“Let Them Eat Cake,” Say Donors to Donald Trump’s Ballroom
Author Archives: whmacken2013
Picking Seniors’ Pockets: Deceptive Online Political Fundraising Is Dialing Up Discord
I’ve written some of this story before.
Last time I wrote about how a local Missouri politician running for a county office is raising millions through deceptive online advertising that relies on highlighting inflammatory national issues.
This time I’m writing about how he and his online marketers are dialing up discord while cynically targeting deceptive fundraising pleas at overly trusting and vulnerable retired seniors, exploiting them in a new form of elder abuse other politicians across the country may be tempted to emulate.
William C. (Bill) Eigel, a conservative former state senator from the 23rd District in Missouri’s St. Charles County, lost in 2024’s Missouri Republican gubernatorial primary. Now he’s running to be St. Charles, Missouri’s County Executive, probably to establish a political perch to mount another gubernatorial race in 2028.
To support his Charles County campaign, Eigel is soliciting contributions for his Believe in Life and Liberty political action committee, BILL PAC. Why doesn’t the PAC’s name say it’s connected to Eigel?
“Some states require PACs backing single candidates or with specific donors to include the politician or the funders in their name,” the Missouri Independent has explained. “Not Missouri. Instead, PAC names can be a set of initials used for a reason no one can remember, a feel-good name that doesn’t have anything to do with the interest being promoted or even the name of a favorite television character.
Not only is Eigel blurring his association with BILL PAC, but his online nationwide fundraising campaign is reaching out to potential supporters by emphasizing inflammatory national hot-button issues, not St. Charles County concerns. Recent email pleas focus on “mass deportations” and deporting “criminal illegal aliens”, federal payment of $5,000 “DOGE checks” to citizens, and “mandatory voter ID in ALL 50 states”.
A BILL PAC email that came today urged me to sign a petition to deport Ilhan Omar, a controversial Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota. An email I received recently went so far as to urge recipients to support President Trump’s use of the Insurrection Act, an alarming move that would gives him broad powers to authorize uses of the military in the domestic sphere while providing neither a role for Congress nor a basis for serious judicial review. Eigel’s message:
We only have until midnight to act, so sign our petition in support of using the Insurrection Act to destroy Antifa once and for all and reclaim our cities from these anarchists.
The Missouri Ethics Commission (MEC) requires that political candidates file quarterly reports on their fundraising and spending. The reports filed by Bill PAC in 2025 reveal that about 99% of the contributions Eigel has reported receiving have come from people who live out of state and identify themselves as “Retired”. It’s clear that retirees outside Missouri are Eigel’s primary target.
Seniors are a prime target for all sorts of online scams due to factors like social isolation, a trusting nature and declining cognitive function. Many also live alone, have significant savings and have no one overseeing their spending. (By the way, I’m retired, which is probably why I’ve been getting Eigel’s emails.)
The most recent emails I received from BILL PAC focused on deporting undocumented immigrants and “defunding a United Nations Global Climate tax”, issues that are hardly within the purview of St. Charles’ County Executive.
The deportation email said only:
“122 residents of your neighborhood have signed the GOP petition to deport every illegal alien, but your name is MISSING!
JOIN YOUR NEIGHBORS: SIGN NOW“
If you “Sign Now” you’ll be asked for a donation of $12.50 to $250 and up. And if you don’t uncheck a yellow box, you’ll be committing to making a recurring monthly donation of your initial pledge Ad infinitum. This is a practice the ACLU says “routinely takes advantage of older donors and first-time donors who are unfamiliar with navigating campaign fundraising platforms”.
Most individual online donations to Eigel detailed in reports submitted to the Missouri Ethics Commission in 2025 have been in small amounts, but they add up over time. Frequently, individuals have been making multiple contributions on the same day, almost as though they have been stuck in a loop, forgetting they’d already given that day:
For example, a retired man from Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey made six separate donations ($10, $2.50, $2.50, $2.50, $2.50, $4.75) on June 29, 2025. Another retired man from Spokane, WA made seven contributions ($20.24, $35, $10, $10, $10, $9.50, $10) on April 27, 2025.
