Tag: Money

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Senator Bernie Sanders Slams Manchin, Sinema For Intentionally Sabotaging Biden’s Agenda

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Senator Bernie Sanders(I-VT) appeared on ABC’s This Week show(07/17/22) to discuss President Biden’s controversial trip to Saudi Arabia. Unsurprisingly, Senator Sanders, who has been very consistent about his displeasure with Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses, was opposed to President Biden’s trip to the Kingdom, which he said, was tantamount to rewarding the Saudis.

The interesting part of the interview however came when host Martha Raddatz asked Sen Sanders about Senator Joe Manchin(D-WV) “abruptly” pulling out of negotiations on a climate change proposal that was key to President Biden’s agenda. Sen Sanders swiftly interjected saying, Manchin “didn’t abruptly pull out of anything”, and then proceeded to slam the Senator from West Virginia for intentionally sabotaging President Biden’s agenda. Whoa!!

Host Martha Raddatz(video at 3:20):“Senator Joe Manchin…abruptly pulled the plug on the Democrats’ plan to pass…”

Sen Sanders:“No Martha…he didn’t abruptly do anything…If you check the record, six months ago I made it clear, that you have people like Manchin, Sinema to a lesser degree, who are intentionally sabotaging the President’s agenda, what the American people want, what a majority of us in the Democratic caucus want. Nothing is new about this, and the problem was that we continued to talk to Manchin like he was serious. He was not. This is a guy who is a major recipient of fossil fuel money, a guy who received campaign contributions from 25 Republican billionaires.”

When host Raddatz tried to play devil’s advocate, saying Senator Manchin is concerned about record inflation, and is simply doing what’s best for West Virginians, Sen Manchin retorted:“Same nonsense that Manchin has been talking about for a year. West Virginia is a beautiful state…great people. It is one of the poorest states in this country. You ask the people of West Virginia whether they want to expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing and eye glasses…whether we should demand that the wealthiest people and large corporations start paying their fair share of taxes…whether or not all people should have healthcare as a human right like every other country on earth, that’s what they will say. In my humble opinion, Manchin represents the wealthiest people in this country, not the working families of West Virginia, or America.”

Bottom line folks, what Sen Sanders said on ABC’s This Week show, cannot be restated enough. There was a lot of hope and enthusiasm among Democrats, and a sizable chunk of Independents who voted for the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020, that the Biden-Harris administration would embark on big projects re infrastructure, climate, immigration, etc to set the country up nicely for the future. You even heard famous historians likening Biden to FDR and LBJ–both of whom are remembered for the big projects their administrations embarked, on and delivered.

However, somewhere in some Republican smoke-filled rooms, panic set in over the prospect of a transformational FDR-type Biden-Harris administration, and an elaborate plan was laid out to sabotage Biden’s presidency. Sen Sanders is absolutely right that Senators Manchin and Sinema have been willing participants in the grand GOP scheme to sabotage the Biden presidency, and they must be called out for it!!

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Sen Whitehouse:”Supreme Court Is Not A Conservative Court, It’s A Captured Court”

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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse(D-RI) appeared on MSNBC’s Ayman show(05/28/22), where he dropped a bombshell, telling the host Ayman Mohyeldin that the U.S. Supreme Court is not a conservative court, but “a captured court”—a court captured by special interest dark money groups. Senator Whitehouse added that the situation with Roberts Supreme Court is similar to what happened in the 19th century, when the railroads captured the railroad commissions, so that the commissions would rubber stamp whatever prices the railroads wanted to charge.

Senator Whitehouse(video at 2:55):“This is not a conservative court, this is a captured court in the same way that in the 19th century, railroads took over the railroad commissions so that railroad commissions would let them charge whatever prices they want. Private interests behind the Federalist Society have controlled the last three Republican appointees to the United States Supreme Court, and they had massive influence in the selection of Roberts and Alito, so that’s really five, and that’s a majority of the court that was put in place by this special interest operation, and they are now delivering for the benefit of those big interests who put them on the court. It is not a conservative court, it is a captured court, and it is captured by special interests.”

Sen Whitehouse said the Disclose Act currently languishing in the U.S. Senate, would rein in dark money’s corrupting influence on the Supreme Court, but like other important pieces of legislation,it has fallen victim to the filibuster road block, with Democratic Senators Joe Manchin(WV) and Kyrsten Sinema(AZ) refusing to budge on any exceptions to the filibuster rules(60 vote threshold to pass laws).

