The Corbomite Maneuver. . . .

[cardcrimson]

The similarities struck me tonight. . . .

 

 

[Legend]

One is a hideous puppet. The other one is a Star Trek character.

____________________________________________________________
Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

[cardcrimson]

Hilarious!

 

[Mick1]

The sad part is listening to Biden wheeze about the threatening tech oligarchy. He sure didn’t mind it when it got him elected in 2020, didn’t he?

Biden delivers farewell address, warns of ‘oligarchy’ taking shape in America | AP News

Audaces fortuna iuvat

[Mick1]

The sad part is listening to Biden wheeze about the threatening tech oligarchy. He sure didn’t mind it when it got him elected in 2020, didn’t he? Biden delivers farewell address, warns of ‘oligarchy’ taking shape in America | AP News

WHen Biden visited Northern California, he went to Los Gatos and Atherton. Doubt he was visiting McDonald’s employees.

To be more specific, these billionaires have all donated to Biden or Democratic Super Pacs in the past. Needless to say, it is not a comprehensive list:

1. Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn.
2. Tom Steyer, VC and former presidential candidate, brought in $4 mms. for Biden.
3. Michael Bloomberg, former presidential candidate
4. Howard Schultz (Starbucks CEO)
5. Michael Moritz, VC, donated $7.8 million to pro-Biden, anti-Trump causes.
6. George Soros
7. John Bryan Morgan (Morgan & Morgan, plaintiffs law firm. He’s the one you saw saying “Kamala Harris is done.”)
8. Kevin Scott, MicroSoft CTO. His wife and Jill Biden are thisclose.
9. Steve Westly
10. George Marcus (Marcus & Millichap)
11. Penny Pritzker (Hyatt Hotels)
12. Hamilton James (Blackstone)
13. Kevin Systrom (Instagram founder)
14. Stephen Mandel (Hedge fund)
15. John Doerr (VC)
16. Neil Bluhm (Chicago real estate)
17. Dustin Moskovitz (Facebook co-founder)
18. Herb Chambers, Car Dealerships
19. Ernest & JOanne Garcia (used cars)
20. David Hall, automotive technology
21. Laurence Tisch, Insurance/NFL
22. Len & Emily Blavatnik (Music, Chemicals)
23. Gordon & Ann Getty (Getty Oil)
24. George Kaiser/wife Myra Block (Oil & Gas, Banking)
25. Lukas Walton (Walmart)
26. Gary & Laura Lauder (Estee Lauder)
27. Joe Carole Lauder/Ronald Lauder (ibid)
28. Ralph Lauren
29. Timothy & Mary Boyle (Columbia Sportswear)
30. Fishers (Gap)
31. Vivian Wang/Roger Wang/Retail
32. Sidney & Caroline Kimmel (Retail)
33. Eric Zingerhofer (Estee Lauder)
34. MIchael Rubin (online retail)
35. Mimi Haas (Levi’s)
36. Yvon & Malinda Chouinard (Patagonia)
37. Judith Glickman Lauder (Estee Lauder)
38. Jeannie Nordstrom (Nordstrom dept)
39. Joan Alfond/Bill Alfond (shoes)
40. Chris & Crystal Sacca (VCs)
41. JB & MK Pritzker (Hotels)
42. Nicholas & Susan Pritzker (ibid)
43. John Pritzker (ibid)
44. Jennifer Pritzker (ibid)
45. Margot & Thomas Pritzker
46. Penny Pritzker (ibid)
47. Dan & Karen Pritzker (ibid)
48. Jim & Marilyn Simons (hedge funds)
49. Henry Laufer (hedge funds)
50. Bruce Karsh (private equity)
51. Stephen Mandel (hedge funds)
52. Sami & Hala Mnaymneh (private equity)
53. John & Mindy Gray (investors)
54. Eli Broad (homebuilder)
55. Bill Conway (private equity)
56. Mike Bingle (private equity)
57. Thomas Hagen (private equity)
58. David Shaw (hedge funds)
59. Leon Black/Deb Black (private equity)
60. Jim & Penny Coulter (private equity)
61. Howard & Nancy Marks (private equity)
62. Daniel & Jane Och (hedge funds)
63. Hamilton James (investments)
64. Antony Ressler (Finance )
65. David Bonderman (private equity
66. James Dinan (Hedge funds)
67. Judy/Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan Chase)
68. Sam Bankman Fried (Cryptocurrency)
69. Chris Larsen (cryptocurrency)
70. Paul Tudor Jones (hedge funds…also an SCU Bronco)
71. Marc Lasry
72. Pablo Legorreta
73. Ron Perelman
74. Seth & Beth Klarman
75. Dirk & Nathasha Ziff
76. Daniel & Brianne Ziff
77. David Golub/Lisa Piazza
78. Christopher McKown
79. Robert Ziff/Michelle Locher
80. David Siegel
81. Tony Tamer
82. Felix Baker
83. Joseph Edelman
84. Jose Feliciano & Kwanza Jones
85. George & Linnea Roberts
86. Karen Finerman/Lawrence Golub
87. Thomas Lee
88. Greg Mondre
89. Fayez/Susan Sarofim
90. Ruth Gottesman/David Gottesman
91. Danielle & Michelle Lubetzky
92. Daniel Abraham (slim fast)
93. STewart & Lynda Resnick
94. Andrew/Penny Cherng (Panda Express)
95. Pamela/Duke Reyes (beer)
96. C. Dean Metropolous
97. Tilman & Paige Fertitta (Houston Rockets)
98. Gwendolyn Meyer (Cargill)
99. Lauren & Andrew Santo DOmingo (beer)