Many prolific contributors seem almost addicted to online donations. An 86-year-old retired woman from Lititz, PA made online donations to Bill Eigel’s Believe in Life and Liberty political action committee, BILL PAC, 26 times.[1] A retired woman from Dalton, Georgia made donations 28 times[2].
Then there’s a retired man from Reston, VA, a consistent donor to Republican state and federal candidates and committees, who made an astonishing 65 separate online donations to BILL PAC, according to reports submitted to the Missouri Ethics Commission in 2025[3].
Organizations including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the National Council on Aging and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) repeatedly warn seniors about financial scams targeting them. The warnings, however, usually caution seniors about things such as funeral scams, phony investment schemes, telemarketing/phone scams and impersonation scams.
Clearly, it’s time to warn seniors about political fundraising scams, too.
[1] $36.44, $36.44, $36.44; $18.22; $36.44; $36.44; $36.44;$33.25; $15, $15, $20, $20.82, $10.41, $10.41, $15; $12.50, $13.01, $6.51, $6.51, $15; $12.50, $3.25, $3.25; $12.50; $15; $15.
[2] $10.41, $7.81, $7.81, $7.50, $7.50, $7.50, $20, $14.25, $10, $5.21, $5, $2.50, $5, $10.41, $3.75, $3.75, $3.75, $19, $12.50, $15, $15, $10, $15, $5, $12.50, $10, $15, $10
[3] $5.87, $5.87, $5.87, $6.11, $3.06, $6.11, $4.57, $5.87, $6.11, $3.06, $3.06, $3.06, $4, $12.50, $13.01, $6.51, $3.25, $18, $9.37, $4.68, $10, $5.21, $5.21, $10.41, $4.16, $4.75, $10.41, $5.21, $5.21, $10.41, $15.62, $15.62, $15.62, $15.62, $15.62, $4.75, $5.87, $6.11, $6.11, $5.87. $6.11, $6.11, $3.06, $6.11, $4.57, $5.87, $6.11, $3.06, $3.06, $3.06, $4, $12.50, $13.01, $6.51, $3.25, $18, $9.37, $4.68, $10, $5.21, $5.21, $10.41, $4.16, $4.75
Portland’s Proposed Parks Levy: Rewarding Incompetence
Please, sir, hit me again.
That’s what it sounds like some Portland voters are saying when they voice support for Measure 26-260 to maintain the city’s parks with a five-year levy that would increase the rate of taxation from 80 cents to $1.40 per $1,000 of assessed value, a massive 75% increase.
What business would reward a division’s mismanagement and profligacy by giving it more money?
What citizen would tolerate giving more money to a bureaucracy that has consistently failed in its mission while boosting its employment ranks? In 2020, Portland Parks and Recreation had 566 full-time employees. As of January 31, 2025, it had 792 full-time employees, almost a 30%increase. Good grief.
What voters already burdened with absurdly high taxes in an uncertain economy would purposefully burden themselves even more? What voters are unconcerned about the Legislature passing the $4.3 billion gas tax/wage tax bill Governor Kotek is eventually going to sign, particularly when, as numerous economists are observing, folks at the top part of the income and wealth distribution are doing fabulously well, but the other 80% are getting worried.
According to the Tax Foundation, an independent, nonpartisan non-profit research think tank, Portland residents already face some of the highest taxes in the country. “City, county, regional, and state taxes on individual and both net and gross business income combine to create a crushing tax wedge, yielding some of the highest marginal rates on wage income nationwide,” the Tax Foundation says.
What citizen would reward a bureaucracy that, according to a fiscal management audit released on Oct. 15 by the Portland City Auditor’s Office, “…has not taken a systematic approach to finding and implementing cost-saving, revenue-generating or service-reduction strategies.”
Then again, Portland voters have a history of tolerance for, even endorsement of, ineffective government.
In a May 2025 special election, Portland voters, ignoring cautionary arguments, supported Measure 26-259, a $1.83 billion bond to completely rebuild or renovate three high schools, the largest school bond in Oregon history, ignoring projections that there won’t be nearly enough students to fill them. The Oregonian also reported that the new schools would be three of the most expensive high schools ever built in the United States.
