Most Americans do not understand the structure of the political election system: PAC’s, Super PAC’s, and the purposes for political parties. Each of our forefathers despised political parties. Several did, however, explain that political parties in America were inevitable.
Thomas Jefferson once said, “If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.”
How This Mess Started
The disagreements between different groups when the new U.S. Constitution was written lead to the creation of political parties. When delegates were meeting at the Constitutional Convention to change the Articles of Confederation (the original constitution of the 13 colonies), the convention was split into two groups. The Anti-federalists favored a small central government, significant autonomy for states, and the continued use of the Articles of Confederation. The federalists wanted a stronger central government, less power to state governments, and the development of an entirely new constitution.
In my honest opinion, the political process started an exhaustive and lengthy trip downhill after that. Political power was discovered to have significant benefits in wealth, energy, and control. The greed of men took over.
We are not going to go into much else today regarding parties, other than to bring PAC’s and Super PAC’s into this.
Political Action Committee (PAC): a political committee that raises or spends more than $1,000 to influence the outcome of a federal election in a calendar year and is thus required to register with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). A PAC may accept a contribution of up to $5,000 per year from any individual. It may not receive union or corporate treasury funds.
Super PAC: a political committee that meets the same threshold as any PAC of spending more than $1,000 to influence the outcome of a federal election and is thus required to register with the FEC. “Super PAC” is the shorthand for what the FEC refers to as an independent expenditure-only political committee. What differentiates a Super PAC is that it may accept unlimited contributions from any non-foreign source, including union and corporate treasury funds. It may spend endless amounts to influence the outcome of federal elections through independent expenditures. However, it may not contribute directly to a candidate, and it may not coordinate with a candidate in making its expenditures. The contributions and expenses of a Super PAC are publicly disclosed on the FEC’s website.
Priorities USA Action is the largest Democratic Party super PAC. Founded in 2011, it supported Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. It was the primary super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. It focused mainly on high-dollar donors. As of September 2016, it had amassed $132 million in support of Clinton. (You’ll hear more about this super PAC below in this article)
But there’s one other political group that we seldom hear much about:
“Dark Money Group”: a 501(c)(4) social welfare group or (c)(6) trade association named after the sections of the Internal Revenue Code that grant tax-exempt status to these organizations. Sometimes referred to as “issue advocacy” groups, they can accept unlimited contributions from any source and are not required to publicly disclose their donors. 501(c)(4) and (c)(6) organizations may engage in some candidate election-related activities; however, such activities may not be the primary activities of the organizations. It is generally understood that a group’s primary activities will not be considered engaged in political campaigns if it spends less than 50 percent of its funds on electioneering. These groups may not contribute directly to a candidate but they may contribute unlimited amounts to a Super PAC supporting a candidate.
The characteristic feature of all of these is “Money” in the form of campaign contributions. After all, this is America, where money is King. And in politics, cash is King and Queen: politics is ALL about the money.
The Bible says, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Money is not evil. It’s the thirst and consuming love for money in people that allows evil to take over our political system.
There certainly is much love and lust for money and power in the U.S. political system today. And with those, one always finds political corruption.
We have plenty of that.
That last 12-16 years or so, it seems the nation has gone bonkers over partisan issues, dividing Americans into groups of voters. Those groups are built by political contributions of every kind. All that money has come at a high price: the divisions in America have turned tens of millions of Americans against each other. And it all began with “the love of Money.”
Money begets Corruption
The Gateway Pundit reported on the news that Democrat operative and Robert Mueller chief witness George Nader was indicted for his involvement in illegal campaign contributions from foreign entities to the Hillary campaign in 2016.
Nader was one of Mueller’s top witnesses, and he is a top Democrat donor and convicted child molester.
But there is more to the story.
Bill Barr, on Friday, December 6, 2019, indicted eight individuals for illegally funneling foreign money to Adam Schiff, Hillary Clinton, and several Democratic senators.
Did MSNBC, CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, or any of the broadcast news giants tell you about it? Absolutely Not.
The list of the Democrat organizations taking this illegal money is astounding – almost every Democratic state organization and many super PAC’s including the big one Priorities USA.
All of the leading names in the Democratic party took in this money, including Adam Schiff and Ted Lieu, Jon Tester, Cory Booker, Hillary Clinton, etc.
The Department of Justice released this information this way:
“Earlier today, an indictment was unsealed against the CEO of an online payment processing company, and seven others, charging them with conspiring to make and conceal conduit and excessive campaign contributions, and related offenses, during the U.S. presidential election in 2016 and after that.
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Assistant Director in Charge Timothy R. Slater of the FBI’s Washington Field Office made the announcement.
A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia indicted Ahmad “Andy” Khawaja, 48, of Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 7, 2019, along with George Nader, Roy Boulos, Rudy Dekermenjian, Mohammad “Moe” Diab, Rani El-Saadi, Stevan Hill and Thayne Whipple. The 53 count indictment charges Khawaja with two counts of conspiracy, three counts of making conduit contributions, three counts of causing excessive contributions, 13 counts of making false statements, 13 counts of causing false records to be filed, and one count of obstruction of a federal grand jury investigation. Nader is charged with conspiring with Khawaja to make conduit campaign contributions and related offenses. Boulos, Dekermenjian, Diab, El-Saadi, Hill, and Whipple are charged with conspiring with Khawaja and each other to make conduit campaign contributions and conceal excessive contributions, and related offenses.