 

I got tired of writing them all down. 168 billionaires in all supported Biden and the Democratic party in 2021. And NOW Biden is issuing an “oligarchy” warning? You must be joking.

Audaces fortuna iuvat

[Mick1]

At least the Progressives are calling out Biden on this, noting he’s represented the interests of billionaires for half-a-century:

Progressives are frustrated by Biden’s final-days warning of billionaire influence

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[Mick1]

We’re going to see a spate of articles like this one which indicate that Trump has an oligarchy of billionaires…as opposed to the oligarchy the Democrats had in place with Wall Street, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, academia, the media, etc.

EDITORIAL: American oligarchy is officially here

Democratic supporters mixing academia and technology tried to go under the horizon in 2020 with Mind the Gap (such a snooty name) a fundraising effort pushed by Stanford professors:

Inside Mind the Gap, the secretive Silicon Valley group that has funneled over $20 million to Democrats | Vox

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[Mick1]

BTW, billionaires supporting Harris outnumbered billionaires who supported Trump by a 2:1 margin.

Kamala Harris Has More Billionaires Prominently Backing Her Than Trump—Jeff Bezos, Ken Griffin Weigh In (Updated)

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[BeyondThunderdome]

Mick — you do realize that conservatives voted every step of the way to weaken the laws and rules around money & politics. Every lawsuit, Supreme Court decision, legislation, etc. was championed by conservatives.

Imagine spending decades advocating for steroids in sports — and then complaining that the other teams are using steroids.

Over the past 25 years, the legal barriers separating money from politics in the U.S. have been systematically dismantled—primarily through a series of Supreme Court rulings driven by conservative majorities. The most pivotal decision was Citizens United v. FEC (2010), which held that corporations and unions could spend unlimited amounts on independent political expenditures, framing such spending as protected free speech. This opened the door to Super PACs and dark money. That same year, SpeechNow.org v. FEC allowed for unlimited contributions to Super PACs, while McCutcheon v. FEC (2014) struck down aggregate limits on how much individuals could donate across all federal candidates. More recently, FEC v. Ted Cruz for Senate (2022) made it easier for wealthy candidates to be repaid by donors after elections. Together, these decisions turned campaign finance law into Swiss cheese.

Politically, these changes were overwhelmingly championed by conservatives and the Republican Party. Conservative legal groups like the Federalist Society, libertarian think tanks, and GOP-aligned donors pushed the idea that campaign finance restrictions violated the First Amendment. Republican leadership in Congress, particularly people like Mitch McConnell, fought vigorously against contribution limits and transparency laws. Democrats, by contrast, generally supported stricter campaign finance rules and sought to pass legislation like the DISCLOSE Act, though some benefited from the same dark money system in practice.

