Host Bottom Up Radio Show, publisher Opednews.com bottomupmind.com storycon.org @robkall robkall.com

Feb 12, 2016

The Bogus Black Congressional Caucus Endorsement Scam

The Black Congressional Caucus did NOT endorse Hillary Clinton.

The message the mainstream media sent with its huge coverage of the Congressional Black Caucus PAC endorsement amounts to a big scam and media malpractice serving Hillary Clinton. The truth is, the PAC is a rats nest that gave $11,000 in donations out of over $425K spent in the 2016 cycle.

That’s right. Actually, the Black Congressional Caucus has not endorsed anyone.

It gets even worse. The big deal that the mainstream media made yesterday was over an endorsement by a PAC, you know, the kind of operation that Bernie Sanders refuses to accept funds from. It’s the Congressional Black Caucus political action committee that backed Hillary Clinton, a PAC loaded with lobbyists, including according to Democracy Now,

“…lobbyists who comprise its board, including those who work for Purdue Pharma, the makers of highly addictive opioid OxyContin, and others who represent Philip Morris and Wal-Mart, the largest gun distributor in America.”

The intercept reports, in its article, Hillary Clinton’s Congressional Black Caucus PAC Endorsement Approved by Board Awash in Lobbyists:

“Ben Branch, the executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus PAC, told The Intercept that his group made the decision after a vote from its 20-member board. The board includes 11 lobbyists, seven elected officials, and two officials who work for the PAC. Branch confirmed that the lobbyists were involved in the endorsement, but would not go into detail about the process.

Members of the CBC PAC board include Daron Watts, a lobbyist for Purdue Pharma, the maker of the highly addictive opioid OxyContin; Mike Mckay and Chaka Burgess, both lobbyists for Navient, the student loan giant that was spun off of Sallie Mae; former Rep. Albert Wynn, D-Md., a lobbyist who represents a range of clients, including work last year on behalf of Lorillard Tobacco, the maker of Newport cigarettes; and William A. Kirk, who lobbies for a cigar industry trade group on a range of tobacco regulations.”

This is a PAC which OpenSecrets reports as donating a huge $11,000 in the last year to candidates — a piddling nothing in the world of PACS. But there is value and influence in the name of the PAC.

A further look at OpenSecrets data on the CBC PAC should raise your eyebrows even higher. Spending on actual candidates amounted to a tiny fraction of the spending by the PAC. That $11,000 was less than ten percent of over $140,000 in spending accounted for. If this PAC was a charity it would be a huge scam.

But there’s more. OpenSecrets reports that $428,013 was spent in the 2016 cycle. But the stats mentioned above don’t cover the full amount, being short by almost $300,000. PACS can keep secrets. I don’t see where Open Secrets shows where all that money came from, outside of the handful of donations over $200, with a big chunk coming from… surprise… a long term Hillary insider.

OpenSecrets — the website that reveals sources of funding, donors, spending, showed the biggest individual donors to the CBC PAC and lo and behold, the biggest donor is Podesta Group. John Podesta is the Chairman of the Hillary Clinton campaign. The biggest donor, Ian Reid LLC, starts off its self description: “Ian Reid LLC provides consultancy services for automotive, banking and financial services…”

donors to CBC PAC
(image by OpenSecrets) DMCA

One member of the actual Congressional Black Caucus, Keith Ellison, made it clear that he had not been consulted at all. That’s because this was not a CBC endorsement. He tweeted:

RT @keithellison: Cong’l Black Caucus (CBC) has NOT endorsed in presidential. Separate CBCPAC endorsed withOUT input from CBC membership, iâ€¦ at

— Bens The Best (@bens_the_best) February 12, 2016

and Ellison also tweeted:

RT @keithellison: The point it that endorsements should be the product of a fair open process. Didn’t happen. https://t.co/SRdFkTup3C at https://t.co/SRdFkTup3C

— E.Moore (@mnemosynesonnet) February 12, 2016

Democracy Now also had a guest, leading progressive economist Jeffrey Sachs on to comment on the endorsement, who

“notes it is important to understand ‘what this endorsement meant’ and adds, ‘Our politics has been corrupted by the money. That’s why our policies are so bizarre.’”

Member of the Congressional Black Caucus Barbara Lee declined to endorse, and said, “I want to make it clear, there’s a clear distinction between the Congressional Black Caucus and the congressional black caucus PAC.”

Rep. Gregory Meeks is head of the CBC PAC. He said, “”We are not from the establishment, we are from the streets,” but here’s some profile information on Meeks from OpenSecrets,

Top five donors:

New Democrat Coalition (Current version of right wing democrats, that replaced the DLC)
NASDAQ OMX Group
AES Corp
FedEx Corp
Goldman Sachs

Open Secrets also listed the top industries donating to Meeks, in order of amount donated:

Securities and Investment,
Insurance,
Commercial Banks,
Accountants,
Real Estate

You can decide if Meeks is establishment or not.

I was disappointed by this endorsement when it first came out. Now that I’ve seen the numbers and it’s sunken in how badly the mainstream media failed intentionally ignored the real story, as I’ve laid it out, I am further outraged by the biased, scamming approach ALL the mainstream media have perpetrated with this latest Hillary sell job.

If I’ve missed something and you can dig up corporate and non-individual donors to the PAC, please add it in the comments.

Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer — first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978 — Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story — each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people’s consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com — which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up — The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.

Rob Kall Wikipedia Page

Over 200 podcasts are archived for downloading here, or can be accessed from iTunes. Rob is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com

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