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Musk Spends $277 Million on Election : How is this Acceptable

Discussion in 'Too Hot for Swamp Gas' started by gator_jo, Dec 26, 2024 at 11:25 AM.

  1. gator_jo

    gator_jo GC Hall of Fame

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    How is this acceptable to any American, that a single person can account for roughly 25% of the total spending for a candidate's campaign for POTUS? (Please correct if that % is wrong, tx)

    This is absurd. It doesn't matter which party the spending supports. It doesn't matter (as much) that $20m of the spending was to promote outright falsehoods through the RBG Pac, that didn't have to be revealed until after the election. And it doesn't matter (quite as much) that the spending was done by someone not American-born.

    This is not what our democracy should look like. This is flagrant influence buying at a level that is infinitely beyond obscene. How is this acceptable to any American?



    Elon Musk spends $277 million to back Trump and Republican candidates



    Elon Musk spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to back President-elect Donald Trump and other Republican candidates, campaign finance records filed Thursday show.

    The sum makes Musk, the world's richest person, the largest donor in the 2024 election cycle to either party, Federal Election Commission filings show.

    The bulk of Musk's spending was through his own America PAC, to which he contributed $239 million. But filings also showed that Musk was also behind a political action committee using the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's namesake — "RBG PAC" — in advertisements with misleading claims that Ginsburg held views on abortion that were similar to Trump's.

    Ginsburg's granddaughter, Clara Spera, told The New York Times in October that the PAC was an "affront to her grandmother's legacy," and it was "nothing short of appalling" that Ginsburg's name was being used to support Trump's reelection campaign.
     
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  2. g8orbill

    g8orbill Old Gator Moderator VIP Member

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  3. gator_jo

    gator_jo GC Hall of Fame

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  4. mdgator05

    mdgator05 Premium Member

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  5. g8orbill

    g8orbill Old Gator Moderator VIP Member

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    Yes at one time he did manage a Soros Fund and at one time was a mega dem donor. He also was a major fundraiser for Trump in the 2024 election.
     
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  6. mdgator05

    mdgator05 Premium Member

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    Actually, worked for him twice. And he wasn't managing a single fund the second time. And both times, he left to form his own fund. Would you like to posit a guess as to the largest investor in both of those funds?
     
  7. dangolegators

    dangolegators GC Hall of Fame

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    If you count his purchase of Twitter, he really spent $44.277 billion on the election.
     
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  8. VAg8r1

    VAg8r1 GC Hall of Fame

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    There is a difference between donating a total of $170 million to multiple candidates and $277 million to a single presidential candidate and perhaps the bigger difference is that Soros regularly contributes to candidates that support positions that are antithetical to his personal financial interests, higher tax rates as well was regulation of financial markets coming immediately to mind. Musk was motivated in large part to lower his own taxes as well as to eliminate federal regulatory oversight of multiple businesses controlled by him and/or in which he is the largest shareholder with investments in the billions of dollars. As one example the NHTSA investigation of accidents related to the Tesla autonomous driving is almost certain to disappear as are regulations requiring auto manufacturers to report accidents related to autonomous driving systems. Elon successfully bought the next president. Soros received little if any direct benefits from his campaign contributions.
     
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2024 at 3:29 PM
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  9. homer

    homer GC Hall of Fame

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    Change the election finance laws.

    Until then it will be like NIL without any limitations.
     
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  10. GatorJMDZ

    GatorJMDZ gatorjack VIP Member

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    It's a business investment for Musk that will pay off handsomely. President Trump And Shadow President Musk will make sure of that.
     
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  11. VAg8r1

    VAg8r1 GC Hall of Fame

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    If nothing else Donnie is securing his place in history as the best president that money can buy and it's not just that he is bought and paid for by Elon and other billionaires Trump will again being the only president to monetize the office while in office and compared to his first term in office his grifting from the taxpayers in his second term will be magnitudes greater.
     
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  12. VAg8r1

    VAg8r1 GC Hall of Fame

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    Although it will never happen since the beneficiaries of the current system ultimately have the responsibility for changing the rules we are badly in need of a Constitutional Amendment specifically providing the donations to political campaigns are not a form of protected free speech and that Congress and state legislatures are authorized to enact legislation regulating such expenditures. Until there is meaningful campaign finance reform we will continue to have the best politicians that money can buy. What the SCOTUS has referred to as free speech is in reality nothing more than legalized bribery.

    Similarly we will probably never see a Constitutional Amendment prohibiting gerrymandering even though there are multiple state legislatures and as well as state Congressional delegations in which the proportion of seats held by one party far exceeds the total votes that party has received statewide.
     
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  13. Gatorrick22

    Gatorrick22 GC Hall of Fame

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  14. QGator2414

    QGator2414 VIP Member

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    LOL!

    Money bought Biden 81 million votes. LOL! “81 million” LOL!
     
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  15. G8trGr8t

    G8trGr8t Premium Member

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    That was a big reason he bought Twitter. Tweak the algorithms to find and target the select audience to drive the fervor
     
  16. G8trGr8t

    G8trGr8t Premium Member

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    The return to Tesla and SpaceX will be 10x
     
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  17. gator_jo

    gator_jo GC Hall of Fame

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    Weird to still see you insinuate this lie (about Biden not getting votes) when you scurry away any time someone asks you for proof.



    Edit : more weird to see you get called out for telling a lie, and respond with a 'funny' rating.

    As in : "Haha, funny...I told a lie!"

    It's hard to imagine being a grown adult who either doesn't even TRY to substantiate the things they say, or just laughs at the fact that they got caught telling a lie.

    Weird. But you do you. If appx half the electorate approves of telling that known lie, you're going to feel good about continuing to tell it?
     
    Last edited: Dec 27, 2024 at 8:27 AM
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  18. demosthenes

    demosthenes Premium Member

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    I do not know the basis for your comment, but assuming it’s true I say burn it all down. Whether it’s single donors like Musk or Soros spending hundreds of millions, PACs or corporations, we need to get rid of them all from our political system. Political donations to only three candidates and made only by US citizens with a per citizen cap.
     
  19. QGator2414

    QGator2414 VIP Member

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    LOL!

    I am not lying about anything. Just pointing out that you have to be naive to believe 81 million individuals voted for a man showing clear cognitive health issues campaigning from a basement considering we had never seen anywhere close to that number of votes for any candidate ever.

    If it makes you feel better to naive and believe that. Good for you.
     
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  20. CHFG8R

    CHFG8R GC Hall of Fame

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    Nah. My guy is good. Your guy is bad.
     
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