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Is Billionare Republican Sheldon Adelson Too Powerful?

Is Billionaire Republican Sheldon Adelson To Powerful?

  • Yes

    Votes: 22 57.9%

  • No

    Votes: 16 42.1%
  • Total voters
    38
Gipper said:
Soros gets fellated by any Democrat looking for public office for years, but I get to hear about Adelson.
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You haven't heard about Soros?
 
Gipper said:
What did he do now?
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Supports Liberal causes. And you know that, which means that you have heard about him plenty. And this thread is probably the first time you've heard about Adelson. And yet you complain that you are 'having to hear about Adelson [instead of Soros]', as if there wasn't plenty of news about Soros when he does stuff. As if there was some kind 'out to get conservatives' in the press, when there clearly is not. It is clear that you have a very selective filter, and I was pointing it out.
 
Dezaad said:
Supports Liberal causes. And you know that, which means that you have heard about him plenty. And this thread is probably the first time you've heard about Adelson. And yet you complain that you are 'having to hear about Adelson [instead of Soros]', as if there wasn't plenty of news about Soros when he does stuff. As if there was some kind 'out to get conservatives' in the press, when there clearly is not. It is clear that you have a very selective filter, and I was pointing it out.
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Actually down here, you hear a bit about Adelson. However, it's not necessarily political, but more about his attempt to spearhead casino gambling in this area. I guess you could call it political if you want. Down here, it's the conservatives that are all up in arms. They think casinos are the second coming of Gomorrah.
 
sawdust said:
And you don't think Obama has Soros goop on his chin? Democrats have more mega wealthy donors than Republicans. Start a thread about that.
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Kindly provide proof of that statement.
 
upsideguy said:
Kindly provide proof of that statement.
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Why do you think Democrats rail about the Koch Brothers et.al., but don't actually do anything about it? Because they'd have to screw over those Unions, and that's the cash cow, man.

Open Secret.Org's Top PAC's for the 2012 Cycle:

PAC Name* Total Expenditures
Restore Our Future $153,316,373
ActBlue $147,197,445
American Crossroads/Crossroads GPS $117,822,763
Priorities USA Action $75,333,806
Service Employees International Union $68,290,443
EMILY's List $44,461,800
Majority PAC $42,117,050
House Majority PAC $35,689,886
Winning Our Future $23,861,421
FreedomWorks $22,647,384
AFL-CIO $22,611,402
American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees $22,450,306
American Federation of Teachers $22,217,470
Moveon.org $21,642,681
Club for Growth $18,727,192
National Rifle Assn $16,168,199
Senate Conservatives Fund $15,882,748
Feinstein for Senate $15,661,451
National Assn of Realtors $15,399,067
Teamsters Union $15,392,995


But that's just one election cycle. Expand it to see who has the most money pouring in over time from single, big donors:


Open Secrets Heavy Hitters: Largest Donors 1989 to 2014:

1 ActBlue $100,887,828
2 American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees $61,339,129
3 National Education Assn $58,783,738
4 AT&T Inc $56,789,597
5 National Assn of Realtors $52,431,322
6 Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $45,516,130
7 Goldman Sachs $45,112,865
8 United Auto Workers $41,669,153
9 Carpenters & Joiners Union $41,478,546 7
10 Service Employees International Union $38,569,790
11 Laborers Union $38,089,860
12 American Federation of Teachers $37,039,075
13 Communications Workers of America $36,326,885 86% 0%
14 Teamsters Union $36,153,707
15 JPMorgan Chase & Co $34,809,107
16 United Food & Commercial Workers Union $33,970,100
17 United Parcel Service $32,565,382
18 Citigroup Inc $32,406,962
19 National Auto Dealers Assn $32,136,910
20 EMILY's List $31,654,912
21 AFL-CIO $31,558,377


As you can see, Blue is fairly dominant when it comes to Big Money. For this list I colored purple anything with a 40% or greater portion of their proceeds going to the party that received the minority of their funds. So, for example, UPS is red, but gave 35% of it's money to Democrats. Goldman Sachs is Purple, but gave 44% of it's money to Republicans.
 
upsideguy said:
Kindly provide proof of that statement.
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For evidence of more Ubber Wealthy Democract/Progressive activists, you can start with the link below, and then follow the remarkable connections of the leadership, let alone membership, of the Democracy Alliance for even more .0001% pushing the Liberal agenda.

