation at the time (though no evidence ever came out that I recall) that Karl Rove was behind it. Yeah, it probably was him, but he’s good at keeping his fingerprints off. I remember seeing an interview with the secretary of the colonel (IIRC, it was a colonel) who wrote the report Rather used. She typed it at time and said what Rather had was what she’d typed. Rove (probably) just made an easily identifiable fake copy of the _genuine_ document. The truth of the story was lost in the lies manufactured after the fact. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2118 "2021-07-16T23:52:21Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > > [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > > > > [@solost](#): > > > > > > described as an “impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex”. > > > > Nailed it. > > Nailed it a little too closely for my taste. I’m getting a strong Dan Rather/Bush AWOL-vibe from this one. Release a fake that “proves” what the left already believes, watch the media feeding frenzy, then expose it as a fake and shut down discussion of the issue forever. > … It’s possible. But it’s a stretch to assume that Russian observers were unlikely to have known in 2016 that Trump was an "impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex”—it’s all too likely that this assessment was made then. In fact, it was probably made years earlier: > [@](#): > > …Unger added: “Trump was the perfect target in a lot of ways: his vanity, narcissism made him a natural target to recruit. He was cultivated over a 40-year period, right up through his election.” > > Trump’s 1987 book, “The Art of the Deal,” described a visit to Moscow to discuss building “a large luxury hotel across the street from the Kremlin in partnership with the Soviet government.” > > In fact, Shvets said, Russian operatives used the trip to flatter Trump and told him he should go into politics. … (non-paywalled, I think) > **[Russia has been cultivating Trump as an asset for 40 years, former KGB spy says](https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-cultivating-trump-asset-40-years-says-ex-kgb-spy-2021-1)** > > Yuri Shvets told The Guardian that the KGB had identified Trump as a potential asset as far back as the 1980s. This doesn’t prove the 2016 document to be either real or fake; it’s merely suggestive of the document’s authenticity. But of course Donald will declare it to be Fake News. ---
**Author:** ![SailorHG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@SailorHG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SailorHG)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2119 "2021-07-17T07:21:24Z")
If true, I would have a hard time believing that Trump was the sole target of the KGB’s attention. There must be hundreds – if not thousands – of others that are still being groomed as idiots useful to the Russian government. ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2120 "2021-07-17T12:43:27Z")
74 million of them at the last count. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2121 "2021-07-17T14:41:44Z")
The irony is that most of them would have been, during the Cold War, the most ardent anti-Russian folks in the US. But this does my heart good: > **[House GOP's 10 Trump critics raise piles of cash in battle to hang on to...](https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/16/politics/impeachment-republicans-house-reelection/index.html)** > > Former President Donald Trump made his return to campaign politics last month by trekking to northern Ohio to take revenge on one of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach him: Rep. Anthony Gonzalez. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2122 "2021-07-17T14:53:43Z")
> [@SailorHG](#): > > If true, I would have a hard time believing that Trump was the sole target of the KGB’s attention. There must be hundreds – if not thousands – of others that are still being groomed as idiots useful to the Russian government. Facts: 1. The Russians hacked into DNC e-mails and leaked embarrassing messages they discovered. 2. The Russians did not do so for RNC e-mails. Possible Conclusions: 1. The Russians just plain forgot that there was another major party in the US. 2. The Republicans are just too gosh-darn clever to let themselves get hacked. 3. The Russians obtained kompromat on Republicans, but are holding it close to the vest and playing a long game with it. The relative plausibility of each theory is left as an exercise for the student. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2123 "2021-07-17T16:46:23Z")
I’d still like to see some independent confirmation of all this but I would also like to suggest that we not overestimate Russian intelligence competence. Western intelligence forces have infiltrated their opponents regularly for sixty years. I fully recognize that the Eastern Bloc had some big wins, too. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/2124 "2021-07-17T16:46:34Z")
Why the hell isn’t the CIA doing exactly the same things to the Russians? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537.md?page=105) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537.md?page=107)