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DANGER For Americans-Steve Bannons' Past Collusion With TRUMP & For 2024 Election
Inside Tech Billionaires’ Push to Reshape San Francisco Politics: A Hostile Takeover
The Guardian and Mission Local unravel ‘grey money’ network flooding progressive city with conservative cash to oust any Democratic power
The Guardian 12 FEB 2024
From left, cryptocurrency booster Chris Larsen, billionaire investor Michael Moritz and Y Combinator chief executive Garry Tan
People ride their bikes past a homeless encampment along the boardwalk in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles
In a way, it’s a story as old as time: ultra-wealthy figures pouring a flood of money into city politics in an effort to shape the way it is run.
Still, the political-influence machine that tech billionaires and venture capitalists have recently built in San Francisco stands out for its size and ambition. A new analysis of campaign filings, non-profit records and political contributions by the Guardian and Mission Local reveals the extent of this network, which is using its financial and organizational muscle to push the famously progressive city into adopting policies that are tougher on crime and homelessness, and more favorable to business and housing construction.
In the past six years, prominent tech and venture capital leaders – including the hedge fund manager William Oberndorf, the billionaire investor Michael Moritz, the cryptocurrency booster Chris Larsen, the PayPal co-founder David Sacks, the Y Combinator CEO, Garry Tan, and the Pantheon CEO, Zachary Rosen – have invested at least $5.7m into reshaping San Francisco’s policies, according to the analysis of public data. Because not all of their donations are publicly disclosed, the sum of their contributions may be far higher.
In a solidly Democratic city, they have joined forces with traditional business and real estate elites in an effort to oust some of its most progressive leaders and undo its most progressive policies
To achieve those goals, they have created a loose network of interlocking non-profits, dark money groups and political action committees – a framework colloquially known as a “grey money” network – that allows them to obscure the true scale of their involvement in San Francisco’s municipal politics.
The three major groups in this network – NeighborsSF, TogetherSF and GrowSF – have pulled in more than $26m in contributions since 2020, according to campaign finance and tax records, more than $21m of which they have spent on various political issues.
“They’re using multiple layers of organizations to hide the sources of their money, and to hide how much they’re spending,” said Jim Stearns, a political consultant with decades of experience in San Francisco politics and a critic of the groups.
“This is a $20bn hostile takeover of San Francisco by people with vested real estate and tech interests, and who don’t want anyone else deciding how the city is run,” he said, referring to the combined wealth of the most prolific new donors.
Dogged reporting by Bay Area outlets has previously exposed some of the money flowing into these groups. But their structure makes it difficult to easily uncover all sources of donations. Political action committees, or Pacs, are required to name their major donors. But the so-called dark money groups, which are technically civic leagues or social welfare groups, were formed under the 501(c)4 section of the tax code, and do not have to disclose donors or political contributions.
Since the 2010 supreme court ruling Citizens United v Federal Election Commission relaxed regulation around political donations, 501(c)4 groups have exponentially increased their involvement in political donations, to the tune of at least $1bn by 2019 nationwide, according to ProPublica reporting.
However, the Guardian and Mission Local’s analysis of financial records shows several of the organisations donating money to one another, and several groups sharing personnel, addresses and donors. And it reveals the sheer financial deluge they are spending ahead of the 2024 elections.
Complicated Contributions
Among the most prominent and resourced groups in this network is Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy, which was founded by Oberndorf, and an affiliated 501(c)4 started by the longtime San Francisco real estate lobbyist Mary Jung, among others. Oberndorf sits on the board of directors of the dark money group.
NeighborsSF says it is committed to improving public safety, public education and quality of life in the city, backing what it calls “pragmatic” and “responsible” groups and candidates. The group has funded publicity campaigns for moderate candidates and bankrolled other 501(c)4s working to advance related issues.
NeighborsSF has been primarily funded by a handful of extremely wealthy donors from the tech and real estate worlds.
The group’s biggest donor, Kilroy Realty, a southern California-based firm with major holdings in downtown office property and highly desired parcels in the South of Market district, has given $1.2m since 2020. The dynastic real estate investor Brandon Shorenstein has contributed $899,000 through his family’s real estate firm. Larsen has donated at least $300,000. Moritz donated $300,000 in 2020 alone.
It’s a “longer-term, widespread, deliberate strategy”, said Aaron Peskin, the progressive president of San Francisco’s board of supervisors. “They’re propping up innumerable 501(c)4s that are doing everything from mounting political attack campaigns to infiltrating dozens of long-term neighborhood groups … Why would you say no if someone knocked on your door to organize Saturday neighborhood cleanups?”
Towards 2024
With key successes under its belt, this network is gearing up to play a major role in the 2024 elections, which will determine control of the San Francisco board of supervisors and the Democratic county central committee.
New Secret Plan on How Fascists Could Win US 2024 Election
The New Secret Over The Top Plan on How Fascists Could Win in 2024
Exposing Secret Fascist Plan To ‘Win’ 2024 Election
Thom Hartmann RAW STORY 28 FEB 2024
Donald Trump is greeted by Rep. Mike Johnson
Back on March 13, 2020 — almost exactly four years ago — I wrote an article that was published at alternet.org laying out how Republicans were then, ten months before January 6th....
