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Structurally Leoās groups remind me of organized crime, laundering wealth through multiple front groups designed to āmassageā the law in order the further benefit the wealthy.
The right wing is so far ahead in terms of co-opting the courts, tax code, media, and social media, that progressives really will need a movement ā not just dutifully contesting elections ā to catch up.
Is Leonard Leo becoming the most dangerous man in America for women and POC?
The young are also going to have to increase their political involvement. This is their world that Leo plans on destroying.
I just donāt think the young are paying attention. Seriously.
Anecdotally, my kids (that run the farm) did a video for their channel this week. It started out with how my son in law and daughter donāt pay attention to the news. They openly admit they just donāt.
But on hearing about the suicide of tWitch, whom they watched on SYTYCD and on Ellen, that resonated with them and made them both very sad. They are advocates for mental health help, due to their oldest son having issues.
Thereās so much more going on that they admit they know nothing about. Everything weāve been talking about for a week is just going over their heads.
But a celebrity and suicide - that resonates.
I remember an old Onion headline that went something like ā75 million and Michael Jackson killed in nuclear attackā.
Ah yes, the young. A matter of perspective: my older son is 51, his brother 40. They are āyoung.ā The one lives in Texas, a former soldier deployed in a combat zone, considers himself a libertarian who, out of āpureā motivation will have nothing to do with politics in America. His brother seems mostly infatuated with action hero narratives and celebrations, e.g., comcost. Both are wonderful human beings who care deeply, yet currently seem unable to transpose their caring toward the political wellbeing of our country. IMHO Niebuhrās Moral Man and Immoral Society should have been and should be required reading for all. Itās just too easy to step back into oneās own personal morality and ignore all the ways that is complicit with the ugliness of our world. I suppose, however, life itself conveys that lesson eventually to anyone who is paying attention.
āThe Honest Elections Project, an initiative within another key Leo organizationā
Great title. Kind of like āCitizens Unitedā where the citizens are fascist Trump Turdlickers bent on destroying our democracy
Speaking of influencing elections
[The Mayor of Reno] is seeking restitution for invasion of privacy, trespassing, civil conspiracy and negligence, as well as attorneyās costs. She also is seeking to know who hired the investigator.
Thatās the investigator who placed a tracking device on her car.
She has every right to know, as do we all.
I bet itās a politician. Why are so many Republicans crooked?
What is the source of Leonard Leoās power? Money. It is my impression that all of the co-opting that is being done has one common denominator which is an unfathomable amount of money. The fact that people in this country become wealthy, avoid taxes and then spend some of the money not paid in taxes to preserve their status quo is the root cause of our current feelings of powerlessness. Everyone has their price and Republicans have ample money to protect their interests. There needs to be far more transparency regarding PACs, political donations, fundraisers, individual and corporate donations. In addition, I would like to see the net worth of every federally appointed (looking at you, judges)and elected official posted yearly. No one, with few possible exceptions, leaves Congress with less money than they started with despite receiving āa public servantās payā.
The money spent during campaigns would pay off our debt, fund public education, provide healthcare and childcare, give us infrastructure improvements to rival the airports and rail systems in Europe. Instead, we get caught in a never-ending cycle of begging as though our $20 will make one bit of difference compared to what billionaires can contribute and never miss. This is why we canāt have nice things- greed, power lust and sociopathy rule and the rest of us suffer.
Amen and amen. It makes no sense to me that any ordinary Joe who contributes more than a couple hundred dollars to a political campaign has to disclose name, address, and occupation and then has ceilings on contributions on top of that, but the guys with the megabucks can give millions and billions in complete privacy. And that opacity is toxic to our politics.
Leonard Leo and his Federalist society have so politicized the supreme court that it might as well be scrapped completely and rebuilt from the ground up.
The John Roberts Courtā¦ likely the most politicized court everā¦ yet he doesnāt seem to think so. WHAT a DOLT.
Who paid off Kavanaughās massive debts?
So our Supreme Court is part of the Russian Federal Assembly?
WHILE WEāRE AT IT HERE, Iād like to put in a plug for my own pet position on CITIZENS UNITED:
So often we see petitions and otherwise for a Constitutional Amendment to āban Citizens United.ā An Amendment is essential but a more immediate action is available and effective in the interim:
Legislation need be passed to prohibit political advertising in broadcast and print from the super PACs unless and until they publish their list of donors.
Fine, follow the Supreme Court. Money is speech. But we have a right to know Who is paying for it. There is nothing in the Constitution that guarantees anonymity when you exercise your right of free speech.
This is so critical to the future of the republic. It needs to be taken up immediately instead of waiting around for the constitutional amendment which others are advocating.
(The amendment process requires two sessions of Congress, 2/3 of the state legislatures to approve, yada yada yada and we wouldnāt have an outcome for probably six years. Check out the history of the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment).
[please copy out the above and save in to your own āCitizens Unitedā file to copy and repost when opportunity arises for you, just as now here for me. A Broken Record, I know, but what else can I do?]
They wouldnāt be doing it if they didnāt think that the rate of return on their investment was worth it.
I know this is from 2016 but very good info on the Council for National Policy. Ginni Thomas, Cleta Mitchell, Leonard Leo, etc. etc. A very dangerous group and the Republicansā¦including SCOTUS, are all performing for the CNP.
Most dangerous man in America - period. Leo is a dominionist christer crazy person, with an addiction to power and the idea of turning the United States into a far right religious RC dictatorship. Some of his donors think they will be exempted because of the $$ the coughed up to get out of paying for anything but their own pleasures or addictions - but they are wrong. (See Dobbs and overturning Roe - no sensible oligarch R wanted that to happen, because of the damage it did and does to the R party chances.) Leo is the real deal religious dictator and so are many other Republicans, including those Leo picked for the SCOTUS.
I like the post by Deuce.
ghaq: that link is a horror
Must read, yāall