Bottom line folks, there is no question that dark money interests have taken over the U.S. Supreme Court, and we desperately need the Disclose Act to rein in the said dark money interests. Dems should not ease the pressure on Sens Sinema and Manchin re exceptions to the filibuster rules, however doomed such efforts might appear. Keep applying pressure on the Biden saboteurs all the way to the Fall elections!!

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Pompeo Slams Biden Admin For “Allowing China To Walk All Over Them” In The South Pacific

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Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared on Fox News’ Ingraham Angle show(04/21/22) to discuss among other things, reports this week that China has signed a security pact with the strategically located Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. Pompeo slammed the Biden administration over this, saying they are “allowing China to walk all over them.” He added that China will “park missiles” in the Solomon Islands, and could in the future use this strategic location to block trade routes that are important to the United States.

Pompeo specifically told host Ingraham(video at 1:20):“The Chinese have been trying to expand their footprint in the Pacific, and in particular, the South Pacific for an awfully long time. They began by building out a set of islands called the Spratlys. They put military bases on there after they promised President Obama they wouldn’t, and when they did, he did literally nothing. The Solomon Islands and other Islands in the Pacific are places where they can park missile systems, naval bases, other naval capabilities that they can use to foreclose trade, all of the important trade that moves through all of the South Pacific into the Eastern Pacific, into places that matter an awful lot to the United States of America. It’s why China is so focused on it, it’s why in the Trump administration we worked so diligently to try and build out alliances with those countries. The Biden administration has allowed China to walk all over them throughout the entire Pacific.”

Pompeo went on to add(video at 2:30):“I don’t think they[China]respect or fear the United States under the leadership of President Obama and the team…This administration hasn’t shown the same resolve and the same capacity to deter aggression that we did for 4 years…The Chinese Communist Party presents the single greatest external risk to the United States of America from any place in the world…We need to lead the effort to make sure that the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t dominate global trade and dominate the global economy in the years and decades ahead. We can do it, but it takes American leadership.”

Bottom line folks, even though reasonable people will agree that Trump GOP is currently mired in frivolity(fights with Disney, hyperventilating over CRT, going after transgender athletes etc), the China issue remains one of the few legitimate arguments they still have. Simply put, the United States cannot allow a perception to fester out there, that China is always running us over. So you ask, “Why should we care about such a perception”? Look no further than the current Russia-Ukraine war. Make no mistake about it, Putin invaded Ukraine because (1) he knows he has China’s support and (2) the United States has demonstrated no willingness to confront China in any way out of fear of “disturbing our trade ties”. This dynamic has to change. We need to make China respect and fear the United States, not just for our own national security sake, but also to deter autocrats around the world who have figured out that they can commit atrocities while hiding under China’s umbrella.

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Trump-Tied Dark Money Group Brags About Drafting Voter Suppression Laws

Heritage Action’s Executive Director Jessica Anderson addressing a group meeting

A leaked video obtained by Mother Jones, shows the shocking extent to which a Trump-tied dark money group, Heritage Action For America, is secretly engineering the recent spate of voter suppression laws in Republican-led states. This bombshell revelation, even though not quite surprising, should be a call to action for voting rights activists nationwide, and a reminder to Congressional Democrats, of the dire need for passage of HR1-For The People Act.

In the leaked video, Jessica Anderson, a former Trump administration official and now Executive Director of Heritage Action For America, can be heard talking to a group of donors in Tucson Arizona in late April, and admitting to conduct that leaves absolutely no doubt to any reasonable person, that her group is engineering the voter suppression laws currently springing up in Republican states across the country. She is essentially bragging to the donors about how Heritage Action is drafting voter suppression laws currently being enacted by Republican-led state legislatures.

She can be heard telling the donors, “Iowa is the first state we[Heritage Action] got to work in, and we did it quickly, and we did it quietly. Honestly, nobody noticed.”(see video at 1:05). No reasonable person presented with Jessica Anderson’s “nobody noticed” remarks, can ever conclude that Heritage Action went into Iowa with a mission other than sneaking through a voter suppression law.

Other alarming statements by Jessica Anderson to the GOP donors include;

“At the end of the day, the bill that Governor[Brian] Kemp signed, and the Georgia legislature marshalled through had eight key provisions that Heritage recommended.” (see video at 1:11)

“We are working with these state legislators to make sure they have all of the information they need to draft the bills. In some cases we actually draft them for them, or we have a sentinel on our behalf, give them the model legislation so it has that grassroots, from the bottom up, type of vibe.” (see video at 1:32). This is by far, the most damning part of Jessica Anderson’s presentation. She basically admits that Heritage Action is writing voter suppression laws for the states, and faking their grassroots appeal.