The massive spending will also result in space for 15,300 high school students, while Portland State University’s Population Research Center projected in July 2024 that the Portland School District will only have about 10,700 students by 2039.
The last thing Portland needs now is another irresponsible spending measure. Vote NO on Measure 26-260.
Speed Cameras Are Funneling Overtime Money to Portland Cops
Portland may be “The City That Works”, but the city’s speed camera program doesn’t. And that’s costing a bundle.
Portland started using fixed speed cameras to identify and fine drivers in 2016. It began by issuing warnings starting on Aug. 25 of that year for violations occurring on the SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway corridor. The program started issuing formal speeding tickets at the end of a 30-day trial period on Sept. 24, 2016.
But a persistent problem quickly emerged. Every photograph had to reviewed and every citation had to be issued by a sworn police officer. That was creating a backlog in processing citations and hindering the city’s ability to expand its automated enforcement program.
In 2020, Portland’s fixed speed cameras issued 38,502 tickets. Each one had to be reviewed by a sworn police officer, a massive time sink to say the least.
Finally, in 2022 a solution was found when the Legislature took up HB4105, which allowed the City of Portland to utilize non-police staff (specifically, “duly authorized traffic enforcement agents”) to review and issue citations based on photographs from fixed speed cameras, thereby freeing up police officers to focus on other duties.
Support for the bill was widespread.
“Allowing duly authorized enforcement agents to review citations will create more review capacity – while at the same time ensuring that appropriate training and certification for reviewing personnel are in place,” the City of Portland testified before the House Committee on Rules. “This will address police capacity as well as traffic safety needs.”
Multnomah County testified that requiring police officers to review and issue citations “reduces the capacity (of sworn police officers) for other police priorities and also creates a costly barrier to use of automated enforcement.”
Dana Dickman, at the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), testified that not only was each traffic safety camera violation being reviewed by a sworn police officer, but “100% of traffic safety camera violation review occurs on police overtime. Expanding the pool of qualified reviewers would lower the cost of this function.”
Reporting on HB 4105, Willamette Week noted that Portland was then advertising a starting salary for officers of $66,934. “In a 2,000-hour year, that’s $33.47 an hour. At time-and-a-half, an officer would be paid $50 an hour to review photo radar tickets.” Willamette Week said those payments explained why the Portland police union opposed changing the law.
Maybe that’s why once the bill passed in 2022, any sense of urgency in implementing it seemed to evaporate.
In December 2024, Jonathan Maus, publisher/editor of BikePortland’s news site, reported that he had asked the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s (PBOT) Communications Director, Hannah Schafer, about the status of implementing the new authority given to them in HB 4105. “PBOT is currently developing the program that will result in PBOT staff reviewing and issuing citations for moving violations from the automated enforcement cameras,” Schafer replied.
Well, here we are in October 2025, 34 months after the effective date of the law, and sworn police officers are still reviewing each and every moving violation recorded by one of the city’s cameras.
Earlier this year, Willamette Week reported that even though speed cameras have been effective, more have not been installed because, as PBOT spokesman Dylan Rivera put it, police officers are currently the ones to review all citations, mostly on overtime shifts, and the bureau is limited by police availability. They’re also hamstrung by capacity at the Multnomah County Circuit Court, which adjudicates the citations.
Meanwhile, the cost of all that overtime? I filed a public records request to find out and it took repeated requests to get the precise numbers I asked for:
| Year | Overtime Hrs. | Cost ($) |
| 2022 | 501.83 | 41,964.57 |
| 2023 | 411.59 | 36,963.07 |
| 2024 | 423.00 | 40,991.56 |
| 2025 | 628.21 | 60,423.17 |
| Total | 1,964.63 | $180,342.37 |
It comes out of the fines paid by speed scofflaws, not the city budget, but still, that’s $180,342.37 down the drain and into police officers’ pockets.
The overtime rule has obviously been quite lucrative for some Portland Police officers. A complete annual breakdown in overtime payments each year is provided in the footnote.[1]
In July 2025, PBOT’s Speed Safety Camera Program Manager, Steve Hoyt-McBeth, told me he’s “very eager to get the ( duly authorized enforcement agents ) program up and running” but “the current holdup is funding”.