The irony is sharp when conservatives complain about the influence of money in politics today. I was on the CEB long enough to remember many of you poo pooing any arguments against some of these things. Because “freedom”, money is speech, etc.

Meanwhile you have Elon Musk – the richest guy in the world — literally taking questions from the Oval Office: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyqB3t91quQ

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by BeyondThunderdome.
• This reply was modified 1 year ago by BeyondThunderdome.
• This reply was modified 1 year ago by BeyondThunderdome.
• This reply was modified 1 year ago by BeyondThunderdome.

NO MALARKEY

[Mick1]

The vast majority of the political power in this country backs Democrats: Big $$$$ (Wall Street), Big Tech (Silicon Valley), Big Entertainment (Hollywood), Big Law, Big Media, Big Academia. The Dems took Big Labor for granted, and they do, in fact, own government unions — organizations that FDR himself stated should not be allowed to exist.

This unholy sextuplet is in the bag for the Democrats. No Lefty Progressive policy is too inane, too illogical for them — as long as they get to keep their money and keep taxes low on the rich. And it’s been this way for generations. That’s why they slammed the door shut on Bernie Sanders. That’s why Obama saved Wall Street and told Main Street to go F themselves. That’s why Senator Feinstein’s husband, Philip Blum, Chair of CBRE made billions off of foreclosed-upon houses.

The backlash was inevitable, and it came, and it will come again.

Audaces fortuna iuvat

[BeyondThunderdome]

Mick. It sounds like we agree then. Let’s get rid of money in politics.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen just proposed an amendment to do exactly this:

Amendment to End the Domination of Big Money in Politics Introduced in U.S. Senate

I hope you and all the others here who are concerned about big business being “in the bag” for Democrats will get on board with this. Or do you not actually care about money in politics — but just care about it when it is given to Democrats?

NO MALARKEY

[Mick1]

I’d be completely good with it. Let’s take it another step further. Let’s go true democracy, eliminate the Electoral College but at the same time, let’s post major issues for nationwide vote, majority passes the initiative. Allowable voters are non-felon American citizens over the age of 18, as proven by their government-issued ID.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Mick1.

Audaces fortuna iuvat

[cardcrimson]

but at the same time, let’s post major issues for nationwide vote, majority passes the initiative.

That sure has worked well for California. . . .

[BeyondThunderdome]

Glad to hear it. As a good first step, please stop voting for the party that has spent decades making it easy to mix money and politics.

NO MALARKEY

[Mick1]

Glad to hear it. As a good first step, please stop voting for the party that has spent decades making it easy to mix money and politics.

No.

Advising anyone to start or stop voting for a specific party is ridiculous and asinine, and a request only made by dolts.

I am a registered independent and have been since 2004.

I know this is going to sound incredibly bizarre in your world, incomprehensible and beyond the pale, but I’m going to try to make a dent anyway.

Here goes (deep breath):

I look at the issue or the candidate, I research the most likely outcomes, strain it through my BS filter and vote accordingly.

Weird thought, isn’t it?

I realize that slavish devotion to a collection of Far Left or Far Right lunatics is the preferred way to go for room temp IQs, but I think I’m going to access my higher brain function and vote/support based upon what’s best for me and best for society. And society’s interests trump my interest. If there’s — oh, I don’t know, let’s say a virus — that originates steps away from a virus creation lab, I won’t automatically assume that it didn’t come from that lab. Second, if its mortality rate affects people like me (senior citizen, overweight, diseases, etc.) and the cost is shutting down the economy, throwing millions out of work and ensuring that children don’t learn properly for two years? Well…nice knowing you. I’ll take the hit, as I said at the time (and was roundly pilloried for doing so).

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Mick1.
• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Mick1.

Audaces fortuna iuvat

[Mick1]

I am a registered independent and have been since 2004.

By the way, if you really want to sxxt your pants, you should know that 27% of Americans identify as Democrats (a record low), 27% of Americans identify as Republicans…and 43% of Americans identify as Independents, a historical high, per Gallup:

Independent Party ID Tied for High; Democratic ID at New Low

Audaces fortuna iuvat

[BeyondThunderdome]

Forgive me. Based on years of reading your comments, you sound like a Republican most of the time.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by BeyondThunderdome.

NO MALARKEY

[Author]

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