Tag: democrats

New Evidence of Alleged ActBlue Foreign Money Laundering Operation Revealed

ActBlue and other campaign donation platforms are at the center of an investigation being conducted by at least 20 State’s attorneys general, as well as the House Administration Committee in Congress.  It is also the subject of a lawsuit in Waukesha County, where earlier this month a judge allowed limited discovery into ActBlue to proceed.

The colloquial term used to describe this alleged operation is “smurfing.”  Peter Bernegger, Chris Gleason, and their team discovered this suspected campaign money laundering operation and went public with it in 2023 when James O’Keefe’s OMG published videos interviewing suspected victims of this scheme.

According to the FEC.gov website, there are potentially thousands upon thousands of individuals whose identities are being stolen to launder millions of dollars to political campaigns and PACs across the country.  This scheme can be verified by anyone:

  1. Simply go to FEC.gov.
  2. Under “Campaign Finance Data”, select “Look up contributions from specific individuals.”
  3. Put “ActBlue” as the “Recipient Name”
  4. Select a zip code or city you’d like to search
  5. Under “Occupation” put “retired”
  6. Uncheck the Report Time Period box or expand it to the date range you’d like to check

The last step is to click “Export” in the top right hand corner.  This will download the data in a spreadsheet format.  When you open it up, sort the data by name.  Each contribution in this alleged scheme is typically under $5.

On Friday, Bernegger joined the Why We Vote podcast to discuss the recent reports that have come out of Congress via Rep. Bryan Steil and Rep. Jim Jordan.  According to subpoenaed records from ActBlue, Just The News reported that ActBlue updated its policy on Sept 9th to “automatically reject donations that use foreign prepaid/gift cards, domestic gift cards, are from high-risk/sanctioned countries, and have the highest level of risk as determined,” by its solution provider, Sift.

Bernegger had several crucial updates regarding their own investigation into this money-laundering scheme regarding an automated process to make the donations, why ActBlue’s policy update likely won’t have any impact on any accounts established before the change, and whether or not the incoming Trump administration will engage in this investigation.

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Micromanaging Foreign Nations: A Bipartisan Syndrome

If one thing is certain, there will be more uncertainty abroad. Yet most Washington officials believe their job is to manage the world, even the least minutiae involving other states. And the rest of the world’s job is to obey them. At a time of multiplying wars, U.S. policymakers continue to waste time, resources, and credibility on issues that are frankly none of America’s business. 

Consider Georgia in the Caucasus. It had the misfortune in 2008 to be ruled by Mikheil Saakashvili, who triggered an invasion by recklessly bombarding Russian troops, apparently expecting the American cavalry to race to his rescue. Even the war-happy President George W. Bush, however, wasn’t prepared to confront Moscow.

Today a new government is in power in Tbilisi. Derided as pro-Russian, it has won several elections and appears to be carefully balancing Moscow and Brussels, a far smarter approach. Yet it has been under siege of late. Claims of electoral fraud have been leveled without proof. Charges of excessive force against demonstrators are better grounded, although protestors also were violent. Another issue is the European Union, which younger Georgians are impatient for their country to join. 

None of this should matter much to Washington. Georgia is not a security interest for America. It has no notable economic, cultural, or historic connection to the U.S. Yet Washington joined Europe in funding groups backing Georgia’s entry into the EU. The Biden administration then was outraged when the Tbilisi government targeted foreign funding for domestic organizations, the sort of political interference that Washington politicians ritualistically criticize in the U.S. Indeed, the Georgian legislation looks like America’s broad Foreign Agent Registration Act. Rather than taking this as a sign of flattery, Washington suspended financial aid to Tbilisi, its position apparently that the U.S. is entitled to make secret contributions to influence other nations’ politics.

More recently, Georgia’s prime minister said that he was suspending discussions involving EU membership. Protests erupted. Last month the administration issued a statement, citing alleged threats to the freedom to protest, while calling on “all sides to ensure protests remain peaceful” (emphasis added), a tacit admission that protestors also had been at fault. Yet the State Department led with criticism of “the decision by Georgian Dream [administration] to suspend Georgia’s EU accession process” and concluded by reiterating “our call to the Georgian government to return to its Euro-Atlantic path.” The U.S., a great power a continent and an ocean away, was telling another Russian neighbor that it should ignore Moscow’s sensitivities and go all in with the West—even though the U.S. refused to intervene militarily on Tbilisi’s behalf in 2008 and, as demonstrated in Ukraine, would not do so today in the event of conflict.