Democracy Alliance

The fact is, Soros and his "buddies" make Adelson and the Koch Bros. look like amateur wannabes.
 
ocean515 said:
For evidence of more Ubber Wealthy Democract/Progressive activists, you can start with the link below, and then follow the remarkable connections of the leadership, let alone membership, of the Democracy Alliance for even more .0001% pushing the Liberal agenda.

Democracy Alliance

The fact is, Soros and his "buddies" make Adelson and the Koch Bros. look like amateur wannabes.
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Thanks for the link, but I don't see anyone on that list that strikes me as a billionaire or member of the Forbes 400.
 
cpwill said:
Why do you think Democrats rail about the Koch Brothers et.al., but don't actually do anything about it? Because they'd have to screw over those Unions, and that's the cash cow, man.

Open Secret.Org's Top PAC's for the 2012 Cycle:

PAC Name* Total Expenditures
Restore Our Future $153,316,373
ActBlue $147,197,445
American Crossroads/Crossroads GPS $117,822,763
Priorities USA Action $75,333,806
Service Employees International Union $68,290,443
EMILY's List $44,461,800
Majority PAC $42,117,050
House Majority PAC $35,689,886
Winning Our Future $23,861,421
FreedomWorks $22,647,384
AFL-CIO $22,611,402
American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees $22,450,306
American Federation of Teachers $22,217,470
Moveon.org $21,642,681
Club for Growth $18,727,192
National Rifle Assn $16,168,199
Senate Conservatives Fund $15,882,748
Feinstein for Senate $15,661,451
National Assn of Realtors $15,399,067
Teamsters Union $15,392,995


But that's just one election cycle. Expand it to see who has the most money pouring in over time from single, big donors:


Open Secrets Heavy Hitters: Largest Donors 1989 to 2014:

1 ActBlue $100,887,828
2 American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees $61,339,129
3 National Education Assn $58,783,738
4 AT&T Inc $56,789,597
5 National Assn of Realtors $52,431,322
6 Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $45,516,130
7 Goldman Sachs $45,112,865
8 United Auto Workers $41,669,153
9 Carpenters & Joiners Union $41,478,546 7
10 Service Employees International Union $38,569,790
11 Laborers Union $38,089,860
12 American Federation of Teachers $37,039,075
13 Communications Workers of America $36,326,885 86% 0%
14 Teamsters Union $36,153,707
15 JPMorgan Chase & Co $34,809,107
16 United Food & Commercial Workers Union $33,970,100
17 United Parcel Service $32,565,382
18 Citigroup Inc $32,406,962
19 National Auto Dealers Assn $32,136,910
20 EMILY's List $31,654,912
21 AFL-CIO $31,558,377


As you can see, Blue is fairly dominant when it comes to Big Money. For this list I colored purple anything with a 40% or greater portion of their proceeds going to the party that received the minority of their funds. So, for example, UPS is red, but gave 35% of it's money to Democrats. Goldman Sachs is Purple, but gave 44% of it's money to Republicans.
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I wasn't speaking of PAC's... I know they are reasonably evenly divided. PACs are fundamentally political co-ops, so they dilute the influence of an individual. I was interested in the mega contributions of single members of the uber wealthy.... Adelson or Koch levels of weathy, which was the primary focus of this thread.
 
The Über rich often crave power and a big government that they think they run will give them more power than a decentralized limited government. That is mainly why so many uber wealthy types are fans of big government. It increases the power of the leashes they hold
 
upsideguy said:
Thanks for the link, but I don't see anyone on that list that strikes me as a billionaire or member of the Forbes 400.
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I guess the part where I wrote- "Follow the remarkable connections of the leadership, let alone membership" escaped you. Perhaps on purpose?

Oh well, it won't matter if you don't want to know the truth.
 
ocean515 said:
I guess the part where I wrote- "Follow the remarkable connections of the leadership, let alone membership" escaped you. Perhaps on purpose?

Oh well, it won't matter if you don't want to know the truth.
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I did indeed "follow the remarkable connections / membership. I cross checked them to the Forbes 400 list and concluded the list was rather unremarkable as NONE of those people listed were billionaires.

Gallery : #1 Forbes 400 Bill Gates - Forbes.com

Again, the thread is about the power of the individual... the mega wealthy: its about one person yielding too much political power because of his wealth (billionaires), not about well off people (millionaires) that are interested in politics. In 2012, the election for POTUS cost $1B. We are talking about one individual that could influence that outcome and essentially own the President (or the Senate). That requires a billionaire. The Forbes list are the 400 billionaires in the US.

