Anthony Scaramucci, Said Citizens United Made Possible a "Sleeper Cell" of Hedge Fund Managers

[Equinox Moon]

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.

https://theintercept.com/2017/07/21/anthony-scaramucci-trumps-new-communications-director-said-citizens-united-made-possible-a-sleeper-cell-of-hedge-fund-managers/

[GusBob]

1. Are these Hedge fund guys the same ones from "The Big Short" ?

That Las Vegas meeting was featured prominently in the book and film. The ones the Government had to bail out?

Or are they the same brilliant guys from the savings and loan crisis?

Oh they are a clever bunch of thieves in their sleeper cells....unless their investors find out that their money is going to another bunch of crooks....

[JHB]

2. Since when are hedge fund managers "wealth creators"?

[hedda_foil]

4. Wealth creation doesn't mean national wealth...It's their own wealth they're creating.

[JHB]

5. Better to say they're rerouting wealth into their own pockets.

[hedda_foil]

6. Agreed. Rerouting is much more apt.

[procon]

3. EPIC FAIL "...will not cause the electorate to lose faith in our democracy."

How can anyone make this assumption? The fact that a handful of the wealthiest people in the country, if not the world, can now use unlimited amounts of money to legally bribe politicians to whatever they want, is the definition of corruption. It tips the balance in favor of the rich who have vast, untapped treasuries to generously pay the people's representatives to ignore their constituencies and side with their paymasters. There is no competition between a vote at the ballot box and a check in the bank when it comes to influence, and that leaves the public interest at a disadvantage from the start.