Let's Go Jaily, Bye-Bye Bannon

[Eacaraxe]

Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon pleads not guilty in alleged border wall fundraising scheme

Former senior White House strategist Steve Bannon and three associates were arrested on charges of defrauding donors in a fundraising scheme for their "We Build the Wall" campaign.

www.cnbc.com

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon pleads not guilty in alleged border wall fundraising scheme

Former senior White House strategist Steve Bannon and three associates were arrested on charges of defrauding donors in a fundraising scheme for their "We Build the Wall" campaign.

www.cnbc.com

I'm disapointed in you Eacaraxe. You missed the golden opportunity to title this "Bannon Banned From Office.".

 

[Eacaraxe]

I'm disapointed in you Eacaraxe. You missed the golden opportunity to title this "Bannon Banned From Office.".

Blame my love of show tunes and Ann-Margret.


EDIT: But I admit, had I read the details of Bannon's arrest there are far more fertile fields for jokes about this.



Like, I dunno, there's always money in the Bannon-a stand.

 

[Agema]

Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon pleads not guilty in alleged border wall fundraising scheme

Former senior White House strategist Steve Bannon and three associates were arrested on charges of defrauding donors in a fundraising scheme for their "We Build the Wall" campaign.

www.cnbc.com

I remember reading an article I think from a Florida newspaper about the worst charities in the USA. Some of these, mostly small, managed to spend over 90% of their income on their fundraising events, leaving virtually nothing for actual charity. Quite of few of them were run by people who owned (or were otherwise very closely connected with people who owned) event management companies. You can figure out the rest.

I think you should never give money to a charity without careful research, because a fair number of them are bullshit vehicles. Obviously unscrupulous people are going to start charities and hand themselves unreasonable sums of money from the donations. In my view, that's a lot of these evangelist churches: gullible faithful pouring out to the egos and luxurious lifestyles of greedy, self-appointed preachers.

I'm disapointed in you Eacaraxe. You missed the golden opportunity to title this "Bannon Banned From Office.".

"Ban on Bannon"?

 

[Tireseas]

I remember reading an article I think from a Florida newspaper about the worst charities in the USA. Some of these, mostly small, managed to spend over 90% of their income on their fundraising events, leaving virtually nothing for actual charity. Quite of few of them were run by people who owned (or were otherwise very closely connected with people who owned) event management companies. You can figure out the rest.

The US conservative movement has been endemic with these kinds of scams for a long time. Scam PACs are the newest iteration of a long running problem and the scheme Bannon's involved with even older than that. You've kind of pointed out the model: spend more on fundraising and then do just enough actual work that you said you'd do to avoid making it a legal fraud case. And because large portions of the conservative movement decry the enforcement agencies such as the IRS and DoJ for investigating such groups, many are able to get away scott-free without penalty, often folding up when the scheme no longer works and starting another like every other snake oil salesman.

Now why the conservative movement is rife with these scams is a matter of no small debate. I'm of the opinion that the decrying of expertise by conservative leaders and using inflammatory language to call people to action by donating exacerbates the fact that the likely targets of these scams are already at a higher propensity to be victims of these kinds of scams without a political bent. When you're repeatedly told "don't believe those people telling you things you don't want to hear, listen to us telling you as it is [even if it's divorced from reality and literally just want you would prefer your reality to be]" it primes the mind to be accepting of friendly falsehoods rather than the necessary critical thought needed when you are approached by a stranger trying to sell you something.

 

[Worgen]

I remember reading an article I think from a Florida newspaper about the worst charities in the USA. Some of these, mostly small, managed to spend over 90% of their income on their fundraising events, leaving virtually nothing for actual charity. Quite of few of them were run by people who owned (or were otherwise very closely connected with people who owned) event management companies. You can figure out the rest.

This isn't dissimilar to what NY is doing with suing the nra and trying to just dissolve their organization.

 

[Agema]

Now why the conservative movement is rife with these scams is a matter of no small debate.

I think it's pretty simple.

