follow the money

It looks like $50-60M or more(?)  will have been spent waging the one political campaign for the GA representative seat vacated by a republican appointment to Pres Trump's administration. 

Since the paycheck for being a rep is <$200k....  this seat is valued many times that for the political influence associated with being in the legislature.  A ton of out of state political money came in (to both sides), and one candidate didn't even live in the district they competed for...

Less money in politics would be a good thing, but no easy answers for this without shifting political power. (Corporate money must be balanced against unionized government workers.) Maybe we can fix both...?  (nah unlikely)

I hope this is an outlier and not some new normal. The interesting times get curiouser and curiouser.

Not to repeat myself but shrinking government spending will reduce the attractiveness for big money to be so involved.

JR

JohnRoberts said:

...and one candidate didn't even live in the district they competed for...

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Just to make sure the record is clear, in Georgia there is no law requiring any Congressional candidate to live in the same district as they are looking to represent.  Also, Ossoff grew up in the district and moved to live with his (then) girlfriend who was attending medical school.

JohnRoberts said:

Not to repeat myself but shrinking government spending will reduce the attractiveness for big money to be so involved.

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So would banning the practice outright, like many countries do.

Matador said:

Just to make sure the record is clear, in Georgia there is no law requiring any Congressional candidate to live in the same district as they are looking to represent.  Also, Ossoff grew up in the district and moved to live with his (then) girlfriend who was attending medical school.

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I didn't say it wasn't legal. 

So would banning the practice outright, like many countries do.

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I joked that politics is the business of proposing (too) easy answers for complex problems. 

As it stands  lobbying the government and campaign spending is considered speech that is protected by 1st amendment.

I repeat that I think this is a problem, but I don't see any easy answer, nor do I expect any progress on solving this one any time soon.  Already a long list ahead of it. 

JR

PS:  it looks like the polls were less than accurate again. 

JohnRoberts said:

I joked that politics is the business of proposing (too) easy answers for complex problems. 

As it stands  lobbying the government and campaign spending is considered speech that is protected by 1st amendment.

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As I've said many times, we have many examples around the world of publicly funded campaigns, strict limits on the amount of time that candidates can spend campaigning, requirements for full disclosures of public and private donations, etc.  This doesn't have to be considered in the abstract.

JohnRoberts said:

nor do I expect any progress on solving this one any time soon.  Already a long list ahead of it. 

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The first step is admitting there's a problem: and currently we don't even have any semblance of agreement on what the problems are, so I don't any progress on solving anything.

Strict term limits would also help. Once politics became a profession, things started going wrong.

Unionized govt. workers?  What alternate reality are you living in, John?  Ossoff's average donation was something like $53.00.  It wasn't from any monolithic source (or a collection of monolithic sources).  It was largely from regular folks who frequent sites like dailykos, or who saw something on facebook and chipped in a few bucks.  And I know plenty of local Dems with a little money who chipped in their little bit as well.  (The DCCC was involved as well, and they have a lot more big $$ donors--I will grant you that.)  Don't try to create an equivalency where none exists. 

I live just south of the 6th, by the way.

Spiritworks said:

Strict term limits would also help. Once politics became a profession, things started going wrong.

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Exactly

JR

hodad said:

Unionized govt. workers?  What alternate reality are you living in, John? 

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Mississippi...    I mentioned the political heft of unionized government workers and less than arms length relationship with their employer, in the context of corporate contributions, I don't care for both political influences. 

Ossoff's average donation was something like $53.00.  It wasn't from any monolithic source (or a collection of monolithic sources).

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I said both candidates received piles of money from out of state...  Ossoff also had celebrity support from hollywierd, while Handel received support from Ryan and Republican party.

It was largely from regular folks who frequent sites like dailykos, or who saw something on facebook and chipped in a few bucks.  And I know plenty of local Dems with a little money who chipped in their little bit as well.  (The DCCC was involved as well, and they have a lot more big $$ donors--I will grant you that.)  Don't try to create an equivalency where none exists. 

I live just south of the 6th, by the way.

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Do you have data on the small contributions..? only larger than $200  get itemized in campaign finance filings.