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ActBlue Bombshell: Dem money platform tells Congress it didn’t block foreign gift cards until fall

ActBlue, the massive online fund-raising platform for liberal causes, has informed Congress it did not automatically block donations made with foreign-bought gift cards until recently, a potentially significant revelation in an ongoing investigation into whether China, Russia, Iran or Venezuela routed illicit money to Democrat candidates.

House Administratrion Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., whose panel oversees election integrity, told Just the News on Tuesday that ActBlue turned over documents under subpoena showing a major change in September to its donor verification policies designed to protect against illicit money flowing into political campaigns. 

ActBlue disclosed that it updated its policies on Sept. 9 to “automatically reject donations that use foreign prepaid/gift cards, domestic gift cards, are from high-risk/sanctioned countries, and have the highest level of risk as determined,” by its solution provider, Sift.

The change occurred just three days after  Steil introduced the Secure Handling of Internet Electronic Donations (SHIELD) Act on Sept. 6 to ensure foreign money stayed out of online political fundraising. Before the change, Steil said, donations made with foreign gift cards were not automatically rejected by ActBlue before the change.

“While this is a positive step forward, there is still more work to be done to ensure our campaign finance system is fully protected from fraud and unlawful foreign interference,”  Steil told Just the News. “The documents provided to the Committee also confirm that ActBlue still accepted these concerning payment methods in July, a period when Democrats raised a record number of campaign money before implementing these safeguards.

Steil disclosed earlier this fall that his committee is investigating whether four foreign powers — China, Russia, Venezuela and Iran — used ActBlue to route illicit foreign money into Democrat coffers. 

His committee referred thousands of suspicious donations to state attorneys general in five state, prompting an investigation that has now expanded to 19 states.

In addition, a Wisconsin Republican strategist  filed a lawsuit in October alleging his email identity was misused to make Democrat and liberal donations he did not authorize or pay for. The judge in the case recently approved a subpoena compelling ActBlue to disclose certain evidence in the case.

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Senior Democrat: the Party Should Double Down on Identity Politics

A senior Democrat has told the party it must reaffirm its commitment to identity politics, even if the face of Kamala Harris’s crushing electoral defeat to Donald Trump.

On Thursday, Democrat National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, an African American, blasted critics who believe the party’s reliance on identity politics was the reason for Kamala Harris’s loss. Harrison was speaking at a meeting of Democrat chairs in Arizona.

“When I wake up in the morning, when I look in the mirror, when I step out the door, I can’t rub this off,” Harrison said, gesturing towards his face and his skin colour.

“This is who I am. This is how the world perceives me.”

“That is my identity,” he continued.

“And it is not politics. It is my life. And the people that I need in the party, that I need to stand up for me, have to recognize that. You cannot run away from that.”

Harrison’s tenure as Chairman will end in early 2025. During his speech he suggested that he has further grievances to air and that when his replacement is elected “the muzzle comes off.”

The Democrats are currently locked in an acrimonious blame game over Kamala Harris’s defeat to Donald Trump, with some blaming an excessive focus on identity politics and others saying that Americans are simply more bigoted than was previously thought.

There is significant anger about the extent of Harris’s spending. Senior strategist James Carville said the Vice President has done “unfathomable damage” to the Democrat cause by spending well over a billion dollars.

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Dem Rep. From Colorado Claims FBI and DOJ Stonewalling in Investigation of First Trump Assassination Attempt

Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, a Democrat, recently told National Public Radio that the FBI and the DOJ are stonewalling congress as they attempt to investigate the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, PA.

One of the frustrating aspects of this crime is that the public still knows so little about the shooter and how he was able to get so close to Trump with so many obvious red flags. There are also still many lingering questions about motive.

Surprisingly, Crow claims that the Secret Service has been very forthcoming so far.

