The Secrets of a Right-Wing Dark-Money Juggernaut -- Revealed

[babylonsister]

October 29, 2019 7:00AM ET
The Secrets of a Right-Wing Dark-Money Juggernaut — Revealed
DeVos, Thiel, Adelson: Inside the once-hidden finances of a secretive political group funded by the biggest names in the GOP
By Andy Kroll


WASHINGTON — Anonymous campaign cash is as much a fixture of American politics nowadays as yard signs and awkward photos of presidential contenders eating corn dogs. Dark money may have existed well before Citizens United, but that 2010 Supreme Court decision opened the floodgates for untraceable money to soak our elections. It also left voters clueless about who was putting up the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by groups with anodyne names like Priorities USA and Americans for Prosperity.

One of the most infamous players in the dark-money game was an outfit by the name of Americans for Job Security. Founded by a Republican political operative close to Rick Perry, Americans for Job Security acted like a laundromat for wealthy donors. Instead of giving directly to a candidate or campaign and having their names disclosed, they donated to Americans for Job Security, which scrubbed their identity and spent their millions to elect Republicans across the country and push right-wing policy proposals. The group dropped $5 million in 2010 to elect dozens of new House Republicans and another $15 million in 2012 to try to defeat President Obama. It also funneled tens of millions more to state-level campaigns, including to fund the opposition to two 2012 California ballot measures to raise taxes on the very rich and weaken labor unions.

On Friday, the mystery of who bankrolled Americans for Job Security was finally solved. After losing a seven-year legal battle, the now-defunct group revealed where its money had came from — a rare victory for clean-government groups and an even more rare glimpse at the internal workings of a dark-money juggernaut. According to documents turned over to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Americans for Job Security’s donor list is a who’s-who of 1-percenters.

The biggest givers include: Investor Charles Schwab ($8.8 million); Amway co-founder and Christian conservative mega-donor Richard DeVos and wife Helen ($2 million); Peter Thiel, the libertarian investor and Trump supporter: ($500,000); casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson and wife Miriam ($500,000).

Other notable names on the donor rolls are Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, former Trump cabinet secretary Linda McMahon, and members of the Fisher of the family that co-founded the Gap. The donor list also features major corporations including oil and natural gas companies Continental Resources ($1 million) and Devon Energy ($3 million), U.S. Sugar Corp ($750,000), casino conglomerate Wynn Resorts ($500,000), and Quicken Loans ($250,000).

more...

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/dark-money-republican-party-americans-for-job-security-peter-thiel-devos-904900/

[CrispyQ]

1. Publicly funded elections, paper ballots, & revoke corporate personhood.

Those three steps would go a long way to setting this country on the right track.

Slavery is the fiction that people are property.
Corporate personhood is the fiction that corporations are people.

Corporations are the only non-human entity to have Constitutional rights. All other non-living entities, like labor unions, non-incorporated businesses, churches, civics groups, & governments, only have the privileges that WE grant them. But corporations have Constitutional rights, just like people. But they don't need the things that people need, like clean air, fresh water, healthy food, health care, child/elder care, or even an environment that supports them. Corporations can "live" forever & their money & power amplify their rights. These are the entities that a good number of Congress serves, not We the People.

You can read more about corporate personhood here: http://reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate-personhood/

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. Kick

[crickets]

3. DeVos. Koch. The same names come up over and over again. K&R