I am so glad you covered this. I saw the post from BidenHQ on Threads. Seeing all those names and the money behind them made me feel so overwhelmed. How can we "average" people beat this? Average as in making an average amount of income. It frustrates me so much to see people who have more money than they will ever need to live comfortably not willing to contribute to common good by paying their fair share of taxes. They are supporting an autocrat for what? A bigger yacht, another house? The only thing that gives me hope is that many small donors translate to many votes. This is the only way we can beat them.
I try to hang onto your point of view Stevens, only sometimes it's just so exhausting. But I thank you for saying it... a tiny light at the end of the tunnel.
“All of our work is focused on targeting the key swing states where youth can make the biggest impact: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.”
I literally worked on the Sinema campaign, knocking on doors, signing up voters and even donated. That didn’t work out so well. I have no idea who Gallegos is but I have an innate distrust of anyone from Maricopa County.
Do not get me wrong, I’ll vote Gallegos. However, I think in a way called Bayesian. That is, based upon my observations over time I form a probability estimate on longterm honesty of politicians based upon several variables. Over time, I gather new information and decide whether I need to modify my probabilities. Currently, my “prior probabilities” are being modified adversely by my “posterior probability” data.
There are way, way more of us. We all get to vote, just once! It matters! Need to use our energy to get people to vote for what’s best in each other and not get demoralized.
I think Jay's point that we have to see if they actually do more than pledge is a good one. Also, each of them only has one vote. In that respect they have no more than us. So, they may spend money to sway people, but on the other hand, a lot of states are putting abortion on the ballot, and they will have to spend a lot of money deflecting from that, and IVF and if the democrats are smart they will put the birth control scare out there, because that is clearly on the chopping block. I hope all of this money gets sucked up by Treacherous-treasonous-traitorous-tantruming-Trump's legal costs.
Its far more profitable to buy influence than to actually innovate or invest in their businesses or communities. Free market my ass. Why so many schlubs like me worship power and capital I’ll never understand.
Well, they raised 50 million if you believe trump's numbers ... let me think, has trump ever lied about how much money he has? hmmmm ... he has lied about everything else. It would be rather embarrassing if trump were to state the truth (do this in a trump voice in your head) and say "yes, we passed the plate, it was the best plate. When we added everything up we had 16 dollars and 72 cents and a tie clip"
We already to do. Ever wonder why so many African countries suddenly pass horrendously strict anti LGBTQ laws? Look for the influence of American "Missionaries" who export their extremist positions into those countries.
You are absolute correct. As soon as I posted what I did I thought, damn, I’m generalizing which is something I do not like. However, do they do medicine and build houses without the religion as part of it? If a church funds missionaries are they not acting in a way to build their flock? If so, it reminds me of robber Barons who donate to charities to keep a positive image while they keep robbing.
I have personal experience with a local developer who helped build a children’s wing to a local hospital that had to put his name in big lights on the building. Found by a reporter that he got business associates to make tax deductable contributions and that he didn’t contribute a nickel. I have many more examples. Suffice it to say I look upon all these magnificent philanthropist with a jaundiced eye.
Thanks for the context Jay. Corporate media will cheer Trump’s amazing fundraising prowess next week but glad to see the Biden campaign is already responding. Also Trump will likely flush this money down the drain and fully tap his resources because everything he touches dies. Biden doesn’t need more money than Trump he just needs enough to get his message out and run his ground game. I do believe ground game is extremely important this year. In NC the Dems lead by Anderson Clayton are working in every county and areas that have been neglected for years. Every vote matters. Trump tells Haley voters he doesn’t need them but we are fighting for every single vote.
If the ground game reaches voters - and has a big voter registration/education effort, too, it's obviously important. Especially the voter education portion - because the misinformation and amount of lawyers the GOP/MAGA is ramping up now, with big help from Elon Musk and the Russians, is going to reach new levels of f**kery.
I hope billionaire greed put their money behind a loser dementia ridden criminal fraud. Their losses will fulfill my sense of justice. But as you say, let’s see what is fantasy and what is reality. Nothing comes out of that bloated pos is ever truth. Ever.
