Officially, America’s total 2017 corporate lobbying group spending was $535m, but as much as $675m more was funneled from industry groups to politicians as part of influence campaigns.
Nonprofits’ tax returns are public. By looking for line-items like “‘advocacy,’ ‘consulting,’ 'contributions,’ 'coalitions,’ 'consortiums,’ 'government affairs,’ 'communications,’ 'programs,’ 'special projects,’ 'dues,’ 'memberships,’ and 'subscriptions’,” Maplight was able to identify influence money that was not counted because it was laundered through other organizations.
For example, the trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) funneled $100m to the Chamber of Commerce to fund anti-Obamacare lobbying, but marked up the funds as “advocacy,” not “lobbying.” …
In a new column in the LA Times, business columnist Michael Hiltzik makes the argument that the only thing health insurers have done with any effectiveness is scare us into thinking that the socialized medicine services that every other advanced country has will not work in America.
Insurers are not even good at being profitable: the waves of mergers and acquisitions that has resulted in mass-scale concentration in the health insurance sector resulted in billions in losses, the bill for which was passed on in the form of higher premiums. …
Cesar Sayoc, the so-called “MAGA Bomber” who mailed 16 crudely made explosive devices to prominent critics of President Donald Trump, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday.
The 57-year-old pleaded guilty in March to sending the inoperative bombs to 13 targets—including Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, Robert De Niro, and members of Congress.
“I am beyond so very sorry for what I did,” Sayoc said at his sentencing. “Now that I am a sober man, I know that I was a sick man. I should have listened to my mother, the love of my life.”
While announcing the sentence, Southern District of New York Judge Jed Rakoff said his decision was “no more” and “no less” than what Sayoc deserves. U.S. federal sentencing guidelines recommended life in prison plus 10 years.
With his decision, Rakoff stuck to his reputation as one of the most vocal judges in the country against mass incarceration. The sentence appeared to also be influenced by the defense’s efforts to emphasize Sayoc’s difficult childhood. Sayoc read a statement in court describing parental neglect and sexual abuse at a Catholic boarding school.
Rakoff made mention of the “unfortunate circumstances” that predated Sayoc’s crimes, asking the court rhetorically, “Does any of this matter?” Responding to his own question, Rakoff said: “Yes… within modest limits.”
Despite emphasizing that Sayoc’s crime was an act of “domestic terrorism,” Rakoff said Sayoc “was fully capable of concocting pipe bombs capable of exploding,” leading him to believe that Sayoc’s failure to do so was in fact “a conscious choice.”
Rakoff, however, also noted that the bombs were designed to strike “fear and terror” in the hearts of the victims. At least three of the bombs were sent to the personal residences of the victims. “So who is the human being who perpetrated these horrific acts of domestic terrorism?” Rakoff said in court.
“You send an inoperative pipe bomb to various high-level political figures, intending… that they will react with great fear, and it will be punishment for their ‘wrongful’ political views or deterrent for future ‘wrongful’ political views,” Rakoff said.
The judge referred to Sayoc’s obsession with President Trump as a “sideshow.” “Correlation and causation are two very different things, as the cliché would have it, and very correctly so,” he said.
After six Mexican nationals were killed in El Paso by a gunman authorities believe is the author of a racist and anti-immigrant manifesto, Mexico on Sunday said it is planning to take legal action against the United States for failing to protect its citizens.
Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard said in a statement that the shooting was “an act of terrorism against the Mexican-American community and Mexican nationals in the United States.”
“The president has instructed me to ensure that Mexico’s indignation translates into efficient, prompt, expeditious, and forceful legal actions for Mexico to take a role and demand that conditions are established that protect… Mexicans in the United States,” Ebrard said in a video posted on Twitter Sunday.
Ebrard said Mexico could try to extradite the shooter, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius, and is investigating who or what company is responsible for selling the assault weapon used in the attack inside an El Paso Walmart on Saturday.
“Mexico would like to express its utmost, profound condemnation and rejection of this barbaric act,” said Ebrard. “Mexico is outraged. But we aren’t proposing to meet hate with hate. We will act with reason and according to the law and with firmness.”
Other members of the Mexican government also spoke out following the El Paso massacre, the first of two mass shootings in the United States in a span of 13 hours over the weekend. The shootings left 29 people dead and dozens more injured.
“Xenophobic and racist discourse breeds hate crimes,” Martha Bárcena, the Mexican ambassador to the United States, tweeted on Sunday. “Hispanic communities contribute enormously to the American society. We have to work for a respectful and compassionate dialogue between our countries and communities.”
A gunman killed 21 people and wounded dozens more in an attack at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday.
Less than 24 hours later, at least nine people were killed and more than two dozen were injured in a Dayton, Ohio, shooting. The two shootings are not believed to be linked.
Patrick Wood Crusius, the alleged gunman in the El Paso shooting, is believed to have written a racist, anti-immigrant manifesto before the attack, which described fears of a Latino “invasion.“
Democratic leaders have drawn comparisons between Crusius’s alleged motives and Trump’s immigration rhetoric, suggesting the president contributed to the environment that led to the attack.
On Monday, after the hashtag had already been trending, Trump in remarks from the White House called on the nation to condemn white supremacy.
“In one voice, our nation must condemn bigotry, hatred and white supremacy,” he said. “These sinister ideologies must be defeated.”
Twitter told The Hill on Monday it did not yet have any information on the origin or use of the trending topic on Trump.
Some top trends in the past have raised questions about whether bots are promoting certain divisive conversations on Twitter, particularly regarding race.
But the Trump hashtag on Monday did have some identifiable users.
Filmmaker Ava Duvernay, who recently created a movie about five African American men wrongly accused of the 1989 rape of a jogger in New York City’s Central Park, used the hashtag in a post responding to Trump suggesting Monday that “fake news” has contributed to growing “anger and rage” in the U.S.
“Nah. News coverage has got to start calling you what you are. A traitor. A liar. A racist. A coward. A fool. #WhiteSupremacistInChief,” wrote Duvernay, whose film criticizes Trump for calling for the death penalty for the five men.
The head of Democratic Coalition, an anti-Trump super PAC that targets Republican officials and candidates, used the hashtag while comparing statements on immigrants from Trump and Crusius’s alleged manifesto.
“Who said this?… "The U.S. is ill-prepared for this invasion of illegals, and will not stand for it,” Jon Cooper asked. “No, it wasn’t the #WhiteSupremacistTerrorist who massacred 20 people in El Paso. It was actually Donald Trump, the #WhiteSupremacistInChief.”
