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According to the piece, one evening after the day’s activities at an annual hedge fund conference Scaramucci organizes in Las Vegas, he and 20 “financiers and politicians” enjoyed an eight course dinner of “blinis with caviar; a fennel, grapefruit, and pomegranate salad; cocoa-encrusted beef tenderloin; and blue-cheese panna cotta.”

The wealthiest guest was another hedge fund manager, billionaire Leon Cooperman. By that moment Cooperman had garnered attention for repeatedly comparing Obama’s 2008 election to the rise of Hitler. (Cooperman claimed he didn’t mean they were similar as people.)

Here’s what Scaramucci said about Citizens United, himself, and Cooperman:

Scaramucci, the organizer of the dinner, told me the next day that the guests had witnessed the “activation” of a “sleeper cell” of hedge-fund managers against Obama. “That’s what you see happening in the hedge-fund community, because they now have the power, because of Citizens United, to aggregate capital into political-action committees and to influence the debate,” he said. “The president has a philosophy of disdain toward wealth creation. That’s just obvious, O.K.? We talked about it all night.” He later said, “If there’s a pope of this movement, it’s Lee Cooperman.”

By contrast, here’s what the conservative Supreme Court majority proclaimed in the Citizens United decision:

[W]e now conclude that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption. That speakers may have influence over or access to elected officials does not mean that those officials are corrupt. The appearance of influence or access, furthermore, will not cause the electorate to lose faith in our democracy.

Spoiler: show

Now get this: The politicians in attendance at the dinner were Al Gore and the then-mayor of Los Angeles, Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa. Villaraigosa was so eager to hear more about Cooperman’s fascinating ideas that, according to the New Yorker, he gave the hedge fund manager his direct phone number. Now out of office, Villaraigosa is running for governor of California in 2018.

89Hen wrote:Really the biggest takeaway is that people actually eat a fennel, grapefruit, and pomegranate salad.

OL FU wrote:Since no one else is, I'll bite. I get the problem of huge contributions from individuals or organizations to politicians or political groups. The problem I have is that the Citizen's United ruling (that specific instance) was a no brainer. An organization whose main purpose was to express a political opinion should not be barred from raising money to express that opinion.

Now I will be the first to admit that I don't know all the details of the case, but it would seem to me that the problem was that the law that was struck down was written to broadly and included organizations that certainly should have the right to raise money to express a political opinion.

OK kalm, what am I missing?

kalm wrote:

OL FU wrote:Since no one else is, I'll bite. I get the problem of huge contributions from individuals or organizations to politicians or political groups. The problem I have is that the Citizen's United ruling (that specific instance) was a no brainer. An organization whose main purpose was to express a political opinion should not be barred from raising money to express that opinion.

Now I will be the first to admit that I don't know all the details of the case, but it would seem to me that the problem was that the law that was struck down was written to broadly and included organizations that certainly should have the right to raise money to express a political opinion.

OK kalm, what am I missing?

I think you're making a really good free speech argument here.

dbackjon wrote:Will they find a cure for boneitis?

OL FU wrote:

kalm wrote:
I think you're making a really good free speech argument here.

The problem with old age. I missed the point. Thought you were going to raNt about citizens united again.

kalm wrote:

OL FU wrote:
The problem with old age. I missed the point. Thought you were going to raNt about citizens united again.

Oh I still might but believe it or not I'm genuinely curious what others have to say and open minded to other points of view.

I'm a liberal...

Rob Iola wrote:I like this Scaramucci guy. The question now is, will he do the Fandango?

EDIT: Ignore this lame attempt at humor - I shoulda checked the Twitterverse first...

Pwns wrote:What kind of a person would want to serve as one of Trump's personal Baghdad Bobs? I'm really honestly curious as to what could motivate someone to take that position. By now Trump is probably having to scrape from the bottom of the barrel just to get someone to do it.

That is my biggest worry with Trump more than his ego . . . . I don't give a crap who his press secretary or comm director is, but we could get to a point where people start leaving major cabinet positions and no one worth a damn is willing to take their place.

Pwns wrote:What kind of a person would want to serve as one of Trump's personal Baghdad Bobs? I'm really honestly curious as to what could motivate someone to take that position. By now Trump is probably having to scrape from the bottom of the barrel just to get someone to do it.

SuperHornet wrote:As a conservative...Scaramucci looks kinda too slick to me....

CAA Flagship wrote:

SuperHornet wrote:As a conservative...Scaramucci looks kinda too slick to me....

Slick, as in greasy?
Well, he is a wop.

CID1990 wrote:

CAA Flagship wrote: Slick, as in greasy?
Well, he is a wop.

that's what I like about white ethnic/national groups

I can still say Mick/Wop/Jock/Kraut/Limey/Frog


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CID1990 wrote:

CAA Flagship wrote: Slick, as in greasy?
Well, he is a wop.

that's what I like about white ethnic/national groups

I can still say Mick/Wop/Jock/Kraut/Limey/Frog


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Ibanez wrote:

CID1990 wrote:
that's what I like about white ethnic/national groups

I can still say Mick/Wop/Jock/Kraut/Limey/Frog


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I work with a few people in London who think it's funny to call us in America, "colonists".