Day: October 10, 2024

One Billion And Counting

I read today that the Harris campaign has raised $1 billion for the campaign….and the word is that it may not be enough….think about that for a moment.

In less than three months as a presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris has raised more than $1 billion—a historic pace. That’s more than her opponent, Donald Trump, has raised all year, per the New York Times. The Harris figure comes not from required campaign filings, the next of which is due later this month, but from multiple people who know of her operation. Despite the unheard-of fundraising rate, aides are concerned the Democratic campaign might not have money to win, the Washington Post reports. They’d also prefer the $1 billion figure not receive much attention. Their fundraising reasoning includes:

  • The short campaign: Entering the race long after Trump has meant Harris has to make her pitch to voters in much less time and has to rely on more sweeping, expensive efforts to reach them.
  • Battleground states: In all seven swing states, polls show no lead that isn’t within the margin of error. The Harris campaign figures it will have to spend big in all of them. “There have never been so many electoral college votes in play so late in the cycle, which means that our strong fundraising and volunteer enthusiasm are not guaranteed to be enough to fully reach voters everywhere they are,” one Harris person emailed the Post.
  • Perceptions: “Talking about this type of big money doesn’t convey the sense of urgency to do every single thing in all of the big and small ways,” another person involved said Wednesday.
  • The opposition: Trump pulled in $309 million through the end of August, and Harris reported spending about three times what the Republican nominee did in August. But super PACs, including Elon Musk’s, are helping narrow the spending gap to turn out GOP voters, per NBC News.

Does anyone see a problem with a campaign that has $1 billion and could still not be enough?

All these elections are getting out of hand….every year it takes more and more to fund a run for office.

That figure should have people starting to consider some sort of campaign funding reform.

Just a thought!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Why So Many Wars?

Many people if they thought about it would want to know just why we are involved in so many conflicts around the planet.

Here’s a hint….Money!

You see war and such are supposed to be decided by the Congress but after 9/11 they took a back seat to the president who decides which proxy war we will fund.

The Congress is content to sit on the sidelines and invest in the companies that supply these wars.

Just take a look at who along with their family members are profiting from our involvement in these conflicts….

This page writes frequently about Congress’s unofficial but all-too-real mandate of making money for its friends in the defense sector. While this is absolutely true, it is also crucial to remember that these lawmakers also use the weapons industry to enrich themselves.

According to a comprehensive breakdown compiled by Sludge, more than 50 members of Congress hold as much as $10.9 million in defense contractor stocks. The publication calculated the figure by using a variety of financial disclosures currently required by law. As the article notes, these securities are held either by the lawmakers, their spouses or children, or via a qualified blind trust.  

The halls of American power ooze with all kinds of unsavory activity, but this is undoubtedly one of the system’s most egregious forms of corruption. Members of Congress who sit on influential bodies that control the flow of federal dollars to some of the nation’s largest weapons manufacturers are directly invested in these same companies, to the tune of hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions of dollars.

“In the Senate, several lawmakers with investments in defense contractors sit on committees that set and approve defense spending: three are on the Committee on Armed Services (SASC), and five are members of the Committee on Appropriations, including two who sit on the key Defense Appropriations subcommittee. This body has jurisdiction over drafting legislation to allocate funds to government agencies including the Department of Defense, as well as supplemental spending bills,” writes Sludge. “On the House side, at least five lawmakers with household stakes in defense contractors sit on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), which has jurisdiction over defense policy, headlined by the mammoth annual NDAA. Three of the representatives sit on the Defense Appropriations subcommittee.”  

https://issuechronicle.substack.com/p/the-house-and-senate-members-personally

If you do as advised and ‘follow the money’ you will see the true reason why so many wars.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”