{"id":176699,"date":"2020-04-11T18:52:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-11T23:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2020\/04\/11\/no-just-no-2\/"},"modified":"2020-04-11T18:52:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-11T23:52:00","slug":"no-just-no-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2020\/04\/11\/no-just-no-2\/","title":{"rendered":"No, Just No"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This is a bad idea. A really bad one, on multiple levels – for starters, it threatens the integrity of Dem voter data & puts Nov prospects in hands of a shady firm w\/ a failed track record.<\/p>\n

Plenty of orgs bid for contracts. I hope there is enough good sense to reject this one. https:\/\/t.co\/8kRIog03YM<\/a><\/div>\n

\u2014 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 10, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

As a part of Michael Bloomberg’s efforts to purchase the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment), his campaign organization is making a below cost bid to take over the campaign infrastructure of the Biden campaign<\/a>, as well as various leadership PACs, and Eric (Place) Holder’s political organization.<\/p>\n

If you don’t find this chilling, you are not paying attention.<\/p>\n

Also, it should be noted that this is a classic part of the Bloomberg handbook:  Using his money to forestall any meaningful criticism of his actions so that he can secure power.<\/p>\n

As an aside, the Sanders campaign should NEVER<\/b> turn over its data to the DNC for just this reason:<\/p>\n

The Bloomberg-owned firm Hawkfish, which ran the presidential campaign of Mike Bloomberg, is in serious talks to serve the presidential campaign of Joe Biden, according to sources with knowledge of the ongoing negotiations. Along with Biden\u2019s campaign, the firm is courting a wide swath of other progressive and Democratic organizations, opening up the possibility of Bloomberg gaining significant control over the party\u2019s technology and data infrastructure. <\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026 <\/p>\n

But instead it comes with other enticements to clients. Democratic operatives who\u2019ve been pitched by Hawkfish say that the firm is able to offer extraordinarily low prices by operating at a loss subsidized by Bloomberg, whose wealth dangles as an added benefit that could come with signing the firm. A Hawkfish insider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize employment, confirmed that the company is willing to operate at a loss in order to grab control of the party infrastructure, explaining that the firm hopes to offer a fee that would be small enough to entice the Biden campaign while passing muster with federal regulators. (If a firm offers services for less than fair market value, the discount is considered under campaign finance laws to be an in-kind contribution<\/a>, and thus subject to legal limits depending on the entity collecting the contribution. A presidential campaign can\u2019t accept more than $2,800 from a single individual per election, or any contributions at all from a company.) <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The FEC won’t rule on the in-kind contribution until after the election, if it even could take action, since it still lacks a quorum to operate<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\u201cWhen the objective isn\u2019t money but control, $18 million is incredibly cheap to become the center of gravity for all Democratic political information, which we would be if both Biden and [House Democrats] have to come through us,\u201d the source said, referring to the amount of money the Bloomberg campaign transferred to the Democratic Party<\/a> last month, in a reversal of his earlier pledge to create a Super PAC in support of the party\u2019s nominee. \u201cAnd in the current environment, the public sees this as generosity.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

Waleed Shahid, spokesperson for Justice Democrats, which recruits progressive challengers to incumbents, said that Bloomberg\u2019s firm running the party\u2019s data operation would send the wrong signal and could have long-term, damaging repercussions. \u201cThe idea of the Democratic nominee potentially rewarding Bloomberg\u2019s firm with this contract is disturbing,\u201d he said. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t be the party of helping billionaires amass huge amounts of mega-data on voters that allow them to keep accruing obscene amounts of power in our democracy.\u201d <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the annals of bad ideas for the Democratic Party, this one is definitely in the top three.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a bad idea. A really bad one, on multiple levels – for starters, it threatens the integrity of Dem voter data & puts Nov prospects in hands of a shady firm w\/ a failed track record. Plenty of orgs bid for contracts. I hope there is enough good sense to reject this one. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[513,395,368,382],"class_list":["post-176699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-campaign-finance","tag-computer","tag-corruption","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176699"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}