Bad guys pay taxes
Grow up.
political money is free speech, but unlike you and me, dark money behind social welfare nonprofits can contribute unlimited funds to candidates without disclosure or penalty
https://www.rawstory.com/get-families-back-to-work/A mysterious en y has given $1.7 million to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey's re-election campaign, but she won't say who's behind the record-breaking contributions.
The dark-money group Get Families Back to Work Inc. gave $750,000 to Ivey's campaign on March 31, and it was the single-largest political contribution made to a candidate for state office.
What's more, that record was matched when the same en y gave another $750,000 to the governor eight days later, before giving another $250,000 on April 28, reported AL.com.
this sort of thing is commonplace now, because the Supreme Court decided that money doesn't corrupt politics.
The Supreme Court denying that public officials can be corrupted by money is touchingly naive, and daft.
Direct, quid pro quo arrangement aren't the only way officials can be corrupted. At a certain point, the magnitude of the gift (and the threat of withdrawing it and giving it to one's opponents) becomes politically effective.
Last edited by Winehole23; 05-16-2022 at 11:07 PM.
"Putting limits on me (a rich guy, SuperPAC or corporation) buying off public officials abridges my core free speech rights!"
"The US Cons ution, in its majestic equality, permits the rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges and buy off politicians."
It's like they're not even pretending here...
When the case was argued in January, Charles J. Cooper, a lawyer for Mr. Cruz and his campaign, said contributors should be able to “exercise the First Amendment right to associate with the winner, and to hope that that will result in the kind of influence and access that support for a candidate begets.”
dark money put the last three justices(at least) on the bench, to do what they're doing. you're right that they're not pretending, they're rewarding their backers.It's like they're not even pretending here...
When the case was argued in January, Charles J. Cooper, a lawyer for Mr. Cruz and his campaign, said contributors should be able to “exercise the First Amendment right to associate with the winner, and to hope that that will result in the kind of influence and access that support for a candidate begets.”
...with unjudicial swiftness, but perhaps that befits the inherently political nature of the Supreme Court. The judiciary is a political sovereign coequal to the executive and legislative branches.
We currently have nine justices because there used to be nine circuit courts, there are now thirteen. Maybe it's past time for an upgrade.
Last edited by Winehole23; 05-17-2022 at 12:33 AM.
Not yet. Maybe in 2025.
Special interest cash suborns local politics and prevents representation of the people's interests.
https://americanpromise.net/wp-conte...g_report-1.pdfWith the astounding rise in election spendingand divisive dark money campaigns in America,the Pennsylvania 2022 Senate election has been,and will continue to be, dominated by outsidespending groups and a national “donor class.”These donors and outside groups are spendingmillions of dollars to define “viable” candidates,distort facts, hype misleading attacks, and drownout the voices and ideas of ordinary Pennsylvaniavoters. The sheer cost of campaigning has createda “pay-to-play” system, where the only candidateswith a chance are the ones with access to millionsof dollars through personal wealth and/ornational donor networks. The hyper-targetedad campaigns paid for by this money will beoverwhelmingly divisive and negative, and theywill ignore many of the issues of most concern toPennsylvanians.
Special interest cash suborns local politics and prevents representation of the people's interests.
https://americanpromise.net/wp-conte...g_report-1.pdfWith the astounding rise in election spendingand divisive dark money campaigns in America,the Pennsylvania 2022 Senate election has been,and will continue to be, dominated by outsidespending groups and a national “donor class.”These donors and outside groups are spendingmillions of dollars to define “viable” candidates,distort facts, hype misleading attacks, and drownout the voices and ideas of ordinary Pennsylvaniavoters. The sheer cost of campaigning has createda “pay-to-play” system, where the only candidateswith a chance are the ones with access to millionsof dollars through personal wealth and/ornational donor networks. The hyper-targetedad campaigns paid for by this money will beoverwhelmingly divisive and negative, and theywill ignore many of the issues of most concern toPennsylvanians.
Out-of-state dark money is even financing School board elections. The oligarchy will not stop until it has full control of America at all levels
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/u...e=articleShareA new conservative nonprofit group scored a $1.6 billion windfall last year via a little-known donor — an extraordinary sum that could give Republicans and their causes a huge financial boost ahead of the midterms, and for years to come.