Independent republican party groups outspent democratic party groups  $18.2m to  $7.6m, while Ossoff raised  $23.6m to Handel's $4.5m.

from WSJ article  (not a republican friendly rag) s://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/20/us/politics/georgia-6th-most-expensive-house-election.html  Handel slightly out-pulled Ossoff for individual contribution in GA, while Ossoff pulled 4x her amount nationally.

I wouldn't read too much into this since they were former republican held seats that normally would have been easy wins.  Media and political operatives set this up as a high profile referendum on the Trump agenda, and once again the polls were wrong. At least they correctly predicted it would be a tight contest.

Not much to see here IMO other than the amount of money thrown at winning some <$200k jobs., and how divisive team politics still is. 

[update] I saw reports that planned parenthood donated >$700k to Ossoff campaign (second largest after Democratic congressional campaign committee.) Apparently the Pro-life Handel would not be good for PP.  A separate research piece suggests that the planned parenthood pac only contributed <$700K total to all democrats in 2016 election cycle so something does not add up here. The >$700k to single Ossoff campaign was reported in multiple real looking news sources? [/update]

JR

PS: As we approach the end game for ISIS (at least in Iraq and Syria) things are heating up as players jockey for influence in the region after this phase.  Somebody will move into any vacuum left behind. 

Read the quote in the graphic above again. Insider Party consultants made millions off of Jon Ossoff’s loss. Would those insiders take an Ossoff win if it meant no money for them? These people, Democratic Party elites, are not your friends and they’re not the nation’s friends. They are their own friends, period.

This is the other problem the nation faces. This is why the nation can’t have nice things, like Medicare for All:

    Hillary Clinton: Single-payer health care will ‘never, ever’ happen

    Clinton stressed how difficult it is to stand up to the existing health insurance industry … “I think it’s important to point out that there are a lot of reasons we have the health care system we have today,” she said. “I know how much money influences the political decision-making…”

an economy free of predatory monopolies:

    Amazon is the shining representative of a new golden age of monopoly that also includes Google and Walmart…. In its pursuit of bigness, Amazon has left a trail of destruction—competitors undercut, suppliers squeezed—some of it necessary, and some of it highly worrisome. And in its confrontation with the publisher Hachette, it has entered a phase of heightened aggression unseen even when it tried to crush Zappos by offering a $5 rebate on all its shoes or when it gave employees phony business cards to avoid paying sales taxes in various states.)

and bankers who got to jail when they steal money (“The Untouchables: How the Obama administration protected Wall Street from prosecutions“).

This is a large part of why the worst political party in 100 years — the Republican Party, if you’re wondering — holds so much power. The other resistance is against Democratic Party policies like these. Democrats will have a very hard time winning until they change.

Which means, I think, that we’ll have to make them change. It should be clear by now that the next revolution must be inside the Democratic Party, unless one wishes to scale the mountain of deliberate, structural impediments to forming a viable, 50-state third party.

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http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/06/some-people-would-rather-have-1st-class-seats-on-the-titanic-than-change-the-course-of-the-ship.html

Tands,  great article. Although I am not a progressive, nor a liberal, I am certainly not a republican conservative. But there is a lot in that article I have to agree with. However, I take exception to this:

"So what’s a progressive to do? It should be obvious. The Democratic Party has to change its policy offering, from “You can’t have what all of you want” to “If the people want a better life, we will give it to them.”

This is a huge problem for so many reasons. It is not Govt.  job to give people a better life. It should be Govt. job to balance the playing field so that all citizens have an equal opportunity to make a better life for themselves through their own hard work and initiative.

Spiritworks said:

The Democratic Party has to change its policy offering,

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The Democ*rats ........etc etc etc.......And all SO called Politicians and political party's, elected by the people , for the  people
World wide.... Should have the peoples interest at the heart........,Thats not the Agenda BTW..
Control and Domination is the "Name Of The Game"
The FED -FIAT corperation  money game  / alongside the total mainstreem media brainwash bull.
Here is their Solution....
We Have  A Problem, Cause a Critical Reaction,.... and now we can Implement our Solution.
Premeditated Government and Media Brainwash on an industrial scale  !!

