Obligatory answer:

But did you know she grew up on a farm?

Did she grow up on one of those Alpacas as tax evasion farms?

you're right. I should have noted that. I take back my critique

​

/s

perhaps it's a consolation prize

So the Gray/Balint thing does bring up a interesting debate.

Does the source of super pac money reflect on the candidate. Like over 90% of the Baliant super pac came from FTX crypto bros. That money was integral to making Balint a household name and helping her win the seat.

I guess the bigger question is, Does it matter where money or info comes from in an election cycle. Does it reflect on the candidate when powers they can’t influence buy access or exposure on their behalf. Similarly, does it matter if data is leaked or stolen if it is relevant to an election. Can the source of the data offset the outcome?

Just wondering others peoples takes.

shut up Molly, you lost.

Ok? Good talk.

Your comment was kinda funny but it was a real question.

Prior to running for office she did humanitarian work for the Red Cross and an organization that monitors independent contractors (cough...mercenaries...cough) compliance with human rights laws.

The way I see it, any politician is either independently wealthy or owes some policy debts to their big donors. (And often it's both!)

I was okay with FTX* being the big money behind Balint for one big reason. I didn't send Balint to the Senate for crypto regulation; I expect that to happen via the court system and the various finance regulatory bodies (see footnote.) Any crypto-bro trying to buy congresspeople has a power fantasy of getting a whole BUNCH of laws passed in their favor. It's not gonna happen. I'm happy to get progressive candidates in on their dimes, before all those dimes get fined out from under them. Now FTX is in the shitter and Balint's free to pursue the progressive agenda she campaigned on. It's win-win.

Who were Molly Gray's biggest donors? What policy debts did she owe? I don't actually know, and now I don't have to go researching to find out. I'm sure she owed some, because basically everyone does -- our campaign finance laws have been a godawful mess for so long, you can't get anywhere without SOME big money.

​

*Short for 'Futures Exchange', this is the big crypto exchange that you're thinking of, the one that crashed recently. The FTC is the Federal Trade Commission, which collects data on crypto scams but isn't part of the ongoing investigations + prosecutions of FTX. That's the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) along with federal prosecutors from the DoJ. Can't imagine why anyone would get these mixed up. ;)

Balint was a household name from her time in office. Not clear how much of an impact the crypto money had

Um, literally no.

I think Balint did her time, moved up the ladder, and was already known. Did the outside money and marketing help? Definitely. But I think she would have taken it anyway.

Molly jumped into LTG since she was the lesser of two evils when she ran against Milne. She has zero tangible accomplishments and took a free tour around the state campaigning in her first year. I think most people saw through that BS.

At least Balint and Welch are giving away their FTX contributions post-FTX shitshow

When you get a Reddit Cares message, don't give them the satisfaction of mentioning it and showing it bothers you. I blocked that account once I got one and realized it is just a way to harass people.

"i am happy to take stolen funds so long as it benefits my party" nice

Fed.gov will tell you what you want to know.

Oops. FEC.gov

I mean a quick Google search shows she was heavily involved in international affairs: https://ltgov.vermont.gov/about

“Her commitment to service led her to the International Committee of the Red Cross, where she engaged the U.S. government on humanitarian issues and led field missions to Haiti, Uganda, Georgia, the Western Balkans, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”

“Molly was recruited to support the U.S. Government and international partners in launching the International Code of Conduct Association; the first global initiative mandated to oversee the compliance of private security contractors with human rights. In that capacity, she worked to successfully launch the Association’s human rights monitoring program and led human rights monitoring missions in East Africa, Nigeria and Iraq.”

I had never heard of her until this election cycle.

A lot of people work on international issues. They don't deserve to be honored alongside people who have spent their lives doing it.

She was the majority leader of the state Senate

I guess it’s not up to you though

Congrats! Your post has risen to the level where they’re trying to censor you… so you’re doing something right. Hang in there and be brave.

I think there’s a report button on it too, so you can at least report the sender for misusing the service. I have to wonder if it’s ever been used for what they intended tho

I like Welch and vote for him but the guy was one of the top stock traders in Congress.

The real question is, as a progressive will Balint be able to bring home the bacon..er pork to Vermont. I say no. How much funding has AOC secured for NY?...zero.

Vermont is hugely dependent on federal funding, we are a taker, not a giver state.

I think Gray would have been a far better choice to get that needed funding.

yeah dude, that's... the whole game lol

I stopped supporting candidates who I saw as morally pure around 2006, 'cause that's when I figured out they literally cannot get anywhere. Welcome to capitalism!

