They start at $75K
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@Jon said in They start at $75K:
The question is how do you make this illegal? I’ve actually thought about it and it’s not obvious how you could do it.
How do you stop the Saudis from spending 100s of millions staying at Trump properties during his presidency?
No access.
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@Jon said in They start at $75K:
The question is how do you make this illegal? I’ve actually thought about it and it’s not obvious how you could do it.
How do you stop the Saudis from spending 100s of millions staying at Trump properties during his presidency?
No access.
@Jolly said in They start at $75K:
@Jon said in They start at $75K:
The question is how do you make this illegal? I’ve actually thought about it and it’s not obvious how you could do it.
How do you stop the Saudis from spending 100s of millions staying at Trump properties during his presidency?
No access.
You going to keep the Saudis from interacting with the Whitehouse?
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Perhaps.
The screening process has got to be revamped. If all it takes is $$$ for access, it's too easy to manipulate policy for the rich.
“Cry havoc and let slip the DOGE of war!”
Those who cheered as J-6 American prisoners were locked in solitary for 18 months without trial, now suddenly fight tooth and nail for foreign terrorists’ "due process". — Buck Sexton
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The kids bought art too.
In September 2015, Hunter Biden art patron Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali sent Hillary Clinton $2,700, the maximum amount she could give the presidential candidate for the upcoming primary election. Just days later, an unusual source stepped forward with more Clinton money: Naftali's 17-year-old daughter.
Naftali's daughter—who was in high school at the time—also sent Clinton $2,700, federal disclosures reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show. The contribution came just 10 days after Naftali was legally barred from giving Clinton more primary campaign cash. In the years that followed, Naftali's son continued the practice, sending thousands of dollars to California congressman Mike Levin and presidential candidate Kamala Harris after Naftali contributed the legal maximum to both Democrats. Naftali's son gave Levin $1,000 at age 16 and Harris $2,000 at age 17.
The contributions show just how far Naftali and her family have gone to curry favor with liberal politicians. Naftali's daughter—a self-described "data engineer photographer surfer hiphop dancer big d democrat yogi"—landed a spot on Clinton's National Finance Committee as an 18-year-old, less than one year after she sent Clinton thousands of dollars. She went on to work as a "technology consultant" for the Democratic National Committee as a college student.
But the political benefits that come with megadonor status haven't just gone to Naftali's daughter. President Joe Biden appointed Naftali herself to his Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad in July 2022, nine months after his scandal-plagued son held his first art show. While the White House said Hunter Biden's art patrons would remain anonymous, Business Insider on Monday identified Naftali as a patron of the first son's work, a revelation that prompted ethics concerns. Hunter Biden has used his artwork to earn at least $1.3 million as he faces legal battles over his failure to pay federal income taxes.
Federal law allows minors to donate to political campaigns, though they must do so "knowingly and voluntarily" with their own money. Naftali's children are the beneficiaries of a trust set up by their grandparents, court records obtained by the Free Beacon show, and money they receive from the trust is considered their own income under federal law. Still, Naftali could not direct her children to use money from the trust to contribute to liberal politicians—that decision would have to come from the children themselves.
If Naftali directed or paid her children to make the contributions after she no longer could, she would likely be guilty of running a straw donation scheme. Federal prosecutors have uncovered such schemes in recent months.
"Their parents can't say, 'If you donate, we'll give you your money later, or we'll give you a really big Christmas gift,'" said Kendra Arnold, executive director of campaign finance watchdog Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust. "The facts in this case line up to indicate that could have happened here." -
Perhaps.
The screening process has got to be revamped. If all it takes is $$$ for access, it's too easy to manipulate policy for the rich.
@Jolly said in They start at $75K:
If all it takes is $$$ for access, it's too easy to manipulate policy for the rich.
Basically it is all it takes, and it has been this way for years and years and years, and in every country in the world.
You could look at the guest list for any US state dinner (Democrat or Republic) and see that a lot of the guests there are there because they have donated money to the president at the time, done business with the president at the time (which may be the same thing), or are a potential source of money in the future..
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The "broker" - "It was a scam, and I knew it."
Hunter Biden’s Manhattan art dealer said Tuesday that he never worked with the White House on an ethics pact to ensure buyers would remain anonymous — and added that the top purchasers were known to the first son, contrary to prior claims from President Biden’s aides.
Georges Bergès also revealed that in addition to the lack of supposed anti-corruption safeguards he actually met and spoke on the phone with the president while repping his son, the House Oversight Committee said in a readout of a closed-door deposition.
The art dealer testified that Hunter, 53, knew who bought about 70% of his art — including Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, who obtained works by the first son both before and after scoring a prestigious presidential appointment.
Bergès disclosed that he personally interacted with Joe Biden on multiple occasions, including at a closed-to-the-press White House wedding for Hunter’s daughter Naomi in 2022.
The high-stakes testimony came as the Oversight Committee spearheads an impeachment inquiry into whether the elder Biden was corruptly involved with his son and brother James’s foreign ventures while vice president.
Hirsh Naftali, who scored repeated visits to the White House during the timeframe in question, inked a $42,000 sale in February 2021, before her appointment that July by Joe Biden to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, and then another for $52,000 in December 2022.
Bergès also confirmed that the first son was aware that Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris, who met Hunter at a political fundraiser in December 2019 before bankrolling his tax payments and living expenses, was his top patron, buying $875,000 worth of art in a January 2023 deal.
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That may be so, but legal and ethical are two different animals. What appalls me about it is the brazenness.
@Mik said in They start at $75K:
That may be so, but legal and ethical are two different animals. What appalls me about it is the brazenness.
Oh, yes. Anyone with half a brain, even Hunter (!), knew what this really was. However, ethics is not showing up as being high on this administration's list.
