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David Moore

@davidrussellmoore.bsky.social

Money-in-politics newsletter: @Sludge.bsky.social // coop member @flaminghydra.com // https://www.davidrussellmoore.net // Signal: davidrussellmoore.52

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David Moore@davidrussellmoore.bsky.social · 33m ago

Chatter around #MISen primary was a lot about Dem party allegiance. El-Sayed's win over Stevens overcame tens of millions in spending from Center Forward, the dark money group that sprung from the conservative Blue Dog Coalition, whose members have long blocked the Democrats' agenda in Congress.

Corporate Dems’ Rapidly Growing ‘Dark Money’ Arm

Tax documents reveal the group Center Forward received a record $18.8 million in 2021 and spent big to back conservative Democrats who bucked their party on drug pricing reforms.

readsludge.com

David Moore@davidrussellmoore.bsky.social · 2h ago

Sen. Ruben Gallego @gallego.senate.gov is headed to another Nantucket fundraiser next week hosted by Michael D. Smith of Cornerstone. Smith lobbies for clients including Trump-aligned a16z, so a good chance for him to hear about Dems and CLARITY Act! Plus Anduril, Sigma Defense, General Dynamics...

Gallego Holds Nantucket Fundraiser With Wall Street and Crypto Lobbyists

The Arizona Democrat courted big-money donors, including executives and lobbyists from major financial and crypto firms, as he continues to flirt with a 2028 presidential run.

readsludge.com

David Moore@davidrussellmoore.bsky.social · 4h ago

Morning Edition listeners @npr.org heard from Stacie Pettyjohn @spettyjohn.bsky.social of @cnas.bsky.social about U.S. missile shortfalls... but they did not hear that the Center for a New American Security has received $8 million from Pentagon contractors. Or that the firms rake in stock buybacks:

Defense Contractor–Funded Think Tank Warns of Weapons Shortage After Iran Strikes

NPR listeners weren’t told the think tank receives millions from Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Northrop Grumman.

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David Moore@davidrussellmoore.bsky.social · 15h ago

In his 2020 run, Buttigieg stopped releasing the names of his campaign bundlers after scrutiny. They included: -superlobbyist, and now Palantir lobbyist, Steve Elmendorf -billionaire Blackstone exec Hamilton James -"Silicon Valley's favorite fixer" Bradley Tusk -Merck's head of public affairs, etc.

Here Are the Lobbyists and Corporate Execs Collecting Checks for Pete Buttigieg

As the Buttigieg campaign stops releasing its bundler names and blocks press from fundraising events, here are some of the pharmaceutical and finance executives behind its rise in the big money race, ...

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Pete Buttigieg@petebuttigieg.bsky.social · 16h ago

We see that our political system is broken, then keep behaving as if it worked. We need serious change, and it's time to take bigger swings.

David Moore@davidrussellmoore.bsky.social · 15h ago

The party that delivers single-payer health care to Americans will be able take credit for a net gain of $11,000 to someone making $50k a year, according to economists Saez and Zucman. Oh also, hundreds of thousands of lives saved. How the Medicare for All shift would work over four-five years:

U.S. Has Worst Health Care Despite Spending the Most On It ⑉ Brick House

Half of lower-income Americans face cost barriers to healthcare access, according to a new report.

thebrick.house

Flaming Hydra@flaminghydra.com · 20h ago

TODAY: @milesklee.bsky.social celebrates a high point of cinema, that Orson Welles frozen peas commercial. Welles has "no cause to give even a microscopic fraction of a fuck about how the finished product will turn out. He insists on integrity anyway." flaminghydra.com/a-celebratio...

A Celebration of Orson Welles’s Frozen Pea Commercial Outtakes

I never let a July pass me by without revisiting the infamous 1970 bootleg audio of Orson Welles attempting to record voiceover narration for advertisements for various foods, beginning with frozen pe...

flaminghydra.com

David Moore@davidrussellmoore.bsky.social · yesterday

AIPAC has crossed the $100 million spending mark in federal elections again, according to our latest tally. Last month, the lobby group applauded defense coordination policies included in the House-passed NDAA; Senate Democrats are flagging the military integration for further debate in their bill.

AIPAC Tops $100 Million in Election Spending for Second Straight Cycle

The pro-Israel group's PAC and super PAC have poured $104.3 million into the midterms, including more than $30.6 million in Michigan's Democratic Senate primary, the most it has ever spent on a single...

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David Moore@davidrussellmoore.bsky.social · 2d ago

Once again... AIPAC has shelled out over $100 million on elections. The deluge of PAC contributions is very much bipartisan as it wins cooperation policies in the House NDAA. The super PAC spending is almost all in Democratic primaries. How it all breaks down:

AIPAC Tops $100 Million in Election Spending for Second Straight Cycle

The pro-Israel group's PAC and super PAC have poured $104.3 million into the midterms, including more than $30.6 million in Michigan's Democratic Senate primary, the most it has ever spent on a single...