According to the indictment, from March 2016 through January 2017, Khawaja conspired with Nader to conceal the source of more than $3.5 million in campaign contributions, directed to political committees associated with a candidate for President of the United States in the 2016 election. By design, these contributions appeared to be in the names of Khawaja, his wife, and his company. In reality, they allegedly were funded by Nader. Khawaja and Nader allegedly made these contributions to gain influence with high-level political figures, including the candidate. As Khawaja and Nader arranged these payments, Nader allegedly reported to an official from a foreign government about his efforts to gain influence.
The indictment also alleges that, from March 2016 through 2018, Khawaja conspired with Boulos, Dekermenjian, Diab, El-Saadi, Hill, and Whipple to conceal Khawaja’s excessive contributions, which totaled more than $1.8 million, to various political committees. Among other things, these contributions allegedly allowed Khawaja to host a private fundraiser for a presidential candidate in 2016 and a private fundraising dinner for an elected official in 2018.
The indictment further alleges that, from June 2019 through July 2019, Khawaja obstructed a grand jury investigation of this matter in the District of Columbia. Knowing that a witness had been called to testify before the grand jury, Khawaja allegedly provided that witness with false information about Nader and his connection to Khawaja’s company. Boulos, Diab, Hill, and Whipple also are charged with obstructing the grand jury’s investigation by lying to the FBI.
Currently, Nader is in federal custody on other charges.
We’d love to list here for the details of all Khawaja’s campaign contributions. But it’s far too long! But we have the list for you if you care to download and read:
https://www.opensecrets.org/search?order=desc&q=ahmad+khawaja&sort=A&type=donors&scrim=B
The list is exhaustive and includes many of the people and organizations you would suspect. But how many may surprise you. By the way, Khawaja donated OVER ONE MILLION DOLLARS to Democrat PAC Priorities USA!
Who is this, George Nader?
George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman and one of Mueller’s “star witnesses,” was charged in a Virginia federal court in July with additional child sex crimes. Nader was previously indicted on June 3rd, 2019, on child pornography charges.
According to a 3-count indictment unsealed that Friday in December, Nader was charged earlier in July for possessing child pornography and for traveling with a minor to engage in illegal sexual acts.
Nader is accused of transporting a 14-year-old European boy to the United States for sex in the year 2000.
Summary
We could easily daily publish a list of the “political corruption of the day.” There is far more than we can give to you. There are far more than what we report that are unknown.
Some blame it on Capitalism. Some blame it on too much power in the Congress, too much power in the Courts, or too much power in the Executive Branch.
Where does the blame lie for political corruption in our country? I can only say where it does NOT lie: the average, working American who lives a life 24/7, 365 days a year working, raising a family, supporting a political candidate in a local race, and occasionally makes a contribution to their favorite local, state, or federal candidate for office. Those people are not equipped to feed the corruption monster.
Political corruption comes from the same place that every other type of corruption lives: in the hearts of men and women who get swallowed up by a system that thrives on “Me-ism” — a personality trait that leads people to do whatever it takes to get all they can of whatever they want. And the cost of their doing so is immaterial.
It can be a hunt for power, for money, (or more money) fame, popularity, acceptance, or to build one’s self-esteem. None of those is corrupt in itself. Corruption comes when whatever of those things above or any others a person chooses to sell-out to with total abandonment of how any of their quests impact any others in their lives. It becomes “All about me.”
We have plenty of that in the U.S., and not just in politics.
When you awakened today, you awakened to the realization you live in a deeply divided and politically-charged country. It’s unnerving to think that there are those who will walk past you today on the street that if they knew of what political persuasion you have they would hate you: not just what you feel about politics — they’d hate you. That’s our nation.
Regarding all of the corruption — especially that exposed today in the political contributions cash register game — there is only one way to stop it and it requires three actions to be taken in sequence:
- Immediately stop all lobbying on Capitol Hill. That means no junkets, no jobs for family members, no inside stock tips, no paid-for conference attendances, no dinners, no weekends at the lake, and the list goes on and on. Members of Congress (if they wish to remain) should do so knowing they will ONLY receive their pay plus expenses for staff, office, and travel controlled by current policies.
- We MUST install term limits — our forefathers did so. Their purpose for two-year terms in the House was for everyday folks from communities to give up two years of their lives to go to Washington to represent in legislation all those folks back in their districts. The Senate was structured to represent states and they were NOT elected. Our forefathers felt doing so would necessitate a bit longer time in D.C. to reconcile state issues into federal legislation. It was not even contemplated Congress would be able to vote themselves amazing pay raises, expense accounts along with the ability to make serving a lifelong job in either the House or Senate. Term limits will stop all that and force members of Congress to return to the noble task of representing citizens in their states and districts.
- Banish the ability of Congress to police itself regarding day-to-day activities on the Hill: there’s no accountability for their actions until election time. And members controlling their own compensation with no input from the electorate is the definition of insanity.
There always has and always will be corruption in politics. But what we detailed above just scratches the surface. This all lies at the feet of the Corruption Monster. We must send that monster packing!
Oh, one more thing: the corruption described above and other types we have not discussed is perpetuated by a fawning Media that takes 100% of their work content from a political party. Today’s media is as corrupt as ever has been in U.S. history. And the only way I know to bring those who no longer report the news to their knees is to stop subscribing, stop reading, stop watching, and stop listening. And don’t just quietly walk away. Call, write and email them and tell them what you are doing and why!
Don’t think for one moment that care one bit about you. Like illegals to Democrats are only potential votes, you to the Media are nothing more than another statistic they can use to charge more for their subscriptions and their commercials!
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