I'm not sure what "connections" have to do with anything.... all of us are connected (just look at Linked-In). I am 1 step removed from at least 12 people members of the Forbes 400 and have met / was in a meeting with about a half dozen.. that doesn't make me a political power broker.

The fact that someone is a President of the Service Employees Union and affiliated with the Democrats is not what we are discussing here. Please show me which of these names you find remarkable or their connections remarkable? How is it similar to Sheldon Adeleson personally writing checks for $1B to influence elections? Frankly, your link to Democracy Alliance is not really germane to the topic at hand.
 
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upsideguy said:
Again, the thread is about the power of the individual... the mega wealthy. NONE of those people listed were billionaires. I cross checked most of them to the Forbes 400 without success.

Gallery : #1 Forbes 400 Bill Gates - Forbes.com

I'm not sure what "connections" have to do with anything.... all of us are connected (just look at Linked-In). I am 1 step removed from at least 12 people members of the Forbes 400 and have met / was in a meeting with about a half dozen.. that doesn't make me a political power broker.

This thread is about one person yielding too much political power because of his wealth (billionaires), not about well off people (millionaires) that are interested in politics. Frankly, your link to Democracy Alliance is not really germane to the topic at hand.
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You didn't check much. Had you done so, you would have learned a bit more about what the Democracy Alliance is.

For example, here is an excerpt from an article that appeared awhile back.


The meeting – organized by a group of wealthy, politically active liberals called the Democracy Alliance – took place at Washington’s swank Mandarin Oriental hotel, where off-duty police officers and other security patrolled the halls looking for reporters and other uninvited guests, who were escorted from the premises.

Among the donors spotted at the conference on Tuesday, the second day of the three-day gathering, were former Stride Rite chairman Arnold Hiatt, hedge fund financier Donald Sussman, electronics pioneer Bill Budinger, real estate developer Wayne Jordan and Suzanne Hess, the wife of real estate mogul Lawrence Hess.

There was no sign of some of the deepest-pocketed Democracy Alliance members, such as tech entrepreneur Tim Gill, insurance magnate Peter Lewis, or billionaire financier George Soros, though Michael Vachon, a Soros representative, did attend.


Read more: Crashing the big Democratic donors' D.C. meeting - Kenneth P. Vogel and Jessica Taylor - POLITICO.com​


Of course, this is just a partial list. One needs to then look at the so called "trusts" who hide behind their tax exempt status to steer $10's of millions towards the various Progressive causes.

Consider the Annenberg Trust, Tides Foundation, Knight Foundation, Ford Foundation. The list is very long, and the assets are staggering.

Again, the individual billionaires who have teamed up with George Soros and joined in creating the Progressive Machine make the Koch Brothers look like minor league bench warmers.
 
He is no more a threat as any left wing billionaire
 
TurtleDude said:
The Über rich often crave power and a big government that they think they run will give them more power than a decentralized limited government. That is mainly why so many uber wealthy types are fans of big government. It increases the power of the leashes they hold
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....surely you aren't suggesting that uber-wealthy individuals and large corporations would recognize that government interference in the market can allow them to snare amazing ROI through investment in regulatory advantages?!?
 
ocean515 said:
You didn't check much. Had you done so, you would have learned a bit more about what the Democracy Alliance is.

For example, here is an excerpt from an article that appeared awhile back.


The meeting – organized by a group of wealthy, politically active liberals called the Democracy Alliance – took place at Washington’s swank Mandarin Oriental hotel, where off-duty police officers and other security patrolled the halls looking for reporters and other uninvited guests, who were escorted from the premises.

Among the donors spotted at the conference on Tuesday, the second day of the three-day gathering, were former Stride Rite chairman Arnold Hiatt, hedge fund financier Donald Sussman, electronics pioneer Bill Budinger, real estate developer Wayne Jordan and Suzanne Hess, the wife of real estate mogul Lawrence Hess.

There was no sign of some of the deepest-pocketed Democracy Alliance members, such as tech entrepreneur Tim Gill, insurance magnate Peter Lewis, or billionaire financier George Soros, though Michael Vachon, a Soros representative, did attend.


Read more: Crashing the big Democratic donors' D.C. meeting - Kenneth P. Vogel and Jessica Taylor - POLITICO.com​


Of course, this is just a partial list. One needs to then look at the so called "trusts" who hide behind their tax exempt status to steer $10's of millions towards the various Progressive causes.

Consider the Annenberg Trust, Tides Foundation, Knight Foundation, Ford Foundation. The list is very long, and the assets are staggering.