Hiring the positions had been held for approximately six months because of PBOT’s budget challenges, he said. “I was hopeful that I’d be able to begin the recruitment this summer, but the lack of a funded state transportation package, which puts an approximately $11 million hole in PBOT’s FY25-26 has kept the pause button pressed.”
Hoyt-McBeth said part of the holdup is also tied to staff capacity to develop the program. “No municipality in Oregon currently utilizes the statutory authority to have Agents issue citations, so we have to develop the training and program ourselves without a template from another jurisdiction,” he said.
So, when are the Portland Police going to relinquish their lucrative overtime work on speed camera violations and pass it on to non-police staff?
Don’t hold your breath.
| Year | 2022 | |
| Officer | Overtime Hours | Overtime Compensation ($) |
| 1 | 159 | 13802.83 |
| 2 | 128 | 9818.92 |
| 3 | 98.33 | 8621.66 |
| 4 | 60 | 5177.85 |
| 5 | 19 | 1580.44 |
| 6 | 12 | 1150.1 |
| 7 | 9.5 | 425.7 |
| 8 | 4 | 366.71 |
| 9 | 4 | 359.28 |
| 10 | 4 | 331.44 |
| 11 | 4 | 329.64 |
| Grand Total | 501.83 | 41964.57 |
| Year | 2023 | |
| Row Labels | Overtime Hours | Overtime Compensation |
| 1 | 173 | 15559.57 |
| 2 | 145 | 12756.66 |
| 3 | 77.5 | 7334.17 |
| 4 | 7.84 | 642.96 |
| 5 | 4 | 346.76 |
| 6 | 4 | 298.32 |
| 7 | 0.25 | 24.63 |
| Grand Total | 411.59 | 36963.07 |
| Year | 2024 | |
| Officer | Overtime Hours | Overtime Compensation ($) |
| 1 | 196 | 19167.56 |
| 2 | 120 | 12019.85 |
| 3 | 60 | 5132.4 |
| 4 | 25.5 | 2659.74 |
| 5 | 14 | 1377.88 |
| 9 | 4 | 406.2 |
| 6 | 3.5 | 220.61 |
| 7 | 0 | 7.32 |
| Grand Total | 423 | 40991.56 |
| Year | 2025 | |
| Officer | Overtime Hours | Overtime Compensation ($) |
| 1 | 192.13 | 19916.23 |
| 2 | 198 | 19700.98 |
| 3 | 110 | 11201.88 |
| 4 | 74.75 | 4862.33 |
| 5 | 45.33 | 3936.23 |
| 6 | 4 | 417.84 |
| 7 | 4 | 387.68 |
| Grand Total | 628.21 | 60423.17 |
Missouri County Executive Candidate Using Deceptive Targeted Fundraising Tactics Nationwide
William C. (Bill) Eigel, a conservative former state senator from the 23rd District in Missouri’s St. Charles County, may have come in second place in 2024’s Missouri Republican gubernatorial primary. And he may have lost in his push to be chairman of the state Republican Party in 2025. But he hasn’t abandoned his political drive or lost his fundraising bravado.
In October 2024, he filed paperwork with the Missouri Ethics Commission (MEC) that let him raise money for a possible run for St. Charles County Executive. On February 3, 2025, shortly after he lost his bid to become chair of the Missouri Republican Party, he confirmed that he would run for St. Charles County Executive in 2026. The election will be held on November 3, 2026, following party primaries on August 4, 2026.
According to the Missouri Independent, “no one sees the move as evidence that Eigel is ready to step off the statewide stage. To the contrary, the campaign is seen by Jefferson City denizens as Eigel simply looking for a political perch to mount another primary challenge against Kehoe in 2028.”
To support his Charles County campaign, Eigel is soliciting contributions for his Believe in Life and Liberty political action committee, BILL PAC. Why doesn’t the PAC’s name say it’s connected to Eiger?
“Some states require PACs backing single candidates or with specific donors to include the politician or the funders in their name,” the Missouri Independent has explained. “Not Missouri. Instead, PAC names can be a set of initials used for a reason no one can remember, a feel-good name that doesn’t have anything to do with the interest being promoted or even the name of a favorite television character.
