Monthly Archives: September 2025

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Campaign Finance Shenanigans: Don’t Be A Sucker

Sure, I know, it takes money to run for office and if we want to support dignified, well-meaning, thoughtful candidates somebody has to chip in. But as fundraising has gone digital, it has, to use a term technology critic and author Cory Doctorow came up with, undergone “Enshittification”. The whole damn enterprise has just made our daily lives worse and filled the internet with junk.

“Will you stand with President Trump and Senator Rubio in this critical moment?”  was a message I got the other day from the Anti-Woke Fund, demanding my attention with the following:

STAND WITH TRUMP AND RUBIO
This could be the end of faith, family, and freedom, if we do nothing.

Leaving aside the fact that Marco Rubio is no longer a senator, the message urged me to go on record now to tell every Republican to STAND WITH MARCO RUBIO AND TRUMP TODAY. 

I guess all of my contribution will go to Trump and/or Rubio, right?

NOPE!

I clicked through and found this: “Your contribution will benefit Anti-Woke Fund, Trump National Committee, Anti-Woke Caucus JFC, and 1 other.”

Click through further and you’ll find that if you give $25, $23.50 of that will go to the Anti-Woke Fund PAC, $1.25 to the Trump National Committee JFC and 25 cents to Hageman for Wyoming, the fundraising site for Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY). Larger contributions will be apportioned in the same way. 

What’s the Anti-Woke Fund PAC?

In 2024, Hageman was chair of the Anti-Woke Caucus, a group within the House of Representatives that says it is dedicated to fighting the growing influence of “woke” ideologies in government, business and society. But the Anti-Woke Fund has no clear connection to the Anti-Woke Caucus or Hageman.

According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Anti-Woke Fund is a political action committee (PAC) that registered on January 3, 2025. Its total receipts as of June 30, 2025 were $471,572.54. Almost all of its contributions were $200 or under. 

Its expenditures totaled $364,113.90, all of it going to 27 companies engaged largely in digital fundraising and messaging.

More than 50% of its expenditures went to six firms:

  • Better Mousetrap Digital: a digital fundraising consulting firm for Republicans – $68,635.22
  • Launchpad Strategies LLC: A Republican online advertising, digital consulting and fundraising firm – $48,169.64
  • DonorBureau: Aggregates and analyzes data to create a deep understanding of donors – $26,600.36
  • O2M Digital LLC: Works to deliver conservative political messaging – $26,010.93
  • Apex Strategies LLC: Facilitates fundraising, specializing in Political Candidate Fundraising and Non-Profit Event fundraising – $24, 158.80
  • TMA Direct Inc: Specializes in Data Management, Data Brokerage, Email Marketing, Political Consulting, Fundraising, and Direct Mail – $21,787.95

The rest went to 21 other mostly similar companies.[1]

What politician or interest group benefited from the work of all these companies that were paid by the Anti-Woke Fund from monies contributed by people who responded to the Fund’s email? Who Knows. 

Dozens of other political messages are similarly deceiving.

There’s the message from Team Crane.

National Debt or Refund Check

How would you like the tariff revenue spent, Friend?

Reply before our survey closes in 60 MINUTES!

SUBMIT YOUR RESPONSE HERE >>

Along with the usual plea for a contribution, the message says, “Your contribution will benefit Crane for Congress and Trump National Committee JFC.” But you have to dig deeper to find out that if you give $75, for example, $71.25 of that will go to Crane for Congress, a PAC affiliated with Republican Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona. Only $3.75 will go Trump.  Larger contributions will be apportioned in the same way. 

Crane promoted the conspiracy theory that there were “massive amounts of fraud” in the 2020 U.S. presidential election and called upon the Arizona State Legislature to decertify Joe Biden’s victory in the state. 

Republican Rep. Mary Miller from Illinois sent out a message alerting me that former FBI Director James Comey had been indicted:

This will be the FIERCEST battle for TRUTH in America! Comey LIED to the American people in order to PLOT against President Trump. 

We deserve justice. America deserves justice. 

MAGA needs to mobilize NOW!
STAND WITH TRUMP!

If you click on ‘Stand With Trump”, she asks you:

SIGN YOUR NAME to our petition of MAGA Patriots that are declaring I STAND WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP! 

Of course, if you sign your name, you are asked to chip in. “Your contribution,” she says “will benefit Mary Miller for Congress and Trump National Committee JFC” but as with Eli Crane, if you give $25, only $1.25 will go to Trump; $23.75 will go to Mary Miller for Congress.  Larger contributions will be apportioned in the same way. 

