Dark Money, right wing billionaires assault on the country

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Here is Jeb Bush..

On Tuesday, former Florida governor and 2016 Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush penned an op-ed at CNN.com. Its purpose was to defend President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to tap Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma Attorney General and vocal critic of the EPA, to head that agency. Pruitt wants to roll back key EPA regulations, like the Clean Power Plan and the Waters of the United States Rule, and has argued that the EPA, in its current form, exerts too much power over environmental regulations.

“I cannot think of a person more suited to lead the Environmental Protection Agency than Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, someone who understands how to rein in an out-of-control bureaucracy and ensure that Washington focuses solely on its core functions,” Bush wrote.
Bush has been largely absent from the public stage since ending his bid for the presidency early this year. But it was recently announced that he would be joining the law firm of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney in a “strategic affiliation” through his own law firm, acting as a consultant to the firm and its clients.

So what does Bush’s career move have to do with his defense of Scott Pruitt? Turns out that Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney bills itself as the “go-to” energy law firm for companies looking to expand their production.

Trump to tap vocal EPA opponent to head the EPA
RIP, EPA.thinkprogress.org[/url]

“For more than five generations, Buchanan has practiced energy law… playing a pivotal role in shattering barriers to energy industry growth,” the company’s website reads. “Through landmark litigation, legislative prowess, and legal and business street smarts, our high-profile, industry-defining wins have paved the way for national energy companies to operate successfully in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays, and beyond.”

The company’s clients include fossil fuel heavyweights like Chevron and Consol Energy, which [url=http://motherboard.vice.com/read/these-oil-and-coal-companies-have-the-worst-climate-change-records]received grades of “poor” and “egregious,” from the Union of Concerned Scientists with respect to each company’s role in fueling climate change and sowing doubt about its causes. In 2008, Chevron’s vice chairman spoke before Congress to ask for help opening up the Outer Continental Shelf to drilling.

Consol Energy does not even mention climate change on its website, nor does it have a company-wide plan for transitioning to carbon-free sources of fuel. In 2016, the firm lobbied for the American Petroleum Institute, Exxon, Shell, BP, Chevron, and ConcoPhillips, among other fossil fuel interests and companies.

In October, John Povilaitis and Alan Seltzer, two shareholders in Buchanan’s Energy section, wrote an op-ed for Temple University’s business law magazine arguing that the regulatory processes for approving oil pipelines needs to be streamlined, so that more pipeline projects can move forward with construction. But the company focuses most on oil production from shale — it has, according to its website, “represented clients in oil and gas related transactions with an aggregate value of $28 billion in the last few years.” The firm represents oil and gas companies in a variety of ways, but one primary way is by helping them comply with Department of Transportation and EPA regulations.

As Oklahoma Attorney General, Pruitt fought regulations related to fracking. Meanwhile, Oklahoma — which is one of the top producers of natural gas in the country, thanks in part to the state’s embrace of fracking since 2009 — has become the most seismically active state in the lower 48. Pruitt also has extremely close ties to the fossil fuel industry — a 2014 New York Times investigation found that Pruitt had sent the EPA a letter, in his capacity as attorney general, which had been drafted by Devon Energy, one of Oklahoma’s biggest oil and gas companies. (Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney also lobbied on behalf of Devon Energy in 2016.)

Cutting regulations that restrict fracking and aim to limit the industry’s pollution would likely be a business boon for Bush’s new partner firm. If that’s what he’s interested in, his public support for Pruitt makes good political — and financial — sense.

Jeb Bush partners with oil and gas lobbying firm, then defends Trump’s EPA pick

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Here is another book that is very much worth reading:

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, speaking with Business Insider during a promotional tour for his new book, "Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy," outlined three planks the party needs to run on in future elections.

The first, he said, was directly related to his book, which outlined what he believes to be the negative effects of corporate influence on the political system. "I think one of the reasons I wrote this book is that I think this issue needs to be brought out front and center," he said. "If you have to compete with an entity that is actually a front group for a big special interest and you haven't successfully told the story of how it's just the end of the tentacle, then you're going to be at a huge disadvantage. And what it says will be given more face-value credit by the public than if they knew, 'Oh, OK, that's the glove with the Koch brothers hand in it, with Wall Street's hand in it.' So I think it's really important we focus on that." Whitehouse added disclosure of donations "ought to be a really, really big deal for us."

Sheldon Whitehouse on the future of the Democratic Party - Business Insider

His other suggestions (see the rest of the article) about what the Democratic party needs to be doing to start winning again also make a lot of sense.

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Certain tax-exempt groups will no longer be required to provide the names and addresses of donors to the IRS on annual forms under guidance that the Treasury Department and IRS released Monday evening. The guidance reflects a priority of conservatives, who have been pushing for the IRS to bar collection of the donor information as part of their efforts to prevent the agency from targeting groups for their political beliefs. Under federal law, charitable organizations that are tax-exempt under section 501©(3) have to provide to the IRS information about the names and addresses of substantial donors. The IRS has required other types of tax-exempt organizations — including 501©(4) groups that advocate for specific policies, such as the National Rifle Association and the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity — to also provide the agency with that information.

IRS reduces donor reporting rules for some tax-exempt groups | TheHill

On the day that a Russian spy was arrested for infiltrating the NRA..

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The most important thing we must do to save our democracy is get big money out of politics. It’s a prerequisite to accomplishing everything else. Today, big money continues to corrupt American politics – creating a vicious cycle that funnels more wealth and power to those at the top and eroding our democracy. In the 2018 midterm elections, wealthy donors and Super-PACs poured millions into the campaigns of the same lawmakers who voted to pass the 2017 tax cuts, which gave them huge windfalls. Consider conservative donors Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, whose casino business received an estimated $700 million windfall, thanks to Trump and Republicans’ tax cuts. The couple then used some of this extra cash to plow more than $113 million dollars into the 2018 election, breaking the record for political contributions by a single household. That’s not a bad return on investment – for them.

American democracy seems rigged because it is: Robert Reich – Alternet.org

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As the Guardian has reported, the censorship frequently pushed by conservative groups is linked to wealthy rightwing donors even as they masquerade as grassroots efforts, with names like “Moms for Liberty” and “Parents Defending Education”. EveryLibrary, a political action committee for libraries, reports that many states have passed laws to change how libraries handle complaints about books, making it easier to remove them. Republican legislators, who loudly claim they are all for freedom of speech, are working to change how library board members are appointed and challenging laws that protect librarians and teachers from prosecution should they be accused of sharing something someone could find offensive.

The right in the US has a new bogeyman: libraries | Maeve Higgins | The Guardian

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A new group led by a prominent conservative lawyer has received $1.6 billion from one donor -- the largest single contribution to a politically focused nonprofit that's ever been made public, and a fortune that could be used to fuel right-wing interests. The nonprofit, Marble Freedom Trust, received the contribution in the form of stock and then funneled more than $200 million to other conservative organizations last year, a tax form CNN obtained from the IRS shows.

Marble Freedom is led by Leonard Leo, the co-chairman of the conservative Federalist Society, who advised former President Donald Trump on his Supreme Court picks and runs a sprawling network of other right-wing nonprofits that don't disclose their donors, which are often referred to as dark money groups.

A CNN review of financial documents connected the donation to Barre Seid, a low-profile, 90-year-old Chicago electronics company executive and philanthropist who has previously been tied to smaller anonymous contributions to other right-wing groups. The New York Times, which first reported the contribution on Monday, also identified Seid as the donor.

Massive dark money donation: New conservative group got $1.6 billion from single donor - CNNPolitics