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Public Citizen just released a must-read report on the cryptocurrency industry’s spending this election cycle: https://www.citizen.org/article/big-crypto-big-spending-2024/

Nearly half of all corporate money contributed this cycle has come from cryptocurrency backers!

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpol #USpolitics

Key Findings In 2024, crypto corporations have poured over $119 million directly into influencing federal elections, primarily into a non-partisan super PAC dedicated to electing pro-crypto candidates and defeating crypto skeptics. Crypto corporations are by far the dominant corporate political spenders in 2024 as nearly half (48%) of all corporate money contributed during this year’s elections ($248 million so far) came from crypto backers. Koch Industries is a distant second place in 2024. The privately held conglomerate owned by Charles and, formerly, the late David Koch, contributed $25 million to its Koch-controlled Americans for Prosperity Action and $3.25 million toward electing Republicans to Congress. Direct corporate election spending at this scale is unprecedented. Crypto corporations’ total spending in the past three election cycles – $129 million – already amounts to 15% of all known corporate contributions since the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United, which total $884 million. 92% of the corporate crypto spending is from 2024. Since Citizens United, the crypto corporations are now second in total election-related spending, trailing only fossil fuel corporations, which have spent $176 million over the past 14 years, including $73 million from Koch Industries. The crypto sector’s Fairshake PAC and its affiliates have received nearly $114 million directly from corporate backers, far more than any other outside spender this cycle.
Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity Action, a hybrid PAC, is a distant second, having received nearly $26 million, primarily from Koch Industries. Fairshake’s corporate backing is unprecedented. Though unlimited corporate contributions have been enabled since 2010 by Citizens United, this newcomer is already second only to the super PAC dedicated to electing Republicans to the U.S. Senate in terms of corporate money received. That super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, has received nearly $119 million directly from corporations over the past 14 years, largely from fossil fuel corporations but including many other sectors, including crypto, tobacco, and for-profit prisons.

Big Crypto, Big Spending: Crypto Corporations Spend an Unprecedented $119 Million Influencing Elections - Public Citizen

Public Citizen
#crypto #cryptocurrency #uspol #uspolitics

This is epic #brat landing page: #uspol

https://harriswalz.com/

walz summer

harriswalz.com
#uspol #brat

Last week, Public Citizen’s Rick Claypool and I filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission based on my research into apparent campaign finance violations by the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange.

Read the full complaint and my updated article.

Complaint: https://www.citizen.org/article/coinbase-fec-complaint/

Updated article: https://www.citationneeded.news/coinbase-campaign-finance-violation/

#crypto #cryptocurrency #Coinbase #Fairshake #USpol #USpolitics

COMPLAINT Coinbase, Inc. (“Coinbase”) is a cryptocurrency platform offering exchange, custody, and trading services. On March 20, 2024, Coinbase made a $500,000 contribution to the Congressional Leadership Fund (ID: C00504530), a hybrid PAC. On May 30, 2024, Coinbase made a $24,999,995 contribution to Fairshake (ID: C00835959), a super PAC. At the time of both contributions, Coinbase was negotiating a contract with the United States Marshals Service, a federal agency. In making these contributions of approximately $25.5 million, Coinbase violated federal campaign finance laws that expressly prohibit federal contractors from making contributions to political committees while negotiating or performing federal contracts. This complaint is filed pursuant to 52 U.S.C. § 30109(a)(1) and is based on information and belief that Coinbase violated the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (“FECA”) prohibition on federal contractor contributions. If the Federal Election Commission (“FEC” or “Commission”), “upon receiving a complaint . . . has reason to believe that a person has committed, or is about to commit, a violation of [the Federal Election Campaign Act] . . . . [t]he Commission shall make an investigation of such alleged violation . . . .” 52 U.S.C. § 30109(a)(2) (emphasis added). BACKGROUND FECA prohibits a federal contractor from making contributions, directly or indirectly, to “any political party, committee, or candidate for public office or to any
building” if “payment for the performance of such contract or payment for such material, supplies, equipment, land, or building is to be made in whole or in part from funds appropriated by the Congress.” 52 U.S.C. § 30119(a)(1). The FEC has interpreted the prohibition on contributions to political committees as including contributions to hybrid PACs and independent expenditure-only political committees (“IEOPCs” or “super PACs”), a position they have made clear including in a statement regarding published after the 2011 Carey v. FEC decision. FECA additionally prohibits any person from knowingly soliciting any such contribution from a federal contractor. 52 U.S.C. § 30119(a)(2). The prohibition on campaign contributions from federal contractors applies from when a request for proposals is sent out or when negotiations commence (whichever is earlier) until the completion of performance under the contract or the termination of negotiations (whichever is later). 52 U.S.C. § 30119(a)(1); 11 C.F.R.§ 115.1(b) Coinbase is a federal contractor subject to the FECA prohibition Coinbase is a federal contractor, holding a current government contract with the United States Marshals Service (USMS), a federal agency within the United States Department of Justice. This contract has a $7 million obligated amount, and a $32.5 million total contract value. The USMS contract opportunity was first published on March 4, 2024, and offers were due on April 1, 2024.
CONCLUSION FECA and FEC regulations prohibit a federal contractor from making a contribution to any political committee during the period in which a federal contract is being negotiated or performed. According to the definitions of the prohibited time period outlined in FEC regulations, Coinbase was prohibited from making campaign contributions beginning on March 4, 2024. The prohibition will continue until the completion of performance under the contract or the termination of negotiations (whichever is later). As the contract is still ongoing, Coinbase has been prohibited from making any contributions from March 4, 2024 through to the date of this complaint. Consequently, there is reason to believe Coinbase violated the federal contractor contribution prohibition by making a $500,000 contribution to a hybrid PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, and a $24,999,995 contribution to a super PAC, Fairshake, during the period it was negotiating and/or performing its federal contracts. Furthermore, both the Congressional Leadership Fund and Fairshake are aware of the prohibition on accepting contributions from federal government contractors, and may have violated FECA and FEC regulations if they had reason to believe Coinbase was negotiating a federal contract at the time they solicited and/or accepted the contributions.

