A detailed look at how big money has exploded following the 2010 Citizens United ruling of the Supreme Court that invented a constitutional right for wealthy individuals and corporations to spend unlimited amounts to influence elections.
Monday, September 9, 2024
Trump making personal profit from campaign-linked merch
Autographed books, dinner with Trump, pieces of the suit he wore for the debate with Biden, hats, flags, and more. "His [for-profit] company's website also sells a variety of political merchandise at higher prices than his campaign charges for the same items."
Sunday, September 8, 2024
How the Powell memo catalyzed an era of corruption
David Sirota is interviewed by Ryan Grim. Sirota is part of a group that found direct links between the infamous Powell memo of 1971 and activities to organize corporate leaders into a political force. They found documentary evidence that has not been previously reported. Their planning led directly to the founding of the Heritage Society and to Buckley v. Valeo (1976), the Supreme Court decision that first equated political spending with First Amendment rights. This interview names specific people and events.
There is also a 4-part podcast on the Lever, Sirota's Substack site.
Saturday, September 7, 2024
Trump shifts policies according to who gave him $ recently
In the context of asking fossil fuel companies for $1 billion in exchange for favors. Trump then met with Elon Musk.
"Trump told a rally in Atlanta this month that he's for 'a very small slice' of cars being electric. "'I have to be, you know, because Elon endorsed me very strongly,' Trump said."
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
Ginni Thomas thanks right-wing legal org for trying to block ethics standards
Clarence Thomas's wife Ginni praised the work of the First Liberty Institute, which says it is the "largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious liberty for all Americans." The Institute's CEO attacked Justice Elena Kagan as "treasonous" and "disloyal" after she endorsed an enforcement mechanism for the [Supreme Court's] newly adopted ethics code. Later, President Biden endorsed term limits and ethics reform bill for the Court.
First Liberty takes cases to the Supreme Court that advance its right-wing agenda of promoting religious liberty. They worked actively to keep the Senate filibuster so that Democrats could not use simple majority votes to pass legislation. According to the CEO, the groups "conducted polling, ran advertisements, worked with social media influencers and urged Congress to oppose these changes. In particular, Shackelford said, his group focused its activities on convincing Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to oppose filibuster reform." In January 2022, Manchin and Sinema cast the deciding votes against filibuster reform that defeated the Freedom to Vote Act -- GMOM's highest-priority federal legislation.]
Ginni Thomas wrote to the group: "'I cannot adequately express enough appreciation for you guys pulling into reacting to the Biden effort on the Supreme Court. . . . THANK YOU SO, SO, SO MUCH."
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