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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night GOP Venality Open Thread: Grifters Gonna Grift

Late Night GOP Venality Open Thread: Grifters Gonna Grift

by Anne Laurie|  April 4, 20211:57 am| 36 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Venality, Show Us on the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You, Trump Crime Cartel, Media Mudlarks

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buy the ticket, ride the ride https://t.co/pIsLnsNnGc

— kilgore trout, a student of martial arts (@KT_So_It_Goes) April 4, 2021

A reassuring indicator that The Former Guy is truly Former — The NYTimes is now willing to tell us that he (and his party) would happily steal the pennies off a corpse’s eyes:

… Facing a cash crunch and getting badly outspent by the Democrats, the campaign had begun last September to set up recurring donations by default for online donors, for every week until the election.

Contributors had to wade through a fine-print disclaimer and manually uncheck a box to opt out.

As the election neared, the Trump team made that disclaimer increasingly opaque, an investigation by The New York Times showed. It introduced a second prechecked box, known internally as a “money bomb,” that doubled a person’s contribution. Eventually its solicitations featured lines of text in bold and capital letters that overwhelmed the opt-out language.

The tactic ensnared scores of unsuspecting Trump loyalists — retirees, military veterans, nurses and even experienced political operatives. Soon, banks and credit card companies were inundated with fraud complaints from the president’s own supporters about donations they had not intended to make, sometimes for thousands of dollars…

The sheer magnitude of the money involved is staggering for politics. In the final two and a half months of 2020, the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and their shared accounts issued more than 530,000 refunds worth $64.3 million to online donors. All campaigns make refunds for various reasons, including to people who give more than the legal limit. But the sum the Trump operation refunded dwarfed that of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s campaign and his equivalent Democratic committees, which made 37,000 online refunds totaling $5.6 million in that time.

The recurring donations swelled Mr. Trump’s treasury in September and October, just as his finances were deteriorating. He was then able to use tens of millions of dollars he raised after the election, under the guise of fighting his unfounded fraud claims, to help cover the refunds he owed…

Unlike ActBlue, which is a nonprofit, WinRed is a for-profit company. It makes its money by taking 30 cents of every donation, plus 3.8 percent of the amount given. WinRed was paid more than $118 million from federal committees the last election cycle; even after paying credit card fees and expenses like payroll and rent, the profits are believed to be significant.

WinRed even made money off donations that were refunded by keeping the fees it charged on each transaction, a practice it said was standard in the industry, citing PayPal; ActBlue said it does not keep fees for refunded donations. WinRed’s cut of the Trump operation’s refunds would amount to roughly $5 million before expenses. (Archived versions of WinRed’s website show it added a disclaimer saying it would keep its fees around when refunds surged.)…

Republicans widely hailed WinRed as one of the standout successes of the 2020 cycle, and in a memo last October the company declared itself the “trusted, recognizable platform” for Republican giving. “Scam PACs, shady operators and outright fraud is unfortunately a common occurrence in the online political donation world — particularly on the right,” the memo stated. “WinRed helps civilize the Wild West of the G.O.P. donation ecosystem.”…

Now WinRed is exporting the tools it pioneered during the Trump re-election across the Republican Party, presaging a new normal for G.O.P. campaigns.

Today, the websites of various Republican Party committees and top congressional Republicans, including Representative Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, and Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, include prechecked yellow boxes for multiple or recurring donations…

I do remember Democrats, at the time, pointing out that this was ethically questionable, if not actually illegal. But it’s certainly a useful tool for a party that’s committed itself to fewer, but dumber ‘more loyal’ members. (And that’s even before they sell their mailing lists to a bunch of non-political scammers!)

This is a perfect way to frame it. He robbed supporters blind so he'd have the raw cash when he needed it, expecting he could refund it when he didn't.

If it isn't a crime, it frigging should be. https://t.co/L77Vs0MXxU

— Zd (@Zeddary) April 3, 2021

you could have just donated to a soup kitchen. big sad for you. get rekt.

— Peloton InfoSec Analyst (Incident Response) (@CalmSporting) April 4, 2021

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Reader Interactions

36Comments

  1. 1.

    Comrade Colette

    April 4, 2021 at 2:02 am

    Coinkidinkally, the soup kitchen (OK, food bank) is exactly where Monsieur Colette and I sent the only document we’ve ever voluntarily handled that had TFG’s name on it.

    I know how privileged we are to have been able to afford to do that. Still, fuck that guy, and ALL of his idiot donors, willing or not.

    ETA: I’ve now seen the word ‘ouroboros’ more times in the last month of political commentary than in the previous several decades’ worth of medieval studies and/or vampire romance novels. What’s up with that?

  2. 2.

    rikyrah

    April 4, 2021 at 2:05 am

    Everything about Dolt45 left this as no surprise

  3. 3.

    HumboldtBlue

    April 4, 2021 at 2:17 am

    Sleight of snout, dog gets a treat.

