Money In Politics

[basquebromance]

government investing in the private sector is like mixing ice cream with spinach

it doesn't help the spinach, but it ruins the ice cream

 

[dblack]

I don't want to diminish the power of government, I want to diminish its scope. Government should have all the power it needs to attend to its legitimate responsibilities. Getting in bed with corporations via the regulatory regime isn't one of those legitimate responsibilities

Government creates corporations by writing regulations, so where do you draw the line between legitimate and illegitimate responsibilities?

The Constitution. But that's largely been undermined.

Do you advocate for allowing for-profit corporations to regulate their own behavior?

Yes of course. I advocate for "allowing" everyone to regulate their own behavior. If a person, or corporation, isn't violating the rights of others, government has no business telling them what to do.

 

[dblack]

"I'm voting for Jo Jorgensen."
Oh for god's sake, then don't vote at all.
If you believe Trump is all that bad as you say, why are you going to help him win?

I've been in the habit of trying to explain to idiots how wrong-headed this view is. But I'm getting so sick of that, and also found such efforts entirely fruitless, so I'll just cut straight to "Fuck you" and be done with it, mkay?

 

[dblack]

That's another one. Regulations.

If I have the power to regulate the blazes out of your business and make it extremely difficult for you to get off the ground, why do you think that happened?

It happened because your competitors who have been around for decades paid me beaucoup dollars to make it harder for you to compete against them.

Who are you???

A TDSer

A Never Trumper. Do you know that that term means?

I do. And you know I agree. The "TDSer" remark was a comment on the idiotic attitude of most Republicans towards libertarians and conservatives who reject Trump.

 

[bendog]

We hear complaints from the Right all the time about how much regulations cost business and what a bad thing that is.

But the deep dark secret is that the old sclerotic businesses who own Capitol Hill want to be heavily regulated. Heavy regulations keep out the upstarts.

Reagan was a different cat, and I'd say Ford was to at heart, but he wasn't really up to leading a new conservatism. But Reagan was hijacked by those like Norquist and esp McConnell who view conservatism as lower taxes and supporting everything the chambers of commerce could lust for.

The dems conversely have a bipolar view, as even the old whores in Washington distrust the "bosses" even the guys like Biden and Obama who didn't really cash in until they left govt (as opposed to the Clintons) have this need to protect wall street and venture capital .. not just small biz, but even the sharks who live to eat smaller sharks but somethimes encounter the great whites.

And then the dems coerce religious types who don't like other types and the gop coerces the other types to do what the religious types want.

Trump really hasn't been a change.

 

[georgephillip]

It is awesome that way.

You mean this way
The Biggest Stock Scams of Recent Time

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

It is awesome that way.

You mean this way
The Biggest Stock Scams of Recent Time

No, I don't.

Aren't you glad you never invested any money in stocks?

It'd be a shame if you actually had some money saved up, eh?

 

[georgephillip]

No. It was Constitution limits on government power. Jim Crow laws were "the democratic will of the people". The Court denied them.

Jim Crow was based on States Rights or the democratic will of the crackers. Federal governmental power was responsible for ending that particular facet of White Supremacy.

This Day in History — September 24

 

[georgephillip]

nd what exactly are those rich people trying to get for their money?

More money?
Maybe we could use government to tax private wealth into extinction?

We have the best government that money can buy.... quote by Mark Twain

 

[basquebromance]

Campaigning for president as a Washington outsider, Trump electrified rallies with his vows to “drain the swamp.”

But trump did not merely fail to end Washington’s insider culture of lobbying and favor-seeking.

He reinvented it, turning his own hotels and resorts into the Beltway’s new back rooms, where public and private business mix and special interests reign.

 

[basquebromance]

"Just 60 customers with interests at stake before the Trump administration brought his family business nearly $12 million during the first two years of his presidency, The NY Times found. Almost all saw their interests advanced, in some fashion, by Mr. Trump or his government.

