Happy “Yep, it’s another Monday” Monday, Gerbil Nation!
Easter dinner went well, in spite of all the kitchen timing mishaps. Now it’s back to work. I have an email box filled with unread emails -- I guess it’s time to wade into the fray.
Interesting. I read about James O’Keefe and his Act Blue donations scheme over at AoS and then went to the linked Spectator article which has the link to the FEC website where you can search for Act Blue contributors. I searched by my zip code and came across one guy who made 551 individual contributions over the two-year period (2021-2022) to Act Blue totaling $560. His contributions ranged from $.10 to a high one-time contribution of $40. His most common contribution amount (479 times) was $1. A lot of contributions occurred on the same day. There’s other seeming anomalies, but that’s the most egregious one. This example is only for those contributions made directly to Act Blue -- I ignored the ones that were apparently made to Act Blue but earmarked to some other purpose. If I added those in, this guy made over 1200 individual contributions over the same period totaling $3,240
Maybe there’s perfectly logical explanations for this like how the donations get reported to the FEC, but it does look quite odd.
Interesting, Sven. I looked in my zipcode and found a number of people who have been making anywhere from four to six contributions a month of very small dollar amounts ($0.30 to $5).
I’m curious if other orgs that collect donations for political or social causes show the same patterns? Regardless, it’s odd -- who donates a quarter? The O’Keefe investigators have found that donors have acknowledged making donations to Act Blue, but not anywhere near the frequency or total dollar amount that shows in FEC records. That begs the question, since those donors aren’t being billed for anything that they didn’t directly contribute, where is the money coming from and how is it getting linked to their name?
Unless there’s a really reasonable answer to this, it could be a big scandal. Or it should be.
Is it possible that you could buy stuff somewhere and have an agreement that 1% or some such number of the total amount spent goes to Act Blue? I don’t know how that would work, but that could explain the multiple donations of low $ amounts.
Happy “Yep, it’s another Monday” Monday, Gerbil Nation!
Easter dinner went well, in spite of all the kitchen timing mishaps. Now it’s back to work. I have an email box filled with unread emails -- I guess it’s time to wade into the fray.
The curse of the Spring Break, eh Paddy?
Good morning, GN.
Yep, just like going on vacation, work waits to ambush you when you return.
Interesting. I read about James O’Keefe and his Act Blue donations scheme over at AoS and then went to the linked Spectator article which has the link to the FEC website where you can search for Act Blue contributors. I searched by my zip code and came across one guy who made 551 individual contributions over the two-year period (2021-2022) to Act Blue totaling $560. His contributions ranged from $.10 to a high one-time contribution of $40. His most common contribution amount (479 times) was $1. A lot of contributions occurred on the same day. There’s other seeming anomalies, but that’s the most egregious one. This example is only for those contributions made directly to Act Blue -- I ignored the ones that were apparently made to Act Blue but earmarked to some other purpose. If I added those in, this guy made over 1200 individual contributions over the same period totaling $3,240
Maybe there’s perfectly logical explanations for this like how the donations get reported to the FEC, but it does look quite odd.
Interesting, Sven. I looked in my zipcode and found a number of people who have been making anywhere from four to six contributions a month of very small dollar amounts ($0.30 to $5).
I’m curious if other orgs that collect donations for political or social causes show the same patterns? Regardless, it’s odd -- who donates a quarter? The O’Keefe investigators have found that donors have acknowledged making donations to Act Blue, but not anywhere near the frequency or total dollar amount that shows in FEC records. That begs the question, since those donors aren’t being billed for anything that they didn’t directly contribute, where is the money coming from and how is it getting linked to their name?
Unless there’s a really reasonable answer to this, it could be a big scandal. Or it should be.
Is it possible that you could buy stuff somewhere and have an agreement that 1% or some such number of the total amount spent goes to Act Blue? I don’t know how that would work, but that could explain the multiple donations of low $ amounts.
The media and the FEC don’t want to investigate this, so it will end up going nowhere.
well…. Good night, I guess.
Everything went smoothly at work tonight. I guess I’m off to bed.