OK. I'm Convinced. Biden Needs To Hold The Line. Get On The Bus. (Trump, Vance TechBros)

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Sun Jul 21, 2024, 12:34 AM - Edit history (2)

'OK. I'm Convinced. Biden Needs to Hold the Line,' Daily Kos, July 19, 2024. - Biden Photo: This is the guy, and he's the only one we got.
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It cannot even be remotely said that I’m not a Biden critic. While many on the board see a transformative President with nothing but success and prosperity to his name, folks like me are still reeling and angry from a number of decisions (the appointment of Garland, BBB getting tossed to the wolves, and so forth).

However, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the whole movement to unseat him as the incumbent is coming from the 1%, and they don’t give a shit if Trump wins. They don’t give a shit about concentration camps. They don’t give a shit about Trans people. They give a shit about their balance sheets.

People who have been trying to stop any progress with regards to taxing the rich have now started pulling hard on the reins they hold with Democratic lawmakers, who have to choose between their paymasters and possibly losing their elections for lack of funds. This is of course the problem with our reps being so beholden to monied interests — they have too much sway over the party. They always have.

AOC is right, as many have pointed out. We can’t just change horses, even if we wanted to. It would be a nightmare, and we may wind up entirely fucked.

Get on the bus. It’s the only bus we got.

I did something today I told myself I wasn’t going to do this cycle — I made a donation to the campaign. You should too. Because if the 1%’er assholes are willing to try and blackmail this party, we need all the small donations we can get. I don’t have to love Biden or his time as President to recognize the clear and present danger this brick-stupid dump the incumbent movement poses to everyone’s lives.

Short and sweet, but if I can buck up and say “It
has to be Biden, get over it”, so can you. --
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- Select comments: - "People who wanted to ditch Biden should have done it a year ago. That ship has sailed. - It's the same billionaire class or donor forces that want to choose the university presidents and curriculums. - I don't care to hate on Brown or Tester - they've got races to win. They may well have to sing this song to keep the money coming in"...
+ Comments,
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/7/19/2255959/-OK-I-m-Convinced-Biden-Needs-to-Hold-The-Line
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*Also: 'Tech broligarchs are lining up to court Trump. And Vance is one more link in the chain,' The Guardian, July 20, 2024. Ed.- Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, others pledge support.
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.. Last week Trump not only appointed a tech bro to be his 2nd in command, choosing Sen. JD Vance to be his VP, but he received the benediction of the tech bro-in-chief, Elon Musk.

Musk has said he will donate $45m a month to Trump’s campaign, though his ongoing endorsement on X, the platform he bought and owns, is worth countless millions more. Some lesser-known figures in Silicon Valley who last week boarded the Trump bandwagon include Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, owners of the influential venture capital (VC) firms who have declared they’re all in for Trump as well as the Winklevoss twins, Chamath Palihapitiya and David Sacks.

Back in 2016, Peter Thiel was the voice in the wilderness. In that meeting in Trump Tower, it was Thiel’s hand that Trump picked up and stroked. (Thiel's data mining firm, Palantir, gained billions of dollars in contracts from Trump’s Dept. of Defense, and, most controversially, Homeland Security’s ICE agency, where it profiled and surveilled migrants.) Silicon Valley's key investing principle is to bet early and bet big. It worked for Thiel with Facebook. It worked for Thiel with Trump. Last week another of his bets paid off, though few could ever have predicted how spectacularly.

Because JD Vance, the new potential VP, is Thiel’s creature. He is a man Thiel moulded in his own image.

Thiel gave Vance a job at his VC firm, Mithril Capital, backed him to start his own venture fund, Narya Capital, then later invested $15m in his successful run for the senate. Max Chafkin, Thiel’s biographer, describes Vance as his “extension”.. The payoff from Thiel’s early gamble in Trump is a lesson that has not passed others by. Like their other obsession, crypto, the best time to have invested in Trump was 2016, and the 2nd best time is today.

We already have a word for what we’re watching now: it’s oligarchy. We’ve seen how this plays out. In Putin’s Russia, political and commercial interests are one and the same.

Thiel is betting - again - on the same phenomenon in America. Betting that he will be 1st among a new breed of tech bro oligarchs – a new super-class of broligarchs. In Trump’s America, there will be hard choices for everyone, including the billionaires. Though it may be less hard for them. Vance has said he wants to deregulate crypto and unshackle AI. He’s said he’d dismantle Biden’s attempts to place safeguards around AI development...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/20/tech-broligarchs-court-trump-vance-elon-musk-peter-thiel

[Desert grandma]

1. I am with you on this.

I signed up for monthly donations. Go Joe!!