  4. 4.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    April 4, 2021 at 2:43 am

    The recurring donations swelled Mr. Trump’s treasury in September and October, just as his finances were deteriorating. He was then able to use tens of millions of dollars he raised after the election, under the guise of fighting his unfounded fraud claims, to help cover the refunds he owed…

    I shouldn’t have been drinking and reading this… my god, the stupid.

  5. 5.

    VeniceRiley

    April 4, 2021 at 2:44 am

    Since we’re open thread and I saw both sex pestery of young women and girls in general- and JD Salinger mentioned here today, I’ll share a link Joyce Carol Oates tweeted (and she retweeted me as well… very cool.)
    https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/04/joyce-maynard-on-chilling-parallels-woody-allen-and-jd-salinger

  6. 6.

    Redshift

    April 4, 2021 at 2:45 am

    @rikyrah:

    Everything about Dolt45 left this as no surprise 

    Everything about the GOP for the past several decades left this as no surprise. They’ve been scamming seniors out of their social security checks since I was a teenager, though back then they had enough class that it was mostly outside organizations doing it.

    And of course WinRed is a for-profit company. Conservative dogma says the profit motive will always produce the best result.

  7. 7.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 4, 2021 at 3:18 am

    (Most likely voted for and) donated to a mobster conman…

  8. 8.

    Beautifulplumage

    April 4, 2021 at 3:33 am

    I love the fact that Act Blue is non-profit & win red is such a scam. I have always added the extra to my Act Blue donations so the org can keep going. They seem to make their platform easy to use & transparent on the candidate’s end.

  9. 9.

    Kent

    April 4, 2021 at 3:42 am

    @Redshift:Everything about the GOP for the past several decades left this as no surprise. They’ve been scamming seniors out of their social security checks since I was a teenager, though back then they had enough class that it was mostly outside organizations doing it.

    The reason it is such an easy scam is because the same seniors have been getting scammed by their churches for decades.  They are accustomed to it.

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    April 4, 2021 at 3:49 am

    @Kent

    “The private jet is important because it brings the preacher closer to God.”

  11. 11.

    Mary G

    April 4, 2021 at 3:53 am

    I accidentally left the decimal point out of my $5.00 contribution to Steve Bullock’s Senate campaign and had a cow. I contacted Act Blue and the $500 was refunded the same day, plus the 50 cents to them. Trump donors had to complain to banks and credit card companies and WinRed kept their cut.  The difference between Republicans and Democrats in a nutshell.

  12. 12.

    HumboldtBlue

    April 4, 2021 at 3:57 am

    Olive and Mabel seen on the trot and on the trail.

  13. 13.

    Morzer

    April 4, 2021 at 3:59 am

    @Comrade Colette: Eric Eddison might wonder how The Worm Ouroboros didn’t make it into your timeline.

  14. 14.

    sab

    April 4, 2021 at 4:07 am

    @Mary G: I had an issue with ActBlue and Jaime Harrison campaign. Didn’t clear out the little box that makes it monthly. I was trying to do early money is like yeast. All I could afford. Could not afford that monthly. I gave as a guest so couldn’t trace it. Couldn’t effectively communicate with them because my giving date ( unknown, forgotten)  wasn’t same date as left my bank account.

    Anyway, whined on line here. Some jackal (Ozark or JR) contacted them and emailed an address to me. And when I got my next  bank bank statement they had fixed it. I repaid the refund in tiny increments over the next few months, since they had expected that money.

    So overall my interactions with ActBlue have been amazingly positive. Just watch for that little donation monthly box.

  15. 15.

    sab

    April 4, 2021 at 4:16 am

    @Morzer: Weird bunch of books those were. I loved them

    E. R. R. not Eric, for those googling or remembering the books. Gods at a dinner, watching a world they had built, somebody’s mistress popped it like a bubble with a hatpin because she was bored.

    Made me wonder a lot about Eddison’s politics.

  16. 16.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 4, 2021 at 4:20 am

    @HumboldtBlue: You lying BASTARD!  :)

    Still good though – Yoink!

  17. 17.

    HumboldtBlue

    April 4, 2021 at 4:29 am

    @mrmoshpotato: ​
     

    Sorry, dog stealing treat works too. But look up Olive and Mabel, they’re fun too.

  18. 18.

    sab

    April 4, 2021 at 4:40 am

    @HumboldtBlue: Dogs running competitively outside sure as hell beats my cats competitively peeing inside.

    I told Mouf today that when Werebear’s Maine coon couldn’t get along she re-homed him, not everyone else.

  19. 19.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 4, 2021 at 4:42 am

    @HumboldtBlue: I should get the bell on for his YouTube channel.

  20. 20.

    Morzer

    April 4, 2021 at 5:02 am

    @sab:

    E. R. Eddison (Eric Rücker Eddison). Strange books they are indeed. Not the sort of thing you imagine a career civil servant writing. Apparently he was not on opium, laudanum, cocaine or anything else of a pharmaceutical nature. At his best, he’s got a weird and wonderful power to his writing. Of course, he also has the most overdone description of a hero’s dining room in all of literature..