On his Facebook page, Eigel is highlighting that “over 200 patriots showed up to our campaign event” on Sept. 27, suggesting high local enthusiasm for his candidacy. But what stands out when you examine the contributions in BILL PAC’s July 2025 report is how few are from locals. Most, in fact, are coming in from out of state. I haven’t contributed, but Eigel’s email came to me in Oregon.
Eigel faced criticism during his gubernatorial campaign for relying on nationwide out-of-state donors pursued by Targeted Victory, a Virginia consulting firm. This time he’s using a different firm for the same purpose.
In a July 2025 Quarterly Report to MEC, BILL PAC reported total receipts of $209,659.91.
In a list of itemized expenditures over $100, BILL PAC reported fundraising expenses of $93,304.66 paid to Nineonesix, 2311 Wilson Blvd., Suite 200, Arlington, VA 22201. Nineonesix defines itself as a “mobile marketing agency” that serves only Republicans. “We design and execute media plans with a focus on emerging digital platforms, using thumb-stopping mobile creative to drive results,” it says.
BILL PAC’s only other fundraising expense over $100 identified in its that quarter was $2,388.83 to the Old Hickory Golf Club in St. Peters, Missouri.
The July report to the MEC lists by name and address donations to BILL PAC from persons giving more than $100 to BILL PAC.
One interesting anomaly with the contributions to BILL PAC in the July report, some as small as $3 and some as high as $500, is that more than 99% of them came from people who identified themselves as retired. That suggests retired people have been Nineonesix’s primary online target. Seniors are a prime target for online scams due to factors like social isolation a trusting nature and declining cognitive function. Many also live alone and have no one overseeing their spending. (By the way, I’m retired, which is probably why I’ve been getting Eigel’s emails.)
The report also showed many donors made multiple donations over time, resulting in aggregate donations of as much as $2,000, which suggests multiple email appeals driven by repeated responses.
One donor, a retired woman from Abilene, Texas, typically gave $3.50 each time, for an aggregate of $194.16 as of April 27, 2025. Not to be outdone, a retired man from North Prince George, Virginia, gave a total of $83.50 in eleven separate donations ranging from $4 to $23 spread out over the quarter. In another case, a retired man from Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey made six separate donations ($10, $2.50, $2.50, $2.50, $2.50, $4.75) on just one day, June 29, 2025.
The PAC’s April and January 2025 quarterly reports to the Missouri Ethics Commission are similar in showing heavy reliance on retired out-of-state donors.
The oddest thing about BILL PAC’s appeals is that they don’t mention Bill Eigel’s name or even what office he’s running for. Instead, they rely on highlighting all sorts of hot-button issues and inflammatory stories that have nothing to do with the St. Charles race and are about issues over which a St. Charles County Executive would have no jurisdiction
On Oct.15, I received an email from BILL PAC calling on me to sign a petition calling for mandatory nationwide voter ID and to send money:
“Without mandatory voter ID in ALL 50 states, your vote will be replaced by an illegal alien. We need 2,500,000 signatures to our SECURE THE VOTE Petition before midnight to make a strong push to secure our elections ONCE AND FOR ALL:“
Another email I recently received from BILL PAC, labelled a “Voter Identification Survey” asks a series of questions, such as ” Do you believe Democrats are opposed to Voter ID laws because they negatively affect their chances of winning elections?” and “Should illegal immigrants be included in the US Census?” before asking for donations.
Then here’s this message I got from BILL PAC:
Friend, you can’t make this crap up!
A CRIMINAL, illegal alien FUGITIVE became a superintendent of a public school in Iowa.
When law enforcement caught him after he attempted to evade arrest, he was found in possession of a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash, and a hunting knife.
This was the SAME MAN who was the superintendent of a public school. Radical Democrats have put the safety and well-being of our children SECOND to an illegal alien.
How many other invaders are in positions of power in our country? The open-border invasion Biden helped cultivate is damaging our safety, schools, communities, and country.
We MUST ramp up deportations for these illegal criminals ONCE AND FOR ALL.