There is an app called Goods Unite Us that has the political donation history of a bazillion companies on the website. The three top things it shows are percentage to Democrats/Republicans and donations to Campaign Finance Reform. I just looked at AAA and find I may have to find a different battery-charger / tire changing organization. On the other hand, I don’t travel with them, nor buy their products. Just the membership. Hmmmmm
Referring to anyone on that list as “honorable” is literally the antithesis of the word. That guest list reads like the invitees to Hitlers last party at The Wolf’s Den. We’re prepared to expatriate out of this hellscape if Project 25 ever gets a chance to materialize. 🧢🇺🇸🗳️🌊
I can just think of Liza Minelli in cabaret singing "Money makes the world go round" and it makes me so sad and angry. The possibility of Trump winning again makes my stomach hurt. 🇲🇽🏳️🌈🇺🇲 I may have to go back to Mexico and I just became a citizen.
Have you lived in Mexico? Outside the US? Do you speak Spanish? SMA is an expat ghetto, with many privileged, rich Americans and Canadians. I have lived in MX, in another expat ghetto an hour outside Guadalajara. As well as many other countries. I’m still American, and back in the US now. Watching it from afar is no easier. Whatever works for you, though. I’m not being snarky. It’s just the reality is different.
It seems to be a decent area in any case. Granted, I probably don't know half of what I should but I have never been happy here, and a lot of it is the crap healthcare and rampant gun fetishism.
I am consulting people in the area for assistance and not going in totally blind though.
I was fluent in Spanish and Portuguese (Brazilian) at one time. Portugal is looking more and more attractive even at my age. Of course that’s assuming I still have a pension and Social Security…
I'm curious, where did you live in MX? I'm from Mexico city, I love my country and I miss my family, friends, ohh the food! But now I am an American citizen living in Buffalo and I love my life here. I feel that no matter where I am, my heart will always be divided in two.
If he wins, I'd go back, my husband is from here but he loves Mexico. I've never lived outside the city though. Life is very different.
Lake Chapala. Life is indeed different outside of a city, especially one overrun with expats as is Chapala/Ajijic (and SMA). I think Americans believe that leaving solves problems. It mostly creates new ones. Especially if the individual does not speak Spanish. Or understand how to navigate in a 3rd- or 2nd-world country
Lived in Rochester 1977-1998. I think Buffalo is much better now. It was still very depressed back then, reeling from the Bethlehem Steel plant closing there in the 80s. And other manufacturing leaving. So I know Western New York.
I left in 2018 for Guatemala (from Las Vegas, where I lived for 20 years, due 95% to financial difficulties after I lost my job at 54. Needed somewhere I could afford to live. Then Mexico in 2021. I’m now back in the US and glad to be here. Not for the state of the country, but I also feel I can be more politically active here. Overseas, it’s mostly Democrats Abroad.
This rogues gallery of terrible rich people is an object lesson about why we need to overturn Citizen's United. Until we do, dirtbags like these will enjoy inordinate ability to influence American politics.
I don't know why anyone would want their name publicly associated with a convicted sexual assaulter and financial fraud (not to mention the criminal. litigation he is facing), but it has been well publicized how most of this "campaign" money goes to pay lawyers, and that little if any will be used for an actual campaign, or ever make it to other Republican candidates. Kinda makes me happy.
"I don't know why anyone would want their name publicly associated with a convicted sexual assaulter and financial fraud..." Easy - "It's just business..." Also, these folks think there's no such thing as too much money. Or enough, even.
And such people spend a lot of time and money seeing to it that people in power, or who are likely to be in power OWE THEM. And when the person who owes them is the leader of the world's largest economy and deadliest military, AND controls who does or doesn't get prosecuted for, say - tax evasion, insider trading, antitrust violations, labor law violations... the list do go on. A few millions to a candidate - ANY candidate who will cater to them is an investment, pure and simple. And Trump does cater to them - just look at his cabinet and ambassadorial appointments last time, and the fact that he admitted he was mistaken about many of them, and will learn from those mistakes.
If he regains the Oval,he will install a fox in every imaginable henhouse, and those investments will pay off a hundredfold. As always, follow the money - not only where it goes, but where it comes from afterward.
Fund raiser: only those able to fork over 250,000 need apply
MAGAT devotee--but he cares so much about ME.
The GOP needs to to rename itself The Party of Cognitive Dissonance. Most of its supporters won't have a clue what that means, so it won't affect their devotion.
Doesn't matter. I MIGHT WIN THE LOTTERY!! Or make it big... somehow... sometime... This is America! ANYONE can get rich - and everyone hates taxes, don't ya know.
They've been voting against their own (actual) self-interest at least since Reagan.
Because THESE people pay their lawyers - and they have the very best lawyers money can buy. The people who did 1/6 and can't pay those kinds of lawyers ARE in jail.
