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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 14, 2024

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This case is so bad it’s the exact thing I talked about with ymeskhout about that what he was complaining about the right grifters can get away with anything because the vibes are institutional corruption. And this is worse it’s not some dude making a movie but a court of law in one of the richest states in the union.

No one else has ever been prosecuted for this. It’s like giving a guy a $400 million bill because he jaywalked.

Where do you get the idea that nobody has ever been prosecuted for this? A recent AP article suggests that there have been nearly 150 actions under the law since it was passed in 1956.

Did you read the article?

“AP’s review of nearly 150 reported cases since New York’s “repeated fraud” statute was passed in 1956 showed that nearly every previous time a company was taken away, victims and losses were key factors. Customers had lost money or bought defective products or never received services ordered, leaving them cheated and angry.“

A very key point “customers” so these were frauds targeting retail people where real losses occurred not institutional investors like banks especially ones who did not lose money.

Ignoring actual debating “fraud” as there is no other similar case that has ever been prosecuted under this statute which even the AP admits is true.

So yes this has never been done before.

They didn't take the company away; they levied a fine. It's a large fine, but dissolving the company would have involved appointing a receiver and liquidating all of the company's assets.

There is no functional difference between taking a company and liquidating and just taking 450 million of their money as fine.

But I will repeat show me one similar case prosecuted this way. (They’ve never been prosecuted).

There are obviously many companies that could weather a $450m fine.

Is the reason this case so bad based on the fact that the charges have never been pursued before, or is there also an affirmative defense of the alleged fraud?

The gap between “never been pursued before” and this is the worst thing in the world and punishable by “350 million fine” is absurdly large.

Affirmative sure. There’s a great deal of estimation being done in these deals.

For the securities industry Elon Musks “420 tweet” is considered a bigger deal. Because it targets retail investors versus institutions.

We still have a lot of 2020-2021 market fraud that hasn’t been prosecuted. The whole AMC/GME pump and dump violated a ton of securities law and lost retail investors a lot of money.

Are you claiming that he didn't do anything illegal, or that these laws are rarely enforced?

Because, yeah, I agree that rich people in the US get to break the law all teh time with very little chance of consequences. I don't think that's good, and I don't have a lot of sympathy for the one rich lawbreaker they decide to make an example of.

[disclaimer: I'm not familiar with the merits]

If they're going to make an example of someone, it would be significantly more effective of an example if it can't just be passed off as a political prosecution, as then people would worry it could happen to them and reform their behavior, rather than just make themselves politically unobtrusive.

I agree that it does less to discourage criminals than prosecuting someone solely for being a criminal would.

However, it probably much more effectively discourages criminals from entering politics, which is a good thing.

It probably much more effectively discourages criminals from entering politics on the wrong side, which isn’t quite the same thing.

Are you claiming that he didn't do anything illegal, or that these laws are rarely enforced?

Do we have examples of similar prosecutions for similar crimes?

The problem is you run into the conservative desire to believe in the institutions. There's no way the Democrats could have so blatantly used the court system to engage in political persecution of their opponents. The System wouldn't stand for such a thing. Since it did stand for it, Trump must therefore simply be guilty as his opponents claim, and damn the appearances otherwise.

Sarcasm?

Vantablack pilled

the smarter grifters keep it civil and then use asset protection to avoid having to pay anything . the line between civil and criminal is up to the DA to decide. it can be referred for criminal prosecution.