1ºTerry Calhoun publicly funded elections are a terrible idea. In nyc you got people making a living as permanent " candidates " . They raise $20k in small donations, get $120k in matching funds and then put themselves or their spouce as the paid director of their campaign on a $130k salary and use the other $10k for flyers and then walk around distributing them, doing just enough so the feds cant bust them for election fraud . They get close to zero votes and then immediately move to the next election for the next office . Its fraudster heaven
2ºMichael James
This is not a complicated story of corruption and political influence which I've seen played out in declining countries around the world.
In fact, I spent a decade tracking the political influence of a pseudo fake -liberal organization, the Pew Charitable Trust. I called my summary "Conquest of the Ocean." This Trust was run by the descendants of the Pew Oil Company!
Here is the essence of the article you mentioned after reading it in its entirety.
"At the end of April 2021, Marble Freedom had more than $1.4 billion in assets -- positioning it to play a major role in conservative causes potentially for years to come.
"This group is emblematic of the corrosion and the breakdown of our campaign finance system," Maguire said -- and how it gives "wealthy donors, whether they be corporations or individuals, access and influence over the system far greater than any regular American can ever imagine."
CNN's Yahya Abou-Ghazala contributed to this report."
3ºWell, the COP right-wing extremists need the money to recruit their criminal troops, the white mob. The planned march to the Capitol was known to the White House for days. Trump knew about the guns among his demonstrating supporters. And such Rioters don't come for free. If they get caught, they'll go to jail! And their families could become impoverished. So, the instigators (Trump and his financiers) have to pay. Otherwise, there is the possibility of statements that the “Führer” dislikes.
Sure, that's black money, of course, and no one knows from which channels it comes. And probably no tax authority dares to ask, for fear of reprisals.
America is becoming more and more of a dictatorship. No wonder, Trump worships Hitler—who, in his opinion, “did good things” and he would like to have staff like the greatest murderer of the 20th century.
Sad prospects for a country that once set an example.
A catastrophe for the whole world if this Narcissus is re-elected in 2024, he will tear everyone down!
4ºBEWARE of DARK money going into the far right radical wing of the Republican Party of greed!! The money is there to contaminate and pollute the party to spread pathological lies - propaganda - misinformation and conspiracy theories!!! This new Republican Party has become the most criminally corrupt party in our history. The party of MISOGYNY has a goal of destroying women’s rights and stopping any gains that they make in government or even the business world. Any powerful positions or brilliant accomplishments or educated women are a threat to white supremacy males who feel they should be subservient to men. And the fact that the majority of women are honest and cannot be bought by dark money should give all women the drive to unite against the Republican Party of misogyny and Vote Republicans OUT of office so we can protect women’s rights and right to vote - which Republicans will target next. WOMEN MUST UNITE for their survival and vote BLUE - DEMOCRATIC for their rights to be protected!!!
5ºIt's about American FREEDOM and FREEDOM loving AMERICANS understand Roe is Just the beginning. The following is a very important read/share, worth the few seconds to protect our democratic republic from the active, subversive attacks being carried out in the name of God
By Pastor John Pavlovitz:
“I’ve been a pastor in the church for over two decades, much of that in predominantly white churches in the American South.
I’ve spent countless hours in church staff meetings and men’s Bible studies and youth pastor conferences.
I’ve stayed connected on social media with thousands of people still there in those churches. I read what they share and post and amplify and I know how they think and what they believe.
I need you to understand something and I say it without any hyperbole: white Evangelicals need to be stopped, now.
If the 2022 midterms elections allow Republicans to gain control of Congress, Conservative Christians will decimate this nation, and LGBTQ people, Muslims, women, people of color, and non-Christians will never have equality under the law again. We will all be at their mercy—and they will no longer have use for mercy.
This is not alarmist, sky-is-falling histrionics, it is the clear and sober forecast from someone who knows these people better than anyone. Over the last decade and a half, as my theology shifted and my beliefs grew more and more progressive, I’ve been a kind of undercover Liberal in an increasingly extremist movement, that while once relegated to minor fringe noisemakers is now at the precipice of Roman Empire-level power. They are less than two years away from having a dominance that they will wield violently and not relinquish.
I watched it all unfold from the inside:
I was at a North Carolina megachurch when Obama was elected and I saw the shift take place firsthand.
I saw the fear slowly being ratcheted up and the agenda become solidified and the prejudices leveraged.
I was speaking regularly at the Billy Graham headquarters when Fox News reporters and Republicans like Sarah Palin started walking the halls with frequency.
I saw the messages at pastor’s conferences grow more incendiary and urgent, and heard the supremacist dog whistles become louder and more frequent.
While many decent people around this nation celebrated the progress of a black president and the many civil and human rights victories and gradually let down their guard—the white Conservative church set off the alarms and prepared for a holy war.
Yet, they were still a largely powerless, dying dinosaur until 2016, when Donald Trump acquired the presidency and gave the Evangelicals the perfect amoral partner to serve as the biggest bully pulpit they’ve ever had. Combine that with a fragmented Left, a general fatigue by the larger population, a ceremonial victory in Congress (thanks to Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema), and Republican attacks on voters’ rights— and we are now a hair’s breadth from the subjugation of diverse humanity here.
These are not followers of Jesus despite the trappings and window dressing. They are Jesus-less extremists: blind zealots for nothing but power. They have been conditioned by decades of polluted theology and FoxNews alternative facts to see diversity as a threat, to see progress as attacks on America, and to interpret more people being treated with dignity as oppression of white people.
Trust me when I tell you that we won’t recover from the theocracy Evangelicals are constructing once it is established. If we fail in 2022, they will have a political power that will render every election null and void, and we will never have a voice again in our lifetimes.
Women will lose autonomy over their own bodies.
LGBTQ people will have the rights to marry and adopt taken away.
People of color will be fully squeezed out of the electoral process.
Immigrants will be denied access to opportunity and refuge here.
These are not creative projections.
They are precisely what Evangelicals have repeatedly stated as their intentions, and they’re closer than they’ve ever been to having a rubber stamp.
We can still stop it, though.
We just need a unity and coordination that transcends theirs.
We need a sustained, passionate, dedicated defense of humanity that rivals their relentless assaults on it.
I hear many people say they’re terrified, but being terrified alone doesn’t do anything but help these people.
Be terrified and get angry.
Be terrified and get busy.
Be terrified and go to work.
Be terrified and fight like hell.
I wish more decent people in America remembered they are among the vast majority instead of acting as if they are helpless victims of Republican Christians. We could defeat them, and we need to. We just need to stop lamenting how much damage they are doing and start doing something to oppose them.
We’ve seen this play out throughout history and we know how it ends.
We know what unchecked religious extremist is capable of and we know the cost of the silence and inaction of good people. We also know what people are capable of when they refuse to accept fascism and white supremacy cloaked in the Bible and wrapped in the flag, when they fight for something inherently good together.
As someone who knows just how much these Christians have lost the plot of their faith tradition, believe me when I tell you that they cannot be allowed to steer this nation. It will not end well for the disparate people who call it home or who one day wish to.
Love and equity and diversity are in the balance.
It’s time we made a choice.
It may be the last one we get.”
-Pastor John Pavlovitz