Again, the individual billionaires who have teamed up with George Soros and joined in creating the Progressive Machine make the Koch Brothers look like minor league bench warmers.
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Again, the thread is about single individuals writing very big checks (like $1B) that can singularly influence national elections. To have that kind of money, you have to be a multi-billionaire. All multi-billionaires are on the Forbes 400 list. NONE of the people on Democracy Alliance or any other person you mention qualifies. I sure they are all very rich and very comfortable, but NONE of these people are singularly resourced such that they can impact national elections; they are relative light-weights.

The issue of whether democrats or republicans count the wealthy among their supporters is not the discussion (they each do; there is nothing to discuss). The issue is about singular individuals that can write $1B political checks, like Adelson or Koch (or Soros)... thus far, you have not mentioned a single "liberal" billionaire that actually writes these checks other than the one we all know, George Soros.

You are trying to side bar an argument with something that simply is not germane to the discussion.
 
upsideguy said:
Again, the thread is about single individuals writing very big checks (like $1B) that can singularly influence national elections. To have that kind of money, you have to be a multi-billionaire. All multi-billionaires are on the Forbes 400 list. NONE of the people on Democracy Alliance or any other person you mention qualifies. I sure they are all very rich and very comfortable, but NONE of these people are singularly resourced such that they can impact national elections; they are relative light-weights.

The issue of whether democrats or republicans count the wealthy among their supporters is not the discussion (they each do; there is nothing to discuss). The issue is about singular individuals that can write $1B political checks, like Adelson or Koch (or Soros)... thus far, you have not mentioned a single "liberal" billionaire that actually writes these checks other than the one we all know, George Soros.

You are trying to side bar an argument with something that simply is not germane to the discussion.
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Thank you for your opinion. You're allowed to be wrong, so I'll leave you in that position.
 
Every billionaire is too powerful. Nobody should have that kind of advantage over everyone else, and certainly not with the kind of unaccountable power that men like Adelson enjoy.
 
ocean515 said:
Thank you for your opinion. You're allowed to be wrong, so I'll leave you in that position.
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I am completely missing your point... this thread is about whether multi-billionaire Sheldon Adelson has too much power in the political process because of his ability AND his willingness to spend a lot (like $1B) on the candidate(s) of his choice. Some one suggested the Dems have plenty of Aldeson in their camp... I asked who.... neither you nor anyone else have named such an individual (albeit, I acknowledge that George Soros is such an individual).... that was my point. Please re-articulate your point as it is lost on me.... surely you can well articulate it in one to three sentences.
 
upsideguy said:
I am completely missing your point... this thread is about whether multi-billionaire Sheldon Adelson has too much power in the political process because of his ability AND his willingness to spend a lot (like $1B) on the candidate(s) of his choice. Some one suggested the Dems have plenty of Aldeson in their camp... I asked who.... neither you nor anyone else have named such an individual (albeit, I acknowledge that George Soros is such an individual).... that was my point. Please re-articulate your point as it is lost on me.... surely you can well articulate it in one to three sentences.
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You have chosen to ignore the people you have been directed to. That is your choice.

From the start it seems quite clear you have made no attempt to understand what the Democracy Alliance is, and who the members are. The members include some of wealthiest individuals on the planet. It's costs $1 million to join, but you don't know that.

I suggested you follow the backgrounds of the people on their leadership board. This would include the groups and investment hedge funds they own or represent.

For example, prior to his recent death, Peter Lewis, CEO, Progressive Insurance, and Forbes billionaire, was a major donor alongside his buddy George Soros. It wouldn't have taken much effort to learn this via the Democracy Alliance. In fact, it was big news in 2012 when he left the Democracy Alliance over differences in opinion over the course of action it was taking.

Here's a little link.

Peter Lewis Leaves Democracy Alliance, The Liberal Donor Network

WASHINGTON -- Peter Lewis, one of the Democracy Alliance's founding billionaires, has dropped out of the influential liberal donor network, people familiar with his decision tell HuffPost​

Hey, it's your choice to be influenced to remain within the boundaries defined for you. Just don't expect much sympathy to your demands when it's obvious you won't make any effort to break out of them.
 
DaveFagan said:
When gov't operates for business Corporations like gambling or big energy, it is more accurately CORPORATISM or Fascism. That is where we are at. Adelson has prevented online gambling to protect Casino gambling. Big Energy has promoted wars to acquire resources and in both specific instances, our gov't was bought and sold. I'm sure I didn't vote for that or read it written clearly and without obfuscation in the Mainstream Media.
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What has Big Government done? Oh yeah, killed more people and stolen more wealth than all corporations combined throughout history.
 
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