Am I being a little bit dumb - their goal is to demonstrate how corrosive money is in "buying" Congressional races by pouring money into congressional races to buy the race to make their point?
I seem to be going round again
Steve Wozniak Endorses Lessig's Mayday Super PAC
21–30 of 37 posts
Re: Steve Wozniak Endorses Lessig's Mayday Super PAC
#22"Then we got the $1 Million matched by a group of donors who, unlike most political donors, would like to level the playing field, even if it means seeing their influence decreased." ... and with that I lose my trust in this PAC. Human nature has a pull towards being self-serving and this nature is amplified when large sums of wealth are on the line.
So what? They're not shareholders, they're donors. Once money is donated to a Super PAC, it's the PAC's money to do with as they see fit. "PACs may make unlimited expenditures independently of a candidate or political party." Short of the agreement to match funds having extra stipulations (or Lessig putting those wealthy benefactors in charge of the PAC) there is nothing they can do about how the money gets spent.
Couldn't the donors agree to donate more if the PAC spends the already donated money in a certain way?
Re: Steve Wozniak Endorses Lessig's Mayday Super PAC
#23I went through to donate and I have to be an American citizen to donate.. when big multi-nationals are pushing America (and by extension the planet) around then why should individuals from multiple-different-nations not be able to respond?
They should add an option so that foreigners can give money to individual americans on there - who in turn give it to the PAC.
IANAL: But please be careful. You may be breaking the law if you do this. Dinesh D'Souza is going to do jail time for something similar (using straw donors to circumvent existing campaign finance laws and limits).
Re: Steve Wozniak Endorses Lessig's Mayday Super PAC
#24What is amazing me is all the ignorance that is so boldly expressed by lessig:
a democracy is not a republic since republic was designed to kill the democracy.
The biggest argument against republic being a possible implementation of democracy was made centuries ago by Pericles. He stated that any system favouring money will end in ploutocracy (having only the richer's interests being represented). Republic filter's out a lot of people from the game of being eligible. It selects on a random criteria that will always end to be money at the end.
Republic whatever its implementation can be always will result in a feedback loop based on resources: money, media time, «fame», knwoledge, wisdom... As a result whatever the rule you make it will always end up favouring in the representation the guys with money. (you need exposure of your argument to win, that always ends up in making a 1:1:1 relation of exposure=money=probability of winning)
Democracy's goal however is to have all the population being represented. So as you can see these 2 systems are de facto mutually exclusive.
The big question is «are the human naturally bad?» If answer is yes: you choose republic to ensure only a subset of «capable citizens» are elected, but in the process you will mathematically converge towards a ploutocracy that will favor the more powerful/rich. Else, if all citizen are considered equally «capable» you can pick up any random citizen for forming a government. Hence living in a republic is NOT possibly living in a democracy.
Republic is just an aristocracy: it ensures the representant of the people are selected in a small subset of the population that tends to have more patrimonial. subset of the population that will tend to pass law to ensure the conservatism in the society so that their money is secured.
Re: Steve Wozniak Endorses Lessig's Mayday Super PAC
#25I went through to donate and I have to be an American citizen to donate.. when big multi-nationals are pushing America (and by extension the planet) around then why should individuals from multiple-different-nations not be able to respond?
They should add an option so that foreigners can give money to individual americans on there - who in turn give it to the PAC.
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Re: Steve Wozniak Endorses Lessig's Mayday Super PAC
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are laws against accepting campaign money from foreigners that probably apply to PAC money too
Did a quick search: PAC money can't come from foreign nationals, though (wonderfully enough!) foreign corporations with subsidiaries in the US are able to donate.
I don't mean to nit-pick, but PAC money can come from foreign nationals if they have a 'green card'.
Re: Steve Wozniak Endorses Lessig's Mayday Super PAC
#27Quite depressing how they don't seem to be able to reach their goal. I would donate in a heart beat, but I'm not a US citizen. Unclear why you (US citizens) aren't all over this stuff.
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Re: Steve Wozniak Endorses Lessig's Mayday Super PAC
#28Am I being a little bit dumb - their goal is to demonstrate how corrosive money is in "buying" Congressional races by pouring money into congressional races to buy the race to make their point? I seem to be going round again
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Re: Steve Wozniak Endorses Lessig's Mayday Super PAC
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did a quick search: PAC money can't come from foreign nationals, though (wonderfully enough!) foreign corporations with subsidiaries in the US are able to donate.
I don't mean to nit-pick, but PAC money can come from foreign nationals if they have a 'green card'.
There is a contradiction in the rules. One rule says, 'permanent residents (green card holders) are OK' but then another says 'no foreign nationals.' I guess this could apply to the vanishingly small set of permanent residents who don't have a foreign citizenship anywhere.
Re: Steve Wozniak Endorses Lessig's Mayday Super PAC
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't mean to nit-pick, but PAC money can come from foreign nationals if they have a 'green card'.
There is a contradiction in the rules. One rule says, 'permanent residents (green card holders) are OK' but then another says 'no foreign nationals.' I guess this could apply to the vanishingly small set of permanent residents who don't have a foreign citizenship anywhere.
You mean people who have no citizenship whatsoever?