Since mid 2016  early 2017, I personally have stopped watching the mainstream bombardment of "52+ channels of sh*t" mentality for the masses,
This ""stuff"" we are non conciously absorbing  via smartphone and other devices etc etc, into our poor submitting confused minds !
It's a disease, our young zombie millenial generation, are turning into a compliant, non questioning, zombie nation.
We should be helping migrants/immigrants , by spending the capatalists wasted money by the Western (USA-UK-EU-UAE) ..
Rape and Destruction of the Middle East,etc etc
Refurbishing the countries we have raped and pillaged killing millions      :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
Instead of the billions/ trillions spent ,  via proxy wars that have only one interest,......that of the few Ultra rich elite , the 1%.
Who have but one aim ..... gain , through deceitful practices and total lies that are a scourge to this planets peace, and peoples
Health and prosperity.......The Biggest Lie Ever is now in full flow , and has been ever since WWII and before.
"They do not really care for any one but themselves"
Oh and lets not bring up that "Russian " baloney
I no longer watch TV ,and only listen selected radio / internet and filtered media.
As music has always been my creativity outlet ,.....it now has a renewed my energy.
And of course the Listening to "Music.......Old and New"
It has boosted my mental spirital and physical wellbeing for the better,.......Including finishing a few Mic Pre's and the DL2A.
I am not a conspirasist nut ,.................. you are in the conspiracy...

Sorry for the rant.......be critical of what you are being told, and always seek the truth, for yourself and the ones you love.
Your Spiritual wellbeing will thank you ,

A few links to info... be critical and do you're own  reasearch ....

Serious stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X_xB1JJ_Es
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNeOTOytEeA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P50Xx56qvZk

New Music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkjNNClccOI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyjNard5ers

Peace and love DIY'ers
S2udio

https://twitter.com/PJVogt/status/878447461420986369

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I'm glad you liked the article Spiritworks, www.nakedcapitalism is a good site, their daily Watercoolers are excellent political daily news, too.

Spiritworks said:

This is a huge problem for so many reasons. It is not Govt.  job to give people a better life. It should be Govt. job to balance the playing field so that all citizens have an equal opportunity to make a better life for themselves through their own hard work and initiative.

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In a capitalist system, making a 'better' life for yourself means exploiting other people and the commons, so that others have a worse life than you do, or being exploited yourself to subsidise someone else's 'better' life. There is no virtue in a capitalist, or a boss.

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tands said:

In a capitalist system, making a 'better' life for yourself means exploiting other people and the commons, so that others have a worse life than you do, or being exploited yourself to subsidise someone else's 'better' life. There is no virtue in a capitalist, or a boss.

.

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Capitalism sucks, but everything else is worse....

JR

Worse for whom? It's a comical idea that capitalism is the best that human society will ever do.  That this sh*t represents us.

Time to move forward, imo.

tands said:

I'm glad you liked the article Spiritworks, www.nakedcapitalism is a good site, their daily Watercoolers are excellent political daily news, too.

In a capitalist system, making a 'better' life for yourself means exploiting other people and the commons, so that others have a worse life than you do, or being exploited yourself to subsidise someone else's 'better' life. There is no virtue in a capitalist, or a boss.

.

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I don't believe it's the system of Capitalism that's wrong.  I believe it's the negative side of human nature that has corrupted/can corrupt any system that causes the problems.  Money and profit are not the problems. The love of money is the problem. When we love the money and the means to aquire it more than we love each other - that's when the tragedy begins. There are ways to profit without exploitation.  We can help more people, in more ways, if we make more profit. IF we have a good heart and follow the Golden Rule.

Spiritworks said:

I don't believe it's the system of Capitalism that's wrong.  I believe it's the negative side of human nature that has corrupted/can corrupt any system that causes the problems. 

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At the risk of waxing all philosophical, the most successful economic and political system harness  (and/or moderate) basic human motivations.

Sloth or laziness is the real mother of invention (productivity)... If farmers were content to still plant and harvest crops by hand they wouldn't have first turned to beasts of burden, then machines to increase output.

Money and profit are not the problems.

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indeed money is useful for commerce, and without profit a business would not be sustainable

The love of money is the problem. When we love the money and the means to aquire it more than we love each other - that's when the tragedy begins.

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This is not simple to grasp or do anything about.  Accumulating wealth is generally pursued for a long list of reasons, like shelter and future security, providing for family, food, medicine, etc. Grabbing a bigger pile of money just to have more is not virtuous, but some greed is a powerful motivation to drive industry.