It also bears pointing out that this same Trump-tied dark money group, is also in the forefront of lobbying Congressional Republicans into blocking the HR1-For The People Act, currently being pushed by Congressional Democrats, which among other things, seeks to vastly expand voting rights for all Americans.

Bottom line folks, it appears Heritage Action is the vehicle Trump Republicans are using to push their voter suppression laws targeting minority voters. Voting rights activists in Texas and other emerging purple states, where the voting rights battle is already red hot, must come up with effective strategies to confront Heritage Action and other such right wing anti-democracy groups. Yours Truly is not an attorney, but is reasonable enough to know that some of the statements Jessica Anderson made to the GOP donors, can be very useful in federal lawsuits against these Republican voter suppression laws.

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$26 Million Of Trump’s Inaugural Funds Was Paid To Melania’s Friend

Stephanie Wolkoff & Melania Trump

A recent plea deal by a GOP operative Sam Patten in the ongoing TrumpRussia investigation has brought renewed attention to the very questionable funds that flowed into Trump’s inauguration–a reported $107 million. Yours Truly recently wrote about this.



What Yours Truly failed to point out and has been brought to his attention is that part of these mysterious inauguration funds– a cool $26 million–went to a firm belonging to Melania Trump’s friend Stephanie Wolkoff for “event planning”. 


At the time of the $26 million payment, Stephanie Wolkoff was a Senior Adviser to First Lady Melania Trump, which by itself raises a whole host of ethical questions which you would think would attract a lot of mainstream media attention. Strangely it hasn’t.

Bottom line as we dig deeper into the mysterious $107 million that was pumped into Trump’s inauguration, we must also get to the bottom of the $26 million that was paid to Melania’s friend for “event planning”. This is such an exhorbitant expense that it fits the pattern often witnessed in money laundering cases.


It cannot also be left unsaid that the same mainstream media which hounded Hillary Clinton over the whitewater land deal is yet to ask Melania a single question about this mysterious $26 million that her friend got for “event planning”—the hapless MSM indeed!!

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Signs Of Russian Money Laundering In Trump’s Inauguration

An interesting Rachel Maddow segment points out that a guilty plea by GOP Lobbyist Samuel Patten in the ongoing TrumpRussia investigation raises new troubling questions about the mysterious money flow surrounding Trump’s 2017 inauguration.

Maddow has previously reported extensively on the strange money flow surrounding Trump’s inauguration but the latest guilty plea by the said GOP operative provides specific details that take allegations of Russian money laundering at Trump’s inauguration way beyond the speculative level. As a matter of fact, details of Patten’s plea deal speak to a slam-dunk Russian money laundering scheme.


Here’s how the Russian money funneling scheme played out. GOP operative Sam Patten has a shell company in DC. Patten got a yet unnamed U.S. citizen to “donate” $50,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee. Patten’s shell company then reimbursed the unnamed U.S. citizen the $50,000. A Ukrainian with ties to a prominent Russian oligarch and who is also at the center of the ongoing Manafort case then reimbursed Sam Patten with a $50,000 drawn from a Cypriot bank. Cyprus is a well known haven of Russian money laundering meaning the said $50,000 that flowed into Trump’s inauguration could well have been laundered money.

There have been a lot of questions especially by Maddow about the whereabouts of the monies raised for Trump’s inauguration–an estimated $107 million. Maddow for example questioned why Trump’s inaugural committee never gave a detailed accounting of how the $107 million came in and what it was spent on–very odd.

With Sam Patten’s plea deal pointing heavily towards money laundering, expect Natasha Bertrand(Yours Truly’s MSM fave) and other journalists who’ve been excellent at TrumpRussia reporting to dig into Trump’s inaugural committee for answers to serious questions that still linger. For example How many other Patten-like “donations”  were made to Trump’s inauguration? Did this money find its way into GOP/RNC coffers–including to GOP members of congress? If so, did GOP/RNC know the source of the funds? As you can see there are numerous questions that need to be answered regarding the mysterious Trump inauguration funds.

The full Maddow segment is available here but the relevant clip is below

Yours Truly recently wrote about how Trump’s GOP has degenerated into a criminal enterprise and stories like Sam Patten’s only work to support that argument. Bottom line Dems and the mainstream media must dig into this story to find out how much laundered Russian money has landed into GOP coffers.  Simply put House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Mitch McConnell and GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel must be questioned about dirty Russian money flowing into GOP coffers.

