Beware: Bogus fund-raising for Trump campaign

Mary Margaret Olohan at The Daily Caller reports:

Groups with no affiliation to President Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign are siphoning off funds from Trump supporters under the impression that the groups are using donations to support the president.

An examination by Politico found that dark money groups, pro-Trump PACs, and Facebook advertisers copy Trump’s brand to dupe Trump supporters into donating to them. But the groups spend very little of these funds to actually support Trump, Politico reports.

The groups use Trump’s voice in robocalls asking for “an emergency contribution to the campaign” and use POTUS’ Twitter avatar on Facebook pages. 

About 20 groups with names like “Latinos for the President” and “MAGA Coalition,” groups that are structured as PACs or political nonprofits, brought in $46.7 million between January 2017 and June 2019, Politico reports. The publication adds that most of the money comes from donors who give $200 or less.

Trump officials worry that the hundreds of unofficial pro-Trump boosters are sucking up funds that would otherwise contribute to Trump’s 2020 campaign. They also confuse the Trump campaign’s messaging to the public and make it harder to accumulate donors, Trump allies told Politico.

“There’s nothing we can do to stop them,” said America First spokeswoman Kelly Sadler to Politico. America First is the only super PAC authorized by Trump, Politico reports. “This is a problem for the campaign, as well as us, as well as for the RNC.”

Read the rest here.  If you are inclined to contribute to any campaign, best to be pro-active and access the legitimate online campaign sites yourself.

And Happy Boxing Day!

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Merry Christmas

image via Norman Rockwell Museum

Merry Christmas

from

Cleveland Tea Party

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Trump rally announced ~ Toledo Jan.9

This from cleveland.com earlier today:

The president is set to hold a rally on Thursday, Jan. 9 at Toledo’s Huntington Center, according to a Trump campaign release. Doors open at 3 p.m.; the rally itself is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

Tickets are free, but attendees must register online to reserve them. There’s a limit of two tickets per cell-phone number.

The president is set to hold a rally on Thursday, Jan. 9 at Toledo’s Huntington Center, according to a Trump campaign release. Doors open at 3 p.m.; the rally itself is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

Tickets are free, but attendees must register online to reserve them. There’s a limit of two tickets per cell-phone number.

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Ned Ryun on “Conservatism Inc.”

Ned Ryun is a columnist and guest on TV news – and I’ve become a fan. I am posting an extract of his recent column at American Greatness, as it’s another skeptical look at “conservative” organizations that probably come looking for contributions from you by mail or email:

It’s about time we had a conversation about the racket in D.C., though it’s probably not the one that springs first to mind. I’m talking about Conservatism Inc.—that ecosystem of mostly worthless and ineffective think tanks and conservative organizations that are part and parcel of the swamp. They came riding into town, some decades ago, all gung-ho about breaking up the administrative state and restoring constitutional government and now, lo and behold, discovered that the swamp could start to feel like a warm, soothing hot tub.

By any metric with which you could measure effectiveness (simply existing doesn’t count) can anyone really tell you why Conservatism, Inc. even exists? A back of the napkin estimate shows that every year, hundreds and hundreds of millions fund these entities, but to what end?

Certainly not to be effective. Over the last 30-40 years, in the supposed heyday of the conservative movement, the size of government has exploded; our national debt has risen from roughly $1 trillion to nearly $23 trillion.

These conservative organizations likewise have grown from relatively grassroots-type groups with budgets of a few million dollars to massive entities, like the Heritage Foundation, with annual budgets approaching $100 million a year. They build swanky office buildings with marble lined bathrooms, employ French chefs, give themselves expense budgets, including even personal drivers, and generally live very comfortable lives, and then sell BS lines to their donors about how they’re changing the world, saving America, and blah blah blah.

. . .

Why do we allow people like the Kochs and the Singers of the world to be identified with conservatism or the GOP? Their bastardized version of capitalism and the free market could very well be the undoing of the party and the movement.