A perhaps useful distinction is the difference between just accumulating wealth (a zero sum game) like a loan shark profiting from human weakness, and a business creating new wealth from inventions that makes a bigger pile of wealth for many to prosper from, like the factory owner who employs hundreds of workers.  (Of course not all wealth creation involves invention, Apple has done a remarkable job of being second to market with superior products. )

There are ways to profit without exploitation.  We can help more people, in more ways, if we make more profit. IF we have a good heart and follow the Golden Rule.

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Exploitation is never good and government generally tries to prevent unfair advantages.  The overly complex tax code benefits large companies who have engineered loopholes using lobbyists (protected speech but not good for everybody else, especially small businesses). 

I am not sure we can easily know when or how to stop earning money from a good idea after we have "enough". Several of the wealthiest men in the world (Gates, Buffet, etc) have already committed to use their "too much wealth"  for charitable activities. I also find it instructive that these smartest guys in the room don't just give their excess wealth to government, because they know they can spend it more wisely to benefit all mankind.

The golden rule comes down to empathy,,, treat others as if they are like us. There is precious little empathy in modern politics .  Unfortunately we are barely evolved from our caveman or hunter-gatherer beginnings, so need civilization to help moderate our baser impulses.

Sorry this is a far more complex topic than can be handled with so few words, and smarter people than me have been thinking and writing about this for centuries..

JR

PS: It is not surprising that many of the wealthiest favor increased income taxes. Not purely altruistic, they already have their house on the hill and higher taxes will make it harder for new wealth to catch up to them. Mark Zuckerberg has proposed a minimum income from government (ironically at a commencement speech for the college he dropped out of), but even this would benefit his business, meaning that every citizen could then afford his product.  : I do not mean to impugn the integrity of these charitable people, but they suffer from human frailty like all the rest of us.

I live in the 6th district of GA, and I must say that all of the money spent (burned?) was great for the economy.  I must say, though, that I am happy that my mailbox will now be less full of "junk" now that the election is over. For the past month, truly 70% of my mail was political ads from both parties, several flyers EVERY DAY, at least 3 phone calls PER DAY, and yard signs galore.  BTW, I kind of liked the yard signs that I cleaned up from my yard.  They made great target holders for the range......
YMMV
Best,
Bruno2000

Spiritworks said:

I don't believe it's the system of Capitalism that's wrong.  I believe it's the negative side of human nature that has corrupted/can corrupt any system that causes the problems.  Money and profit are not the problems. The love of money is the problem. When we love the money and the means to aquire it more than we love each other - that's when the tragedy begins. There are ways to profit without exploitation.  We can help more people, in more ways, if we make more profit. IF we have a good heart and follow the Golden Rule.

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This is incorrect, essentially a fantasy, I'm sorry about it. Capitalism is structurally based on the arrangement and exploitation of weakness-

The institutional inequality existing on the labour market (masked for liberal economists, sociologists and moral philosophers alike by juridical equality) arises from the very fact that the capitalist mode of production is based upon generalised commodity production, generalised market economy. This implies that a propertyless labourer, who owns no capital, who has no reserves of larger sums of money but who has to buy his food and clothes, pay his rent and even elementary public transportation for journeying between home and workplace, in a continuous way in exchange of money, is under the economic compulsion to sell the only commodity he possesses, to wit his labour power, also on a continuous basis. He cannot withdraw from the labour market until the wages go up. He cannot wait.

But the capitalist, who has money reserves, can temporarily withdraw from the labour market. He can lay his workers off, can even close or sell his enterprise and wait a couple of years before starting again in business. The institutional differences make price determination of the labour market a game with loaded dice, heavily biased against the working class. [...] Under capitalism, [the worker] has no choice. He is forced by economic compulsion to go through that sale, practically at any price.

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https://www.ernestmandel.org/en/works/txt/1990/karlmarx/7.htm

And profit is by definition exploitation.

surplus value is equal to the new value created by workers in excess of their own [wages], which is appropriated by the capitalist as profit when products are sold.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surplus_value

It's a well developed mechanism of slavery and theft.

Cheers!



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https://twitter.com/NancyPelosi/status/878688654113345536