# 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:** 84
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1663 "2021-05-27T16:38:41Z")
Maybe he’d fly him to Cancun. ---
**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:** [May 27, 2021, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1664 "2021-05-27T16:48:53Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > That is now standard HR jargon. Employees aren’t people. They’re just assets, like the furniture in the building, the money in the bank; just things that the employer owns, uses, and disposes of as needed. Even the standard phrase “HR” (Human Resources), what we used to call the “Personnel Department” reduces the employees to mere capital assets. And I think the phrase was deliberately chosen to emphasize that. John Backderf, cartooning a strip called “The City” under the name Derf, once drew a corporate org chart that clearly placed most of the employees at the very bottom, below the office furniture. (It’s not on-line that I can find.) One employee who rated several steps above the office furniture was the thuggish employee in charge of the in-house United Way campaign. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1665 "2021-05-27T16:55:04Z")
Exactly. The change from “personnel” to “human resources” made it very clear: the employer does not care about employees as people, only as things that they can use. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1666 "2021-05-27T17:25:51Z")
I don’t know how widespread the term is, but one company I worked for used “Full-Time Equivalents,” or FTEs. This removes the human element completely, and reduces the workforce to a collection of functional blobs which can be combined in whatever manner necessary to accomplish eight hours of work. I imagine that Scott Adams’ Zimbu the Monkey would count as 1.5 FTEs, since he can use his tail as a third hand. ETA: It appears that Discourse remembers the date I joined, which is more than I do. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1667 "2021-05-27T17:41:45Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > An IT classmate worked briefly for a company that referred to its employees as “human assets.” I’ll be honest, I’d feel a bit better being referred to as an asset than a resource. Neither is particularly humanizing but at least one has slightly more flattering connotations. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1668 "2021-05-27T18:25:36Z")
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if large swathes of his businesses were totally legitimate. You NEED legitimate business to act as cover for the criminal ones, it at the heart of how money laundering works. That’s how modern criminal organizations are structured. The expensive real estate, c-suites and skyscrapers give them a veneer of respectability and the legitimate businesses provide cover. That’s how Madoff got away with it for so long, his very large legitimate business provided a cover of respectability and explanation for his personal wealth. That’s why no one investigated what should have been an obvious fraud, he was so respected that it was unfathomable that he would be a straight up crook. Once he gave an investigator a totally made up SEC registration number and they never took the trivial step of checking the number he gave them. I’ve long felt that the Trump Organization was a criminal enterprise. That opinion has little to do with my dislike for Trump and his low moral character. Its based on other red flags. Too many of the people around him don’t have real job titles or descriptions, they are simply described as lieutenants or fixers. That’s because the business is performative and they’re all playing parts. Sometimes it might to your advantage if the guy sitting next to you in the meeting is a lawyer - you might need the confidentiality. But the next day it might be to your advantage if the guy sitting next to you is just a friend (maybe you want to claim you were wronged because you didn’t have a lawyer). It doesn’t matter that it’s the SAME guy with you in both meetings. Recently there was a news article where Ivanka claimed in a deposition that she knew Allen Weisselberg worked for the Trump Organization but she didn’t know it what capacity. I imagine that at the Trump Organization CFO means whatever you want it to mean on that particular day. Everyone thought it just went to show how craven and disingenuous she was, but it’s also a reflection of this type of illegitimate business structure. Other red flags that, to me, indicate the the Trump Organization may be a criminal enterprise include the family embedded throughout the organization - again, without clear job responsibilities or titles. Trump followed the same playbook when he became President…remember all those “Special Assistants to the President”? Did anyone ever actually figure out what KellyAnne Conway or Steve Bannon did? Normal executives in legitimate businesses change jobs regularly and bring experience they gained at one company to another as they climb the corporate ladder. People that work for the Trump Organization don’t. Allen Weisselberg, for example,has never worked for anyone but the Trump family. His children never worked for anyone other than their father. It’s probably also worth nothing that the Chief Operating Officer of the Trump Organization is an ex-football player with a background in electronic surveillance who was hired because Trump was impressed with the way handled a heckler at a golf tournament…ie …a goon. When your Chief Operating Officer is muscle whose only experience is intimidation, that’s a clear indicator of what your operation is about. > **[Meet Matthew Calamari, a loyal Trump employee of 40 years reportedly under...](https://www.insider.com/who-is-matthew-calamari-trump-organization-employee-2019-2)** > > Michael Cohen alleged that longtime Trump Organization employee Matthew Calamari knew about a fraudulent scheme that would help Trump evade taxes. This is just my opinion. I worked for many wealthy businesspeople during my career, most of whom were legitimate and some, maybe a half dozen or so, they weren’t. These are consistent patterns I noticed and that leads me to believe the Trump Organization is criminal. