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Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

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Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#241

Post by rchaud »

givemeethekeys wrote: post #16
bhouston wrote: post #7

He is probably going after Ro Khanna, who comes across as a pretty decent rep (he and Massie got the Epstein files released): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ro_Khanna Based on this warning from Garry to Ro re: wealth tax https://finviz.com/news/277038/y-combinators-garry-tan-warns... So this appears to be all about the wealth tax and taken down anyone who supports it. AIPAC is also mad at Ro so it seems that Garry Tan…

Where does the money go? Facebook and Google ads?

- Pro-business think tanks to write "policy reports" with a predetermined outcome

- PR firms that can get their policy mouthpieces on cable TV news

- Police unions to get their endorsement (a favorite of "law and order" candidates)

- TV and radio ads for preferred candidates

- Online influencers and podcasters

- Telemarketing campaigns

- and of course, "campaign contributions"

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#242

Post by ralph84 »

andy_ppp wrote: post #5

I think rich people have too much influence, I probably agree with Garry Tan on a lot but we need to get money out of politics. Let’s face it we’re all meant to get one vote but rich people spend money on this stuff so that they manipulate what and who can be voted for. I do think that if this current system is the result of democracy + the internet we need to seriously reconsider how democracy works because it’s cur…

Politics in the US is a $11 trillion per year business. Money is inherent.

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#243

Post by chr1 »

thomassmith65 wrote: post #235
chr1 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Direct voting does not replace judiciary or even senate, it only augments the house of congress. Can you bring one example where the public wanted to treat a group unjustly and parliament elected by that same public have defended the group?

Direct voting does not replace judiciary or even senate, it only augments the house of congress. If that is the Direct Democracy you had in mind, than we have no disagreement. What I originally commented on was this: So do you believe in democracy or not? I take issue with the implication that it's all or nothing. If we characterize anything less than a direct vote on every issue as anti-democratic, then the only peo…

I hope you will agree that the overall goal is maximizing freedom and autonomy, that is allowing every person or group to pursue happiness the way they want make mistakes or good choices and bear the consequences.

The representative democracy has a problem with delegates not faithfully representing the people they are supposed to represent. It allows politician to be elected by campaigning for issue X which is popular with majority, then do Y and Z that almost no one wants, and then campaign again on other party undoing X, leaving people no way to communicate that they want X and not Y Z.

Social media have greatly increased the impact of this instability, the only way to improve situation is adding some elements of direct voting that would improve efficiency of communication between people and the government.

No one in this thread have suggested to completely replace everything with direct voting, and yet many people vehemently argue against that. Meanwhile there is a much more interesting discussion: how to make cooperation between people more efficient using the new technologies that we have.

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#245

Post by timmytokyo »

andy_ppp wrote: post #5

I think rich people have too much influence, I probably agree with Garry Tan on a lot but we need to get money out of politics. Let’s face it we’re all meant to get one vote but rich people spend money on this stuff so that they manipulate what and who can be voted for. I do think that if this current system is the result of democracy + the internet we need to seriously reconsider how democracy works because it’s cur…

How coincidental that I was just reading something related [0] before seeing this post.

"Silicon Valley is bad at politics. If nothing else during Trump 2.0, I think we’ve learned that Silicon Valley doesn’t exactly have its finger on the pulse of the American public. It’s insular, it’s very, very, very, very rich. [...] I expect it to play its hand in a way that any rich 'degen' on a poker winning streak would: overconfidently and badly."

And...

“People don’t take guillotines seriously. But historically, when a tiny group gains a huge amount of power and makes life-altering decisions for a vast number of people, the minority gets actually, for real, killed.”

[0] https://substack.com/home/post/p-187592016

Nate Silver often annoys the hell out of me, but I think he's right about some of the possible political impacts of AI.

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#246

Post by shimman »

mothballed wrote: post #239
shimman wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah billionaires need to be punished, they have raped the Earth for profit and caused mass misery/death upon her people. In fact a good way for the US to rebuild credibility is to probably send a few billionaires to the Hague and have them tried for crimes against humanity in the ICJ.

