this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2024
183 points (98.4% liked)

politics

19240 readers
2238 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 27 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

"Protection money" implies a significant expense. A million dollars is so little to a big tech company (and not that much to Trump) that this is more like a "Congratulations!" card with a Starbucks gift certificate inside. It's as little as Altman can send without being insulting, but if the fact that he sent anything at all sways Trump even a little bit then the return on investment will be enormous.

[–] ramsorge@discuss.online 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It doesn’t imply a significant expense. My grandfather used to tell us a story of how he paid what was basically a mafia a monthly fee so his barber shop wouldn’t get broken into. I forgot the exact amount, but is was like $500/m or something.

Trump also deals in these “small” transactions. Get a hundred of them and it adds up.

[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I suppose this is just nitpicking, but I think $500 a month is a lot more to a barber than a million is to Altman.

[–] ramsorge@discuss.online 6 points 1 week ago

I do agree with you. I guess maybe this is more like chips on a table? Like an ante, a bet?

Either way I think we can both agree it’s shady

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 7 points 1 week ago

It's to keep their name off a list. The Revenge President is back with more power, so better at least pretend to be with him if you're also powerful.