From Ciara Torres-Spelliscy at Moyers & Co (BillMoyers.com), this alarming analysis of the dark money, i.e., unidentified billionaires who are buying our elections. Dark Money Turns Elections Into Trench Warfare.
If you read the entire article, you’ll learn about a number of pleasantly-named PACs invented by some unpleasant people, although the ads they produce are labeled with the pleasant name, rather than the list of really unpleasant people.
We should know the names of these people who are trying to brainwash us, shouldn’t we? If I see an ad against someone running for office–although, of course, these PACS are not supposed to be openly sponsoring or attacking named politicians (they’re supposed to be promoting “social welfare,” or some such)–it might help to know who’s paying for it.
Especially because of the high quality of the warm ‘n’ fuzzy TV commercials. Here’s a paragraph to contemplate:
Another source of Republican dark money was a group called Ending Spending, which spent $1.2 million. Ending Spending was created by TD Ameritrade founder and billionaire Joe Ricketts. If that name rings a bell, it could be because his children own the Chicago Cubs. While Ending Spending has not reported its spending for 2017 yet, its FEC reports for 2016 show $2.6 million in spending and zero contributors. This isn’t a typo. This is the problem with dark money. We can tell it is being spent at high levels but we can’t tell where the heck the money really came from.