What Sheldon Adelson Wants

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

What Sheldon Adelson Wants

No American is dedicating as much of his money to defeat President Obama as Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate who also happens to have made more money in the last three years than any other American. He is the perfect illustration of the squalid state of political money, spending sums greater than any political donation in history to advance his personal, ideological and financial agenda, which is wildly at odds with the nation’s needs.

Mr. Adelson spent $20 million to prop up Newt Gingrich’s failed candidacy for the Republican nomination. Now, he has given $10 million to a Mitt Romney super PAC, and has pledged at least $10 million to Crossroads GPS, the advocacy group founded by Karl Rove that is running attack ads against Mr. Obama and other Democrats. Another $10 million will probably go to a similar group founded by the Koch brothers, and $10 million more to Republican Congressional super PACs.

That’s $60 million we know of (other huge donations may be secret), and it may be only a down payment. Mr. Adelson has made it clear he will fully exploit the anything-goes world created by the federal courts to donate a “limitless” portion of his $25 billion fortune to defeat the president and as many Democrats as he can take down.

One man cannot spend enough to ensure the election of an unpopular candidate, as Mr. Gingrich’s collapse showed, but he can buy enough ads to help push a candidate over the top in a close race like this year’s. Given that Mr. Romney was not his first choice, why is Mr. Adelson writing these huge checks?

The first answer is clearly his disgust for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, supported by President Obama and most Israelis. He considers a Palestinian state “a steppingstone for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people,” and has called the Palestinian prime minister a terrorist. He is even further to the right than the main pro-Israeli lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which he broke with in 2007 when it supported economic aid to the Palestinians.

Mr. Romney is only slightly better, saying the Israelis want a two-state solution but the Palestinians do not, accusing them of wanting to eliminate Israel. The eight-figure checks are not paying for a more enlightened answer.

Mr. Adelson’s other overriding interest is his own wallet. He rails against the president’s “socialist-style economy” and redistribution of wealth, but what he really fears is Mr. Obama’s proposal to raise taxes on companies like his that make a huge amount of money overseas. Ninety percent of the earnings of his company, the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, come from hotel and casino properties in Singapore and Macau. (The latter is located, by the way, in China, a socialist country the last time we checked.)

Because of the lower tax rate in those countries (currently zero in Macau), the company now has a United States corporate tax rate of 9.8 percent, compared with the statutory rate of 35 percent. President Obama has repeatedly proposed ending the deductions and credits that allow corporations like Las Vegas Sands to shelter billions in income overseas, but has been blocked by Republicans.

Mr. Obama’s Justice Department is also investigating whether Mr. Adelson’s Macau operations violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, an inquiry that Mr. Adelson undoubtedly hopes will go away in a Romney administration. For such a man, at a time when there are no legal or moral limits to the purchase of influence, spending tens of millions is a pittance to elect Republicans who promise to keep his billions intact.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/opinion/sunday/what-sheldon-adelson-wants.html?_r=1

[mawilson 2,133]

The first answer is clearly his disgust for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, supported by President Obama and most Israelis.

Adelson is a one-state guy?

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Adelson is a one-state guy?

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/30/080630fa_fact_bruck

[Sofiyya 1,687]

I read this editorial and thought WaPo was pretty smart (and brave) to post it. Adelson's not getting my vote.

[Captain Oates 911]

I know what he wants - he wants "stuffing with a rag man's trumpet"

UK cultural note:

A rag man or rag and bone man, would ride around the streets with a horse and cart while blowing a trumpet to attract the population who would come out and sell him bone/old iron/rags and anything recyclable

This was done without any reference to global warming which was like lesbianism or reality shows - something yet to be invented

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

I read this editorial and thought WaPo was pretty smart (and brave) to post it. Adelson's not getting my vote.

This is a very significant indication of the dramatic shifts in the discussion about Israel, including (and perhaps most significantly) within the American Jewish community. Adelson represents settler ideology - as the article says, he's even further to the right than AIPAC - as well as the ability of extremely wealthy individuals to manipulate American politics and foreign policy for their own personal agenda. Non-Zionist Jews in the U.S. have been pressured for many years to conform to AIPAC's line, although it does not represent the views of most American Jews. More and more of them are going off the reservation....

[Captain Oates 911]

This is a very significant indication of the dramatic shifts in the discussion about Israel, including (and perhaps most significantly) within the American Jewish community. Adelson represents settler ideology - as the article says, he's even further to the right than AIPAC - as well as the ability of extremely wealthy individuals to manipulate American politics and foreign policy for their own personal agenda. Non-Zionist Jews in the U.S. have been pressured for many years to conform to AIPAC's line, although it does not represent the views of most American Jews. More and more of them are going off the reservation....

I worked in a Jewish family firm (my final job) and they were all 'normal'. They muttered darkly about the Zionists and extreme Jewish religious sects and thought they were a hindrance to 'normal' Jews who just wanted a nice life with no hassle. When the dreadlocks brigade called round for money, they would claim to be out of the office.

We used to swap Jewish jokes and I found them really relaxed and easy to live with.

The crazies are the most energetic both in US and Israeli politics and I suppose in politics worldwide. Normal people don't want to live like that

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

I worked in a Jewish family firm (my final job) and they were all 'normal'. They muttered darkly about the Zionists and extreme Jewish religious sects and thought they were a hindrance to 'normal' Jews who just wanted a nice life with no hassle. When the dreadlocks brigade called round for money, they would claim to be out of the office.

