On January 25, Google announced that "after the disturbing events at the Capitol," its corporate PAC "will not be making any contributions this cycle to any member of Congress who voted against certification of the election results." Nevertheless, since that announcement, corporate PAC money from Google has flowed to at least 14 Republican members of Congress who voted to overturn the election.
Google makes a mockery of their own words. How can we trust big tech? Who can we trust has become the question of our times. Tick, tock the clock marking down to 2022 elections. The Courts are loaded for GOP based rulings, the state legislatures have loaded anti voting laws in place and the corporations keep funding the madness. Local races are being entered by the far right to attempt to control that arena. The Dems don't know how to step up or won't.
I stopped using Google years ago, when they announced their new, invasive privacy policy. Nothing they’ve done since has made me regret the decision. I pay for an email service that reduces spam and doesn’t monitor my email content. If a vendor asks me to rate them using a Google app, I decline. If someone sends me a link to a document that is stored in Googledocs, I tell them they need to find another way to share it with me. I used to have a Nest thermostat, but Google bought Nest so I replaced it with an Ecobee. And I always use DuckDuckGo for search. At least when Google contributes to disreputable politicians, I am fairly confident they aren’t using MY money.
Thank you for continuing to reveal the hypocrisy. While I've intuitively known it, your reporting proves it. Thank you for your ongoing work to hold power/money accountable.
It's been obvious from your reporting that none of these corporations actually care about keeping their word. Standard stock answer: "we donate to political candidates on both sides of the aisle" but can't they ask these organizations to not use that money for these candidates? I've read stories in the past where some corporations have asked for donations back. Are the organizations they donated to required to return the donation if they are asked to do so? If not, then it really doesn't matter that they are asked. If these corporations actually cared about keeping their word, they would stop donating to the party that tried to overturn the election. The truth is that they don't care and that the news cycle is short. All of this is important to know and your work is extremely important but Republicans are going to continue to be shady and funnel money to these traitors.
Ok. Enough! We’ve been reading about this perfidy ever since forever. As of yet though, no one has ever offered a solution to this problem nor is one on the horizon. The Supreme Court has seen to that. This country, this big, fat, productive and for the most part, friendly country has been trussed, hung and darn near ready for the killing knife. By the time the big money interests have had their way with the carcass there will be very little remaining for the vultures.
I sincerely hope I’m wrong. That we will somehow find it within ourselves to forestall what seems to me at this point, to be the inevitable ending to this experiment we’ve called a democracy, or republic or a democratic republic. We’ve elected fools and idiots to represent our interests. That the minority has overruled the majority should tell anyone where the interests really lie. The great, productive middle has been reamed so that the two extremes have no buffer from each other. People laugh at history but ignore it at their peril. That is us, folks. So who’s laughing now?
“We’ve long contributed to candidates that advocate for policies that help consumers and our employees.” I can see his nose growing longer and longer as those words come out of his mouth. Even our little wooden boy, Pinocchio, would have trouble with that one. Unless you fill in ‘consumers and our employees’ with greedy corporations who continue to suppress wages, health and childcare benefits, fair and equal hiring of women and people of color and … should I go on? Superpacs are just one more sleazy move by Republicans to siphon money into their coffers with next to no accountability. Why don’t we put a stop to ALL these donations and simply pay people a LIVING WAGE. Or we can just continue to allow filthy rich corporations like McDonalds to pay employees whatever they can get away with and let the TAXPAYERS MAKE UP THE DIFFERENCE IN FOOD STAMPS like they do now ( I reference the most recent Sunday Times interview ). It’s a disgrace that this country allows corporations to get away with this AND SUBSIDIZES THEIR UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR.
Google makes a mockery of their own words. How can we trust big tech? Who can we trust has become the question of our times. Tick, tock the clock marking down to 2022 elections. The Courts are loaded for GOP based rulings, the state legislatures have loaded anti voting laws in place and the corporations keep funding the madness. Local races are being entered by the far right to attempt to control that arena. The Dems don't know how to step up or won't.
We are in trouble.
We are seeing a system wide vise on Democracy.
In light of the Supreme Court's decision in Americans For Prosperity v. Bonta (https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/07/divided-court-invalidates-california-donor-disclosure-rules/), I'm waiting for the judicial end-around that bans reporting of campaign contributions.
I stopped using Google years ago, when they announced their new, invasive privacy policy. Nothing they’ve done since has made me regret the decision. I pay for an email service that reduces spam and doesn’t monitor my email content. If a vendor asks me to rate them using a Google app, I decline. If someone sends me a link to a document that is stored in Googledocs, I tell them they need to find another way to share it with me. I used to have a Nest thermostat, but Google bought Nest so I replaced it with an Ecobee. And I always use DuckDuckGo for search. At least when Google contributes to disreputable politicians, I am fairly confident they aren’t using MY money.
Thank you for continuing to reveal the hypocrisy. While I've intuitively known it, your reporting proves it. Thank you for your ongoing work to hold power/money accountable.
It's been obvious from your reporting that none of these corporations actually care about keeping their word. Standard stock answer: "we donate to political candidates on both sides of the aisle" but can't they ask these organizations to not use that money for these candidates? I've read stories in the past where some corporations have asked for donations back. Are the organizations they donated to required to return the donation if they are asked to do so? If not, then it really doesn't matter that they are asked. If these corporations actually cared about keeping their word, they would stop donating to the party that tried to overturn the election. The truth is that they don't care and that the news cycle is short. All of this is important to know and your work is extremely important but Republicans are going to continue to be shady and funnel money to these traitors.
Ok. Enough! We’ve been reading about this perfidy ever since forever. As of yet though, no one has ever offered a solution to this problem nor is one on the horizon. The Supreme Court has seen to that. This country, this big, fat, productive and for the most part, friendly country has been trussed, hung and darn near ready for the killing knife. By the time the big money interests have had their way with the carcass there will be very little remaining for the vultures.
I sincerely hope I’m wrong. That we will somehow find it within ourselves to forestall what seems to me at this point, to be the inevitable ending to this experiment we’ve called a democracy, or republic or a democratic republic. We’ve elected fools and idiots to represent our interests. That the minority has overruled the majority should tell anyone where the interests really lie. The great, productive middle has been reamed so that the two extremes have no buffer from each other. People laugh at history but ignore it at their peril. That is us, folks. So who’s laughing now?
“We’ve long contributed to candidates that advocate for policies that help consumers and our employees.” I can see his nose growing longer and longer as those words come out of his mouth. Even our little wooden boy, Pinocchio, would have trouble with that one. Unless you fill in ‘consumers and our employees’ with greedy corporations who continue to suppress wages, health and childcare benefits, fair and equal hiring of women and people of color and … should I go on? Superpacs are just one more sleazy move by Republicans to siphon money into their coffers with next to no accountability. Why don’t we put a stop to ALL these donations and simply pay people a LIVING WAGE. Or we can just continue to allow filthy rich corporations like McDonalds to pay employees whatever they can get away with and let the TAXPAYERS MAKE UP THE DIFFERENCE IN FOOD STAMPS like they do now ( I reference the most recent Sunday Times interview ). It’s a disgrace that this country allows corporations to get away with this AND SUBSIDIZES THEIR UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR.