I don't care about this, but everyone takes care of business including Sanders... consider the plane manufactured in vermont.and Buttigeig is right. It is the only way some candidates can run. Until we win and do something about united, it is what it is. And it we won't be easy to change united either.

Billionaires drive our extraction, vulture capitalism, profit crazed, environmentally disastrous economy. I don’t see that changing much under Joe. Time is rapidly running out for next generations to experience a livable world in which to peruse life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

You've got a billionaire like Tom Steyer whose climate agenda is the most progressive because it's the one subject that he has a semblance of enthusiasm about. If Tom dropped out and put his money behind your candidate why would you not take it?

The most outspoken candidate on gun control was forced out for lack of money. The most outspoken candidate for criminal justice was forced out for lack of money. Why disarm yourself?

He doesn't have a history of grifting. You know what? Joe Biden is the most honest candidate running. That is a fact.

Good on Steyer for being progressive on CLimate change (though I don't know what you mean by that so I will just take your statement at face value

But generally billionaires arent' frivolous with their money. IF they give someone money they want something and expect to get it.

Biden
But after years of silence, the 2020 presidential hopeful released his federal tax returns earlier this year. Biden publicized his federal returns from 2016, 2017 and 2018 on July 9, revealing he and his wife Jill have taken in more than $15 million since leaving the Obama White House.

According to those returns and a financial disclosure document, Biden’s income has surged thanks to a lucrative book deal and constant publicity tours that brought in more than $4.5 million before taxes.

Bernie
In 2016, Sanders was reportedly the 19th-poorest U.S. senator, according to The Washington Post. However, he has since published four books, and that's said to have helped make him a millionaire. the 77-year-old presidential candidate has a net worth of about $2.5 million.

Not you.

Last edited Fri Dec 20, 2019, 11:36 AM - Edit history (1)

A billionaire is limited to the same legal amount he can donate. For example, they can't donate more than multi-millionaires like Sanders or nonmillionaires like Pete.
Pete was right, there is nothing wrong about accepting donations from those who want to join our fight. Bernie would have gotten a donation from a billionaire as well had he not returned it for the sake of a cheap publicity stunt. That billionaire with her 470$ donation wasn't buying access either.
Citizens United needs to be reversed, no question. But these attacks on donations that are limited to 2800$ is stupid and dishonest.

This bullshit should be ran out of town. Fuck anyone attacking our democratic candidates like this. Specially when it's coming from a member of the investors class worth millions of dollars with multiple PAC's working on his behalf. Someone who attended a fundraiser at a restaurant with multimillionaires and a fucking piece of pork costs $190. Someone who has numerous non-profits operating as dark money PAC's on his behalf. Someone who has multiple homes including investment properties. <- All facts. Some will run from them as fast as Trump runs from the truth. See them and know them. They stand in opposition to progress. They stand in opposition to the truth.

Fuck anyone attacking Democrats like this.

Can we fight for Democrats on DU?

...nobody is attacking anyone...

...does Joe have 44 billionaire donors?

...does Pete have 39 billionaire donors?

...do 3 billionaires own more wealth than the bottom half?

...take a look

Billionaires who are democrats or conservative groups?

JB Pritzker is a billionaire and in the current legislative session Democrats have

1. Passed a $15 minimum wage
2. Expanded reproductive rights.
3. Legalized marijuana and expunged a lot of records.
4. Banned "right to work zones"

and Amazon's corporate donations heavily favor Democrats who want to revoke Trump's tax cuts. Jeff Bezos would be the billionaire founder of Amazon, and the richest person in the USA according to Forbes.
Amazon profits are about 1.25% of its market cap. Inflation is slightly over 2%. There is not a lot of profit to tax, less than zero if corrected for inflation.
Just like billionaires, all corporations are not rolling in profits.

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/totals.php?id=D000023883&cycle=2018
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Americans_by_net_worth
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AMZN/amazon/pe-ratio

...to municipalities, states, and the Federal government, or the income taxes that their 575,000 employees pay. Plus, Amazon pays property taxes on their facilities, their vehicles, and their equipment.

This whole idea that "Amazon" pays zero taxes is ludicrous.

Their officers, directors, employees and shareholders can as individuals, but the corporations themselves can't. Which is why it's bullshit to talk about "corporate" donations.