The right wing has a higher concentration of "selfish" ideology and attitudes, from the more extreme end of Ayn Rand-like narcissistic greed right through to the basic capitalist idea of self-improvement by amassing wealth. The idea of constantly hustling and getting away with whatever you can is inevitably sometimes going to slip over the boundary into immorality and illegality. Once you place such people in power of entities like companies and charities, with the relative lack of oversight that ownership/control results in, temptation and opportunism are even more likely to result.

 

[tstorm823]

I think it's pretty simple.

The right wing has a higher concentration of "selfish" ideology and attitudes, from the more extreme end of Ayn Rand-like narcissistic greed right through to the basic capitalist idea of self-improvement by amassing wealth. The idea of constantly hustling and getting away with whatever you can is inevitably sometimes going to slip over the boundary into immorality and illegality. Once you place such people in power of entities like companies and charities, with the relative lack of oversight that ownership/control results in, temptation and opportunism are even more likely to result.

You're rationalizing how right wing people are to blame for scams targeting right win people... I'm not saying the scammers are necessarily politically opposed to Republicans, but let's not pretend the people setting those things up got into the PAC business with the best intentions and then accidentally spent all the money at their own event planning groups and law firms.

 

[SupahEwok]

You're rationalizing how right wing people are to blame for scams targeting right win people... I'm not saying the scammers are necessarily politically opposed to Republicans, but let's not pretend the people setting those things up got into the PAC business with the best intentions and then accidentally spent all the money at their own event planning groups and law firms.

So it's bad to say that the USSR and China are not True Communists, but it's right to say that Republicans scamming Republicans are not True Republicans?

No true Scotsman - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[dreng3]

Vox had an interesting podcast on how plutocrats are taking over the republican party and causing a shift in policy, worth a listen.

I think it was this one

A devastating indictment of the Republican Party from a GOP insider

In “It Was All a Lie,” one of the GOP’s campaign operatives turns on the party he once helped build.

www.vox.com

 

[Agema]

You're rationalizing how right wing people are to blame for scams targeting right win people... I'm not saying the scammers are necessarily politically opposed to Republicans, but let's not pretend the people setting those things up got into the PAC business with the best intentions and then accidentally spent all the money at their own event planning groups and law firms.

I think the whole point of the dog-eat-dog, capitalist, further-society-through-self-interest attitude is that you profit at everyone else's expense you can. It doesn't matter whether the rubes are right or left wing, they all need to smarten up and get with the program if they want to get anywhere.

 

[tstorm823]

So it's bad to say that the USSR and China are not True Communists, but it's right to say that Republicans scamming Republicans are not True Republicans?

No true Scotsman - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I wouldn't fault you for suggesting that some of those who took advantage in the USSR and China are not true communists. Not everyone, good or bad actors, in those places at those times were true believers in that ideology.

It certainly is, sometimes, Republicans scamming Republicans. Like Steve Bannon. But getting into some pseudo-intellectual theory-crafting about how Republicanism leads to scam artists is assuming it's a uniquely Republican thing to do. And when a blood sucking lawyer starts a PAC so they can collect donations and spend 80% on "legal fees", it's not because they're just so Republican. There's no shortage of people who got rich "fundraising" off Democrats.

 

[SupahEwok]

It certainly is, sometimes, Republicans scamming Republicans. Like Steve Bannon. But getting into some pseudo-intellectual theory-crafting about how Republicanism leads to scam artists is assuming it's a uniquely Republican thing to do.

Not uniquely. Merely statistically trending. Granted, nobody has brought up statistics, but there doesn't have to be some unique quality of Republicanism for there to be an observation that more Republicans scam their political group than Democrats, there simply needs to be a demonstrate that certain non-unique traits present in Republicans lead to the observed behavior. That's how statistics work. The traits in question may be shared by some Democrats or independents, but if they are observed in greater numbers of Republicans and greater numbers of Republicans lead scams, it at least supports an assertion that Republicans are more likely to engage in such behaviors due to their values.

From where I stand, the entire legislation and highest levels of the executive is a big scam, for what that's worth.