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The Fake Compassion of the Left

Their masters did not love them and planned to replace them with other peoples. 
—Renaud Camus, Ørop

The verses of the medieval Persian poet Saadi Shirazi, Bani Adam, or “Children of Adam,” are sewn into a carpet with golden thread and prominently displayed at the UN headquarters in New York. A gift from the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2005 in a gesture of ineffable irony, the poem’s sentiment of unity and compassion between all human beings was meant to convey the ostensible spirit of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the concept of the Dialogue among Civilizations, and the quest for a borderless world. A loose translation of the verses reads:

Bani Adam
All of the sons of Adam are part of one single bodyThey are of the same essence.When time afflicts us with painIn one part of the bodyAll the other parts feel it too.If you fail to feel the pain of othersYou do not deserve the name of man.

The poem has been interpreted by delegates at the UN and apparatchiks in many governments to justify the acceptance of illegal migrants by the hundreds of thousands or millions, in addition to the legal importation of multitudes from Third World countries. The citizens of Europe and North America have been told repeatedly, directly or indirectly, that they must not refuse those afflicted “with pain.” If they fail to heed “the pain of others,” they are fascists, far-right, inhuman.

This interpretation has ignored the pain of those who have seen their own countries transformed by mass immigration, which has increased crime, social division, fear, and economic immiseration. Their pain, in seeing the ways and usages of their country disrespected and destroyed, does not register with those who profess such love for the “children of Adam.” 

These verses may also be challenged and adapted by conservative thinkers and politicians to defend their own citizens from the destructive and conquering effect of interlopers from abroad exploiting the resources — economic, educational, medical, and cultural — of the host nations.

In fact, the solicitude for others affected by the majority of UN delegates and state actors is plainly counterfeit, a deceptive expression of ulterior motives involving calculations of profit, surreptitious political agendas, the inflaming of ancestral hatreds, the pursuit of global hegemony, and other invidious purposes and programs such as those venerable canards climate change, pandemic preparedness, and open borders.

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‘Deceptively Colored Firearm’ Bill Introduced by Equally Deceptive Michigan Democrats

“Democrats push ban on ‘deceptively colored firearms’ amid flurry of lame duck gun bills,” The Midwesterner reported Wednesday. “Designates illegal any firearm other than black, brown, dark grey, dark green, silver, steel, or nickel in color.”

Senate Bill 1134 would amend the Michigan penal code to make “An individual who violates this section or any rule promulgated under this section …  guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 1 year or a fine of not more than $500.00.”

This insulting and oppressively matriarchal assault on both the First Amendment right to expression and the Second Amendment right to arms is the “brainchild” of Democrat Senator Dayna Polehanski, who can get away with such tyrannical acts of legislative sabotage because she’s a “safe seat” Democrat. Per Ballotpedia, she won Michigan State Senate District 5 in 2022 by 61.1% to 38.9% over her Republican opponent, and she’ll be in office until 2027.

Forget that she’s inventing a “solution” in search of a problem, and a Google search for terms like “homicide with ‘colored firearms’” yields no relevant (but unintentionally racist) results from Google, and even if they did would not justify depriving gun owners of their rights under threat of a “law” enforcement response and punishment. Much like the Clinton “assault weapon” ban, it’s entirely cosmetic. And it’s not even an original idea, which, considering it comes from a Democrat Moms Demand Action endorsee is hardly surprising.

The impulse to ban them goes back years ago to then-New York City Mayor and perennial Everytown billionaire money man Michael Bloomberg holding a press conference where he denounced “red and yellow DuraCoat-painted guns … saying anyone who sold them was ‘sick’ and ‘twisted’.”  That, in turn, per a 2008 Daily News report, prompted Steve Lauer of Lauer Custom Weaponry to push back by “market[ing] a line of bright colors called the ‘Bloomberg Collection,’ …[and] introduce… a bright-red shade called ‘Furious Mike.’”

The bill is not without exemptions, notably for “an individual who owns or possesses it on the effective date of the amendatory act that added this section,” and, of course, for “Only Ones” of:

“The United States… This state or another state… A department, an agency, or a political subdivision of the United States, this state, or another state… A member of an entity or organization… while engaged in the course of that member’s duties with that entity or organization or while going to or returning from those duties.”

