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Trump's Second Term

The funny thing is that although I am a lifelong left-winger by most current standards, and my beliefs almost certainly disagree with almost everything Vance and his ilk believe, I have no real idea what George Soros does or thinks, and would likely not even have heard of him if his name were not constantly on their lips. I gather he is some rich dude who supports some progressive causes somewhere.

I suppose that we are back in "every accusation is a confession" territory here, as I imagine that Vance, parroting the latest lies from on high, is the very antithesis of a freethinker, and if he were ever called upon to utter an independent thought, would be at a loss.

That he, like so many others, assumes that opinions unlike his own can spring from no source but the slavish servitude that suits him reveals an impoverished understanding which I (probably with undue optimism) hope will carry him down with his master.
 
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bruto said:
The funny thing is that although I am a lifelong left-winger by most current standards, and my beliefs almost certainly disagree with almost everything Vance and his ilk believe, I have no real idea what George Soros does or thinks, and would likely not even have heard of him if his name were not constantly on their lips. I gather he is some rich dude who supports some progressive causes somewhere.
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Just because I was spurred into some mild curiosity for a refresher about Soros -

Until the 2004 presidential election, Soros had not been a large donor to U.S. political campaigns. According to OpenSecrets, during the 2003–2004 election cycle, Soros donated $23,581,000 to various 527 Groups (tax-exempt groups under the United States tax code, 26 U.S.C. § 527). The groups aimed to defeat President George W. Bush. After Bush's reelection, Soros and other donors backed a new political fundraising group called Democracy Alliance, which supports progressive causes and the formation of a stronger progressive infrastructure in America.

In August 2009, Soros donated $35 million to the state of New York to be earmarked for underprivileged children and given to parents who had benefit cards at the rate of $200 per child aged 3 through 17, with no limit as to the number of children that qualified. An additional $140 million was put into the fund by the state of New York from money they had received from the 2009 federal recovery act. Soros was an initial donor to the Center for American Progress, and he continues to support the organization through the Open Society Foundations.
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Since 2016, Soros has been donating sums exceeding $1 million to the campaigns of progressive criminal justice reform proponents through the Safety and Justice PAC in local district attorney elections. In many districts, such large contributions were unprecedented and the campaigning strategy was "turned on its head" with a focus on incarceration, police misconduct and bail system, according to the Los Angeles Times.
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And...
For the 2022 United States elections, Soros was the country's largest donor. He donated $128.5 million to support the Democratic Party in the election cycle.
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He's the single biggest contributor to the opponents of the Republican Party and a vocal opponent to the oppression that the Republican Party champions. That, alone, would have them trying to demonize him.

Why does he claim to take the positions that he does?

George Soros experienced ethnic and political intolerance firsthand. Born in Hungary in 1930, he lived through the Nazi occupation of 1944–1945, which resulted in the murder of over 500,000 Hungarian Jews. His own Jewish family survived by securing false identity papers, concealing their backgrounds, and helping others do the same. Soros later recalled that “not only did we survive, but we managed to help others.”
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“1944, the year of the German occupation, was my formative experience. Instead of submitting to our fate we resisted an evil force that was much stronger than we were—yet we prevailed.” —George Soros
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Entirely reasonable, then, that he would continue to seek a brighter future and oppose those who are dangerously similar to the Nazis. Also -

“I believe that in philanthropy one should do the right thing, whether or not it succeeds.”—George Soros
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Is anathema to what the Republican Party does.
 
Elsewhere, but still a bit relevant to that last post...

Pam Bondi wants FBI to place cash bounties on trans activists

And...

Tennessee whistleblower says library board chair sought private data as part of state's book purge

According to advocates who attended the meeting, James said the chair of the library board, Cody York, who is also the county’s chief information officer, had demanded, just days after she arrived, that she produce a spreadsheet listing patrons’ names, home addresses, ZIP codes, household composition, and the specific books they had checked out.
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Both of these things are more fittingly described as attempts to push the USA further towards being an authoritarian hellhole.
 
Tero said:
We know where Trump Jr is going. Back to being nothing. He does not even have a podcast.
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Aridas said:
Just because I was spurred into some mild curiosity for a refresher about Soros -



And...