“There’s a sucker born every minute”, the American showman P.T. Barnum is supposed to have said, thinking of how confidence tricksters operate.

Don’t be a sucker.

[1] WINRED TECHNICAL SERVICES LLC: an American fundraising platform for the Republican Party 

TAILWINDS POLITICAL, LLC: Helps causes acquire, grow and enhance audiences, specializing in fundraising and political campaigns

NORTH COUNTRY STRATEGIES LLC: N/A

FRONTLINE STRATEGIES LLC: Data-driven fundraising

RED CURVE SOLUTIONS: Offers comprehensive treasury, budgeting and FEC compliance services for political campaigns, party organizations and PACS

A-TEAM DIGITAL LLC: a political digital marketing firm

ROC MEDIA, LLC: Digital media targeting firm.

LP BROKERING LLC: N/A

OLYMPIC MEDIA LLC: digital marketing and advertising firm

P2P MESSAGING: Delivers managed service text messaging solutions to political organizations, non-profits, and government officials.

TWENTY MANOR PROJECTS LLC: a digital advocacy and fundraising company

CONSERVATIVE OUTREACH GROUP, LLC:  List acquisition 

EDEE INC.: List acquisition

POP ACTA: Creates and uncovers highly targeted and curated audiences to raise funds, acquire donors and expand the reach of political candidates.

GRASSROOTS FOR YOU LLC: Political campaign marketing

MAWCO LLC: Elevates conservative campaigns with fundraising and marketing 

NORTH COUNTRY STRATEGIES: Political consulting

GET OUT THE LISTS LLC: Curates updated lists of conservative Republicans, donors, and activists

RIGHT RAIL LIST COMPANY: N/A

BELIEVE MEDIA, LLC: Digital marketing agency

CHAIN BRIDGE BANK, N.A.: Delivers banking and trust services nationwide

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Say It Ain’t So, Bari Weiss

Bari Weiss

With all the turmoil over free speech rights, I can’t believe Bari Weiss, co-founder of The Free Press, is considering selling out for millions to David Ellison, the new owner of CBS News, and taking the job of editor in chief or co-president of the network.

Weiss started The Free Press as an unflinching alternative to traditional media organizations. She positioned herself and The Free Press as brave, independent, dogged, fierce, provocative, high impact, committed to separating the signal from the noise. 

CBS is the network that caved when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused “Face the Nation” of deceptively editing an interview with her. Two days later, CBS announced the show would now air only interviews that are conducted live, or are prerecorded with no cuts or edits, giving away its editorial freedom. Editing interviews for clarity and brevity is a common practice in the news business. Removing that authority will just let politicians bloviate and eat up time.

It was CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, that was in the process of being taken over by Ellison, that settled an insane lawsuit with Donald Trump, agreeing to pay Trump $16 million over a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris in which Trump alleged that the editing was intentionally deceptive to favor Democrats. As Anya Schiffrin, at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, has said, American media companies are demonstrating an unprecedented willingness to openly put their business interests ahead of their obligations to the public. “What’s happened in the last six months in the US is worse than anything we imagined,” she said.

It was Ellison who made commitments to the FCC that CBS’s “editorial decision-making reflects the varied ideological perspectives of American viewers”, that CBS would get rid of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and that CBS would create a new ombudsman position to review “any complaints of bias or other concerns.”

It was Ellison who appointed as that ombudsman Kenneth R. Weinstein, former head of a conservative-leaning Washington think tank, the Hudson Institute, who is likely to be a partisan enforcer. . 

It’s Ellison who, according to the Wall Street Journal,  wants to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery — the owner of Warner Bros. studios, HBO Max and cable news giant CNN, a deal that would require the approval of Trump’s regulators. What would Ellison, and Weiss, give to Trump to win that prize? Too much, I’m afraid.

At the September 21 memorial service for Charlie Kirk, Stephen Miller, the White House’s deputy chief of staff, said, “We will prevail over the forces of wickedness and evil. They cannot conceive of the army that they have arisen in all of us.” Trump spoke about how much he hates his political foes. Trump has  said that the major TV networks have been overwhelmingly “negative” about him and suggested that “maybe their license should be taken away.” 

Trump went on to undercut a message of national cohesion, saying of Kirk, “He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them, That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them.”

Don’t think Trump and his minions won’t do all they can to continue to pressure and manipulate the mainstream media going forward. Does Bari really want to be part of that cowardly crew?