I think that's a reasonable assessment of the situation.
Although more than not sitting well with donors, he made it a point to not accept corporate donations. Which in many cases are essentially legal political bribes.

And I think normalizing not accepting corporate donations (or perhaps even making it illegal) would be a huge threat to the establishment. Because a lot of them are clearly in office for the purpose of accepting large corporate donations, and then vote for legislation in favor of those corporations.

If this was illegal (as it is in many other countries) it would not completely stop political bribes. But having to jump through many more hoops to do something illegal under the table would certainly minimize it. And more politicians would vote based on their actual constituents, instead of who fills up their bank accounts.

Will the NSW2 be revealed prior to the General Election? What are we thinking?

The real TDS at work:

Harris gaining some in my book

Harris skirts question on whether Netanyahu is ‘close ally’ of US

US Vice President Kamala Harris has skirted a question on whether Netanyahu can be considered a “close ally” of the US, as critics accuse the Israeli PM of stymying Washington’s stated goal of de-escalation in the Middle East.

In an excerpt of an interview with CBS News’s 60 Minutes, Harris was pressed on what the US is doing to get its top ally to end its military offensive in the Gaza Strip and stop its attacks on Lebanon.

Harris, the Democratic candidate in November’s presidential election, said the US has been applying pressure on Israel – as well as on Arab leaders in the region – to reach a Gaza ceasefire deal and would continue to do so.

Harris was then asked if the United States had a “real, close ally” in Netanyahu.

“I think, with all due respect, the better question is, do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people? And the answer to that question is ‘yes’,” she replied.

Trump & Putin

A new book from legendary Watergate journalist Bob Woodward reveals that former President Donald Trump in 2020 sent Russian President Vladimir Putin a secret stash of COVID-19 tests during the early days of the deadly pandemic that would go on to kill more than one million Americans.

CNN reports that Woodward's new book, entitled "War," claims that Trump "secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use."

What's more, writes Woodward, Putin urged Trump not to boast publicly about sending such equipment to him.

"Please don't tell anybody you sent these to me," Putin said, according to Woodward's sources.

"I don't care," Trump said in response. "Fine."

"No, no," Putin said. "I don't want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don't care about me."

And that's not all -- according to one of Woodward's sources, Trump kept in frequent contact with the former Russian president after leaving office.

"According to Trump's aide, there have been multiple phone calls between Trump and Putin, maybe as many as seven in the period since Trump left the White House in 2021," Woodward writes.

Biden & Netanyahu

“That son of a bitch, Bibi Netanyahu, he’s a bad guy. He’s a bad fucking guy!” Biden declared privately about the Israeli prime minister to one of his associates in the spring of 2024 as Israel’s war in Gaza intensified, Woodward writes.

“What’s your strategy, man?” Biden asked Netanyahu during an April phone call, Woodward reports.

“We have to go into Rafah,” Netanyahu said.

“Bibi, you’ve got no strategy.” Biden responded.

Biden told Netanyahu on a call to “take the win,” though the Israeli prime minister pushed back. “You don’t need to make another move. Do nothing,” Biden said.

In the end, Israel launched a limited, calibrated strike against Iran, which Biden considered a win.

“I know he’s going to do something but the way I limit it is tell him to ‘Do nothing,’” Biden told his advisers, according to Woodward.

But Biden’s frustration with Netanyahu boiled over as the war continued to escalate.

“He’s a fucking liar,” Biden said privately of Netanyahu, after Israel went into Rafah, Woodward writes.

“Bibi, what the fuck?” Biden yelled at Netanyahu in July after an Israeli airstrike killed a top Hezbollah military commander and three civilians in Beirut, according to Woodward.

“You know the perception of Israel around the world increasingly is that you’re a rogue state, a rogue actor,” Biden said to Netanyahu.

Netanyahu responded that the target was “one of the leading terrorists.”

“We saw an opportunity and took it,” Netanyahu said. “The harder you hit, the more successful you’re going to be in the negotiation.”

Biden & Putin

“That fucking Putin,” Biden said to advisers in the Oval Office not long after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Woodward. “Putin is evil. We are dealing with the epitome of evil.”

Afraid of a little fact checking, what an alpha male.

To be fair to Trump, the interview with Harris was atrocious...

60 Minutes lost a lot of respect from me for sure. 

Atrocious in which sense?

Why does this dude have government contracts, especially military adjacent ones...

Really hope they nationalise SpaceX if Harris wins the election.

One of the worst edited interviews I've ever seen. Everything was heavily cut up so the interview felt choppy and weird and they cut Harris off on just about every answer preventing them from really getting into any substance on any issue, often times cutting away to weird voice-overs which were way too confrontational for their own good. The questions also felt like gotchas, a lot of the time dealing in feelings instead of reality. One of the questions which I thought was particularly weird was something to the effect of "You say that some of the things Trump says are racist, but a lot of Americans like Trump. How do you explain that?" which to me is just a terrible question. The fact that people like Trump doesn't make the things he says any less racist. He also came after her tax plan by saying there is no chance that it'll get through Congress, which isn't necessarily true first of all, but is also just kind of a ridiculous thing to say in this type of race. Like, welcome to literally every presidential platform ever. You can't simultaneously complain about the cost of plans that will never get through Congress while arguing that the pay-fors won't get through congress...

I don't know, maybe people disagree, but I think the way that the media has been handling interviews this cycle has largely been awful and embarrassing.