(no subject)

[randomness]

Long and informative piece on the Koch brothers pulling back from this year's presidential race.

Koch allies say the brothers took tremendous interest in Bernie Sanders’ unlikely success — particularly his resonance with young voters who represent the future of the electorate — and drew stark conclusions about their own efforts. “Dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into elections doesn’t persuade enough people to achieve lasting change,” one Koch confidante says. “To achieve lasting change, the effort has to begin much earlier.”

Comments

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

particularly as the Obama administration isn't likely to be looking the other way

Bwahahahaha!

it's unclear Putin *has* a spare $2 billion

I suppose if Putin really twisted arms he could squeeze it out of his oligarch friends. But that would cost him political capital he probably doesn't have right now. And as you say, oil being the price it is, he can't just loot it directly.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I suppose if Putin really twisted arms he could squeeze it out of his oligarch friends.

If he can find it. His oligarch friends are well aware of Putin's need for cash and have been smuggling it out into London real estate as quickly as they can.

The oil price really has wrecked the Russian economy much more than any sanctions although those are helping make things worse.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

If he can find it.

Putin has them... Though it's not clear how much money you can squeeze in that manner, because an oligarch probably looks at his money as dynastic wealth for his descendants, and is willing to die so that his children can be rich. Which reminds me of the tale of the Amsterdam diamond dealer who was kidnapped and negotiated his own ransom. He later said that it was like negotiating any other business deal.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

There are other limits to how much he can squeeze the ones who are still living in Russia as well. For one thing, if he squeezes too many of them they may all get together and decide he's too much of a problem. Then *he* will be going away.

Another limit is that if he starts squeezing any one of them the rest may flee and take their money with them, which is even worse.

I think the only way he'll get a couple of billion out of the oligarchs is if he convinces enough of them it's a good idea to spend that money on the American election. I'm pretty sure even Putin doesn't think this is a good idea.

My suspicion is that Putin is looking forward to conning Trump out of a pile of money, not the other way around.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

One angle I thought of recently is that Putin probably is sending Trump money one way or another to help prop up Trump's personal or business finances. This is entirely legal but politically dicey, if it comes out.

It doesn't help Trump's campaign directly but is equally helpful to Putin in buying influence with Trump.

It's probably at least one reason why Trump refuses to release his taxes.

All that said, were I in Trump's position I'd be making sure I cashed Putin's checks right away. If Trump loses, he stops being useful to Putin, and were I in Putin's position I'd stop payment immediately.