How have we come to this point? Greed is one explanation, with people willing to pimp themselves out and give a veneer of “conservative respectability” to causes and ideas that have almost nothing to do with conservatism.

There are many reasons for how we got here, but the great irony of it all is this: the best hope we’ve had in a generation to give ourselves a chance, Donald J. Trump, didn’t come out of the ecosystem of Conservatism, Inc. So beyond the worthless, corrupt behavior of it, will someone please explain to me why it still exists? Because if it merely exists to pimp out the ideas of Big Tech and pharma and vulture capitalists, the entire thing should be burned to the ground.

The column is here. (Our household contributes to Judicial Watch.)

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Liberty Arms photo gallery

The proprietress of Bookworm Room posted a gallery of messages on the outdoor sign for “Liberty Arms Guns Ammo Tactical” store. She introduces the photographs: 

A gun store somewhere in America is regularly posting clever, pointed, thought-provoking signs on its store billboard.

Most of the messages are also funny. See the rest here.

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Stop the Amnesty bill. Again.

NumbersUSA sent out an alert (and I’ve cut out the sections asking for contributions); should you want to explore their website, click here.  Here's an edited message:

House Passes Amnesty for More than One Million Illegal Aliens

The House of Representatives last week passed a massive, new amnesty for well over a million illegal aliens. That's bad news, no matter how you spin it. But there is some good news: Our members and allies made enough of an uproar about it that we minimized Republican support for the bill. We may have changed Republican leaders' minds about passing it.

We're not surprised we couldn't outright defeat the bill in the Democrat-controlled House. And It had been shocking to see dozens of Republicans falling over themselves to support this bill. Some people thought up to HALF of House Republicans -- maybe even Donald Trump -- would support the bill. The following quote was typical of a certain kind of Republican Representative:

"This [Ag Jobs bill] is exactly the kind of 'merit-based' immigration reform President Trump has been calling for.

"I spoke directly with President Trump about the Farm Workforce Modernization Act and the need for a solution for our farmers. He agreed: We must provide relief now."

-- U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, Yakima Herald, Dec 8, 2019

. . .

[NumbersUSA supporters] clobbered the Washington phone lines, and just about everyone who hadn't already voiced support for the bill backed away, Republican leaders "whipped" their members for "no" votes, and even a few co-sponsors changed their minds.

I want to be clear what just happened here: We've sapped much of the energy out of Republican supporters of this amnesty. But while NumbersUSA and its members threw a punch, it was NOT a knock-out blow for this bill. It may take another huge round of activism to finally put this bill to rest.

We made headlines that this is an amnesty... and THAT was crucial.

. . .

We have strong hopes that this bill will not be brought up for a vote if we push hard enough against it. But your Senators need to hear from you. . .

* * *

Here are details for Ohio's Senators:

Sen. Rob Portman:  Ohio toll free 1-800-205-6446 or by email here

Sen. Sherrod Brown: (202) 224-2315 (DC) or (216) 522 7272 (Cleveland)

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Impeachment vote vs Battle Creek rally: competing photographs

Favorite take-away of the day was by William Jacobson at his blog Legal Insurrection:

Note the disconnect between Democrat triumphalism in D.C., and a packed 10,000-seat arena in a key battleground state.

Despite the Democrat-Media-NeverTrump vapors of how historic tonight’s vote to impeach Trump is, it’s being met mostly with a shrug of the shoulders by a nation that has heard Democrats demand impeachment since before Trump took office, and every day since then.

Tonight is the real start of the 2020 campaign.

. . .

Jacobson posted another photograph of rally-goers lined up hours earlier in the freezing cold:

Read the report here. Brad Parscale posted his head-count on Twitter:

Incredible Rally tonight in Battle Creek Michigan!

20,202 voters identified (92.2% from MI)

15% haven’t voted in last four elections, WOW!

15% have voted in only one of the last four elections

17% Democrats

Dems play theater while @realDonaldTrump is winning!

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