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Putin Allies Met With Top NRA Officials During 2016 Campaign Season

In a previous post, Yours Truly pointed out that the FBI was investigating the powerful gun lobby group NRA for allegedly being used by Russians to funnel money into the Donald Trump Campaign


Well in a bombshell new piece, the news site McClatchy is now reporting that there is photographic evidence of Putin allies meeting with top NRA officials in Moscow. Until recently, most of the public were only aware of Russian banker and Putin ally Alexander Torshin in relation to FBI’s money funneling investigation. Well it now turns out according to McClatchy’s piece that during the hustle and bustle of the 2016 campaign season top NRA officials also met Dmitry Rogozin, who until last month served as a deputy prime minister overseeing Russia’s defense industry, and Sergei Rudov, head of one of Russia’s largest philanthropies, both close allies of Putin. In the picture below Rogozin is front right, Rudov is the bearded guy in the back, Torshin is in the back with black shirt, NRA President Pete Brownell is to the left of the women. Also in the picture is none other than the controversial former Milwaukee County Sheriff Dave Clarke(back turned to photo)

NRA Officials Meeting With Putin Allies

It is still unclear whether these two new individuals funneled money into the NRA but the fact that they are close Putin allies who met the NRA during the thick and thin of the 2016 presidential election will certainly be of great interest to the FBI. It bears pointing out that using foreign money to influence a U.S. election is a federal crime punishable with prison time. Simply put this is serious business.


Also remember that the NRA spent more than $30 million on the Trump campaign, more than double what they spent on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012. If some or all of this money was illegally funneled from Russia, it could subject Trump and his campaign staff to criminal penalties, and possibly ensnare the NRA, top Republican Party officials and even candidates. Bottom line folks, this is a big deal and Yours Truly will keep you posted on the latest developments.

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Did Russia Funnel Money To TeamTrump Through The NRA?

One of the biggest obstacles for Democrats, especially in the battle for control of State Legislatures has been the powerful gun lobby group National Rifle Association(NRA). Unlike other powerful lobby groups that influence both the Republican and the Democratic Party, the NRA literally has a stranglehold on the Republican party. NRA’s stranglehold on the GOP is so bad, even President Trump recently had to ask GOP Members of Congress not to be “afraid of” the gun lobby group when discussing sensible gun control proposals. Marion Hammer, a powerful NRA lobbyist in Florida for example is so feared by Florida State GOPers, that she’s dubbed “The Real Gov of Florida.” Such is the power the NRA wields over the GOP

https://youtu.be/L6I0zp-lAeo

The troubling news therefore that the FBI is investigating the NRA as a possible vehicle for funnelling Russian money to help Trump in the 2016 elections should be of great concern to Democrats. New York Times Columnist Frank Bruni said on CNN’s Outfront with Erin Burnett that the NRA spent a whopping $30M to help Trump get elected, which is more than they spent the last two Presidential cycles combined. A Russian banker Alexander Torshin who has ties to Putin is an NRA life member and the key suspect in the alleged funnelling scheme. Torshin apparently wanted to create a “back channel” between the Trump Campaign and Russia and one of his associates reportedly told a Trump campaign staffer that “Putin is deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump.”(see YouTube video from 14:00 onwards)

Under normal circumstances this would be just another questionable daliance between a powerful U.S. gun lobby group and a foreign financier. However against the backdrop of an ongoing Special Counsel investigation into U.S. election meddling by the Russians, this strange relationship between the NRA and the Putin-allied Russian financier has become a much more serious issue, one that Americans trust Mueller and Co. will get to the bottom of.


It also bears pointing out, as New York Times Columnist Frank Bruni did that Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr, is a major NRA supporter and activist. Trump Jr you’ll remember is already in the middle of a very questionable meeting with Russian lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower. Veselnitskaya has since confessed that she’s an informant for Putin’s Kremlin

Simply put, the NRA-Russia story is a major story that could affect the Dem political fortunes from here on out. According to CNN Political Correspondent Sara Murray, the NRA is privately, very concerned about the FBI’s investigation into its ties to the Russian Banker(vid at 14:00). Obviously we Dems have to be patient and allow the feds to conduct their investigation into the NRA but just like Trump used the ongoing Clinton email probe to hamstring her 2016 campaign, there is no reason why the DNC should not pummel NRA-allied GOP candidates over Russian money as we head to Midterms 2018, the perfect target being Sen Ted Cruz

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