Profile picture
Pinboard @Pinboard
, 28 tweets, 10 min read Read on Twitter
Here's Amazon's political action committee giving the maximum donation to Bruce Poliquin, Republican congressman in Maine's second district, and among the top recipients of NRA donations in the House. Poliquin has cashed over $200K of NRA checks in his career.
The Great Slate has supported Poliquin's opponent, @golden4congress, a former Marine and assistant minority leader in the Maine House who is running at a terrific financial disadvantage to Poliquin, but has a chance to win in November if we can fund him. secure.actblue.com/donate/great_s…
If you work at Amazon, Google, Twitter, Facebook, or Microsoft, know that your labor is being used to fund large donations to Republicans like Poliquin, Cruz, Nunes, Scalise and worse. Have a look at donationsfrom.tech for some good examples. Make a ruckus to your CEO!
Here's Amazon giving $1K to Republican Ken Buck (running against the Great Slate's @McCormickForCO). Buck once refused to prosecute a rape case where he had an audio confession because he thought the jury would see it as a case of "buyer's remorse". Thanks, Amazon!
Excited for @Axne4Congress to win in her pivotal swing district in Iowa? Here's Amazon maxing out to her Republican opponent:
And here's Google doing the same. David Young, who voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, gets a nice fat donation from Google PAC:
Here's Jim Jordan, deeply implicated in a sexual abuse scandal at Ohio State, getting the maximum allowable donation from Google in late May.
Here's Twitter donating to Republican Elise Stefanik, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee and voted to quash the investigation into Russian interference. This is one of only two donations Twitter made in April. Who at Twitter thought having a PAC was a good idea?
Here's facebook giving to Ohio Congressman Bill Johnson, who in a public hearing called the Environmental Protection Agency "un-American".
Here's Microsoft giving actual fiat currency to Devin Nunes (!) on May 15:
Here's Facebook giving money to Devin Nunes on June 29. Facebook makes a fetish of being politically neutral, but its top executives are paying to get Devin Nunes re-elected in the company's name. 🤔
And these are just the obvious direct donations. All of these companies also fund other PACs, which allow them to funnel more money to Republican candidates while obscuring the trail. Microsoft gave a huge donation to Roy Moore this way, for example. Reporters should dig in more!
I wonder how it feels for @JanzforCongress to buy Facebook ads knowing the company PAC is actively bankrolling his opponent, Devin Nunes. Facebook and Twitter should immediately shut down their political action committees.
I can't overstate how full of interest recent tech industry political giving is for any reporter willing to spend a few hours with FEC filings. The flow of money is mostly obfuscated through intermediary PACs (similar to how shell companies work) but it rewards patient study!
The real hero in all this is the excellent FEC website. Go to fec.gov -> campaign finance data -> filings and reports -> PAC and party committee reports and use the filter box to search for your employer, to find out what your backbreaking office labor is funding.
What has two thumbs, once gave a speech at a white supremacist convention run by an organization founded by David Duke, and got a huge donation from Salesforce PAC? This guy!
Here's Google giving Republican Blake Farenthold the maximum legal donation, $10,000, last year. Farenthold resigned in disgrace in April.
And here's Google maxing out last year to Steve Scalise, who like I said upthread once gave a speech at a white supremacist convention run by an organization founded by David Duke. I know I beat up on Google, but I can't imagine this accurately represents their values.
If you're wondering why I don't pick on Apple's political donations, it's because they don't have a PAC. The other tech companies could (and should!) shut theirs down tomorrow with zero impact on their business interests. There is no defense for this legal form of bribery.
Wikipedia: "In December 2017 [...] Gregg Harper supported a review of overhauling the Congressional Accountability Act which makes it harder for victims of sexual harassment to come forward with allegations than victims in the private sector." Facebook gave his campaign $1000.
That same month, Facebook gave $5000 to Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, who has repeatedly introduced legislation to overturn Roe vs. Wade, was the only senator of 99 to vote against an amendment saying "climate change is real and not a hoax", and has an A+ rating from the NRA
And of course, Facebook has donated to Steve Scalise, who once famously spoke at a white power rally.
Here's Facebook donating to Tim Murphy, the pro-life congressman who famously pressured his lover to get an abortion, and in whose office harrassment was rampant. Murphy would resign just a few months after this March 2017 donation.
On February 7, 2017, Senator Steve Daines blocked Elizabeth Warren from reading a letter from Coretta Scott King on the Senate floor, as its factual content was offensive to Jeff Sessions. Six weeks later, Facebook gave Daines's campaign $2500.
So who is making these political decisions? It's not the donors—typically high-level executives pay into a company PAC automatically, and if you look at personal political donations from people like Sheryl Sandberg or @boztank, none of them go to people like Scalise or Nunes.
Employees at Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and others deserve an explanation for why money is being given in their name to help re-elect some of the worst people in government.
Here's Salesforce (which only very recently started political giving) donating to re-elect climate science denialist and self-proclaimed "friend of coal" Larry Bucshon in April.
LOL
Missing some Tweet in this thread?
You can try to force a refresh.

Like this thread? Get email updates or save it to PDF!

Subscribe to Pinboard
Profile picture

Get real-time email alerts when new unrolls are available from this author!

This content may be removed anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member and get exclusive features!

Premium member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year)

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!