I didn't think capitalists in general were morally bankrupt, these two neither.

I think better math would be good.

I smell bankruptcy of the regular kind. From a long way off and a long time ago.

They're just too young to remember what it was like when Trump first started coming to South Florida as an "adult".

The only difference between him and the other fake millionaires from NYC, which were a dime a dozen, is that he was widely regarded as much lower-class than most.

It only took a few weeks but the very small community of under-65 golfers rapidly recognized the defining characteristics of this character like they were always doing to anyone else who didn't seem to have legitimate wealth of their own or something to offer. Right along with the majority of the regular over-65 golfers with their wise old philosophies.

Lots of the local golfers were the sons of the fathers who built the yachting communities. Descended from hard-core Yankees, some of the most respectful people you could meet whether they had inherited great wealth or earned it themselves.

It was completely agreed that everything about Trump is fake from the get-go, he cheats at golf, and can't be trusted in a real estate deal. End of story. Wise financial people had seen his type before, it was not much of a variation on a local stereotype that you often get when there are so many exaggerated personalities from big cities who are nothing but words, and their words can't even be trusted in a small resort environment. Much, much, smaller back then, you find out everything.

Since the 1970's there has consistently been no sign he has ever changed his stripes in any way whatsoever.

It didn't take that many more years before he did build some "confidence" anyway through sheer relentless greed, and it was then confirmed more than once that the more you trusted him the more bankrupt you would be. Moral bankruptcy be damned, I'm talking money.

What can you expect from "Dishonest Don"? Everything he says is infused with lies, deceit, and exaggeration, that's his entire schtick, no different than it ever was, there is no room for anything else. Ev. Ry. Thing. You know it whether you like him or not, or whether you realize it or not. His campaign hinges entirely on this, he won't stop, it's the only thing that's ever gotten him anywhere. No surprise so many people fall for it, patriotic Americans are nothing like it was when WWII veterans were running things.

I don't expect he has been honing it for less than 70 years now, so maybe it is irresistible to some people who would never have fallen under his spell in more realistic times. I mentioned this before but I thought somebody like a16z would be seeking people who would be listening to their own vision, rather than succumbing to some disgraceful blowhard, and lending what I thought was undue credibility.

I know, he's not just any disgraceful blowhard, he's OUR disgraceful blowhard. This feeling goes back a long way, any Floridian who ever gave his lying butt a chance after that is guilty as sin.

>By endorsing Trump, Andreessen and Horowitz have effectively lost whatever leverage they might have had with the Harris campaign.

They can always change their mind, although that may be too disruptive for those not familiar with what disruption can do ;)

They could even do it in a more unpredictable way than this right here. H is so fortunate that his Mother is still alive to apologize to, I wonder if she heard as much about Trump as my late Mother (& Father, avid under-65 golfers back then) did decades before promoters ended up leveraging his silly fakeness into a "reality"-TV personality. All they could do was laugh when Trump got a TV series, he was so obviously a complete non-leader in a leadership position, it was cartoonish in so many ways. But I have to give him credit, nobody ever worshiped Trump in any way ever, until that.

Basically Trump was effectively banished in disgrace for decades because locals thought he was too "low-class", I'm not mincing words here. Old money can turn up their nose at the least of smells. Plus South Florida has always been gossip-central since it's just one big retirement community and there is such a huge multiple of people who have nothing else to do. Very different than the 50 states from the big lake on up. If you were reading the hometown National Enquirer back then, there were events where he left town for long periods afterward before showing his face again. Makes the Stormy Daniels affair look respectful by comparison. I imagine Pecker has sold the publication but retained or disposed of the archives and nobody will ever see that old stuff again. And that was just the verified stuff they could print without being sued for, the talk of the town was woo-hoo.

People like him & Epstein would never have been allowed to move to Palm Beach until after all the old money had finally died, and Epstein actually had money way before Trump did.