Obama to net $400K for Wall Street speech

Padawanbater2

Padawanbater2

Well-Known Member
dagwood45431 said:
I can't be, of course, but it is a very reasonable explanation and much simpler than your unsupported conspiracy theory. You're going to need something far more substantive to get over that Occam's Razor hurdle. So far, you've offered nothing but conjecture.
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I agree, given the legality of bribes paid to American politicians, and as we've clearly seen demonstrated in this thread, unless a guy carrying a bag with a dollar sign on it is photographed with you on inauguration day, it's legit, because the law says it is.

Do any of you who disagree this was a political bribe support McCutcheon v. FCC? Citizens United? Bellotti? Buckley v. Valeo?

Limits on campaign spending are unconstitutional, corporations have 1st amendment rights to make political contributions, the 1st amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent political expenditures by corporations, federal limits are unconstitutional.
 
Padawanbater2

Padawanbater2

Well-Known Member
dagwood45431 said:
Serena Williams (famous, but much less famous than Obama), for one obscure example, demands up to $100,000 to speak. Is she being bribed when she speaks?
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No, because she has nothing to offer corporations

Former, current and soon to be publicly elected officials who are responsible for regulating industry and who hold enormous amounts of political power and influence, do.

Would you disagree with that?
 
dagwood45431

dagwood45431

Well-Known Member
Padawanbater2 said:
I agree, given the legality of bribes paid to American politicians, and as we've clearly seen demonstrated in this thread, unless a guy carrying a bag with a dollar sign on it is photographed with you on inauguration day, it's legit, because the law says it is.

Do any of you who disagree this was a political bribe support McCutcheon v. FCC? Citizens United? Bellotti? Buckley v. Valeo?

Limits on campaign spending are unconstitutional, corporations have 1st amendment rights to make political contributions, the 1st amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent political expenditures by corporations, federal limits are unconstitutional.
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Oh dear. You're fully invested. Fine. You're certainly free to believe Obama is being paid back retroactively for access/favors previously given and I'm free to reject your theory as myopic.
 
Padawanbater2

Padawanbater2

Well-Known Member
dagwood45431 said:
Sure she does. Why else would they pay her?
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Sure, the Australian Open can gain from a speech by Williams, after all, she did play tennis.. Do you see Goldman Sachs offering her that much to speak? What do institutions like Goldman Sachs have to gain from offering previous, current, and soon to be politicians the same amount for giving a speech?
 
Padawanbater2

Padawanbater2

Well-Known Member
dagwood45431 said:
Oh dear. You're fully invested. Fine. You're certainly free to believe Obama is being paid back retroactively for access/favors previously given and I'm free to reject your theory as myopic.
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Check the numbers. How much did financial institutions fund Obama's campaign in 2008, please get back to me. I would love to hear a reply from you about that.

"Free", right?
 
UncleBuck

UncleBuck

Well-Known Member
Padawanbater2 said:
Sure, the Australian Open can gain from a speech by Williams, after all, she did play tennis.. Do you see Goldman Sachs offering her that much to speak? What do institutions like Goldman Sachs have to gain from offering previous, current, and soon to be politicians the same amount for giving a speech?
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people like wayne gretzky get paid to give speeches to all sorts of businesses and companies all the damn time.

you are literally retarded.

getting to meet and greet famous people is a perk for employees and helps draw talent to companies.
 
dagwood45431

dagwood45431

Well-Known Member
Padawanbater2 said:
Check the numbers. How much did financial institutions fund Obama's campaign in 2008, please get back to me. I would love to hear a reply from you about that.

"Free", right?
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So, let me get this straight...the financial industry provided funding to Obama's campaign in 2008 and then in 2017 got together and decided Cantor should be the first to further pay Obama off by paying him $400,000 to speak? Do you realize how massive a conspiracy like that would have to be and how fucking nutty you sound right now?
 
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ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Padawanbater2 said:
So why can't these employees of corporations donate the legal amount like everyone else? Why go through the corporation?

If I give you $100, and Buck gives you $10, whose interests are you more likely to represent?

Buck knows if we reform campaign finance, establishment Democrats like Manchin will lose because they're propped up by corporate money, not their constituents. If we ensure corporations can only legally donate the same amount as individuals, it would remove the incentive for politicians to represent corporations.