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1669 "2021-05-27T18:33:53Z")
> [@rocking\_chair](#): > > does trump have a place to live that isn’t company owned? I look forward to the day when he will, complete with shiny metal bracelets. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1670 "2021-05-27T19:59:29Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > I don’t know how widespread the term is, but one company I worked for used “Full-Time Equivalents,” or FTEs. The important thing about FTEs is the implication that 9 women can make a baby in one month. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1671 "2021-05-27T20:08:53Z")
> **[Brooks's law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks%27s_law)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Brooks' law is an observation about software project management according to which adding manpower to a software project that is behind schedule delays it even longer. It was coined by Fred Brooks in his 1975 book The Mythical Man-Month. According to Brooks, under certain conditions, an incremental person when added to a project makes it take more, not less time. > According to Brooks himself, the law is an "outrageous oversimplification", but it c... ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1672 "2021-05-27T20:19:44Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > That is now standard HR jargon. Employees aren’t people. They’re just assets, like the furniture in the building, the money in the bank; just things that the employer owns, uses, and disposes of as needed. That’s one way to look at it. Another way to look at is is that referring to employees as assets is a recognition that they bring value to the organization rather than just thinking of them as a necessary evil. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1673 "2021-05-27T20:35:26Z")
That is a nice way of stating it, but I doubt the thought has ever crossed Trump’s mind\* \* for lack of a better word. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1674 "2021-05-27T20:43:07Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Don’t be ridiculous. He’d never hand over his house. He’d give them his wife instead. Nah, DumpsterFire called her ugly. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1675 "2021-05-27T20:55:53Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > An IT classmate worked briefly for a company that referred to its employees as “human assets.” In that context, it would be interesting to contemplate a scenario where the entire kit ‘n’ caboodle might be … _vaporised_ . As Utah Phillips once said: > You are about to be told one more time that you are America’s most valuable natural resource. Have you seen what they do to valuable natural resources?! Have you seen a strip mine? Have you seen a clear cut in the forest? Have you seen a polluted river? Don’t ever let them call you a valuable natural resource! They’re going to strip mine your soul. They’re going to clear cut your best thoughts for the sake of profit unless you learn to resist, because the profit system follows the path of least resistance and following the path of least resistance is what makes the river crooked! ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1676 "2021-05-27T21:11:04Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > As Utah Phillips once said: Have it tattooed on the inside of your eyelids so you see it every time you close your eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1677 "2021-05-27T21:44:10Z")
Cite please? I’d like to keep that one handy. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1678 "2021-05-27T21:52:04Z")
You can find it and other quotes [here](https://www.azquotes.com/author/17809-Utah_Phillips). ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1679 "2021-05-27T21:56:20Z")
Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1680 "2021-05-27T22:30:45Z")
Impressively summarized. I think you are right on all counts. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1681 "2021-05-27T22:38:54Z")
[Ha-Ha!!](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/steve-wynn-foreign-agent_n_60af9749e4b0a24c4f8616a3) Former RNC finance guy and disgraced former casino owner Steve Wynn is going to have to register as a Foreign Agent (of China) or face a DOJ lawsuit. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfectly-reasonable-amount-of-schadenfreude-about-things-happening-to-trump-his-enablers-part-1/925537/1682 "2021-05-27T22:58:49Z")
I also think the buffet at the Wynn in Vegas is overpriced and underwhelming. I was not impressed. [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=83) [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=85)