Patrons at the properties ranged widely: foreign politicians and Florida sugar barons, a Chinese billionaire and a Serbian prince, clean-energy enthusiasts and their adversaries in the petroleum industry, avowed small-government activists and contractors seeking billions from ever-fattening federal budgets. Mr. Trump’s administration delivered them funding and laws and land. He handed them appointments to task forces and ambassadorships, victories as weighty as a presidential directive and as ephemeral as a presidential tweet.

More than 70 advocacy groups, businesses and foreign governments threw events at the president’s properties that were previously held elsewhere, or created new events that drove dollars into Mr. Trump’s business. Religious organizations did both, booking more than two dozen prayer meetings, banquets and tours, capitalizing on the president’s popularity with white evangelicals to bolster their own fund-raising and clout. Until the pandemic, one well-connected lawyer hosted a monthly mixer, known as Trump First Tuesdays, attended by the president’s underlings."

 

[georgephillip]

You cannot improve the quality of politicians until you improve the quality of voters.

I can agree with that.
When half of all eligible voters don't bother to register or cast a ballot, we have a long way to go before an informed electorate produces a better quality of politicians.

 

[georgephillip]

The American people are not willing to pay enough taxes to pay for the government services they demand.

There's no doubt about the truth of that statement at state and local levels of government; there is a great deal of controversy about sovereign currency providers like the US federal government being able to spend first and tax later:

Ever heard of modern monetary theory?

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

The American people are not willing to pay enough taxes to pay for the government services they demand.

There's no doubt about the truth of that statement at state and local levels of government; there is a great deal of controversy about sovereign currency providers like the US federal government being able to spend first and tax later:

Ever heard of modern monetary theory?

Just how much "free printing" do you think the Fed can do each year?

 

[georgephillip]

Who/what decides who goes to prison?

Currently, over-worked public courtrooms where a vast majority of cases are decided by plea bargain. There are private solutions on the horizon:

PRIVATE ALTERNATIVES TO CRIMINAL COURTS: THE FUTURE IS ALL AROUND US - Columbia Law Review

"In his important article, Criminal Justice, Inc., Professor John Rappaport identifies the establishment of a new and novel institution: a private company retained by retail stores to dispose of cases involving shoplifting claims.1

"Still in its infancy, this new development has spawned two private for-profit, specialist companies since 2010: the Corrective Education Company (CEC) and Turning Point Justice (TPJ).2

"CEC alone handles thousands of shoplifting cases annually,3 and if some legal technicalities are overcome, these companies may be handling significantly more in the coming years."

 

[georgephillip]

In the Gilded Age, a handful of men owned more wealth than the rest of America, too. And that was before Big Government and the Federal Reserve.

Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, JP Morgan...

I guess it cost less to buy small government?
The Robber Barons and prohibition laid the ground work for today's gangster capitalism. Organized crime "earns" profits much greater than legitimate businesses, and much of those illegal funds go into political campaigns in both major parties.

 

[dblack]

I guess it cost less to buy small government?

But you get much less for your money.

 

[basquebromance]

"Donors even paid for the privilege of giving money to his campaign and super PAC. Mr. Trump attended 34 fund-raisers held at his hotels and resorts, events that brought his properties another $3 million in revenue. Sometimes, he lined up his donors to ask what they needed from the government"

 

[dblack]

"Donors even paid for the privilege of giving money to his campaign and super PAC. Mr. Trump attended 34 fund-raisers held at his hotels and resorts, events that brought his properties another $3 million in revenue. Sometimes, he lined up his donors to ask what they needed from the government"

When government controls everything, the way to get what you want is to control government.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

"Donors even paid for the privilege of giving money to his campaign and super PAC. Mr. Trump attended 34 fund-raisers held at his hotels and resorts, events that brought his properties another $3 million in revenue. Sometimes, he lined up his donors to ask what they needed from the government"

Sometimes, he lined up his donors to ask what they needed from the government"

That's outrageous!!!!

No politician in the history of history ever did that before Trump.

DURR!!!