We used to swap Jewish jokes and I found them really relaxed and easy to live with.

The crazies are the most energetic both in US and Israeli politics and I suppose in politics worldwide. Normal people don't want to live like that

You will now be labeled an extremist and propagandist by the resident VJ Zio-Trolls (maybe even called a terrorist supporter.)

[Captain Oates 911]

You will now be labeled an extremist and propagandist by the resident VJ Zio-Trolls (maybe even called a terrorist supporter.)

Anyone who wants to be a politician anywhere is not 'normal'

The Zio's have had my number for a long time now and so have the Mujahaddin

They are both silly sods with too much facial hair (especially the women), and should both embrace serene atheism and then get a hobby like motorcycling or teaching a cat to wave it's left paw

That, plus chocolate, is the path to idyllic happiness here on earth then that's it - no worries

easy

works for me and there is no tithing and no cd's to buy

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Irving Moskowitz is another pro-settlement tycoon who's backing Romney. Moskowitz, the bingo parlor billionaire, enjoys funneling his money into illegal Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and other places in the West Bank. He also financed a project to tunnel under the al Aqsa Mosque. He's ponied up at least $4 million so far ($1 million per month.)

http://projects.propublica.org/pactrack/contributions/tree

Moskowitz is a personal friend of Netanyahu and one of his major donors, as well.

[Captain Oates 911]

Irving Moskowitz is another pro-settlement tycoon who's backing Romney. Moskowitz, the bingo parlor billionaire, enjoys funneling his money into illegal Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and other places in the West Bank. He also financed a project to tunnel under the al Aqsa Mosque. He's ponied up at least $4 million so far ($1 million per month.)

http://projects.propublica.org/pactrack/contributions/tree

Moskowitz is a personal friend of Netanyahu and one of his major donors, as well.

I hear there are huge pots of gold under that mosque - I reckon the Israelis will hand over any gold they find to to the elders of the mosque

When England was conquered by the Norman French in 1066, they tried to resist for 20 years but their crops were burned and their cattle slaughtered and their people massacred

Eventually they got the message and gave up and made the best of it. A thousand years later they bought up the houses in Normandy and turned them into vacation homes

There is lesson there for the Palestinians....

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

I hear there are huge pots of gold under that mosque - I reckon the Israelis will hand over any gold they find to to the elders of the mosque

When England was conquered by the Norman French in 1066, they tried to resist for 20 years but their crops were burned and their cattle slaughtered and their people massacred

Eventually they got the message and gave up and made the best of it. A thousand years later they bought up the houses in Normandy and turned them into vacation homes

There is lesson there for the Palestinians....

Oh please... we already went through this. The Normans, after subduing the locals, intermarried with them. They are British now - they haven't been a distinct ethnic group in England for centuries upon centuries.

The Norman duchy was absorbed into the rest of France.

[Captain Oates 911]

Oh please... we already went through this. The Normans, after subduing the locals, intermarried with them. They are British now - they haven't been a distinct ethnic group in England for centuries upon centuries.

The Norman duchy was absorbed into the rest of France.

Au Contraire

The Delacys and Deveres and Vavasours and De La Billieres and Du Canns etc remained the major land holders and army generals and money people and industrialists right up to the present day. Only 10,000 of them actually invaded. Where I lived in Wharfedale, all the major landowners had Norman French names including Fawkes (as in Guy Fawkes, the original 'guy')

The Israeli state will always be awash in US taxpayer money, so a great place to get into that society and take and advantage of it.

If the Jews were thrown out back to Poland / Russia etc, that money would dry up, and for the Palestinians, it would be back to swishing flies off the goats and worrying about the Turks

If you cant beat em, let them swallow you and then eat em away from the inside like a tape worm..

[mawilson 2,133]

I hear there are huge pots of gold under that mosque - I reckon the Israelis will hand over any gold they find to to the elders of the mosque

When England was conquered by the Norman French in 1066, they tried to resist for 20 years but their crops were burned and their cattle slaughtered and their people massacred

Eventually they got the message and gave up and made the best of it. A thousand years later they bought up the houses in Normandy and turned them into vacation homes

There is lesson there for the Palestinians....

Some day the Palestinians will get it...

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Au Contraire

The Delacys and Deveres and Vavasours and De La Billieres and Du Canns etc remained the major land holders and army generals and money people and industrialists right up to the present day. Only 10,000 of them actually invaded. Where I lived in Wharfedale, all the major landowners had Norman French names including Fawkes (as in Guy Fawkes, the original 'guy')

The Israeli state will always be awash in US taxpayer money, so a great place to get into that society and take and advantage of it.

If the Jews were thrown out back to Poland / Russia etc, that money would dry up, and for the Palestinians, it would be back to swishing flies off the goats and worrying about the Turks

If you cant beat em, let them swallow you and then eat em away from the inside like a tape worm..

They are all interbred with ethnic English (and Irish and Scots and Welsh and more.) I am directly descended from William the Conqueror (nothing special about that - many people are) as well as various other illustrious scoundrels and forgotten nobodies - and believe me, that line did not limit itself to marrying only other Normans.

Anyway, the rest is irrelevant.