Top Donors 2014— Sunlight Foundation which does yeoman’s work showing how our political campaigns and crusades are funded recently distributed a best-of 2015 which included this dissection from April of where the money went in the 2014 election from the “one percent of the one percent”. They hold this category contains 31,976 persons who contributed $1.18 billion.
Sunlight noted that this money skewed slightly to the GOP and conservatives — $553 million verses $505 million to Democrats and liberals. The top donors, however, were overwhelmingly D.
Liberal hedge fund manger Tom Steyer spent $73,884, 467, which is more than the next 17 Republicans combined. A nice chunk of it went to the campaign for Tom Wolf.
The number 2 donor was former New York Mayor Michale Bloomberg who once upon a time was a Republican but has since moved solely into the camp of country-club progressives. He gave $11,042,800 of which $10,527,600 went to the left.
Sunlight is a critic of Citizens United, the 2010 Supreme Court decision that held that the First Amendment prohibited government interference with political spending by non-profit groups. Much of this money now goes to “super PACs” which are political action committees that don’t make direct contributions to candidates but stick to issues.
Criticism of Citizens United is extremely short-sighted. The Supreme Court got it right. The largest media organization in the world is Philadelphia-based Comcast. It’s “news” outlets are NBC and its spin-offs, which are basically Democrat propaganda machines. The New York Times, despite its fading reputation, is also a partisan mouthpiece. There is no inherent difference between a group of people chipping in to send out mailings and make posters to disseminate information than a New York Times front page story except that the mailings and posters are likely far more honest and accurate.
“Traditionally, members of the House of Representatives have been presented with a limited plate of options when choosing technology to run their offices and manage their web presences. Members that wanted to take advantage of open source solutions — which are restriction-free, reusable and frequently more cost-effective — faced significant uncertainty and were pushed towards a small selection of proprietary options.”
Sunlight says that the impending launch of the Open Source Caucus is an indication that things are changing.
We have been informed that Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and possible GOP presidential nominee will be appearing on Independence Mall, Monday, May 18.
A crowd of 1,000 is expected, and there will be a Q and A with WPHT talk show hosts.
Paul would make a great nominee and president. Of course, so would Ted Cruz, Scott Walker and maybe a few others who live north of Florida and west of New Jersey.
Ray Lewis, in his Philadelphia Police captain’s uniform, describes problems in policing.
A retired Philadelphia police captain with a reputation for controversy and the mayor of Chester, Pa. were among those who described police realities and potential reforms to a crowd of about 20, yesterday, April 12, at a symposium on community policing sponsored by Democracy Unplugged.
The event was held at Swarthmore Borough Hall on a beautiful, sunny Sunday spring afternoon.
The captain, Ray Lewis, made international headlines with his association with Occupy Wall Street. He said those who run police departments suffer from a “John Wayne syndrome” which affects hiring decisions. This leads to officers not inclined to maintain good community relations.
Lewis said if the applicant scores high on sensitivity and empathy he is not hired.
He also said training is poorly prioritized with almost all of it directed towards physical fitness, firearms and unarmed combat.
“Police work is 95 percent social work,” he said.
He stressed the importance of good training officers and said that dispute mediation and stress management should be emphasized. Lewis, who served 19 of his 26 years in inner city Philadelphia, said that his training officer was a womanizing, brutal, drunken thief. He said that just the nature of the job hardens one.
Lewis encouraged video recording police encounters by passersby.
“Good cops will love being recorded,” he said albeit he said praise has to accompany such recordings.
Lewis said that he believed that unlike in the United Kingdom, American police need to carry firearms.
He said his support for Occupy Wall Street came from his suspicion that most billionaires are lawless sociopaths.
Lewis was wearing his captain’s uniform which got him so much grief during the OWS demonstrations.
Chester Mayor John Linder said 533 guns have been confiscated from criminals in his crime-ridden city since he took office in 2012.
“People are solving problems with guns,” he said.
Chester Mayor John Linder
Linder also took issue with certain shibboleths regarding diversity. He said that 24 of the 100 officers that serve his predominantly black city are African-Americans with five being Hispanic and the rest being white.
“My goal is to get police officers, good police officers,” he said. “My view is if we get people who reflect the hue, fine, but quality comes first.”
He thought the racial turmoil over recent incidents is overblown.
“I hear this all the time ‘what about Ferguson?’ I say what about Chester?”
Linder who as a young man took part in civil rights era protests expressed the opinion that these outcries are cyclical.
“How do you get rid of Fergusons? Get responsible police.”
He noted the Chester Police Department has had very few allegations of using excessive force.
“If you are professional, I’ll back you 100 percent,” he said. If you are not professional I’m going to deal with you 100 percent.”
Linder said that the urban environment is not as stable as it used to be.
“Calls come in too quick,” he said. “There is no time to sit down and make a friend.”
Swarthmore Police Chief Brian Craig spoke regarding policing in the suburbs.
Craig, a former Philadelphia police officer, said what he found to be a shocking difference was parking meters.
“In my first six months, 50 percent of my time was dealing with parking meters,” he said.
He said police work has gotten more dangerous than it was when he started in 1971. He cited drugs, the 9/11 attacks and the Columbine High School massacre.
