U.S., Israel vote against U.N. resolution condemning Russian invasion of Ukraine - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

I remember when Elon Musk was a “good billionaire” friend

That's like saying you remember when Santa was real...

You don't, you remember when you *thought* Santa was real.

I'm not saying leave milk and cookies out, I'm saying if you're parent want to get you an extra gift, don't throw it away because the tag says "from Santa".

>Because I understand how the world works? That concessions are made in back room deals and that the money doesn’t change hands until the buyer feels confident they are getting what they want? We know how this goes.

Went.

We *knew* how it *went*.

Martin is saying that is no longer the case, but he's not turning down checks.

>I would forego all billionaire donations to ensure the party wasn’t being controlled by back room interests, you know the deals made to get the contribution? They aren’t adhering to campaign finance limits they are drowning out normal Americans with their outside influence.

That's all reasons to keep outside money out of the **primary** which I am 100% on board with.

Like, it all comes down to your opinion is that if someone takes the check they have to owe a favor. The people writing the check almost certainly expect it....

But it's not like they can sue and say their donation was a bribe and they didn't get what they want.

You realize that right?

A "back room deal" even if exists isn't legally binding, that's where the term comes from.

Candidates take donations from average voters and then don't try to do what the donors wanted, why not do it with billionaires?

I remember when Elon Musk was a "good billionaire" friend. In my opinion there are no good billionaires because the pursuit of money to that extent requires exploitation and abuse on a grand scale.

So yeah I don't give a fuck if he has all the money in the world, I don't think money should be the deciding factor in elections. I don't think that any string a billionaire offers is worth it.

If we run a candidate who's values authentically align with what Dem voters want, why turn down donations?

Because they can tell you all day that they align with your values and then suddenly they don't. Remember Elon Musk? Tech billionaire, "real life tony stark", whose electric vehicles were going to usher in a new era of renewable transportation... People lie.

He didn't say that they could be relied on. He said he'd take their fucking money. Why do you think that's an unpragmatic strategy?

Because I understand how the world works? That concessions are made in back room deals and that the money doesn't change hands until the buyer feels confident they are getting what they want? We know how this goes.

I would forego all billionaire donations to ensure the party wasn't being controlled by back room interests, you know the deals made to get the contribution? They aren't adhering to campaign finance limits they are drowning out normal Americans with their outside influence.

“Billionaire campaign spending on this scale drowns out the voices and concerns of ordinary Americans. It is one of the most obvious and disturbing consequences of the growth of billionaire fortunes, as well as being a prime indicator that the system regulating campaign finance has collapsed,” said David Kass, ATF’s executive director.

https://americansfortaxfairness.org/billionaire-clans-spend-nearly-2-billion-2024-elections/

It's the strings that are the issue...

I've seen a couple people repeating the "good billionaires" bit, but not a single on that links a source when referring to it...

>“There are a lot of good billionaires out there that have been with Democrats, who share our values, and we will take their money,” Ken Martin, a leading candidate for Chair of the Democratic Party, said at a forum on Sunday. “But we’re not taking money from those bad billionaires.”

https://jacobin.com/2025/01/billionaires-tech-oligarchy-biden-trump

But I encourage people to Google it themselves, if only to see 99.9% of the results are from rightwing bullshit like Daily Caller.

Like, how do you think Martin should have responded?

>We won't take any donations from someone with more than $999,999,999.99 in wealth.

If we run a candidate who's values authentically align with what Dem voters want, why turn down donations?

If the platform isn't changing because of a donation, why not take the donation in the general?

I think you might have the same misunderstanding as Jacobin:

>Ken Martin wants us to believe that there is some definite cohort of “good billionaires” who can be relied upon to fight for political progress, but the tech-industrial complex is showing us exactly why this isn’t the case.

He didn't say that they could be relied on.

He said he'd take their fucking money.

Why do you think that's an unpragmatic strategy?

Do you know why Biden had a complete falling out with Bibi and why Bibi was quite clearly going behind Biden and supporting Trump's reelection? Do you know why Biden and Harris had no good choices when it came to Israel/Palestine ahead of the election?

If you want to know why people elected Trump not once but twice, I'd start with the Citizen's United decision and the complete stranglehold right wing media has in controlling the national narrative in this country. That's a hint to the last question as well.

Neat.

Now Donald Trump will handle things. Surely, the plight of Palestinians will improve, now that the nasty democrats have been punished.

I dont think you should blame democratic voters for the DNC leaders ignoring them and doing whatever donors pay them to do.

I think it's a pretty high bar to say that 2 genocides > 1 genocide and Option 2 was more persuadable than Option 1.

But I'll be sure to relay to Ukrainians that you believe, by extension, that they're not noteworthy at all.

That is so low of a bar to clear that it's not noteworthy at all.

Well all I know is that now we're going full-throttle on not one but 2 genocides, including the one in Ukraine with even less of a chance to dissuade this administration than the previous on either so... Overall I'd call them, *better*.

Bad actors try to hide that they are bad actors.

Those comments don’t undo all the work you’ve done for the GOP.

Just wanted to point out that if you had scrolled down you can see where I'm getting steadily downvoted for defending Ken Martin and telling people I have faith in the new DNC leadership and we should judge him on his (very impressive) political body of work and not a single answer to a question he was asked during the chair campaign...

Like, it's just wild to have people call me an "anti dem" trying to fracture the party and others accusing me of being a billionaire bootlicker for defending the DNC in the same thread.

And I checked the timestamps, those comments were there hours before you made this comment.

Not trying to get in a debate or anything, was just too crazy not to comment on.

Does an ethnostate that is carrying out a genocide as part of its program of ethnic cleansing count as fascism? Now what do you call people who supply that ethnostate with billions in weapons?

I haven’t seen any evidence of the DNC fighting fascists at all.

The ability for those on the left to eat each other up never disappoints.

They are arguing in bad faith to help the fascists. They are in every thread that they can use to promote their anti democrat talking points.

The punishment of the Democrats by electing Trump will surely improve the plight of Palestinians this time, I suppose.

We are fighting literal fascists. Do you really think blaming the non-fascists will prevent these dishonest actors from doing their worst to ruin your life? It is by far the stupidest and most unhelpful position to blame the failings of the democratic position for the rise of the autocrats, when the latter are actively working to get into power.

"We'll continue to take money from the Good Billionaires" - New DNC head

Both parties are owned by the wealthy, which is why you don't see Corporate democrats fighting against this shit. Their job is to make sure that if things don't go red, at least they won't go too blue. A good chunk (and the controlling collective) of the democratic party are more than happy to play the controlled opposition as they rake in your money to ensure you can't use it to meaningfully make change.

Most Americans have heard the idiom:

>Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

So if we're questioning the motivations of social media accounts...

What is your opinion on ones that try to suppress people from learning about why trump was elected president not once, but twice?

Continuing to never hold Democrats accountable for their terrible decisions will surely improve the party this time, I suppose.

Yeah if you try to hold the democrats accountable Trump might win the election!

The Republicans won. You don't need to pile on Joe Biden anymore.

The Republicans won, and now the Palestinians will now feel the full weight of Donald Trump's love.

That's the guy that Benjamin Netanyahu gave a golden pager as a gift.

Unless you're really just trying to boost the Republican party. In that case, certainly keep whining about Joe Biden.

Israel was never on the right side, but that didn't stop Biden from flushing our country down the toilet for the sake of their genocide against Palestinians...