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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • Eh, as long as Netanyahu (or any foreign government) isn’t instructing them directly on how the funds should be spent it’s perfectly legal. Otherwise any lobby group is allowed to lobby on behalf of any interest, including an ally nation. Is it ethical? That’s debatable. Is it legal? Yes, as long as FARA is not being violated.

    You’re welcome to start your own lobby group, Ensign.

    For what it’s worth, I’m not down voting you.




  • I don’t know if you are doing it intentionally. The alt right uses AIPAC funded by Israel extremely often as an Anti-semitic talking point and also as a method to minimize any Ukraine involvement. Whether intentional or not, your initial claim insinuated this heavily as if Israel and the deepstate are pulling the strings on our politicians. The reality is there are many Jews living in the US, and those jews are sympathetic to Israel. It also happens that Israel has been a longstanding ally of the US (whether that’s ethical or not is a different discussion). If you want to make the claim that AIPAC has influence in politics that’s significantly different than a foreign entity crossing FARA and directing US policy. The world is not so black and white.



  • I understand what you’re trying to say, but you’ve mixed in 3 different topics into a blender to build up a narrative. This is literally a gish gallop and it’s intentional.

    The only thing I pushed back was that AIPAC was taking money directly from Israel and circumventing FARA, which is a common conspiratorial talking point.

    Now in addition to addressing FARA, you want to talk about

    • incumbent advantage and popularity of these candidates

    • dems support for genocide,

    • the influence of lobbying in elections.



  • I don’t know how people got that take from Tropic Thunder when they explicitly make reference inside the movie to how messed up and wrong it was. Like, that was the joke. RDJ was playing a character so full of himself that took method acting to it’s extreme. Am I missing something? Id love to be educated







  • Access to influence policy and legislation. But they seem to get mixed results. There have been a few studies that looked at the actual effects of lobbying. I may have to dig around but i can track them down. It’s very interesting because it upturned what my assumptions were about lobbying.

    It seems they find candidates that are already somewhat aligned and work no push the scale further. Like, someone like Latimer wouldn’t need a lot to push the scale in favor of AIPAC objectives.

    It’s very interesting to read up on this.


  • I know what AIPAC is. Your claim is that they have direct funding from the government of Israel. That’s illegal. You are allowed to set up a lobby group in the US that supports another country as long as the funds are obtained from within the US.

    I know this might come as a shock to you, but there are many jews living in the US that happen to support Israel. You are welcome to set up any lobby group you want. Go ahead and set one up for Lebanon. But FARA is very clear about the source of the funds.

    If youre not familiar with FARA take some time to acquaint your self? Or talk to a lawyer maybe? I don’t know.




  • I used to think lobby groups are influential in determining the outcome of these elections but I think the reality is they align themselves with candidates that are slated to more likely win. Sometimes they even fund both candidates. Money just doesn’t seem to translate to effective victory. Look at Bloomberg in 2016. That guy spent an ungodly amount of money on his campaign - - - more than all the candidates combined or something close.

    Cory Bowman was already waning in popularity. From your article:

    Bowman had several compounding low-level mistakes and scandals that could easily be hammered home to voters, like pulling the fire alarm at the Capitol or his controversial hip-hop lyrics. Beyond that, Latimer is a popular politician who has represented most of the district’s voters for years. Add in more money than any group has ever spent on a congressional primary by an enormous margin, and you have the conditions for a win.

    I think it all depends. I’m not saying AIPAC is not influential. I just don’t think it’s so clear cut. I think the money in more to get access. The reality is Israel is popular with boomers, and Dem boomers vote. We are starting to see a shift with younger voters but it’s just not there yet.