 

[SilentPony]

I mean he'll be pardoned for sure, especially if Trump looses. If Trump looses and the war doesn't go his way, he'll pardon everyone and everything, including himself.

 

[lil devils x]

Is ANYONE really surprised by any of this? It is like someone pretending to be shocked that Trump's charity was an illegal scam as well. Bird of a feather and all.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

I think it's pretty simple.

The right wing has a higher concentration of "selfish" ideology and attitudes, from the more extreme end of Ayn Rand-like narcissistic greed right through to the basic capitalist idea of self-improvement by amassing wealth. The idea of constantly hustling and getting away with whatever you can is inevitably sometimes going to slip over the boundary into immorality and illegality. Once you place such people in power of entities like companies and charities, with the relative lack of oversight that ownership/control results in, temptation and opportunism are even more likely to result.

I dunno if it's a right wing thing exclusively.

I mean there's 2 different BLM organisations.

1 Has huge amounts of cash but doesn't spend it on much other than advocacy.
The other is the one that was doing the bail stuff and got Millions and pend about $20,000 in total of it and hasn't been hear from since really.

On top of that there were fundraising things like:
Rebel Jam - collection donations, was claimed to still be coming in 2015 and never emerged and was quietly abandoned.
The Feminist deck project - raised money to make a feminist icons deck of playing cards. It's not been delivered and the person behind it was found to be running a youtube channel reviewing different strains of weed.
Tingler / The Chuck Tingle Video game - $85,000 raised and in 10 days time it will have been 2 full years radio silence from the person who started it.

Hell consider this. Anita Sarkeesian has somehow spent over $1 Million at this point:
She gets to use youtube's creator studio facility for free.
She gets to borrow their equipment and use it for free (something almost no other creators got)
She charges $20,000 a time + Travel and accommodation (not added to the company finances) to do 'private' talks at companies
She already had a Camera and Auto Cue herself and a lighting rig before starting the series.

How about Crash Over-Ride Network?
Raised tons of money allegedly to help stop online harassment.
Records show they helped maybe 10 people in total.
Their work as such was basic info put up on a Tumblr blog
Behind the scene they were revealed to be trying to plot ways to take down people they deemed enemies via various means.

 

[Agema]

I dunno if it's a right wing thing exclusively.

It's most definitely not exclusive to anyone.

Stuff...

I'd draw at least a moral distinction between intentional fraud and half-arsedness.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

It's most definitely not exclusive to anyone.



I'd draw at least a moral distinction between intentional fraud and half-arsedness.

3 of those things I listed were the same person behind them lol

At some point it becomes a pattern

 

[Trunkage]

I dunno if it's a right wing thing exclusively.

On top of that there were fundraising things like:
Rebel Jam - collection donations, was claimed to still be coming in 2015 and never emerged and was quietly abandoned.
The Feminist deck project - raised money to make a feminist icons deck of playing cards. It's not been delivered and the person behind it was found to be running a youtube channel reviewing different strains of weed.
Tingler / The Chuck Tingle Video game - $85,000 raised and in 10 days time it will have been 2 full years radio silence from the person who started it.

I would agree it’s not a right wind exclusively

If I remember, these were all Kickstarter Projects - which had a lot of failures and fraud. Not discounting that it was fraud or leftie. Kickstarter was broken

 

[lil devils x]

I would agree it’s not a right wind exclusively

If I remember, these were all Kickstarter Projects - which had a lot of failures and fraud. Not discounting that it was fraud or leftie. Kickstarter was broken

It isn't like they are the ones running the country right now either though. We literally have a con artist in control of the nukes right now...

Trump University: It’s Worse Than You Think

But will it be the thing that brings Donald Trump down?

www.newyorker.com

Donald J. Trump Pays Court-Ordered $2 Million For Illegally Using Trump Foundation Funds

Trump Ordered to Pay Eight Separate Charities $250,000 Each Remaining $1.8 Million in Trump Foundation Bank Account Disbursed Among Charities NEW YORK – New

ag.ny.gov