Will corporations tire of making tribute payments to the mob?

[Bluetus]

OK, our government has always (for over a century anyway) had a pay-to-play system. As late as the 1980s, there were great efforts to maintain secrecy -- the proverbial cash in a brown paper sack left behind the oak tree 30 yards SW of the Lincoln Memorial. That secrecy was all but gone in 2010 when the SCOTUS decided anybody could pay any amount to any politician for any purpose, and do so anonymously through PACs. That was awful and continued to increase thought the past 15 years.

But now, Trump has taken it to a whole new level, thanks, once again, to the SCOTUS that says the President cannot be prosecuted for anything, ever, for all practical purposes. That was all Trump needed to hear. Now every day is a shakedown. Meme coins. Gifts of gold bars. Contribution to the "Inaugural Fund." The Ballroom project. etc. etc.

With Trump, it is not just, "Hey, I'm here. If you need some help with anything, just grease my palms." With Trump, it is an active shakedown racket. "You want that merger? Then settle this lawsuit I have PERSONALLY filed against you, by paying me PERSONALLY $16,000,000. That's the going rate for a merger in the Trump syndicate, but the price might go up if you don't take my offer quick."

We are treated to the most humiliating public display of Corporate CEOs lining up to kiss Trump's dirty diaper ass and present their gold. Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Boeing, Coinbase, Ripple, Boeing, CBS, Delta, United, Ford, GM, Stellantis, BlackRock, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Pfizer, PhRMA, Eli Lilly, Qualcomm, Lockheed Martin, Booz Allen Hamilton, T-Mobile, Tether, Altria Group, Hard Rock International, Nvidia ... the list is endless.

"Sorry to hear that those highly patriotic 'Make America First' tariffs are causing you problems. Did I mention that people who buy $100,000,00 of Trump coins don't seem to have those problems", says the mobster.

That is where we are. It is just like the Mafia, only much bigger. Trump is not shaking down little Mom&Pop shops for "protection". Trump is grabbing his tribute $10,000,000 at a time.

This is all fact, and we all know it. Nothing new or insightful about that. The 2 important questions are:

1) Why does our media just ignore this?
2) Do corporations really enjoy paying off the mob boss? Are they ever going to rebel?

Unfortunately, the answer to question 1 is that most of the large media is owned by some of the same corporations on that above list, so they are not going to talk about any of this or else Trump will double their tribute payments.

Question #2 is much more interesting. After all, all those corporations listed above have been gleefully buying politicians for decades. It was a cost of doing business. If I need something for my business, I pay a politician to make the problems go away. That's a simple business transaction, and the best return on investment any of them ever get. But that was the world when the corporations controlled the transactions. They came to the politicians with a problem and the politician agreed on a price to fix the problem.

What is different with Trump is that Trump turned it from a "cost of getting something done, and a pretty cheap price, at that" into a full-scale shakedown operation. The corporations are no longer in control of the transactions.

The question, now, is when will the corporations decide enough is enough. It is too late to do anything about Trump. Corrupt corporations created him, and they will just have to live with his shakedown racket until he leaves office. But if they don't want the next guy to be twice as greedy and cutthroat as Trump, maybe they should stop funding the shakedown machine. Will there come a time that corporations decide that it is in their best interests to stop funding a completely lawless party run by mobsters? It seems to me that Democrats ought to be asking these questions out loud and challenging shareholders to demand that corporate board stop feeding the monster.

[Irish_Dem]

1. No they will just pass the cost on to consumers.

They know we are suckers.

[Bluetus]

2. It will just keep getting bigger. Do they have no breaking point?

[Irish_Dem]

4. Some don't, some might.

Some know they have consumers over a barrel.
People have to have a place to live, food, healthcare, medicine, utilities.
So prices can keep going up. And politicians won't do anything to keep those costs down.

Others can get govt contracts, no pay back loans, subsidies.

Others are so wealthy, money is no object to be in control of the government.

[gab13by13]

3. The largest corporate CEO's will now be called oligarchs.

They are part of the problem, they will skim off the top before paying tribute.

It's why Russia has shitty military equipment, instead of spending tax dollars on military ships, they built a couple of yachts.

Russian soldiers were given plastic helmets in Ukraine. Russian armor was rubber instead of steel.

Russian soldiers had to do Go Fund Me's to get decent equipment.

Krasnov will have to give the big CEO's a cut of the grift.

[Cosmocat]

11. Yep - Russia is the model

Just so gd painful those of us seeing this coming from a million miles away and helplessly having to go off the cliff because this country is THAT damn stupid.

[edhopper]

5. That relatively small tribute

Gets them billions in return. So no, they won't.

[Bluetus]

6. So, what you are saying is, the tribute payments

"separate the men from the boys", so to speak. That is to say, the biggest corporations actually prefer paying tribute to a corrupt administration because that means they can lock out smaller competitors who can't afford to make such large tribute payments?

You may be right. One company I worked for found we had to make big tribute payments to get any business in certain countries. At the time, Thailand was especially bad. We hated it, mainly because we didn't have to do that in our largest markets, But when the largest market runs such open corruption, I guess that changes everybody's attitude. You can either be a crusader for fairness or else you can make your money, run up the stock price and bank a $20M paycheck for yourself.

So how do we end this cycle of corruption?

[edhopper]

7. Part of it yes

Also, government contracts, less regulation, lower taxes and looking the other way on crimes.

[Bluetus]

8. I bet they would still prefer the brown paper bag with cash

Trump really thrives on humiliating everyone he sees. How cringeworthy is it watching "Tim Apple" step up to kiss his ass?

[edhopper]

9. "Price of doing business"

[maxrandb]

10. Only if we hold them accountable

Nothing will change! The racism, fascism, misogyny, hatred and white supremacy...NONE OF IT...will change, unless and until we make racism, fascism, misogyny, hatred and white supremacy UNPROFITABLE to the corporations, businesses and individuals that fund and enable it.

[Bluetus]

12. Good point. Bribery and extortion can be a two-way street.

But some CEOs in prison for paying these bribes and it might stop.

[Blue Full Moon]

13. We're going legit.