The source of the money was Barre Seid, an electronics manufacturing mogul, and the donation is among the largest — if not the largest — single contributions ever made to a politically focused nonprofit. The beneficiary is a new political group controlled by Leonard A. Leo, an activist who has used his connections to Republican donors and politicians to help engineer the conservative dominance of the Supreme Court and to finance battles over abortion rights, voting rules and climate change policy.
This windfall will help cement Mr. Leo’s status as a kingmaker in conservative big money politics. It could also give conservatives an advantage in a type of difficult-to-trace spending that shapes elections and political fights.
The cash infusion was arranged through an unusual series of transactions that appear to have avoided tax liabilities. It originated with Mr. Seid, a longtime conservative donor who made a fortune as the chairman and chief executive of an electrical device manufacturing company in Chicago now known as Tripp Lite.
Rather than merely giving cash, Mr. Seid donated 100 percent of the shares of Tripp Lite to Mr. Leo’s nonprofit group before the company was sold to an Irish conglomerate for $1.65 billion, according to tax records provided to The New York Times, corporate filings and a person with knowledge of the matter.
The nonprofit, called the Marble Freedom Trust, then received all of the proceeds from the sale, in a transaction that appears to have been structured to allow the nonprofit group and Mr. Seid to avoid paying taxes on the proceeds.
For perspective, the $1.6 billion that the Marble trust reaped from the sale is slightly more than the total of $1.5 billion spent in 2020 by 15 of the most politically active nonprofit organizations that generally align with Democrats, according to an analysis by The Times. That spending, which Democrats embraced to aid the campaigns of Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his allies in Congress, dwarfed the roughly $900 million spent by a comparable sample of 15 of the most politically active groups aligned with the Republican Party.
The Marble Freedom Trust could help conservatives level the playing field — if not surpass the left — in such nonprofit spending, which is commonly referred to as dark money because the groups involved can raise and spend unlimited sums on politics while revealing little about where they got the money or how they spent it.
Leonard Leo is yet another Catholic corrupting, degrading America into a one-party fascist state
Norm Coleman controls a GOP dark money spigot and lobbies Congress on behalf of Saudi Arabia.
https://theintercept.com/2022/09/22/...t-republicans/“Coleman is an agent for the Saudi government, representing Saudi government interests, while he’s literally steering money to selected Republican candidates. That should disturb every American, Republican or Democrat.”
Other officials may not be able to follow Coleman’s own path from Congress to foreign agent. A bipartisan group of House members introduced new legislation, “Fighting Foreign Influence Act.”
The act would impose a lifetime ban on senior military officers, presidents, vice presidents, senior executive branch officials, and members of Congress from ever lobbying for a foreign principal.
Dark money swirling around the Supreme Court somehow found its way into Leonard Leo's bank account.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/0...ivism-00084864A POLITICO investigation based on dozens of financial, property and public records dating from 2000 to 2021 found that Leo’s lifestyle took a lavish turn beginning in 2016, the year he was tapped as an unpaid adviser to incoming President Donald Trump on Supreme Court justices. It’s the same period during which he erected a for-profit ecosystem around his longtime nonprofit empire that is shielded from taxes. Leo was executive vice president of The Federalist Society at the time.
The for-profit and nonprofit en ies share more than just Leo’s involvement: The same longtime ally managing the books for two of his new leading nonprofits, Neil Corkery, is also chief financial officer of Leo’s for-profit company, POLITICO confirmed in IRS filings. One of those nonprofits paid the for-profit $33.8 million over two years.
“It’s an extraordinary amount of money for a fairly intangible or indistinct product or service,” said Owens.
“That’s where the big problem is going to lie, in whether the goods and services were real and whether they were provided at no more than fair market value,” said Owens, who helped design and enforce federal programs for exempt organizations. Excess payments can trigger penalties and even revocation of tax exempt status, he said
Under the reasoning of Citizens United, using gifts and money to buy access to public officials creates no appearance of impropriety, unless accompanied by explicit words describing the quid pro quo.
Wink and a nod, no quid pro quo.
Once upon a time, judges avoided the mere appearance of such a thing, since it can be damaging to public perception of the legitimacy of the judiciary.
hard to say "we're just friends" when you're on the record saying "rich money spending their money is politics"
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