Lots of billionaires should probably be at the hague. But we should be glad if people can become billionaires because they are generating that much value of both parties being better off, without imposing externalities on others. Yvonne Chouinard came close to this ideal, I think. If someone can genuinely generate billions in value, not just by imposing externalities on others that they then reallocate to themselves,…

No, this is truly a pathetic mindset. There is more to the world than making "value." No one dies thinking "I wish I made more value." Absolutely pathetic, much like them.

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#247

Post by shimman »

kadabra9 wrote: post #240
shimman wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do agree it is a spending issue, for far too long corporate welfare has flourished in America. None of these rich people would exist with out the federal teat they suckle from, truly pathetic. Remove their bloat, take their money, and fund programs that will enable REAL economic value like medicare for all, universal childcare, free school lunches, public jobs programs, and universal education.

And where will we get the money to fund this fantasy land in 8 months after the government runs out of money and we’ve already stolen all the billionaires assets? Should we move on to anyone with a net worth over $1M and start stealing their assets too?

Probably the same way that the republicans are able to generate funds out of thin air to pay for tax cuts. If MMT is good enough for them, it's good enough for everything else.

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#248

Post by palmaltd »

fff_123l wrote: post #157

The title was changed, but "dark money" has a specific meaning in US politics that is now lost: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_money Such a group is not a PAC or a Super PAC, but anonymizes donors. It can be used as a vehicle to transfer money to a Super PAC while only naming the dark money group and keeping the donors secret.

This is exactly what the linked article said:

> Garry’s List is structured as a 501(c)4 nonprofit, a tax designation that lets the group bankroll campaigns while affording donors a measure of secrecy they would not enjoy if giving directly. They are traditionally known as “dark-money” groups because they can spend on elections without revealing all their donors.

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#249

Post by thomassmith65 »

chr1 wrote: post #243
thomassmith65 wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Direct voting does not replace judiciary or even senate, it only augments the house of congress. If that is the Direct Democracy you had in mind, than we have no disagreement. What I originally commented on was this: So do you believe in democracy or not? I take issue with the implication that it's all or nothing. If we characterize anything less than a direct vote on every issue as anti-democratic, then the only peo…

I hope you will agree that the overall goal is maximizing freedom and autonomy, that is allowing every person or group to pursue happiness the way they want make mistakes or good choices and bear the consequences. The representative democracy has a problem with delegates not faithfully representing the people they are supposed to represent. It allows politician to be elected by campaigning for issue X which is popula…

  No one in this thread have suggested to completely replace everything with direct voting
I take the original comment to imply exactly that, since it positions someone taking issue with any direct vote as being against Democracy wholesale. If I missed something, @terminalshort can reply to clarify.

  the only way to improve situation is adding some elements of direct voting that would improve efficiency of communication between people and the government.
There are two issues:

1) What are a good set of rules for the system.

2) If the existing system can no longer self-correct, how can one implement a good set of rules.

'Direct vote' might address the second issue. It's not the only way, but it's better than a violent revolution.

I'm not opposed to all direct voting, but it does have inherent problems. The most obvious is that the world is far too complicated for a majority of citizens to research all the issues that affect them. In a well-functioning representative democracy, a politician would have the resources and time to understand the issues. Granted, that seldom is the case in reality.

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#250

Post by tw04 »

kadabra9 wrote: post #240
shimman wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do agree it is a spending issue, for far too long corporate welfare has flourished in America. None of these rich people would exist with out the federal teat they suckle from, truly pathetic. Remove their bloat, take their money, and fund programs that will enable REAL economic value like medicare for all, universal childcare, free school lunches, public jobs programs, and universal education.

And where will we get the money to fund this fantasy land in 8 months after the government runs out of money and we’ve already stolen all the billionaires assets? Should we move on to anyone with a net worth over $1M and start stealing their assets too?

What do you think happens to the money when it gets distributed to low income people?

They spend it, it gets injected back into the economy and the economy grows. It doesn’t sit in a hidden bank account to avoid paying taxes on it.

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