    Noting for the record the existence of:

    https://www.ereddison.com/

  21. 21.

    JWR

    April 4, 2021 at 5:08 am

    This piece about why corporations are becoming more politically active sort of misses the mark in that corporations have always been politically active, just never on the Left side of the equation, always the Right, where their natural allies reside.

    NBC: Historian Michael Beschloss said the week’s political groundswell fit right into the nation’s civil rights history and pointed to Martin Luther King Jr.’s final speech, delivered on April 3, 53 years ago.

    In it, King vowed to use boycotts and corporate power to fight for justice, listing companies like Coca-Cola and Wonder Bread as targets and arguing that these companies needed to get involved in an ongoing union strike.

    “I don’t see how anyone can say this is radical or out of keeping with American tradition,” Beschloss said of the corporations answering calls to come off the sidelines on the issue of voting. “This tool is an old tool in American history.”

    Works for me.

  22. 22.

    Jinchi

    April 4, 2021 at 5:22 am

    the money that Mr. Trump eventually had to refund amounted to an interest-free loan

    And the money from those who never realized they were scammed was pure profit!

  23. 23.

    sab

    April 4, 2021 at 5:34 am

    @Morzer: Thank you for correcti my extra r.

    Weird wonderful books

  24. 24.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    April 4, 2021 at 6:21 am

    Do they say who owns “winred”?

  25. 25.

    Baud

    April 4, 2021 at 6:28 am

    No wonder Trump supporters are economically anxious.

  26. 26.

    raven

    April 4, 2021 at 6:29 am

    What a great fucking basketball game.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    April 4, 2021 at 6:41 am

    @raven:

    Just reading about it.  Sounds like a good time to be a hoops fan.

  28. 28.

    raven

    April 4, 2021 at 6:46 am

    @Baud: Heartbreaking for my brother and Bill. Only one team had come within 10 points of Gonzaga all year.UCLA played an epic game only to get beat on a half court shot.  If the Zags win they will be the first undefeated team since Indiana in 1976.

  29. 29.

    Baud

    April 4, 2021 at 6:50 am

    @raven:

    Really amazing.

  30. 30.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    April 4, 2021 at 8:06 am

    @raven:  It was spectacular!

  31. 31.

    Geminid

    April 4, 2021 at 8:12 am

    Last night many Israelis celebrated Mimouni.  A Moroccan tradition ending the Passover holiday, Mimouni has caught on with the wider Jewish Israeli public.

    This may be a consequential week in Israeli politics. Monday, Israeli President Reuben Rivlin will interview party leaders offering their recommendations as to whom will be given a mandate to form a government, based on last month’s inconclusive election. Thirteen party lists cleared the 3.25% electoral threshold to win at least four Knesset seats, so Reuvlin will have a long day. The meetings will be livestreamed.

    The Israeli President is supposed to be neutral, but Reuvlin may not neccessarily give the mandate to the leader with the most initial support, which would be current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The PM can count on 51 votes from his Likud and three other parties. Reuvlin may instead choose a leader among left, center, and anti-Netanyahu right wing parties for the mandate.

    A goverment must win the support of 61 of 120 Knesset members. If one leader cannot form a government in five weeks, a second will have a chance. If that fails, Israel will hold it’s fifth election in two years.

    Also, the evidentiary phase of Netanyahu’s corruption trial begins Tuesday.

    These stories will be well reported by the Jerusalem Post and the Times of Israel. The liberal newspaper Haaretz has better in-depth coverage, but new readers will find it paywalled after a few articles.

  32. 32.

    trnc

    April 4, 2021 at 9:04 am

    But what the Blatts believed was duplicity was actually an intentional scheme to boost revenues by the Trump campaign and the for-profit company that processed its online donations, WinRed.

    That’s a weird sentence. The intentional scheme was carried out through duplicity. At any rate, I do appreciate another story from the MSM making it extremely clear that DT has no problem lying to his supporters and outright stealing from them, even though we all know it won’t make a dent in their support of him.

  33. 33.

    Kristine

    April 4, 2021 at 9:12 am

    @HumboldtBlue: those Olive & Mabel videos are so good.

  34. 34.

    trnc

    April 4, 2021 at 9:13 am

    @VeniceRiley: Good article. I’ll have to check out the Allen v Farrow doc.

  35. 35.

    trnc

    April 4, 2021 at 9:18 am

    @Beautifulplumage: ​
     

    I have always added the extra to my Act Blue donations so the org can keep going.

    I had a recurring donation going for most of last year to ActBlue (intentional, of course), but I stopped it at the end of the year. I just made one again to the general fund that let AB decide how best to use it, but I couldn’t figure out how to make it recurring again (polar opposite of winred, LOL). Is there a way to do that, or do I have to pick a specific candidate or cause now to make it recurring?

  36. 36.

    J R in WV

    April 4, 2021 at 11:05 am

    @trnc:
    In my experience, there is a “make this monthly” button-style checkbox at one or two points in making a donation.

    So watch closely when you make a subsequent donation, or perhaps go to their CONTACT US site and ask for help…

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