Also on a more specific note, anybody who got grifted by the climate-destroying crypto scams in this year of our lord 2022 absolutely deserved it, I have no moral problems with seeing rich fools parted from their money

Before she tried to use VT as a stepping stone to the Congressional-Lobbyist Revolving Door she had spent the previous decade working for elite NGOs in Switzerland doing some McKinsey type stuff. Her supporters are usually either part of the Professional-Managerial Class or completely Astro-Turfed. She needs to go back to whatever wine cave fundraiser she crawled out of.

So she was rubber stamping Blackwater (or whatever they call themselves now).

Academy! Learn to rape and pillage today!

Yes, report the user to misuse. It's a pretty common tactic on here to get on people's nerves.

Vermont is slightly dependent on federal funding if you look at giver/taker states. There are only 8-ish “donor” states and Vermont is 15th overall in the giver:taker rankings (i.e. the 7th “taker” out of 42 takers. So…again, not “hugely” dependent.

*The iPad decided I meant FTC not FTX and fixed it for me automatically after I typed it. I didn’t even notice. I fixed it.

This is not about Balint or Gray specifically. I appreciate your response. Reddit does not typically reward contentious issues as it is designed to promote groupthink by its very voting mechanism. Just look at the voting for asking a question people don’t like.

It was a general question of, does the source matter. I think the Twitter Biden laptop thing made me think about how so much of politics in the past 2 to 3 years has been about the messenger not the message.

Not to say the Biden laptop thing was right wrong or anything but it seems lately politics has been more about how information is exposed than what the information is.

Does the fact that the LGTBQ pac was 90% financed by a crypto bro somehow diminish its message. Does the scotus leak somehow override the over turning of roe v wade. Does email being hacked by a malicious actor somehow make the content of the emails less impactful.

We live in the Information Age and are now a global community. These things are to be expected but people still act surprised.

I guess I’m more wondering out loud but thank you for engaging in good faith.

She was pretty unknown out of politically active circles.

*folks here hate to admit it but she was predicted to be behind early on from a lack of name recognition.

>For months, the marquee race of this election season had seemed like a much tighter contest; in fact, in its early days, the primary had looked like Gray's to lose. She had statewide name recognition from her official post, institutional support within the Democratic establishment and an elevator pitch that seemed precision-engineered to appeal to Vermonters who value homegrown talent:

https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/how-balint-won-and-gray-lost-the-democratic-house-primary/Content?oid=36264969

Bernie endorsed her.

It's kinda funny. Not happy funny, but sad funny that people take commenting so seriously that they misuse the resource.

I got that once and was so confused what I could have written that would have triggered it.

Ethereum recently switched from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake (if you're concerned about cryptocurrency and mining).

But your claim that she was a household name is wrong. Most people I worked with had never heard of her either

Academi.

It happens, especially on this sub. I consider it a signal that I am living in someones head. its nice to be thought of

Man how does that work? Seriously!

Fuck that. I wear that shit like a badge of honor: Shows me that those fascist fucks were threatened by what I had to say. And fuck Molly Gray.

I'd say Balint was already a household name. Certainly not to the degree Sanders, Leahy, Welch are, but as majority leader and then president pro tem of the State Senate I think she came into this election cycle with as good name recognition throughout the state as any state level politicians have had outside of our Governors.

Did the crypto money help her win the House of Reps seat, maybe. I think Balint was well positioned based on her work in the statehouse the last 7+ years. I think she had less negatives than Gray did, real or perceived. Gray's lack of voting was an issue with a lot of people I talked with, and also a lot of those people felt Gray lacked relevant experience because she hadn't been in elected office like Balint (and Kesha-Ram too) has been in. Not that I'm talking politics with a lot of people, but I have friends on all sides of the aisle, and anything from political junkies to apathetic.

I respect that you seem to have a different take than I do ("the bigger question is"). I think our elected representatives would do a good service to tackle election funding reform on a national level, but given that's how power works I don't see anything more than lip service occurring any time soon. If that's the system that we're working under for the foreseeable future, ultimately I don't think it really matters where the money comes from and for me it doesn't reflect on the candidate to the degree that positions and experience matter to me.

Vermont is much more than "slightly" dependent on federal dollars.

A bit dated (2016) " Of the $5.7 billion Vermont budget in fiscal year 2016, roughly 35 percent — or $2.13 billion consisted of federal dollars. " (VT Digger)

That's a fair assessment. That was the root of my question. Are candidates somehow represented by their doners. I think the Super PAC speaks more to the doner than the candidate but it a topic o had wondered about.