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David Moore@davidrussellmoore.bsky.social · 2d ago

In #MISen primary, voters have been hit with more than $17.3 million in outside spending for Haley Stevens by a secretive super PAC, A Stronger Michigan, funded by the dark money group Center Forward, whose largest known donor is lobby group PhRMA. Story from July 20 by @minnahfarshad.bsky.social:

Dark Money Group Led by Corporate Lobbyists Funds Pro-Stevens Super PAC

A new FEC filing show nearly all of the $13 million spent so far by the pro-Haley Stevens super PAC A Stronger Michigan came from Center Forward, a dark money group led by lobbyists for Northrop Grumm...

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rax ‘levon honkers’ king@raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 5d ago

POSITED: the primary task of any Odyssey adaptation is not to get things right, but to kick ass flaminghydra.com/issue-618/#f...

That, I'd argue, is the experience to replicate in any adaptation of Homer's Odyssey-not so much the particulars of Poseidon's grudge or Penelope's dream, but the mood. Any adaptation of The Odyssey lives or dies by its ability to kick ass. It can develop or dismiss any parts of the source material as it sees fit in order to kick the maximum possible amount of ass. It can take liberties, and indeed it will have to. It can commit the sins of sentimentality or bad dialogue, sins at which a scholar of the poem might cringe hard enough to herniate a disc, as long as it kicks ass while doing so. Wilson watched Christopher Nolan's Odyssey and saw the missing wheels on the Trojan horse; I saw a dozen men packed into that big horse for days, pissing and shitting all over each other, puking at the stench, gasping in a panic for air. I was right there in that horse with them. I did not know how we'd survive. It kicked ass. The whole film did.
Flaming Hydra@flaminghydra.com · 6d ago

TODAY: @raxkingisdead.bsky.social on Oh Brother Where Art Thou?'s thrillingly loose, modern and musical adaptation of The Odyssey. "It can develop or dismiss any parts of the source material as it sees fit in order to kick the maximum possible amount of ass." flaminghydra.com/issue-618/#f...

Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf@rahmstorf.bsky.social · 5d ago

A study I co-authored in 2023 found ExxonMobil’s predictions of global heating over the following decades to have been mostly accurate, as skilful as independent academic and government models, and also very much at odds with its public statements on the matter. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘We can’t make it better again’: what Europe’s wildfires tell us about the climate crisis

In this week’s newsletter: As France and Spain battle huge fires in this summer of relentless heat, will it be enough to spur us to take action?

theguardian.com

Sludge@sludge.bsky.social · 5d ago

NEW: Cleta Mitchell's voter suppression charity tripled its spending ahead of the midterms, per Sludge's review of its latest tax filing. One of the people it's been paying now oversees election integrity at DHS. readsludge.com/2026/07/31/c...

Cleta Mitchell's Voter Suppression Charity Tripled Its Spending Ahead of the Midterms

The FAIR Elections Fund's latest tax filing shows the charity bankrolled ads warning Latino voters that casting a ballot could get them deported, and paid the consulting firm of an ally who now overse...

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David Moore@davidrussellmoore.bsky.social · 6d ago

The WSJ reports Trump asks “What can I do to help you?” to CEOs at private events, then has his fundraiser hit them up for huge donations for his nonprofits. If there was an official action pending, and an official act, it could be investigated... if Dems had passed the Anti-Corruption Act (115th).

Title V summary, on an Office of Public Integrity, of Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act (Warren / Jayapal, 115th Congress)
David Moore@davidrussellmoore.bsky.social · 6d ago

Ask Sen. Schumer why Dems have never held a hearing on the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act, which proposed such an independent ethics agency when intro’d in August 2018. The sweeping ethics bill from Warren / Jayapal et al would do much more. readsludge.com/2025/04/15/c...

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 6d ago

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) is set to introduce legislation to create a new federal agency to investigate corruption in response to President Trump’s administration ahead of the midterm elections.

Sludge@sludge.bsky.social · 7d ago

NEW: Haley Stevens and other Democratic campaigns are paying fundraising consultants who run a Google- and Amazon-backed nonprofit that gives Google, Meta, Palantir and other AI companies direct access to the staff writing AI legislation. readsludge.com/2026/07/29/d...

Democrats' Fundraisers Are Also Running AI's Congressional Access Operation

Consultants paid by Rep. Haley Stevens and other Democratic Senate campaigns are also managing a nonprofit that gives Google, Meta, Palantir, and other AI companies direct access to the congressional ...

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