My former workmate, who has a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, was Robert Mercer’s office mate in grad school. Bob Mercer used his superior math skills and tax-subsidized education to develop trading algorithms for the hedge-fun company Renaissance Technology, where he became a billionaire.
Jane Mayer wrote a brilliant article about Mercer in The New Yorker several years back. Among the jaw-droppers attributed to Mercer was his statement that, “Nuclear war on US soil wouldn’t be all that bad for most Americans.”
How’s that for giving back to the public who financed his education and provided the infrastructure and opportunities he’s had in life? Hard to believe someone so smart (and rich) could be so hollow inside, but that likely applies to all of the people on Trump’s guest list. Well, sure…and Trump himself, minus the smarts.
I am so glad you covered this. I saw the post from BidenHQ on Threads. Seeing all those names and the money behind them made me feel so overwhelmed. How can we "average" people beat this? Average as in making an average amount of income. It frustrates me so much to see people who have more money than they will ever need to live comfortably not willing to contribute to common good by paying their fair share of taxes. They are supporting an autocrat for what? A bigger yacht, another house? The only thing that gives me hope is that many small donors translate to many votes. This is the only way we can beat them.
We beat them so far thus year, and in 2022, and in 2020...
People who truly put America first, are smart and informed, outnumber MAGA.
I try to hang onto your point of view Stevens, only sometimes it's just so exhausting. But I thank you for saying it... a tiny light at the end of the tunnel.
Doreen, finding a group of like minded folks can be energizing. Are you familiar with:
https://www.lwv.org/
There are chapters everywhere
and though they are very prodemocracy they are nonpartisan.
Or your local chapter:
https://democrats.org/take-action/
And Turnup is active in:
“All of our work is focused on targeting the key swing states where youth can make the biggest impact: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.”
https://www.turnup.us/about-us
Me too
There's more of us, than of them !!!
Yes, I give $10 a month to Biden and $5 to Ruben Gallegos in Az who’s running against Kari Lake.
Imagine if we all did that. I hope we can encourage people to donate what they can.
I donate the same!
I literally worked on the Sinema campaign, knocking on doors, signing up voters and even donated. That didn’t work out so well. I have no idea who Gallegos is but I have an innate distrust of anyone from Maricopa County.
I think Gallegos will be an antidote to Sinema. But thank you for helping to keep Martha McSally out of that seat.
Take a look at who Karri Lake is who Gallegos is running against.
Do not get me wrong, I’ll vote Gallegos. However, I think in a way called Bayesian. That is, based upon my observations over time I form a probability estimate on longterm honesty of politicians based upon several variables. Over time, I gather new information and decide whether I need to modify my probabilities. Currently, my “prior probabilities” are being modified adversely by my “posterior probability” data.
There are way, way more of us. We all get to vote, just once! It matters! Need to use our energy to get people to vote for what’s best in each other and not get demoralized.
👏👏👏 well said!!
I think Jay's point that we have to see if they actually do more than pledge is a good one. Also, each of them only has one vote. In that respect they have no more than us. So, they may spend money to sway people, but on the other hand, a lot of states are putting abortion on the ballot, and they will have to spend a lot of money deflecting from that, and IVF and if the democrats are smart they will put the birth control scare out there, because that is clearly on the chopping block. I hope all of this money gets sucked up by Treacherous-treasonous-traitorous-tantruming-Trump's legal costs.
Its far more profitable to buy influence than to actually innovate or invest in their businesses or communities. Free market my ass. Why so many schlubs like me worship power and capital I’ll never understand.
Jay, You didn’t even mention the money from NFTs. sneakers, perfume and bibles. I hear he will sell bottles of his God given breath.
A basket of deplorables. Hillary, once again, was correct. One question: what makes Kelly Loeffler “Honorable”?
I suppose "former Senator" applied to Kelly is why the "Honorable" is applied. AS IF THERE WAS AN HONORABLE PERSON ON THAT INVITATIONS.
Should have "JK" beside it.
To think that we refer to judges and legislators as honorable. I fail to see why.
"Maureen"s are so astute!
Apparently just the sayso of the King of Con, Don. No facts needed.
Well, they raised 50 million if you believe trump's numbers ... let me think, has trump ever lied about how much money he has? hmmmm ... he has lied about everything else. It would be rather embarrassing if trump were to state the truth (do this in a trump voice in your head) and say "yes, we passed the plate, it was the best plate. When we added everything up we had 16 dollars and 72 cents and a tie clip"
T
“You know, all those lawyers I had to hire to fight so many unfair lawsuits and unlawful accusations don’t come cheap,” complained Dumbass Donny.
