This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Can anyone explain Duncan Hunter to me? American greed running an episode on him right now. Seems like he spent $60k of campaign money on personal expenses but was an early maga supporter. I know McConnel has made a ton of money off connections. Pelosi’s husbands trading. Obama had Rezko. Hunter got 630k a year from some Ukranian oligarch for a no show job. How can I not see this as a deep state job? He probably violated an actual law. But seems like a lot of people break laws but if your a Maga supporter a small technical violation makes you an episode of American greed but SBF gets glowing articles in the NYT.
Edit: I like Pelosi and McConnell. Realize their is going to be some corruption. And I’ve had a rum or two while watching this but really $60k gets you a labeled as a monster.
GOP launched their congressional investigation into Joe Biden today. Nail him to the fucking cross. Treat them how they have treated us.
Spending campaign funds on personal expenses is a commonly prosecuted form of political fraud. Democrats get in trouble for this too- Jesse Jackson Jr went to prison for buying, among other things, Michael Jackson memorabilia with campaign funding. There was an establishment Republican not too long ago who went to prison for spending campaign money on expenses relating to a pet rabbit. It’s a pretty equal opportunity prosecution for this particular crime.
And those are the cases that come to mind because the details are weird. They’re not optimized for being politically broad spectrum.
More options
Context Copy link
I am guessing because the other examples are grey areas or hard to prove. Taking money from 'x' under the pretense of 'y' and doing 'z', is strait-cut fraud.
Little too soon to say he got off.
It's not hard to prove; the reality is the DOJ has not only refused to investigate in any meaningful way many redflags of criminal activity, but has actively worked to stop others from doing so either (up to and included them seizing evidence and it disappearing into a blackhole), e.g., the Weiner laptop with evidence of Clinton, as well as witnesses claiming agents implicitly threatened them to stay quiet.
He did "get off" already. And then everything came crashing down.
The SEC allegedly investigated FTX roughly 6 months ago. Not only did they not make any finding about their activity, activity which is so hilariously fraudulent if even 1/2 the claims made by the liquidation CEO are in the ballpark of accurate, but they had multiple meetings in order to discuss the SEC issuing a no-action letter.
will he avoid jail time or only get a light sentence? seems unlikely. The SEC ignored madoff for over a decade but he still got the book thrown at him.
What about the countless hundreds of people who committed basic fraud with mortgage transfers and bundling before and during the finance crises of 2007 onwards?
I'm not sure what the Gary Gensler and company at the SEC will do; they're comically incompetent, damaging, and corrupt at the same time.
The vast majority of the fraud happening at that time was done not by evil vampire squids and CEOs, but by parties with full political and media support: ordinary Americans who bought more house than they could afford. The other major party involved was mortgage brokers who colluded with ordinary Americans. "Don't worry, they don't check this. Just say you make $X."
More options
Context Copy link
The SBF fraud was even more egregious than 2008. The latter was more about risk management failure, the former seems like deliberate fraud.
It will go above the SEC. It will likely be referred to criminal prosecution.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
One could say “hard to prove”. One could also assume the full weight of the justice system never went after these things.
Funny I was talking to a friend on how a simple audit by any government org could have caught SBF. And his reply was busy finding small cases. Sbf is definitely not “hard to prove”.
Well, the one thing in favour of the regulators I will say is that there seems to be evidence Bankman-Fried was moving the legal headquarters of FTX around to be one jump ahead of the posse.
Started off in Chicago, moved to Miami, then settled on the Bahamas. The 'trading for US citizens' arm, FTX-US, was legally incorporated in Delaware, hence the filing for bankruptcy there and why he passed that weird remark in his Twitter conversation with Kelsey Piper about being able to fix it all if 'we' (sic) won versus the Delaware court, and seems to have been headquartered in San Francisco. Ironically, it seems that the restrictions on trading cryptocurrency in place for US citizens/residents meant they had to set up FTX US for Americans to use their services, and the limits probably protected people more than the 'regulations, what regulations?' for the Bahamas mother-company.
Given all that has come out in the wash, I had to laugh at this bit in the piece; seems like the indications that his charity talk was fake were there to be seen all along:
Too bad for the "underbanked Chicago residents" as soon as it became more advantageous to up sticks! And he definitely was using the charity angle to represent what FTX was doing, so it was riding the coat tails of or intimately connected with EA from the beginning, including using the EA logo and GiveWell logo as well as two other bodies on the FTX US page:
More options
Context Copy link
The SEC allegedly investigated FTX about 6 months ago and not only didn't make a finding but they were in negotiations to issue a no-action letter to FTX.
That is how hilariously incompetent/corrupt US government institutions are.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
Hunter was indicted in 2018, i.e., by the Trump Administration, and ended up pleading guilty and resigning from office. And why you think it was a "small technical violation" is unclear. He apparently used campaign donations to buy stuff for women he had affairs with. He also admitted to stealing $150,000 in his plea deal, not $60,000. And BTW, his 11 month sentence was well below the guideline recommendation for the agreed upon offense level, and was imposed by a Clinton appointee. This is your poster child for unfair treatment?
I don’t think it would be punished by a team establishment player.
It regularly has been.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
This is why I think politicians should be paid in the range of $10-100M/year. They control trillions of dollars and make less than doctors. Obviously they're going to find a way to skim.
It's funny because it would be a very populist policy that almost no populists would vote for
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link