We need a strong wave of support before MIDNIGHT TONIGHT, demanding that all illegals are deported ASAP>>
SPEED UP MASS DEPORTATIONS NOW
Click on “We need a strong wave of support…” and you go to a donations page that also allows you to make a single or monthly recurring donation.
At the bottom of the email in small print is the following:
| Paid for by BILL PAC |
| 1020 S Benton Avenue St. Charles, MO 63301 |
That’s all. A recipient would have to be motivated to do some digging to find out the email is from a PAC supporting Bill Eigel’s run for County Executive of St. Charles County in Missouri.
I also got this email message from BILL PAC, along with an appeal for a donation:
Friend, the fate of the $5,000 DOGE checks can go one of two ways:
They can be paid to YOU and the American people.
OR: They can be revoked, and continue to fund liberal pet projects.
KEEP FUNDING LIBERAL PET PROJECTS
And this message from BILL PAC urging me to sign a petition supporting deporting Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, along with an appeal for a donation:
“If America is “so terrible,” and Somalia is “so great,” then let’s send her back! Sign the petition ASAP in support of deporting Ilhan Omar >>
And this email from BILL PAC, including an appeal for a donation:
We tried emailing you last week, but received no response.
We hope this isn’t a dead email, so this is your FINAL ATTEMPT to finalize your personalized DOGE Audit.
We can’t pass this audit over to the next patriot in your neighborhood until yours is complete, so we’re hoping you can end this logjam and complete the DOGE census of your area by TONIGHT!
HELP GET THE DOGE AUDIT TO OTHERS
So far, 1,076 patriots have completed this audit, so don’t be the first person to refuse to complete it and leave DOGE in the dust!
On his Facebook page, Eigel describes himself as “Christian, Husband, Father, USAF Veteran, Small Business Owner, Former State Senator for St. Charles County, and the conservative candidate for St. Charles County Executive.”
The deceit and inflammatory messaging in his fundraising campaign aimed at vulnerable seniors doesn’t seem very Christian to me.
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:
| 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!
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! |
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
Say It Ain’t So, 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?
Of Intrepid Men and Their Flying Machines
The plane was flying 3500 ft. above the vast Atlantic Ocean.
“Then, just as he was looking at the needle of the air-speed indicator, it froze in front of his eyes. He could smell smoke. Its sensor, mounted above his head, had become packed with sleet and jammed. The indicator was now useless. The turbulent wind made the aircraft sway and judder…To try to get his equilibrium back, he drew back the control column, hoping to pull the nose up. The aeroplane hung motionless for a second. Then it fell into a steep spiral dive.”
Charles A. Lindbergh in a single-engine plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, in May 1927, trying to complete the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight?
Negative.
It was eight years earlier in May 1919. The courageous pilot was Jack Alcock, a British aviator flying a modified Vickers Vimy bomber powered by two Rolls-Royce Eagle engines. Alcock was trying to complete a nonstop flight from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Ireland. Accompanying him as navigator was Arthur Whitten Brown. Brown, nicknamed “Teddy,” was born in Glasgow, Scotland, though his parents were Americans.
I’ve admired Lindbergh since I was a child, thrilled at his derring-do, self-reliance and a triumph of will against the odds. (Yes, I know he also had some less than admirable qualities) On a trip to Hawaii as an adult, I even made a special trip to visit his grave at the end of the road to Hana under the shade of a Java plum tree at Palapala Ho‘omau Church on Maui. I’ve read multiple books about Lindbergh, who became a sensational and lasting celebrity, and I always thought, as most Americans likely do, that he was the first to complete a nonstop transatlantic flight.
Then I came across a fascinating, dramatic, fast-paced book published in 2024, The Big Hop, by David Rooney.
At a time when there seems to be few real heroes, Rooney’s compelling account reveals that Alcock and Brown, both veterans of WW I, were among a hardy group of men who took on the challenge of a contest sponsored by Lord Northcliffe, owner of The Daily Mail newspaper. Northcliffe offered a £10,000 prize to the first aviators to fly non-stop across the Atlantic.
