That's not new though. Washington succumbed to bribes decades ago already.
It just is much more apparent now with the orange king and his billionaire
bodies. The Epstein network must be much bigger than what is already known.
It is also most likely still existing today, just with different actors.
Billionaires want to party - often with people below a certain age ...
AI companies spend record sums on Washington lobbying
31–40 of 154 posts
Re: AI companies spend record sums on Washington lobbying
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's so cheap that normal people could band together and re-buy democracy. It's the banding together part that is hard.
I think of that Netflix series on FIFA and its rampant corruption. The bribes in question are laughable, considering that FIFA is a multi-billion dollar operation, and it's always some round number like $1M. At least add some cents to it so it's not glaringly obvious in the bank accounts.
Are the bribes round, or is it just usual bullshit journalism practice of fudging the numbers and rounding them in the process (usually made apparent when there are multiple reports for the same number, each using different units of currency or measure).
Re: AI companies spend record sums on Washington lobbying
#33> OpenAI nearly doubled its federal lobbying expenditure to a record $2.22mn in the first half of 2026, compared to last year, while Anthropic nearly tripled its spending to $3.53mn, according to federal disclosures. Never ceases to amaze me how cheap lobbying is. That's pocket change for these companies.
That's most definitely not the real sum.
People need to look at financial kick backs. There is a certain guy here in central Europe who left politics quite recently, but suddenly has 400 million euros wealth - out of nowhere. And nobody questions how he got that ...
The corruption happens not only via direct lobbyism. One has to look at the whole corruption bribe bubble here.
Re: AI companies spend record sums on Washington lobbying
#34> OpenAI nearly doubled its federal lobbying expenditure to a record $2.22mn in the first half of 2026, compared to last year, while Anthropic nearly tripled its spending to $3.53mn, according to federal disclosures. Never ceases to amaze me how cheap lobbying is. That's pocket change for these companies.
Well you don't want to push the price up any more than you have to since then each subsequent lobby will cost a minimum of that amount.
Re: AI companies spend record sums on Washington lobbying
#35> OpenAI nearly doubled its federal lobbying expenditure to a record $2.22mn in the first half of 2026, compared to last year, while Anthropic nearly tripled its spending to $3.53mn, according to federal disclosures. Never ceases to amaze me how cheap lobbying is. That's pocket change for these companies.
Alternatively, couldn't this be seen as evidence on favor of the "corporate narrative" on lobbying? Namely, that the purpose of lobbying is to ensure politicians have instant and easy access to high-quality, insider information relevant to their decision-making on corporate issues (as opposed to simply being bribed)? I remember my poli sci teacher on college tried very hard to convince the class of this (with little…
Reminds me of the time Tony Blair left office and went to work for JP Morgan Chase.
https://www.forbes.com/2008/01/10/jpmorgan-consultancy-advis...
Re: AI companies spend record sums on Washington lobbying
#36[flagged]
I never used to mind captchas until llms came around. Now, train your own damn robot
Re: AI companies spend record sums on Washington lobbying
#37> OpenAI nearly doubled its federal lobbying expenditure to a record $2.22mn in the first half of 2026, compared to last year, while Anthropic nearly tripled its spending to $3.53mn, according to federal disclosures. Never ceases to amaze me how cheap lobbying is. That's pocket change for these companies.
It's so cheap that normal people could band together and re-buy democracy. It's the banding together part that is hard.
"re-buy democracy"
Re: AI companies spend record sums on Washington lobbying
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right. That's what actually buys you the politician. Being able to promise "Pass this regulation for us and we'll make sure you are set up for life, since we know it's politically unfavorable" the ~$2M just gets your foot in the door, that's it.
And also they can threaten to fund an opponent's PAC.
Or primary you
Re: AI companies spend record sums on Washington lobbying
#39> OpenAI nearly doubled its federal lobbying expenditure to a record $2.22mn in the first half of 2026, compared to last year, while Anthropic nearly tripled its spending to $3.53mn, according to federal disclosures. Never ceases to amaze me how cheap lobbying is. That's pocket change for these companies.
It's so cheap that normal people could band together and re-buy democracy. It's the banding together part that is hard.
It seems to me that there's really nothing at that store that "normal people" want to buy.
Everything that we want to do can be done through ordinary collaboration with no need for the state. The special services which the state provides (violence and threats of violence, imperialism, inhibition of movement of people and goods across imaginary lines, etc) are the kinds of things that are really only interesting to the kinds of people who are already spending their money on lobbying.
Re: AI companies spend record sums on Washington lobbying
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think of that Netflix series on FIFA and its rampant corruption. The bribes in question are laughable, considering that FIFA is a multi-billion dollar operation, and it's always some round number like $1M. At least add some cents to it so it's not glaringly obvious in the bank accounts.
Are the bribes round, or is it just usual bullshit journalism practice of fudging the numbers and rounding them in the process (usually made apparent when there are multiple reports for the same number, each using different units of currency or measure).
They are usually round so that those who worked on it can get paid.