Since we're so good at producing horrible people, could we export some?
Well said!
We already to do. Ever wonder why so many African countries suddenly pass horrendously strict anti LGBTQ laws? Look for the influence of American "Missionaries" who export their extremist positions into those countries.
Ah, missionaries. Proving that everything good for the society is also bad for society.
Huh? What is good about missionaries?
Some of them actually do medicine and such. Build houses. They're not all awful.
You are absolute correct. As soon as I posted what I did I thought, damn, I’m generalizing which is something I do not like. However, do they do medicine and build houses without the religion as part of it? If a church funds missionaries are they not acting in a way to build their flock? If so, it reminds me of robber Barons who donate to charities to keep a positive image while they keep robbing.
I have personal experience with a local developer who helped build a children’s wing to a local hospital that had to put his name in big lights on the building. Found by a reporter that he got business associates to make tax deductable contributions and that he didn’t contribute a nickel. I have many more examples. Suffice it to say I look upon all these magnificent philanthropist with a jaundiced eye.
And a vanishingly few of them actually believe that “foolish” Gospel message of Love Your Neighbor.
For Endless
That's horrible 😢
At the moment, the market is over-supplied, unfortunately.
Ha!!!
Thanks for the context Jay. Corporate media will cheer Trump’s amazing fundraising prowess next week but glad to see the Biden campaign is already responding. Also Trump will likely flush this money down the drain and fully tap his resources because everything he touches dies. Biden doesn’t need more money than Trump he just needs enough to get his message out and run his ground game. I do believe ground game is extremely important this year. In NC the Dems lead by Anderson Clayton are working in every county and areas that have been neglected for years. Every vote matters. Trump tells Haley voters he doesn’t need them but we are fighting for every single vote.
If the ground game reaches voters - and has a big voter registration/education effort, too, it's obviously important. Especially the voter education portion - because the misinformation and amount of lawyers the GOP/MAGA is ramping up now, with big help from Elon Musk and the Russians, is going to reach new levels of f**kery.
BRAVO!
I hope billionaire greed put their money behind a loser dementia ridden criminal fraud. Their losses will fulfill my sense of justice. But as you say, let’s see what is fantasy and what is reality. Nothing comes out of that bloated pos is ever truth. Ever.
I’m super interested in which corporations donate directly to trump. I want to make sure my money doesn’t end up in that pipeline.
Yes, it would be helpful to know what products/services they do sell. Anyone know if such a list exists?
This is from 2020: https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race/donald-trump/contributors?id=N00023864
Thank you!
There is an app called Goods Unite Us that has the political donation history of a bazillion companies on the website. The three top things it shows are percentage to Democrats/Republicans and donations to Campaign Finance Reform. I just looked at AAA and find I may have to find a different battery-charger / tire changing organization. On the other hand, I don’t travel with them, nor buy their products. Just the membership. Hmmmmm
Thanks for that.
Referring to anyone on that list as “honorable” is literally the antithesis of the word. That guest list reads like the invitees to Hitlers last party at The Wolf’s Den. We’re prepared to expatriate out of this hellscape if Project 25 ever gets a chance to materialize. 🧢🇺🇸🗳️🌊
I can just think of Liza Minelli in cabaret singing "Money makes the world go round" and it makes me so sad and angry. The possibility of Trump winning again makes my stomach hurt. 🇲🇽🏳️🌈🇺🇲 I may have to go back to Mexico and I just became a citizen.
Moving to San Miguel de Allende in about two months if all goes to plan.
Beautiful place!
I say thjs to my family all the time that we may need to leave the country they all think iam out if my mind.
Janine, I just can't take another 4 years. I don't know how I survived them the first time.
Yara iam with you. Iam with you ❤️
So I hear. I hope to be useful.
Have you lived in Mexico? Outside the US? Do you speak Spanish? SMA is an expat ghetto, with many privileged, rich Americans and Canadians. I have lived in MX, in another expat ghetto an hour outside Guadalajara. As well as many other countries. I’m still American, and back in the US now. Watching it from afar is no easier. Whatever works for you, though. I’m not being snarky. It’s just the reality is different.
No, no, partial and learning.
It seems to be a decent area in any case. Granted, I probably don't know half of what I should but I have never been happy here, and a lot of it is the crap healthcare and rampant gun fetishism.
I am consulting people in the area for assistance and not going in totally blind though.