[appalachiablue]

3. Excellent! Thanks for all.

[FarPoint]

2. I am dumbfounded by our " Biden needs to step down", Congress folks

Them running their mouth without a clear rationale for this offensive suggestion .. . I will support Biden/Harris at the ballot box.

[appalachiablue]

6. Same with the step aside calls from other Democratic candidates. Very

puzzling and bad for morale. I hope it's linked to the donations, and nothing more. Thanks for the reply.

Somehow the huge amounts of campaign donations have to reformed, esp after the Supreme Court Citizens United decision in 2010 that ruled money from corporations equals speech. A huge factor.
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- Citizens United Explained. The 2010 Supreme Court decision further tilted political influence toward wealthy donors and corporations.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained

[dchill]

4. "...coming from the 1%, and they don't give a shit if Trump wins."

'Nuf said. These so-called "liberals" have no need of your Constitutional rights. Shit - they don't even have to live here. Their shame is rampant.

[appalachiablue]

13. No shame, straight up predators, more unrestrained vulture capitalism. America, the prey.

[dchill]

16. Oh, the shame is there - whether they feel it or not.

[appalachiablue]

17. I understand. Some of these people are the lowest, and yet they are

admired by many. Troubling but the way it is esp. in a society where money is so prized, at any cost and greed is widespread.

[Frasier Balzov]

5. I'm still not sold on the oligarch theory.

They and their money have been around the entire time.

Were they backing Dean Phillips and their guy just failed to catch a wave?

Aren't some of these wealthy benefactors previously consistent in their support of Democratic candidates and causes? Maybe they want to defeat Trump and don't agree with how their money was being used to accomplish that.

And the oligarch theory will never explain to my satisfaction why Joe Biden thinks Harris can't win or would take the government in a direction he doesn't want it to go.

[LuvLoogie]

8. They said they were going to withhold 90 million

I donated $10 to Biden/Harris last week, $10 this week. I'm donating $10 next week and every week until the election. I also donated $10 each to AoC, Jasmine Crocket, and Ilhan Omar.

I've been watching politics since I was old enough to vote. I'm 63. I have two teenage daughters, one of which has cerebral palsy.

I am entirely convinced it's about money. Those rich donors trying to oust Biden do not give a fuck if trump gets in again. They do not give a fuck about me or my family. They want to keep their tax cuts and the immunity of the rich.

Biden/Harris 2024 100%
No doubt

[appalachiablue]

14. Joe never expressed these kind of views about Harris. Where are you getting this?

[travelingthrulife]

19. Has that last statement been stated somewhere?

I must have missed it.

[broncobev1]

7. President Biden

What I don't understand is all the attention given to those that want him to step down. Why aren't we giving as much attention those that support him, ie: the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the letter from over 1400 Black women, and, more importantly, those that voted for him in the primaries

[appalachiablue]

10. Impt. points, the recent 'crisis' over Biden's subpar debate,

age and health and questions about his abilities- the personal and negative always generate interest and drama particularly by the media.

It's unfortunate, and when the fracas subsides and Joe gets his MoJo back there will be more focus on the significant supportive groups you note, and the campaign will move forward. It has to, for the sake of preserving American democracy at risk like I've never seen in my life.

Thanks for replying, and keep the faith. Biden- Harris 2024!

[appalachiablue]

12. Note this NBC piece on DU. Related, vy good pts, 91 recs, DU Comments to read.

NBC, Biden allies say 'elites' are disenfranchising voters who want the president to stay in" Members of the party's base, particularly Black and Latino voters, are warning that efforts to push Biden out of the 2024 race are undemocratic…,
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/biden-allies-try-turn-pressure-campaign-back-democratic-party-insiders-rcna162785

- DU Comments
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219196226

[LetMyPeopleVote]

9. I am standing with President Biden

[PortTack]

11. ☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️

[appalachiablue]

15. Terrific, thanks.

[RussBLib]

18. look what big money has done to us

...corrupted just about everything, and now they are holding political donations up unless Biden steps down. They are serious about not wanting to pay that 25% tax on billionaires that Biden is proposing. Most politicians are beholden to wealthy donors it would seem. Publicly-funded campaigns, repeal of Citizens United, so much work to be done.

https://russblib.blogspot.com