How the problem of “deceptively colored firearms” goes away when in the hands of someone with a badge is not explained. Neither is the rational basis for “grandfathering” colored guns for one group of citizens, but not providing equal protection for individuals who got theirs “after the effective date of the amendatory act that added this section,” but instead dictating that “no later than 14 days after receipt” they’ll be required to either surrender it “to the department of state police for disposal” or “Modif[y] the deceptively colored firearm or covert firearm so that it is no longer a deceptively colored firearm or covert firearm and cannot be readily converted into one.”

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‘Dumb’ Democrat Sen. Durbin Defends Deep State Ally — Claims Trump ‘Can’t Fire FBI Director Wray’ Before 2027

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), the Senate Majority Whip and Chair of the Judiciary Committee, has defended FBI Director Christopher Wray, asserting that President Trump lacks the authority to replace Wray before his term expires in 2027.

Durbin, echoing the talking points of the Democratic establishment, lambasted Trump’s decision to nominate Kash Patel to lead the FBI. Patel, a staunch advocate for accountability and one of the key figures in exposing the Russia collusion hoax, has become a target of left-wing attacks precisely because of his track record of confronting corruption.

On Saturday, Trump announced his intention to replace current FBI Director Christopher Wray. Trump praised Patel as a “brilliant lawyer” and a staunch defender of justice, poised to tackle America’s crime and corruption.

Trump wrote on Truth Social:

“I am proud to announce that Kashyap “Kash” Patel will serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and “America First” fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People. He played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution.

Kash did an incredible job during my First Term, where he served as Chief of Staff at the Department of Defense, Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council.

Kash has also tried over 60 jury trials. This FBI will end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the Border. Kash will work under our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to bring back Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity to the FBI.”

However, Durbin insists that Wray should remain in his position until the end of his designated term, despite clear precedents and the President’s constitutional authority to make changes within the executive branch.

“We already have a FBI Director, and his term doesn’t expire until 2027. Donald Trump can’t be allowed to hire and fire FBI Directors just because they failed his loyalty test,” said Durbin in a statement.

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New Chair Of Connecticut Dems Was “Hesitant” To Talk About Past As Illegal Immigrant When He Ran For Danbury Mayor In 2021

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont has tapped Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves to be the next chairman of the Democrat State Central Committee.

“As the mayor of a major city, he speaks with the residents of our state on a daily basis and is intimately familiar with their concerns and needs – working to keep our focus on making Connecticut more affordable,” said Lamont who believes Alves “represents the kind of leader needed” for the CT Dems.

“Roberto Alves exemplifies the very best of our state’s values, immigrating to Connecticut as a child, graduating from Danbury High School, and going on to work as a technical sales engineer at Cartus,” said Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz.

According to the CTMirror, Alves came to the U.S. in 1989 as a 5-year-old from Brazil with his parents who overstayed their tourist visa.

When Trump took office in 2016, Alves reportedly “sped up his plan to earn” citizenship, and officially became a citizen on May 18, 2017.

“I wanted to fight locally for people who had the same struggles that my parents did and I did,” Alves told the NewsTimes in 2019.

Alves subsequently ran for Danbury Mayor in 2021, and didn’t hide his previous illegal status, but he didn’t highlight it, either.

“I’m hesitant to use it politically, and I don’t talk about it politically, because people are conservative, and it [rubs] on some people the wrong way,” said Alves in 2021.

It should rub people the wrong way, considering illegal immigration has been estimated to cost Connecticut residents around $1.28 billion.

And let’s not forget that folks like CT AG William Tong have been appearing all around the state, promising to protect illegals from the incoming Trump Administration’s “mass deportation” plans.

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Democrats Say Thanksgiving is About Being Grateful For Illegal Aliens: ‘For Picking and Packing the Food’ and ‘Cleaning the Hotel Rooms’

While most Americans are simply grateful for the freedom and prosperity they enjoy, some Democrats are insisting that Thanksgiving is also about being grateful to illegal aliens.

As the country celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday, various Democratic lawmakers posted messages urging people to be grateful for the “undocumented immigrants” who helped put their meal on the table.

Among them was Barack Obama’s former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Julian Castro, who specifically called on Trump supporters to show their gratitude to migrant workers.

“Everyone at the dinner table today, especially MAGA, please give thanks to the undocumented immigrants that picked and packed the food you’re enjoying,” he wrote on the X platform. “They deserve our grace. Happy Thanksgiving!”

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