Planning to partially repeat the debacle of the election of 1876 by having Vice President Pence refuse to certify swing state votes and thus throw the election to the House to keep T in office, no matter how the election went.
When I published the article ten months before January 6th, I received concerned and even alarmed communications from several Democratic strategists and a few elected officials who basically said they didn’t think there was any way Trump would try such an audacious move and, if he did, he wouldn’t get away with it.
But I was right and that was exactly what Trump had up his sleeve. We saw it play out on January 6th. The only thing that stopped him was Pence’s unwillingness to go along with stealing an election.
Now I’m hearing a new story from those same GOP insiders (as well as other commentators) about Trump’s schemes for 2024. Here’s what I’m hearing Republicans are planning in the event Joe Biden wins re-election and Democrats hold the Senate and take the House this November:
First, Republicans need to make sure they’re in control of the House of Representatives on January 6th, 2024, when the new president will be certified.
To do that, even though Democrats might have won enough seats to take back the House in the 2024 election, Speaker Johnson will refuse to swear into Congress on January 3rd a handful of those Democrats, claiming there are “irregularities” in their elections that must be first investigated.
Consider that Johnson is still refusing to swear in Tom Suozzi (who recently won George Santos’ old seat), something Johnson apparently did to maintain enough Republican-majority votes to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas. (Johnson says they’ll swear him in this coming Thursday, but nobody’s holding their breath.)
Like Mitch McConnell withholding Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court for over a year, withholding certification of a handful of Democrats would be easy, legal, and completely immoral. There’s nothing Democrats can legally do to stop Speaker Johnson from pulling this off: he can postpone swearing a member in for as long as he wants.
That keeps Speaker “MAGA Moscow Mike” Johnson in charge of the House, so they can also refuse to accept the Electoral College certificates of election from a handful of states where they claim there are “problems.”
Keep in mind, Johnson was the guy who organized the wave of 138 House members who voted not to certify Joe Biden’s election in January of 2020. That’s why Trump wanted him as speaker.
Elise Stefanik, the number 3 person in House Republican leadership, has already refused to say whether she’d vote to certify the presidential election results this November.
Others, like Kentucky Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, are repeatedly mentioning their belief that the House gets to decide who’s president, not the people or even the Electoral College. As Massie posted on X:
“Maine, Colorado, and other states that might try to bureaucratically deny ballot access to any Republican nominee should remember the U.S. House of Representatives is the ultimate arbiter of whether to certify electors from those states.”
In response, Elon Musk posted a one-word comment: “Interesting.”
Then, regardless of how many votes Biden won by, electoral or popular, the House simply refuses to certify the electoral college votes of enough states that the minimum of 270 isn’t reached. Under the 12th Amendment, like with the election of 1876, that throws the election to the House, where each state has one vote.
While a majority of Americans live in a state run by Democrats, a majority of the states themselves are run by Republicans. Each state gets one vote for president in the House, and right now 26 state delegations are GOP-controlled, meaning that a majority of the House would simply vote to put Trump back into the White House, 26-23 (Pennsylvania’s delegation is 50/50). All totally legal.
The Putin/Trump caucus in the House — led by Speaker Johnson — has largely given up on democracy when elections don’t give them power. As outrageous as this scenario sounds, they justify it to themselves as being essential to “save America” from “woke” Democrats.
Johnson has repeatedly said he thinks God Himself put Johnson into the speakership to fulfill some great destiny, comparing himself with Moses: stealing a presidential race “for the greater good” almost certainly qualifies as that. And, although Congress in 2022 raised the number of congressional objectors necessary to stop the certification of a presidential vote, Johnson himself was able to round up more than that number in 2020. This is eminently do-able.
Finally, the Supreme Court long ago ruled that they and the entire US court system have no jurisdiction over “political issues” that the Constitution says must be resolved by Congress. This issue of Congress’ certification of electoral college votes certainly qualifies, so, no matter what the courts might want to say or do, there’s probably no legal tool they can use to block a second Trump presidency under these circumstances.
Rightwing billionaires and neofascists within the GOP are salivating at this prospect. Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller must be giddy.
In one fell swoop they’ll “take back” the government, putting an end to that pesky problem of democracy and voters wanting nice things.
President Trump issues a new Schedule F executive order and suddenly 20,000 or so of the top management of every federal agency find themselves out of a job, being replaced by conservative ideologues who are being vetted by Heritage and other conservative think tanks as you’re reading these words.
Once they have control of both the political and the “deep state” or administrative government, these conservatives intend to set about making the changes they’ve been pushing for years:
— End gay marriage and criminalize being trans.
— Outlaw abortion and most forms of birth control.
— End the teaching of Black history.
— Outlaw DEI and affirmative action of any sort.
— Shut down most functions of the EPA so the fossil fuel and chemical industries can do whatever they want to our air and water.
— End enforcement of our anti-monopoly laws.
— Fire thousands of IRS investigators to make America safe for morbidly rich tax cheats.
— Shut down all “green” initiatives and instead “drill, baby drill.”
