I was disturbed by Robert Mercer’s dastardly part in the 2016 election, both his donations, his people placing, and his technical consulting. The guy is basically a real life Bond villain. When you look into the other top donors of the Republican Party, you start seeing some real Machiavellian characters. The Democratic donors are not far behind in terms of greed and power, but it sure seems like some of the Republican donors just want the world to burn if it means they can keep their wealth.
Of course they don't, taken collectively. Investigative journalists are our slender hope. They and those few politicos who didn't get a share of the loot, and may now see pushing for tighter regulation as a career opportunity.
Why people think that such things are limited to any one political party or that progressive liberals are somehow immune from it is beyond me.
Used to be a time, about a decade ago, where these very same folks would lose their collective minds when Mitt Romney said stuff like "corporations are people my friend" and "money is speech".
I guess if you can't beat them, join them. Heck, SBF even donated to Mitt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Bankman-Fried#Political_do...
Instead of fighting to get money out of politics they decided they can just play this game better and their ends justify the means with very predictable results.
The only surprising thing is they got caught. Although it remains to be seen whether anybody actually admits fault, goes to jail, or any actual changes are made.
A true scandal is opening for the Biden administration. April 25, 2019: Biden announces his presidential campaign. 13 days later, Sam Bankman-Fried, son of Barbara Fried ( Stanford Professor and co-founder of political fundraising organization "Mind-the-Gap), launches #FTX crypto exchange. The exchange is magically an overnight success. SBF becomes biggest donor to Biden. Election day, FTX implodes completely. If you think this scandal is done, it goes even deeper. Gabe Bankman-Fried, brother to Sam (also a former Jane Street trader), is founder of "Guarding Against Pandemics" He was a Legislative Correspondent for the US House of Representatives and an advisor to large political donors in the Democrat party. The family Aunt Linda Fried is a WEF member on the Global Agenda Council on Aging.
The father, Joseph Bankman is a Stanford professor who has lobbied on behalf of Hedge Fund managers before Congress before (film records exist). FTX' Head of Ventures & Commercial at FTX Ventures Amy Wu, started with the Clinton Foundation years ago.
Nishad Singh FTX Director of Engineering has spent over 8 million for Dem candidates. And finally Obama's Commodity Futures Trading Commissioner, Mark Wetien was literally the head of FTX Policy & Regulation. Reports were the organization wanted to spend over a billion dollars on the Democratic party for 2024. A massive, massive money laundering operation has just been broken open.
Regardless of who is in charge and their political affiliations, it simply should not work this way.
I think the whole point about campaign financing is well made, but the idea (implied) that this was some massive Dem ruse feels incredibly far-fetched, given the various investors and others involved. If you scratch at the senior leadership of many companies you're going to find political people of all colours, because lots of people get involved in politics.
Whatever noises SBF was making about regulation - what actually appears to have happened is that he was (at best) incompetent and simply playing to whatever audience was listening. Who knows, maybe he even drank his own koolaid. After all he is so virtuous on other matters, surely this would all work out somehow, he is one of the good guys.
His regulators meanwhile (at best) placed undue trust in him for reasons ranging from shared politics and values on various unrelated issues to very large donations vaguely to their benefit. And why shouldn't they, after all he is so virtuous on other matters, surely this would all work out somehow, he is one of the good guys. One of them. And never mind how he got the money.
You don't need to assume a nefarious ruse. Although since no doubt it will be politicized it will be assumed. And is sort of implied in the discord quote. No nefarious scheming is necessary.
In short, a bunch of incestuous wankers feeding into each others delusions and all too willing to look the other way on things they'd never let slide for their political opponents. FTX would never have happened had the founders politics been different, surely you see that.
And I'm sure if this pairing would have been a red instead of blue the same thing would have happened.
Scrutiny seems now to only be reserved for political enemies.
Said to me, by a salesman: "A good salesman believes his own bullshit."
no. Scam Bankrupt-Fraud
Does that sound moral to you? I think it’s absolutely terrifying. Every candidate that received that money should have their relation to Scam Bankman-Fraud investigated. It gets worse when you realize his mother and business partner are either related to certain political parties and the SEC chairman.