I have some ideas about what we should do with Musk and Trump, but they’re against instance rules
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I have some ideas about what we should do with Musk and Trump, but they’re against instance rules
Fun fact:
George W Bush’s entire campaign budget was 198 million dollars.
Citizens United is allowing this one billionaire to donate more than that by himself.
Also, compare the breakdown of the 2020 race:
https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race
Biden’s campaign directly spent over $1B, and over half a bil of outside money (SuperPACs, I assume). Trump “only” managed about $1B combined.
IIRC, money spent directly by the campaign is also worth more; they get preferential ad rates.
Harris has already broken $100M in the first few days. Some of that was pent up donations from donors who wanted Biden out.
Dude was born and raised in South Africa pretending to be an American (much like Ted Cruz who was born in Canada) interfering in US elections. It’s fucked.
Our whole schtick is (supposed) to be that anyone who wants to come here and make a life here is an American.
There’s plenty of things to be pissed at Musk for, especially in relation to how his family made their money in Apatheid South Africa (emerald slave mines), but him being born elsewhere isn’t it.
That shtick is just a shtick. Every country with a functioning government has standards for who they’ll allow to immigrate and become a citizen, and Musk is precisely the kind of person I’d want to keep out. He’s making a life here as a billionaire, not an American, because billionaires have no real nationality, just flags of convenience. I don’t want him on my planet, much less in my country, and I especially don’t want his greasy money in our politics.
That’s cool and all, and I generally agree, but the sheer fact that he’s a foreigner isn’t something to go after
Eh, now you’re getting xenophobic.
There’s a ton of reasons to criticize musk on without resorting to such stupid argument “he’s not a real 'murican”
To be fair, you can’t be President if you’re a naturalized citizen so the xenophobia thing is kind of built-in.
In this case, thank fuck because we’d have Musk running for President, guaranteed.
I love Elon Cuck cosplaying as a “Texan cowboy” but too stupid to realize his hat was on backwards 😂😭🤡
What a dipshit.
I’m not American. Can someone explain how they are ‘allowed’ to do this? Similarly, how is the war chest created?
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert did a lovely series about this.
But in short, Donating millions to Trump. Illegal. Donating millions to Trump PAC. Legal. Trump can not spend Trump PAC money directly. Trump can say “boy I wish I had millions of dollars in political ads in a specific states at specific times about these specific topics.” Trump can also get pretty specific about the details.
Trump can also get pretty specific about the details.
I want the Big Macs to be wrapped in 100 dollar bills for the commercial. After the commercial send them to my room to make sure they were wrapped correctly. Do it even if we cut the Big Macs out of the commercial as well.
The Supreme Court declared money to be “free speech” and therefore protected by the first amendment. Therefore, if you are a billionaire and wish to throw elections to a fascist of your choice, that is protected speech.
The case is referred to as Citizens United. It’s also the source of the phrase “corporations are people, my friend” as it affords first amendment protections to corporations which are not people. Except in the crooked eyes of the fascist Supreme Court majority.
Short version: strategically place judges at all levels of jurisdiction, bring cases in front of them that upend protections aimed at preventing exactly that type of oligarchic power buying and thus rewrite the laws through these hoops until Freedom of Speech is conflated with buying elections.
You see, despite appearances, companies are actually people. Not in a real, people kind of way. Specifically, in a “the best of both for them” kind of way.
Then was have to remember that paying to circumvent and unduly influence democracy is, we’re to beleive, “free speech ^^^^tm” and, contrary to any and all logic, is actually very democratic. Then you have to remember that there aint no limit on freedom in America, baby!
If that doesn’t make sense to you then you’re a freedom hating commie.
Interesting fact about the timing. He started donating as soon as Trump promised to never release the Epstein files.
He started donating as soon as Trump appointed JD Vance as his VP. Vance is a protege of Peter Thiel, a Musk partner and Silicon Valley confidant.
Nobody is going to release “the Epstein file” (whatever the fuck that’s supposed to be) because Epstein was doing all sorts of shady shit on behalf of national security services in order to build compromat on people in conflict with those agencies. You didn’t need Trump to make any kind of promise for that (not that he’s particularly trustworthy anyway). What you needed was a guy on the inside, slavishly loyal to the Silicon Valley techbro community. And JD Vance is that guy.
Hardly red-string. This is bog standard business news. JD Vance is part of the Thiel political incubator project, intended to finance both right-wing media projects and partisan electoral bureaucrats. He’s running the same playbook as Sheldon Adelson and the Koch Brothers employed a decade ago. A playbook they got from the O&G and Tobacco lobbies ten years before that.
If you’re looking to go down a rabbit hole on Epstein specifically, I might point you towards TrueAnon podcast. They did live coverage of the Gislaine Maxwell (ep 29/30) even getting into her trial. And they have a ton of material on the Koches (Ep 94/95), Elon Musk (The Lamest Show on Earth eps 1-3), and Peter Thiel (Palantir ep 105 and Survival Of The Grimmest ep 244).
TrashFuture does a ton on the Silicon Valley political networks as well.
Theil paid for his running for Senate and got him his jobs… Theil so happens to be a billionaire from PayPal, hmmm who else is a billionaire from PayPal .
Not everything is some national security plot. Its completely possible that he ran that kind of service purely for private interests. For instance, Ralph Nader had people trying to do that to him hired by automotive companies.
Not everything is some national security plot.
This was explicitly a national security plot. Epstein had known associations within national intelligence, both historically and at the time of his arrest.