He's the single biggest contributor to the opponents of the Republican Party and a vocal opponent to the oppression that the Republican Party champions. That, alone, would have them trying to demonize him.

Why does he claim to take the positions that he does?




Entirely reasonable, then, that he would continue to seek a brighter future and oppose those who are dangerously similar to the Nazis. Also -



Is anathema to what the Republican Party does.
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No wonder he is considered Satan by the right-wing.
 
Helen said:
I did enjoy Minaj calling Trump dashing and handsome. The rest of the TPUSA is just horrifying, since everyone seems far too comfortable about saying what used to be the quiet parts out loud, very loud even, but that was fun.
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Fine people on both sides of TPUSA.

One of the speakers was Tucker Carlson who has extremists like Nick Fuentes on his show.
 
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This seemed to slip through largely unremarked but to my mind is very worrying.

Vance: "Do you want more prosecutions?"

TPUSA Crowd: "Yes!"

Vance: "Great! So do we! Donald Trump and I have a list of better judges and prosecutors to enact swifter justice. So join us in the fight against the stupid Senate rules that stand in their way."

https://twitter.com/x/status/2002823869133177217
 
Andy_Ross said:
This seemed to slip through largely unremarked but to my mind is very worrying.

Vance: "Do you want more prosecutions?"

TPUSA Crowd: "Yes!"

Vance: "Great! So do we! Donald Trump and I have a list of better judges and prosecutors to enact swifter justice. So join us in the fight against the stupid Senate rules that stand in their way."

https://twitter.com/x/status/2002823869133177217
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"Summery Justice sounds nice doesn't it? Everyone loves the Summer......"
 
steenkh said:
Thanks for this post. I wonder how Soros' contributions compare to the contributions from the dark side of the political spectrum.
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To borrow from the Google AI summary after looking up "billionaires who donate to the left vs right" for ease's sake, some of the most relevant big picture things there were -

Republican Lean: In 2024, a significant majority (around 72%) of billionaire family spending favored Republican candidates, often supporting lower taxes and deregulation.
Ideological Focus: Some billionaires, like Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX), fund candidates with specific policy stances (e.g., crypto-friendly Democrats).
Shifting Landscape: While historically the GOP dominated, tech money has boosted Democratic funding, but overall, conservative billionaires still outspend liberals significantly.

As a further note, Sam Bankman-Fried admitted to giving about the same amount to Republicans in dark money.

From one of the links that it pointed to - Billionaire Clans Spend Nearly $2 BILLION On 2024 Elections

The man heading up the richest billionaire family of all, Elon Musk, has spent $133 million. The largest share, $75 million, was used to single-handedly launch America PAC, which supports Trump. Musk has since given $44 million more to this super PAC. Musk has tried to go further in using his money to manipulate democracy, by creating a million-dollar-a-day lottery leading up to Election Day for voters in key swing states who are registered and sign a petition supporting speech and gun rights. The Justice Department has warned Musk that his scheme may violate a federal law against paying for votes.
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This unprecedented spending spree by billionaire families to influence the outcome of American elections is just a minor expense for them personally. The 150 families we examine in this study collectively hold $2.67 trillion of wealth, making their $1.9 billion of political contributions equivalent to just 0.07% of their wealth.

Billionaire political giving is highly concentrated. The ten biggest billionaire-family contributors alone donated over $953 million, almost half the total. Eight of those ten backed (exclusively or nearly so) Republican candidates, while the remaining two only supported Democrats.
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While contributions to candidates, parties and traditional political action committees (PACs) are limited by law, billionaires and other wealthy donors can spend unlimited amounts through so-called super PACs. These committees are supposed to act independently of the campaigns they support, but in practice they are essentially extensions of those campaigns.

Despite its size, this billionaire political-spending total reported here is almost certainly an undercount because there are ways of financially supporting campaigns that are anonymous or at least hard to trace back to the original donor. These methods include donations to so-called “dark money” groups that spend the money on outside efforts or in turn donate it to campaign committees; and contributions to super PACs that contribute to each other in long chains.
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