Follow The Money Behind The Arizona Audit

[turbinetree]

Politics 8/02/21 12:53pm Read time: 9 minutes

Soon this will be harder and harder to do, thanks to the Supreme Court
By Karoli Kuns

Jane Mayer has once again ripped the veneer off Republican efforts to buy our elections and install their dictators in a new article at The New Yorker where she outlines in fine detail who is paying for the election subversion and voter suppression efforts in the states.

It won't surprise anyone who has followed my work here at Crooks and Liars to know the key players are people and organizations we feature here all the time: Cleta Mitchell, True The Vote, Freedomworks, Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA, and more. On the funding side, Leonard Leo, The Bradley Foundation, Overstock.com founder Patrick Byrne, and a whole bunch of dark, undisclosed money.

Italygate
Take Italygate, for example. Italygate was the insane conspiracy theory being spread that Trump votes were erased by Italian military satellites. It wasn't something hatched out of the corners of 4Chan, but was instead intentionally spread by Nations In Action, a group founded by Maria Zack, a relative unknown in the universe of right-wing nonprofits.

https://crooksandliars.com/2021/08/follow-money-behind-arizona-audit

And just think the Thomas household is eye balls deep into this shit...and one of them sits on the US Supreme Court...why isn't his and her ass in front of a committee...

[Champp]

1. Republicans and dark money lead to dark deeds

Because the Republican moral compass is set to: greed, grift, power at any cost, and closeted sex kinks.

[PRETZEL]

2. Jane Mayer was on Rachel's show last night,

unfortunately Rachel was off.

It was a fascinating interview and Ms. Mayer laid bare how all these groups used basically cut-outs to funnel the money into Arizona .

[underpants]

3. She was on Morning Joe this morning. Joe incredibly claim he hasn't heard of the Bradley Foundation

The Lynn and Harry Bradley foundation was one of the “Four Sisters” of big big money Republican funding operations going back to the Reagan era. There’s no way Joe didn’t know about them having been a candidate in the early 90’s.

I haven’t read Mayer’s article yet. She is an incredibly good reporter.

[PRETZEL]

4. I've always loved her work,

would have liked to have seen this this morning.

[underpants]

6. Follow up on the Four Sisters

https://files.pfaw.org/pfaw_files/buyingamovement.pdf



A growing number of other conservative think tanks and advocacy groups depend on foundation largesse for both their existence and maintenance. While the Heritage Foundation and Free Congress Foundation (founded with seed money from Coors) and the Cato Institute (founded with Koch family money) are some of the more visible examples, there are a number of others, among them the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), founded by Ernest Lefever, whose mission is to “reinforce the Judeo-Christian moral tradition in public debate over domestic and foreign policy.”33 Over 60 percent of its 1993 income came from the “four sisters” (the Olin, Bradley, Smith Richardson and Sarah Scaife foundations).34 The Institute on Religion and Democracy, supporter of the “Contract with America” and known for its attacks on the National Council of Churches, received 89 percent of its support in its first two years from six conservative foundations.35 Hundreds of thousands of dollars in seed money and a commitment for future support from the Koch family foundations made possible the Institute for Justice, a property-rights and pro-voucher law firm.36 In 1992 alone, Koch foundations’ contributions totaled $700,000,37 fully 70 percent of the Institute’s 1993 budget.38 Continuing Koch support for the Cato Institute is also substantial. Cato president Edward Crane asserts that the Kochs “are very large contributors...[but] it would not be a devastating blow if they stopped supporting us.” Nevertheless, $1.75 million of Cato’s $3.2 million 1990 budget -- or over 50 percent -- came from the Kochs.39

[PRETZEL]

7. Thanks, will have to do a deep dive later,

took a peek at it, seems interesting.

[UCmeNdc]

5. K&R

[CousinIT]

8. The Big Money Behind the Big Lie

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215691063

[hedda_foil]

10. Thanks! I was just coming here to post the link to Jane Mayer's revelatory piece.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/09/the-big-money-behind-the-big-lie

[Midnight Writer]

9. I highly recommend Jane Mayer's book, Dark Money.

I think, personally, that money in politics is the biggest problem our country has.