FW: Workers at firm owned by top Trump donors exposed to higher Covid rates

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/28/uline-dick-liz-uihlein-workers-covid-safety?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

 

The Uihlein family are billionaires who own and run the Uline office supply business. This article chronicles the high rates of infection among their employees, employees' feelings of helplessness, and the Uihlein's outsized political influence.

"The couple donated $80m to Republican candidates and causes in the 2020 election, including to support Donald Trump's campaign. Richard Uihlein has nearly single-handedly financed an Illinois-based political action committee with a $24.5m donation in the 2020 election cycle. The group, called Restoration Pac, spent nearly $19m attacking Democratic candidates in the last election cycle – in eight races."

Charlie Cooper with thanks to Sheila Ruth

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U.S. Billionaire wealth grows $1.3 billion from mid-March 2020 to mid-February 2021

https://inequality.org/great-divide/updates-billionaire-pandemic/

 

There are 660 billionaires in the U.S., and their collective net wealth grew from $2.95 to $4.24 billion in 11 months during the pandemic.

 

Charlie Cooper

 

 

Virus-free. www.avg.com

"Mercenary" pay-to-play political donor sentenced

https://news.yahoo.com/mercenary-donor-sentenced-campaign-finance-142528317.html

 

He represented foreign governments and funneled money to politicians in both parties.

 

Charlie Cooper with thanks to Herb Ettel

 

 

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House Financial Services Committee will face its donors in upcoming hearing

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/02/gamestop-stock-house-committee-hearing/?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=stonks-02%2F17%2F20&utm_source=1+News+Notifications+%28Article+Alert%29&utm_campaign=e0b43bb987-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_11_26_08_46_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_776aca4f13-e0b43bb987-212295006

 

“Overall, the hedge fund industry has given nearly $2.7 million to the committee’s members, including roughly $967,000 in the 2020 cycle alone. Democratic members received 57 percent of the campaign cash in the 2020 cycle.”

 

Charlie Cooper

Virus-free. www.avg.com

How liberal and Democratic groups got the votes counted

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/24/us/politics/democrats-trump-election-plan.html?referringSource=articleShare 

GMOM was a member of the "Protect the Vote" coalition that is discussed in this article (although not by name).

Charlie Cooper

Media lionized corrupt Gov. Cuomo and the Lincoln Project as anti-Trump heroes

https://www.dailyposter.com/p/cuomo-and-the-lincoln-project-are

 

Liberal media promoted both Cuomo and the Lincoln Project. Will they now hold them accountable? Cuomo’s administration hid nursing home deaths:

“Cuomo’s administration hid the nursing home casualty data after his administration slipped provisions into the state budget that helped the governor’s largest health care industry donors obtain legal immunity for nursing home executives…. As the death toll mounted in New York, whistleblowers like [State Assemblyman] Kim were all but ignored by a press corps giving Cuomo largely uncritical wall-to-wall coverage….”

 

Charlie Cooper

Virus-free. www.avg.com

Lincoln Project accused of mutiple scandals - funds raised for self-enrichment

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-lincoln-project-facing-multiple?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo2MDE2NTUsInBvc3RfaWQiOjMyNDc1NzYxLCJfIjoiMFBybjUiLCJpYXQiOjE2MTMyMTQ1MzQsImV4cCI6MTYxMzIxODEzNCwiaXNzIjoicHViLTEyODY2MiIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.8tuDkfNbBoKEobGCtvKuycvjBH3gr9k4RNigcEPF5-U

 

The group is accused of multiple scandals. It advertised in liberal media markets to raise money rather than advertising to pry away Trump voters as promised. It was mainly a self-enrichment scheme. Also, one of the founders is accused of sexual misconduct and others accused of helping him cover it up.

“For the collection of GOP consultants and former officials, being anti-Trump was becoming very good for business. Of the $90 million Lincoln Project has raised, more than $50 million has gone to firms controlled by the group’s leaders…. The … Project adopted a strategy, much like the Trump campaign they criticized, to mask how much money they earned.”

