Last week, I made several small dollar donations to numerous 2022 Dem candidates via Act Blue. There were links from Daily Kos to Act Blue pages “bundling” donations to house candidates running for seats in the most “winnable” districts, as well as pages with donations targeting critical senate, AG and SOS races.

I entered my information, including my US passport number (since I live in Canada), submitted my donations, and thought all was well and good.

I got confirmation emails thanking me for my donations, listing all the candidates I had donated to.

The problem is, several of the entries of candidate donations, including Stacy Abrams and several others (probably 20-25% of all candidates) were listed as “not processed”. The only reasoning I could think of was the candidate’s own software scanned my Canadian address, but not my US passport number (or Act Blue didn’t provide it), and declined the donation as coming from a foreign citizen.

It gets worse.

When entering my information, I made sure to select the “one time only” button, and especially the “don’t email me” box.

Everyday since I made the donations, I have received up to 10 emails and 10 texts from various Dem candidates, some of whom, like Henry Cuellar, I specifically didn’t donate to.

I have had to click the “unsubscribe” link on each email which takes me to another page, which I must make an additional 1-3 clicks before I am truly unsubscribed (my experience with other emails is that just clicking “unsubscribe” is enough to end the unwanted email). It’s a major PITA.

I have come to the conclusion that one way Act Blue makes money is by selling their donor lists.

I will NEVER donate via Act Blue again.

From now on, I will only donate directly to candidates I want to support.

https://twitter.com/ArmandoNDK/status/1567162481696555008?

Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel agrees.

Today’s corrupt ruling by an incompetent lower court judge is not a done deal.

The written ruling was issued on a holiday, when DOJ couldn’t file an immediate appeal.

I don’t expect DOJ to roll over, hand back all the seized documents, shrug, and say “as you wish”.

I DO expect DOJ to seek a stay pending appeal, and keep possession of the seized documents.

I DO NOT expect a Special Master to be named anytime soon, until after appeals are exhausted and the elections are over.

At WORST, I think DOJ might settle for submitting the non-classified documents already “filtered” by their team to a special master for review for attorney client privilege, NOT executive privilege.

The maintenance crew at DU is gonna have to recharge all the extinguishers, since I’m sure they’ve all been used up on all the folks running around with their hair on fire…