this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2024
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Political Memes

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[–] dactylotheca@suppo.fi 142 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

I have some ideas about what we should do with Musk and Trump, but they're against instance rules

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 60 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] dactylotheca@suppo.fi 24 points 4 months ago (2 children)

A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat!

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] just_ducky_in_NH@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago

Say no more!

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[–] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 36 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)
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[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 48 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 14 points 4 months ago

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.

[–] DogPeePoo@lemm.ee 43 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

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.

[–] Irremarkable@fedia.io 72 points 4 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 18 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Irremarkable@fedia.io 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's cool and all, and I generally agree, but the sheer fact that he's a foreigner isn't something to go after

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[–] DogPeePoo@lemm.ee 7 points 4 months ago

Lol. These fuckers are all ladder pullers. Check out the tenets of project 2025. They want to kick immigrants OUT. Musk is donating $45 million per month toward kicking immigrants out. He got his though, so…

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[–] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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"

[–] lennybird@lemmy.world 17 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

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.

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[–] Hayduke@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Wait until you hear about this guy named Rupert Murdoch.

[–] TastyWheat@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago

Or as we call him in his original country, 'Cunt'!

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[–] Track_Shovel 36 points 4 months ago (5 children)

I'm not American. Can someone explain how they are 'allowed' to do this? Similarly, how is the war chest created?

[–] MimicJar@lemmy.world 67 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Track_Shovel 32 points 4 months ago (4 children)
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[–] mightyfoolish@lemmy.world 19 points 4 months ago

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.

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[–] Ultraviolet@lemmy.world 34 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Interesting fact about the timing. He started donating as soon as Trump promised to never release the Epstein files.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 20 points 4 months ago (8 children)

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.

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 29 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] GladiusB@lemmy.world 18 points 4 months ago (1 children)

He also planned to have a bulletproof window cyber truck. He should plan to get his head surgically removed from his ass. Since that is apparently where it's been for a decade.

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[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 28 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Probably tax deductible. Also, aren’t Tesla employees happy their owners gave their billionaire CEO a $50 billion bonus instead of sharing it with all their employees? Now they are just passing the bullshit bonus onto Trump instead of the middle class employees that work there.

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[–] chemicalwonka@discuss.tchncs.de 24 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (5 children)

US is not a democracy, it is a plutocracy, an oligarchy

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[–] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 23 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Is there a website that tracks the whereabouts of billionaires? If not, how hard would that be to build and maintain?

Asking for a friend.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago (3 children)

That's a great start. Now we just need a few dozen more. That way, we can all have greater access to a billionaire no matter where we are in the world.

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[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 20 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

What's crazy is what its probably going towards.

AKA bombarding a handful of pour souls with ads and messaging in swing counties where it actually matters.

It seems like such a waste.

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[–] nifty@lemmy.world 19 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I was waiting for someone to bring this up, it would be hilarious if Biden does something to put a wrench in this plan as a last FU to the republicans

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Now that he's not running he can do a lot of last fuck yous and take the grenade for them. Don't know if he will.

[–] uebquauntbez@lemmy.world 19 points 4 months ago (2 children)

You get the president you ~~voted~~ paid for!

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[–] carl_dungeon@lemmy.world 19 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Musk is a dumb piece of shit that didn’t earn his money.

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[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 13 points 4 months ago (6 children)

There were liberal billionaires holding purse strings about college students protesting the killings in Gaza. This isn't a one-party problem. Though Repubs are more blatant about their corruption because they no longer have any shame.

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 24 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Zionists aren't liberals in my book. They're just a slightly different flavor of fascists who dress up their sick ideology with a Jewish facade rather than the more traditional Christian facade.

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[–] 108@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago

Billionaires shouldn’t exist. So many lives could be improved with this, it makes me sick.

[–] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 11 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I'm not saying that this is a good thing, but the meme really wants you to believe that ordinary people have donation limits and rich people don't. This is an oversimplification.

The limit is still $3,300 in individual donations directly to a campaign, no matter who you are. There is no limit on individual contributions to a PAC, so long as the PAC doesn't work directly with any candidate or campaign when spending the money, and this also doesn't matter who you are.

There isn't a literal rule that separates the rich from the poor here. You too can donate your entire savings to a PAC without limits.

The real inequality is how much we can afford to donate. I won't ever have $45,000,000 in my life, so I won't ever get the level of political influence that people like Elon Musk can buy. I can try to exploit the same systems he does, but he'll always be able to exploit them more.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

I'm not saying that this is a good thing, but the meme really wants you to believe that ordinary people have donation limits and rich people don't. This is an oversimplification.

Sure, but it's a practical truth. Which is to say, it's true.

Now, if you want to file the paperwork to start your own superPAC as Stephen Colbert did on his show, you can do that. It wouldn't cost much. That would allow you to accept and funnel unlimited funds to whoever or whatever you wanted. The "laws" around it are ludicrous.

But if you're a regular working stiff and just want to relax and not fuck around but feel like donating to a candidate - the limit is there for you. That's the practical distinction that makes the meme true.

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[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The funniest thing about this is as soon as he can trump will betray him.

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[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)
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[–] blazera@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

Youve heard of corporations are people, now get ready for one person is a corporation.

[–] mightyfoolish@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago (6 children)

Wait, this is about Elon Musk. Why isn't it in the Musk community over at !technology@lemmy.world ?

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[–] jinarched@lemm.ee 7 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I see, it's not as designed then... I'm not from US and I'm so confused every time I hear about rich people funding your politicians like it's perfectly alright and absolutely not fucked up.

[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It is just a weighted voting system where their opinion matters one billion times more than yours. I see no problem here.

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