— Sell off public lands and parks to the highest bidders.
— Privatize Social Security and end traditional Medicare.
— End federal funding for public schools and colleges.
— Outlaw unions.
It’s truly breathtaking.... They’re committed to abandoning America’s historic embrace of democracy, the “radical new form of government” that our nation’s Founders brought back into the world after it had vanished for almost 3000 years.
But, as Americans have figured out the GOP’s priorities and are disgusted by their obeisance to great wealth and Vladimir Putin, Republicans have decided that winning free and fair elections is for suckers... Stealing them is so much easier. I don’t see any legal way such a strategy can be stopped, because it’s all based on “legal” technicalities. Like the legal technicality that George W. Bush and Donald Trump both lost the national popular vote but became president anyway (without significant protest from the American people)...
However take note, some that have tried to protest against Trumps' dishonest actions have not only lost, but have felt threatened
Re: DANGER For Americans-Steve Bannons' Past Collusion With TRUMP & For 2024 Election
WARNING About Steve Bannons' Collusion With TRUMP in The Past & as 2024 Election Looms
DANGER For Americans as Rick Wilson Raises RED Flag About Steve Bannon Chaos' as 2024 Election Looms
Tom Boggioni, Lincoln Project 4 MAR 2024
Steve Bannon with TRUMP
According to Lincoln Project founder Rick Wilson, former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon will have an outsized influence on a second Trump administration despite no longer being a key architect of his rise.
In a deep dive into Bannon's strong influence on the MAGA movement, Wilson told the Guardian's David Smith that Bannon is a great believer in sowing "chaos" to achieve his goals and his ramping up his rhetoric as the former president makes his third bid for the Oval Office should set off alarms.
With Smith reporting Bannon harped on Trump winning the 2020 presidential election before an enraptured crowd at CPAC recently, he added, "It was a blunt reminder that Bannon, an architect of Trumpism variously compared to Thomas Cromwell, Rasputin and Joseph Goebbels, remains a potent force in American politics as the 2024 US presidential election looms into view and the re-election of Trump looks a clear possibility."
With that in mind, Smith suggested Bannon would cast " a long shadow" over a second Trump administration.
Former GOP strategist Wilson agreed.
“Steve Bannon is a if not the primary spiritual and intellectual force of this nationalist movement that is in control of the Republican party," he explained. "He is a very powerful figure in today’s GOP [Grand Old Party] and it is inescapable in some ways that he will play a central role in whatever Trump administration emerges if Trump wins. He is the architect.
As an avowed Leninist, he is a guy who is trying to engineer the revolution in his image.”
Continuing in that vein, he was asked what Bannon likely has in mind for a second Trump go-around.
“Concentration camps," he replied. "This guy keeps saying out loud they’re the enemies of the people, our opponents are deserve what they get, this hyperbolic rhetoric. He believes in power and chaos and will do whatever he can if he gets it. Whatever he could get away with in that circumstance, he will get away with it.”
Fellow anti-Trumper conservative Charlie Sykes agreed, telling the Guardian, "Donald Trump does not look at Steve Bannon and think this guy is unhinged; he’s looking at Steve Bannon and saying this is exactly what I want to hear from my supporters. Steve Bannon knows what he’s doing and he will act as a gravitational pull on the rest of the right because they have to match him.”
America is marching toward theocracy one zygote at a time..This is what happens when pro-life Republicans play God.
MORE;
‘He Believes in Power and Chaos’: Alarm as Steve Bannon Plots to Propel TRUMP
Steve Bannon hawks disinformation to support Trump as legal troubles mount
The Guardian 4 MAR 2024
A thrill of transgression swept through the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the National Harbor in Maryland. “Trump won!” Bannon barked, pointing a finger. “Trump won!” he repeated, shaking a fist. “Trump won!” he proclaimed again. His audience, as if hypnotised, chanted the brazen lie in unison.
It was a blunt reminder that Bannon, an architect of Trumpism variously compared to Thomas Cromwell, Rasputin and Joseph Goebbels, remains a potent force in American politics as the 2024 US presidential election looms into view and the re-election of Trump looks a clear possibility.
Bannon, 70, is currently appealing a criminal conviction and four-month prison sentence for defying a subpoena from the congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. The committee heard evidence that Trump spoke to Bannon at least twice on January 5 and predicted that “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow”.
In the meantime, he hosts a regular podcast called War Room, which propagates false narratives about the 2020 election and coronavirus vaccines but is given a veneer of respectability by guests including Elise Stefanik, the No 3 Republican in the House of Representatives, and other senior politicians.
A pop-up War Room studio commanded a prime location at CPAC last week and featured guests such as Liz Truss, the former British prime minister. On the main stage, Bannon compared Trump to the Roman general Cincinnatus and declared: “His fate and destiny is to have the greatest political comeback in American history from November 5 to drive the vermin out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
“Biden, you and your crime family are nothing but trash, OK? And on 20 January of 2025 we’re going to take out the trash.”
DANGER For Americans-Steve Bannons' Past Collusion With TRUMP & For 2024 Election
New Secret Plan on How Fascists Could Win US 2024 Election
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