He noted that the local police followed procedure regarding the 1999 school massacre setting up a perimeter as they were trained. The procedure, however, failed to account for the killings still occurring inside. Craig said the procedure has now been changed.
Craig emphasized the importance of community relations. He said that on the 25th anniversary of Philadelphia Columbia Avenue race riots, one of the local TV news stations appeared to be trying to stir the pot for an encore. He said, however, community outreach stopped it.
Regarding budget matters, Craig noted that school districts get their requests in first and overwhelmingly get the bigger piece of the pie.
William Taylor Reil, a constitutional scholar, warned of widespread ignorance of the Constitution among law enforcement. He said, for instance, that the Pennsylvania constitution made the sheriff the highest law enforcement officer in the county, a circumstance that is routinely ignored. He noted that county sheriff is an elected office unlike most police officials.
Reil also took issue with the term “law enforcement officer” having replaced “peace officer.”
“Law enforcement means don’t question just do what it says,” he said.
Libertarian activist Darren Wolfe spoke on community policing. He said privately run police departments could save money and be more effective. He cited as examples mall security guards and security companies hired by gated communities.
The moderator was David Easlea and the introduction was made by Bob Small.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) has announced that the is working to repeal a law that drives up the cost of everything from gasoline to groceries.
“Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and I introduced the bipartisan Corn Ethanol Mandate Elimination Act of 2015 to abolish the corn ethanol mandate in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS),” he said.
“The RFS requires fuel suppliers to blend millions of gallons of biofuels – most often corn ethanol – into the nation’s gasoline supplies,” he said. “This results in higher gas prices, increased food costs, damage to car engines, and harm to the environment. This is nothing more than the government using corporate welfare to shower money on a favored industry and then send the bill to the general public. You deserve better.”
The mandate is strongly supported by Iowa farmers and presidential candidates notably avoid opposing the issue in that early primary state.
Shame upon shame if you know where this is. Rumor has it that the deals are better here than at the more yuppified Total Wine.
Pennsylvania State Rep. Joe Hackett (R-161) and Sen. Dominic Pileggi (R-9) have introduced bills that would end the penalty for bringing into the Keystone State liquor, wine and beer purchased elsewhere.
The law now provides for fines of $25 per bottle, cost of prosecution and 90 days in jail.
Both men represent constituencies on or very near the Delaware border and we suspect many, if not most, of their constituents know the address of Total Wine and Tri-State Liquors.
Pileggi notes that attempt is not connected to the attempts to de-communize the Commonwealth’s liquor distribution system — which he describes as facing a “fundamental disagreement” in the legislature — and expects it to pass.
Still, Wendell Young IV, the well-paid head of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1776 who inherited his $292,765 job from his father, Wendell Young III, has come out against it so don’t expect a slam dunk.
Local 1776’s fiefdom includes the proles in the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board distribution system.
The Daily Signal reports that from fiscal years 2011 to 2013 the Environmental Protection Agency paid $17,550, 100 in paid administrative leave salaries for 69 employees.
Beside the full salaries, these workers also got health benefits, and the leave counted towards their pensions.
Oh, and they also continued to climb the federal pay scale.
They also got vacations and sick days which leads us to the Zen question “Can you get vacation when you are on vacation?”
One of the workers was on paid leave for over four years, The Daily Signal said. He or she should certainly send a thank you note to President Obama.
Pretty sweet.
Paid administrative leave is supposed to be a punishment.
Forty-nine Democrats in the U.S. Senate led by former Saturday Night Live comedy writer Al Franken of Minnesota have proposed a Constitutional amendment that would declare that First Amendment speech protection does not apply to corporations.
These brilliant (that’s sarcasm) thinkers in seeking to restrict speech just for those of whom they disapprove failed to account for the reality that just about all our news and entertainment outlets are corporations.
Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz spanks Franken et al as he points out that those who write and produce Saturday Night Live — which is the property of NBC which is owned by Philadelphia-based Comcast CORPORATION — could conceivably face jail time for their satirical sketches if this Democrat amendment should pass.
Victoria Miller owns W.W. Bridal Boutique in Bloomsburg, Pa. A lesbian couple asked her to provide wedding gowns. She declined saying she did not approve of same sex marriage on religious grounds.
Rather than just nodding and taking their business elsewhere as most would do if offended by a store, they launched a hate campaign forcing Ms. Miller to take down her social media sites and hire a lawyer.
Some ignorant types are going to say that discriminating on these matters is the same as discrimination against blacks in the Jim Crow era. It’s not. The Jim Crow discrimination was mandated by law. Jim Crow was big government that prevented free enterprise i.e. the opening of a store that would serve all to compete with the white-only one.
What Ms. Millier did is no different than a black baker refusing to decorate a cake with a Confederate flag to celebrate the founding of the Ku Klux Klan.
Nobody is taking about stopping the opening of a bridal shop to cater to same sex couples.
H8ers will H8 though whether they be white supremacists or gay activists.
H8ers Torment Bloomsburg Bridal Shop in Pennsylvania
Top Donors 2014— Sunlight Foundation which does yeoman’s work showing how our political campaigns and crusades are funded recently distributed a best-of 2015 which included this dissection from April of where the money went in the 2014 election from the “one percent of the one percent”. They hold this category contains 31,976 persons who contributed $1.18 billion.