Alcock and Brown were no strangers to peril. Alcock had fought in multiple terrifying dogfights during WWI, earning a Distinguished Service Cross. Brown, captured by the Germans in 1915 after crashing his Flying Corps B.E.2c biplane in northeastern France during WWI, endured atrocious conditions in German prisoner-of-war camps. The camps, often run by sadistic commanders, offered scandalously meagre food rations, were often freezing, swarming with rats and mice, and were inattentive to the multiple injuries and health issues suffered by POWs.
To be eligible for Northcliffe’s prize, competitors had to comply with three basic conditions: the flight had to be between any point in Great Britain and any point in Canada, Newfoundland or the United States; the flight had to be non-stop; the flight had to be completed within 72 hours.
Three teams joined Alcock and Brown in Newfoundland to make the attempt at a continuous Atlantic crossing:
- Harry Hawker and Kenneth Mackenzie-Grieve in a single engine Sopwith Atlantic
- Frederick Raynham and C. W. F. Morgan in a single-engined Martinsyde Raymor
- A team led by Mark Kerr in a four-engined Handley Page V/1500 bomber Atlantic
Hawker had a successful takeoff and managed to fly about 1000 miles, but the Sopwith’s engine failed and the plane went down in the ocean about 750 miles from Ireland. Hawker and Mackenzie-Grieve were rescued by a Danish steamer, the SS Mary.
Raynham and Morgan’s plane crashed on takeoff on Newfoundland, likely due to a heavy fuel load and rough terrain.
Mark Kerr’s team abandoned their attempt at a transatlantic crossing after Alcock and Brown successfully crossed the Atlantic.
Alcock later said that when his modified Vickers Vimy bomber fell into a steep spiral dive during the transatlantic flight, the plane “began to perform circus tricks”—plunging toward the ocean while he fought desperately to remain aloft. One moment the altimeter read 1,000 feet, the next only 100. When they were just 65 feet above the waves, he succeeded in regaining control.
On 15 June 1919 a telegram from Alcock and Brown arrived at the Royal Aero Club with the message: ‘Landed Clifden, Ireland, at 8.40 am Greenwich mean time, June 15, Vickers Vimy Atlantic machine leaving Newfoundland coast 4.28 pm GMT, June 14, Total time 16 hours 12 minutes. Instructions awaited.’
As David Rooney wrote in The Big Hop, “Today, a transatlantic flight is an unremarkable part of everyday life. It is almost a chore. But somebody had to go first.”
Memorials at Clifden and London’s Heathrow International Airport also commemorate their achievement.
A statue of Alcock & Brown. Originally on display at Heathrow Airport, it was relocated at the Heathrow Academy but was moved to Clifden in Ireland on 7 May for an eight-week stay to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the flight on 15 June.
ICE Creating High Crime DC Trump Deplores
The Free Press is reporting that D.C. police department supervisors have been under pressure to manipulate crime data to make it appear that violent crime has fallen compared to years past, according to the police union.
“ ‘When our members respond to the scene of a felony offense where there is a victim reporting that a felony occurred, inevitably there will be a lieutenant or a captain that will show up on that scene and direct those members to take a report for a lesser offense,’ Fraternal Order of Police Chairman Gregg Pemberton said.” Sure, someone’s killed their girlfriend and is waving a gun in the air, but have you considered reporting it as a speeding ticket? The house has been broken into and the children are missing, but disorderly conduct has a better ring to it, I think. One police commander who allegedly changed crime data has been put on leave over it.
But wait a minute. Remember the guy, Sean Charles Dunn, 37, who was arrested for throwing a sandwich at an ICE agent in D.C.?
Daina Henry, a local transit police detective, detailed the altercation in a criminal complaint, alleging Dunn pointed his finger in the officer’s face and yelled, ‘Fuck you! You fucking fascists! Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city,’ minutes before ‘winding his arm back and forcefully throwing a sub-style sandwich’
Dunn has been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and employees of the United States – a felony. The charge could mean prison time and significant fines.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a social media post Thursday that Dunn had been fired from his job as an international affairs specialist in the Justice Department’s criminal division. She then unleashed a diatribe on the incident. You’d think Dunn was a mass shooter.
“If you touch any law enforcement officer, we will come after you,” Bondi said in a post on the social media platform X. “I just learned that this defendant worked at the Department of Justice — NO LONGER. Not only is he FIRED, he has been charged with a felony. This is an example of the Deep State we have been up against for seven months as we work to refocus DOJ. You will NOT work in this administration while disrespecting our government and law enforcement.”