Keep in mind, these corporations are entities like Walmart who have a vested interest in a low minimum wage for their workers. ExxonMobil who have a vested interest in injecting doubt into the climate change argument and who are represented in government by people like Lamar Alexander who was the 5th US Secretary of Education and currently chairs the subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, James Inhofe who chairs the Senate Environment Committee. But there's totally no way the money these corporations give to politicians like this influence their votes in government! How preposterous is that! These companies totally spend these completely legal donations because they're just so nice! They totally don't expect anything in return. I mean, that might be both illegal and immoral under an independent review... But not under US law. I mean, has there ever been a law enacted by the US that was immoral? I can't think of one..

Critically politically naive. Nothing more need be said.

















Racist!
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Corporations are not people and can never be allowed to vote- either at the ballot box or the campaign finance coffer.

Corporations aren't stupid. They don't spend that money 'altruistically'. They do it because A. They know it buys them access to tell their story ahead of average constituents, and B. It's fucking tax deductible, meaning the money they spend on buying our political system is financed by taxpayers!

I don't give one single fuck how 'legal' it is, it's corrupt as hell and if we want to have a democratically run country, IT MUST BE STOPPED.

And yes, it needs to be done systemically so no one may benefit from such corruption ever again, under pain of corporate officers going to prison and corporations being liquidated and their assets seized by the government to pay for their malfeasance.

ACCOUNTABILITY. The idea of being held responsible for corruption is an idea looking absent from American politics and policy and the lack of same is destroying our country.

We will not recover until We the People put a stop to it.
 
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ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
UncleBuck said:
people like wayne gretzky get paid to give speeches to all sorts of businesses and companies all the damn time.

you are literally retarded.

getting to meet and greet famous people is a perk for employees and helps draw talent to companies.
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Agreed. I think Mr Obama falls into a similar category.

I see nothing wrong with the payments involved with the celebrity speaking circuit.

This is a completely different phenomenon than that of corporations being able to anonymously spend unlimited amounts of money on campaign funding- and worse, deducting it from their taxes, thereby putting the American citizen on the hook for it. This is a deeply corrupt practice and must be stopped, no matter who does it or which side benefits.
 
Padawanbater2

Padawanbater2

Well-Known Member
dagwood45431 said:
So, let me get this straight...the financial industry provided funding to Obama's campaign in 2008 and then in 2017 got together and decided Cantor should be the first to further pay Obama off by paying him $400,000 to speak? Do you realize how massive a conspiracy like that would have to be and how fucking nutty you sound right now?
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The financial industry, among others, provided funding to Obama's campaign in 2008, amidst an economic recession. He bailed out the financial industry, not a single banker went to jail, and the regulations put in place (Dodd-Frank) were insufficient to prevent another crash like the last.

Obama and the Democrats had complete control of the government, they held a supermajority in congress. They passed Romneycare, a right wing healthcare initiative pushed by the Heritage Foundation.

Oh, did I mention those same politicians most in favor of the ACA are bought and paid for, via campaign donations, by the pharmaceutical industry?
 
dagwood45431

dagwood45431

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
I disagree. Serena Williams could easily be a paid consultant and give speeches to Goldman Sachs employees because she's the embodiment of a WINNER, and she's famous and as was mentioned above, a celebrity who can be a perk for those who work there.

The very same thing can be said for Mr Obama.
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Padawanbater2 said:
The financial industry, among others, provided funding to Obama's campaign in 2008, amidst an economic recession. He bailed out the financial industry, not a single banker went to jail, and the regulations put in place (Dodd-Frank) were insufficient to prevent another crash like the last.

Obama and the Democrats had complete control of the government, they held a supermajority in congress. They passed Romneycare, a right wing healthcare initiative pushed by the Heritage Foundation.

Oh, did I mention those same politicians most in favor of the ACA are bought and paid for, via campaign donations, by the pharmaceutical industry?
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What does any of that have to do with Cantor paying Obama to speak in 2017? Be specific.
 
Padawanbater2

Padawanbater2

Well-Known Member
mr sunshine said:
In your opinion, does every president do this or is it just the black ones?
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Every president does this, including Bush and Trump.

Back at you, are Republicans the only politicians who are corrupt?

You keep trying to label me as a racist without actually providing the evidence. All conjecture and butthurt opinion because our side is gaining momentum.


Continue to accuse us of racism/sexism all you want, as I said before, it only makes our position that much stronger. You have literally nothing to say about the policies we support because you can't and continue to claim yourselves to be progressives. We support universal healthcare, you don't. We support universal college, you don't. We support raising the minimum wage to a living wage, now you've been dragged along for the ride, because you have to be, because we've shown you to be the sellout shills that you all are. Who only represent progressive values when you think it benefits you.
 
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