The bottom line is: $2800 from a billionaire has the same influence as $2800 from me or you. The notion that one is able to "buy" special access with a Federal maximum is silly.

There's a woman in Michigan who, from the end of March through June made more than 800 separate contributions of $3.00, an average of 11 per day. She maxed out at $2800 (actually they accepted $21 more than that!) a few days before the end of June.

I'm sure she did it so that the "average" contribution is lowered and the "number" of contributions is higher. Both are artificial numbers.

So billionaires are bad for giving $2800, but "grassroots" are good for giving $2800?

Further, let's look at the impact of those 44 and 39 billionaires. Biden's billionaires contributed $123,200 TOTAL (if each maxed out at $2800), Buttigieg's billionaires contributed $109,200 if they maxed out.

Considering that all the leading candidates will wind up receiving somewhere around $100 MILLION, that's one-tenth of one percent of their receipts. You sure can't buy a candidate with that piddling amount.

otherwise you might be accused of hanging around in wine caves.

they can be great fun.

It's a good way to keep the wine chilled. I've been to one and I'm not even a billionaire. It was sort of cool (both figuratively and literally) but it wasn't unusually expensive or posh.

Chicago has no bluffs, so they're cellars here. I have been to wineries built into mountains in Europe, though.

And for the Democratic Party's sake I hope the purity testers in the race lose in the primary so they won't cost us the GE.

...he can do it...

...Bernie will decisively beat trump with, honesty, truth, facts and grit...

...he will do it my friends...

Nice gig if you can get it.

...locations, occupations, or employers of 71% of his receipts.

They're in that big anonymous bucket of "un-itemized" contributors. Who are they? Your guess is as good as mine. There could very well be billionaires in that group.

T-shirts
Campaign Buttons
Books
Lawn Signs
Lapel Pins
Action Figures (!!!!!)
Crew Socks
Magnets
Beer Glasses
Paper Dolls
Hoodies
Wall Calendars
Skateboarding Figure
Coloring Books
Videos
Vinyl Stickers
Christmas Tree (?) Ornaments
Coffee Mugs
Full-Size Masks
Bumper Stickers
Chia Pets (!!!!)
Notebooks
Candles
Hats
Mousepads
Toilet Paper

And five more pages...........

that candidate must necessarily be corrupt, or at least corruptible? That's pretty insulting. Anyhow, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos and the like can't donate any more than I can: $2800. Is Biden or Buttigieg or any other candidate going to do the bidding of Jeff Bezos for a lousy $2800? I don't think so.

He said something about the accusation that accepting contributions from wealthy donors implies that candidates are corrupt. Can any of them be bought for $2800?

And I've been to a so-called wine cave, and I'm not even a billionaire. It's not that big a deal, it's just a restaurant that's partly in a cave in the side of a bluff where wine can be kept cool (that one is called a wine bar, so maybe that's different). But I guess now wine caves will be the new symbol of a candidate's decadent and presumptively corrupt fund-raising from millionaires and billionaires.

Thanks for the thread Donkees.

especially when he has so many russian fake account donors.

WOULD donate to Sanders, either before or this time. Sanders HAD to go grassroots to get any money at all, and now he's saturating social media (and hopefully no one else) with what's said to be a quite impressive fundraising operation. Apparently that has something to do with why his donations continued to increase while his poll ratings dropped? One hopes.

ALSO, none of his colleagues or other political professionals who knew him or of him would support him before either: zero endorsements. Now that he's developed a following, a few do for practical reasons.

But he's not exactly having to beat off the tens of thousands of our affluent, earnest liberal donors across the nation who are anxious to help restore good government. In fact, studies show that almost none of those who've been donating to several candidates, as many always do, have him on their lists. (All who donate over $200 are identified, and thus available for research.)

And that's reality.

So he could use this pathetic talking point.

I would hope Sanders wouldn't sell out for $470 and I, personally, would prefer to see him use contributions from billionaires to, oh, I don't know, purchase his own books and give them out as campaign gifts rather than using $5 from poor people living paycheck-to-paycheck saving up pocket change to contribute to his campaign thinking it will help their plight and instead being used to bolster his book sales.

Is this supposed to be impressive or meaningful in some way?

even when they are down and out. There are some people that sell their souls on a daily basis to better themselves. The test is up to us on whether we think a particular person is willing to do that.

Sometimes money supports good people.