I was fluent in Spanish and Portuguese (Brazilian) at one time. Portugal is looking more and more attractive even at my age. Of course that’s assuming I still have a pension and Social Security…
I'm curious, where did you live in MX? I'm from Mexico city, I love my country and I miss my family, friends, ohh the food! But now I am an American citizen living in Buffalo and I love my life here. I feel that no matter where I am, my heart will always be divided in two.
If he wins, I'd go back, my husband is from here but he loves Mexico. I've never lived outside the city though. Life is very different.
Lake Chapala. Life is indeed different outside of a city, especially one overrun with expats as is Chapala/Ajijic (and SMA). I think Americans believe that leaving solves problems. It mostly creates new ones. Especially if the individual does not speak Spanish. Or understand how to navigate in a 3rd- or 2nd-world country
Lived in Rochester 1977-1998. I think Buffalo is much better now. It was still very depressed back then, reeling from the Bethlehem Steel plant closing there in the 80s. And other manufacturing leaving. So I know Western New York.
I left in 2018 for Guatemala (from Las Vegas, where I lived for 20 years, due 95% to financial difficulties after I lost my job at 54. Needed somewhere I could afford to live. Then Mexico in 2021. I’m now back in the US and glad to be here. Not for the state of the country, but I also feel I can be more politically active here. Overseas, it’s mostly Democrats Abroad.
This rogues gallery of terrible rich people is an object lesson about why we need to overturn Citizen's United. Until we do, dirtbags like these will enjoy inordinate ability to influence American politics.
I don't know why anyone would want their name publicly associated with a convicted sexual assaulter and financial fraud (not to mention the criminal. litigation he is facing), but it has been well publicized how most of this "campaign" money goes to pay lawyers, and that little if any will be used for an actual campaign, or ever make it to other Republican candidates. Kinda makes me happy.
"I don't know why anyone would want their name publicly associated with a convicted sexual assaulter and financial fraud..." Easy - "It's just business..." Also, these folks think there's no such thing as too much money. Or enough, even.
And such people spend a lot of time and money seeing to it that people in power, or who are likely to be in power OWE THEM. And when the person who owes them is the leader of the world's largest economy and deadliest military, AND controls who does or doesn't get prosecuted for, say - tax evasion, insider trading, antitrust violations, labor law violations... the list do go on. A few millions to a candidate - ANY candidate who will cater to them is an investment, pure and simple. And Trump does cater to them - just look at his cabinet and ambassadorial appointments last time, and the fact that he admitted he was mistaken about many of them, and will learn from those mistakes.
If he regains the Oval,he will install a fox in every imaginable henhouse, and those investments will pay off a hundredfold. As always, follow the money - not only where it goes, but where it comes from afterward.
what a collection of creeps
Fund raiser: only those able to fork over 250,000 need apply
MAGAT devotee--but he cares so much about ME.
The GOP needs to to rename itself The Party of Cognitive Dissonance. Most of its supporters won't have a clue what that means, so it won't affect their devotion.
They worship and wish to emulate them
It's been 8 years now. How's that emulation going, bubba? one might ask.
Doesn't matter. I MIGHT WIN THE LOTTERY!! Or make it big... somehow... sometime... This is America! ANYONE can get rich - and everyone hates taxes, don't ya know.
They've been voting against their own (actual) self-interest at least since Reagan.
Why aren't these people in jail? Let's face it, Cheeto-lini should have been in an orange jumpsuit right after January 6th.
I am constantly amazed by how many are willing to fall on there sword for this narcissistic sociopath.
Because THESE people pay their lawyers - and they have the very best lawyers money can buy. The people who did 1/6 and can't pay those kinds of lawyers ARE in jail.
My former workmate, who has a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, was Robert Mercer’s office mate in grad school. Bob Mercer used his superior math skills and tax-subsidized education to develop trading algorithms for the hedge-fun company Renaissance Technology, where he became a billionaire.
Jane Mayer wrote a brilliant article about Mercer in The New Yorker several years back. Among the jaw-droppers attributed to Mercer was his statement that, “Nuclear war on US soil wouldn’t be all that bad for most Americans.”
How’s that for giving back to the public who financed his education and provided the infrastructure and opportunities he’s had in life? Hard to believe someone so smart (and rich) could be so hollow inside, but that likely applies to all of the people on Trump’s guest list. Well, sure…and Trump himself, minus the smarts.
Looking at the list of Trump mega-donors, the words of Obi-wan Kenobi come to mind: "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."