 

 

Charlie Cooper

Virus-free. www.avg.com

Insight on Trump campaign secret spending

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/02/jan-6-protests-trump-operation-paid-3p5mil/?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=jan-6-tp35q-02%2F09%2F20&utm_source=1+News+Notifications+%28Article+Alert%29&utm_campaign=e4bf93cde9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_11_26_08_46_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_776aca4f13-e4bf93cde9-212295006

 

Trump campaign paid $3.5 million to organizers of the January 6 protest. But Jared Kushner and Lara Trump were also involved in a secret spending mechanism that may conceal more such payments.

 

“… the American public may never know the full extent of the Trump campaign’s payments to organizers involved in the protests…. because the campaign used an opaque payment scheme that concealed details of hundreds of millions of dollars in spending by routing payments through shell companies where the ultimate payee is hidden…. Trump’s 2020 campaign and joint fundraising committee … spent more than $771 million through [a] secretive limited-liability company [that] was created by campaign aides and members of Trump’s inner circle to act as a “clearinghouse” to pay vendors, concealing the campaign’s transactions with those vendors. ”

 

 

Charlie Cooper

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New grassroots group in WV fights against money corruption in politics

https://wvcantwait.com/end-election-buying-now/

 

“We held more than ten thousand voter-to-voter conversations last summer. We asked people what they would do if they were governor, what issues kept them up at night.

“There was one answer that came up 5 times more often than anything else. It came up more than roads, or schools, or safe water, or overdose deaths, or jobs.

“The number 1 issue? Political corruption.

“As one of our union buddies put it: “If you aren’t at the table, you’re on the menu.” And we’ve been on the menu for too long.

“We see it everywhere. 88% of West Virginians oppose giving public money to private charter schools, but the bill passed. The public relations guy for the controversial Rockwool facility in Jefferson County is also the House Majority Leader. Last May, instead of funding a state Black Lung Pension Fund for miners and a nursing home in Beckley for veterans, lawmakers voted to give $60 million more to out-of-state coal executives.”

 

Charlie Cooper

Virus-free. www.avg.com

Bottom 90% of Income distribution in U.S. lost bigtime

https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WRA516-1.html

 

“from 1975 to 2018, the difference between the aggregate taxable income for those below the 90th percentile and the equitable growth counterfactual totals $47 trillion.”

 

Charlie Cooper

Virus-free. www.avg.com

Small donors ruled 2020; will that change post-Trump? • OpenSecrets

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/02/small-donors-dominated-2020-will-that-change-in-midterms/?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=small-dons-20-02%2F03%2F20&utm_source=1+News+Notifications+%28Article+Alert%29&utm_campaign=e1df05957e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_11_26_08_46_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_776aca4f13-e1df05957e-212295006 

Can the For the People Act save America?

https://theintercept.com/2021/02/01/deconstructed-hr1-save-american-democracy/

 

In this Podcast, a partisan case is made that the Dems can stop Republican gerrymandering and make the nation more democratic by making it more Democratic.

“…a sweeping reform bill that aims to make voting easier, gerrymandering harder, and generally rein in the out-of-control minoritarianism that has come to characterize American democracy.”

 

Charlie Cooper

Virus-free. www.avg.com

Publix gets big COVID-19 vaccination contract after donating to Florida Governor

https://popular.info/p/publix-accountability

 

“Publix responded … by donating $50,000 to DeSantis on December 7 and another $50,000 to DeSantis on December 31…. Publix's large donation to DeSantis also has raised eyebrows because, in January, DeSantis made Publix the sole distributor of COVID-19 vaccines in Palm Beach County. ‘I’m absolutely, absolutely disgusted that the governor of this state has 100% taken the authority to administer the vaccination program out of the hands of the public health department and given that authority to a corporate entity,’ Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay said.”

 

Charlie Cooper

Virus-free. www.avg.com