September, 22 2022, 04:23pm EDT
Patriotic Millionaires: Senate Republicans Go to Bat for Their Dark Money Donors
"By blocking the DISCLOSE Act, Senate Republicans have gone to bat for their dark money donors and made a public declaration that they want an America run by shadowy billionaires."
WASHINGTON
Today, Senate Republicans blocked Democrats in the Senate from passing the DISCLOSE Act, which would require corporations, Super PACs, and other advocacy groups that engage in electioneering to publicly disclose donors who contribute more than $10,000 over two years.
In response, Morris Pearl, the Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., released the following statement:
"Half the Senate just showed us their true colors. By blocking the DISCLOSE Act, Senate Republicans have gone to bat for their dark money donors and made a public declaration that they want an America run by shadowy billionaires. Today's vote gives a green light for rich people to have way more influence over our nation's policies than voters.
There is no way to justify our country's current disclosure laws. It's bad enough that we live in a country where the wealthy and corporations can contribute unlimited funds to their preferred candidates and causes. But until Congress acts on this front, Americans at least deserve to know who exactly is engaging in political bankrolling. We should not be finding out about a $1.6 billion political donation through a tip-off to The New York Times.
The American people should know the source of every major political contribution. Billionaires should not be able to spend millions influencing our elections for their own selfish reasons and face no accountability whatsoever.
Blocking the DISCLOSE Act is the latest attempt in a long string of recent attempts by Republicans to dismantle our democracy. They want an America where the rich and powerful make all the decisions and where the votes of ordinary people either don't matter or aren't counted at all. They must be stopped if we want to pull our country back from the precipice of authoritarianism."
The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net worth Americans who share a profound concern about the destabilizing level of inequality in America. Our work centers on the two things that matter most in a capitalist democracy: power and money. Our goal is to ensure that the country's political economy is structured to meet the needs of regular Americans, rather than just millionaires. We focus on three "first" principles: a highly progressive tax system, a livable minimum wage, and equal political representation for all citizens.
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'Shameful': Columbia Greenlights Police Crackdown on Anti-War Encampment
Even after dozens of students were arrested, hundreds "rushed to take the place of their classmates" and continued the protest.
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The arrests of dozens of Columbia University and Barnard College students on Thursday "galvanized" other supporters of Palestinian rights on the campuses, as hundreds of students occupied the school's western lawn after New York City police filled at least two buses with protesters who had been detained for setting up an encampment.
"Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest," chanted hundreds of students as they marched around the area where organizers had set up a tent encampment early Wednesday morning.
Columbia President Minouche Shafik informed the campus community on Thursday that she had authorized the police to clear the encampment.
As it has been in the past, the school has become a center of anti-war protests—and crackdowns by school officials and the police—since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza in October.
Pro-Palestinian students and alumni have demanded that Columbia divest from companies that profit from Israel's apartheid policies in the occupied Palestinian territories and cancel its dual degree program with Tel Aviv University.
In response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations, Columbia in November suspended the campus chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine—an action that pushed the New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal to file a lawsuit on behalf of the students last month.
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