ZING!

Right? I love alpacas and hate taxes - I could be into this deal.

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Alpaca gestation last about 11.5 months. They live about twenty years.

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You don't get a fact, you earn it. If you got this fact then AlpacaBot thinks you deserved it!

It's no different than when someone is just slamming insults or can't help defend a point, so they say something and then block like it's winning.

People here like downvoting those they disagree with. Or as I call them, those who are armed with facts.

I do not know what that means and I suspect I'm happier for it.

Or maybe we get tired of debating the semantics of a subpoint of a side comment of a post that was not on the topic of Balints name recognition

It's basically like the older PGP/GPG technology compared to the more prevalent and high-electricity-consumption solution in the mining of computational complexity.

So basically I believe the dip in BTC and cryptocurrencies in general is because centralized investment went out having been tied directly to electricity prices, amplified by speculation. I'd also think to look into, as a possible cause of previous market fluxes in cryptocurrency, the crackdown on Silk Road, where BTC value was tied in some part to drug market prices.

That's not how this (givers vs takers) works. All states get a good amount of money from the federal government. For instance, NY State, the biggest "giver" state in terms of tax dollars, has a budget that is around 42% federal dollars (source: https://www.osc.state.ny.us/reports/state-fiscal-year-2022-23-enacted-budget-analysis).

What we're talking about here is states that are "givers" (i.e. they send more money to the federal government in tax dollars than they take in federal receipts) or "takers" (i.e. they receive more federal money than they send in tax dollars).

ETA: here is a more recent article that directly addresses this difference: https://vtdigger.org/2020/05/06/margolis-like-most-states-vermont-gets-back-more-from-u-s-than-it-pays-%EF%BB%BF/

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[deleted]

Is anyone in the VT House or Senate a household name? Grey seems power hungry and hasn’t put in any time or as any accomplishments within government. Balint put in time and has government experience. Not the same

I think in general this sub is full of poorly informed people. Reddit in general shows the power of populism in discourse. Unfortunately every previous iteration with a similar voting structure has resulted in the echo chamber that Reddit is.

This style communication forum is a old model, slashdot was the first to use it and it ended the same way there. Popular opinion overrode facts on a regular basis.

Every once in a while you will find a well cited post and it is awesome. More often than not though you find it self referential like Wikipedia has the ability to become.

Misinformation is posted here, on purpose or simply through ignorance, people like the message and upvote it until down the line somebody uses that mistake as a citation in a future discussion.

For instance this guy didn’t even post anything except a title and edited blurb to insult a political candidate then freaks out enough to edit his post when he gets trolled. The hypocrisy is amusing but it clearly illustrates he does not want any sort of dialogue. He wants internet points from the 18-32 white male upper middle class demographic that makes up most of Reddit.

Unfortunately this seems to be a large demographic on Reddit. I guess not unfortunately, that is like saying racists are a large demographic at klan rallies. This is their space and if others want to participate we should, if not respect, at least accept the idiosyncrasies that accompany it.

I dont really care much either way to be honest. When I really want a discussion I’ll talk to a real person who I find interesting and intelligent. When I want a shot of electronic dopamine I can alway come here and say something like “Bernie good” or “Malloy has sex with eagles” and the masses will upvote as much as they can. For all the times in between I will keep reading this sub to see what the demographic in the state I live in and love so much is becoming. Try to engage every once in a while and enjoy the fact I don’t need to complete for housing.

*holy shit that was long. I wrote it while having my morning coffee. Sorry for the rant.

Molly Gray CIA

Growing up on a farm, and wearing that red & black flannel, is the only real purity test for someone who is a real Vermonter, after all.

It’s called being wrong.

Her commitment to service led her to the International Committee of the Red Cross, where she engaged the U.S. government on humanitarian issues and led field missions to Haiti, Uganda, Georgia, the Western Balkans, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Molly was recruited to support the U.S. Government and international partners in launching the International Code of Conduct Association; the first global initiative mandated to oversee the compliance of private security contractors with human rights. In that capacity, she worked to successfully launch the Association’s human rights monitoring program and led human rights monitoring missions in East Africa, Nigeria and Iraq.

Proud to have voted for this intelligent and inspiring woman.

Isn’t that the org Patricia Preston leads?

If you run for office, how do you plan to prevent Super PACs from running ads on your behalf?

I’m not sure, thus the question I posed.

Greetings Molly's mom!

Ha ha ha. So clever. Not. Perhaps one may want to discover her good qualities and what she has actually accomplished.

This is grooming of the political kind.