DL Open Thread: Sunday, May 14,2023

Rethugs Fundraise, Pocket All The $$’s For Themselves:

A group of conservative operatives using sophisticated robocalls raised millions of dollars from donors using pro-police and pro-veteran messages. But instead of using the money to promote issues and candidates, an analysis by The New York Times shows, nearly all the money went to pay the firms making the calls and the operatives themselves, highlighting a flaw in the regulation of political nonprofits.

“This is Frank Wallace calling for the AmericanPoliceOfficersAlliance. Very quickly, we’re mailing out the envelopes to help fight for our officers who protect our nation’s citizens, just like yourself. Once you receive your card in the mail, you can send back whatever you think is fair this time. That’s all.”

This is not a policeman. This is not even a human. This is a computer, making thousands of robocalls with the same folksy voice.

And like “Frank Wallace,” the American Police Officers Alliance is not what it seems.

In theory, it is a political nonprofit called a 527, after a section of the tax code, that can raise unlimited donations to help or oppose candidates, promote issues or encourage voting.

In reality, it is part of a group of five linked nonprofits that have exploited thousands of donors in ways that have been hidden until now by a blizzard of filings, lax oversight and a blind spot in the campaign finance system.

This is serious, well-researched, journalism.  As in:

To understand what these groups did with their $89 million, The Times analyzed 15,851 pages of their financial reports, including 135,843 separate expenditures, searched corporate records in 10 states, and interviewed the nonprofits’ leaders and vendors.

As might be expected, Delaware, where legalized corporate thievery funds a significant percentage of our budget, enabled the crooks to incorporate. Anonymously:

The Times’s analysis showed that the five nonprofits had paid a combined $985,000 to a company in Baltimore called “Voter Mobilization LLC.” It was registered in Delaware — where corporate-secrecy laws meant its owners did not have to be disclosed.

In reality, the Baltimore address was just a virtual office, where the company received mail but kept no staff. Voter Mobilization LLC was actually owned by an obscure political firm called Campaign Now, which was in turn owned by a 37-year-old Republican consultant from Wisconsin named John W. Connors, a central figure who appears to connect all five nonprofits.

Gotta admit, not all that upset that these yokels got ripped off.  Which is not to say the crooks doing the ripping-off don’t belong in jail.

Russia To Build ‘Migrant Village’ For RWNJ American Ex-Pats.  Presumably not The Onion:

Russian authorities will launch construction of a village outside Moscow for conservative-minded Americans and Canadians next year, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Thursday.

Russia has for years positioned itself as a bastion of “traditional” values in contrast with Western liberalism as its relations with the West have deteriorated over its 2014 annexation of Crimea and 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Timur Beslangurov, a migration lawyer at Moscow’s VISTA Foreign Business Support, claimed that “around 200 families” wish to emigrate to Russia for “ideological reasons.” (Montana’s too liberal for them?)

“The reason is propaganda of radical values: Today they have 70 genders, and who knows what will come next,” RIA Novosti quoted Beslangurov as saying, echoing President Vladimir Putin’s frequently deployed grievances against Western countries’ comparative gender freedom.

He said the Moscow region administration has greenlit the construction of the expat village and that it will be financed by the relocating families.

Have You Seen Andrew Olson?  He’s supposedly George Santos’ campaign treasurer.  However:

There is reason to believe that Rep. George Santos’s treasurer does not exist and that Santos’s committees are violating the law by raising and spending money without a treasurer, according to a complaint filed today by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington with the FEC.

Andrew Olson, Santos’s listed treasurer, is not and has not been identified as a treasurer to any political committee outside of those connected to Santos. No one asked about it appears to know Olson, including those knowledgeable of political committee treasurers and New York Republican politics. His listed address on the FEC forms is the former address of Santos’s sister. He has not responded to any attempts to contact him through the means provided in the FEC filings.

“Given his struggles with the truth, much about Rep. Santos remains a mystery, but there’s no bigger mystery than his treasurer,” CREW President Noah Bookbinder said. “No one can seem to find Andrew Olson. If he does not exist, it would be an extreme abuse of our campaign finance system–one the FEC should not permit.”

Without a treasurer, Santos is legally prohibited from raising and spending money.

Feds Go After Environmental Racism In Alabama.  Specifically, Lowndes County, where:

For as long as anyone can remember, the lack of a sanitation system in Lowndes County, Alabama, and resulting reliance on piping human waste directly into septic tanks and local creeks, has made life in the community miserable. After years of organizing and calls to action by the residents of this rural, low-income, and largely Black community, Earthjustice and Alabama grassroots leaders submitted a civil rights complaint, alleging racist neglect by Alabama public health officials. In response, federal authorities launched an investigation.

The 18-month inquiry found the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Lowndes County Health Department acted with neglect and discrimination toward the county’s residents by not only denying them access to basic sanitation, but imposing fines and even liens against them while ignoring the grave health impacts the situation created.

“Today starts a new chapter for Black residents of Lowndes County, Alabama, who have endured health dangers, indignities, and racial injustice for far too long,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said Thursday in a statement announcing the agreement. “Our work in Lowndes County should send a strong message regarding our firm commitment to advancing environmental justice, promoting accountability, and confronting the array of barriers that deny Black communities and communities of color access to clean air, clean water, and equitable infrastructure across our nation.”

Julianne Murray’s ‘Vision’:

Acknowledging that Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 150,000 voters in Delaware, she said, “Politics are local,” and that the party’s messaging will shift toward issues that “hit Delawareans regardless of whether they’re a Democrat or Republican.”

Some of those issues, Ms. Murray said, include ongoing consideration of zero-emission vehicle regulations under California’s Advanced Clean Cars II standards; last May’s widespread gun control package; House Bill 99, also known as the Climate Change Solutions Act of 2023; and the state’s ban on plastic bags and potential prohibition of straws and polystyrene foam, under Senate Bill 51.

I could be wrong, but I think most Delawareans support those initiatives.  Except for the RWNJ’s who can only muster up majorities in Lower Slower.

What do you want to talk about?