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, a former Fox News host, chimed in as well. “Let me be clear, if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, be certain we will come after you with the full weight of the law.,” Pirro said. “Our officers have a job to do, and they should not be abused in the process. This alleged assault is no joke – it’s a serious crime, and those who think otherwise will learn just how gravely mistaken they are.”
So much for charging people with a lesser offense to make it appear that violent crime has fallen in the nation’s capital.
Misguided Charity: Portland’s Proposed Pearl District Homeless Shelter
There’s a saying of uncertain providence, “Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man to Fish, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime”.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson wants to give the homeless in the Pearl District a fish.
Wilson wants to turn an industrial building at NW 15th Avenue and NW Northrup Street into a so-called “low-barrier” overnight-only homeless shelter able to accommodate up to 200 people. An all-night warehouse for the homeless. According to the NW Examiner last month, the city and property owner Vanessa Sturgeon of Sturgeon
Development Partners signed a 12-year lease in May that Mayor Keith Wilson has described as a two-or-three-year
deal. The $18,000-a-month lease covers the main floor and part of a basement, a total of 16,000 square feet, to be used only for shelter for unhoused individuals.
Low-barrier means the people who stay there from 8pm to 6am wouldn’t have to show an ID, be sober (there’s be no sobriety checks) or drug-free, although alcohol and drugs would not be allowed. The 200- bed shelter at Northwest 15th will have only two showers and sex offenders will be allowed inside the low- barrier shelter because no one will be checking for IDs.
A critic posted on reddit: “It’s basically a night prison. 200 people, 6 toilets, low barrier, barely a snack, no meals, no counseling, no fresh clothing. And then they are going to “disperse” these people every morning near parks and schools.”
Potential overnighters could access a bed by standing in line before the shelter opened. At a July 28, 2025, public forum at the Armory, Skyler Brocker-Knapp, who oversees the city’s shelter plan, said people will be handed a card with information about where to receive social services after leaving the shelter.
I still remember going to a free lunch for the homeless program in an underground Portland parking garage a number of years ago. Tables spread out across the center of the garage displayed a bounty of meal options put together by multiple well-meaning social justice volunteers, from sandwiches and lasagna to potato chips and hot ethic dishes. Homeless people streamed in, wearily assembled in slow-moving lines, grabbed hold of what they wanted and found a spot on the concrete floor to sit and eat.
It wasn’t uplifting. It was depressing.
Nobody was there to help the struggling people get their lives back on track, to inquire about the welfare of their children, or to make them aware of accessible pathways towards lasting change. The whole thing was a misguided feel-good effort at charity by naïve good Samaritans.
More recently, I saw a group of fresh-faced, eager suburban teenage girls handing out sandwiches from the trunk of their car to homeless people at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park. That might have eased their consciences, but how, exactly, did that drive change?
As Kevin Dahlgren has noted in his Substack, @truthonthestreets, “We don’t have a homeless crisis; we have a mental health and addiction crisis. Unfortunately, many still treat the homeless crisis as if it’s a housing crisis and push for more and more shelter beds. The problem is these shelters are far too low a level of care for the majority of our mentally ill.”
“Many advocates for the homeless assume that homelessness is primarily due to the unaffordability of housing, rather than drug use, antisocial behavior, criminal activity or mental illness,” says Devon Kurtz, director of public safety policy at the conservative Cicero Institute. “From this assumption flows misguided confidence that living on the street is an unfortunate but preferable alternative to institutions that curb the civil liberties of individuals who are simply poor. This assumption is wrong. In the largest survey of homeless Americans ever conducted, only 4% cited high housing costs as the primary reason they were homeless. Significant majorities said they had mental-health issues, had used illegal substances and had been to jail or prison for extended periods.”
A woman who directed a social service agency in the Portland area that served low-income families once told me the whole free food approach was “antiquated”, a long-ago discredited tactic , and that unrestricted aid was counterproductive.
So’s the proposed low-barrier Pearl District homeless shelter.
ThinkingOregon 