Coinbase appears to have violated campaign finance laws with a $25 million super PAC donation

Actively involved in contract negotiations with a federal government agency, Coinbase was likely prohibited from making its $25 million contribution to the Fairshake cryptocurrency-focused super PAC in May 2024.
Molly White (Citation Needed)
#crypto #cryptocurrency #uspol #uspolitics #coinbase #fairshake

"FOX News"

"full arena audience"

Tells you all you need to know, right there

Just another #Trump freak show

#Weird #Deranged #ChickenTrump #ProsecutorVFelon #USpol #Harris2024

#trump #weird #uspol #Harris2024 #deranged #chickentrump #prosecutorvfelon

It’s true.

#Harris #trump #biracial #identity #politics #election #USpol

#politics #election #identity #trump #uspol #harris #biracial

The cryptocurrency industry has been working overtime to sell a story: that there is a large contingent of voters voting based on candidates’ crypto policy stances. The problem is, it’s a story that does not seem to be well supported by data.

https://www.citationneeded.news/when-did-cryptocurrency-become-a-voter-issue/

#CitationNeeded #crypto #CryptoLobby #USpolitics #USpol


When did cryptocurrency policy become a voter issue?

I don’t believe that it has.
Molly White (Citation Needed)
#crypto #uspol #uspolitics #cryptolobby #citationneeded

"I am not Christian", says Trump while explaining how he can "fix it" so voters won't have to vote anymore.

#uspol #WannabeDictator

#uspol #wannabedictator

Content warning: US Pol

#uspol

So far as I can tell (I've been away), it was entirely done using Twitter: no speech, no press conference, no advance notice to his aides. Looking at https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/ , I don't even see a press release.

Putting aside any issues one might have with Twitter, this is not how to manage an important matter. I've seen people joke that this was a coup by the intern who manages Pres. Biden's social media account. I don't see how to prove it wasn't.

#uspol


Briefing Room | The White House

The latest news and information from the Biden-Harris administration.
The White House
#uspol

“Before he entered politics, President Trump donated $6,000 to Kamala D. Harris’s reelection campaign while she was California attorney general, campaign finance records show.
Trump gave $5,000 to Harris’s campaign in September 2011 and $1,000 in February 2013. His daughter Ivanka Trump gave Harris’s campaign $2,000 in 2014, records show.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-harris-campaign-donations/2020/08/12/06eb1f0e-dcdb-11ea-b205-ff838e15a9a6_story.html

#potus #election #politics #USpol #democracy #Harris2024

Trump previously donated $6,000 to Kamala D. Harris’s campaigns

The contributions were made in 2011 and 2013, when Trump had largely stopped donating to Democrats.
David A. Fahrenthold (The Washington Post)
#politics #potus #election #democracy #uspol #Harris2024

Did you know #Project2025 calls for “the entirety of the CISA #Cybersecurity Advisory Committee should be dismissed on Day One.” (page 155).

If you like being able to use computers (or do anything with organizations that use computers, including have your vote counted in elections) that’s a very bad idea.

#infosec #security #USpol #politics #political

#security #politics #political #infosec #uspol #project2025 #CyberSecurity

Content warning: US Politics

#uspol #jdvance

It’s finally time to release my newest project: https://www.followthecrypto.org/

This website provides a real-time lens into the cryptocurrency industry’s efforts to influence 2024 elections in the United States.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #elections #USpol #lobbying

Follow the Crypto

Follow the cryptocurrency industry’s influence on 2024 elections in the United States.
Follow the Crypto
#elections #crypto #lobbying #cryptocurrency #uspol

Axios is right-leaning, but their journalists are warning of the dangers from #TFG's annihilistic, antidemocratic, & cruel platform:

"You have to love how Axios’s plain language summary of Trump’s platform is “He’ll set up concentration camps and jail his political enemies” - literally fascism and tyranny - but somehow this all gets sidelined in our day-to-day discourse."
-W Stancil

Excerpt from Axios article:

#USPol #Democrats #BidenHarris #Project2025 #TrumpTariffs

https://www.axios.com/2024/07/02/trump-2025-imperial-us-presidency?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=editorial

#democrats #uspol #TFG #bidenharris #project2025 #trumptariffs

Content warning: uspol, presedential debate, further thoughts on reactions im seeing this morning

#democraticparty #democrats #uspol

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