Quick(ish) take: On fundraising

 Anyone who did not expect Donald Trump to raise money from his latest indictment* failed to predict the tides.  The tides are uncontrolled by any sentient being, indifferent to their effects on others, hypnotic**, and governed by mechanical laws.  As the canonical example of inductive reasoning goes, Donald Trump fundraised off of his own criminality yesterday, he fundraised off of his own criminality today, so he will probably fundraise off of his own criminality tomorrow.

I could write a long-form post on fundraising, but instead, I will make a simple observation.  A piece of advice, really.  Never give your money to people who have more than you.

Exchange?  Sure.  That's called "commerce."  Give?  What, are you fucking stupid?

And the thing is, I don't just mean Trump-donors.  This applies to everyone who gives money to a politician, except for the uber-wealthy.  Why do they give?  Someday, I'll write a post, but you're wrong, because everyone is wrong, including most scholars.  Blah-blah, whine about money, blah-blah, eat the rich, woah-is-me, let's pretend Marx wasn't the worst person in all of history.

Giving money to a politician is a mistake.  Straight-up.  You gave money to someone with more money than you.

Dupe.

There was some classic research done by Jennifer Steen on self-funded candidates.  Those richy-riches who have enough money to fund their own campaigns.  They lose.  Why?  It isn't really the money, and any person with a brain would say, why spend my own money when I can spend your money?

Point being, the best politicians are the con artists.  Don't get conned.  Never give money to anyone with more than you.  Can you really not find a charity?  One that actually helps people?  If you give money to a rich person running for office, you're just helping some asshole not spend his own money.

OK, fine.  I've been using music clips on this, and my prior blog for years.  I have never used The Beatles before.  I have this hipper-than-thou thing where I have to post something vaguely obscure, deep jazz cuts, and all that, but I just can't think of anything better for this morning's theme.  Fine.  Here's the obvious track from Abbey Road.

*Get used to that phrase.

**We'll see what happens (WOOOOSH), because it'll be the likes of which you've never seen (ahhhhhh).  We'll see what happens (WOOOOSH), because it'll be the likes of which you've never seen (ahhhhhh).